Since when did being good feel so … bad?
The stone would be around Nox’s neck. She knew he was a light sleeper and had no idea how well the gumroot would work. She’d have to be quick and silent.
His wings were folded over himself, so she had to push aside his dark feathers. Then, carefully, she took out her knife and slipped its point beneath the thin chain around Nox’s neck.
Please, please don’t move, she thought desperately. Or I’ll slit your throat by accident.
But at that moment, Nox’s eyes snapped open.
Ellie froze.
He seemed immediately aware of the knife at his neck, and he didn’t move. But his eyes glittered like black stars.
“Sparrow,” murmured Nox. “I’m surprised it took you this long, to be honest.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “But I have to do what’s right.”
She cut the chain in a swift motion and grabbed it; the skystone slithered out of Nox’s shirt and into her palm.
Then Ellie jerked back, turning on her heel and spreading her wings in one fluid motion.
“Stop!” Nox cried, his speech slurred from the gumroot. “You won’t get far, Sparrow!”
“Neither will you,” she replied sadly.
He found that out for himself when he tried to jump up, only to stagger and fall. The gumroot made him groggy and unbalanced. She must have overestimated the amount she’d put into the oats, but at least it was doing something to slow him down.
She knew Twig and Gussie had to be waking now, also hazy from the herb. She didn’t look back to check. Ellie tore into the sky with all her strength.
She flew high over the treetops. It was incredibly dangerous to fly at night, when there would be little warning of clouds moving in until it was too late, but Ellie would have to risk it.
“Sparrow!” Nox wasn’t far behind her. She glanced back and saw him, illuminated by the full moon. Gussie and Twig trailed behind, the Falcon girl already closing in on Nox with her long, tapered wings. But she could tell by the clumsiness of their flying that they were struggling against the effects of the herb.
“Just cut it out!” Gussie yelled. “This is stupid! It’s too dark to fly, Ellie!”
Just then, Ellie felt a splash on her cheek. At first, she wondered if she were crying—but then she felt another, and another. Drops of water began peppering her skin.
Rain.
Oh skies!
Ellie pulled up, her wings treading the air as she peered into the dark. Stars scattered over the black, but to the west, they had begun vanishing one by one into shadow. Then the moon too disappeared.
The world went dark.
Sky and ground became indistinguishable from each other.
Ellie’s wings shivered as a roll of thunder rattled the air, and below, the trees rustled like a rushing river, wind pulling at their branches.
It was a storm.
A big one.
A gust of wind bowled her over, and she tumbled, wings fighting to steady her. She bit off a scream, instead focusing all her energy into flight.
“Dive!” yelled Gussie. “Find cover!”
Ellie pitched for the trees. In the dark, she couldn’t see anything, so she crashed through the limbs like a blundering, crazed animal, getting scratched all over.
When she smacked right into a trunk, she nearly blacked out. Lights danced in her eyes. She slid downward, landing hard on her stomach atop a wide branch, the wind pressed from her lungs. Wheezing, Ellie dragged herself onto the branch and straddled it, one hand pressed to the trunk, the other to her chest as she struggled to breathe.
Above, the sky shuddered as the rain began to fall in earnest, great gusts of water that drove like needles. Even under the shelter of the leaves, Ellie was drenched in seconds.
She cursed her luck. For a week they’d had clear skies, but on the one night it really counted, the weather finally broke.
“Sparrow!”
Nox’s call rang out between peals of thunder. Ellie flinched.
“She’s here somewhere!” Twig called out. “I saw her dive right there!”
She sat with her back against the tree, legs stretched along the branch. She clenched the lockstave in one hand, the skystone in the other, and stared with wide eyes into the rain.
“Turn back,” Ellie whispered. “C’mon, Nox. No rock is worth dying for.”
Lightning splintered across the sky, and for a blinding second it seemed the entire forest was illuminated. In that moment, she saw the Crow boy, crouched on a branch across from her, his eyes already fixed on her. Then the forest plunged back into darkness. His black wings blended into the night.
