Avian (The Dragonrider Chronicles) (4 page)

What interested me more than anything else I found was an old carpenter’s toolkit in a solid, handmade wooden box. I had known Ulric was a craftsman, from a family of craftsmen, but I had never seen anything like that before. There were tools for boring holes, saws of all shapes and sizes, files, chisels, a hatchet, and a hammer. I held each one, and wondered how you could use such simple instruments to make things like tables and chairs. Something about it made me want to give it a try, just to see what I could do.

After emptying the loftroom and moving my new housewares onto the front porch, I went to close all the windows and doors again. I brought some firewood from the stack behind the barn and started a fire in the downstairs hearth, and in the kitchen stove. Using one of the big iron pots I’d found, I melted down buckets full of snow and used an old shirt as a rag to start washing the down windows, floors, and walls. I washed away months of dust, years of bad memories, and all my anger.

When everything was clean, I started moving the old pieces of furniture in. There hadn’t been much, but it was enough to get me by for three months. There was a rocking chair that must have been for a nursery because it was made from the same color of wood as an old baby crib I’d also found in the loftroom. I’d left the crib up there, but the chair I put in the parlor near the fireplace.

I put an old washstand up in my new room, and stacked the iron cooking ware in the kitchen cupboards. It took me almost all afternoon to push Roland’s big armoire from his bedroom, down the hall, to my new room. I stripped down the sheets, blankets, and pillows from his bed and put them on mine. Then I took his trunk, too, and put it at the end of the bed. Among the knickknacks left behind in the loftroom were a few old oil lamps that I put in my bedroom and down in the kitchen.

By the time I finished arranging everything, it was already dark outside, and I was absolutely starving. I finally sat down on the floor in the parlor, warming myself in the light of the fire, and unwrapped the food Mrs. Crookin had sent. She had packed up a big wedge of cheese, roasted meat, fresh loaves of bread, and some dried fruit in paper packages—enough to last me a few days if I rationed it. So I ate all I dared, and put the rest away in the kitchen.

When I went back out to check on Mavrik, he was gone. He had squeezed himself out of the barn door somehow. Under the moonlight I could see faint silhouettes of dragon-shaped footprints in the snow. I wondered where he went. I had been so busy all day; I hadn’t even stopped to check up on him.

The image of Mavrik chopping happily on the leg of a freshly killed deer flashed into my mind. It made me gag a little, hearing the sounds of bones crunching between his teeth in my mind like that. I glared up at the sky and called out to him, knowing he’d hear me no matter how far away he was, “Keep that kind of stuff to yourself next time, will you?”

I left the barn door open for him whenever he decided to come back, and stomped through the snow back to the house. It was warm inside now, and even though there wasn’t much in the way of furnishings, it still felt cozy to me. I took the liberty of barring the front door with the big wooden beam Ulric had left leaning in its usual place. When I locked myself inside, I finally felt safe.

I shoveled some logs and embers out of the parlor hearth into the iron pot, and carried them upstairs to start another fire in my bedroom hearth. It was strange to be alone in an empty house, and yet at the same time it made me feel calm. It was a lot better than sleeping in the barn or the loftroom. It was actually the nicest place I’d slept in so far.

I settled down under the mound of old quilts I’d borrowed from Roland’s bed, and watched the fire cast flickering shadows on the ceiling. There was still a lot left to do. I had to find some way to feed myself. It would have been a whole lot simpler if the garden weren’t frozen solid. My mother had taught me a lot about how to grow all kinds of things, but there was no way I would be able to grow anything to eat in the dead of winter.

I was hoping that if I carefully budgeted the little bit of money I had, I could make it last until training started again without having to find a job somewhere in the city. I could buy cheap grain, and try to set snares or hunt for squirrels and rabbits in the woods. Mavrik might even let me steal a few scraps from his kills, since he clearly didn’t have a problem finding his way to a deer when he wanted one.

One way or another, I knew I would make it. I had to hold out for three months. Until then, I would learn to survive on my own.

