Farther down the mountain, on the trail they had taken up, there was a light. It was a copper light, flitting in and out of sight, moving rapidly toward the road.
“The Starling!” Alma cried. “We have to follow her!”
She shoved the wind jar into her jacket pocket, grabbed the quintescope, and took off. She ran as fast as she could, knowing this was her chance, a chance that might not come again. The descent was steep, and she stumbled a few times, careening into trees and grasping branches and bushes to steady herself, but she managed to stay upright.
She could hear Hugo and especially Shirin crashing along behind her. She didn’t stop to check on them though. She kept moving forward, sure that if she could make it to the road, where the trees cleared, she would spot the Starling again.
Before she got there, she saw the light. Not ahead of her, but above.
“Oh my goodness,” Shirin shouted from somewhere behind. “There she is!”
“Zonks!” Hugo cried. “She’s real.”
The Starling had burst over the tops of the trees, her fiery hair streaming behind her, her arms pointing up like an arrow. She wasn’t as bright as Alma remembered, but she was just as beautiful.
And she was flying. She was going to go back to the sky!
But as Alma watched in fear, the Starling lost momentum. Her limbs flailed outward. Her body spun and for a brief instant, Alma saw her face again. Those enormous black eyes were filled with the same fear Alma had seen when she’d startled her by the crater.
Then the Starling fell.
Alma let out a cry and started forward. The Starling would be injured, she was sure of it. She threw herself down the rest of the path and burst onto the road. Shoving the lens of the quintescope up to her eye, she located the gold trail that led down the rest of the mountain, ending in—
A tiny pinprick of copper streaking wildly southwest, toward Third Point. Toward Alma’s neighborhood.
Alma stood gasping for breath on the side of the road. She wasn’t going to be able to catch the Starling now. She had once again failed to help her.
Still, seeing her had made the light in Alma feel brighter. And the Starling was running toward her house. Maybe she was hiding somewhere nearby. Maybe if Alma searched again tomorrow night, she would find her. Maybe—
Her thoughts were interrupted as Hugo and Shirin came racing up next to her, and the clacking, clanking, jangling, squealing of the junkyard bus filled the air.