Avian (The Dragonrider Chronicles) (26 page)

A few other students got to taste of Jace’s whip before the two hours were up, but thankfully I wasn’t one of them. Someone blew a horn to signal it was time to switch stations, and we moved toward the other side of the room where Morrig was waiting. He didn’t have a whip, but that didn’t make me feel any safer.

Morrig had us pair up and form two long lines facing each other. First, he demonstrated new maneuvers with two weapons, and then we all began drilling. Once he felt we were getting a good grasp on it, he started teaching us how to fight with a shield on one arm. I was reminded again that even though I had grown, I still lacked the sheer bulk of most young men my size. The shield was heavy, and I had a hard time lifting it to shoulder-height like I was supposed to.

“It is not only for protection,” Morrig said as he strolled down our lines, watching us perform the maneuvers over and over. “A shield can be a weapon of brute force. It can allow you to advance in close enough to your enemy to catch them off guard. Do not treat it as a burden. Treat it as an extension of yourself, just like your sword.”

I tried. My arms were already aching, and raising the heavy metal shield was about all I could manage. I could barely lift it, much less whirl it around. But I didn’t want my weakness to show. I pushed myself until I had nothing left. Finally, the horn blew. It was time to switch stations again.

With sweat running down my face and dripping off my chin, I looked over at station three. Thrane was staring right at me. I saw him lick the front of his teeth like a hungry wolf. It was like he was waiting and hoping I would snap again so he would have a good excuse to kill me.

I was determined not to give him that satisfaction.

We put our weapons away before we went to his station. My heart was still pounding in my ears as I lined up between Lyon and Felix. The rest of our group did the same, waiting for Thrane to give us orders.

He walked through our group, sizing us up one by one. When he stopped right next to me and stood there, so close that I could smell his breath. It took everything I had not to look up at him. I knew that’s what he wanted. We were at attention. We weren’t supposed to move. Thrane was trying to provoke me. I could feel the hate and rage rolling off him like bad body odor. So I picked a spot on the wall straight ahead of me and focused on it.

“All right, ladies,” Thrane sneered. He was so close that his voice rustled my hair. “I’m supposed to teach you how to fight like men. Some of you have already proven that you can’t, even against each other. I’ve seen you slapping each other around like little girls. It’s pathetic. You want to break someone’s arm? This is how you do it.”

Before anyone could react, he snatched Lyon by the collar of his shirt. Thrane spun him around, twisting him like a ragdoll and giving his arm a sudden, violent jerk. Lyon’s arm made a horrible crunching sound. He started screaming in pain.

When Thrane let him go, Lyon fell into a heap on the ground, clutching his arm. He was still crying out in agony, and a few other avians lurched forward like they wanted to help him. But Thrane raised a hand to stop them. His eyes settled back on me with a vicious smile. This wasn’t about Lyon. This was about
me
. He wanted a reaction. He wanted to set off my battle fever again.

The sound of Lyon’s screams set my blood on fire. As horrible as it might seem, the fact that he had attacked Lyon instead of Felix was probably the only thing that saved me in that moment. If it were Felix lying there, clutching his arm and sobbing, I don’t think I could have held it together. But I managed to keep my composure.

I didn’t move. I didn’t blink. I kept my eyes fixed on Thrane, and neither of us spoke. I poured as much of my anger into my gaze as I could, like a silent promise. One day, I would make him pay for this. I could be patient. I could wait for the right moment. Until then, I would endure anything he threw at me.

The continuing sound of Lyon’s cries made the rest of the gymnasium stop their training. They all gathered around us, eager to see what was happening. Even Morrig and Jace came over, pushing their way through the crowd to see what was wrong.

“Couldn’t contain yourself for even five minutes?” Jace snapped at Thrane as he pushed past him. “You stupid barbarian.”

Thrane shot Jace a glare like he might decide to hit him. It seemed like they already had some bad blood between them. “I don’t see how it’s any of your business, pretty boy.”

“He’s my student. That makes it my business. If you can’t be professional, then I’ll take this to Rayken and have you formally dismissed back to the frontlines, with or without a wing end.” Jace crouched down next to Lyon and began inspecting his arm. “You broke it. Looks like a compound fracture. Do you even realize what that means? He’s done. He can’t fly like this. And he certainly can’t train.”

