Sky. Sarah Driver

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СКАЧАТЬ Then I remember he can’t see much, cos of the creeping white film on his eyeballs, and I chew my tongue.

      ‘I’m thirsty.’ That’s all he says, and proper quiet.

      ‘Don’t worry, we’re on the right path, so we won’t be flying much longer. And I’ve got an idea,’ I call to him, eyeing the icicles on the terrodyl’s wings.

      ‘Can I have a story, too?’ he whimpers. ‘My nightmares are more stronger. They keep giving me the brain-aches.’

      I squeeze his hand. ‘S’alright, they’ll soon stop now we’ve got you away from that place.’

      ‘But I feel like something bad’s gonna happen.’ He bangs his head against my back. ‘I dreamt a golden lightning bolt shot us down.’

      ‘We’ve left the bad stuff behind, too-soon,’ I tell him softly, panicking inside about what to do if he has more shaking fits. ‘How about that story?’ I clear my throat. Stories grow twisted over time, especially if you tell them without story pictures etched in bone to guide you. But I remember one so well that I can taste the words, ready to spill out. The story everyone knows, but I never knew the heart-truth of when I used to tell it before. Now the truth of it rattles through my marrow.

      ‘One hundred moons and suns ago, long after the first oarsman beat his drum, the last King of Trianukka had an ancient golden crown and three powerful Storm-Opals.’ As I tell the story, I feel Sparrow relax against me the tiniest bit. I clutch the terrodyl’s spine tightly as it navigates the Iceberg Forest. ‘The Opals were to be set in the crown, to heal the trouble between all the Tribes of Sea, Sky and Land and let them live in peace together. The first Opal held a foam of sea, the second a fragment of sky, and the third a fracture of land. But before the gems could be set in the King’s crown, it got gobbled up by a great whale. The Opals had to be kept safe, so the crinkled old molluscs—’

      ‘You mean mystiks!’ murmurs Sparrow.

      ‘Aye, same difference. The mystiks of the Bony Isle guarded them, deep within the walls of Castle Whalesbane, where the King dwelt. The King blamed the Sea-Tribe captain, Rattlebones, for hiding the crown in the whale’s belly, and that brought a hundred years of war, and gifted all the power to the land.’

      That’s where the story always ends but now I’ve got more to tell. ‘Sparrow, we can hammer in our own iron rivets, can’t we? How about this?’ I sniff away the sticky ice inside my nose. ‘Somehow, after moons and moons, the three Opals were thieved from the castle and scattered, setting grave danger loose on the world. Sneaking ice tiptoed ahead of the winter, and the seas threatened to freeze and trap the whales. Trianukka was at risk of ripping apart altogether. But heart-luck was waiting to save the day, in the form of a girl. One Hunter’s Moon, this girl – who was the best at longbow shooting, amongst other things—’

      ‘No bragful boastings!’ yelps Sparrow.

      ‘– aye, she’d packed most skills under her belt as it happens. Well, she found a note telling her to find the scattered Opals and to take them to the golden crown before the world turned to ice. And – get this – the girl found the Sea-Opal, right under her nose.’

      Crow splutters. ‘I think boasting might be putting it mildly, mate.’

      My heart clangs, whooshing blood into my cheeks – I’d reckoned him still asleep, and I ent certain if I want him to know all that stuff yet. Grandma always did say my big mouth would be the end of me. ‘Shut it, you.’

      ‘Interesting how you make everything about you, ain’t it? And you do realise the whole thing’s just a kids’ bedtime story?’ He sniffs loudly.

      ‘You’re wrong, I reckon!’ pipes Sparrow.

      Crow scoffs.

      I tug my cloak tighter around me and will Sparrow not to utter another word. If the wrecker boy thinks it’s just a story, I’ll let him think that, for now.

      But Sparrow thumps my arm weakly. ‘When you gonna tell the bit of the story that’s about me?’ he croaks.

      Mememe, croaks Thaw-Wielder, feathers trembling with wanting to be part of the story, too.

      Then one of the icebergs looms through the sea-mist and the terrodyl dodges, then pulls higher into the sky. Some of the bergs are so tall their heads are lodged in the clouds.

      ‘Hold tight!’ I scream. I grab Sparrow’s hands and pull his arms tighter around my waist. When the terrodyl’s finished climbing his wings settle again into a steady, whooshing beat. The air’s thinner up here and my lungs suck at it greedily.

      We keep flying east, taking it in turns to nap, until another thin, wintry dawn cracks the sky from black to grey to white.

      I stare down at the last iceberg, on the very edge of the forest. Then it’s behind us and there’s just a blend of grey-white sea and sky, before clouds seal us in. My belly gurgles loudly. Me and Crow ent munched a morsel or glugged a drop since we sailed to the Bony Isle to save Sparrow – and the gods only know when he last filled his boots. Then a low rumbling spreads through the terrodyl.

      Hungerhungerhungerrrrr, empty belly, he chatters mournfully.

      Maybe we could land, and Thaw and the terrodyl could catch some fish for us all? Fear-Beast, Thaw-Wielder, land to catch food? I ask. Thaw hoots her approval.

      First time Crawler not utter soft-shell babblings. The creature’s spines ripple happily as he starts to drop lower in the sky. Through a cut in the clouds I glimpse a flash of dark, rocky earth.

      ‘I can’t be doing with those weird noises that bubble outta your throat when you talk to the thing,’ Crow calls. ‘What did you say to it?’

      I roll my eyes. ‘He’s a he,’ I shout back. ‘Least I think he is. He ent a thing, anyway. He’s gonna catch some fish to eat.’

      ‘Why’s it going to bother doing that, when it can just crunch us up and spit out our bones?’ he yells.

      I twist to look at him, laughing. ‘Calm your fright-blubber, this one’s just a bab.’

      Crow glares at me with contempt so thick it’s like he’s slapped it on with a tarring brush.

      Sparrow’s hands feel cold and sweaty. Keeping hold of them tightly in one of mine, I lean right, along the terrodyl’s hairy wing. I reach out slowly, towards the icicles hanging underneath it, until I can touch one of them with a fingertip.

      ‘What d’you think you’re up to?’ bellows Crow.

      Ignoring him, I lean out a smidge further, wrap my first two fingers around the ice . . . then fright tingles in my chest as Sparrow’s hand starts slipping from my grasp.

      ‘Sparrow! ’ I lurch back into my seat, making the terrodyl sway and flap for balance, and grab Sparrow’s arms with both hands. ‘Nonononono! Don’t you dare fall!’ His filmy eyes roll back as he passes out and slumps over the left side of the creature’s back.

      I swing the other way off my perch, too fast, grabbing hold of the spine in front of me just before I topple into thin air. Blood rushes to my head as I hang almost upside down.

      ‘You’ll СКАЧАТЬ