Silverwing

by Kenneth Oppel

  Finally, he and Marina were finished. He had no idea how long they'd been talking, but he felt spent, his mouth parched. Mercury, the elder's messenger, brought them a leaf covered with water from the waterfall. Shade drank gratefully.

  "We were lucky," said Frieda. "We kept just ahead of

  the owl's order to close the skies. If it had caught up with us . . ."

  Shade thought of the slaughtered Brightwings and shuddered.

  "Now there will be a war," said Bathsheba bitterly. "Thanks to these jungle bats." But her steely eyes were fixed on Shade, and he knew that she also blamed him somehow.

  "The owls have been waiting for an excuse to wage war for centuries/' said one of the male elders. "If Goth and Throbb hadn't appeared, they'd have invented some other excuse to close the skies."

  Shade's spirits plunged. Only hours ago he'd felt elated as he'd shot through the waterfall and into Hibernaculum. Now he realized how serious their situation was.

  "At least the winter will halt any fighting," said Aurora. "The owls will be hibernating soon."

  "True, but when spring comes," said Bathsheba grimly, "the owls will wipe us off the face of the earth."

  "When spring comes," said Frieda levelly, "we must go to all the bat colonies and explain what has happened. And we must send envoys to the bird and beast kingdoms, in the hopes of stopping this madness."

  "If they listen," said Bathsheba.

  "If they don't, we must fight!" said another of the male elders.

  A ragged cheer went up from some of the Silverwings. But Shade saw his mother's face harden.

  Frieda sighed wearily. She seemed suddenly very old. "If the birds and beasts don't listen, and are intent on war, then, yes, we must fight."

  "What about Nocturna's Promise?" came a voice. A male bat lit from his roost and swirled through the air. Shade caught a flash of metal from his forearm. "Have we given up all hope that Nocturna, or the Humans, will help us?"

  210 Kenneth Oppel

  "Who is that?" Shade whispered to Frieda.

  "His name's Icarus. He was a friend of your father's."

  Shade's pulse quickened.

  "Don't speak of Nocturna's Promise/' roared Bathsheba. "It's brought nothing but misery to the bat kingdoms. Have you forgotten the rebellion of fifteen years ago?"

  "But maybe this Scirocco was right/' said Icarus. "Maybe we are meant to turn into Humans."

  "Only some of us/' Shade said quietly, but his voice carried through the entire cave. "If Scirocco's right, only the banded bats will transform. That means almost all of us get left out."

  Marina turned to Frieda. "Have you heard anything about a human transformation?" she asked.

  "Yes, a long time ago, but I could never believe it was true."

  But what if it was, Shade thought, feeling sick. He saw Marina look at her wounded forearm. What if she'd had her chance at the light of day, and given it up forever? Her band was gone now. But did that count? She was given it by Humans, and it was taken away by bats, but maybe . . .

  She met his anxious eyes and smiled. "Don't worry," she said. "If I'd stayed with Scirocco, I'd probably be dead like the others." In a louder voice, so the whole of Hibernaculum could hear, she said: "I don't believe it either."

  "It seems no one knows what the bands mean, then," said Bathsheba scathingly.

  "But we have to find out," said Shade. "My father might know." He turned to Icarus. "Do you know where he was going when he disappeared last spring?"

  Icarus said nothing.

  "I'm his son," Shade said. "And I want to find him. I want to know what the bands mean, and if the Humans are going to help us or not. We all have to know."

  SlLVERWING 211

  "The boy's right/' said Frieda. "Icarus, you knew Cassiel well. If you know where he went, tell us/'

  "There was a Human building/' Icarus said uneasily. "Hanael saw it from a distance last spring. He said it had strange metal masts on the roof. But when he went back for a second look he didn't return. Cassiel went next. He made me promise not to tell anyone, it was too dangerous."

  "He's there," breathed Shade with utter certainty. "I've got to go!" He looked at his mother. "You understand, don't you?"

  She nodded. "I'll go too," she said.

  "You will?"

  "And me," said Frieda. "I'm old, but this is one journey I intend to make before I die."

  "This is absurd!" shouted Bathsheba.

  "Count me in as well!" said Icarus.

  "And me," said a second banded male.

  "Me too," cried another bat, and Shade recognized Chinook's voice. But he had no time to call out a greeting because a small avalanche of voices had started and his eyes flicked around the cave in delight as each bat called out, male and female, young and old.

  "Bathsheba," said Frieda, "I take it you will not be joining us."

  "Certainly not," said the elder. "I have no desire to end my life yet."

  Shade suddenly realized something. Marina hadn't said a word. He turned to her worriedly, and there was a wistfulness in her smile that made his throat clench.

  "You made it, Shade," she said. "You got home."

  "You're not leaving are you?"

  "I wonder if my own colony would take me back. Now that my band's gone."

  "But... do you really want to go back?"

  She sounded exasperated. "Well, I mean, I've got to go somewhere, don't I?"

  "No. You don't/' Shade exclaimed. "You can stay right here with me! With us! Can't she, Frieda?"

