“Where are we?” I asked when we were on the ground.
Standing beside Nurik shook me to my core. His foreleg dwarfed me. It was wider than a tree trunk, with three long, deathly-sharp talons.
“This is Pyr Landing,” he said. “It’s an outpost where travelers and dragons can recharge before making the trek up to the Academy.” He pointed above us into the darkness.
It took a moment for my eyes to adjust. As I looked around, I realized that we were in the middle of a scant town, in the shadow of a mountain.
A dirt path connected brick buildings that seemed set a bit too far apart from each other. A gurgling river wound its way past us, bringing with it the smell of wet limestone and moss. Animal sounds—sheep and insects, and the occasional distant dragon call punctuated the otherwise still night.
“We’re starving,” I said, when we started walking.
Though Ignimitra had fallen back asleep, I could feel the rumbling of her stomach against mine. Or maybe it was mine. Avek had left Nurik in the clearing to sleep, promising to return with food.
“We might be a little late for dinner, but there should be something here for us,” He said with a light laugh. “There’ll be plenty of charcoal for Nurik and Ignimitra at least.”
“Charcoal?”
“The best fare for our beasts,” He said. “It’s great for their body heat and fire breath.”
I was stumped. Should I have been feeding Ignimitra charcoal all this time? “I’ve been giving her meat.”
“Well...if she isn’t a firebreather, then I suppose that’s fine. Nurik needs it to keep his spikes warm.”
“What breed is she?”
He looked over his shoulder, then shrugged.
“They didn’t tell us in the briefing.”
Avek stopped to examine Ignimitra, who was curled in my arms.
“She looks too small to be a Giantwing, and I’ve never seen a Suneye with that coloring. Nurik’s a Flamespike, and he was green from the day he hatched.” He rubbed his chin with two fingers.
“What if I just ask the man in the black armor?”
The words were barely out of my mouth when Avek stopped dead in his tracks. He spun on his heel, gripping me firmly by the shoulders. His boyish playfulness had been burned away, leaving raw seriousness in its wake.
“If you’re going to survive up there, you have to fit in quickly. And the first rule of fitting here is not to ask too many questions.”
He didn’t even sound like the person I had flown over here with.
Panic suddenly gripped my throat. He let go of my shoulders.
“But don’t worry about it tonight,” He seemed to go back to normal. “There will be someone to help you when the time comes. There always is.”
He led us to a small inn.
Inside, there were only four people—the man behind the counter, another Dragon Guard soldier and two teenagers that looked around the same age as me.
“Jules!” Avek exclaimed, walking over to the soldier. She had short purple hair worn close cropped at the sides of her head. She met him with a hug.
“I thought you were already up the mountain,” She replied. Then her gaze fell on me, sizing me up. Did she know me as the dragon stealer too?
Avek broke the tense exchange with a chuckle.
“Jules, this is Kaos. She’s a new cadet,” then he pointed to the sleeping dragonling in my arms, “And that’s Ignimitra.”
The purple-haired woman’s face softened, giving me a toothy smile.
“Looks like they put us both on babysitting duty,” she quipped then motioned to the two teenagers, a boy and a girl, at the nearby table.
The girl was the first to speak.
“Solra,” she smiled thinly. “My dragon is Zelkor.” There was a currant-colored dragonling wrapped around her feet, slumbering.
“My name is Irikai, rider of Titan” he said. He pointed to another sleeping dragon. It was the color of seashells, and twice as big as Ignimitra.
“Go get acquainted,” Avek put a hand on my shoulder. “I’ll get the food.”
Solra was plump with pale-skin and hazel eyes, a rare combination in Pyralis. A kinky mess of blonde hair sat atop her head in a bun, tied back with a purple ribbon. Her simple clothes—a worn brown tunic and ash-colored skirt—told me that she was likely Tertaro like I was. She was the first pale-skinned one that I had ever met.
