Sile was very quiet. It made me terrified of what the answer was going to be. I thought he’d probably just laugh at me, call me stupid, and send me on my way. After all, the idea that I would ever be allowed to be a dragonrider was totally ridiculous. Dragonriders came from rich noble families. I was the nobody of nobodies. I was just a halfbreed.
“Move slowly,” Sile answered quietly. “And keep looking in his eyes.”
I nodded shakily. My legs felt like jelly as I took a step toward the dragon. One step, then another, and the creature looked bigger and bigger the nearer I got to him. His scales were a sapphire color mottled in darker, slate blue. Three sets of horns as black as onyx crowned his head, matching his black claws on his wing arms and hind legs.
When I was only three yards away, his ears shot up to perk right at me. He had two small, almost feline looking ears that swiveled in my direction for a moment before flattening back against his skull. His snout wrinkled up again, and he let out a low growl of warning. I was too close for his liking.
I couldn’t imagine I looked nearly as intimidating as Sile did, or even as any of the other new riders who’d already tried to get on him. I was a scrawny little kid. I’d make a good toothpick for him. But now, I was praying that would work in my favor. If I didn’t look like a threat, maybe he wouldn’t treat me like one.
“Please,” I spoke to him. I didn’t think he could understand me. It just made me feel better to talk to him. “I know what it feels like, believe me. They don’t know what to do with you. And now they want to keep you here like some kind of prisoner. It’s not fair. It’s not right.”
The dragon kept growling at me, but he didn’t move again. I just locked my eyes on his and tried not to think about how close I was to the end of his snout as I kept moving forward. His head was large, much bigger than a horse’s, and I could see his nostrils flaring as he breathed in my scent. His scales were larger than some of the other dragons I’d seen already. They shone under the golden torchlight like polished blue steel.
The more I looked at him, the more I noticed his features were sort of feline in shape. He was like a cross between a lizard, housecat, and a bat. His snout was short, and his eyes were large like a cat. The undersides of his hind legs and the thumbs on his wing arms had pads on them, too. His body shape was almost like a bat’s, except for the long lizard-like tail and lean muscles rippling under his scales. He had two powerful back legs, but his front ones were connected to his wings. All dragons had that same kind of basic physique, though I hadn’t noticed any of the others looking as cat-like in their faces, and I certainly hadn’t seen any other blue ones.
“I think we can agree that things are pretty lousy for both of us,” I went on talking to him, closing the distance between us. My voice was shaking because I was scared out of my mind, but at least he hadn’t made a lunge for me yet. “Let’s make a deal, all right? I don’t want to keep living with my father for the rest of my life, and I definitely don’t want to go to a prison camp. I want my life to mean something. And I’m pretty sure you don’t want them to cut your wings so you can’t fly anymore. You want them to let you go, but they’ll force you to stay here one way or another. Alone, neither of us can do anything to change the way things are going for us. But together, we could change both our destinies.”
I was standing so close to him then I could smell the musk of his breath. I could feel it, too, hot and humid against my face. Reaching out, I could see my own hand trembling as I crept toward him. Just a few more feet. Then a few more inches.
“Let me be your rider,” I pleaded with him. “I swear I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do. And when we’re finished, when the war is over, you’ll be free to go back to the wild. I won’t treat you like a dumb animal. You’ll be my partner. We’ll get through this together. We’ll be a team.”
My hand touched his head. My heart felt like it had stopped beating. I could feel his scales under my palm. They were smooth like polished marble, but warm and alive.
The dragon perked his ears again, his snarl finally fading away. He made strange popping, clicking noises like the chattering sparrows did when they squabbled with each other. His yellow eyes stared at me, and his nostrils puffed as I moved my hand down toward his nose, letting him sniff me.
“I swear,” I told him, and my voice wasn’t shaking anymore. I didn’t feel afraid. “You have my word.”
