Authors: Aprille Legacy
Dena doted over me back at camp. She’d managed to
procure some food from somewhere (a lot of it looked like
the mash we made for the horses) and made me eat most
of it. She’d checked me out thoroughly on the boat here,
and whilst I was physically in perfect health, I knew she
was expecting me to have some mental breakdown.
Too bad I’d already had it.
We spent the rest of the break playing on the beach,
but I anxiously counted off the days until we could return
to the Academy, the big, safe Academy. On our second to
last day, I succeeded in teaching the Lotherian boys how
to play softball, though Petre found it a little difficult to
grasp the concept of ‘out’.
“Out!” I called, as Red Hair caught it on the full. Petre
kept sprinting to the next base and I nodded at Red Hair,
whom we all had noticed had almost perfect aim.
Red Hair ditched the ball at Petre, catching him in the
legs and sending him sprawling in the sand. Despite our
laughter, Petre started wriggling on his belly to the next
base. I’ll give it to the bastard, he was determined. I stood
over him as he planted one firm hand on the tent bag we
were using as second base.
“You’re out,” I told him pointedly.
He dragged himself up and brushed himself off.
“It was worth a shot,” he said haughtily, and sailed off
The next morning we set off early, and I determinedly
did not look towards the island as we left. I hoped that I’d
never see it again, and if I ever did, it would be too soon.
Phoenix had resumed ignoring me. I let it go, tired of
trying to squeeze a friendship or any kind of common
ground out of someone who so obviously didn’t have the
time of day for me.
I rode with my group, chatting about the new term,
though nothing would’ve changed. We still had the same
classes, the same teachers, the same classmates.
I wondered why our class was so small. Jett had once
explained to us that we were reaped every three years, so
we ranged from eighteen to twenty. I would be twenty by
the time I finished my study at the Academy and then...
And then what? There was a hollow feeling in my chest
as I contemplated this new thought. I’d never thought of
what I’d do after I finished my studies. Would I travel this
new world, explore everything this realm had to offer?
Yes, that sounded very appealing, but I had to be realistic.
I would just have to hope that my magical talents would
reveal themselves to me over the course of my tuition, and
then I’d aim to secure a position, a paying position.
I realised I was floundering out of my depth. I didn’t
even know the value of the coins in my belt purse. I made
a mental note to ask Jett about prospective careers after
the Academy.
I would really like to travel though, I decided. I have a
whole new world to explore, and nothing’s going to stop
me from seeing it.
When we made it past Keyes and the Academy came
into view everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Though we
had to resume our study, it would be far less dangerous
than term break.
After the break, I hardly ever saw Phoenix. He stayed
by Eleanora’s side as if she were a life support. Communal
meals in the mess hall grew quieter and quieter, until I
asked Jett if I could eat alone; I was tired of everyone
glancing at me and whispering. I noticed that the whispers
seemed to be from the Lotherian mages only.
“Don’t fret about it,” Dena said when I mentioned it.
“Just ignore them.”
The whispers came to a head in our first riding class of
second term. Professor Alena, impressed with our
progress, was letting us have a gymkhana of sorts. We split
into two teams, and I managed to end up on the opposing
team to Eleanora. My stomach shifted nervously and Echo,
sensing my discomfort, shifted anxiously beneath me. I
pretended not to see the malevolent looks Eleanora was
shooting me, and tried to calm myself.
Since the Du’rangor, I’d been more on edge. I didn’t
like the dark, I hated loud noises and when Ispin had
surprised me around a corner, I managed to curse him so
bad that he couldn’t speak for a few days.
“Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” Rain had said,
patting me on the shoulder.
But I hadn’t meant to do it. The magic had just burst
out of me, and had someone asked me to do it again, I
probably couldn’t have.
So already I’d managed to gain a reputation of late. I
wasn’t the girl who had killed a Du’rangor with only a
knife; I was the girl who jumped at loud noises.
So that hot afternoon, the sun beating down on our
shoulders, I knew, I just knew, Eleanora was going to do
something. I wasn’t sure what, but I knew it wouldn’t be
something I was going to enjoy. As a result, I was even
more on edge.
