by Audrey Faye
She looked over at Kellan, who wasn’t wearing any padding at all, and looked like there was nothing more in the entire universe that she would rather be doing than walking over to the south fields to climb on the back of a dragon. Then again, that was probably true. Kellan had been up since the crack of dawn, baking special meat pies for Afran.
Sapphire had been up since the crack of dawn too, but she’d spent her morning sweeping and cleaning and repairing a rain barrel and generally trying to right the damage Lotus had done on her wild flights through the village the day before. Sadly, dragons couldn’t hold a broom, although she’d been sorely tempted to tie one to a certain peach-pink tail and demand some help with her penance.
“Don’t be grumpy,” Kellan said, swinging her basket of meat pies gaily as she walked. “Maybe Lotus will be on her best behavior today, and I bet Afran’s the best teacher there is.”
It wasn’t in Sapphire to dim her best friend’s good mood by pointing out the obvious. Lotus was a menace every day of the week, and Afran had been trying to get her more than five feet in the air for almost a year now. Sticking a well-padded elf on her back didn’t seem likely to change much. “Maybe.”
Kellan grinned. “Are you hungry? I brought extra meat pies.”
Dragons weren’t the only ones who loved them, but Sapphire’s stomach was already feeling queasy. “Maybe after Karis decides I’ve eaten enough dirt for the day.” Everyone else had laughed at her outfit, but there was very little doubt in Sapphire’s mind about where this afternoon was headed.
“Karis isn’t in charge today,” said a cheerful voice behind them. “Afran says I’m to sit quietly and only offer advice if he asks for it.”
Sapphire laughed at their long-legged teacher, who’d clearly had no problem catching up to them. “I guess I’m not the only one with a bossy dragon.” Although it was hard to imagine that Afran’s demands came with insistent, squeaky chirrups loud enough to deafen an entire forest.
“You certainly aren’t.”
The wry tone made Sapphire want to ask for some stories from when Karis and Afran were younger, but they were almost at the south fields. She looked around for her dragon. Maybe Lotus had gone off on one of her forest gallivants and was scaring birds instead of remembering her flying lesson.
Karis lifted the corner of the cloth covering Kellan’s basket. “Someone knows the way to a dragon’s heart.”
Kellan blushed. “I just wanted to thank Afran for being so kind and letting me ride him today.”
“You’re not here to be a passenger. He asked for your assistance because he thinks you show uncommon wisdom for one so young.”
Sapphire grinned—if Kellan’s cheeks got any pinker, she’d fit right in with the apple trees. “He’s hoping you’ll rub off on me and Lotus.”
“Yes, he is.” Karis was looking around now too, trying to spot anything resembling a dragon.
Since there were none in sight, Sapphire decided she had time to ask one of the questions that had kept her up most of the night. “Lotus is still pretty small—do you think she’s strong enough to carry me?”
“Absolutely.” Karis held out her arms. “Have you seen her wingspan? Right now she’s all wing and a tiny body, and that makes her the strongest flyer that she’ll ever be.”
Something about that didn’t sound right. “Then why do all the other dragons wait until they’re full-grown to fly with their kin?”
Karis sighed. “Because it’s generally better to wait for their brains to grow up and match their flying prowess.”
Sapphire tried not to groan. Lotus’s brain definitely had some growing up to do. And a well-padded rider wasn’t likely to make that happen any faster, either, no matter what anyone else thought. They weren’t bonded to a dragon with the listening skills of a bean sprout.
“There they are.” Kellan pointed at two dragons coming around the edge of the woods, one just clearing the trees, the other peeling along about two feet off the ground.
Karis shook her head. “I have no idea how she flies that low. Afran says he would turn us both into road mush if he tried.”
This day was just getting better and better. Sapphire checked all her padding and decided it wasn’t nearly squishy enough. She would just end up overdressed road mush, and it would take the healers two days to get all her clothes off so they could find her injuries.
Kellan grabbed her hand as Afran and Lotus approached. “It’s time.”
