Page 16 of The Fire Apprentice (Sylvania #5)

J ane and Rowan hurtled through the night sky. And all that was holding them up was the flapping of dragon wings.

Jane kept her face against Rowan’s chest. If she opened her eyes and saw the moonlit ground a half-league below, she might swoon and Rowan would be stuck holding her limp body. Not that it would change anything. The dragon’s claws were locked tight around them. Rowan couldn’t drop her if he wanted to.

Which he didn’t. She could tell because he kept kissing the top of her head and retightening his grip around her body. Rowan hadn’t betrayed her—all the hurt and anger of that morning had gone.

Instead she felt ashamed. Ashamed not because she had trusted the wrong person but because she had betrayed him. At the first moment of something appearing to be wrong, she had lost faith in him and assumed the worst. She’d thought she’d been wrong to trust him, but this time, she’d been wrong not to trust him. And that felt a whole lot worse. All the more reason to keep her face hidden.

“It won’t be much longer,” Rowan said in her ear. His calm voice cut through the roar of the wind as they flew. The icy air stung the tips of her ears, but if she turned her head to warm them, her nose would be exposed. Rowan was warm somehow and keeping her from freezing. And he smelled comforting in the bracing gusts of air.

She didn’t know if he would hear her or if the wind would carry her voice away. “Where are we going?”

“Woods Rest.”

“Who’s carrying us?”

“Axe.”

So Axe had come for them. How had he known they needed him?

“Do you want to see the sunrise?” Rowan asked.

She gripped Rowan’s sides tighter—his sides were the farthest she could reach her arms around him, given how tightly Axe held them. “Is it worth it?”

“We may never get to do this again.”

Get to do this. Like he was enjoying it. Was he? She held on and opened her eyes, turning her face away from Rowan’s chest.

She blinked in the unexpected light. Treetops spread endlessly below them under a pale dawn sky. The ground was flat—they were no longer in the mountains. Axe held them sideways, which she’d suspected from the way the forces pulled at her. But she hadn’t been sure because she hadn’t opened her eyes once since he’d snatched them off the ground and flown away.

His massive wings beat the air above them. Through the spaces between his claws she located the horizon, where the sky was lightening as the sun neared. The pink dawn shimmered on a flat plain—it must be the ocean.

Her vision spun and her stomach grew a little woozy. She closed her eyes until it passed and reopened them. She hadn’t fainted. And the view of the ocean glimmering pink and golden at the edge was beautiful.

“I can see the end of the woods by the village,” Rowan said.

Jane glanced aside but the dizziness returned. She kept her eyes on the horizon as it brightened until at last the edge of the sun sparkled above the water.

“Just in time,” Rowan said.

Axe’s wings spread and he coasted down, and the top of the sun disappeared again behind the flat horizon, which disappeared behind the trees. They coasted over the last of the forest and above the fields intersected by the road to Woods Rest that they’d traveled on in the back of the wagon of cabbages. Axe circled and Jane closed her eyes again. The sick feeling in her gut told her they were dropping fast. His wings beat at the air, slowing them. His claws loosened suddenly, and she squeaked and dug her fingers into Rowan. Rowan kept hold of her as she dropped onto poking grasses and cold soil.

She’d stopped moving. She was on the ground. But Rowan didn’t let her go. He lay half on top of her and if anything, he held her tighter. The ground shook and footsteps swished through the grasses. Something moved against her back—something solid. Axe settled down behind her. And his scales warmed.

Jane peeked out from Rowan’s chest but all she could see aside from his shirt was the predawn sky. Grasses prickled under her but Rowan’s arm was under her head. Axe huffed and exhaled, his body relaxing behind her, and he stretched his wing over them. It blocked the sky and wrapped around Rowan, and the whistling of wind in the grasses faded.

Jane saw his bruises again. “Are you hurt?” she whispered.

“Nothing that won’t heal.”

Tears leaked sideways from her eyes and she began to shake. It was all too much—from Elle being taken to learning dragons existed and climbing into the mountains to find her, then falling for Rowan only to think he’d abandoned her and realizing she’d been wrong. And then Rowan being a prisoner. And the men beating him—had Axe killed them last night? How could he not have with that burst of flames? She wanted to think they deserved it for all the people they’d threatened and harmed. And they would have hurt Rowan worse in the morning! But she kept rehearing the shrieks as Axe had flown down to rescue them—or to rescue Rowan, at least—and instead of relief or gratitude she felt sick.

