The wind near the Earth was stiff and chill today, cooler than down at the arena, cooler still for the penumbra of the Sun’s waning. Until night, the Harbinger had said, and they were well within the limit. Still, fear of the Magnates and the black creature of the above were coupled with exertion to propel both boys to greater heights.
“Just . . . another hundred yards!” Telsan puffed, relinking his hands over Phoenix’s chest. There was no hint of awkwardness to the gesture, merely the pressing need to keep his muscles from burning out or knotting up while making certain not to drop her. Solis still could have sworn his end was heavier. Their wings beat in time, clawing for altitude by the inch. Or so it seemed. Any glance down now revealed that they were thousands of feet up from Grimstaf VI—or Megeth, which was easily visible in the distance from here. Even the shadows of other nearby islands could be seen, largely indistinguishable between the puffy clouds between and the obscuring hazy of humidity.
The moss-covered stones and trees of the Earth grew ever closer. The hanging ecosystem that defied gravity and the direction of nearly all life in the Great Sky. Solis’ chest was already heaving from the strain, sweat running down his cheeks and arms, trickling down his armpits toward his waist. Foot-by-foot, steadily but not quickly enough, the hundred yards left dwindled to a hundred feet, and Solis could more easily make out the slit that would be their point of entry. A small gorge of sorts, lit only a small way in by ambient light from the fading sun as it circled westward and upward.
“Come on . . .” Solis muttered. “We can do this, we can do this.” One boy or other grunted every few seconds, and frequently their panting breaths would turn to a sudden, involuntary gasp. Solis couldn’t remember his wing muscles burning this badly in a long time. Probably not since he’d rescued Floris that time . . . His five-year-old sister had slipped while inspecting—quite unnecessarily, truth be told—the western Megeth Skyfall. Heart pounding madly, he’d dived after her, driving himself to a full plummet to catch up to her, and then dragged her weight back up to the island surface once he caught her up. Faridi had helped once he realized what was happening and reached them. Without the man, they might both have collapsed into the nether cloud layer, eaten alive by the ferocious storms.
Faridi . . . I wish you could have been here this day. The thought came to him suddenly and with great pain, squeezing another gasp from his chest. Finally, after all these years of looking ahead, seeking the Earth and its secrets in every way he knew how, despite all the dead ends, he had at last won the tournament and come through with a bye—an open door to enter the Earth, perhaps one that the Magnates would have somehow vetoed had they the power. The Harbinger had stepped in, granting Solis and Telsan undeniable leave to enter together.
But at what price? Colla and Faridi, gone. Phoenix . . . hopefully in a recoverable state. What awaited them beyond the stone lid of the sky was more than Solis or his friend were equipped to guess at.
Another slip of his hands caused a jolt of panic, a stutter in his flight. He caught himself almost immediately, arms still supporting the girl’s lower body under the knees, but it still sent his heart up into his mouth, its beat fast and audible. He felt it in his temple and biceps, pounding with both adrenaline and relief.
“Whoa, pal,” Telsan said with a grunt. “Lose focus there?”
Drat. So he noticed. Solis’ propensity for spacing out had manifested again. He jolted once more as he looked up and realized they were already heading into the gaping hole. Some thirty feet in width, and that at the widest, the seam would be tight. Telsan had already turned so that their wings, beating essentially parallel to each other, were going width-wise in the shaft. Telsan, whose wings were slightly longer, had a wingspan of thirty feet.
They rose with their burden, passing upward into the ever-creeping darkness, and Solia watched with growing unease as Phoenix’s form was obscured in shadow. “You, uh, have those torches?” he asked his friend.
“I mean . . . yeah, but we can’t exactly put her down. Need to get to some kind of ledge.”
Solis sighed. “Guess we can’t carry one at the moment even if it is lit.” He looked upward, shivering at the cavernous black chute. It was slowly twisting to the side, prompting them to change the angle of their ascent, but it seemed to open slightly just above them. “You think maybe . . .” He squinted his eyes, trying to make out more as his eyes adjusted, and lit upon an irregularity in the stone walls. “Hey, there!” He pointed, and Telsan craned his neck to look, but it turned out to be a simple cleft in the rock, far too small to fit a human body.
“This isn’t good, Sol. But . . . Hey, I think my eyes must be adjusting. There seems to still be enough light to make out the cavern. Come to think of it . . . I remember Master Jeyga talking of luminescent stones in Nebula, the Bat Tribe capital.”
“Well . . . maybe we have them here too. Nobody really knows what it’s like inside the Earth anywhere, right?”
“Except the Magnates,” Telsan muttered.
“Except them.”
Suddenly, Telsan exclaimed at the sight of a ledge. Solis saw it up ahead, but dimly. The portion of dark cavern they were in was now large enough that they could only see this side of it. The ledge proved to be a tunnel, though they could not tell whether it dead-ended a short distance ahead or actually led somewhere. Even after carefully laying their friend’s form down, neither was in a hurry to check and see. They sat with backs to the cave, panting and rubbing their sore wing extensors, remarking how that was far too much exertion to start off their journey with. It was amazing how extreme the difference between lifting one’s own weight and lifting half again as much—less, really, because Phoenix did not weigh that much. Perhaps around seventy pounds, versus their ninety-five to a hundred.
