Avian (The Dragonrider Chronicles) (12 page)

Behind us, Mavrik landed and started making insistent chirping sounds as he tossed his head. It was time to go. By the time I finally thought about hugging her one last time, I was already sitting on Mavrik’s back, trying to find a good way to hold onto his scaly hide. It was way too late then, and I cursed myself all the way back to Mithangol for not thinking of it sooner.

It was dark when we landed in Mithangol. I was sore and exhausted from hanging onto Mavrik’s back for dear life the whole way. Dragon scales are not built for comfort at all. I was definitely not looking forward to another long ride without a saddle. The sooner I got some new equipment, the better.

The house looked the same as I’d left it—dark and basically empty except for the furniture I had made myself. As soon as I got inside, I built a fire and started cooking a quick dinner. I ate alone at my kitchen table and thought about Sile and his family the whole time. It was so quiet. There was no life, no happiness in my house like there had been in theirs. No baby noises. No sounds of laughter. It made me miss them a lot. The time I’d spent with them was the first time I’d ever really felt like part of a family. Now that I was by myself again, I realized how alone I felt in this house.

After a hot bath, I started going through Roland’s old clothes in his room. His clothes had once been enormous, but now they fit me just right. I was relieved to finally have a decent pair of boots that weren’t uncomfortably tight.

I packed up several extra changes of his clothes, belts, and socks into my bag, along with the coins Sile had given me. I took out Beckah’s handkerchief and looked at it again, running a thumb over the stitching of the two dragons. It made me smile and think of how much I already missed her. Carefully, I folded it up and tucked it back into my pocket.

It was late by the time I settled into bed. The fire burning low in my bedroom hearth put long shadows across the room. Even though it was peaceful and I was warm and comfortable, I had a hard time falling asleep. Something made me feel restless and uneasy. Then I finally did start to drift off, and I had the worst nightmare of my life.

As soon as my eyes closed, the dream pulled me under like someone had yanked the rug of reality out from under me. It didn’t start out bad right away. I dreamt was sitting at the kitchen table in my mother’s old house in the war refugee ghetto in the royal city of Halfax. The smell of flowers, plants, and warm fresh earth filled the air and took me back to the only time in my life I had ever really been happy. The rush of familiar sounds and smells made my head spin.

My mom was standing there with her back to me, preening a plant that was growing out of a big clay pot on the kitchen counter. It was a weird-looking plant, not one I’d ever seen growing in Maldobar before. There were huge red and yellow blossoms on it that were as big as my palm. Mom’s silver hair was tied up in a braided knot, and I could hear her singing in her native language. It had been so long since I had heard her voice. It put a sharp pain in my chest like someone was twisting a knife in my heart. When I was little, I would have given anything for a dream like this—just so I could see her one more time.

“M-mom?” I tried to speak but my voice cracked with emotion.

She turned around like she was surprised to see me sitting there. Then she smiled, and it left me reeling. I’d missed her so much. Even though I knew it wasn’t real, seeing her face was like taking a breath after holding it for all these years.

“Jae? Spirits and Fates! You’ve gotten so big!” She beamed at me as she wiped her hands on her tattered apron.

I tried to get up. I wanted to run to her and put my arms around her, but I couldn’t move. Something held me in place like I was sinking in quicksand. It was a reminder: this wasn’t real. It was a dream. It wouldn’t last for long.

Her smile started to fade some, and I saw traces of sadness in her eyes. She came closer, just out of my reach, and sat down at the table across from me. “I know it’s been hard for you, dulcu.”

She spoke with the same heavy accent she’d always had. My mother had struggled with learning the human language, so she’d always mixed in elven words whenever she couldn’t remember human ones. She had called me “dulcu,” which was like calling someone “sweetheart” or “darling,” all the time. I couldn’t believe I had almost forgotten that.

There was so much I wanted to ask her. But right then, all I could do was stare at her and try to drink in every detail. I didn’t want to forget again. She had her bangs tucked behind her long, pointed ears, and there were little wrinkles in the corners of her diamond-colored eyes. Her heart shaped face was aged, and still beautiful and ethereal looking.

