“This isn’t a joke, boy,” said King Garion, while the Stoneslayer glowered at the prince.
It certainly wasn’t. Ellie had never felt so ashamed in all her life. It was an effort to keep her eyes on the king and not her feet.
“I know what we did was wrong,” she said. “If I’d known what would happen, I never would have gone along with it.”
But even as she said the words, knowing they were true, a sour taste crept over her tongue. She kept seeing Nox, gently lifting Mally into his arms to carry her over the rapids.
“Ellideen,” said Garion, and she had to bite her tongue to keep from correcting him, “it seems to me you are precisely what you say you are: an ordinary girl with a pure heart who was taken advantage of by miscreants.”
She opened her mouth, but he stopped her with a raised finger. “I am prepared to absolve you of all guilt and declare you as much a victim as the good general here.”
The Stoneslayer’s eyes bulged. He made a groaning sound, as if he wanted to argue with the king but was barely holding back.
“Well,” Ellie said carefully, “thank you, Your Majesty. I don’t know if I’m quite as innocent as all that—”
“Ahem!” coughed Mother Rosemarie.
Ellie clamped her mouth shut.
“My mercy,” said the king, “is of course dependent upon your cooperation, young Sparrow.”
“I live to serve His Majesty,” said Ellie, repeating one of the lines the heroes always said in her book.
He lifted one dark eyebrow, then continued. “Indeed. So go on, then. Tell us where we may find the skystone.”
“The …” Ellie blinked. “I don’t know.”
The Stoneslayer growled. “She’s lying, my king. The brat should be hanged!”
Ellie blanched.
“Silence, Torsten!” said the king, directing a stern look at the Stoneslayer. “Be grateful it isn’t your head on the block, fool. You know the law: All skystones are to be turned over to the crown immediately.”
“Sire, I had fully intended to—”
“I said be silent!” roared Garion, tilting himself to his feet and extending his glossy wings to their full sixteen-foot span. Cowed, the Stoneslayer dropped to his knee and bowed his head.
There were more skystones! Unable to stop herself, Ellie burst out, “Did you know skystones can heal wingrot, Your Majesty? If you have some already, perhaps then—”
“How dare you address the king out of turn!” snapped a guard, lowering his spear.
Ellie cringed, the words still itching on her tongue.
The king’s eyes slid back to her, slits of burning gold. “Is this how the Sparrows raise their young? To speak to their king as if he were a commoner?”
“The child is no doubt overwhelmed, Your Majesty,” said Chief Donhal, red faced. “Forgive her rashness, I beg you, sire.”
Her stomach knotting, Ellie stared hard at the toes of her boots. As the king refolded his wings and sat down, the mood in the hall grew colder. Young Prince Corion, sitting more rigidly than before, had averted his eyes away from Ellie, as if he wished he were anywhere else.
“Do you know what skystones are, little girl?” said the king, as if he were trying very hard to keep his anger in check.
“Yes, Your Majesty. They’re … eyes. Gargol eyes.”
“Indeed. Not only eyes, but the very source of the gargols’ power. How else could a creature of stone fly, unless it is by some dark magic? And as we know from the legend of our cursed predecessor, Aron the Fool, any power that could create the gargols is extremely dangerous and must therefore be destroyed.”
“Destroyed!” Ellie gasped. “But—but that magic can also save people who have no other—”
“Enough!” roared the king. “Tell us the names of these thieves who used you, or face the full punishment for all four of you!”
Ellie felt the gazes of every person in the room leaning on her. She tried to speak, but her throat felt stuck. What did a quadruple sentence look like? Forty years in prison instead of ten? Or would they execute her four times? That didn’t even make sense.
But nothing was making sense anymore.
She’d won the Race of Ascension, and still been rejected by the Goldwings.
She’d nearly been shipped off to Moorly House, wings clipped, but was instead arrested by the Stoneslayer.
Now she had the chance to buy her freedom, but it would mean turning in Nox, Gussie, and Twig. Who undoubtedly were thieves, but did they deserve prison … or worse? They weren’t evil, or really all that dangerous. They just wanted better lives, chances the world had taken away from them.
