Traitor (6 page)

“So which squadron are we in?” I stood up as Jace waved for me to follow him back out into the hall.

I tried to ignore the wide-eyed stares I got from all the other riders who were hanging out in the halls. It had been a while since I had gotten stared at like that; it bothered me a lot more than I expected it to. It was almost as though I could sense their emotions—which ranged from shock and awe to outright rage and disgust. None of them looked excited to see a halfbreed wandering around in a dragonrider’s uniform.

“Blue Squadron. We’re on working shift, so you and I have been assigned cargo duty. We’ll be moving crates of supplies into the tower.” Jace glanced back and gave me a sarcastic look I’d only seen him give one other time—when he was teasing Felix about his mother. “Try to contain your excitement.”

I rolled my eyes. “Sounds better than mucking stalls.”

Jace finished up the rest of his tour without any more of his weird jokes. He showed me the dining hall, the saddle rooms, the armory, the battle planning rooms, the community washroom, and the infirmary. Everything was clean. Well, as clean as you can imagine with that many men living in close quarters. Jace emphasized again and again that I was going to have to carry my own weight, clean up after myself, and not create work for anyone else.

“Places like this can be a hive for disease, so we try to keep things regulated. No outsiders are allowed in, human or otherwise,” he warned. “No visitors. No lady friends. We can’t run the risk of any incidents. It’s as much for our protection as it is for theirs. So you’ll have to save your girl-handling for when we go out.”

I couldn’t tell if this was another one of his jokes or not.

“Any questions?” He finally stopped when we were standing back outside our room.

I thought for a moment. “Just one.”

Jace arched a brow expectantly.

“How many of the other riders here know I’m a halfbreed?”

That question made him frown. His brows furrowed, and he moved his jaw around like he was chewing on the inside of his cheek. “None that didn’t need to know. I told the other members of Blue Squadron. That’s it.”

“That explains the staring, then.” I sighed and shook my head.

Jace frowned harder. “Don’t worry about it. You’ve already proven yourself. Word travels fast here. After what happened on the island, you’ll be fine.”

It was my turn to give him a sarcastic look. “Do me a favor, then. Eventually, someone is going to have a problem with me. They always do. I’m not dumb enough to think a rumor is going to change that. And when it does happen, let me handle it. I can defend my own honor.”

His frown wavered. He looked confused. Then he returned my smirk and gave a snort. “No problem.”

Turns out, there were a lot of traditions when it came to new lieutenants arriving on the battlefront. Jace informed me that I had a lot to do. I tried to be enthusiastic because from the sound of it, he had been the one responsible for planning everything. But I was so tired from flying all day; I wasn’t sure I was up to it.

“I already paid off a few guys to cover our shift unloading crates,” Jace said as he stepped into our room long enough to grab our cloaks. He shoved mine into my hands on his way toward the large staircase that led down and out of the tower. “We’re going out with the rest of the riders in our flight.”

“Flight?” I asked as I followed, trying to buckle my cloak over my shoulders without tripping down the stairs.

“The two squadrons are split into two legions, and then again into two flights. There’s sixteen riders per flight, and we always fly and operate as a group in battle,” he explained. “The flights tend to be competitive between one another, so watch your back.”

I wasn’t sure how to take that. “Why? What’ll they do?”

“Usually just pranks. Nothing serious. It’s mostly just a distraction. After you’ve spent some time knee deep in blood, you’ll welcome any distraction you can come by. Trust me.”

The stairs seemed to go on for an eternity. It took forever to get to the base of the tower, and by then, my calves were practically screaming. The thought of going back up all those steps to get to our room made me want to throw up.

There was a group of thirteen other riders waiting for us by the large open gateway that led out of the tower into the city beyond. They were all dressed in their casual uniforms, and most of them looked a lot older than I was—which wasn’t exactly shocking. I doubted many teenagers got to walk through these halls as sworn-in lieutenants.

When the other riders saw Jace, they started calling out to him, laughing and taunting him for making them wait so long. Their smiles looked friendly enough. But when they saw me, their smiles all begin to fade one by one. They stared. No one said a word, and the silence got tense.

I glanced at Jace’s back. I thought he had told them about me already. That’s what he’d said, wasn’t it?

He kept right on walking in their direction, but their tense expressions made me stop short. I couldn’t decide if they were glaring, or just looking at me like a mutant at a freak show. I did know that if this devolved into a fight, I was vastly outnumbered.

“What’s wrong with you?” Jace demanded suddenly. He was looking at me like he was afraid I was about to do something embarrassing.

I bowed my head a bit, unable to hide my apprehension as I trudged toward him again.

Behind Jace, one of the other riders let out a deep, booming laugh. It caught me completely off guard. He was an impressively huge man who loomed over everyone else, including me. He was bulky to boot, and looked like he could have cracked me in half with his bare hands if he wanted to.

The big man walked right up to me and planted one of his monstrous hands on my shoulder. He shook me a little, and my life flashed before my eyes. It wasn’t very often I had to look up to anyone else these days. But this man loomed over me like a giant. He had to be almost seven feet tall.

But that wasn’t what struck me the most about him.

“I hope you don’t scare this easy in battle, rookie,” he chuckled and patted the top of my head roughly like he was comforting a puppy. He had a broad, cunning smirk and a twinkle of mischief in his eyes. It made my throat swell shut immediately so I couldn’t make a sound.

This man—his build, the sound of his voice, his smile, even the dark golden color of his hair—he looked
just
like Felix! Granted, Felix wasn’t nearly this tall. He was shorter than me, in fact. But the resemblance was downright creepy.

