Wingbound, page 22
I am startled by a loud crack from behind us as a sharp pain shoots through my lower back. A man with a whip swings it in the air preparing to lash out again. I gasp and whirl around facing him, blocking his access to Hollis. He snaps the whip with a flick of his wrist and wraps it around us both. Hollis screams as it bites into her skin. It’s like a hundred bee stings all in a row.
The man is a head shorter than I am, but his wings unfurl aggressively behind him making him appear taller. He gestures toward the mouth of the cave, forcing us to join our friends, where he untangles the black leather whip from around us.
The man with the whip asks, “Who are these children in my stables?”
“We are taking them to Roi du Ciel,” the taller one says with a blade in his hand.
“Then do it,” he barks. They tie our hands behind our backs with strips of rope. I inspect their large gray wings, powerful and moving as if they were an arm or leg. Hollis is wide eyed gaping at them. She winces when one of them walks by and grazes her arm with his feathery tip. I can’t help but wonder if they are Ellerian, unless there is another winged race in this enormous world.
It is a long walk through the muck to the castle. I slip several times and nearly fall on my face because my hands are tied behind my back. As we walk across a makeshift bridge over the ditch the winged slaves are digging, some of them stop and stare.
The mud cakes on the bottom of my feet and I tiptoe carefully to avoid slipping again. Inside the archway of the east gate we follow the taller stableman into a wide hallway. On one side are tall window openings overlooking a messy courtyard still in the process of being built. There, several women with leather straps on their wings kneel with their hands in the dirt. My heart aches at the thought of Alouette’s wings being tied down like some ensnared bird and being forced to work.
Midway down the hall the men lead us through an enormous doorway into a throne room twice the size of the one on Ellery. The walls are a gray stone and the floor is some sort of smooth black rock I’ve never seen before. I am surprised by how shiny it is and peer down at our reflections. I am dirty and disheveled.
There are several groupings of winged men and women, dressed in fancy clothing and jewels all around the room. They pause mid-conversation and gawk at us being escorted to the king.
On the throne is a wingless man with piercing eyes. His short silvery hair spikes up around a thin gold crown. His eyebrows are dark and tipped angrily at us. My insides clench.
The stableman leads us to the foot of the platform on which the single throne sits. He takes a knee before Roi du Ciel. The man behind us does the same. The entire room is quiet. All eyes are on us. The silence jars me like a thousand stones being thrown at the same time. I don’t understand why no one is saying anything. The nervous man grabs the front of Tolliver’s shirt and yanks downward. Tolliver falls to his knee and one by one we all lower ourselves before the king. My face burns and my heart thrums wildly. I hold my breath, bringing it under control.
The king speaks in a deep powerful voice, “What is this?”
“Your majesty,” the nervous man says with head still bowed. “We found them wandering around the... in the woods.” His voice cracks on the last word as he lies and gulps down a breath.
“Perfect,” the king bellows. “Our first grounder prisoners. Throw them in the dungeon for trespassing.”
Looking around from my kneeling position, I notice several people seated on the right side of the room. Three women sit on a padded bench with a serving of tea before them on a round table. Their white wings are folded neatly, and their dainty hands are poised in the air with teacups. One of them, a woman with dark hair and brown eyes, jolts. Her face goes white and she drops her cup. Alouette.
The teacup crashes to the floor at her feet, breaking the gaping silence. Unable to take my eyes off her, I breathe heavily. The sound of the cup hitting the stone catches the king’s attention. My throat constricts as she rises from her seat. She curtsies in a wispy gold dress that is gathered at her narrow waist by a wide burgundy sash. Her thick brown hair hangs over her chest past her elbow. Her face is solemn but as beautiful as I remember, with wide cheekbones and dainty pink lips.
The king nods at her.
“I apologize,” she speaks. Her voice is like music filling my ears, singing a song that my soul has ached to hear for a long time. “I know these people.” She is being strangely proper and closed off, unlike the free spirit I remember.
