Avian (The Dragonrider Chronicles) (37 page)

I knew he was right. As uncomfortable as it was to admit I had these abilities, they might be our lifeline in a bad situation. I needed to be ready. There wouldn’t be time for foul-ups and second chances.

The only time there was to do that kind of experimentation was during training. It wasn’t ideal, but I didn’t have much of a choice. Not with Thrane and the other instructors breathing down my neck, beating me senseless in the middle of the night, or shouting commands.

I started out as gently as I could. I held conversations with Mavrik and Nova in my mind while we flew through aerial drills. I gave Nova simple instructions, like getting her to do spirals or breathe flame even when Felix hadn’t asked her to, and then I watched to see if she obeyed. When she did, I started to get more confident. I started talking with other dragons, too. Demos was a stubborn, arrogant jerk if I’d ever seen one, but he was also the most experienced out of all the dragons when it came to actual aerial warfare. I took his advice on maneuvers when he showed me how he thought the scenarios were going to play out, and most of the time, he was right.

Having the dragons all whispering in my mind with their endless stream of images and colors was very distracting. Thankfully, the more I did it, the easier it became to balance what I saw in my mind with what was happening around me. It was like having eyes everywhere at once. It gave me an edge, and it was completely undetectable to all the other dragonriders.

I started talking to the birds next. There weren’t many wild animals around in the Devil’s Cup. That was part of the reason they had put the academy there in the first place; it was remote and there wasn’t much you could accidentally burn down except for a few prickly shrubs. But there were birds and small animals. I started calling them to our dorm room window, which bothered Felix a lot. Apparently, he didn’t like birds.

My powers were definitely growing. I didn’t even have to concentrate at all to talk to Mavrik anymore, and it was starting to become that way with the other dragons, too. Mavrik’s presence was always the loudest in my mind, though, and our bond was getting stronger by the day. I asked him repeatedly about what was going on with the animals. His answer was always the same. He showed me the same scene Nova had of a place in the forest, and a moss-covered staircase leading down into the dark. I could sense his anxiety and fear. The other dragons gave off that same sense as well. They knew what was happening. They could feel something bad coming, and they were every bit as helpless to stop it as the other wild animals.

“If it comes down to it,” I told Mavrik as I sat in his stall, scratching his head after a day full of training. “If you have to choose between leaving me behind and saving yourself from that chaos, don’t sacrifice yourself for me. That wasn’t part of our deal.”

He growled with discontent, and shot me a dirty look.

“Hey, I don’t like it any more than you do, big guy. But I would rather stand and fight alone than watch you turn on me because that chaos had possessed you.” I scratched that special place right behind his ear, and he couldn’t help but purr. “I know you want to protect me. I want to do the same for you.”

Mavrik lifted his head. His big yellow eyes stared down at me. When the moonlight reflected off of them, it almost looked like they were glowing. He pushed his massive snout against my chest and let out a deep sigh. Hues of blue and yellow swirled in my brain.

“I know,” I said as I ran my hand over his scaly head. “I’m scared, too.”

* * *

I could feel the instructors’ eyes on me, burning holes in my back with their stares. Across from me, Felix was poised for the attack. I could barely see his eyes over the top of his shield. Sweat ran down the sides of my face, dripping off my chin. All around us, the other avians were shouting, but it just sounded like muffled noise. They cheered us on, trying to distract us or tempt us into making a careless mistake.

This was the last day of training. It was the final test before we packed our things and left for the Canrack Islands. We had spent all day in the battle dome under the glare of firelight from the big bronze braziers burning all the way around the arena floor. Early in the morning we had drawn names to see who we would be dueling for our final sparring match. This match would be judged be all the instructors, and we were encouraged to win…at all costs.

I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that I had been paired with Felix by chance. I knew Jace was probably responsible for it. Felix was the only avian who actually posed a challenge to me in the sparring ring anymore. He was consistently perfect in form, and he hit with so much strength it made my teeth rattle every time our blades locked. He was a lot more muscular than I was, with easily twice as much brute strength, but he couldn’t match my speed. I had to use that, and the fact that I was taller and my arms were a lot longer than his, to strike from a distance before he could defend.

