First Flight

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  Dragon School: Ascendant Light

  Dragon School, Volume 20

  Sarah K. L. Wilson

  Published by Sarah K. L. Wilson, 2018.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  DRAGON SCHOOL: ASCENDANT LIGHT

  First edition. October 9, 2018.

  Copyright © 2018 Sarah K. L. Wilson.

  Written by Sarah K. L. Wilson.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  DRAGON CHAMELEON

  EXCLUSIVE CHRISTMAS ADVENTURE!

  Behind the Scenes:

  For Harold, without whom this series could not possibly exist. Thank you, dear friend.

  Chapter One

  Hold on! Raolcan called to me as we tumbled through the air. I didn’t dare close my eyes. What if Raolcan needed to see through them?

  Thwack!

  I cried out as one of the loose chains hit my hands. Though I flinched away, I didn’t dare let go. The tiny bones in my hands ached from the hit.

  Just one more se-

  He hit the ground first – sliding through the mud – and I landed next to him with a rib-cracking hit.

  They aren’t cracked. They just hurt a lot.

  I gasped. Breathing was so hard! Why did everything hurt so much? I coughed, doubling over. My breath wheezing and painful. How did he know my ribs weren’t cracked? They felt cracked.

  We couldn’t stay on the ground. I had the Pipe now. I had to blow it and rescue the dragons from the mirror magic enslaving them. I pushed against the thick mud, only seeming to sink in deeper.

  If they were cracked, you wouldn’t be moving like that. You’re sore, but you’re fine.

  It coated my hands and the front of my leathers – an inch thick of soft clay. I tried to wipe it off to clean my hands, but it only seemed to smear it.

  On your feet!

  He seemed tight – like he was close to snapping. I struggled in the mud to stand. We’d skidded to the side of a downed dragon. His rider, a Red was standing at his head, swinging his sword wildly at anyone who came near, friend or foe.

  “You won’t touch him! Not one of you!”

  Arrows flew around him, some of them flying past and landing around us in the thick mud.

  I fought the mud to try to stand. My good leg was too deeply dug into the clay – almost knee deep now – and my crutch was worse. Its narrow point jabbed deep into the mud. It couldn’t hold my weight.

  Blow the Pipe!

  What if it made things worse? I tried again to wipe my hand on my pants, but in the end, it was a clay-smeared hand that reached into my leathers and pulled out the Pipe. I checked the lever. This was it, wasn’t it? I didn’t want to blow the wrong note. What if I made it worse?

  Just do it! There’s no time to second guess!

  I closed my eyes, raised the Pipe to my lips and blew my three-note tune, clear as a bell. Dax would be proud.

  Look.

  I opened my eyes to see the Red shaking himself, his rider still screaming threats from in front of him. Clay and mud sprayed the field around us in every direction as the great Red shook like a dog on a rainy day.

  I almost breathed a sigh of relief when a cry to my right caught my attention. The Dusk Covenant army was swarming toward us, throwing logs or planks in the mud in front of them to gain a better position. I looked quickly to the other side to see the Lightbringer’s side doing the same thing. I felt like I was swept up in a vortex of passion and fury.

  So, that was why they had been fighting for so long in this field! Even moving a few feet took extra effort! But now I was stuck between them. Really stuck. I couldn’t pull my foot out of the mud and my crutch had only a hand’s width of length not swallowed by clay.

  I was trying not to panic. Remember not to panic!

  Yells and arrows shot around me as I tugged my foot, my breath coming faster and faster. I half-sobbed, frustration and fear warring for control of my thoughts and then Raolcan’s neck shot around lightning quick. His head went past me and the heat and smell of his flame filled the air. A moment later, he drew his head back to level with me. Did he know how spooky he looked with chains across his eyes?

  I look tough! No one wants to mess with me.

  Like he didn’t look tough before. He was a dragon. He always looked tough.

  Don’t judge me by my bad breath.

  What?

  He opened his mouth wide and then twisted so he could take me gently in his jaws and pull me from the mud. I grimaced, worried about his sharp teeth. What if he broke me in half? What if he accidentally flamed me?

  I was more worried that you’d swoon from my breath.

  It was terrible. What had he been eating?

  Horses. Cats. Fluffy bunnies.

  Tease! I clutched my crutch, pulling it with me as he lifted me up from the clay with a loud sucking sound and then arched his neck around to place me on his back, clay, mud and all. We were in the air before I could even settle, swirling upward into the sky.

  Around us, dazed dragons pulled themselves back out of the mud and into the air. I hurried to tuck the Pipe back into my leathers. I couldn’t afford to lose it again. Especially not now.

  Oh no.

  What now?

  A second blast hit us, rocking us back and forth, but this time Raolcan kept his place in the sky. We spun to look at the source of the blast. Fear filled me.

  Savette and Starie stood in an empty circle of mud. Anyone and anything that had been around them before had either fled or been pushed back from their blasts of power. Starie’s dark light pulsed out from her blindfold and Savette’s white light shone brighter than ever. They were knee deep in mud. It coated their clothing and stuck to their feet. At the edges where they met, sparks and sprays of light crackled and popped.

