Prince Noralv- Edge of Shadows Page 9
“Redtails?” I leaned closer.
“No. Someone else.” Skylar cocked his head to the side.
My stomach knotted.
“Before the sun cracked over the horizon this morning, on my way back from the north, I felt a familiar energy as I flew over Wulfhli Village. I settled on a roof near where I had felt it.” Skylar shifted. “At first, I didn’t see anything, but then I saw him.”
“Who?” My eyes were fixed on Skylar.
“Alzur.”
“Alzur? Master Quentin’s constant?” I leaned back. “If Quentin is nearby then that could mean he is hunting someone.” I twisted my fingers in my auburn ringlets.
“I saw Alzur, but I didn’t see Quentin. He must have been in one of the buildings nearby. There was unknown energy close to Quentin’s energy.” I could feel Skylar’s concern. “There were two distinct energies. Powerful energies. One was pure, wild, and raw while the other was controlled chaos. One was Quentin’s, and the other was strange. Not like others I have felt before. It was brighter than most and buzzed with static.
“That’s what I saw last night, but the weird thing is, I still feel that same chaotic feeling. Like a thin fog permeating everywhere.” He tilted his head. “I don’t know, Lu. Something strange is happening out there.”
“Are there Redtails out there? Did you see any?”
“Yes. There was a camp just southeast of Stanrocc. It looked like there was a bloody battle. They are on the move—from Mielond to Theotania.”
“Oh my.” I knew the possibility that there was going to be Redtails in Theotania, but now it was confirmed. I didn’t know how to feel. I was stunned. I was worried. Was a rebel war about to start?
“Was my father with them?”
“No. Not that I could tell. He may not be involved in this at all.” He lowered his head.
“Thank you.”
“I’m sorry I can’t give you more information,” he said.
I could tell Skylar could feel my disappointment. “Thank you for looking. Will you still be around later?”
“Yes.” He bobbed. “I am off to hunt.”
Ignoring the raven’s chatter and Qin’s curious glances, I went behind some barrels and slid back the piece of wood to reveal my secret compartment. I took out my father’s box. Opening the box, I pulled out a notebook and a few papers. Even though I had a life at the academy, I still longed to be back with my kinship in Mielond, in Teeves Forest. I was part holtkin and part aelven, but my heart was holtkin. I belonged in the trees of my people. My father did, too.
I added my notes of what Skylar told me and marked on the map about where the Redtails were seen. It would take about a week for them to all travel there, if that’s where they were heading.
I heard a shuffle below me. A person was there. Crap. I hoped someone didn’t see what I was doing.
I shoved my box back into its hiding spot and slid the wood plank back in its spot. I heard another shuffle. I climbed down the ladder, careful to not scare the person who was hiding. I saw a boot sticking out from behind the pile of hay. I poked my head around the piled hay. Celcia was huddling on the floor.
“Why are you hiding?” I asked.
“Umm…” She looked to the wall then to the floor. “There are noble boys outside.” She blushed.
“Which ones?” I glanced over my shoulder.
“Braithe … Elec… and Ren….” she said.
“Ugh. Nobles.”
Braithe and Ren often followed Elec around and did whatever he did. They were his sheep.
“Did you need me to get you out unseen?”
“Would you be able to?”
“Of course.” I stood straight. “Where were they last?”
“Out front,” she said, slowly crawling out from behind the hay.
I went to the front barn door and peeked through the crack, and saw Elec talking to his ‘sheep’, Braithe and Ren.
“They're still there. Let’s go through the chicken coop.”
Celcia nodded. She followed close behind me. We started going through the chicken coop when I heard the boys come through the front door. The ravens grew silent above with the odd mutter. In fact, all the animals grew quieter. They all didn’t like Elec and his friends’ negative energy.
Some were scared. Some felt the negative energy and wanted to be far away from it and felt trapped. Some were uncomfortable. Some felt frustrated, and it angered them.
