Fledgling (The Dragonrider Chronicles) (10 page)

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.

The days were so blurred together,
with every hour either filled with some kind of training, studying, or
sleeping, that I totally lost track of time. I didn’t hear anything else about
a plot against
Sile
. There were no more
malfunctioning saddles, or aerial rescues. Things fell into a predictable,
constant routine that gave me a sense of comfort and stability I’d never had
before. For the first time, I had a plan. I had something to do, somewhere I
had to be, and responsibilities.

Our combat training became more
intense, and more specific to weapons we were better suited to use. Lieutenant
Morrig
wasn’t sure what to do with me. My arm wasn’t long
enough for a short sword. I wasn’t tall enough for a spear. I wasn’t strong
enough for an axe or a mace. He was puzzled, and so I just kept switching
weapons, hoping one would eventually be the right fit.

We also learned archery, and the
academics shifted from memorizing maps and hand signs, to learning about the
native plants and animals of
Luntharda
. They made it
sound so horrifying, and described huge bloodthirsty beasts, poisonous streams,
and even carnivorous trees. Secretly, I found it all really interesting. My
mother had always told me stories about the forest, but never in such detail.

We also started to learn about how to
treat wounds in the field. We learned to set broken bones, to make poultices
and salves from various plants to stave off infection, and how to stitch up
gashes and cuts. I was pretty good at it because my fingers were smaller, and
I’d seen so much of my own blood that being around wounds didn’t make me queasy
like it did some of the others.

Summer made the valley incredibly hot
during the day. It baked the earth like clay in a kiln, and made all the plants
and grass shrivel up. At night it was pretty cool, so we usually stayed inside
and studied. None of us had the energy left at the end of the day to risk
getting caught out on the grounds anyway.

I wasn’t aware how much time had
passed, or even what month it was, until Felix started jabbering about the
officer’s ball. Apparently, once a year, every officer of note was invited to a
grand ball held at a certain noble’s home. The rich families of Maldobar argued
over who should host it since it was, according to Felix, the best place to go
shopping for a potential spouse. It was a status symbol because sometimes the
king attended. There’d be wine, dancing, music, food, and pretty girls as far
as the eye could see. Felix was absolutely giddy about it.

“We aren’t officers yet,” I reminded
him as we sat at the dinner table. I had my face in a dusty old book, reading
about the carnivorous trees that grew in
Luntharda
.
“What makes you think we’ll get to have any fun?”

“We will, we just won’t be allowed to
dance or talk with any of the girls,” Felix countered. “We can look, but we
aren’t supposed to approach.”

A few of the other fledgling students
sitting around us nodded in agreement. Since our confrontation with Lyon,
little by little, I’d started to earn the tiniest amount of acceptance from my
peers. I wasn’t dumb enough to think they liked me, but they were willing to
tolerate me now. I guess they’d figured out that if they couldn’t get rid of
me, they might as well get used to me being around.

“So, what you mean by that is you’re
going to do it anyway?” I peered over the top of my book at him.

Felix was grinning from ear to ear. “Of
course. It’s only punishable if you get caught.”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t see what
the big deal is. It’s just a bunch of silly, giggling girls. What’s so
interesting about them?”

Felix smacked my book out of my hands
down onto the table. “Are you crazy? Don’t you have a girl back home?”

I glared at him. I’d made the mistake
of telling him about
Katty
when this all started. I’d
even let him talk me into sending her a letter. But I hadn’t received any reply
at all from her. I didn’t know if she’d even gotten my letter in the first
place.

“No.” I grumbled, crossing my arms
over my chest. “I told you, she’s just my friend.”

“It starts with friends,” Felix was
grinning cattishly again, and a few of the other students around him had joined
in. “Then you go in for the kiss.”

“You sound like an idiot, you know.” I
arched a brow at him. “Even if you did find some way to sneak off and talk to a
girl, you’re not an officer yet. None of us are. We’re just students. And
aren’t we supposed to be serving food and manning the doors and carriages? What
girl is going to want to talk to a glorified butler?”