“He was useless anyways. Look at him. His face all plastered together like a broken baby doll. A kid like that won’t last two seconds on the front lines. I did him a favor.” Thrane let out a cold, booming laugh. Nobody laughed with him. “Don’t tell me you’re worried because his daddy will be upset? This is avian training. Accidents happen.”

“Yes. Accidents
do
happen.” Jace cut Thrane a promising look that made the big, burly man hesitate for a second. Even though Thrane was easily twice Jace’s size, I got the feeling that if it ever did come down to a fight… size wouldn’t be much of an advantage for him. Jace could be every bit as brutal and merciless.

I couldn’t focus on combat training after that. Jace and Thrane left to take Lyon to the infirmary. An injury like that would mean Lyon couldn’t train anymore. But maybe, if he kept up his training on his own, he could try again as an avian next year.

Morrig had no choice but to put us all in a big block formation and run through the same basic sword maneuvers over and over. My mind wandered, and I felt overwhelmed by guilt. Lyon’s career might be over just like that. And it was my fault. If I hadn’t challenged him to that first fight, he never would have been a target for Thrane.

When training was over for the day, I found a shady spot on the front steps of the dormitory and collapsed. I leaned against the cool stone, and watched the dragons circling overhead like giant, scaly vultures. Everyone else was going in for dinner, but I didn’t feel like eating.

I felt the toe of someone’s boot nudge me. “Hey,” Felix said. “Get up. We need to eat and study.”

I cracked an eye open to stare up at him. “How can you eat? Didn’t you see what happened?”

Felix’s expression was tense. He had his hands in his pockets, and a serious frown on his lips. “I saw it. But that’s the way things are now. We’re not fledglings anymore, Jae. The instructors are going to knock us around.”

I slumped forward to hang my head and rest my elbows on my knees. “That had nothing to do with training, and you know it. It was personal. It was a threat. Thrane is trying to provoke me into attacking him.”

“So don’t attack him.” Felix shrugged. “Seems simple to me.”

I gave him as much of a glare as I could muster. “Right. It’s simple now. But will it be simple when he does something like that to you?”

We stared at each other for a few minutes without saying anything. At last, Felix sighed loudly and came to sit down next to me. “You think I can’t handle getting my arm broken?”

“I’m not sure
I
can’t handle it,” I told him. “If I have to watch that happen to you, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop myself. You saw how I was before. If I get battle fever again, I might kill him.”

Felix smirked. “Cocky, aren’t you? You really think you could kill someone like Thrane?”

I rolled my eyes. His sense of humor was exasperating sometimes. “I don’t know.”

“Look, I get it, okay? You feel guilty. But it wasn’t your fault. It could have just as easily been anyone else. Lyon was in the wrong place at the wrong time, as usual. And if you ask me, he had this coming to him sooner or later.” He patted my shoulder roughly. “Don’t blame yourself.”

“What if Thrane does something like that to me?” I asked him. “Could you handle it? Could you stand there and watch him break my arm?”

Felix’s eyes got distant. I saw his demeanor change from his usual happy-go-lucky self, to someone much more serious. It made him look older, and not in a good way. He squeezed my shoulder. “I don’t know. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

My intentions started out great. I was going to apologize before it was too late. But as I stepped out into the cool midnight wind, I started to think—and that’s usually when things go wrong for me.

I was only holding one last secret back from Felix. He knew about everything else, including my weird nightmares. What he didn’t know was that a few weeks ago, I had been able to heal Sile’s wife with
my bare hands. I wasn’t sure how I had done it, or if I could even do it again. Sile had warned me not do it again, and I assumed that was because doing it had almost killed me before. I knew he probably didn’t want me to risk my life like that again, or that someone might catch me doing it. But as I walked alone toward the infirmary, I knew I was about to disobey Sile’s warning.

I was going to try to heal Lyon.

His injuries were my fault. It was only fair that I should do everything I could to make it right. Sure, it might kill me. Or I might turn into an old man if it triggered another growth spurt. But I couldn’t let his career end like this. It wasn’t right. And as far as I knew, I was the only one who could do anything about it.