I shoved Celcia into the chicken coop and closed the door behind her when I heard the boys behind me.
“Look here. A swine-ian in her habitat,” said Braithe.
Ren laughed. Elec cracked a smile. He stood back and crossed his arms as he leaned on a wooden post.
I stood straight. “What do you guys want?”
“What we want and what we do is our business,” said Braithe.
I crossed my arms. “What you do in this barn is my business.”
“Yeah right. This barn is ours. Not yours.” Braithe stepped closer.
“How does it belong to you?” I asked.
“We own this building and everything in it.” Elec lifted his chin.
“No you don’t.”
What he was saying was ludicrous. I edged myself forward with the hope that they’d show any sign of letting me by. They stood firm. Things weren’t going to end at all in my favor. I really longed for Payton to suddenly appear. She’d be more than happy to get me out of such a situation.
“It’s our House money that pays for everything here. Therefore, it belongs to us,” said Elec.
“This academy was built with beaulecraft money. It doesn’t belong to any noble House. It belongs to Hremm,” I said.
“This academy belongs to the nobles now, regardless of who built it. Hremm is a mere fraction of what it used to be,” said Braithe.
“Hremm is essential to Theotania,” I said. My heart was pounding. I was scared and angry.
“Do you think we care one bit about your stupid Order?” said Ren.
“What good is beaulecraft if our Cempa doesn’t even use it?” said Elec.
He took a couple steps forward. I stepped back.
“Nobles are banned from using it. With your behavior, I can see why. You would abuse it, like your fathers before you.” My frustration was rising.
Braithe grabbed my cloak and pulled me to his face.
“Get out of my barn,” I said in a low tone.
My heart thumped harder. My beaulecraft reached for the ravens, but their attention was beyond the barn. A large and almost heavy force was outside. An energy I had never felt before. Without realizing, my ki reached out for it. The raw power of it was inviting, yet scary and exhilarating. My energy pulled at the overpowering energy.
“I said, get out of my barn!” I shouted. “Don’t touch me,” I tried to twist his arm off my cloak.
“Make us.” Braithe tilted his chin in my direction.
“Don’t touch me!”
The other energy was very close, but its energy was like spikes, resisting everyone’s energy, including nature’s. It was odd.
“Excuse me,” said a voice from the doorway.
Everyone looked at the boy standing there holding a shovel. His one eye was swollen and bruised purple on his slender face. His cheek scabbed and red where it looked to have been split, leaving his youthful face looking rundown. He had obviously been in a fight or battle of some kind.
His energy filled the room, permeating every crack and crevice. Even Braithe, Ren, and Elec’s untrained ki took notice. It was almost stifling.
His grey-blue eyes wandered over everyone then glanced up at the rafters. He let out a slow breath.
“I am here to see to my horse.” He re-gripped the handle of the shovel. “Who do I talk to about that?”
Desiring a bit of solitude, I went toward the barn. To my relief and surprise, Quentin didn’t chase after me. He actually let me walk out on my own. It woul
d be the very first time, other than when I escaped the Mielonders, that I was alone. Absolutely alone. No masters, no servants, no bodyguards. It felt strange and depressing.
As I approached the barn I could hear people talking. The large weather-worn barn door was half slid open and I leaned against the wall out of sight.
“...you would abuse it, like your fathers before you.” I heard a girl say. She then mumbled something.
“Get out of my barn!” shouted the girl.
“Make us,” challenged a boy.
I grabbed a shovel from a line of three I’d noticed leaning up against the outside wall. If I was going to encounter a confrontation, I felt I should be armed with something. A shovel would do. With caution, I wandered in. Lanterns hung on the posts of the stalls. Nickering and the odd whinny came from the horses in their stalls. The smell of manure and hay hung strong in the air, and I could almost taste the dust that floated about. I glanced up to the rafters to see several hostile looking ravens perched above. A wave of dread washed over me.
Three boys, each with a look of amusement, were standing around one girl.
