Wind Rider

by Teddy Jacobs

  “Don’t worry,” I said. “The dragons are going to pick riders, my dragon says not to worry.” Then I thought it again to the tree folk, for good measure.

  It was the strangest sight I had ever seen. The five remaining dragons were sitting there on their short hind legs, propping their huge heads against a small claw, and staring at the assembled group with their huge black eyes.

  They have chosen. Now they will call out to their riders.

  Elias was the first to walk forward. I wanted to call out that he was just a boy, but I knew he was more than that. He was a born wizard, and full of power and wisdom beyond his years. Still his whole body seemed dwarfed by the head of the gargantuan white dragon to which he walked.

  Her name is Esmerelda. She is one of our oldest and most powerful. The dragon was larger and seemed older than all the others. The dragon lowered its enormous head and Elias, the smallest and youngest of my group, reached out and touched its cheek. From the dragon’s eye there formed a tear, as big as my fist, that crystallized and fell.

  Our tears are very powerful. For what they serve, however, I do not remember.

  Elias reached down and picked it up, and then mounted the dragon’s neck.

  Then Woltan came forward. An enormous dark blue female, almost as dark as her eyes, puffed smoke at him.

  Renata has picked him. He must be very powerful and wise.

  He walked right up to her, and she lowered her head. He touched her head and she closed her eyes and he did the same. They were silent for a long moment then, and much later Woltan would tell me what transpired during their mental discussion. For now I could see nothing of their thoughts; in a moment Woltan mounted her neck.

  Then the twins were picked. I could still not tell them apart, but either Lars or Gustaf was picked by an enormous emerald green female, and the other by a small purple female.

  Teodora and Beatrice are as different as could be. But I am proud to call them kin, the two of them.

  Ulrike, Kara, Karsten, Cullen and Arboris were all left dragonless.

  Now that they have all chosen, we will call our cousins. They are a little wild, but there are some among them who would choose a rider, as well.

  I barely had a chance to wonder what a little wild meant for a dragon, before a piercing whistle overwhelmed my senses.

  There was a moment of silence, of silent wait.

  Dark shapes came flying then through the air, from high up on the mountain. I figured they must have their roosts high up on the mountain peak, out of sight. Looking at their approaching forms, I could see their auras from afar. They were all the colors of the rainbow, bright and powerful, but somehow a little wild like Yesenia had said.

  There was at least a dozen of them. The largest was a bit bigger than the smallest of the six dragons around me. They were longer and skinnier and more snake-like than the other six. Their bodies shimmered in the light, and their eyes were a bit smaller. They were staring at the six dragons.

  I heard Yesenia speak through my connection with her. Cousins, we call you here to choose a human rider, if you would have one. The one on my back is a bloodsinger, a bloodprince, and he has sung to me of our past and our future. I am pledged to him now. The wind blows to us the smoke of change. All of you have sensed it. Soon we will be rid of a great evil or be plunged into an even greater one. Join us, if you will help us, with rider or without. Tonight we fly where these humans would take us.

  One of the wild dragons, a deep shimmering purple and the longest of all of them, tossed its head. You give up nearly a thousand years of freedom for these humans?

  Yesenia snorted. Had you heard him sing, Yusef, you would have battled me to be the one to bear him. He is the one we dream of. Have a look at the others before you scorn their offer. They may not look like much on the outside, but there is power in all of them.

  I watched them turn their scaled heads to stare at Ulrike, Karsten, Kara, Arboris, and the smith. There was a pause. I think Yusef will choose Kara, but we will have to wait and let him act.

  Suddenly the dragon roared, spat fire and leaped into the air. It soared high up and then flew down, circling around.

  Kara had walked out onto the rocky plateau, away from the others.

  He likes to be very flashy, that one.

  Yusef landed still spinning around Kara, and then his body lay silent, encircling her. She waited until his head was right in front of her face, then reached out her hand, and touched his neck. The dragon roared, and then was silent, waiting. Kara mounted its back.