While she stood mutely, King Garion waved over one of his guards and whispered in the man’s ear.
Here it comes, thought Ellie. They’ll drag me away and chop off my head. Four times.
The guard jogged away, and King Garion turned to Ellie.
“I can see you are at war with yourself,” he said. “It has been a trying day. You flew to the summit of Mount Garond, for sky’s sake!”
Ellie nodded uncertainly.
“Clearly this has all been a misunderstanding.” The king’s voice had turned soothing. Reasonable. As if he were talking to a friend, not a Sparrow so far beneath him she might as well be a toad. “Ellie, what is the highest virtue practiced by a Goldwing?”
“Honor,” she said promptly.
He nodded. “And now is your chance to prove you possess that virtue. That you have, indeed, ascended the King’s Ladder.”
Ellie’s jaw dropped as the doors behind her swung wide, admitting Sir Aglassine, followed by several more Goldwings and a bewildered-looking Zain. He was wearing a shining Goldwing uniform, looking like a true knight. When he saw Ellie, he gave her a questioning look. Ellie could only shrug.
Then she saw what Sir Aglassine was carrying.
She held in her hands a neatly folded Goldwing uniform, so white and crisp, Ellie knew it must have never been worn before. Glistening atop it was a golden patch.
“Ellie of the Sparrow Clan,” said Sir Aglassine, looking at Ellie with her impassive gray eyes, “will you accept the office of Goldwing knight, a warrior ready to defend her people against all threats, both on land and above?”
Unable to summon words, but recognizing the ceremonial Goldwing oath on Sir Aglassine’s lips, Ellie only stared.
“You have but to speak the names of the thieves,” said King Garion. “And that uniform—and all that goes with it—will be yours. Upon my word as king. Three names, Ellie of the Sparrows, and you will be the first of your kind to wear the white and gold.”
Mother Rosemarie gasped. Chief Donhal nodded encouragingly to Ellie. Mayor Davina smiled, her eyes glistening with tears. Ellie imagined she was already preparing a speech for Linden, explaining that the town had seen three of their own make it into the Goldwings—a new record. She pictured returning home with Zain in that uniform, amid a crowd of cheering Sparrows.
She imagined giving her old, tattered patch to another little Sparrow girl, whispering into her ear that she too could be anything if she worked hard and followed the rules.
Ellie licked her lips and tasted the salt from the tears running down her cheeks.
Everything she’d ever wanted could be hers.
It was that … or it was certain punishment. Her wings clipped, and more. Her life over.
It all balanced on the tip of her tongue: speak or don’t speak.
Say the names or hold her silence.
“M-Majesty,” she stammered. “Why did you reject me from the Goldwings in the first place?”
Groans sounded from the Lindeners.
King Garion’s smile slipped. “What matters now is whether you can show me you have the honor of a Goldwing. Think of it as … one final test.”
He hadn’t answered her question.
Whatever his reasons, apparently they didn’t compare to the importance of the skystone. Why else would he be reviewing her crimes himself?
Why else would he be willing to walk back his own ruling and offer her a place among the Goldwings?
Garion wanted that stone.
He wanted it more than he didn’t want a Sparrow for a Goldwing.
And yet, he either didn’t know or didn’t care that it could heal wingrot. So there had to be another reason he wanted it, one that had nothing to do with healing people.
“The skystone,” said Ellie. “Will you use it to heal people with wingrot? Or at least test it, to see if it will work?”
Now King Garion’s face darkened, and a shadow seemed to spread from him to cover the room. Ellie’s skin broke out in goose pimples. No one spoke.
“My patience is wearing thin,” he said through clenched teeth. “Will you give me the names or not?”
Maybe he would use it to heal people. Maybe he was just impatient and hurrying her along.
Or maybe …
Maybe Nox had been right.
Maybe the king could not be trusted.
Ellie swallowed. Her wings itched instinctively, urging her to fly away. But that wouldn’t fix anything. She had to make her choice, and she had to make it now.
