Lyra nearly cursed out loud when Rakon spun around. How had he heard her? She was being so quiet, there was absolutely no way he could have heard her. She was the best hunter from her village, if deer couldn’t hear her sneaking up on them, there was no way this boy could have. He started walking toward her.

What do I say? Actually nevermind that, he better start thinking of what he is going to say. He was the one out here having secret meetings. She had only heard bits and pieces of the conversation Rakon had with the old man. She wasn’t sure what to make of it all, but it was time she got some answers.

“Lyra, what are you doing out here?” Rakon asked quietly when he got near.

“I could ask you the same question,” came her indignant reply.

Rakon paused at her tone, caught off guard. Good.

“I was visiting my uncle one last time before he left for home. I…” he paused, and then continued in a more subdued tone. “I’m not used to being away from home, and he knew it was going to be hard for me. So I wanted to see him one last time before he left for our village, you know, so I could say goodbye.”

Lyra fell silent for a moment, unsure whether or not she should believe him. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know you were homesick.”

Rakon shrugged his shoulders, “I didn’t want people to know, they all think I’m this really talented fighter that has come to save the squad and I just don’t want to let them down, you know? In reality, I’m just a kid that misses his uncle, and his home.”

“Where are you from again?” Lyra asked suddenly.

“Wh- what?” Rakon asked in surprise.

“Where are you from? I never actually heard where you are from, I don’t think you told us when you first got here.”

He froze, then recovered smoothly. “Oh, I’m from Alasbar, it’s just a small village east of here, a good couple week’s travel. The road was hard for my uncle, and I doubt he will be able to make the trip in-”

“That’s not a real place, Rakon.” Lyra said softly.

“What do you mean that’s not a real place? Of course it is,” he chuckled. "It's just a really small place, very few people have heard of it.

“Look, I knew there was something off about you the moment I met you, why are you lying to me about where you’re from? And was that even your uncle? I heard some of your conversation with him.”

His whole body went still. “What exactly did you hear?”

Lyra considered lying to him, but decided honesty might get her more answers at the moment. “Not much really, just something about the king, Lord Sterner, lying low, getting to the castle…” her voice trailed off. “You’re here to assassinate the king aren’t you?” She took a step back preparing to run. It all made sense now. He was smaller than usual, perfect for sneaking around and he was a superb fighter with his staff. Nobody would take it away from him if he happened to get into the castle, he could then kill the king and fight his way out.

Rakon held up both hands and motioned for her to stay put. “Whoa, I’m definitely not here to kill the king! Just please,” he whispered, “let me talk to you before you start yelling. If I tell you my story and you still think I’m here to assassinate someone, you’re free to turn me in, deal?” He reached out his hand.

Lyra shook the offered hand hesitantly. Her gut told her he wasn’t trying to kill anybody, but he was definitely up to something. The best way to figure out what was going on was to see what he had to say, right? “Alright, start talking.”

Rakon took a deep breath and closed his eyes, as if he couldn’t believe this was happening to him. Lyra waited patiently. Deep down she always knew something was off about Rakon and she was finally about to get some answers.

“Alright,” he said slowly, “he’s not my uncle.”

“What? You think that’s the big secret I want to know? I want t-”

“Will you stop interrupting me?” Rakon said, sounding frustrated. “Let me tell you my way, and if you have questions after, then you can talk. Okay?”

Lyra nodded, not saying a word.

“Like I said, he isn’t really my uncle, but he might as well be. When I… left home, he took me in when I had nowhere else to go. He was the one that taught me how to defend myself, I’m really in his debt.”

He rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. “Ugh I can’t believe this is happening. Okay what else? Like I said, my ‘uncle’ took care of me for a while, and then one day he told me that we’re going to the capital for a bit, he said he wanted to meet up with some friends.” His voice got even quieter as they started walking now. If anybody looked out their window all they would see are two lovers going for a night stroll.

