A Phoenix dragon? I had never heard of their kind before. “Of the East? You mean, Torvald? The Dragon Academy?”
“Skree-ip!” Crux made a hissing sort of trill, its great maw open and its tongue hanging from the side, and I realized that he was sniggering at me. “A whole LOT farther east then that, human. There are whole lands out there that you here in the west have never even dreamed of!”
Suddenly, a rush of images swam into my mind. White-walled towers. Forests that sparkled and glowed at night, as if they were the stars, and the heavens had been reversed. Ziggurats in the sands. An inland lake so vast as to have its own islands, where people moved on small canoes. Mountains so high that the sky grew black near the top. A cave whose every surface shone with solid crystal. Perpetual storms that churned and raged around a vast bay, whose eye was a smoking volcano…
“Stop!” I cried out, as the images and sensations were too much. I had thought that I knew what the world was, but I had been wrong. Very, very wrong.
“We will explore them one day, human. You, Lila, and Crux,” the Phoenix dragon promised, even though it almost sounded like a threat.
“Danu, Crux? You two getting along?” Lila said as she jogged back excitedly, with both of our packs tied and rolled up with our blankets and few scant belongings. “Give me a hand with the gems, will you Danu?” she said nonchalantly.
She appeared transformed, I thought. Strong-limbed, with hair teasing out from her braid in a ragtaggle way from the flight. She panted a little, and her skin glowed with health. But more than that, she seemed happy.
It was a shame that the mother Sinuous Blue dragon Sym, and territorial head of this island, had to come and ruin it then.
“Skreckh!” Sym roared at Crux as she appeared over the rocky scrubs, angry and fierce. “What is the meaning of this new thing I smell? You have bonded with the human girl? On MY island? Who came to ask MY favor?”
Chapter 16
Lila, a bond is a bond is a bond
Mine!” Crux shouted, his voice loud and terrible in my head, the strength and venom that he put into it forcing me to my knees amidst the sands.
“Danu – are you all right?” I managed to say, as the witches’ adept scrabbled back to where I crouched.
“I’m fine, Lila – but the dragons…” he was saying, slowly helping me to my feet as, before us, the much larger mother Blue reared over the stocky but smaller Phoenix. Her hisses split the sky and drowned out the sound of the surf, and her tail lashed behind her, shattering the scrubby trees and sending boulders flying.
“Are they going to fight?” I said, terrified I was going to lose the first dragon I had met straight after meeting him!
What have I done? I thought in alarm.
“They might. We had better get out the way, Lila,” Danu said, his hand finding mine and trying to pull me to one side.
No. I felt a flare of anger rise through me, twinned with the savage anger that I could feel from Crux inside my own head.
Mine. That was what the dragon had called me. The recognition came with a surge of pride and, somehow, sadness too. Even though I knew that my foster-mother Pela and my foster-father Kasian loved me, even though I knew that they had done what they could to feed me and protect me – I could no longer say the same of them as I could of Crux. The dragon didn’t claim me because it had lost a child, or because I might be a princess, or because I was small and needed protecting. The Phoenix dragon claimed me because he had seen me, right into my very soul, just as I had seen his. We had seen in each other a fierce, rebellious spirit that we both appreciated.
I felt that when a dragon said “Mine” about a human, it meant not just for now, or for a season. It meant forever – and I felt the same.
“Mine!” I shouted up at the mother Blue, angrily. “Mine!” I repeated, shaking off Danu’s hand to stand beside Crux’s stocky legs as the great Blue weaved and turned in front of us in her fury.
“A silly human, and a more foolish dragon!” The mother Blue spat a gobbet of solid fire, bursting one of the shrubs into instant cinders. “You both either have no knowledge, or do not care of the insult that you have given me! This is MY island. And you, Lila of Malata, came here to give your heart to MY children. Are you so faithless to choose another?”
