Dragon Academy

by Devonnie Asher

  The sleep powder and my trusty blade was enough. If I stayed hidden and kept moving fast, I had a chance of escaping this entire thing. We had a chance.

  “We’re going to be fine, girl. Don’t worry.”

  My lips moved on their own. She shifted at my words, giving me a small, reassuring thump.

  She believes in me.

  An unfamiliar warmth filled me so completely, that I had to remind myself that I would be selling the dragonling tomorrow. There was no room in that equation to get attached.

  Somehow, I found the energy to pick up the pace.

  The trees whizzed past us in a blur, my feet barely making contact with the branches as we cut through the thick forest. The harsh wind undid the ribbon in my hair, setting my kinky locks free. Every lick of the wind, scratch from a tree branch and impact beneath my feet felt like being hit by a sledgehammer.

  But I pressed on. This was a run for our lives.

  The war-horn blared again. It came from behind, but it was too close for comfort.

  Were they on to us?

  It occurred to me that I didn’t know what kind of militia men we were up against. The ones stationed in our village never had more than three ribbons on their swords, but their swords had room for as many as ten. For them to be able keep up there would have to be an experienced tracker among them.

  I needed to throw them off our scent.

  The most common ways to track someone were by their footprints, or their scent if you had a tracking hound. My shoes were specially made, there was no way they could’ve been following us that way. Plus, I had wrapped the dragonling in my own shawl to prevent her scent from being tracked.

  Unless...

  The sleep powder.

  Without a second thought, I fished the vial out of my bag and dropped it into the foliage below.

  “Hopefully, that buys us some time.”

  She thrummed in agreement.

  SO MANY CONFLICTING sensations assaulted me—dead weight for arms, painful soles, and the stabbing from the wound on my palm—yet at the sight of the village I almost collapsed.

  We survived.

  The sun had begun to sink below the horizon, lights flickering to life in the windows of the homes.

  My wobbly legs took me along the cobbled pathway, passing many townsfolk returning from their own tiring work day. Farmers leading their mules laden with produce, laborers with their hoes sling over their shoulders, even children returning from school. Though they smiled at me, it didn’t quite reach their eyes.

  Their faces were different from those in my childhood village. I couldn’t remember much about where I was born, but I knew that the people there always seemed happier. Here, most people lived in fear. Of the Fire Drakken. Of the Royal Militia soldiers. Of their own strength. I suppose being relegated to one of the lowest Orders did that to you. But I would never end up like that.

  When I turned down the pathway that would take me to my house, a familiar bulky soldier blocked my path. Despite the fact that Royal Militia soldiers were stationed in our villages to keep the order, they really only wreaked havoc and fleeced us of our coin. His beady eyes glistened when I dropped the coin in his palm. He let me pass without any fuss.

  I clutched my rucksack closer as we slipped by, hiding the grin on my face as I thought of how stupid he would feel if he knew that I had something much more valuable in my possession.

  The closer I got to the house, the more the knot in my stomach tightened.

  Hakan would be thrilled that I had actually gotten him the Ignatia blooms. But, his response to the dragonling was what I was most afraid of.

  He was the open-minded person I knew, and while I knew he didn’t give a damn about the government, I worried that he would think the dragonling was more trouble than it was worth.

  I took a deep breath before knocking on the door.

  First, his heavy footsteps, then the wooden door creaked open.

  Hakan stood taller than me by just a couple inches, but his presence made him taller than anyone I’d ever met. His deep brown skin had begun to show his age in the seven years I had known him, and his light brown hair was now graying at the roots. Only his eyes remained the same. They were a rich yellow, and sparkled with the curiosity and defiance of a child.

  He looked me over, relief clearly washing over his features, then hustled me inside of the house.

  “Child, you worried me!” He said, grabbing my face and inspecting it. “I would have preferred you to bring someone with you. You can’t keep doing this alone.”

  I rolled my eyes. “People only slow me down.”

