It really wasn't gentle. Actually, it felt ... clumsy. Less like a glide, more like a sudden yank. Gabe didn't stumble--but only because he instinctively used his wings to steady himself, and Ghastly, and wound up wincing at the run of pain through him.

"I'm glad," he said, looking around at the hallway. "I think I'd have had to object, if this was what the library proper looked like. It's no way to treat the written word." Then he tilted his head and added tranquilly, "And that may be so, but on that occasion it wasn't cheating because I was merely using every natural advantage and we hadn't established any rules against it."