Mavrik didn’t like it, but he obeyed. He growled and glared at them as he retreated backwards into the marsh. Nova followed, and after a few minutes, I could hear their thundering wing beats as they took off into the sky.
“Tie ‘em up, boys! And bring the wagon around!” The bearded man bellowed, throwing Beckah down into the mud at his feet. She hit the ground hard, and I saw her arms shaking as she tried to sit back up.
Felix cursed and fought them until a slaver kneed him hard in the gut, making him fall to his knees and groan. He couldn’t fight anymore after that, and they tied his hands behind his back with ropes. They tied Beckah up, too, and then they started after me.
I backed up a few paces, tripping over my own feet in the mud. I could try to run, but there was no way I could outrun their arrows. Besides, I wasn’t going to abandon my friends like that. I raised my hands in surrender, and went down on my knees before I gave any one of those slavers the satisfaction of getting to kick or punch me, too. They tied my wrists behind my back so tightly I could feel the circulation being cut off immediately.
The slavers were traveling in a big group of ten or so armed men. The bearded man, who they called Grothar, was obviously in charge. He ordered us to be taken up to the road, and we stood there waiting with slavers guarding us on all sides while two wagons pulled by a team of horses galloped toward us. I still didn’t know how they’d found us, but that was the least of my worries now.
The wagons stopped right in front of us, and I got my first good look at the slave caravan. Both the wagons were made of solid black metal, with only one long, narrow window cut into the top of the door. It was barred, so no one could escape through it.
We came to the first wagon, and Grothar started barking out orders to his men. “Hurry it up, boys! I don’t pay you to stand around runnin your mouths!”
Grothar opened the door to the first wagon with a big ring of keys he wore clipped to his sword belt. The slavers shoved Beckah into it. The inside of the wagon was totally dark, so I couldn’t see into it, but I heard the panicked cries of other girls inside. It made fury boil in the pit of my stomach. There was nothing I could do as they slammed the door and locked it again.
Felix and I were tossed into the second wagon. It was just the same as the first, except there were men and boys in it instead of girls. It smelled like rotten hay and sweat, and I could hear other people moving around close by. When Grothar shut the door, it was pitch black, and the wagon groaned and rattled as it started moving again.
“Jaevid?” I heard Felix wheezing my name. He must have still been in pain from the blow he’d taken because his voice was raspy and faint. “Call Mavrik back like you did before! Get him to burn these guys to ash!”
I was struggling to sit up with my arms tied. I couldn’t even move without bumping into someone close to me in the dark. It was terrifying, and it made it impossible think about anything except how afraid I was. I tried to find that same kind of calm I’d had before, to get that knot of heat back in my chest. But I couldn’t focus at all. It was like my fear was jumbling my thoughts, making me confused. I worried about where we were going, I worried about Sile, about Beckah, and how we were going to get out of this mess.
Of all the bad things that might ever happen to me in my life, going to a prison camp was the worst possible option. Most gray elves got to live in the ghettos, but if they ever broke any rules or were caught doing anything illegal, they were put in shackles, loaded into wagons just like this one, and shipped off to the prison camps. Not one of them was ever heard from again. I had seen it happen before. Mothers and fathers torn from their shacks, separated from their children. Anyone who tried to help them ran the risk of being shipped off, too. Those images played through my mind over and over, and I was so afraid that I couldn’t breathe.
“I-I can’t,” I stammered and choked. “Felix . . . what’s going to happen to us?! I can’t go to a prison camp! Felix, p-please! They’ll kill me in there!” Tears were starting to well up in my eyes, and my chest felt tight. I was fighting for every breath.
Through my fear and panic, Felix’s voice reached out to me in the darkness. He still sounded hoarse, but he was totally calm. “Jaevid, listen to me. You have to calm down right now. You’re a dragonrider. You can beat this. But you can’t let yourself surrender to fear. So pull yourself together. It’s time to man up. You’re not a kid anymore.”
