Immortal

by Nicole Conway

  “So she kissed him?” Felix didn’t even seem to notice that he’d been insulted.

  “You really think Jae would force himself on a girl he just met?” Beckah countered.

  “No. I suppose not.”

  Beckah huffed. “Of course he wouldn’t. Like I said, I’m sure she only did it to get your attention.”

  “Yeah, well, it didn’t work,” Felix was the one grumbling now.

  I could hear the smirk in Beckah’s voice. “Seems like it’s working now.”

  “I hear a lot more talking than I do breakfast-making,” Sile barked from the top of the stairs. His heavy footsteps descended into the kitchen, which was a relief. I needed time to scramble and come up with a good excuse for not telling Felix that Julianna had kissed me. Of course, I hadn’t known she was his fiancée. I hadn’t told him because I thought he hated her and letting him know I’d locked lips with her would be the perfect invitation for more of his teasing.

  And for the record—she was definitely the one who kissed me.

  I listened to them banter and continue to taunt each other, as the house filled with the lively sounds of my friends and the smell of a delicious breakfast. The smell lured the rest of our guests down from upstairs and eventually I went to join them in the kitchen as well.

  Leaning in the doorway, I watched everyone muscling around to get a bite to eat. Beckah had made biscuits from scratch, fried up two-dozen eggs, and roasted more links of sausage than I’d ever seen in my life. There was plenty to go around, which was good since the majority of our group were full-grown men with big appetites, but I couldn’t bring myself to join in.

  “Strange, isn’t it?” Roland appeared next to me, seemingly out of nowhere. It startled me a little.

  I glanced over him again, now from a much closer angle. He’d changed so much I barely recognized him, especially with a beard. It made him look older and less like our father. Too bad I couldn’t grow one myself, if only for that reason.

  Roland still had his arm bandaged up and cradled against his chest in a sling. I wondered if he would refuse if I offered to heal it for him.

  “What is?” I finally remembered to ask.

  “Seeing this many people here all smiling. Hearing laughter instead of screaming, crying, and cursing. I didn’t think I would live to see the day when I witnessed this happening in this house.”

  “I’ve been thinking the same thing since I got here,” I answered.

  “If you’re wondering whether or not I’ll follow you into this insanity, the answer is yes.” He still spoke in that same somber, serious tone I remembered from my childhood. He’d never been keen on self-expression or drawing unnecessary attention to himself.

  “I’m glad to hear it.”

  Then he cut to the chase. “That girl with the long, dark hair. She’s yours, isn’t she?”

  I tensed because I had no idea where he was going with this. “She might argue the reverse—that I’m hers, that is.”

  For a brief second, it almost looked like he cracked a smile. “I thought as much.”

  “Why do you ask?”

  Roland was in no hurry to let me in on whatever it was he was thinking. And when he finally did explain, I wasn’t sure how to respond. “I was afraid after the sampling of family life you’d had with us, you wouldn’t want it for yourself. That you might never want to marry or have children of your own.”

  His tone, much quieter and reluctant than usual, made me wonder. “Is that how you feel?”

  He gave a noncommittal shrug. “Sometimes I worry that one day I’ll wake up and realize I’ve become someone I hate, someone like Ulric. I don’t think I could stand that. And even worse, I don’t think I could forgive myself for putting anyone else through it. I’ve never courted anyone for that reason. I’m not sure I ever will.”

  “I know what you mean,” I replied. “But I don’t think that would be the case, if you did decide to take a wife. We’re not like that—we’re not like him.”

  He didn’t reply. He watched everyone as they went on eating and talking, oblivious to the irony of their company in this house.

  My eyes were drawn to Beckah, as though by gravity. That’s when a new, harrowing realization reared its ugly head in my already frazzled brain. I made a radical decision.

  “Can you promise me something, Roland?”

  He stared straight at me with piercing eyes. “Yes.”

