My new and still unhealed skin ached under the sudden pressure and I whipped it out of his grasp. “You said you’d save us,” I said, my voice growing in volume with every syllable. “Look at what you’ve done to him.”
“I said I’d save
you
,” he said. “I made no such promise to him.”
I turned back to Dresden and continued moving the stones.
“We’re going to leave with or without you,” he said, looking down the dirt road.
“Then go without me,” I said.
“Fine,” he said, backing toward the door. “I said I’d break you out and I have. My work is done here.”
I didn’t answer and kept my focus on the pile of stone in front of me. I had almost gotten him out from under it. Taegan took my lack of reply as my answer and walked out the arch that had been blown into the tower. I kept to my work when I heard horse hooves gallop away.
The sky was dark outside. I moved the last stones away from Dresden and finally allowed myself to look at him again. I broke down into tears at the sight of his mangled, scorched body. The tears only stopped when I had no more to cry. I walked to the blasted arch and looked out into the night. Even though the stars were shining in the sky, everything was black around the tower. I knew I would never find the hospital and Dr. Zaira in the dark. I walked back to Dresden without looking at him and sat with my back against the bars. I stared into the dark and listened to the wind blowing through the trees and tall grass. I shuddered. My sore body finally stayed still long enough to realize how cold it was getting.
I had no way to know how soon Dresden would need to get back to the hospital in order for him to heal. I closed my eyes and hoped that it would be okay to get him there as soon as the sun came up in the morning.
* * *
I woke up when a particularly cold gust of wind blew through the gaping hole in the tower. I opened my eyes and could see a faint, pink light peeking through the trees. There was enough light to be able to discern objects around me. I looked at Dresden. It didn’t look like he was breathing or making much progress with healing at all. I was sure that something was keeping him from being able to get his healing started properly.
I tried to remember the place my mind went after the fall. I wasn’t dead, but I also wasn’t alive. I couldn’t remember what it was like or what I had thought about, if I thought at all. It was a place of nonexistence for me to wait while my body healed me back to life. I put my hand to his chest to check for a heartbeat. Whether I couldn’t feel anything because my fingers were numb from cold or because there wasn’t anything to feel, I didn’t know. All I knew was that I had to get him help. If he wasn’t set right he would stay lifeless.
I got up and looked around. I knew the only way I would be able to get to the hospital quickly was to fly. I looked at the frostbitten grass. Grass hadn’t been strong enough to keep the two of us airborne when I had tried to save him at the cabin. This grass looked thicker than the grass in the north; it looked a little stronger and sturdier. I still doubted it would be much better than the other grass but I knew I had to give all my options a try. I took hold of Dresden’s left arm and hoisted it over my shoulders to pull him off the ground. I staggered under his weight but was able to make my way out of the tower. I placed him back on the ground and set him against the outside wall so that when I was ready all I would have to do was scoop him up and go.
I walked into the grass to try out option one. I closed my eyes and released a pulse. I watched every blade of grass within a ten-foot radius break free from the ground and fly to me. I realized how different this grass was as soon as it made contact with me. Up to that point the dust I had collected before hadn’t hurt at all as it squeezed through the skin of the lumps on my back. The grass I had collected while at the cabin had a much different feeling since it was thicker and significantly larger than pieces of dust. The grass I had used before cut through my skin like tiny knives. Though it was alarming, it hadn’t been a concern with the adrenaline running through my body.
This grass pierced and sliced its way through my skin without me being full of adrenaline. A tiny scream escaped me as the grass stabbed me. Unpleasant as it was, the pain left when my skin healed around my newly formed wings. I looked at them and flexed them to make sure my control was good. I estimated that they were almost nine feet long. I hoped that it would be enough and took a deep breath and a running start toward Dresden.
My feet lifted off the ground and I reached out my arms to grab him. Once I had my arms wrapped around him I turned my body to the sky, slammed my feet on the ground and flew upward. My arms slid against the tower and helped me keep a good grip on him, but I could already feel the strain of his weight. I flapped my wings in an attempt to keep momentum, but we dropped back to earth instead.
