JAWBONE
My name wavers on gusts of wind.
Growing louder and louder, as though it seeps down through the dark mound of snow that covers my body. Someone saw me fall.
Is it Mother? Surely Mother and Father heard me cry out? They must have rushed to the edge and seen the cliff let go of me.
Right above my face, I hear clawing. Frantic digging. Soft pings and chirps.
I blink my eyes open. The blackness is going gray, then lighter gray, and finally I see moonlight shining off huge talons, turning my icy tomb into a sea of silver flashes. If there’s moonlight, the storm has broken. How long ago did I hit bottom? How long have I been buried in this drift?
Am I alive?
Can’t feel my heart beating, but I’m so focused on the strange face emerging through the blanket of snow I don’t care. Silver eyes and sharp teeth glint.
It’s the Flame Bird . . .
She’s so beautiful. Her scales have a rainbow shine. Gripping my arm with her talons, she drags me out of the drift. My eyes seem frozen wide open. I can’t blink. Pale lances of moonlight slant through the drifting clouds.
The Flame Bird drags me against her and covers me with her wing, sharing her warmth. Her scales are downy soft. I thought they’d be spikey, like the tips of bone slivers.
I want to thank her, but there’s no air in my lungs.
Flashes of light wink behind my eyes. I’m confused at first, then I realize they’re words. If I can just string them together, I’ll understand what she’s saying.
Stay brave now, Kujur. Don’t close your eyes. The doorway approaches. See it out there rolling across the face of the Ice Giants?
Can’t answer. My voice is dead.
Probably I am dead, and she’s showing me the way to the afterlife where my ancestors wait to greet me. Oddly, that does not frighten me. Instead, I’m wildly glad. I will see my old family. I have missed them so much.
Just dream awake until it arrives, then you must not lose sight of me. I’ll try not to get too far ahead of you, but you can’t lag behind. Do you understand? I’m going to take you home, but you must keep up. I don’t know how long I have.
She gestures northward with her long snout, and I see something moving. What is that? It rolls like a monstrous black tidal wave, blotting out the campfires of the dead as it comes on.
With her shining talons, the Flame Bird pulls me to my feet, and holds me up as the towering darkness looms above us.
Nothing to fear, Kujur. It’s always been there, hiding in the crevices inside you, waiting for you to see it. Just let the door open inward. The other boy will find you.
Panic surges through me. “No! He’s dead! I—I can’t let him find me!”
He walks in a landscape of terror that he can’t escape. You must help him.
When the Flame Bird gazes down, the tiny scales that cover her head glimmer.
Look up now. See the doorway turning in the sky above us?
Before I can answer, the blackness swallows me and rolls me over and over, until I tumble out across a vast desert of pure endless night. There’s nothing here, just an empty wasteland so black it shines. And eerily silent, as though all echoes are stillborn.
This must be somewhere along the path to the campfires of the dead. It’s the only thing that makes sense. The cliff let go of me and I fell. Boulders and chunks of ice landed on top of me and crushed me to pulp. I’m just as dead as the other boy. But where’s the Road of Light I’m supposed to follow? There’s no light at all and . . .
Silver eyes wink in the black wasteland ahead.
Can’t stop, Kujur. We will fall in love with the darkness. Come.
I trot out across the blackness where her eyes are the only lights.