“When will we be able to do that?” Solra asked excitedly, looking to Zelkor.
Avek wiped his hands together. “It varies by dragon, but usually after you’ve deepened your existing fusion bonds. Some dragons mature faster than some.”
I scoffed.
He didn’t know when we’d be able to do that, so why show us? Cheap way to show off if you asked me. And according to the book I’d read, that sort of thing usually took a while even after our dragons had matured.
For the rest of our training session, we practiced modified formation flying, including how to attack in formation. Despite the fact that none of our dragons had fire breath, they did have formidable weapons—sharp claws and teeth.
Avek taught us how to use that to our advantage in close range attacks. We practiced on the trees. The sun had begun to sink below the horizon when he finally allowed us to break for the day.
“You aren’t fusion bonded to Ignimitra?”
Avek came up behind me suddenly, as I was sitting on a tree stump examining the darkening bruises on my hands. He was standing in front of the waning light, the orange sky a perfect backdrop for his brooding features.
My heart raced. How did he know that?
“Don’t look so scared,” He said. “You can tell me, Kaos.”
I looked down at my hands.
“We aren’t,” I said softly. “I don’t know why.”
The sensation of his hand on my cheek sent a conflicting jolt of electricity down my spine. I didn’t know if I wanted to punch him, or fold into his arms.
“I’ll keep it between us, and I’ll keep you guys safe as best as I can.”
The electricity purged the ice from my blood, replacing it with an uncomfortable buzz that traveled down from my belly. Was this the way he apologized?
I swatted his hand away. I wouldn’t accept it.
“Thanks,” I said through gritted teeth, rising to my feet.
It took all my effort not to look back as I walked away and mounted Ignimitra. We flew away, and it was only then I chanced a look down.
He was standing in the middle of the field, looking up at me.
WE LANDED IN BETHEKA’S backyard.
Before I could alight, the door swung open, revealing the elderly woman with a pass and pen in her hand.
“What do you need one for this time?” She said, squinting at the papers as she made her way over to her desk.
“Don’t worry, Beth,” I called, hopping off Ignimitra. “I’m not here for a pass.”
Betheka’s hair was loose, tamed by two cornrows by her temple. Her floor-length robe was green, with a purple and gold scarf draped about her neck.
She looked at me with a puzzled expression, then turned to Ignimitra.
“She isn’t in any physical pain,” She said, walking over to my dragon.
Ignimitra was delighted to see her. She lowered herself onto her haunches, bowing her head so Betheka could give her a scratch between the ears. Her tail thumped the floor excitedly, her split tongue lolling out of her head.
“It’s me,” I said, showing her my hands. “I know I’m not a dragon, but do you have anything for this?”
“Oh dear!” She exclaimed, scurrying over to grasp my hands. “What happened here, child?”
I sucked my bottom lip.
“I’m not sure,” I shrugged. “Noticed them after sparring this morning.”
She put a wrinkling finger to her lips.
“Come with me,” she said.
I followed her.
Betheka led me into her bedroom, motioning for me to sit on the bed. She disappeared into the adjoining bathroom.
Despite my frequent visits, this was the first time I’d ever been in her bedroom. The bed was huge, framed by four wooden posts that stretched up to the ceiling. White drapes hung from each post, and similarly colored blankets and pillows decorated the bed. Aside from that, there was a desk, chest and vanity in the room. The walls were bare, save for a sword mounted on the wall.
It was a Dragon Guard sword, engraved with the letter ‘B’ on the golden hilt.
“Was your husband in the Dragon Guard?” I called to her, eying the sword.
The craftsmanship was impeccable, even better than my own cadet sword. From the look of it, it probably belonged to a high-ranking soldier.
“I was never married,” Her voice got closer, then she appeared in the doorway. “The sword?”
I nodded. She let out a soft chuckle.
“It was a gift from the man I would’ve married,” she said, a thoughtful lilt to her voice.
“He gave you his sword?” I wrinkled an eyebrow.
