I had been dreading this from the beginning. I was so much smaller than everyone else; I knew I didn’t stand a chance in a wrestling match. Thankfully, today was just for instruction, for learning the different ways to pin someone, or disable an enemy that was armed with a sword.
Felix was really good at it. He was one of the tallest of the boys, and he was incredibly strong. So naturally, he pinned me every time, and I wound up with a face full of dirt. He wasn’t going easy on me just because of my size.
Morrig ran us through drill after drill, move after move, and ended the first day of combat training by having us do pushups, sit-ups, and spend nearly an hour lifting big iron weights. When we finished, everyone was absolutely filthy and none of us even had the energy to look one another in the eye.
By the time we got to the dining hall, I’d forgotten all about Sile’s accident that morning. All I could think about was lunch. Felix brought us a tray of food to share, and I started stuffing my face before he even sat down.
“So, you’re sure it was Lyon you heard last night?” Felix asked suddenly. I couldn’t help but notice how nervous he looked.
I nodded. “I’m sure.”
“The instructors are writing this off as an accident. But I’ve been thinking about it, and there’s just no way it could have been. You’ve seen our saddles. You’d have to intentionally cut the straps for one to fall off like that.” Felix leaned in to whisper. “Tonight, when we’re done with academics, we’re going to go looking for his saddle. It’s got to be just lying in the dirt out there. I want to see if the straps really were cut.”
I swallowed my mouthful of food. “What if we get caught? That’s a long way to walk.”
Felix shook his head. “I’m not saying we walk. We fly out there, check it out, and come back. It’s the only way to be sure.”
I wasn’t sold on the idea. But then, I’d heard Lyon plotting first hand. I knew what I heard, and there was no question in my mind that someone had done something to Sile’s saddle to make him fall like that. But once Felix got an idea in his head, there was no way to talk him out of it. I was beginning to realize that was a trend with him.
After lunch, we had our first official lesson in flying. We were taught how to properly put on our saddles, piece by piece, which buckle went where, and how the fit should be. After going to so much trouble, I started to realize why Felix was so baffled at the way Sile’s saddle had fallen off. Someone really would have to intentionally damage a saddle in a big way to make it come off like that.
The instructor checked all our saddles twice over, making doubly sure they were put on properly before we took to the air and began learning basic patterns. Felix and I had already gone over this basic stuff a few times with Sile, so we knew what to do. For the first time, I felt a little bit confident.
After flight training, we began our studies in academics and cartography. That lasted the rest of the afternoon, and we were dismissed for the day as the sun started to set. Of course, we were expected to study and practice everything we’d learned that day, but all I wanted was a bath and something to eat.
When I finally flopped down onto my bed, I tried not to think about how every muscle in my body ached. I thought it was safe to steal a few minutes of sleep before I tried studying my maps again. Then the door opened, and a shoe hit me in the face.
“Hey, what’re you doing?” Felix laughed, armed with his second shoe in case the first one didn’t wake me up. “We’ve still got to study, you know.”
I groaned, and rolled onto my back. I was prepared to take his other boot to the head if it meant I could sleep for even fifteen minutes. “I’m exhausted. I can’t feel my legs.”
“Oh come on, don’t be a baby.” He teased. “We need to at least look busy. As soon as evening roll call is over, and everything gets really quiet, we’re going to find that saddle.”
He had gone over his plan with me about thirty times already. I still wasn’t so sure this was going to work. I hadn’t paid much attention to where we were exactly when I’d caught Sile in the air, much less where his saddle had landed. However, I did have a pretty good idea of what would happen if we got caught.
“It was incredible. You know, the way you caught him like that,” he said suddenly.
I rolled my head over to see if he was making fun of me or not. He wasn’t. His face looked serious, if not a little proud. “I couldn’t just let him fall like that. Besides, I’m pretty sure none of the other instructors would want to take me on as a student. If he dies, that’s the end of my career.”
Felix laughed a little. “Yeah, good point.”
