Page 12 of Wingless Crow: Part 1

“I bet you’re regretting allowing me to ask questions, aren’t you?” I prodded again. “Do you wish I remained quiet?”

Incredibly, a corner of that severe mouth of his twitched up in a pale resemblance of a smile.

“What would be the fun of that?”

It had not been my intention to amuse him. But I was glad to see him relaxed rather than angry.

“You’ll do just fine at the Elaros Court.” He nodded confidently.

“I won’t stay,” I warned. “You can’t make me. I’m not going to eat or drink anything while I’m here.”

He remained unfazed by my threats. “Starvation is a horrible way to die.”

I wouldn’t stay long enough to starve. I’d run the moment I could think clearly again.

The shimmering palace looked even more spectacular the closer we got to it. The sharp, sparkling turrets and lacy parapets crowned the faceted crystal walls. Ombre gray vines interwove in a delicate pattern, holding the tall wall panels together. Up close, it looked even taller, its highest towers piercing the cloudy skies.

I tilted my head back, trying and failing to take the entire palace in. Apprehension fought its way through the foggy remnants ofcamytein my system.

“Please,” I begged the High General softly. “Please just let me go home.”

His features hardened. Any trace of a smile was gone. “I’m afraid you’re here for the rest of your life, Sparrow, however long or short that may be. The sooner you accept it, the easier it’ll be for you.”

The horror of that statement was emphasized by that one word he’d said—Sparrow, the name he gave me, overriding the one I’d had since birth, the one he’d made me forget along with my entire life prior to coming here.

Resentment rose in my chest. Hot and bitter.

“Don’t call me that.”

“It suits you,” he said firmly, as if the matter had been settled and no further arguments were allowed.

“But it’s not my name,” I wouldn’t give up.

“It is the only one you have now.”

Hot sparks of irritation burned through the layer ofcamytefog that shrouded my mind like cotton. I wished I could summon more of that to burn through the placid haze and bring wrath down upon his head. Surely, I was capable of some screaming and foot-stomping before I’d taken that awful drink.

But the flash of anger settled down way too quickly. The calm indifference closed over me like dark water once again.

The High General seemed to take my subdued mood for acceptance. He made himself more comfortable in the saddle, settling me a little closer to him.

“It won’t be easy, dear Sparrow,” he said as we approached the arched bridge over a river—a real river with water in it, not fog or clouds. The bridge led to the tall gate of the city built around the palace. “You’ll have little choice in what your life here is going to be. But I have faith in you. If you’re as perceptive and resilient as I hope you are, you’ll make it here, in the Sky Kingdom. For this is your only home now.”

ChapterFour

SPARROW

Isat on the edge of a four poster bed under a lacy canopy and stared straight ahead. A numbness seized my mind and muscles. I couldn’t tell whether it was the murky residue from the cocktail of magical substances that Trez had made me ingest, or the result of the overwhelming hopelessness, or both.

There was nothing to ground me. My mind was empty. Void of thoughts and memories, it floated like a soap bubble inside my skull.

The room inside the royal palace where they’d put me wasn’t very big, but it had everything one would want from a bedroom.

It held a bed with a white comforter trimmed with frothy lace. A round crochet rug on the floor was also white, as were the light gossamer curtains on the tall window. Shiny, gold beetles decorated the curtains, weighing the gauzy material down.

There was also a small glass table by the fireplace with a pink upholstered armchair next to it and a carved-wood vanity with a mirror in a crystal frame. A tall trunk, painted with silver stars, stood by the wall between the window and a single nightstand on the side of the bed. A door on the other side of the bed led to a small wardrobe room with a toilet off it.

The space was neat and clean, though the air had that stuffy quality that came from places left unoccupied for a while.

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