The awe in her best friend’s voice was a living, breathing thing, and it yanked Sapphire out of her woe-is-me thoughts and back into the present. Kellan’s fingers gripped hers with the strength of dragon claws, and the younger girl couldn’t take her eyes off the two approaching forms. Afran dropped to the ground a polite distance away, barely disturbing the air, and nodded at Kellan. Lotus landed a moment later and kicked up dust all over them.
The bigger dragon glared at the smaller one, and Lotus hung her head.
Sapphire just shook hers. Lotus always felt bad for misbehaving, but she never seemed to remember her regret the next time she had a dumb idea. She would likely dust them all again in five minutes, and look equally chastened after it happened.
Karis dusted off her face and laid a quiet hand on her dragon’s huge nose.
Afran rumbled quietly, and Karis grinned. “He says he could smell those meat pies from the other side of the forest.”
Kellan nodded, her jaw hanging slack. “I know. I can hear him.”
Karis’s eyes widened.
Sapphire had never heard of a dragon mind speaking to anyone other than their kin. Most dragons, like Lotus, couldn’t speak to anyone.
::For today, I am making an exception.::
The deep voice inside her head was slow and rumbly and exceedingly clear. Sapphire stared.
Afran’s eyes glittered with something that looked almost like amusement. ::Your small dragon here doesn’t listen very well. We might all eat less dirt if there is at least one of you who will heed my words.::
Lotus rubbed her head up against Afran’s leg, in the way of young dragonets to a wise elder.
The larger dragon only snorted.
Sapphire gulped. They all had far more faith in her ability to guide Lotus than she did.
Karis stepped forward and cleared her throat. “All right, let’s get you girls up on dragon back.” She eyed Kellan. “I generally use Afran’s tail to climb up, but I don’t know if that will work for you. It’s pretty bony and narrow compared to his back, and you have to make quite the jump at the end.”
“I can do it.” Kellan nearly levitated with excitement. “I’ve seen you get on him a hundred times, and I know exactly what to do.”
“All right, then.” Karis smiled at the younger girl and gestured at the big dragon. “Let’s see how it goes. You can always have him set you back down if the jump looks too far, and we’ll work out a different plan.”
Kellan wasn’t even listening—she was already moving toward Afran’s tail, which lay in a neat semi-circle near his legs. She grabbed hold of a couple of his tail spikes and then hopped up, light as a feather, to crouch between them. “Is this okay?”
She was talking to Afran, but Karis nodded. “You’re far more nimble on your feet than I am. Hold tight while he lifts you.”
Sapphire was pretty sure the instructions were unnecessary. Kellan had eyes only for the big dragon as he smoothly swept his tail up to the level of his back, and the joy on her face was as radiant as the midsummer sun.
“That girl needs a dragon,” Karis said gruffly.
Sapphire nodded, and then clapped wildly as Kellan neatly made the leap from tail to dragon back as if she’d been doing it her whole life.
::That was well done.::
They could all hear Afran’s approval. Kellan practically glowed.
“Well.” Karis’s voice was brisk, but it was clear that she was pleased. “It appears our biggest problem might be getting her down again.” She turned to Sapphire. �
��I expect you can just scramble up if Lotus will crouch down a little for you.”
The smaller dragon was already squiggling awkwardly into position, just like she’d seen some of the bigger dragons do for their riders.
Sapphire stepped over to her dragon and put her nose to Lotus’s in the way she’d done every day for the last two years. “I love you, even if your ears don’t work and you’re probably going to break me into a million pieces.”
She could feel the warmth streaming back through their bond. Lotus loved her, too—and she was at least as excited and scared and anxious as her rider. Sapphire slid her hand under a peach-pink chin and scratched. They would do their very best and they would do it together, just like they always had right from the beginning.
She walked the two steps to Lotus’s shoulder and swung a leg over, settling easily right in front of her wings. She grinned—that part, at least, hadn’t been so hard. It was kind of like sitting on a nice, warm, rounded rock.