No. That wasn’t what it was like, I could have shouted at her, but suddenly I felt as if I really were stupid and faithless. Is this how the dragons see me? It was a very far cry from what I had imagined of Queen Saffron and her island dragon. The tales told of a meeting of minds, a joining of hearts, a shared goal… How did ‘faithless Lila, eager to bond with any dragon that turns up’ compare to that?
“Do not think so, Lila. Sym is just jealous.” Crux bared his teeth at the larger dragon. “Very few humans even come to ask this great gift of dragon kind anymore, and fewer still have the bravery and heart to match a dragon. Mother Sym is jealous that a dragon friend has been found and her hatchlings are not interested!”
There was a sudden hiss and a swipe of the Blue’s tail, narrowly missing both of us.
“This is her island,” I said – not that I meant that we shouldn’t have bonded so strongly and so deeply as we had, but perhaps we should leave, right now…
“Lady Blue!” A human shout surprised me. It was young-looking Danu, Danu the fish-boy, striding up the beach towards the larger dragon. Was he coming to my aid?
“You dare speak to me, little dragon mage?” the Blue roared at him. I saw him flinch, and Crux beside me tensed, ready to attack.
“There is no law or custom that humans cannot converse with dragons,” he cried out. He was angry, too. “But there is a custom surrounding the bonds between humans and dragons. You know as well as I do that they are sacred things. A bond is a bond is a bond. It cannot be broken – not by you, or by the king, or by anyone else!”
“Hsss!” the Blue lashed her tail again, sending up another plume of sand, but she did not strike out at Danu, or us.
“The little one speaks truth,” another dragon voice said—once again in my mind – but it was neither Sym nor Crux. I was shocked, as I thought that only either a ‘queen’ dragon or a bonded dragon could share thoughts. Now I started to wonder if it were all dragons who could share thoughts, should they wish to.
Rising over the headland of rocks came the Crimson Red, one of the rarer breeds of dragon. Not as rare as my beloved Phoenix, of course, but never seen out here in the Western Isles. Crimson Reds were only seen in central Torvald, and Mount Hammal itself. It was the old emblem of the ruling house of Torvald, because of the ruling family’s long association with red dragons. It had arrived last night for the birth, and must have flown a long way to get here.
“You!” the mother Blue hissed, but she did not screech or snarl as she had before.
“Yes. I come from the sacred Dragon Mountain. I know of what I speak. A bond is a bond is a bond as the boy says. It cannot be broken by mortal or dragon will alone,” the Crimson Red said in a tired voice.
Another loud hiss came from the mother Blue, and I feared she might ignore the other dragon and Danu completely, but instead, she just turned with a snap of her wings and leapt into the air, barreling back to her atoll and her cave.
I panted as I laid a hand on the scales of Crux’s leg, surprised to feel it warm, as if radiating heat from an internal fire. Crux had turned his head towards the Crimson Red, who just regarded us all on the beach with its wise golden eyes. It nodded slowly to Crux, as if content, before rising into the air on powerful leathery wings and turning eastwards.
“I still think that we had better leave this island,” I muttered, and received an indignant growl from Crux beside me. I could feel the shape of him in my mind, as if there was a part of me that looked out into him, and vice versa, and I could tell that he was upset and riled up, but that he wasn’t so mad as to not agree with me.
“Come on, my brave friend,” I murmured at him, and he made a purring, chittering noise as he was mol
lified somewhat.
“Well, I think that you’re right about that,” Danu groaned, as I helped him with the chest of jewels, and showed him how to climb a dragon’s leg. “What about your boat?” Danu nodded back to the top of the beach where the boat still sat, shoved in a tangle of boulders and scrubby bushes. “Won’t your father be mad if you lose it?”
“It’s just a small-boat,” I said pragmatically. “Besides, we now have a dragon! A good trade, don’t you think?”
Even as apparently worried as he was about the flying, Danu smiled through his anxiety. “I guess it is. And maybe it’s not a bad idea to leave a spare boat on Sym’s island as well, just in case anyone has to escape playful hatchlings any time soon!”
