t w e l v e | s k y e
AFTER A FEW hours of silence, Skye finds himself staring absentmindedly at the clouds above them. For a few painful hours they had been flying in those icy shapes for some disguise in case they were followed. He doesn't think any of them had anticipated the chill it would bring and when they finally moved down into the open air, Lana's lips were blue and all of them were cold, wet, and miserable. Even now that Skye's dried off, the heat from Firedusts' back warming him and the sun drying his clothes, he now feels a permanent chill ingrained in his heart, as if they had never left the clouds at all. Just thinking about the way he left Ellerin in Lyra....
Skye sighs and tries to focus on the sight in front of him. They had landed on a rocky outcropping less than an hour ago, and both Bryan and him sit atop their dragons, all of them stretched out and soaking in the warmth. They both still feel weary from the several days on guard in Lyra, both of them still unsettled from the paranoia of being watched and followed, but Lana is full of energy. As soon as they landed, she had them teach her the basics of flying and has since been soaring through the skies gleefully. The deep sense of guilt weighs Skye down from Ellerin but as he watches her makes him feel a little lighter. Her laughter and smiles makes what happened on Lyra a little easier to bear.
"Are you okay?" Bryan asks softly, and Skye looks towards his left, where Bryan had been sitting beside him in silence. Skye figured he, like himself, had gotten used to the constant sound of the buffeting wind and self loathing. Or in other words, silence, so the sudden change in pace to conversation surprises him.
"I'll be fine. It's just..." He trails off and sighs. "I feel as if what happened to Ellerin is my fault."
Bryan frowns. "How so?"
"I just feel like we should have never left her alone." Skye says softly and both of them fall silent at that.
Bryan turns back towards Lana with a weary expression, as if he had aged ten years in a matter of moments. Both of them are at a loss of words, and Bryan's attempt to console him fades in the fact that she is truly gone.
"We should go." Bryan says softly and sets his sight towards the direction of the setting sun. "We should be able to reach Halsa by nightfall."
Skye nods and without words, their dragons leap off the edge of the rocks, and soar into the air.
The dragons spot Halsa before they do. After several solid hours of flight and a full day without any sort of sleep, Skye's exhausted and if not for Firedusts small nudge in his mind, he would've never seen it. To his left and right, he notices Bryan and Lana both shaking themselves awake too, and as they all turn towards the city, he's alert rather quickly.
In the light of several huge braziers, each building seems to be more elaborate than the next, with towering homes that incorporated defining arches and pillars, and beautifully etched woodwork. The darkness of the night casts breathtaking shadows upon the buildings that seem to give them life, as if they are standing tall and proud to greet new visitors.
It takes them only a matter of minutes until several dragons appear on their sides, flanking them and Skye quickly recognizes them as the city guard. The guard leads them over to a large clearing to the left of the center of the city. It's lit brightly and has the tallest building on the edge of it, it's huge bay doors open. To his even bigger surprise, Skye sees a crowd of dragons and their Riders wandering around the clearing.
Hundreds of questions fill his mind as they fly past several buildings so fast he can hardly make out where they are going. Then a familiar grassy field appears beside the building and Firedust slows, landing softly, and looks around in surprise. Most of these Riders look wounded and move jerkily, looking about them as if something or someone is going to attack them at any moment.
A member of the city guard lands in front of them, and although he smiles, he still looks grim. He dismounts from his dragon and as he does, they follow his lead.
Skye's feet hit the muddy ground and he feels as if his bones have turned to jelly. He shakes slightly and for a couple seconds, has to lean on Firedust until he can stand up straight. His legs are uncomfortably stiff as he walks forward to stand between Lana and Bryan.
The city watchman approaches them with a friendly nod. "Welcome to Halsa. I am Horace Woldrid of the City Watch. What are your names and home island?"
Skye shares a glance between Bryan and Lana who both look to him to speak. "I am Skye Medeis, he is Bryan Farrowsnow, and she is Lana of Orleyn."
The man starts at the name. "Skye Medeis of Orleyn?" He immediately brings his right hand over his chest, bowing slightly at the waist. "Your Grace."
The other city guards do the same atop their dragons and Skye freezes in surprise. People bowed to his father. People bowed to Dragon King Atol, not his son that was mostly shut away from the world.
"You don't need to bow." He says quickly, and they all look at him curiously, and he feels his heart beat faster in nervousness at the way they're treating him. "We are simply looking for a place to rest."
Horace straightens. "Of course. Our stables are right over here for your dragons and we've got rooms in the other building. If anything is not to your standard—"
"It sounds great, thank you." Skye says and the other man nods, the faintest of smiles starting to appear on his face, this time genuine.
Before he can reply, a horn blasts in the distance and all of the City Guard straighten. Horace starts to move but hesitates as he looks towards them.
