Page 31 of Skyshade
“Why are you telling me this?”
She looked at the ground. Part of her felt shame. “I don’t trust myself. I’ve made every decision with my heart...and it has ended in ruin. I wanted you to know the prophecy, in case I ever lost myself. In case you saw me about to make the wrong choice.”
He nodded.
“How are the Starlings?” She thought of Maren, who had told her about nexus in the first place. Cinder, her cousin, who was the most gifted Starling she had ever seen.
“Taken care of. Our newland has more than enough space for them.” She supposed it helped that the realm was small,unfortunately, due to their previous curse. “They’re conducting a vote soon, I hear.”
Right. Isla had promised to make Starling a democracy and to yield her rule should they vote for another leader. It seemed obvious they would choose one of their own.
She’d thought of Nightshade’s storms as a localized problem, but she now realized the portal could affect all the realms. Especially if the torn seam between worlds was growing.
“What do you know about storms?” she asked him.
Azul looked slightly amused. He studied her carefully. “What do you know about flowers?”
Fair. “How do you stop them?”
He seemed to consider this. “Storms are filled with energy. Powerful Skylings can shape them, manipulate parts of them. Stopping them is more difficult. It would mean cutting them off at their source.”
There was no time for secrecy, not with Azul. “What if their source was a portal?”
Azul frowned. It was an unfamiliar expression on his face. “I’ve never heard of anything like that.”
“There’s a portal on Nightshade.” His eyes widened ever so slightly. “Not one that can be used. It’s a torn seam between worlds. Creatures are being let in. Storms. I need to find it and close it.”
There was a fold between Azul’s brows. His thumb was thrumming down the side of his chair. Silence.
“What is it?”
He hesitated for just a moment. Then, he said, “We read omens in the clouds.”
“And?”
His head lowered. His voice was nearly a whisper. “They warn of a storm to end all storms. A reckoning.”
She thought of the woman in the village, calling them a harbinger of the end. “When?”
He shook his head. “I’m not sure...But a storm is coming, Isla, I can feel it.” He dipped his chin as he said. “One unlike any we’ve ever seen before.”
Chills swept up her arms.
“Wait here,” Azul said. He flew out of the room in a flash. When he returned, minutes later, he was holding a cage, with a bird inside. It was sky blue with a grey beak. Small enough to fit in her palm.
“This is a stormfinch. It can sense a storm before even Skylings can.” She had never heard of such a creature. “Before the next storm...It will start singing the most beautiful song you have ever heard.”
This would save countless lives, she thought. It would give Nightshades time to get underground before the tempests struck.
She gingerly took the cage. It was ornate, with swirling designs across its side.
“When she sings, I want you to get as high as you can. Then, I want you to hold this.” He slipped one of his largest rings off his fingers and handed it to her. It had a large light blue stone, like a bird’s egg.
At her questioning look, he said, “It has a shred of storm trapped inside.” A shred of storm? She squinted, holding the stone up to her eye. Faintly, she could see something spinning within its depths. She gasped and stared at him.
He cracked a smile. “You didn’t think I wore all of these just for decorative purposes, did you?” She studied all the stones he wore, on his fingers, around his neck, on the buttons of his cape. “They are all imbued with storms. They amplify my powers significantly. Precious stones can trap power.” He nodded at the ring in her hand. “Trap part of the storm in it, and the stone should lead you to its source.” To the portal.
“How?”