Just tell him their names, her own brain urged her. You have everything to gain, and more to lose.
How had everything become so complicated? Her plan had always been simple: Work hard. Follow the rules. Win the race. Become a Goldwing. Sure, it would be tough, but it was straightforward.
Until the day she’d met Nox Hatcher, and her world had become a great tangled mess of confusion. Now she didn’t know what was right or wrong.
She didn’t know who she was.
“Sparrow,” said King Garion, “no more stalling. Do the honorable thing and tell me their names!”
Honor. That golden word, that final step in the King’s Ladder of knightly virtues.
She thought of all the mornings she’d spent practicing those steps, engraving them in her mind and heart and bones. She thought of the rules she’d followed no matter the cost, even when it meant betraying her friends and ignoring the small voice inside her that whispered this isn’t right.
She thought of Nox, sitting by a fire, asking what the point of a ladder was if you had wings.
She felt she was breaking in half.
If the rules are designed to break you, Ellie, that small voice whispered now, you know what you have to do.
She’d waited as long as she could. The king watched her intently. The room held its breath. Atop the knight’s uniform in Aglassine’s hands, the Goldwing patch glittered. Ellie could feel the weight of the entire Sparrow clan on her shoulders. She could feel her father’s arms around her the moment before the gargol had ripped him away.
But most of all, she felt certainty deep in her soul. She knew the right, honorable, terrible thing she had to do.
“Tell me their names!” roared the king.
As a tear spilled from her eye, Ellie whispered, “No.”
The worst thing about the royal dungeons was the lack of windows. No view of the sky, no breath of wind to stir the stale, damp air. Ellie sat instead against the iron bars of the cell door, trying to leech heat from the torch outside.
“Ellie,” she whispered, “you’ve really screwed up this time.”
Not that she would have changed her decision. She’d stood by it even when Mother Rosemarie had pleaded with her, even when the king angrily ordered her to be dragged away and locked up. No matter what he threatened, she couldn’t betray Nox, Gussie, and Twig.
She’d cried after they left her in the cell, and when she ran out of tears, she went numb, unmoving and silent as the stone.
What would happen now? Would she wither away, to never see the sky again? Would anyone even tell her what would become of her?
If only you’d listened to me, she could practically hear Nox say.
Of everyone she knew, it had been the liar who’d told her the truth.
The Goldwings had never wanted her. Even when she proved herself to be as strong and fast as they were, the looks she’d been given and the whispers she’d heard had been proof that she would never be good enough in their eyes. And if the rules said she could be one of them, they’d just change the rules.
Anger simmered beneath her skin, hot and prickling. She was angry at herself for naively trusting in empty promises, for ignoring the people who tried to tell her the real way of things.
For chasing moonmoths.
The problem was, if everything she thought was true turned out to be lies, what could she believe in now? Could she ever find something worth fighting for, the way she’d fought to become a Goldwing knight? Or was the future as bleak and empty as this dungeon cell?
Well, she supposed it didn’t matter anyway, if she really was going to be locked in here the rest of her life. They hadn’t even bothered to clip her wings. There was nowhere to fly.
Ellie didn’t know how long she sat in the dark before she finally heard footsteps. As the person approached, she sat up, heart racing.
It was Zain, dressed in his Goldwing uniform. He stopped outside her barred door, eyes wide.
“Ellie.” He sighed after taking it all in. “How did this happen?”
“I believe you were there,” she said tonelessly.
“I mean, why did you let it happen? The king offered you everything you wanted. We were going to be Goldwings together. Instead …”
“Instead here I am,” she said bitterly. “A prisoner. A criminal.”
“But you’re not a criminal, Ellie! C’mon, you’re the most honest person I know. Remember when we found that gold coin in the fields, and you insisted we turn it over to the mayor so she could find its rightful owner? I wanted to keep it, but you said that was the honorable thing to do.”
“I remember,” she whispered.
“You always do the right thing, Ellie. So why not do it this time?”
