Summer & Bird by Katherine Catmull

Author:Katherine Catmull
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2012-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

Many weeks later, Bird stood in the same place in the swan’s eye, looking at the same lake. The peach on the horizon was now deep gold, and the deep blue was creeping down lower in the sky. But there was still enough light to see the lake, and Bird was trying to decide whether to wait to watch the whole sunset, or go in and find something to eat.

Then she heard something she hadn’t heard in a long time. It had been so long, she almost couldn’t believe it. Her whole body whipped around, and she ran to the other end of the stone veranda to see. She had heard—she would swear she had heard—the call of a bird.

But even though she stood as near the stone railing as she dared to look out over the darkening garden and the forest beyond, she saw no birds. Feeders bursting with food, baths full of water, stood undisturbed. A stone of sullen disappointment formed in her heart. She turned around, ready to abandon the sunset.

And then she stopped.

Just where she had been standing earlier, a boy was sitting on the railing. He straddled the narrow stone like a cowboy, one leg dangling in the air. The boy’s skin was radiant brown, and his hair was a nest of sloppy dark curls. The corner of his mouth that she could see was turned up, as if he had been laughing, or was just about to.

At her?

Without moving his body, the boy cocked his head and looked at her through one eye. “You’re Bird, right?” he said.

Bird stood where she was. “How did you get here?” she asked.

“I flew,” said the boy. He swung his legs around so that he was facing her, apparently unconcerned to be balanced on a railing a hundred feet above the ground. “I came to tell you something,” he said. He had a dark birthmark like a char across one cheek. “I came to tell you,” he said, “that you need to go down.”

“I already knew that,” said Bird. “The patchwork bird’s song said to go down.”

“I know,” said the boy, with an annoying smile. “She was right. Go down, Bird. It’s important.”

She hated his big smile. She hated his ease in the air. She hated his terrible advice. But for some reason, she liked him anyway, inside and around the hates.

“It’s important to go back down the stairs? To the ground floor, with those pathetic awful birds who don’t fly or sing?” She doubted this. Those birds were stupid creatures, and she couldn’t bear to look at them again. She couldn’t bear it. Her heart beat fast with rising anger and fear. Maybe she would never go back down.

“To the ground floor,” said the boy, “but not just to the ground floor. Further than that. If you go down further than that, underneath the place you think you are, you’ll find what you secretly want, in your deepest heart.”

Bird felt a familiar electricity in her blood. To be queen was her secret desire.

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