Wingbound, p.23
Wingbound, page 23
I spot Alouette kneeling on the ground before a masked man with a torch: the master. She is weeping over a body beneath her arms. Her wings droop behind her. I fear she is wounded. Inching closer, I stay concealed behind the first cottage.
“Father,” Alouette moans. Her tears fall onto the face of Roi du Ciel. He is laid out on the ground, contorted unnaturally, blood seeping from his side. “Why?” Alouette shouts. “Why did you kill him? I could have helped him—”
“Sometimes an example has to be made,” the master says in a familiar accent.
Alouette’s head drops to her father’s lifeless frame with uncontrollable cries. As her weeping trails off, I hear the hum of many voices. I peer around the corner and notice a cottage with a log propped against the door. I nearly fall when a branch comes loose from the dried mud wall beside me. The rest of the Sky People must be trapped inside that house with the shutters tied shut from the outside.
“Now you have a choice to make,” the master says. “Resist us or leave with your life.”
“I’m not leaving without my people,” she says firmly, “All of them.” With such an easy choice, I don’t understand why Alouette doesn’t just shoot into the sky and go home. Instead, she reaches for her father’s sword. The masked men around the circle let out a laugh.
I should do something. The men in black come at her all at once, several behind, from the sides, and at the front. A man knocks the sword from her hand with a swift kick. They apprehend her easily and drag her toward the barricaded cottage. I grow frustrated that I didn’t intervene. I’m not brave, but I do care about her and her people.
Her scream echoes off the walls and rips through my soul. Three men muscle the log away from the door and another shoves her inside. I stand upright and take a deep breath. Darting from my hiding place, I charge at the master right as he throws a torch on the roof of the cottage. I get in a few good punches before his men peel me off. One of the men in black wrenches my arms behind my back, restraining me.
The master chuckles as smoke billows over his head. I scream, “They don’t deserve to die!” The man behind me pulls my arms tighter and my shoulder rips.
“Ledger,” the master laughs. I jerk in response to my name. He pulls the black mask from his face and a braid topples out. “You came to do the same,” Jin says. “But they refuse to leave. They are on our land and my emperor wants them gone.”
I hear screams rising from beneath the flames as the entire roof ignites.
“Please, I can convince them,” I plead. “They will go. I promise.”
“You are too late.” He nods to the cottage where the roof and the side wall are engulfed in flames. He commands my captor to release me and I land in the dirt. Jin calls his men and they follow him westward away from the castle.
Now is my chance! I bolt for the flaming cottage and yank at the log barricade. It doesn’t budge. I go for the walls, kicking and yanking off branches stuck in mud. My arms are a blur of fists and handfuls of dust.
On the other side of the wall, I hear their screams. I hear her scream. Scrambling over to Ciel’s body, I snatch the sword. Charging back to the house, I hack at the ropes tied between the handles of the shutters. As soon as the last fiber is sliced, the wooden panels burst open and smoke wafts in my face. “Alouette!” I yell her name, reaching in, grasping at anything. A small hand clutches mine.
FLAME KISSED
38
My eyes sting, refusing to open as arms and legs climb over me through the small window. The smoke chokes me as we all topple out together. A sharp pain shoots through my neck as the blazing cottage falls down around us. Prying my smoke-filled eyes open, I pull on the small hand in my grip while strong arms around me drag us both out of the rubble.
The heat from the burning thatch singes my face. As we drag Alouette’s lifeless body from the flames, I realize Tolliver and Angus are helping me.
Suddenly, the roof tumbles inward and screams cut through the sky as several Ellerian dart out of the toppling building. One plummets to the ground unconscious. Another lands and rolls in the dust, quenching the flames on his wings.
“Help them,” I say to Angus and he races over.
Alouette breathes and coughs. She is alive. I check her arms, wings, and torso for burns. Her dress is singed, but she is surprisingly unscathed. She struggles to sit up.
“You’re okay, Alouette,” I say.
