BooksBarbecue
Back Featherlight Save as PDF
Chapters (20)
  1. Dedication
  2. Chapter 1
  3. Chapter 2
  4. Chapter 3
  5. Chapter 4
  6. Chapter 5
  7. Chapter 6
  8. Chapter 7
  9. Chapter 8
  10. Chapter 9
  11. Chapter 10
  12. Chapter 11
  13. Chapter 12
  14. Chapter 13
  15. Chapter 14
  16. Chapter 15
  17. Chapter 16
  18. Firebird Lighthouse
  19. Author's Note
  20. Lighting the Way

Light spills from Tan and out of my hands as Grandma and I run from the cellar up the winding spiral stairs.

On each floor we pass, I see the fishing boat out of the window, struggling in the wild storm. It is being dragged closer and closer to the rocks.

“We must hurry!” Grandma says. “We need to warn them off before their boat gets broken apart!”

Chapter 13

13

A BRIGHT HOPE

By the time we get to the top of the tower, the fire in Tan’s feathers has died away somewhat. She almost looks like a normal small bird again. But she is still glowing softly, so that we can see the room.

Rain clatters on the tin roof of the lighthouse as Grandma and I open the glass door to the lantern and place Tan inside. I peer at Tan in the half-light. She stands on the metal surround of the lamp wick like it is a perch and blinks at us as if she’s waiting for something.

“Please,” I say to Tan. “Light up! Light up bright enough to flood the sky. We have to save the people on that boat!”

But Tan does nothing.

I feel sick.

“It’s not working, Grandma,” I say.

“I did warn you, Deryn,” Grandma says. “The things you read in story books aren’t always true.”

But I’m not ready to give up just yet. I look at Tan. “Please, Tan,” I beg. “There are people out there who are going to die unless we help them. Please light up and save their lives.”

And it is as if Tan has understood me, for the light of her feathers grows stronger with each word. By the time I finish speaking, Tan is all afire, burning with the brightest blaze I have ever seen.

I cover my eyes as the glass lenses beam Tan’s bright light out across the sea towards the distant boat. Grandma squints and shuts the glass door of the lantern. She turns the wheel beneath it to wind the clockwork, and soon the lenses begin to spin.

We run onto the metal walkway outside the lantern room. Grandma takes the spyglass from her pocket and snaps it out into a long telescope. She peers into the eyepiece, sweeping the spyglass across the ocean, searching for the boat.

“There they are,” Grandma calls out above the noise of the storm. “I can see them … And it looks as if they can see the light! Thank goodness! The boat is moving away from the rocks. I think they’re going to be all right.”

“Let me see!” I cry.

Grandma hands me the spyglass, and I focus in on the tiny fishing boat. There are three people aboard it: two fishermen and a boy. They’re all trying to hold the tiller and control the sail, but the wind is pulling them in the wrong direction. With an almighty CRASH! they smash against the rocks.