Avian (The Dragonrider Chronicles) (9 page)

There was another tense silence. I wanted so badly to answer, to sit up and assure everyone that I was fine. I just needed to rest and then everything would be okay. But I couldn’t.

“Lieutenant Derrick, you’re a good man, so I’ll be perfectly honest,” the stranger answered. “I’ve only ever witnessed this once before. So few of them even survive to adolescence at all. His body probably won’t be able to stand the pain. But even if it could, he is starving for nutrients as we speak. All children need food to grow, and what he’s going through is basically years of physical maturity packed into a very short amount time. He’s already thin and has obviously suffered from some malnutrition. He will probably starve to death in the next day or so. You should… make the necessary preparations. I can send word to the minister for you. He doesn’t like presiding over the burial rites for elves, but in your case, I think I could convince him to make an exception.”

Beckah started to cry. I wanted to yell in protest. I was alive. Couldn’t they see that? I wasn’t even dead yet and they were already planning my funeral!

“Isn’t there anything we can do?” Sile sounded determined.

The stranger sighed. I heard footsteps going toward the door. “You could try forcing him to eat, though in his current state, I’m not sure it would help even if he ate constantly over the next few days.”

“Thank you, doctor.” Sile and the man kept talking as they left the room. Soon I couldn’t make out anything else they said.

Suddenly Beckah put her arms around me. She buried her face against my neck and I could feel her shaking as she cried. “I won’t let you die,” she said. “So don’t you dare give up, you hear me?”

She got up and left the room, and I was left there wondering what was happening to me. I had always hoped and prayed that I would grow some. I had anticipated getting a little taller, especially since my father was practically a giant compared to most other men. I had expected my voice to get deeper, or that I would at least fill out to look less like a skeleton. But nothing could have prepared me for this. Now, I was just hoping I would survive.

Each day that passed felt worse than the one before it. Instead of getting better, the pain seemed to get worse and worse. Everything ached. My stomach felt like it was grinding against my spine. I was so hungry I couldn’t think, and so thirsty that it hurt to even breathe.

Every time I started to lose my will to go on, Beckah was there. I always knew it was her because I could recognize the feel of her hands. She forced me to eat by prying my mouth open and pouring something like soup down my throat. I don’t know how often she did it. It seemed almost constant. And each time she finished, the effects were immediate. I felt a little better for a few minutes. My stomach didn’t ache so badly, and I got some relief from the agony in my bones. Then the pain would return with a vengeance.

I was living in a nightmare. The doctor’s words kept gnawing at the back of my mind. He had said I wouldn’t survive this. He even told Sile to go ahead and prepare to bury me. I didn’t want to die. Not yet. But it was getting harder and harder to remember anything other than suffering.

As more time passed, my mind started to fray. My thoughts were less clear. I couldn’t tell who was touching me or feeding me anymore. I couldn’t feel anything except the pain.

Mavrik gave me some relief in my darkest moments. He sent me images of us flying at the academy; memories that sometimes found me in that dark place. I could sense his concern, and it brought me comfort to know that he hadn’t left me to go through this alone. After a while, though, I couldn’t even make myself focus on that either. I was numb inside and out. I started to lose my will to go on.

I started to hope I would die, just so the pain would finally stop.

It was peaceful when I opened my eyes. At first, I thought I might be dead. I could faintly hear the sound of the surf in the distance. I could smell the salty ocean wind coming through the open windows. The air was cool against my skin, and everything felt calm.

The pain was finally gone.

At first, I just assumed I was dead. It was the only thing that made sense. That is, until I realized I could take a deep breath, and nothing hurt. I could wiggle my fingers and my toes. Slowly, I started trying to raise my head up to look around. My body was stiff and sore all over, like I’d been run over by a herd of horses. There wasn’t a single part of me that didn’t ache. My joints felt like someone had poured sand into them. My head throbbed when I looked into the glare of the sunlight.

But I could do it—I could move. I could think. And even that intense soreness was nothing compared to the pain I had been in before.

