The Storm Crow

by Kalyn Josephson

  “What is this really about, Caliza?” I asked.

  Her fingers stilled, and she met my gaze. Her eyes were silent and strong, but I saw the storm prepared to break behind them. It’d been growing for days.

  “Armies aren’t easy to build,” she said. “They take time to grow, to train, to supply. After we lost the crows, what we taught our soldiers had to change. Trendell has been very supportive, and we’ve made progress in the last few months, but not enough. And with the food shortages and loss of jobs, with everything, if Illucia—”

  “Are they threatening to attack?”

  Caliza’s mouth tightened into a thin line. “Queen Razel doesn’t threaten. She subtly implies until you’re not sure if she said it or if you thought it all up yourself. But whether she’ll say it or not, she’s made herself clear. Our scouts confirmed: half her army is now sitting on our border.”

  My breath caught, hands closing into fists. “What does she want?”

  “I’ve tried to find another option, Thia. Please believe I would never willingly choose this. But we can’t sustain a war with Illucia. We have no choice.”

  “What are you talking about?” My heart stilled. What had she done?

  “I’ve agreed to a marriage between you and Prince Ericen.”

  The words pierced me like talons, hooking deep. I waited for the pain. Nothing came. Because this wasn’t real. This wasn’t happening.

  My throat burned—I wasn’t breathing. Caliza said something, but her words sounded like they were swimming through honey to reach me.

  Something touched my arm, and I sprang to my feet, knocking over my chair. Caliza had stood up, her hand outstretched as I stepped back.

  “Please, Thia.”

  Something like a laugh bubbled out of my throat, except wilder, more dangerous. She hadn’t even given me a choice. She’d engaged me to the son of the woman who’d ordered the destruction of everything I cared about, who’d killed our mother, caused Estrel’s death, and left me permanently scarred.

  A slow, insidious heat spread through my veins. “No.” The word trembled.

  “We have no choice.”

  “We? Are you marrying the son of a psychopath too? Have you heard the rumors about him?”

  Caliza straightened. The storm broke in her eyes. “This isn’t just about you. I have to think about Rhodaire too. This kingdom is on the edge of a cliff. We cannot go to war. I know this isn’t ideal—”

  “Not ideal?” I slammed my hand on the table. “Are you serious? Don’t try to manage me, Caliza. I’m not some disgruntled house lord you can manipulate.”

  “Thia—”

  “They set fire to our rookeries. They killed every single crow, nearly all the riders, and our mother!” I didn’t care that I was yelling now. “Our mother, and you want me to forget everything and marry that bastard?” I thrust my burned hand in front of her face. “How am I supposed to forget?”

  Caliza’s face flushed a deep red. For an endless moment, she stared at my scarred hand. Then she met my gaze and let out a slow breath. “We are the leaders of Rhodaire. Our duty is to our kingdom, not ourselves.”

  The adrenaline drained from my body, leaving me hollow. “You’re my sister. Your duty should be to me.”

  She looked away, and something inside me threatened to crack. I didn’t know there were still pieces of me left to break.

  “This is the only way to keep our people safe. It will give us time to strengthen ourselves, to prepare.” Her words tumbled out in a torrent, her composure fracturing. “Ardrahan’s Theory of War and—”

  “Your history books don’t know anything about our situation! Queen Razel will use this marriage to take control of Rhodaire. That’s all Illucia wants. You’re not buying us time; you’re sealing our fate!”

  Caliza’s chin lifted, an all too familiar expression etched on her face. She knew what was best, not me. “The wedding will take place in Illucia at a date of Razel’s choosing. Prince Ericen will be here tomorrow on his way back from Jindae to take you with him.” She paused. “I’m sorry.”

  I seized the table edge for support. Caliza never apologized. The lump in my throat threatened to choke me, and I swallowed hard. She wasn’t going to change her mind.

  The urge to flee struck so powerfully, I nearly knocked over a chair bolting down the patio stairs. Caliza called after me, but I didn’t stop. The wind roared in my ears as I raced along the dying castle gardens, choosing direction at random, blind to where my legs were taking me.

