Read Online Sword Mountain by Nancy Yi Fan - Free Book Online Page A

the glass, and on the fogged surface, she rubbed the shape of a heart. With every inhale, the heart faded away, and with every exhale, Olga redrew the heart.
    Perhaps it would be best, Dandelion thought, not to tell Olga about her letter after all.
    Olga didn’t notice Dandelion as she slipped quietly past. Dandelion glanced back once and saw, alone in that shining section of the corridor, Olga continuing her endless drawings of hearts.

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Flight: It is your escape, yet it is your destiny.
    â€” FROM THE O LD S CRIPTURE

8
A LOFT

    W ith a foot suspended over the edge of the cliff, Dandelion asked, “So I won’t fall?”
    Cloud-wing adjusted the complicated straps that looped around her wings and over her back, opened her bulky new backpack, and pulled out white folds.
    â€œYou’ll never even notice,” he said. “The parachute will buoy you up!”
    â€œAll right. One … two … three …!” Dandelion sprang from the edge as Cloud-wing flung the backpack behind her. She spread her wings wide, and with a poof , a great white parachute billowed above her, her very own cloud. She imaged herself a dandelion seed, out in the crisp mountain air.
    Oh, my! Dandelion thought. And she had shaken her head in disbelief when Cloud-wing first thrust the pack at her. “It’s an army parachute; my father let me borrow it so long as I don’t tear it,” he had said. “In battles the wounded use them, to help them stay aloft as they steer themselves to a healer’s station.”
    â€œMove your wings to go left or right!” Cloud-wing now called, launching himself in the air to follow Dandelion.
    Encouraged, Dandelion focused on flapping her wings, but the parachute that had supported her now resisted her efforts to move forward. At the mercy of the wind, she floated farther away, where she was swiftly caught in a gust that had funneled through narrow mountain passes.
    â€œCloud-wing!” she shouted as the wind hurled her backward, faster and faster, lower down the mountain. Dandelion glanced behind her to see a line of trees.
    Crack! The parachute caught in the branches of a pine tree. Dandelion flapped her wings as hard as she could to free herself, but the harnesses tangled even more and she heard a loud rip. And so she hung there, miserably, swinging back and forth, covered with pine needles.
    â€œWhere are you, Dandelion?”
    â€œHere!” she said. “Please, help me. I’m in the tree!”
    When Cloud-wing had loosened her harness and gotten her down, they both gazed up at the ruined parachute, limp above their heads. Though she could not really fly in the contraption, Dandelion felt tears in her eyes to see it ruined.
    â€œBut that was worth it,” Cloud-wing was saying. “What a sight. And what fun!”
    â€œYou’ll get in trouble.” Dandelion was worried, but Cloud-wing merely said, “I’ll take whatever punishment comes.” He retrieved the remnants of the parachute.
    In the distance, a drumroll sounded.
    â€œThat’s the call for tryouts!” Cloud-wing jumped with a start. “I have to go to Rockbottom—”
    â€œThen give the parachute to me, Cloud-wing,” Dandelion said. “Let me try to fix it, and you can get it after your exams.”
    Back in her room, the huge white cloth spread over her bed, Dandelion studied the parachute. In the backpack of the harness, she had found white thread and a large needle.
    She hadn’t flown this evening, but she had jumped with a parachute filled with hope. And she had found a friend. The thought made her smile. Dandelion bent, crawling from one edge of the parachute to the other, the large needle flashing like a miniature sword in her claws as she pulled and mended. Sewing together her parachute. Sewing together her dreams.
    When the sun glowed red and warm among the western peaks, Cloud-wing fluttered outside her window, tapping on