Battle Born

by Amie Kaufman

  “Well, at least there are lamps,” Ellukka said, walking over toward the entrance to unhook four of them from the collection that had been left there long ago. “They’re dusty, but it looks like they still work, so we don’t have to wander around in the dark. Oh, and”—she looked up, concerned—“someone’s been here. There are footprints.”

  “You came once, with the Finskólars,” Rayna pointed out. “Maybe someone came visiting again?”

  “We came a long time ago,” Ellukka agreed, “but the dragons just fought a battle against the wolves, so the Finskólars at New Drekhelm aren’t going to be out on class excursions right now. They’ve all got bigger things to deal with. And we know most of them are back at Cloudhaven. These footprints look recent.”

  “We’ll have to hope it was just someone who was curious,” said Anders.

  “Or someone who just remembered last week that they left something behind when they moved out ten years ago,” Rayna replied, in a voice that wanted to be cheerful but sounded a little bit unsettled.

  “I think I know where the bedrooms were,” said Ellukka, “but there are a lot of them, and I’m not sure how we’ll know which one was Drifa’s.”

  “All we can do is look,” said Lisabet. “Lead the way.”

  Their lamps held high, they followed Ellukka down an empty hallway, their footsteps echoing without rugs to absorb them.

  At New Drekhelm, artifact lamps would have come to life ahead of them, fading out slowly behind them, rendering the whole place in a cheerful yellow glow. Here, the dark seemed to close in from all directions.

  Ellukka hesitated a couple of times, but a few minutes later, she was gesturing triumphantly. “This hallway is where the bedrooms start,” she said. “Why don’t Lisabet and I go to the other end, and you two can hunt along here? If anyone sees anything, or thinks maybe Drifa slept in that room, they can shout. We’ll hear.”

  “The sooner we start, the sooner we finish,” Lisabet said. “Or, I guess, if it doesn’t go well, then the sooner we know we need a new plan. Let’s go.”

  She and Ellukka lifted their lamps high and made their way down the corridor, disappearing around a corner and leaving the twins alone.

  “Let’s get to work,” said Rayna, sticking her head inside the first bedroom.

  Anders took the bedroom across the hallway, holding up his lamp as he peeked inside. There was a bedframe carved into the rock, but apart from that, it was completely empty. He quickly studied the walls, but nothing was carved there, and there was no sign to show that anyone in particular had slept here, let alone Drifa.

  He made his way through into the bathroom, but it was just as empty of anything helpful. Maybe Drifa’s room won’t be this empty, he thought. She wasn’t here to clear it out when the dragons left Drekhelm. She was already . . . missing. She was already wherever she is now, perhaps.

  He tried the next room, and the next, and the next after that, with no luck at all. As he and Rayna worked their way down toward the corner, Anders was beginning to appreciate what a very, very long task this might be, and to wonder if they should bring more reinforcements from Cloudhaven in the hope that more pairs of eyes could search the rooms more quickly.

  He left the room he was in and was about to turn the corner to head along to the next door. But before he could, someone else came striding around it instead.

  It was Leif, the head of the Dragonmeet, and the leader of the Finskól.

  His old teacher’s mouth fell open in surprise as they stood face to face for an instant, staring at each other. Then the Drekleid lifted one big hand, and without a word, he pushed Anders straight into the room Rayna was busy searching.

  She turned around, her mouth open to ask what he was doing, and Anders frantically signaled to her to stay quiet as he hurriedly pushed across the shutter on his lantern to dim its glow. She closed her mouth again with a snap and followed his lead, dimming her own light and dashing over to join him as he peeked through the crack where the door’s hinges joined it to the rock.

  Leif was still there, turning his head to speak to someone over his shoulder. For a moment, he reminded Anders of Hayn. Not because he looked like Hayn—where his uncle’s skin was dark brown, Leif’s was a pale white, though ruddied and freckled by the sun, and where Hayn’s hair was a tightly curled black, Leif’s hair and beard were a much lighter red. But they both shared the same smile lines around their eyes, and both gave the impression that though they were large, they were gentle. And they had both protected him at different moments. They both felt like safety—even if one of them had just shoved him into a dark room.

