Avian (The Dragonrider Chronicles) (41 page)

I looked at him with my uncovered eye, but I didn’t know what to say except, “Thanks.”

He shrugged. “It’s better than watching you bleed all over the place. Good thing it missed your eye, huh?”

I wasn’t ready to call myself lucky, yet. With my bag slung over one shoulder, I stood in front of the main entrance while a group of instructors moved their makeshift barricade out of the way. My heart was pounding, and I was beginning to question myself again. Willingly surrendering to that power for only a few seconds had weakened me so much before. I wondered if I could last the entire hike to the beach.

“It’s seven miles to the beach,” Felix announced. “If we don’t get lost.”

I sighed and drew my sword as the last piece of debris was cleared out of the way. “We won’t. Getting lost is the least of our worries, anyway. There’s still an angry shrike out there.”

Felix chuckled and punched my arm so hard it almost knocked me over because I wasn’t ready for it. “There’s always something right? Shrike in a jungle full of killer plants, king drake and a prison camp full of angry guards—what’s the difference?”

I punched him back as hard as I could. “Right. Just another work day for us.”

“Not going to run away this time, are you?” Felix teased Lyon.

I didn’t find it that funny, and neither did Lyon. He’d come over to stand with us, and kept staring at the ground while his face turned red. He didn’t try to tease Felix back or defend himself. It was an awkward subject for all of us now.

We all fell silent as two instructors started working the crank that opened the big iron-gilded doors enough for us to slip out. The hinges groaned and creaked, and green light poured in. The rich jungle air flowed through the open doors, and I took a deep breath. I let it fill my lungs. Somehow, it made my body seem lighter and stronger. It was more refreshing to me than normal air.

Felix, Lyon, and I went out first. They both stared around with their mouths hanging open in silent awe at how the jungle had reclaimed the compound in only a short time. It was barely even recognizable. The sight made Felix draw his sword.

While the others followed us out, I kept my good eye and both ears alert for a shrike. In the dim light, I knew it would be hard to see until it was much too late because of its scales. But I had another, better way of detecting it. I let my mind reach out, spreading my senses over the area around us. If anything besides plants and trees got too close, I would know about it.

“All right, weirdo,” Felix said as he poked me with his elbow and destroyed my concentration. “Do your thing.”

I shot him a glare. “I was trying, idiot. Be quiet.”

I couldn’t risk him messing me up again, so I took a few steps away before I tried again. Slowly bowing my head to my chest, I let my eyes roll closed and my thoughts slowly fade into silence. I searched through my body for that fire. When I couldn’t find it, I started to panic. I started to doubt myself again, and wonder if I wouldn’t be able to do it at all.

Then I felt a hand rest on my shoulder. It was strong and warm, and it filled me with confidence. It soothed my worries and quietened all my doubts. My mind drifted back to that horrible moment when I thought Felix was going to die right in front of me at the whipping post, and found that fire flickering deep in my memories. It started to burn brighter, blazing outward through my chest and sizzling through my arms and legs.

When I looked to see who had touched me, but there was no one there. Felix and Lyon were still standing a few yards away, helping the others get into a block formation. For a moment, doubt started to leak back into my mind. I was confused and a little afraid.

“
Don’t be afraid
,” my mother’s voice whispered in my mind.

The heat inside me surged even brighter then, and set my heart ablaze. I wasn’t alone. Somehow, she was with me. And whatever I was turning into, she didn’t want me to fight it. She didn’t want me to be afraid of it. Realizing that gave me courage. It gave me confidence that everything would be okay because this wasn’t a mistake—I was supposed to be this way.

My body shuddered with the sudden wave of power. My mind broke into that state of eerie, perfect calm. Everything seemed to move in slow motion around me. I could see it all, the jungle with its many wonders, like it was a disobedient child. And I was here to deliver a well-deserved spanking.

“Let’s go.” My voice had become that strange, growling tone again. I knew by the way the others were looking at me that the eye they could see must have been glowing again. Tracing my tongue over my teeth, I could feel that my incisors on top and bottom had become long and pointed like animal fangs.

