Valley of the Dragons (Rule 9 Academy, #3)

by Rain, Elizabeth

The muscles in his back bunched and moved beneath the t-shirt he wore, and I stared in fascination. I shook my head and looked away before he glanced up and caught me staring. Our relationship had grown easier in the last week or two. It would never be simple. But he didn’t snap my head off at every turn, and I’d let him keep his.

  When Jayne stumbled out of the woods on that sunny morning we all froze in shock. I glanced at Todd; whose complexion had paled. He took an involuntary step in her direction before Thomas laid a hand on his arm and stopped him.

  She looked no less frightened than she had the week before when she’d first fled after rising from the ashes. A week in the woods with little to eat and no protection from the elements had turned her nutmeg brown and slimmed her already lithe form to bordering on gaunt. But she looked less confused than she had, and more confident. Her eyes never paused as they moved over most of us, but they stopped dead on Fern. We stared in surprise when Fern slung her pack off her shoulder and started rummaging around inside, even as she advanced as if nothing was out of the ordinary in Jayne’s direction.

  I couldn’t prevent the gasp of panic at her unhurried approach. I waited for Jayne to flee. Or do something worse.

  “There now, it took you long enough. You have to trust somebody, don’t you? Might as well be little ole’ me, your resident witch in training.” She giggled at her own random joke and held out a water bottle and a couple sizeable pieces of jerky she’d squirreled away in her pack. Jayne took them with a ravenous growl, uncapping the water and draining half before she tore into the jerky, mewling sounds of pleasure issuing from her throat. The last thing Fern pulled free was a long free flowing tunic like dress. Jayne paused long enough to let Fern slip it over her head. Todd’s shirt had covered little to begin with. Five days tearing through the woods and pulling brambles had worn even that thin, leaving little to the imagination.

  “We need to get you to the infirmary, have the doc look you over. I already talked to John and Ella. They agreed you could have the back bedroom, Janice was there, but she’s gone now, back to her family and mostly healed. You’ll be safe and we can bring you up to speed when you’re ready on what’s been happening here in the valley in your absence.” Fern started walking as she talked. Jayne fell in step beside her without another word, ignoring most of what she said as she pulled at the jerky with sharp teeth. I suspected it wasn’t the words as much as the tone she found soothing. The honey smooth richness of it made me want to follow her anywhere. I glanced up and caught Niel’s eyes following Fern’s slim figure. The dazed confusion and slack jaw made me smile. He had it bad.

  I thought of my own confusing relationship with Nick and scowled.

  “Where is she going? She didn’t recognize me, she looked right through me.” Todd worried, looking hurt.

  “Give her some recovery time, Todd. You don’t think she was all into Fern because of her bedside manner, do you? She’s still as prickly as a pear cactus. But she weaves that magic of hers, and people believe all manner of things. Right now Jayne believes that Fern is someone familiar she can trust. I’m telling you brother, don’t go busting in there like you own the place demanding answers. Give her a chance to settle in; then go visit. Be a friend. She needs those, I suspect. Even if her mind doesn’t remember how things were in that crazy family she was a part of her entire life, her heart hasn’t forgotten. Let her heal, Todd,” Thomas murmured quietly to his brother.

  I listened to them talk, watching her walk away. Thomas was right. It took time for the brain to catch up to the heart. I looked around the sunny valley and my thoughts darkened. I wondered how much any of us really had of that.

  DAYS LATER, THOMAS visited. Jayne wasn’t exactly taking company, but he stood in the doorway to her room and looked in just the same, the doctor nowhere in sight when he arrived.

  She glanced up from the rocking chair she sat in by the open window where she’d been reading. She was still tanned dark, but the bruises had faded and she’d put on weight, regaining much of what she’d lost. Slim fitting jeans and a cute red top made his mouth dry up when he looked at her. A cascade of blond curls curled under her chin as she looked up at him, eyes flaring in alarm and no hint of memory.

  “May I help you?” she asked, voice hesitant.

  At least she wasn’t snarling at him and her eyes remained cornflower blue. He hesitated to come further into the room though, her manner all kinds of standoffish he didn’t miss. “Todd, I’m Todd Tuttle. You knew me from before?” he offered.