  Then Anders saw who Leif was speaking to. Around the corner came Valerius, Ellukka’s giant blond father, and Torsten, whom Anders had always secretly called Bushy Beard. Then came two women that Anders recognized from the Dragonmeet, though he didn’t know their names; then, finally, came Mylestom and Saphira, the two youngest members of the Dragonmeet. Mylestom was walking beside Saphira as she propelled her wheeled chair along.

  Rayna held on to Anders’s arm with an iron grip as they watched the procession pass by, as though she was trying to hold in all the questions she wanted to ask, and the things she wanted to say.

  “I think we may as well go,” Leif was saying. “There’s nothing more we can do here today.”

  “If we can’t find anything here that will help us,” said Torsten, “then we should go ahead with what we have. There’ll never be a better time.”

  “He’s right,” Valerius said grimly. “The wolves can’t stay out there in that camp of theirs forever. They’ll run out of things to eat.”

  “The humans will capitulate,” said one of the women. “What else can they do?”

  “That might be,” said Saphira from behind them, “but there are still other options.”

  Anders held his breath, hoping against hope that neither Lisabet nor Ellukka would spot anything interesting enough at this moment to cause them to yell for the others to come join them. He and his sister extinguished their lamps completely and crept after the dragons as they made their way back to the abandoned Great Hall. Together, the twins hid in the shadows by the entrance as, one by one, the dragons began to transform.

  After Valerius, Torsten, and the two women left, Saphira maneuvered her chair into the center of the hall and began to wheel it toward the ledge, Mylestom following behind her.

  It was then that Leif raised his voice. “I think the two of you should wait here a moment longer,” he said. They both turned, curious, and he spoke again. “Anders? You’d better come out. And your sister too. I’m sure if you’re here, she’s somewhere close by.”

  Anders’s breath caught, and he felt Rayna’s hand tighten on his arm again. But Leif knew they were there. And even after all that had happened, Anders had no reason to mistrust his teacher. He had just hidden them from the unfriendly members of the Dragonmeet. And in the great battle above Holbard, Leif had defended his students.

  So, slipping his hand into Rayna’s, he walked out with his sister until they reached the circle of lamplight where Leif, Mylestom, and Saphira stood.

  Leif hurried forward to meet them. “Are you both all right?” he asked. “Are you safe?”

  “We were so worried,” Saphira said, wheeling toward them quickly.

  “And what was that you unleashed above Holbard?” Mylestom said. “None of us had ever seen anything like it.”

  Anders opened his mouth, then shut it again, not sure how much to admit or where to begin.

  “We’re not going to tell anyone we saw you,” Leif said, glancing across at the other two, who nodded. “Let me guess: you’re not here alone.”

  Anders exchanged a look with Rayna. There was no point trying to hide it, and he wasn’t even sure they had a reason to.

  Rayna walked back toward the entrance to the hallways and called out for Ellukka and Lisabet to come join them. They weren’t long in arriving, coming at a run, and they both stopped short when they s
aw the three members of the Dragonmeet. Relief was written all over Ellukka’s face as she walked forward. Lisabet looked almost as happy.

  “Oh, Leif, it’s good to see you,” Ellukka said. “How’s . . .”

  “Your father’s healing,” Leif said, and her shoulders dropped as some of the tension went out of her. Though she knew he’d survived his injuries—thanks to Leif catching him as he fell above Holbard—she hadn’t had any news since that first day she’d returned to Drekhelm with Theo to steal books from the archives.

  “We saw him just now,” Anders added. “He was walking.”

  “His burns are nasty,” said Saphira, “but he can fly.”

  “And how are things at Drekhelm?” Rayna asked.

  There was a long pause before Leif replied. “Complicated,” he said eventually. “Some of the dragons are angry, some feel betrayed. Some want to attack Holbard. Others want to cut off all contact with the outside.” He paused, and when he continued, his voice was grim. “I’m losing control of the Dragonmeet.”

