Chapter 14
Dreams do come true, and I’m almost afraid of getting too happy, too comfortable, afraid that the illusion will shatter. I mean, it could well shatter during Cardiana’s festival, if Mallor changes his mind, but I’ll ignore it for now.
I’m sitting on a pillow in the hatchling nursery, holding Ava against my chest, while Vos rests on my leg. He stopped staring at me like he knew I was doing something wrong. Could it be because he sensed I was sneaking?
Now I have a special brooch to give me access to this room. Tomorrow I’ll pin it to my academy uniform. The real uniform. Mallor informed Instructor Katrine that I’d be studying dragons and in contact with the little ones, and she had no choice but to accept it.
I’m here. Where I belong. I lie back and Vos moves from my leg to my side, his cute wings folded as he walks slowly, then snuggles beside my neck.
Despite all my excitement, my eyes feel heavy and my body feels light. So light, as if I was floating.
Two squeaks close to my ear wake me. I turn and see Vos clapping his wings, the thin light from the sunholes casting a glow on his emerging scales. It’s daytime already.
We weren’t attacked, and the rider didn’t return. I kept waiting for it, bracing for the worst, but nothing happened. For now, the rider’s gone. Hopefully when he returns, we’ll be better prepared.
“Hello, little one.” My hand finds the top of Vos’s head, and he springs up, wings snapping open. “Are you learning to fly?”
Ava emerges from the water basin, shaking droplets from her snout before padding across the stone floor to my side. I kiss her head, then her brother’s, their tiny scales grazing my lips.
“I have to leave you.” I tell the cute little dragons. “But I’ll be back.”
Guards stand outside the hallway, but they only nod as I walk by. I rush up to my room, and find Mariana waiting outside, still as a statue, until she sees me and smiles.
I open the door, grab the gown, and return it to her.
“Thank you so, so much!” I say, then point to the torn stitches, heat rising to my face. “It ripped a little, though.”
She glances at the burst seams, her hand holding the dress up so it doesn’t touch the floor. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Thank you so much!” I repeat.
“It was my duty.” She bows and leaves.
Next I hurry to the dormitory area of the academy, and find Celine in her room, sitting on her bed.
“Hello?” I say quietly, unsure if she’s aware that she’s going to be my guide today.
She jumps up and wraps her arms around me. “You did it! You’re in! You’re one of us. I mean, you were before, but now…”
“Now it’s better.” I can’t contain the smile forming on my lips. “Who told you?”
She chuckles. “A guard. And yes, now it’s better, and we’ll be roommates!”
Her joy warms my heart. I haven’t had a friend in so long, and here’s someone who’s truly happy for me.
She raises a finger. “First stop: uniform!”
“Maybe we should eat first.”
“Nah.” She waves a hand. “And walk into the refectory like that? No. We’ll hurry and still have time to catch breakfast. Let me just put my shoes on.”
“Where’s your other roommate?”
Celine looks down, her cheerful mood dissipating at once. “Some of the second years were sent to hills far from the city. They’ll fly if…”
There’s an attack. I don’t dare voice the words out loud. “I see. At least you’re here.”
“I’m hoping Foros will keep protecting me.”
I nod, unsure what to say. While I’m aware that second-year recruits can fly during attacks, I don’t think I have fully grasped the idea that I could lose a friend. Maybe I have to start praying more for Foros.
Her mood then shifts, as if she decided to brush away her worry. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”
We rush to the same uniform supply room where I tried—and failed—to get a dress. The same woman is sitting behind the counter and gets up when she sees us.
“I told you she was in the academy,” Celine says, a dash of pride in her tone.
The woman nods. “Well, I did ask my superiors, but you never returned.”
Celine pivots on her heel to face me, her eyebrows raised. “Then how…”
Last night, she teased me about my friend helping me get the dress, but I didn’t realize she thought I got it from this deposit. My face gets warm. “I’ll tell you later.”
“You better.” She shoots me a warning glance.
“What size?” the woman asks.
“What sizes do they have?” I whisper to Celine.
My friend gives me a quick once-over, then answers for me. “Medium female.”
“All right.” The woman disappears into the back and returns with two pairs of pants and two sleeveless tops. “You can get new ones every five days.”
“New?” I’m not sure I understand her.
She shrugs. “They have to be washed, right?”
I run my hand over the stiff, black fabric, happy to finally be about to wear it, but slightly disappointed that I won’t get a uniform of my own. Apparently, nothing in this academy belongs to us. Even the uniforms are borrowed then returned to some communal laundry pile.
Celine grins. “Now you can change, and then we do everything else.”