She looks at me with big sad brown eyes then at the fire that is spreading to the next cottage. “It will never be okay,” she says. A tear spills down her dirty cheek. Getting clumsily to her feet, I hold her elbow as she gains her balance.
Her soiled wings pump once, lifting her into the air above me for a moment. I open my mouth to ask her to wait, and she shakes her head. She looks at the burning house and flits overtop, inspecting, searching.
Night has fallen, but the spreading fire lights up the small village.
“Seven of them made it out,” Tolliver says. I am unsure of what to say and shocked he didn’t leave me behind. My throat constricts as tears fall.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “I should have told you first.”
I nod.
“I was being selfish,” he admits, blinking back tears. “I didn’t want you to look at me differently.”
In that moment, I remember what Grandmother said about him, Trust him and remember who he’s always been to you.
“I should have trusted you,” I say. He grabs me and hugs me tightly. A sharp pain shoots through my shoulder with a familiar sensation. I am burned.
“I’m just glad you’re alive,” he says, pulling away. It takes a moment for me to catch my breath from the pain in my burned skin.
Alouette lands nearby and tiptoes toward her father. She sits beside him and tears stream down her face.
Angus helps the singed Ellerian man assist his unconscious friend. They stand him up and the winged man tries to lift his lifeless body from the ground. He fails several times, lacking the strength to lift the deadweight and his own.
“Alouette,” the man calls. She looks up from her father’s dead body. “Alouette, help me.”
“Dayson, can you help me with my father first?”
I recognize the name. He is the man she is supposed to marry. He lays his friend on the ground and joins Alouette beside Ciel. She gently lifts his head and removes his crown and a necklace from around his neck. It is a silver bird with a branch in its mouth. I recognize it and pull the trinket from my grandmother out of my tunic. Mine is a tiny version of it. They lift him together and I join their efforts, carrying him to the raging fire. Heat licks my fingers as we lay him down. Alouette stares into the orange flames as they dance across his chest and consume his body. Tears fall silently down her cheeks and Dayson wraps an arm around her. The funeral pyre lights his dark hair and dark eyes.
When Dayson says, “We need to go,” she meets my gaze with a question in her eyes. Before she asks how I will get back to Ellery, we hear that familiar high-pitched shriek through the sky. The moon casts a shadow for a sliver of a second then the ground shakes around us. Tristeh lands only a stone’s throw away and Hollis is strapped into a saddle on her back. It’s not the dreaded white saddle, but a dingy brown one.
“Your ride is here,” Hollis sings.
Alouette puts the unconscious man’s limp arm over her shoulder. I nod to her and she says, “Meet you on Ellery.” She blinks with a realization. “I never thought I’d ever say that to you.”
I smile in agreement.
Dayson and Alouette lift the man together and I watch them disappear into the night sky. It feels like goodbye watching her leave with him, but it’s only see you later.
I sigh and gaze at the girl with the dragon.
“I could only make three harnesses with the straps left in that dragon cave back there.” Her voice is full of energy and confidence. “Someone will have to wait here, and I’ll come back to get you.”
I exhale deeply, and my heart does a strange thing watching her climb down the red scales. I imagine myself charging straight to her, grabbing her face, and pressing my lips to hers. My heart jolts into action, but my body is frozen in place. It is neither appropriate, according to our custom, nor am I able to build up the nerve. Frustration chokes me, and I swallow it back.
“Ledger can ride with you and we’ll use the harnesses,” Tolliver says yanking me from my daydream.
“Great idea,” Hollis bounces over. She leaps at me as Tolliver says, “Careful, he’s burned.”
Her arms land around my neck and shoulders. The pain cripples me and there are spots at the edge of my vision.
Hollis pulls herself off me. “Oh, Ledger. My apologies.”
Her politeness makes a chuckle shoot from my gut. Tears pool in my eyes in a very unmanly fashion. I hunch over gasping for air, recovering from the searing pain.
Hollis touches my face, “You breathe through that, while I get everyone ready.” She dances off.