  “If anything should happen … to me. Something unfortunate. Look after her, would you? I don’t want her to be alone. Felix already has someone. You’ll be the only family I have left who could do it. She’s a special person. She deserves to be happy. She won't like it. She might even try to scare you away. But promise me you won't give up on her.”

  The noise from the kitchen filled the silence between us until, at last, he gave a small nod. “Very well, Jaevid. If that’s what you want.”

  I hoped it wouldn’t come to that. I was still clinging to a fleeting hope that Paligno had a greater plan, and that whatever happened next would mean an end to the war that everyone in this room got to witness—including me. But I didn’t know that for sure. All I knew was that for the stone to be replaced and the balance restored, the blood of the traitor who had stolen it would have to be spilt.

  I had to be prepared for the worst.

  After breakfast had been cleaned up and the kitchen scrubbed to Beckah’s satisfaction, we gathered at the table again. Only Mrs. Derrick and her baby were absent, banished upstairs until we were finished. Sile didn’t want either of them involved.

  I sat at the head of the table, looking around into the eyes of the only people in Maldobar I knew that I could trust. It was time to settle things. Felix and Beckah sat on either side of me wearing stoic expressions. Only Felix knew the details of what I intended to do. Maybe that was why he was sweating so much.

  “Before we go any further, I need to know who is with me. I need to hear it from your own lips because what comes next will be dangerous. It will be treason, and it will very likely kill every last one of us. But if we are successful, then we may see the end of a war that has gone on for far too long.” I chose my words more carefully than I ever had. “No one will blame you or think badly of you for walking away now. And I won’t mince words; I want to be very clear. I have every intention of killing Hovrid—the man you’ve known as the King of Maldobar. So speak now, if you intend to stay and fight with me. If you choose to go, now is the time.”

  No one spoke at first.

  Then Felix clasped a fist over his chest, giving the dragonrider salute. “I’m with you.”

  “So am I.” On my other side, Beckah repeated his gesture. A few riders from Emerald Flight looked at one another as though confused. It seemed they still didn’t know who she was.

  “If Felix goes, then so do I,” Prax chimed in.

  “And if you go, then so do the rest of us,” declared one of the dragonriders from my old flight, and the rest of them muttered their agreement. That put a decent number of strong, skilled swordsmen on my side.

  From the corner of the room where he was lurking and watching, Roland raised two fingers. “I’ll go.”

  “With that bum arm, you won’t be much good in a fight,” Prax reminded him.

  I smiled down at the tabletop. “Never mind that. I’ll take care of it. He’ll be fit to fight.”

  From across the table, Kiran gave me one of his finest, cunning, gray elf grins. “I look forward to dying at your side, lapiloque.”

  Dying—his brand of a joke. Very funny.

  “That just leaves you, then. Seems you’ve had quite a hand in all this. So are you going to see it to the end?” Prax pointed an interrogating stare in Sile’s direction.

  Normally, I would have jumped to his defense. But Sile could handle himself, and this was his choice to make. I wasn’t going to add any pressure in either direction.

  “Guard your tongue, Prax. I’ve rai
sed more dragonriders than you.” Sile’s words were venomous, but somehow he managed to sound complacent. “I didn’t come this far just to abandon my mission now.”

  Right. For him, this wasn’t about me. It wasn’t even about Hovrid or the war. It was about setting things right—about undoing the damage Ulric had done under his watch. It was about keeping his word to my mother.

  “It’s settled then.” I closed my eyes and collected my thoughts. Then I began laying out my plan, detail by excruciating detail. Hours ticked past. They had a lot of questions, and I did my best to answer them. It wasn’t going to be simple.

  But we did have one factor that I thought might tilt things in our favor, and that was the element of surprise. Hovrid wouldn’t be expecting any of this. His eyes were fixed on Luntharda, anticipating an attack from there and pouring all his efforts in that direction. His rage and desire for vengeance would be like blinders on a carriage horse. We were going to hit him from within his own borders with a weapon he didn’t even know existed—me. He didn’t know the stone had chosen a new lapiloque, and he certainly didn’t know what I was planning. I felt confident about that much.

