New Beginnings

by Jada Fisher

  See? Tayir said, sounding more upset than condescending. I told you not to approach the table. We need to leave before the governess wheedles into Eist’s head.

  “Where would I even go?”

  I’m not sure. Just somewhere. I’ll watch out for you and help you unlock the beautiful thing that’s inside of you. It’s not evil, I swear it. I wouldn’t be your guardian if it was.

  “How do you know-”

  Before she could finish her question, the God-Woman burst into the room. Her face looking stormy but determined. Ukrah’s heart dropped, and she was sure that somehow Dille had convinced Eist to follow her advice.

  “Tomorrow, we go to the Dragon Council. Have Cassinda help you dress if you need it.”

  Wait… The dragon council? That didn’t make any sense.

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m going to submit you to the academy, and I want you to look your best.”

  Tayir seemed reluctant as he translated her words for Ukrah. “Submit to the…academy? I do not understand.”

  “Well, it’s pretty simple,” the woman answered with a shrug. “I think you should be a dragon rider.”

  5

  Too Late, Too Strange, Too Sweet, Too Much

  Ukrah shifted uncomfortably as what felt like hundreds of eyes gazed down on her. It wasn’t actually that many, but the fact that all of them were Dragon Council members certainly added weight to their gazes.

  She was standing beside Eist, wishing the God-Woman was taller than her so she could provide some sort of cover in this large room that was built more like an amphitheater than a gathering room. While there were seats for several hundred people, there were perhaps only thirty or so filled, multiple dragon heads peeking or hanging through the large, open windows at the roof.

  She had heard that there had once been many of them, and that they worked together to help aid the realm, protecting the weak and participating in wars. But after the great battle with the Blight and the subsequent fallout, only a scant few remained.

  And that number seemed to dwindle, as only one class of dragon hopefuls had even managed to graduate since them. Sure, there were more and more eggs being laid, but those eggs had to hatch and mature and find a rider who also had to grow up before they could ever be considered for such a prestigious seat.

  “Eist of W’allenhaus,” a woman said, breaking the silence that had fallen over the room ever since the God-Woman had announced herself and strode in, Ukrah in her tow.

  But even though Ukrah was unsure of these people, she knew without a doubt that the speaker wasn’t just any woman. She had white hair, just as Eist did, and her eyes were a pale violet. Ukrah didn’t think that people could have that particular color, but there was no denying the amethyst that stared down at them.

  “You haven’t graced our courts since you turned down your summoning to join our ranks,” the woman continued, calm, but with a slight upturn to the corner of her mouth. Perhaps the only thing more intimidating than her was the large dragon head high above her, resting on an outcropping platform built into the wall with its eyes closed.

  Oh.

  Like everything else, Ukrah had heard stories of the great white dragon. Of its beauty and power and wisdom. But what she didn’t expect was her own visceral reaction upon seeing the beast.

  Beautiful didn’t even begin to cover it. The giant creature was utterly breathtaking, its scales so white and shimmering that she almost looked entirely smooth, and there were iridescent waves wherever the light hit her. If it weren’t for the intense stares of the rest of the council, she knew she would have stumbled forward to reach for the dragon, even if she was far out of Ukrah’s reach.

  “Like I said before, I was flattered, but I’ve spent pretty much my entire life fighting one thing or another. Concentrating on protecting the magically inclined is enough to keep me busy.”

  “I see.” The woman’s gaze slid to Ukrah, and it was like cold water being dumped over Ukrah’s head. She was intimidated, but drawn in just as she had been with the white dragon only mere breaths earlier. What was going on?

  “Who is this?” the woman asked. “Do I know this girl?” Her violet eyes narrowed, and Ukrah felt as if the woman was looking straight through her. “She seems familiar.”

  “I don’t know how someone like me could ever be familiar to someone like you,” Ukrah breathed without thinking, her face flushing as she felt the woman observe everything about her.

