Above World - By Jenn Reese Page 0,27

shells don’t just give us air,” Hoku said. “They change our lungs to deal with the pressure. They do a lot more than just —”

“Fine,” Aluna said. “I understand.” She’d done this to herself. Her choice, her sacrifice, her price. There was no easy fix.

Suddenly Calli’s gaze darted down the hallway, her eyes wide. She twisted a knob on the radio and the crackling stopped.

“Someone’s coming,” she said. She hugged the radio to her chest, looking ever so much like Hoku cradling his water safe, except with wings. She backed farther into the hallway and hid in a shadowy alcove.

Four Aviars walked up to their cells, led by High Senator Electra. She thumped the bottom of her spear on the stone floor with all the ceremony and arrogance of Elder Peleke.

“The president will see you now.”

“IS THIS HOW you will present yourselves to President Iolanthe? Have you no pride?” High Senator Electra said.

Hoku ran his hand through his hair and smoothed the pockets on his shirt. Without the ocean, he had no way to wash the sand and grime off his skin. Feeling dirty was a new sensation, and he didn’t enjoy it.

“It’s no use,” the Aviar snapped. “We’d need a platoon of groomers to make you presentable, and the president will not be kept waiting. Senators Hypatia and Niobe will now release you from your cells. Do not attempt an escape. Do not fight. Show proper respect for the president and you will be afforded the prisoner’s right to a quick and merciful death . . . should the president decide your lives are no longer necessary.”

Hoku glanced back at the alcove where Calli was hiding, but couldn’t see her in the shadows. Good. She’d been the first even remotely nice Aviar they’d met so far. Also, he wanted another look at her radio.

Senator Hypatia — Whitefeather from the beach — opened Aluna’s cell first, and Hoku heard, “Get your feathers off me. I can walk all by myself.”

Hoku sucked in a breath. As much as he admired her bravery, sometimes he wished she’d choose the coward’s path of flinching and silence. His path. It made certain predicaments much easier to survive.

Senator Electra chuckled. “I see you have recovered from the sky sickness, child. I think I liked you better when you were closer to death.”

Redfeather, Senator Niobe, opened his door and motioned for him to exit. He went without a struggle. As she shoved him down the corridor, Hoku glanced back at Calli’s alcove. The winged girl was gone.

During their first trip through the Palace of Wings, he’d been too worried about Aluna to concentrate on their surroundings. Now, as they walked to their probable death, he couldn’t take his eyes off the murals covering the walls. Back home, pictures were created by pressing different colored shells and stones into a soft surface to make patterns and images. Mosaics, his teachers had called them. But here, the images were painted in vivid colors directly on the walls. Aviars fought Humans. Aviars flew in a great flock through the sky. Aviars sat together eating, playing instruments, and making things with their hands. The Kampii treasured secrecy, but the Aviars seemed just the opposite: they shouted everything they did and everything they were in vivid color and detail.

After being pushed and prodded down a series of passages, they all stepped through an opening into a small, square room. Four huge ropes ran through holes in the ceiling, passed vertically through the room, and exited through worn holes in the floor.

Niobe and Hypatia propped their spears against the wall and started pulling on the ropes. The floor lurched.

“A shifting room?” Aluna asked, reaching for the wall.

But the floor wasn’t shifting; it was dropping. Hoku’s heart beat faster. What wonderful new tech was this? The holes in the ceiling were larger, so he could see the mechanism. “Pulleys?” he asked.

“Yes! It’s called an elevator,” Senator Hypatia said in between pulls of the rope, her face suddenly open and animated. “It runs up through the center of the Palace of Wings. This used to be a standard descent and ascent column, until the president —”

“Enough!” Electra said. Hypatia clamped her mouth shut and actually seemed to blush.

“Before the president did what?” Aluna asked.

“Nothing, prisoner,” High Senator Electra said, visibly tightening the grip on her spear. “Remain silent.” Even Aluna got the hint that time.

Down, down, down they went. Through the one open wall, they could see the other levels in the palace whoosh