Then Lotus moved, rising up out of her crouch, and it didn’t feel like sitting on a rock at all. Sapphire grabbed a couple of neck spines and held on for dear life.
“Here, try this.” Karis moved forward and guided one of Sapphire’s feet into the place where Lotus’s front legs met her body. “She’s small enough that you can tuck your toes in here like this to help you keep your balance.”
Sapphire mirrored the motion on the other side and felt a lot more secure—but still not nearly ready to leave the ground.
Karis tilted her head for a moment, listening. “Afran says you’re to practice takeoff and landing hops.”
Sapphire knew what those were—the first lesson of all baby dragons. Flap just long enough to lift off the ground and then land again. It looked easy when the dragonets did it, but the idea of the big wings behind her starting to flap made her want to throw up the little bit of breakfast she’d managed to eat.
Afran rumbled, and Lotus’s head snapped up. Sapphire barely had time to grab hold again before there were three sharp gusts of air behind her and they were lifting up.
Lifting up—and then tipping forward precipitously.
Sapphire screeched and ducked as they plowed into the ground nose first, pluming dust up everywhere.
Then she felt frustration pumping through the dragon underneath her, and before she could catch her breath or say a word, they were back in the air again. This time, they managed to get a little higher before the nose dive happened, which just meant they ate that much more dirt on the landing.
Sapphire tried to send calm to her dragon, and patience, and to tell Lotus that she didn’t need to be embarrassed. Learning to fly with a rider was probably really tricky, and she was still just a baby. When Lotus didn’t appear to hear any of that, she just tried begging her to stop because Lotus kept hurling them both in the air over and over again, and landing on her nose back in the dirt.
Sapphire had no idea how long they kept it up, how many times they crashed, or how much dust she ate. She only knew that when Lotus finally stopped, head hanging, in the middle of the field, they were both panting like they’d just run for days, her tongue felt like a sand-encrusted desert, and her hands were wrapped so tightly around two neck spikes that she might never pry them off.
She hung her head in shame right alongside her dragon. They might be the worst flyers in dragon history.
A brush of air against her cheek was all the warning she had as Afran landed. Kellan clung to his back, her face full of fear and awe. He looked at the two of them. ::Perhaps now you are ready to stop beating your heads against brick and listen, younglings. It’s all in the angle of your wings. Watch.::
One flap of his immense wings, and Afran was in the air. With the grace of one of Moon Clan’s finest dancers, Afran pointed his nose at the ground until he seemed almost certain to plow right into it and then lifted it back up, all while hovering ten feet up off the ground. And then he did it again, in the age-old way of teaching that was common to dragons and elves both.
It took Sapphire a while to notice how he was shifting his wings to counterbalance the movements of his body, and even longer for Lotus to start paying attention. But when she did, the despair in their bond started to calm, and in its place came rising excitement.
The small dragon lifted her head, and Sapphire could feel muscles bunching in her back and fierce intention billowing from somewhere deep in her ribcage. Sapphire had just enough time to grab hold more tightly and then they were lifting into the air again—and this time, they stayed there.
They weren’t hovering like Afran. They were zooming over the field below, faster than Sapphire had ever gone. She closed her eyes against the blur, feeling horribly dizzy.
It took a while for Kellan’s wild, excited whooping from somewhere far above to penetrate.
They were flying. In the sky and not in the dirt. They were doing it. Sapphire forced her eyes back open, not wanting to miss a single moment of their success—just in time to see the world tilt sideways.
Lotus, doing a barrel roll of victory.
Sapphire felt her legs jolt free, her exhausted hands slide off the neck spikes, and saw the earth rushing up to meet her. It didn’t look soft at all. Not at this speed. She screamed and curled up into a ball like Irin taught in weapons class and waited to fracture into a million elf pieces.
The claws that grabbed her felt like they came out of nowhere. She stayed curled in a little ball as Afran landed them all in a tidy pile right back where they’d started.
“Well,” Karis said dryly. “The two of you might need some practice.”