I only snoozed for a half hour or so before guilt forced me to study. Felix and I sat up by candlelight, studying our maps, and going through the complex language of hand-signals we’d only just begun to learn. Right after the evening horn blew, we started hearing the sounds of talking and footsteps outside as the various sponsors checked their student’s rooms to be sure everyone was accounted for.
Sile knocked on our door, and I got a hard lump in the back of my throat when I saw him standing in the doorway. He had one arm in a sling, and a bandage on one side of his neck. He looked between us as we sat on our individual beds, our maps spread out in front of us.
“How was it?” Sile asked. I noticed he was making an effort not to look me in the eye.
“Not bad,” Felix piped up. “I’ve got some questions about a few of the parry moves, but I figured I would just wait and see if we could go through them tomorrow morning before combat training. How’s the arm?”
Sile sighed and shook his head a little. “It’s just a precaution. The infirmary insisted I wear it for at least one day. Knocked out of socket, they said. No real harm done.” He looked at me then, and I felt like I’d been nailed to a wall. “Jae, I need to talk to you.”
I swallowed hard. “Yes sir.”
Felix cast me a haunted look as I got off my bed, stepped into my boots, and followed Sile out into the hallway.
We were alone outside the closed door of my dorm room, and Sile stood with his side to me for a moment as though he were collecting his thoughts. I had no idea what he was going to say, but before he got a word out, my mouth ran away with me.
“Lieutenant Derrick, I think someone is trying to kill you,” I blurted.
He turned a perplexed expression down at me. “Because of what happened today?”
“Well, yes, but there’s something else.” My face got hot, and I dropped my gaze down to the tops of my boots. “I was out at the armories last night, I wanted to send a letter back home with one of the craftsmen, and I heard someone else out there. They were talking about us, and it sounded like they were going to do something bad.”
His expression became intensely serious. “Who? Did you see them? Did you recognize who it was?”
I choked. I had recognized Lyon’s voice, of course. But I hadn’t seen him. I hadn’t actually seen anyone. I didn’t want to run the risk of pointing a finger at the wrong person, so I just shook my head. “No, it was really dark. I couldn’t see who it was. I mentioned it to Felix, and he said I was just being paranoid. I really thought maybe he was right. I didn’t want to assume anything. I’m sorry, sir. I should have said something.”
Sile let out a loud, noisy sigh. I wasn’t sure what he’d do or say to that. I almost expected to get struck for not speaking up sooner. Instead, I felt a heavy hand fall on my shoulder.
He was smiling down at me, and I could have sworn his eyes seemed almost sad. “Jae, you saved my life today. What you did was stupid, but incredibly brave. Thank you.”
I hesitated. “Sir, is someone trying to kill you?”
His expression twitched. I saw darkness in his eyes, and that sense of doom burrowed into the pit of my gut. It made me nauseated.
“Apparently so,” he answered. He didn’t sound surprised at all.
ten
Felix was eager to get out and find the remains of Sile’s broken saddle.
He still wanted hard evidence. As soon as the academy was silent, and anyone with any sense was resting up for the next day, he drug me out of bed and out the door. I was nervous about it; we weren’t allowed to be out of our rooms like this, much less flying without an instructor’s permission. If something went wrong, no one would even realize we were gone until tomorrow morning.
But Felix wasn’t backing down. He had decided we would take his dragon and ride together. She was big enough to carry both of us without any problems, and it would be easier to sneak one dragon out instead of two. I was just anxious to get this over with. The sooner he got his proof, the sooner I could sleep.
Standing outside the Roost, I kept a lookout while he went inside to saddle her up. I didn’t like standing out there alone in the open. Somehow, I had the feeling that if we did get caught, I’d be the one who got blamed for this regardless of anything Felix said. I was the bad influence, after all. I was the halfbreed.
The night air was quiet and the wind was still. Looking up, the stars were so bright they made the whole horizon glitter. There was plenty of light to see by, so I started to hope that maybe we would actually find the lost remains of Sile’s saddle.
