[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.But age wasn t the only thing keeping thesekids out of the human educational system.As I watched, a naked boy of maybe fouryears the biggest in the room shoved onechubby fist through a tower of brightlypainted wooden blocks.The small girl who dbeen stacking them also nude, but for acloth diaper scowled so menacingly I halfexpected her to burst into flames.Instead, she burst into feathers. 364/839In a single, smooth motion almost too fastfor me to understand, her arms lengthenedand sprouted feathers.Her short hair re-ceded into her head, and her naked scalpbegan to toughen, flush, and wrinkle, like thehead of a vulture.Her thin legs withered un-til her calves were little more than sturdysticks ending in tiny, sharp talons.And herhands curled into petite but obviously lethalwing-claws.The whole thing took no more than twoseconds and appeared completely spontan-eous.I couldn t stop staring.The bird-girl tackled the larger boy, snap-ping her new beak at him and swiping withher claws, and when they fell, I got a look atthe smaller children behind them.All fourwere quite a bit smaller.Toddlers, judging bytheir size.And they were all constantlyShifting. 365/839Several arms were feathered, two withhands, one with claws.Two heads were bareand wrinkled, one had tangled dark hair, andthe fourth was somewhere in between,patches of blond peach fuzz standing out onan almost bald avian skull.The children werecontinually in flux, and they obviouslycouldn t control their small bodies.No wonder thunderbirds removed them-selves from human society so completely.I stared, transfixed, until Brynn made anoth-er angry noise in her throat, and I jogged tocatch up with her and Kaci, though thestrange images remained painted on thebacks of my eyelids.But when Brynn came to a stop, I looked up,and all thoughts of odd, ever-Shifting chil-dren flew from my mind.There must havebeen thirty different thunderbirds seated or 366/839standing in the back half of the large room.And they were all staring at us.FifteenKaci s cold hand slid into mine.Her lipswere pressed into a thin, tight line and herjaw bulged, not with anger, but to keep herteeth from chattering, as they sometimes didwhen she got nervous.Her terrified, wide-eyed gaze flitted anxiously from bird to bird,as if she were looking for a friendly face.But she wasn t going to find one, other thanmine.We were in this together whatever this was. What is your name? 367/839My head whipped up and I glanced around,waiting for someone to step forward, or oth-erwise claim his or her question.But no onedid, even when I stood silent for almost a fullminute.In fact, the only reason I knew thespeaker was addressing me was that no onewas looking at Kaci.When I didn t answer, another voice calledfrom above and I glanced up, but again failedto pinpoint the speaker. Are you MercedesCarreño or Faythe Sanders? Aah.They knew I was one of the adults, butnot which one. I m Faythe.Who s speaking, please? I mgetting a little dizzy trying to pinpoint you. And frankly, I wasn t sure where I shouldlook.I didn t want to accidently insultsomeone by misdirecting my attention. You are speaking with our Flight. 368/839Of course.I d almost forgotten about themob I mean Flight mentality.Fortunately,I actually saw the speaker that time, thoughshe hadn t asked either of the previousquestions.Another voice spoke from my far left. Youand the kitten will be delivered to CalvinMalone tomorrow&. What?! No! I shouted, and Kaci clung tome, terrified. You can t do that.You have noidea what he wants with us! We promised to remove you from dangerand deliver you to him, and we will not goback on our word.We re only letting you livebecause we ve been assured that you and thekitten were not involved in the death of ourcock. I turned and pinpointed an older male thun-derbird with strong features and the typical 369/839top-heavy build.And nearly laughed aloudon the heels of his last word.It s not funny! some horrified part of me in-sisted, from deep within my head.But it was funny, in that scandalous way thatinappropriate jokes are always irresistible atthe most inopportune moments.Their Flightmember was dead, they d kidnapped us andwere trying to kill the remaining members ofour Pride, and this asshole sounded like atestimonial for Viagra!For a moment, I couldn t speak for fear ofbursting into laughter, and it took all myself-control to kill the irreverent smile thatmy lips wanted to form.But then Kacisqueezed my hand again, and the look ofpure terror on her face sobered me instantly.I cleared my throat. That s right.We hadnothing to do with it.But neither did anyone 370/839else in our Pride.Malone only told youthat& We re not interested in discussing Finn sdeath with you&. Well, you should be! I shouted and imme-diately regretted it when a series of softwhoosh sounds and heavy thumps told memore birds had landed behind me from theoverhead perches.My pulse raced fast enough to make my headspin, and I barely resisted the urge to turnand face the new combatants.I was surroun-ded by the enemy, and my fight-or-flight in-stinct demanded that I make a choice.Butneither of those options led to survival Iwas sure of that. Look, I m sorry.But this is the truth, andit s important.Calvin Malone lied to you, for 371/839his own gain.My Pride isn t responsible foryour& Finn s death.One of Malone s men is. I d expected to be interrupted, but I couldtell by the universal, uneasy shift in posturethat I d caught their collective attention withthe word lied. Why would Calvin Malone compromise hishonor with a lie? The speaker still lookedskeptical, but was obviously willing to listen.My mood brightened instantly.They weregoing to let me talk. First of all, he has no honor.But he hasplenty of greed and he is hungry for power. Lots of confused expressions and eerily tiltedheads met my declaration, but I rushed onbefore anyone could interrupt, my left armaround Kaci
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]