Embers at Galdrilene

by Audra Trosper

  Everything swirled and she felt the aching loss of comrades fallen in battle. Again everything swirled and the images came faster, flickering from one to another in quick succession. A black dragon took to the sky, evil spreading like a cloud beneath its wings. Kojen tore through the ranks of human armies; cities were aflame with fire that burned stone and wood alike. Ashes covered the ruins of villages where people wandered, weeping. A rainbow of dragons lay dead in an open field, their riders strung by their hands from poles. Another black dragon–this one flying at her with its mouth open. Sickly, green fire washed over her and everything went dark.

  The images faded, but the feeling of devastating loss lingered. Unrestrained, unconditional love washed over Kirynn. The smooth stone floor pressed against her hands and knees as she sobbed under the flood of emotions. She opened her eyes. A piece of pale red shell rested on the smooth stone floor between her hands.

  She raised her head. Amid the pieces of broken shell lay a young dragon. Covered in soft, gleaming red scales and surrounded by large, awkward, leathery wings, it was about the size of a large pony. Deep green eyes fixed on her. Never had Kirynn seen anything so beautiful or wonderful as the creature in front of her. She was aware of the other young dragons around the chamber, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from her own long enough to look.

  The draclet tried to take a step forward and fell in an ungraceful tangle of wings and tail. After some struggle, the draclet righted herself and managed to haphazardly fold her wings, though the tips still dragged the ground.

  Hunger. The need to appease a gnawing and growing hunger shimmered clearly in Kirynn’s mind. She reached out and stroked the soft scales comfortingly, and looked around wondering what she was supposed to feed the young dragon. She noticed the others were looking around in the same manner.

  Emallya beckoned to them. “Bardeck will take you out to the feeding grounds.”

  The six companions and their young dragons made an awkward and ungainly parade as they followed Bardeck from the chamber through a different set of doors than they had entered. Kirynn took a moment to look around at her companions and their draclets. Ahead, Vaddoc’s eyes were glued, even as he walked, to the gold draclet at his side. Kellinar seemed equally as enthralled with the blue he had bonded with. Behind her, Mckale, Maleena and Serena walked with their draclets colored green, silver and yellow. Each young dragon was stunningly beautiful, each with eyes that matched their rider’s in color. Kirynn turned her eyes back to the red walking beside her and was almost overwhelmed at the perfect beauty of the creature.

  The hall was long and devoid of any other doors or openings to other passageways. It curved gently upwards until it let out onto the field with the lake. Along the wall of the ridge several yards from the door, carcasses of deer and cattle were laid out on the ground.

  Bardeck motioned them toward the grisly scene. “For the first week they have to be fed freshly killed animals. After that they will be big enough and strong enough to kill their own food. Nothing so large as a cow, they will start out on sheep and goats. They won’t be able to conquer the larger animals until they are bigger.”

  When they were within several feet of the freshly killed meat the young dragons broke away from their newly bonded riders and rushed forward. Planting their taloned front feet on the carcasses, they used their powerful jaws and razor sharp teeth to rend the meat and flesh into pieces small enough to swallow.

  As the eating went on, Kirynn began to worry the draclets might eat too much and bring harm to themselves. When she put the question to Bardeck, he shook his head. “The draclets will eat until they have completely gorged themselves. They will do this several times a day for several weeks. They will grow at an astounding rate during this time. Even after their growth has slowed they will eat ravenously twice a day until mature in size. Once they are mature they will only need to eat every few days.”

  Kirynn nodded. “So they are not like horses and dogs that will eat themselves sick if allowed.”

  Again Bardeck shook his head. “No, they are not. Even a newly hatched dragon is as intelligent as a human. A mature dragon is more so. Do not ever make the mistake of underestimating a dragon or thinking of them as nothing more than a beast of burden like a horse. They should always be treated as equals, never less.”

