Ambushed (The Brindle Dragon Book 4)

  Ambushed

  The Brindle Dragon, Book 4

  Jada Fisher

  Copyright © 2019 Fairfield Publishing

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Except for review quotes, this book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the author.

  This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is purely coincidental.

  Contents

  1. Back on Track

  2. Playing Catch-Up

  3. Make Up for Lost Time

  4. What’s in a Name?

  5. Three’s Company, a Cadre’s Assault

  6. Old Warnings, New Threats

  7. The Opposite of a Vacation

  8. The First Night

  9. Wild Times

  10. So Much Worse

  11. Many Joyous Returns and a Dreaded One

  Thank You

  1

  Back on Track

  Eist stood outside the academy gates, her eyes searching the horizon as the road filled with her fellow dragon hopefuls and their families saying good-bye for another year. They were all right in the middle of their education and would soon reach a turning point toward independence.

  It was certainly exciting, but Eist was anticipating someone else even more.

  “She’s coming all the way from Margaid,” Yacrist said, sidling up beside her and handing her a warm mug of soup. “It’s far too early for her to be arriving.”

  Eist shrugged. “I know. But I want to be here the moment she does.”

  “You’d think you hadn’t seen her in years rather than just a single harvest break.”

  She didn’t respond to that, knowing he was just teasing. Normally, while she missed her friends, she enjoyed being home and just having leisure time with Fior and her grandfather. But the last break had been anything but normal.

  Due to her injuries—and mostly the poison—she’d spent much of the schoolyear healing and then the break catching up on what she missed. They’d required her to live in the healer’s hall for far too long before finally letting her stay in the dorm she would eventually share with Dille. Even then, she still had to return to them twice a day for further recuperation from her wounds.

  Apparently getting shot by an arrow was a bigger deal than she thought. That, on top of the poison that had eaten a lot of her musculature, left her needing to relearn how to do a lot of simple things at first. Like write. And change her clothes. Thankfully, she was almost one hundred percent back to normal and ready to take on the new academy year.

  Too bad the healers were far too obsessed with her new…ocular abilities.

  They weren’t that exciting. So she could see in the dark now, it wasn’t a big deal. The only real difference was that occasionally, she didn’t look like she had just one witch’s eye but two. That was a real improvement on her fitting in.

  Sometimes, she swore the only thing that kept her from going mad was that Yacrist had been by her side the entire time. He had no problem using his political weight to make healers leave her alone or bringing her treats when everything was especially glum. He even read to her when the nightmares bit into the night, making her chest heave and her stomach clench with fear. Sometimes he looked at her a bit too intensely, too deeply, in a way that made her nervous. But mostly, she took great comfort in his presence.

  “I can’t believe it. Our third year.”

  Fior let out a little chirp in agreement with Yacrist and sidled up to him, nosing for snacks in the pouches hanging from the young man’s belt. It was a trick the dragon had learned only a month or so ago, when he realized he was finally tall enough to do so. Despite what the healers had said, her little dragon was growing. Sure, it wasn’t as much as all the others, and no, he was nowhere near being able to hold a full human’s weight, but she could still tell.

  It seemed everyone was growing, Eist noted as other students continued to file past her. She herself had grown an inch or so, with her shoulders and hips both broadening once she was back on a full meal and recovery schedule. However, her lack of running or ability to fully train made a lot of her solidness slide away. Her thighs weren’t as thick now and her arms grew loose in their sleeves. Her middle, while shrinking a bit, had grown much softer and weak, which she didn’t like at all. Whenever she complained to Yacrist, however, he had just told her it was part of the healing process and then tried to feed her something else.

  Her eyes moved over her friend as she remembered all the pastries he had brought her over the past few months. Like he wanted her all soft and coddled. Unlike her, he had grown taller, broader, and leaner than ever. While he was no mountain of muscle or juggernaut, he was very clearly fit, with biceps that Eist often found herself admiring when he wasn’t paying attention. He had cut his hair again, reducing it to charming curls that framed a face which definitely belonged to a man now, instead of a young boy. It was strange to think that, if he had not chosen to pursue being a dragon rider, he would most likely be married and learning the things that nobles learned.

  Strange. Very strange.

  A shadow passed over them, Alynbach settling on the ground next to them. Fior trotted up to them and they began playfully tussling with each other, the two-headed dragon just as liable to tangle themselves up as much as pin the little brindled dragon. They helped make the time pass a bit more quickly, but even their antics couldn’t keep Eist from noticing a large, familiar red glint in the air.

  “Veralda!” Eist exclaimed without thinking, hustling down the path, pushing past people as best she could.

  “Hey now,” Yacrist called after her before she felt his footsteps fall in line behind her. “No need to go running toward her. She’ll be here in just a few minutes.”

  “I don’t care if it’s silly,” Eist said, still hurrying toward the glint in the air. Although there were several red dragons, none had the truly striking mass of Veralda. She was quite the portly dragon, and Eist couldn’t wait to see how large she got when she reached full maturity. “I miss my friend.”