  “You look like hell.” He took a few steps back to examine my clothes.

  I chanced a look as well, surprised at what I saw.

  My shoes were nearly worn through, my pants ripped and my skirt had mud and leaves caked to it. I hardly wanted to imagine what the rest of me looked like.

  Hakan made a whistling sound, then grabbed my hand.

  “What happened?”

  It was pink and swollen, oozing some kind of pus from a distinctive bite mark that matched the shape of the dragonling’s mouth. My pulse quickened—were dragon bites poisonous?

  “Something bit me,” I said, feeling for her. I felt a tiny movement against my back. “But first, I got your Ignatia blooms.”

  My comment passed by Hakan without acknowledgment. He was still looking at my hand, wearing the look he gave villagers who came to him with grave illnesses.

  “What bit you, Kaos?” He pressed.

  With a sigh, I shrugged off my backpack and set it gently on the ground.

  When I opened the flap, the dragonling’s head popped out.

  Hakan’s jaw fell to the floor.

  “WHAT DID YOU DO?!” He rushed to the windows to draw the curtains.

  The baby dragon looked between us, and I could sense her trepidation. Instinctively, I kneeled to pet her.

  “He’s a friend,” I cooed. Her expression melted into what looked like a smile to me.

  “Kaos, what did you do?” His tone had changed into one I rarely heard from him. Anger. “Explain yourself.”

  “Lucky that I found her in the Ignatia bush, huh? I’m going to sell her in Khiv tomorrow,” I lowered my voice as I said the last part. “Then I’ll have enough money to go to Placement School this fall.”

  I braced myself for the impact. His arms were akimbo, his eyebrows knitted into a deep scowl.

  “Did you think this through?” He massaged his temples. “You’ve stolen from the crown and brought your loot here! The merchants in Khiv won’t touch a stolen hatchling with a long stick.”

  “How do you know? Have you ever tried to sell a dragon?” I raised my voice.

  The sinking feeling returned when I considered that he might have been right. This plan was better in theory, in reality the dragonling was stolen property and I had probably just committed treason—and so would anyone who bought her from me. But I wasn’t going to give up.

  I had to find a buyer for this dragon.

  Silence stretched between us. Even the baby dragon seemed to have picked up on the mood of the room and had shrunk back into my pack, curling around herself, trembling.

  “I’m leaving for Khiv first thing tomorrow,” I said.

  Hakan was like a slab of stone, frozen in anger.

  “I don’t need your blessing. Someone will buy her. They have to.”

  His face softened.

  “You must leave at sunrise,” he said.

  Hakan had walked over to his work station—a corner of the main room that he used for his alchemy. Just a simple wooden table, two chairs and a cot. The walls were lined with shelves filled with jars and vials of different things that he used to create potions.

  He beckoned me over.

  “Your hand looks infected,” he said, motioning me to sit in the chair opposite him

  While he treated and bandaged my hand, I looked over at the dragonling. She was busy playing with the
rug in the center of the room, the sight sparked a warmness inside me.

  I found myself wishing that whoever she ended up with would take care of her, better than I ever could.

  “I was just preparing to come and look for you,” Hakan said. “I thought you had been arrested, or killed.”

  I gave him a wry smile. “It’s going to take more than some Militia Men to kill me.”

  He laughed, tightening the bandage around my wrist.

  Telling Hakan how close I came to getting caught wouldn’t do me any good.

  “When will you get started on the potion for the merchant’s wife?”

  “Since you brought the flowers, tonight,” he said. “You did well.”

  Hakan and I weren’t blood—he had only taken me in after the death of my father and the disappearance of my mother. But, sometimes it felt like he was.

  “For your sake, I hope you can find a buyer.”

  He seized my gaze with those piercing yellow eyes that had always known when I was lying, when I was hiding something, and when I was sad. I felt my own eyes burning, as I sighed.

  But I wasn’t about to cry in front of him. I would save that for later.