“Don’t touch me,” said the girl trying to twist a boy's hand from her cloak. She was a short girl, wearing boy’s attire of a plain blue wrap-tunic and brown trousers. Her auburn, curly hair was tied back.
The boy who had the girl in his grip was taller with a thicker build. His mud-brown hair was combed down, and his black tunic with gold trim was very neat and tidy. In fact, they all wore the same tunic. The academy uniform would be a very good guess.
The boy in the middle had long, black hair tied back in a low ponytail, soft features, with dark narrow eyes.
The third boy stood a pace back with a hand tucked in the tunic’s golden sash observed with amusement. He was the shortest of the three, not by much, had a pointed nose to look down upon others with.
Aside from the boy in the middle, if a fight were to break out, I could take them myself, but something inside me knew pony-tail boy would make for a challenging opponent.
I looked around. Perhaps I could find inspiration to try and dissolve the situation building in front of me without risking them stirring up the ravens that watched from above. I looked at the shovel in my hand.
“I am here to see to my horse.” I re-gripped the handle of my shovel as I stood in the doorway. “Who do I talk to about that?”
“This girl right here,” said the pony-tailed boy. “She gets down and dirty every day.”
“I think Luella likes it,” said the tall one.
The boys laughed at their supposed joke.
“Don’t shame yourselves,” I said.
“Pardon me.” The ponytailed boy broke away from the group and approached me. The focus was off the girl and now on me. It was a start. Now I needed them to leave. “I don’t recognize you. Are you a new servant or something?” he asked.
“Just a visitor.” I casually scratched the back of my head.
“Visiting the sugian side, is that it?”
“Is it that obvious?”
I looked down at myself.
“If you are ‘checking on your horse’ or doing any type of chore then that would mean non-nobility or poor, and only the poor practice beaulecraft. Everyone knows that we nobles are above such weird practices.”
“So I have been told.”
I saw my horse in a nearby stall and went in. Tending to a horse was not in my expertise at all, but what would a noble know about that? Petting her and pushing a shovel around would suffice.
“What’s your name, beaulecraft boy?” he asked.
“Leave him alone, Elec,” Luella said.
“I am of Noble House … Dwennon.” I gave a firm stare. It felt wrong to give out a false identity, but it would be foolish to give out my real name.
“Why is a noble boy practicing beaulecraft?” Elec said.
“I am not practicing the art. I am merely a guest here,” I said.
“Of course you are,” he said with a hint of sarcasm. “A noble to attend here must at least know the basics of defense.” He indicated the bruises on my face.
His friends chuckled.
“Do you see your business, right there, in front of you? You should stick to that and stay out of mine.” I gave an over-exaggerated smile. “I would be grateful if you and your servants would leave.” I waved my hand as if to dismiss them, then turned away and bent down as if I were picking something off the ground. Elec was getting on my nerves, and I had an idea. A stupid idea, but an idea.
“You may come from a House of some nobility,” said the large boy who still had a grip on Luella's cloak. “But make no mistake, Dwennon, that Elec of House Aldrich, Ren of House Norvin, and I, of House Mordemir, will always be of a higher pedigree than you.”
I choked back a laugh and stood up, being careful not to show the amusement on my face.
“You attend the same school as us,” the girl said. “You share the same food, and live under the same roof, do you not? We are all the same. There should be no rank or pedigree within an academy, among beaulecraft or not.”
“You are a silly girl, Luella,” said Elec. “If my family has any control over such matters, which they do - a lot of control - soon, beaulecraft will no longer be practiced here.”
“As a humble noble, I was taught to respect those who serve you and those who you serve,” I said.
“Ugh. Elec, let’s go. I don’t need to be lectured by some outer berg leftover,” said the boy from House Norvin. The short one.
“Better a leftover worthy of the Cempa then to be rotting meat that isn’t worthy of a street urchin,” I retorted.
“You want to start something?” he said.