Something went skidding across the floor and stopped just beside me. It was a set of iron keys. I looked back at Sile, who was watching with his eyes wide. He looked completely stunned, like he was in awe. He didn’t have to explain to me what the keys were for.
I bent to pick them up, moving to the huge black padlock that bound the dragon to hooks in the floor with the heavy chains. I unlocked the one that kept his head flattened against the ground. As soon as it clicked and the chain went slack, the dragon began to flail.
I was too close to get away. The dragon’s lashing tail hit me and swept my legs right out from under me, sending me sliding across the floor on my back. I heard the chains groaning and snapping, hitting the ground as the dragon let out a surging bellow of victory. I’d had some near-death experiences before, but this was definitely way worse than any of the others.
Sile was shouting, and I glimpsed him brandishing what looked like a long spear, running toward me like he was going to try to rescue me again. The dragon wasn’t going to allow that, though. With a vicious snarl, he tore off the rest of the chains, and reared back onto his hind legs to open his wings.
He was as fast as he was big, and snapped his head forward when Sile tried to stick him with the spear, grabbing it in his jaws, and snapping it like a twig. The dragon spat out the pieces of the spear, taking a threatening snap at Sile, who was already beginning to retreat.
“Stop! Don’t hurt him!” I cried. I didn’t expect that to make a spit’s worth of difference . . . but it did.
The dragon stopped, hunkered on all four of his feet, and shot me a glare of pure frustration with those huge cat-like eyes. His tail kept swishing as he sat there, the leathery skin of his wings folded up along his forelegs like a bat, and gave me an angry snort. He made those popping, chattering noises again as he swung his head back around to look at Sile, who looked just as stupefied and shocked as I was.
The dragon was listening to me.
“Unbelievable,” Sile whispered. I could see his expression twitching, like thoughts were racing across his brain, until at last his gaze panned slowly over to me. He didn’t have much color left in his face. “Do it again.”
I swallowed hard; I didn’t want to try it again. Any time now, my luck was bound to run out. Then I’d be torched with dragon fire, or gobbled up like a kid-shaped biscuit. Gathering my feet under me, I stood back up. The dragon was watching me again, studying my every move.
“If you’re really going to make this deal with me, you have to show me,” I spoke to the creature again. “Show me that I can trust you.”
The dragon turned and started walking toward me. His large, curled black claws dug into the dirt floor of the arena, and I couldn’t help but stagger back a few feet as he crept toward me, chattering loudly all the way. His gait was strange to watch, oddly smooth and feline for the way his body was built.
He stopped right before me, craning his neck to sniff at me again. Then he started to crouch down. The dragon lowered himself until his belly was flat on the ground. His huge horned head was low, too, and he looked at me expectantly.
Before I could figure out what I was supposed to do, Sile was right there beside me. “He wants to seal the bond,” the knight explained as he grabbed me by the waist and pretty much tossed me up onto the dragon’s back. “Don’t be afraid.”
Easy for him to say; Sile wasn’t the one straddling the neck of a wild dragon who’d already proven he had a nasty temper. With my legs slung around the base of the creature’s neck, sitting between the shoulders of his wing arms, I clung to anyth
ing I could when I felt him start to move. There wasn’t much to grab, though. His scales were slick, and the little knobby black horns that ran down his spine to the tip of his tail were cone-shaped and hard to grip. I just had to lay flat against his neck, my arms as far around him as I could reach, and hung on for dear life as the dragon stood.
Sile was laughing loudly. I saw him smiling up at me as the dragon gave a wide yawn that showed me just how many of those teeth he had. My heartbeat was skipping and pounding erratically. My head spun like a top. I was sitting on a dragon. Not just any dragon, though. This one was mine.
four
“You’ll be stacking stones over my grave before I allow that repulsive little wretch into this academy! Have you absolutely lost your mind?” The Academy Commander was yelling so loudly I could hear him from outside his office. So could my father, and all the other instructors who had come to gather outside the door. They all wanted to see what the verdict would be, too. If the commander allowed me to join in the training program and become a dragonrider, it would be the first time in history a drop of elven blood had ever been in a dragon’s saddle.
