Dragon School_Initiate Page 5

  It took three times as long as it should have. I navigated tree roots and stones with difficulty, but without slipping. I looked back at Leng every few steps. His footsteps were short and tight, a man in deep pain. I knew what that was like, but I couldn’t go any slower. I was at the point where if I stopped, I wouldn’t have the willpower to get up and go again. I needed to keep on my feet until we got to the fire.

  When I arrived, my arm carrying all the supplies was burning and numb. I let them slip to the ground and turned to see Leng stumbling into the ring of light around the fire, his eyes shut in a wince. He shouldn’t be here. He should be recovering in a healing ward, not camping out in the woods. With a sigh, I realized I needed poles for a tent, just before Grandis Leman emerged from the dark, carrying the very poles I needed, stripped of bark and ready to go. He seemed so much more alive out here.

  Without a word, he helped me set up the tent. We were just finishing, when Leng joined us. Quickly, I pulled out his bedroll and set it up within the tent, arranging his water and medicine beside it. He leaned down to enter, almost falling on all fours and then half crawling, half dragging himself onto the bedroll. Grandis Leman poked his head in the tent, his mouth a grim line.

  “I’ll get you both a bowl of stew. Take care of him, Amel. I’d send someone else, but I don’t have anyone.” He looked uncomfortable and a little shameful, like he thought he wasn’t doing enough. He was right, though. There were no Healers with us, and my disability didn’t prevent me from watching an injured man.

  “I will. Thank you,” I said. When he left, I turned to Leng. “What do you need.”

  “A new body.”

  I laughed, helping to tug off his boots and pulling the blankets of his bedroll around him. “Do you want another draught?”

  “I want the stew the Grandis is bringing. Who ever thought I’d be waited on by a Grandis?”

  I laughed again, but a moment later, Grandis Leman had arrived with the food. I set Leng up to eat it, propping him against the bags we had as the Grandis made an awkward exit. Leng ate a bite, but then his hand fell to the side.

  “Too tired to eat?” I asked, taking the bowl and spoon from his exhausted hands.

  “Too tired to feed myself.” His grin had a rueful twist to it.

  I settled myself so that my weight was off my bad leg, and then took a spoonful of the stew and brought it to his mouth. If he wasn’t able to feed himself, he’d just have to let me feed him.

  “Wondering why I didn’t choose white?” I asked, playfully, to take away the awkwardness.

  “I already know why you didn’t,” he said between bites.

  “You do?” It was nice to be useful. To be able to take care of someone who couldn’t care for themselves.

  “You have kind eyes,” he said, his hand lifting up for a moment, almost unconsciously, before falling back in his lap. What had he meant to do with that?

  “I think a Healer would have kind eyes,” I suggested, scraping the bowl to get the last bite for him.

  “Oh, that’s not why. You’re noble. You believe your word is your bond, that you will uphold values outside yourself.”

  I cocked my head to the side, questioning as I took his bowl and placed it to the side. I reached to help him lie down again, but he put a hand up.

  “Eat. You can give me a drink after that and then I’ll sleep again.”

  I smiled and ate my stew, surprised by how hungry I was.

  “Purples are on the noble side of the feud. You’re not supposed to know that until later, but we are. And I think that’s one reason you chose Purple. You have a noble spirit.”

  “I like that,” I said, feeling the blood rush to my cheeks. He thought I was noble. He thought of me as Purple, like him. I felt a warm flood in my chest and I blinked back a wetness that came to my eyes.

  I didn’t want to say anything else that might break the spell, so I ate my stew quickly, only looking up when I was full. I was surprised to see his gaze on me, a tender look in his expression. Shyly, I reached for the draught, offering it to him, and then the waterskin to wash away the taste of whatever they put in it.

  “You’d better rest now,” I said, taking the drinks away and helping him slide to a more restful position. “I’ll give you your privacy and go rest with Raolcan. Will you need me in the night?”

  “Preserve your reputation, sweet Amel.” His words were slurred with sleep. “I will be fine.”

