I pulled at the lock, yanking at it futilely and trying to think of some other way to get the door open. I needed something to pry the lock off, something strong and narrow enough to fit through the loop in the padlock. I waded through the mud as fast as I could, and climbed up into the driver’s seat of the wagon that was tilted on its side. I had hitched up Ulric’s horse and wagon plenty of times. I knew where all the parts and pieces should be, so as soon as my hand hit the big iron pin that connected the horse harnesses to the wagon, I yanked it out. The horses whinnied in triumph, and began to gallop away through the swamp.
The pin was perfect. It was made of iron, long and narrow just like a big stake, and I carried it back to start trying to pry the lock off. It probably would have worked for anyone else right away. But I wasn’t big enough. I couldn’t get enough strength against it to crack the lock. I fought and struggled, slipping in the mud and cursing out loud.
I was about to give up and try something else, when two sets of bigger hands grabbed the iron pin right next to mine. I was surprised to see Felix and the younger gray elf boy standing beside me. They pushed with me, putting all our strength against the lock. With a sudden lurch and a loud crack, the lock popped off, and Felix pulled the door open.
Four gray elf women came rushing out, tripping over their skirts in the deep mud. I searched for Beckah in the crowd, and finally found her still crouched in the back of the wagon. She had a little girl in her arms, a gray elf toddler who was crying and clinging to her desperately.
“Come on!” Felix shouted at her.
Beckah looked at him with fury in her eyes. “I won’t leave her!” She was not very big herself, and she could barely carry the toddler much less run with her.
Before anyone else could speak, the gray elf boy that had been helping us with the door rushed in and took the child from Beckah. I heard him muttering under his breath, trying to comfort the frightened little girl. I couldn’t understand much of what he said, but I did recognize a few words: my sister.
Beckah came out willingly then. She threw her arms around my waist and squeezed me so hard I couldn’t breathe. I was so relieved to see her, to have her back in one piece, that I hugged her back as hard as I could.
“What are you waiting for?!” Lyon shouted down at us from the top of the levy. “We have to get out of here!”
The slavers were so caught up in their battle with the massive swamp turtle that they didn’t even notice all their prisoners running free. We ran through the marsh, and the gray elves ran with us, trying to get as far away from the slavers and the giant turtle as we could. The sounds of the battle started to fade into the background until all I could hear was our footsteps sloshing in the mud, the sound of the frogs, and my own panting.
We didn’t stop or slow down until it was dark. When we finally came to a patch of dry ground, one by one we all collapsed to sit down and catch our breath. We were a muddy, soggy, exhausted mess. But we were alive, and right then, that’s all I cared about.
The gray elves all grouped together, leaving Felix, Beckah, Lyon and I to sit off to ourselves. They hugged one another and spoke in hushed voices. I didn’t try to eavesdrop on them; I could see the relief and happiness on their faces. They were free, for now.
“I can’t believe it,” Lyon panted. He was lying on his back with his arms and legs sprawled out. “First I get sold to slavers by the Lord General, then nearly devoured by an extinct species.”
I glanced at Felix, and the look on my friend’s face was enough to give me cold chills. His eyes were focused on me, but they were haunted. There was something about his expression that made me feel like he really was afraid of me now. “The great paludix turtle has been extinct for hundreds of years.” He muttered in a hushed voice. “Or at least, we thought it was.”
Lyon raised his head up to shoot me an accusing glare. “What exactly did you do, halfbreed?”
“It must have been in hiding for decades.” Felix spoke up in my defense. Or at least, that’s what I thought until he added, “Until you called it out.”
Now I felt cornered. Everyone except Beckah was looking at me like I was some kind of monster—like I had done something terrible. I knew why, of course. Humans had always suspected gray elves of using wicked magic and mischievous spells to manipulate people. They’d even called my mother a witch because of the way she could make the plants grow when she was alive. I didn’t know if what I could do—calling out to animals with my thoughts—even qualified as something magical at all. But it was enough to get some accusing, disgusted looks from my so-called friends.
“I only did what you told me to,” I reminded Felix angrily. I couldn’t help it. It felt like he was turning on me, which was the last thing I expected. “How was I supposed to know that thing would hear me?”
I got up and stormed away from them, going to sit on the edge of our dry little patch of land by myself. I just couldn’t stand to be around him when he was looking at me that way. It was one thing for Lyon to treat me like a traitor, but Felix was supposed to be my friend.
For a long time, I just sat there and watched the sun set over the marsh. The crickets and frogs sang in the tall reeds. Fireflies started blinking in the dark like warm orange spots of light. I took the necklace my mother had given me out from under my shirt, feeling the smooth polished bone while I thought about her. It had been a long time since I’d seen other gray elves, and now it was starting to catch up to me. It made me miss my mother. She was the one person in the world who had loved me unconditionally.
I didn’t say anything when Beckah suddenly came over. She sat down beside me with her legs crossed under her stained blue dress. For a few minutes we just sat there and didn’t say anything, even though I could tell there was something she wanted to say.
“What’s that?” She pointed to my necklace.
I glanced down at it, running my thumb over the smooth white pendant. “My mother gave it to me before she died.” I grumbled. I didn’t feel like talking at all, much less about my mother. It just made me miss her more.
