Wings of Fire • Dragon of Loyalty [4]

Chapter Fourteen

School couldn't be let out sooner. Rainwind was happy to ditch her classmates and did so as quickly as she could.

     "Alright, class," finished Blackbird, "Don't forget to read through the questionnaire tonight. We don't have many quills so after you think about your answers we'll meet one-on-one tomorrow and talk about it together. This scroll can help you determine which job is best suited for you."

     Their teacher paused, looking out across the assembled faces. All the dragonets could sense it was time to leave, not just by her ending speech but also because they were let out at the same time every day – two hours before sunset. Rainwind didn't have to see her classmate's faces to know they all held the same expression: ears tilted back anxiously, body leaning forward in anticipation.

     Blackbird chuckled knowingly. "I won't keep you waiting. Line up single-file and take a scroll. You can't leave without one."

     Rainwind stuck to the back of the line, waiting patiently until she could take a scroll. This was their first piece of assigned nestwork since that time they were asked to read a scroll from the Library. When she reached the front of the line, Blackbird handed the scroll to her with a smile. "I can't wait to see what you pick, Rainwind."

     "Yeah," Rainwind said distractedly, tucking the scroll under her wing and promptly forgetting about it. She was focused on figuring out what to say to Risingwind when she began questioning him. 'Hey, sorry about what your dad did to your wings and that you're a prisoner now, but I was wondering if I could take this opportunity to question your loyalty to him?'

     Come on, Rainwind, she scolded herself, you can come up with a better one-liner than that! What about: 'Hey, if you aren't too busy I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about how your father wanted to murder my aunt and my cousin.' Arrgh! Not that either!

     Putting her frustration aside with being the one to question the slimy turnscale, Rainwind ducked into the Library at the end of the school and pulled out her shard of the Invisibility Pebble. She needed to get past her father if she wanted to have a chance to talk to Risingwind because he would undoubtedly stop her. To do that she had to be invisible.

     Luckily, no one had seen her go inside the library so no one looked back to see if she would come out. Rainwind slipped into the crowd of dragonets streaming from the school and wound her way between their parents towards the other end of the cave. Step one of her plan was a success.

     Time for step two: find Risingwind in the Infirmary.

     Once Rainwind reached the part of the cave reserved for sick dragons she found it to be mostly empty. The only two nests that were occupied had a pair of hunters with a cough. Her mother was off to the side, taking inventory of the baskets of herbs stacked against the right wall.

     Albatrosswing was the type of dragon who took her work home often; running the Infirmary was almost a thirty-six-hour job. Rainwind knew from her mother's dinner conversations with her father that the soldiers who fought in the skirmish were healed and only returned for check-ups and bandage changes. She never mentioned Risingwind, however, which meant that Rainwind didn't know for sure if he was kept here. This was her best bet, however, so this was where she started.

     Looking around at the walls of the cave, Rainwind noticed two guards stationed next to an alcove. She couldn't make out anything under the shadowy overhang but she had a feeling that was where Risingwind was. The guard's spears, which were held crossed over the opening in the wall, gave it away.

     Walking closer, Rainwind could just barely make out Risingwind's grey tail against the stone. She took a breath, psyching herself with dealing with the traitorous dragon. She didn't want to do this very much and would have rather avoided it for fear that Risingwind would try to convert her, or something. Her cousins thought this was a good idea, however, so she had to.