Would Sunshine do something like that to protect Elle?

Jane sobbed into Rowan’s chest, and he held her silently. When she could catch her breath, she turned her face up to him but he didn’t loosen his grip.

“I thought you’d left me. I thought you’d left and I didn’t know why so I thought the worst of you. I’m so sorry.” She broke down again.

Rowan rubbed her back. “I would never willingly leave you.”

“I’m sorry,” she blubbered again.

“I’m to blame.”

“No—”

“I should have known something was wrong,” Rowan said. “We could have hidden until the intruders left.”

“But—”

“Instead I got caught. I left you up there all alone.”

“What happened?”

He stroked her hair and kissed her head again. “I heard Sunshine take off,” he murmured against her. “I should’ve been more careful. She wouldn’t fly away with Elle in the night for no reason. But I went out to investigate. When I stepped out of her den, the miners were climbing over the edge of the cliff. I couldn’t think. I wanted to keep them from finding you.”

“And you did.”

“But I left you to get down on your own. What if you’d fallen?” He kissed her forehead but wouldn’t meet her gaze.

“I didn’t fall. Well, not too much. Just once.”

His arms tightened.

“Mostly I used the belt and the ropes.”

“I’m sorry, Jane.”

She was the one who’d wronged him, and he kept blaming himself.

“Did they really think she had gold?” she asked.

“Gold and magical scales they could sell.” Rowan’s voice went hard and flat.

“How did they find her?”

“From what I gathered, one of them saw her flying simply by chance. They’d been planning their mutiny ever since they arrived at the mine. They’d been there only a moon or so, working as punishment for something.”

“They staged a rebellion in Cliffside. Kitty was there.”

“When they saw Sunshine they thought they’d use her ‘riches’ to escape the continent. So they turned on the leaders at the mine, and once they were free they spread into the forest to find Sunshine. One of them knew about fire mushrooms, and they used those to narrow their search. When they found our ropes, they suspected she was at the top. And the ropes made it easier for them to hoist each other up.”

“My bag,” Jane said. “The ropes were hidden. The bag I left on the ground gave her away.”

“It doesn’t matter now.” He couldn’t say she was wrong.

“You told them you were studying fire mushrooms.”

His hold on her loosened. “How did you know?”

“I heard you at the mine camp. I was at the back window. They had you...” She couldn’t finish. He squeezed her.

“I told them I was a naturalist. They were still searching for Sunshine, so I figured she’d flown away to the east without them seeing her and wouldn’t be back. I said I hadn’t seen a dragon, but they didn’t believe me.”

“How did you say all that without lying?”

“Fairies can tell a direct lie, you know.”

“They can?”

“It’s uncomfortable but it can be done.”

“So you lied?”

“Not really. I believe I said, ‘I study nature. I’m interested in fire mushrooms. I haven’t seen a dragon today. And so on.’”

“Clever.”

“They snooped around for a while, but in the dark they never found the entrance to her courtyard. When they gave up, they forced me to climb down and marched me back to their camp to try to make me talk.”

“They hurt you.” All her guilt at doubting him returned.

“How did you get down so quickly? Did you use the ropes to lower yourself?”

“Hardly. I didn’t think I should try that without knowing how you set the ropes.”

“I can show you.”

“Why?” She frowned. “We’re not doing that climb again, are we?”

“I suppose not.”

“I climbed down the way I went up. I started down as soon as I woke and found you gone. I made it to the trail but I couldn’t follow it. But the fairies’ markers started glowing.”

“Glowing?” He pushed off her and gazed into her face at last. His beautiful green eyes were ringed with hideous, swollen purple skin.

“I touched one of the markers and wished I could see them in the dark and it started to glow orange, and the next one after it glowed, and the next, all along the trail.”

He blinked and his lips parted but he said nothing.

“I thought they were meant to do that. Aren’t they?”

“I don’t know,” he said slowly. “Sometimes... sometimes magic does unusual things.” He shifted his weight to the arm under her head and brushed her bangs off her face. “Are you warm?”

Against her back, Axe’s flank was like a rock in the sunshine, and the air under his wing had warmed. “Very. Is this how Sunshine keeps Elle warm at night?”

“Yes. We should go to the village. Axe thinks Sunshine took Elle back.”

