Sword Mountain by Nancy Yi Fan Read Free Book Online Page B

parents. I want to go home.”
    â€œI will personally bring you to your family’s cave someday. But now we need to take care of you, too,” he said. “Why don’t you want to go to class with Simplicio?”
    â€œI’m a valley weed,” she said, and shut her beak and inspected her feet.
    Fleydur paused at this, frowning. “You don’t need to go to Simplicio’s class, then,” he said gently. “Dandelion. Look at me. You are fine the way you are, understand?” His words were quiet and deliberately restrained, but Dandelion could see his feathers quivering. He cares , she thought. Anxious that she sounded like a childish tattler, she tried to say something else. Stirring up trouble or making the prince do anything more for her was the last thing she wanted to do.
    She thought of the queen. “Fleydur, I have something important to tell you.” Fleydur looked concerned. “When I got out of class, I got lost in the hallways and went into the wrong place. I thought it was here, the doors were so alike.” She swallowed. “I went into a room and heard the voice of the queen. She sounded angry about you. Then later she actually talked to me and … I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, but Fleydur, you should be careful!”
    To her horror, Fleydur relaxed, and he even gave a light laugh. “I was worried my mother had turned too sour for eaglets’ company. She’s got room in her heart for youngsters after all.”
    He shook his head merrily. “And nobird is going to say anything about you just because you accidentally went into the wrong room, Dandelion. And Sigrid, though hot-tempered and stubborn sometimes, gets along fine with me.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œIt doesn’t matter.” Fleydur shook his head again, as if trying to get Dandelion to understand something. “My own mother died of an illness when I was quite young,” he said gently. “It was Sigrid who raised me all those seasons and preened my feathers when I had a fever. Her love for me and her love for the mountain show in different ways.”
    Dandelion closed her beak. He made her sound unreasonable, suspecting one’s own mother, and for a moment she felt absurd. Could the queen be right? Dandelion contemplated the thought. Fleydur had been kind to her, but could he have had some ulterior motive, as Sigrid had claimed? Did Dandelion truly know what the prince was like? He was young once , she thought. He had a tutor. He was a prince who sat in those empty places in the front row of the class. Was Fleydur a Cloud-wing or a Pouldington?
    Fleydur looked sad. “If you were wondering, I think I know why my mother would be so agitated about me.”
    â€œDoes it have something to do with why you’ve been away so much?”
    â€œYes. I plan to create a special school on Sword Mountain. I’ve submitted the proposal, and I will hear from the court tomorrow. They call themselves the Iron Nest, guarding the egg of the mountain’s future … iron mind-sets, more like, I fear. We need a special place, a refuge from the likes of Simplicio, where birds like you can be happy.”
    Dandelion realized that Fleydur was almost an outsider with his views, well meaning but misunderstood. He was a Dandelion.
    â€œOh, prince,” she said in a small voice. “But you—”
    â€œDon’t worry about me, Dandelion,” Fleydur said.

    Â 

We flock together when we share the inner plumage of the soul.
    â€” FROM THE O LD S CRIPTURE

7
B IRDS OF A F EATHER

    F leydur was walking down the staircase from the king’s tower when a whisper flew at him from the evening darkness.
    â€œFleydur!”
    â€œIt is you, Forlath?” he said, straining his eyes.
    â€œYes.” His brother glided up from a lower landing.
    â€œWhy are you about at this hour?” asked Fleydur.
    â€œLooking for you,” said Forlath.