After nearly an hour, though, I was beginning to get tired. No one else had dueled for this long. What started out as a small crowd of our peers gathering around to watch had now grown into a full-blown mob. I didn’t dare stop to check, but it seemed like the whole academy had gathered to watch us.

Felix dove at me again, letting out a roar of frustration as he swung his sword. It hummed through the air, coming down against my blades as I parried. For a brief moment, I regretted not picking a shield instead of two blades. It was way too late to be thinking about that now, though. The force of the impact made my bones creak. I saw him rear back, preparing to use his shield as a weapon while we were so close together.

I quickly dodged, sidestepped, and made a wild strike at his arm. I didn’t expect it to work, but Felix must have been getting tired, too. His reactions were becoming more sluggish. That big shield was weighing him down. I felt my blade hit something solid and snap it.

It was one of the straps on his shield that held it onto his arm.

The big sheet of bronze clattered into the dirt, and Felix spun to face me. He bared his teeth, and made another wild dive with his sword swung wide. I spread my stance, and prepared to take him on. Without his shield, he would be a lot easier to deal with.

At least, that’s what I was hoping.

Our strikes were furious and fast. We moved through technique after technique, testing each other at every turn for any possible weakness. The roaring of the crowd grew louder.

Then I got the hilt of one of my blades locked perfectly with his. I’d tried that same maneuver at least a dozen times already, and he had evaded it effortlessly. This time, I saw panic in his eyes. I twisted my sword, and jerked his sword out of his hands. It went skidding across the dirt to the other side of the arena, far out of his reach.

The crowd went silent.

Felix stood back, his chest heaving as he panted for breath. He watched me, his eyes narrowed like he was waiting for me to end this. The duel was technically over. Or it should have been, anyway. I had disarmed him. I had won. All I had to do was make that final strike and force him to surrender.

But it seemed too easy. Felix’s strength wasn’t spent. He still had fight in his eyes. I knew in a real battle, he wouldn’t have surrendered just because he didn’t have weapon. Felix didn’t know when to quit—he was stubborn like that.

“Finish it!” Someone shouted from the crowd.

I snapped a punishing glare to the hundreds of eyes watching us. “Stay out of this!” I shouted so loud it echoed off the dome’s ceiling.

Felix was still staring at me. He squinted his eyes a little, canting his head to the side like he was trying to figure out what I was going to do. The expression of pure shock on his face was priceless when I suddenly threw down both of my blades and balled my fists, assuming a fighting stance.

A dark smile spread across Felix’s face. “What, all that wasn’t enough for you?” He chuckled. “You really think you can beat me hand-to-hand?”

I curled a finger at him slowly, taunting him in to fight me. “I think I can.”

Felix didn’t need much encouragement when it came to diving into a fistfight. That kind of combat was his specialty. He ran for me at full speed. The crowd exploded into cheering again. We met in the middle of the arena, and Felix stunned me with a barbaric right hook to the stomach.

We fought until our knuckles bled. I still couldn’t match his strength, but I still had speed on my side. When he finally managed to knock me down with a leg sweep, I did everything I could to stay out of his grappling hold. I knew if he managed to get an arm or a leg around my neck, it was over. I wouldn’t be able to break free.

As I reached the end of my stamina, I started to make stupid, desperate choices. A risky attempt at a complicated pin cost me big time. Felix managed to twist me around and mash my face into the dirt with his elbow.

“You know, I’m kinda used to being surprised by your crazy decisions. But this is especially stupid, even for you.” He growled at me, putting his face close to mine so no one else could hear. “You’ve already won this. What are you trying to prove?”

“That Thrane better be prepared when he comes after me,” I answered with a mouthful of dirt. “I want him to know I’m not easy to kill!”

“Well, you picked a dumb way to do it,” he snarled as he grabbed a handful of my hair and used it to lift my head far enough to slip an arm around my neck. “You’ve never beaten me hand-to-hand before. And you never will!”

