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NO SOONER HAD THE Citadel appeared in the distance than an obtrusive burst of bird calls startled Parker. The air vibrated. The noise, so intense, forced Parker to cover her ears. At first, she worried there might be another attack. The noise had pierced the silence with such quickness and wasn’t letting up. She called out to Belliza who seemed to float with the melody as if in a trance. Waving her arm and alternating between blocking her ears, Parker finally caught the bird’s attention. “What’s up with that sound?”
“Ah, of courze. I zhould have warned you. It iz the chant of the Zongbirdz. The humming iz our lifeline. They chant to thank the Zpiritz of the Zky for the zuztenance from the Virago treez. The chant happenz every week at thiz time. The zongz are prezent acrozz the planet. After the chanting, the Rock Dovez gather and diztribute food, grain, and water to all of our kingdomz.” Belliza’s usual cheerful buzz turned a bit melancholy. “Though zeemz of late, everyone iz grumbling. The Rock Dovez have been peztering the Zky King. Our people are not happy with the water rationing. No one iz getting enough. But what can we do under the circumztancez? We are ztill blezzed to have food and water. They muzt remember what iz important! I am zo zad for Zky King, there iz much tenzion.”
“Understandable. Of course, everyone is upset.” Parker asked, “But I’m not familiar with the Rock Dove species? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of them before.”
Belliza smiled, “In New York City, you call them pigeonz. They are really quite elegant, though a bit cocky. They dezerve more rezpect than your city dwellerz give them. Zky King holdz them in very high ezteem, that iz why he iz diztrezzed by their reportz of the bickering in our zkiez. They, too, are an important part of our lifeline.”
Parker’s ears were still ringing when she reached the Sky Box, but thankfully the chanting had stopped.
When Edison and Henley caught up to her, she said in a tone as matter of fact as she could muster, “In case you were worried about those loud noises before, Belliza explained it’s a weekly prayer chant. The Upperworld believes the prayers reach the Spirits who ensure their food supply flourishes. I was a little scared and thought we were being attacked. Were you?”
Edison and Henley’s eyes met, then returned to her and Belliza. “Yeah, we were wondering,” Edison said. “When I was in Passaria with them, they mentioned the chant and the weekly practice. Didn’t think it would be so loud and spooky. Thanks for the explanation,” Edison said. “But, now having asked us, where have you been?”
Parker grinned and decided to go for some humor. “Let’s see. Perfecting my flying. Putting my life in danger with some birds which look more like wolves than birds. Interesting stuff. I hope your stay has been as enlightening as mine.”
“So, while you’ve been cruising about on a joy ride, we’ve actually been productive and are beginning to figure stuff out,” Henley snipped. “How they’ve adapted to live here is nothing short of miraculous. Their homes, their communities, the skills they’ve perfected—these Upperworlders are pretty amazing. Right, Eddie?”
“You need to come with us, Parker,” he said. “I’ve been with the Songbirds and Henley’s been with the Weavers. Believe it or not, they are teaching us to work with some of our own talents. It’s pretty cool.”
She glanced at Belliza and figured best not to admit she’d had a peek at their activities.
“No rezt today either,” Belliza said. “Zky King azked if any of you are interezted in meeting up with the team inveztigating at the Zouth Gate. There iz a lot of damage there and before they cleanup, we are doing a thorough inzpection of the ruinz for cluez of any kind. The Great Hall haz already been through an over-haul—I did the checking by myzelf.” Parker raised her eyebrows. Seemed odd, for Belliza to be a search party of one, but she didn’t question.
Without hesitation, all three faces lit up and followed the hummingbird out of the Sky Box and into the wispy corridors. They floated through the Citadel clouds and Parker wondered how anyone could find their way with the absence of markings or distinctive spaces. Only clouds thick with layers of impenetrable mist lined their path. After a while, Parker called out ahead, “Belliza, how do you know where you are in this castle? Everything appears exactly the same.”
“I think on Earth you would call it a zixth zenze. We are almozt to the path that leadz to the Citadel baze, we call The Woodz. Once through the portal, the nezt openz to the Zouth Gate where we were for the funeralz of thoze lozt during the attack.”
After more of the familiar jostling and somersaulting, they emerged from the jelly portal tube. Before them, twenty strong Titans and Raptors whipped through the winds of the massive stick structure.
“I have never seen anything like this. How were your Weavers able to put all of this back together so quickly?” Henley asked. She ran her fingers over the dense, immaculate wooden structure. “This foundation for the Citadel is woven so perfectly as if machinery put this together. I noticed this in Kokobur, too. And how they float in the sky is just remarkable. You must tell me, Belliza!”
Belliza regarded her. “Magic, Henley. We believe the Zpiritz have helped uz create much of what iz unexplainable.”
They dove down deeper through The Woods and the canyon of clouds below it. Edison shared a solemn look with Parker and Henley, his eyes downcast. Parker empathized, it was impossible to wipe away the memories of the lit torches, the eerie procession of hooded Upperworlders. The bright white banners, pure and untouched by the debris below, still gently waved in the wind.
Belliza caught Parker staring at the flags. “Our bannerz ztay in place until we zurvey the Zouth Gate and The Woodz. We give our Zpiritz time to deliver our people to their final place in eternity.”
“You grace our presence, Parker,” a voice boomed from above her. Parker craned her neck upward and recognized Cranwell, the formidable Titan leader. He tipped his beak to Henley and Edison and directed, “Follow me. We are picking through the debris. You can begin here and work your way to the southwest. We covered the balance of the area, but feel free to give it another pass. We would hate to miss anything.”
Cranwell turned to Belliza, “I can’t bear to report to Sky King we turned nothing up. Not even a trace.”
They picked through the debris and for hours worked across the canyon until the dark of night shadowed the sky. It would soon be dark. Piles of feathers and puddles of blood at every turn, but not a glimpse of anything amiss, even the tiniest fish scale, to suggest an intruder of any sort, or an Underworlder had been present.
“How will you clean all this up, Belliza?” Parker asked.
“With great care. Juzt in caze we mizzed zomething, though with thiz many eyez, I don’t think we could have. Cleanup will only be difficult emotionally—you have zeen how eazy it iz for uz to move thingz around, but the feelingz, thoze cannot be put away zo eazily.”
“Hmmm—I was just thinking the same,” Henley said.
Edison added, “Me too. You all can do so much with the tip of a wing, or with a nod from your beaks. Have you considered the possibility an Underworlder could use telekinesis or pyrokinesis to inflict this damage? Could their powers have had a hand in this?”
“Zky King and I were queztioning that after the attack. But that would be impozzible. Only we Upperworlderz have that ability in our territory.”