Kaybree Versus the Angels by Harrison Paul

Author:Harrison Paul
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: angels, fantasy, epic fantasy, superhero, teen and young adult, high fantasy series

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Without the Wings

As I'd expected, Danelle didn't show up to help unload that night. And with the servants behind schedule already—they'd had to clean up after the fountain sprayed the decorations—I had plenty of work to do. I couldn't lift any of the heavy pieces, like the silver breastplate and matching helmet, but I made myself useful. I carried a bulb lamp from the wagon down into the sagekeep, and went back for a pair of rolled-up rugs. The servants didn't seem to recognize me, which was a relief, so I continued the monotonous chore and tried to forget that Will and Mira were enjoying a night at the Bard Song without me.

All this exercise is good for my training, I thought as I walked halfway up a staircase to place an antique vase on a wall ledge. Next time I'll surprise Galen with how long I can keep fighting. Swinging one of those wooden swords for about ten minutes left me winded, so maybe I needed the practice carrying heavy objects up and down stairs.

I grabbed another vase from the wagon and carried it up the staircase that led to the Order. I placed it on another ledge and sat down on the steps to catch my breath. A rat scurried by my foot. I jumped up, but it had already fled. That's strange. I hadn't seen rats at all in the sagekeep; students whispered that my mother had enchanted the sagekeep against vermin, or that the sages had prayed for divine protection. Whatever kept them out before wasn't operating now.

I took a clay pot to place in the alcoves. I wasn't an artist, but even I wished they had found more interesting pieces of scenery. Why hadn't they brought over the ones with charging rangir painted on them, or with angels flapping their mighty wings? I placed the boring pot and saw something flicker on the edge of my vision. A toad. Hopping up the steps. I bent down and listened carefully. I could hear rangir and crows talking, so why not toads? But if I could understand him talk, he wasn't saying anything. A creature scuttled by me on the wall. My stomach twisted. Cockroaches. Simply thinking about the black bugs with their tiny, flailing limbs made me ill.

I looked up at a ceiling that seemed to be moving. Beetles and ants and cockroaches scurried along the ceiling, all heading upstairs. Toward Vormund tower. But why? Had my mother left a feast of rotten yogurt sitting in the hallway? Or was it . . . a corpse? I gagged and sat down on the stairs. Corpses attracted bugs. All the stories said so. The legends stated that Baldr found his servant dead in the hollow of a tree, with worms and cockroaches crawling through his eye sockets. I didn't want to think what would lead all of these things upstairs. I glanced around for one of the sages. They would know what to do, or send the Knights to check it out.

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