Night Rise by Frances De La Rosa

Author:Frances De La Rosa [De La Rosa, Frances]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2022-05-12T16:00:00+00:00

21

The sun shone brightly, playfully bouncing on the ripples of the Claw River and

making anyone who looked at the water blink. A triple-decker boat swayed slowly back

and forth in the current, tugging gently at its anchor as it waited.

Dawn and Rob stood by the boarding ramp, watching the ship’s crew scuttle

around. It was past time to board, but Dawn wanted to wait until everyone arrived before

getting on. Rob shifted the chest around, starting to tire of its weight when the last

passengers finally approached. The fairies appeared over the castle wall and made their

way to the river, with Dusk half-dragging Diya, who was trying to go anywhere but

towards the boat.

“Sorry we’re late,” Dusk said as they paused with Dawn and Rob. “Someone

wandered off, and I had to go find him.”

He glared at Diya, who wrenched his wrist out of Dusk’s hold and glowered at his

feet. Dusk sighed and nodded his head at the chest. “Robert, perhaps we should get that

aboard?”

“Sure,” Rob answered, happy with the idea of not having to continue carrying it.

Dusk flicked up the ramp but turned back when he realized Diya wasn’t following.

“Are you coming?”

“No,” Diya said, staring stonily at his friend.

Dusk groaned and glanced at Dawn. “Make surehe gets on, will you?”he said, then

flew up to the lowest deck, Rob close behind. “The chest isn’t going to be difficult for you, is it?” Dawn asked once the boys

moved out of view.

Diya turned to look at her, his face expressionless. “Why would it be?”

“Dusk mentioned you may have had a bad experience with it.”

Diya laughed darkly. “Dusk doesn’t know the half of it. The lantern was my

permanent prison, but that chest was torture. If I hurt the lantern in an effort to escape,

if I talked back or said anything he didn’t like, sometimes just when he was angry at

something else and wanted to take it out on me, in the chest I’d go. For days, or even

weeks. Once for years. I never told Dusk how bad it really was—it wouldn’t have helped.

What I wanted was for him to forget about what happened and be the same friend he was

before.”

He eyed Dawn up and down a moment, then looked up at the noon sun above them.

“But all my effort went to waste when you came along.”

“Dawn!” Sarah waved at her from the top of the ramp. “They want you on now.”

“Be right there,” Dawn called back, then turned to find Diya had flown off. She

looked around anxiously and caught sight of him near the mainsail. Any idea she may

have had about what he wanted was ruined now that he’d simultaneously blamed her for

everything and given her a secret she couldn’t pretend she didn’t have. She shook her

head and climbed slowly up the ramp.

An hour later, the anchor thunked on the deck and the boat lurched into motion,

slowly moving into the wide river and going up to the lake.

Dusk flicked around the main deck, searching for Diya among the busy crew. There

were a few fairies working, and they made Dusk’s search that much more difficult.

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