Outcasts of Aquila (Aquila's Originals 2)

Chapter 15: Outcasts, Part 1

6th Storm

"LESSONS ARE SUCH fun now, you really should hurry up and heal so you can join us again. Really."

Taryn smirked at Caelo as lightning flickered beyond the window, joining the lashing rain and rolling thunder that confirmed the Storm Season had reached Aquila. "If you toned down the desperate smile, you might almost have me convinced."

"Only almost?" Vhen enquired. "But it's the truth. Lessons are amazing now. You don't know what you're missing."

"What, all the shunning, accusations and nasty tricks?" Taryn asked wryly. "You're right, I truly don't know what I'm missing. And I am content with that."

Vhen shook his head. "Such a cynical young women. Where did we go wrong with you?"

"Blame Orla," Caelo grumbled. "She must have made it here first."

Taryn grinned. "Of course she did. Like a true friend, Orla visits me twice a day, every lunchtime as well as every evening. Unlike some I could mention."

"Some of us like to eat at lunchtime," Vhen said, while Caelo stuck out her tongue and Zett looked vaguely guilty.

"Where's your goody-goody friend now?" Caelo asked.

Chuckling, Taryn nibbled a tiny teacake that Orla had brought her from the kitchens. "Digging through the store cupboard with Rhiddyl, trying to find where the healers have hidden Morri's special ointments."

"I thought he'd left stacks and stacks of things behind," Zett said, as Caelo tried to steal and teacake and Taryn fended her off with her elbow. "Why are they hiding them?"

"Because they're worried -" Taryn swerved to one side, sending cakes rolling across her bed. "- they'll run out before he -" She planted her hand on Caelo's forehead, holding the other girl at arm's length, while Caelo flailed and cursed at her. "- gets back."

"Careful." Vhen caught the plate before it fell on the floor and grabbed two cakes from the blankets, tossing the second one to Zett.

"Thieves as well as murderers," Taryn growled, gathering the scattered cakes and putting the plate on her lap, where she hunched over it like a miryhl on a kill. "No wonder you're outcasts."

"As will you be, once you leave here." Orla bustled into the room, always full of cheer.

Taryn didn't care about that, since she and her friends would be all in it together. Instead she uncurled from her protective crouch and sat up. "Did you find it?" She'd only been back in the infirmary for three days and, while she was grateful to the healers for making the worst of her pain go away, she was bored out of her mind and ready to crawl out if that was her only option of escape.

"Rhiddyl did." Orla nodded over her shoulder at the dragon, who carried a small pot cradled between her claws.

"Ooh, let me see." Caelo rushed around the bed, managing to steal a teacake along the way.

Taryn no longer cared, shoving the plate into Vhen's greedy hands as she shuffled to the edge of the bed and pulled the covers away from her bandaged leg. "I don't want to see it, just put it on."

"Careful, careful now," Orla cautioned, as Taryn started tearing at the bandages, eager to get them off her skin and replace them with some of Morri's special salve. She hadn't had any since the head healer collapsed, and although that had been almost a month ago, trying to stand on her mending leg had undone a lot of that month's healing work. However, she could still remember the powerful warmth it left behind and the way she felt so much better afterwards. It was the ointment as much as Morri's visits that had healed up her kneecap and arm, and now she was ready to finally fix her leg.