Felix wasn’t listening anymore. He’d
started snickering and talking to someone else who appreciated the topic of
girls more than I did. I wasn’t going to let myself get caught up in any kind
of grand vision of how the ball would be. It would be interesting to be in a
noble’s home, watch the couples dance, and see how the rich and glamorous got
to live. But I was sure I’d get stared at worse than usual. What noble wanted a
dirty halfbreed in their house?

We finished dinner and dispersed to
our rooms. I took my time bathing. When I came back our room, Felix was
stretched out on his bed studying.

“You got something today,” he said,
pointing to my bed on the other side of the room.

There was a small square envelope
sitting on my bed with my name, Jaevid Broadfeather, written on the outside. I
was bewildered. We were more than halfway through the training year, and no one
had sent me anything before. I went over and picked it up, tearing it open
carefully to unfold the paper tucked inside.

“It’s from your girl, isn’t it?” Felix
was standing right over me, breathing down my neck. “I want to see. C’mon you
owe me, especially after I helped you write the first one.”

I didn’t want to share it. I tried to
turn so he couldn’t see it, holding it down and away. Before I could read a
single word, he snatched it out of my hands and darted away. I chased him,
trying to grab it back while he laughed. He held it high over his head and started
reading it out loud.

“Stop it, Felix!” I yelled, jumping to
try and grab it. “Give it back!”

“Ooh look, she says she misses you.
She even drew a little heart there for you at the bottom of the page.” He
teased, finally let me have the letter back. I gave him a good punch in the arm
before I retreated back to my bed and started reading it.

I didn’t interpret anything in
Katty’s
letter as even remotely out of the ordinary, much
less romantic. And there definitely wasn’t a heart drawn at the bottom of the
page. She wrote that she was glad I was doing well, and proud that I’d made it
into the dragonrider’s academy. She was looking forward to seeing me when I got
to come home between training years, and said that she missed me. Her father
had started teaching her blacksmithing full time now, and had even given her
the official title of his apprentice. I knew that must have made her really
happy. She asked about the academy, about what I was learning, and if I’d made
any friends. I read the letter over three or four times before I folded it back
up, tucking into the envelope, and slipped it under the corner of my mattress.
I couldn’t keep a smile off my face.

“So, everything’s good with her?”
Felix asked as he looked up from where he was studying again.

I sighed. “Yeah. Seems like it.”

He nodded, smirking to himself like he
thought it was funny. “Just look at that grin on your face. You should just
tell her you like her, you know. Go ahead and get it out of the way before some
other guy snaps her up.”

I glared at him tiredly. “I told you,
we’re not like that. She doesn’t—” I paused to think. “What do you mean
snaps her up?”

Felix shrugged some. “You know, if
she’s pretty, you’re probably not the only one who’s going to notice her. It’s
all about timing, my friend.”

That didn’t sit too well with me, not
that there was a single thing I could do about it. I sat up, pretending to
study while I mulled it over. I didn’t really know if I liked her or not. She’d
been a friend, my only friend, up until recently. She was one of the few people
I knew I could really trust. To tell her that I liked her would change
everything, and not necessarily for the better.

When Felix went to sleep, I took out a
clean piece of parchment and started writing a letter back to her. Since I’d
come here, there was plenty of time to practice writing. My spelling was still
a little wonky sometimes, but it was much better than before.

I told her everything I could think of
about the academy. I told her about
Sile
, and all the
rigorous morning drills he made us do. I told her about Mavrik, and how
together we’d saved
Sile
from being killed when his
saddle malfunctioned. I told her about Felix, who was becoming more like an
annoying older brother than a classmate. I told her about how he’d rescued me
from being bullied a few times, and how he liked to tease me about everything.
Finally, I told her that I liked it here. It was hard. Every day was tougher
than the one before it, but I really did like it. I liked feeling like I had a
purpose, and a future to look forward to. Even if only a few of these
dragonriders liked me, I could deal with that. I could be happy anyway.