Irikai was harder to read. He had shaggy black hair, and dark brown eyes. His clothes were nondescript, but his introduction gave him away. The lowest he could be was Trito, which would mean he probably got in because of money and Solra got in on merit. He was thin, and slouched in his chair.
My stomach was churning as I sank into the seat.
I didn’t do well with people—I liked to stick to myself. I had been counting on Placement School to get me acclimated to the idea of having...friends.
“It’s nice to meet another girl!” Solra exclaimed, gripping my arm. “We have to stick together.”
I shrugged, forcing a smile.
It was rare for a woman to be accepted into Dragon Guard service. You had to satisfy all the entry criteria and then some to even be considered—and the spots were always offered to men first.
Throughout all this Irikai was silent. I pinned him with a skeptical look, half-ready to curse him out for thinking he was better than us.
“I think we should all stick together,” Solra spoke again. “I know it’s every woman and man for themselves up there, but as a trio we could do serious damage.”
Irikai looked up, a flash of recognition in his eyes.
“Three-man teams are standard,” his voice was deeper than before. Was that intentional? “Three-man.”
Solra’s eyebrows knitted in confusion.
“You think we’ll be at a disadvantage with our three-woman team?” I jibed.
Solra snickered.
“I’ve got more muscle than you,” I continued, looking over his bony arms. “You’d be lucky to be with us.”
The anger I expected from him wasn’t there. Instead, he smirked, leaning forward on his elbows.
“Fine. I’m in.”
The sense of satisfaction that washed over me from winning the argument was quickly replaced with a stab of fear. What the hell did I just do?
AT THAT POINT, AVEK returned to set a plate down in front of me. It was a simple meal of meat and veggies. “It was all they had,” He said with a shrug, before going back over to Jules.
Even though they were just a table over, I couldn’t hear a thing they were saying. They sat close, touching shoulders. It crossed my mind that they were probably lovers. Heat rose to my cheeks.
“What do you guys feed your dragons?”
Solra held up a finger, “Fire dragons need charcoal.”
“Titan doesn’t like it much,” Irikai said.
“Neither does Ignimitra,” I prodded the dragonling awake.
Her eyes snapped open and almost immediately she scrambled on to the table, diving mouth-first into the plate of food. She devoured the whole thing then licked my face in thanks.
“What are you going to eat?” Solra asked. “Why would you let the dragon eat all your food?”
Ignimitra looked mortified at her words. I rubbed the back of her ears soothingly.
“I’ll be fine,” I lied. My stomach felt like it was caught in a bear trap. “I have a few sticks of jerky in my pack. It’ll hold me over until tomorrow.” I gave Ignimitra as big a smile as I could manage.
She didn’t seem fooled. The dragonling curled up in my lap, her amethyst eyes heavy with something akin to sadness.
“Here, take my soup,” Irikai pushed the bowl in front of me. “I’m not hungry anyway.”
My print wanted me to decline his offer, but my stomach wouldn’t let me. I nodded my thanks and scarfed it down, my body coming alive with each gulp.
The more I ate, the more this little alliance made sense. Perhaps the weight of this new adventure
would be easier with two other people to help. I could always cut them loose if they got in the way.
Grinning, I finished the soup.
Avek led us to a cabin downstream. It was smaller than Hakan’s house in the village, and consisted only of a single room with an adjoining bathroom. The room smelled of hay and dusty-blankets; it clearly hadn’t seen visitors in a while. There were two beds.
“It’s not much, but it’ll do,” He said, shaking out the blankets of one of the beds.
I chose the opposite bed, only to have him come over and shake out the bedding too.
“I can do that myself,” My tone was harsher than I expected.
He stopped. We shared glances—I looked away to observe the ceiling—then he turned to face the door.
“I’m going to go feed Nurik and bring him closer.”
Then, he was gone.
I settled Ignimitra into one of the pillows, then continued shaking the dust out of my blanket. It caught a loose nail on the bed frame, nearly splitting entirely in two.
Great, to add to everything I’d have to sleep with a ripped blanket.