Then I saw Beckah curled up on the bed next to me. She was slumped back against the headboard, sound asleep, with a half-finished bowl of soup in her hands. I could tell by the look on her sleeping face that she was exhausted. There were dark circles under her eyes and her hair was frazzled. She probably hadn’t let herself rest in days. Or had it been days? I wasn’t sure. My sense of time was distorted. Everything had felt like one long nightmare.

I sat up slowly, and reached out to carefully slip the bowl of soup out of Beckah’s grasp so she didn’t spill it in her sleep. Suddenly, I noticed my hands. I stared at them, and it was surreal.

They were… huge!

Or at least, they were a lot bigger than they had been before. I started wiggling my fingers to make sure they were actually my fingers, and not some kind of illusion.

A surge of adrenaline made me forget all about Beckah and the soup. I got out of bed and almost fell flat on my face. My legs were still weak. I could barely walk, so I leaned against the bed as I staggered across the room toward the mirror.

The young man looking back at me was barely recognizable. I didn’t believe it really was me until I saw him moving whenever I did. It just didn’t seem possible. It couldn’t be real.

The man in my reflection looked a lot like my father, with a squared chin and piercing pale blue eyes. His hair wasn’t black, but it wasn’t white like a gray elf’s either. It was somewhere in between, like the color of ash. All traces of boyhood were gone from his face, and when he narrowed his eyes back at me… his gaze was disturbingly piercing. It made my skin prickle because it was the same harrowing, fierce look my father had on his face almost constantly.

Slowly, it started to sink in. That was me. I wasn’t a puny, half-stuffed scarecrow anymore. I actually looked older than I was, maybe nineteen instead of sixteen. I didn’t look like a kid, I looked like a man!

I must have grown out of my clothes because I was basically just wearing underwear and they definitely weren’t mine. I guessed I was borrowing some from Sile, which was kind of embarrassing and awkward. I didn’t dare take them off, though. I wasn’t wearing anything else.

I looked down at my arms, my legs, and it actually got me choked up. I wasn’t a skeleton. Well, at least not as much as before. I was still lean, still skinny compared to someone like Felix who was all brawn, but now I looked mature. I looked healthy. I was so grateful for every single ounce of muscle I could get. I still wasn’t totally convinced this wasn’t some kind of dream. It seemed too good to be true.

“Jae?” Beckah said my name.

I turned to see her sitting up on the bed, wide-awake, and staring at me with eyes as big as saucers. She almost looked scared of me. I tried to speak but it came out as a bunch of excited sounds.

“Is that really you?” she asked shakily.

“I-I’m not sure,” I stammered as I glanced back at the mirror to make sure. My voice sounded different, too. It was deeper. “I think so.”

She put the bowl on the nightstand and started creeping toward me cautiously. When I turned to face her, she jumped back a little. I noticed she was looking up at me—way up. I was a lot taller than her now. She was trembling a little as she eyed me up and down.

“Beckah.” I hated to see her be afraid of me. I wanted her to know it was still the same me. On the inside, I didn’t feel any different than before. “It’s okay.”

She didn’t look convinced, even as she started to inch toward me a little. At any moment, I half expected her to bolt out of the room screaming. I could see her looking me over, like she was searching for traces of the scrawny little Jae she’d known before. When she finally met my eyes again, the corners of her mouth were twitching at a smile.

“Well, you’re definitely not a lamb anymore,” she said uneasily.

I smiled, and before I could think about it, I hugged her. Probably not the best idea since I wasn’t exactly wearing much in the way of clothes. But I knew she was the reason I was still alive and breathing. I had survived because she never gave up on me. I knew I would spend the rest of my life trying to find some way to repay her for that.

She didn’t seem to mind if I was mostly naked or not; she put her arms around my waist like she always did and hugged me tight. She wasn’t strong enough to choke me anymore, though. The hug was a lot different from before. I was so much bigger than she was now. Her head only came up to my chest, and I could easily swallow her up in my arms. She felt so fragile.

Her angry-looking father definitely minded the hugging, though. Sile was standing in the doorway. He arched a brow at me and cleared his throat, narrowing his eyes into lethal slits. Somehow, it reminded me of the way Icarus glared at me. I knew that was probably going to be my only warning. I had about two seconds to let his daughter go before he made good on his promise to rip my ears off. Growth spurt or not, I was well aware that Sile could still beat me within an inch of my life without ever breaking a sweat.