  His words were met with a shocked silence. All four of the children had seen Leif at the head of the Dragonmeet, and though the adults argued and debated endlessly, in the end, they always listened to him.

  “What were you doing here?” Anders asked.

  “We were looking for weapons,” Saphira said quietly. “Though we are very divided on whether or not we should use them. We thought we should at least come, so we knew if they found anything.”

  “And you?” Leif asked. “What brings you to Old Drekhelm?”

  “We’re looking for the place where our”—Anders caught himself in time and changed the words he had been about to use—“where Drifa used to sleep.”

  Mylestom’s eyebrows went right up. “Drifa the dragonsmith? Why?”

  None of the children answered him—nobody wanted to lie, but nobody was quite prepared to tell the truth, either. They all trusted Leif, Mylestom, and Saphira, but it was difficult to know whether—in an attempt to keep the peace—the adults might feel it was better to share something the children didn’t want them to share.

  “We’re not here looking for a weapon,” said Anders eventually. “I promise.”

  Leif nodded slowly. “I think I remember where her room used to be, but she was gone even before the dragons left Drekhelm. Her things might have ended up anywhere.”

  “You show them,” said Saphira, “and we’ll follow the others home. We shouldn’t let them spend more than a few minutes at Drekhelm without at least one of the three of us there.”

  “She’s right,” said Mylestom. “Don’t be too long, Leif.”

  With a nod of farewell to the children, the two of them made their way toward the great gaping mouth of the cave, Saphira wheeling her chair up to the edge of it as Leif led the children away.

  “What does she do with her chair?” Lisabet asked curiously.

  “She takes off,” said Leif, “and then Mylestom picks it up and carries it if she’ll need it at the other end. She has several, so often one is waiting for her. This way, come.”

  He led them through the dark corridors of Old Drekhelm, and as they made their way past the rooms they had already searched, Anders realized Leif might be able to answer another question for them.

  “Did you ever know two dragonsmiths called Tilda and Kaleb?” he asked.

  “Yes, I still know them,” said Leif. “Their aerie’s in the hermits’ caves these days.”

  “Do you know where in the hermits’ caves?” Lisabet asked immediately.

  Leif nodded. “I can draw you a map. But Drifa’s room is just up here.”

  He opened a wooden door that looked to Anders just like all the others, checked inside, and then opened it all the way.

  The room was not empty like the others had been. When the dragons had fled after the last great battle, Drifa had already gone missing, and it seemed nobody had gathered up her belongings. There was a big, wide bed, some bookshelves at the end of the room—gaps here and there suggested these had been raided—and a large chest that sat open, a few pieces of clothing still inside it.

  Anders’s heart gave a little shiver. He walked into the room and across to the chest, leaning down to pick up a cloak. He held it in his hands, gazing down at the dark crimson fabric, running his fingertips over the metal catch at the neck. His mother had worn this. She had touched this with her own hands.

  Rayna came up beside him and silently leaned her shoulder against his.

  “Ah,” said Leif quietly. “Yes. When I told you that I had my suspicions about how you had come to carry both wolf and dragon blood, this was what I wondered. I thought—I hoped—you might be her children.”

  “Really?” Rayna whispered, looking back at him. “You don’t think it’s wrong?”

  Leif shook his head firmly. “My heart is glad to know my friend left something of herself behind. You should know that your mother was not a killer, Anders, Rayna. She never said it to me, but I knew that she loved Felix. I saw them working together, I could tell.”

  “We know she didn’t kill him,” Rayna said.

  “Do you know who did?” Leif asked quickly.

  “No,” said Anders, lifting his head and making himself look around the room. “No, we don’t.”

  And they didn’t know what had happened to Drifa either. He found himself keeping quiet about that. If she didn’t want her children to come and find her, he was somehow sure that she wouldn’t want Leif or anyone else to try, either.

  He couldn’t see many places that a staff might be hidden, but he didn’t want to search just yet. Not until Leif had left.

  Seeming to understand, Leif spoke again. “Perhaps I can find something to draw a map on for you, to show you where to find the aerie.”

