Read Online The Warble by Victoria Simcox - Free Book Online Page B

realized
that it would be too dangerous to travel any farther in the dark, so he made
the decision to find a safe place to take cover for the night. He would try to
sleep and would get an early start in the morning to Rumalock’s house. He hoped
that he could make it by mid-afternoon the next day. He crawled up the slope
that he had fallen down earlier and when he reached the top, he felt winded, so
he stopped to rest. He poked his head between a thatch of grass to view the
trees in the forest ahead. He could see a small fire burning, and he noticed a
dwarf coming toward the fire, carrying wood. The dwarf placed the wood down and
then knelt by the fire to stoke it. Ugan sat quietly, hoping the other dwarf
wouldn’t notice him. He didn’t want to take the chance of any more bad
encounters, for he had had enough for one day.
    The other dwarf rolled
out a sleeping mat beside the fire and then laid down on it. Ugan waited until
he was sure he was asleep before he tiptoed closer to the fire to get a better
look. He could see a large knapsack across the fire from the sleeping dwarf.
Ugan was usually not one for stealing, but he had not eaten since the day
before, nor had he had any fairy blossom, which he desperately needed for his
stamina.
    The other dwarf began
snoring away, so Ugan cautiously approached the knapsack, but as he did so, the
sleeping dwarf tossed himself over to lie on his other side. Ugan hid behind
the knapsack, hoping that the sleeping dwarf wouldn’t wake up. He waited a few
more minutes until the dwarf was snoring again. Then he untied the tassels of
the sack. As it opened, a pot and a spoon fell out, clanking loudly on the
ground. The sleeping dwarf sat up abruptly, and Ugan quickly hid behind the
sack and tried not to make a sound. The other dwarf glanced nervously about the
woods, and when he didn’t see anything, he went back to sleep. Ugan cautiously
dug his hand into the sack to see if he could feel any food. He pulled out an
apple and some fairy blossom—finally, something to ease his nervous mind. He
took only enough for a few days; after all, he didn’t want to leave the
sleeping dwarf without any for himself. He retied the tassels on the knapsack
and quietly tiptoed off into the forest to find a place to rest for the night.
He found a large tree with a smooth base where he could build a fire as well as
sleep. Then he settled down for the night.
    While sitting by his
own cozy fire, drinking the fairy-blossom tea he had stolen, the raven, named
Roage, picked through his stolen lunch with some other ravens. As they rummaged
through it, Roage came across a napkin with the queen’s face on it. Queen
Sentiz had made sure that her portraits were on almost everything in the
palace. The largest ones were in gaudy, ornate frames that hung on all the
walls of every room in the palace, and the smallest ones were on the sides of
each and every quill pen. Captured fairies were made to work as slave laborers
to paint many of the portraits.
    Noticing the portrait
of the queen on the napkin, Roage became very angry. No animal in Bernovem,
even the most sneaky and conniving, supported the queen. Anyone from her
household would have to be pretty brave—or pretty stupid—to travel alone in the
deep woods. Ugan really was neither of those—except maybe a smidgen of the
latter.
    “We can’t let this
imposter loose in our forest,” Roage said to his comrades, who were busy
gobbling down some stale bread. “The little sneak.”
    While the other ravens
fought over the last few crumbs, Roage spread his wings and cawed loudly to get
their attention. They dropped the bread out of their beaks and stood silent,
looking at him with their beady black eyes. “We must leave at dawn to find
him,” Roage said.
    As dawn rolled in, the
ravens left their tree to find Ugan, but after searching for a long time and
finding nothing, they were ready to give up. The five of them flew up to a tree
and perched on a branch to rest.