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I turned at a scuffling sound in the doorway. The young Dragon Rider I’d seen leap off his purple dragon was frozen in the alcove entrance, hands held up and a look of horror on his face. I frowned. Was he hurt somehow?
“Don’t move,” he whispered.
I froze. What did he see? A deadly spider? A snake? I tried to look without turning my head, but it was hard to see anything in that position. How could I know if the danger was growing closer if I stayed totally still? And couldn’t Raolcan deal with spiders and snakes if they came in his alcove?
I certainly can.
“Don’t even breathe.”
Well, that sounded like bad advice. I went ahead and ignored it.
“Back up slowly to where I am.”
I leaned into my crutch and slowly slid one foot after another backward to where he was.
“What is it?” I whispered, wide-eyed.
We were inches from each other, and he breathed a trembling sigh of relief. His dark face was washed out and his hand trembled on the doorframe of the alcove.
“You shouldn’t touch an un-gentled dragon.” His voice was burred and raspy, like he was holding back emotion.
“It’s alright. I was just getting to know him.” I tried to smile, but his attitude was frightening. Why was he so worried about Raolcan? Should I be?
I won’t harm you. Intentionally.
He ran a palm over his face and looked at me with a firm expression, like he was trying to be patient or controlling his temper. Long minutes of silence hung between us before he spoke again. I felt a little uncomfortable at the attention. People didn’t usually look at my face. They usually looked at my leg and then looked away quickly. I felt like I might blush from the attention. I tried not to look away. Other girls wouldn’t, would they? They would find that kind of attention perfectly normal. I didn’t want to be different than anyone else would be.
“Let’s walk you back to your classroom. You’re taking Tack and Stables this morning, right? Your wave arrived yesterday?”
It seemed like he was trying to be kind and I didn’t want to disappoint him. I nodded shyly. He glanced at the chalkboard beside the alcove where my name was written next to Raolcan’s.
“And you chose Raolcan? A purple?”
“Yes.”
“Purple is a fine choice.” He placed his hand gently on the small of my back, steering me towards the entrance of the alcove. I didn’t really want to go but I didn’t want to cause a scene, either. After all, I’d be back here tomorrow cleaning out Raolcan’s alcove again.
Goodbye, Raolcan. Hopefully, he didn’t take it personally.
I’m used to people not trusting me. It’s only fair. I don’t trust them.
I hoped he’d eventually trust me.
Trust is a precious gift. You’ve given me yours. You can believe it will be reciprocated.
He was very wise.
For a dragon?
Was that a mental laugh?
“I didn’t choose him,” I told the Dragon Rider. “He chose me.”
He gave me a hesitant look but it turned to a smile as we left the alcove and slowly walked down the long ledge. He kept pace with me, even though I was a lot slower than he was.
“If you make it through your First Flight you’ll be a Purple in training.” He seemed pleased about that. “We value courage, but we also value people who use their heads.”
“We?”
He flicked the scarf slung low around his waist. A matching one ringed his neck, both a deep purple that looked good against his dark skin and eyes. Light glinted off his scalp. Did he shave it? What would I look like if I shaved my head? Hopefully, I’d never know.
“My Color is Purple, just as yours will be if you become a full initiate. There aren’t many of us.” His conversation was easy mannered, as was his pace. I enjoyed falling into a rhythm with him. He carried calm with him, like a permanent pack on his back.
“Why aren’t there many Purples?”
He shrugged. “We catch very few Purple dragons. They’re reclusive. They fly their own paths through the clouds, not like other dragons that form flocks or migrate together.”
So, Raolcan was like me in that. Reclusive. A loner. I liked him more as I got to know him.
As we drew closer to where the other trainees were working I found it harder to pay attention to his easy conversation. What was going on over there? The trainee alcoves looked like an anthill had been turned over. Trainees I didn’t know bustled in and out of alcoves with hurried speed, their hair and garments rumpled and dirty. I saw Savette outside of hers, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear as she bandaged another girl’s hand. Two more trainees sat on the ledge, nursing injuries, their clothing singed and dirty.
“What happened to them?” I was aghast.
The Purple Dragon Rider looked surprised at my question. “They’re cleaning their dragon’s alcoves. Un-gentled dragons are dangerous but if trainees can’t learn to dodge a stream of fire and shake off a few burns they won’t be able to handle the next part of the gentling process. Besides, being near their dragons is the first step towards helping them bond with their dragons. The dragons need to get to know their scents, no matter how dangerous the process might be.”
“The Grandis didn’t mention any of that.” I couldn’t keep the horror out of my words. They should have been warned. They could be seriously injured if their dragons acted like that! I couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty – my experience with Raolcan had been entirely different.
Brutes.
He must still be picking up my thoughts, though I didn’t know if he meant the other dragons or my fellow trainees.
Both.
“They’re dragons. What did you expect?” The Dragon Rider’s tone was neutral, like he was curious more than anything.
I blushed but said nothing. Should I admit that Raolcan was speaking in my mind? Wouldn’t I sound insane? What if they reassigned me to a new dragon? I didn’t want that. I was beginning to like the deep purple dragon. His brow was furrowed, like I was a puzzle to be figured out.
“What’s your name, trainee?”
