The Steele Wolf (Iron Butterfly #2)(40)

“Come on, come on,” Darren called. “We must get going.” Hemi, Kael and I followed Darren into the cage and watched in fascination as he closed and locked the latch. There was barely enough room for the four of us to stand there comfortably.

“Joss, are you coming?” I called out to him nervously when I noticed he didn’t enter the cage. Joss was over by a very large tree and was unwinding a rope that was carefully hidden within the branches.

“Yeah, I’ll be right behind you. The dorabills can only pull at max four people, I’ll follow behind with a skite.”

I was at a loss as to what he was talking about. I had no clue what a Dorabill or a skite was but I wasn’t left to ponder long when Darren pulled out another flute similar to Joss and played a short melody. Whereas Joss’ tune brought a beautiful white bird called a Perot, Darren’s song brought on a fearsome creature of giant proportions.

I heard the terrifying scream before I saw the large birdlike creature dive out of the mists, his wings tucked close to his body in what looked to be a suicide dive. At the last moment he spread his wings and stopped, hovering above our cage. I backed away from the bird in fright until my back hit the back of the cage. I was so scared I actually latched onto Kael’s arm. Kael had pulled out his knife and was crouched, ready to attack the beast if necessary. Hemi just stared in wonder, never moving a muscle.

The bird, if you could call it a bird, was a deep red with blue plumes and a long powerful beak. The talons alone marked him for the predator he was, along with his close set eyes.

Darren laughed at us and reached into a bucket that was behind him on the floor and pulled out what looked to be a rabbit carcass. Darren tossed the carcass out the side of the cage high into the air and the bird dove after it and ate it in two bites. Screeching in what I could only presume was happiness, the dorabill flew back up to the top of the cage and grabbed onto a long extended railing with his talons. The bird flapped his giant wings and began to pull us back up the line.

The jostling of the cage to the beat of the wings made me sit down in the corner and grasp onto the sides. The up and down motion was making me dizzy and one look at Kael’s strong face turning pale made me realize that I wasn’t the only one with a fear of heights and falling. Darren grinned at me and told me to look over the edge.

“Are you CRAZY! I’m not doing that,” I yelled at him over the beat of the dorabill’s wings and the rush of the waterfalls.

Darren just laughed and pointed. “If you think this is bad, you could have taken the skite.”

I stood up enough to look over my shoulder at what I presumed was a skite and I about fainted. Joss was flying next to us on a crazy contraption built with poles and tarps. He was using the updrafts created by the waterfalls to fly what looked to be a toy that could fall apart any minute into the mists.

“Joss, don’t!” I yelled as he waved and then caught an updraft and disappeared into the mists. That was it. I thought, he’s going to kill himself. My heart raced with fear and I forgot all about my fear of heights as my fear for Joss’ life took precedence. But I didn’t have to wait long to find out what happened to him because the next moment we entered the densest part of the mist.

I thought we would be assailed with water that would surely bring down the dorabill and send all of us crashing to our dooms. In reality, we parted through a silvering veil and the mist vanished. We came face to face with the most awe-inspiring view I had ever seen in my life; more beautiful than the city of Haven and the Citadel itself. I was looking upon a floating city suspended in midair. There were brightly colored houses, towers, windmills, and flags flew freely in the air. I could see that along the bottom of the floating city were various plants, crops and flowers growing in the crevices and people were dangling above the mists, harvesting the plants using a variety of ropes and pulley systems.

A few waved at us as the dorabill flew higher and brought us level to the city. The line the cage was attached to led to a tall watchtower and the bird flew straight to the tower and gently deposited us on the ground. Another man in the tower came out and gave the dorabill another dead animal for a treat. I grimaced as I heard the crunch of the bones. I could see the beautiful perot sitting on a perch by the watchtower. I much preferred the smaller, less intimidating perot to the powerful dorabill. When Darren opened the cage, I rushed out and firmly planted my feet on the solid ground, and Kael was right behind me.

Joss had already landed his skite and was hanging it up in the tower. He came over to me, his hands open wide, his face a triumphant grin of achievement. He was expecting me to congratulate him or admire his flying abilities. I did the opposite. I punched him.

“What were you thinking; you? You could have been killed!” I screeched in a very high-pitched voice. I wasn’t expecting it myself and I startled the dorabill, who shrieked in answer to my yelling. I jumped backwards in response.

Joss pulled his hands up to defend himself against my onslaught, which had ceased as soon as the dorabill startled me. “Thalia, don’t be mad; I’ve been flying a skite since I was eight. You will find that many people of Skyfell prefer it as a mode of transportation instead of the skycage and the dorabill.” At the mention of his name the giant bird squawked again and cocked his head to the side as if looking for another dead animal treat. I just gave the bird an ugly glare.

“You should have warned me about that.” I pointed at the giant red bird who was now also giving me a funny look back.