  Then Arboris was stepping forward. If there was anyone in the group who was not dwarfed by the dragons it was he. Standing a whole two feet taller than the rest of us, he waited for the dragon who was calling him to act. He did not have long to wait. A massive black dragon, almost as long as Yusef but twice as wide leaped into the air. She spat fire in a circle around Arboris, who stood silently, watching and waiting. Then she landed right in front of him, with a blast of wind that would of knocked me right over. Arboris barely swayed.

  The dark eyes of the dragon twinkled in front of Arboris, and he reached up a gigantic hand. He touched the dragon once on her cheek, ran his hand down her thick muscular neck. Then he mounted her, just where her neck met her shoulders. She spat fire into the air and sang a high note, then was silent.

  Andromeda is very strong. This man, if he is a man, must be strong as well. He sure is big for a human.

  I know little about him. He has just joined our party. He has giant and tree blood in him.

  And great strength from such a mixture, I would guess.

  Then it was Karsten’s turn. I could not imagine what he was thinking, now. To go from baking bread to being chosen by a dragon, and a wild one at that. But I knew that Karsten had become a cook by choice, not by necessity; that he had been almost as powerful a wizard as Elias when he was younger, and that he had not lost his gifts, just left them idle. Now would be another story. A long thin green dragon spun up into the sky and circled around and around Karsten, as it went higher and higher in the sky. Finally it was just a little point in the sky, moving around in a great circle.

  Then she was plummeting down, like a green arrow coming straight down at us, and as the dragon fell closer, it looked like she was falling right at Karsten, in his circle.

  Don’t worry, Octavia likes her thrills. But she won’t hurt him.

  He did not flinch.

  She landed on top of him.

  Or so it seemed to all of us, for I was not the only one to draw in my breath sharply.

  Then Karsten was out from under her, and climbing onto her back, and Octavia gave a great cry that made the stone shake and hurt my ears.

  She can’t breathe fire, but she can break rocks with her voice.

  Ulrike stepped forward then.

  Even seated atop a dragon, with dragons all around me, I still could not keep my eyes off her. Although my blood told me that part of the enchantment had come from our shared passage through the Mother Tree, there was something more to it than that, something tremendous that made me want to go out there and battle any dragon who would want her.

  I wanted her to be mine, to be mine alone. I wanted to hold her, to feel her green warmth against my chest. She was beautiful, but so was Kara. There was something more there, that I still could not figure out.

  You are letting your emotions get the better of you, rider. You would do best to control them, lest they cause you and your friends harm. You humans may find us dragons cold and calculating, but you have a lot to learn from us.

  I nodded, and tried to watch Ulrike without feeling.

  What I saw made me gasp. She had put her arms up over her head, and her hair was out in all directions. Her feet were off the ground. There was a call from far off on the mountain.

  Adalbjorn. I did not think he would come. He is the biggest and most ancient of all of us. He sleeps in the mountain, but perhaps we have awakened him.

  The cry echoed out again aga
inst the stone floor underneath us, against the stone mountain behind us. And the stone rumbled and shook, and pieces of stone fell down among us. And from Ulrike’s upturned hands came two beams of green light, which reached up into the heavens. And still she rose up into the air.

  He is not what I would call a happy dragon, but I think everything will be all right.

  I did not find that very reassuring. Far above us, there was what looked like a long black string. The cry rang forth again, and the rock shook. How could something so far away make a noise so loud and powerful? I was almost afraid to find out. But that feeling filled me with shame. Here I was mounted on top of a dragon, afraid of a dragon who was coming for Ulrike?

  You would do well do fear him; he is the biggest of us all, and sworn to protect this world, and the stone mountain. His mind is closed to me, and open only to the human, there, floating in the air.

  Suddenly I asked myself what I had got us all into. What if something happened to Ulrike, and it was all my fault?

