by Martha Carr
“Like—no, I don’t mean like Jenny. That’s completely—” He stopped and ran a hand through his hair.
“Completely what, Derks?”
“Different. It’s different. We’re not talking about Jenny and you changed the subject.” Henry spread his arms, glanced down, and pressed Maxwell’s head gently under the flap of his shoulder bag again. “You were talking about your grandpa.”
“Right.” She sighed. “I’ll tell you as much as he told me. He had to leave, couldn’t tell me why or when he’d be back, and I was to always do the right thing when it counted.”
“Well, that’s not very exciting.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.” Not that anyone else thinks Connor Alby’s a very exciting wizard these days. But I know the truth about that one. “So I’m gonna keep doin’ my thing until he gets back.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything else from you, Alby. So who’s, like…uh, running the ranch while you’re at school?”
“Besides all the ranch hands we have working the property?” She frowned playfully at him.
“Oh, yeah. ’Cause your grandpa sat around all day and watched other people work for him. Not.”
“I don’t know.” Raven shrugged and tossed her red braid over her shoulder. “But I didn’t even think about how I’ll explain to everyone that he’s gone and some of the guys are gonna have to pick up the extra slack. I’ll still handle my chores, no problem. You’re right, though. Someone’s gotta be around to make decisions if both of us are gone for most of the day.”
“Oh, sure. Someone will know what to do.”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what my grandpa said about Headmaster Flynn.”
They walked on in silence for a few more steps before the first rows of buildings and the fences around the center of town came into view at the end of the road. “Uh…Raven. You can’t say something like that and drop the conversation.”
“What? Oh.” She blinked her thoughts away and gave Henry a half-smile. “Sorry. I guess I assume you can read my mind sometimes.”
“Ha. That is one ability I’d say no thank you to in a heartbeat.”
“What?” She laughed. “Why?”
“Hey, if we open that can of worms, there’s a chance you’d be able to read my mind too. I love you, Alby, but not that much.”
Raven shivered at the thought, nodded, and pointed at her friend’s head. “Yeah, let’s keep your thoughts in your head. They’re easy enough to read anyway. Food. Food. Lay low but not really. Food. Jenny.”
“Hey, I’m just sayin’.” In response, His stomach emitted a loud growl and he slapped it. “I think you forgot one more ‘food’ in there. But seriously, what did he say about Headmaster Flynn?”
She nodded at Mrs. Whittaker as they moved up to the stall and the scent of freshly baked rolls wafted over the morning air still clinging to an early-spring chill. “Morning, Mrs. Whittaker.”
Henry groaned and rubbed his hands down his cheeks. “She’s never gonna tell me.”
Ignoring him for the moment, she withdrew a few coins from her pocket, grinned, and set them on the counter. “Three, please.”
“Raven Alby, if you keep buying this Derks boy’s breakfast for him, he’ll never leave you alone.” The baker laughed and handed the young mage three warm, steaming rolls in a strip of parchment paper.
“I won’t leave her alone even if she stops buying me breakfast.” He saluted the woman and leaned toward his friend as she handed him one of the rolls and muttered, “Thanks. Do I tell you that enough?”
“Probably.” She bit into her roll and closed her eyes. They suddenly felt way too heavy. Well, that was not a great start to the day—not enough sleep and no clue what Grandpa got himself into. “He gave me a letter and said it had to get to Headmaster Flynn.”
“A letter? Please tell me you read it.” Henry all but inhaled the roll, but his stomach grumbled again. “Maybe I should start buying my own breakfast.”
“I couldn’t read it.” Raven swallowed her mouthful. “He sealed it and everything.”
“Woah. A secret letter from Connor Alby, who left his ranch to go on a mysterious journey, to the Headmaster of Fowler Academy.” He gave her a wide-eyed look of complete disbelief. “And you still didn’t read it?”
“Trust me, it definitely crossed my mind.”