  I left, bedroll in hand, feeling torn as I stopped for one glance back. It felt wrong to just leave him there, but there were others nearby and he should be fine. It felt like it would be taking advantage of him if I stayed. People would talk, and they might think we had acted inappropriately. He didn’t deserve that.

  I stumbled through the dark, towards where Raolcan was tethered, wishing life wasn’t so complicated.

  Chapter Sixteen

  I woke with a start, the ground hard beneath me and my head throbbing. I’d fallen asleep against Raolcan. Had he moved suddenly?

  I’m waking you so you can check on Ahlskibi’s rider.

  “Mmmmf.” There was nothing like sleeping against a hot dragon to make you feel chilled to the bone the second he moved away. I rolled my bedroll up sleepily and stacked it against our gear, gave Raolcan a thankful pat on the back and headed toward the camp. If I walked this way many more times I was going to wear a path into it. Which would make it easier to walk. Not a bad plan.

  When I got to the tent, I squatted beside it. I shouldn’t just go in. He might need privacy.

  “Leng?” I whispered. The sun wasn’t up yet, but the cold and dark had the feeling of the time just before dawn.

  There was no answer. I tried again.

  “Leng?”

  When there was no answer, I pulled the tent door open. Had he passed out? Was he in worse shape? His bedroll was empty. I spun around, anxious now, and hobbled toward the fires. They were banked low, but still burning. Maybe someone had seen something. There was just one dark figure near the closest of the campfires. I hobbled toward the figure, my hip protesting with a jab of pain for the cold morning air. When I drew near, the figure turned. Leng’s face was orange on one side, highlighted by the light of the fire.

  “Oh, Leng! I was worried about you. Why aren’t you in your bed?”

  He smiled. “I’m a dragon rider, Amel.”

  “You’re injured!”

  “I can’t lie around all the time. I need a drink and to check on Ahlskibi.”

  Was that sweat on his forehead? In this cool weather? A tiny sliver of light along the horizon started to tinge his face with the grey of dawn but was that the only grey I was seeing? He looked pale.

  “I think you need to lie down,” I said, glancing around me to see if there was anyone to help me.

  “When I was a boy we had horses and I rode all the time,” he said dreamily. “There was one named Flasha. She was so, so fast.”

  “Come on,” I said, humoring him. “Tell me all about it while I get you back to bed.”

  “She had eyes like yours. Kind. Free.”

  I took his arm gently, trying to guide him to the tent.

  “Beautiful.”

  He was clearly hallucinating.

  “Is that why you wanted to ride dragons?” I asked him, slipping an arm under his to help him as he stumbled towards the tent. We were a bit like a wheelbarrow with a crooked wheel, unstable and awkward.

  “My parents died. They brought me to Dragon School to learn to fly.” His words were slurring.

  “Who is they?”

  He didn’t answer, and his weight was getting heavier on me.

  “Leng?”

  I felt him begin to fall and wrapped my arms around him, abandoning my crutch and letting him fall on top of me so that I broke his fall. I pulled myself out from under him. Rolling him over onto his back and feeling his forehead. It was hotter than Raolcan. No one warned me he could take fever from this! He should never have left Dragon School.


  “Help!” I called. “Can someone help?”

  There was no way I’d be able to carry him on my own. I bit my lip, concern filling me. I shouldn’t have left him to sleep on his own, appearances or not. I could have kept him from getting up and wandering to the fire. I felt my eyes growing wet and I blinked hard to keep tears back. It wasn’t too late for Leng, was it? It shouldn’t be too late for the man who remembered his childhood horse with such fondness.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “The Reds and Greens will be going on without us. Our orders are too urgent for them to stay,” Grandis Leman said, looking more worried than I’d ever seen him with a deep dent in his forehead from anxiety. His hands kept fidgeting with the scarf around his neck. “To be honest, our own orders don’t allow more than a day or two of delay. We need to get Leng over this fever – and fast.”

