Soar

Chapter 34

I had the spoon halfway to my mouth before I lost my grip on it. I grimaced as it fell to the table with a clatter.

Across from me, Hedyr chuckled. I scowled at him.

"At least I can still chew," I muttered as I fumbled to close my stiff fingers around the spoon's handle.

Hedyr did not answer. I almost wished he would so I could tease him when he slurred his words. Instead, he cocked an eyebrow and went back to sipping his soup.

"It's a good thing you both learn quickly," Darriad said. He settled beside me and watched as I carefully raised the spoon to my mouth again. My fingers were cramped, my hand shaking. "I had to stop my sword lessons when I was first learning to fly."

I smiled to show my appreciation for his sympathy. "I thought my hands were strong already, but they have never hurt so badly."

Darriad leaned on the table. "That happens to all of us. One of my men did not wear boots for a week because he could not work the laces." His eyes shifted to Hedyr, who was concentrating on his soup. "Meanwhile, I have never seen a recruit manage something quite like that."

The left side of Hedyr's face was swollen and bruised and his eye was half-shut. He had been practicing jumps the day before and came at the dragon from the wrong angle. His face hit an iron bar, knocking him unconscious, and the dragon had barely caught him. Tryven would not stop tormenting his brother about the incident.

Hedyr made a face at Darriad, then winced. His eyes still smiled and I smiled back.

"Darriad," someone called from across the room. Conversation in the hall stopped as heads turned toward the speaker. It was a man dressed in light armor and a thick cloak.

Darriad stood and moved quickly toward the man. Hedyr shared a look with a soldier beside him.

"Scout," that man explained.

We all watched Darriad and the man confer, heads close together. Before the man had quite finished speaking, Darriad called over his shoulder. "Jeryan, I need a message to Merife within the hour. Then alert the Second. Have them ready to move."

The room erupted into conversation as one of Darriad's lieutenants moved to act on Darriad's orders. Darriad and the scout moved to the door.

"What do you think it is?" I asked Hedyr.

He did not hesitate before saying, "Umreo. He must have attacked another city." He spoke slowly, carefully separating each word.

"A great lot of good the Second will be if that is the case," the man next to him muttered.

Suddenly needing something with which to occupy myself, I gathered the cloak and gloves I had set beside me on the bench and got to my feet. "Tryven was organizing a skirmish," I told Hedyr. "Care to join us?"

Hedyr pointed to his swollen eye. "Like this?"

I lifted one shoulder as I pulled on my gloves. "Do you let your students stop sparring every time they get a bruise?" I flashed him a cheeky grin. "I'll promise to be on your side if that's what's worrying you."

Scoffing, Hedyr pushed to his feet. "I'm not that scared of you, dragon girl."

Runedan accepted our practice grudgingly.

"How can they say it is more dangerous for a rider to remain with one dragon?" he demanded.

I rolled my eyes. "Runedan, please. It's not about that." I had tried this tact before, with no success, but the usual answers had already been given.