I didn’t know what else to do. Felix was right, it was stupid to challenge him like this. I couldn’t afford to lose. In a moment of wild desperation, I threw my head back against his and head-butted him as hard as I could.

It was like my brains were scrambled the instant our skulls hit. His grip on my neck loosened, and I pushed off the ground to flip us over. The crowds were screaming so loudly that it was disorienting. The lights of the braziers seemed to be spinning around me as I tried to crawl away from him.

When I looked back, Felix was on his hands and knees. He was dazed, too. At first, I thought he might get to his feet and use that moment to claim the upper hand. But he didn’t. Instead, he slowly raised his head and looked at me. I saw him smirk for the briefest second, wink, and fall over onto his side.

Felix didn’t move again. The crowd started to count. When they got to ten, the victory was mine. I had beaten Felix in armed combat and hand-to-hand.

Except, I knew I hadn’t. Felix did a pretty good job of acting when Jace went over to see about him. He played it off like my head-butt had knocked him out. But I knew better. That smirk and wink was his way of letting me know he was throwing the match for my sake. He was doing it so I didn’t look weak in front of Thrane and the other instructors.

For some reason, that really made me angry. I knew why he’d done it. It made perfect sense. I had gotten in way over my head by challenging him to a fistfight like that. Still, being treated like some helpless little kid was annoying. We were too old for that now. I wasn’t a kid anymore, and this wasn’t a game.

This was war.

The morning of the battle scenario was colder than usual. A thick fog had settled over the academy, making the morning seem darker as we gathered our gear and moved to the Roost. Lyon, Felix, and I walked together with the rest of the avians in our class. No one spoke. The silence was intense, and I knew I wasn’t the only one dreading what was waiting for us later that day.

As we filed into the Roost, a few instructors stood waiting at the door. They were handing out folded pieces of paper sealed with wax. They told us to go ahead and get our dragons ready, but we weren’t supposed to read what was on the paper until the battle horn sounded. Then we were officially dismissed to move out.

My hands shook with restlessness as I checked my saddle. Mavrik could sense my worry. I knew he was nervous, too. I could feel his strong sides shuddering slightly as he trembled with that anxious energy. According to Jace, the dragons wouldn’t be able to help us once we reached the island. They would drop us off, and wouldn’t be set loose to pick us up again until the scenario was over.

I was dressed in my full armor, sitting on my saddle, looking down over my dragon’s large head through the glass-covered slit in my helmet. Outside the Roost, I could see the skyline beginning to turn purple and orange as the sun rose over the mountain peaks.

Together, Mavrik and I waited. I was clenching my teeth to keep them from chattering. The paper rattled in my hands, and I thought about sneaking a peek at what was on it.

Then the battle horn sounded.

Frantically, I ripped open the wax seal and started reading the paper. Written on it was our scenario, a brief set of instructions, and a map of where we were supposed to land on the Canrack Islands. Our first objective was to land in a small clearing near the center of the island. There was a stone fortress, sort of like an outpost, positioned nearby. That was our destination.

The paper didn’t say anything about it, but I had a feeling that was where the interrogation was going to take place. It did say that we would be set loose on the island to find our way to the beach, where our dragons would be picking us up. We were going to have to prove that we could survive the jungle, even after being beaten and tortured.

I heard the thundering roar of the other dragons as they began to take off. It took me a few minutes to finally pry my eyes off the paper. I was second guessing everything. This was going to be horrible, just like Sile had promised. I didn’t want to go through it. I wasn’t sure I was strong enough, or if I had enough training. I didn’t know if Thrane was going to try to kill me, using the battle scenario as an excuse. I didn’t know if any of us would even make it out alive.

Mavrik sent me an image. In my mind, I saw Beckah on the night of the ball. She had seemed so sure about her own destiny. I envied that about her. She was strong, wise, and beautiful in a way I only barely understood. Jace had called me brave before, but what little courage I had was nothing next to hers.