I heard a rustling behind me, and let out a sigh of relief. I just assumed it was Felix coming back with his dragon.
But it wasn’t. Not even close.
I turned around right into an oncoming fist. Someone hit me so hard across my face that it sent me stumbling backwards. My vision blurred. My nose stung. I could taste blood coming from my nose and mouth.
“You just keep getting in my way.” I couldn’t see who hit me, but I heard Lyon’s voice laughing over me. I knew it was him. “You really should’ve just taken the hint and quit while you were ahead. Now you’re in my way again.”
There was more laughter coming from some other guys standing behind them. My vision cleared enough that I could see them under the starlight. Four older boys, including Lyon, were circling around me. They were all fledglings from my class—Lyon’s friends.
I scrambled to get back up, but Lyon was quicker. Just as soon as I’d gotten my feet under me, he hit me again in the stomach so hard I fell forward. I was gasping and wheezing for breath, crawling across the ground to get away.
“No one wants you here. You’ll never be one of us. Don’t you get that?” He snarled over me, and grabbed a fistful of my hair to jerk my head back so I had to look at him in the eye. “You will never be worth anything to anyone. You think Felix cares about you? He doesn’t. No one cares anything about halfbreeds. You’re nothing but filth, and that’s all you’ll ever be.”
The other three boys circled me again, and one reared back to kick me in the ribs. I couldn’t catch my breath to even cry out for help. It might take half an hour for Felix to get his saddle ready, if he did it the way he was supposed to, and by then . . . I wasn’t sure how much of me would be left.
They were kicking me, hitting me as hard as they could. One of them had come armed with his riding gauntlets, and when he hit me, it was like being smacked with solid iron. I curled into a ball, covering my head with my arms, and prayed for it to end.
Suddenly, it stopped.
I was afraid to look up and see why. I was afraid maybe one of them had come with a sword, or gone to get some other weapon to finish me off. But what I heard was the sound of fighting, of frantic shouting, and punches being swung.
When I finally looked up, I saw Felix standing over me with his hands balled into fists. He had a crazed look of rage on his face, and his lips were curled up into a snarl. One of the other boys was already lying unconscious nearby.
“Get up, Jae.” Felix growled down at me. “I can’t take them all by myself.”
I was in pain from the hits I’d already taken. But at that moment, it didn’t matter. I got up. Felix was fighting for me, and I wasn’t going to let him do it alone. I put up my fists, facing the three boys left standing. Lyon was one of them, and he looked like he wanted to kill me. He dove at me first.
And then it was a brawl.
Even if I wasn’t a good fighter, I could at least watch Felix’s back. He hit them so hard it made me cringe. He was a pretty big guy already, bigger than Lyon, and twice as strong. I saw so much pent up anger in the way he fought them, and even when he took hits, he never quit. At least, not until he had his boot on Lyon’s face and was grinding it into the dust.
“Come after him again, and I’ll break both your arms,” Felix promised with a snarl. “Not even your parents will be able to recognize what’s left of you.”
When Lyon managed to worm his way out from under Felix’s heel, he immediately started to run, and the rest of the boys went with him. They disappeared into the night, and left their unconscious friend just lying there.
I couldn’t believe it was over. I was afraid to relax, expecting another attack to come out of nowhere. But they didn’t come back. The night was just as quiet as it had been before.
I stood beside Felix, blood dripping from my nose down the front of my nightshirt, and didn’t dare let my guard down until I saw him drop his arms. We were both breathing hard, spattered with blood, and looking at each other with no idea what to say.
At last, Felix’s shoulders sagged and he came over to grab my chin, jerking my face up to poke at my bloody nose.
I winced and tried to squirm away. “Stop it! I’m fine!” I didn’t like they way he hovered over me like some kind of a worried parent. It was humiliating to be treated like a little kid, and I was already embarrassed that he’d had to save me in the first place.
“You’re lucky it’s not broken,” he reminded me as he let me go.
