Hollowpox The Hunt for Morrigan Crow - Jessica Townsend Page 0,19
It built so quickly she was suddenly blinded by the force of its whiteness.
Then there came a beautiful, terrible sound – something between the roar of fifty lions and the tinkling of a thousand silver bells – and the shapeless storm rose into the air, reborn as a long, serpentine dragon made of snow. It flew through the sky above them, tumbling over and around itself in the most extraordinary display. Snowflakes fluttered down from its outspread wings, landing gently on Morrigan, Jupiter and Jack, who held up their hands and cheered along with the rest of the Courage Square crowd.
Jack whooped loudly, casting Morrigan a rather smug look. ‘Now THAT’S a finale.’
But it wasn’t over yet. Saint Nicholas, not to be out-Christ-massed, motioned for everyone in the audience to hold their candles high. The thousands of tiny flames grew brighter and larger, until finally they seemed to leap from the wicks and band together, forming a cloud-like bonfire in the sky above them. Morrigan closed her eyes briefly against the flash of light. She felt heat blooming on her face.
When she opened her eyes, the flames had reshaped themselves into a golden-red firebird, blindingly bright and beautiful, borne higher and higher into the sky as it beat its fiery wings.
‘YES!’ Jupiter shouted again in elation. ‘MAGNIFICENT! BRAVO, SAINT NICK, BRAVO!’
Morrigan could hardly believe what she was seeing. She turned to Jack with a joyous laugh, and even he looked impressed. ‘You were saying?’
The firebird and the snowdragon danced around each other, spiralling together to form a tower of vivid orange and dazzling white that reached high into the atmosphere … until at last, in one final glorious act of mutual destruction, the flames were extinguished and the snow evaporated. Dragon and bird disappeared in an instant, leaving nothing but the ghostly shape of their light blinking against the black sky, emblazoned on everyone’s retinas.
A moment of stunned silence.
Then a roar of delight so loud, Morrigan had to cover her ears.
Morrigan wasn’t sure she’d be able to find Hawthorne and his family amidst the sea of people surging in every direction after the battle – she realised too late they’d forgotten to plan a meeting spot. But she needn’t have worried. They found her instead.
‘MORRIGAN! There you are. Oi!’ her friend shouted eagerly, running to where she, Jupiter and Fenestra were waiting by the fountain in the middle of the square, hoping to maximise their visibility. Jack and the others had been too cold to wait around in the snow; they’d already taken the carriages home.
Hawthorne’s mum, dad, brother and sisters followed close behind him, and there was no mistaking the Swift family’s allegiance to Saint Nicholas. All six of them were decked from head to toe in varying shades of red. (Although Morrigan thought she spied a flash of green socks beneath Dave’s scarlet corduroy trousers.)
Morrigan beamed. ‘Jolly Christmas!’
‘I’m glad you managed to find us,’ said Jupiter, rubbing his hands together and blowing on them for warmth. His beard was collecting snowflakes.
‘Oh, it was easy, I just looked for Fen’s great big head in the crowd – hello, Fen, Jolly Christmas!’ Hawthorne puffed cheerfully, and Fenestra scowled at him in return. He gave a good-natured chuckle as she turned away, her tail stuck high in the air. ‘Classic Fen. Helena, didn’t I tell you how hilarious Fen is?’
Morrigan had already met Dave, and Hawthorne’s mum, Cat, several times, as well as his older brother Homer and baby sister Davina, whom everybody called Baby Dave. But this was her first time meeting the eldest Swift sibling. Helena was completing her fifth year of study at the Gorgonhowl College of Radical Meteorology, a school situated on a tiny island off the coast of the distant Sixth Pocket in the eye of a perpetual cyclone, and it was rarely safe enough for her to travel home.
‘She is tremendous,’ Helena declared, staring at the Magnificat with open admiration. ‘An absolute queen.’
At that precise moment, a young man walking past Fen accidentally stood on her tail. She yowled in pain, then shoved her enormous face right up to his and bared her great yellow fangs at him with a dangerous hisssss. The man fainted on the spot.
‘Queen,’ whispered Helena.
Seeing the whole Swift family together, Morrigan noticed how perfectly they were split down the middle. Hawthorne and Helena both took after Cat with their long, wild brown curls and gangly limbs. Homer and Baby Dave, on the