Free Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel

stay. And you know what? Even when things were at their very worst, there was this little part of me that was glad. I guess I just couldn’t believe the band was as bad as they said. There was something … important about having it. Something good. I
felt
it.”
    Shade nodded, envious. Did the Humans choose which bats to band, or was it just luck?
    “I knew about Nocturna,” Marina said, “and I’d even heard something about the Great Battle—but they never told us anything about this Promise. You really think we can come back into the sun?”
    “I don’t know how, but I’m going to find out.”
    Marina looked at him, and grinned. “Quite a little troublemaker, aren’t you. Go see the sun, scare your mother half to death, get your roost burned down by the owls. My bet is you’re not the most popular bat in your colony right now.”
    “I guess I’m not,” said Shade, and he was grinning too, despite himself.
    “I want to meet Frieda and these other bats,” Marina said. She wasn’t smiling now. “I want to come with you.”

I NTO THE C ITY
    “It can be a rough ride,” said Marina the next night. They were heading out over the bay. A crescent moon hung in the clear sky, and there was only a light breeze. “But you shouldn’t have too much trouble, even with those stubby wings of yours.”
    Shade’s ears shot up indignantly.
    “My wings aren’t stubby!”
    “Well, they’re certainly not as long as mine,” Marina said, flaring them briefly. He had to admit, they were longer and narrower—but not by so much. “It’s a simple fact. The longer the wings, the faster you fly.”
    “Mine may be a little shorter,” Shade said, “but they’re broader too, and that means I’m more flexible in flight.” He remembered his mother telling him this when he was learning to fly.
    “Hmm,” Marina said doubtfully.
    “I can even hover. And I can fly through smaller spaces in the forest.”
    “Interesting. But up here on the high seas, speed’s the nameof the game, my little friend. And in that department, I’ve got the edge.”
    Little friend? She was as bad as Chinook. He hoped he wouldn’t regret traveling with her.
    “All I know is I made it through that storm last night,” Shade muttered, “and those winds were pretty bad. I can handle it.”
    They’d spent an hour feeding around the island, and Shade had gobbled down his food joylessly. All he could think about was how, every second, his mother and the rest of his colony were moving farther away from him. He was desperate to get going, but he knew he had to eat; he’d need all his strength over the water.
    As they flew higher, the winds picked up, and Shade felt anxious. Leading the way, Marina’s wings billowed impressively with every stroke. Shade grimaced and thought of Chinook.
    “How much higher do we have to go?” he asked.
    “A bat afraid of heights? That’s a new one.”
    “Just wondering why we have to go so high.”
    “To find the right slipstream,” she explained. “I’ve played around with them. You sometimes get a current blowing inland, and it’ll make the ride a whole lot easier. And faster.”
    “Oh, right.” He didn’t like it that she knew more than him.
    Angling her wings, she circled for a moment, nose twitching.
    “I think we’re close. Can you smell it?”
    Shade sniffed too, but couldn’t detect anything except the pungent odor of the sea. It took all his attention just to keep level in the strong breeze. Wind roared in his ears. He hoped Marina knew what she was doing.
    “Just a little more … there!”
    And Shade felt it too: The wind lulled, and he felt he was being sucked forward. Every wingbeat was like two. He looked down,and regretted it. The ocean, from up here, was nothing more than rippled blackness. He didn’t like being so far from trees.
    “The mainland’s dead ahead. See?” Marina tilted her chin, pointing.
    In the distance Shade saw the thin black line of the coast, and then a tiny