The king’s eyebrows relax. “Who are they? And what do they want?”
“I believe they came,” she looks at me with intense eyes, “To visit me.” Her wings swish and spread to either side as she curtsies low again. “May I take leave and walk with them through the courtyard?”
Surprisingly, the king is actually considering her request.
“You may,” he says, moving one finger in her direction, his tone easing. She has favor with this tyrant. I loosen my jaw and take a deep breath.
Alouette gathers her long golden skirts in her hands and hurries to me. She tells the stablemen to untie us and waves them off as she leads us to the door. I reach for her hand, but she pulls away. An ache shoots through my chest.
“Lonan, escort Alouette and her guests,” the king commands as we head for the door.
She has favor, I think to myself, but not full trust.
Tracing our steps across the path of smooth black marble, I follow Tolliver, Angus, and Kava. Hollis walks beside me rubbing her wrists. Her eyes reveal confusion beneath her furrowed brow. Alouette walks quietly behind and my mind floods with questions.
As soon as we turn left out of the throne room, I spin around, mouth open, ready to speak. Alouette shakes her head vigorously, scowling at me. I swallow back the torrent of questions that swell behind a crumbling dam of patience.
At the end of the hall, she grabs my dirty sleeve and directs us through an archway into the unfinished courtyard. Alouette tells the guard to keep his distance so he pauses with his hands behind his back, wings blocking almost the entire doorway. We proceed down the only paved path and stop in the middle of the courtyard.
The sky is still gray and threatening but the rain has stopped. The wind tosses Alouette’s dark hair and ripples through her white wings.
“Leave us,” Alouette commands the wing-bound women working in the courtyard. They obey and scurry out of the area. Tolliver eyes her and looks at me, adding more questions to mine. The pressure of their weight bears down on me.
At the center of the rectangular garden, Alouette stops abruptly. “What are you doing here?” Her eyes finally reveal her surprise and delight that I am here.
“What am I doing here? What are you doing here?” I demand. “When you didn’t come back, I thought...”
Alouette looks around and whispers, “I’m sorry. I had no way of getting news to you.”
I sense Tolliver getting antsy, but I don’t care. I need to know what is happening. “What is all this?”
“Our new home,” she blushes and shrugs at the mess around us. “I’m so glad you are here. How? You travelled all the way here, didn’t you?” She touches my face as if she can’t believe I’m real. I can’t look away from her deep brown eyes. They are like my mother’s eyes. Except on this exotic beauty, they are outlined with thick lashes and hold many secrets.
“Yes, I built a—” I interrupt myself and get right to the point, “It doesn’t matter how. I’ve come to rescue you.”
“Rescue me?” she scrunches her nose and her fearful eyes lie. “I don’t need rescuing.”
“Are those your people chained to the ground, forced to work?” The look on her face confirms what I already knew. “Your people are enslaved to that—that man in there!” I shout.
“That man?”
“Where is King Halcyon?” I ask.
“He is dead.” Alouette looks away, brows scrunching. She smooths her golden dress. “There was a shift in power and my father—”
“He is dead?” I ask. “Did that man kill him? Did he drag all of you here to force your people to build him a castle?”
“Ledger, silly boy.” She reaches for me.
Feeling patronized, I yank my hand away. “I’m not a boy anymore.”
“I know. I’m sorry,” Alouette puts a hand to her forehead. I’m making this harder on her, but I’m frustrated because I don’t understand what is happening.
“I’m getting you out of here.” To Tolliver and Angus, I say, “Let’s go.”
I offer her my hand and she reaches for it slowly. Her hand is a warm earthy color compared to my pale skin. When I pull her, she doesn’t move. Her eyes are sad, unwavering. “This is where I belong, Ledger. Stay with me.”
“What are you talking about?” I am in shock.
Her cheeks push back with an almost-smile as she says, “Stay here with me. I don’t have to marry Dayson. You and I can marry, with my father’s approval, of course. And this can be our home.”
