Gabriel Finley and the Raven’s Riddle Read Online Free PDF Page B

we become one. In the air, I have to remember to be slack. Last night I tried to point out the sunset, and we fell into a spin in midflight because I had taken control of Baldasarre’s wing. He was furious.
    Do you want to kill us both?
he muttered.
Let me do the flying!
    May 17: We tried something different today. Baldasarre leaped into
my
body! We walked into a supermarket. He had never seen so many fruits and vegetables in one place. Suddenly, I felt my head dart down and my mouth grab a grape.
    Baldasarre?
I said.
Humans don’t eat like birds. Control yourself!
    May 19: Baldasarre doesn’t like glass. Like most birds, he finds it very confusing. We went to get ice cream today in my body, but he got scared by the glass door and tried to fly away. I felt my arms flapping wildly, but there was nothing I could do until he calmed down.
    May 20: This evening we flew around the whole city and landed on the crown of the Statue of Liberty. There is nothing more amazing than looking over the harbor with the city in the distance, thousands of lights from the Verrazano Bridge glittering all the way to the Empire State Building.
    I feel so happy
, I told Baldasarre.
    He told me not to get too comfortable.
One owl attack can wipe that smile off your face.
    But you said ravens are smarter than owls.
    Yes, but we’re no match for cold-blooded killers.
    May 22: Tonight was terrifying. We were flying across the bay and happened to circle the buildings around Battery Park. There’s an excellent air current there; Baldasarre loves to glide over the trees and let the breeze lift us up over the city like the smoothest roller-coaster ride. But this time, just as we crested over the skyscrapers, I felt his muscles stiffen.
    He looked down behind us and I saw it, moving with us almost like our shadow. It had a huge wingspan, maybe three times that of a raven’s.
    What is it?
I asked.
    That’s an owl. Worse—a great horned owl.
    We rolled over toward the river, but the owl gained on us without even trying. Baldasarre began flapping frantically to go higher, but the owl matched our climb with barely an effort.
    What are we going to do?
    The only thing we can: find a place an owl can’t go.
    I could feel Baldasarre’s fear all through me. My heart was thumping like crazy, my wings were sore, and a grim ache in my belly told me this creature would kill us. The great brown-flecked predator swallowed the distance between us in about three heartbeats.
    We swooped down between tree limbs in the darkness, but the owl dodged every branch, stem, and bush with the slightest tilt of his powerful wings. We weaved through a row of pillars, and so did the owl, with identical precision. Silent. Deadly. Ever closer.
    Finally, Baldasarre spoke in a weary, tragic tone.
    Adam?
    Yes.
    This may be our last minute alive.
    Ahead, I could see an enormous construction site. It was a building about a hundred floors high, just a framework of iron girders with a skin of netting to keep the workers safe as they toiled on the edges of the structure.
    Let’s fly there!
I cried.
Into one of those upper floors. Weave in and out, but be careful to avoid the netting!
    Baldasarre did as I said, and we streaked into the skeleton framework of the structure, barely avoiding pillars, wires, and pipes.
    The great horned owl had no problem with these new obstacles. I could sense his merciless eyes upon us, getting nearer and nearer.
    Baldasarre dodged and careered past the beams, then suddenly dropped down a shaft.
    The owl wasn’t fooled for a second. It followed us, claws extended for the kill.
    I screamed—which came out as a raven’s anxious croak.
    Abruptly, Baldasarre spun in a tight circle.
    The owl kept going, struck a curtain of netting, and fell, down and down, to the ground floor, where it tossed like some great fish caught at sea.
    Baldasarre let out a giddy series of throks, gloating at the owl’s mistake. We landed on