Note, I’m scheduling this on Dec 31st, before going on a birding trip. Since I don’t know what the future #BookQW of the day is, I’ve chosen to use ‘bird’!
An excerpt from Chapter 9:
At midday, the only thing to look at was the cliffs and birds. He swung the Dobsonian generally in that direction and stepped back, gesturing to Luna. “You do the honors.”
“First light in eleven years.” The smile she tried for didn’t reach her eyes. “Though Mam reserved that phrase for starlight.”
“Then so shall we,” Salm said. “Tonight.”
She ducked her head to the spotting scope mounted on the telescope’s side and twisted the focusing knob before gently pulling the telescope tube to point it. The Dobsonian swung easily, and she tracked back and forth, then settled on one spot. She smiled, genuinely this time.
He poked her ribs. “I don’t even have to look to know what you see.”
She stepped back. “Look anyway.”
Peering down the eyepiece, he saw a nest clinging to the rock face, three gray-backed birds jostling for purchase in it. As he watched, pieces of seaweed sloughed off, and one bird tumbled, caught itself and hung on arched wings, beating at its fellows to shove between them. Salm laughed. “Kittiwakes.”
Luna ducked her head. “Another week and we might not have this view. Depending on the weather, these parents will be urging their young to migrate.”
“Rissa, too?”
She bit her lip. “It would be best for him to go.”
He rubbed a hand up her arm and across her shoulders. “You’re gonna miss that little freeloader. We could sail out to the rafts on the other side of the isle.”
She shook her head. “To the Atlantic, you mean. Nova Scotia. That’s a kittiwake’s destination.”
“Blow me down. That’s…how far?”
“Three thousand miles.”
“No wonder you’re worried about him.”
Her shoulders lifted in a shrug. “It’s his life. I may have raised him, but I have to let him lead it.”
Brave words, but that didn’t make Rissa’s impending departure any easier.
“Let’s try for something else.” She shifted the scope downward, toward a far beach. Even without the scope, he could make out large flapping wings. “Cormorants,” he shouted.
Luna snorted. “At least look, to pretend you’re identifying… Oh. I, uh…”
“What’s wrong?”
She didn’t give over the scope for him to look. “One doesn’t look right. He’s dropping fish rather than swallowing them. Blessed Orb! This is the bird Stella told us about.”
“Should we—”
“Aye,” Luna replied, already abandoning the telescope
***
Luna and Salm appeared in Lost Whisperer of the Seas and now have their own story in Keepers of the Seas Cliffs, releasing January 23rd. Read more on its book page, including the first chapters. These stories can be read as stand-alones.
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