Page 260 - Fourth Wing

excuse us, Cadet Sorrengail, we have work to attend. I’ll see you tomorrow

in Battle Brief.”
“Yes, sir.” I step back, giving the squad room to pass.

“You are sad?” Andarna asks, her voice soft.

“Just visiting the Archives. No need to worry,” I tell her.
“It’s hard to love a second home as much as the first.”

I swallow. “It’s easy when the second home is the right one.” And that is

what the Riders Quadrant has become to me—the right home. The longing
for the kind of peace and solitude I found only here can’t match the

adrenaline rush of flight.

Jesinia reappears with the cart, laden down with the requested books and
bits of mail for the professors of my quadrant. She signs, “I’m so sorry, but

I couldn’t find that book. I even searched the catalog for wyvern—I think
that’s what you said—but there’s nothing.”

I stare for a second. Our Archives have either a copy or the original of

almost every book in Navarre. Only ultrarare or forbidden tomes are
excluded. When did folklore become either of those? Though, come to

think of it, I never came across anything like The Fables of the Barren on
the shelves while I was studying to become a scribe. Chimera? Yes.

Kraken? Sure. But wyvern or the venin that create them? None. Bizarre.

“That’s all right. Thank you for looking,” I sign back.
“You look different,” she signs, then hands the cart over.

My eyes widen.

“Not bad different, just…different. Your face is leaner, and even your
posture…” She shakes her head.

“I’ve been training.” I pause, my hands hanging by my sides while I

consider my answer. “It’s hard, but great, too. I’m getting quicker on the
mat.”

“The mat?” Her brow furrows.
“For sparring.”