Lore
The Rooks
Atop A Wall · Book 1
Dark wings out of an empty sky. In Briar they were a grandmother's story, until they came for Lira.
In Briar, nobody called them anything but the dark birds, and only in stories told to keep children close to home. Old Hemlock remembered a name, heard once long ago and never set down quite right: Rooks. He never knew what it meant. Only that it never meant anything good.
When they come for Lira, there are three of them. They drop straight out of an empty sky, fast enough to tear a hole through the leaves, and they are climbing away again before anyone on the ground can do more than shout. Metal flashes on their wings. The nearest wears a dark token at its throat, struck with a mark nobody in Briar has seen before.
What they hunt is the Thread. Where they take it is dawnward, further than any wingless thing can follow.