Before the sun was halfway across the sky – we had already started our journey back to Malata, there to introduce my fierce Crux to the Raiders.
The islands that we had left became smaller and smaller as we soared, Crux slicing through the air as fast as a kittiwake – no, faster.
“It’s amazing!” I shouted back at Danu, who sat behind me, his face caught in a rictus of a grin that was half terror, half joy, one arm clutching the awkward small chest, and the other holding onto my side in a fierce grip.
“That’s one way of putting it,” I heard him shout back, the wind ripping at his words. This high up, the wind was fiercely cold, and I realized that if this was to become my regular mode of transport, then there would have to be changes in the simple linens and breeches that I wore.
“What do the Dragon Riders of Torvald wear?” I shouted back to Danu, as much to take his mind off how fast we were flying than anything else.
“Padded leather harnesses that they attach to the saddles and lines,” Danu shouted into my ear. “There are some drawings of them back in Sebol.”
Sebol. The Haunted Isle, the home of the West Witches. I would have to go there if I were to discover more secrets of how to ride and train a dragon.
“Crux will never be trained, silly Lila!” The Phoenix laughed into my mind, tucking his wings to his side to shoot forwards and down, his speed increasing so that it tore at my stomach and made me feel weightless.
“Aiii!” Danu shouted. At first I thought that it had to be a scream – before it changed into a loud howl of joy as Crux bottomed-out of his dive, raising his wings to scoop along the waves as he had done with me before. I joined his shout of excitement, and, for a moment, it felt like all three of us had become one larger creature – a deadly predator that was made of wind and wings, of fire and teeth.
But before I could pause to think about Danu Geidt and his Haunted Isle, I had to think of the Raiders. And my father. What would they think of Crux? They would be overjoyed, wouldn’t they? How could they not be?
We flew for the better part of the day, covering the distance it had taken me and Danu to sail this way in a fraction of the time. As the sun turned over the mast (as my father would have said, meaning it was well past midday) Crux once again swooped to the sea to skim the surface, catching great sea cod as large as my chest, which he brought to his maw to crunch and swallow with one loud snap. And paniers, I thought. I’m going to need something to hold food, and equipment – and weapons.
Crux kept flying, seeming to know where I wanted to go before I could even raise the thought in my mind. It was a little like riding a ship – in those rare moments when the entire crew and every plank of wood was working in unison to beat towards their goal on the horizon, and you felt like you were flying over the waves, with one heart and will.
We saw other denizens of the oceans on our flight. A pod of whales, their flesh a milky blue and white, larger even than Crux was, breaking the waves with mighty flumes of water before crashing back down again.
“Old brothers and sisters, that is our name for them,” Crux informed me, and I wondered at how much the dragons knew of the world beyond my ken. There were also the small specks of ships – the radiating circles of fishing boats that trawled and plied the waves out from their own islands, and then – the larger galleons of Havick.
“The enemy!” I gasped, and felt an answering surge of pride from Crux below. Three of them, with the flags of the Roskilde Sea Crown over crossed swords.
“Shall we attack them?” Crux roared, but I shook my head. Each of the war galleons were larger that Crux was – not that I doubted he might bring one down – but they would also have cannon and ballista, and lots of naval soldiers with bows, I thought bitterly.
“No, my brother.” I patted his warm scales at my side. “Not yet. I want my people to see how strong and fierce you are. I want my father to be amazed at your scaled hide, and your sharp teeth!” It was true, I did want these things – but I was also very aware of the fact that this was only the second time that I had ridden a dragon, and the first for Danu. The Sea Raiders would prepare as much as they could and send out all three of their smaller warships against just one of Havick’s galleons. I will not have you hurt so soon in my service, I thought as my heart twanged in sympathy. If Crux had heard my private thoughts at all, or had any thought about my worry, he said nothing to me in my mind, but we continued south.
By the time that late afternoon came upon us, we had crossed the tall, mountainous islands of the archipelago and beyond, heading for the smaller, fractured landmasses of the Free Islands. The seas became choppier and wilder, and the winds that were treacherous even to our Raider boats picked up. The currents were tricky down in the south of the world, and that was one of the reasons why my father had made his home here.
