Crowflight by Sunny Moraine

Author:Sunny Moraine [Moraine, Sunny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy
ISBN: 9781607015079
Publisher: Masque Books
Published: 2013-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

-9-

Turn awoke with heat and strength rushing out from her core and into her limbs. Truly aware, more awake than she had been since the hearing. She was lying naked under something thick and soft, with something else equally thick and soft under her, and when she inhaled the air she pulled into her lungs was fragrant with herbs and the faint sweet tang of fresh blood.

She was staring up at a curved ceiling painted with shifting firelight, the color of pale skin stretched over a frame of bone. Another few seconds, looking at it and mulling over its lines and its texture, and she realized: it was indeed skin and bone.

A rustle close by; she turned her head, peering through the glow of the fire that burned at the far end of the hut—surprisingly smokeless, and gently warm rather than hot.

A dark figure crouched beside it, stirring something in a pot. It looked up as she shifted, its pale golden eyes meeting hers.

Raven.

She drew in a breath. There was nowhere to run. It would be between her and the flap of the hut’s door before she could break past it. It was large when it pushed itself out of its crouch, its back slightly bent, and wrapped in a cloak of ragged feathers that reminded her of Corvi’s robes.

It slowly approached. Turn didn’t move, the blankets swaddled around her as if they could protect her.

It was pale-skinned, more pale than any Crow she had ever seen. White, almost, as bone. When it stopped by her bed and reached out to lay its hand on hers, she was struck by the contrast of white against her deeper gray. Its hand was cool, soothing—and she realized she didn’t feel an urge to pull away.

If it was going to hurt her, kill her . . . surely it could have done that already.

“Chick,” it murmured. When it dropped into a crouch by her side, she couldn’t tell with any more certainty whether it was male or female. It could be either. Or a strangely beautiful mix of the two, its features were strong yet delicate. A little like Sene’s, she thought, and wondered if that was the source of some of her comfort at its presence.

“Where am I?”

The Raven tilted its head to one side and gave her a secretive smile. “You’re safe, chick. By your own fortune. It does not do for an outlander to be caught in one of the Shadowlands’ storms.”

“You were there,” Turn said slowly, realization creeping over her. “You saved me.” Then, as more memory rose to the surface of her mind, “You were following me, weren’t you?”

“From the moment you entered the Shadowlands.” The Raven inclined its head slightly. “No one comes here but we know instantly. Should we not guard our own borders? But more than that. We knew you would come. It has been foretold.” It laid its cool hand against her forehead, then rose again and went back to the fire.

Turn pushed herself gingerly up, sitting with the blankets still wrapped around her.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.