by Lucia Ashta
“And on bad days?” Corey asked, his voice betraying that Dean had him mesmerized.
“On bad days, they’ll be the last thing you ever see. And that doesn’t even take into account what they’re like during mating season. Or worse, a female around her young. If I had my way, I’d warn you away from dragons—permanently. The smartest thing the Ooba people could do is leave the area to the dragons and never come back. The royal city, even with the threat of the Andarons, can’t possibly be worse than the dragons. Since we won’t do that, then heed this warning: If you ever spot a mother with her young, run the other way. And I don’t mean you run like you’re out to build strength and endurance, run like every step might be your last, as if your very life depends on it. Because it does. If a mother with her young spots you, it will take every single blessing of the oasis to get out of her path of rage alive.”
“Do female dragons have young often?” Rane asked. We’d read the answer in books, but even from the short time we’d shared with Dean, it was clear he was the more accurate source of information.
“Once every ten years.”
“And... when will that be?”
Dean smiled wickedly, as if he were insane enough to enjoy the additional challenge. “This year.”
Rane gulped, his dark eyes wide and bright.
“Are any of you regretting your choice to join the Dragon Force yet?”
Most of the trainees shook their head no.
“Then you’re more foolish than I was. You should definitely be questioning your sanity by now. The fact that you aren’t means you’re definitely in the right place. There’s no vocation better suited to you than this if the thought of an enraged mother dragon doesn’t send you quaking in your boots toward home.” He laughed. It was both a comforting and frightening sound, I couldn’t understand how it could be both at once.
Dean was scary, but I already liked him. When he finally dismissed the class for the day, I couldn’t wait to talk to Rane about the guy, about Rane’s role as a dragon trainee, the chieftain, about all of it.
But I’d have to wait. Rane and his friends had plenty to say too. I didn’t bother trying to sneak behind them up the mountain path. I knew from experience how difficult it was not to say anything when I desperately wanted to join the conversation.
So I stayed behind at the pools, where I was able to forget that I was the freak among humans crazy enough to attempt to train the fiercest beasts ever to live.
I thought everyone had left when I dipped both hands into the water and a voice rang out behind me.
Chapter Eight
I startled. My hands disturbed the water, causing an audible splash, and now there was no easy way to recover from my blunder.
It was Dean, his husky voice was unmistakable. I wanted to ask him how he’d managed to sneak up on me, the one thing no one had done in the sixteen years since I’d understood that if anyone discovered me, I’d die. But I didn’t say a word. I stood unmoving, fearful of making a single additional sound, my heartbeat thrumming annoyingly loudly through my head. I needed to think, and I was having trouble doing it.
This was bad, it could be the start of the end for me. All because I’d been careless enough to let him surprise me.
I hadn’t heard him coming. The clearing in front of the sacred pools was empty, I’d been sure. It even had that empty sensation to it, that cool feeling that enveloped you like you were all alone in the world.
This man had skills beyond those of a dragon charmer. Not even Rane, who could usually tell where I was and more or less see me, had managed to sneak up on me. Not ever, not even once in our nearly seventeen years of shared life.
“Who’s there?” Dean asked, but his voice wasn’t accusatory. That confused me even more. I was used to persecution and the hiding and fleeing that it brought. His voice was gentle, and I had no idea how to respond to it. I focused on withdrawing my hands from the water.
“I can feel you there,” Dean said.
My heartbeat, which I’d believed couldn’t go any faster, picked up speed. I needed to get my hands all the way out of the water, and quickly, yet I forced myself to go as slowly as was necessary to avoid making more noises or ripples. I’d plunged my hands into the water up to my wrists; I’d managed to withdraw them up to the knuckles.
I was almost free when Dean began approaching the biggest of the pools and the exact spot where I stood. I itched to yank my hands out and run. I forced myself to ignore my impulses and continue the gradual movement.
I’d have time to get out of there before he reached the space I occupied—I hoped.
“I mean you no harm,” he continued, and I wished I could believe him. Maybe he even truly intended not to hurt me, but that was before he realized I was half of the only set of twins who’d survived the ritual execution assigned to all twins of the Ooba people—to all twins of Planet Origins.
Just the tips of my fingers were left in the water, and Dean was only steps away from me. I had no more time. I had to get away now, or I’d be trapped. I might be invisible to the eyes, but I was plenty solid to the touch. If Dean touched me, my life was over.
I yanked my hands the rest of the way out of the water and moved. My steps were quiet but fast. I didn’t slow down until I got far enough away from Dean that I could breathe again.
“Wow, that’s incredible,” he said. “You can interact with the physical world. You caused ripples!”
I continued to back away—carefully. Now that I was far enough away that he couldn’t lunge at me, I chose my footing with my usual care. Large, ancient trees surrounded the sacred pools. They shed leaves, flowers, and seeds, and there was always the danger of something crunching underfoot. But these were common things.
What I wasn’t used to was having a dragon charmer legend talk to me.
I was finally far enough beyond the edge of the biggest pool that I might manage to slip into the trees and disappear into the shelter of the forest, when he said, “Are you the dragon spirit who’ll guide us out of this mess?”
