Sunwing Read Online Free PDF Page A

claws, uncomfortable. He’d never been very good at holding his tongue. “I mean, if the forest was empty, how could you hear bats?”
    “That,” said Arcadia, “is a mystery.” And she said it in such a way that there could be no more discussion of it.
    “And there were no other birds or beasts here?” Frieda wanted to know.
    Shade was suddenly aware of the sky brightening above them. In any other forest, the dawn meant owls would soon be patrolling the sky, birds rousing themselves in their nests, beasts snuffling for food. But Arcadia didn’t seem at all concerned. She smiled again.
    “Of course not,” she replied. “The Humans made a perfect haven for us. There are no owls, or any other bird, for that matter. Nor are there beasts. Only bats.”
    The words were out of Shade’s mouth before he could stop himself. “But why?” he asked. “Why have they built this place for us?”
    “To fulfill Nocturna’s Promise,” said Arcadia simply. “Come and see.”
    Arcadia led the way to the topmost branches of the tree, and there Shade could see the sky paling, and a stronger band of light across the eastern horizon. As if drawn, the other bats of the forest were sailing up through the foliage to gather near the roof, some finding roosts on high trees, others circling excitedly, watching. The thrum and creak of wings filled the air. “Watch!” they whispered in fevered anticipation. “Look!”
    It was the dawn. Shade stared, transfixed, as a bright sliver of sun curved above the distant horizon. And his thoughts flew back, months ago, to the northern forests, when he was just a newborn, and he’d risked his life for such a sight. The memory of the owl that had tried to hunt him down—the smell and sound of it—fluttered so strongly through his head that he couldn’t help glancing over his shoulder, just to make sure he was safe. He could see the same mixture of anxiety and awe on the faces of the other bats from his colony, even Frieda’s.
    Millions of years without the sun, and now they were watching it rise with regal grace, trailing streams of mist from thehorizon. Shade had once flown in the full blaze of day, but he’d never seen the sun break free from the horizon. The bats had fallen into a silent reverie as the sun assumed its full glory, a blazing disc of light in the sky.
    Shade looked around at all the ecstatic, upturned faces, their fur bathed in the sun’s light, their eyes sparkling. And he sensed that this must be a ritual for them, gathering to see the dawn.
    He looked at Marina, and it was as if he were seeing her for the first time, her fur so luminous. And so soft. Every sleek hair glittered. She seemed like some new kind of creature, spun out of light. She turned her bright eyes on him, a miniature sun in each one, and smiled, and he smiled weakly back and looked away, surprised and awkward.
    The sun seemed to transform everything, to pick out details he’d never noticed: the veins of leaves, the shadows in the bark. He wanted to touch everything all over again. The world seemed
more.
He looked back at the sun itself and was surprised to realize he was only squinting a little. He frowned. “It’s brighter than that,” he muttered to Marina.
    She nodded. “I remember.”
    When they’d flown under its full glare to escape Goth and Throbb, he couldn’t even turn his gaze on it fully without powerful twin stabs of pain through his eye sockets.
    “The roof must dull it somehow,” he said, and he remembered its dark sheen from the outside.
    Arcadia rose into the air and circled above them, eyes gleaming with light. “You see,” she said. “The Promise has been fulfilled! Here is the sun! And we’re able to look at it. We’re able to fly in its light, and fear nothing. There are no owls, no beasts to hunt us. Do you see? The sun is ours again! Our banishment is over!”
    Always Shade had thought there would be a war with theowls. How else to end their banishment, to win the