Mally traced the illustration of Sir Chan with her fingertip. “He was very brave.”
“Yes. He’s one of the reasons I want to be a Goldwing too. So I can help people like he did.”
The story over, Mally lost interest in the book and wandered over to poke at Gussie’s collection of parts. Gussie, panicking, gathered up anything sharp or fragile.
Shayn smiled. “Thank you,” she whispered to Nox and Ellie, who stood near her. “For helping us, and for being kind to her. It’s been hard since her wings … People have avoided us like … well, like the plague.”
Ellie’s heart broke. Gussie had explained Mally’s sickness to her on the way to the inn, and she’d spent the whole day shivering at the thought of losing one’s wings to an unstoppable, unexplainable disease. She’d never heard of wingrot, but Linden was so small a town it made sense no one there had yet contracted it.
Nox shook his head, his face grim. “I know folks in Thelantis who got wingrot. None of them were contagious. People avoided them too. Never made sense to me.”
“I’m no fool,” said Shayn. “I know she’ll probably never fly again, but I have to try something.”
“I know what you mean,” said Ellie. “Many people just let things happen, and say that’s how it is, and never try to change anything. I have to believe things can get better, if only we stop being afraid to try.”
“Like a Sparrow becoming a Goldwing?” asked Shayn, lifting an eyebrow.
Ellie looked down. “Maybe. I know it sounds like a silly dream. Impossible, even.”
“Never be ashamed for wanting to change the world,” said Shayn gently. “As Granny Tam said, we’re in a strange, cruel time. This terrible sickness spreads with no cause or cure in sight, and gargols hunt in the night. Our world needs all the silly, brave dreams it can get.”
She sounded so much like Ellie’s mother at that moment that Ellie nearly flung her arms around the woman. But then Shayn went to make up beds for her and Mally. Ellie, sniffing a bit, pushed back the wave of longing that had risen in her belly.
She nudged Nox with her elbow and grinned. “You know, you can act like you only care about yourself, but you did come help us save Mally and her mom. I don’t think you’re half as selfish as you pretend to be.”
“Oh, help!” Nox threw a dramatic hand across his forehead. “The Sparrow’s seen right through me to my soft, squishy heart.”
“All I’m saying is, maybe I was wrong about you before,” she continued in a serious tone. “I mean, you are a criminal, but maybe that doesn’t mean you’re bad. And since a knight owns up to her mistakes, I just want to say … I’m sorry I misjudged you.”
Was it her imagination, or was Nox blushing?
“Wow,” he muttered. “Good to know Ellidee Meadows, mighty knight of the Sparrow clan, doesn’t think I’m all that bad. What next? A golden statue of me in the center of Thelantis?”
“You wish. You’d probably steal your own golden eyeballs.”
“You’re right I would.”
“I know how to admit when I’m wrong,” Ellie said. “Humility is the first step in the—”
“Please!” Nox grimaced and stuck his fingers in his ears. “If I have to hear about that stupid ladder one more time, I’m going to eat my own eyeballs.”
She laughed.
“Anyway,” Nox added, removing his fingers, “you’re not so bad either. I mean, the whole noble knight thing gets old, and I still think you’re deluded about how great the Goldwings are, but … I do know this, Ellie Meadows.” He looked her in the eyes. “You mean what you say, and unlike most people who go on about honor and truth and all that sappy stuff … you actually live it. So whatever the Goldwings end up doing with you, they won’t half deserve you.”
He walked away then, to help Gussie spread out the sleeping pallets, and left Ellie blushing right down to her wingtips.
The lantern hanging from the pod’s domed roof burned lower as the night darkened. Soon, the chorus of crickets, cicadas, and frogs struck up its gentle, buzzing drone, and sterling moonlight gleamed between the gaps in the woven wall. Ellie and the others began settling into their pallets, yawning.
“Ahhh,” Ellie sighed, relishing the cushions. “And to think, we could be sleeping in a hollow log or something right now instead.”
“I wonder at your master’s poor judgment,” said Shayn. “Sending children into the woods on their own, with no means or plan for lodging.”