  Suddenly, I was standing before the remains of the royal rookery, my stomach threatening to return my breakfast, my throat closing when all I needed was air.

  The rookery entrance had been blocked off, but there was a hole big enough for me to crawl through on the side. I struggled through the opening, scraping my forearms and tearing the hem of my dress on the scattered debris, but I didn’t stop as I charged up the soot-covered steps to the second level.

  The tower went up several more floors, but the circular room had caved in, blocking the stairwell and creating a dark alcove. I huddled underneath it with my arms wrapped around my knees, not caring that my dress was covered in ash or that I’d scraped my elbow hard enough to bleed.

  I felt like I had the night the crows died—like everything was out of my control.

  Caliza had promised me to Prince Ericen. She’d bartered me away, and now I would lose everything. My friendship with Kiva, my home, what little normalcy I’d regained—for what? A few more months to prepare for a war we couldn’t win even if we had years to recover? The Illucian Empire’s soldiers were utterly elite. Nothing less could have destroyed the crows.

  Surely, this was all a ploy by Razel. She was like a jungle cat toying with her food. This was probably some sick joke to her. Why else ask for this marriage?

  The familiar weight slithered up my shoulders. I didn’t even try to make it leave. I was floating in limbo, my future gone, my past all too present. Now, more than ever, I wished for a crow to carry me far, far away. We’d fly straight past Korovi and Jindae to the unexplored wilderness in the east. We’d never stop.

  But the crows were gone.

  Two

  Golden sunlight filtered in from what remained of the rookery windows. Heat and the scent of smoke permeated the early afternoon air, but my bones had turned to ice. I hadn’t moved from my spot on the ground, though I’d drawn several pictures in the ash and dust that a warm breeze gently erased.

  Memories swirled around me like leaves caught in the wind: meeting Estrel in the rookery for my rider training, teasing Caliza when the crows ignored her commands, sneaking out in the middle of a thunderstorm to sit with a candle among the birds, warm, quiet, content.

  I spun Estrel’s bracelet around my wrist. My mother had died not five feet from where I sat, killed by Illucian soldiers. I’d have bet on her over a hundred Illucians, but that night…

  I hugged my knees to my chest, trying and failing to imagine what she would do in my situation. Caliza had stuck to her like feathers on a crow, preparing to become queen. I’d spent more time with Estrel, studying as a rider. People said Caliza and I were our mother split in half: me, stubborn and independent, and Caliza, steadfast with a knack for handling people and politics.

  Our mother may have swallowed her pride and married Ericen, like Caliza would. Or maybe she’d have thrown the proposal back in Queen Razel’s face. You never knew which side of her you were going to get, if you had her attention at all. Sometimes, I’d struggled to get even that.

  For half a second, I considered praying to the Saints, the eight original riders. Legend had it they established Aris with the help of the Sellas, the ancient creatures said to have created the crows. But the Saints hadn’t come on Ronoch. Either they didn’t exist, or they didn’t care.

  My thoughts pinned me to the ground. It’d been a
mistake coming to the rookery. Too many memories slept inside.

  It’d been at least two hours; Caliza would be worried. Some petty part of me found satisfaction in that and wanted to leave her wondering where I was. Controlling my emotions had never been my strength, but it’d been weeks since I’d reacted to anything as strongly as the engagement. Maybe it meant I was getting better, though I’d thought that before. Why couldn’t I just be okay?

  Sighing, I used the wall to stand. Soot clung to my dress, blood staining my elbow where I’d scraped it. I needed a bath. Besides, sitting here wouldn’t stop Ericen from arriving tomorrow.

  Today was supposed to be a good day. The words reverberated in the hollow space inside my chest.

  As I dusted off what I could of the ash, my gaze snagged on a bit of scorched leather near the edge of the tower. I crouched beside it, running my fingers over the familiar pleats that formed the shoulders of a rider’s flying leathers. Had whomever they belonged to made it out of the tower alive?