  AFTER GIVING HAKAN the pouch of flowers, the dragonling and I retired to my room. There, I bathed her and fed her some dinner of raw quail, which she really seemed to like.

  “Tonight’s our last night together, little one,” I said when I was sure that she was sleeping, cuddled against my chest.

  Pulling the blanket up to cover us both, falling into a dream where I was the rider of a majestic ivory dragon.

  I WOKE TO THE SOUND of destruction—shrieks, screams, and guttural animal calls.

  At first, I thought it was a dream. Until Hakan burst into my room, the sunlight illuminating his face that was as white as a snow-lily.

  Sunlight...

  I overslept.

  “Crap,” I stumbled to my feet, startling the dragonling in the process. She yipped in surprise, prompting Hakan to rush over and cover her mouth.

  “I told you to leave at sunrise!”

  Hakan, the pinnacle of calm composure looked like he was coming undone. I didn’t dare make any excuses, even though sprinting for hours was a good excuse for sleeping in.

  “The Dragon Guard is in the village,” his voice was a coarse whisper. “They are looking for your dragon.”

  I looked down at her, then back up at Hakan who still had his hands firmly on her snout. She looked irritated, but showed no signs of fighting back. Maybe she understood the seriousness.

  Pulling the curtain back slightly, what I saw outside made my insides cold.

  Three huge dragons were circling low overhead, their heads hung as they screeched at villagers who were scrambling about in the streets. Beneath them were two men—dressed in the silver and gold of the Dragon Guard—raiding the home a few houses down. Just then, a man in full-black appeared holding one of the villagers by his collar, shouting at him.

  It was a chaotic scene.

  And it was all because of me.

  “Get away from there before someone sees you,” Hakan’s sharp tone cut through my self-pity. “You must hide the dragon, now. They’ll be here soon.” He thrust the dragonling into my arms. Then, gave me a sharp look before exiting the room.

  He was upset this was my fault too.

  Scurrying to my bedding chest, I pulled out a thick woolly blanket. I cocooned her in it, then placed her under my bed leaving just enough room for her little head to poke out from under the bed skirts.

  I sat on the floor beside her.

  “Some people are here who want to take you away,” I said. “You have to be really quiet.”

  We held each other’s gaze—those beautiful amethyst eyes shone so bright in the early morning light—and I knew she understood. I trusted her to be quiet. I needed her to be.

  I moved to sit on top of the bed, using my feet to block her head from protruding.

  Now, we wait.

  WE SAT LIKE THAT FOR however many minutes until suddenly, the front door sounded like it was about to be broken down.

  They were here.

  Our house was a small one, aside from the main room with the kitchen and Hakan’s workshop, there were only two other rooms and a small washroom. The walls were thin enough for me to hear the baritone of their voices, but not what they were saying.

  I could tell Hakan was trying to dissuade them. Nobody had seen me enter the village with the dragonling, so for all they knew it wasn’t here. But they wouldn’t tear down our village on a hunch. Cold sweat beaded on the back of my neck. They had traced the dragonling back to here.

  The Dragon Guard controlled the skies of Pyralis with their awe-inspiring dragons, and belonged to the Second Order, Deftero. They were only outranked by the Fire Drakken himself, and held more judicial power than the Royal Militia. Dragon Guard soldiers were rarely seen outside of official military action, and I was sure that I was probably one of the only villagers who had ever seen them before now.

  A thumping on the floor jolted me to the present.

  My feet vibrated—it was coming from the dragonling.

  Thump, thump, thump.

  “Shh, you have to be quiet.” I hissed, hoping my voice wouldn’t carry. “They’re outside.”

  She didn’t listen, only replied with an agitated squeak.

  The entire house shook, then I understood her.

  Through the billowing curtains, I glimpsed a huge dragon—it easily dwarfed the entire house—land right beside us outside. It had burnished red scales, and a slender, sinewy frame. As it stomped past the window, I saw muscles rippling under its hide, and the glimmer of gold around its neck. When its head came into view, the tell-tale crown of horns made my breath catch.

