The Feverbird's Claw Read online

  DEDICATION

  TO THE HIGH TEST GIRLS, INCLUDING REBEKAH, FOR ALL THE FABULOUS BOOK TALKING.

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Map

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Credits

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Map

  CHAPTER

  ONE

  IT WAS ONLY BECAUSE MORALIN HAPPENED TO turn her head at the right half instant that she saw her death coming straight at her. The fight had started the same way it always did, with the traditional solemn steps. But even this routine beginning felt precious—since today was the last day of her childhood.

  Step to the right, turn to the left, one knee on the mat. As she watched the trainer touch his forehead in a gesture of reverence to the Great Ones, she did the same. She couldn’t see his face behind the net, and he couldn’t see hers. He would have no reason to imagine she was a girl, a person strictly forbidden inside the fighting yard. But then what made him seem ferocious as they faced each other?

  This was a simple fight. Moralin calmed herself as they made their opening moves. Lunge, retreat, arms ready. But she felt small and chilled, as if a wind had whined its way inside the fighting yard and were blowing on the back of her neck.

  “Begin,” the trainer called. They swung their fighting sticks this way and that. Routine. She’d wanted to feel and see and—yes, even smell—every minute of this fight. Tomorrow everything would be different.

  Tomorrow she would wake to the li-li-li of joy cries. She would be stuffed full of food and dancing, and at the end of the festivities she, along with her awa clan, all the other girls of her birth year, would enter their time of temple service. When she came out, she would be a woman and would surely die if she ever looked upon the fighting yard again.

  The pain of that thought made her do something she had not done for years: break training.

  That was when the trainer made his swing for her head.

  Standing in the small changing room, Moralin was suddenly as weak as pale broth, so weak that the stick fell from her hand and clattered on the stone floor. She didn’t kneel to pick it up. How could she have forgotten the first rule of staying alive in the fighting yard? Pay attention.

  Still, what reason would the trainer have had to go against tradition? Boys were occasionally killed in these simple fights, but only because they had done something rash or stupid.

  It’s true that no one would blame a trainer who killed a girl in the midst of such dire trespass. But every time she entered or departed from the fighting yard, she used Old Tamlin’s secret entrance, always moving into the fighting yard hidden in loose tunic and pants, netting that covered her head, and a hooded cloak. Fighters did not want to see the face of someone they might kill in the next hour.

  She pushed away clammy fear. Just as important, what had caused her to turn at the exact right moment? Had her grandfather, Old Tamlin, broken the strict rules of the fighting yard and made a slight noise, a sucking in of his breath? Or maybe her skin had known what to do. She remembered a day long ago when she was a little girl sitting beside Old Tamlin, holding one small blistered hand in the other blistered hand.

  “I cannot pick up the fighting stick today,” she had said, flinching as he looked at her palm. Just the weight of his gaze made it hurt.

  He had pointed calmly at the blisters. “Under that skin is new skin. You must keep going until your skin serves you. That way, if training ever fails you, your skin itself will know what to do.”

  Even as she whimpered, knowing how the new, tender skin would burn, she had obediently picked up the fighting stick. So today had her skin known? She’d made a move she had never practiced, a duck and then a kick so agile that she was able to knock her opponent’s stick to the ground before she even knew what she was doing. Miraculous.

  Miraculous? She quickly touched her forehead. Beware of blasphemy. Possibly it wasn’t her own skin at all that had saved her. Possibly Cora Linga or another of the Great Ones had whispered in her ear.

  She wrapped herself in the cloak. What if on this very last time in the fighting yard, she had been killed or mangled? At that thought she broke the second rule of staying alive: Manage your fear.

  Fortunately, she was alone. Her legs began to tremble so that she had to kneel and put her head down to touch her knees. But inside the small room no one could see her. No one except the shadow who had silently entered and now bent to pick up the fighting stick.

  Shadows had grotesque faces, so as a kindness, they were given white masks that were molded to their faces and could not be taken off. Shadows never spoke. They knew their tongues could be removed if they ever did.

  The sun had turned the temple tapestries to blazing gold by the time Moralin stepped into the great hall for her noon prayers. She wore her velee draped over her shoulders, hood down. Adult women and most girls covered their heads when they left their houses, but she hated how hard it was to see through the eyeholes.

  Tomorrow her new home would be here in the secret temple complex. What work would she do? Would the others talk to her? Every time she asked what it would be like, Mother and Grandmother shook their heads and put their fingers to their lips.

  Solemnly she lifted her arms to the central sacred tapestry. In her mind she could hear the elders’ chants. “The Great Ones showed us this place of good water in the bowl of a valley surrounded by four sacred hills. We carried our children, under a starbright sky. We built this temple, where the Great Ones now live.”

  She looked directly into the woven eyes of Cora Linga, the Great One she had promised to serve always. “Tell me of the next step on my path,” she whispered. “After tomorrow what will my life be?”

