55. Ayres
As Ayres approached the Northern Castle from the back of his horse, he had an opportunity to study the transfer dragons from his saddle.
Transfer dragons were slow and clumsy during a battle, but massive enough to carry twenty-five men a piece. House of Ice had donated four transfer dragons to the Choosing for the Guardian to use, but they had countless others in use, and more being bred every day in the Nest, a city close to the northern border of House Ice.
Apart from Deimos, the King of Ice’s legendary war dragon, dragons had a lifespan of around 1,000 years. The dragons Ice had donated had seen war before, probably seen battle in the War of the Wings and the War of the Slaves, maybe more. All four of the dragons boasted long scars around their bellies and snouts and one even had a long white scar through the membrane of one of its massive wings.
If the dragons were back, it meant only one thing; the Contestars were back, too. Ayres spurred his horse into a canter.
Most of the guards were either training or lounging around in the courtyard, but there was enough of a buzz to know whatever happened during the trials had been exciting.
Ayres slid down from his horse as soon as the young stable boy took the reins and found Captain Lamonte leaning against the castle wall, watching his men train.
Ayres charged over to him bombarding him with questions as soon as he reached the captain’s side. “What happened today during the trial? How many Contestars made it out alive?”
Lamonte looked up from what he was watching and raised his eyebrows at Ayres’s tone. “Concerned are ya, brother? It’s nice to see you this morning, too.”
Ayres schooled his features into an uncaring mask. “I just want to know if I should pack my bags tonight or not.”
Lamonte scratched under his chin, narrowing his eyes at Ayres. “I dunno. None of us do. Only a few men went to collect the Contestars, and they’re in debriefing with the Guardian.”
Ayres turned on his heel and left his friend behind without another word.
Ayres knocked on Rorax’s door, but she wasn’t there, just like she wasn’t in the courtyard or the library.
He went next to the House of Death meeting room, where he found Kaiya, Cannon, and Milla sitting around the table playing a game of cards.
“What happened?” he demanded, using his hands to speak to Cannon as well. “Where’s Rorax? I can’t find her anywhere.”
At his tone Kaiya frowned and Milla raised her eyebrows at him, giving him a little smirk. “You went looking for her?”
“Yes,” he admitted.
“Why?” Kaiya asked, her frown deepening.
Cannon signed, She’s fine, Ayres. She’s in the Healer’s Hall. She took a few hits from a mountain troll but she survived.
Ayres gaped at his friend. “A mountain troll?”
Cannon nodded and continued. The Guardian chose them to protect the horns. The Lowborns were the only ones to bring their horn back. A troll took out one of the Contestars, and they all went through an influx. But one of the trolls were close and the Contestars seemed to focus on the troll during the influx, and not each other. Rorax stopped herself before she killed anyone. She passed the test then helped the rest of them get out mostly unscathed. The Guardian is furious about that, actually. Usually, the first trial kills about half of them. It was the House of Dark’s Contestar. They decided to move to be Isgra’s second house.
“I don’t know why anyone would want to be that cunt’s protectorate,” Kaiya said, shaking her head as she laid down a card. “But anyway, Rorax killed the first troll, then disabled the obsidian crown on the second so Isgra could burn it to a crisp.”
Marras save him.
“Piers is with her. Should we go check on them?” Milla asked, already standing up.
Kaiya scowled at her. “I was just about to win for the first time.”
Milla shrugged with a grin and moved to the door. They all followed her to the Healer’s Hall where Tressa and another healer were walking down the aisle between the two columns of hospital beds. When Tressa saw Ayres, she pointed over to the bed in the front of the room, immediately to his right where Rorax lay unconscious.
Ayres frowned as he moved around to Rorax’s side. If it weren’t for her small chest movements signaling her breaths, he would have assumed she was dead. Her skin was ghostly pale, her lips chapped and white. Her shirt was pushed up her abdomen to under her breasts, revealing two long gashes that had long black stitches crisscrossing the skin over her stomach and holding it together. She looked so small in this bed, so fragile, so vulnerable.
Something flared in his stomach, and a surge of unbidden protectiveness rose inside him.
Piers sat in a chair at the side of her bed. He saw Ayres’s expression and smiled grimly. “If you think this is bad, you should have been here an hour ago. She looked even worse then.”
Tressa came to stand next to Ayres with her hands on her hips. “We only have two healers here right now, and we needed every ounce of magick we had to replace the blood she lost. She came to us on her own two feet, walking, and on the verge of death. Aryes, when she wakes up in a day or two, you need to tell her not to push it. She should have asked for more help,” Tressa snapped.
“She wouldn’t even let me touch her,” Piers said, his face morphing into a grimace as he looked over her wounds. “I don’t think she trusted me to help her.”
Ayres frowned. Piers wouldn’t hurt her; none of them would. They had agreed to protect her. He remembered the first night she had an influx, how they had fought and the words he had bit out to her. Guilt niggled deeper into his chest.
“I’ll talk with her,” he told Tressa.
“Get her out of here when you can, Ayres,” Tressa said, giving Rorax a look that reminded him of the scathing looks he, too, used to give her. “I don”t want another house to kill her, but I don’t want her in my hall.” Tressa turned and walked away.
Ayres sat on the bed opposite Rorax’s and leaned over to put his elbows on his knees. “What happened?”
“Those are from the trolls.” Piers pointed at the long vertical cuts over her ribs. “She had four fractured ribs, a punctured lung that was slowly drowning her, and a concussion.” He pointed to a scratch on the corner of her eyebrow.
“Marras,” Ayres muttered, shaking his head. “I hope this is the worst of it. Has anyone been in to see her?”
Piers shook his head. “Only me, Jia, and Kaiya. She’s been completely passed out; we shouldn’t leave her alone for the next few days.”
Cannon and Milla shared a glance from the foot of Rorax’s bed that set alarm bells off in Ayres’s head. “What?”
“We know what the next trial will be, Ayres.”