The blades of grass erupted out of my back. I pressed us against the side of the tower harder to help control the speed of the fall. We slid down until my feet hit the ground. My legs buckled and we dropped to the side. I could stand up so I figured the fall didn’t do too much damage to me. I seated him against the wall again and looked around for something else.
I knew the dirt off the road wouldn’t be any better than my attempt with the grass so I fixated on the trees. There weren’t very many of them, but there was a small cluster not too far way. I was sure that it would provide enough material to build my wings, but there was no telling if it would be strong enough. I walked into the cluster of trees and stood where I figured the middle was. I knew the leaves wouldn’t help me much so I focused on the bark; it had to be much thicker and sturdier than the grass and leaves. I closed my eyes and didn’t let myself think of anything else but the tree bark around me. I released a pulse that already seemed stronger than any of the previous ones. I kept my eyes shut and bit my lip to hold back the yell. Huge chunks of wood jabbed me in the back and buried themselves under my skin.
I opened my watery eyes and saw that most of the bark has been stripped off the trees. My wings look like they were bigger than the last pair. I flew out of the trees and into the air to give them a try. With each beat I could tell there was more power behind them. I took the same approach to Dresden as before even though he no longer was propped against the tower.
I gathered as much speed as I could and flung us into the air as soon as I had a good grip on him. I thought we had done it when I was able to position myself parallel with the ground and the wings seem to keep us in the air. My heart sank when our height off the ground grew less with each passing second. At least this time my wings held together long enough for us to touch down to the ground.
I laid Dresden down and let my wings fall apart. I looked toward the sun angrily. It was now visible over the trees. All my time and effort was going to waste. I turned away from him to see how far we had flown from the tower. It was at most two hundred feet. I screamed in frustration and kicked at the tree bark that had let me down. I had no idea what to do now. We were out in the middle of nowhere. Tree bark was probably the strongest material I’d find for miles.
I picked up a particularly large piece of bark and threw it as hard as I could at the tower laughing at us in the distance. I watched it shine a particularly brilliant shade of deep blue when the sun emerged from behind a cloud. My eyes hadn’t left its sparkling blue surface when I begin to laugh, too. The strongest material I’d be able to find anywhere in this world had been right in front of me the whole time.
I jogged back to the tower and ran my hands across the Star Stone. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that it would do the trick. I knew there was no way the strongest stone in the Aetherian world wouldn’t be able to keep Dresden and me in the air. The question was how did I break apart an almost indestructible material?
I put my hand to my necklace and squeezed it. Mom was able to do it once; although, granted she wasn’t able to yield a very big piece. I now regretted not asking her how she had done it. I look at the wreckage. There weren’t very many pieces small enough for me to collect into my wings. I was certain that I would need much more than was readily available. I stepped inside and closed my eyes. I focused on the Star Stone and released a pulse. I heard the broken stones rattle and opened my eyes again. I saw small cracks forming on the pieces that were already separated.
I remembered Ms. Riley telling me that when Star Stone was separated it became weaker. If I tried hard enough I might be able to at least break the large pieces of wreckage into smaller pieces. I closed my eyes and focused again. I did whatever I felt would help create a larger pulse and tried once more. My ears perked up. This time I heard the small pieces of stone break into smaller pieces. I was pleased for a moment when I saw cracks on the larger ones but then was hit with a wave of fatigue. The last pulse took a lot of energy out of me and I now felt very tired. I knew at that rate it would take forever to break the large chunks of stone into manageable pieces.
I looked at the smaller pieces. It looked like they had moved closer to me. They were not only breaking apart, they were gravitating to me. If I could concentrate more on separating the different parts of the process, I might be able to put more energy in the pulses. In my mind I sorted out where the pulse process ended and the collection process began, but things still pulled toward me. I closed my eyes and picked another place in the process. I put all my might into my next pulse and stopped myself before everything started flying toward me. I saw the cracks grow larger when the pulse rushed past them. I seemed to have picked a good spot since nothing moved.