  That is, until Felix sheepishly raised his hand. “Actually, that’s not … completely accurate.”

  You could have heard a pin drop.

  “What do you mean?” Sile’s face had gone a pasty white.

  Felix shrank back in his chair as though he knew this was going to be bad. “I may have let it slip to him that Jaevid could do things.”

  In an instant, Sile was in his face. He practically dove across the table and grabbed the front of his tunic to jerk him out of his chair. “What did you say? What exactly did you tell him?”

  Felix stammered out the specifics, and when he’d finished, Sile basically threw him back into his chair. “You’re a fool. A useless moron! Do you have any idea what this means?” He snarled as he thrust a finger directly at me. “If Hovrid knows he’s coming, none of this is going to work. He’ll put every dragonrider in Maldobar in our path!”

  “Not every dragonrider,” Prax countered.

  Sile’s eyes bulged and his nostrils flared. I sensed a fight was about to break out if I didn’t do something to resolve it.

  “Stop it, all of you.” I stood up and shouted loudly enough to get their attention again. “This doesn’t change anything except our timing. We’ll have to act now, immediately, before Hovrid can call together any more of his forces. Our plan will still work.”

  “And if it doesn’t?” Sile still had a challenging growl in his voice.

  I narrowed my eyes at him, letting him feel a bit of pressure from my power, and making the floorboards and beams of the house groan. “Hovrid isn’t the only one with reinforcements at his disposal.”

  For the first time, Sile backed down. He dropped his gaze, shoulders drawing in somewhat. I wasn’t the shy, scrawny little boy he’d trained. I wasn’t even a dragonrider anymore. I was something else—something even a battle-seasoned rider like him might fear.

  “Very well, then.” Beckah stood up and started whipping her hair into a braid. “Shake the lead out of it, boys. We’ve got work to do.”

  Time was against us. Our key element was gone. And while I didn’t necessarily blame Felix for it, he’d hardly said a word as he followed me around with his head down—literally.

  As much as I wanted to console him, there wasn’t time for it. We could only reasonably allow one day to prepare. Every hour could mean Hovrid gathering more and more soldiers to himself to defend the stone. That meant more swords, armor, and dragonflame would be standing between us and our goal. Felix was going to have to pull himself together on his own.

  There was a lot to go over. Our gear had to be prepped, saddles checked, and swords sharpened. We reviewed the specifics of our plan over and over again, leaving no room for confusion.

  That is, until it came to Beckah.

  As far as I knew, the rest of the dragonriders from Emerald Flight, including Lieutenant Prax, still had absolutely no idea who she really was. I became certain of it when she marched out the front door of my house, down the steps, and straight towards us with her battle armor on and her helmet under her arm. Every bit of her gear had been polished until it shone like obsidian glass, and the golden wings painted onto the various pieces looked like they had been touched up as well. She walked with her head held high, confidence in every step. When she wore that armor, she wasn’t Beckah anymore—she was Seraph.

  Every one of the dragonriders around us, except for Felix who already knew who she was, stared at her like she’d spontaneously grown a second head.

  “What’s this? Some sort of joke?” One of the riders began to protest.

  Prax eyed her up and down like he was experiencing a bad case of déjà vu. “That armor … it resembles …”

  “A dragonrider’s?” Beckah interrupted him. “Or Seraph’s? In either case, you’d be right.”

  “But you’re a woman.” Prax scowled at her disapprovingly. “And a very small one at that. I doubt you can even heft a sword.”

  “You’ve seen Seraph do it plenty of times, haven’t you?” Beckah scowled back at him fearlessly. “Or perhaps you’d rather draw your own sword and test me?”

  It didn’t take long for another rider to chime in. “You honestly expect us to believe this little girl is Seraph? The rider chosen by Icarus? The one we’ve witnessed turn the tide of battle after battle?”