“See, that right there is one of my favorite things about you, Alby.” Henry laughed and shook his head. “You won’t open a sealed letter that would drive anyone with an ounce of curiosity out of their mind, but you go against all tradition and choose a dragon as your mage’s familiar.”
“Yeah, well, one of those is about trust and the other’s about choosing my own destiny. There’s a big difference.”
“Uh-huh. That dragon.”
Chapter Three
They reached the fountain at the center of the town square where Murphy waited for them. The girl’s eyes lit up when she saw her friends approach, and she bounded from the edge of the low wall to join them. Her barn cat familiar Fitz pounced far more gracefully off the fountain and wove through Murphy’s legs before he padded silently at the girl’s side.
“Morning, Murphy.” Raven grinned and held out the last roll to her friend.
“Hey, thanks.”
“Careful, Murphy. If you keep letting her buy your breakfast for you, she’ll never leave you alone.”
The girl frowned, and Henry darted away with a laugh when Raven swatted at him. “Ignore him. He got called out by Mrs. Whittaker.”
With a shrug, the dark-haired young mage bit into her roll and made an appreciative hum. “These are still so good. Did you guys get in good practice with your familiars? Professor Worley said we had stepped up a notch with learning how to keep them under control.”
“Maxwell’s been a little jumpy lately,” Henry said and fumbled again to pry the toad gently off the edge of his shoulder bag to tuck his familiar safely away. “Like he can’t sit still. Isn’t the phrase, ‘Like a toad on a log,’ supposed to mean something?”
Raven smirked and nudged his shoulder again. “You’re setting an excellent example for not being jumpy.”
“Hey, that’s because someone’s always trying to push me—oh.” Henry opened the flap of his shoulder bag to give Maxwell a sympathetic nod. “I get it, Maxwell. We’ll work on that too.”
“What about you, Raven?” Murphy watched her friend with wide eyes as she took small, nibbling bites of the steaming roll.
“Okay, yeah, I see Leander every day. We do more flying than actual familiar training, though.”
“It must be hard when you can’t have him with you all the time.” The girl glanced at Fitz who moved close to her heel. The barn cat’s tail flicked continuously as the young mages strolled to the front gates of Fowler Academy.
“A little.” Raven shrugged. “I can’t take him home and make him a bed in my room, though.”
Henry snorted.
They passed the bulletin board in the town square, and Raven paused to look at it. “They’re really changing things on this board—”
“Oh, boy. Not this again.” Henry tugged her sleeve and gestured ahead of them down the road. “Remember what happened the last time we stopped to investigate?”
“We were so late,” Murphy muttered.
He ducked as he searched the house on the other side of the road from the bulletin board. “Quick. Let’s get outta here before Mrs. Easton arrives for another round of Spin the Conspiracy Theory.”
Murphy laughed. “I remember you being really into her beetle familiar, though.”
“Hey, I like bugs. And toads and getting dirty. You know, normal stuff.”
“So they took down all the flyers for missing people and posted…what? These warnings don’t even make sense.” Raven strode directly to the bulletin board, leaned forward, and squinted a little to study the notices.
“What’s so hard to understand, Alby?” Henry darted another nervous glance toward Mrs. Easton’s f
ront door. “‘Beware of Raiders.’ That’s been there a while. Besides, it’s not like anyone wouldn’t beware. ‘All citizens are advised to lock their property gates securely and reinforce security measures wherever possible.’ Okay, that one’s a little more specific, but they put something like that up every year before the spring rains. It’s not like we need a warning about that, either—”
“But those other warnings didn’t have this.” Raven pointed to a large seal stamped in red ink at the bottom right corner of the flyer in the center—a thick circle around a staff tilted across a sword with a thick tower in the background.
Murphy joined her to study the seal. “I’ve never seen that before.”
“Those things are sent in from all over the kingdom. I bet half don’t even apply to us out here.” When neither of the girls responded, Henry leaned forward and tugged Raven’s sleeve again. “Okay, war mage. I didn’t know weapons stamped on parchment paper got you goin’ like this.”