The harnesses consist of four straps: one looping each leg, one around the waist, and one hooking them all together ready to fasten to the dragon. By the light from the burning cottages, Hollis helps Kava into her harness with her skirts puffing awkwardly. Tolliver fastens his and shows Angus how to latch the loops and hooks. I catch my breath and try to act normal watching Hollis tend to Angus. Just being near her makes everything feel like it will be okay.
“Well, I hope you’re not afraid of heights,” Hollis teases. Angus just eyes her. “I have these two long straps to hang over the saddle, so they don’t cut into Tristeh’s skin.”
“Scales,” I correct and flash a smile.
She raises a single eyebrow at me and continues, “We’ll drape them over then I’ll get Tristeh in the air, so you can hook yourself to the straps underneath. Simple.”
A nervous laugh trickles from Kava’s lips and she shifts uneasily from one foot to the other. Tolliver puts a hand on her shoulder.
“Are you sure she can carry all of us?” Angus steps into the harness.
Hollis laughs. “I saw her rip a tree out of the ground today. I’m pretty sure she’ll be fine.”
Angus’s mouth hangs open and Kava’s eyes are so huge I can see the reflection of the moon in them.
“What about me?” I ask.
Hollis tosses me a single strap that could be confused for a belt. I hold it up and look at her with no idea what to do with it.
“Come on,” she calls, racing toward the dragon. My gut wrenches, because we don’t even run up to our horses in Balfour. They would startle and possibly rear up. But the beast stands still as the girl with the golden hair climbs like a mountain goat up Tristeh’s wing. She lays the two long straps across the saddle and they dangle to the ground on either side.
“Ledger, can you hook all the ends together?” Hollis calls from atop the dragon.
“Maybe.” I eye the beast warily.
I force my body to approach the dragon with no bars and no muzzle to protect me. Tristeh sends out a low growl as I near her shoulder.
“Tristeh, stop it,” Hollis commands and she obeys.
The burn on my shoulder aches as I warily reach for the straps. Hands shaking from the thrum of adrenaline pumping through my veins, I am only able to grab three.
“Come on, Ledger, she’s not going to cook you,” Hollis giggles.
“That does not help,” I whisper. Taking a deep breath and slowly reaching for the fourth strap, I hook them all together on a large metal loop used for cinching the rigging of a saddle.
I back away and air fills my lungs again. Tristeh blows in my face. I squawk like a startled chicken and race back to Tolliver and Kava.
Hollis’s laugh echoes off the hills around us and she calls me to mount the beast. I decide it’s better if I pretend Tristeh is a horse. Otherwise, my body may not obey.
Tristeh is a gentle pony, I tell myself as I crawl up her leathery wing. A pony with giant bat wings. I have to touch the scales with my bare hands to crawl to the saddle on her back. They are like seashells laid in a perfect pattern all over her body.
Gentle pony, I recite in my mind.
I sit just behind Hollis on the saddle, half on and half off. I watch her grab the two pieces of leather that we didn’t know what to do with when she rode Tristeh the first time and hook them around her waist, latching herself in securely.
“Oh, that’s what those are for,” I say, not realizing I am saying it aloud.
“Would have been helpful that first time.” She smiles at me. “Now wrap yours around you and hook it to mine.”
I follow her instruction and it pulls me tight against her. My head is dizzy and my heart pounds as I sit on this gentle fire-breathing pony. I am glad to be this close to Hollis. Grabbing my hands, she wraps them around her narrow waist. My body buzzes with excitement as I embrace her. It feels like home.
TO THE SKY
39
Hollis clucks, “Fly, Tristeh.”
The dragon leaps into the air, pressing down with enormous wings. We swoop through the night sky and make a circle. Hollis encourages her to hover over our family on the ground stirring the flames of the burning village.
Tolliver hooks Kava, Angus, and then himself. They are strapped face to face. Kava wraps an arm around each one and they do the same in a little circle of arms.