I knelt on the ground and took a couple of deep breaths. I wasn’t sure how much longer I would be able to keep it up. The room looked like it was tilting slightly. The magnitude of the pulses was drawing out more energy with each one.
I couldn’t believe how high the sun had climbed into the sky and we still hadn’t taken off. I got up and looked over the road to check on Dresden. I was about to turn back to my work when movement caught my eye. For a terrifying second I thought Dresden had regained consciousness. I dreaded what it would be like to wake up in the state his body was in; but it wasn’t him. Further down the road I saw a small object moving. More fear flooded through my body when I realized it was another carriage. Probably coming to see why the first one hadn’t returned.
I turned back around. I was grateful that panic was enough to get my energy levels back up, but I knew I needed to take a hold of my nerves again. I hadn’t made as much progress with the stones as I needed to by that point and I had to speed things up before they found Dresden on the side of the road. Without thinking I closed my eyes and focused on my pulses again. This time instead of releasing one I pushed several, one right after the other, out of my body with as much might and power as I could. I felt the ground rumble and heard loud crashing noises but didn’t stop. I didn’t try to count how many pulses my body emitted; I proceeded until I knew I couldn’t anymore. I put all my strength into the last one and fell to the floor.
I was scared to open my eyes and find that my efforts had been wasted, but I knew I didn’t have time. I looked around. Everything on the ground had been shattered into smaller pieces than I thought possible. My eyes ran up the walls of the tower. Huge cracks were now running all the way to the top with quite a few new chunks missing from it. I wasn’t at all sure if it was enough, but I knew that it had to do. We needed to get moving five minutes ago.
I stood up on shaky legs and searched my mind for the beginning of the collection process. I found in my mind where I stopped pulsing and started there. All the pieces I broke apart turned green and flew to me. I bit my lip and refused to scream. The first pieces cut and sliced their way into me. I felt blood run down my back, but I knew when the skin healed around the new wings the pain would subside.
Every piece that had connected itself to my wings was the deepest green I had ever seen. I gave my wings a flap and shot out of the now very large opening in the tower. I shot down the road without beating my wings more than a few times to stay airborne. I saw Dresden on the ground and the carriage getting too close to him. Reaching out my arms I took a hold of him without stopping and pulled him to me. The momentum pushed him into me so that I could get a good grip without any more help. I turned up into the sky and gave another flap and we barely missed hitting the carriage. The horses were startled when the force of the wind created by my wings splintered the carriage almost in half.
I smiled for the first time in ages and we rose into the air with ease. I watched the sun’s light glitter and break through the many stone pieces of my beautiful wings. I kept the road directly below me. I knew that by following it I would make it back to the town where Dr. Zaira and the hospital were.
After a few hours of flying I started to feel the strain of keeping my wings together. I couldn’t let myself relax for a second knowing that the moment I did they would fall to pieces and we would plummet to the ground. That thought alone kept me going and I watched the road wind around the fields below us. I kept my eyes sharp when it ran in and out of forests and along the rivers.
The sun made its descent in the sky and my body ached with the effort of holding onto Dresden as well as keeping my wings intact. It took much longer than I had thought to get where I was going. I tried my best not to start losing hope when we had already come this far, and finally, I saw it. A small town came into view when the road started winding between fields again. While descending I could make out the different buildings, animals, people, a large gathering of some sort, and other structures within the town.
I didn’t let anything hinder my search for Dr. Zaira and soon enough I spotted the hospital. I flew lower and my feet touched the ground in front of it. There were a few screams and yells around me. I had no doubt that I was an extremely unsettling sight. I let my wings drop and felt them fall apart around me. I bent over Dresden to shield him from the falling pieces of stone.