Updraft (Bone Universe, Book 1)
Fran Wilde
Language: English
Pages: 215
ISBN: 0765377845
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
In a city of living bone rising high above the clouds, where danger hides in the wind and the ground is lost to legend, a young woman must expose a dangerous secret to save everyone she loves.
Welcome to a world of wind and bone, songs and silence, betrayal and courage.
Kirit Densira cannot wait to pass her wingtest and begin flying as a trader by her mother's side, being in service to her beloved home tower and exploring the skies beyond. When Kirit inadvertently breaks Tower Law, the city's secretive governing body, the Singers, demand that she become one of them instead. In an attempt to save her family from greater censure, Kirit must give up her dreams to throw herself into the dangerous training at the Spire, the tallest, most forbidding tower, deep at the heart of the City.
As she grows in knowledge and power, she starts to uncover the depths of Spire secrets. Kirit begins to doubt her world and its unassailable Laws, setting in motion a chain of events that will lead to a haunting choice, and may well change the city forever - if it isn't destroyed outright.
stepped forward. “It is tradition,” she said. Several more council members shifted uncomfortably. They knew she spoke truth. Another tradition was for Rumul to win in the Gyre. His face held the map of his wins. But the knife wound from his fight with Terrin had not healed easily. I had a chance. “I challenge you, Rumul, and bid my life for my mother’s,” I shouted again. Loud enough to be heard in the tiers below. “I offer it for the good of the city.” The morning song stopped. Singers and
made a racket, silk wings flapping against wind curls that crossed the tower top. The bone roof was smooth and white, showing no new growth. Cleats and pulleys carved around its edge supported the nets below. Varu had put out a dried-vine basket for the wingtesters. It held figs and a sour-tasting juice. The new tastes reminded us how far we’d come from home. I removed my lenses to clean them and looked out from Varu to its neighbors. I saw the Spire clearly for the first time, rising from the
eyebrow, and he pulled his hand away. The sun was a pale slip on the cloudtop. The Singers’ wings were tinted red with the light. The day neared Bethalial by the old Laws. “We congratulate Viit on its win,” the Singer with the silver streak in her hair said. “We will hurry to get you to your home towers before nightfall.” Behind us, the bantering and the post-wingfight win recapping faded as everyone turned to listen to the Singers. The members of my flight clustered forward. Nat kept to the
my spine, looked into the shadows of Rumul’s face. “I will challenge,” I said. Wik made one last attempt. “Sellis should be the one to meet the tower challenger. She has been training longer.” Rumul silenced him, holding up a single finger. “She and one more novitiate will challenge on the same day.” In the quiet, I spoke again. This time with force behind each word. “I am ready.” Challengers would receive several days to try to learn the Gyre, though no Singer would help them. I could
well down in the Gyre now, too close to the novices and windbeaters throwing flaming rot gas. I heard Moc shout for me. I fought my way to an updraft, hoping Nat would follow me, that he was strong enough to follow me. He did. Barely. His pale wings filled with wind. “I will tell you what I know,” I said. “But you must give up then, you must concede. Promise?” He whistled. Our long-ago flight signal. Agreement. I was about to break the Spire’s rules, but perhaps it would work. Nat would be