Very well, overeager explorers. Come in.

The stone ate them. The wall opened wide like a lopsided, misshapen mouth, a portal that sucked them into a black void. This time, Solis and Telsan were both too shocked to cry out. As soon as he felt himself being pulled in, Solis gave in, knowing that whatever dark cavern awaited them was where they needed to go.

Inside, lighter shadows shifted and churned, and they passed through them as they fell to a hard floor. Hard enough to shock their feet, but not hard enough that their wings couldn't catch them—though Telsan uttered a complaint as Solis' wing caught his own. The white-winged boy coughed on the thick dust that pervaded the room. Room? Was that what it was?

"Where do you think we are?" Telsan asked in a hushed voice.

The bone-dry voice, whatever its source, did not utter a response.

"Aside from being inside the island?" Solis muttered. "Who knows?" He trailed off as he realized he could make out Telsan's form just barely against the dark panorama. Stretching out his hands, he confirmed that he could pick out shapes. That meant . . . He looked up, watching the gray forms swirl through the air, and realized they were lights. Very, very dim ones. The walls also had veins that pulsed with the faint light, which all mixed in the dusty air to create a low-level ambient light. Their eyes simply had to adjust to it.

Telsan waved, indicating he'd discovered this as well. He looked about to speak when a flash came from their right, illuminating the room in greater detail before waning. They were in a corridor that dipped lower at a few points, leading to an arched doorway. The light pulsed again, and Solis sighed in response.

"Guess it wants us to come in, huh?"

Indeed, came the phantom voice. Come join us.

"Uh . . ." Solis looked at his friend. "You, um, hearing this guy too?"

The Ornis nodded.

Solis made an uncertain noise, looking behind them and trying to pierce the dim atmosphere of the hallway to the other side. Who knew what awaited them? With a sigh, he started for the archway at the far end.

Telsan followed. Neither said a word over the minute or two that it took them to walk the length of the corridor, but rather listened to the faint impression of breathing that seemed to come from the stone beneath their feet as much as from up ahead—and yet it grew steadily louder.

A few flashes later, they crossed through the doorway and into a spacious room with a similar filter of dust in the air but slightly better lighting—again from manifold sources. This room was more ominous, however, as it housed row after row of stone tables, some empty and others bearing what appeared to be sleeping bodies. Corpses? Some lay, some sat, but all were chained at the wrists and ankles. Eyes closed. As the two friends crept through one aisle, staring around in morbid wonder, a grinding noise came from up above, stopping them in their tracks.

A widening beam of light cut through the murky chamber as a hole was wrenched open, growing wider until a shape dropped through, landing a few aisles down from Solis and Telsan. Black and charred but bearing wings, the form hit one of the tables directly with a . . . less than pleasant noise.

After listening for the voice, the two approached the fallen body. A sick feeling stirred in Solis' guts, one that had gone from anticipation to trepidation . . . to dread. Telsan got the first look at it, and immediately recoiled, crying out. "Oh, no no no." After inspecting the body for only a few seconds, sounding sick all the while, Telsan pivoted around and caught Solis' shoulder. "You don't . . . need to look. It's her."

Solis felt his heart speed up. "Who? Which one of them?"

"Colla. N-Not Phoenix. Don't know where—" He cut off, dry heaving a couple times before shaking his beak.

Solis stole a look at Colla's cindered form, shuddering, before turning to gaze about at the other bodies in the room. Somehow, her death did not surprise him . . . but what about Phoenix? Surely she was all right. And . . . "Wait, Telsan, that's him." Solis gestured with a white wing and ran to approach one of the stone tablets, on which sat Faridi and a man he didn't recognize—perhaps that thief Telsan had heard about.

"It's . . . oh, it is him," Telsan said with pity in his voice. "So they're both . . ."

"Hey!" Solis suddenly shouted, feeling only a tad foolish that this was his solution to every problem today. "Whoever's running this twisted show down here, show yourself! What—you gonna kill us and chain us up too?"

There was a pause, during which a frightened Telsan seemed to hold his breath, and then the omnipresent voice rasped out, "Begone! Leave us. You have brought us one that is unusable, and because of you, more trouble will come! Get out!"

A door opened on one wall of the room, near the ceiling some thirty feet in the air. Light poured through it, so tempting and comforting. The boys looked at each other and shrugged. Neither was in a hurry to stay here, but . . .

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"What about Faridi?" Solis called into the darkness. He approached the table and poked at the man's skin where his robes did not cover it. It felt cold, but not corpse-cold. Just . . . chilled. His eyes were closed, but the many lines on his face, young though it was, stood out as though in concentration. There was no sign that he breathed.

Get out, the voice repeated. No louder, yet implacable and impatient.

"Solis? Telsan?" came a familiar voice. Vaguely from the direction of the door . . . ah, there she was.

"Phoenix! You're alive!" Telsan called, waving.

Solis turned back, tugging at one of Faridi's arms, which was held fast in the stone manacle. "Where were you, and what—rrgh—what happened out there?"

"Guys, you have to come! Hurry!" Phoenix called in a pleading voice. "He can't leave. You can't free him."