Before I left for the interlude, Lieutenant Rordin had insisted that I keep training during our three-month break, even though I wasn’t at the academy. I knew he was right. I was doomed to be smaller than all the other riders, so I was going to have to work a lot harder in order to keep up. I was going to have to train more than everyone else. So every morning, I did.

The minute my feet hit the floor, I did as many push-ups and sit-ups as I could until I was soaked with sweat. Then I layered up in three or four shirts and two pairs of pants before braving the cold to run. I didn’t have a good gauge of how far I was going compared to how far we were running at the academy, so I just ran until I was too tired to go on. When I finally staggered back to the house, I ate a quick breakfast from my stores of food while I heated up water in the copper basin in the washroom. Then I bathed, changed into fresh clothes, and started the rest of my rigorous morning routine.

Over the weeks, I set up a network of snares in the pine forest around the house. Since I was determined
not
to run into Katty, I avoided their property altogether. I baited my traps with little piles of seeds, or pieces of dried fruit, and was lucky enough to get a couple of rabbits or some squirrels almost every day. That paired with the big sack of dried apple chips, three wheels of cheese, and sack of grain I’d bought in the city made for good eating. After some vague instructions from the baker in town, I could even stagger through making crude loaves of bread. They didn’t taste great, not like the heavenly bread Mrs. Crookin made, but they were at least edible.

During the day, I took up learning woodworking and carpentry. Those old tools I’d found in the loftroom became my friends, and I spent hours in Ulric’s workshop learning how to use them through trial and error. I learned to chisel, to shape wood, to craft whole pieces of furniture without having to use any nails. It wasn’t easy, and my hands blistered from handling the tools. I managed to cut myself a few times and bust my knuckles open with the hammer, but I was determined. I wasn’t giving up.

My first few creations were pretty awful. I made a table with one leg that was shorter than all the others, so it wobbled and was basically useless. The first chair I made fell apart the minute I sat down in it. But I kept practicing. I loved it, even if I wasn’t good at it yet. I worked every day, and savored every second I spent shaping something useful out of raw pieces of wood. Eventually, my chairs didn’t fall apart. I could add extra details to the pieces I made, like intricate carvings, or claw-like feet to the bottoms of chair and table legs.

I sold my first rocking chair to the baker in the city. It took me forever to carry it there on my back, but I didn’t want to risk anyone seeing me on Mavrik. That was a whole lot of attention I didn’t need. Once I got the chair to the bakery, I was careful not to say that I was the one who’d made it. But the baker’s wife was thrilled with it. She insisted on buying it the second she saw it. So I sold it for two silver pieces. It was the first time I felt like I’d done anything worthwhile, except for saving Sile’s life a few times the year before.

Selling something I’d made boosted my confidence. I started making things that were more complex, and buying better pieces of wood to use with the money I made. I bought nails, new hammers, and sanding tools. I spent all day drenched with sweat, creating new projects in my father’s old workshop. My hands got rough, and they got stronger and tougher every day. But as soon as the sun began to set, I knew it was time to get back to reality.

At dusk, I saddled up Mavrik and took off to fly drills. I didn’t want anyone to see us, sweeping low over the mountains, flying patterns, and diving along the steep cliffs, so we always waited until dark. We flew for hours, until I was too tired to keep my eyes open anymore. Then we landed, and I went inside to eat dinner before I went to bed.

I fell into a routine. The days ran together. The only thing that kept me conscious of the time was how often I bumped into Katty—which happened less and less. I saw her a few times in the city, and of course, she was always with Bren. She stared at me from afar like she was waiting for me to do something. She always managed to look angry and sad at the same time, like she wanted to choke me until I apologized to her. But I never spoke to her. I never went near her, or even waved. There was a distance there I didn’t think I could breach. It still hurt to think about her, and seeing her only made it worse. It was like there was a big, rotting hole in the middle of my chest. I knew I missed her, but I couldn’t decide if it was because she’d been
that
special to me, or if I just hated being alone.