“Ready?” Hollis calls. “To the sky!” She jerks her body to the southeast and Tristeh responds in sync. The giant wings gently lift us above the trees toward the midnight blue sky. The moon lights our way as we soar over brambles and streams.
I am surprised how far Ellery has drifted and how long it takes us to reach it. When it comes into view, relief trickles through me. Moonlight reflects off the top of the castle. The cool night air flows in and out of my lungs. I am at peace in the air. Exhilaration rises in my chest and I want to howl into the wind like a wild man. I keep it in, worried what Hollis would think, until she crows unabashedly into the night sky, “Waaaacaw!”
Shaking my head, I laugh at myself. What am I thinking? I can be myself with her. So I join her weird screams of delight. Letting all the joy and frustrations blend together and relieve me from hiding one for the sake of the other.
Hollis shouts something to me but it flies by with the wind and never reaches my ears. I ask her to say it again, but she doesn’t, guiding the dragon toward the surface of Ellery. Tristeh comes in for a slow landing, flapping her giant wings and hovering just shy of Ellery’s grand front entrance where the Sky People await our return. Tolliver, Kava, and Angus land safely and unhook their harnesses. Tolliver waves and Hollis nudges the dragon away from the island.
Tristeh’s wings flap powerfully and she shoots us toward the moon, like a sky flame. I think of Alouette and realize the worry in my gut is gone. She is safe. It is strange and new to see her among her people. Alouette belongs with her people. They have a lot of healing to do together.
Hollis and I lean with the dragon as she circles around the tiny castle below. My lungs plead for a breath as Tristeh dives back to Ellery. We lean to the other side and soar around the structure jutting from the floating island. Then round and round the jagged rock hanging below the surface.
Coming around the north side of Ellery, the dragon slows our approach and ducks through the opening to the cave. Her talons scrape on the gravel. There are torches all along the cavern lighting our landing.
Unhooking her belt, Hollis’s laugh echoes off the cave walls. My belly fills with her joy like a glutton at a feast. I detach my strap and crawl off the back of Tristeh. Hollis follows, balancing on her feet all the way. I slide down the wing and land feet first in the dust.
“Catch me, Ledger,” Hollis calls.
I turn just in time to raise my arms and catch her little body against me. I wince protecting the burn on my shoulder as my breath is stolen. Less because of my shoulder and more because of her. I can’t look away from her blue eyes and vibrant smile. I gaze at her lips and forget everything else. Leaning in, I press mine to hers. Warmth grows in my belly as I inhale the smell of her: strawberries and summer wind.
She leans away and looks into my eyes. “Ledger,” she says out of breath with a pleased shock.
“I love you, Hollis,” I say. She begins to speak, and I stop her. “I have always loved you, even when I was pushing you away. When you are gone, I am lost. You are my home.”
She tightens her hold and hugs me.
“It’s about time,” she giggles. “Everyone else knows it.”
I groan and let her feet touch the ground.
The sting of my burn returns as she pulls her arms from my neck. I draw a sharp breath and she says, “Oh, I’m sorry. Your burn. I guess jumping on you was not a good idea.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “I wonder who thought of that.”
We laugh together and Tristeh breathes a growl that echoes through the cavern. Hollis gasps, startled. I turn around finding five guardians with swords poised for a fight.
THANK YOU
Thank you for reading Wingbound by Heather Trim. Independent Authors rely heavily upon reviews and word-of-mouth to reach new readers. If you have a moment to spare, please leave a review on your preferred site. Honest reviews, short or long are greatly appreciated.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you, Kevin, for letting me get lost on Ellery. You’ve made this dream a possibility and a reality. Daisy, thank you for your constant input and sharp skills at brainstorming and decision-making when I got stuck. Daphne, thank you for your peaceful support and creative drawing skills that helped me form Tristeh. Gabe, thanks for being who you are because you make Ledger more interesting. Amaryllis, thank you for falling in love with my fantastical world, even though I’m boring. Violet, thank you for demanding I keep reading at the end of each chapter and being mad at the characters for all the right reasons.
