ALUNA SAT WITH CALLI on the rim above Skyfeather’s Landing and studied the landscape. She’d been here more than three weeks, and she still hadn’t figured out how to get herself and Hoku off the mountain and away from the Aviars.

She looked down the mountainside, toward the sea. Far below, jagged rocks gave way to scrubby green trees, then bigger trees, then suddenly the vast shimmering blanket of blue ocean. There was no beach, no gentle transition between the Above World and her home.

If she could only find a way to the cliffs. She pictured herself scrambling down the rocks, dodging between trees, and diving a hundred meters into the water. Too bad the Aviars would probably catch her before she made it ten meters down the mountain. Wings were so unfair.

Aluna picked a stone from the pile in her left hand and threw it as far as she could. It bounced three times on the rocks and disappeared.

“You’re amazing with the spear,” Calli said. She tossed one of her own stones, and it fell not far from where they were sitting. “I can’t believe how fast you’re learning. If you had wings, they’d beg you to be a warrior.”

“But I don’t have wings, do I? This isn’t my home, and it never will be,” Aluna snapped, with more anger than she’d intended. She took a slow breath, then continued more calmly. “Calli, you know I have to leave.”

She’d been trying to bring up the subject most of the day. It shouldn’t have been that hard, but she genuinely liked Calli and the girl so desperately wanted a friend. Aluna threw another rock and watched it ricochet out of sight. “I have to save my people. You understand that, right?” She said it to remind Calli, but also to remind herself. She had a place here with the Aviar, a useful place. In many ways, she fit in with the bird women far better than she did with her own people. But she’d never truly belong.

Besides, the Coral Kampii needed her. She couldn’t bear the thought that more Kampii might have died while she’d been stuck in this place.

Calli didn’t say anything. She didn’t throw another rock, either.

“Oh, fins and flippers!” Aluna said.

“It’s just . . . I know you’re being forced to stay here and all, but the last few weeks have been . . . nice,” Calli said. “I like spending time with you and Hoku.”

She gave Calli credit for not stumbling over Hoku’s name this time, though the girl still turned red as a shrimp. Young love looked so incredibly messy, with all the mumbling and smiling and saying ridiculous things. Good thing Aluna had never fallen into that trap. None of the boys back in the City of Shifting Tides had ever inspired her to embarrass herself like that. Life was easier without the complication. Taking care of Hoku was enough work without throwing another boy into the mix.

Calli stammered on. “I was hoping that you might want to stay. You seem to like the fighting, and I know Hoku has a lot more books to read. And, well, I’ve always dreamed of having a sister. . . .”

As Calli’s words trailed off, Aluna thought about Daphine and how her older sister had practically raised her from birth. Fed her, dressed her, held her when she cried . . . mocked her gently, before their brothers could jump in with harsher words. Without Daphine, what would have happened to her? As frustrating as her sister’s perfection was, she couldn’t imagine life without her. By comparison, Calli’s life seemed so lonely — full of women and politics and important things, but no real friends.

“I promised to help you escape, and I will,” Calli added hastily. She dropped her handful of rocks into a pile by her side. “I was just hoping you’d stop wanting to leave. I was dumb to even think it.”

Aluna shifted to her feet and dropped her remaining rocks back to the earth.

“I wish it were different. I like you — I really do,” Aluna said, and she meant it. Calli smiled. “But we’re captives here. We can’t leave, and we can’t truly be ourselves. If you and I got in a fight, you could probably have me punished, maybe even killed.” She looked at the girl, the so-called vice president of the Aviar, and felt a surge of pity. “We can’t truly be sisters like this.”

Calli stood up suddenly, but kept her eyes on the ground. “We’re supposed to be practicing. I don’t want to get in trouble.” She grabbed her spear off the ground and readied it. Aluna didn’t have the heart to tell her it was upside down.

She pulled out the weapons she’d been learning, a pair of tiny, sleek talons. She held a silver canister in the palm of each hand. With a flick of her wrist, the tips of the canisters opened and two sharp claws attached to long, slender chains flew out. She spun the chains in the patterns High Senator Electra had taught her. Not only could she stab someone’s eye out, she could use the talons to wrap around her opponent’s leg or neck or weapon. She did that to Calli now. One of her talons shot out and wound itself around the grip of Calli’s spear. Aluna yanked. Calli’s spear jerked out of the girl’s hands and landed straight into Aluna’s.

“Wow,” Calli said. “That was fast.”

Aluna dropped the spear to the ground, pressed a button on her talons, and watched the long chains retract back into their canisters.

“There. We practiced. Now I’m going for a walk.”

Calli didn’t argue.

High above, a group of senators circled. They drifted in calculated patterns, watching for enemies. Aluna never went anywhere without feeling their gaze prickling on the back of her neck. Still, she turned her back on Calli and started to walk. She needed privacy, even if it was an illusion.

She gave the basin that housed Skyfeather’s Landing a wide berth. There was too much activity — scavenging parties were always leaving or returning, Aviars with their beautiful wings fluttering everywhere. Aluna hugged the lip of the mountain and walked away from the ocean. On days like today, it hurt to see so much blue.

Traveling this direction, the scrubby green covering the mountain slope turned into forest, then into an even bigger and scarier forest. The trees crowded so close together that it was impossible to see the ground. She suspected that not even the Aviars’ enhanced eyesight could penetrate the thick layers of green. It would be difficult to fly through the dense trunks and branches. With wings, it would be hard to even walk through the brush without losing feathers. All of which made it the perfect direction for her escape . . . if only she could figure out how to survive several hundred meters of an almost sheer drop to make it to the tree line.

The Above World felt lonely. She missed the water’s embrace, the sound of dolphins laughing, the monthlong soliloquies of dying whales. She missed Daphine and practicing with Anadar. She even missed Ehu and Pilipo, despite the fact that they annoyed her most of the time. Her father, now, he was a fish of a different color. She didn’t exactly miss him, but she did wonder sometimes if he’d be proud of her, of everything she was trying to do.

Far below, the trees began to move. Strange, since there was almost no breeze; even the Aviars had to flap to stay in their positions. Aluna looked closer. Only a few of the trees shook, a small cluster that seemed to be moving closer and closer up the mountain. Something was cutting through the forest like a harpoon through the water. Something big. And it was headed straight for Skyfeather’s Landing.

The Aviars were under attack.