Ellie scrambled up, but too late. Nox slammed into her, pressing her against the tree.
“Give it back!” he said.
“I won’t.”
“Ellie! I need it! You don’t—”
A scream interrupted Nox, coming from above their heads.
“Gussie,” Nox whispered. Then he yelled, “Gus!”
He shot upward, and after a moment’s hesitation, Ellie flew after him.
They burst through the canopy into the open sky. Rain sharp as glass pricked Ellie’s skin as she turned a circle, looking for Gussie.
Then, in a flash of lightning, she saw her: flying clumsily, her wing injured, pursued by not one, not two, but three enormous gargols.
Ellie and Nox exchanged one look.
Then they both charged at the monsters in a blur of wings.
Lightning pulsed, throwing the scene into a horrible shifting tableau, image after image of gargols and Gussie, like drawings flipping in a sketchbook.
The creatures closed in on the Falcon girl.
One grabbed her.
Gussie screamed again.
Ellie stopped thinking altogether and acted out of pure, reckless instinct. Gripping her lockstave, she took the lead ahead of Nox. A roar sounded in the sky, primal and ferocious, and Ellie realized with a shock that the sound was coming from her.
She clashed with the gargol holding Gussie, driving the staff into its stony jaw. Gussie screamed and fell away, tumbling toward the trees.
Ellie couldn’t swoop after her. She was entangled now, the gargol’s claw clutching her sash, her staff stuck in its teeth. Terror and adrenaline surged through her like a swallow of lightning.
She stared into the monster’s face, just inches from her own, and gasped.
Its eyes.
No wonder the skystone had looked familiar to her.
The gargol’s eyes looked just like two gleaming skystones.
Or rather … the gargol’s eyes were skystones.
Blinking, realizing she was inches away from death itself, Ellie planted her feet on the gargol’s chest and kicked off, pulling her staff with her and feeling her sash rip free.
Flipping through the air, Ellie pinned her wings to her spine, controlling her wild spin and diving downward before opening her wings again—a flight combat trick Zain had taught her.
Then she whirled, heart thumping, searching for Gussie. In the darkness, she had no choice but to wait for another flash of lightning to see anything at all.
It came a second later, a searing burst that stung her eyes. Threads of lightning spiked through the clouds, brightening the sky from horizon to horizon.
In that moment, her eyes wide and unblinking, Ellie saw … something.
Not Gussie, not gargols, but shapes, enormous and solid against the sky.
A … castle?
There, rising from the clouds—turrets and towers and battlements, framed against the black sky and thrown into sharp relief by the hot blaze of lightning. She gaped, time frozen, as her brain struggled to make sense of what she was seeing.
Then, just as quickly, the sky went full dark again, and the image vanished.
Impossible, Ellie thought. Baffled, she stared harder into the night but could make out no sign of the castle in the sky, or whatever it had been.
Then, hearing a shout below, she tilted to see Gussie.
Nox had the Falcon girl in his arms and was fluttering down toward the trees. Twig appeared and helped him. Between them, they were just able to support her weight.
Ellie had other problems. All three gargols were streaking toward her, screeching over the thunder. Their skystone eyes glowed with malevolent magic.
Ellie’s heart stopped.
She’d never outfly one gargol, much less three. They would tear her into pieces before she could even scream. In a flash brighter than any bolt of lightning, she saw the broken forms of her parents, sprawled on the crushed sunflowers. She was a fledgling again, helpless and alone in a stormy sky, with death speeding to claim her.
No, she thought.
Not tonight.
Ellie closed her wings and let herself fall.
Wind rushed around her ears as she dropped. There was no time to be afraid, no time for anything but speed, speed, speed.
Tilting backward, Ellie wheeled herself into a dive, hands at her sides, wings pinned to her back, legs straight. She pointed herself at the ground, not even breathing, knowing a single second of hesitation could mean her death.