The infirmary was dark when I opened the door. Only a few candles burned in the hallways, casting heavy shadows into empty rooms. Only one medic was still awake. He was sitting at Lyon’s bedside reading what looked like a letter.

“Come to pay your friend a visit?” he asked when he noticed me standing in the doorway. “You should come back tomorrow. He’s sleeping now. You should be, too.”

I started to get nervous. “I-I want to talk to him now, if that’s okay. I know it’s past curfew, but this is the first chance I’ve gotten to come by.”

The medic was an old, heavy-set man. He looked at me for a minute, scratching his chin through his curly white beard. “Very well,” he sighed at last, and pulled a wooden pipe out of his pocket. “I could use a break for a smoke. Try not to get him too worked up. Poor lad had quite a shock.”

I slipped into the room as the medic left. I waited until I heard him go outside, then I quietly closed the door to Lyon’s room. If I was going to do this, I didn’t want anyone else to see it.

The sound of our voices must have woken Lyon up, because before I could turn around I heard him speak. “Why are you here?”

I faced him and tried not to stare. It was hard, though. Lyon was lying on a small bed, covered in a white sheet up to his chin. His arm was splinted and wrapped up in a thick layer of bandaging, and he had fresh dressings on his nose as well. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his cheeks were swollen like he’d been crying. Overall, Lyon looked awful.

“I came to apologize,” I finally managed to say.

“For what?” He sounded confused.

“For what happened with Thrane. It’s my fault. It should have been me, not you. I’m the one he really wants to hurt.” The words came spilling out of my mouth so fast I couldn’t stop them. “I never wanted this to happen. If I could take it all back, I would.”

Lyon was quiet for a few minutes. The silence was awkward, and I didn’t know if I should explain what I wanted to do… or just do it and let him figure it out for himself.

“I don’t get you,” he muttered. He almost sounded angry. “Why would you apologize to me? Why would you even care what I think?”

His questions caught me off guard. I wasn’t sure how to answer. But before I could try, he started talking again.

“You know you’ll never really be one of us. You’ll always be the odd man out. There’s always going to be people like Thrane, doing whatever they can to break you. They’re all waiting for you to make a wrong move. And still you don’t leave. You just keep trying. It doesn’t make any sense. Why? Why are you doing this?” Usually, that kind of speech from Lyon would have been filled with as much hatred and sarcasm as possible. Now he looked confused instead.

I sat down in the chair at his bedside and stared down at the floor. “I wonder that, too, sometimes. I want to watch Felix’s back the way he watches mine. That used to be my reason. Now I’m endangering him and everyone else by being here.”

“So are you just trying to prove that you aren’t a traitor?” he asked again.

“No.” I shook my head. “I don’t have anything to prove. I’m here because this is where I’m meant to be. I believe that Mavrik chose me for a reason. Whatever that reason is, I have to stay here and figure it out. Even if that means being a danger to the people I want to protect.”

“Yeah, right.” He snorted like he didn’t believe me. “Like you would ever want to protect
me
. I’m not stupid, you know. We’re not friends.”

I looked at him right in the eye. “I would protect you. And I will.”

Lyon flashed me a skeptical glare. “Why? After everything I’ve done to you, why would you want to do anything for me?”

“Because I can. And because you need me to, even if you don’t like me,” I said. “I know you’re alone now. Your friends from last year—they don’t come around you anymore.”

I watched Lyon’s eyes get watery and his cheeks got red. He bit his lip and looked away, like he was trying to fight back tears. “It’s got nothing to do with you, Jaevid,” he managed to mumble. “It’s not your problem.”

I couldn’t help but smile a little. “You can call me Jae, you know.”

He shot me another glare. “Only your friends call you that.”

“Yeah.” I shrugged. “I know.”

Lyon fell silent again. We stared at each other in the dim light of the candle burning on the bedside table. Finally, I knew the time had come. It was now or never. I didn’t want to lose my nerve or risk that the medic might come back.

I stood up and went to his bedside. “I’m going to do something really, really stupid.” It seemed like a good idea to give him a fair warning in case, you know, I died.