After the meeting, Koben gave Leslyn the rest of the evening off, telling him he was off to the harbor to deliver the message to his contact. With Valiant still wrapped up in his arms, he meandered about the Aerie until he ended up at the flight cage.
He sat cross-legged with his keet nested under the towels and napping in his lap, idly watching the adult griffins stretching their wings on the other side of the bars. It was pleasant and peaceful, until a very large blue of his unfortunate acquaintance flew down from one of the rock ledges above, planting herself directly in front of him and blocking his view.
Leslyn felt no shame for the way his stomach shriveled when she landed, locking her green eyes on his and issuing a warning trill. She seemed to think the flight cage was hers, and he was most certainly unwelcome there. Refusing to give her the satisfaction of controlling a place she didn’t actually own, he leaned over and stubbornly looked around her.
Oh, she definitely understood the slight, squawking indignantly and lifting the mane along her spine. Her next move was to drop her wing with a pointed flump, blocking him again. Her eyes narrowed and the ruff of fur and feathers around her face fanned upward for a moment, giving the impression of a satisfied grin.
The boy was in the middle of rolling his eyes when the griffin’s nostrils flared and her feathers flattened slick against her body in surprise. She looked down at the bundle of towels Leslyn held in his lap. It seemed she hadn’t realized Valiant was there at first, probably because his scent was masked by the soap Gunu had used to clean him.
“Yes, he’s still alive,” Leslyn said.
Wrath didn’t seem convinced, trying to get a better look by pressing the side of her face against the bars and peering through with one eye. He decided to humor her, uncovering Valiant’s head and getting up to bring him closer. She sniffed deeply, causing the keet’s fluff to ripple as if being tugged at by the wind.
Valiant squeaked in surprise at the ticklish breeze and Wrath drew back to stare, feathers hugged tightly to her skin again.
“Guess your revenge didn’t work after all. Nice try, though.”
Leslyn knew better than to goad the massive blue, but after everything he’d been through over the last few weeks because of her, he felt justified in giving her just a little sass.
She did not agree.
He saw it coming and staggered backward just enough that her wing talons only hooked a towel and not Valiant, tearing the cloth away with a loud ripping sound. Instinctively curled to shield the keet with his body, Leslyn looked over his shoulder at the griffin, heaving panicked breaths. She snorted in disgust, then turned her back on them and flew back up to the ledge.
She tried to kill her own keet.
He couldn’t believe it.
No… she must have been aiming for my arm. That had to be it. She wouldn’t hurt her own offspring… would she?
He looked around for witnesses, but there were no other manlings near the cage and only one brown griffin even seemed to have noticed anything amiss, watching with only passing interest before flicking its ear and looking off at something else.
“I’ve got to tell Gunu,” he muttered, barely even aware he’d said it out loud.
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Holding Valiant close, he hurried off to search out the Aeriemaster.
He’d scouted half the Aerie when he suddenly heard footsteps coming down a nearby corridor, moving even more quickly than his own and mirrored by the skitter of infant griffin claws.
“Kaleit!”
The harsh tone of Captain Tannoran’s voice made Leslyn put his mission on hold. Certainly the next few moments would decide whether or not it would be best to go back the way he’d just come.
“Coward. You’ve been running and hiding from me since the assigning.” Tannoran’s heavier footsteps caught up to the pair who’d been heading Leslyn’s way, and the sound of stumbling followed. “If you dare dismiss me again…”
“Get your hands off me, Tannoran.”
There was a moment of struggle, then the snap of a backhanded blow and the simultaneous shriek of Kaleit’s frightened keet Zabor rang sharp in the sudden silence that followed. Leslyn shrank back against the wall, wrapping his own keet a bit tighter to muffle any noise he might make.
“It’s Captain Tannoran. And I told you to ignore that keet. You disobeyed my order. You should have waited for the next clutch.”
“I’ve waited long enough!” Kaleit spat back.
“Congratulations, then!” the captain crowed. “You’ll prove yourself to everyone in about six months, when you’re forcibly ejected from the Guard because you can’t even control your own mount.”
“I don’t care what everyone thinks. I’m doing this for myself.”
“Oh? How do you propose to gain any useful rank outside of the Guard? You’ll be shoveling griffin manure for the rest of your life. An altogether fitting occupation for the half-wit you’ve shown yourself to be.”
“Why are you so convinced that I’ll fail? I have my griffin. I will control him. And mark my words, Captain Tannoran, count the days of your captaincy and remember them with fondness as long as you can, because I’ll be coming to take your place. Just like you took—”
Tannoran slammed him into the wall, and it didn’t sound like he held back. Valiant squealed in fear at the loud thump, but his cry was swallowed by those of the black keet around the corner, caught up in a series of frantic trills as his bondmate slumped to the floor with a groan. Somewhere nearby, an adult griffin answered back with a concerned whistle, pawing at its cage.
The captain’s voice was dangerously quiet as he bent and spoke to Kaleit.
“When I become the next general, don’t expect any favors whatsoever. You’ll lick my boots along with the rest of those Nilvaran dogs.”
Having frozen in place, Leslyn abruptly came to life at the sound of footsteps heading his way and scurried away to the nearest open door as quickly and quietly as he could, getting inside just as Tannoran rounded the corner. As the captain passed the doorway with long, loud strides, he could almost feel the rage emanating from the man. A violent anger that felt very out of place among the kind people he’d been getting to know in Nilvar.
This accidental eavesdropping had gone on a little too far for Leslyn’s taste. He very nearly left to get back to his hunt for the Aeriemaster, but—perhaps for the influence of his physician father—steeled himself and went around the corner to check on Kaleit, acting surprised as if he’d just happened upon the scene and hurrying over to kneel and pull him up from his slouch to sit back against the wall.
Even in his dazed state, Kaleit was still present enough to wrinkle his nose and lip with disgust at Leslyn and the keet he’d brought with him, perhaps expecting the rotten smell that was no longer there.
Ignoring the silent insult, Leslyn attempted to examine him, but Kaleit waved him off. “Fine. If you don’t want my help, I’ll get the Aeriemaster, then. Don’t move.”
He nearly jumped out of his skin as Kaleit’s hand shot out and grabbed his forearm. “Don’t,” he said. His grip was weak enough that Leslyn easily pulled free just by leaning away. Kaleit’s eyes followed him, still slightly unfocused, but improving. “What did you hear?”
“What was there to hear except your screaming keet?”
His dark eyes narrowed. “Don’t make me ask you again, Leslyn.”
“I heard Zabor, and came to see what was wrong. That’s all.”
The lie came easily. The memory of Captain Tannoran’s alarming actions just moments before was vivid in his mind. He was not an enemy Leslyn wished to make… but it sounded as if Kaleit had already beat him to that achievement.
He looked at the other youth, feeling an unusual twinge of pity for him.
Perhaps it was this pity that made him allow Kaleit, weak as he was, to take him by the shoulder and pull him close. So close that their foreheads were almost touching.
“Leslyn… If you ever speak of this incident again… to anyone… I will make you regret it.”