Ellie grimaced. On the road to the inn, Nox had told Shayn they were the apprentices of an herbalist, who’d sent them to gather rare specimens in the forest. Her conscience had flinched at the lie, but she’d bitten her tongue.
Beside Shayn, Mally let out a little whimper.
“Oh no,” Shayn murmured. She put her hands on either side of Mally’s face. “Is it hurting again, love?”
Mally nodded, her face scrunched in pain. “My back …”
“Take some more gumleaf. But only a little, remember, or you’ll sleep through tomorrow night.” Shayn pulled a bundle of dried leaves from her pocket, and Mally chewed on one. Ellie breathed in the familiar lemony scent of the herb, which many Sparrows back home used to ease muscle pains after a long day in the fields. She also remembered—with less affection—waking up to find herself trussed up by Bratton and Tholomew, after they’d drugged her with the leaf’s more potent root.
“Oh!” cried Mally. “What’s this?”
She picked something up off the floor, sending blue flecks of light dancing over the pod’s walls.
The skystone.
Ellie saw Nox’s hand go to his throat and hold up an empty chain; the stone must have slipped off. The iron band around it still weighed it down, or else it might have gone floating around the pod like a dandelion seed.
“That’s mine,” Nox said quickly. “It’s just a cheap glass toy. Give it back, please.”
“Can’t I just hold it a little longer?” begged Mally.
Everyone else gave Nox withering looks.
“Nox,” Ellie whispered, through a wide, tight smile, “if you don’t let that sick little girl hold the shiny rock, I’ll personally fill your shirt with spiders while you sleep.”
Nox gave her a flat look. “Fine. Just don’t lose it.”
Mally grinned and lay back, holding up the stone so that it sparkled. Ellie was struck again by how strange and beautiful—and oddly familiar—the gem was. She saw by Shayn’s narrowed eyes that the woman didn’t believe for a minute it was merely cheap glass. Did she suspect the truth, that they’d stolen it? That they were not some herbalist’s apprentices?
Soon Mally began yawning and rubbing her eyes as the gumleaf’s soporific effects kicked in.
One by one, they scooted into the corners to sleep. Shayn lay with her soft gray wings curled around Mally, providing the warmth her little daughter’s own wings could no longer give her. The girl slept soundly, clutching the gemstone to her heart.
“It’s just one night,” Ellie whispered to Nox, when she caught him staring nervously at Mally. “Then you can steal it all over again, from a little girl no less. Shouldn’t be a problem for your cold stone heart, should it?”
Her tone was light, teasing more than accusing. But he frowned and looked away with only a shrug.
Gussie fluttered up to blow out the lantern, and the pod went dark. Ellie yawned and lay down, arranging her wings around herself. The cool night breeze curled through the small gaps in the woven reed wall, and the pod swayed slightly, lulling as a mother’s arms.
Everyone else fell asleep quickly. She saw Nox roll fitfully, as if he were stuck in a nightmare. Twig had one hand curled around his hedgehog, the other around Lirri. Gussie slept sitting up, her head propped against the wall, her long Falcon wings folded over her legs.
But just when Ellie’s eyes began to slide shut, a glint of light caught her attention. She squinted at the darkness, wondering if it had been the beginning of a dream.
Then it g
leamed again—a swelling of blue light from across the pod.
Ellie sat up.
The skystone, clenched in Mally’s fist, was glowing.
“What in the sky … ?” Ellie whispered.
She sat absolutely still, blinking hard as if that might banish the illusion. But the stone only shone brighter, until Mally’s small frame was illuminated by its silver-blue light.
A rustle caught Ellie’s ear. All of Twig’s pets were emerging from the blankets and pockets where they’d been sleeping. They crept nearer to Mally, stopping just outside the pool of light, and sat there still and attentive, watching the girl and the stone.
Slowly, Ellie reached for the nearest sleeper—Nox—and tapped his head until he woke.
“Sparrow?” he groaned. “What … ?”
His eyes widened when he saw the light.
“Nox,” Ellie whispered. “What’s happening? What is that stone?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “I … I don’t know. I thought it was just a shiny rock.”