“Amel Leafbrought.”
“I think it’s likely we’ll meet again. Work hard, Amel Leafbrought. We accept only the best in Purple.”
I nodded and he started to leave, but I called after him, surprised at my own boldness. “What is your name, Dragon Rider?”
“Leng Shardson.” His eyes twinkled as he answered, but his expression remained serious. I wanted him to know that I was worthy of Purple, but I wasn’t sure how to do that. And what if I couldn’t convince him? What if I said the wrong thing and looked stupid?
I watched him stride away, watched his slightly bow-legged walk and his careful movements, like he was always balancing on the back of a dragon. Did he shave his head to make it easier to fly without hair swirling around his face? I should consider what to do with my own hair. Savette probably had ideas about that.
My pace was slow as I worked my way past the alcoves. I found it frustrating, even though I was used to it. At home, I hadn’t had to walk far, but the stables alone were as large as my village and the five others in our area combined. I’d never had to walk so far before and being slow chafed. At least it gave me time to take in all the details.
Insignia were draped on some dragon doors. I assumed these ones belonged to Castelans or High Castelans, because Savette’s alcove had an intricately designed banner hanging over her door. Castelans ran the Towers of the Dominion. And Towers governed the towns and villages surrounding them. High Castelans lorded over groups of Towers. Until I’d arrived here, I’d never seen a tower in my life, and now I was living in the most majestic of all the towers – Dragon School. Not that it was man-made. It was carved from the great land divide – a natural up-thrust of layered rock and waterfalls. Tufts of mist rose up from the wet river delta below as the golden sun burned across the land. The river flashed, snake-like between greens and browns of shrubbery until it boiled brown and churning into the silver ocean. I allowed myself to be distracted by it for a moment.
A scream shredded the air and as I turned to see where it was coming from, someone ran past me, knocking my crutch out. I stumbled, falling onto the ledge and grazing my knee. Ouch. I tried to stand, but a second person crashed into me, knocking me flat on my face. My chin hit the rock. Defensively, I curled into a ball, wrapping my arms around my head. Footsteps and yells were all around me and I felt my heart beating at a dizzying speed. I needed to get up so that I wasn’t kicked.
I scrambled up, recovering my crutch. The rush of people was past me, but someone was still screaming, and cries filled the air. I hobbled forward. At the end of the row of recruit dragon alcoves, the rest of the students were clustered. Someone was rushing from the other side of the stables with a stretcher under one arm.
“Back up! Back up!” That was Grandis Elfar yelling. She and the man with the stretcher shoved their way through the knot of people. By the time I made it to the edge of the group, Savette was pushing her way out of the knot, face white and mouth wide in distress.
“Savette?” I laid a hand on her trembling arm. “Are you hurt?”
“No,” she gasped. Her eyes flicked wildly until they settled on something behind me. I turned to see she was staring at her dragon’s alcove.
“Is your dragon alright?”
“What?” She was in shock.
“Your dragon - Eeamdor – is he alright?”
She looked at me like I’d grown another head. “Who cares about dragons? It’s Dannil. He... he...”
Her voice trailed off and then a surge of the crowd came towards us. I held on to her to avoid being swept away. As the other trainees moved behind us I finally had a look at the center of the group. Dannil lay in a pool of blood, while a dragon school medic tried to bind his wound. The screaming had stopped. He was unconscious on the stretcher they’d brought – and he was missing his right arm.
I swallowed back a sudden wave of nausea. His dragon had bit off his arm?
“How -?”
“They’re dragons, Amel,” Savette said. Her expression was severe. “They aren’t pets.”
The medics strapped him to the stretcher and Grandis Elfar finished rigging a rope to a pulley against the rock face. They were going to lower him down to another level of dragon school. I’d been wondering what they did when people couldn’t climb the ladders and now I knew.
What would happen to Dannil? Would he come back and try to ride his dragon once he was healed? I didn’t realize I’d said that out loud until Savette scoffed.
“He lost his right arm. You have to be strong and healthy to ride a dragon and no one can do it with a missing limb.”
I let go of her like I’d been burned by the touch. Anger and frustration clouded my mind so that all my thoughts were in shards and spiky shattered pieces that wanted nothing but to harm and damage. I clamped down tightly on the impulse and tried to smooth my face and make my breathing easy. Anger and frustration did nothing to erase an insult.
“That’s enough for today. We’re breaking early for noonday meal. You’ll be given further instructions after your meal,” Grandis Elfar’s voice cut across the ambient noise and we all fell silent. “Let today be a lesson to you. Tack and Stables is not a game or a job for servants. The wild dragon that has been brought here for you to gentle is not a pet or a pony. You must have your wits about you during even the simplest of tasks or you will end up like your friend – maimed for life. Dismissed.”
I followed the line of people to the ladders heading down to the dining hall level, but my eyes wandered to the hidden pulley. Things around here sure would go quicker for me if I could use those to ascend and descend levels. I felt a lurch in my stomach at the thought of swaying out over that deadly drop, but I needed to find an edge. Any edge. Savette’s expression as she spoke about Dannil was enough to convince me that I needed to change people’s minds about me, or they’d always be thinking of me as “that crippled girl” instead of a Dragon Rider.