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“They attacked Samara a little after sundown, while most of the riot was wrapping up the day’s patrol.”
I hear Violet hiss next to me, sucking in a breath at “Samara.” I check on her out of the corner of my eye and I swear she stopped breathing, but Devera’s not done “no riders were killed in the assault.” I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding; between Riorson and her sister, Violet’s whole heart is stationed at Samara, thank gods they aren’t dead. I see Devera’s eyes snap over to us, no, to Vi “there was one rider severely wounded.”
Fuck. She can’t mean…
“No!” Violet gasps from beside me, and I don’t think she knows it was out loud.
“What questions would you ask?”
“Vi?” I try to get her attention, but it’s like she can’t even hear me. Her eyes dart back and forth and she’s breathing like she just got back from one of those weird runs with Imogen. I turn to the back wall where the third years are, looking for Imogen or Bodhi as if they can shed some light on any of this, but I get nothing from them. Fucking third years being all aloof and mysterious.
“I have to go” Violet whispers next to me. I turn back to see her grabbing at her bag while trying to stand up at the same time. The strap catches on her desk as she tugs it onto her shoulder, but she doesn’t seem to notice. “Vi?” I try again, because this is NOT like her. Professor Markham is calling her now but she’s already moving down the row and toward the staircase. What. The. Fuck. She’s been off all term, ever since they got back from War Games, but she’s never run out in the middle of class before. “Stay here!” I shoot to Sawyer and Ridoc as I make my way after her. “Cadet Sorrengail, you do not have leave!” Markham barks at her, but she doesn’t even slow, she’s already at the door. I’m still not halfway up the stairs when I see Bodhi run after her.
I reach the hall just in time to see my best friend spin on her heel and hold a dagger to our Section Leader’s throat. “Whoa!” he exclaims, one hand shooting into the air, the other on his rucksack. I watch as he yanks out his flight jacket and says “I don’t want you to freeze on the flight there.” Her reply is too low, and I can’t hear the rest from here, but the next minute she’s running again as she throws on his jacket. We watch until she is out of sight then I see him run both hands through his hair as he lets out a growled “fuck.” That’s when he turns around and sees me.
“Hey Matthias” he breathes out as if he just happened to run into me in the halls between classes, and he heads back towards the Battle Brief room, but I’m already walking towards him and meet him before he can get halfway. “You want to tell me what that was about?” I whisper shout at him. He may be my Section Leader, but his cousin is…something to, or with, my best friend; my best friend who, if I’m very much not mistaken, just went absent without leave and he just LET HER!
“C’mon Matthias, I think you know exactly where she and Tairn are off to.” He tries to stonewall me the way his cousin would if he were here, but I’m not going for it. “That’s some bullshit, sir.” I glare at him “she just took off AWOL and you didn’t even try to stop her.”
“You’re out of line Squad Leader,” he shoots back at me, then takes a deep breath and continues “look, you know Tairn and Sgaeyl are mates,” he looks at me to make sure I’m following “how do you think Tairn reacted when his rider learned that someone at Samara was severely injured in last night’s attack? Add to that the flash of anger that Tairn got from Sgaeyl last night and you’ve got the biggest, scariest, most powerful dragon in the quadrant panicking over whether his mate is hurt or not. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the balls to tell Tairn he can’t go check on Sgaeyl, which is exactly what I’d be doing if I tried to stop Violet.”
Well, shit. I can tell he thinks he’s won me over by the way his shoulders start to relax, but I’m not done here. “That all sounds perfectly logical, sir” I say, my voice full of steel “but I think you’re forgetting one very important thing.” He raises an eyebrow at me, once again reminding me of his cousin “What’s that Squad Leader?” If this were Riorson, it would have come off as a threat, but for all the familial resemblance, Durran doesn’t quite pull it off. I narrow my eyes at him when I answer “Varrish.” That one word snaps out of me like the crack of a whip, and he takes a step back. “Our Vice-Commandant has it out for Violet,” I take a step towards him, closing the distance back up. “She won’t tell me why, other than it has something to do with her relationship with your cousin. You know, the one stationed at Samara,” my voice is dripping with the implication of what the real deciding factor was when he didn’t stop her “where she has just flown off to, without leave.” I’m inches away from him now and I hold his gaze as I raise my index finger and press it against his sternum. “So help me gods Durran, if Varrish decides to punish her for going AWOL to see your cousin because you chose not to stop her, I will use my signet to put you so far in the ground that even Cuir won’t find you.”
We stare at each other for a long moment until he breaks his gaze and runs one hand though his hair, “Shit” he says.
“Yeah, shit.”
I turn and head back to class, only to be met by Ridoc and Sawyer at the doorway. Either that confrontation took longer than I realized, or they ran out of material faster than usual because class is over.
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