  My vision shifted, suddenly, to Savette’s perspective.

  “I come to claim your soul,” Starie said, her smug smile taking on a new life as she flared to life with the darkness of deception and mirror magic.

  “Today, your lies end. Today truth will win,” Savette challenged. Her light flared out to match Starie’s light.

  “You can’t beat me,” Starie challenged. “I have something you don’t have.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I have nothing to love. Which means I have nothing to lose.”

  I snapped back to my own mind again, but my eyes lingered on the two challengers, standing across from each other, grim determination in every line of their bodies.

  Only one of them could survive this final conflict.

  Chapter Two

  It won’t be a fair battle.

  Why? Because good would always win?

  Has that been your experience, Amel? Has good always won?

  Well, no. Of course not.

  Then think about it. Why won’t the battle be fair?

  Because Starie was a cheater. No matter what the battle was, she would find a way to cheat.

  Exactly. Look around you.

  All around us, the Ifrits seemed to be waking up. They’d been fighting all along, but their sudden increas
e in speed and deadliness caught me off guard. Had they even been trying before?

  They come for her. She is their Chosen One. Their dust lives in the power of the dark light in her. Like all creatures born of deception, they follow no rules.

  They were all moving in the same direction, flinging men, horses, and dragons out of their paths as they scrambled toward their goal – the clash between the Chosen Ones. What would happen to Savette when they arrived?

  We have another problem.

  No other problems mattered right now. The fate of the world rested on this!

  Look at the Observatory. Is that our problem?

  I swiveled to look to the distant hanging room. Two wooden “X’s” were being lowered from the arches. Was that a third I saw them preparing in the opening of another arch? I thought I could see figures chained to them. What was with Iskaris and those horrific things?

  He’s mad. Completely mad. But this time it is Leng strapped to one of those.

  Anxiety rose up and choked me. A sound escaped my lips like the cross between a sob and a curse. What about Savette? My gaze swung to her little circle of light as the shadows around her closed in, and then back to the wooden “X’s” being lowered and then back to Savette. She still had a fighting chance. Leng didn’t.

  The fate of the world rests on Savette’s shoulders.

  The fate of my world rested on Leng’s.

  Some people say you need to remember that there’s a difference between personal and important. Savette’s battle is more important. Leng’s is more personal.

  So, I should help Savette and leave my husband to his fate? Is that what he was saying?

  I’m saying that you have to make a decision. Personal or important?

  Personal was important. You could find a hundred thousand people to care about important. In fact, there were thousands of them on the battlefield today. But no one else would take care of the personal. No one but me.

  If you go for Leng, everything we worked for to help Savette might be for nothing.

  If I didn’t help him, then the world we saved wouldn’t be worth saving. It would be full of people like me who coldly calculated victory over devotion. That would never be me. I’d watch the world burn first.

  I never expected anything less from you.

  We were already turning in the air. My dragon was with me!

  And as always, you prove again why my loyalties lie with you, Amel Leafbrought.

  An Ifrit towered in front of us, suddenly stretching and narrowing to a tall, thin pillar to block our path. Raolcan dodged his first blow, but he had to be careful. I had no saddle and nothing to hold on to but his chain collar. Worse, I was slick with clay.

  My dragon dodged again, turning a little too far in his dodge and sending me sprawling across his back. I tried to right myself, but a third dodge left me dangling off his back. The chain bit into my fingers while the wind howled around my loose legs. I kicked to try to get momentum to pull myself back up, but it wasn’t enough.

  Sorry! I didn’t see the turn clearly enough.

  It was amazing we were both still alive, but my muscles were aching already, burning as if someone had thrown hot coals over my biceps and shoulders.

  We swung to the side and I could feel the burst of air from the Ifrit’s swipe whip my hair out of its braid. I turned to look at the dust demon – Raolcan needed my eyes! – only to have the Ifirit burst into dust and rain from the sky in a chalky cloud. I blinked rapidly to clear my eyes.

  From out of the puff of glittering dust, Kyrowat and Enkenay flew. Rakturan – still glowing with the light he’d used against the Ifrit – gave me a Baojang salute as he passed.

  Hubric! Could he help me before my arms gave out?

  Kyrowat swooped in close and as he ducked under Raolcan, my dragon called to me.

  Drop! Now!

  I let go of the chain and fell onto Kyrowat, my tailbone aching from the blow of hitting his bony spine. Hubric reached out and stabilized me as I landed on his dragon’s neck.

  “Easy now. Skies and stars you’re a mess!”

  “It’s nice to see you, too.”

  “We’ll set down in friendly territory, so you can get back on your dragon.”

