She signaled to Melloch and Zorya to move on, leaving the thunderbird to its carrion.
As they continued west toward Starry Cove, the wind blew harder, whipping Tamri’s hair around her face and driving rainwater through her coat. She adjusted her position on Rook’s back, groaning at the soreness in her muscles. Her encounter with the Lightning had left her bones fragile and her skin as raw as if it were sunburned. She had mostly recovered, though a purple afterimage still affected her vision sometimes, and she tired easily. She released the safety harness with one hand then clenched and unclenched her fist to ease the cramping. She had to admit she was looking forward to curling up on her cot in the room she shared with Gramma Teall.
The visibility was worsening by the second. The clouds darkened, churning and boiling around her. Rook flew higher so they wouldn’t accidentally collide with a cliff.
“Hang in there, Rook!” Tamri shouted. “We’ll be home soon, and Heath will have a nice treat for you.”
Rook tossed his head and rolled his eyes. He was far too proud to admit he was struggling. Tamri pushed the last drops of her Watermight along his wings, lending him a little more strength.
As the silver-white power left her body, Tamri felt something in the air, a twang against her skin, a sensation at once familiar and startling.
She glanced back at Melloch and Zorya, who were a mere smudge of gold through the rain. The sky dimmed rapidly, but no flashes of lightning—magical or ordinary—interrupted the gloom. It’s just a rainstorm, she told herself firmly. There’s no Lightning here.
Then the sensation struck again, that tingle in the air, that presence, electric and strange. It tapped and tugged at her as if trying to get her to guess where it came from.
Fear shot through her, and she started to reach for the Watermight. Holding the magical substance in her body had fended off the Lightning’s touch before. It could protect her from the tempting little buzz playing along her skin.
But she hesitated. After all her chaotic, Lightning-tinged dreams, Tamri couldn’t help wondering what the Lightning wanted. She was curious about the substance and its terrifying mistress. She kept the Watermight on Rook’s wings, leaving herself open to the other magics.
For a moment, nothing happened. That strange buzz tiptoed along the edge of Tamri’s senses, distant and indecipherable.
Then a voice spoke directly into her mind. “Hello, Little Bird.”
Tamri jolted in surprise, yanking reflexively on the safety harness. Rook cast an irritated look over his shoulder. She patted his neck reassuringly and opened herself a bit more to that electric burr.
“Hello?”
“You have returned to the sky.” The voice rumbled in her head, somehow as loud as a shout and as soft as a whisper at the same moment. “You have nerve.”
Tamri swallowed. “Who are you?”
No answer. The storm raged on. Rain drenched Tamri’s clothes, and her skin chafed against Rook’s scales. The shadow of another island passed beneath them.
They were almost home, but Tamri wanted to hear the voice again. Could it really be the Lightning dragon herself? The creature hadn’t spoken to Tamri before. She had experienced its presence as a torrent of pure emotion, pure self. The Lightning dragon was surer of itself than anyone Tamri had ever met, including Khrillin and Dara, the most powerful human Wielders on the continent. But it hadn’t talked to her.
She cleared her throat. “Are you there?”
Nothing.
Tamri strained to listen, reaching toward that crackling power. Opening her senses to the Lightning dragon was dangerous, but they needed to know as much as possible about the beast. Whether they decided to contain or control it, they needed to understand it.
Lightning flashed in the murky sky. A low rumble, not much louder than the roar of the sea, reached Tamri a few seconds later. It was far away, maybe as far as Thunderbird Island itself. Was the dragon speaking through the storm from its distant roost? Or could it be nearby?
Up ahead, the clouds thinned. They were approaching the outer edge of the storm, which didn’t cover Starry Cove. They couldn’t go back yet. They needed answers.
Another flash. Tamri counted her heartbeats, waiting for the thunder, waiting for the dragon to speak.
Instead she heard a vicious shriek, far louder and harsher than thunder. Dread flashed through her, and she fumbled for her Firestick. Then Melloch screamed.
Tamri looked back. Their companions had fallen far behind. Melloch lay plastered against Zorya’s golden neck, his spectacles hanging askew. Two giant thunderbirds hovered above him, pecking at his head and arms. Gray wings flared in the storm, and beaks and talons flashed.
“Help me!” Melloch wailed. He pulled Watermight from Zorya’s wings and flung it at the birds, but he was too terrified to strike accurately, and his power spurted away. Zorya tried to catch the smaller creatures in her teeth, and the thunderbirds evaded her nimbly.
Without pausing to consider the wisdom of it, Tamri reached for the thunderbirds, as she had in the skies above Sharoth. Lightning zinged through the creatures, in their hollow bones, in their blood, fizzing through their little bird brains. Tamri seized hold of that Lightning and pulled hard.
The thunderbirds shrieked in anger and confusion. Tamri held on to the Lightning within them, forcing it toward her. Rook flared his wings and turned sharply to confront the threat. As they changed direction, Tamri’s muscles groaned in protest, and sparks erupted in her veins. But she held on, drinking in more of the Lightning’s crackling intensity—and the thunderbirds responded. They stopped attacking Melloch and flapped their wings erratically, struggling to stay airborne. Tamri drew them toward her, thunder rumbling in her mouth and in her gut. Purple-white splotches filled her vision, and her skin fizzed and sang.
Melloch’s eyes were wide and rolling. Blood slicked his dark skin and mixed with the rain. For a moment, he looked afraid of Tamri, not just of the birds. Then Zorya went into a dive, swooping beneath Rook and carrying Melloch to safety.
The distance between Tamri and the thunderbirds closed much too fast. She tightened her grip on their minds and shoved them back, desperate to keep their talons from her flesh. The birds tumbled through the air, spinning and squawking, and Tamri glimpsed a flash of scarlet dragon feathers, storm clouds, and blazing light, as if seeing through their eyes.
She couldn’t afford to hesitate or doubt herself for an instant. She drew deeper on the fizzing, electric sensation, filling every pore and muscle and eyelash with power. Then she gritted her teeth and gave a great push, hurling the thunderbirds as far from her and Rook as she possibly could. The creatures spun and tumbled like leaves in the wind before finally righting themselves. They turned as one to soar away to the east.
As quickly as it had begun, the attack was over. Tamri took a shaky breath and clutched at Rook’s feathers and his sleek scales, trying to get her senses back in order. She felt dizzy. Had she really looked through the thunderbirds’ eyes for a moment?
“Impressive, Little Bird.”
Tamri jerked at the sound of the voice. The Lightning dragon was in her head again.
“What do you want?” she demanded.
“I’m not the one who wants something.”
Tamri peered through the rain, searching for any sign of the beast. “What does that mean?”