  Kirynn couldn’t imagine ever thinking of her draclet as nothing more than a beast of burden. From the moment of the Hatching, their souls, minds, and hearts were bound tightly together. Life without her dragon bond would be at best, a half-life. She looked at the small red dragon tearing apart a deer and smiled fondly. The dragon needed a name. What would the little red think of the name Syrakynn?

  “I like it very much.” The words came clearly into her mind. For a moment she was shocked the young dragon could speak to her in that manner. It should have been strange having the dragon inside her mind, dwelling in her thoughts, but it wasn’t. It felt like the most natural thing in the world.

  “Syrakynn it is then,” Kirynn sent back.

  After several more minutes of feeding the young dragons staggered away from their meal. There was barely enough left to call scraps. Bardeck beckoned them to follow him and spoke to the group. “Once your young dragon has eaten, make sure it spends some time in the lake cleaning its scales. For newly hatched and very young dragons the scales are soft and pliable, and blood is not an issue. Once the scales harden, blood left underneath or on them for too long a time can damage them. A few days, if there is no choice is fine, but it’s best if the habit of cleaning right after feeding is started early.

  As they neared the lake a massive dragon, dark gold in the moonlight, rose from the surface of the water. The young dragons skittered back a few steps and Kirynn and her companions stood transfixed as the dragon settled back into the water and came to rest near the shore. His large, wedge-shaped head extended toward the young dragons.

  “This,” Bardeck said, “is my gold dragon, Mernoth. He doesn’t have the flight power he once had and we are both aging, but together we will teach you all that you need to know to become Guardians of Galdrilene.”

  He turned his eyes to the dragon for a moment before looking back at the group. “Mernoth would like me to pass along his greetings to you and his happiness at your successful Hatchings.”

  “Can dragons only communicate with the person who hatched them?” Vaddoc asked.

  Bardeck smiled. “Dragons can communicate with anyone if they wish. Most often they will not communicate directly with others unless it’s an emergency. If pressed, they will communicate with non-riders, but for someone not bonded to a dragon it can be an uncomfortable experience.

  “Bondmates and their dragons are different. Because of the strong ties that bind the dragons and their riders together, both dragons can communicate with both riders. For Mernoth, it’s as natural to ‘talk’ with Emallya as it is to me. Those ties are why someone who is bondmated is more likely to survive Separation than one who is not.”

  Mernoth huffed a puff of smoke that enveloped Bardeck and the man patted the gold snout affectionately. “Yes, Mernoth, you are right of course. It is time to stop talking and get these young dragons in the water.”

  He motioned them forward and Kirynn led the little red to the lake’s edge. It didn’t take much encouragement before the draclet bounded into the water amidst the splashes of her hatchmates. They spent the next hour rolling and splashing in the lake while Mernoth lay in the shallows and watched them.

  When the draclets finally pulled themselves from the water, Bardeck led them to their sleeping quarters. The entire horseshoe-shaped ridge was full of caves cut into the rock. The higher caves were fronted by broad ledges. A short walk from the lake took them to caves that were set only six feet above the level of the plateau with wide stone steps leading up to them.

  “These caves, or lairs as the dragons call them,” Bardeck explained, “are reserved for draclets. Since they cannot fly yet, it’s impossible for them to
reach the higher caves. In times of war they have also served as a temporary resting place for severely injured, mature dragons that are unable to fly to their own lair. There is nothing special you need to do to bed down your draclets. They do not require any kind of bedding. They prefer to sleep on the stone. The heat from the mountain, though barely discernible to us, is easily felt by them.

  “At the back of your draclet’s lair you will find a door that leads to the sleeping chambers you will occupy until your dragon can fly and choose a permanent lair, at which time you will move to the quarters attached to your dragon’s chosen resting place. You will find everything you need in your chambers. Once we know which lower lair your draclet chooses we will deliver the bags you brought with you.

  “It’s very difficult to be separated from your draclet at first. You will find a sleeping bench within your draclet’s cave as well. Choose a lair, settle in and get some sleep.”