“No, Derks.” She sent him a sidelong glance with a tiny smile. “You’re the one who can’t wait to be Brighton’s number-one warrior by laying low. Hey, did you get any practice in with a bow yet? It runs in the family, right?”
“Yeah, and right out of it again. My parents have some kind of surveillance spell on my brother and me. Like, they know every time we’re about to have a little fun and they storm out to stop us with more chores.” He chuckled and folded his arms, his wariness at the possibility that Mrs. Easton would find them again completely forgotten. “They weren’t fast enough to keep me from launching a stone into the middle of Norman’s forehead, though. It looks like he’s growing a third eye now. Or maybe it’s only a bad zit. It’s too soon to tell.”
Murphy turned and wrinkled her nose at him. “That’s so gross.”
“Hey, it’s the truth. Be glad you don’t have to wake up to it every morning.”
Raven turned away from the bulletin with one final glance at the odd seal. I’ll find out where that’s from. She nodded at Henry. “You know, I’m constantly amazed by how different you and your brother are.”
“Because I’m ridiculously good-looking?” He grinned.
“More like you eat literally everything in sight and probably won’t ever be half Norman’s size.” They headed down the road again. “And I’m reasonably sure he didn’t get the ancestral-archer gene.”
“Nope.” Henry puffed his chest out. “He took all the clumsy from our dad, and I got everything else.”
“Which is…”
“Alby, how many times do I have to say ridiculously good-looking for you guys to get it?”
Raven rolled her eyes playfully and shifted her satchel on her shoulder again.
“Well, I get it,” Murphy muttered. Both her friends turned to look at her with wide eyes, and the girl’s cheeks colored a little. She blinked furiously and stared at the road beneath their feet as Fowler Academy’s front gates loomed into view.
“Uh…thanks.” Henry smacked a hand on Raven’s back. “See? Murphy knows how it works. You build confidence up by agreeing with the little white lies your friends tell themselves.”
“Oh, okay. I won’t say anything the next time you tell me you’ve handled a levitation spell and end up dropping another rock on your foot.”
“White lie, Alby. That means it doesn’t hurt anyone.”
They reached the entrance to the academy and the open courtyard at the front where it swept out in front of the smaller outbuildings of the school and the towers that rose in the back. The other students were already milling around, using what time they had before their first class to talk and joke with each other on the grounds.
“Oh, hey!” Henry nodded at some of his friends, then muttered to Raven, “Thomas told me before the week’s end that he’d get his sheepdog familiar to stand on her head by today. I gotta see this. Be right back.”
He hurried away and gave a few high-fives to the other guys crowded around Thomas’ familiar, all of them waiting for a good show.
Raven smiled at Murphy, whose face had only become redder since they’d stepped onto the grounds. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know why I said that.” The girl looked at her friend with wide eyes. “Why did I say that?”
“Don’t worry about it.” She patted her shoulder. “He didn’t even notice. Half the things I tell him go in one ear and right out the other. Or they never go in at all.” And that’s exactly what Henry wants everyone else to think. White lies, right?
Murphy shook her head as Fitz rubbed against her leg. “I can’t believe this—”
“Hey, Raven!” Thomas waved at her and nodded a greeting, and his black-and-white sheepdog familiar stood at his side and wagged her tail with her tongue lolling out of her mouth. “Hey, hold on. I have a question for you.”
“What? Seriously?” Henry spread his arms wide. “You were about to—yeah, okay. Way to avoid what matters.”
Thomas and his friends moved toward Raven before she’d covered more than a few yards past the school’s entrance, and he followed while he continued to mutter about his expectations not being met.
“Hey, so we all heard about you winning that dragon competition last week.” Thomas grinned and leaned toward her. “But…you know, none of us were there and you haven’t said anything about it.”
Raven shrugged. “There’s not that much else to say. And it wasn’t only me. Leander did most of the work. We won.”