  It was a Majestic Firewing, like the kind Jairyn had been. She probably sensed it, and wanted to see the creature for herself.

  Thump, thump, thump, thump.

  From her little groans, I knew she was fighting against the blanket.

  This was bad. If she could sense the dragon, it could sense her too.

  “Calm down, please. You’re going to get us caught.”

  I was doubled over, trying to plead with her when she darted out from under the bed. The blanket lay in shreds.

  “Shhh—”

  Evading my reach, she jumped on the bed then to the window.

  Oh heavens, no.

  “Skreeyah!”

  The Firewing responded with “GRAAAAAAR!” and the whole house shook.

  Within seconds, the man in full-black burst into my room, followed by the other two soldiers and a dejected-looking Hakan.

  Our cover was blown.

  The dragonling looked completely enamored by the dragon outside, her tail swishing excitedly, completely unaware of what her actions meant for me. My hands were clammy, and the world suddenly seemed too bright for me to comprehend.

  “GOOD WORK, SLAVIDI,” The man in full-black said with a smile that was anything but warm. Outside, the dragon hummed something like appreciation.

  The three men in my room seemed larger than life, almost like they couldn’t fit.

  A closer look at them made me feel an odd kind of nostalgia. The one in black was clearly their commander—his full black armor was fringed with the red of the Pyralian flag, and the specks of gray at his temples belied his age.

  I had faint memories of my father in that uniform.

  The other two soldiers looked just a few years older than me. I was frozen in place.

  “Stand, girl,” The one in black commanded.

  I obeyed, rising on wobbly legs. He strutted over to me, arms folded behind him. With deep breaths, I steeled myself.

  “What do you have to say for yourself?”

  I was silent. Yes, I had stolen from His Majesty. But I wasn’t about to grovel for his forgiveness. If he was going to kill me, then he could get on with it.

  The silence was thick and heavy, slowly leeching the air from my lungs
. But I stood ramrod straight, facing the wall, my head held high.

  A mirthless laugh filled the room.

  “Playing insolent are we,” A black gloved finger on my chin jerked my face toward him harshly. “We know you snuck onto government land, drugged a soldier and stole a dragon.”

  He wanted me to cower. To cry and say that I was sorry and that I didn’t mean it. But I glimpsed the dragonling’s eyes, and the fear in them lit a fire inside me.

  “Yes, I took her,” I responded, glaring at him. “Yes, I outsmarted the soldier. But I didn’t steal her. She wanted to come with me.”

  Through the corner of my eye, I saw Hakan’s face grow pale. I knew what he would have told me to do; hold my tongue so I could live another day.

  But something had shifted inside of me, like an awakening. I was a Kressin, and Kressins didn’t cower. They died brave.

  I half expected him to draw his sword and execute me then and there, but he didn’t. Instead, he glanced between the dragonling and I. There was an expression that I couldn’t read on his face.

  “How do you know it’s a she?” He asked.

  I was stumped for a few heartbeats. Should I lie and tell him that I knew dragon anatomy? My real answer didn’t seem believable...

  “She told me.”

  He stared at us more intently.

  The air in the room was heavy as bricks now. Everyone’s eyes were on the baby dragon and I. They were burning holes into my skin.

  The Dragon Guard commander reached for me suddenly and I jerked away thinking he was about to strike. The bandage ripped from my hand.

  “ARGH!” I screamed in pain, wincing as heat rushed through my veins. “Why would you—”

  I was cut off by the sight of my hand.

  The swelling had dissipated, leaving just the mark of the dragon’s teeth on my skin. The bite mark had begun to heal purple, a shade of purple that I knew too well.

  It was the shade of the baby dragon’s eyes.

  I looked up to find everyone staring at my hand. Even Hakan, who had to crane his neck.