  We were gathered around Leng’s tent. Grandis Leman and Rais had carried him back in and helped me fetch cool cloths to ease the fever, but that was hours ago. It wasn’t helping. He was thrashing and talking in his sleep, agitated and burning up. I chewed my bottom lip. I didn’t like this at all. If I had my way, I’d be flying him home to Dragon School right now, but Grandis Leman had vetoed that. I wasn’t even sure I could find my way back.

  I could. It’s not hard.

  I hadn’t been this close to the Magika or his apprentices before. He seemed a somber type and his robes were more embroidered and ornamented than any clothing I’d want to wear. He and the apprentices smelled of strange spices. Something they ate or something used in their magical arts? I shivered at the thought of magic so close.

  “We’ll lend our aid in helping him heal,” the Magika said.

  “Thank you, Hectorus.” Grandis Leman said with a sober nod.

  In the distance, the last of the Red dragons leapt into the sky. The Greens had already left, leaving the wide area they’d camped in tamped down and abandoned looking. It felt lonely with just the eight of us and our four dragons. Rais and Starie had been sent to give the dragons the last of the drinking water.

  “We’ll need clean drinking water. There is none here and we only had a day’s worth in our packs,” the Magika added.

  “And the dragons need to be fed.” Grandis Leman nodded as he spoke. “I’ll hunt for them at the same time. I’ll take Leepsain and Ahlskibi and leave the initiate’s mounts here. Can you maintain their tethers?”

  “Of course,” Magika Hectorus said with a smile. The smile didn’t look right on his face – like it wasn’t something he used very often. “Go and get the supplies we need. Trust us to do what we need to here.”

  Grandis Leman turned toward the pickets, but I grabbed his sleeve. “What do I do for Leng?”

  “Trust the Magikas. They’ll do what’s needed.”

  I let go of his sleeve, but I felt a lump developing in my throat. My head hurt. I didn’t like being thrust into this position where I had to trust the very people Leng told me not to trust – and with his health and life. What else could I do? I couldn’t protest. I had no evidence that they were anything but what they said they were. They’d been accommodating and helpful – how could anyone object to that? And yet, the feeling ate at me and I couldn’t shake it. I wanted out of this situation. I wanted to be smart enough or wise enough that I always knew what was the right thing to do.

  I ignored a sudden flare of pain in my hip and hobbled towards Leng’s tent. An arm was raised in my path.

  “It’s best if you give us room to work,” Magika Hectorus said as Corrigan and Tred moved to flank him. The smile he had worn before was nowhere to be seen.

  Chapter Eighteen

  I watched warily as they entered the tent. Corrigan looked back to mouth the word “blighted” to me. I felt at a loss. What should I do? There was no water to draw, no food to feed Raolcan. I felt exhausted from little sleep, an early morning, and more physical exertion than I was used to. I stretched lightly, adjusting my crutch under my arm. My behind was sore and my good leg felt like a cramp was coming on. I should probably make my way to where Raolcan was and oil the tack but I just needed to rest for a moment.

  There was the murmur of voices inside the tent. Were they performing magic? I strained my ears.

  “Wait until the girl is out of earshot.”

  Ha. Well, that might take longer than they thought. I rolled my neck, trying to get the kinks out of it. Across the field, I watched as Grandis Leman launched into the sky with Ahlskibi tailing him. If he could ride looking for food, why couldn’t we ride to carry Leng back to safety?

  “Is that for the fever?” That was Corrigan’s voice. I crept a little closer to the back of the tent so I could hear, crouching low and grimacing at the spike of pain in my bad leg.

  “It’s to keep him fogged. Those purple riders can signal to their dragons somehow. We can’t afford to have him come back here too quickly.”

  “Why not just kill him right away?”

  I gasped, falling backward onto my bottom in the long grass. Kill him? What were they talking about?

  “For a High Castelan you seem remarkably thick-headed, Corrigan,” Magika Hectorus said. “You don’t think the others will notice that? We need time to work our binding on the dragons. They need to be freed from their current bonds and bonded to us.”

  “We could do that just as easily if they were dead.”

