Proving Ground by Emily Watson

Author:Emily Watson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thistlebound Books
Published: 2022-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

15 Follow the Raven

AMY WOKE WITH A START. She must have been asleep for ages. What had woken her?

The flapping of wings made her jump, and she half rose to her feet, hand grasping at her knife. Then when she saw that it was only a bird, she relaxed, settling back down onto the sandy floor. Taking no notice, the bird hopped across the burrow.

“Hello, there.” Amy smiled at the raven, remembering what Elroy had once said about them. “They can be quite helpful,” he had said. So many people disliked them, calling them an ill omen. But to her, they were the ones that had carried the cure for Sir Clint’s poison last year and helped to save her father.

Elroy. She wished he were here now. There were so many questions she would have liked to ask him. Questions about Finnigin. And questions about himself. What had Finnigin meant when he said that Elroy had dark secrets? Where was he out in the midst of the darkness?

The raven interrupted her thoughts, cawing cheerfully past the piece of rolled up paper in its beak. It dropped the paper onto the sand beside her and with a wag of its tail feathers, began to investigate the stack of wafers next to her.

“Oh, is this for me?”

It cawed in response, then turned back to pecking at the wafers.

“Oh, of course, you can have one. Here you go.” Amy took one of the wafers, broke into four pieces, and set it on the floor in front of the raven.

As it croaked and wagged its tailfeathers, Amy picked up the scroll of paper. It was the tiniest little slip of paper, rolled up tightly, and tied with a red thread. The note inside was just as small, written in Prashlandish:

Walter, Airdella, and Aaron need your help

Follow the raven

– a friend of Elroy

The League of the Friends of the Guardians

Amy snapped her head back up to look at the raven, her breath catching in her throat. The raven looked up at her, surrounded by wafer crumbs, and cawed happily. “What happened? Are they hurt? Captured?” Or worse. She could not bring herself to ask if they had been killed. “Or is this all a trap?”

But she received no answer, for the raven could not speak. It puffed out its chest feathers and tugged on the edge of her blanket cloak with its beak, then flew back towards the entrance of the cave.

Where, oh where was Elroy at a time like this? She so needed his help. What could have happened to the others? And how was she supposed to help them?

“They can be quite helpful,” Elroy had said. She trusted the raven. But this was too little information. Whoever was sending her the note could have said why they needed help, could have warned her, could have given more information.

Or perhaps, Elroy’s voice said in her head, it was just the right information.

The raven flew back towards her, croaking all the while.

Amy made her decision and let out her breath in a puff of air.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.