I could hear the whispering of other voices around us. There were at least a dozen other people in the back of the wagon, but all I could see of them was faint shadows and occasionally the gleam of their eyes. They were like ghosts in the darkness.
I shut my eyes to block them out, and tried to concentrate on my breathing. Felix was right. I had to pull myself together. Beckah needed me. Sile needed me. Dragonrider or not, I couldn’t let this be the end. I had to survive.
“You still with me?” Felix asked.
“Y-yeah. Yeah. I’m fine.” I answered.
“Good.” His voice was getting a little clearer and stronger. “Because I have a plan.”
seventeen
I was smaller and more flexible, so I started working my way out of the ropes first. The slavers had tied me up tight, but I was able to curl my legs up to my chest and slip my arms under my feet. Once I had my hands in front of me, it was much easier to move around. My eyes were getting used to the small amount of light that trickled in from the narrow window at the top of the door, and I could see Felix sitting nearby.
“I’ve got it.” I whispered to him. I didn’t want to run the risk of the slavers outside hearing me. “Hurry up and turn around.”
He scooted closer and sat with his back to me. I had to feel around in the dark to find the ropes tied around his wrists, which was awkward since my hands were still tied together, too. I started untying him, and when I got the ropes loose, Felix was able to work them off himself. I heard him let out a loud sigh of relief.
While he untied the ropes on my wrists, Felix was looking around like he was plotting. I had no idea what he was going to do. Things didn’t look so good from where I was sitting. We were outnumbered, locked in what was basically a metal box on wheels, and neither of us had a weapon.
“F-Felix?” A familiar voice whispered from the dark. It startled me because even though I couldn’t see him, I knew who it was immediately. Lyon Cromwell was tied up in a corner of the wagon with his wrists and ankles tied up. While I couldn’t be sure in the faint light, it looked almost like he had a black eye.
“Lyon?” I had to ask because I thought maybe my mind was just playing tricks on me. Why would he be in the back of a slaver’s wagon?
“It’s really you!” His voice was shaking, and he started sobbing. “Please, you have to get me out of here. Don’t leave me here!”
Felix untied my hands and went to start doing the same for Lyon. I followed, but I kept my distance. After all, I hadn’t had very good experiences with Lyon in the past. In fact, he had tried to beat me to death both times.
“You idiot,” Felix growled at him as he pulled at the ropes. “How did you wind up in here?”
Lyon was sobbing hysterically. “H-he promised me I’d get promoted straight to captain!” I could barely understand him as he sniffled. “But he tricked me! They all lied!”
“Who?” I dared to ask.
He shuddered. “The king’s Lord General. He came to me while we were at Blybrig, before training ever started. He said if I did what he told me, if I cooperated, he’d make sure I was promoted to captain straight out of the academy.”
“You really are an idiot,” Felix growled as he finished untying him. “You fell for that?”
“He’s the Lord General! I had no reason not to trust him!” Lyon barked back defensively.
“Why is he trying to kill Lieutenant Derrick?” I tried to cut off their argument before it got started. After all, it wasn’t like we had a lot of time. “And where are they taking us?”
“I-I don’t kno
w the details. At first, he just wanted me to sabotage Lieutenant Derrick’s saddle. Hey wanted me to make sure that . . . well, you know. But he came to me again before we left for Duke Brinton’s. That time he just wanted me to lure Lieutenant Derrick out of the ballroom. Those guardsmen in masks jumped us as soon as we were alone.” Lyon stammered and sniffled. He sat up and started rubbing his wrists. I could see him a little better when he leaned into the light from the window. He definitely had a big, shiny black eye.
“You don’t know anything about why they’d want to kill a decorated, Seasoned Lieutenant like that?” Felix growled at him threateningly. “That didn’t sound the slightest bit suspicious to you?”
Lyon actually looked a little afraid of him. “I don’t know why, I swear! They didn’t tell me anything. But I overheard the Lord General talking to those guardsmen from the king. They were saying something about a stone. They called it the god stone.”
Felix and I glanced at each other. I had no idea what a god stone was, and I got the feeling he didn’t either. But this couldn’t be good—not if it was worth killing over.