  She stilled herself to listen. At first no mysteries revealed themselves. But then she was sure she heard something. “If you cannot see beyond the silver threads around you,” the voice said, “why twist and thrash about? When caught in a web not of your own making, why assume the spider’s poison?”

  Moralin touched her forehead gratefully. It was true. She had been tangled in sadness about leaving her family. Caught in dread about living with the other girls. But the spider’s web—as one ancient poet called the temple complex—was also a chance for a new and even wonderful life. She hurried outside onto the stone street.

  “Hsst!”

  Moralin froze and coughed to cover up her fear.

  “Come here,” someone called softly. Moralin turned and saw three girls from her awa clan huddled by the temple wall. They had never spoken to her before. She was always the strange one, hiding her scarred hands in clenched fists.

  “Why even ask her? She wouldn’t know.” This second voice was tinged with scorn. Only the highborn were allowed to wear silk, and Moralin could
see that this girl’s clothing was plain, though she did have a delicate belt with glossy black beads woven on golden threads.

  “Right, don’t ask her.” The third girl’s voice was a scared whisper. “Don’t ask anybody. Forget the idea.”

  That was Salla, whose grandmother and Moralin’s grandmother were weaving partners.

  The first girl beckoned. Her fingers were already stained brown with ceremonial dye. “We were discussing whether there was any way to get outside the city wall to gather ripe starfruit. I heard …” She glanced quickly around. “I heard that yesterday three or four people actually did it.”

  Why did they think she might know how to get outside? Because she was one of the few Delagua who had seen over the city wall? She shivered.

  “You’re not afraid of us, are you?”

  Moralin couldn’t shake the feeling that the girl was staring at her, even though a bold, direct look would be impossibly rude. “No.” She lied calmly, wondering if they had whispered together about what had happened to her when she was small and helpless.

  She remembered stooping to reach for a flickering fish in the water that ran in channels beside the street.

  “Stop that,” her mother had said sharply.

  Her grandmother, more gently, had bent to say something, but Moralin had run away, keeping her eyes on the fish’s tail as it swished through the water. She wasn’t aware of anything else—not sights or sounds or smells—until the stones behind her suddenly rang and clattered with running feet.

  She’d squatted, terrified. Rough hands grabbed her from behind. The next thing she could remember was screaming, screaming, as a hand held her by the back of her clothes, dangling her into empty space at the top of the city wall.

  She would have tumbled, dived, dropped down down except that Old Tamlin, who was old even then, had somehow saved her. All the rest of that year she cowered in the house, howling in terror when anyone tried to take her outside. That was when Old Tamlin saved her a second time by doing something absolutely forbidden. As if she were his grandson and not a granddaughter, he had started fighting training. “Now,” he told the family, “she will never again feel the terrible helpless fear.”

  “Come on.” The first girl folded her brown patterned fingers imploringly. “We’ll be stuck inside for years.”

  “Let’s just go home,” Salla whimpered.

  The girl continued as if Salla hadn’t spoken. “I’ve heard that a few houses have hidden passageways to the outside. In case of siege. If anyone had such a thing, it would be your grandfather.” She glanced at Moralin with a coaxing smile.

  In the fighting yard, Moralin knew she was strong and graceful and that sometimes people stopped to watch her. What if in her new life she could have something even better than admiration? She pointed to the top of the high city wall. “Meet me at my grandfather’s house when the flag flaps with the wind that brings the afternoon rains.”

  After a long moment the girl laughed, a high, nervous sound. “You’ll really do it?”

  “Of course I will.” Moralin said, now bold. No one was allowed outside the city gates, but the punishment could not be harsh for Old Tamlin’s granddaughter. Could it? Anyway, Cora Linga had said she did not need to be afraid.

  Salla curled and uncurled her fingers anxiously. “Won’t someone see us?”

  Better than admiration. What if she could have friendship? “My grandfather will be at the fighting yard. He might leave a shadow at the house—that’s all.”

  The girls nodded. Shadows didn’t talk.

  Before she even reached her house, Moralin could hear Mother scolding. Someone had tangled threads in the weaving. Or a servant had made a bad bargain at the market. If only Mother would sit and comb her daughter’s hair. But the day before a ceremony was too important.

  The carved front door swung open. Grandmother stepped out and bent to pull a dead blossom from a flowering moralin bush. When she straightened, purple flowers from a hanging plant cascaded over her head and shoulders like a second velee. Moralin wished she could see Grandmother’s face. “What was your temple training like?” she longed to ask. But every girl took a vow not to reveal anything.

  So she asked, instead, “Do you know where I can find a basket?”

  “Aha.” There was a smile in Grandmother’s voice. Her smile had once dazzled princes, and it still had power, power to soothe Moralin—and make her nervous. “What would my grandchild who has no love for the back-bending chore want with a basket?”

  “It’s just an idea I had. I want to get something for Mother … and everybody.”

  For a moment Grandmother simply stood tall and calm. She had probably heard the argument with Mother this morning and Moralin’s wail. “But I hate wearing a velee.” Mother, with her bone-strong training, rarely raised her own voice, and somehow her calmness made Moralin shout and flail her arms. Even the serenity stone didn’t help in those moments.