This is not what I was expecting at all. I look at Hollis. Her blue eyes overload me with questions. The dam breaks. I’m confused by Alouette’s request. I can’t stay here. This is not my home. I don’t understand what is happening or what Alouette is thinking.
At that moment rumbling fills the air. I cannot figure out where it is coming from. Then rocks crumble from the castle walls. Looking up at the ominous storm clouds, men in black masks crest the top of the walls, set hooks into the stone and rappel down into the courtyard around us.
INTO DARKNESS
37
Chaos breaks out around us. Lonan, the guardian sent to escort Alouette, unsheathes his sword. He swings at the first intruder that hits the ground. The stealthy man pulls a sword and unhooks the rope from his harness in one smooth movement. Three, four, and five men overtake Lonan.
“We have to get out of here,” Tolliver says and we take off running.
Several men in black masks open the front gate from the inside and more of them pour into the castle like swarming black flies. Winged guardians rush to defend their castle and we are caught in the middle. The sound of clinking fills the open space as we dash through the archway.
Tolliver puts his arm around Kava, shielding her from the violence as guardians fight masked men. Swords clink, wings flap. A man in black pulls out a horizontal bow and pulls a lever releasing a small arrow hitting a hovering guardian in the chest. He topples in a feathery pile.
Hollis screams. I hold her hand as we scramble down the hallway.
At that moment, a man in black charges us, sword drawn, eyes intense. Instead of attacking, he directs, “Go that way. It is clear.” I recognize Jin’s voice as he continues to run.
“Come on,” Tolliver calls. We follow him through the hall twisting back towards the dragon’s cave.
Once outside, we find men in black freeing the chained Ellerian slaves. I don’t understand why they aren’t killing them. Each one flits into the sky as soon as they are free. Angus pushes us forward over the small rickety bridge toward the woods.
Alouette’s pace slows and her dress scrapes along the ground, gathering mud and leaves. “Please,” she pants, “Please stop.”
“We are not safe,” I state and keep running. “Not yet.”
We make it into the trees and up the hill. After we crest the ridge, we gape at the raid below. Most of the slaves have been freed and have flown to the east, toward Ellery. The last of the masked men are making their way into the castle. An alarm blares in the distance and we hear the grating cry of a dragon.
From the entrance of the stables, flies the large black dragon that had attacked the island. Its talons are sharp, the spikes on its forehead are jagged, and when it shrieks again flames burst from its mouth.
“Fire,” Hollis whispers in awe. “They breathe fire?”
I suddenly feel foolish for handling Tristeh. She could have killed us that entire time.
Another screech and a gray dragon emerges from the hold, followed by the large green one. His muzzle keeps the flames at bay. We watch the three beasts circle the castle and dive into the middle with riders on their backs. I consider the fact that we had been standing in that courtyard and a lump forms in the pit of my stomach.
The sound of another dragon tears through the valley and Hollis gasps.
She looks to the sky, to the north and to the south, every which way.
“What is it?” I ask.
“Tristeh,” Hollis says.
Alouette looks at her with eyes wide. “How do you know that name?”
“She is my dragon,” Hollis declares.
“Yours?”
“Your people left her to die in that dungeon,” Hollis says, still searching the clouds.
Alouette puts her hands on her hips. “We left in a hurry.”
Another shriek and the red dragon soars over the castle. She doesn’t aim for the castle or the people; she aims for the green dragon. She dives at him from above, lands on his rider, and wrenches to the side.
“Well, she’s mine now,” Hollis yells.
The tangle of dragons separates, and a rider falls from the sky. The two dragons soar into the atmosphere, wing tip to wing tip. They dive together for another pass. This time, Tristeh rattles the valley with a roar ending in a high-pitched shriek. Flames thrust from her mouth the length of a tall tree.
“Tristeh,” Hollis screams into the sky.
The red dragon twists out of formation and dives at the trees over our heads.
Kava screams and we all hide, except for Hollis. Tolliver and Kava duck behind a fallen log. Angus, Alouette, and I clamber behind several trees and shrubs.