“I’m very proud of you,” she said. “You know that, don’t you?”

I finally managed to speak. “But I’m a dragonrider now. I’m learning to fight—to kill your people—for the humans. How can you be proud of that?”

She looked sad again. “Some things are not simple because they aren’t made to be that way. That is you, too, dulcu. You were not made to be simple, so things will never be easy for you. I’m very sorry for that. I wish I could be there to help you.”

Mom stiffened suddenly, and her eyes got wide. She glanced back as though she could hear someone whispering in her ear. I got an extremely bad feeling, like someone was breathing down the back of my neck. It made my skin prickle.

In the corner of the room shadows were starting to gather in a big, boiling mass. They grew larger and darker, growing to climb the walls like inky black vines. The bigger they got, the more the tension in the room rose. It was like someone was dragging their icy fingertips up my spine.

“He knows,” my mother whispered. When she looked back at me, I saw fear in her eyes. “You must keep learning, Jaevid. Don’t be afraid of what you can do.”

“But, Mom,” I protested. Somehow I could sense that the dream was about to collapse on itself. “Will I ever see you again? Like this?”

My mom just smiled gently. It was one of those looks only mothers can give.

The dream shifted as the black vines spread, consuming the room and choking out all the light until there was nothing except darkness. I was cold and lost, not sure which way was up or down. It was scary, but what came next was much, much worse.

When the darkness cleared, I was standing on a muddy road in an open valley. At first, I was relieved. After all, the place was beautiful. The sun was shining over rolling hills covered in a blanket of clean, white snow. There were huge mountains crowned with snow on either side of the valley, but they were miles away.

Before me, I could see what looked like a huge forest with a dark tree line that marched off in both directions for miles and miles. It was like standing on the boundary of two completely different worlds. The trees were enormous—about three times the size of a normal tree. The road I was standing on wound away into the distance, snaking along the backs of the snowy hills until the dark forest swallowed it up.

Suddenly, I heard the shrill whinny of a horse. I looked back as a company of horsemen came trotting down the road. There were sixteen of them dressed in shining bronze armor, carrying the banner with the king’s golden eagle on it. They rode surrounding a beautiful gilded carriage that was drawn by four white horses with blue ribbons woven into their manes and tails.

They were heading for the forest with their banners fluttering. I tried to step out of their way, but once again, I couldn’t move an inch. My feet were stuck and I braced, expecting the carriage and horsemen to plow right into me. Instead, they blurred right through me like I wasn’t even there. All I felt was a slight chill. As real as it all seemed on the surface, I realized this was just a dream as well.

The company went on, leaving me behind without a second glance. It was like they couldn’t see me at all. I caught a glimpse of one of the guards as he passed—something about him seemed vaguely familiar. I couldn’t be sure because his helmet covered most of his face.

As soon as they got past me, a shout went up. The company came to an abrupt halt. From where I was standing, I couldn’t clearly see why they’d stopped. I only caught a few glimpses of what looked like a man in a heavy brown cloak, standing right in the middle of the road. Had he been there the whole time? I didn’t remember seeing him there before. Immediately, the mere sight of him gave me a cold feeling. The hood of his cloak was pulled down to hide his face, and he didn’t move at all.

“Stand aside for his majesty, the King of Maldobar, who seeks peaceful court with those who dwell in the wild forest!” The leader of the guards announced.

I heard a raspy voice begin to chuckle from under the stranger’s hood. It gave me a pins and needles sensation in my arms and legs. All my hair stood on end. I didn’t know that voice, I was sure of that. But something told me I
should
know it.

“Peaceful? You don’t even know the meaning of the word.” The stranger sneered. “You human fools. You’re all so ignorant, and yet so sure of what you think you know. It’s your greatest flaw. But it could be useful. Yes, you will be very useful to me.”

I could sense the tension rising. Some of the guards were touching the hilts of their swords. Their horses shifted uneasily.

“Stand aside!” The guard tried again.