  I stood, letting my fingertips brush along a blackened windowsill, trying to conjure the feeling the rookery used to instill in me. But it was like fighting against the wind; the feeling refused to come. I pushed deeper into the rubble, suddenly desperate for something, anything that might spark that familiar lightness inside me.

  The anticipation of flight, the wonder at the power and strength around me, the safety I’d felt, enclosed in these circular walls—it was all gone. All that remained was ash and rubble.

  Something sparkled in the corner of my eye. I stopped my search a half a step past it, and it vanished. Sunlight poured in from the window at my back, illuminating a patch of blackened stone. I stepped back, and it glinted again.

  I had to duck under a fallen beam to reach the spot, but once on the other side, I could see the sparkle clearly. Something lay buried beneath the stones and months-old straw from the crows’ nests. My mind whispered this was foolish, to stop before I was disappointed, but I ignored it.

  As I carefully moved aside stones, filling the air with dust and ash, the glint turned to a soft, blue-black glow. Something hummed, vibrating against my skin like lightning-charged wind in a storm. Calming, like a familiar comfort I’d forgotten. It slipped beneath my skin, into my muscles and blood, my very bones, chasing away the ice settled there.

  I moved the last stone and stilled.

  I knew what I was looking at. Even as I touched the ethereal shell, glittering like the night sky trapped in glass, even as my brain rejected the hulking size, the silklike feel, and the undeniable hum of magic, I knew.

  It was a storm crow egg.

  Careful not to touch the remaining unstable stone pile, I reached in and pulled the egg toward me. It was nearly as large as my torso, and the more I touched it, the stronger the humming became. Bending deep with my knees for leverage, I hoisted the egg into my arms.

  Something cracked, and everything happened very fast. The stone shifted, and I tugged the egg back just as something seized my dress and flung me away from the crumbling stone. The ground shuddered as the stone collapsed, crushing wood and broken glass. Dust and ash erupted into the air as debris swallowed the hole, burying the spot I’d been standing in.

  I lay blinking at the floating specks in the sunlight, the crow egg clasped to my chest. My heart drummed against it. Kiva stood next to me, her hands on her knees as she caught her breath. Her pale eyes stared down at me accusingly.

  Then she saw the egg. “Is that what I think it is?”

  “Oh, don’t worry. I’m fine. Thanks for asking.”

  “I know you’re fine. I just saved your life.” She helped me to my feet.

  I started to dust myself off and gave up. My dress would need a proper cleaning. Sighing, I held out the egg. The sunlight rippled around it, as if being drawn in and absorbed by the celestial shell. The thrumming had quieted but still resonated along my hands like the hum of a plucked string.

  “Do you hear that?” I asked.

  “That’s the sound of your stupidity ringing in your head.”

  “Quieter than that—the egg.”

  “I don’t hear anything.” She pressed her ear to the shell and drew back with a shrug. “Maybe you hit your head. What were you even doing up here?”

  All at once, I slammed back to reality. “Illucia’s threatening to attack, and Caliza’s idea of solving the problem is agreeing to their demands for a marriage between me and Prince Ericen.”

  Kiva’s lips parted and closed several times. She swallowed hard, set her jaw. “I’m going to kill her.”

  “That’s treason.”

  “Seriously injure her.”

  “Still treason.”

  She threw up her hands. “Hasn’t she heard the rumors about him? He’s as vicious and cruel as Illucians come. Has she lost her mind?”

  “Yes.” Even as I said it, guilt swept through me. “No. She did this to protect Rhodaire.” She’d probably fretted about it for days, poring over books looking for another way until her vision blurred, but in the end, she’d chosen the most logical solution to an impossible problem, like she always did.

  Meanwhile, I’d done nothing.

