CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO
Ellery
A startled cryescaped me as Indon flew out of the cavern with me dangling like a fish from a bird’s mouth. I wasn’t a big fan of that analogy as those fish often became dinner, but there was little I could do to stop it as I kept my legs tucked up the best I could to avoid having them smash off a ground I couldn’t see.
Indon’s wings created a breeze that blew my hair forward when they flapped. Though there was no way he could see the walls of the tunnel, he soared through the corridors with the ease of one who could.
It had been thousands of years since he’d traversed these tunnels and walls, yet they were ingrained enough in his memory that he didn’t crash into one and shatter all my bones on impact… yet.
My lightning crackled across my fingertips, but I didn’t let it grow any higher. The last thing I needed was to electrocute him and get thrown into a wall accidentally.
Indon twisted and turned easily through the curves and up and down the hills with such speed that my eyes watered andI had to squint to see what little my lightning revealed. Indon’s wings didn’t flap often as he soared through the tunnel.
I knew the others were behind us only because of the rustling of their wings when they also flapped them. The tunnel wasn’t big enough for the gargoyles to fly side by side, so they must have created a line behind us.
My throat burned with questions, but if I opened my mouth, air would rush into it and drown my words. Was Indon taking me back to the town to kill me?
And we had to be heading to the town. There was nowhere else to go in the tunnel.
When I fisted my hands, lightning crackled against my palms. If he tried to kill me, I’d destroy himandthat heart.
But the further we went, the more I took in other details. His claws rested against the clothing covering my upper arm but didn’t pierce it. I started to relax a little, though I kept my feet tucked up; if he’d wanted to kill me, he could have by now.
All he had to do was fling me into a wall or tear my arms away. He could have easily torn my head off and used it as a ball, but he hadn’t.
Indon swerved around a turn with such grace that, while I was scared he’d forget or misjudge something, I also marveled over how agile and fast he was. When he didn’t crash into a wall, I relaxed a little more.
The wind whipping past was a little chilly, but I gradually realized that it didn’t have the same fluctuations in temperature as before. Not only did returning the stone bring warmth back to the cavern, but it also stabilized the temperature throughout the tunnel.
When Indon whipped around another turn and didn’t kill us both, I sighed. That little bit of relief didn’t last as Indon suddenly rose toward the top of the tunnel.
I opened my mouth to shout a warning, but as I’d feared, all I succeeded in doing was gulping down mouthfuls of air. Coughing, I resisted squirming in his arms, but I kept my legs drawn protectively against my chest as the roof came faster and faster.
This is it!This is when he’s going to bash me until I’m nothing more than a hundred broken pieces!
When I threw up my hands, my lightning flared as I prepared to shock myself free of his grasp. Hitting the ground would hurt, but nowhere near as bad as smashing into the ceiling.
When my lightning revealed the dangling tree roots overhead, my hands froze. Before my eyes, those roots shifted with such speed they were almost a blur as they pulled away from us, and in doing so, they created a hole as they took the earth with them.
The dirt falling from the moving roots sprinkled my face before Indon flew up through the opening the trees had created. Cold air rushed around me as he burst free of the tunnel and surged higher.
The intertwined branches above unraveled as Indon flew higher and higher until he was above the treetops, and we were soaring into the sky. I squawked when I found myself hundreds of feet above the trees with only the stars and moons.
The higher he climbed, the colder the air became until it iced my cheeks and numbed my fingers. My teeth chattered as I shivered uncontrollably; while the height was more than a little unnerving, the stars seemed almost touchable as they twinkled unbelievably close to us.
If he dropped me from this height, there was nothing I could do to save myself, but I was too awed by the beauty of the night to worry about such a thing. I wasn’t sure what would happen between me and the gargoyles, but I wouldn’t still be alive if they intended to kill me.
Indon stopped climbing higher as, all around us, the gargoyles rose to hover against the inky black night with all its countless stars and six beautiful moons. For a moment, I forgot all about the horror our lives had become as I admired all the beauty around us.
Indon hovered with his wings wide and his brethren all around him as they tipped their heads back to bask in the moonlight and air. I was amazed at our surroundings; I could only imagine how it felt for them to feel this fresh, cool air on their faces after so many millennia trapped beneath the earth.
Below us, the Revenant Woods spread out as far as I could see. From here, I couldn’t make out any of the towns, but lights twinkled in the distance. I couldn’t tell if they were lights from a village, the palace, or torches deep within the woods. It was impossible to know in the sea of trees and beauty.
Despite being hundreds, if not thousands, of feet in the air, there was no one nearby to see the gargoyles.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-THREE
Ellery