I stopped retreating and stared. Dragon spirit? I’d never heard of one before.
“You are, aren’t you?” He sighed with great relief. “I had a feeling you’d come. The last time I connected to the Something Greater, I sensed that I’d receive sure guidance. I just never imagined it would be something—I apologize, I mean someone—of such great importance. I’m truly humbled. You have my deepest gratitude in coming to aid me and my people at our time of greatest need.”
Dragon spirit? He actually thought the Something Greater would send him a dragon spirit to guide him? That was some serious wishful thinking, but I couldn’t entirely blame him for the confusion. After all, he didn’t realize there were invisible girls running around Ooba.
“Just the fact that you’ve come is enough to make me believe that we’ll find the way to survive this. That my people won’t perish if the seer’s vision comes to pass. We’ll find the one among us who can ride the dragons, and defeat the twins when they arrive.”
I didn’t say a word, of course I didn’t. But it wasn’t just because I couldn’t reveal myself, I also had no idea what to say. I obviously wasn’t the savior Dean wanted me to be.
“Or am I wrong? Are you some other passing spirit or energy, not destined to help us?”
When only silence rose to meet his questions, his angular features dissolved into disappointment, and his shoulders stooped. Immediately, I wanted to fix what my silence had done. Here was the strongest man of the Ooba people, and he looked defeated.
“Will you not speak with me, or give me some sign so that I can understand what your presence means for my life and those of the people I’ve sworn to protect?”
My breathing came unevenly. I wanted to soothe this man’s heavy heart.
“Something? Anything?” His voice was agony. He’d survived centuries under improbable odds, witnessed countless friends die, and the obstacles only became greater. A dragon rider? There was a rea
son there’d never been one in our people’s history. Dragons could kill you with a puff of breath or a languid flick of their tail. The Ooba people didn’t ride dragons. The Ooba people survived dragons—when we were lucky.
He said, “Will you please at least give me some sign that I’m not crazy and that you really are here? That there’s more to this world than what I can see with my eyes? That what I sense is real, and that there’s hope for us all?”
I didn’t think. I reached into a pool and splashed water in Dean’s direction.
Even though I’d given him exactly what he’d asked for, his green eyes grew impossibly wide, startlingly bright. He blinked and stared, shock etched all across his face.
And he wasn’t the only one in shock. It was the most reckless thing I’d ever done, with the most dangerous man of our people—short of Chieftain Pumpoo—and I’d done it without stopping to think of the consequences of my actions. I’d listened only to that part of my heart that had suffered all my life, and wanted to ease any suffering, even if it was the suffering of another.
Rane, Mother, and Traya would be horrified—with good reason. I’d placed myself entirely at Dean’s mercy. Even if he never realized I was a surviving twin instead of a dragon spirit, he’d still know something unusual was happening. My life was already dangerous enough without doing anything to make it worse.
But I had, and there wasn’t a thing I could do to change that. Unexpectedly, I found that I didn’t really want to take the splash back. More than anything, I wanted to be normal. I wanted to be seen.
When tears blurred Dean’s eyes and slid across his cheeks, I was certain I’d done the right thing, as little sense as it made. Here was the toughest warrior of our people, with scar after injury to prove it, and I’d given him hope. It was under a ruse of a dragon spirit, but how could I not give him this, when it was devastating to live day after day without hope? I knew exactly how difficult it was, because I’d endured all my life without it.
I’d always be forbidden. I’d always be invisible. There was no way to change what I was—whatever I actually was. I was something as rare as a dragon spirit. It was oddly fitting that I’d more or less admitted to being a dragon spirit. I was something equally unlikely.
Dean’s voice broke as he started speaking, pulling me back to the immediacy of what I’d done. “You... you’re real. Thank you.” The dragon charmer’s tears continued to roll. “Thank you for giving me a sign. I really needed that.” He gulped and fell to his knees amid the clanking of his sword and knives. All dragon charmers were armed, even if they’d accept their death before using weapons against a dragon. Our people had been defending against an unidentified enemy for centuries. Now the enemy had a face, and I feared the possibility that I might be half of it.
“Dragon spirit, will you please guide me and help us as we face the greatest challenge of our people since we abandoned the royal city of Origins? We need help. We need a dragon rider. Will you guide me to finding him?”
“Or her,” I said before I could stop myself.
Dean’s head yanked up in my direction, and I froze. Oh no, no, no. What the hell was I thinking? Hadn’t I been enough of an idiot for one day already?
“You can speak?”
I didn’t say a word. I was debating whether I should run.
Enough time passed that it became clear I wasn’t going to answer. “All right, you don’t have to speak if you don’t want to. Obviously, a dragon spirit understands far more than I do.” He rose to his feet, but didn’t advance. “Of course the dragon rider might be a girl. Shula is a woman, and one of the finest dragon charmers I’ve ever had the honor of knowing. It’s just that there are so few girls and women among the Dragon Force. Today, there were only two new trainees, and I didn’t feel that either one of them would be the one to ride a dragon—though one can never be sure.”
“There are others,” I blurted out, amazed with myself and my recklessness.
