Саманта Сильвер - Sleeping With The Fishes

“I’m fine, I think,” I said, forcing myself to my feet. Luckily, my legs were completely fine. There was only one problem: with my right hand injured, I was fairly certain I wasn’t going to be able to do any magic. I could try with my left, but magic worked a little bit like writing: it was way, way easier to do with your good hand, and I knew if I tried anything more complicated than an unlocking spell with my left, it wouldn’t go well.

To test my right hand I pointed at my shoes. “ Color tranfiguria caeruleus,” I said, trying to change them from black to blue. Nothing happened. Sure enough, my magic wasn’t going to work until my hand healed.

“I’m going to guess that wasn’t what you were trying to do,” Hehu said, and I gave the kea a wry smile.

“Good guess. I’m just going to have to get out of here the old fashioned way.”

“Good, you’re making too much shade,” one of the iguanas said from near my feet. I had landed directly in the large pen the amphibians shared, although luckily there had been none resting on the pile of hay I’d fallen off.

“Sorry, I’ll be out of your hair in a minute. Would you all like to escape as well?” I asked. After all, the amphibians hadn’t joined the conversation I’d had with the parrots, and I thought perhaps they’d like the wild.

“Absolutely not,” one of the turtles replied. “It’s warm here, and moving is just so much effort.”

The rest of the reptiles and amphibians murmured their assent.

“Ok,” I told them. “Let me get out of your hair.” I climbed out of the enclosure and into the narrow area in the middle of the barn that separated the amphibians’ dens and the stall that would have been Lucy’s, before Gemma brought her to me.

I looked up at the parrots. “All right, I’m going to open both doors and let you go. My car is parked a few blocks from here, it’s a blue Mazda 3. If you can find it, there should be a girl who has black hair with a streak of purple in it waiting for me. She won’t be able to speak to you, but she will probably recognize you. Stay with her, no matter what. If for whatever reason you can’t find the car, make your way to Willow Bay. The birds there can tell you which house is mine. She might also be parked near the road in front of this place, especially since I was supposed to be back at the car a few minutes ago.”

“Thank you for this gift,” Cherie told me.

“Yes, you have no idea how much we appreciate the freedom you’re about to give us,” Coolidge confirmed.

“Every animal should be free,” I replied. “You deserve this as much as any other bird. All right, ready?”

The three birds said they were, and I opened the chicken wire fence door. I was going to have to try and sneak out past the main house and back onto the road without being seen, since I couldn’t use any magic.

I opened the main door to the barn and immediately the three birds flew out into the sky. I watched for a second with tears threatening my eyes as they flew through the skies for the first time in I didn’t know how long.

Still, I knew that I had to get out of here, and I quickly started to make my way across the overgrown lawn. I figured if I could reach the main road I could walk the five minutes or so it would take to get back to the car, if Sophie hadn’t already driven it to the front of the property. Either way, the front gate was my exit strategy; if I went straight back to where the car was parked I’d have to trespass on two other properties first.

I crouched down in the overgrown grass as I looked at the house. Pericot, the tiger, was still lazing in the sun. Gemma had disappeared from the window, and I didn’t notice any other movement anywhere else. If I was really lucky, Richard Steele would be sleeping, or even out somewhere in town, not even on the property.

As I inched my way slowly toward the house, I began to feel optimistic about my chances of getting out of here undetected. After all, I’d made it past the back deck without Pericot waking up, and was now inching my way underneath the windows at the side of the house; I’d decided that pressing myself against the side of the house was the way to minimize my odds of being seen; if anyone looked out the windows they wouldn’t have a chance of seeing me this way.

I was just about past the front porch when I suddenly heard a voice behind me that made me jump about three feet.

“Whadaya think yer doin’ here, girl?” a man’s voice asked. I turned around and saw myself facing a tall man with scraggly grey-brown hair, wearing jeans and a flannel shirt. He looked to be in his fifties, but I imagined he actually looked a lot older than he really was.

I wasn’t going to lie though; I was focused a lot more on the shotgun he was holding than his appearance.

“Ummm, sorry, I think I’m lost,” I stammered. “I’m just trying to find the road.”

“Can’t get on this property without passing all the no tresspassin’ signs I got up. So why’d you come here in the first place?” he asked. At least the shotgun wasn’t leveled at me. Yet.

“I was in the woods back there,” I said. “I got lost. I hurt my hand, and I climbed over a fence to try and find the road. I swear, I don’t mean any harm. I’ll be going now,” I said.

“Nah, I bet you’re the one who stole my Lucy!” he exclaimed suddenly, leveling the shotgun toward me.

“No! I didn’t! Who’s Lucy?” I stammered.

“I bet you came back for Pericot, didn’t you?” he asked. I didn’t have time to scream before he pulled the trigger. I dove to the ground and felt the bullet whizzing above me. Turning, I began to run for the road as fast as I possibly could. I could hear footsteps behind me, and what was worse was they were getting louder. He was catching up to me.

For what felt like the millionth time I swore that if I made it out of here alive I was going to go to the gym more often than once every three years. Or at least maybe I’d go for a jog every once in a while.

I heard the sound of the gun cocking once more and I knew Richard Steele was going to shoot at me again. But before he got the chance, I heard a squawk from up above. A flash of dark green and orange passed above me.

“What the hell?” I heard Richard Steele cry as Hehu swooped down toward him.

“Go, go, we’ll take care of him,” I heard Coolidge say as he and Cherie flew toward Steele as well.

“Thank you,” I managed to gasp out as I stumbled toward the road. The cacophony of sound behind me didn’t give me any indication as to who was winning the fight, but I occasionally saw one of the birds flying above me. The sound of Steele’s footsteps began to fade; evidently the birds’ attack was working.

Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, and Hehu fell at my feet.

“No!” I cried, scooping up the gorgeous parrot and taking him into my arms. To my immense relief, he was still breathing. I passed through the entrance gate and stumbled onto the road, looking around. Thankfully, Sophie was behind the driver’s seat of my car, engine running, just a few feet away. She pulled up in front of me, tires screeching, as I jumped into the car.

“Come on, get in here!” I called to the two cockatoos. They immediately stopped attacking Richard Steele, who I noticed with a decent amount of satisfaction was bleeding significantly from his head, and swooped into the car. I jumped in, and before I’d even managed to close the door Sophie had her foot down on the gas and we took off down the dirt road, leaving only a patch of dust behind us.

“So much for a reconnaissance mission, hey?” Sophie asked, never taking her eyes off the road.

“I’ll explain later,” I said as I looked at Hehu, who was still in my arms. The front seat of a car going almost ninety miles an hour on a bumpy country road wasn’t exactly an ideal place for a physical exam, but it was going to have to do. A quick check made it obvious Hehu had been shot in the wing. It wasn’t fatal, but he was going to have to stay with me for a while to recover.