“Try it.” I stood firm. Challenging him. Daring him. I had a bunch of pent-up frustration, and he and his friends were easy targets.
Release me…
“Please, will you get your noble selves out of my barn?” Luella said.
The ravens from the rafters began to mutter and squabble. It made me feel nervous. Time for my stupid idea.
Elec turned to Luella. “You freak,” he said.
I quickly put my hand on his back.
“She’s right. You should leave and take care of that.”
“Take care of what?” Elec said.
“The manure I wiped on your shirt.”
I wiped my handful of nothing down his back, then pushed him out of my way and bolted out of the barn.
“You swine!” I heard him yell.
They were coming after me. I could hear them running. At least they’d be out of the barn. I flipped the shovel in my hands so the spade of it was closest to me and the handle was out. Elec came charging around the corner. He jumped over it as I swung it out. I swung back and hooked Elec’s tall friend’s ankle, crippling him down to the ground, the short one falling on top of him. A foot came flying at my head. I rolled out of its path to my feet. Elec faced me in a low stance, ready to kick again.
“Oh, buddy. You’re in for a real bruising,” said Elec.
Release me…
Kreeaaahhh! came a cry from the sky. We looked at the tree line in the distance. I didn’t see anything. Yet.
“Leave him alone!” Luella said as she approached with purpose in each step.
Kreeaaahhh! I looked again and saw a large hawk soaring down toward us. I backed toward the barn wall.
“Not worth the effort,” said the tall one while getting up from the ground.
“Come, guys. Let’s go.” Elec looked at me then walked away. His friends followed.
The hawk slowed its descent, then landed on Luella’s outstretched arm. “Ugh. Those guys are jerks,” she said.
“Do they do that a lot?” I asked.
“Yeah. Sometimes. I have tried to tell my mother or the masters here. We only get a ‘don’t go into the barn unless you need to’ and ‘you should keep to yourself and they will leave you alone’.” Luella looked at her bird. “Elec will probably tell his mother
that I turned Skylar on him. Eh. Who knows…?”
“Who’s Skylar?” I said, still keeping my distance from Luella. The energy from the encounter with Elec and his friends was swirling in me, and it wasn’t settling. I took a deep breath.
She lifted her arm the bird was sitting on. “This is Skylar. He’s my friend.”
“Your friend is a bird?”
Another deep breath.
“Yes.”
“Okay. And Elec’s mother is someone significant?”
The deep breaths weren’t helping. I needed to find Quentin. I didn’t want to admit to him that I needed his help, but I had no one else to turn to.
“Are you okay?” Luella asked.
“I’m fine,” I said.
She nodded like she didn’t believe me. I didn’t believe me. “Anyway, Elec’s parents run this academy, and his mother thinks her son can do no wrong,” said Luella. “Everyone here seems to accept her opinion as the way things are, and never challenge her.” Luella pinched her mouth closed. “My goodness. I haven’t introduced myself, and I am chatting away to someone I don’t know. Forgive my venting.”
“Don’t worry about it. I, myself, needed to cool off.”
“My name is Luella.” She stretched her hand out toward me, but in automatic response, I bowed. She lowered her hand and dipped in a bow.
“I’m, uh, Thayne.”
“Thank you for your help.” Luella stepped toward me. I sucked in my breath. “But you really don’t want to get mixed up with Elec, Braithe, and Ren.”
Luella stroked the bird’s chest with her fingers. “Come say hi to Skylar. He doesn’t bite friends.” She walked toward me.
I held up my hand. “Thank you. No, I do not wish to say hello to your bird.” I bowed slightly.
Release me … Release me…
“Are you sure you’re doing alright?”
“Yes,” I said.
I really needed to leave before the power released again like it did at the Mielonder camp. Luella’s bird made a croaking sound.
I flinched. “I apologize for interfering with your affairs. I’ll take my leave.” I turned and walked away. There were too many birds in this place.
Release me … Release me…
From around the barn, Quentin came running toward me.