House of Winter

Chapter 3, Part 1

ARI

"So now we are three," Ari said with a breath. "Jinni, this is Warrah. Warrah, this is Jinni."

She'd named the dragon, because it had followed her and for some reason had refused to leave her side. At first it had seemed too weak even to fish in the dam, and so Ari had brought the dragon fish from the kitchens. Somehow, despite everything, she felt sorry for the dragon.

Because the dragon reminded her of her grandmother's dragon Nama, and Ari somehow couldn't stand the idea of leaving him behind. She had thought how angry her sister Bell would be if she knew that Ari was abandoning an injured dragon.

Eventually she had been forced to name him, because she couldn't just keep referring to him as the dragon. She'd settled on Warrah, a native Lombardian name that meant killer. Because, of course, he was the dragon that had killed the Prince of Lombardia.

Warrah and Jinni eyed each other with distrust.

But then Ari gave each of them a fish from the supply she'd stolen from the kitchens. They ate, and Ari let out a breath of relief.

"We'll go to the harbour," Ari told both of them. "We'll find a ship heading Loth. There might be trading ships going to Alamadi. By the time we're sailing, maybe you'll be strong enough to fly long distances, Jinni. Then we can get to the Fire Lands."

Ari started walking. She glanced back, to find that the dragon and the tiger were both staring at her. Ari let out a breath, and then pulled another fish out of her bag. She held it high, and both the dragon and the tiger followed her through the thick snow.

It was cold, it was dark, and both of the kinnlings were injured. They wouldn't be able to walk very far, but they needed to find some sort of shelter away from the cold if they were to stop. She was taking them in the direction of the harbour, hoping that they could make it through the forest by morning. If they took the road it would be a more direct route downhill, but Ari suspected there would be Garde stationed along the road.

After a few hours they needed to stop and rest. After feeding Jinni two fish, she checked his bandages, much to his disgruntled disapproval.

"It's okay, Jinni," she said. The doctors had stitched the skin together where they'd cut off the leg, but the wound still wasn't clean, and it spread along his leg muscle to where it connected to the muscle that connected to his wing. The skin felt hot under the bandages, and Ari could see that the bandages were covered in some kind of puss. She cleaned it as best as she could and then redressed it again, all while murmuring soothing words to the tiger.

It was remarkable that he allowed her, but Ari knew that kinnlings were intelligent. He had clearly decided it was in his own best interest to allow Ari's help, even if he didn't trust her. But Ari knew there may come a moment when the tiger decided he no longer needed Ari's help, and instead wanted revenge.

Ari found a spot under a fallen tree that was protected from most of the snowfall, and the dragon helped her dig it out, so that the three of them could curl up together and try to get some rest. Ari was used to sleeping in rough conditions, but she'd never slept alongside two kinnbeasts before.

When the suns came up, Ari gave the dragon and the tiger the last few fish in her bag. The snow was already melting this morning. As they set off towards the coast, she noticed that the further they walked, the less snow there was, until they finally reached the edge of the treeline, where the snow hadn't fallen. From here, they could see the small harbour town.

It wasn't the main harbour of New Hamilton, which was further along the coast towards the peninsula that pointed to the Lothern sky, but this one serviced the school. It was made up of one long pier, and one single street with a line of shops and houses.

Ari scanned the ships that were tied up at the docks, looking for a ship belonging to Pythos Savvas. She half hoped to see a ship with a bold blue and silver flag depicting a dragon, but of course, it wasn't there. A ship flying the Vastien colours would have been attacked by the Garde by now.

"You'll need to wait here," Ari told the tiger and the dragon. "I'll be back in an hour or so with more food and hopefully some news of a ship."

She left the dragon and the tiger in the shadows at the edge of the forest and took the trail down towards the town as the suns rose behind her. Ari was good at going unnoticed, but she knew she would be pressing her luck if she walked into town now, considering the colour of her skin clearly marked her as Vastien. She doubted the Garde would care that she was a quarter Norrlish.

She let herself into a garden where two spring goats were eating the grass. Neither of them looked up as Ari passed. She slipped down an alleyway next to the house, disturbing a fire cat that hissed sparks at her before fleeing behind a pile of crates. Ari put her head around the corner and surveyed the street.

It was quiet.

Ari had visited this harbour town once last year, on a trip with a few other winter wards who had wanted to visit the market. They'd been able to pool their coins to pay one of the tradesmen who visited the school to take a few of them in his carriage down to the sea, and from there they'd been able to walk along the street, imagining what they might buy if they had money. Ari had spent most of the day sitting by the ocean, reading a book. But she remembered the town being much busier on that sunny spring day. Today, the streets were deserted, except for two Garde on lionback who seemed to be standing guard at the pier.

Ari pulled her wool hat down close over her hair and lifted the collar of the coat she was wearing. Wearing Norrlish clothing and white gloves, Ari hoped that from a distance she would look like a Norrlish girl. There were a few people buying vegetables from a stand set up with winter produce, and Ari focused on remaining unnoticed as she wandered between them, pretending to be inspecting the pumpkins.

Ari glanced up at the Garde by the pier. They were watching the ocean, their cloaks being whipped around by the icy wind coming from the water. She desperately wanted to talk to the dock manager, who would be able to tell Ari about ships leaving the harbour, but she was worried they would turn her in. So instead she listened to the tidbits of conversation around her, hoping to hear anything useful.

"I'm planning to take the children to my sister's house in the country," a woman was saying to her friend as she picked up carrots. "We won't survive the rest of winter here if we can't trade with the Vastiens, so we're just hoping they'll be able to take us in."

Ari kept her gaze low, so that neither women would see her face, and she edged closer to hear their conversation.

She leant over the turnips, pretending to inspect them, when suddenly a rough hand grabbed her from behind and pulled her backwards. Ari let out half of a startled gasp that was muffled by another hand over her mouth, as she was dragged from the tables laden with vegetables, and into the shadowy store behind her.

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Question of the chapter: What's your Hogwarts house??

elle xx