Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (74 page)

The pilot
didn’t seem to mind
. He
snapped the lid back on and tucked it away.

“
T
ime to go?”
t
he
p
ilot
asked the other Wybbils.

“
Soon.
” White Feather said.

Needle offered
Glory
more water
.

Bone suddenly stood with fists clenched,
causing Glory to startle.

“Ye cheated,
” he accused, spittle flying. “D
idn’t ye?”

Clash
stood to meet him, skinny fists clenched at
his
side
.
“She did not!”

“I escaped the Bamboozle on my own,
” Glory said with a toss of her ponytail. “W
hich according to your rules, means I can never be tested again—right?”

“Those be the rules,” Needle said with a long sigh
.

Bone folded his arms
and humphed loudly.

“I still think ye cheated somehow, Thief.”

“Call me what you want,”
Glory
said with a
note of contempt.
“At least I’m not a murderer of little
girls
like you’ll be when you turn me over to the extractors.”

The
Wybbil
s glanced
at
each other and shifted uncomfortably in their seats
.
Glory
hoped they felt guilt
ier than ever.
Nobody said anything for several minutes
.

White Feather spoke first
.
“The magic of Wybb is dying
.
Perhaps
the
Bamboozle’s strength has waned and that aided her
escape
.
Let’s take our charge back to North Star Cathedral and
await
Lady
Gost
’s instructions.”

“Aye,” said the other
Wybbil
s
.

Glory interjected.
“
T
ake
Clash
home now.”

“
H
e had h
is
chance,” Bone said
.
“Now he’ll have to wait.”

“But
...
”

“Don’t worry, no harm will come to h
im
, but
the same
can’t
be said about
ye
.
We must return to the Cathedral post haste
.
”

The pilot went over to the edge of the forest and let out a scream
.
Someone had stolen his whifferdil
.
All eyes went to
Glory
who held up hands, feigning
innocence
.

“You can check my pockets if you like.”

Bone muttered
something about her being a lying, cheating,
sarcastic
thief
—the usual
.

“
N
obody on this island ex
cept
us,” White Feather said
.
“No doubt an animal ran off with it, hopefully it didn’t get very far.”

Glory
kept mum
,
exchanging sheepish
grimaces
with
Clash
.
The pair followed
behind the
Wybbil
s until they found the whifferdil in the trees. The pilot fumed when he saw
how high up it was, and how
it was damaged
.
After a quick examination
,
he said it appeared t
o be fully
operational
.
“Must have been a
m
ag
pree.”

“What’s a
m
ag
pree?
”
Glory
asked.

“A large bird that likes to collect things.”

“Definitely a magpree,” Clash quickly agreed.

White Feather made
him
carry the slingboard, saying they didn’t want their
Tullah
n junk littering the island
.
The shoulder straps had been
lost in the sand,
no doubt eaten by the riplets,
so he h
eld the board to h
is
chest
.

The
four
Wybbils
carried
the whifferdil
because the pilot didn’t want to risk
folding it in its delicate condition
.
When they returned to the beach where they
ha
d originally landed
,
the
pilot climbed atop
.
“All aboard!
”
he
y
elled as steps came out the side of the craft.

“Whoa!” exclaimed
Clash
, filming everything with Matthew’s Sliver. “I’m do
ing a data transfer
directly to my
Sliver account.
”

The Wybbils
finished
circled around it three times,
and
then did the same thing the opposite direction, making
Clash
and Glory do the same
.

“What’s this circling all about?
”
Clash whispered.

Glory shrugged. “
Tr
adition
, I guess
.
”
Fatigue hit
her
all at once
.
Legs felt like lead
.
Even
Clash
dragged h
is
feet
, hardly able
to climb the stairs.

Thunder rolled in the distance
.

The pilot
suggested they delay the flight
until the storm passed, but at the prodding of the emissaries, he sailed off through the air
over white capped purple sea
toward darkening horizon
.

“I’m so tired,”
Clash
yawned, hardly able to keep h
is
eyes opened
, but not for lack of effort
.
“
We’re like Galactic Heroes or something, Glo
.
The places we’
ve
see
n
!
This is so friggin’ amazing
.
” H
is
head droop
ed
and
then popp
ed
back up
.
That’s when Glory realized how
much
she was dragging
, too
. Her feet felt like heavy bricks. A big yawn hollowed out her face.

“
Wild…
”
Clash’s
head
drooped again and po
p
ped up again
.
“Are we there yet?”

“Don’t tell me ye ate the stew?
”
Bone said.

“We ate the stew.
”
Clash
said
groggily
.
“Why?”
And then fell backward against Needle, snoring like Scurvy Sailor.

White Feather’s back looked
like an
inviting
headboard
, just a
quick
couple of winks
.
Slowly, Glory slouched forward
,
snuggl
ing a che
e
k up against his cape.

“
Pray
heavy r
ains h
old
off u
ntil
cathedral,” the pilot’s voice trailed off, sounding eerily far away.

The Sea of Serenity churned below
.
Dark clouds flashed with white
.
“
Please, don’t
hurt my friend.”

“He’s perfectly safe with us,” Needle assured.

“What about me?”

Needle refused to answer.

“Please, don’t
take me to the extraction pools
,” she said on the verge of slumber. “
M
y little brother needs me
…”