  “We have a map,” Rayna said, digging it out of her bag and passing it over to Leif.

  “This is Drifa’s old map,” he said, his brows shooting up. “Oh, I haven’t seen this in . . . well, a very long time.” He opened it up and, holding a lamp close, showed them the exact spot in the hermits’ caves they should look. “You’ll see a red flag flying outside the cave mouth,” he said. “There’s a big flat spot, and that’s where you should land. Is there anything else I can tell you before I follow Saphira and Mylestom?”

  “What happens if you lose control of the Dragonmeet?” Anders asked quietly.

  “I don’t think it’s if,” Leif said with a sigh. “I think it’s when. The Dragonmeet will talk all day tomorrow about how we didn’t turn up any lost weapons here, and in the old days, they’d have gone on talking for weeks after that. But some of them are getting ready to take action, and I think it could happen as soon as the day after tomorrow.”

  The children were silent for a moment, stunned. They’d known things were getting worse, but . . . the day after tomorrow?

  “What will they do?” Ellukka asked quietly.

  “Attack the wolves,” Leif said, just as soft.

  Anders felt sick just thinking about it. They couldn’t let it happen. “Hayn said the wolves are training,” he replied. “Everyone, even the junior students. Professor Ennar’s in charge, and she was our combat teacher.”

  “Where’s the Fyrstulf?” Leif asked, his brows lifting. “Where’s Sigrid?”

  “Nobody knows,” Lisabet said tightly.

  “Well, wherever she is,” Leif replied, “and whatever she’s out there doing, it’ll make peace harder, not easier, that much I know. But this problem is much larger than Sigrid now. One way or another, I think we’re only a day or two away from a war. You need to act quickly. I’ll do my best to keep the Dragonmeet from doing anything foolish, but it’s only a matter of time.”

  He clasped each of their hands in turn, and then took his leave, his footsteps echoing as he made his way down the hall.

  The rest of them stood still, and Anders knew he wasn’t the only one wishing that Leif could stay, could know everything they knew, could take charge. But that was impossible,
and he gave himself a shake.

  “Let’s search,” he said. “It shouldn’t take long.”

  He and Ellukka took the bookshelves, since they were the tallest, reaching up to feel along the top with their hands and carefully checking behind them where they came away from the wall. Lisabet searched the dark corners of the room with her lamp.

  Anders knew his friend had to be thinking about Leif’s words.

  Perhaps it was a comfort to her that he was so sure her mother was out there somewhere. Leif was right—the danger they were in was bigger than Sigrid, that was for sure. If the Dragonmeet was intent on war, then Sigrid herself could probably show up and tell everyone to hold hands and make friends, and it wouldn’t be enough. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t worried about the Fyrstulf. He and Lisabet both knew that Sigrid was capable of causing a lot of trouble all by herself.

  His thoughts were interrupted after a minute, when Rayna rolled completely under the bed and then squeaked in delight.

  “Found it!” she called, then broke off into a fit of coughing as a cloud of dust emerged, followed by a gray and gritty Rayna.

  “All of it?” Ellukka asked, hurrying over to help her to her feet.

  “All of it,” Rayna confirmed.

  “Well, that’s something,” said Ellukka. “Sparks and scales, I was not looking forward to hunting all over Vallen for another three pieces.”

  Anders was already thinking ahead to the next step, and he lifted his lamp to look at the others. “Can we get to Tilda and Kaleb tonight?” he asked.

  Ellukka and Rayna considered the question.

  “I don’t think so,” said Ellukka. “It’s a long way to fly when we’re so tired. And how would we find the red flag in the dark?”

  “And Drifa said we need Hayn,” Lisabet pointed out. “So someone would have to fly to fetch him as well.”

  “It makes sense that we’d need a wolf designer to help with repairs,” Rayna said. “She said that she and our father repaired the mirror together last time, so repairs must need a wolf and a dragonsmith.”

  “That’s right,” said Lisabet. “Of course, I should have thought of that. All around Holbard, artifacts were beginning to break this last year or two, because there weren’t any dragonsmiths to help the wolves with repairs.”