  Year One Eist would have no doubt thought the same as Yacrist. That she was being silly and expending unnecessary energy. But Year One, Eist had no friends and was an idiot. She’d learned a whole lot since then.

  “Hey, I’m your friend, and I’ve been here the whole time,” Yacrist said. Eist couldn’t be sure, but he sounded almost put out. No… That wasn’t it. But there was a strange lilt to his tone that didn’t feel comfortable.

  “The academy doesn’t like students underfoot during their harvest break and prep and you know that. I was only able to stay because they couldn’t move me, and you had to use your father’s influence to get to stick around too. You don’t think that Dille would like to stay where she can have three meals a day instead of going back to Margaid where she’s all alone?”

  “Well, I offered for her to stay as a guest in my home, where she would be close, but she didn’t want to. That seems kind of strange to me.”

  Eist thought of Dille having to live alone in the Grand Palace, which was where the family of the Lord of the House resided. Given what she had learned of most nobility from Ain, Eist didn’t think that would be the most pleasant experience for her.

  “You don’t understand,” was all she could say as she continued up one of the small hills of the path.

  Yacrist didn’t say anything else. Perhaps he let the conversation drop, or perhaps he was distracted as the red glint lowered quickly, as if it was trying to dive bomb them.

  “Veralda!” Eist called again, opening her arms wide. The dragon let out a truly impressive roar, whipping the girl’s hair back, before landing with an incredibly solid thunk!

&nb
sp; “You had no idea she was going to stop in time,” Yacrist scolded breathily from behind her. Eist looked over her shoulder to see his eyes wide and his face a bit gray. She was amused for a moment before she remembered that he had almost watched her die twice already and tended to be a little protective. It wouldn’t hurt her to try to be a little more considerate of his feelings. She couldn’t imagine what she’d do if she saw either Dille or him laid out on a healer’s cot, barely clinging to life.

  “I trust her,” Eist said before throwing her arms around the shoulders of the red dragon. Her hands couldn’t meet behind the reptile’s neck, but Veralda didn’t seem to mind, letting Eist hold on until Fior and Alynbach scampered up to steal away her attention, the purple dragon practically tripping over itself. Eist couldn’t be exactly sure, but she had the sneaking suspicion than either Alyn or Bach fancied Veralda a bit.

  A loud shout sounded across the path, and Eist looked to see a wagon rolling up to them with a familiar dark figure standing next to the driver. “See, I told you that she missed you terribly!”

  “Not as much as I missed her,” Eist retorted before jogging forward once again. But as she drew closer to the wagon, she realized the figure wasn’t quite as familiar as it once was.

  Like everyone else, Dille had grown, clearly gaining a couple of inches. But instead of the gaunt figure that Eist had expected, the young woman had apparently…filled out.

  Eist stopped in her steps, mind whirring. It made sense, both she and Dille were sixteen going on seventeen winters, but she’d expected her friend from Margaid to have lost weight like she had during her previous break from the academy. She’d had a whole plan on how to fatten her up and get her back to a healthier size, but it didn’t look like that was needed anymore.

  Finally, the wagon pulled up close enough for Dille to vault out and close the distance between them. Her hair had grown bigger, no longer kept tight to her head in a stern braid and instead surrounding it like a curly cloud. Her lips were fuller, and there was a slight softness over her normal lean muscle.

  The next thing Eist knew, they were hugging tightly. She dismissed her shock at her friend’s changed body and wrapped her arms tightly around Dille.

  “Huh, I see you haven’t become weak and sickly while all those healers coddled you,” she joked.

  “You think I’d let them do that?” Eist laughed, feeling her belly warm. She had missed Dille so terribly, her dry wit and the way she just understood things.

  “I don’t know, you did fight tooth and nail to get into a caravan with a bunch of brigands.”

  “Fair point.” Finally, Eist stepped back, allowing herself to truly look her friend up and down. The dark-skinned girl was also dressed in finer clothing, and sported a very thin, silver necklace about her neck. “You look well,” Eist said finally. “Did your situation in Margaid change?”

  “You can say something like that,” she answered, a look of mischievousness on her face.

  Before Eist could ask her to clarify, there was a thump of someone else jumping from the wagon to the ground. Flicking her eyes away from her newly beautiful friend, and not quite sure what to think of it, she saw none other than Ain walking toward them.

  He was different too. Taller, and his fair skin had a golden tint to it. He looked far less stressed than she had ever seen him, which would have been nice if Eist wasn’t so suddenly concerned with why he had been riding in the same caravan as Dille. There was no reason for him to be anywhere near Margaid.

  “What’s going on?” Eist asked uncertainly.

  “Relax,” Ain said dryly, just as full of crooked smirks as ever. “We’ll explain later. I’ll have the manservant deliver our things to our dorms, so why don’t we go see if the cafeteria is as miserable as ever?”

  Eist didn’t know quite what to do but nodded. It was only then that Yacrist joined them, feeling strangely stiff beside Eist.

  “I like the cafeteria,” he muttered, quiet enough that only Eist could hear before they all ambled along the path with everyone else.

