Free Bluewing by Kate Avery Ellison Page B

as I dragged it open, and fresh horror swept over my skin in the shape of goose bumps. But still, the Watchers never stirred.
    My courage grew as the creatures remained motionless. I bent and scooped up a piece of debris from the ground, tossing it a few feet from the closest Watcher. The eyes didn’t open. The powerful, jointed neck didn’t stir. The claws never moved from where they were curled against the floor.
    I relaxed. Curiosity sunk its hooks into me, and I let go of the knob and stepped back into the room. I’d never had time to truly study a Watcher in the light of day, and I certainly had never seen so many in one place. They were all different sizes, different colors. Some were black, some iron gray, some pale enough to almost be white. They looked like a pack of ugly, misshapen wild dogs crossed with reptiles, with their too-long necks and too-powerful haunches and curling, talon-tipped feet. Long heads ended in hulking jaws laden with teeth. Spikes lined the necks and descended down backs studded with armored plates and patches of fur. Long tails stretched behind them on the ground. They were terrible, strange, freakish. Monsters.
    I raised my gaze from the Watchers to the ceiling. A seam split the glass, and below it...was that a ramp? It was made of metal, rusted but still solid-looking, and it led upward to the seam in the ceiling. I sucked in a breath and crept forward, keeping to the edge of the room. Clearly this was where the Watchers came to sleep during the day, and that ramp must be how they gained access to the Frost at night.
    Could I use it to escape this place?
    I edged past the slumbering Watchers. How was I supposed to open the ceiling-doors?
    But as I reached the ramp, the doors above me groaned and slid apart. Snow whispered down in white granules, bits of ice striking my face and catching in my hair. I breathed in and out in relief and stepped forward.
    Then, something behind me moved.
    I whirled, my cloak fluttering.
    One of the Watchers was stirring. Light glowed in the dark eyes. The claws scraped against the floor, the haunches flexed, the neck swerved. A faint, guttural sound emanated from the jaws.
    I hissed a curse and crept backward, fumbling at my waist. Where was my knife? My fingers brushed the handle. I wrenched it out and pressed it to my skin.
    The creature turned its head and caught me in its gaze. I stopped as the Watcher rose up to full height.
    But instead of red, the eyes were amber. The creature studied me. I remained poised, my finger against the knife, but the creature didn’t approach. I noticed a reddish mark on the side of its right shoulder, a streak of paint.
    Backing the rest of the way up the ramp, I reached solid ground and fled.
     
    ~
     
    When I returned to Echlos, Jullia and Ivy were waiting. Jullia handed me a note from the Blackcoat leaders without a word.

    We must meet immediately. Trouble in Iceliss. Give your reply to the bearer of this note along with your preferred location.

    I raised my eyes from the note to Jullia. “Trouble?”
    She shook her head to indicate that she didn’t know. “The soldiers have been more active lately. Nobody knows what Raine is thinking or planning. He’s called an assembly this afternoon, and we think he has something he’s going to announce. Something important.”
    I wanted to be at that assembly. I chewed my lip, thinking.
    Gather information , the message from the Trio had said.
    “I’m going to accompany you to the village.”
     
    ~
     
    It’d only been a few months’ time since I’d seen Iceliss by day, but it felt more like years. Everything about the town was tinged with gray, trampled down, sucked of life. Dried vines gripped the edges of the walls like withered fingers. Dirty snow lined the streets in piles of sludge. Even the sky was the color of cold steel.
    The villagers scuttled past with their heads down. Ivy and I joined the flow heading toward the Assembly Hall. I wore a plain, ragged gray