  There was the slightest roll of laughter from those watching, and Ukrah felt herself blush harder. She wished Crispin was around. He was so much more charming and good with people than her. Even Tayir wasn’t really helping. Dutifully translating, but keeping his opinions to himself. Ukrah would wonder if he was mad at her, but too much of her mind was occupied by the woman in front of her and the dragon above her to care.

  “Why have you come here, W’allenhaus? You know my council and I look on you with favor, but we do feel perhaps a bit…avoided.”

  Ukrah stiffened at that. Her council? Was she looking at the leader of the council? The lauded Elspeth, who was hundreds of years old and had fought with the God-Woman’s parents!?

  She felt slightly dizzy and maybe shuffled a little closer to Eist than was necessary.

  “I’ve just been busy. You know how it can get with the recovery and everything else going on. Plenty of people still want to kill Dille and me. But that’s beside the point. And the point is that I’m coming to you now to submit this girl to the academy. She’s fourteen and learning the language quickly. She would have been here for the start of the year if not for slavers intercepting her and holding her prisoner.

  “She’s a quick study, and I have no doubt she could catch up quickly. I offer my full sponsorship of her for anything else she might need.”

  Silence again. Ukrah wanted to look around, to observe the faces around her to see what they thought, but she couldn’t tear her gaze away from Elspeth.

  The woman seemed neither pleased nor unhappy at the suggestion. In fact, she only seemed to be considering it carefully before she finally spoke.

  “It is fascinating to see you so invested in a rider hopeful. Often in these past years, I wondered if you perhaps held a grudge against us.”

  Eist shrugged. “So, a good chunk of you wanted to execute me as a witch. What’s a little murder between friends?”

  The woman’s lips curled again, and Ukrah wondered exactly what kind of relationship these two women had. There was a lot of history there, but none of it was in the legends and whispered stories that she knew.

  “As much as I appreciate this moment for bringing you back into our halls, we’ve already started the year and the initiates have all chosen their eggs. There’s nothing left. If there was, I would happily trust you and your judgement. Unfortunately, your girl here will have to wait five years. Unless the next hatching comes early. Which, at this rate, it could.”

  Well.

  There went that.

  Ukrah wasn’t too broken up about it, but when she glanced to Eist, the woman did not seem happy. “No.”

  “No?” Elspeth sat up, looking interested more than annoyed. “I wasn’t aware that anything I said constituted a ‘no’.”

  “There’s still an egg for her. I know it.”

  “Are you calling our leader a liar?”

  It was a man who jumped to his feet, complete with beard and long, brown hair. He was layered with muscle and Ukrah instinctively stepped back, but Eist just rolled her eyes.

  “Baeltross, you were added to this council after I already had saved the whole thing. Sit down and let your elders speak.”

  “You are not even a quarter century, and you dare to—”

  Eist drew herself up, her shoulders squaring. Her voice took on a tone Ukrah wasn’t familiar with, but it made the hair on the back of her neck raise. “I have lived through centuries, outside of time and within it. I have seen our world wither and come back. I have devoured gods and
birthed the new world on which we stand. So, you will be seated, or I will make you sit.”

  It was as if the room had darkened as she spoke, and suddenly Ukrah understood all the legends about the God-Woman. Even cut off from magic as she supposedly was, there was a power to her. Something that was not to be taken lightly.

  The man sat down quickly, and a happy, bubbling laugh sounded throughout the room. Looking back to Elspeth, Ukrah was surprised to see that the woman seemed to be entirely amused.

  “There’s my girl. I did ever so miss your tact. Now, without any more interruptions, tell me what you mean by ‘no’.”

  Eist drew a breath, shrinking back down until she just looked like a regular, muscled woman and not some sort of strange, intimidating deity. “I’m sure there’s still an egg for her. Just like Fior found me, there’s something like that waiting for her. I can feel it.”

