Avian (The Dragonrider Chronicles) (38 page)

Thinking about her made me more aware of the lump under my vambrace where I still had her handkerchief hidden. Felix had reminded me not to take anything with me I couldn’t stand to lose. I had left my mother’s necklace beside my bed, but I couldn’t leave Beckah’s token behind. Having it with me gave me strength, and reminded me that there were things still worth fighting for.

Underneath all my fear and doubt, I knew Beckah was right. I was here for a reason—the same reason she was training. Giving up was not an option. Felix and Lyon were going to that island, and they might need me. There was no other choice. I had to protect the people I cared about.

Mavrik let out his own booming cry as he leapt into the sky. We caught the rush of cool morning wind, and turned west toward the sea. As we soared up above the fog, I saw other dragons and riders flying all around us. I started looking for my friends, and when I couldn’t find them, I reached out with my thoughts. I called to Nova and Demos, asking them to come closer.

I heard Nova’s roar from over my shoulder. When I looked back, Felix was giving me angry hand signals.

Quit steering for me,
he gestured.

I smirked under my helmet.

We flew in formation toward the sea. After several hours, the air started to smell more and more like salt. In the distance, I could see big, dark spots rising up on the horizon. The islands were like droplets of green in an endless blue sea. The largest was where we were supposed to find the clearing and make our way to the fortress.

It was easy to find the clearing. The rest of the island was covered in jungle so dense, it looked like a quilt of rustling leaves. It was so thick you couldn’t see anything below the canopy. The clearing obviously had been man-made by cutting down some of the trees, and I could see the sandy-colored stone of the fortress peeking out between some of the branches not far away.

I gestured to Lyon and Felix to hang back and circle while the other avians landed, dismounted, and sent their dragons away. We were the last ones to touch down. I hurried to unload my go-bag, buckle my helmet to the saddle, and clip my sword to my hip. As soon as I was finished, I gave Mavrik a gruff pat on the neck.

He stared down at me. I could sense his worry and fear. He didn’t want to leave me and honestly, I didn’t want him to go.

“Go on,” I pushed against his head. “I’ll be fine. If anything happens, I’ll call you.”

Mavrik growled at me, but he didn’t argue. He puffed an angry snort, blasting my face with his hot breath, and then took off to join the other dragons who were returning to the Roost.

Felix dismounted next. I waited for him in the clearing, and then we stood together while Lyon took his turn. Dressed in our brown cloaks and carrying our bags and weapons, we probably looked prepared. But deep down I knew we weren’t. We were like lambs being led to the slaughter.

“Remember our deal,” I said as soon as Demos took off.

Lyon and Felix stared back at me with wide, worried eyes. They both nodded.

“We can’t stay close to one another. They already know we’re friends, so they’ll probably try to use that against us. But any doubt we can give them would work to our advantage. Once we’re let back into the jungle, we need to find each other. We have a better chance of surviving if we work together to get back to the beach.” I looked around the clearing and picked a tree nearby. It was taller than the others. “When they let us go, let’s meet there. Okay?”

Once again, they nodded. One by one, we broke off and started for the fortress alone. I waited to go last, watching Felix’s back as he marched off into the trees. When it was my turn to go, I was so caught up in staring at the jungle around me it wasn’t hard to let my thoughts wander for a second. Jace had said this place was a lot like Luntharda, and seeing it gave me strange chills.

There were huge ferns everywhere with fronds as tall as I was. The tree trunks were covered in moss and vines, and the canopy over head was so thick that almost no sunlight made it down to the forest floor. It was almost like the branches of the trees had woven together to make a living basket. Strange sounds came from everywhere, but I didn’t see any animals. I tried to press outward with my thoughts to see if I could sense them.

Then something hit me on the back of the head.

Everything went dark.

When I started to wake up, I could feel that my hands were tied behind my back. I also realized that I was completely naked. All my gear and all my clothes were gone. Overall, not a good way to start a day of training.