The beginnings of a headache throbbed in my temples.
I settled into bed and drifted off to sleep, hoping everything would be better tomorrow.
Chapter 4
Thump, thump, thump.
I woke to the sound of knocking...or pounding?
Kneading my temples, I glanced around the room.
Sunlight streamed through the open windows, giving me a better view of how dingy this place was. Moths had been eating the curtains for what looked like months, and even the rug in the center was stained with heavens knew what.
It was on this rug that I saw Ignimitra rolling, jumping and streaking with a piece of fabric in her mouth.
She jumped. Thump.
She rolled and somersaulted. Thump.
The culprit was her tail against the wooden floor.
Wait.
Where was Avek?
In a panic, I threw off the blanket and hurried to pick up Ignimitra. Did we oversleep again?
“Do you think you could learn to wake me up on time?” I whispered to a panting Ignimitra.
She yipped and licked my face, squirming to catch the cloth that I was holding in my other hand. The fabric she had been playing with had been my blanket, the one that ripped last night.
Then how did...?
Over on my bed I had a blanket. A whole one with no rips. Avek’s bed was bare.
My stomach fluttered when I made the connection.
The next thought did help to calm me: he has Jules, he was just being nice.
“We’re going to the Dragon Academy today. We don’t have much time to play.”
She stilled, her eyes asking a question.
“You’re going to learn to be a real dragon, and I’m going to learn how to be a real dragon tamer,” My arms started burning from the weight of her—she felt like she had grown a ton since last night. “It’ll be a different kind of fun.”
She yipped, soothed by my explanation.
“Let’s get ready to find the others,”
Ignimitra splashed and played in the water as I took a shower.
PYR LANDING IN THE daytime looked like the perfect rustic getaway. Vines, shrubs and trees grew freely all around, as if nature was trying to reclaim the outpost for itself. Birdsong was carried by the wind that caressed my neck, bringing with it the woody smell of the forest. The clearing we had landed at, on the other end of the village, was close enough to see from where I stood in front of the cabin.
But it was what was loomed above that made my fingers tighten around the hem of my skirt.
Pyr Landing was located at the foot of a huge mountain that seemed to be part of an even bigger mountain range. The forested peaks seemed to stretch up to the heavens, as a thick layer of fog obstructed my view of the top. It seemed a treacherous trek to get all the way up there.
There was an odd burning in my throat as I thought of Ignimitra’s wing stubs. We wouldn’t be able to leave that mountain until she could fly, and the thought of being stuck in one place—a place that looked as scary as that—made me shiver. I hated feeling so vulnerable.
“You’re finally awake.”
I jumped at the sound of his voice.
“Are we late?” I remembered the commander saying something about sunrise. I really had to fix this oversleeping thing if I was ever going to be a Dragon Guard soldier.
“Only by a couple hours,” Avek shrugged. “You looked like you needed the rest.”
It was my turn to shrug, looking down at Ignimitra who had wedged herself between us was a welcome distraction from the heat pooling in my cheeks.
“Where are Solra and Irikai?”
“Waiting for us by the ferry. Jules left this morning.”
I didn’t ask about her. “Ferry?”
“You’ll see,” Avek chuckled, beckoning me to follow him.
He led us up along the river’s edge, which Ignimitra enjoyed. When she wasn’t trailing her tail in the stream, she was stopping to take a drink. Growing up with Jairyn who was so afraid of water had made me believe that all fire dragons hated it. Clearly, there was so much I didn’t know about them.
We passed through a thicket on our ascent.
Hidden behind it was a stone cabin perched by the river, the biggest one I had seen so far. A large boat was moored in the river, and on a bench outside the cabin sat Solra, Irikai and a man I didn’t recognize. Off to the side, I saw Titan and Zelkor in a friendly scuffle with another dragon. Nurik lay sleeping behind the cabin—he was so huge I could see his spikes peeking out over the roof.
