Except these weren’t birds. These were children. All smaller than Anders and Rayna, all at least vaguely familiar from the streets of Holbard. Jerro had lost his two little brothers, but he had found all these children to protect, and protect them he had.
“I can’t just leave them here,” he said helplessly. “No one else will look after them. Some of the farmers from around the area have started coming into the camp with goods to sell. With the money I lifted, I can feed us for at least a day or two.”
The twins exchanged a quick glance, communicating without words, as they almost always did. They both reached the same conclusion, and then Rayna spoke quietly.
“But what if they scream?” Rayna said quietly. “When they see, you know...” Her hands made a vague flapping motion.When they see the dragons.
“Well, Jerro’s right,” said Anders. “We can’t just leave them here.”
A skinny girl piped up from the cluster of children. “Jerro, are you going away?”
“Don’t worry,” said Rayna, “nobody’s leaving anyone anywhere. It’s time we met up with Viktoria and Ferdie and Ellukka. They’re probably waiting for us by now—I’ll go see. Anders, Sam, why don’t you two take Jerro and the others out of the camp to where we...” She paused, because she clearly didn’t want to saylandedin front of Jerro and the others and give the game away. “To where we’ll depart from,” she settled on. “Wait for us there. That way, if anybody’s going to scream or do anything stupid, they can do it where it’s quiet.”
Jerro looked like he had a lot of questions, but Sam squeezed his hand, and he kept them to himself for now, willing to trust his brother until they were away from the camp. He and his little troupe followed Anders and Sam out past the camp borders, clutching their few precious belongings in their arms.
It was a long walk out to the place where they were to meet the others, and Rayna, Viktoria, Ferdie, and Ellukka caught up with them before they reached it.
They waited until they were a good distance away, though—until it was inconvenient for anybody to try torun—before they explained exactly how they would be getting to Cloudhaven.
Some of the children took Rayna’s, Ferdie’s, and Ellukka’s transformations into dragons more calmly than others, and there was a little screaming. But in the end, the older children managed to keep everybody together. Ferdie played the clown, leaning in and snorting hot breath at each of the children, letting them touch his nose and tickling them with the end of his tail. And, one by one, they began to relax.
Then, of course, they had a new problem: even though the children Jerro had rescued were small and skinny, together they all still weighed far more than any of the dragons had ever lifted before. Despite Ferdie being older, Ellukka was the biggest and strongest of the three, so she took more of the load than anyone.
Anders and Jerro carefully made sure each of the children was somehow tucked into her harness, arms or legs poking through, everyone under instructions to stay still and hold tight.
“That is a long way to fall,” Jerro told them sternly, “so don’t do it.”
He was nervous as well, Anders could tell, but his big-brother instincts were hard at work, and he hid his own fear for the sake of his charges.
When Ellukka finally took off, Anders watched her struggling. It was as though she was clawing her way up through the air, gaining altitude very slowly, making her turns wide and careful. But she did it.
To his left, Ferdie and Viktoria took off with Sam hanging on behind her, and Anders helped Jerro climb up onto Rayna’s back and sit behind him before they took off as well. Wondering what the others would make of their newest residents, they slowly began to wing their way toward Cloudhaven.
Chapter Five
THAT NIGHT,CLOUDHAVEN WAS BUSIER THAN IThad ever been before.
Ferdie and Viktoria were keeping a firm eye on Ellukka, making sure that she ate, and then ate a little more, to recover from her trip back.
Det and Jai were working with Sakarias and Bryn to feed many more mouths than they were used to, chopping and mixing, doling out food into bowls and passing them around—they had enough spoons and forks, but not quite enough bowls, and most of the children clustered around to share, scooping the food up eagerly.
Mateo, the biggest of the wolves, sat cross-legged with the smallest of the orphans in his lap, holding his bowl out in one large hand so she could dig her spoon in.
Lisabet sat quietly beside him, downcast. She had had no success with the books she was hoping would helpher find a way inside Cloudhaven, and the news that her mother was missing had hit her hard. She didn’t contribute to the conversation around the fire as the wolves, dragons, and other children all considered what they had learned that day.
“Hayn was right,” Anders said. “We have to get the different groups to talk to each other. It’s the only way anything will change. But I have no idea how we do that.”
Surprisingly, it was Sakarias who shook his head. “That’s not the way it goes,” he said. “We don’t talk to each other. We don’t get along. And maybe there are reasons we’ve stayed apart.”
Anders hadn’t been prepared to hear Sakarias, of all people, say something so negative. But after a moment he remembered the way Sakarias had been looking at Ferdie and Viktoria every time they worked together. Sak and Viktoria had been friends and roommates for almost a full year at Ulfar. Wherever you found one, you always found the other.
Everyone was quiet for a moment, and then Ferdie broke the silence. He didn’t sound offended—he was speaking in his usual, friendly tone, as if they were all getting along.
“I don’t know, Sak. Do all wolves make stew like this?” he asked, holding up his bowl. “Because if they do,I’m certainly willing to talk.”
Sakarias made a soft grumbling sound, but Anders knew he was at least a little pleased—Ferdie had deliberately chosen the part of the meal that Sakarias had been in charge of.
But then, looking at his friend, Anders remembered something else. Speaking of not getting along...