  Kirynn told Syrakynn to choose a cave and the young dragon wasted no time in selecting one. Despite the fact there were empty caves all along the ridge, all of the draclets chose caves in close proximity to each other.

  Inside the walls were smooth and undecorated except for the six, large oil lamps backed by mirrors to reflect the light. Along one wall was a stone sleeping bench filled with blankets and cushions. In the floor near the opposite wall was a slight depression. Syrakynn immediately curled into the depression and fell asleep, her red scales gleaming softly in the light from the lamps. Kirynn smiled at the sleeping dragon.

  She walked to the door at the back of the chamber and stepped into a sizable room cut into the rock. A large bed, wardrobe and desk occupied the room. A rug worked in red, blue and gold patterns covered most of the stone floor and several more lamps glowed from the walls. She gazed at the bed for a moment, its mattress looked deliciously comfortable, but she couldn’t imagine sleeping in it.

  She put out all but one of the lamps in the room and stepped back into the cave. She settled down on the sleeping bench and stared at the slumbering draclet, her mind going back over the events of the day. Kirynn found it hard to believe only that morning she had stood on the shores of a dead lake and now she was far to the northwest, in a city that wasn’t supposed to exist and bonded to a dragon that wasn’t supposed to exist either.

  The sound of the draclet’s breathing and her own exhaustion finally pulled her down into a deep sleep.

  Kellinar woke with a start. Early morning light poured into the cave. He looked around for the blue draclet but found the cave to be empty except for him. Panic surged and his heart jumped. He scrambled off the sleeping platform and headed for the mouth of the lair. The sound of someone clearing their throat spun him around. In the doorway between his sleeping chambers and the draclet’s cave stood a woman in a white dress.

  “When you are ready, I will show you to the Dining Hall for the morning meal,” she said.

  Kellinar looked back at the cave opening. “Where is Shryden, my draclet?”

  “He has gone to eat, as you should.”

  Kellinar ignored her and walked out onto the wide stone steps. Down the plateau, the young dragons tore into several carcasses under the watchful eye of Mernoth. Kellinar’s heart slowed and his panic ebbed at the sight of the young blue, blissfully eating.

  “If you had reached for me with your mind, you would have known where I was,” Shryden’s voice was clear in his head.

  He smiled and sent back warm feelings to the draclet, taking a moment to admire Mernoth’s impressive size and golden scales. A dark stain the color of tarnished copper ran in a twisted line down one side of the elder dragon’s neck before turning to the color of rust and covering most of his left shoulder. More of the tarnished copper color stained the underside of his left wing and covered his flank. Mernoth raised his wings briefly.

  A large knuckle tipped with a talon was set almost midway down the leading edge of each wing. Two sturdy wing braces spread out from the knuckle to provide support. Each tapered down to the trailing edge of the wing and ended in a small talon. The wing tips were also adorned with talons. The thin, leathery skin between the braces was torn in places and the knuckle in the right wing didn’t bend properly. That must be why Bardeck said Mernoth couldn’t fly like he used to.

  He turned back to the servant woman. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to ignore you.”

  “No apology necessary, Di’shan Kellinar.”

  “Why did you call me Di’shan Kellinar?”

  “Di’shan means Dragon Rider in the ancient language. It’s one of the few words left. It’s the title that comes with bonding a dragon. Emallya and Bardeck are also addressed with this title.”

  He stared at her for a moment. A title? He didn’t want a title of any kind. A thief yes, but he was no titled man. He shrugged. There was no sense arguing about it right now. “Where is it you wanted to lead me?”

  “When you have dressed for the day, I will lead you to the Dining Hall.” She turned and left the chambers.

  Kellinar glanced once more at the feeding dragons before crossing the lair and its sleeping platform piled with the blankets he’d just left. He passed through the doorway into the sleeping chamber and looked at the bed, its covers neatly made up. Maybe when Shryden was older he would actually sleep in that bed. But for now, he preferred the platform in the dragon’s lair. He opened the wardrobe and found the clothes he brought with him, washed and folded.