I watched Dena race Petre and win, in the barrel race.
Someone had dobbed in Echo and I for the sprint, and my
heart sank when I realised I was going up against Phoenix,
who’d been pitted against me by his girlfriend. I refused to
look at him as we lined up.
“To the marker at the other end,” Professor Alena said,
and Phoenix and I peered ahead, to where we could just
see a post in the distance. “Ready? And... Go!”
Echo was off before I could do anything. We barrelled
down the course at a full gallop and I felt as though I was
riding an avalanche down a mountain side. I leant
forwards, urging her faster, her hooves flashing beneath
us. On our right flank, Phoenix and Validus didn’t even
try to pull even.
Hang on? Was he trying to let me win?
Before I could pursue this thought anymore, I caught a
glimpse of what looked like a purple ribbon streaking
beneath Echo’s hooves. She immediately shied away from
it, whinnying. I fought to keep my balance, but then lost it
completely as she reared in terror. I felt myself leaving the
saddle and quickly kicked my feet free of the stirrups.
I hit the ground hard, on my left side. I felt the air
shoot out of my lungs at the same time I felt a sickening
crack jolt up my left arm. I curled into a ball as Echo
snorted, still prancing, her sharp hooves hitting the
ground close to my head.
Oh geez. I was going to be killed by my own horse.
I was dimly aware of Phoenix bringing Validus to a halt
as Dena and Professor Alena ran to us. Luckily we hadn’t
gotten very far down the course.
Phoenix immediately went to Echo, catching her bridle
as she tried to rear again, murmuring to her. She calmed
down, her ears flicking forward as she listened to
whatever he was saying.
I clutched my arm and gasped at the pain. I knew
straight away that it was broken.
Phoenix knelt down next to me, having calmed Echo to
a point where she no longer needed his attention.
“Let me see it,” he commanded, reaching for my arm.
“Don’t touch me!” I cried, scooting away from him, the
pain making me irrational.
He promptly ignored that and put his arm around my
shoulders, helping me sit up better. Dena arrived in a
flurry of dust and frantic worrying.
“Let me see it,” she said quickly, seeing me clutch my
arm close.
I held it out to her, completely trusting of my best
friend. I thought I noticed Phoenix’s shoulders slump as I
showed Dena the trust I refused to show him. She’d barely
probed it with gentle fingers when I yelped with pain, my
arm growing simultaneously hot and cold.
“It’s broken,” she said without a trace of doubt. “We
need to get you to the infirmary.”
Phoenix helped me to my feet, pulling me in close to
his chest to steady me. I could feel his heart pounding in
his chest, his strong fingers gripping my shoulder so I
couldn’t fall.
“Sky!” Dustin arrived with the rest of the class, and
Phoenix stepped away smoothly. He immediately steadied
me as Phoenix had done. I’d barely noticed when my soul
mate had relinquished me. “Are you alright, are you hurt?”
No, I felt like snapping back. My arm always looks like
this.
“Her arm is broken,” Dena told him, saving Dustin from
any snappish replies that were coming his way. “We need
to take her back to the castle, I can’t treat it out here.”
Dustin helped me back to the castle, Dena and
Professor Alena by my side.
“Echo,” I murmured.
“Phoenix has got her,” Dena said. “He’ll look after her.”
The cool castle was a relief when we finally reached it.
I could hear Professor Alena taking charge of the class
again as Dena and Dustin helped me towards the
infirmary. When we got there, Jett was waiting.
“Broken arm, is it?” he asked, strangely informed.
“Dena, come here. This is perfect.”
“Perfect?” I asked weakly as I was helped onto one of
the stark white beds. “My broken arm is perfect?”
“I was about to teach Dena some advanced healing
anyway,” he replied, beginning to cut away my sleeve. I
bit my lip to keep from crying out in pain. “Broken bones
were next on our list.”
He cut the rest of the sleeve away, and we all examined
my arm. Purplish yellow bruising already marked it. This
didn’t stop Jett from picking it up and showing it to Dena.
