Chapter Twenty-Seven
When the wind came up while we were mending the thatching, I subconsciously rerouted the air to blow ten feet higher so our roofing wouldn't be cast away. I put breezes on sweaty brows and fanned cooking fires. Using my magic had become second nature. I wondered when that had happened.
I lost track of everyone that I knew, but I felt at home surrounded by strangers. They smiled kindly and were more than eager to press something in my hands to hold until they needed it. Sometimes it was square nails, sometimes it was a drink, sometimes a wand, and on several occasions, a young child who couldn't decide between dragon and human.
My body grew tired. The wind broke my barrier and whipped through construction areas a few times before a man tapped my shoulder and lifted up his hand.
I felt the wind lift off my magic. He also was a wind elemental. I smiled; I didn't get to meet many like me.
“Go get your rations,” the man said and motioned me back to the main hall.
“Thanks,” I said.
Outside the hall, Nest ladled lamb stew into bowls. Hours before, I'd been with her preparing a breakfast oatmeal which included onions, sage, and slices of lamb. After this, I'd fallen into the construction activities. Any resentment people had had for me was now replaced by curiousity, and a couple of Mordon's contemporaries paid me a bit too much admiration for my comfort.
“Here you are, Feraline,” Nest said as she handed me a bowl.
“Feraline!” Enaid called, shaking free of the planning committee to come see me.
She led me a discreet distance from the others and steered the committee away with a glare. “Feraline, I must give you my regrets. I was judgmental and bitter without reasonable cause. You have repaid me with far more kindness than needed.”
“I didn't realize I was being particularly kind to you,” I said, confused.
Enaid looked around where the workers had made most buildings new again. “I meant with your help. Guests typically don't wake up at dawn to make breakfast gruel then get passed around the colony as a helping hand.”
I shook my head. “I am glad you came to talk to me, but I did this because it's natural to me—not to garner favor.”
Enaid nodded, looked back at the crowd awaiting her, sighed, and moved to join them.
I climbed up stairs to the wall and sat on the scaffolding, gazing over the valley. I ate my stew quickly, savoring the coppery aftertaste in the broth. The lamb itself tasted florally with a molasses-like sweetness to it, the way the air here smelled.
“May I join you?” asked Mordon, seemingly appearing from thin air, startling me.
I glanced over my shoulder, noting that all remnants of his fights were erased from his skin. He'd changed out of his wizarding robes and into a tan tunic—though I appreciated him in other colors, tan suited him best. Nest had provided me with a similar tunic last night. It was soft and plush.
“Denise told me what she said to you.” Mordon sat beside me. “I suppose you have questions for me?”
“No.”
“No?” He leaned towards me, and I was relieved the scaffolding stayed in place. “Are you sure?”
“Mordon,” I said. “I'll help you look for her if it's what you want.”
His hand touched my cheek and I shivered. “It's not,” he said, pulling back at my hesitation. “I have been chasing a ghost for years.”
“Then,” I asked. “What is it you do want?”
Mordon smiled, wrinkles forming under his eyes. “I think it's fair to ask what you want first.”
I chewed on my lip and let out a huff of breath, saying the first thing that came to my mind. “I want to go flying.”
He let out a short laugh. “And beyond that?”
“I never was much of a plan-ahead sort of person.”
“Completely contradicting everything I've seen with you and your tricks.”
“I think of them on the spot, I don't plan them out ahead of time.”
“What if you did?”
“Really?” I asked and he nodded. I shrugged. “I get bored with them…unless I have someone to play a trick on. I did that a lot with Leif and Griff—”
“Griff?”
I sighed. “He was accidentally turned into a human and we were determined to help him. He grew jealous when I had a crush on…someone else. When he left, it wasn't a happy ending.”
“And it led to you losing your magic with that curse.” His voice was ice, and I shivered at the venom in his eyes.
I drew back. “I'd rather not talk about it.”
“I should not have said anything,” said Mordon, changing subjects. “We have some time until Leif burns us a letter. We could return to King's Ransom, or we could stick around here. I think the colony's quite taken with you.”
I looked into his lion eyes, glad they were warm once again. “Think this could be home away from home?”
“Could be.” He wagged a finger at me. “You've taken to this much better than Lilly had.”
I laughed. “There's not a baker in sight! That woman lives on breads and sweets.”
“This is true,” Mordon smiled, motioning to the open, calm air over the horizon. “Feel like an evening flight? Nothing like watching a sunset from mid-air.”
“People are still working.”
“Different people than before. We're both out of rotation. Or is that a way to decline me?” Mordon stood up and offered his hand.
