Promise the Sky

Chapter 56

"Tried to kill me?"

I just shrug.

"I never really had friends before; I'm still learning."

"Your teacher's awful."

"My teacher's you."

I wait for him to complain, but Geraint has become a lot more serious all of a sudden, and he refuses to rise to the bait. He freezes his purposeful gait, holding out an arm to bar my way.

"You can't come," he says, "I've changed my mind."

"What?"

Geraint holds out a hand expectantly.

"Give me the dagger," he says.

I narrow my eyes. My hand stretches instinctually down to my hip, where I have the dagger stashed in the band of my skirt, but I refuse to draw it just yet.

"Why?" I ask, "Why did you just change your mind?"

"Because you're right," Geraint snaps, "you're still learning everything, you're like a child. But I don't want you to learn friendship the way I did, twisted by Null and his false pleasantries. Stay here and look for Drake, it's what you wanted to do anyway."

Eyes still turned to slits in my suspicion, I draw the blade with a slow hand. Geraint's all fidgety and angry - he looks as though he wants to snatch it straight from my hand - but he holds back until I reluctantly press the bone handle into his palm.

"I'm not a child," I snap.

"Whatever makes you happy," he sneers, secreting the dagger away in some hidden compartment somewhere. The movement is so quick, I cannot follow where it went.

"I'm starting to wish I had killed you," I mutter as he turns away. "Is this just because I said 'teacher' again, Geraint? You do realise I'm allowed to make jokes. What is so disgusting about that concept anyway?"

"You don't understand anything," Geraint replies, lifting his voice over his shoulder as he walks away. "Child."

"Excuse me?"

I run to follow him, but Geraint has disappeared entirely. He must have switched through to the other side of the city, and all that remains is his voice, drifting alone and empty on the wind, but just as irritated as before. "Don't try and follow me."

"Wouldn't know how, even if I'd wanted," I mutter, turning back bitterly.

I came to this city to find my place in the world, and I decide that I do not want that place to be defined as 'at Geraint's side', so I fold my arms, scuff my feet a little, and eventually stride off in any random direction.

There's no point finding Drake: he can fly. And without his presence in my mind, I'd never be able to pinpoint him, even if he were bound to the earth.

When we settled down in the city, there just came a point where everything Geraint owned mixed up with everything I owned. It wasn't like we had anything that mattered sentimentally, and a few pots and pans don't really mean much. It just happened and I'm grateful for it. It means that now, when I dip my hands into my pockets, my fingers brush up against the firm surface of dragon scale.

I draw the glittering pieces out into the sunlight and spread them out with a finger, recognising one in deep lilac, and a further two of Drake's cerulean blue. Enough to buy some decent clothing.

I have no idea where I'm going but I know I'll have to stumble across a tailor at some point, so I remain happy in my wandering... or at least externally. Geraint still frustrates me, and I can't exactly say I'm proud of last night.