  The rest of Emerald Flight muttered their agreement. A few of them were even laughing at her, as though the idea were totally ridiculous. To them, it must have seemed that way. No woman, big or small, had ever been a dragonrider. It was absolutely forbidden.

  I was going to intervene, to speak up in her defense, but I never got the chance. Icarus put an end to the debate when he landed behind us with a thunderous boom. The monstrous black dragon flared his wings and spines, baring all his jagged teeth as he crawled closer and put his huge head right beside Beckah. She rewarded him with a scratch on the chin. “You’ll have to excuse him. Since he chose me, he doesn’t like it when it seems like someone’s threatening me.”

  No one was laughing now.

  A dragon had chosen Beckah, the same way I was chosen. By the most fundamental law of the dragonrider brotherhood, that meant she was one of them—regardless of who she was.

  “Good. Now that we’ve got that settled, I’m sure none of you will argue with her leading the second group?” I couldn’t resist a proud smirk as I waited for someone to dare to object.

  Of course, no one did.

  Prax chuckled suddenly. He slapped a hand on Felix’s shoulder so hard it almost made him fall over. “Don’t tell me you knew about this the whole time, son?”

  Felix was wearing a coy little smirk, too.

  It only made Prax laugh harder. “Sly devil. Got it from my side, I’d wager.”

  I’d missed it at first, but when Prax said that and looped an arm around Felix’s neck to wrestle him into an aggressive, headlock-enforced hug … it hit me. He’d used the word “son,” and not as a joke.

  I stared at Felix, hoping for some kind of clue as to when this had come out.

  Felix didn’t give me one. He was grinning at Prax, seeming proud of himself, and looking disturbingly like a much younger version of the elder dragonrider. I’d been right all along, then. Prax really was his father.

  Boy, did Felix owe me an explanation about that later. He had no idea how I’d wrestled with asking him about it. I was relieved, though, and glad I’d listened to Jace and kept my nose out of it.

  “We should practice formations. None of us have ever fought against another dragonrider in anything but training. We’ve trained to kill shrikes, but never our own kind. It’s my intention to get through this without ever having to take the life of another dragonrider, but in the event that you have to choose between your own life and someone else’s, you’ll need to be prepared. Even more challe
nging will be that some of you will have extra passengers,” I said. “So let’s use the time we’ve got left. Tonight at midnight, we decide the fate of this kingdom.”

  I sent up a request for the rest of the dragons to gather. At my command, our fleet of dragons dropped below the clouds and began landing, one-by-one, in a circle around us. They shook their heads, snorted, snapped, and growled with anticipation. Next to me, Kiran seemed very anxious.

  “Beckah, you’ll have to double-up so Roland can ride with you. Prax, you’ll take Sile. Kiran, you’ll have to ride piggyback with Felix. He’ll probably need your archery skills to give him some defensive cover since he won’t be able to match my speed. Remember, no one goes it alone. This only works if we stay together.”

  Together, all my comrades gave me the dragonrider salute—even Roland. Then we took to the air, keeping above the cloud cover as much as possible to avoid being spotted by anyone in the city below.

  When it began to get dark, we landed and let the dragons loose to feed and rest before battle. The rest of us took the time to fix anything we’d found wrong with our gear, eat a last meal together, and sit down to rest. It probably would have helped to sleep, but everyone else was just as anxious and fidgety as I was. No one was sleeping tonight.

  I set about healing Roland’s arm, and everyone gathered around to watch curiously as I unwrapped it from the bandages and assessed the damage. His arm was broken in two places because it had been wrenched backwards while still buckled to his shield. It was already healing on its own, so all I had to do was finish the job. I brushed my fingers over his skin, leaving behind a faint, glowing trail of soft, green light. The pieces of bone knitted together. The irritated muscles relaxed. I took his pain and stiffness, and when I was finished, his arm was bound to feel as though it had never been broken.

  “Told you,” Felix said smugly to the rest of my captivated audience, who were stooping over to watch with wide eyes. “And this is nothing. You should see what he can do with vines.”