Free Heir to the Sky by Amanda Sun Page B

stand. Every muscle aches. My muddy skirts pull with weight, so I lean the spear against the tree and wring them out. I consider cutting them shorter with the flint, but I worry I’ll freeze if the nights get any colder. My feet and sandals are covered in cold muck, and they squelch as I shift my weight to stretch. I take a careful breath, but the horrible pain in my ribs is still there, like a rope tied too tightly around my chest. At least my left wrist feels a little better, so it must be only twisted and not broken.
    I’ve survived a whole day in a land overrun by monsters. I will survive another.
    I take my spear and start walking along the edge of the clearing. My stomach throbs with hunger. I search the skies but keep going. I don’t want to go too far from the edge of Ashra’s shadow, in case the airships are looking for me, but I also need to find food, more than just those sharp grains from the tall grasses.
    Ashra floats in the sky like a beacon. I lift my hand upward, as if I could touch it.
    â€œI’m right here,” I say quietly. “I’m alive. Come find me.” I think of Father and Elisha, of trying to hold on to Jonash as I slipped off the edge. How could this happen? I’ve walked that edge a hundred times. I bitterly wish for a minute that I’d left him to fall off the edge himself, instead of me. But then hot guilt curls in my stomach. I wouldn’t wish this monster-ridden landscape on anyone.
    I feel tears gathering in the corners of my eyes, so I blink them back and try to think rationally. Food first, water and shelter, and then self-pity. The forest stretches around the perimeter of the shadowy land as far as I can see. In the distance is a line of mountains looming far away, some of the peaks dusted in snow. Winged beasts in the sky far away, some like giant birds and others more like the dragon I saw yesterday. Ashes. This world really is flooded with the beasts. The rest of my view is blocked by a thick jumble of trees on a wide hill. I look to my right, along the tree line. There’s a cluster of greener bushes and ferns in the distance, where the terrain turns rocky. Could it be a river?
    I walk back along the right tract of forest. It’s not lost on me that I’m almost retracing my steps from yesterday, returning to the patch where I originally fell. If I’m right, that there’s water there, I was probably no more than an hour’s walk from it yesterday.
    My ankles sting in the sandals Elisha lent me. They’re slightly too small, and they rub red blisters into the backs of my heels. I think about taking them off and walking barefoot, but I’m afraid of this landscape and what I might step on.
    â€œElisha,” I say, and the loudness of my own voice startles me. “I made it to the earth I couldn’t stop talking about. If only you could see me now.” I laugh a little, because there’s nothing else to do.
    A shadow swirls over me and I look up to see the long spiked tail of a feathered monster that swoops up and over the forest. I quietly thank the Phoenix that it didn’t choose me for lunch.
    The sun is at the top of the sky by the time I reach the rocky ground. I listen to the faint whisper I can hear over the chorus of birds in the forest beside me. I think it’s the sound of trickling water, and I hurry forward, stumbling over the clusters of sharp rocks that scrape against my ankles.
    It appears like a dream, a long creek babbling over a stony bank, the water clear and sparkling in the afternoon sun. I stagger forward, bending my tired knees and dipping my hand into the water. It’s ice-cold, and I put my spear beside me so I can fill my cupped hands and drink. I splash my face and shake the beads of water from my hair. I scrub the dried blood from my fingers and unlace my sandals. The water stings against my blistered skin and I can only stand to put my feet in the water for a few moments at