  "Of course she can," said the bat elder.

  "Really?" said Marina. "You don't mind having a Brightwing around?"

  "Silverwings!" Frieda cried. "Do we have a home for a bat who has distinguished herself by such daring, loyalty, and heroism?"

  "Yes," said Ariel eagerly, "stay!" And her invitation was echoed by a dozen, and then hundreds of Silverwings until the cave reverberated with the sound of bat wings clapping the air in approval.

  "This is your new colony," Shade told her, "for as long as you want, that is."

  "I'm coming with you, then," said Marina. "I'm coming to find your father. .And the secret of the bands."

  That night the Silverwings hunted near the waterfall, keeping a careful watch out for owls. But it was hard for Shade not to feel secure in the midst of hundreds of his fellow bats.

  He'd convinced Frieda and the others they should leave right away. Some had wanted to wait until spring, but what if his father were in danger? What if he were dying? And now that winter had set in, the owls would start their own hibernation. It was the safest time to make the journey. After all, it was only two nights' flying. It was all Shade could do to keep from setting off this very moment. But even he could see he'd need a few days' rest, for his wing to heal, to regain his strength.

  His mother had told him he'd grown. He was genuinely surprised. He'd stared at his outstretched wings, his chest and arms. He did look bigger. In fact, with Marina close by, he saw that he was the same size as her now, maybe even a little larger. He was still nowhere near as big as Chinook, but that didn't seem so important anymore.

  Back inside Hibernaculum, his stomach full, he

  SlLVERWTNG 213

  roosted between Ariel and Marina, their wings folded over one another for extra warmth. He listened to the sound of the waterfall pouring past the mouth of the cave, keeping them all safe and hidden inside. He listened to the softer sound of the stalactites, drip dripping onto the cave floor. He listened to the sound of his mother's breathing, the rustle of Marina's wings.

  He tried to sleep.

  But his mind wouldn't let him. He thought of all that had happened to him. He'd been swept out to sea and had made friends with a banded Brightwing. He'd flown over a great Human city and learned to navigate by the stars. He'd crossed the snowy peaks of the world and crawled deep below its surface. He'd heard the past and future in a bat's wings, seen the light of day, and flown through thunder and lightning. And within two
sunsets, he'd be starting on another journey, and maybe the greatest of all.

  "Go to sleep, Shade," Marina whispered in his ear.

  Yes, he thought, eyes closing at last. Sleep.

  Authors Note

  I have a friend who's a real bat aficionado. He knows quite a bit about bats, and he even builds "bat boxes" for them, little wooden homes you nail high up on trees. I suppose a bit of his enthusiasm rubbed off on me, because I started doing some reading about bats. Right away I was intrigued by the different folk stories from across the world, which described the genesis of bats, why they fly only at night, and how they relate to other animals. Are they birds? Or are they beasts? I quickly became fascinated by these creatures that, in European society anyway, have traditionally been objects of fear. Certainly, some species are terrifying to behold (more unsightly than any gargoyle I've ever seen), but others, like the ones we get in most of North America—and the ones who are the heroes of Silverwing —tend to be like handsome mice with wings.

  I was struck by what remarkable animals bats are: They see only in black and white (but can see quite well, despite traditional assumptions that they're blind), and use sound as much as vision to navigate their world. They migrate like birds, and no one really knows how they can find their way on journeys as long as a thousand miles. Some bats have been known to cross oceans.

  All this seemed to me such rich material for creating a new fantasy world, complete with its own original mythologies and forms of technology and magic. I liked the challenge of creating a black-and-white world (I don't mention a single color in the book), and describing a bat's sonic vision, and the song maps they use to

  migrate. I also liked the challenge of taking animals that many might consider "ugly" or "scary" and fashioning them into interesting, appealing characters. Many animals had already been written about, and most of these were reasonably cuddly: horses, mice, rabbits, pigs, even spiders. But would kids be able to identify with bats?

  Coming soon; 6

  Shade is back—and so is Goth!

  in

  Sunwing

  the sequel to Silverwing

  In search of his father—and the secret of the bands that Humans have attached to some bats—Shade discovers a mysterious Human building which contains a vast forest. Home to thousands of bats, the indoor forest is warm as a summer night, teeming with insect food, and free from the deadly owls.

  Paradise?

  Shade and Marina, his banded Brightwing friend, aren't so sure. Where is Shade's father? And what happened to all the bats who have suddenly disappeared? In this thrilling sequel, Kenneth Oppel surpasses the excitement and poignancy of Silverwing, which Smithsonian magazine called, "a tour-de-force fantasy."

  Coming in Spring 2000

  Sunwing

  by Kenneth Oppel Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

  Kenneth Oppel is the author of more than a dozen books for children and young adults. In 1995, he won the Air Canada Literary Award for "a writer under thirty who shows outstanding promise in the field of literary creation. " Oppel, who studied English and film at the University of Toronto, lives in Toronto with his wife, Philippa Sheppard, and their young daughter, Sophia.

  r

  This book made available by the Internet Archive.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Pages

  Back Cover