  There was another cry, and I pressed my hands to my ears. The dragon up in the air looked like a great snake, incredibly long, looping around and around as it flew. It must have had four sets of wings. It twisted around in the air now, making great looping arcs, its great maw spouting red fire, forming runes of magical flame in the air that burned red in my third eye.

  There was something familiar about these runes. I could not place them… Then I looked around, and saw Elias staring up into the sky atop his dragon’s back. That was it. They were the runes of the portal; the runes that Elias had traced on the stone wall, just minutes ago.

  I looked up again.

  Ulrike was floating horizontally, so far up now that she seemed just like a little line. And then it happened. The dragon stopped its rune; the connection snapped, and Ulrike was falling through the air.

  Instinctively I squeezed my legs to my dragon, to rise up and catch her.

  Wait.

  What do you mean, wait? She’s going to smash into the rock!

  But even as I thought this, I saw I was mistaken. She was holding herself out now, as she fell, and behind her swooped the dragon, his wings clipped in, sleek, his body straight like a fanged arrow shot from a gigantic bow. And then he was beneath her, and she dropped onto his back.

  They were but fifty paces from the ground when his wings opened.

  There was a great burst of wind that knocked the new riders against their dragons, and Cullen was blasted back against the stone.

  Adalbjorn swung up and into the air again, Ulrike high on his neck, and then he swooped down slowly this time, in three magnificent circles, and landed some thirty paces away from the others, with a thud that made the ground quake.

  He has accepted her. The last time Adalbjorn bore a rider was before I was hatched; perhaps a thousand of your years ago. He has been a very lonely dragon; this will be good for him, I think.

  All at once it had begun to snow. The flakes fell large and wet, and I felt them on my face.

  I could feel Ulrike looking at me. What was she thinking? I would do anything to find out. I sent out my mind towards her, and … hit a wall. A great tremendous wall, of foreign intelligence.

  Adalbjorn is not letting any thoughts in, at the moment. After the ceremony is over, maybe you can talk to her.

  The smith was the only one left.

  Cullen put down his portable forge and answered the last call. A long red wild dragon moved forward to meet him. They met in the center of the field.

  He is a sword-maker, that one.

  He reforged the sword I carry at my side.

  We dragons once wore armor. Perhaps he will be able to help us. Most of the art of dragonsmithery has been lost. Sednar is a fire breather whose grandsire was a firebreather and a dragonsmith. She wants to carry on the lost traditions.

  I know nothing of smithery, but without him and the song that sings in my blood, the sword I carry would not have been reforged.

  Sednar roared then, and the smith climbed on her back. She spat fire, and jumped into the air, circle around once, and landed again. I could see the smith holding on for dear life.

  Some are dragon riders born, others are dragon riders made. Do not worry. He will adjust, and learn what he needs.

  X

  Suddenly, Ulrike and Arboris, the twins and me — we cried out at the same moment.

  THE TREE, THEY ARE ATTACKING THE TREE MOTHER!

  Kara’s dragon leapt into the air. I must go to warn my people, and prepare them. I will give them the book of Id, so they can use it to prepare for the fight as well. On this dragon it will take but a moment. The rest of you go, and make haste. I will meet you once I have talked to my father, and set my people marching towards the forgotten city.

  Woltan nodded. Take the smith with you.

  Two dragons sailed off towards the land of the Kriek.

  There are other dragons who would love to fight.

  Let them come too, then.

  Then we were all flying, and after a moment the stone mountain was behind us, and below us was the green forest. From the air I could not see the road we had followed, but I could feel the tree mother, and her agony, and the agony of the forest. There was fire, but most of all there were axes, steel cutting into woodflesh. Ulrike and I took the lead, our dragons dwarfing the others.

  I sent a mental image to my dragon. Can you see where we are going?

  Yes, Anders. What took you all the night should take us but a few moments longer. But I hope we will be there in time. We will roast and split the enemy, rend them asunder. We have not battled with keiler or humans for a long time, but we have kept ourselves fit battling among ourselves.

  Images of dragon battle flashed through my mind.