I staggered back, still panting as I glared defiantly up at him. “Why do you keep doing that? Why do you care what happens to me? No one else does!”
Lyon’s venomous words were still ringing in my ears, reminding me of the cold truths I feared the most. I didn’t know why Felix was being so nice to me. I didn’t want to suspect that he was just toying with me. But I couldn’t help it. No one else wanted to be a friend to me, especially none of the other fledglings.
“You think I should just let them kill you?” He yelled back. “Just because of who your mother was?”
I fought to choke back the tears that stung in my eyes. “Anyone else would! So why? Why do you keep doing this? I deserve to know!”
He looked at me like it was the stupidest question in the world. I heard him curse under his breath. “You’d do the same for me, wouldn’t you?”
I stared at him. He’d answered my dumb question with another dumb question. “Yes.”
He pointed at me accusingly. “That’s why. You understand that this isn’t just a contest to see who can be better between you and me, who can outrank the other, or screw the other over behind their back. Just because your mother is a gray elf doesn’t make your life any less valuable than mine. I know you’d sacrifice just as much if it were my face being kicked into the dirt. Am I right? So you tell me, why would I stick my neck out for someone like that? Why would I want someone like that as my friend?”
I couldn’t answer him. I just stared at him, unable to keep tears from streaming down my face. He stomped toward me, grabbing the back of my shirt and giving me a shove back toward the dormitory.
“Come on, we’ve gotta get back inside before someone sees us. Forget about the stupid saddle.” He growled through clenched teeth as he kept me moving onward.
I knew he was angry. Even if I wasn’t sure why, I still felt like it was my fault. After cleaning my face up, pinching my nose to stop the bleeding, and assessing the damage to the rest of my body, I curled into my bed. Except for some bad bruises, I’d gotten away without any serious injuries.
Felix was awake, still looking like he was fuming with rage where he sat in his own bed. As soon as I was settled, lying with my back to him, he doused the candle and the room went dark.
“Felix?” I asked, not really expecting him to answer.
&nb
sp; “What?”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “Thank you.”
He was quiet for a moment, and then I heard him make a loud, exasperated sigh. “You’re welcome.”
eleven
As the weeks passed, every morning started early, with us flying drills as usual. Then we ran our laps, and Felix always ended up practically pushing me like a wheelbarrow so I didn’t collapse. Then combat training lasted the rest of the morning, and I was essentially Felix’s practice dummy. He never slacked off, never went easy on me, but always apologized whenever he nearly choked me unconscious or gave me a new horrific-looking bruise. I knew he was trying to help me. No one else was going to go easy on me, and he wouldn’t be doing me any favors if he did.
I had been hoping I’d get tougher, or stronger, but it felt like I was actually getting worse. My parries weren’t right. My strikes were too slow and weak. Watching me try to wrestle and pin Felix, who was twice my size, probably looked like a chicken trying to pin an angry bull. The instructors yelled until it bored into my ears, telling me to be faster, to work harder, and to quit being an embarrassment to the academy.
In the air, however, I wasn’t an embarrassment. Even the instructors had to give me some credit for that. Maybe I couldn’t pin Felix on the ground, but in the air it was a whole different story. Mavrik was fast, aggressive, and he could outmaneuver anyone. It was like he wasn’t even aware I was on his back. Sile was right; we did form our own little language of body signals and touches to communicate while we flew. Mavrik was smart, and he seemed to understand me better and better each day. We became two parts of the same powerful entity.
I was also good at memorizing the maps. I had mine down like the back of my hand in two weeks flat. I never missed a mark or a single detail, and I even coached Felix some because he struggled with it a lot more than I did.
Things weren’t going great, but they weren’t going as badly as they could have been. After our showdown that night at the Roost, Lyon stayed away from me. He shot us poisonous looks from afar, but pretty much kept his distance. Felix had hit him hard enough to make an impression, apparently.
Fledgling (The Dragonrider Chronicles) Page 9