We run to her dormitory, since it’s closer, where I peel off the ugly gray clothes and pull on the recruit uniform. My own image in the mirror smiles at me, as if to remind me that this is what I wanted, this is what I fought for. A dream coming true.
At the refectory, my body feels relaxed, and I don’t need to make any effort to keep my head high.
I belong.
I get my food, then sit at a table with Nelly and Celine, who immediately pester me with questions about the dress and where I went during the ball.
I tell them the truth—sort of—that two women brought me the dress, even if I skip the fancy bath and all that, and then say that I wasn’t feeling well and had to rest.
“Right!” Celine’s tone is sarcastic. “And while you slept, you got to become a recruit, by magic.”
“Something happened,” I whisper. “But I can’t tell. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine.” Nelly smiles at me. “We all have our secrets.”
Celine grimaces. “Of course it’s not fine. Are you going to torture me with curiosity?”
“Give me some time. What about you? How was the ball?”
Nelly looks up, her eyes dreamy. “I really enjoyed—”
“Nope.” Celine clamps a hand on Nelly’s mouth, her tone playful. “We’re not telling anything. Equal measures.”
“That’s fair.” I nod.
Nelly swats at Celine’s hand with a grin. “Let’s not be ridiculous. The ball was fun, and went on for a long time. We danced.”
That’s odd. I thought the ball had been interrupted. “Was there any warning? Bell?”
“No.” Nelly frowns, confused. “Wouldn’t you have heard it?”
It’s true. There was no bell. Even though there was an intruder alert, I didn’t hear anything else. “I heard guards running,” I explain. “I thought it was strange. But I guess it was nothing.”
Celine mock-glares at me. “You’re making me very intrigued, Mayara. That won’t do. I’m warning you. I’m going to find out what happened.”
“I’ll tell you,” I whisper. “Later.”
She’s still looking at me, a finger on her chin. “We know you weren’t with the prince.”
I blink. “What do you mean?”
Celine shrugs. “He was at the ball.”
“Not all the time,” I say.
“Ha!” Celine’s grin is triumphant. “So that’s what happened. A discreet—and very fast—encounter. Wow, I’d think he’d last a little longer.”
I can’t help but laugh. “We just talked. That’s it.” Then, in a lower voice, I add, “He’d been wanting to get me into the academy for a while. Last night, he was able to arrange it.”
There. This explanation makes sense and doesn’t require me to reveal anything about the hatchlings, the rider, or even my encounter with Commander Mallor. I don’t want to lie to my friends, but at the same time, I don’t want to risk my secrets getting spilled.
“Did it hurt?” Celine asks.
“What?” I’m truly unsure what she means.
She rolls her eyes. “To tell us, silly. It’s not like it’s some big secret.”
“But it hurt, though. Ouch.” I clutch my side. “I think I broke a rib.”
We laugh together, then finish eating.
Nelly heads to her first flying class while Celine helps me carry my things to her dorm.
Our dorm. On the way, she points out the bathing chamber—a circular room lined with individual stalls.
At the center, pitchers of water and containers with soap and cloths sit on a stone table.
It’s not that different from what I had in the cleaning crew, just bigger.
The pot chamber down the hall is similar, with tons of stalls.
She leads me to the common room just off the dormitory corridor, a space with worn wooden chairs and tables.
“We can study here, or just relax.” She grins, then adds, “But the doors lock at midnight. To the dorms too. Something about ensuring proper rest.” She rolls her eyes and I can’t help but laugh.
Still, my heart is singing. This is my new home, and I’m happy to share it with a friend. Even Nelly is going to move into our dorm, which makes it all the more wonderful.
When I finish unpacking, Celine leads me down a hallway on the first floor and stops at a railing. Below us, maybe a dozen gliders hang suspended from the ceiling on long cables, their wooden frames and canvas wings hovering just a few feet above the ground.
Some recruits are holding the bars and attaching themselves to the gliders, as if about to fly, then hanging from the equipment. I suppose if they close their eyes, they can imagine they’re flying.
What they’re training for is incredibly dangerous, but I can’t help the pang of yearning rising in my chest. Nelly is sitting on a corner, watching.
Beside me, Celine snorts. “I was excited too, when I started. Who doesn’t want to fly?”
I almost ask her what changed, but I don’t want to poke her pain. “It can be scary.”
“It’s not only the dragons. When we started jumping from the outer hill…” She takes a deep, shaky breath. “Not everyone got it right. Sometimes the wind was treacherous.”
“I’m so sorry.”
Her eyes are wet with unshed tears. “I’m not jealous, I swear, but I wish I had someone to ensure I didn’t have to fly, someone to keep me safe.”