Chapter 20
Chapter twenty
Valenna
Wading through waist-tall belladonna, Valenna tore around her room, stuffing her clothes into her new carpet bag without even bothering to fold them.
How dare Evander reject her and walk away after everything she’d done for him and all the anxiety she’d shouldered.
How dare he go into that paddock with an angry hydra.
How dare he tell her to go home to Largotia and forget him.
Well, back to Largotia she would go, and she never wanted to see him again, the sarcastic, foolish, beautiful idiot.
The sound of pattering feet and chattering voices below her window interrupted Valenna’s furious packing, and she threw open the sash and peered down. “What’s happening?” she called to a troupe of villagers who were hurrying along the path.
“The paddocking has been moved to this afternoon!” they replied cheerfully.
The savages. They were flocking to the paddocks to enjoy the spectacle of Evander be messily devoured.
“But … that was tomorrow!”
“Bournemuth moved it!”
Why would Haldir move it? Just to throw Evander off guard? To mess with his head? Some cruel game?
Valenna’s breath caught, and she floated blindly across the room and sank onto the bed.
The paddocking wasn’t supposed to happen until she was safe on the coach, miles away from the sound of dragons bellowing and bones cracking.
But if the ordeal was already underway, she had to stay and see it through.
If for no other reason than to assuage her furious anxiety.
Valenna looked down at the lilac dress she wore, embroidered with white daisies. This wouldn’t do. What if she had to climb a fence and run to Evander’s rescue? Or, she thought insanely, what if something horrible happened and she was soaked in blood or brains? This was one of her favorite dresses.
She changed into a pair of trousers and a simple linen shirt under a suede leather jacket. If she needed to fight a dragon today to save the man she loved (loathed?), she’d best dress appropriately.
Dressed for action, Valenna ascended the stairs and passed through the kitchen, where Thomasina was packing a picnic lunch.
“This isn’t a pantomime for your entertainment!” Valenna blurted. “This is a serious, dangerous … what is everyone hoping to see, anyway? A spectacle? Blood? Entrails? What?”
Thomasina turned, her face blank with shock.
“I’m sorry.” Valenna rubbed her sore eyes.
Suddenly ashamed, Valenna blundered through the door and out into the sunshine. A knot of giggling girls passed, arms linked, their little stocking feet kicking up the dirt on the path as they ran.
“Which way to the paddocks?” they called to her.
“Down the hill and into the lake, you little minxes!” Valenna shouted after them.
Before they could reply, she marched down the shady path toward the back meadow.
Her knees shook, and goosebumps rose on her skin.
She couldn’t go to the paddocking like this.
Already, her stomach was threatening to eject her breakfast. No, she would pick some bayberries until it was over and then, hopefully, see Evander healthy and whole before she walked away and left him to her past. If the worst happened, at least her final memory of him wouldn’t be stained with blood.
A thunderous roar frightened a flock of birds roosting in the branches overhead, and they took flight in a blur of whirring wings.
A bush of toothsome bayberries at the edge of the meadow eyed Valenna warily as she waded through the hip-tall grass, a mist of insects rising into the air.
Warm sun beat on her neck, but she went cold.
Standing just inside the line of trees was a huge black bird, taller than a man. Its feathers glistened iridescent purple and blue in the sunshine, and its massive head bobbed as it walked. When it saw Valenna, it stopped and tilted its head to the side, regarding her with curiosity.
“Raska,” she breathed. “What are you doing here?”
Raska snapped her beak and croaked. She gazed at Valenna for a long time, almost wistfully, then a dragon’s cry echoed from the paddocks and Raska flapped her wings and hopped through the meadow and into the shadow of the trees.
Was the scavenger here for her? What would Marwenna want her for? Besides, she wasn’t dead. Didn’t Raska only take the dead to her mistress?
A furious bellow shook the ground, so loud even the bayberries stopped to listen. Valenna clenched her teeth, her imagination parading horrific images across her mind.
Who was she fooling? Sit and wait? She didn’t sit and wait; she acted. She didn’t want to see Evander eaten, but she couldn’t bear this passivity. What if he was hurt and he needed her? What if he called out for her and she wasn’t there?
With a growl of self-loathing, Valenna sprinted across the meadow and through the trees, her arms pumping, her hair flying.
When she reached the paddock, a crowd of villagers stood thick against the fence, blurred by dragon smoke.
Hera hadn’t made her appearance yet. Instead, six underkeepers were struggling with two lethargic land dragons.
The creatures’ knobby armored plates clanked as they dug their clawed feet into the dirt.
A keeper at the fence cranked a wooden winch attached to thick iron chains fastened to the dragons’ bridles.
With each revolution, the dragons were dragged closer to the gate and the two huge wagons waiting outside.
The five Cobblepine trainees sat shoulder-to-shoulder on the top fence rail, beside the barn that stood at the far end of the paddock.
Little Giles was sweating, shifting his weight from foot to foot.
Ignatius and Elspeth kept smacking their fists into their opposite palms. Rosemary leaned forward eagerly, like she wanted to see someone devoured.
Only Samara appeared relaxed, her hands resting on her thighs, her thick, dark eyebrows pinched together as the underkeepers fought the club dragons.
Valenna recognized her look—a mirror of Evander when he was concentrating.
She spotted Evander leaning against the fence beside Haldir, his own brow furrowed as he shouted directions. Haldir immediately repeated everything Evander said.
Something wheeled in the sky overhead, and Evander looked up, his mouth set in a grim line. Valenna followed his gaze and saw the shadow of a giant winged creature silhouetted in the clouds.
Why was Raska here? So far from Ashkendor? So far from battlefields?
