When she was seated at her vanity, she asked her servants to apply light make-up, a request she was set on making every morning. To remember Emilee. As she stared into the mirror, she wished the hardened woman was with her now. She wished she could rescue her from such a horrific plight.
Areli’s servants pulled in a rack full of clothes that were created from the hands of the best designers and the most renowned fashion houses. Areli chose a simple, light-weight sweater, leather pants, and a gold jacket with a black belt. She looked at herself in the mirror as her servant’s fetched heels, which she wished she didn’t have to wear, but such shoes were custom here and were always required.
Areli grabbed her papers and documents from the dresser and nearly stumbled twice, almost twisting her ankle, as she walked to the lower level without really focusing on the position of her shoes.
Her parents were already standing by the door, as was Aria. They walked out to the parkway together, and Areli and her mother gave their best wishes to her father as he entered his carriage. They waved and watched after him until his carriage could no longer be seen past the bars of the front gate.
Areli hugged her mother forcefully, wishing she could take her with her, but she knew Aria was going to keep her busy the rest of the day. Areli looked at her carriage, which wasn’t crafted from pure gold like the one that carried them on their journey through Abhirn. This one was made of black lacquered wood with gold trimmings, and the crest of the Empire, which consisted of Emperor Abhiraja standing in-between two kneeling battle dragons, rested on its doors.
The roof seemed to have a million small statues of dragons facing the center, as a statue of Abhiraja stood there gathering their attention. The driver opened Areli’s door, and she got in, holding her mother’s hand. Both mother and daughter were reluctant to let go. But it was insisted upon by Aria that Areli was on a tight schedule. Their fingers relinquished their grasps, and both felt like they had fallen off a cliff.
“I love you, Areli,” said her mother, tears in her eyes.
“I love you, mother.”
As the door was shut, and as Areli’s carriage continued down the drive, she never took her eyes off her mother. Even when they were past the gates, Areli didn’t look away from where she pictured her mother standing. But as she sat forward, her eyes wandered to the gates of the other Hall riders and then across the lake. A feeling of warmth entered her, as she saw the glimmering of precious metals and stones on the other side. You’re going to make it, Areli, she told herself, all you have to do is win. Nothing would stop her from winning the World Race and protecting her family from the sadistic hands of the Emperor.
The streets were back to being full of beautiful people, carriages, and messengers on horseback. The center of the world had the best of everything. The most profitable businesses, the most talented artists, the greatest chefs, and the most passionate politicians. All brought to Abhi by a man whose skin didn’t reflect his heart. Emperor Ailesh loved beauty, and so did his father, and his father before that, and so the city of Abhi was free of the poor, the sick, and the ugly. Everything had to be perfect, at least on the exterior.
When they got back into the walls of the boarding hold, the outer landscape was more intricate than Areli had noticed the night before. Beyond the dragons were high hedges guarding the most beautiful and colorful gardens and fountains she had ever seen. The boarding facility itself had large columns on the outside which were made of marble and were connected to the stone by meticulously detailed fixtures. And a statue in the form of Emperor Abhiraja stood proudly in front of the building.
The stall room was nicely lit, as the ceilings were made of glass with metal webbing. The stalls were more detailed than Areli initially thought, as each door carried a specific story told in brush strokes. And each of the Hall stalls were empty, except for the final stall – her stall. Kaia was already on her feet, as she could sense Areli’s presence. A trailer was already waiting for them to use next to the stall door.
Guards and servants funneled out of doors as the carriage came to a halt. Areli was introduced to the facility’s commander and his high-ranking soldiers. She also met with the head servant of the facility, who instructed her that she could go to him or any of his workers for anything concerning the care of her dragon.
After Areli transferred Kaia into the trailer, they were led to the veterinary room where Kaia’s papers were scrutinized and updated if necessary. They didn’t need to wait long before a man with brown hair and a thin frame came to meet them. Like everyone else in Abhi, every blemish of his was masked by make-up.
She handed him Kaia’s papers, her skoggins, and shot sheet.
“Well, it all looks good,” said the vet, “I hope you don’t mind if we update the shots, and we should probably address her teeth and talons.” Areli nodded her head in agreement and stood next to Kaia as he prepared the needles. They were large, almost the length of her leg, and about just as thin. He dipped the needle into a large bottle sitting on a table. The bottle was full, but after the needle stabbed into it, its entire contents were transferred out.
“Alright, Miss Roberts,” said the vet, “I am going to need you to keep your dragon calm as I do these.” She nodded her head and allowed the veterinarian room as he prepared to give the first shot, which was to inhibit the breathing of fire. He opened Kaia’s mouth and Areli closed her eyes, focusing all of herself on relaying relaxing and soothing feelings to Kaia. She didn’t once let the thought of a man she barely knew, with a needle of gigantic proportions, fill her with doubt or fear. The vet positioned the needle into the back of Kaia’s mouth and stabbed it into the oil sacks in order to halt the formation of the flammable substance used to sustain the lanterns at night.
The next shot was to be injected into Kaia’s ovaries to prevent her from having babies. Areli continued to keep her dragon in a docile and sedated state to prevent any unnecessary movement that could cause the needle to go somewhere it shouldn’t, causing unspeakable and life-threatening consequences.