“Tristeh,” Hollis yells out again.
Tristeh circles overhead, descends between the trees and lands before us. Her scales are a vibrant, shimmery red in the daylight. The curve of her jaw and brow are fierce with spikes jutting out. Remembering why I feared her, my whole body shakes while I grip the tree, the only thing between me and the beast.
“What are you doing, Hollis,” Tolliver shouts. “It will kill us all.”
“No, she won’t,” Hollis argues.
“Yes, she will,” Alouette agrees. “She doesn’t have her muzzle.”
Hollis boldly steps toward the dragon. Tristeh’s nostrils flare, tasting the air. Hollis places her hand on the dragon’s mouth. She coos and the dragon ducks her head into Hollis’s embrace.
She says, “This isn’t our fight. It’s time we get back on the island and go home.”
“But it is my fight,” Alouette emerges from behind a tree. “Those are my people being slaughtered down there.”
“We have no way to help them. No weapons. Nothing,” Tolliver says. “We only have an escape.”
“I’m going to wait it out and see what happens.” Alouette frowns, her eyebrows low.
“Why don’t we find your family and get out of here?” I grab her hands in mine. “Free anyone else we can so they can go back home to the island.”
“What are you talking about?” She frowns. “Ciel is my father and my mother is dead.”
I drop her hands and step away. “But he is wingless,” I state.
“King Halcyon clipped his wings when he started a revolution to relocate to the ground,” Alouette explains. “For centuries, it’s been illegal to leave the island of Ellery. When the king died, my father took the throne instead of his bratty children. He is rebuilding Ellery on the ground, so we don’t have to rely on all the people around the world to supply our every need.”
Mouth hanging open and mind reeling, I am shocked.
“Your father is enslaving his own people?” Tolliver asks. A great question I would have thought of if I had time to process what she just said.
Alouette looks down, fidgeting with a piece of her dress. “Sometimes examples have to be made,” she recites. They aren’t her words. They sound like something that has been said to her over and over. I look at the evening sky where streaks of red scratch across the horizon. The setting sun is like an evil eye gazing at me from beneath the furrowed brow of storm clouds. I am lost in the gravity of her words. They knock me down into darkness and heaviness again.
“I can’t stand here and argue,” Alouette states, head held high. “I must find my father.”
As the word ‘please’ comes out of my mouth, her powerful wings propel her into the air over the treetops back to the castle. Alouette is gone.
“We have to go back to the island,” Kava says. “We can make it if we run.”
My insides jolt. “We can’t leave yet,” I say, turning toward the castle. Alouette will die and this whole thing will be for nothing. I bottle every feeling brewing inside me.
“Ledger, stop,” Tolliver commands. “Kava’s right, we should go back.” Each word he says sends a spike through the thin glass that has been holding me together. “We have to make it home.”
With that, something shatters.
“No!” I scream. “You stop! Stop telling me what to do. You’re not my father. And apparently, you’re not even my brother!”
The words erupt out of me.
“Ledger.” Tolliver’s shoulders slump.
“Why did you keep that from me?” I yell, leaning toward him pointing in his face.
“I wanted to protect you.”
I scoff, “Protect me from what?”
“I needed to find some answers before—”
“Before you stopped lying to me?” I am drawn toward the castle. I can’t do this right now. I have to find Alouette and get her out of here. I have to make sure she is safe. I give in to the draw and take off running. Without thinking about it, I just run.
“Ledger!” Tolliver’s voice chases me over the ridge and down the side of the hill. “Ledger!”
Slipping my way across the bridge and sliding through the side door of the castle, my head throbs from the painful confrontation. I bite my tongue to push away the tears. The castle halls are vacant. Slowing to a walk, I catch my breath and tiptoe into the throne room. It too is empty.
The faint echo of voices draws me farther down the hallway. I follow them out the other side of the castle into a small village of wood and thatch homes. There are masked men standing along the only road through the village. A single flame ignites the twilight.