I paused to think about what else I
should say. Felix thought I needed to tell her that I liked her, but I still
wasn’t sure about that. Leaving the letter unfinished, I folded the paper up
and tucked it under the bed with the one she’d sent me. I would just have to
think about it some more.

When it came to
Katty
,
things had always been clear to me before. She was my very best friend, and
definitely someone I cared about. But asking myself if I liked her the way
Felix was talking about meant I’d be putting all that on the line if she didn’t
feel the same way. I just wasn’t sure I was ready to risk that yet.

twelve

The
day before the annual officer’s ball, all our training was suspended for
preparations. There were no morning drills, no pushups, and definitely no
academics for us. The older students and officers had to have their formal
armor refitted, polished, and perfected, so the hallways of the dorm were
filled with the smell of shoe polish and clean laundry.

As fledglings, we didn’t have anything
like that yet. Instead,
Sile
came into our dorm room
with a bag filled with new navy blue tunics that had the king’s golden eagle stitched
on the shoulders and breast, long black capes with a gold-colored chain around
the neck, knee-high black boots, and black pants. There was a set for each of
us, and
Sile
told us to go ahead and try everything
on to make sure it fit.

“Can’t have you two looking like bums
at Duke Brinton’s estate,”
Sile
grumbled. He came
over and started adjusting the collar of my tunic, then did the same to
Felix’s.

“Is that who’s hosting it? Brinton?
Well, at least there’ll be a lot of wine.” Felix snorted. “Duke Brinton loves
his vineyards more than his own children. He talks about them like they were
people instead of a bunch of plants. You should hear him at dinner. Just on and
on—there’s no stop to it. About the leaves, and the grapes, and how he’s
perfected the aging process. And his son, there’s a real piece of work. You may
have been born a halfbreed, Jae, but be glad you never had to endure a play
date with Fredrick Brinton.”

I snickered, and
Sile
cast us both a dangerous look. “Just keep your thoughts to yourself when you’re
at his estate, am I understood? No talking with the distinguished guests. No
drinking. No dancing. You’re there to help ladies from carriages into the
ballroom, not flirt with them. You’re there to serve wine, not drink any. This
is a night for men, so remember your place, boys.”

I was actually getting excited about
it now. There would be food there unlike anything I’d ever tasted before. Even
if most of the people there looked at me as if I were a cockroach, I was still
going to enjoy it. I was still a fledgling dragonrider—so they couldn’t
exactly kick me out.

When we had packed our new uniforms
up, with
Sile
standing over us, watching to make sure
we didn’t leave anything behind, we went to bed early. Everyone else did, too.
For once, it was Felix who was too restless to sleep. He kept me up with his
excited whispering, going on about Brinton’s obnoxious fat son, Fredrick, and
how his wife had a hooked nose and nasally laugh. I was relieved when he
finally drifted off and I heard him start to snore. It didn’t take me any time
at all to fall asleep, too.

The call to arms sounded, and purely
out of habit, I was already awake. Felix had no trouble sleeping in the extra
few hours, though. He was still snoring and drooling, so I just finished my
letter to
Katty
.

I promised her I’d come to visit as
soon as I could, told her how I hoped to get another letter from her soon, and
ended it at that. No emotional gushes or confessions of liking anyone. I just
wasn’t willing to risk it. In the whole world, I could count the number of
people I could call friends on one hand, and one of them was a dragon. I didn’t
want to do anything to jeopardize the relationship I had with her.
At least, not yet.

When Felix woke up, we started to get
ready to go. We put on our fledgling’s armor, grabbed our bags, and started
down toward the Roost. It didn’t take much time to get ready to leave, but it
was really crowded. Every other rider in the academy was in the process of
leaving, too. All around us, riders were fixing their saddles, tying down their
bags, and taking off into the sky. Some of them had already left and were on
their way to the east.

Sile
was waiting for us. We hurried
through fitting on our own saddles, tying down all our bags, and taking off.
With the ocean to our backs, and the sun rising over the mountains before us,
we started for Duke Brinton’s estate.