After the shots were given, the vet had Areli calm her dragon as he shaved down and rounded Kaia’s teeth and talons, and then afterwards, she and her dragon were taken to the tack room. They traveled by trailer again, as the facility was just too large and expansive to wander by foot. Even before they entered through the large doors, Areli knew that this would be the only time she would ever be in there, as servants were the ones in charge of washing and transporting the tack to the training and competition areas.
Inside the room, there were large gold lockers on both sides, which belonged to the Hall riders, followed by white-gold lockers for the Academy riders, and finally narrower wooden lockers for those housed in the condominiums. The trailer came to a halt in-between the first lockers, just in front of an older man with a thick white beard and a shaved head. Areli couldn’t help but laugh to herself. I guess that’s one way not to have to wear make-up, she thought as she was helped down onto the dark green marble floor.
The man was sharpening tools with arms so massive they seemed to want to break his shirt. He wore a white-as-clouds top and a dark leather apron that dangled just below his knees. He smiled at her, and then at her dragon, as Areli approached him with Kaia’s halter on.
“So, you’re the rider, huh,” said the man. Areli responded with only a slender smile.
“Well, when’s the last time you had your tack replaced?” Areli’s face turned pink as she looked down at the floor.
“That long huh,” said the saddlemaker with a chuckle, “so it’s true what they say then . . . Sector D, is laxed.” Areli stared hard into this man. She already didn’t like him. And he was wrong. Sector D wasn’t lax at all. It was a sector lying in ruin and flames, with death and misery rotting its center and its borders. But she kept these words from him – the last thing she wanted was a faulty saddle.
“Anyway,” said the man, “let us begin.” With a nod of his head, a servant went to place a ladder next to her dr
agon. “I’m going to need you to keep your dragon still, rider.” He grabbed a roll of measuring tape and climbed to the very top of the ladder that four servants had to steady. The end of the measurer was weighted and he let it fall to the ground gently, minding the marble.
“Fifty-one hands,” yelled the saddlemaker to a woman below, who jotted the number down on a chart. The man climbed down from the ladder and prompted the servants to bring him the scaler, which looked very much like a four poster bed. The posts of the scaler reached towards the top of the ceiling, but instead of a bed in the center, there was a wooden box with a door.
The scaler was wheeled next to Kaia’s side, and then lowered so the posts were placed firmly on the floor. The posts that weren’t facing towards her dragon were weighted with thick stone blocks. The saddle maker entered into the door and servants cranked the large steel handle on the side, lifting the man and the box higher, making clanking noises as he rose.
The man yelled when he was just above Kaia’s back and reminded Areli to keep her dragon steady. He wheeled out a plank that came to life beneath the box, continuing to push it out until it was at a distance at which he could walk out and be suspended above Kaia’s back.
He attached a leather vest around his chest with a thick cord to catch him in case he fell, and then he stepped out onto the fine oak plank and walked so he was just above Kaia’s back. With his measurer, he grabbed the proper increments for the tree of the saddle, which would serve as the base for everything else involved in creating it.
He shouted the measurements to the woman, and then climbed back into the box and retracted the plank before he was brought back to the ground.
“Now, rider,” said the saddlemaker, “the only other measurements we need are yours.” He grabbed a different ruler that measured in inches and measured Areli’s height, waist, hips, and inseam, relaying them to the woman holding the chart.
“Very well, rider,” said the man, “your saddle will be done in the next couple of days. I’ll be there when it’s ready, to make sure there is no slippage.”
Areli thanked the saddlemaker and waited for him to disappear. He was promptly replaced by the bridle maker and then the bit maker. The bridle maker was a woman with long dark grey hair with a streak of wispy white traveling on a few strands that stretched down to her hips. She worked quickly, grabbing measurements of Kaia’s neck, as well as distances from mouth to chest and shoulders. Like the saddlemaker, she also had a woman assistant who wrote down everything she said. When she came back from the ladders she used to get the measurements, she unfurled charts and started on the sketches based on Kaia’s dimensions, visually putting the right amount of slack that should be available to Areli during any given command.
When the bit maker arrived, he quickly got a mold of Kaia’s teeth and talked in-depth with Areli about her dragon’s bit history – what types she had used, what style she was using now, and which ones Kaia was most comfortable with. The man got on a ladder and took further measurements of Kaia’s mouth and then had his sketch artists get life-size drawings for him to work with later. He approached Areli and went over some of the initial thoughts he had. He told her that when the saddle and bridle were prepared, they would go to the training area, and he would bring different bits to try out based on what he saw and what she told him.
After the man bid her farewell, Areli loaded her dragon back into the trailer, and they traveled back through the large hallways, past trailers and guards, and servants on horseback, all the way back to the stall room. There, Areli realized that none of the Hall riders had returned from training. Jealousy struck her heart like a knife, and it was mixed with anger and frustration as well. Her dragon was without any conditioning or training for the past month, and in the next couple of weeks, she was going to be asked to perform in front of the Hall trainers.