She nodded. “It meant alot to him. He gave me as a show of his commitment to us,” She approached me. “We shared two years together, but I left.”
“Why?”
“I was only eighteen when we met. I didn’t want to be a housewife.”
Eighteen wasn’t far off from seventeen, and I couldn’t imagine starting a family now either.
“So why hang it up?”
She smiled wider, but there was sadness in her eyes. “What happened between us is my greatest regret. I wished many things had happened differently.”
Her words hung between us for a while, as I struggled to understand her words. But before I could ask any more questions, she cut me off.
“Since we’re asking questions,” She took my hand, wiping a cloth soaked with something pungent over the bruises. “What’s bothering you, child?”
“Me? Why do you think that?”
Betheka grinned. Whatever she had put on my hand began to sting. She had an anticipatory death grip on my wrist. She was strong for an old woman.
“I’m not only gifted with reading dragons, you know,” She quipped. “Your eyes don’t burn with the fire they used to.” She made a production out of leaning in to look at my eyes. “Tell me.”
Choosing not to tell her wouldn’t have been easy. Betheka’s air of wisdom was comforting. If there was anyone on this mountain who could help me. It would’ve been her. Taking a deep breath, I took the plunge.
“Ignimitra and I failed the fusion bond part of the first Academy Session test,” I said.
“So, you didn’t bring back a tine?”
I shook my head. “No, we did. But our fusion bond wasn’t awakened.”
She hummed in thought, returning her attention to my hands.
“We could die if we don’t awaken a bond. The next mission will put us in the thick of military action,” my voice waned. “Even if we make it through that, I don’t know how long we can go without awakening one.”
Just then, I remembered the book.
“And the book you left me didn’t help.”
That sentence got her full attention.
“What book?” She seemed committed to the rouse.
“The book you left me on fusion bonds. You hid it in my bed,” I said slowly. “I’ll return it soon. I think I left it in Ignimitra’s cave.”
Betheka looked as if I was speaking a foreign language.
“I left you no book, child. Maybe these legs could take me down to the Academy District, but they surely wouldn’t carry me back up.”
My confusion only deepened. If it wasn’t her, who was it?
“But I know the problem you’re having,” She said. “And I know why the book didn’t help.”
She dressed my bruises with a dark blue stain—I recognized it as something similar to the purple one Hakan used—and covered it with a thin wrapping.
“Why?”
“Because the answer is here,” She pressed a bony hand to my chest. “You have enough knowledge. You need to respond with your heart.”
I raised an eyebrow at her.
That was her answer? I needed to ‘respond with my heart’? A spark of anger swam through my blood. She was starting to sound like Solra and Irikai.
“Hear me out before you get angry,” She said sternly. “Your father came to me with the same probl
em. He too thought he could think his way through the Academy.”
At the mention of my father’s name, the anger faded. A curious mix of anticipation and trepidation replaced it, bubbling in my chest.
I’d been so caught up in my own problems that I hadn’t thought of him in a while.
“Your bruises will heal up soon,” She tapped my hands lightly. “I’ll make us some tea, and we can talk about it.”
WHILE BETHEKA BREWED the tea, I went outside and fed Ignimitra a few cuts of steak from her kitchen. She crunched the bones. licking every scrap off her mouth. I knew she appreciated the break from charcoal.
I returned to find a spread of tea and wafers on the small table in the kitchen. I settled into the seat across from her.
“When your father was just a little older than you were, he came to me with the same problem,” She said.
I tried to imagine my father at my age.
His dreadlocks would have been a little shorter than I saw in the pictures. The thought made me warm.
“You’re more fortunate than him,” she chuckled. “He and his team-members couldn’t bring back a tine. The Headmaster at the time gave them a death sentence under the guise of a retest—an escort mission to Terragi.”
The Drakkendom of Terragi was home to the fearsome earth dragons who could control nature and land. Fire dragons were naturally weak to them.
“Like you, he figured he would die in the field without a fusion bond.”
“What did he do?” I took a sip of my tea.
