The Eye of the Falcon Read Online Free PDF Page A

she’d risked her life for Keftiu—but she’d never gotten the chance. That day she’d been banished to Taka Zimi, and she’d never seen her mother again. Now she couldn’t ever make Yassassara proud of her. It was too late.
    She turned to find Userref observing her thoughtfully. “You’re more like her than you know,” he said. “Just as brave and just as strong-willed.”
    Pirra flinched. Once, Hylas had said something similar. You’re brave and you don’t give up.
    With a snarl, she ground her fist against the wall. Stop thinking about Hylas.
    â€œAnd Pirra,” said Userref from the doorway. “That feather. It’s an emblem of Heru, my falcon-headed god. You can’t get rid of it as easily as that.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Pirra said sulkily.
    â€œYou sent it out on the wind. Who knows what the wind will send back?”

6
    S he remembered the Egg. Being all crumpled up inside, with her feet jammed under her beak. She couldn’t move a claw, it was awful.
    But she did move. Twisting her head, she pecked, and panted, and pecked again—and at last the Egg cracked, and she was free .
    She couldn’t see, but she was aware of the other fluffy hatchlings, and of her mother’s warm feathers pressing down on her. She smelled droppings, sticks, and rock. She heard her parents’ piercing cries, and the roaring air.
    She was hungry . She jostled and trod on her brothers to get at the meat that her parents stuffed down her beak.
    She grew stronger. Now that she could see, she struggled out of the Nest and explored the Ledge. She pulled her brothers’ tails with her beak, and peered at the slow, earthbound creatures in the forest far below.
    She learned to sharpen her sight by bobbing her head up and down. Soon she could follow three snowflakes at once. She loved all the bright colors: a red-and-gold eagle, the brilliant hues of flies. But if a crow flew past, glinting green and purple and black, her talons tightened—because crows steal eggs, and are the enemies of falcons.
    After several Lights and Darks, strange itchy bumps began breaking out all over her. She was outraged. Then her fluff fell out and the itchy bumps grew into feathers.
    She adored them. They were white, brown, pink, gray, blue; some speckled, all beautifully sleek. She learned to tidy them by running them through her beak with a satisfying zzzt; and now when she watched her parents soaring on the Wind, she envied them. She longed to explore the Sky. It was always changing: sometimes dark, sometimes light. During the Lights, the fledgling sensed something vast and powerful hidden behind the clouds. It never showed its face, although she wished it would.
    Above all, she longed to fly. She flapped her wings till she was exhausted, but nothing happened.
    Then one Light, as she was furiously flapping, the Wind scooped her off the Ledge—and for the flick of a feather, she was very nearly flying!
    Abruptly, the Wind dropped her and she fell off the Ledge. She fell for ages, too startled to squawk, and landed in snow. Angry and humiliated, she struggled to her feet and shrieked for her parents, but they’d gone hunting and didn’t hear.
    The fledgling gaped in terror. She was stuck on the ground like an earthbound creature. She could see the Ledge, horribly high above, but she couldn’t get back to it.
    She started to crawl over the snow, hoping the Wind would pick her up again. Instead she slipped and rolled over and over.
    She came to rest in a patch of bare earth, by a hole seething with ants. She pecked one. It tasted sour, so she spat it out, but this angered the other ants, and they started biting her feet. So many ants, swarming up her legs and stinging the roots of her feathers. She flapped and shrieked in panic.
    The ground shook, and a huge earthbound monster darkened the Sky. He scooped her up and started picking off the ants. His voice was