But this wasn’t the time to be worried about that. I started into the jungle with Felix and Lyon on either side of me. The others followed a few steps behind, their weapons at the ready.

The foliage swallowed us like a green maze. It was disorienting at first because there was no horizon or sunlight to determine direction. But it didn’t confuse me for long. I could feel the sea, or rather, I could sense the point in the distance where the forest ended even though it was a long way off. That was the direction I led everyone.

It didn’t take five minutes for the first threat to show itself. The instant I knew something was approaching, I stopped dead in my tracks. The feeling of pressure coming from whatever was headed our way made me shudder, and made my aura of power ripple. Whatever was coming, it was large and strong.

Felix and Lyon stopped on either side of me. I could sense their fear. It wasn’t the first time I could remember feeling a person’s emotions like that. I remembered the morning after the officer’s ball, when I had been able to glimpse a little of Felix’s grief over his father. Just a simple touch on the shoulder had allowed me to tap into his feelings. I was doing the same thing now, except I didn’t have to touch any of them.

At that moment, though, I was too distracted to think about their feelings much. My bigger concern was coming towards us with booming footsteps that echoed from the dense trees. The sound of them seemed to come from everywhere at once, and I could feel the ground flinching under my boots.

“Look there!” Felix shouted suddenly.

A monster nearly ten feet tall lumbered into our path, bringing with it a stench that reminded me of the paludix turtle. It was the smell of old, rotting leaves, fermented swamp water, and decaying plants. Not something you’d want to run into on purpose. But this creature definitely was
not
a turtle. In fact, it looked more like a giant wolf. Its fur was so matted with leaves, sticks, and mud that it almost seemed to be made out of the jungle itself. Its white eyes flickered like bog fires in the dim light, and it was starting right at us.

As soon as it saw us, the beast stopped. I could hear its deep, growling breaths. Slowly, its snout start to wrinkle, showing us giant yellow fangs. I could sense the chaos rolling off the monster’s body like a poisonous smog. It hit my nostrils and made the fire in my body blaze with fury. For whatever reason, feeling this creature turn against me filled me with unspeakable anger. It was like being betrayed by a family member I had trusted. I refused to stand for it.

The beast started hunkering down with intent to strike. I felt my irritation grow in response. Felix tried to stop me as I started walking toward it, but I jerked away from him.

“No,” I commanded the monster. My voice sounded bizarre, like a mismatched chorus of different languages all speaking at once.

The beast growled so loudly it made the earth tremble. Its flickering eyes were fixed on me, and I raised a hand toward it, letting it feel the heat of my power like a silent warning. I didn’t want to fight. I only wanted the respect I deserved.

“You will regret your disobedience,” I promised.

The monster bristled, the matted fur raising along its neck and back. Chaos resonated so deeply inside it, entangling with its free will like a knotted ball of string. I knew it would attack no matter what I said. There was no reasoning with it.

With a twist of my wrist, the earth began to shift. Vines burst from the ground like before, growing to be as thick as a man’s arm, and wrapping around the monster’s legs and neck. It fought, snarling and biting as it tried to get free. But for every vine it broke, three more grew in its place until the creature was pinned against the ground. It let out a howl of frustration.

The other dragonriders behind me didn’t make a sound. They all stared like they weren’t sure what to be more afraid of: me or the monster I’d just brought down.

I stepped toward the pinned beast. It stared back at me through the fog of that chaos and the vines that were holding its head to the ground like a hundred giant pythons. I could sense its panic and rage. I knew even though I had established my dominance, if I let that creature go now, it would still try to attack us rather than flee. I couldn’t allow that.

So I drove my sword into its skull.

Immediately, the beast’s energy began to fade away, taking that sense of mindless fury with it. It drew one last, rasping breath, and finally lay still and soundless.

Behind me, Lyon was whispering, “He just killed a rotwolf with one blow.”

I snapped a punishing gaze back at him. The death of this animal was not something to celebrate. Feeling its life slip away gave me the same sense of despair as when I had killed Thrane. Even in my anger, seeing a life be crushed was like watching someone smash a glass sculpture into bits. It wasn’t fixable. It wasn’t something you could ever duplicate again. It was destroyed forever, and I was to blame.