"I trust you all can find your way around?" He asks and as they nod, he gives another small bow, before turning to mount his dragon. Skye feels small standing before his aquamarine colored dragon, and as Horace offers them one last smile, he takes off, leaving them alone on this foreign island.
They all look ahead to the buildings in front of them. The stables reach heights all the way up to the sky, towering over everything else. It's made from thick stone, it's sides covered with splotches of random black scorches from dragon fire. The wooden bay doors are open to the field and inside, Skye can see hundreds of sleeping dragons curled up on the floor or hanging from the rafters, their snores shaking the night.
He pats Firedust on the back, his large intelligent eyes assessing him first, before bounding over to the building, Andena and Whiplash on his heels. They disappear within a matter of moments within the gargantuan building and Bryan chuckles beside Skye.
"Looks like they were eager to rest."
"That makes four of us." He grumbles and both Bryan and Lana add their agreement as they turn to the other building.
He starts walking towards it, and finds himself still marveling at its size. Even though it's significantly smaller than the stables — less than half the height — it's still three stories tall. It's much less intricately detailed than the rest of the buildings in Halsa but still holds a level of grandeur in its simple design.
As they reach the front steps, he finds himself surprised to see a line out the doors; Dragon Riders from all islands waiting to enter. There's highborns with jewels in their blades or bows and simple warriors who are donned in their standard leather armor. He recognizes different sigils from different islands, and he feels himself falling into a deeper dread as he counts more and more islands.
How could the Morai have done this much damage? How could they have ignored this threat for so long?
He doesn't have time to dwell on it as the line pushes forward and people join it behind them. Some tap their feet impatiently as they wait, craning over the shoulders of others to catch a glimpse of what's inside, but others, like Skye, simply wait, too exhausted for the effort. Bryan stands tall next to him but Skye can see his eyelids drooping and even Lana sways on her feet. He feels like he's not even standing on the steps, his vision fading in and out, the other Riders starting to meld together until they're indistinguishable.
He yawns, and as they push forward again, he finds a pillow and blanket being shoved into his hands. The mere surprise of it shocks him back into clear consciousness, and he looks towards the person who gave it to him in surprise.
Before him stands a hunched over old woman, the color of her hair long gone to be replaced with a snowy white shade. Wrinkles cover her face like the skin of a prune, and she smiles cheerfully despite the draining atmosphere.
"Find an empty space in the hall, dear." she tells him and slowly points with a shaking finger to the open doorway in the center of the lobby they stand in.
He nods to her in thanks, and as he's pushed forward by the line, Lana and Bryan rejoin him at his sides, both with the same provisions. It's a rather small pillow, only about the length of his forearm and half as tall, and the blanket is made of a rather scratchy woolen material but as they step into the hall, Skye feels glad to even have these two commodities.
Hundreds of Dragon Riders are all gathered in the hall, their voices hushed but it's like the low hum of a swarm of bees, silent but still deafening. Many are already asleep, curled into their blankets on the wooden floor, but many others converse with foreign Riders, looking about them as if something is going to catch them at any moment. The worst sight is that majority of them are injured or holding bloody weapons, each with a haunted look on their expressions that tells him all he needs to know: their islands fell to the dragon hunters just like Orleyn.
"Come on" Bryan says softly and starts walking towards a barren patch in the center of the hall, stepping over sleeping Riders and maneuvering around others. Skye shares a glance with Lana, who clings tightly to her blanket and looks around her, stiff as a board and wary.
Bryan drops his blanket down onto the floor and wordlessly lies down, closing his eyes almost instantaneously. Lana tries to stifle a yawn and does the same, leaving Skye at the end. His eyes are starting to feel heavy again and as soon as his head hits the pillow, start to feel herself nod off, the light wood ceiling starting to fade.
"Skye?"
He sluggishly looks to his left and is met with Lana's surprisingly alert eyes.
"Yes?" He whispers back and she glances around them, before looking to him, biting her lip in worry.
"Do you think we are safe here?"
He turns away from her at that, refocusing her gaze on the ceiling and sighs. He thinks of all the different islanders, how this room it's packed to the brim like a dam about to burst. He thinks of the screams and ice back in Orleyn. He thinks of how he lost his home, supposedly the most secure place in all of Maris, and how none of them were prepared for these attacks, victory and peace making them weak.
"I don't think anywhere is safe anymore." Skye finally admits and he hears a shaky intake of breath beside him.
When he glances over, she's staring at the ceiling, her expression hardened but her eyes, to his surprise, filled with unshed tears.
"I thought..." she starts but hesitates and stops. "Never mind. Goodnight, Skye."
She closed her eyes, effectively ending the conversation, and he's tempted to ask her what she was going to say but doesn't.
He simply looks away and tries to fall asleep, but he finds himself lying awake for a long time, listening with a stab of pain in his heart to the Riders without a home and the two friends beside him that he hardly even knows.