  Elias was just behind me; I could feel him. Can you see anything, Elias?

  I think your friend Gerard is there. And a lot of keiler. And some minor wizards, and a lot of soldiers. Just a few humans, mostly wizards. The soldiers are goblins, and a few trolls. A couple of dozen kobolds. All chemical lovers, nature-haters. If you reach out you can use your dragon’s mind as well to help you speak words of power. Ask if it’s alright, first.

  I addressed myself to Yesenia. Can we do magic together, like Elias said he can?

  Think of a simple spell, and we’ll try.

  I thought for a moment, and then I opened my mouth, and opened my mind to Yesenia. Together we spoke: Fernsehen.

  My eyes were telescopes, suddenly — I could see all the way to the mother tree, to the aura of the tree mother itself, red with rage, and my mind connected with her. We are coming, mother.

  I saw the kobolds that Elias had described, with little torches, blistering the wood; and the trolls with giant axes, hacking away at the resistant magical hardwood. Other trees were burning, but the mother tree was not. Arrows fell down upon the kobolds, but they were covered in armor, like the trolls, and even the keiler.

  You could see all that?

  Yesenia spat fire. If only I had not. That was a powerful spell. I felt like we were there; I wanted to bite and spit and breathe fire and feel the crunch of troll spine under my teeth.

  Will it be much longer?

  We dragons are not very good with time. But your mind has taught me many things already. I think we have to wait only minutes, not hours. Try to rest a little.

  I closed my eyes and tried to relax as I held on with my arms to Yesenia’s neck. How was I supposed to relax when I was hundreds, if not thousands of paces up in the air, on dragon back, holding on with all my might, my hands and legs already numb from the lack of movement and the cold air?

  In the days of old there were harnesses. When we get to this place where Kara went, perhaps they can make some. Then you can really rest. For now, though, I will sing in my mind a song for you: a song of my hatching, and of my childhood, when the world was very different from how it is now.

  In my mind I heard song, that moved from my mind down to my chest and out to my limbs, and b
rought warmth back to them. The song was music; it was like a flute and a tuba and horn combined, and all of it made for dragon throat; but it was also color, and sensation: heat, and darkness, and bright green light. Every so often I caught images as well as more sensations: an enormous egg in a giant nest on top of a mountain; cracks in the egg; a hatchling knocking its way out of the egg beak-first. The knock of the beak against the eggshell, hard as rock. First flight underneath the mother dragon; the taste of dragon milk. First flight by moonlight, and the opening of the third eye, while in flight; and seeing life underneath rush by in all its glowing splendor. First sparring in mid-air, with a cousin. First battle with an air-demon, a thousand paces up in the sky.

  And then the golden age of the dragons and the golden age of her childhood was over. I could feel it. A period of darkness and cold filled the world. There were terrible battles, and terrible defeats, and the sun did not shine again for a long time, even in dragon years.

  I opened my eyes and found them wet with tears. Yesenia had experienced the golden years of the dragon and humankind, the years of which I should have no memory but of which my blood sang. Those years were over before she had ever found a rider. And now she had one, centuries later.

  We are almost there now, Anders. You would do well to prepare yourself. I will send warmth to your limbs; I have sent word to the others as well.

  Will I fight from dragonback?

  Without a harness I think it is impossible. You may want to drop down and fight on the ground.

  I reached out my mind to the others. I will fall to the ground and fight there. I could feel the screams of the forest, the pain of the plants and trees being trampled. And burned. And cut down.

  Woltan nodded slightly from atop his dragon. We will do the same. The dragons will fight from the air and the ground. Beware of Gerard. You know his power. Can you see the smoke? There is the mother tree, who does not yet burn.

  Ulrike cried out then, and I felt it too. They are attacking the tree mother with magic. My father is fighting, but they have hurt him…

  I could see the smoke now, and the flames from the surrounding trees. It hurt to feel the trees being knocked down, but I knew this strategy would backfire; they were creating room for the dragons to come in and attack.