“Ready?” he asked.
She nodded again.
“Let’s be careful on our way up to the cage. If we wake all of the birds at once, their squawking will be like setting off an alarm.”
“Right,” Britt said, admiring Max’s strategy in all of this. Accustomed to being in charge, she had allowed him to lead in this and, so far, she was impressed.
Max led them the short distance through the trees to the aviary. The three-story structure had a rounded and mostly wooden base. In place of the typical Westland rooftop was a massive cage-like dome covering the top, rising in height to over fifty feet. Max and Britt half expected it to be guarded, but to their luck, nobody stood watch or even napped near the base. At the door, Max carefully moved the latch and pulled the door open on rusty hinges. It creaked and scraped, but the noise didn’t seem as loud out here in the woods as it had in the confines of Solomon’s house. To Britt’s surprise, the birds remained asleep.
Entering and closing the door behind them, Max whispered, “I don’t know much about sleeping birds, but I’m guessing they’re not going to be happy when we wake them up.”
Britt nodded and whispered, “Careful, don’t touch their perch. They might feel the movement and wake up. I know most birds don’t have great night vision. If one starts flying aimlessly around in here, it’s certain to start a chain reaction, and that would be bad.”
Looking around the large dome, Britt sought out the familiar larger nests of the raptors. Midway up the rounded wall, near where the dome cage rose from the wooden frame, she located several large nests on platforms. She quickly canceled out two as too large to be falcon nests. Falcons were smaller than most hawks, but the Rollo Island Falcon was larger than other birds in its class. Careful to avoid touching anything that might disturb the other nests, Britt led Max under the platform she’d picked out.
Pointing up, she whispered, “I think they’ll be up there.”
Max pointed to a wooden ladder leaning against the wall, “You could use that to get up there.”
Britt nodded. He helped her position the ladder to reach the smaller of the large nests along one platform. Making sure to move slowly, Britt climbed the ladder to the nests. As soon as she poked her head into view, three of the seven resting birds she saw sat up and began looking around to see what was moving their perch.
Britt hesitated, trying to remain still as the birds stiffened, picking up their feet and shifting slightly. She held her breath thinking, please don’t move, please don’t move. When the bird closest to her ruffled its wings, she recognized it as an osprey. That wasn’t the bird she was looking for and she knew osprey to be quite vocal. If it started to squawk, all of the birds would awaken, possibly alerting the soldiers in the street.
While waiting for the osprey to calm down, she identified her falcon. It nested two birds to the right of the ladder, just an arm’s reach from where she stood. Not wanting to climb down and move the ladder, possibly shaking the nervous osprey even more, Britt decided to lean out, hoping she could reach the bird.
Britt moved smoothly, placing her left hand on the platform for balance just to the right of the ladder as she put her weight out over to the right, into space. As she reached her right hand up to grab the falcon, the ladder moved, tipping to the left. Her heart dropped into her stomach as she caught the ladder with her foot and slid it back into place. Luckily, she’d been holding onto the wooden platform, otherwise she would’ve fallen the fifteen feet to the aviary floor. It would have hurt and made for an irritating mistake.
Regaining her balance on the ladder, Britt quickly placed her hand under the falcon and scooped it up. Still half asleep, she carried the warm falcon against her chest. By the time the bird had fully awakened, she had it tucked away tightly and was halfway down the ladder. When she reached the ground, she nodded to Max and they quickly headed for the aviary exit.
Britt was surprised that the falcon hadn’t objected more to being lifted from its nest. She chalked it up to the fact that the bird was a messenger bird and used to being taken from its nest for missions.
Just before leaving the aviary Max stopped, searching the desk near the door for parchment, quill and ink. He opened a drawer and found the materials necessary to create a message along with a strip of ribbon to secure the scroll to the bird’s leg. Max handed them to Britt, but she shook her head, taking a step back. “I think you should do it,” she whispered.
“Why?” he asked.
Britt shrugged, “I think your writing will be more legible.”
“You can write, can’t you?” he asked.
“Yes, but I’m versed mostly in nautical logs,” she said.
Max spread the small piece of parchment out on the desk. He dipped the quill into the inkbottle and scratched out several lines. When he had finished, he rolled it up, ripped a piece of ribbon from the desk and fastened it securely around the falcon’s leg.
Exiting the aviary, Max and Britt again entered into the night air, closing the squeaky door behind them. Walking to the edge of the tree line, Britt held the falcon up. The bird, now fully awake and sensing the fresh air and open space, flapped its wings as she held it aloft. Tossing it lightly, she sent the bird into flight.
The falcon dropped slightly, then flapped into the air, taking flight into the darkness out over the ocean. As Britt watched the message to her crew fly away over the water, she hoped it would reach her intended target. At the very least, the bird would return to its home islands and one of the members of her community would find it, read the message and know what was happening in Westland.
After watching the falcon disappear into the night, Britt turned to Max and said, “Let’s get out of here!”
“There’s one more thing I want to do while we’re in town,” Max said.
Britt raised an eyebrow, “What do you have in mind?”
“Food,” he said.
“Isn’t there food at Solomon’s?” Britt asked.
“Yes, but you saw how much there is. We’re going to need more, and soon. It’s not like we’re going to have many more chances to get back to town. We’re going to be leaving again soon and I don’t know about you, but I think being on the road without any food stinks.”
Britt stiffened her jaw, weighing the risk of venturing back through the streets. “It did seem less difficult than I thought it would be to sneak all the way through town,” she said.
Max grinned, “Good. I know a place where we can get all kinds of goodies. The Brookside Inn has a kitchen and their food is amazing. We’ll sneak into the back and steal what we can. Then we’ll head out to Solomon’s, stopping by that board again so I can grab that poster of Bo and me.”
“Why?” Britt asked.
“For a keepsake. It’s not every day you find a wanted poster of yourself with a price for your head.”
“Fine, but we’re going to have to move quickly. The sun will be coming up soon and we need to be out of here by the time the town wakes up,” Britt said.
“Follow me,” Max said and took off with a spring in his step toward the dimly lit cobblestone streets of Brookside.
Taking a similar route, Max led Britt back through Brookside. It appeared that the only patrol in town was the group they’d seen earlier. Stopping across the street from the Brookside Inn, Max nodded to the storefront and whispered, “There it is. There’s another door around back.” Britt saw that the street was empty and followed Max around to the back.
As Max worked the doorknob, Britt noted the lightening of the sky to the east. Max pulled the door open without a sound, nodding for Britt to follow him in. Stepping through the doorway into the inn’s kitchen, Britt reached out to grab a white mass about to hit her in the face. Her hands punched through the cloth as she caught the white sack Max had tossed at her. Pulling it down from the air she gave Max a stern look as if to say, that wasn’t funny.
Max grinned and began rummaging quietly through the cupboards. Together they filled their sacks with kitchen supplies. Leaving a noticeably diminished supply of food on the stocked shelves, Britt wondered whether Max felt any remorse for stealing from the inn’s owners. She grew up in a society where raiding was a part of their culture and a right all Rollo warriors must take advantage of, but to Max, this would be theft and likely from someone he knew. Max held the door open for her. She hesitated, wanting to ask him about it, then exited the inn.
Tossing the full sack over her shoulder, she turned down the side street they’d taken into town. She froze when she caught sight of an armed man walking lazily down the cobblestone street. Max moved from the back door to join her. Britt watched helplessly as the soldier turned to see them standing in the side street behind the inn. Max crouched, then bolted, taking off in a dead sprint down a side street in the opposite direction of the guard. Britt turned on her heels and followed before the man could shout.