Sapphire groaned. She was never getting on a dragon ever again. She was bruised and battered, her hands felt like they’d been in a boxing match with a mountain, and she’d swallowed enough dust to start her own garden. She was done.
Done, done, done, done, done.
A wet tongue licked her cheek.
She tried to protest—that would just turn everything into mud.
The tongue licked her ear.
Sapphire pried one eye open and glared at her dragon. “Stop that.”
Lotus somehow managed to look abashed.
“Come.” Karis reached out a hand and what looked like a fairly clean rag. “Wipe your face off so you don’t scare the entire village, and then let’s go get you all some dinner. Things will look far more cheerful in the morning, I promise.”
Sapphire had her doubts, but she let the older woman pull her to her feet.
Karis cast a glance at Afran. “Maybe you can fly on ahead and let Inga know to expect us.” She winked at the girl on his back. “Go the long way.”
Sapphire sighed as the two of them lifted into the sky in perfect dragon flight.
She and Lotus were doomed. Just doomed.
Chapter 10
Sapphire bit into her second meat pie, humming with pleasure as the warm juices ran out onto her tongue. This was so much better than dust, even if Inga had screeched and made her go wash up at the pump a second time before she’d let her in the kitchen to collect her dinner tray.
The meat pies were worth the second scrubbing in cold water. They were flaky and buttery and full of stewed venison so soft, it melted on her tongue almost as fast as the pastry.
Kellan was making her way steadily through a second pie as well. Karis, eating more slowly, watched the two of them in amusement. Sapphire downed half a mug of honey wine and took another bite of her pie. There were fruit tarts for dessert, but she wasn’t ready to switch to the lighter fare yet. Maybe if she ate enough, she’d be too heavy for Lotus to carry her tomorrow.
Karis reached for a tart and chuckled. “Eat up. You’ll want your strength for the morning.”
Sapphire groaned. “I’m going to bed and not getting up for a week.”
Kellan snorted. “I’m not cleaning your chamber pot for that long, so you’ll have to come up with some other way to hide.”
Said the elf whose dragon hadn’t planted her in the dirt even once.
She wasn’t planning on hiding, exactly. She just intended to stay firmly attached to the ground. “Maybe Lotus needs more flying lessons without me first so she can practice those new wing angles.” A moment of inspiration struck. “Maybe she could carry a bag of rocks on her back.” Something that wouldn’t break quite as easily as an elf.
“Rocks don’t have brains,” Karis said crisply. “It’s your job to help Lotus think while she’s in the air, and a bag of rocks or straw or whatever else you were going to suggest isn’t going to be able to do that.”
Kellan grinned. “Maybe a sack of meat pies. Tell Lotus she can eat all the ones she doesn’t dump in the dirt by the end of the lesson.”
Sapphire stared at her friend and nearly handed over all her fruit tarts in gratitude. “You’re a genius.”
Karis shook her head, nixing that idea quickly. “Lotus cares at least as much about you as she does about meat pies. The problem isn’t her motivation, unlike some other students I can name. You just need more practice.”
Why were teachers always so fond of that line? “I think we might be hopeless.”
“It went well for a first lesson,” Kellan said staunchly.
Sapphire snorted. “I bet there hasn’t been a worse first lesson in the history of dragonkind.”
They both turned to look at Karis, whose lips twitched. “Don’t ask me, younglings. I’m not that old.”
Kellan grinned. “Afran is.”
Judging from the snores, Afran was fast asleep. Sapphire looked at the much smaller peach-pink lump curled up beside him. Lotus hadn’t even managed to finish half a meat pie before she’d fallen over beside the much larger dragon, sound asleep.
“Don’t worry,” Karis said affectionately. “She’ll be fine in the morning. She’s young and strong and healthy—the only part of her that’s truly tired is her brain.”
That was pretty much the only part of Sapphire that felt like it was still working. “Why do we have to learn to fly, anyhow?” She knew she was whining, but she couldn’t find enough self-control to stop. “We could find a job that doesn’t need us to fly. Like helping Irin and Kis in the nursery.”