  She shook her head, a small dimple showing at the side of her cheek. “Oh no, I don’t think so. I’d have remembered. Wouldn’t I?” a slight note of self-doubt crept into her voice and she frowned.

  “It’s okay. You will, I’m sure. You went through quite a lot and all, blowing up and...” his voice faded at her look of alarmed confusion. “Never mind. Like I said, it will come in time. How are you doing? Are they taking good care of you?”

  Her smile returned. “Yes. Excellent. They have been wonderful to me. The only thing I worry about is that neither of them has been too forthcoming on what happened. I remember nothing much past waking up naked and afraid in that field. I have glimpses or thoughts from before, but then they flee like a flock of birds whenever I try to grab hold and make sense of them.” She stared hard at him; her forehead wrinkled in concentration.

  Of a sudden, her expression cleared and she laughed in delight! His heart stumbled with hope. Had she recalled their time together?

  “You were there. I remembered.” She giggled and covered her lips with her hand, a light blush climbing her cheeks and making every bit of spit dry up in his mouth. “You gave me your shirt when I came back and I was... naked. You were kind to me.”

  His heart fell. She remembered, but not him. She recalled his desperate act to hide her nudity and protect her honor after the explosion.

  She concentrated, trying to remember more. He watched her color fade and a flicker of pain crossed her features.

  “It’s okay Lucy... it will come when you are ready. Don’t push it. Give your mind a chance to heal.”

  Her frown darkened as she glared at him. “Who is Lucy? My name is Jayne. Jayne Martin.” She stated with confidence.

  Todd nodded. Even if her recent memories were gone, the pain of the past had sunk deep. Her subconscious had come up with acceptable answers to who she was or could be. Jayne Martin it was. “My mistake. I think it’s time for me to leave, give you a chance to rest. Would it be okay if I came back tomorrow and kept you company for a spell?”

  He held his breath, waiting for her answer. The dimple peeked at him as her smile blossomed.

  “Beat you in chess if you do. You play, right?”

  He nodded dumbly. He played. He wondered how she remembered she could; but had forgotten him. “It’s a... plan.” He hesitated, stumbling past the word date. It wouldn’t be that for a long time. Maybe never.

  In the hallway he met the doctor, coming in from outside, his wife Ella at his side.

  He looked at Todd suspiciously, wary of too many people visiting and upsetting his delicate patient.

  “How is she doc, really? Is she going to be okay?” Todd asked in a rush.

  The doctor’s expression grew solemn. “She’s fine. Needed fattening up and time to heal from her spell in the woods. Physically, she is great. Mentally? Well, only time can answer that. I’m human, I don’t have a lot of experience dealing with Phoenix. They are an incredible mystery, you know.”

  Beside him his wife nodded. “It’s true. No one knows much. Rare, and when they die and reform and come back, it’s with limited memory of who and what they were before. Maybe for her its God’s blessing she came back that way,” she said.

  Todd’s face fell. He felt like he was starting over, and maybe he was. But if that was what it took...

  “Maybe, in time, she’ll remember the best things Todd. I’m sure you were one of those,” she added.

  “I can hope, right? I’m
coming back tomorrow. Apparently she remembers how to play chess,” he added, a wry twist to his mouth.

  Ella laughed, amused. “Well now, that’s grand, isn’t it?”

  He thought of something else. “Her parents. I don’t mean the Sawyers. Her actual parents from before all this happened. She confessed that the Sawyers stole her when she was a baby. Apparently Mrs. Sawyer was a decent woman, pining for the loss of an infant. She died too though when Jayne was a toddler. She doesn’t remember much about her. If Jayne is a Phoenix, then doesn’t that mean one, or both parents were too?”

  Ella nodded, considering, “Yes, that’s true. I can’t believe they just let them take her like that. Phoenix are dangerous, probably one of the deadliest Magicals or Other that exist. Stronger than a dragon when they are riled and turn the heat up for sure. How they took her from them makes little sense.”

  “What if they were dead? They’d wake up without those memories, at least at first, right? If the Sawyers thought they’d killed them... Maybe they came back after the Sawyers were gone, like Jayne, with no memory.”