Suddenly, my legs started to feel weak and numb. I stumbled, and Felix rushed up to catch me. I noticed my nose was bleeding. We still had a long way to go… and I was already beginning to feel the effects of using so much of my power. I wasn’t sure I would make it seven minutes, let alone seven miles.

It was time to do something radical again—before I was too weak to do anything at all.

I pushed away from Felix and widened my stance, gripping my sword in both hands and raising it high above my head. I threw my head back, looking to the trees overhead, but pressing all my thoughts and power into the ground under my feet. The vines seemed to be my most obedient tool. I could use them easily. So I would use them as much as I possibly could to save my dragonrider brothers.

I plunged my sword down into the ground with all my might, and at the same time, poured every ounce of my will into the earth with it. The ground began to rumble. The trees groaned. The wind howled around me, and a wave of wild energy spread out through every inch of the island.

Vines burst from the ground again on each side of me. But instead of a few, or a dozen, it was hundreds—maybe even thousands. Some were normal-sized, others were as big as tree trunks. They snaked across the ground, compiling and weaving together to create a living barrier around us. They continued on into the forest, mixing with the trunks and branches of the trees, and forming a protective tunnel that led away into the jungle. It was seven miles long, and would take my brothers all the way to the beach.

My whole body shook with exhaustion as I pulled my blade from the soil. I could barely grip it, and I tried not to let it show. The others stared at my creation. They stared at me, too.

“Go,” I said without looking back. “This will take you safely to the beach.”

The instructors didn’t stop to ask any questions. I guess they had seen enough miracles already to obey me. They herded the rest of my avian peers toward the tunnel, making a wide berth around me as they hurried past.

Felix, Lyon, and Jace didn’t follow them. They stood around me, but no one seemed ready to say why. I waited for someone to give me an explanation, searching the faces of my friends one by one. I could sense their apprehension, their awe, and their fear. They were afraid of me, even if none of them were ready to admit that.

“We aren’t leaving without you,” Lyon finally said.

“Don’t be stupid,” I snarled at him angrily. Didn’t he realize I was doing all of this for them? If they didn’t go, then all my efforts were for nothing. “I’ve served my purpose. Go with them.
Now
!”

“Knock it off,” Felix growled back at me. “We’ve come this far together. We won’t let them throw you in some prison camp. You have to trust us.”

I laughed darkly, and all the voices mixed with mine laughed, too. “You honestly think there is any prison in the world that can hold me now?”

That made them all look a little pale.

“I am master here. This is where I belong.” I turned a wrathful glare to Felix.

“Okay, master, but you’re bleeding from the ears now, too. You have to stop. You’re killing yourself.” Felix took a fearless step toward me.

I touched one of my ears, and saw that he was right. Blood was dripping from both of them. That rattled me. I dropped my sword and staggered back away from them. Through the flames of power burning inside me, I had a moment of clarity. I knew Felix was right. I had to stop.

It was harder to call back the flames this time. They burned so freely through my body, filling me with that intoxicating heat and power. Getting it under control was as much a fight as calling it out had been. The fire didn’t want to be contained. It wanted to burn forever, even if it consumed and killed me in the process.

A sudden screeching cry made us all look up at once. I knew that sound just as well as they did, and it stoked that roaring fire in my chest all over again. It was a shrike.

“Time to go,” Jace ordered as he drew an arrow from his quiver. “Grab him, and let’s go!” His voice was drowned out by another screech, and then another, and another. One shrike was bad enough, but now it sounded like we were facing a whole flock of them.

Felix threw my arm over his shoulder and started dragging me into my tunnel of vines with them. We ran, or in my case staggered, as fast as we could over the ferns, rocks, roots, and fallen trees. Being in the vine tunnel made things darker than usual, and after tripping all over ourselves for a few minutes, Jace finally stopped and tore open his go-bag. He pulled out his candle and lit it. Felix and Lyon did the same. Then we started running again.