As much as Kara disliked boats, being out in the ocean without one was worse. Clothes wet with salt water were heavy, and itched, and she was very thirsty. Everything in the world except water and sky was gone, and it stayed like that for a long while. It got light, and then it got dark again, and then again, and Kara found herself without the strength to hold on any longer. She cursed weakly as she sank back down into the ocean. She wasn’t quite out of air when she felt a different rush of water around her, diving past, then around. Arms wrapped her, pulling her up and up through water, and into air, and still she was rising. Kara coughed, spitting water back into the ocean, which now lay under her feet. The sky was full of tatters of cloud lit by thousands of stars, and pulling her up into that sky were a powerful pair of black wings.
Continue reading “Chapter Four — On the Land’s Wings”