“Do you know where they’re taking us?” I asked him again.
Lyon started wiping his nose, but he was beginning to pull himself together. “The prison camp outside of Halfax, I think. I heard some of the slavers talking about it.”
Felix grabbed the front of his tunic suddenly. It surprised me, and it made Lyon tremble and throw his hands up in surrender.
“This is all your fault, you little worm,” Felix growled through his teeth. “Where is Lieutenant Derrick? Where did they take him? You better start talking, or so help me, I’ll make both your eyes black!”
“Felix!” I touched his shoulder hesitantly. I was kind of afraid he’d hit me too, just out of blind fury. “Let him go. Just calm down. This isn’t going to help.” I hoped Lyon didn’t change his opinion of me too much, just because I was saving his neck now. If Felix still wanted to beat him up after this was over, I wasn’t sure I’d be so quick to stop him.
As soon as Felix let him go, Lyon started backing away from us frantically. His eyes were wide, and he looked terrified. “They separated us,” he started to explain. “I saw them put Lieutenant Derrick in the back of another wagon. We only stopped once, outside the marsh. I guess they must have seen you guys flying over, because they started shouting orders and split up the caravan. The Lord General and the king’s guardsmen took the lieutenant the long way around the marsh.”
Felix cursed. It was a big mess, but at least now we knew how the slavers had found us in the first place. They’d probably been lying in wait for us to land. “Well, at least we’re going in the right direction.” He snorted.
I wasn’t nearly as glad about that as he was. I didn’t care which direction we were going—all I wanted to do was get out of this wagon. “So what’s your plan for getting out of here? There’s only one door, and it’s locked from the outside.”
Felix shot me a dangerous look. It made me wonder if he was going to punch me in the face, too. “You get to work on calling Mavrik back. You did it once before, you can do it again. You have to. Because if I have to go with my fallback plan, it’s basically guaranteed to get all or most of us killed in the process.” I swallowed hard when he turned away again. “Lyon, help me cut loose the rest of the prisoners.”
Lyon hesitated. “But . . . they’re gray elves.”
He was right about that. There were three other men in the back of the wagon, and all of them were gray elves. They were just staring at us with their diamond-colored eyes as big as saucers. They didn’t say a word, and I knew that was because they were probably terrified of Felix and Lyon. One of them was elderly, his skin sunken against his cheekbones, and another looked like he was about Sile’s age. The last seemed to be about Felix’s age, and he just kept staring right at me.
“So?” Felix challenged. I saw him turn on Lyon, using the fact that he was bigger and definitely stronger to dare him to say something about it. “You see anyone else in here who can help us?”
Lyon did not look happy. I could see the disgust on his face as he went to help Felix untie the other prisoners. I could also see how afraid the gray elves were. They were terrified, and began pleading with us in the garbled elven language not to hurt them.
“Can’t you get the halfbreed to tell them to shut up? They’re going to give us away if they keep jabbering on like this.” Lyon grumbled.
Felix didn’t get a change to jump to my defense. I beat him to it. “I don’t speak elven,” I snapped at him.
Even Felix looked surprised about that. The way they were both looking at me in stunned silence made me blush until the tips of my pointed ears burned.
“At least, not very well anymore,” I clarified. After all, I could understand it. I had spoken it once, when I lived with my mother, but that seemed like such a long time ago. “My father didn’t allow it. I haven’t spoken it in years. I don’t remember much.”
The silence was awkward. Now the gray elves were staring at me, too. They probably hadn’t understood anything I’d said, but I knew why they were staring at me. I was a halfbreed, after all. They didn’t like my kind, either.
“Just get to work.” Felix commanded.
I didn’t argue. I sat on the floor of the wagon, and tried to get my mind to be quiet like it had been before. I tried to push away the fear, and find that knot of warmth in my chest that sent chills over my body like a cold shiver. I focused so hard that sweat started to run down my forehead and get into my eyes. I concentrated as hard as I could, but the jarring motion of the wagon interrupted my thoughts. It made me wonder if Beckah was okay, and worry about if we would even be able to get to Sile in time now. As easy as it would have been to just blame Lyon for everything, I didn’t. It was the Lord General, the supreme leader of all the dragonriders in the kingdom, who had started this. It was his fault.
