In the morning, Mel collected her things and moved her backpack into Gabriella’s carriage. Marcus saw her and grabbed her arm in a tight grip.

“What are you doing?” he asked. “Grace told us to keep our distance from the nobles and not to bother them. We could get left behind for this.”

“No,” Mel said, pulling her arm free from Marcus. “Gabriella invited me. It’s not like that. Last night, after my story by the campfire, she asked me to ride with her today. I thought it would be a good idea to get to know one of my fellow classmates and get to rest my legs before the mountain pass.”

Marcus shook his head and regarded Mel with a disappointed look on his face.

“It’s better to not get involved with these people,” he said. “They are not like us. They have too much power, money and connections. You don’t know what they’re capable of.”

“I know they’re my future classmates, who I will be required to spend time with every day,” Mel said. “I know I can’t be afraid of them or keep avoiding them. They are nobles with power, sure. But Gabriella is also just a person, like you and me, and I really think I changed her mind yesterday with my story. She’d never heard the cult could be so normal. I think I just need to give these people a chance to like me.”

“No,” Marcus said. “They’ll never like you.”

Mel crossed her arms over her chest.

“Wow, really? Thanks.”

“No, you know that’s not what I meant,” Marcus said. “I mean, they will never like someone like us. Someone who’s poor and from a different place. Someone who believes the dragons will return and knows they have to carry out their destiny.”

Mel swallowed hard, releasing her hard posture for a moment.

“Well, what if I’m not that person either?” she said.

“What do you mean?” Marcus asked.

“What if I don’t believe I need to carry out my destiny?” Mel asked. “What if I don’t think I will find the dragons?”

Marcus staggered back from her comment. He put a hand against the carriage and looked at Mel in disbelief. Mel felt her heart beating fast in her chest. She had never been this clear before with Marcus. She had never said it so factually. That she probably would not go after her destiny.

“Then what are you doing here?” Marcus asked. “Why are you going to Aldrion?”

“I want to see the city. I want to become a mage smith,” Mel said. “This was my ticket out of Windbrook.”

Marcus turned his back to Mel, walking toward the fire pit.

“Then what am I doing here?” she heard Marcus saying to himself.

Mel’s eyes followed him. Behind Marcus, only a few smoking logs doused in water drew their last breaths.

Mel felt terrible about telling him off like that. She knew this wasn’t fair to him. He had gone with her under the premises that he was going to help an important person carry out her destiny to the dragons. Not to follow some cooked-up girl who wanted to see the city beyond the mountains and work in the dragon forge. He hadn’t signed up for this.

At this moment, Mel wished Marcus hadn’t come with her. She wished she could send him home and let him return without her. But she suspected he wanted to fulfill this part of his destiny first, to help Mel get to Aldrion. After that, he could return home to Windbrook and live out his life in the cult, leaving Mel to create a new life beyond the mountains.

“Are you coming?” Gabriella said, peeking her head out from the carriage window.

“Yes, sorry,” Mel said.

She grabbed the handle of the carriage, but a servant brushed her hand away. He opened the door for her and bowed. Mel looked at the thinning hair on the top of his bent head and then at the small stairs before her. She took the steps up into the carriage and sat down opposite Gabriella.

Gabriella shook her head and let out a chuckle.

“No, silly,” she said. “That’s the servant's side.”

She fluffed the cushioned seat next to her and looked expectantly at Melissa to take a seat beside her. Melissa felt heat rise to her cheeks and placed herself next to Gabriella instead. The servant swung himself inside the carriage and sat down opposite Mel.

She looked into the hardened face of a way too thin old man. He seemed bitter and his nose was constantly held up to the sky. Melissa regarded him a moment too long before Gabriella took her hand in hers.

“Don’t stare at the servants,” Gabriella said. “It’s not the way. They’re used to being ignored until called for and he will give you his full attention until you look away.”

“Oh,” Melissa said, looking at the servant once again. “I’m sorry. I’m new to all this.”

“You don’t apologize to the servants either,”Gabriella said.

Mel looked at Gabriella. A smile tugged at her lips and Mel felt even hotter. Her entire face must have been red by now.

“Oh…” Mel said. “Did you listen to the conversation me and Marcus had?”

“Well, I tried not to,” Gabriella said. “But it was kind of hard, since you chose to have it right outside the carriage.”

Melissa winced.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Are you okay?” Gabriella asked.

“Yeah,” Mel said. “Me and Marcus just have different ideas of what this trip means for us and the cult.”

“I heard something about a destiny,” Gabriella said.

Mel nodded. “I have this kind of important destiny. It’s no big deal, really. But the cult is putting way too much pressure on me to fulfill it and I just don’t know if I want to.”

“Okay,” Gabriella said. “What is the destiny?”

“I'd rather not say,” Mel said. “Is that okay?”

Gabriella looked confused for a moment, and her brows dipped together. Then her expression relaxed, and she shrugged.

“Sure,” she said. “Do you want to talk about something else?”

“Yes, please,” Mel said. “Anything.”

“Okay,” Gabriella said. “What will you study at Falden?”

Mel straightened her back and looked Gabriella directly in the eyes.

“I’m going to be a mage smith. How about you?”

“Elemental warrior,” Gabriella said with a sigh.

“You’re not excited about it?”

“No, not really,” Gabriella said. “It's different for us nobles.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, for one thing, we all study to become elemental warriors,” she said. “Mage smiths are considered beneath us. Sorry about that.”

“Okay…” Mel said. “Why?”

Gabriella flipped Mel’s hand over in hers, tracing the lines in her palm with her delicate fingers.

