Cloudbound by Fran Wilde

Author:Fran Wilde
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781466858213
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

19

THE ARTIFEX

We left the valley’s shadows and climbed the ridgeline to get high enough to fly.

Kirit walked in silence, leaning hard on Ciel. She’d agreed to let Ceetcee remove her gray wings and fouled robes down to the undersilks. She hadn’t protested when Ceetcee wrapped her in a spare overlayer—my hunter’s cloak—and slid a pair of green silk wings that Aliati had found over her shoulders.

Now we walked from the valley at her side, thinking our own thoughts, occasionally whispering, but Kirit’s silence felt like a void where no sound could enter or leave. We wove our presence around her like a net.

The resolve I’d carried with me from Doran’s to find the traitors only strengthened as we climbed the ridgeline above the valley where the council had come to rest. We would honor Ezarit’s life, her sacrifice. We would honor them all.

We had a single day until Allmoons now. When we’d climbed high enough on the ridgeline to fly, I could send Doran a message about what we’d found. I hoped he would listen, and that he could get the city to listen.

Over my shoulder, I asked Ciel to pass back a request: “Beliak, ready Maalik to fly.”

The ridgeline turned, obscuring our sight of the valley. We angled up, away from one tower’s expanse, towards another. The mists parted in front of us, layers of fine curtains. Occasionally, we saw littlemouths in the distance, pulsing once, twice, then disappearing.

Walking next to Aliati, I searched the ridgeline for signs we were clear of the valley’s wind shadow. In the mist behind us, Ciel held tight to Kirit’s hand. Kirit had pulled my cloak’s hood over her head, closing herself off from us. Ceetcee and Beliak brought up the tail end of our group. He raised a hand in acknowledgment and broke a graincake into pieces for Maalik. The bird bobbed and snapped at the food from Beliak’s shoulder.

Kirit walked slower with each step, as if an invisible tether kept her tied to the valley. Ciel towed her along, and Beliak whispered encouragements from behind. Keep moving.

Overhead, a shadow passed, still high enough in the clouds to have indistinct shape. Another. Birdcrap, we couldn’t let Maalik go up if he was going to be snapped from the sky by a predator.

But the way Aliati watched the shadows made me wonder. “Scavengers?”

She tilted her head. Looked again. “No. Scavengers work the towers mostly. They don’t stray too far from a way back up, rarely come this low. Those are gryphons, maybe. Or blackwings. They’ve been searching the clouds around the Spire since you, Moc, and Kirit fell from the sky. But most can’t echo so it’s taking them a long time.”

“Think they’re still looking for Kirit?”

“Maybe. Maybe something else.” She bit down on the last word, as if she regretted saying it.

I considered what Doran had said the day before. “Or they’re looking for the artifex who went missing.”

“I didn’t say that.” Aliati turned on me, sharply.

I knew only what Doran had told me, that Dix had sent a message about the missing artifex.

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