A few twilight stars were still
glittering in the west when Blybrig Academy emptied of all its dragonriders
into the morning sky. It was an incredible thing to see. All around me in the
sky were magnificent dragons and proud knights in gleaming armor. There were
more than a hundred in total, all heading toward the break of day. And the best
part was, I was one of them.

It was almost a full day of riding
over mountains frosted with snow, steep desert canyons, lush green valleys, and
rolling grasslands to get to Brinton’s estate. We didn’t even stop to rest, and
by the time we could see the city below, my rear end was sore from sitting in
the saddle for so long. We circled in a pattern, following
Sile
as he signaled to us that we were landing in waves, five at a time. I guessed
that was to keep from overwhelming the Duke’s front door with a flock of
dragons.

Duke Brinton was opening his enormous
home and all its rooms to us. All the dragonriders from Blybrig were staying
with him until tomorrow morning. It was an honor to spend the night in a
noble’s house. Even if they made me sleep in the stable with the horses, it
would probably still be the nicest place I had ever stayed in.

We kept circling in a tight pattern
until it was our turn to land and quickly unpack our bags before sending our
dragons back into the air. They’d hang around in the area, waiting for us, but
there was nowhere to stable them here. Besides, keeping dragons around
livestock was generally a bad idea. Even tame dragons got hungry.

I stood back, watching Mavrik take to
the air and soar skyward like a huge, blue-scaled eagle. He was so powerful and
majestic, and seeing him join the flock of dragons in the air, swirling in a
giant circular column like buzzards over a kill, was amazing. I still wasn’t
used to it, and it still took my breath away.

“Come on, we’ve
gotta
get ready!” Felix gave me a nudge and nodded toward the door.

Brinton’s estate looked like a massive
castle made of stacked white stone. There must have been a thousand rooms with
gleaming windows on every side. The front lawn was like a front field, and in
the center was a huge lake with white swans paddling around on it. In the back,
there were acres upon acres of vineyards, stretching as far as I could see
across the rolling landscape.

Two maids in matching blue and white
dresses were holding the front doors open for all the dragonriders to come
inside. As soon as we were inside, I forgot to look anywhere but up. The
ceilings were incredibly tall, and painted with images of clouds, angels, and
the old gods from the old fables doing battle with mythical beasts. I noticed
that one of the demonic monsters looked a lot like a gray elf, only with pointy
teeth and glowing yellow eyes.

The windows stretched up the walls,
and chandeliers made of glittering crystal looked big enough to kill a few
people if they happened to fall. Porcelain pots squatted on the floor, so big I
could have climbed inside one to hide, but instead they were filled with
blossoming fruit trees that made the air smell sweet. I felt totally out of
place as I stood with my bag in one hand, and my helmet under my other arm.

Felix kept nudging me to keep me moving,
and we followed
Sile
into the house, through the long
hallways, up a grand staircase, to the east wing where we dragonriders were
staying for the night. Maids dressed in that same blue and white dress went
back and forth past us, and one paused to let us into a large suite that was
for the three of us.

Sile
waved us off as soon as he sat his
bags down. “I’ve got to run a few errands before I dress. Go ahead and clean
yourselves up. Try not to get into any trouble. In fact, just don’t leave this
room until I get back,” he commanded before he went back outside.

The room was as big as
Ulric’s
whole house, and then some. It had four bedrooms
and a washroom attached to a big sitting room. One whole wall of the main room
was entirely covered by a window that looked out onto a beautiful garden three
storeys
down. There was a big silver platter of fruit,
cheese, a whole table of desserts set out for us to eat, and a fully stocked
wine bar. Felix was eyeing that as I went from room to room, checking things out.

I couldn’t believe I’d actually have a
room all to myself. Not just a cot, or a shared room; I’d have my own bedroom
with a double bed, soft sheets, and fluffy pillows. It was surreal, and I was
afraid to touch anything for fear I’d get it dirty.

