Chapter 8
Three enormous birds landed on the beach, not far from where she sat. Beside her, Benayeem slowly sat up. Isika could see the tension in his rigid shoulders. The birds were black, and their blackness was woven with lights like the lights of the jewels in the temple walls. They shone with blues and greens and a deep, deep red, so that when they turned and hopped around the children, they glowed with different colors as the sun moved over their bodies. They were larger than the eagles that circled the fishing nets at dusk, when the fishermen discarded the bad catch onto the beach. But their beaks were straight, not curved sharply, like eagles' beaks. The large eyes of the birds focused directly on Isika and her siblings.
A shiver of fear or anticipation passed through her.
"Wher
