Storm. Sarah Driver

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СКАЧАТЬ could be at Hackles the rest of forever and still never learn all its secrets,’ lisps a Wilderwitch girl called Ibex, with hair shaved to her skull and the stubble dyed bruise-blue.

      Relief whumps through me.

      ‘Quiet!’ shushes someone from the gloom.

      ‘Hope we won’t be here forever,’ mutters Ermine, from somewhere to the left of me.

      ‘Don’t fret,’ I husk, making him startle halfway out of his skin. ‘Soon, we rove.’

      ‘Mouse!’ whispers Hammer. ‘Don’t do that!’

      ‘I was just saying,’ says Erm, to cover his frights. ‘Aren’t you creeped out of your pelt down here?’ He scowls. ‘Just me then.’ His gaze burrows under my skin. Then he tips back his head and stares at the underside of our world.

      ‘I’m frighted, too,’ says Sparrow.

      ‘I never said I was frighted,’ spits Erm, crossing his arms.

      ‘This is the one who left the notes,’ Lunda tells the kids that’re trotting after her. She fixes her eyes on my scar. ‘The pearl-fisher that talks to animals.’ She stalks towards our group with a lantern raised in her hand.

      My heart drums and my blood kicks for a fight. Part of me wishes I never invited her – but she’s gonna be useful.

      ‘Oh, you’re Sea-Tribe, aren’t you?’ asks Ibex. ‘How fascinating! I’ve never even seen the sea!’

      I gift her a grin.

      But Lunda chuckles coldly. ‘I’m not sure I’d call roving sea-creepers a Tribe ! And I’ve no idea why we’re giving them shelter-feather in our sky-fortress.’ She’s goading me for a brawl. A brawl I realise I’ve been thirsting for.

      ‘Don’t think this girl walks alone, will you?’ snarls Hammer, who’s got my back along with Ermine and Crow.

      ‘Aye, and she’s got more than little boys standing up for her,’ says Crow. Someone snickers. Hammer’s fine black brows quirk together in a frown as he rounds on Crow.

      ‘Boys fighting over her, huh?’ scorns Lunda.

      ‘Your words are dust to me,’ I say calmly. And I am ready for the next battle.

      Thaw-Wielder chats straight into my head. ArmLAND!

      For a beat I watch myself from above, through her eyes. It’s the strangest feeling, like there’s a wormy cord threading out of my belly and connecting me to my hawk. I unfurl my wrist and she drops onto it, out of the immense nothing yawning over and around us, like someone high up has dumped a bucket of feathers and claws and quickness into the air. Even Lunda gasps as Thaw resettles her feathers, twitching her head around at them all.

      I smile. These kids are starting to know something about my fierce.

      ‘I’m not fazed by your tricks,’ says Lunda. ‘Soon, you will be dust, too. Only the strongest will survive this Withering.’ Her words wreath from her mouth like pale spekters.

      I push my face into Lunda’s. ‘Either rest your jaws, or say that again – if you dare.’ I can feel my magyk pulsing in my blood and in my gut and in my dark-gulping eyes. I could do anything in this beat.

      ‘Mama says that’s not how girls should act,’ quavers Ibex.

      I reply to her, not taking my eyes off Lunda’s. ‘Your mama needs to learn herself a thing or two.’

      Lunda’s eyes are like hard blue chips of ice. ‘What are you waiting for, sea-witch?’

      ‘I didn’t come here to fight, spear-flinger.’

      She stares at me and spills two words that sharpen the air. ‘Didn’t you?’

      This night belongs to us.

      I ent sure who moves first. But then all of a sudden the crypts are one giant tangled sweaty brawl and all I know is

       Fists

       Feet

       Eyelids

       Ribs

      And all we are is

       Clawed

       Punched

       Pulled

       Scrambled

       Laughing

       Yelling

      Thaw roosts atop a skull and screams encouragement, making my foes shudder.

      Fists to fists, we practise our fight for the end of the world, then someone steps on a lemming and it screams and we’re all falling about in stitches of laughter. Breath-clouds puff all over the crypt.

      The sharpness has been squeezed out of the air and it feels easier to breathe. Pangolin says something to Lunda and the Spearsister laughs, in a pure way I ent heard her do before. The sound gifts me heart-strength. She’s here now, like it or not. And if Pang trusts her, maybe I can learn to.

      Thaw, I chatter, while the others are still laughing and a few fights are still growling, keep watch for any sneaky blighters that look like beasts but don’t have chatter. I don’t want any spies down here.

      She screeches, lifting up into the air to start her patrol. Everyone turns to stare at me.

      I make my spine arrow-straight. ‘I called this secret meet cos we need a crew.’

      ‘What is a crew?’ asks Pika.

      I grin at him. ‘It’s everything – kinship, knowing how to weather storms together – storms in the world and storms in your heart. It’s having each other’s back, no matter what. It’s – it’s sharing heart-love for what matters most and gifting each other the heart-strength to fight.’

      ‘Pretty speech,’ snaps Lunda.

      ‘Why do we need a crew?’ asks a boy.

      ‘Naught’s going right round here. They tell us to let the full-growns save Trianukka. But who’s gonna save them?’

      ‘What are you talking about?’ demands Lunda. ‘You’re the one that endangered the whole Sneaking because of whatever’s going on up there.’ She gestures to the sides of her head and pulls a gruesome face.

      Crow steps towards her but I hold up a hand. Da said not to reveal my chatter. But how can you make a real crew if you ent honest with them? ‘It’s true that I’m a beast-chatterer, and that my chatter can overpower me.’ I pause, waiting for the whispers to fade. ‘But it means the beasts can tell me things we wouldn’t know elsewise. Like this now – something has happened СКАЧАТЬ