Avian (The Dragonrider Chronicles) (31 page)

Ahead of me, Felix turned around to give me a thumbs up. Jace even let him take the lead as we started our descent into one of the big grassy courtyards where other dragonriders were taking turns landing and unloading their gear.

The closer we got to the cliffs and the sea, the more excited Mavrik got. I could feel his heart pounding against my legs, even through the thick saddle padding. His big nostrils puffed as he scented the air. His bright yellow eyes darted around, and he chirped at the other dragons. They all chirped back excitedly.

“It must remind them of home,” Lyon muttered once we landed. Demos was giving him a hard time, squirming around like he was eager to get back in the air.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“They come from the highland cliffs further north, up the coast. Didn’t you know? It’s not that far from here.” Lyon pointed toward the ocean. “The land rises and creates these massive, steep cliffs that drop hundreds of feet into the sea. That’s where wild dragons nest.”

I tried to envision that. It wasn’t hard to imagine that many dragons, not when I spent my time around so many of them every day. But as soon as I started trying to picture it in my mind, Mavrik took over. He changed the image, showing me what it was really like. A huge stone cliff face that went on for miles and miles, jutting straight up out of the dark, foaming ocean. Dragons flew, catching the strong winds in their powerful wings, and building their nests on the narrow ledges. They ate fish from the sea, or flew many miles inland for larger game to bring back for their hatchlings. The roaring sound of the waves pounding against the rock was constant, and the rich smell of cold, deep ocean water filled my lungs. It was hard to tell which was just a picture coming from Mavrik’s mind, and which was real.

“Beautiful,” I murmured.

Mavrik crowed with agreement. I grabbed my bag off his back and stepped out of the way as he took off, filling his wings with air that smelled like home to him. It made me smile.

The closer we got to Felix’s house, the bigger it seemed to get. The gates had to be at last twenty feet tall, and were plated with bronze that shone like gold in the light of the setting sun. All the courtyards and pathways were paved with white cobblestones. Felix told us it was limestone straight out of the heart of this kingdom.

“It’s the oldest castle in Maldobar,” he said. “My family was one of the first to settle here, hundreds of years ago.”

The inside of the estate was even grander and more beautiful than the outside. Two massive mahogany doors were opened to welcome guests into a foyer that was at least the size of the breaking dome. The vaulted ceilings were detailed with dark stained wood. Huge iron chandeliers sent candlelight sparkling over white marble floors, and enormous hearths in every room roared with fires. There were paintings and elaborate tapestries hanging on all the walls, depicting all the years of Felix’s family history. All the furniture was made of polished wood, silk, and animal furs. It looked expensive, but welcoming and comfortable. The arched windows were adorned in wreaths made from holly, pine needles, and the rugged-looking flowers that grew in this area. It made the castle smell as good as it looked, and put me at ease right away. The whole place managed to be incredibly lavish without seeming untouchable. It felt warm and inviting—well, as far as noble estates go, anyway.

As Felix led the way through the estate, guiding us down long hallways lined with portraits, we passed more servants and maids than I could count. They all wore similar blue and white uniforms with gold aprons and ties. They smiled at us as we passed, but when they spotted Felix, they quickly bowed or curtsied to him and asked him if they could help carry his things. He kept waving them off, telling them that he could manage it on his own.

“I was hoping maybe I had been away long enough they wouldn’t recognize me,” Felix complained as he opened the door to his chambers. Apparently, we were staying in his wing of the estate tonight.

Jace made a sarcastic sound in his throat. “Good luck with that. You look too much like your mother.”

Felix stared at him, looking a little nervous. “How do you know that?”

“Because I tried to get her to elope with me. It was at a ball just like this. She was young and beautiful. I begged her to fly away with me,” Jace answered bluntly. He didn’t even give Felix a second glance, like it wasn’t a big deal.

No one was ready for that, especially not Felix. I don’t think any of us realized that was Jace’s bizarre attempt at a joke until
he
started laughing. Even then, I was afraid to assume anything.