“Look who finally showed up!” Solra exclaimed, arms akimbo. Her hair was loose today, falling about her shoulders in a thick poof.
“We only got here fifteen minutes ago,” Irikai rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, earning a poke in the ribs from Solra.
“Hear that Ignimitra? Everyone overslept,” I teased, stroking my dragon’s head. She yipped, getting increasingly preoccupied with the romping of the three other dragons.
The man who had been sitting on the bench walked over to our foursome.
He was a short, stocky man with gray hair that stretched to his shoulders. His clothes were deceptively simple—though gold fringes were indicative of Deftero designation—and bore the Dragon Guard insignia of a fire breathing dragon.
“I was startin’ to think ya weren’t gonna show, missy!” He said, laughing heartily. “I’m Freyk, your ride up the mount.”
“Kaos. This is—” Ignimitra jumped down from my arms to join the other dragons. “That’s Ignimitra.”
“Fancy name,” he quipped. I shrugged, taken aback. My mother would have hung me by my cornrows if I had ever spoken such broken English to her, let alone a stranger. How was he Deftero?
Freyk whistled, and a dragon bounded over to him.
Glimmering blue scales adorned its serpentine body. The dragon had no wings, and instead of horns, there was a web of skin at the sides of its head. It looked full grown, but wasn’t much taller than Freyk.
“This is Azamora,” he said. Azamora sing-songed a beautiful melody when he scratched her chin.
“She’s a Hydralian Icedart,” Solra piped up, answering the question on my lips. “Freyk used to live there, and brought her back with him.”
Freyk gave us a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. Avek’s warning filtered into my mind then, and I kept my questions to myself.
The Drakkendom of Hydralia—or Water Country as we called it—was on the other side of the Great Pyralian Sea. We had helped them to reclaim their land from the Shadow Dragons in the Great Dragon War, and in thanks they had given us two of their islands. Still, I didn’t know of Hydralians getting free passage into Pyralis. Unless of course, Freyk and Azamora came from one of those islands.
“We can talk on the ferry,” Avek said. “How long, Freyk?”
“I’d say we can make it by m
idday.”
FREYK’S BOAT WAS A simple flat-bottom fishing boat. Benches had been built-in on either side of the wooden hull, and it was here we settled ourselves. Ignimitra clamored onto the bench to look out at the water, while Titan and Zelkor seemed content to huddle at their tamer’s feet. Nurik flew above us—he was so big he could have carried the boat if he tried.
Freyk had a high seat on the boat’s helm, with reins that connected to a bit in Azamora’s mouth, so he could direct her as she swam. He had fitted her into a kind of harness at the bow. Apparently, she would pull the boat upstream to the Academy.
As we set off, my heart was in my ears.
We were so close to the Academy that I could taste it. Everything else up until that moment felt like it had been a distraction from the way I had really been feeling. There was a huge empty hole in my stomach, and my muscles were weak.
In a couple hours, I would be at the Dragon Academy, the place I had dreamed about going as a child. A dream that I had been so valiantly going after ever since I graduated Finishing School. Yet, it was an opportunity that I was presently unprepared to seize. Conflicting feelings created a storm inside of me.
Was I enough? What would happen if the training was too much for me? How would I fare against the children of other Dragon Guard soldiers who had trained for this their entire life? Those who actually went to Placement School? The conversation that had started up among us didn’t do much to help.
“A guy a few years ahead of me at school joined the Dragon Guard. We heard that he failed, but we never saw him again. It was like he fell off the earth,” Irikai said in a hushed whisper.
Avek was seated across from us, preoccupied with the scenery and thankfully out of earshot. He was still a Dragon Guard soldier, and still had the power to do anything he wanted with us.
“That’s stupid,” Solra said. “His Majesty would never allow that.”
“You get drafted the moment they find out you’ve bonded with a dragon, even if you don’t want to go,” He spat. “I doubt there’s even a simulacrum of choice in anything up on that mountain.”
Dragon Academy Page 4