“He’s gone to get his family, you
know. The wives always come to this kind of thing. They love the show.” Felix
was leaning in the doorway, looking around at the glamorous bedroom. “So what
do you think?”

I turned to look back at him. “About
what?”

He waved a finger in a circle,
gesturing the suite we’d be staying in for the next day.

“It’s incredible.” I couldn’t hide my
amazement. “Do you live in a house like this? Your father is a duke, too, isn’t
he?”

Felix shrugged like it wasn’t a big
deal. “Bigger, actually.
But not nearly as gaudy.
Brinton’s family manages much smaller area, so I guess he feels like he has
something to prove. My family line is much older. You know, there’s a slim
chance I could even be heir to the throne someday. King Felix. Sounds good,
eh?”

I smirked and rolled my eyes at him,
setting my bag down and beginning to take out the pieces of my uniform for the
night. “No wonder you were excited about this. I’m actually kind of looking
forward to it, now.”

“Told you so.” He smiled back at me,
giving me a mischievous wink before he went to his own room to get ready. “And
the real party hasn’t even started yet.”

I washed up, scrubbing dirt from my
face and hands and neck, and combing my hair to make sure it covered my pointed
ears before I got dressed. I checked in the big floor mirror in my room to make
sure my collar was straight, and there wasn’t a wrinkle out of place.

Sile
came back in a hurry. He was alone,
and didn’t look very happy. He started rushing through his own preparations,
cursing and muttering under his breath as he fought to get his cape buckled
onto the
pauldrons
of his shoulder armor. As I
finished getting ready, I wandered out into the parlor to watch him fighting to
get his cape situated.

“Is everything all right, sir?” I
dared to ask.

He didn’t stop to look at me, finally
getting the cape on right, and going on to hurriedly buckle up his beautifully
engraved
vambraces
onto his forearms. “My wife has
decided to stay at home. She’s late on in her pregnancy, and just can’t stomach
to travel this far. But she sent our oldest child here with a nanny, and now
the nanny’s come down with some kind of stomach bug. She’s emptying her guts,
and it doesn’t look like she’ll be able to take care of herself for the rest of
the night, let alone anyone else. So I’m left with an
unchaperoned
kid to worry with when I’m already supposed to be babysitting you two. I tried
to find Brinton to ask him about using one of his own girls as a nanny, but of
course he’s nowhere to be found. Not that I blame him. There’ll be about five
hundred officers in attendance tonight, total. The whole house is in an uproar.
He’s got his hands full.”

Sile
had never mentioned his family to us
before. I didn’t even know he had a wife or any children. He was still growling
and muttering under his breath while he finished getting dressed. “I can’t just
haul a kid around all night. I don’t know why she’d even bother to send Beck at
all,” he grumbled. “She knows young kids aren’t welcomed at events like this.
It’s not a play date.”

“I could do it, sir.” I offered before
I even think it through.

Sile
stopped in the middle of fastening
his last buckle to frown at me. “Do what?”

“Watch after your son. Beck, right?” I
clarified. “I’ve got two younger siblings, so I’m used to taking care of kids.”
That wasn’t exactly true. Whenever I’d been forced to watch
Emry
and Lin, it always ended badly. They did everything they could to get me into
trouble, and I was helpless to stop them because I was outnumbered.
But one kid?
Surely I could handle just one.

He narrowed his eyes, and opened his
mouth like he was going to protest, but the door to our suite opened. One of
the other instructors stuck his head into the room long enough to tell
Sile
we were ten minutes away from needing to report for
presentation. We were out of time.

Growling more angry words under his
breath,
Sile
shot me a quick glare. I could already
tell, just by the look on his face, that I’d just blown my chance at seeing the
officer’s ball. I was going to be on babysitting duty for the night.

“Fine, you’ll have to do. I’m out of
time and out of options. You have to stay in the room, am I understood? No
roaming the halls. I’ll make sure there’s a servant on call, in case you need
anything,”
Sile
told me as he ran out the door again.