  After he dressed, he stepped into the hall where the servant waited. Though not as large as the Great Hall in either height or width, it was lined with small columns and was still wide enough for six large men to walk abreast. Dragons and twining roses carved in elaborate detail climbed each column. Doors set well apart lined the outside wall. He assumed these led to other sleeping chambers and lairs.

  “This is called the Chamber Hall,” the servant offered as he followed her. “It’s the main hall leading into the riders’ chambers and the Dragons’ Hold. It runs down both sides of the ridge.”

  Chamber Hall ended at the Great Hall. Their footsteps echoed in the massive corridor. They passed a niche in the wall that held a carving of a green dragon as large as a man. The servant glanced back at him and then to the niche. “It’s made from a single emerald,” she said.

  She stopped at a doorway at what he guessed must be halfway between the two sets of massive doors closing in either end of the hall. The room inside was as ornate and expansive as the corridor behind him. A hearth, so tall even Vaddoc could’ve walked into it without needing to duck, took up the far wall.

  Between the doorway and the hearth lay a long, polished table. Two chairs sat at the end nearest him and two more sat at the other end. Twenty more lined each side. Several more tables occupied the cavernous room. Each padded chair had dragons and climbing rose vines carved into its polished back that matched the legs of the table.

  Kirynn sprawled in one of the chairs at the far end of the middle table, one foot propped on the marble sitting ledge that ran the length of the fireplace. Ladylike was not a description he would ever apply to the flame-haired woman.

  The others were arranged in the side chairs. Kellinar walked the length of the table and took the seat next to Vaddoc. “I hope you don’t mind sitting next to me, borderman.”

  Vaddoc smiled and punched him lightly in the arm.. “As long as you do not try to steal my breakfast, thief.”

  “You haven’t eaten then?”

  The Shaderian rubbed his eyes and yawned. “No, I arrived a few minutes before you. Kirynn was the first, but even she has not been here very long.”

  Kirynn’s eyes roamed around the cavernous hall. “Not that I‘m particularly thrilled to be sitting here. This room isn’t my style.”

  Serena rubbed her arms. “It’s too big with too many empty seats.”

  Kellinar could see what she meant. The empty chairs stared back at him as if they couldn’t believe he dared to try and take the place of the riders who used to sit at the table.
“Then let’s not sit here.”

  Mckale looked across the table at him. “What do you mean?”

  “Let’s go sit in the smaller room where we took our meal last night.”

  Kirynn laughed. “I don’t even remember which way we took to get there.”

  Kellinar smiled. “I do.”

  Mckale raised an eyebrow. “You are sure of this.”

  Kellinar nodded. “Remembering exactly which way to turn, even in places I have only been once, is one of my many talents.”

  Kirynn stood up. “Then lead the way. I’ve had enough of this blasted room. I wasn’t made for this fancy stuff.”

  Kellinar led the way from the Dining Hall to the small unadorned corridor they traveled the night before. They walked past the bathing rooms before turning down several hallways that looked identical. Within minutes, he led them through the heavy wooden door and into the simple room they remembered.

  Large orbs of light lit the room. Vaddoc walked over and examined an orb. “I think I see how this is done.” He glanced at Kellinar. “I don’t have any idea how you remembered the way to this room. I offer you my thanks.”

  Kirynn clapped Kellinar on the shoulder. “I would say you are good man, but I wouldn’t want too many to hear. The truth would ruin your reputation.”

  “Give me a little time and I will find you a shortcut between here and Chamber Hall,” he replied.

  “You are sure there is one?” Mckale asked.

  Kellinar nodded. “Of course, this was built by wealthy people and the wealthy always have shortcuts and secret passageways.”

  A small furrow creased Maleena’s brow. “But why?”

  “Ease of movement, defensive reasons, and in case the need to escape or hide arises.” Kirynn walked down the length of the table and sat in the chair furthest from the door.

  Kellinar and the others each took a seat at the table. Kirynn leaned back in her chair and sighed. “This is much more suited to me.”