Dragonbound(30)

When I told him it was my birthday, he got really excited and said he had the perfect thing for us to do. I’d planned to spend the whole day reading—I gathered up a bunch of books in English from his shelf—and maybe I would have stuck to that plan if I knew he intended to make me go outside and climb this hill with him. Nothing could be worth sweating this much.“You want me to close my eyes? We’re on a hill.”
“We’re on a cliff, actually. We’re almost to the top.”
“We’re almost to the top of a cliff, and you want me to not be able to see?”
“It’s not far, and it’ll be better this way. It’s not like I’m going to let you fall.” He holds out his hand.
I’m still skeptical. But I figure I can open my eyes again if I really need to. I take his hand and let him guide me over the last ridge. I kind of cheat a little bit, though, because I peek down at the ground a couple times, just to make sure I’m not about to trip on anything.
We get to the top. A gust of wind whirls through my hair and cools the sweat on my face.
“Okay, now,” Amelrik says.
I open my eyes and gasp.
We’re higher up than I’ve ever been, overlooking a sparkling blue lake. The water’s so blue, it looks like a painting. Forest stretches out for miles in every direction. I can see some buildings crowded together in the distance, which must be a town. Puffy white clouds dot the sky, highlighted by the sun. I know I can’t really be that much closer to them, but it feels like I could reach out and touch one.
Across the lake, on the opposite cliff, dragons spread their wings and leap into the air, or fold them along their backs and dive down into the water. I’ve always thought of dragons as lumbering and, well, beast-like, but there’s so much grace and skill in their movements that those words couldn’t ever describe them.
It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Not just the dragons, but the lake and the town and the trees and the sky. All of it. “It’s amazing.”
Amelrik grins. “I always liked it up here.”
I watch another dragon take off, catching the wind with its wings. A fish leaps out of the water far below—just a quick flash of silver—and then disappears again.
Amelrik sits down on the ground, a little ways back from the ledge. I join him, really wishing we’d brought lunch with us. We’re quiet for a while, just enjoying the view. Then Amelrik says, “What would you be doing for your birthday if you were back home? What do you usually do, I mean?”
Nothing like this. “Torrin would go to the bakery in town and get me these chocolate-chip pastries I love. They’re best when they’re warm, so he’d run back home as fast as he could, before they could cool off too much. That was after I stopped leaving the barracks.”
Amelrik rolls his eyes. “Gee, how nice of him.”
“What? It was nice.”
“Oh, right, considering that he didn’t even believe you about not being able to leave. And you only got to have them once a year?” 
I look down at my knees. When he puts it like that, it doesn’t sound so great. “It’s not like anybody else was volunteering. And it was a long way to run just so I could have some warm pastries.”
“Well, obviously I can’t get you those. What else?”
“Me and Celeste would stay up late and look at the stars—”
“That, we can do.”
“—and talk about boys.”
“Or not.”
“We don’t have to do anything else. It’s not like me and you are actually . . .” What? Lovers? Friends? But aren’t we? Friends, I mean. Obviously we’re not lovers, even though we slept in the same bed again last night. But that was only because there’s really nowhere else to sleep—it’s not because we want to be that close to each other. It’s not like it’s comforting that he’s only an arm’s length away, that at any time I could reach out and touch someone familiar and know I’m not alone in this strange, foreign place.
“Do you like theater?”
“Dragons have theater? Like, plays and stuff?”
“Your ignorance knows no bounds. Of course we do.”
“Would any of it be in English?”
He opens his mouth to speak, then pauses to think that over. “I’ll come up with something else.”
I’m about to tell him again that he doesn’t need to, even though it’s nice of him to make the effort, when a dragon comes flying at us from somewhere over the lake. It swoops down low, like it’s going to grab us with its claws. Fear floods my chest, and I’m sure that this is it—I’m going to die in the next few seconds.
Amelrik stays calm, like this is no big deal. “It’s okay,” he says. “It’s just Odilia.”
I want to ask how he can tell, but that seems rude.
The dragon keeps its claws to itself and doesn’t gut us, landing behind us instead. It changes into human form, and then I see that it is indeed Odilia. Naked, of course.
“Just Odilia?!” She smacks him playfully on the back of the head before sitting down on his other side. “I saw you over here. We have a lot to catch up on.”
“You saw me over here with Virginia. We’re trying to figure out what to do for her birthday.”
I think he’s trying to tell her she’s interrupting, but she doesn’t take the hint. She leans forward and glances over at me, clearly not liking what she sees. She says something to him in Vairlin, and then he glares at her.
“What did she say?” I whisper.
“Nothing.” But Amelrik’s face gets kind of red, so I know it must have been something embarrassing.
Odilia laughs, pleased with herself. “Tell me what happened with Elder clan, cousin. Six months ago they told us you were dead. I cried for days, and your father shut himself away for a week, hardly speaking to anyone.”
“He did?”
“He blamed himself for sending you there. When Raban died, he was sick with worry over what they would do to you.”
“Who’s Raban?” And why did Odilia have to come over here and start talking about things I don’t understand?
“The hostage from Elder clan,” Amelrik says. “He drowned in the lake. Lothar put on a big show of mourning him. Raban’s death was an accident, but Lothar hated me so much, he riled everyone up about it, until there was nothing his father could do to make it right, except . . .” He swallows. “I thought he really was going to kill me. He was more of a father to me than mine ever was, and—”
“Amelrik!” Odilia snaps. “You don’t mean that.”“—I could see how much it upset him, knowing what he had to do. He hoped it would blow over, that if he put it off long enough, people would forget. But Lothar saw to it that they didn’t. So when the day came, the king took me out into the woods for my execution. His hands were shaking—he couldn’t do it. He cut my bonds instead and told me to run.”
Odilia considers that for a moment. “Still, I know what he made you do for them. Some father he was to you!”
“He made me feel like I was more than just a guest. Like I was part of his family.”
She snorts. “That’s why he exploited you and sent you off to live with humans? To trick them for his own gain? Who does that, especially to someone like you? You were a tool to him.”
He clenches his fists. “You weren’t there. You don’t know.”
“Anyone could see there’s something wrong with that situation, cousin. Even your little whore here could tell you that.”
Um, hello? Whores don’t pledge their undying devotion. I don’t think, anyway.
“That’s enough, Odilia!”
“It makes me sick to think of anyone taking advantage of you.” She looks at me when she says that.
“I can take care of myself. You don’t have to—”
Two more dragons swoop over us, chasing each other. They circle around and dive into the water, then leap out of it into the air and come back, half landing, half crashing on the ground behind us. They shake the water off themselves, splashing us with freezing-cold droplets.
Odilia’s laughing. When they change into human form, I see that they’re two guys, around her age. Both are lean and well muscled—not that I’m, uh, paying attention to that or anything, and I’m certainly not looking at anything below the belt—and both of them are grinning at her.
“Osric! Godwin!” she scolds, but it’s obvious she’s not really mad. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Showing off,” Amelrik mutters.
The boys don’t seem to hear him. The slightly taller one—who I think is Osric—rakes a hand through his sandy-blond hair. “Trying to get you to come flying with us before anyone from another team tries to steal you away. We’re practicing for the games.”
“Well, I don’t know,” she says.
“Please, Odilia?” Godwin tilts his head and bats his eyes at her.
Osric elbows him in the ribs. “I won the race—I get to ask her.”
“You already had your chance. I’m getting her to say yes.”
Odilia’s eating up all the attention. “Boys, you know I would, but I’m here with my cousin.” 
“He can come, too. We’ve got more spots open on our team. He’ll have to leave his human behind, though.”