Read Online Firewing by Kenneth Oppel - Free Book Online

“who started these legends?”
    “We don’t know that, Shade.”
    “All I’m getting at,” he pressed on, “is that someone must’ve gone down to the Underworld and learned all this stuff, about the billions of dead cannibal bats and the darkness and Zotz—”
    “Perhaps—”
    “—and he must’ve come back alive, or how would
we
know?”
    “This is all conjecture, Shade.”
    “If he came back,
I
can come back!”
    The elders exhaled in unison, momentarily at a loss.
    “There’s something else to consider, Shade.”
    This time the speaker was his own mother, Ariel. He still wasn’t used to seeing her like this: hanging above him, looking wise and impartial. To be perfectly honest, it freaked him out, made him feel like a newborn all over again. “If the earth opened this tunnel,” she said to him, “it may close it. Without warning.”
    “That’s why I need to go right away. Mom, Griffin’s down there!”
    “My grandson,” Ariel reminded him. “And if you go, my heart tells me I will lose my son, as well. And Marina her mate.”
    “Anything we say will only seem cruel to you,” Lucretia said, addressing Shade again. “We know that. But the opening must be shut immediately, to prevent anyone else being lost—and to prevent anything from coming up.”
    “I know it’s got to be closed, I know that. But not yet. Please.”
    He looked up at his mother in confusion. “You would’ve done the same for me, wouldn’t you?”
    “Of course I would’ve.” She fluttered down beside him, pushing her face against his. He breathed in her scent, wished for a moment that he could go back in time—not that his past had ever been particularly easy. “But I’m not just your mother anymore, Shade,” said Ariel. “I’m also an elder. And my own wishes are not always those of the council.”
    “The council can’t stop me,” he said.
    “Shade,” Lucretia said sharply, “it is inviting death to go after your son. It is unlikely there is any food down there, or any water. There may not even be air to breathe. No Silverwing was meant to go to the Underworld of Cama Zotz.”
    “But Griffin
has!
Two nights is all I want,” Shade persisted. “If I haven’t returned by then, block the opening.”
    The elders were silent for a moment. Then Lucretia sighed and looked down at Ariel. Sadly, she nodded up at the chief elder.
    “Very well,” Lucretia said, “two nights. But that is all.”
    “I’m coming, too!” Marina raged at him.
    “You can’t,” Shade told her. “You’ve got to let your wing heal. If you don’t, you might never fly again.”
    “It’s not fair!” she said through her tears. “It’s not fair you get to go, and leave me behind where all I can do is worry!” She looked so angry, he couldn’t help smiling just a little. “And you,” she said. “What if I lose you, too?” He sighed, spreading his wings around her. “Tell me what you want me to do.” “Go get him,” she said. “Go get him and bring him home.” “Yes,” he told her. “Yes.”

O ASIS
    For a long time, Griffin stared blearily, trying to understand what he was looking at. Slowly, things began to make sense. He was peering up at a complicated tangle of branches and leaves, and beyond them, stars blazing in the night sky.
    Flat on his back, wings sprawled, jagged images of his crash-landing flickered in his memory. His body tensed. What if he’d broken something …? A wing? He swallowed, afraid to move; he certainly didn’t feel any pain. But maybe he was in shock. Maybe he’d broken his back and wouldn’t feel anything ever again. Cautiously Griffin turned his head. Good, that worked. He inspected first his left wing, then his right. They didn’t seem damaged. He twitched his fingers, one at a time, then slowly furled both wings tightly against his body. Gently he rocked himself from side to side until he had enough momentum to flip onto his belly. He grunted as the bruised muscles all across his