“Fine,” she snapped. “If that is too much to ask, can you at least take it down a notch?”
“Done,” Drustan said, flopping back down.
“As you wish,” Alcander said.
* * *
NIALL WAS AN ENORMOUS specimen, although not intimidating. He wore nothing but a pair of pants—frayed at the bottom and nearly see-through at his giant knees. His hair was long and tangled, hanging down his back between two large wings. The other winged people Kiora had met kept their wings pristine white. Niall’s were grey, dingy, and rumpled. She wondered if he could still fly. He sat on the sand, gazing out at the water with a forlorn look on his face.
“Niall?” Alcander called as the trio came upon him.
“Go away,” came Niall’s gruff voice.
“It must be your charm, Alcander,” Drustan muttered under his breath. “Works on everyone.”
Kiora put up her hand, stopping both of them in their tracks, and gave them a look that clearly said: Stay here. Drustan smirked. Alcander raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms. Satisfied they had received the message, she walked along the beach and sat next to Niall. Wrapping her arms around her legs, she pulled them up to her chin.
“My name is Kiora.”
“I don’t talk to anyone,” Niall said, his eyes fixed on the lapping waves.
She chewed on her lip for moment. “All right.” Resting her head on her knees, she stared out at the waves with him. After a few minutes she could see him glancing sideways at her, but he made no other move.
Finally Niall sighed deeply, his wings fluttering up a bit before dropping back into the sand. “They said you wanted to talk about the Manor.”
She smiled softly. “My friend is there, and we have to get him out. They say you are the only one who has ever gotten out alive.”
He laughed. “No they don’t. They say I am crazy.”
“Lomay doesn’t think you’re crazy. He sent us here to talk to you.”
That got his attention. He sat a little straighter, looking at her curiously. “Lomay?”
“Yes, he tried to ask the Wings about the Manor, but they couldn’t see anything. After that, he sent us here to get the answers we need from you.”
Niall’s chest swelled, looking plumb thrilled. He sat straight up until he towered over Kiora wiping some stray hairs out of his face. “What do you want to know?”
She motioned behind her to Drustan and Alcander, indicating they should come. “We need to know everything,” she said as the others settled, uncharacteristically silent, into the sand beside her.
Niall looked hesitantly over at them. Kiora moved her head to the side, catching Niall’s gaze with her own. “It’s all right. They believe you too.”
He nodded. “I had heard rumors of the Manor.” His mouth twisted ruefully. “I thought they were crazy, the things they said. But then a group of us decided to stay there one night on our way between camps.” His eyes darkened as he turned back to the lake. “It was deserted and we put up the normal wards. We were getting ready to turn in for the night when it felt like the magic was draining out of me, out of all of us. It was like one minute I could do magic, and the next minute there was nothing.”
He looked down at his massive hands, as if recalling how helpless they had been. “I was with some Taveans and a few Omelians. I was the only winged one.” Dropping his hands he closed his eyes. “We sent out one of the Taveans to check the wards. He ran back in, telling us the wards were gone. We all thought for a moment that the rumors were true. That the Manor was alive, that it lived on magic. Eats it right out of whoever inhabits it. But that wasn’t what happened at all. It isn’t the Manor. The Manor is just a simple house.” He ran his hands over his matted hair before looking up. “It’s the Shadow.”
“The Shadow?” Alcander interrupted, sounding exasperated.
“You mean the Shadow that took the lights?” Kiora asked in an effort to smooth over Alcander’s disbelief.
Niall nodded solemnly. “It had to be. First there was nothing, and then suddenly it was there. Huge and billowing and—” Niall gulped, the Adam’s apple in his throat bobbing. “It devoured everything. It . . . it . . . poured over every surface, everything. The others ran. I flew. I flew as high as I could. As I looked