“If you’ve been reading the books I gave you, you
should be able to tell me which bone in her arm is
broken.”
Dena settled her glasses on her nose, and then peered
closer. I felt a little better when she took my arm in her
cool fingers, but that feeling immediately vanished when
she began prodding my skin. I flinched but refused to
show any more pain than that.
“I think it’s her radius,” she said. “Did you land on it,
Sky?”
I nodded, nausea beginning to grow in my stomach.
“I think you shattered it,” she said, and for the first time
she looked uncertain. “Jett, I can’t fix shattered bones just
yet.”
“Yes you can,” he said. “Remember the theory, and put
it into practice.”
Dena bit her lip and looked at me.
“Do you trust me, Sky?”
“Yes,” I replied without hesitation.
Dena took a breath, as though she’d been hoping I
wouldn’t say that I did. Carefully, she held my elbow and
my wrist, closing her eyes.
Over the next half an hour she worked steadily, Jett
guiding her when she needed assurance. Dustin watched
on in interest for the first ten minutes or so, but then
wandered over to the window. I grit my teeth and looked
at the ceiling, as much of my arm went through a whole
range of feelings. After half an hour, Dena put my arm
back on the bed and wiped her sweaty brow.
“There,” she said. “How does it feel?”
I wriggled my fingers, and then gingerly lifted my arm
off of the mattress. It felt fine, only a little weak.
“You’ll have to do some exercises in the mornings
now,” Dena was saying. “To get the arm back to fully
functional, but I think I’ve repaired most of the damage.”
“Wow, thanks,” I said softly. I had a friend who could
heal broken bones. “You’re really amazing, Dena.”
“If you could tell me that more often, that’d be great,”
she said, grinning widely.
“You did well,” Jett said, clapping her on the shoulder.
“I’ll chat to the matrons, see if you could do some
weekends in the city hospital in Castor.”
Dena’s eyes shone from behind her glasses.
“I would really like that,” she said finally, excitement
making her curls quiver.
I made sure to stay away from Eleanora after that. I
knew without a doubt that she had made Echo shy on
purpose, in the hopes of injuring me. I wondered why?
She was dating my soul mate, I was supposed to be the one
who hated her.
“She’s jealous,” Rain said when I mentioned it at dinner
one night. “She feels threatened by you.”
“Why?” I was completely clueless, struggling to think
what I could have possibly done to make her feel that
way.
“You’re one of the best students in the class,” Ispin said,
gesturing wildly with his fork, Yasmin ducking hurriedly
out of the way. “Because she’s local born, she’s somehow
gotten the idea in her head that she’s meant to be the
best.”
“But she is,” I protested.
It was true. Eleanora had quickly outpaced us in terms
of grades and combat. She was Yu’s star pupil, and Watt
would walk to the end of the earth for her if she said she
needed something.
“Oh stop making a fuss, Sky,” Petre said irritably,
sawing at his steak like it had done something to offend
him. “You’re the best out of all of us, stop trying to deny
it.”
I sat with my mouth hanging open, waiting for a retort
to come. My mind went blank as we all watched Petre
stuff his mouth in a most undignified manner.
“Is everything alright?” Yasmin asked, laying a hand on
her soul mate’s arm.
“No it very well isn’t,” he snapped, bits of steak flying
across the table. Theresa, Dena and I held up our
textbooks to shield ourselves from the airborne beef.
“Father has not been responding to my letters.”
“Maybe he’s busy,” Yasmin suggested calmly. “Your
father has a whole estate to run, don’t forget.”
“He said he’d write every week,” Petre said, slightly
calmer but still manic by his terms. I cast a glance at Dena,
who raised her eyebrows and shrugged. “He hasn’t.”
“Petre, if that’s all you’ve got to worry about, then it’s
nothing,” Yasmin gnawed her lip for a second before
saying, “Those of us who are from the human world will
never hear from our families again.”
My heart went cold, as it always did when I thought
about Mum in our house on her own. I’d spent too many
nights worrying about her; I needed to accept the fact that
this world was my new home.