  Both the doctor and his wife nodded. “That’s possible. I suppose that’s something we’ll never know. I wonder if they did and looked for her after?”

  Todd stared through the doorway at Lucy. She’d resumed reading, her pale head bent, a glimmer of sunlight reflecting off her pale hair.

  “I know I would. I could never forget her for long.”

  FERN KNEW HE WAS NEAR for two reasons. The first was Kit, the little traitor. She sat on her shoulder, nails digging in painfully as she craned her neck in all directions. Her nose sifted the air for his unique scent. Fern hated that she knew it as well, that masculine earthiness that reminded her of spring rains and freshly turned loam. He smelled like new beginnings. Fern hadn’t believed in those for a long time.

  The other was the pain. Fern sat in a crowd. It should have been a constant effort on her part to shut out the noise of tangled thoughts and emotions. It was lunchtime, served picnic style in the middle of the large courtyard. What had been a ring of well-constructed and comfortable cabins was now a mismatched camp of heavy canvas box tents. The word was still out on whether they’d be rebuilding them all. There had been talk of something more permanent. But she’d also heard rumors of not rebuilding at all. The council was still divided and rebuilding had mostly halted.

  But instead of a continuous battering against the walls of her mind, there was the sound of the ocean, rushing towards a distant shore, calm. She fingered the small stone in her pocket she was never without. It helped, but not this much.

  “Where are you Reece?” She ground out, frowning. She knew he was responsible for her near euphoria of comfort, didn’t mean she had to like it. Fern was used to going it alone. She didn’t need someone’s uninvited interference muddling around in her head.

  “I’m right here, sweet.” A deeply masculine voice whispered over her nape, stirring the hairs there. She shivered, looking up and back with a glare guaranteed to stall traffic. It had no effect on Niel Reece.

  As he neared, Kit leapt off her shoulder and landed on his, twining herself around his neck and settling in like a fuzzy cape. He chuckled as her sharp claws kneaded at the corded tendons at his shoulder as she purred, the sound deeper than a cat’s.

  “Hey there, I’m not a piece of meat, go easy now, Kit,” he admonished. She didn’t listen. Rather, she head butted his chin with a happy growl.

  “Traitor.” Fern muttered, staring at him from beneath her lashes, scowl deepening further. “What do I have to do to get rid of you, anyhow. You show up where you aren’t invited, invade my mind which is private and steal my thoughts, and... then you take my pet!” she whined, in a mood and not sure why.

  He ignored her ill temper. “Well now, as to the last part, Kit is nobody’s pet, are you girl?” He chucked her under her fuzzy chin, making the small Weis kit grin with a show of perfect needlelike white teeth.

  Fern rolled her eyes and went back to her omelet. Maybe if she just ignored him.

  He reached over and plucked a piece of bacon and took a bite. She growled, her eyes flashing to his, revealing her own perfect teeth. His eyes warmed, moving over her angry mouth. He stopped chewing. A shiver of emotion rolled through her that had nothing to do with the surrounding chatter of students. She looked away, suddenly warm.

  The picnic table groaned and rose two inches as Thomas and Sirris arrived and sat on the other end, chatting and oblivious to the current of emotion in its occupants as Thomas sat down. But it broke the moment.

  “Hey Niel, you gonna grab a plate or what? Foods going fast over there.” Sirris giggled and stole a sliver of pastry from Thomas’ plate as she slid in beside him. He snagged her wrist and brought the sweet to his mouth, snatching it with sharp teeth and a wicked grin.

  “Hey!” she protested.

  He smacked his lips. “Um, delicious. Thanks.”

  She snatched her hand back and ate her own breakfast. “Rat,” she muttered.

  Still grinning, he tackled his own.

  Niel spoke up as he stood. “Guess that’s my cue if I wanna eat. Need anything while I’m there?” he asked Fern. She sent him a sweet smile that was not. “For you to leave me alone?”

  “Awe, I’m gonna miss you too sweet.” He laughed.

  She turned her back on him smartly, watching two tables over as Todd joined Jayne Martin. Fern knew the exact moment he was gone. The noise was back.