Normally, I would have been humiliated. But I was so tired and hungry, I just wanted it to be over. I stood beside Ulric, staring down at the tops of my boots while I listened to Sile Derrick argue my case. For whatever reason, he was still insisting that I should be allowed to join. I didn’t understand why. No one else had ever fought for me like that before.
“You’d spit in the faces of our ancestors? On our most sacred tradition?” Sile yelled back. I heard what sounded like someone smacking a fist down onto a tabletop. “This is how we began, Commander Rayken. It is our creed; the very foundation of what this brotherhood was built upon. Any rider chosen by a dragon must be allowed to join us—that is our first law!”
“And what about all our glorious dead who have fallen in battle to those silver-headed heathens? Are you willing to spit in their faces, instead?” The commander started yelling again. It made my throat begin to feel tight. “By letting that boy in here, you are acknowledging that there is nothing wrong with what he is. He would be a stain on the reputation of our brotherhood. I don’t care if it was a king drake that chose him. That does not forgive his bloodline!”
There was silence for a moment. I thought it was over. I didn’t know whether to be relieved that a decision had finally been reached, happy that I wasn’t going to have to endure being bullied by knights who were supposed to be training me, or sad because I wasn’t going to get to fulfill what might have been my destiny.
I flicked a glance up to the dozen or so instructors, all ranking officers, who were standing around waiting to hear a decision as well. I was afraid of them. They were all strong, powerful-looking men with the same cold eyes that Sile had. Did I really want to become one of them?
“If you don’t let him in, you are sending the message that our old ways really are dead. You’ll be suggesting that the spirit of the dragon no longer matters at all, that we’ve bred them down to stupid beasts no better than winged pedigree dogs!” Sile countered, but his voice was somewhat calmer. It carried more emotion than anger now. “I know you’ve heard those accusations whispered at our backs, just as I have. They say we’ve fallen from our glorious past, and become nothing but power-hungry relics without souls. That is not the legacy I want to leave here for the world to remember. That boy can help us change it. We can prove that our heritage is not dead, that we still honor the creed of our forefathers.”
“Have you even seen that boy? He couldn’t possibly weigh a hundred pounds soaking wet. He won’t last two weeks. The other fledglings would be three years his senior. They’ll eat him alive.” The commander’s tone wasn’t any less hostile. “You’ll be scraping what’s left of him off the dormitory walls.”
“I’ll watch over him,” Sile interrupted. “I’ll be his sponsor.”
“You’re a fool, lieutenant. What’s come over you? Why does this halfbreed mean so much to you?” The commander sounded suspicious, but he didn’t wait for Sile to give him an answer. “What has his father said? Even as a tackmaster, I doubt he has in the income to pay for the equipment needed.”
“I’ll take care of that, too. If these are your only real objections, then give me your blessing so I can begin my work. I only have two days to get him fully outfitted and ready to begin.” Sile snapped sharply.
I heard the commander sigh. It was the sound of defeat. My heart jumped with hope, making my eyes water.
“Very well,” he relented. “But you are going to get that boy killed. His blood is on your hands, Lieutenant Derrick. Remember that. You wanted this.”
There was a brief silence before the door opened, and Lieutenant Sile Derrick came out of the commander’s office. His expression was steely and focused. He didn’t give my father a second look as he stormed past the crowd of other knights who were still gathered around. He grabbed my shoulder on his way down the stairs, and started to drag me along with him.
“What are you doing with him?” Ulric barked, lunging forward like he might try to stop us.
Sile stopped at the top of the stairs long enough to look back, casting my father a look that I’d seen Ulric give me many times; that look of superiority and disgust. “He’s no longer your concern, tackmaster. Remember your place.”