Dean seemed to be processing that possibility, or maybe it was the fact that he was having a conversation with an invisible dragon spirit. “You sound like a girl, are you the dragon rider? Is that why you’re here? To save us?”
“I’m not your savior,” I said since I was on a roll, and it didn’t seem as if I could screw up much worse than I already had. “But I may be your dragon rider, though I might not be.”
“Really? You might be the dragon rider?”
“Yes,” I said, learning my thoughts for the first time. Did I really believe that? I discovered that I did. If one of the Ooba people had to do it, why not me? Oh, because you’re not supposed to exist, you’d be killed on sight if anyone could see you, and you’ve never touched a dragon beyond slapping one to save Dram’s life. You can’t ride a dragon because you have no experience in handling one, and dragons will kill you whether you’re invisible or not.
“And was I correct in thinking you’re a girl?”
I almost didn’t answer, but the part of me that had gone unseen for so incredibly long wouldn’t allow it. “Yes,” I whispered.
“And are you a dragon spirit?”
The reality of what I was doing reached through my emotions and tugged at me—hard. “I have to go,” I said, and started to retreat quietly.
“Wait! Will you meet with me again?”
“I can’t.”
“Please, we need your help.”
I was already circling behind the sacred pools to beat Dean to the path that led toward home. I needed to put distance between him and me, and fast.
“Dragon Spirit?” he said. “Will you please meet with me another time, here, at the sacred pools?”
“When?” I said, my voice already distant, as if I were truly neither a part of this world or the next.
“When the Plune Moon is full.”
Ah, when it’ll be easiest to see my body under the purple moonlight. “When the moon is new.”
“But that’s nearly a full cycle away!” When I didn’t answer, he said, “I’ll be most honored to meet you at the next new moon. Thank you, Dragon Spirit.”
And then I was off, before I could say anything else to make my already-impossibly-complicated life any more so. I snuck around the back of the pools, through the forest that surrounded them, and was racing up the path toward the village before Dean moved.
Chapter Nine
I raced up the mountain path so fast, my pulse pumping through my veins, that I soon caught up with the tail end of the dragon trainees. I was forced to pull back to stay just out of earshot, and to hope that Dean’s interaction with a ‘dragon spirit’ would be enough to encourage him to remain behind at the sacred pools for reflection. If he didn’t, he’d soon trap me between him and the others. Even so, my predicament was the least of the stupid moves I’d made that day.
Rane, always one of the fastest and strongest for his age, was nowhere in sight. I couldn’t count on him to create a distraction if I needed it. I was sure he was too busy talking with his friends about their upcoming dragon training to think about the sister who couldn’t be a true part of his world. He and I might be twins, but our lives couldn’t be much more different. While I lived in invisibility, he lived a relatively free life, able to pursue an existence as a single child. We had no idea why I was invisible and he wasn’t. It seemed I’d simply drawn the short straw.
The danger passed without incident. The dragon trainees ahead crested the mountain and dipped into its shadows, where our homes were, before I saw any sign of Dean.
I stopped trailing the dragon trainees at the outskirts of the village, when the path to home diverged from the one everyone else took. The route through the forest toward home was one I could walk with my eyes closed, and before long, I found myself walking along free of thought or worry. There was something about the trees that did that to me. Nothing felt quite as serious as it had before I entered the forest, with its giant trees, which had lived far longer than I had, trees that would outlive me and the death sentence that h
ung over me like a shroud.
I arrived at the small cottage that was home faster than I thought I would, my long legs carrying out the motions on their own. But the usual relief I experienced in the safety of home was absent. For the first time in my life, I’d done something to put myself in the path of real danger. Not even the walls of home would shield me from it, but I couldn’t find the energy to overly care. In a way, I was relieved. I’d done the one thing I’d been terrified of doing all my life, since Father and Mother started coaching me about stealth tactics.
I’d exposed myself. Short of announcing I was an invisible twin, who’d only managed to survive because the midwife who’d helped deliver me was a merciful woman who couldn’t bring herself to condemn an infant for existing, I’d placed myself in the hands of fate.
Home, without the presence of any of my family members or Marie, the kindly midwife, lacked its usual ability to soothe the ragged edges of my soul. No sooner had I reached it than I left, seeking more solace in the forest. I didn’t expect Rane to come home anytime soon, so I ambled all the way to the edge of the woods beyond our house. It took me hours to traverse, but I was in no hurry. I had no significant chores or responsibilities—one of the few benefits of being a person who isn’t supposed to exist.
Rane hadn’t even looked for me when I was right there with him, and no one else would miss me until dark, when Mother would start worrying about the dangerous monsters the night might conceal. I hadn’t figured that one out. When the Ooba people intentionally surrounded themselves with the most ferocious beasts alive, what else was there to fear?
I stopped only when I couldn’t go farther, when I reached the precipice that plunged thousands of feet down into the rock plains. I sat. Here, I was safe. No one traveled this far from the village. The danger of dragons increased closer to the cliffs, where they favored making their homes, but there were no dragon nests or lairs at this low altitude. None that I’d ever seen, anyway. As deadly as the fall would be if I toppled over the edge of the cliff, its height was nothing compared to the heights to which dragons could soar.