Gussie woke then, gasping a little and rousing Twig. They all stared as the light around Mally grew brighter, saturating her skin and hair and delicate eyelashes. Soon, her entire frame was glowing as brightly as the stone itself.
Shayn woke last, with a startled cry. “Mally? What—what’s happening?”
She shook the girl, but Mally didn’t even flinch. It was as if she were dead, but her chest still rose and fell with deep, even breaths.
“It’s the stone,” said Ellie. “It started glowing and then … Mally did.”
“What did you give my daughter?” Shayn cried, trying to pry open Mally’s hand. But the girl’s fingers were like iron, locked around the stone.
“Wait!” Ellie said. She crawled across the floor to put a hand on Shayn’s arm. “Look.”
The light was now moving through Mally’s body, flowing like water, draining from her limbs and face and hair and gathering into a tight, glowing knot between her withered wings.
They watched, speechless, as Mally’s crumpled wings began to stretch out. The gnarls and bumps and scales vanished, and the bones grew straight again. Her few feathers unfurled to their full length, the black, dry barbs flushing with new life, turning Dove clan gray. Along the now shining, healthy skin over her wing bones, soft down began to appear—like the early feathers babies grew in their first weeks of life.
“Holy skies,” breathed Shayn. “It’s … healing her.”
“Impossible,” said Gussie, across the room. “That would be—”
“Magic,” said Ellie. She’d said as much yesterday, when they’d learned it could float.
Through all of this, Mally slept, her face peaceful. Never once did her fingers loosen on the skystone.
“This can’t happen,” Gussie said. She and Twig had crept closer. Only Nox hung back in the shadows, his black eyes wide.
“We’re watching it happen,” said Ellie. “The skystone is healing Mally.”
“If it can heal,” returned Gussie, “why didn’t it heal Nox’s shoulder? He’s been carrying it for two days. It makes no sense.”
“Yeah, and it also floats, remember?” Twig pointed out. “Does that make sense?”
“Did you just say it floats?” said Shayn.
“Nox also doesn’t have wingrot,” Ellie murmured. “Some cures only work on certain diseases.”
Still Gussie shook her head. “There’s no such thing as magic.”
“Sure there is,” said Ellie. “What do you think ashmarks are? They’re protection against gargols, the reason they don’t smash through our doors. What else could that be?”
“Superstition, obviously. Ashmarks make people feel safer, that’s all. Gargols don’t smash through doors because they’re territorial, and if we’re inside, they don’t see us a threat to their territory. Mystery solved. Magic doesn’t exist. Ask Nox! He should know.”
“Huh?” Ellie looked at the Crow boy, still hunched against the far wall. “What does she mean?”
“Remember how I said there are rumors about why the Crow clan was shattered hundreds of years ago?” asked Gussie, rolling her eyes. “They say it’s because the Crows used to practice dark sorcery. Stupid, of course.”
Nox groaned. “It’s beyond stupid.”
“Well, I know what I see with my own eyes,” said Ellie. “And that stone is magic.”
Did General Stoneslayer know of the skystone’s power? Did Nox’s boss, the Talon? Was that why they both wanted it so badly?
The stone was weird, sure. It floated, for sky’s sake, as Twig had reminded them. But this was weird on an entirely different level.
This was big.
Ellie’s head drummed with excitement. She wasn’t sure why, but she had a feeling something had changed this night. A secret had become known that couldn’t be unknown. A door had opened that couldn’t be shut.
This stone was way more than just a valuable gem. It was more important than Ellie could have guessed. Not even Nox had known what it could do.
She glanced at the Crow boy and found he was already watching her, his dark eyes catching the faintest reflection of the skystone’s blue light.
She looked away quickly, unsure why his gaze now struck a nervous chord in her body. Why was he being so quiet about the stone? He’d seemed as surprised as the rest of them, but he’d kept his distance from it the same way he did around fire … as if he were afraid.
Ellie didn’t see what there was to be scared of. If that stone could heal Mally, then it was wonderful. A miracle.
