Thunderstruck by Shannon Delany

Author:Shannon Delany [Delany, Shannon]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781250018663
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Published: 2014-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

Aboard the Pod

They had been gliding at a slow descent when Jack said, “Finally! One should be right there,” pointing to a spiral of birds slowly climbing into the sky.

“One what? A bird?”

“No, the thing we gliders learned from birds.”

“Something you learned by bird watching?”

Jack nodded. “There are plenty of things we can learn from birds. And other animals,” he added. “Flight takes a great deal of energy if you don’t do it right.”

“And they … ?”

“Do it right,” Jack said. He angled the pod’s nose toward the birds. “They are riding an eddy—a spot where air currents or different air temperatures meet and create an updraft. We’re going to ride it like an elevator—take it to a higher elevation.”

Rowen grunted.

They soared toward the promised updraft, descending by tiny increments all the way. Rowen pitched forward as the eddy caught them, tugging them higher in a slow spiral that Jack used and carefully controlled. Jack leaned back in the seat, setting his controls and watching as they drifted in a slow circle to the top of the eddy.

Rowen leaned over the chair, mindful of Jack’s warning about a sudden and dramatic shift in his weight changing the pod’s path, and peered out the window at the birds, watching them nearly as much as the world far below.

Jack whistled a tune that Rowen picked up and sang.

“Ah,” Jack murmured. “We’ve reached the top.”

He tweaked the controls, adjusting the wings and rudder, and they broke free of the curling wind, launching out at the higher altitude.

They glided uneventfully for another few hours, when Jack said, “If we keep going like this we’ll make Philadelphia just after dark.”

“The city lights up like a bank full of stars—should be easy to find our way.”

“That brings me to an important question—just where are we landing?”

Rowen grinned. “There is a lovely estate with a long garden and a hedgerow maze at the very top of a hill I know right well,” Rowen said. “We will be welcome there—or at least not unwelcome,” he clarified.

“Ah. Your family’s estate.”

“No. Better. Jordan’s.”

The pod jolted suddenly to the side and Jack shouted, his hands darting for the controls.

“What the hell?” Rowen spread his feet wide and grabbed tight to the chair’s back again. He followed Jack’s example, squinting out the window. Something slipped past in the periphery of their view, large feathers stroking the top of the window.

“Brace yourself,” Jack commanded.

“What’s happening?”

“We’re—” The words were smacked out of him when the pod was rocked again.

“We’re under attack.”

“By what?”

“Ala!”

“Ala?!”

Jack steadied his grip on the pod’s controls, his eyes fixed. “Beast—demon, depends on who you ask or what you believe. From the Old Country. Wraiths have tried to wipe them out for decades.”

“Why have I never heard of them?”

“Heard of the Lik or the Musussu?”

“No …”

The ship bucked again and Jack fought to compensate. “Invasive species thought to be the stuff of legends—nightmares,” Jack clarified, “but we’re not that lucky. Lucky enough they aren’t quite as horrible or huge as legend states,

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