“Nothing,” Byron replies with a snicker, which is very clearly a lie but since he is a human, he doesn’t get called out for it.
“Come along, you three,” Istaria says impatiently. “I haven’t got all day for your lollygagging. The dragons are this way.”
“Dragons?” I ask, tripping a bit on a slightly uneven cobblestone as I hurry after her.
“Did you think you wouldwalkto the academy?” she asks, her voice dripping with condescension.
Byron glances at me an amused smile quirking the corner of his mouth, but whether he is amused at my expense, Istaria’s, or this whole situation in general, I have no idea. “We’re in Skyshire now, Lo. We travel like the fae.”
Ironic, a human being the one to tell the fae this.
“This is why we brought you along, Byron,” Marvin says quickly with a grin pointed at me as if he is glad that Byron proved him right. I have to bite my tongue to keep from telling him to going back to mooning over Istaria. “Because I, for one, know very little about the fae.”
“And here I thought you invited me because of my exceptional conversation skills… and the fact that you needed some brawn for your company.”
“I was adequately equipped to get us here safely,” I reply in a low tone, crossing my arms. Byron is so aggravating. Here we are in a gorgeous new city, and he wants to talk about hisbrawn? He’s the grandson of a blacksmith, indeed he has spent the past several years taking over his grandfather’s duties as the village blacksmith, of course he is strong. There’s no need to rub it in, however… or even bring it up.
Byron chuckles. I narrow my eyes, but whatever he finds funny he seems to decide not to elaborate. “Well, my family, for better or for worse have had dealings with the fae.”
“My family has had dealings with the fae, too,” I mutter.
“Ha!” Byron stops walking and plants his hands on his hips as he laughs. “That’s hilarious.” He reaches up wiping a tear from his eye and then looks up to see that Istaria is halfway down the street and seems to not care if she leaves us behind. He picks up his pace, grinning at me as he goes. “I never struck you for being so funny. You were always too moody.”
I snap my mouth shut and glower at him which probably only proves his point but what am I supposed to say? That I’m only moody around him because I hate his whole existence? I wait for Marvin to pipe up and tell Byron that I’m plenty pleasant and amusing when in the right company, but he never does.
“But as I was saying, from what my ma said from her experiences traveling Skyshire, people had to ride a dragon or some other form of flying beast to get between cities in Skyshire.”
“Like a Pegasus,” I breathe as I look up in time to see a magnificent white steed fly overhead, its feathered wings catching the sunlight as it goes.
“A Pegasus does fly so it would count,” Byron replies in a patronizing tone. He glances up at that moment and his hand snakes forward, resting on my lower back as he quickens his pace.
“What are you doing?” I hiss, shrinking away.
“The road gets more congested ahead, we need to catch up if we don’t want to lose Istaria in the crowd.” He pulls his gaze from the road ahead to smirk at me. “The hand was to determine that I don’t lose you either.”
“I wouldn’t mind losing you,” I mutter.
“Hey, what about me?” Marvin demands from behind. He is puffing as he picks up his pace to keep up with us as we struggle to keep up with Istaria who is walking through the center of this Skyshire city like she is floating on a little cloud. She is moving so gracefully that I don’t even see her head bob up and down. Her hair sways though.
I’m not sure which is more unsettling. Her way of walking or that spell on her.
Byron holds his hand out to him. “Sure, I’ll hold your hand as well.” He narrows his eyes at me before turning up his nose in fake contempt. At least, I assume it is fake given his sudden shift in mood, although why anyone would fake that emotion, I have no idea. “After all it’s just a friendly gesture.”
“I’ll friendly gesture you off this floating rock if you touch me again.”
“That doesn’t even make any sense,” Marvin says finally catching up to us. I notice that he doesn’t accept Byron’s proffered hand despite having asked for it. I smirk as we turn and start down the street again, leaving Byron empty handed.
He may have won the heart of every other girl in Woodsbury Grove, but he won’t have me. I can see through his boyish antics for what they are. Annoying. Immature. Abhorrent.
Now that we are walking more quickly, we start to catch up to Istaria and her strange ghostly walk, despite the extra foot traffic in the streets. The streets themselves wind around buildings and through stalls where vendors try to sell their wares just like any other town. In some places, there are patches of grass growing in triangular sections of land behind stalls or between houses, blocked off from the street by a small wall so that you would have to step over it to trod upon the grass. The occasional tree even shoots up, certainly not as numerous as they were in the woods or around Woodsbury Grove, but trees all the same. Tall, majestic trees whose branches scrape the roofs of the stone buildings.
Here in the center of the city with no view of the edge one could almost forget that they hung suspended in the sky.
I honestly don’t know what to feel now that I’m here in Skyshire, but I do know that I feel something. Perhaps, it is a little bit of awe, mixed in with a fear of falling… or maybe I’m just getting peckish. After all, we have been traveling all day, fought off cultists, were nearly eaten by living vines, and I have yet to have my supper.
Everyone here seems so caught up in their own activities. I see a woman buying bread with some form of pink sparkles on it from a vendor while trying to keep a hand clamped on her pointed eared child. Two men are standing off to the side in the shade of an oak tree talking. Other people rush to and fro. No one has time for the strangers in their city. No one even notices us.
I suppose that makes sense. With how many strangers they likely have pass through their port city. Still, it makes me feel a little lonely. I try to catch the pointy eared boy’s eyes and smile at him, but he ducks behind his mother’s skirts. I pull my eyes away and focus on walking.