  “MIND IF I JOIN YOU for lunch? I could use the company.” Todd hesitated at Jayne’s table. She sat alone.

  She glanced up, not hostile really, but not exactly excited to see him either. She shrugged. “Suit yourself, the whole table is open.”

  With a sigh, he sat down. He watched her tearing into her own food with gusto. She was almost back to her former weight. Her blond hair was pulled away from her face in a ponytail high on her head, revealing smooth cheeks and bright sky eyes.

  “How are you feeling? Any more luck remembering anything from before?”

  She stared at him silently. Something hard moved in her eyes and he imagined he saw a small flame flicker to life there. “Oh yeah, a bunch of crap I’d like to forget.” She acknowledged.

  He hoped he wasn’t one of those things. “Like what?” He forged ahead. In for a dollar...

  “I remembered the Sawyers. Terrence, Jazz, and Wyatt. I remembered what we did.”

  Todd tensed. He noticed she didn’t claim them as her family. What else had she remembered?

  “Mr. Hobert came by, filled in a few blanks. They had Wyatt and Jazz in custody. Seems somebody screwed up and allowed some stranger to come by and post bail. They’ve disappeared and no one knows where to.”

  Todd nodded. He wanted to be surprised, but Sadie had worried something of the sort would happen. They all had. Solomon Reddit was a powerful man—and rich.

  Her countenance brightened a bit and he sat up straight. “I remembered something else.” She smiled nervously.

  “Yes?” he murmured hopefully.

  “My brother. They found Blaine. He’s safe in a hospital in Seattle. Mr. Hobert has been checking into it and he told me he is working to see about having him transferred to a facility that specializes in what he has. A school where they work with kids like him.” She sounded excited.

  “You gonna visit him?”

  “Yup. In the works. Sometime next month when I’m more myself and Mr. Hobert can get away. He’s promised to take me.”

  “That’s awesome news, Jayne.” He wished it had included remembering him.

  She pushed her empty tray away and looked up at him, her eyes pensive. “Something more. I want to look for my parents. My real ones, I mean. I don’t know if they are out there, but I have to try.”

  He considered. “Maybe I could help you somehow?”

  She smiled, “I think I’d like that.”

  Todd’s heart expanded and something warm unfurled inside. It was something.

  I SAT
ALONE FOR ONCE and wondered why. I could have sought the company of my friends. Instead, I’d chosen my own. Besides, Thomas sat with Sirris, Fern and Niel. Todd was busy courting Jayne and begging for scraps of her attention. I looked around for Nick. So far he hadn’t shown. I wondered if my table was where he’d sit if he did.

  A shadow crossed my vision and I looked up with a smile. My expression turning rueful.

  Franz Hobert sat down across from me.

  “Sadie.” He nodded at me, looking preoccupied.

  He smiled at me like he was a man with a lot on his mind and I figured that was true enough, what with every man, woman, and child in the valley looking to him for guidance in what the valley did. I didn’t envy him.

  “How are you doing, Sadie? I wanted to check in. First changes can be rough, especially when they come early and are forced. You scared us. It could have totally gone another way.

  I nodded. Yeah, I could have died.

  “Better. Less sore.” My bruises had bruises for several days after. Maybe because my entire body had been turned inside out and reformed into my alter ego.

  He nodded, thoughtful. “You still have a piece to learn before you make your change a part of your everyday routine. You’ll see a lot of that back in Drae Hallow when you return. Wendy Seul’s class on that is excellent. They are excellent friends of mine; the Seul’s are,” he added.

  A slight blush rose in my cheeks as I thought of my budding relationship with a certain one of them. Over Franz’ shoulder I watched Nick enter on the far edge of the yard, tray in hand, eyes searching. I hoped it was for me.

  Franz’ words pulled me back. “I want to invite you, and your friends if you like, to return next summer if you are interested? I’d like to promise you there won’t be any crazed killers on the loose, but I probably should hedge my bets on that one and just hope.” He finished ruefully, scratching at his beard that needed trimming. He had had little time for such personal matters lately.

  “Will that be possible? Will there be a Valley of the Dragons to return to?” I had to ask.