The Steele Wolf (Iron Butterfly #2)(62)

“Who’s there?” a gruff voice called into the night. A light came on in the tower and a middle-aged man stepped out into the street wearing a nightshirt. I hadn’t realized the obscurity of trying to leave SkyFell at such a late hour and the attention it would bring.

“Just me, sir,” I called back unthreateningly. I held up my hands to show that I was not hostile. “I was hoping to take a skycage down.”

“Well, hasn’t anyone told you?” He answered, rubbing his hands through his whiskered face.

“Told me what, sir?”

“We don’t run the skycages at night.”

“Well, why not?”

“We just don’t.”

“Well, what if it was an emergency and I had to get to Skydown?”

“Then you would risk your own neck and take a skite. It’s too dangerous for the operators of the skycages to run night shifts. Plus it’s harder for the dorabills. They aren’t nocturnal, ya know.”

“But I can’t operate a skite,” I said dejectedly.

“Well then, missy, it’s best you wait until morning. You’ll see. I’m sure whatever problem you are running from will have worked itself out by then.”

“What makes you so sure that I’m running from something?” I challenged.

“Pretty little thing like you, with a little bag in the middle of the night. Yeah, you’re running. Just wait; with morning comes a new day.” With a shooing motion the Skycage operator yawned and returned to his tower. A few minutes later the light inside was extinguished.

The white perot cocked his head and looked at me questioningly. The large red dorrabill shuffled sided to side as if it were sulking. I glared angrily at the bird and hissed under my breath. “Tattle tale,” for it was the dorabill who had alerted the skycage operator to my presence. I’m sure that is exactly what they were trained to do and it only made me dislike the bird more. The bird puffed out his chest to make himself look bigger and settled down again, still giving me a woeful look.

Walking away from the tower, I made my way along the wall that surrounded the city. What was I to do now? I definitely couldn’t fly a skite, so I was stuck waiting for sunrise. Trying to make the best of a terrible situation that I had gotten myself into, I tuckered down into the lee between two buildings that were close to the wall. I was still within walking distance of the tower. At first light, I would be at the tower waiting for the first skycage out of here. Then I would find Faraway, and then what? I guess I hadn’t planned farther than that. Placing my forehead on my knees, I wrapped my arms around my legs and tried to think through all of my options.

Was I going to abandon everyone? Leave without telling Hemi and Kael? I was wrong for leaving and I knew it. Just when I decided to be strong and confront my fears instead of running, when I decided to accept who I was and Joss’ choice, I was attacked painfully from the inside out.

“AAAAHHH!” I cried and grabbed my stomach. It burned and I felt as if I were being ripped apart. Falling to my side, I curled in a ball and rocked myself, hoping the pain would depart as quickly as it had come. Sweat dripped from my face and I bit my lip in hopes of stopping the pain. It worsened and I screamed into the night, digging my fingernails into the ground. My breath was ragged and sent little puffs of dust into the air. Turning onto my knees, I tried to get up but I was crippled with pain. My hair had fallen out of its beautiful coif and dangled in the dirt, hiding my tears as they dripped onto the ground.

I cried out again and this time I heard an even louder scream. Only it wasn’t mine, it was higher pitched but it echoed my cries. Every time I screamed I heard a louder one, until loud voices could be heard in the distance along with a commotion. Shortly after, a great shadow loomed over me and the answering calls of my screams stopped. I heard the rustle of chain and felt something powerful nudge me in the side. I toppled over and saw the giant red head of the tower’s dorabill inches from my face. Painfully, I tried to crawl away from the bird but I watched as the bird’s great talons kept stepping in front of me, blocking my escape.

The manacle around the dorabill’s leg sported a foot of broken chain and I could see fresh blood from where the bird had struggled to break free. He had heard my screams and probably mistook me for a dying animal and fresh dinner. I was probably a more tempting piece of meat than a rabbit.

I heard a whimper escape my throat and I thought how pathetic I was, unable to gather the strength to put up a fight. The dorabill cocked its head and darted quickly forward towards my stomach as if it were going to attack. I threw my hands over my neck and tried to curl into a ball to protect my soft spots. Who was I kidding? I was all soft spots. The bird stopped inches away and turned his head back and forth before leaning back away and screeched loudly into the night. More voices could be heard and I saw torches coming lighting the night. The dorabill stepped back from me as men came rounding the corner.

The tower’s operator was the first one I recognized, still in his nightclothes but wearing boots and what looked to be a giant club and a bucket of rabbit. Other townsmen gathered around and froze when they saw me on the ground huddled in fear and pain. They looked confused and shocked. They were probably here looking to find someone who stole a dorabill, not an injured young girl.

“Well, the least you could have done is wait till morning,” the skycage operator fumed. “I didn’t think you had it in you to try and steal a dorabill?”