  By the door stood a basketful of moralin flowers—Mother’s favorite—waiting for tomorrow’s festivities. Mother must have proudly carried a basket just like this for the naming ceremony for her older daughter. Tomorrow she would carry it again to celebrate the start of that daughter’s temple service.

  Grandmother scooped the flowers out. “Don’t go off and leave it somewhere. The pattern is exquisite. One of your mother’s most beloved.”

  “I’ll be careful.” Moralin hesitated. She could hear Lan in the front room, chanting a rhyme. Lan was gentle and sweet. Sometimes Moralin’s fingers itched to pinch her just so she would learn not to be soft. Lan giggled, and Moralin took a step toward the sound. Then she heard Mother’s voice again. Moralin grabbed the basket and ran, yanking at the velee as it tangled around her neck.

  Perhaps they wouldn’t come. She leaned against a little-used door to Old Tamlin’s house and glanced up at the Delagua flag—red cloth, a yellow feverbird with its great wings spread wide, a worm held protectively in its claw.

  But when the flag began to flap and the people cleared the streets for the coming of the rain, even Salla was there, fingering the brown and orange handles of her basket. Light-headed with excitement, Moralin hurried them inside and down a dark staircase. Should she ask Cora Linga for help? She flushed, hearing Grandmother’s voice in her mind. “Why do you assume the Great Ones’ only purpose is to make you happy?”

  At the bottom stood a shadow, pale in the yellow tunic his kind wore. He dropped to his knees, head to the floor. “Look up,” Moralin ordered. It was her duty as a highborn to check the red dye on his mask that showed he was in the right place. Shadows were like children, needing guidance.

  Yes, this one had Old Tamlin’s mark, a coiled creeper. She took the oil lamp from his hand, sent him upstairs, and started down the hall. Their secret would rest safely with him. A shadow, happy to curl in the feverbird’s protection, would never betray anyone from his master’s family.

  The door of the small room was locked by a huge wooden bolt carved by ancient craftsmen. If a person knew how to move twelve of the ivory knobs into exactly the right positions, the bolt would slide smoothly. Old Tamlin had made her practice the secret pattern over and over. “Why must I?” she had finally cried out in frustration.

  “I shall not live forever.” His voice had been more stern than usual. “But perhaps if you understand the city’s secrets, the day will come when you will show people what they need to know.”

  “Me?”

  “Perhaps.”

  There. She stepped into the dark tunnel and looked back at the three ghostly faces, allowing herself a brief smile of triumph. If they were quick, they could return long before Old Tamlin was finished with his fighting yard duties. No one would ever know what she had done.

  She put the oil lamp in a little nook where a tinder purse was hanging. Parts of the tunnel were damp and might put out the flame. “Slide your fingertips along the wall as you walk,” she told them. In a few minutes the silent, thick blackness made her feel like a fis
h, swishing silkily through a water channel, or a flower petal, floating. Listening to the slap of their soft footsteps, she was absurdly happy. Even if she had to sit at temple looms day after day weaving tapestries, she and her new friends would whisper and laugh about this adventure.

  The tall tunnel was cold. After a few minutes Salla whimpered, and Moralin felt a hand clutch her shoulder. She let it stay, remembering how she had clung to Old Tamlin the first time he brought her here. Even now the blackness was like an immense animal pressing against her eyes, but she felt comforted by the narrow tunnel, so different from the high places, the up-swoop of her stomach if she even glanced at the top of the city wall.

  “You must face your fear and overcome it,” Old Tamlin often said, coaxing her to use jutting stones to try climbing a little way up. It was the only thing he had asked her to do that she never could.

  Above their heads people were walking along streets. Silently she counted her footsteps until she was sure they must be under the great wall. Finally, she could feel the tunnel floor beneath her feet begin to slant up. Far ahead she could see narrow threads of dim light. The trapdoor.

  By the time they all were standing in the natural cave, her blood was singing with the pleasure of the risk. She pointed to the small opening where light filtered through green branches.

  The city sprawled like a giant wildcat in a fertile valley sheltered by the four sacred hills. Beyond the hills were uncivilized lands: to the south, the red forest full of savage people and snarling beasts and the yellow-brown sands that sucked all life from travelers; to the east, cliffs and a swift and dangerous river; to the north, the Great Mountains. Old Tamlin had never taken her beyond the cave, but she knew that when they crawled out, they would be on one of the hillsides that overlooked the city.

  At the cave mouth she listened. Not a rustle or a whisper. She wriggled through the opening and used her hands and head to part the brush that hid it. When she was all the way out, she stood in bright sunlight beside a gnarled jamara tree.

  After she stopped blinking, she saw that ten, maybe twelve men and boys from the nearby villages stood on the slope, where the ground was bright with raindrops and with purple-red starfruit that grew on creeping vines. “Come on,” the girl with the belt said, and they all started to run through the wet grass.