“That’s just it, Zain. I did do the right thing.”
“You sacrificed yourself and everything you ever dreamed of for some low-life thieves!”
“They’re not—you don’t know them like I do. They’re my friends.”
“Then where are they now, huh? If they were your real friends, would they let you take all the heat? Why haven’t they turned up to help you?”
“It’s not just about them. You heard the king. He wants to destroy the skystone—all skystones. But that’s a mistake. I’ve seen what it can do.”
“You mean how it magically heals wingrot?” Zain sounded skeptical. “Ellie … wingrot’s horrible, but there’s no cure. Why do you even care so much about it?”
“Why don’t you? You had to have seen all those people outside the city. They’re dying, Zain, and that stone can help them.”
As she spoke the words, a strange feeling crept over Ellie. Her scalp prickled. Her fingers tightened around the cell bars. The hole that had opened in the pit of her soul now began to glow, as something hot and fierce and new sparked to life there.
That something, she realized, was purpose.
The thing she’d lost the moment she’d turned down the king’s offer.
And the thing about purpose was that it didn’t let you sit around moping. It couldn’t be contained by four walls and a lock.
It demanded action.
Ellie knew what she had to do.
She pulled in a deep breath of the dungeon’s stale air. “Zain. I need you to go back up there and tell them … tell them I accept. I’ll give them the names. Just take me to the king and I’ll confess everything.”
Zain stared at her. “You’re … lying.”
“No, I’m not!”
“I can hear it in your voice. You’re a painfully bad liar, Ellie. You’re just trying to escape, aren’t you?”
“What if I am?” she shouted. “Won’t you help me, Zain? There are people dying out there, and I know how to save them. The king doesn’t even care.”
“You’ve changed. I don’t know you anymore. Those criminals did somet
hing to you, made you some kind of traitor.”
“They showed me the world I believed in wasn’t real. They showed me that when the rules are designed to break you, you have to break the rules.” Ellie shook her head, feeling strangely pitying of Zain, that he couldn’t see what she saw. “This world was created to love you, Zain. You can’t see it, because you’re surrounded by it always. But I grew up on the outside, a different world altogether. And even still, I thought I could earn my place in that golden, perfect world of yours. And I did earn it. I did everything right. I climbed the King’s Ladder. I won the race. And they still shoved me right out again.”
“But the king said he’d give you—”
“Everything I wanted, yes. I know. But maybe what I want has changed.”
“Then what do you want, Ellie? To rot in here?”
“I want …” She gazed into the fire blazing on the torch. “I want a different world. One where kings care about their people, and where the rules are made to help people rise, not to keep them pressed down. I want a world where gargols don’t hunt us and we can fly free in any skies. I want … something better.”
“So, what?” Zain pulled at his hair, his voice rising with frustration. “Now you’re going to declare war on the gargols?”
She sighed. Gussie had been right. High clanners really did think fighting could solve everything.
“My plan is to first get that skystone back. A person can make the world better in rags just as much as in gold and white.” She stretched out a hand. “I’m sorry I’m not who you want me to be.”
Hesitantly, he took her hand, and she pulled him in for a hug. “You’re gonna be a great Goldwing,” she whispered.
He sniffled, hugging her tight, then stepping back. “You’re making such a huge mistake, Ellie.”
“Then don’t feel bad. You’ll know you did everything you could to stop me.”
He frowned. “Stop you?”
“From doing this,” she replied.
She flipped the Goldwing dagger she’d stolen from his belt when he’d hugged her and popped it into the lock on the cell door. Before he could stop her, she shoved the door hard—right into Zain’s face.
He crumpled, and Ellie gasped. She hadn’t meant to hit him that hard. Kneeling by him, she felt for a pulse and was relieved to find one. He’d be okay, though he’d have a knot the size of his fist on his forehead later. But that was probably for the best. Everyone would know Ellie had escaped on her own, and that he hadn’t helped her. He’d be reprimanded, but in a lot less trouble than if they thought he let her go.
Sparrow Rising Page 20