I was working on a new kitchen table for my house. Right away, I knew it was going to be one of the nicest things I’d made so far. I was taking my time, smoothing out the top with a big strip of rough sandpaper, when I heard a horse whinny outside. Immediately, I put my tools down. I wasn’t expecting any visitors, and I knew how a horse would respond to the sleeping dragon curled up in my barn if Mavrik decided to get curious. Horses and dragons didn’t get along.

“Stay put,” I murmured to Mavrik, knowing he would hear me.

I pushed the workshop door open and went out into the snow. The wind was frigid, and the snow was so deep it came up to my knees. Mithangol was not a great place to be in the winter months.

A mail courier was riding up the drive toward my house. It had been weeks since I had even seen one carrying letters past my house, and none of them had delivered anything to me. When he saw me, the courier stopped and started rifling through his saddlebags. He was waving a letter in the air by the time I met him.

“From Saltmarsh, outside of Southwatch,” he said as he handed me the letter. “Anything for delivery?”

I shook my head and took the letter from him.

The courier didn’t waste any time. He turned his horse around and trotted off back down the drive.

Looking down at the weathered envelope, I saw the address scribbled onto the front. It didn’t say whom it was from, though. I knew where Saltmarsh was only because I had to memorize very detailed kingdom maps as part of my training at the academy. It was a small port city about ten miles to the west of Southwatch, along the coast. I didn’t know anyone living there, though.

I had some hopes the letter would be from Roland or Felix as I opened it. But as I unfolded the thick parchment, I got a sick feeling in the pit of my gut. All it said was:

I need you. Come quickly. – B.D.

The message was vague, but I still knew who it was from right away. I only knew one person in the whole world with those initials, and I didn’t think she would go to the trouble of sending a letter like this if wasn’t an emergency.

Beckah Derrick was the daughter of my former sponsor at the academy. She was one of the smartest and bravest people I knew, and she was also one of my best friends. If she needed me, then I wasn’t about to hesitate.

“Looks like we’re taking a trip,” I muttered as I stood there in the snow, staring at the letter.

Mavrik came crawling out of the barn, yawning and making curious chirping noises. He leaned his big head down to look at the paper, too. His hot breath blasted past my head as he snorted, and sat back on his haunches.

I scratched his chin, making him purr and flick the end of his tail. “Don’t worry. I bet you’ll like Southwatch. It’s probably a lot warmer there.”

It didn’t take me long to pack because I didn’t have much to take. I gathered up enough rations of food to last a few days, some of Roland’s old clothes that were still several sizes too big for me, my armor, and my hunting knife. Once I had everything tied down to the saddle, I locked up the house, closed the barn, and climbed onto Mavrik’s back.

We leapt into the sky just after midmorning and headed south along the coast. It was freezing cold, and I hunkered down as close to Mavrik’s neck as I could to keep out of the wind. He was warm, and it kept me from freezing to death, but my teeth were chattering until we finally got out of the mountains.

As we soared past the last few peaks, I got my first look at the ocean. A blast of salty wind filled my lungs, and made me smile. The whole horizon was covered in blue, as far as the eye could see. Down below, the waves lapped at white sandy beaches. I could see fishermen dragging nets out of the surf. We passed little cities and towns nestled right close to the coast, rolling green farmland with cattle grazing, and huge marshes. In the distance, I could see the tiny dark shapes of ships going in and out of the ports. The cool wind didn’t bother me anymore, not with the warmth of the setting sun on my face.

We followed the coastline, flying low and fast as I kept an eye out for Saltmarsh. My internal map was telling me we should be getting really close. Just as the sun was about to set over the ocean to the west, I saw the lights of a city down below. There was a big port stretching out into the ocean, with three-mast ships docked. I knew it had to be Saltmarsh. It was supposed to have one of the biggest shipping ports for goods going in and out of Maldobar, second only to Southwatch itself.

I urged Mavrik to swoop lower, keeping a lookout for a good place to land. He let his wingtips brush the ocean, roaring happily as we swept over the beach and stirred up flocks of seagulls and pelicans. As we cruised the outskirts of the city, I picked a good spot on the open beach to touch down, and Mavrik started to flare his powerful wings to slow us down. He stretched out his hind legs, ready to grip the sand.