“There! That – beyond the reef, and the ruined ship!” I pointed at the small, semi-circular island of Malata, with its ornaments of rock and shipwreck sitting around it.
“Skrech!” Crux roared and started his long glide down towards my homeport, straight over the reef and over the small scattering of Raider’s longboats, as shouts and alarm bells were sounded.
“No, it’s all right, it’s me!” I shouted; but it was no good – they couldn’t hear me over the sound of their own fright and the clashing of Crux’s wings.
The boats in our stone harbor rocked as Crux hung in the skies before them, beating his massive wings. He lowered towards the nearest place that he could see to land – the deck of the Ariel itself, where Father must have been practicing drills, as there was already a full complement of sailors on board!
“Cannon ready!”
“Ware dragon!”
“Archers!”
I heard the shouts of the crew and the Raiders running up the stone dock as I tried to stand up on Crux’s back. The crew of the Ariel had run to the sides of the railings, some of the bravest readying large hooks and spikes, their fear apparent in their faces as Crux’s talons bit wood, and the I felt the Ariel, my father’s pride and joy, bob lower in the water.
“Dragon!” There was a shouting voice – my father’s voice – as he emerged from his cabin, a long sword in hand and face fierce, as he came face to face with his adopted girl, standing on a multi-colored dragon.
“Lila?” His look of astonishment was priceless.
Chapter 17
Danu, a dragon reception
My knees shook, and my stomach felt queasy after our flight – but I also felt a sense of elation. I had actually flown on a dragon! Me, Danu Geidt! The boy with the dragon tongue – after all of those years of reading what I could in the scroll rooms of the West Witches about my gift (they didn’t have a lot, to be fair) and anything else that I could find out about dragons – I had finally done it!
But now Lila was a step closer to her dream of creating the Dragon Mercenaries. That thought crept into the back of my mind to ruin my appreciation of the flight. Fire raining down on ships, sailors, people. How could I stop her from her goal, but still help her?
But even with that thought tainting my exhilaration about having flown, it was also true that riding a dragon hadn’t been how the pictures had looked. They had featured proud, stiff-backed people in fine armor and leathers s
licing through the air, holding swords and lances in their hands. The old Dragon Riders of Torvald, of the sort before the Dark King came to the throne.
No, my flight hadn’t been like that. If anything, it felt as though I could do with a hot bath and sitting on a soft cushion for a month!
“Is that you?” I heard the Chief of the Sea Raiders say, as there was a clang on the deck. Chief Kasian had dropped his sword in amazement at the sight of his daughter sitting atop the back of a dragon on his ship.
“It is, Father – look at the friend I made!” She laughed, climbing down, with much greater grace and skill than I managed, to throw herself into her father’s stunned arms in a hug.
I hit the deck wishing that my knees weren’t made of jelly, but even with my complaints, I could still see the look of worry that crossed the chief’s face. Maybe he never expected his foster daughter to ever truly do what she had intended. Maybe he had wanted her to return, even defeated and spirit broken, to her homeport so that he could convince her of her rightful place amongst the Raiders. Or what he wanted to believe was Lila’s rightful place, I corrected.
“She’s… She’s so big!” Kasian said faintly.
“He, father. Crux is a he,” Lila said enthusiastically, making me wince as she gave away Crux’s name freely. A dragon’s name should be given by the dragon alone, I thought – before I remembered that I, too, had given away Sym’s name to Lila before the mother Blue could introduce herself to the princess.
“Hss.” There was a bad-tempered lash of a tail from the multi-colored dragon, and sudden twang as ropes snapped and a set of casks were sent spinning over the side. The Raiders nearby jumped back, their hands clutching at their weapons – as small as they looked compared to the dragon! Crux must be annoyed at his name-giving, and I was about to step forward, but it appeared that the dragon had already communicated that fact to Lila through their mental connection.
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