Home > Wing Magic (Empire of War and Wings #3)

Wing Magic (Empire of War and Wings #3)
Author: Sarah K. L. Wilson


Previously in the Winged Empire ...

 


THE CROWN PRINCE TOOK all the weapons from the people of Far Stones and they had no way to defend themselves from the dark magic that lurks there.

Aella was meant to Hatch into someone who manifests a magic bird but she Hatched bees instead.

The crown prince says he owns her now, and she’s afraid to defy him in case he takes it out on her family like the way he killed her father.

Her allies are Zayana, Osprey, and Ivo.

But Osprey is linked to the crown prince through magic and he’s bound to stop any moves made against the throne.

Ivo wants her to be part of a secret revolution – a revolution that he and Osprey have already committed to.

The crown prince has a spooky power – snake magic. And spooky allies with snakes of their own. But when he offered Aella in his place for their ritual, she learned a lot of their secret knowledge that comes back to her in flashes.

Aella can also send her bees to buzz around someone and bring back little visions of what they are up to. She left one with the snake people, one with the crown prince, and sent one to watch over her family.

But when she fled the crown prince’s torture and offer of marriage, he set Osprey to hunt her down.

And that’s what you need to know.

 

 

Map

 

 

Elsewhere in the Winged Empire

 


WING ETRUNA SAT CROSS-legged in the crow’s nest, breathing in the scent of the sea while her blue jay dove and soared around her. In a moment, the gong would sound, and she’d need to climb down to receive orders for the week. In a moment, this glorious freedom she felt from so high in the air would disappear and she’d crash back to reality but for now, it was only her and Izusa and with her eyes closed she could see through the eyes of her spirit bird as he soared and wheeled over the Imperial Tern Fleet. She liked to believe that when this life was over and the skies received her, that she could be a bird with him soaring through eternity side by side.

Her bliss was interrupted as her jay spiraled in closer over the Fleet. Something was happening. Something big. Runners raced down the docks and where they found ships’ captains, orders were barked and men and birds leapt into action.

Someone shook her shoulder and her eyes flew open, breaking the connection with her bird.

“Wing Etruna!” the ship’s boy shook her again. “The Captain needs you. Now. By order of Le Majest, we sail.”

“The Flycatcher sails?” Wing Etruna gasped, still shocked by her sudden return to her own flightless body.

“We all sail. The whole fleet,” the boy said, practically dancing with excitement. “We go to quell our enemies in the Far Stones!”

 

 

BOOK ONE: FLIGHT OF THE BEE

 


The hum in your chest,

The song in your heart,

The cry from the heights,

Echoes in every part.

We’re none of us meant,

For kissing the dust,

In hope, we will rise,

And do what we must.

Songs of the Winged Ones

 

 

Chapter One

 


MY MOUTH WAS DRY AND thick. I tried to swallow. Even that hurt as I pulled my limbs under me to sit up. There had to be water somewhere. Something pressed on me in the darkness.

“Don’t move.” Zayana’s voice was barely a whisper. “Stay still.”

I froze at the urgency in her tone and tried to listen.

Around us, voices called to one another. My eyes began to adjust to the darkness, and I realized I was under a covering in the front of a boat. I could hear the water lapping against the hull and smell brine. We were in the sea, then. This boat was too small for that. It rocked back and forth, yawing precariously. My belly rolled in response.

Oars banged against the hull and the muffled sound of voices again broke through the cloth covering me. I moaned without meaning to and a bee slipped from my hand, manifesting and hovering in the close air under the tarp. Warmth flooded me and with it, a gasp of reassurance as the bee lit the tiny space I was in.

How long had I been passed out and lying here? My whole body ached, my injuries flaring hot and angry.

I opened the edge of the cuff around my wrist to look at Os’s feather. It glowed purplish-white but when I touched it, it was only warm, not hot like it would be if Os was near. I breathed a sigh of relief and closed the cuff. Wherever we were, we had not yet been caught. Something had delayed Osprey. Perhaps he was too injured to pursue us.

The light filtering through the tarp went dark suddenly and the sounds above me seemed louder and more echoey than before. The minutes passed slowly as my throat grew drier and my thirst greater. After my bold words and actions just hours ago, it seemed wrong to be hiding under a tarp in a boat like a smuggler.

I couldn’t have said if it was hours or just very, very long minutes until finally the tarp was dragged back and Zayana silently offered me a waterskin.

I drank from it thirstily, grateful to lean into the refreshment of water. When I was done, I met Zayana’s worried eyes.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

She nodded tightly, looking around us with big eyes.

We were in our boat, but this section of water was surrounded by close wooden slats which formed a room barely bigger than the boat. A ladder climbed up from the center of the small room through a trap door above. I could just barely make out the sound of Ivo’s voice through the trap door. He was speaking to someone quieter than he was, and I couldn’t hear them at all, only the cadence of my Guide’s voice as he replied to the quieter speaker.

“It’s almost noon,” Zayana whispered. “We fled down the coast through the sea to this place. Wing Ivo knows someone here.”

Her hands were clenched in her dress and there was no sign of her bird.

“Where is Flame?” I asked but she just shook her head. She was so tense I could have used her for a shelf, stacking books or tools on her tight shoulders and fidgeting hands.

“Are you hurt?” I whispered. Fear gnawed at me. Just because Osprey wasn’t close didn’t mean other Claws were not nearby. Everyone would be watching for us now.

She scoffed, her eyes suddenly wide and glassy.

“No, of course not. My life is just ruined, and the life of my sister, and the hope that either of us might survive the year. Nothing to trouble crazy rebels like you and Wing Osprey.”

“What do you mean ‘the life of your sister’?” I asked. “She isn’t tied to your obedience in some way, is she?”

After all that had happened, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Empire had done something like that to her, too. I searched Zayana’s pained face, afraid of what I might find there.

She scoffed. “Only in the same way your family is. In the same way all families are. It wasn’t supposed to be like this! When Wing Xectare and Wing Ivo fought over who would be my Guide, I saw three gulls and one dove into the water. That’s supposed to mean good fortune for the person who sees a change in circumstance! It’s not supposed to mean disaster, and yet it was barely an hour later that the city was attacked and now we’re fleeing Le Majest and even with all I did for him, I doubt he will remember and be merciful.”

Well, she was right there. He certainly would not be merciful. And now he saw me as his own even more than he had before. I fought to keep my breathing measured and even but the slightest slip into remembering that made fear ricochet through me. Loathing and terror were things you could always count on with Juste Montpetit. But it worried me to see Zayana breaking like this. She was usually so careful and cautious. I thought I even saw tracks on her face from drying tears. Had she been crying before she got me that water?

Hot Books
» House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1)
» A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire
» From Blood and Ash (Blood And Ash #1)
» A Million Kisses in Your Lifetime
» Deviant King (Royal Elite #1)
» Den of Vipers
» House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2)
» The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air #
» Sweet Temptation
» The Sweetest Oblivion (Made #1)
» Chasing Cassandra (The Ravenels #6)
» Wreck & Ruin
» Steel Princess (Royal Elite #2)
» Twisted Hate (Twisted #3)
» The Play (Briar U Book 3)