  “I…believe you, Eist, I do. But we cannot take your girl in and train her on just your word. It would be an insult from all those we have sent home for not having an egg available.”

  Eist nodded, chewing on her thumb as if she was thinking. “What… What if I trained her independently? Tutored her myself until summer and then, if there’s not an egg waiting for her, she’ll wait until the next hatching.”

  There were disapproving noises from several of the other council members that quickly grew in volume, but Elspeth held up her hand for silence.

  “How quickly you all lose faith. Have you forgotten all that Eist has done for us? How many she’s saved?” She gave the room a hard look before returning her attention to Ukrah. “Come. Step forward. I wish to look more closely at you.”

  Ukrah swallowed. Ever since she had arrived in the city, she had been surprised by thing after thing. It seemed that her experience with the Dragon Council would be little different.

  With one last questioning look to Eist, she shuffled forward, struggling to keep her gaze on Elspeth’s face. She didn’t manage very well, however, her eyes locked somewhere around the woman’s middle.

  She took one step. Then two. Then three. But as she rose on the first step leading up to the leader’s seat, there was movement above her, drawing her attention upwards.

  The white dragon was moving, her head lifting and her eyes fluttering open. Unlike snakes or other lizards, many dragons actually had eyelids, and it was almost adorable as she fully awoke.

  But the cuteness quickly faded into outright awe as the white dragon slowly lowered her head, her long neck and relatively slender shoulders dipping down, down, down, until she was so close that Ukrah could have reached up and touched her.

  …it was happening again.

  Her mind went to the incident with all the brindled dragons from before, and she was only faintly aware that the entire room went completely silent. Her entire field of view was just the white dragon, amethyst eyes so big and shining.

  The dragon’s breath washed over her, warm and…inviting? That didn’t seem right. And yet it was. Her cheeks warmed and her heart felt like it skipped a beat. Or a few.

  She felt drawn to the dragon the same way that she had been drawn to the table, but without the stupor-inducing thrum. Tentatively, she did indeed reach upwards, her fingertip gently brushing against the beast’s scaled nose.

  Warm.

  It was so warm and smooth, filling her with a sort of contentment she couldn’t describe. She felt safe. At home. Like she had felt sitting astride that shadow in her test that had gone so poorly.

  “I… I haven’t seen her approach someone like this in centuries.”

  If it had been any other situation, Ukrah would have jumped, but she was transfixed by the peace and calm of the white dragon.

  “Hey, she liked me plenty,” Eist said, joining Ukrah on her other side.

  “This is different.” Ukrah was faintly aware that Elspeth rested a hand on her shoulder. “We’re…connected. I think. Where did you find this girl, Eist?”

  “She found me, actually.”

  “I see.” Elspeth stepped forward, pressing a kiss to the bottom of the white dragon’s chin. “I think, if you stick around, she might even tell you her name.”

  “Her name?”

  The woman just smiled, then hopped up. Almost too quick to see, she was suddenly on top of her companion, tucked just behind her head and her crystallin series of horns. “You have a deal, Eist. We find her an egg before summer, and she can join the academy on whatever schedule she wants.”

  “I knew you’d see things my way.”

  “I’m sure you did.” Elspeth winked, actually winked, at Ukrah, then clicked her tongue. The white dragon’s tongue flicked out, gently ghosting over her face, before drawing up and flying off in the distance.

  “Well, I’ll say one thing, girl. You sure know how to make an impression.”

  “Alright, first things first, show me what you know for self-defense.”

  “Self-defense?” Ukrah echoed dubiously.

  It’d been a couple of days since their meeting with the council and for a little while, she had thought that the God-Woman had forgotten about her. But then, just after her morning meal, the woman had swept her and Crispin right up and ushered them outside.

  It was strange, to have several sets of clothing, so much food in her belly every day and water whenever she wanted, but it was even stranger to have the God-Woman strapping thick cottony things to her body.

