Crowfall by Vashti Hardy

Author:Vashti Hardy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic
Published: 2021-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

They had only gone as far as the brow of the hill when Orin called to Cody to jump off the bog myrtle. He’d learned to trust his instinct when things were up – sneaking around at the Engineerium had taught him that – and right now there was an uncomfortable feeling in his gut about Ferelith.

“Humans could do with a bit of robot rationality, if you ask me,” Cody tutted, brushing herself down. She’d landed with quite an awkward thud. “Did you forget I don’t have wings any more?”

“Sorry. I think we should go back to the beach.”

“Are your circuits working, Orin? Pieces of our boat won’t have miraculously washed ashore in the past few millidays.”

“Did you think Ferelith was acting strangely?”

“Orin Crowfall, I spend most of my time with you. With that as a benchmark, everything is strange.”

“But?”

“But I suppose she does seem more dismissive of you today.”

“Exactly.” She had been so nice to him the day before, and today she seemed distracted, as if she didn’t really want him around. He wanted to know why. “Come on.”

They crept back down the hill in the direction Ferelith had taken.

The sky had darkened with a few menacing clouds, and a sudden chill wind charged the hillside. Orin put a finger to his lips and crept on to his knees. Below, he could see Ferelith clambering over rocks at the edge of the beach and out of sight. He scrambled on his elbows to the edge of the crag, but she’d disappeared.

“She’s probably just looking for those weird stones, like she said.” Cody shrugged. “Come on, we should go back to the village. Thao might have returned.”

Orin shook his head. Suspicion had embedded itself and wasn’t letting go. “No. If she was looking for stones, why did she want to get rid of us? I’m going down to look. You wait here.”

“Er, you don’t have a harness and, as I just pointed out via my clumsy exit from the bog myrtle, I have no wings to save you if you fall.”

But the feeling in Orin’s gut was pulling him over the crag, and before he knew it, he’d swung his body around, found some hand- and footholds, and started edging down the cliff. Just like West Tip, he told himself. Soon he heard banging and humming. What was she up to? There was a small, secluded rocky beach below. He couldn’t see Ferelith at first, but as he continued down, he spotted her inside a small cave. She was perched on a rock next to a large, arched piece of wood. He recognized the shape, the colours.

It was a large section of their boat!

For a moment he felt elated. It looked like the back end, and much work needed doing, but it was something, and with a bit more wood, it could be fixable. He was about to call her name and scramble down when he realized she had tools laid out and was already repairing it.

This was no accidental discovery.

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