She pierced the canopy like an arrow, leaves and branches whipping by, and only when she’d dropped below the largest limbs did she flare her wings open again. The movement jerked her as if she’d hit a wall, but it kept her from slamming into the ground. She flew between the trees, branches scraping her face.
Gasping, Ellie struggled to get her bearings. Above, the canopy cracked and branches rained down. The gargols had followed her. She could hear them beating their way through the forest. When one of them let out another ear-shattering screech, she knew they weren’t far. And from what she’d heard, gargols had excellent night vision.
But of course they did.
Their eyes were magic—the same magic of the skystone. And who knew what else those jewels could do. Shoot fire? See through stone?
“Sparrow!”
Ellie jolted, looking around for Nox.
“Down here!” he cried. “A cave!”
Ellie turned sharply, guided only by his voice.
Then she crashed right into him.
They hit the ground hard and tumbled, entangled and yelling. Nox was the first to collect himself, and he grabbed Ellie and hauled her into the shadows.
The ground turned damp and squelchy beneath her feet. Nox pulled her beneath an outcrop of rock, into a deep recess slick with moss and rivulets of water that trickled from the stone above. Gussie lay there, crying silently into Twig’s shoulder, her injured wing limp.
Crashes and furious screeches shook the woods. The four of them huddled together in the mud, breathing hard and watching the darkness outside. Ellie’s heart ached from pounding against her ribs. The rock was a poor shelter, and if one of the monsters spotted them, there would be nowhere to run. With barely any effort at all, the gargols could haul them out one by one and disembowel them there in the mud.
Ellie pressed herself as deeply as she could into the wet ground, suppressing sobs of terror, hating the fear she felt. Hating the sky for always turning against them. Hating the world for being this way. Would it ever end? Was this really how she would live her life—constantly looking up in fear, forever marking hiding spots wherever she went?
She did not want to live as prey.
She wanted to fight back. And she had. Behind the terror and adrenaline coursing through her hummed a quieter note of triumph. She’d been grabbed by a gargol and she’d fought back. They’d saved Gussie and escaped with their lives.
So far, anyway.
She let her head rest on her hands, forcing herself to breathe more slowly, and gradually her heart calmed. The crashes faded and the forest returned to silence. Over the next few hours, the storm ebbed, spitting out a few grumbling last words before moving on. But the rain continued to fall, soft and steady, pattering on the leaves.
The gargols had gone.
Rising to her elbows, she gave a long, relieved exhale. Somehow, they’d survived.
Then she turned, only to lock gazes with Nox. The Crow boy was glowering at her, his eyes ablaze with dark fury.
Nox hauled himself out of the mud, driven by rage.
He shook water out of his wings, then turned and glared at the Sparrow girl. She lay on the ground, her face smeared with dirt, her hair pulled out of its pigtails to frizz around her head. In the dim moonlight, her face was pale enough to show her freckles.
Ellie stared back, her eyes wide, and whispered, “Is everyone okay?”
Nox reached down and helped Gussie up, too angry to speak.
“Gussie,” Ellie stammered. “Your wing …”
“Would be fine if we were still sleeping in the quarry,” Gussie snapped.
“I—I’m sorry,” she said. Then she added, “Wait. No. I’m not sorry. Not about taking the stone, anyway.”
Her hand went to her pocket, and she froze.
“Looking for this?” Nox growled.
Of course, he had already stolen it back. He’d grabbed it the moment he’d pinned her to the tree.
He was angry at her, but also at himself for letting her nearly succeed. Ever since Granny Tam’s, he’d known she’d try to steal it. Shayn hadn’t helped with her talk of hope and doing what’s right. Ellie slurped that kind of thing down like warm soup, and he was only surprised by how long she’d waited.
In truth, he’d begun to hope he was wrong about her, and that she’d either changed her mind or had never planned to steal it in the first place. He’d let himself get lazy.
He’d let himself trust her.