A stone like that … could change the world.
Nox did not sleep.
After an hour or so, Twig, then Gussie, then Ellie all dropped off, and Shayn last, still sitting with Mally’s head in her lap.
But Nox, no matter how he tried, couldn’t make himself fall asleep.
Even when he pressed his eyes shut, the skystone’s light was still there, eerie and strange and persistent. He turned away, only to see its glow on the reed wall.
There was no escaping it.
Magic.
The word sank into his heart like a serpent’s fangs.
He remembered a day, months ago, when he’d seen a lonely, scared Falcon girl get targeted by a gang of Jays. Gussie had been outnumbered and outmatched, and Nox had gotten the Jays’ attention long enough for her to fly away. The Jays hadn’t let him off lightly, though he’d taken down at least two before they managed to pin him down. Then the leader, a kid who’d dyed his hair as blue as his wings, had spat on Nox and said, “Oooh, watch out, he’ll put a hex on us! Witch boy, witch boy!”
The rumor about the Crow clan doing dark magic had been just another reason for people to hate and mistrust him. And it was stupid, because magic wasn’t real. At least, that’s what he’d always told himself.
Until he saw that glowing gem heal a little girl of the most feared disease in the Clandoms.
It has to be a trick, he thought, though he knew deep down that was even more impossible than the idea of magic itself.
But one thing was certain: The stone was trouble.
The sooner he handed it over to the Talon, the better. He wanted to be done with endless flying and gargol attacks and, most of all, magic rocks.
By morning, the skystone had stopped glowing, but Nox still sat wide-awake. The sun began stretching curious fingers through the woven walls, casting freckles of light over the people sleeping inside.
Shayn, who’d slumped over, now sat up quickly, blinking. She looked down at Mally and gasped.
“I thought it was a dream. Mally? Mally!”
The little girl woke and smiled. “Mama.”
Shayn wept, gathering her up in her arms. “Do you feel all right? Does it hurt?”
“Huh? No. I feel … I feel nice.”
Mally’s wings were healed. There was no denying it, especially with the golden sunlight dappling her feathers. She wouldn’t fly for at least a year, since most of her gray feathers had ye
t to grow back. But the bones were straight and strong, and even the girl’s face looked fuller and healthier than it had the day before. Mally had a new chance at life, and she might get it—as long as she kept her mouth shut.
“If you tell anyone,” he whispered to Shayn, “they’ll never leave her alone. They’ll want to figure out how it happened, run tests on her, experiments …”
“I know.” She pressed the stone into Nox’s hand. “I don’t know how you came by this, or what you intend to do with it, but you must keep it safe, young Crow. It could be the most important object in the Clandoms.” She paused a moment, then said, “I hope you know what you’re doing with it.”
He felt a stab of cold at the words, but nodded. Then he carefully hung the stone around his neck. He was sure to twist the hook on the iron band around the chain, so it wouldn’t slip loose again.
“Don’t worry,” Shayn said. “I won’t tell anyone about it, or you, or what happened last night. It would be trouble for us all.”
“Thanks.” Nox turned to the others, who had pulled Mally away to admire her wings.
“I dreamed I was flying,” Mally said, “and when I woke up, it was like my dream came true!”
She didn’t know about the stone, Nox realized. Her mother must have plucked it from her hand when she’d woken, and she’d forgotten all about it.
“Good for you, kid,” he said, giving her a high five. “Fly circles around everyone back home for me, will you?”
Mally flung her arms around Nox and squeezed tight, startling him.
Awkwardly, he patted her head. “Well, we’ve got to get flying ourselves.”
“And we’ll head home,” said Shayn. “There’s no point in going to Stillcreek now, I suppose.”
In minutes, they’d packed everything they had back into the knapsacks, folded Granny Tam’s blankets, and were ready to depart.
But when Nox put his hand on the door, it didn’t budge.
“What the …” He pushed again. Something was barring it from the outside.
“The old lady’s staff,” said Ellie, peering through the gaps in the reeds. “What did you call it, Gussie? A lockstave? She’s used it to jam the door. Why would she do that?”
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