I forced my eyes open and squinted into the sunlight. Immediately, I saw the familiar sand-colored stone of the fortress. I rolled over onto my side. The back of my head was hurting from where I’d been hit, and I could hear others moving around nearby. There were other avians sitting all around me, stripped down and tied up like I was.

“What’s going on?” I rasped as I sat up and started testing my bonds. Whoever had tied my hands had done a great job. I couldn’t slip free.

“Shut up,” a familiar voice growled at me. It sent anger burning through my veins about a second before I felt him grab a fistful of my hair. I glared into Thrane’s eyes as he forced me to look at him. “Welcome to Hell, demon. You should feel right at home.”

I didn’t answer.

He let me go and slung me back down on the ground. I waited until he had moved away to sit back up again. All around me, the other avians were sitting in a circle. Everyone was tied up the same way while a few instructors, including Thrane, stood guard over us. I saw more instructors stripping down the few remaining students, and taking their gear into the fortress’s only building.

The compound wasn’t much. The center building was only two storeys tall, and it had no windows that I could see. All around us was a stacked stone wall that was at least twenty feet high, with only one gate that led out into the dark jungle. The tree branches spread out and almost completely covered the compound, even though there were no trees inside the walls.

We were sitting in an empty dirt courtyard. The only other thing standing was a tall wooden post that stuck straight up out of the ground. I hadn’t seen anything like it before, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out what it was. If the old blood splattered around it wasn’t evidence enough, then the shackles hanging from the top of it made it pretty clear what that post was used for. It was a whipping post.

When the last of us had been captured, the instructors made us all get up at once. We were marched into the fortress in a line, which was completely humiliating. No one wants to walk around naked like that. Anyone who tried to step out of line or run was immediately punished, usually with a punch to the face.

I really can’t go into much detail about what happened in that compound. Some things just shouldn’t be said. What I can say is that Sile’s warnings about this training didn’t come anywhere near how bad it actually was. Not even the interrogation training could compare.

After what must have been several days, I started wondering if I would live to see the sky again. They kept us in the dark as much as possible so that we lost track of time. But worse than that, they kept us alone. The cells they crammed us into were so tiny I couldn’t stand up straight. There wasn’t enough room to sit with your legs straight, either, so it was impossible to find a way to sleep or even be comfortable. It was a miserable, cold, dark, stone box.

The first time I heard someone break down, I was terrified it was Felix or Lyon, but I couldn’t tell because of how the voices echoed off everything. I heard someone crying and screaming hysterically, begging to be let out. I wanted to yell back at them, to remind them to keep quiet. I heard the instructors take him out of his cell. I heard them beat him until he was quiet. Then they threw him back in his cell.

A few others broke down like that. Each time, I covered my ears and tried not to hear it. I was afraid it would be one of my friends or that I’d hear them call out to me for help. But there was no refuge in the silence because when it was quiet, you were reminded of how hungry and thirsty you were. At first, they didn’t feed us at all. Then they let us out into the courtyard and threw a few rations out, so that we had to fight for them. I didn’t fight very hard, though. Something about the way Thrane was watching us fight, like he was enjoying it way too much, made me suspicious.

In the end, I was glad I hadn’t tried to get any of the food. The ones who did were doubly rewarded with a turn at the whipping post. Five lashes in exchange for those few bites of food.

Eventually, they did give us our clothes back. By that time, I was so filthy from scrounging around in the dirt that I hated to put anything on without bathing. There wasn’t much choice, though. It was better than being naked.

Once we were all sufficiently weak from hunger, thirst, and the psychological torment of being trapped in a windowless, dark cell for days… the actual interrogation finally began.

They pulled us out into the courtyard one by one. They beat us. They yelled, and demanded information. They even promised food or freedom if we talked.

When it was my turn, I knew Thrane would be there even before I saw his big ugly face leering down at me. My hands were still tied behind my back, and my body was so weak from dehydration I wasn’t sure I could survive one of his beatings. But I did.