I took it.
We walked along the wall until we came to a place where there were steps carved into the cliff leading to a large flat area. Mordon called it the landing zone. Above and around, the cliff had been scraped to be completely smooth so enemies couldn't scale it easily.
Once again I was distracted examining my surroundings and didn't notice Mordon had changed until I stepped backward and tumbled over his tail. With some scraping, Mordon turned to face me, hot breath blowing in my face.
“What are you doing down there?”
I bopped his nose, succeeding only in jarring my knuckles and making him laugh. A fleck of fire fell onto my pants and I patted it out.
“You're ornery as a dragon.”
He pulled his lips in a smile, revealing jagged teeth. “Would you like to go or not?”
“One sec,” I said, snaring a golden red stream of hair beneath his chin. “So this is the beard you're always playing with.”
A claw reached up to rake talons through it. “Ah, yes. I had not realized it was a habit of mine until you brought it to my attention.”
I climbed onto his shoulders and gave him a slap. “Ready when you are.”
“Hold on tight,” Mordon said, his muscles bunching beneath me as he lowered into a crouch.
He launched. I had to grab him tightly. We fell a little, then he beat his wings, each powerful stroke carrying us higher and higher. I stretched in the wind, feeling how his wings sliced through the air. We cut into a stream and he locked his wings in an effortless glide.
We weren't the only ones in the air. I caught a glimpse of a young couple—one dark red dragon and a moss green—weaving in and out of mist from a geyser, dodging away before it erupted. One of my earlier conversations had been about the geyser and how it was quite the romantic place to go. Younger drakes would challenge each other for who could stay in the stream longest. The parents did not like that game very well—it would be adolescence before the young grew scales thick enough to truly withstand the heat.
Mordon tipped to the left and brought us to face the sunset.
“We going to just sit here, or you going to show me some moves?” I teased.
Mordon looked back at me, his red scales glowing in the setting sun. “Daring little thing.”
“Let's do a barrel roll!”
I wasn't anticipating him to dip down, gather up speed, then pull up. My entire orientation abandoned me in the whirl of ground, sky, and air. I thought we were plummeting straight upwards when suddenly the ground rushed at us, then M
ordon turned the opposite direction I thought he should. We continued like this for a few more loops before he flattened out. I swayed.
“Hold on,” he said. “I don't want to catch you.”
I laughed, my stomach settling again as he took things slow.
“Rolls are a tactic to slow yourself so you don't overshoot a target,” he said. “Also a way to check the air and avoid a grapple fight.”
“And dives gain you speed.”
“Yes.” A chuckle ran through his chest. “My favorite way to depart the colony is to dive off the cliff, but I did not think you would enjoy that very much.”
I shook my head, though Mordon couldn't see it.
The two drakes we had seen earlier were now doing aerial acrobatics, each was doing a barrel roll like Mordon had been, but they were at opposite ends of the roll, forming a spiral through the air.
“Rolling scissors,” mused Mordon. “Not something anyone wants to become entangled with. The first to leave has a distinct disadvantage.”
We discussed other aerial maneuvers and watched the last of the orange and purple fade from the sky. Mordon demonstrated a few more moves when I prodded him about it.
“You understand,” Mordon said as we came out of a roll where he clamped his wings to his body and spun in a dive, then shot back into the air, “most riders are happy with a leisurely glide.”
“Since when am I like most people of any sort?” I giggled as he let his body fall a little, sending my heart up to my throat.
“You are fortunate to have selected one of the best acrobats in the colony,” Mordon said proudly.
“Not the best?” I teased.
A puff of smoke washed over me. “The day anyone out flies Nest will be a day for celebration.”
“Denise said something about there being other colonies?”
“There were. Half of them were just gone, lands and all, one day. Those that were left behind suffered a series of onslaughts—everything from unicorns to gnomes and humans. Many of the survivors slipped into human villages and lived life that way. Others limped here to the colony, and we have been living like this since.”
“The children are all quite young,” I said.
“Yes. After my sister and I were born, the colony had troubles. One thing after another. We were eventually discovered one of our own was behind it, and we've had some successful hatchings since, my sister's young included. I must thank you for taking good care of him.”
“The baby? I didn't know who his parents were.”
We landed. I slipped down his shoulders. Aeron walked the last steps to speak with Mordon.
“Pardon me, but we have matters to discuss,” Aeron said in the same cool tone he used on everyone else in his colony. I gathered this meant he saw me as one of his own, not as a foreign human.
I nodded, gave Mordon a little wave, and went down to the main hall.