“I’m worried,” Petre confessed finally. “In his last few
letters he mentioned that some of the livestock had been
disappearing. In the very last letter I got from him, the
latest one to go missing was a small boy.”
We stopped eating, finally giving Petre our undivided
attention.
“Did he mention anything else?” I asked quietly.
He looked up, meeting my eyes.
“There was something,” he looked down again. “One of
the cows was found in the northern fields. It had died
during the night, and parts of it had been eaten by
something very large. But Father said that, despite the
obvious injuries, they couldn’t figure out how it had died.
He said,” he took a deep breath, refusing to meet my eyes,
and suddenly goose bumps rippled along my skin. “He
said, it was though it had died of fright.”
I knew it. I knew there couldn’t only be one of them
around.
“So your estate is being stalked by a Du’rangor,” I said,
surprised at how calmly I said the words. “And now you’re
worried that something really awful has happened.”
“Something already has, Sky,” Theresa reminded me
none so gently. “A little boy has been taken.”
Only I, looking down in shame, noticed Petre’s
knuckles turn white as he gripped his fork.
“We should go to your estate,” Dena was saying. “See if
there’s anything we can do.”
“What
can
we do?” Ispin asked. He’d gone very white
beneath his freckles.
“Well, one of us in our midst has already killed a
Du’rangor,” Dena said, and my belly flipped over. “Maybe
she could do it again.”
Say you can’t! My mind begged of me. But I said
nothing, only clutched at the table so that the others
wouldn’t notice my trembling fingers.
So the following day we went to Jett, asking if we could
spend the upcoming long weekend exploring Petre’s
estate.
“They want to see Abdoor,” Petre drawled, very
convincingly. “Father says it’s alright.”
“Then I have nothing to complain about,” Jett said,
quickly scrawling his signature on the note we’d handed
him. “I’ll give this to Iain and Netalia. Are you sure you
don’t need any of the professors to go with you?”
It almost sounded like he was offering. Petre shook his
head.
“I know the road to Riverdoor like the back of my
hand,” he said.
As the others filed out of the room, I stayed behind to
ask something that would hopefully tip the scales in my
favour against this rumoured Du’rangor.
“Could I take my swords, Jett?” I asked, trying not to let
too much of my desperation shine through.
“Why would you want to do that?”
“I can practice with them more,” it wasn’t exactly a lie.
“Away from the Academy, away from Netalia.”
He hesitated, and I felt almost certain that he wasn’t
going to let me. But then he relented.
“Alright. I’ll bring them out to you when you leave on
Saturday morning.”
“Thank you,” I breathed.
Friday night rolled around too quickly for my taste. I
packed carefully, making sure to take every dagger and
every charm I’d managed to collect at the Academy. I lay
in bed, trying to convince myself that I needed to sleep,
that I wouldn’t be doing myself any good by keeping
myself awake thinking about the last time I’d battled a
Du’rangor.
But it was no good. Every time I closed mine, the
Du’rangor’s eyes gleamed in the darkness behind my lids.
A few times I dozed off, only to jerk awake as a large,
black paw swiped at me from the darkness. When dawn
began to break, I watched it from atop my bed in my
pyjamas, one arm hanging outside my window that was
yet to be closed since my taking up residence in the castle.
When the bell arrived to wake me up, I swatted at it
half-heartedly and then climbed onto my floor to do my
push ups, taking special care of my recently healed arm.
The bell hovered for a moment as though watching me,
and then dropped out of the window.
I was the first one at the stables with my duffel bag.
Echo seemed ashamed to see me, but I managed to mollify
her with the sugar cube I’d been saving.
“It’s alright,” I murmured, leaning against her and
stroking her glossy coat. “I saw what really happened, and
I don’t blame you in the slightest,” I showed her my arm.
“See? All better.”
She inspected the arm, and then blew warm air over
me. The others arrived in various degrees of sleep
deprived states. Together we saddled our horses and
double checked we’d packed everything. I was starting to
think that Jett wasn’t going to show up when he appeared
in the doorway of the stable, carrying my two swords
wrapped in canvas.