  Kyrowat swooped low over the heads of soldiers fighting in the field. I tried not to see the details, but try as I might, they still burned into my eyes – things I couldn’t forget, wouldn’t forget, for the rest of my life. War was not a pretty thing, though armor and swords and dragons decked out in armor might be. It was a place of horror and misery. A place a person might beg the stars and skies that he could only leave. The seconds would feel like hours as he cried for relief - until his life was snatched away by muddy hands. I shivered and clung to Kyrowat.

  I glanced back over my shoulder to see Rakturan rushing toward his beloved wife, his dragon glowing as brightly as he was.

  We were following Raolcan across the Dusk Covenant army, taking arrows on Kyrowat’s belly and dodging clumps of Ifirits. As if they had been called by a Pipe, they were closing in toward Starie, ignoring anyone else unless they were in the path to her.

  I glanced behind us every few seconds. The Ifrits had clustered in so tightly around Starie and Savette that it was almost impossible to make them out through the clouds of dust demons.

  What should I do about the dragons? Should I be directing them with the Pipe right now or leaving them alone?

  We can’t direct them right now. We’re going for Leng. Save the Pipe for when it’s useful.

  Rakturan was harder to see as we flew further away, but this time when I glanced back I saw light shooting from him and blasting a path through the dust demons toward Savette.

  The Observatory was right over the field of battle, but I hadn’t realized how far Baojang had already pushed. The battle line between them and the Dusk Covenant was right beneath the Observatory, close to the base of Dominion City.

  Some of the War Leaders were already trying to secure the ropes and cables that hauled boxes and baskets up to the sky city. If Jalla didn’t rein them in, they would try to sack the city before she could stop them.

  Worry about your own business. Jalla can mind hers just fine.

  She was on the frontlines – of course! – waving that huge sword of hers around and shouting her troops onward from the back of Renn’s Gold dragon. Ahummal looked almost as disconcerted as his real rider as she spurred him on into the carnage of the front line. Raolcan couldn’t possibly hold a grudge toward him now.

  Just because Jalla makes him do good things doesn’t make him a good dragon.

  But didn’t it? Were we what we did or were we something detached from our deeds? I didn’t see how you could separate the two.

  Can we be philosophical later? Distracting yourself from this situation isn’t going to make it go away!

  I hadn’t looked up this whole time. I didn’t want to see Leng on that “X.” If I did, it would make it real.

  Not looking won’t make it not real. Ignoring the truth never saves anyone.

  I looked up ... and my heart broke.

  Chapter Three

  It was worse than if it was me.

  It was worse.

  My heart was stuttering so badly I thought it might stop and my hands shook violently as Hubric pushed me off of Kyrowat’s back. He was saying something, but I couldn’t hear it over the din of battle and the roaring of immobilizing terror in my ears. I couldn’t lose Leng before I ever really had him. I couldn’t.

  Hubric shoved me forward. He’d set us down behind the frontlines of Baojang and our allies poured around us like a river around a rock as they rushed to the fray. Trust the people of Baojang to hurry to battle!

  I stumbled in the direction he’d pushed me, seeing the rushing soldiers, drawn blades, furious expressions, and brightly colored clothing but not really taking it in. I hobbled forward anyway, the occasional hand shoving me out of the way. I felt like I couldn’t think. The world around me was a teary blur.


  Shake out of it!

  The crowd parted and then a path cleared to my purple dragon. Puffs of smoke and a little trail of fire kept a narrow path clear for me. He really shouldn’t flame around his allies.

  They shouldn’t wave pointy blades near my human. Fair is fair. I didn’t kill any of them. Now, stop panicking and mount up. Let’s go save your husband!

  I scrambled forward, letting him boost me onto his back and we leapt up again into the air. Below me, a series of screams and gurgles reminded me that the Sentries were fighting, too.

  I don’t even wish that kind of death on the Dusk Covenant.

  Didn’t he?

  A burst of light so bright and at the same time the opposite of that – black as night – pulsed across the battlefield with a powerful burst. It was stronger than the swipe of an Ifrit. I flew off my feet, sight gone, sound gone.

  My entire world was white light.

  My vision returned suddenly. My arms ached from holding the chain as I dangled from Raolcan’s back. Enkenay and Kyrowat burst through a cloud of dust. Hubric nodded to me as Rakturan dove beneath Raolcan.

  Wait. Hadn’t this just happened?

  But not like this. It had been different.

  Drop! Now!

  I landed on Enkenay’s ghostly neck, Rakturan stabilizing me. My jaw dropped, and I spun to face his blind-folded gaze.

  “Wha-”

  “No time,” his accent sounded thicker since his time back in Baojang. We spiraled upward, higher and higher. I caught a glimpse of Raolcan following us. “I must return to Savette as quickly as possible. She needs my added strength.

  “Wha-?”

  “When their power collides – truth versus deception – it reacts. It explodes.” We were still climbing, passing now out of the reach of even the Ifrits. “But the false one has these mirrors - they reflect back the past. Her mirror magic shot us – the whole battlefield – back into the past. I could see it all happening. It will happen again. It’s going to make this last battle ... complicated.”