“Well these friends of his seemed to be part of some organization, and I was really nervous at first. I can’t tell you much except that they are good people, as far as I can tell. No interrupting, remember?”

Lyra shut her mouth quickly, this no talking rule was going to be harder than she thought. She already had so many questions.

“Anyway, they had recently got some information that there was… something at the castle that could potentially be very dangerous for a lot of people. A lot of people love the king, so they were confused why he would let that happen. Some of the people in the organization thought that maybe the High Chancellor was behind it, but there is just too much that is unknown to be sure. So, naturally they chose me to come and see what was going on.” He gave a small grimace, and shrugged his shoulders. “Okay, that’s the basic stuff, you can ask your questions now.”

Wait what? That doesn’t explain anything! “Okay, wow, that was a lot. First off, what is this dangerous stuff? Secondly, why are you here? And lastly, did you really sign up to work for an organization you know nothing about?” She asked incredulously.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“I can’t answer your first question, maybe in the future, but I’m already in trouble telling you anything, so I can’t just go and tell you everything right away.” She nodded in response to that, it made sense.

“As far as your second question,” he continued, “yes I need to get to the castle, but the only way that was one hundred percent guaranteed was by going to the end of the year banquet in the spring. All dragon corps cadets are invited because that’s when they officially make the step into becoming a second year. I know it seems like a long way away, and it is. Which is why I’m trying to figure out how to make it happen sooner, so I’m not stuck here for so long. And lastly… yes, yes I did.” He finished lamely. “But in my defense, that man I told you about, I trust him with everything I have. If he says something needs to be done, then it needs to be done. He wouldn’t use me like that, he wouldn’t work for bad people.” He said fiercely.

Wow, this is a lot of information. Lyra walked in silence for a minute, she needed to think. He sounds a little crazy, but completely sincere. What do I even do with this?

“If you got to the castle earlier than planned, would you just leave us once you get what you want?” Lyra asked suddenly.

Rakon hesitated only briefly, “No, not anymore. At first I wanted to find what I needed as fast as possible so I could leave, but now I think I want to finish the year.”

Interesting. “What changed your mind?”

He looked at her, his brown eyes seemed to go right through her. “The squad did. I’ve never had people actually care about me like this before. There’s no way I could leave you all to finish this off by yourselves. I mean,” he flashed a cocky grin, “we both know how well things were going before I showed up.”

He struggled to hold in his laughter as she punched him on the arm. “I wouldn’t give yourself too much credit if I were you,” she said, hiding a smile. “But okay, let's just say I believe you and want to help you, where would I start?”

“Lyra Channel, offering to help me? Wow, what a turn of events!” He chuckled again at her. Oh Earth Mother, why was he so believable? Twenty four hours ago she couldn’t stand him and now here she was chatting like they were old friends.

“Here’s the thing. The king will occasionally invite a squad of cadets to his castle for a new year's feast. From what I learned, he likes to keep it to first years because it makes him more likable or something, I’m not sure. The problem is,” he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, “that our squad isn’t very, um, good.”

“Just because I said I’d help you doesn’t mean you can talk bad about the Phoenix squad, you’re one of us remember?” She spun on him and poked him in the chest.

“I know, go easy alright?” He held his hands up in surrender. “We have great individual strengths, but because we are so diverse we don’t look very strong. We are all just sort of…” he struggled to find the word.

“Outcasts.” Lyra finished for him softly.

“Outcasts, exactly. Which is part of the reason why I have been training so hard this past week. I don’t know what competitions are coming up, but it’s safe to say that combat will be a part of most of them. If we could somehow find out what the competitions were going to be before they came up, now that would certainly help.”

“You want to cheat?” Lyra said, genuinely shocked.

“I wouldn’t call it cheating, I’d just say we are looking for a tactical advantage.” he said with a smile.

“If Tempest knocks on my door and tells me what the next competition is, you’ll be the first to know. Happy?” she asked sarcastically.