Ulric’s eyes were burning like torches. His fists clenched in rage as Sile pushed me on ahead of him down the stairs. It was surreal, and I wasn’t even sure if it was really happening. Just like that, Ulric couldn’t put his hands on me anymore. Just like that, I was free.
Or maybe I’d just traded in one horror for another.
I should have been exploding with gratitude for Sile. He’d just fought fiercely so I could stay here and be trained as a dragonrider. But as we paused outside the officer’s dormitory, I couldn’t help questioning his motives. No one had ever helped me do anything before, and generosity of this magnitude was a foreign concept to me. It was frightening. I barely knew this man, and already I owed him my life.
He seemed to pick up on my hesitance as we walked in silence toward the breaking dome. “Commander Rayken is right, you know. The other students will be at least eighteen. They are probably going to give you a hard time.”
I rolled my eyes. “Everyone gives me a hard time, sir. I’m used to that already. That’s not what I’m worried about.”
“Well, all right then.” He laughed under his breath. “What are you worried about?”
It was hard to pick just one thing. I was worried about my own physical ability. I was worried about owing a stranger my life. And more than anything, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to keep my promise to my dragon. If I couldn’t make it through this training, then I’d be failing more than just myself. I’d made a deal with that creature, and I wanted to keep my word. Both our lives depended on it now.
“I haven’t eaten in about two days,” I told him instead. I didn’t want to look weak. Well, weak-er. “I guess I’m just worried about food, right now.”
Sile laughed again, clapping a hand on my back that made me stumble some as I walked beside him. “That we can fix. You look like a scrawny stray cat, boy. Maybe some decent food’ll put more meat on your bones.”
I blushed. It was embarrassing to have my stature pointed out more than once in a day. “Yeah,” I mumbled back. “Maybe.”
The dining hall was in the ground level of the student dormitory, and that’s where Sile sat me down in front of a tray stacked with roasted meat, freshly baked bread, boiled eggs, and cold milk. My mouth was hanging open. The smells were fantastic, and I seized my fork like a weapon, preparing to go to war with the first thing I could get my hands on.
“Eat up,” he commanded. I noticed he wasn’t sitting down to join me for this incredible breakfast. “I’ve got to go get your paperwork filed and put in orders at the armories for your gear. You know where that is, don’t you?”
I nodded.
“Good, come str
aight over when you’re finished. We’ve got some catching up to do.” Sile smirked, going on about his business, and leaving me with a fork in my hand and a mountain of food to tackle.
I was too busy stuffing as much into my mouth as I could to realize I was being watched. I gulped down three boiled eggs, shoveled in several big bites of the roasted meat, and drained my glass of milk before I even stopped to breathe.
The food was so good I didn’t even notice it when someone came over and sat down across the table from me. There were lots of empty seats in the dining hall. The four long tables stretched from one end of the room all the way to the other, with wooden benches on either side. A few hundred people could have easily sat in the dining hall to eat without being too crowded. So there was really no reason anyone would have sat by me . . . unless they just wanted to.
I looked across the table into the grinning face of a boy I didn’t recognize. He was a lot older than me, maybe eighteen or nineteen, with shaggy dark blonde hair and light brown eyes the color of amber. I got the feeling right away that he was probably going to make fun of me. That’s generally how things went. So I braced for the inevitable.
“You keep eating like that and you’ll make yourself puke,” he said. I watched him reach out to tear a hunk off my loaf of bread and pop it into his mouth. “You must be the new kid.”
I sat back away from the table some, still armed with my fork, but not willing to fight him for my food. I could part with a few pieces of bread as long as no one was wiping their boots on my face. “Yeah,” I answered hesitantly. “H-how did you know that?”
He just laughed. “It’s a small place. Word travels fast here. Especially when it concerns a halfbreed and a wild dragon. And in case you hadn’t noticed, you’re the only halfbreed here,” he pointed out matter-of-factly. “Word is you’ll be joining us in the fledgling class in a few days. Guess that means we’ll be classmates.”
Fledgling (The Dragonrider Chronicles) Page 4