Jane envisioned Sunshine swooping over the village square and torching the shops and the peacekeepers. “Would Sunshine... hurt people?”

“I don’t think so. Elle would never tell her to. And her first instinct would be to take Elle and escape, not to fight.”

“She wouldn’t light Woods Rest on fire.”

“No.”

“When you called to Axe, did you tell him—”

“No.” Rowan stared off above her head. “I... I’m not sure exactly what I communicated. I panicked when I saw you in trouble.”

“Why didn’t you call him to help you sooner?”

“I tried. At first I didn’t want to because I didn’t want him to get hurt. But I needed to get free to go back for you, or to send him to get you, so I tried to reach him. But it didn’t work.”

“But then Axe came,” Jane said.

“When I saw you in the doorway and the guard with the dagger grabbed you, I was terrified. I think I called to him again without realizing it.”

“And it worked that time?”

“Yes.”

“He came quickly.”

“He wasn’t far away, as the bird flies.”

“Or the dragon.”

“The moment I realized he had come I tried to stop him,” Rowan said. “I tried to show him the miners were friends. He didn’t hurt any of them. Only those four men.”

Thank the skies no more of the miners had been hurt. She’d have to alert the peacekeepers to send help up the mountain. And she could tell Master Smith why the ore had been delayed. Hopefully the miners would recover and they’d be able to return to work soon.

“Can you sit up?” Rowan asked and at last he let her go. With his arm around her back, he helped her up to lean against Axe’s flank.

Rowan crouched by her side. His tangled hair hung in his face and a bloodstain trailed across his linen shirt, but when he touched her face he was calm, like nothing else existed. “Stay here a moment. I’m going to speak with Axe.” He crept away and ducked out from under the dragon’s wing.

The crushed grasses around her hands had thin heads of grain on their stalks. Jane leaned her head back. Axe’s wing branched around her.

They’d be home in a short while. And if Sunshine had brought Elle back, this whole ordeal would be over. She had to figure out how Elle could continue training with the dragon safely.

Would Rowan leave? He didn’t seem eager to be done with her. After they’d tumbled each other in Sunshine’s pool, he had offered to stay with her all summer. Maybe he would continue to help her figure things out. Of course, now they were home, he didn’t need to guide her or protect her. But he wanted to be with her—and she wanted that, too.

Sunshine’s pool... Jane closed her eyes. She had told herself she wasn’t breaking her promise to Maryanne if all she shared with Rowan was a tumble, but that had never been all it was, had it? She liked him so, so much. She’d been heartbroken when she suspected he’d betrayed her—and not only because she was left behind. She’d been sorry to lose him. And she’d felt desperate when the miners planned to hurt him again. Now that Elle was, she hoped, home safely, if Rowan left the village, she’d hate being without him.

Her affection for him wasn’t just because he’d been amazing—really, really amazing—at touching her, at making her feel desired and beautiful. Over the past few days, she’d gotten used to being around him and talking with him. He didn’t say much but when he spoke, he knew about things. He knew how to brew tea from foraged herbs and how to tie useful knots. He could take care of things and manage things, and having someone to share tasks with was such a relief after all her seasons of trying to run her household while her daydreams wandered hither and thither. And it might be buried deep, but Rowan had a sense of humor. And he was kind and caring, toward both her and Elle.

And she wanted to take care of him . He seemed to carry some pain she couldn’t figure out, something from his past and related to Axe. She’d bet her last coin it had to do with fire magic.

Now, thinking back about the time she’d spent with Larch, the way they’d been together was hollow and insignificant. Larch had been perfection to her, like an ideal she would never find again. But her perception had shifted leagues away from that. She’d told Rowan nothing could compare to how the love potion had made her feel. It wasn’t true at all. Just talking to Rowan or hiking through the forest with him felt more full and real than anything she’d experienced in her time under the influence of the love potion.

Axe’s wing lifted and harsh sunlight hit her face. As his wing contracted over her head, Jane scrambled to stand to avoid being shut under it as it folded against his body. The hot air he had trapped drifted away in an instant, but the chill morning air wasn’t bad after the cold of the sky and after being warmed so thoroughly. She took a moment to steady herself on her feet. Wind ruffled across the heads of grain surrounding them. The road was a few paces off.

The iron splint fell from her wrist and clanged on the ground. Jane lightly touched her wrist. It was swollen and it still hurt. Thin wisps of dried slue glue sloughed off. She retrieved Rowan’s iron piece and slid it into her pocket.