We jumped apart immediately. Beckah was blushing as she hurried over to pick up the bowl of soup. She skirted around her dad as she went out of the room like she couldn’t get away fast enough.

“Oh by the way, he’s awake,” she added quickly.

Sile gave her a hard look as she disappeared into the hallway. “I can see that,” he grumbled. When she was safely downstairs and out of earshot, he curled a finger at me to follow him. “You can’t walk around naked in my house, boy.”

I followed him to his room, keeping a hand on the wall because my legs were still wobbly. They tingled like they had been asleep for a long time. As I walked behind him, I noticed I was taller than he was now. That startled me a little, and it made me want to shrink down some. I didn’t feel like I deserved to be taller than Sile.

“They’re going to be too short,” he said as he opened his armoire and started throwing clothes in my direction. “But they’ll do for now. Figures you’d inherit
his
stature.”

I pulled a green tunic over my head and stepped into a pair of pants. They were definitely too small. The shirt was tight across my chest and back because my shoulders were bony, but broad. The pants were so short they came up above my ankles. The waist was a little too big for me, though, so I kept pulling them up until Sile finally tossed me a belt. When I finished dressing, I noticed Sile was still standing there with his arms crossed, sizing me up like he always did.

“You feeling all right?” he asked.

His concern caught me off guard. “Yes. I’m a little sore. It’s already getting better, though.”

I met his gaze. For a few long, uncomfortable minutes, we just stood there staring at each other. His brow was furrowed, and he was frowning like he wanted to yell at me. I wasn’t sure why.

“You know I had to buy a coffin. It’s leaning up against the side of the house outside.” He snapped. He acted like I had forced him to do that.

I didn’t know what to say. I wondered if I should apologize or not. I wasn’t sure what I’d be apologizing for, though. Almost dying?

“Don’t do that to us again,” he warned.

I nodded, even if I wasn’t completely sure what he was talking about. “Yes, sir.”

He snorted and looked away, scratching at the back of his neck uncomfortably. “I suppose I should thank you.”

“For what?”

He started toward me, and I couldn’t tell if he was about to hug me or punch me in the face. I cringed because both options seemed uncomfortable. When he got close enough, he put a hand on my shoulder. “It was my fault. I forced you to do something you weren’t ready for, and it almost cost you your life. But what you did—”

Like a bolt of lightning, the memories of what had happened burst into my head. His wife had been dying right in front of my eyes. Then Sile had insisted I do something about it. And… I
had
done something, I just didn’t know what. I couldn’t stand it anymore; I had to know.

“What did I do?” I interrupted.

Sile smirked at me and shook his head some. “Why don’t you go downstairs and see for yourself?”

Sile followed me as I went down to the first floor. The more I walked, the steadier my legs got. I was stiff, and parts of me were sore, but it was getting better by the second. The more I moved, the better I felt.

I could hear singing coming from the kitchen, and I thought I recognized Mrs. Derrick’s voice. Something smelled fantastic, like freshly baked pie. It made my mouth water.

As I started to peek around the corner, Sile gave me a shove from behind. I came stumbling into the kitchen, almost tripping and falling on my face. Beckah was sitting at the table with her sewing tools spread out around her. She smiled at me, but I had a feeling she wasn’t practicing her sewing because she wanted to.

“Jaevid!” Mrs. Derrick’s voice sang my name.

When I turned around to see her, I barely recognized her. Her eyes were shining and her skin was glowing. She looked healthier than all of us. There was rosy color in her cheeks, and she had more meat on her bones. She looked ten years younger, and her smile was so bright that it made me blush.

There was a squirming lump cradled against her chest in a sling made out of soft pink fabric. I didn’t even notice until I heard it whimper and start to cry. It was a tiny, wrinkly baby. She patted and stroked it, cooing softly until the baby became silent again.

Mrs. Derrick looked up at me and smiled again. There were tears in her eyes, but she didn’t look sad. Before I could smile back, she started hugging me. She kissed both my cheeks until they were wet, and combed her fingers through my hair.