  Six months ago, no one would have dared threaten our kingdom. The riders were fierce, and the crows fiercer. A battle crow could take on six cavalrymen at once, and an earth crow could open a sinkhole beneath an army. Now, Razel threatened to conquer us like she had Jindae and the Ambriel Islands. She would destroy our culture, level our cities, and funnel our children into her army until everything we were had been forgotten.

  “All this because those soldiers chose power over their kingdom.” I clutched the egg closer, seeking its warmth. It still seemed impossible that some of our soldiers had betrayed us. They had sold their loyalty to Razel, providing vital information and allowing Illucian soldiers to slip through their ranks. They’d helped butcher the crows that trusted them.

  Illucia had planned everything perfectly.

  They’d known that at the end of the Sky Dance, every single crow from across Rhodaire would return to their rookeries. They’d known all the eggs would be gathered in the royal rookery. Instead of facing an army, all they’d had to do was destroy nine towers.

  And they’d had help from our own people.

  “Those soldiers deserved what they got.” The derision in Kiva’s tone was sharper than a blade.

  Executed.

  Razel had used the soldiers, making promises she would never keep, and then had them killed.

  Scowling, I shifted the egg in my arms and kicked away a chunk of rubble, relishing the solid contact even as my foot ached. “What I want to know is why Razel offered this. Why promise us peace in exchange for this marriage? We’re not in a position to deny them anything. What do they gain?”

  “It gives Illucia a foothold in Rhodaire. She can’t take it by force easily. Nearly a quarter of her army is running Jindae, another chunk is in the Ambriels, and now I hear she’s threatening Korovi. Why squander men attacking Rhodaire if she can take it some other way?”

  “Marrying me to Ericen won’t give her control of the kingdom. There has to be another step to her plan.”

  Or another motive altogether. But what?

  I ran my fingers over the egg, and it hummed against my skin. The feeling was both exhilarating and comforting at once. “I have to hatch this egg. If we had even one crow, Illucia would think twice about what they’re doing. It’s the only chance we have of protecting Rhodaire and my only chance of not marrying that bastard.”

  Kiva stared at me like I’d sprouted wings. “Be careful. You’re dangerously close to sounding like this girl I used to know. Tongue as sharp as a crow’s talons, menace to authorities everywhere, about this tall.” She held a hand to her chest, a good few inches shorter than my actual height.

  I glowered but couldn’t suppress my smile. Kiva
had a way of pulling me out of myself, perfected over a lifetime of friendship. I couldn’t remember a time without her at my side. She filled my memories: sneaking into the riding school to watch the riders train, stealing orange cakes from the kitchens before dinner, hiding Caliza’s books whenever she left her study table unguarded in the library.

  Kiva had been there every minute to say what a bad idea it was, but she had always stayed. She was always there for me, like she had been for every day of the exhausting cycle of despair that had imprisoned me since Ronoch. I didn’t have the energy to get out of bed, and lying there made me lethargic until my limbs became weights holding me down. My head would hurt, turning my thoughts slow and difficult, each one taking more effort than it was worth, until all I wanted was to fall asleep again. But sleep made it worse.

  Without her, I’d never have started getting out of bed. I never would have left my room today, and I might not have ended up in the rookery.

  Kiva grinned at my feigned annoyance. “Anyway, it got buried under rubble and nearly incinerated. Whatever’s inside is probably dead.”

  “Crow eggs are filled with magic. It could have survived.” The egg hummed in my arms as if agreeing.

  Kiva looked doubtful but held out a hand. “All right. Let’s crack it open and find out.”

  I hugged the egg against my body. “You can’t just crack it open! It has to hatch naturally.”

  “How?”

  I opened my mouth, then closed it, brow furrowing. How did the eggs hatch? They weren’t like normal bird eggs. Something else happened to them, because every year on the winter solstice, they all hatched at once. For some reason, this one hadn’t, despite surviving Ronoch when no other eggs had.

  Maybe it couldn’t. Maybe Kiva was right, and the egg was nothing but an empty shell. I shook the thought away. However small the chance was the egg could hatch, I had to try.

  Problem was, I’d never seen it done.

  * * *