Rowan stood by Axe’s snout with his hand resting on the scales of the dragon’s head. Jane exhaled, stretched her shoulders back, and limped over to join them. Skies, her feet hurt.

Rowan stepped away from Axe. She said goodbye to the dragon, and they backed away farther as Axe lumbered to his feet. He stepped forward with his front feet and leaned into them, stretching his back the way Mouser did, and lifted his hind legs one after the other to stretch them. Heat wafted off him but he seemed to have stopped radiating it the way he had when purposely warming them. He took a few deceptively calm steps forward as his wings came out and with a mighty flap he lifted off. He swept forward with another flap and cleared the trees, climbing in a wide circle over their heads once before he flew off toward the mountains. They watched in silence until he was gone.

“Come on,” Rowan said quietly and turned to the village.

Jane followed as he trudged across the field. The spring wheat was up to her thighs and thick enough that she pushed it aside to wade through it. She stumbled on the uneven clods of dirt and Rowan caught her elbow. He was always ready to catch her.

They pushed through to the edge of the wheat and onto the strip of grass alongside the dirt road leading to the village. Opposite were rows of new green plants and a rooster called from the nearest cottage. The sun was clearing the trees and pink light illuminated the fields.

The road was deserted. It was early—but shouldn’t someone be out in the fields early on such a clear spring morning?

Rowan let go of her arm and started along the road. Even a glimpse of his profile made her wince at the ugly bruises. He hadn’t had a moment to wipe the blood from his face, although he ran a hand over his stubbled chin as they walked, as if he suspected what a mess his face was. His clothes were stained and torn, as if the miners had dropped him off the cliffs, and his toes were caked with mud. Being marched as a captive was probably unforgiving on bare feet.

Of course, she must be a sight too. Her clothes were disheveled with the ripped sleeve hanging off her arm and her once-braided hair had gone so frizzy with loose ends poking out, she dreaded brushing it out. Her bangs were snarled with bits of twigs and leaves. And her own bare feet were so sore she’d started limping in a futile attempt to ease the pain. She’d been awake for... was it only one day? Rowan had been awake longer than she had. As soon as they found Sunshine and Elle, Jane was going to insist he go to bed. Or take a hot bath. Maryanne wouldn’t want him in their house, but she would have to make one exception to her anti-fairy rules. Or they could go to Rowan’s place, but where did he live? She’d never asked him.

She hobbled beside him as they neared the first cottage. A thin trickle of smoke curled from the chimney, but no one moved inside the open front window. The road remained empty as they passed more cottages on the outskirts of the village and even when the village square appeared ahead. No one moved about in the opening between the buildings, as if the square was vacant. The day was young but not that young. Was something wrong? Were all the villagers hiding from Sunshine? She limped a little faster, and Rowan kept pace without comment.

They passed the bakery and entered an empty village square. Jane slowed. The sign at the general store was flipped to CLOSED, and the shades were drawn at the milliner’s shop. The scent of fresh bread wafted from the bakery, but no one lingered in the front of the shop. Down the lane to their left, no clangs of hammer on iron rang out from the smithies.

Voices buzzed somewhere. Jane glanced at Rowan. He met her gaze but his face was relaxed. Sunshine didn’t worry him. Jane continued into the square and a few paces in, the view opened down the lane to her house. A crowd filled the road.

If Sunshine had arrived with Elle last night and she was here, word must have gotten out and the villagers wanted a glimpse of her. Maybe she had landed in the backyard. If she was lying down, she’d be behind the cottages and trees.

Jane and Rowan reached the edge of the crowd. Heads turned to see them. One by one the villagers stopped talking and stepped back to let them through. Master Smith nodded to her, and Jocelin from the grocery, and Gilbert, the carpenter’s lad. She knew everyone’s names, but they goggled at her like she was a mythical creature who’d crawled out of the village pond.

A sea of faces watched her, and the crowd parted as they walked through. And as the villagers ahead stepped apart, the hole left by their parting revealed a cluster of horses tethered to the low branches of a maple tree alongside the road, nibbling on the new grass by their hooves. Canvas tents covered the front yard of her house and a group of people filled the front walk.

Not local people. They wore matching dark-green tunics with tight britches on their legs and their skin shone in the morning sunlight. And they were barefoot.

They were fairies. And in the center of them, watching her, was Larch.