“It’s not exactly deemed appropriate for a noble to have hands like this,” Gabriella said. “A blacksmith’s hands.”

Mel pulled her hand away from Gabriella’s.

“Sorry,” she said.

For the first time since childhood, Mel felt self-conscious about her calluses, and somehow she felt like she wasn’t pretty with her rough palms. She didn’t quite understand it herself. But having someone pointing out to her, it wasn’t fancy to have hands like these, made her feel bad about herself.

“No, I’m sorry,” Gabriella said. “I didn’t mean anything by it. It’s just what’s expected of us nobles, among other things. I actually like your hands. They have character.”

Mel looked up and met Gabriella’s eyes. She saw a genuine appreciation in them, and it made Mel feel like she had read the situation completely wrong.

“Thanks,” Mel said.

“There are more things, though, that make me less than excited to become an elemental warrior,” Gabriella said.

“What’s that?” Mel asked.

“Well, most people study at Falden to help defend against the beasts,” Gabriella said. “They make a noble sacrifice to learn the craft of either elemental warriors or mage smiths. Then, after they’ve received their training in school, they go on to defend the mountain pass. Working the rest of their lives to protect the valley. But not us nobles. We’re not as noble as one might think.”

“What do you mean?” Mel asked.

“Well, we end our training in advance, before it is completed,” Gabriella said. “Making sure we cannot be drafted into the army. Making sure we don’t finish the last semester that requires more hands-on experience outside the walls. Then we go back to our sheltered little lives in the valley and only use our magic skills to impress other nobles at cocktail parties and balls.”

“Okay, that sounds a bit bad,” Mel said. “But many people live out their lives in the valley, protected from the evil beyond the mountain. My parents, for example, will never see any real danger in their entire lives.”

“Yes, that’s true,” Gabriella said. “But they don’t steal the resources from other people either. We nobles, we travel to Aldrion and attend Falden, making other more suitable candidates rejected from the school. Falden can only train so many students and here we four are, taking up these important positions just to show-off at the next party in Stonehearth.”

“Oh, wow, that does sound bad,” Mel said.

Mel leaned back on the cushioned seat, feeling the soft lulling of the carriage moving along the road. It sure was nice riding instead of walking. Gabriella looked out the window at the passing forest and Mel saw an exasperated look crossing her face.

“But why don’t you stay then?” Mel asked. “Finish your training at Falden and join the army after.”

“I can’t,” Gabriella said. “I have a duty to my family. I’m the heir of my father’s business, and he expects me to take over after I return. I can’t just abandon my obligations.”

Mel thought that wasn’t really true. Gabriella could turn her back on her family, on her duties. Mel had decided to turn her back on the dragons, the cult, and her entire family. Anyone could. It just wasn’t easy. But she didn’t say that to Gabriella, feeling like she would easily make an enemy if she spoke her own mind.

#

On the second night by the campfire, there was a quietness that hadn’t been there during the first night. Gregory wore his normal unitard-looking clothes and sat close to the fire while his coworkers handed out bowls of stew and pieces of bread to their guests.

Gregory didn’t ask anyone to share their stories with him tonight, and Mel ate with the others in silence. She sat between Gabriella and Marcus, feeling Marcus throwing dirty looks at Gabriella. And the rest of the nobles, throwing dirty looks at Mel.

Maybe she and Gabriella had done something bad by fraternizing today and the other nobles would make Mel a target after this trip. She hoped not, because she really liked Gabriella. She seemed to get the part of Mel that didn’t want to obey her destiny and the cult’s orders. The part of Mel that Marcus didn’t seem to get at all.

Gregory threw his hands out toward the fire and looked at Grace, giving her a nod. Grace got up from her seat a small distance away from the flames and took a new seat among the rest of the group. She looked around the circle and seemed to catch people’s eyes.

The nobles grew restless, looking at Grace’s hardened face, and a smile tugged at Mel’s lips. They weren’t so different from her after all. Grace was still as terrifying to them as she was to Mel.

“Tomorrow we cross the mountain pass,” Grace said.

The group stopped eating and looked at her with worried eyes. Mel felt her heart speeding up. If Grace took the time to speak to them, it had to be important.

“Up there,” Grace continued, throwing her head up toward the looming snow-covered tops rising in the distance. “There are worse things than cold waiting for us. There are mountain lions, bears, bandits and deserters roaming these mountains. All looking for something to eat, something to steal, and someone to keep them warm.”

Mel met Marcus’s gaze, and he looked at her with a fierce intensity.

“We need to stick together up there,” Grace said. “There will be no horses, carriages, or servants. Only the students, me and the travel agency will continue with us tomorrow. We need to be stealthy, not make our presence known. I want us to pass unnoticed and arrive at Aldrion by nightfall. We can make it, but I expect everyone to carry their own weight and walk fast.”

Flavio raised a trembling hand into the sky, and Grace gave him a slow nod.

“Do you think the beasts are up there, too?” Flavio asked.

Grace shook her head.

“No,” she said. “The beasts have not been into the mountain pass for centuries. That’s why we have the army in Aldrion protecting us. To make sure the beasts don’t make it to the mountain pass and down to the valley.“

Mel leaned in toward Marcus and brushed his shoulder with his.

“I guess my uncle Joe was wrong then,” she whispered with a smile on her lips.

“I guess so,” Marcus whispered back, but he didn’t look at Mel.

Mel felt a tight knot forming in her stomach. Maybe it was from fear of what would happen tomorrow when they passed through the mountains, or maybe it was from ruining things with Marcus. She didn’t know. All she knew was that she had to fix things with Marcus after they arrived in Aldrion tomorrow night.