“Yes, that would be appreciated, thank you.” He said, his smile still present on his face. He then turned serious, counting the weeks left on his hands. “Best as I can figure out, we’ll have one, maybe two competitions before the new year. If we do well on both of those, and some key squads lose, such as Tobias’s and Lucas’s squad, we might have a chance.”

“You’ll have to be careful about Tobias,” she warned. “I heard that he is planning on getting some payback after what you did to him in the sand pits. He’s not very happy about being humiliated in front of dozens of people.”

“He can try, I’m not afraid of him anymore.”

Anymore? What’s that supposed to mean? “I noticed your face when you saw him for the first time during the competition, it almost looked like you recognized him?” She left it open for him to respond if he wanted to. It had been a long night of questions, and she didn’t want him to feel like she was interrogating him, although she definitely had been moments before.

“Yes…” he got a far off look in his eyes, as if reliving a memory. “I ran into him once before. I was not so lucky that time.” He shook his head slowly. Obviously it was a painful memory. “It’s safe to say he did not go easy on me when I had little chance of defending myself. I don’t like bullies, I never have. So when I had the chance to face him down in a fair fight, I was glad to. And I will be glad to face him again.” There was a dangerous look in his eyes. Almost animal like, Lyra thought.

“I hate bullies just as much as the next person, all I’m saying is your next fight probably won’t be in the sand pits with nice rules. So just don’t do anything stupid and don’t leave the squad, he’ll jump you as soon as you're alone.”

“Very well, I will do my best not to incur the wrath of Tobias, happy?” He mimicked her sarcastic tone from earlier.

“Yes, that would be appreciated, thank you.” She mimicked back, with a sly grin.

They eventually reached the wall to the House. “How did you follow me outside the House by the way?” Rakon asked, not asking the real question that Lyra knew he wanted to.

“Oh I just climbed the tree where the guard couldn’t see me, isn’t that what you did?”

Relief crept into his face for a moment before he replaced his expression with one of admiration. “Ah, yes, that's exactly what I did. I was just asking because I wasn’t sure if you were tall enough to reach the branch.”

Liar, she thought. That’s fine, you can keep your secrets for now. But later I want to learn how you have such strong earth magic.

“I almost wasn’t,” she answered truthfully. “How were you planning on getting back into the House?” She asked innocently.

“I didn’t think that far ahead, honestly.” Rakon answered quickly. Too quickly. “But thankfully you’re here and we can help each other over.”

After some grunting, shh!’s and some light scrapes, they were able to help each other over the wall. Lyra braced herself against the wall while Rakon stood on her shoulders and hoisted himself up. He then hung one half of his body over the wall while reaching out with his staff, and held on tight to the wall with the other half of his body. Lyra ran and jumped off the wall, just barely grabbing the tip of the staff. Strengthening her hold on the staff, she walked up most of the wall, while Rakon pulled her up the final length.

He is much stronger than he looks. She thought, impressed. There was much she didn’t know about him, she could tell.

Now that they were back over the wall, they didn’t have to sneak as much. If they got caught out of bed, there weren’t any consequences. Their real consequence would be how tired they were going to feel the next day.

Rakon walked her to her door. When they got there, she was about to slip inside and go straight to bed when he stopped her.

“Thanks for listening to me.” He said quietly, “You could have turned me in without waiting to hear what I had to say, but you didn’t. Just… thanks,” he finished awkwardly. He gave her a hesitant smile before heading off to his own room.

Well that was certainly an unexpected turn of events. What a night. Never would she have predicted the outcome of tonight. She was about to turn around and close her door when something caught her eye. It was Kai. He was standing at the end of the hallway with a book in his hands, slowly walking away. He must have been waiting all night to see her, and he had just seen Rakon walk her to her room, late at night. Great, as if things couldn’t get anymore complicated.

Tomorrow was as good a day as any to try to figure things out. Right now she needed sleep, her problems could wait until the morning.