I started to get frustrated with myself. I was getting angry, and my hands shook as I clenched them into fists. “Just get me out!” I yelled, slamming my fists down onto the floor of the wagon. It made a loud metallic thump.
Just like last time, nothing happened at first. Minutes passed, and Lyon was staring at me like I was out of my mind. Felix just looked worried, but the second he opened his mouth to say something to me . . . there was an earth-shaking rumble from underneath the wagon.
All of a sudden, the wagon stopped. Outside, I could hear the sounds of men yelling and running past. My heart pounded in my ears as I strained to hear Mavrik’s thundering roar coming to our rescue.
I did hear a roar. It was a bellow so deep that it made the wagon shudder, and the horses outside began to whinny in terror. It definitely wasn’t Mavrik or Nova.
“What was that?” Lyon whispered shakily.
Felix was still staring at me with eyes wide and afraid. “Not a dragon,” he whispered back. “Jae . . . what did you bring here?!”
I had no answer. I didn’t know. The earth shook again, and the bellowing roar shook the wagon again. The gray elves started praying in frantic voices, and clawing at the walls of the wagon. We were stuck inside, only able to listen as men shouted and fought outside. I could hear arrows from crossbows pinging against the side of the wagon.
Felix covered his nose with his hand, and he frowned hard. “What is that smell?”
I smelled it, too. It reminded me of the silt mud from the marsh; the reeking stench of old rotting plant life. It was putrid, and it made my eyes water.
Suddenly the back half of the wagon blew open. Shards of metal flew, and I was ripped right off my knees and sent flying out into the sunlight. I bounced off the ground like a stone off the surface of a pond, and when I finally landed, I couldn’t catch my breath. I gasped and wheezed, looking up through the spray of mud and the chaos of slavers running back and forth.
What I saw made my jaw drop. I was too afraid to move. Never in my life had I even heard of something like this before, but there it was—a mas
sive, incredibly huge, utterly giant turtle.
It was as tall as four horses stacked on top of each other, with massive claws on its feet and a big, diamond-shaped head. Its shell was covered in jagged, sharp spines, and there was old moss and vines hanging off it. When it snapped its jaws at the slavers, its neck shot out like a snake’s strike and I saw it split shields in half like crackers. It was fast, huge, and covered in thick plated scales. None of the slavers’ arrows even pierced it, but they kept firing anyway.
“Gods and Fates!” I heard Felix shout in horror. He was running toward me, but he didn’t take his eyes off the giant turtle. “Jaevid, why would you bring something like that here?!”
Lyon was right behind him, running for his life and screaming, “It’s a paludix turtle!”
I staggered to my feet. “Try to find a weapon,” I yelled at Felix over the chaos. “I’m going after Beckah!”
Immediately, I started to search the chaos for the other wagon. My heart hit the back of my throat hard when I finally saw it. The horses pulling it had spooked and charged right off the levy into the swamp. They were panicking in the deep mud, and the wagon was turned over on its side. I could see hands sticking out of the barred rear window, and hear the women inside crying for help.
I ran like mad straight for the toppled wagon, skidded down the steep side of the levy, and splashed into the waist-deep muck. By the time I got to the back door of the wagon, adrenaline was pumping through my veins like fire.
“Beckah!” I screamed her name at the top of my lungs.
From inside the wagon, I heard her answer. “Jaevid!”
She was alive, and for a moment I saw her face through the narrow window. She stuck a hand out through the bars, and I grabbed it. “I’ll get you out!”
I had no idea how I was going to keep that promise. The door was still locked with a big iron padlock, and about the time I thought to look back for Grothar and his ring of keys . . . I saw his legs disappear down the paludix turtle’s throat.
Fledgling (The Dragonrider Chronicles) Page 14