“It’s beautiful,” she said in a quiet voice.
I started to feel bad. I was being cold to her, and none of this was her fault. She didn’t deserve to be treated like that. I let out a heavy sigh, and gave up being mad at Felix. “She said it would protect me.” I glanced over at Beckah, and tried to give her a convincing smile. “I guess it doesn’t work very well.”
Beckah smiled back at me. She had mud in her hair, all over her dress, and even smeared on her face. But her green eyes still shone brightly. “You made it into the academy to be a dragonrider. You jumped off the top of a tower at the duke’s estate and lived. And now you saved us all from slavers, and a giant man-eating turtle. I think it works pretty well.” She laughed a little.
I couldn’t help but laugh, too. Maybe it did work, after all. “So, how did everyone in your wagon get out of the ropes?”
She smiled proudly. “My daddy does teach me a few things when he comes home. He didn’t give me a magical necklace, but he taught me how to escape ropes and shackles when I was little. He made it like a game, you know? It was really fun. And it made my momma furious. He started teaching me how to shoot a bow, but momma put a stop to that. She said girls don’t shoot bows.”
I had underestimated her. She was a kid, sort of, but she was brave, and she was definitely a lot smarter than I was. “Your dad is a good man, Beckah,” I told her. “No matter what else happens, you should know that.”
“You are too, you know.” She gave me a meaningful look. I could see on her face that this is what she’d really come over to talk to me about. “Whatever you did back there, I know you just wanted to help us. You’re a good person. And if Felix and that other guy can’t see that, well, then they’re too dumb to be dragonriders anyway.”
I blushed. “It’s not because they’re dumb, Beckah. It’s because I’m a—”
“No, she’s right.” Felix butted in suddenly. It startl
ed me, and I turned around to see him standing behind us with his arms crossed. He didn’t look angry, or even wary of me anymore. In fact, he looked frustrated and embarrassed. “I’m sorry, Jae.”
I was so surprised I couldn’t even say anything back at first. All I could do was just nod at him a little and smile awkwardly. How could I not forgive him? Felix was my friend, and one of the best ones I’d ever had. If I lost him, I probably wouldn’t last very long in the academy. The other fledglings would eat me alive and toss whatever was left to their dragons.
“It’s okay,” I told him. “This whole calling to animals thing is weird for me, too.”
“Did your momma ever tell you anything about it?” Beckah looked worried. “Is it something all gray elves can do?”
I shook my head. “No, she never mentioned this. I’ve never even heard of it before.”
“Well, whatever it is, we should probably keep it between us,” Felix suggested. “It’d freak the instructors out.”
I couldn’t argue with that. He was definitely right. The last thing I needed was to give the instructors at Blybrig one more reason not to trust me. Until I figured this out, we had to keep it a secret. I couldn’t use it unless it was absolutely necessary. If anyone else found out, at the very least it could get me kicked out of the academy.
“But what about that other guy?” Beckah cut a suspicious glance over to Lyon, who was still sprawled out on the ground.
Felix smirked, and started cracking his knuckles. “Leave Lyon to me.”
eighteen
The gray elves were doing a lot better surviving in the marsh than we were. They built a small fire, and were sitting around it together roasting something that smelled amazing. I was already starving, and the smell of whatever they were cooking made my mouth water. It must have had the same effect on Felix because he was just sitting there, staring at them, with a miserable expression on his face.
“We should just demand that they give us a share,” Lyon growled. “After all, we were the ones who did all the work.”
“Yeah, sure.” Felix rolled his eyes. “Why don’t you go over there and tell them that yourself? Let us know how that goes.”
“Send the halfbreed, then.” Lyon bargained. He seemed determined not to use my name.
I shot him a glare. “They hate me just as much as you do, you know.”
That seemed to surprise Lyon. “What? But you’re—”
I cut him off before he could finish. “—half human. They don’t like me for the same reasons you don’t.”
“I’ll go,” Beckah offered. She was licking her lips hungrily. It might have actually worked to send the most innocent and vulnerable of our group to beg for scraps, but I wasn’t about to let Beckah risk herself on that chance. I didn’t know the gray elves might do.
About the time Felix and Lyon started arguing over who should go, I noticed that the younger gray elf man from before was walking our way. He didn’t look much older than Felix, but his hair was already that shining silver color. The gray elves were all born with black hair that turned silver once they finally hit puberty, so he had to be at least eighteen for his hair to already look like that.
He stood awkwardly on the edge of our pitiful excuse for a camp, which was basically just the four of us sitting in a circle, holding something that was wrapped up in charred leaves. His diamond-colored eyes flicked from one of us to the other, and he finally started to speak. Of course, he didn’t speak the human language, and when he talked he looked right at me like he expected me to understand him.
I did understand some of what he said. He told us his name was Kiran, and then he offered what he had in his hands. It was roasted roots that they had dug up out of the earth, wrapped in damp leaves, and baked in their fire. The smell was fantastic, even for something that came out of this smelly marsh.
“These are gifts for us,” I translated, giving Felix a hesitant look. “For helping them, I guess.” The gray elf language was very complex and I hadn’t heard it, much less spoken it in years.