I started to get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I may not have been all that experienced when it came to matters of love and relationship, but I could put two and two together. Immediately, I glanced over at Jace because he was the only other person around who I thought might notice the resemblance, too.

Jace met my gaze with a knowing expression. He winced, nodded, and looked away quickly.

Great.

“I’m Lieutenant Darion Prax,” the big man announced.

My bad feeling got even worse. It was like there were snakes swimming around in my gut. I could barely look him in the eye as he offered to shake my hand. Felix was going to be flying with this guy. This wasn’t good.

Prax practically shoved me toward the rest of the riders. They probably mistook my lingering shock and horror as nervousness, because they all gave me that same gruff, warm greeting. They teased me about being a rookie, but meeting them didn’t scare me nearly as much as the idea of Felix meeting Lieutenant Prax. That was going to be a horrible, awkward, and destructive moment for sure.

We left the citadel as a group and crossed through the gates and under the ramparts on our way to the city. All the way, I got harassed for being the new “baby” lieutenant. Jace told them every embarrassing thing he could remember about me, and they all got a real kick out of hearing I had been caught ballroom dancing with another student. I was beginning to realize that moment of utter humiliation was likely going to haunt me until the day I died. I also realized that being the newest lieutenant meant you were doomed to be everyone’s favorite joke.

As we made our way into the city of Northwatch, the topic of conversation gradually shifted to arguing over where they were going to take me for my first drink. They bickered about bars and taverns, and Jace gave me a nudge to get my attention. He handed me a small cotton drawstring bag with the letters “LT” stamped on the front. I could feel coins rattling around inside it as I tucked it into my pocket.

“Your first pay,” he said quietly. “You get to buy us all a round of ale with it. Congratulations.”

I laughed. “Right. Lucky me.”

The consensus was reached that we were going to a tavern near the citadel—one that was apparently a dragonrider favorite. They called it the Laughing Fox, and insisted that place had the best-looking barmaids in the city.

From the outside, it didn’t look like much. The battered wooden sign hanging over the door had a picture of a smiling fox painted on it, and the roof was slumped like the buildings on either side were squishing it. But one look through the windows gave me hope. Warm light came from inside, and when Prax opened the door, the smell of spiced ale and roasted meat made me dizzy with hunger.

We claimed a table at the back of the room, close to the fire that roared in a big stone hearth. Everyone unbuckled their swords and cloaks as they settled in, making a lot of racket that didn’t seem to bother any of the other patrons. In fact, none of them even looked up. They must have been used to hearing dragonriders and soldiers carry on. We were undoubtedly the loudest group in the room.

Two young barmaids brought us a round of warm ale, which I paid for, and several platters of roasted pork and potatoes, fresh bread, and soft cheese. I got ribbed a few times about the pretty girls, but I didn’t notice if they were human or not. I was too interested in the food. I hadn’t eaten all day, so judging anyone’s looks was not topping my list of priorities.

I started piling food onto my plate and gulping it down while Jace told them about my little show at the officer’s ball when Felix got into a fistfight with an infantryman. I wasn’t embarrassed by that story, though. I’d broken up the fight, spared Felix from getting his face bashed in, and managed not to look like an idiot in the process. That didn’t happen often for me.

“So, this Felix,” Lieutenant Prax chimed in, “I hear that’s the boy who took my bid to be my new wing end. Tell me about him. I only got a few stories from the instructors. Jace is keeping a tight lip about him. I guess he only likes bragging on his students with pointy ears.”

I grimaced. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jace’s mouth twitch. Thankfully, I had a mouth full of food so I didn’t have to answer.

A passing barmaid stopped to giggle. She had a tray of empty mugs in one hand, shapely hips, a low cut blouse, and a coy smirk on her lips. She grabbed the tip of one of my ears and tugged at it playfully. “He’s cute, even with the ears.”

I caught her giving me a wink. It made me blush and choke on my food. Women
never
looked at me like that.

“Gods, woman! Don’t you know men don’t want to be called cute? Puppies are cute. Babies are cute. But never tell a man he’s cute!” Prax started teasing her, and I saw yet another disturbing similarity between him and Felix. They both liked to flirt it up with girls.

“Oh, forgive me! I’m sure he’s very rugged, too,” the barmaid teased. She gave my ear one more tug before she walked away.

Jace snorted like he wasn’t impressed. “Don’t get too excited, Jae. These barmaids will flirt with anyone who might give them a big tip. They know new lieutenants are good for that. They’ll sucker you right out of every cent you have, so keep your coins in your pocket.”

“Ah yes,” Prax agreed with another booming laugh. “But it’s good fun to watch them try. Now, tell me about that boy I’m supposed to ride with. Felix Farrow, right? Isn’t he the duke’s son?”

Once again, I was really glad to have a mouthful of food. I had a legitimate excuse to look at Jace expectantly along with everyone else.

I guess he didn’t appreciate that, though, because he shot me a scathing glare before he answered, “Yes. Word is that now he’s taken charge of his family’s estate. His father passed away last year, so he’s the new duke of Farrow Manor.”

“Hah! A duke before he’s even set foot on the battlefield? That’ll be a good show,” one of the other riders in our group muttered. He sounded sarcastic and annoyed at the idea. “Those noble types always think they can order you around even if they’ve never held a blade in combat before.”

The others grumbled in agreement.

“Felix isn’t like that.” I sat up a little straighter as all eyes turned to me. I didn’t get many chances to speak up in Felix’s defense, but I certainly wasn’t going to sit here and let anyone badmouth my best friend. “His family has pressured him not to be a dragonrider from the start. He chose this because he wants it, and he’s dedicated to the cause. He’s a good fighter, and a loyal friend.”

“Is that so?” Prax was smirking at me tauntingly. “You act like you know him well.”