“Man, I could really go for one of Floris’s back rubs,” Solis groaned.
Telsan held up an oil-wrapped torch. “Here, want to light this for me?”
Solis took the flint, which Telsan had dug out of the same pack, and struck a few times before it caught, and light at last flood the chamber. Telsan held it aloft, moving the stick around to get a varying spread of shadows. The far side of the chamber was still beyond sight. Telsan rose with a groan, turning round. “Gonna check out this cave. Any objections?”
“Nah.” Solis watched with curiosity and mild concern, but stayed to watch over Phoenix. His friend had not gone ten steps, however, before a great weight barreled into him, heralded by only a quick rush of wind and heavy wingbeats. Solis cried out, but whatever had him quickly choked that out by slamming against the floor of the stone ledge and rolling with him. He was smushed and bundled between the creature’s powerful arms, coarse fur pressing against him.
Fur . . .
Before he could recover whatsoever, his captor bounded off the ledge and spread massive black wings, hefting him up and away, out of the torchlight. Behind him, Telsan was shouting and waving the torch, creating eerily-magnified shadows of Solis and his horned captor.
“What are you doing with—who even are you?” Solis growled, barely choking out the words while straining at the creature’s grip, though he knew the answer already.
A low growl came in reply, followed by an unmistakably deep voice: “We’ll talk in a moment.”
The Harbinger took him up through a series of twisting tunnels, landing in a low-hanging tunnel and setting the boy down roughly. Solis could see nothing, so he merely stared up at where he thought the beastlike man was, rubbing his side and rolling a sore shoulder. How had he not been injured in that violent abduction? “What am I doing here?” he demanded.
Another low, bull-like snort. “Getting acquainted a bit. Call me a benefactor. We haven’t long before your friend panics, so I’ll make this quick.”
Characters
- Solis Lightwing (SOLE-iss)—The main character, a white-winged boy of unceasing curiosity who longs to see inside the forbidden Earth.
- Telsan (TELL-suhn)—Solis’ best friend, a young man of the Bird Tribe.
- Phoenix Dolce (DOLE-chay)—Friend of Solis and Telsan, a Flameborn girl of sixteen years. Daughter of Falla Dolce.
- Pim Lightwing—Daughter of Fey of Longfell and mother of Solis and Floris.
- Arthur Lightwing—An exterior miner, husband of Pim, head of the Lightwing household.
- Faridi (fuh-RID-ee)—A Tapiq man who frequently volunteers for lookout duty.
- Colla—A female Tapiq; often works with Faridi.
- Melka—One of the three living Tapiq Magnates.
- Donnor—Said to be the eldest of the three living Magnates.
- Spore—One of the three living Magnates. Doesn’t say much.
- Fey—Solis’ deceased grandmother, a former Magnate.
- Floris—Solis’ younger sister. 11 years old; aspires to be a physician.
- Caris—Eldest of the three Lightwing children, now married and residing in the neighboring Tapiq village of Dram.
- Falla Dolce—Phoenix’s mother, a Dustborn from a powerful elementalist family of Fenaback. Kept her family name due to unfortunate events she’d rather leave buried.
Terms
- Earth, The—An immeasurable continent that looms over the entire sky. Forbidden to all save those whom the Magnates choose each year.
- Tapiq (tuh-PEEK)—The tribe of winged men who dwell in Ameros and the surrounding islands. As with most tribes, they have adopted some from other tribes and races as their own, while others are visitors.
- Ornis—Also called the Bird Tribe, though this isn’t entirely accurate, as there are multiple; most simply live farther north.
- Hiding, The—The six hours in the middle of the day when the Sun’s low-angled course takes it behind the infinite cloud layer that looms beneath the sky world.
- Magnate—One of the three living souls of the Tapiq tribe who have ascended to the Earth and returned, bearing supposedly infinite knowledge that they choose to keep hidden.
- Ameros (AM-uh-ros)—Largest island in the southeastern quadrant of the sky, where the Tapiq village of Megeth lies.
- Megeth (Meh-GETH)—Capital city of the Tapiq people.
- Grimstaf VI (GRIM-stahf six)—An artificial island created west of Ameros by the Harbinger.
- Elementalist—One born with a Kinship to an elemental force. They usually lack wings.
Kinships
- Flameborn—Kin of flame. They form their own wings as needed from tongues of fire that sprout from their backs.
- Dustborn—Artists of soil and dust. They fly with wings created from nearby dust particles.
- Windborn—Wind kin. Unlike other elementalists, these often grow wings just like any other, though some possess heightened abilities allowing them to fly without wings—and thus lacking them.
- Waveborn (aka Watchers)—Keepers of the invisible wards that protect the sky islands from falling hazards. Also, those with the rare ability of sound manipulation.
- Dewborn—These control moisture and redirect water.
- Stormborn—Creators of small storms and electrical currents.
- Snowborn—Bringers of frost and snow on a small scale.
- Sunborn—Manipulators of light.
- Beastborn—These rare kind, seen largely in the northwestern isles, come in different orders according to a certain class of living creature.
- Cragborn—Manipulators of stone.