Drift: River of Falcons Book 1

The Hunt Begins

She tiptoed into the forest, aiming for a thick stand of Silver Maples and whispering a request for their protection. It was what Summer would have done. She hoped the Spirits were listening.

When she reached the far side of the maples, she picked up her pace. Oaks, chestnuts, lindens, and beeches towered on massive trunks all around her. She came to a place where a tumbledown stone wall hosted saplings growing every which way out of scattered stones. Bending a sapling aside, she squeezed her way through and stopped to study the land beyond. The trees were younger, thin, and crowded together. An abandoned pasture, she decided, as she wove her way into it.

The thickness of the eager young growth made it hard to see ahead, so she was surprised when a large black hawk landed on a tree in front of her. The branch bent with its weight. At least it wasn't the vulture she was running from, although it startled her nonetheless.

She stopped, eying the hawk. She noted the steady stare of its fierce golden-brown eyes. Next she noticed its beak, which curved into a viciously sharp tip. When her examination reached the hawk's talons, she noted that something small and white was pinned beneath a talon. Was the hawk holding a scrap of paper? Why would it do that?

*

Jasper had found the apprenticeship brutal at first, but he had come to realize two things. First, his fellow apprentices had less innate talent for magic than he did. Second, most apprentices were more than ready to trade their humanity for the power and prestige of sorcery. He found that disgusting.

Actually, there was a third thing. Jasper discovered that he fared far better by pretending to be stupid, and so he learned to hang back and perform his lessons as poorly as he could. As a consequence, he was often ignored by sorcerers and apprentices alike, and when he failed to show up for a lesson, the master rarely noticed. And so he was able to sneak away from the Keep and wander around, following his own investigations or meeting in secret with his sister to discuss matters of concern to her.

June was concerned about the princess of the prophecy, and she frequently asked Jasper to try to find her. Now here he was, staring at a girl who seemed to fit the prophecy startlingly well, right down to the lace fringe at the bottom of her pale linen dress. Jasper knew that the Palace was buzzing that day because Magus, the sorcerer in residence, was drilling his guards. To make matters worse, another company of guards had come down from the Keep and was on maneuvers nearby. It would be extraordinarily poor timing for someone who looked like a princess to wander into the Palace grounds. But what was he to do about it?

*

The hawk dropped the scrap of paper. It fluttered down into the leaves at Drift's feet. There were tiny words scrawled on it in looping cursive, but the hawk's sharp talons had crumpled the note. Drift spread it out carefully on her palm. Squinting, she could just make out what it said: Go home right now!

Drift looked up quickly, startled. The hawk was gone.

That was when the note burst into flames. "Spirits!" she exclaimed, dropping it and shaking her hand.

She scanned the woods. Someone, she thought, must have spoken a fire-starting charm. It occurred to her that their aim was remarkably good, since only the note had burned. It also occurred to her that the forest was unusually quiet. No birds sang. No squirrels scolded her from the tree tops. She held her breath and listened. In the very far distance she could hear faint metallic clangs and gruff voices.

She turned and began to run. When she reached the hedge, she continued past it and toward the southwest until she neared the road. She stopped and waited for her breathing to slow, then listened again. A jay called. A pair of goldfinches flew past, twittering cheerfully. Two squirrels chased each other up and down the trunk of a beech tree. The forest was back to normal.