Oh, the laugh the Talon would have if he saw Nox now.
Nox had been played for a fool. And why? Because some country Sparrow had called him a hero? Because she’d told him there was good in him, that he could do greater things than steal and lie?
When had he started listening to her?
Worse, when had he begun to believe her?
But like everyone else in his life, she’d proven what she really thought of him—that he was selfish scum. That whatever his reasons were for doing what he did, they couldn’t possibly be as important as her own.
In the end, she was just like everyone else.
“Tell me, Sparrow,” he said, “where does betrayal rank on your precious ladder?”
Sighing, Ellie pulled herself up and joined them in the rain. The corner of the moon peeked out just enough to illuminate the forest floor. Ellie faced Nox, her chin high.
“You want to practically throw the skystone away,” she said. “I want to save people with it. I won’t apologize for that.”
Nox stepped forward, his ears buzzing with anger. “Throw it away? Is that what you think? You don’t know anything about us. After a few weeks, you just decide we’re bad guys who want people to suffer and die. And yet you’re the one who’d hand this over to the real villains!”
“Why do you hate the Goldwings so much, Nox? Why are you so convinced they’re evil?”
“Because they killed my father!”
Rain pattered in the silence that followed.
Nox stared hard into the trees. A sinkhole had opened in his chest, and he felt himself slipping deeper and deeper into it, into the empty black that had always lurked inside him.
“You never told us that,” Twig said softly.
“Yeah, well, some things aren’t that fun to share,” Nox replied.
Ellie lifted a hand. “Nox, I—”
“They killed him in front of me,” Nox spat. “Executed him for a crime he never committed. They said he started a fire in the building beside ours. There were three families living in there. He went in to save them, but … he was too late.”
Nox could smell the smoke, hear the screams, his own voice among them. He’d stood in the doorway and called for his father until the smoke choked his lungs and his mother pulled him away.
“When he came out,” he continued, his voice
acid, “they said he had started it. And they hanged him then and there, strung him up for the whole city to see.”
For years, he hadn’t let himself relive that day, and he was stunned at how clear and detailed the memory still was now that he surrendered to it. A gathering, murmuring crowd; the Goldwings’ pennants snapping in the wind; the creak of the gallows steps and his father’s last, sad smile. Nox wasn’t supposed to watch. His mother had ordered him not to watch.
But he had.
“Then they came for my mother and me.” It was like he’d cut a slit in a bag of sand. The story poured out too quickly for him to make it stop, no matter how badly he wanted to. “They put her in prison and I ran. My parents never did anything wrong, not anything. But they killed him, without a trial, without facts, without any reason other than that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And when I was left on my own, it wasn’t a Goldwing but the Talon—a thief—who took me in, fed me, protected me, taught me how to survive. It was a thief who saved me … from them.”
He was breathing hard, his fists clenched so tightly they trembled. Not all the dampness on his face was rain.
Ellie raised a hand as if to touch him but hesitated. “They … they couldn’t have …”
Nox finally looked at her, straight in the eyes. “You think I’m wrong. That because I was a little kid, I didn’t understand what was happening? You’re like everyone else. Is it because I’m a Crow from the big bad shattered Crow clan?”
“No! I just—maybe there was more to it than—”
“Stop!” he yelled, not because she was wrong … but because she was right. There was more to the story, but he wasn’t ready to admit that, even to himself. That last, miserable secret was too dangerous to be spoken aloud—the real reason they’d hanged his father. The truth about why he’d run into that fire.
Nox exploded upward, black wings striking the ground as he launched himself away.
“Nox! Wait!”
He hovered above Ellie, the downdraft from his wings whipping her hair.
“This skystone is my mother’s freedom,” he said, pulling it out of his shirt. “That’s the reward the Talon promised if I deliver it. She’ll die if I don’t get her out. The day they dragged her away, I swore I’d save her. And maybe I’m a thief and a liar and everything else you hate, but I always keep my word.”
Sparrow Rising Page 15