The next thing I heard was screaming. Chaos erupted all around me. Horses shrieked in panic and threw their riders off, galloping away in all directions. I saw the shadow of something streaking down from the sky as fast as an arrow. It was huge, although not as big as a dragon. I had never seen any dragon move that fast. The creature was too quick to even be seen clearly, and it made a terrifying screeching sound like the piercing cry of an eagle.

I could smell blood and hear swords clashing, but I was helpless to do anything about it. I couldn’t move. I finally saw the man in the brown cloak as he butchered two of the guards through with a sword that looked like it was made out of white wood. The hood covered most of his face, so I only caught a glimpse of his features as he turned past me. I saw his diamond-colored eyes flashing with anger, and a few locks of his platinum-colored hair. His lips curled into a brutal snarl.

He was a gray elf.

Just meeting his eyes put a stabbing pain in my chest that made me choke. A smothering sense of chaos started bubbling over my brain, twisting my thoughts and making me furious. But as soon as he looked away, the feeling subsided.

The way he fought was unlike anything I had ever seen before, even at Blybrig. He moved like a ghost. Every stroke of his strange white sword was smooth and effortless. In a matter of seconds, he was the only one left standing.

The gray elf warrior stepped over the broken, slashed-up bodies of the guards with no sign of remorse. He wrenched open the door to the carriage. All I could do was watch in horror as he started dragging out the people hiding inside. The king, a middle-aged man with graying hair, came out fighting. But he didn’t last any longer than his guards did.

Panic surged through my body, turning my blood to ice when the gray elf rammed his sword into the king’s chest. The warrior watched the king gasp and die with a burning look of malice in his color-changing eyes.

The warrior dropped the king’s dead body into the mud, kicking it aside and going back into the carriage again. I watched him do the same thing to the young queen and her two small children, leaving them all piled there in the sludge as though they were nothing but trash. I had witnessed plenty of horrible things in my life. This was different. This made my whole being cry out for revenge. Nothing about this was right. It was murder—senseless murder!

Then I heard a sound that made my heart stop cold.

One of the guards was back on his feet. It was the one that had looked so familiar to me, though I still couldn’t figure out who it was. It seemed like his face was intentionally skewed to hide his identity, but I could still tell that he was fairly young. He stood shakily with his sword in hand, shouting out a challenge to the murderous gray elf that had just slain the whole royal family in cold blood.

The guard was the only one left alive, and he was bleeding from a deep gash on his leg. His bronze armor was spattered with blood. He could barely stay on his feet. A sense of comradery thrummed through my chest like a surge of heat and energy. More than anything, I wanted to step in and stand beside him. We could both fight and die together, side by side.

The gray elf warrior turned around slowly, his face still mostly hidden underneath his hood. I could see his mouth. He was smiling wickedly. He spun his white blade over his hand again and again with expert speed, taking slow steps toward the lone guardsman. I was no master swordsman, and even I could tell he was toying with the guard. This wasn’t going to end well.

“Aren’t you brave?” he hissed with pleasure, like this was all amusing to him. “Tell me, little soldier, just how brave are you? What would you do to save your own life?”

The two men squared off, preparing for a final fight. I could feel my pulse racing. Dread was building up, like hot stones were being stacked on my chest until I could barely breathe.

Something important was about to happen. I didn’t understand how, but I
knew
it. The gray elf started to take his first step, his sword drawn back to strike…

I bolted awake.

I sat up in bed with my mind racing and my pulse still hammering in my ears. I was soaked in a cold sweat. Immediately, I felt sick. I barely made it to the big iron pot by the fireplace before I threw up. When my stomach was empty, my thoughts finally started to clear.

For a long time, I just sat there leaning against the wall. The heat from the coals smoldering in the fireplace was warm against my face, but I was still shivering. I tried to remind myself that it was only a dream. It didn’t help at all.

It was so early in the morning that the sun wasn’t even up yet. The air was bitter cold, and there were snowflakes falling from the dark sky. I was more exhausted than ever, and I knew I’d never be able to go back to sleep—not with dreams of gore and bloodstained snow still burning in my mind. I needed to get up, move around, and do anything to keep my mind off of that stuff. I couldn’t afford to get distracted by nightmares now.