  Eist could already tell that it was going to be a strange year.

  2

  Playing Catch-Up

  Eist dug into the chicken before her, happily gorging herself on the first dinner of the new year with her friends. Yacrist was to one side of her, Dille was to the other, and Ain was across from her, looking happy to be back despite his constant sarcasm.

  Their dragons were a different matter. Veralda was now officially too big to fit into the cafeteria and was relegated to the outside courts and caves along with Ain’s dragon, Belfryst. Alynbach and Fior were still small enough, however, and scampered about in the periphery with the other metallic and undersized dragons. It was the one advantage of Fior being such a slow grower—she got to spend almost all of her day with him. She wondered what she’d do if there was a day where he couldn’t fit cuddled up beside her in her bed, but she’d figure that out when the time came.

  Because it would come. Despite what the healers said, he was still growing. His teeth had finished coming in, and his scales were still a beautiful mix of copper, bronze, and black. Her beautiful, brindled little dragon boy.

  “So why were you traveling with our Dille?” Yacrist asked out of nowhere, his tone a bit perfunctory. Eist looked up in surprise, not having expected that from him. While she never had told her friends about the sort of truce and late-night conversation that she’d had with Ain, they had both seemed to understand that the enmity between them had faded. Eist had thought that all of that was long buried, but if that was so, why was Yacrist’s voice so close to being cutting?

  “Your Dille?” Ain echoed dryly, biting lazily at a piece of bread.

  Eist looked to Dille, who just rolled her eyes. “Humor him. He’s still in mothering mode since one of our friends likes to repeatedly almost die every year.”

  “It’s not like I try,” Eist objected, feeling her cheeks color ever-so-slightly. “I just have a knack for getting into things I shouldn’t.”

  “That’s one way to say it,” Dille retorted with a laugh and a gentle elbow to her friend’s ribs.

  “I’m just saying,” Yacrist continued, not seeming to entirely catch the mood. “What was a debtor’s son doing all the way in Margaid?”

  Now that definitely wasn’t nice, and Eist stepped on Yacrist’s foot with her heel. He flinched, but that just made Ain smile a little too happily.

  “Ex-debtor’s son, actually,” he answered as cool as water. Eist was reminded of how flustered she had been by Ain those two years ago when they had first met. While she had been able to ruffle his feathers, Yacrist didn’t see people’s insecurities like she did. “Dear Father died in an attack on the border where he was stationed. His debt was wiped away with his life.”

  Eist’s stomach twisted at that, remembering when she had lost her own parents. “Ain, I’m sor—”

  “Don’t be,” he interrupted blithely. “It’s the best thing he’s ever done for my family.”

  “Still doesn’t explain how you got all the way to—”

  “By the Three, Yacrist, would you give it a rest?” Eist snapped.

  “It’s fine, I don’t mind explaining.” Ain gave one of those shrugs, but his eyes were oh-so-sharp on Yacrist. For once, Eist couldn’t tell what he was thinking. “A Margaidian noble happened to take a fancy to my mother. Invited my whole family down to one of his estates for the summer. We were more than happy to oblige, and he took quite good care of us.”

  “And me too,” Dille added softly. “It was strange. I had this dream that I had the most delicious pastry from the market and when I woke up, I knew I had to have something sweet. We ran into each other just in front of a Rothaichian bakery, and he insisted on taking me home for dinner.”

  Eist looked to Ain uncertainly, surprised by him insisting on anything. He shrugged once more, but she saw a bit of color rise to his cheeks. “With me and my brothers, I just figured my mother would like a little female company.
I didn’t expect her to fall in love with you.” He narrowed his eyes at Dille on that last sentence, as if he was playfully accusing her. “Didn’t realize I’d be near twenty years old when I suddenly got a little sister.”

  “Is that true?” Eist asked. Not that she didn’t believe Ain, but in the two letters she’d received from her best friend, Dille had never mentioned being taken under anyone’s wing.

  “Lady Hihdhean is very generous. She insisted I stay the night after finding out I didn’t really have a set home outside of the little hidey hole I found in a crumbled building. Then she just kind of convinced me to never leave. I didn’t even realize it until my third day there.”

  “That’s exactly what my mother is like,” Ain said with a sigh. “She asks you a little thing here, a little thing there, and the next thing you know, you’re one of the family.”

  Eist just kept looking between them, uncertain what to say or think, but the primary feeling was mostly happiness. Warmth that Dille had found safety and kindness, and also that Widow Hihdhean might have found a sort of daughter that she had always been missing. In the background, there was a strange sort of confusion at thinking that Ain and Dille had spent a whole harvest break together. They just seemed like such an odd couple, and yet, as they sat across from each other, they were clearly at ease.

  Huh. What a strangely small world.

  “Well, I’m glad you had some place warm and safe to be.”

  “Me too,” Dille said with an honest sort of nod. “Probably why I actually grew this year instead of just whittling away like usual. Looks like I’ll need you to teach me how to use those breast-bands you’re always requesting from the seamstress. Mine probably won’t be as big, though.”