“Yeah, yeah. Right. Both of you.” The boy glanced at his own familiar and laughed a little hesitantly. “What’s it like, though? Riding an actual dragon?”
“Probably exactly like you imagine.” Raven leaned away from him a little. “You don’t have to get so close. I can hear you.”
“Sorry. I only…really wanna know.”
“It’s awesome. That’s basically it.”
“Huh. Awesome.” The kid’s eyes widened and he glanced at one of his friends before he slapped another boy’s shoulder. “Do you think you could ride a dragon, Dawson?”
“Totally.”
“Yeah, before you woke up and realized your familiar is a parakeet.”
Raven stepped away from the group of boys who poked fun at each other and joked about who was the least likely to be a dragon rider. Murphy simply shook her head and walked beside her. Henry came up behind them, squeezed between the girls, and draped his arms over both their shoulders. “Can you believe those guys? They can’t even focus on one thing. Can’t stick to the plan or finish a single…”
“Sentence?” Raven gave him an amused frown. “Yeah, that must be frustra—”
“Hi, Raven.”
She turned away from Henry to where Daniel Smith stood in front of them with a lazy half-smile. The upperclassman studied her face and raised his eyebrows.
“Hi…”
“It’s Daniel.”
“Right. I’ve heard your name.” I didn’t think he knew mine but I guess everyone does now.
“Cool.” He didn’t break her gaze as he stepped aside and nudged Henry’s arm absently from around her shoulder. “Can I talk to you for a second?”
Henry gave a derisive snort, and Murphy blushed even more during the split second his arm was around only her shoulders before he folded them to stare at Daniel.
“Sure.” She glanced at her friends with a little shrug and stopped only a few feet away when the older student touched her arm. “What’s up?” She looked at his hand and frowned.
“I want you to know that I think it’s seriously awesome.”
When she looked up again, Daniel grinned at her and his head lowered a little more than normal for someone who’d never spoken to her before. “Well, thanks. I’m not sure what you’re talking about—”
“The dragon. It takes guts to announce that as your familiar and it takes even more to make it happen. Some of the other students here…” He looked up and skimmed the crowd that milled around before class officially started. “Well, they can think whatever th
ey want. I think you’re great. I mean, having a dragon as your familiar is great. And the fact that you both won that competition and got to skip the dragon trials altogether. Really, really great.”
Raven pressed her lips together and tried not to laugh. It must be because he’s nervous, right? “Just to double-check, you think it’s great, right?”
Daniel laughed and shrugged in a somewhat awkward way, and his bright eyes flashed in the morning sun. “Yeah, something like that. If you ever wanna…you know, hang out and talk about it, that’d be cool.”
“Okay.” She grinned at him and nodded. “Thanks for letting me know.”
“Totally. I only—”
“Hey, Alby.” Behind them, Henry shouted a little louder than he had to and gave an overly enthusiastic wave. “Do you know who else thinks you’re really great? Me and Murphy. Right, Murph?” He elbowed the girl beside him, and she laughed in surprise before she flushed a little.
“You have some…cool friends,” Daniel said and leaned toward Raven again.
“Yeah. They are. I think everything’s moving into the great hall now, so I’ll see you around.”
“See you around, Raven Alby.” With a wink, he turned away and joined the flow of students who now walked inside, laughing and joking with his friends like nothing had happened.
“You believe me now, don’t you?” Henry stepped alongside Raven and nudged her in the ribs with his elbow. “That guy won’t stop talking about you. Now, he probably won’t stop talking to you. I’m not even sure what happened.”
“Me.” She wrinkled her nose with a confused smile and didn’t expect to see Daniel turn around again and flash her another wide grin over the sea of students’ heads. “You know, I can’t tell if people are excited about talking to me now because of Leander or because of me.”
“Both, probably,” Murphy said.
“Right again, Murphy.” Henry scratched his head vigorously and shrugged as the students streamed into the great hall. “I’m not sure about that floating-beanbag guy, though.”
“It seems like he wants something,” Raven muttered.