“It’s refreshing to have such gullible students,” Jace chuckled as he patted Felix’s shoulder roughly.

For a few seconds, Felix looked like he was going to throw up. He managed to suck it up, and crack a smirk as Jace wandered away to explore our housing for the night. As soon as he was out of sight, though, the three of us all shared a horrified moment of silence.

“You think he was serious?” Lyon whispered.

Felix shot him a poisonous look. “Shut up. Don’t even say things like that. My mother is a saint.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, which promptly got me punched in the arm.

Felix’s chambers were bigger than my entire house. I understood now why he had insisted it would be fine for me to stay with him during the interlude; he basically had a small city’s worth of rooms all to himself. He had his own library, four or five different bedrooms, balconies, parlors, and a washroom that could have comfortably bathed a dozen people at once.

“Make yourselves at home,” he said casually as he threw his bags down on a sofa and started for a buffet table in the corner of the room that was stacked with silver platters of desserts. Seeing them reminded me of Beckah, and my stomach squirmed nervously again. I wondered if she was already here, waiting somewhere in this huge castle.

Everyone split up as soon as we got settled, rushing around to get ready as quickly as possible. I wiped the sweat off my neck and face with a warm washcloth, and went to work trying to braid my hair. I knew there was no way I would ever get it to look as good as when Beckah did it, but I wanted to try. After a few minutes of tying it in knots, though, I finally gave it up and brushed it back into a long ponytail.

Felix had given each of us our own room in his chambers. While we were cleaning up, a small army of servants had come in and set out all our belongings for us. I found my uniform, armor, boots, and weaponry laid out perfectly on the bed. It even looked like they had taken the time to polish my breastplate and vambraces again.

Seeing all that fancy stuff made me anxious, but I took my time getting dressed. My formal uniform pants were black and made of more expensive cotton. They had a blue line down each side of the leg that was trimmed in gold. The blue tunic was made to match, with black and gold stripes down the sides of the arms, and a high collar that fastened with a gold button. There were gold plates on the shoulders with special clasps for the thin breastplate that buckled against my chest.

The breastplate wasn’t made to be worn in actual battle. The metal was way too thin, and it was plated in silver with intricate gold detailing in the shape of the king’s eagle with swords and spears in its claws. The vambraces were made the same way; to be comfortable and light, but beautiful. The servants had polished them all until they shimmered like mirrors.

I laced up my tall black riding boots, and buckled my long black cloak onto the gold plates on my shoulders so that it hung down my back and barely brushed the floor. When I stepped to the mirror to make sure everything was straight, I barely recognized myself. I looked older, more mature, and except for the pointed ears and ash-colored hair… I actually looked like a dragonrider.

“Not bad,” Felix called from the doorway. He was already dressed in the same thing I was wearing. “Are you ready for this?”

“Sure,” I lied.

He laughed. “I seriously doubt that. Just remember what I taught you. This is a show, Jae. It’s all a game. And if you want to win, you have to have two things.”

I followed him out of the room. We walked side by side toward the main parlor where we were supposed to meet up with Lyon and Jace. “Oh? Remind me what they are again?”

He smirked at me with that familiar cunning light in his eyes. I had figured out a long time ago what that look meant. He had girls on the brain. He tossed his feathery blond hair out of his eyes and chuckled. “Charm and confidence.”

* * *

Duke Farrow had opened up three of the estate’s huge ballrooms for the ball. They sparkled with dazzling décor, and roared with the sound of laughter and music. The air was filled with the smell of pine needles, flowers, and food. Hundreds of men in uniform, infantrymen and dragonriders, gathered to watch the nobles arriving through the front entryway. Carriages were lined up one after another, pulled by horses with ribbons tied in their manes and tails. Each carriage was given an introduction before the doors were opened and a few fledgling students rushed to help the noble ladies and gentlemen out.

Felix was right, it really was a show. The ladies were wearing gowns made out of silk, velvet, or expensively embroidered cotton. They had flowers or ribbons in their hair, and expensive jewelry on their necks and wrists. They laughed, giggled, and waved at some of the other dragonriders as they arrived. A lot of them seemed to recognize Felix.