Afterwards, my face was so bruised it felt like raw meat, but I was alive and I still had all my teeth. I knew that was probably because of Jace. He had been there the whole time, standing off to the side and watching with that cold look in his eyes. He didn’t seem to care when Thrane hit me, but I let myself hope that if it went too far—if Thrane actually tried to kill me—then Jace would intervene. I think the fact that I didn’t break down and talk actually surprised them. I got a little pleasure out of that as I limped back to my cell.

In the end, we never knew who talked and who didn’t. We never saw one another. At least, not until everyone had taken several turns. Then it was time for a different approach.

We were all herded back into the courtyard like cattle and made to stand in lines. As I looked around, I noticed everyone else looked about as bad as I felt. Every one of us had been bruised up badly, although some were worse than others. I searched the faces of the other avians, but I couldn’t find Felix or Lyon. I was kind of glad about that. I didn’t want to feel anything. It was safer not to feel until this was over.

The instructors started pulling us out one by one to interrogate us in front of everyone. They picked on the weaker students first, trying to see who would react. I was surprised that I didn’t get called out… that is, until I realized it was only because Thrane had something
extra
special in store for me.

“That one.” Thrane turned his nasty smile in my direction and pointed. “Take him to the post.”

My stomach twisted painfully. I couldn’t help but look back at the whipping post. It was spattered with fresh blood now. Fear immediately made my legs feel even weaker. I started having radical thoughts about trying to run, or fighting back. I didn’t think I could handle a beating like that, not without having a full mental breakdown in front of everyone. I was so tired, so hungry, and in so much pain from the beatings I’d already taken. The thought of the lash of that whip over my skin—it was unbearable.

But I didn’t have a choice. I had to go. This was the moment Sile had warned me about; the moment when my strength would truly be tested.

“We don’t want him to get lonely up there, do we? Nah, of course not. Send that one, too. They seem real fond of each other already.” Thrane laughed hoarsely as he pointed to someone else.

I knew I shouldn’t look. I didn’t want to see who it was. It was better not to see, to let it all roll off and stare at the ground. But I couldn’t help it. As one of the instructors shackled me to the post with my arms above my head, I looked up to see who else they were pulling from the group.

Felix was looking right back at me. His face was so battered I barely recognized him. The instant our eyes met, I knew what was about to happen.

We stared at one another as they shackled him on the other side of the post so that we were forced to look into each other’s eyes. I knew he had to be thinking the same thing I was: Thrane knew about us. He had been waiting all this time for the perfect moment to finally break me by using the one person who could push me over the edge. I was not ready for this, and I could already feel my sanity starting to slip through my fingers.

“You seem to like taking the fall for this piece of filth.” Thrane walked up to Felix, curling a long, braided leather whip around his arm. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice? Maybe the others didn’t, but I know a con when I see one. You threw that fight for this demon. I’ll admit, I was a little surprised. They say you’re a high noble. Well, that may be, but I’m willing to bet your blood is red just like everyone else’s. I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?”

My heart was pounding in my ears so loudly I could barely hear anything else. I clenched my teeth and started to twist my hands in my shackles. Immediately, Felix’s expression changed.

He glared at me fiercely and shook his head.

Thrane grabbed my chin suddenly, jerking my eyes away from Felix so that I had to stare back at him. “The beating stops when you talk. You’ve fooled everyone else here into thinking you’re one of us, but you don’t fool me. I’ve seen your kind. I’ve watched your people butcher my brothers like cattle. It’s time you show these people whose side you’re really on, demon. Until then, watch him bleed for you.”

There was no way to win this situation—not in my eyes. If I kept my mouth shut, I was betraying my whole purpose for being here by letting Felix suffer. If I talked, I was proving that I couldn’t be trusted. Thrane had me cornered, and there was no way out. Somehow, I’d walked right into his trap.

I started pulling against my shackles as they cut Felix’s shirt off his back. He was still looking straight at me. Even though he didn’t seem afraid, I couldn’t calm down. I fought the iron chains with all my might.