She felt as if she was buried beneath an avalanche for weeks, surviving on nothing but roots and snow, and then asked to run the length of the Emperor’s lake against a healthy, well-fed girl that had done nothing but train for the event for years. If the Emperor would have left her her saddle and tack, she could be out there amongst her teammates, training and conditioning Kaia, so when they had their first official team practice, she could run at a hundred percent. But the Emperor was too proud. It was the same pride that drove him to chase after Degendhard. The pride that was destroying his own Empire.
Areli led Kaia into her stall, petted her and kissed her on the nose, and then called for a servant to have the cook prepare for her dragon a treat. The servant went through a long list from memory of all the varieties and cuts of meat she could have prepared. Areli picked the leg of cow. She was then asked what seasonings she wanted, followed by what sauces she thought her dragon would like best.
“They actually prepare sauces?” asked Areli.
“Yes, miss,” said the servant, “don’t they have that in Sector D?” Areli shook her head. The servants eyes widened in surprise. “Well, we have a lovely assortment.” And the servant went through a long list of hot, tangy, and sweet sauces. Areli asked him which one they seemed to like the most. He told her it depended on the dragon.
Areli liked tangy and was confident Kaia would like that as well. Moments later, a cart came from one of the side doors opposite the stalls. The smell of beef stung her stomach, reminding her just how hungry she had become. The servant carted it towards Areli, and she then fed it to her dragon. Kaia devoured it in a matter of seconds. Areli patted her dragon on the shoulder and kissed her on the nose again, and then stood outside the bars, keeping her eyes on Kaia until the stall doors were secured.
“I’ll be back tomorrow, girl,” said Areli through the bars, “dream of winning while I’m gone.”
Areli’s carriage was called, and she and her driver headed to the locker rooms.
The last thing that she had to do at the boarding facility that day was get fitted for her riding attire. The carriage entered into a large hallway with indented squares covering the entirety of the walls and ceilings, in the middle were beautiful paintings of dragons. The hallway emptied into the trailer room, which had thundercloud marble floors and giant pillars that stretched from the floor to the ceiling.
The carriage took a right and travelled down another enormous hallway with an arced ceiling and windows on the top letting natural light leak in. They entered onto a large limestone bridge with dragon statues bordering the sides. The bridge overlooked two giant running tracks and a weight area on the left and large lap pools on the right. At the end of the bridge was a guarded platform, as only authorized people were allowed into the locker area.
The guards waved them ahead after they looked at Areli’s paper, allowing the carriage to circle the width of the stone platform and stop in front of enormous doors. Again a red carpet was rolled to Areli’s cab door. A young woman opened the doors to the platform and waited for Areli to walk over to her.
Inside the doors, Areli was surrounded by lanterns and tall tapestries that hung from the ceiling. They emptied out of the large receiving area and into a circular room with three different doors. The one on the left was white-gold, and meant for the Academy riders, while the one on the right was made from a combination of rare trees, skymore and amople, and used for the under-aged, unwanted, and untested. The door in the middle was gold, a dragon molded into the upper and lower part of it and used for Hall riders.
She followed the woman through the middle door and into a hallway reminiscent of the Emperor’s palace. They passed marble columns that stood in guard of multiple double doors, and then they walked into a large white room. Gigantic crystal chandeliers hung impossibly from a ceiling that rose to the heights of the skies. The floors were wood with marble edges with a large rug, depicting dragons, sprawled out in the middle. There were couches and chairs with golden legs and dragons flying on their rich cream fabric. Elegant large mirrors, honey brown tables, and marble fireplaces also embellished the room.
Areli and th
e woman continued through the room and into yet another cavernous and elegant room. The walls were a greyish green, complete with dragon patterns soaring across them. Eight large double-door entrances, completely mirrored with stylish trim and fortified by two tall, honey, marble pillars inhabited the room. Four entrances to a wall. One facing another. Placed above each door were two molded dragons, working together to hoist a single large gold plate.
Areli followed the woman to the last room on the right. As she looked up at the plate held by the dragons above the frame, she saw that it was a name plate. Her heart skipped in her chest as she saw that on its surface, her name was beautifully written in an elegant script.
Inside the room, the walls were a dark cream with detailed pillars flowing floor to ceiling. The first thing Areli saw was the large mirror that nearly scaled the entire wall opposite the entrance doors. It sat above a richly detailed dresser, made of the darkest woods with the most elaborate details, placed in such a way that the mirror almost seemed connected to it.
Two chairs sat on either side of the dresser, and in the center of the room, facing the travertine fireplace, was an elongated couch. Behind the couch was a vanity that matched the dresser, with two bare racks, used for clothing, on each side of it. The woman instructed Areli to sit down and she would inform the seamstress of Areli’s arrival.
Areli took a seat onto her couch, and it felt like falling onto a cloud. She ran her fingers along the smooth fabric, which felt like grazing the surface of water in a bubbleless bath. And then she quickly stood up when the seamstress presented herself.
Like all people that inhabited the city of Abhi, her make-up was layered on so thick that any recognition of her age was a complete guess. She had a smile that was soft but judging, and she greeted Areli with a voice as arrogant as the Emperor’s. She instructed Areli to step closer to the fireplace.
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