I’d never seen anything like this up close—I mean, girls like this had never visited the gray elf ghetto or my father’s house. My mother had never owned a dress like that, and she certainly didn’t have any jewelry with big gems and crystals like these girls were wearing. At first, I stared at each one that walked past us. I couldn’t help it.

Then Felix elbowed me again. “Not charming, Jae. Quit gawking. And close your mouth.”

I swallowed hard and tried to remember some of the stuff he had taught me before. I guess I wasn’t naturally a very charming person. The best I could manage was a smile that must have looked as disturbing as it felt, because the girls all gave me strange looks as they walked past. Being charming came so naturally to Felix, though. I watched him wave at the girls. He even winked at some of them, and it always made them blush.

As soon as the introductions were finished, and the last of the carriages were emptied, Felix’s mother stood up at the front of the room and gave a welcoming speech. I decided Jace must have been joking about Felix looking like his mother, because they didn’t favor much at all. Her eyes seemed sad and exhausted. She wished us all a good evening, and offered a toast up to her husband who wouldn’t be able to join us because of his illness.

As soon as his mother’s speech was over, Felix vanished like a racehorse after the starting gun. He practically vaporized into the crowd, and the next time I caught a glimpse of him, he was standing in the middle of a big group of girls.

Anyone else probably would have been upset about being left behind like that. I guess I was a little shocked he bolted so quickly, but I knew better than to think that Felix was going to coach me through tonight. He had his own agenda, and nothing was going to get in the way of that.

“I’d give my left arm for some of his connections,” Lyon murmured next to me. He was watching Felix with envy written all over his face.

“I’d give my right arm for some of his confidence,” I added.

Lyon laughed. “He’s got plenty of that to go around. So where’s your girl? Didn’t she come?”

I glanced back at the open doorway that led out the front entrance. There were still carriages arriving, a few guests running late, but no sign of Beckah. I tried to convince myself there was still hope that she might come. I’d never gotten up the nerve to write another letter to her and ask her about coming. I was starting to worry that maybe I should have. Maybe she had been expecting it, or even waiting for it, and I had failed to deliver.

Lyon patted my shoulder. I guess he could tell my hopes were hanging by a thread. “She’s probably just running behind. It’s a long ride out here.”

I nodded, but I didn’t feel any better. After all, Beckah probably wasn’t going to come by carriage—not when she had a set of wings that would take her wherever she wanted to go.

The ball got underway, and I mixed with the other guests about as well as oil and water. Lyon stuck close by me most of the time, except when he got the nerve up to ask a girl to dance, and I felt bad for holding him back. He didn’t have much trouble getting girls to notice him. He wasn’t as tall as some of the infantrymen, but he was still a dragonrider with a noble pedigree. Felix had been right about our armor attracting more attention. The girls definitely gravitated toward dragonriders over everyone else, and I got the impression right away that the infantrymen had a big chip on their shoulders about it.

Lyon at least had the good taste to wait his turn, though. Felix on the other hand, treated the infantrymen like they were invisible, or faceless obstacles in his way, whenever there was a girl he wanted to dance with. Several times, I felt my heart starting to pound because I was so sure one of the infantrymen was going to finally lose his self-control and start a fight. That was not something I wanted to deal with tonight, but I was obligated by the bonds of friendship to have Felix’s back in a fight… even if he was the one being a jerk.

The armor didn’t help me much, though. Any girl that got close to me took one look at my pointed ears, and made an immediate sprint in the opposite direction. It shouldn’t have surprised me, let alone gotten under my skin. But after about the fourth time of finally working up the nerve to ask someone to dance, only to have them run away like I was carrying some kind of deadly disease, I was beginning to ask myself why I even bothered.

“Have a drink,” Lyon said as he handed me a glass of wine. “You look like you need it.”

“Tell me this is almost over,” I groaned. I’d never tried wine before, so I didn’t think much about it before turning up the glass and drinking it all at once. That was a horrible mistake. The strong drink made my stomach ache immediately.