The Bird That Carried a Message
A storm wrecks the first landing on the isolationist Guardian Islands, and to earn the one component that can wake a Bridge, Siru, Marcus and Vivek must pass a chant-test with a valley people who owe them nothing — while a flooding mine and a runaway flier decide whether they leave with the part, or with nothing at all.
Blown off course by a sudden storm, Siru Agar, Marcus Gray and Vivek crash-land on the Guardian Islands of Catelonia and are captured by the isolationist Birds of Catelonia, who give trespassers until sunset to answer the old Valley Call or be given back to the sea. A young Skyhawk flier breaks ranks to teach them the call-and-response chant in time, buying access to the Mines where the last wake-component is stored — just as the same storm floods the tunnels. Trapped by rising water, they find a miner who has lived among the birds for years and who is, impossibly, one of the missing Good Luck Cats: Rania. Rania's instincts save them and the component; she chooses to leave the only home she's known. As they sail out, island sentries report unfamiliar sails already circling the northern reaches — the same reaches the birds have avoided since last season's storm.