  “Dragons are uncommonly clever. They would notice if we harmed their riders. Some may even have affection for their captors. Until they are magically bonded to us, we can’t risk them turning on us.”

  “If one turns on us we can easily destroy him.” I was right about Corrigan. She was a terrible person.

  “My, but we’re bloodthirsty today. Keep that in check until I release you, or it will be Tred and I alone who leave this camp.”

  I felt a chill run through me. They spoke so casually of death, as if it hardly mattered. No wonder they thought of me as disposable. They thought of everyone like that. Imagine being part of a people who thought life was worth less than the convenience of a moment. My hands were shaking as I pulled myself up on my crutch. I needed to find Rais and Raolcan to warn them.

  We were all in danger now, with no way to signal Grandis Leman, our dragons tethered in place and two of the four humans left either sick or crippled. When your body failed what did you have left to resist evil people?

  Your spirit.

  I gripped my crutch with one hand and balled my other fist. Raolcan was right. We’d fight with what we had.

  Chapter Nineteen

  What did I do now? Where were Rais and Starie? Were they with the dragons?

  Rais is here. I haven’t seen Starie since last night.

  I pulled myself to my feet and swung my crutch quickly, fleeing the tent where the Magikas held Leng captive and rushing to Raolcan. Perhaps I could free him from whatever tether they’d tied him with.

  You really can’t.

  Or perhaps, Rais would have an idea.

  I can’t find Ahlskibi’s mind. She is already too far away. But if you light a fire on the cliffs to the east, she will see it. It will have to be a large fire to tell them that something is wrong.

  I’d need Rais’ help for that. I flew along the path, crutch whooshing through the tiny plants that lined the lightly-worn trail. At least the dragons were in a heavily forested area, so it wouldn’t be easy for the Magikas to see us once I got there. We could follow the forest all the way up to the cliffside. But what about Leng? It felt wrong to leave him where they could work their magic on him.

  What other choice is there? When Ahlskibi returns, she will destroy any who harm him.

  Revenge wasn’t what I had in mind. Protection was.

  We can only do what is in our power to achieve.

  In that case, we were going to have to find more power. I felt his laughter through our mental link.

  Once this tether is released, I will have all the power I need.

  If only my own limitation
s were so easy to discard. I bit my lip. It always came back to this, didn’t it? How could I help my friends when I was always slower, always weaker, always dealing with challenges no one else faced?

  There are different kinds of strength. Yours is rarer.

  It’s too bad that you couldn’t send a mental hug to a dragon. If you could, I’d be hugging Raolcan right now. I burst into the area where our dragons hunkered low under the massive trees. Raolcan lay on the ground, as if he couldn’t stretch higher.

  I can’t. Their tether keeps me in a physically small space.

  Yet another cruelty to dragons. I scanned the area. Starie wasn’t there, though her dragon – Asteven – looked like he was asleep. Rais was rubbing oils into his dragons scales in an attentive manner. Nenebeph preened in response.

  I rushed past Raolcan, running a hand affectionately over his wing as I passed and calling out, “Rais! We’re in trouble.” I paused before him, catching my breath. “We need to run up to the edge of the cliff east of here and build a huge fire. The biggest we can.”

  Rais looked puzzled. “Does Leng need a pyre?”

  I sucked in a breath. He’d better not. He’d better hang in there and survive this.

  “The Magikas are going to turn the dragons’ bonds to be attuned to them instead of us, and then they‘re going to steal them and fly away.”

  “I think you need a rest, Amel. It’s a big deal to have so many changes at once.” His dark face was sympathetic and his hand rose and hovered close to my shoulder, like he wanted to pat it reassuringly but wasn’t sure if he should. “Why don’t you curl up in your bedroll for a while? I’ll take care of your tack.”

  “You have to take me seriously, Rais. I overheard them talking and they aren’t our friends.”

  “Why would they do any of that, Amel?” He looked irritated now, like I was causing drama where it wasn’t needed.

  “They didn’t say.”