CHILD OF THE AIR

  The mesa is wrapped in mist. There's no way off it. In winter it ices up; in summer the air catches fire and the mesa folk go underground until the storms pass.  There are no trees on the mesa, for no plant can survive more than one short season. The nearest thing to a tree is the podlith: a spiral tube formed from a barbed vine that upon exposure to the air hardens into stone.  No one lives up among those deadly vines except Gven, the broom-maker and his two grandchildren, Mylanfyndra and Brevan.
   In the spring thaw, when the soft new tree shoots poke up from the forest floor, Gven and the two children gather them to make brooms.
 One spring, as the children celebrate the season, calamity strikes. They soon find that their world is not such a friendly place. In addition, they begin to exhibit an alarming gift that almost costs them their lives! Borne on the fiery storm winds, they flee the mesa into even worse trouble than before!

  The children find a leather pouch containing strange  golden relics.   Wondering how the relics could have gotten  onto the mesa - (they are taught that the mesa is all there is) - the children stow them  in the hollow bole of an old podlith.

  2 of numerous pen-&-ink illustrations through the book:
  LEFT: The podlith serves the children well, providing their family with a living, and a hiding place for  their treasures.
  RIGHT: The firebird. Wingless for half the year, when the firestorm season approaches, it sprouts wings. The flight of these majestic birds from the mesa is signal to go underground.

 In the end when Mylanfyndra seeks to save an old friend it is the firebird who saves the day!