Lark Ascending by Meagan Spooner Read Free Book Online Page B

fake, like a set in a play.
    I glanced at Oren beside me, knowing the stillness for him would be an agony. His jaw was clenched, but when he caught me looking at him, he nodded back at me. He’d survive, for now. All his time spent underground in Lethe had at least prepared him for this.
    The sun disc hung low in the sky, only just visible through the buildings on the horizon. My body told me it was morning, as it was outside the Wall, but here in the city it was sunset. Night was coming on quickly, and my instincts told me to seek shelter—even as my mind pointed out that there was nothing to shelter from in here. Only the architects.
    â€œWhere is everyone?” I asked finally. My voice emerged in a whisper—though the streets were deserted, it felt like my voice could carry forever in the stillness.
    â€œCurfew,” Kris whispered back. “This is the rebel-occupied sector, but it’s not safe here after dark.”
    Maybe there was something to shelter from after all. My pulse quickened a little, eyes searching the lengthening shadows.
    â€œNot safe how?” asked Oren.
    â€œPixie squadrons.” Kris came to a halt at the mouth of an alleyway, pressing close to the corner of the building and peering around, scanning the broader avenue ahead. “The architects send them through at night. During the day you can see them coming, but at night, the pixies have the advantage—no eyes, the dark doesn’t affect them.”
    â€œPixies like Nix?” Oren’s low voice was skeptical. “I think we can probably handle them.”
    I remembered my last moments in the city, cornered against the Wall as a flock of pixies a thousand strong came thundering at me. “One at a time, sure,” I said, shivering. “You’ve never seen them en masse. Children here tell each other horror stories about what pixies do to lawbreakers.”
    Oren shrugged, doubt clear on his features, but he didn’t argue.
    â€œThat is legend only.” Nix, who had been quiet through all this, crept out from the shelter of my neck and onto the edge of my shoulder. “Pixies are programmed not to harm human beings.”
    â€œYou’ve got a needle designed for stabbing,” I pointed out drily.
    â€œThere are many things different about my programming,” said the pixie archly.
    â€œPixies used to be programmed not to harm people,” Kris said quietly, straightening and looking back over his shoulder at us. “Gloriette has changed many things since the failure of the Iron Wood project.”
    Nix fell silent, even its mechanisms quieting as it rubbed its front legs over its jewellike eyes. I imagined it as a nervous gesture, like someone wringing their hands.
    â€œBut you know some place we can go for the night?” I asked, keeping one eye on the sun disc as it dipped toward the bottom of the Wall.
    But Kris was no longer looking at me—his face was tipped upward, eyes on one of the apartment buildings across the avenue. As I followed his gaze, a sharp movement caught my eye. A window shutter slammed, echoing in the silence.
    Oren twitched and withdrew back into the shadows of the alleyway. “Spotted us,” he said shortly. “Let’s move.”
    But Kris stayed put. “I told you, this is the rebel-controlled sector. That much hasn’t changed; there’d be Enforcers everywhere if the architects had taken this street. We want the rebels to find us.”
    I wasn’t so sure—just because one side was definitely my enemy didn’t make the other side my friend. But these were the people Kris wanted me to lead, and I couldn’t lead if I stayed hidden in the shadows. I took a deep breath, and before Oren could protest, I stepped out into the street.
    My shadow flew out in front of me, forty feet long in the low-angled light from the setting sun disc. “Is someone there?” I called. “My name is Lark