Solis hesitated. She was right, of course.

"Come on, Sol," Telsan said softly, nudging his shoulder.

Get out! the voice repeated, more forcefully. A hum begin to fill the air, and red lights glowed one by one on the ceiling.

Solis made up his mind. "All right, coming!" He took to the air and followed Telsan over to the door, and they escaped through the tunnel. The door shut with a thump behind them, and the humming could no longer be heard. They followed Phoenix's run as she led them out of the cavern. It didn't take long before they came out into sunlight. One of the side caverns. Solis caught Phoenix's hand, slowing her, and demanded, "What happened back there, Phoenix? What happened to Colla?"

"Solis . . ." Telsan cautioned, hesitance in his angled eyes.

Phoenix jerked free of Solis' grasp, turning to face them. He could now see the fear in her eyes, the sorrow, the panic. She stood there, fists clenched at her sides, trembling. "Just—Just be grateful I saved you. I didn't . . . do anything. This . . . woman showed up, from the Earth, and she . . ." She shook her head, licking her lips.

Solis dropped his shoulders, looking down at the dusty floor of the cavern mouth. "Sorry. I . . . didn't mean to imply you had anything to do with it. Whoever it was—wait, was she the one who opened the ceiling and threw her . . . the body in?"

Phoenix nodded, blinking back tears.

"Probably communicating with whatever that other voice was in there," Telsan added.

Phoenix nodded once more, turning back around and preparing to take off. "We really should be going," she said, manifesting her fiery wings with a whoosh.

"I'm sorry, Phoenix," Solis said as they took to the sky. The post-Hiding sun still cast its glare over the clouds, but they dove to take cover once again in the lower clouds.

The Flameborn made no reply.

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CHARACTERS

* Solis Lightwing (SOLE-iss)—The main character, a white-winged boy of unceasing curiosity who longs to see inside the forbidden Earth.

* Telsan (TELL-suhn)—Solis’ best friend, a young man of the Bird Tribe.

* Phoenix Dolce (DOLE-chay)—Friend of Solis and Telsan, a Flameborn girl of sixteen years. Daughter of Falla Dolce.

* Pim Lightwing—Daughter of Fey of Longfell and mother of Solis and Floris.

* Arthur Lightwing—An exterior miner, husband of Pim, head of the Lightwing household.

* Faridi (fuh-RID-ee)—A Tapiq man who frequently volunteers for lookout duty.

* Colla—A female Tapiq; often works with Faridi.

* Melka—One of the three living Tapiq Magnates.

* Donnor—Said to be the eldest of the three living Magnates.

* Spore—One of the three living Magnates. Doesn’t say much.

* Fey—Solis’ deceased grandmother, a former Magnate.

* Floris—Solis' younger sister. 11 years old; aspires to be a physician.

* Caris—Eldest of the three Lightwing children, now married and residing in the neighboring Tapiq village of Dram.

* Falla Dolce—Phoenix's mother, a Dustborn from a powerful elementalist family of Fenaback. Kept her family name due to unfortunate events she'd rather leave buried.

TERMS

* Earth, The—An immeasurable continent that looms over the entire sky. Forbidden to all save those whom the Magnates choose each year.

* Tapiq (tuh-PEEK)—The tribe of winged men who dwell in Ameros and the surrounding islands. As with most tribes, they have adopted some from other tribes and races as their own, while others are visitors.

* Ornis—Also called the Bird Tribe, though this isn’t entirely accurate, as there are multiple; most simply live farther north.

* Hiding, The—The six hours in the middle of the day when the Sun’s low-angled course takes it behind the infinite cloud layer that looms beneath the sky world.

* Magnate—One of the three living souls of the Tapiq tribe who have ascended to the Earth and returned, bearing supposedly infinite knowledge that they choose to keep hidden.

* Ameros (AM-uh-ros)—Largest island in the southeastern quadrant of the sky, where the Tapiq village of Megeth lies.

* Megeth (Meh-GETH)—Capital city of the Tapiq people.

* Grimstaf VI (GRIM-stahf six)—An artificial island created west of Ameros by the Harbinger.

* Elementalist—One born with a Kinship to an elemental force. They usually lack wings.

KINSHIPS

* Flameborn—Kin of flame. They form their own wings as needed from tongues of fire that sprout from their backs.

* Dustborn—Artists of soil and dust. They fly with wings created from nearby dust particles.

* Windborn—Wind kin. Unlike other elementalists, these often grow wings just like any other, though some possess heightened abilities allowing them to fly without wings—and thus lacking them.

* Waveborn (aka Watchers)—Keepers of the invisible wards that protect the sky islands from falling hazards. Also, those with the rare ability of sound manipulation.

* Dewborn—These control moisture and redirect water.

* Stormborn—Creators of small storms and electrical currents.

* Snowborn—Bringers of frost and snow on a small scale.

* Sunborn—Manipulators of light.

* Beastborn—These rare kind, seen largely in the northwestern isles, come in different orders according to a certain class of living creature.

* Cragborn—Manipulators of stone.