Felix smiled tiredly at him, and got up to take the food from him. Beckah and Lyon did the same, while Kiran kept eyeing them warily. It was like he half-expected a sneak attack.
When I got up to take some of the food from him, Kiran’s expression went from uncomfortable to total disgust. He looked me over from head to toe, like everyone did, and I saw his nose wrinkle. The gray elves didn’t want me anywhere near them, just like the humans. I was both, and I was neither.
He didn’t say a word to me as I took the food from his hands. I began to turn away, ready to go sit with my friends, until I saw his eyes go straight to the necklace my mother had given me. I’d forgotten to tuck it back under my shirt.
“Where did you get that?” he snapped at me in the elven language. He was pointing at my necklace.
I glanced down at it before tucking it back under my shirt collar. I didn’t want him to get any ideas about taking it. “A gift.” I answered. I spoke to him in English because I had a sneaking suspicion he could, too. He was young enough that he’d probably been born in an elven ghetto, just like me.
Kiran’s lip twitched and his eyes narrowed. “Who gave it to you?” he demanded—in English this time.
I glared at him with as much courage as I could muster. “It’s none of your business.”
He got a mean smirk on his lips that made me nervous. Fortunately, Felix was sitting not too far away, and I could see him watching us out of the corner of my eye.
“I know that mark,” Kiran said as he pointed to the king’s eagle stitched onto my tunic. “You wear the clothes of the human warriors, but you’re too young to even remember who started this war.” The way he said it made it sound like an insult.
As much as I just wanted to turn my back to him and walk away, something about the way he talked down to me really got on my nerves. I was used to being treated that way by humans, but usually gray elves just ignored me like I didn’t exist. Kiran was the first one to go out of his way to pick on me. If my mom had been alive, she would have smacked him across the face. But me? Well, I had had enough of being pushed around for one day.
“I don’t care who started the war,” I told him. “And I don’t care who wins it.”
Kiran gave me a funny look, like that wasn’t the answer he’d expected. “Why do you fight with them, caenu?”
I didn’t have a good answer for that, so I just glared at him for a few seconds and then looked away. It was a difficult question to even think about. I hadn’t really considered the idea that eventually I would be on the battlefield with a sword in my hand, trying to kill gray elves like Kiran. And they would be trying to kill me, too.
When I didn’t reply, Kiran went back to his own circle around the campfire with the other gray elves. I looked at the food in my hand, and felt uneasy. I knew the gray elves had a social custom that demanded all debts be paid. So this must have been their way of repaying us for letting them all free, even if that had only been a side effect of our own escape.
Lyon was eyeing his roasted potato skeptically. “What if this is poisonous? How do we know they aren’t trying to kill us?”
Beckah glared at him. “Don’t be stupid. Of course it isn’t poisonous.”
He glared back, though he seemed a little stunned that a kid was talking back to him like that. “How do you know?” he challenged.
“Because they’re eating it, too,” she replied with a mouthful of potato.
We all looked over at the same time to stare at the gray elves. They were cozy, sitting close to their fire while they shared their own roasted potatoes. Beckah was right, and I was willing to chance it for the sake of my cramping hunger pains.
“What does caenu mean?” Felix asked as I sat down beside him and started unwrapping my own ration. “That elf, I heard him call you that. What does it mean?”
I was really rusty when it came to speaking the gray elf language, but there were a few words that stuck into my mind lik
e thorns. Those were words I’d come to hate; words I could never forget. Caenu was one of them.
I just focused on eating my piping hot potato while I answered because I didn’t want to see the look on his face. “It’s what the gray elves call halfbreeds.” I tried to sound as matter of fact about that as I could. I didn’t want him to know how much it bothered me. “It means ‘filth’ in their language.”
I could feel Felix’s eyes on me for a long time. Maybe it had never really occurred to him that when I said the gray elves hated me as much as most humans did . . . I really meant it. They didn’t want me around them, either. My mother had been the exception. She had loved me. But I knew better than to hope I’d get that kind of reception from the rest of her kin.
“He was asking you about the war, wasn’t he?” Felix questioned me again. “He was asking you why you want to fight with humans instead of elves?”
I swallowed hard and finally dared to meet his eyes. “Yeah.”
His eyes narrowed some, and I saw his jaw tense. “And you really don’t care who wins this war?”
Again, that question crept up on me and stunned me. I’d answered Kiran before without really thinking about it, and now that I had a chance to really mull it over, I realized my answer wasn’t going to change. “No, I don’t.”
“How can you say that?” Felix sounded worried, maybe even a little insulted.
I shrugged and took another bite of potato. “Because it doesn’t matter to me. Neither side wants me, and no matter who wins, that probably won’t ever change. I’ll always be hated by both humans and elves because of what I am. So why would I want to fight for them?”
“So you’re just fighting for the sake of having a job? Or so you won’t have to go to a prison camp?” His brows were furrowed, and he was frowning at me hard.
“No that’s not the reason,” I corrected. “Well, maybe it is a reason, but it’s not the main reason.”
Fledgling (The Dragonrider Chronicles) Page 15