  “Yeah, self-defense. I need to know where we’re starting in order to know where we need to go.”

  “I… What do I fight? You?” The thought of sparring with the God-Woman, the warrior who had slayed hundreds if not thousands of abominations, made Ukrah a bit nauseous.

  “No, no. Not me. I… Just no. Not me. Actually, I have a friend for you who will be an even better teacher than I could ever hope to be. She’s just late, as usual. Why don’t the two of you do warmups.”

  “Warmups?” Ukrah looked to Crispin, but he just shrugged.

  “Why am I here again?”

  “Because if you’re going to be the best friend of a girl that has a bit too much magic in her fate, you’re going to need to defend yourself. Besides, you could use a little muscle on that frame of yours. You look like you’re going to break in two.”

  “Hey, I’m built of hardy stuff.”

  “I’m sure.” Eist looked past them and a broad grin spread across her face. She waved, which made Ukrah turn around to see who was approaching.

  The sun was behind them, stopping her from seeing their features, but she made out the distinct outline of Cassinda and her long, long hair along with someone else who was quite tall.

  When they were finally close enough to make out features, Ukrah realized that the very muscled woman was vaguely familiar, but it wasn’t until Crispin spoke that she recognized her fully.

  “Hey, you’re that dragon rider we saw on the pass.”

  “Come again now?” The woman looked between the two of them. “I apologize. I see a lot of people. Unless you’ve killed me or saved my life, faces tend to blend together.”

  “No problem,” Crispin said, looking dreamily up at her. “I’m fine with doing all the remembering.”

  “How old are you, child?”

  “Actually, I am a man.”

  “As adorable as it would be to watch all of this play out…” Eist interrupted. “Ukrah, Crispin, this is Ale’a. Ale’a, this is my charge and her bodyguard.”

  “See! Bodyguard. Because I’m a man.”

  “I see. And I assume these are the two that I’m tutoring.”

  Eist nodded. “Your lessons are one of the only reasons I was able to keep up after my injuries made me miss so much time. If anyone can help Ukrah catch up and have a solid base, it’s you.”

  “Aw, well, that’s sweet of you to think of me. Good to know that you haven’t forgotten us little people after becoming a literal legend.”

  “I don’t think anyone in the history of this world has ever called you little.”<
br />
  “Fair enough.” Her eyes landed on Ukrah. “So, you’re from the desert, right? I’m guessing you already know some stuff.”

  Ukrah nodded, not sure what else to say. She was needing Tayir’s translation less and less, but she could use his help to actually say the right word and he seemed reticent to talk to her more than he had to. Either he was still mad about the whole table thing, or something in the council room had set him off.

  “Did you have a weapon of choice? Dagger? Bow and arrow?”

  “Staff.”

  “Alright, good. I just so happen to have that.” Ale’a reached behind her and pulled the weapon from her back, tossing it to Ukrah. She barely managed to catch it, fumbling with it for a moment before straightening.

  Huh, it had been so long since she’d been armed. Before she was caught by the slavers. It was a source of familiarity that made her feel stronger, more settled. Ever since she’d been brought to the civilized world, she’d always felt a step behind. Just a little too helpless. Just a little too naïve. But a staff? She knew what a staff was and how to use it.

  “Alright, let’s begin. Come at me and try to land a hit. Then I’ll try to land a hit on you.”

  Oh, I think I’ll keep some distance for this show.

  Ukrah nodded to them both, not sure what to expect. But she was familiar with the staff so how bad could it be?

  “Owww,” Ukrah groaned as she sat at the eating room table, too sore and tired to make it up the stairs to her room. It was another argument for why the strange structures were ultimately ridiculous and everyone should just stick to one-story homes.

  “Boy, she really did work you over,” Crispin said, sounding somewhere between pitying and in awe.

  “Oh, I’m surprised you were able to notice that around staring at the woman.”

  “Huh, you know, as you learn more common, you sure get more snarky.”