Bone, Fog, Ash & Star (The Last Days of Tian Di #3)(2)

“Maybe,” Eliza said lazily.

“Why don’t we begin the party without them?” he suggested.

“No,” said Eliza. There was a flutter of dark wings somewhere within her and she sat up, breaking into a grin. “They’re coming,” she said.

A moment later they all saw the bright speck of gold on the horizon. As it drew nearer, it became recognizably one of the Mancer dragons.

The camels edged away, uneasy, as the huge, shimmering dragon landed close to the camp. Foss came towards Eliza with open arms, his fair hair and white robe billowing in the afternoon breeze, his eyes as dazzling as the sun itself. Before he reached Eliza, Nell had raced past him and hurled herself onto her best friend.

“Happy birthday!” she cried.

Eliza laughed and hugged her, then pulled herself out of the embrace to greet Foss. Now all was well. Everybody was here. It didn’t matter that they were in the middle of the desert instead of on Holburg. This was as much as she could hope for.

~~~

They ate figs and olives as the sun went down and the moon rose. The surrounding dunes went from deep gold to fiery red to ghostly white. The Sorma played music and they all danced around a fire on the cooling sand. Eliza’s mother Rea sat on a blanket and clapped her hands while the others danced, her red hair bright by the firelight. Rom danced circles around her and she laughed up at him.

When they were tired of dancing they set off fire-flares into the desert sky.

Nell and Eliza lay side by side on the sand and watched the fire-flares explode into dazzling showers of colour.

“I’m glad you’re here,” said Eliza. “I know it’s nay easy for you to take time off right now.”

“Lah, I couldnay miss your birthday!” said Nell. “Anyway, I brought my notes with me.” She pulled a cream folder, thick as a book, out of a stylish satchel to show Eliza. “This is it. Everything I’ll need for the Austermon Entrance Exam.”

Austermon was the top university in the Republic. Nell had her sights set on studying cetology there with the renowned marine biologist Graeme Biggs. With top grades and countless academic awards from prestigious Ariston Hebe Secondary School, Nell was certain to be accepted, but she needed to a win a full scholarship if she was going to afford it. That meant acing the notoriously difficult entrance exam, as well as the interview.

“I’ve got my own shorthand, aye, and I’ve been reviewing nonstop,” said Nell. “I dinnay recommend trying to study on the back of a dragon, though. I lost a few pages, and I had to get Foss to make the dragon land so we could look for them. They’d fallen in the top of a tree and it was very awkward getting them all. He got a bit annoyed with me, I think. It’s hard to tell when he’s annoyed, though, dinnay you find?”

Eliza laughed, and then said carefully, “Charlie was disappointed that you didnay ask him to come get you.”

“It just seemed easier this way,” said Nell. “Besides, I like dragons. Much smoother ride, aye.”

Eliza rolled over on her side to look at her friend. Nell’s face was lit up by the fire-flare exploding overhead, her violet eyes reflecting the shower of brilliant sparks. Her light brown hair formed a pool of silken waves around her head. She was a beautiful girl and perhaps too much aware of it.

“Is everything all right between you and Charlie?” Eliza asked. “He thinks you’ve been avoiding him. And it’s true we’ve hardly spent any time together this past year. The three of us, I mean.”

“Everything’s fine,” said Nell airily. “I’ve just been busy. And lah, you’re the one who’s really my friend. Charlie’s your friend and of course I’m fond of him too, but I cannay make time to see him when I’ve got so much studying to do.”

“All right,” said Eliza. “But I think his feelings are a little hurt.”

Nell rolled her eyes. “He’s a mite oversensitive. He hardly showed his face in Kalla for months after we got back from Tian Xia. And now he thinks I’m avoiding him?”

Eliza sighed and dropped it. She didn’t want to argue tonight and it would inevitably be sticky getting in the middle of whatever had come between her friends. It was true that Nell was under a lot of pressure lately. She decided to wait until after the Austermon exam to broach the subject again.

“I think that’s it for the fire-flares!” shouted Rom.

Nell bounced upright. “Let’s give Eliza her presents!”

The others laughed.

“Now is as good a time as any,” Rom conceded.

“I agree!” said Eliza.

“Mine first!”

The sat around the dying fire. Foss looked like a golden giant, beaming and luminous among the dark-skinned Sorma – Eliza’s grandmother Lai and her toothless grandfather Kon, her many aunts and uncles and cousins. Rom sat with his arm wrapped around Rea and she rested her head on his shoulder peacefully. From her satchel Nell pulled out a perfectly wrapped box with a purple ribbon around it and handed it to Eliza. Inside was a leather shoulder strap with a long beaded scabbard attached.

“I made it!” said Nell proudly. “It’s for your dagger, aye. So you can look a little more stylish while you tote that thing around! Look, you wear the strap across your chest like this. You can move the scabbard so the blade is against your back or at your hip. See?”