Evander watched the shadow until it disappeared, then he glanced at Valenna. For an instant, their eyes met.
He had seen Raska, and he knew her.
But how? How on earth could he know?
An old suspicion, so absurd she’d shoved it under layers of denial and excuses, cropped up like an ugly weed.
Valenna quashed it and walked along the fence to where Evander stood.
Haldir was giving directions to the Cobblepine trainees with loud bravado.
He cut a handsome figure, dressed all in black, his shirt unbuttoned to show his chest, and his long dark hair blowing across his jaw.
Beside him, lean and graceful, Evander removed his glasses and slid them into the pocket of his leather jacket, which he shrugged off and draped over the top rail of the fence.
Underneath, he wore a snug, collarless green shirt with three open buttons extending a few inches from the neck.
Objectively, Haldir was more beautiful than Evander, but there was something colorless about him.
Like a gray-and-white painting, while Evander was warm and real, layered.
Valenna felt vague appreciation when she looked at Haldir, but Evander made her ache.
The two land dragons were finally muzzled, chained, and packed away.
With measured movements, Evander pulled on a pair of fingerless leather gloves and slipped his arms into a leather harness, tightening adjustable bands around his torso.
One of the bands was loose on his back, and he twisted around, trying to fasten it.
Valenna stepped behind him and looped the strap through the buckle.
He smiled over his shoulder at her. “I thought you left already.”
“And miss this show? People come from miles around to see it.”
“I’ll try to make it worth your time,” he said.
“You had better.”
Turning, he addressed the trainees. “Alright, everyone, this is the moment you’ve been training for.
Remember your orders. If I’m incapacitated, then Samara is to take one of these …
” He held up one of the chains affixed to the winch.
“Dash into the paddock and fasten it to my harness. Samara, you don’t stay with me.
You turn and run for the fence as fast as you can, and Giles will use the winch to drag me out. ”
Samara nodded, her face set with determination as she strapped into her own harness. She was taking her job seriously, and that comforted Valenna.
Valenna stared at Evander with her teeth on edge as he tested his straps and inspected the chains. She understood that the harness was standard practice, but the sight of it buckled around his body made her stomach twist.
“Is Haldir going in?” Valenna asked. The new dragon master had strolled down the fence to flirt with a pretty village girl.
“He prefers a hands-off approach,” Evander said. “More dignified, apparently, for a man in his elevated position. But he wants me to muzzle Hera and fasten her necks together with a girth strap.”
“But …” Valenna’s head spun. “But won’t that make her angry?”
“Oh, it’ll make her furious,” Evander replied brightly. “She’s going to crush everyone in the paddock—including me, I suspect.”
The blood drained from Valenna’s face. “Vander, please, this is ridiculous.”
“Alright, everyone,” he barked, turning away from Valenna and toward the trainees.
“No spark sticks, stay out of the paddock, only Samara can come in, and only if I’ve been down for more than seven seconds.
If my head is caved in and it’s clear there’s no helping me, don’t risk yourselves to pull me out. ”
“That’s terrible advice!” Valenna cried.
“That’s policy,” Evander replied. “If Samara falls, you remove her first, and then send someone for me once she’s clear.”
“Vander.” Valenna caught his shoulder, and he turned to face her. “Don’t do this.”
“If anyone can manage Hera, it’s me. Look, I appreciate you coming, I really do, but if anything goes wrong, I won’t know what hit me, so there’s no advantage in you being here. Go into town until it’s over. I’ll send word the second I’m done.”
Valenna swallowed. “I’d rather stay, thanks.”
“If anything were to go wrong,” he said, adjusting his gloves for the third time, “there are two people I want informed. Thomasina has their information, but it would be better if you could write them for me. More personal, to soften it.”
“Of course. But who …”
The barn doors swung open, and Hera lumbered into the sunshine.
Now, one tail swipe from destruction, Valenna felt as though she’d never really seen Hera before—never respected the sheer breadth of her heavy body, the razor spike on her tail, the talons on her clawed feet.
She was always so docile, so affectionate, but angered Hera would be a creature from hell.
Evander let out a breath. “Don’t follow me in there. I know you can, but please don’t.”
With a coy smile, Valenna said, “Oh, I won’t let you die today, Evander Trevelyan. I intend to see you live to regret me.”
He smiled at this, then cupped her face in his hands and kissed her forehead. Valenna gripped his wrists, but he quickly pulled away, hopped the fence, and strode toward Hera, the girth strap and three muzzles slung over his shoulder.
He could warn her off until the dragons came home to roost, but Valenna was a trainer in her own right, and she wasn’t leaving him to a band of half-hearted children and a drunk.
If the situation called for it, she fully intended to rush into that paddock; Evander and his martyr’s complex could go to Roz.
Evander fished in his pocket and produced a carrot, which he held in his palm and reached toward Hera. She inclined her right head and wolfed it down.
“The muzzle!” Haldir shouted from the fence.
Evander lifted one of the muzzles from his shoulder.
Hera watched him, curious and trusting as a kitten.
The muscles in his back flexed. Evander hesitated.
Tension and anguish tainted his every movement.
To muzzle Hera was a betrayal, and Valenna wondered if he would turn away, not go through with it.
Guilt stung Valenna like nettles. She should never have stayed in Silvanlight. The second she saw Evander, she should have spun on her heel and climbed back on the coach for Largotia. The master dracologist could have sent another emissary.
Now, everything was tangled.
Hera lowered her right head, nuzzling Evander’s shoulder, and he rubbed her brow, soothing her with his smooth voice. She relaxed, and he slipped the muzzle over her snout.