The Unmaking (The Last Days of Tian Di, #2)(12)

Kyreth made a sign in the air and the door swung open behind her.

~~~

The gryphon circled upwards, leaving the Citadel far below, then veered northeast, towards Kalla. Eliza felt lighter by the second. She flattened her body against the gryphon’s back to keep warm. She loved the sense of absolute freedom she got when flying with Charlie and it was only heightened by the fact that nobody knew where they were going. She had not been entirely lying to Kyreth when she said she was going to spend time with her parents. She would indeed go to see them in the desert. Just not immediately.

They took a winding route through the sky, avoiding cities and highly populated areas, flying low over the rich farmland of the interior provinces and stopping frequently to build fires and warm themselves, for the air was bitterly cold. In spite of the gryphon’s speed, it took them a full day to reach the capital. They spent the night in an abandoned barn they had used for shelter before, an hour outside of Kalla. This far north the ground was thickly covered with snow, and even with the blankets they had stored in the barn they had to keep the fire going all night, which meant sleeping in shifts. This didn’t always go as planned. Eliza woke just before dawn, stiff and shivering, the fire dead beside her. Charlie had nodded off.

“Wake up,” she said crossly, nudging him and giving him an angry look. He sat up and looked from her to the dead fire a couple of times.

“Sorry,” he mumbled. “Should’ve been a polar bear, aye.”

Shivering uncontrollably, she found the duffel bag they kept hidden in the barn. She pulled out a girl’s school uniform and ducked behind a broken-down tractor to put it on – a navy flared skirt and jacket and a striped silk tie over a crisp white blouse.

“Come on,” she said. “We dinnay want to miss breakfast. Lah, but I’m frozen!”

“Sorry,” Charlie mumbled again. He stumbled out of the barn and morphed into a gryphon, more slowly than usual. Awkward and terribly cold in her skirt, Eliza clambered onto his back and he took off. It was important to reach the school while it was still dark. A girl on a gryphon would hardly go unnoticed in Kalla.

~~~

Ariston Hebe Secondary School, the most prestigious school in the Republic, was a large ivy-walled compound with rolling grounds. They landed in the snowy arboretum and Charlie turned into a boy wearing a navy school uniform. They waited there, shivering, until 6:30. When the breakfast bell rang, they ran for a supply closet window they had jimmied open months earlier, crawled in, and cautiously opened the door. The hall was full of students still putting on their jackets and doing up their ties as they hurried to the Dining Hall. Charlie and Eliza were able to slip into the mob unnoticed. The Dining Hall was a very grand room with crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and paintings of famous alumni on the walls. They scanned the crowd hopefully, slowly warming up, until somebody crashed into Eliza with a squeal, crushing her in an embrace. Eliza stumbled and laughed and hugged her best friend back.

While Eliza loved Holburg, it had always been too small for Nell, and she had found her way off the island as soon as possible by winning the only scholarship to Ariston Hebe offered to a student from the archipelago. Eliza had worried at first that her friend would not fit in but Nell took to citified sophistication like a fish to water. She remained top in all her classes, excelled in sports, and had a following of hangers-on as ardent as those she’d left behind in Holburg. Life in the elegant old school, with more students than the entire population of the island she’d grown up on, was a dream come true for Nell, and all of Kalla was just outside the gates. A closed gate and a mere wall were no great impediment for a girl like Nell.

The three friends filled their breakfast trays with eggs and sausages and toast and joined Nell’s class at one of the long mahogany tables. Nell’s school friends were wildly curious about Eliza and Charlie, who turned up on occasion and gave the impression of not having school or parents or homes or anything normal themselves. Only Nell would be so audacious as to steal uniforms for outsiders and then have them in for breakfast. When they asked Nell who these mysterious friends were, giggling about Charlie, who always caused quite a sensation, she said coyly that they lived outside the city but liked to drop by. She could have made up a convincing story about them but it was so much more fun being secretive. Eliza sat next to Nell and Charlie slid into a space across from them, delighting the girls on either side of him.

“Have you heard about Abimbola Broom?” Nell asked meaningfully as they sat down. Her shiny chestnut brown hair was cut in a stylish bob that framed her face perfectly and her violet eyes were sparkling. “His daughter used to go here, aye. Isabella Broom.”

“Basically an imbecile,” one of Nell’s group chimed in, eager to contribute.

“She was pulled out before the trial began,” said Nell. “Nobody knows where she’s gone.”

“Poor girl,” said Eliza.

Nell shrugged. “If he’s so awful, lah, she’s better off without him. Listen, you’re both coming to Holburg for Winter Festival, nay? You have to!”

“I’m going to try my very very best,” said Eliza. Nell pulled a face. Eliza’s very very best was not what she wanted to hear.

“We’ll be there,” said Charlie firmly. Eliza gave him a look. He shrugged and said, “I’ll be there, anyway.”

“It depends on my parents, lah,” said Eliza. “I dinnay know if I can convince them.”