“A better question would be what he didn’t do,” She laughed heartily, slapping the table so hard everything clattered. “He tried bonding with Jairyn in so many different ways. The last straw was when he broke his leg jumping from the second floor in hopes that would work.”
I giggled.
“Branton figured that there must’ve been something external he had to do. He didn’t realize that the work was internal.”
Pausing mid-slurp, I turned over her words in my mind.
“Like what?”
“How do you gain someone’s trust?” She asked me.
Instantly, Solra and Irikai came to mind.
“By being there for them,” I began. “Always make them feel like it’s a safe space. Like they can tell you anything. Being loyal in tough situations.”
I definitely wasn’t being a good friend.
“Exactly,” Betheka said between bites of wafer. “But you’re leaving out one crucial thing.”
“What?”
“You have to be vulnerable too.”
The cup clattered from my hands. The realization flowed over me, drenching me with coldness and vague panic. It was as if she had shone a spotlight on part of me that I had been scrambling to keep hidden.
I hated being vulnerable.
After my father died, I learned why you should never open up to anyone.
The kids I had played in the streets with, the villagers who had invited me into their homes, and even the school teachers that had been tasked with helping me grow turned their backs on me.
What happened was completely out of my control. I became an orphan overnight, yet every single one of them treated me like I had grown a third head. They chased me out of the village that very night.
If my father hadn’t asked Hakan to find me, I would’ve died in the forest.
Vulnerability meant you could be hurt. I never wanted to hurt like that again.
“It seems like a step back, but being vulnerable is the only way to show true strength.” The wise-sounding voice was back. “Stop trying to be so strong. Ignimitra chose you because she recognized your purity of heart. It’s a dragon instinct, to bond with somebody whose heart aligns with theirs. You have to let that bond run its course. Stop resisting your destiny.”
I didn’t say anything, only slurped more of the tea.
Ignimitra’s instincts made her choose me. She chose this Kaos, not Kaos after Placement School. How I found her didn’t matter. She trusted me with her life. Me, out of everyone else.
The rules of nature deemed me worthy of her.
“I’ve been going about this all wrong,” I said.
Goosebumps pricked my skin.
“Thank you so much, Beth,” I said, the corners of my eyes burning. “I can’t thank you enough.”
“If you finish your tea, we’ll call it even.”
We chuckled together.
My mind was afire with thoughts from our conversation. Was this how my father had felt after his conversation with her? From behind the rim of my cup, I saw Betheka tuck into more wafers. Drawing in a deep breath, my skin tingled. Finding her had been one of the best moments of this journey so far.
With her, Irikai and Solra, I had most of what I needed.
But I still needed someone else.
Ignimitra.
Chapter 18
After tea, we met up with Solra and Irikai in the training ground.
Though their suggestions were helpful, Betheka’s advice was still the best. I hoped that Ignimitra would be able to sense the change in me.
When I looked at her, it felt like I was seeing her for the very first time.
Ignimitra had grown to be longer than some of the tallest trees from snout to tip. Standing at full height, she was almost twice as tall as me at the shoulder, not counting her long, serpentine neck. She was covered in dewy ivory scales that refracted light in a curious way, giving her a glimmer as she moved. The horns that framed her face had grown to be as long as my arms and a thick white mane had begun to grow at the top of her head.
My dragon was as fierce as she was beautiful—muscles rippled beneath the scales of her slender legs, and her tail was thick and sinewy, ending in a bone colored point. I hadn’t noticed this much about her before. Her amethyst eyes were fuller now, lilac rings spanning out from her pupil.
As I stood there looking at her under the eyes of the moonlight, she cocked her head, staring back at me. Could she feel what I was?
My suspicions were dashed when she looked away from me, pre-occupied by a noisy flock of birds flying overhead.
“Let’s go back to your cave.”
She obliged me, and we sliced through the cool nighttime air.
Looking at the Academy whizzing past below us tugged on my heart. I wanted to secure my place here desperately. So desperately, that I’d forgotten something important.
If it weren’t for Ignimitra, I wouldn’t even be here.
She was my hope. So, why did I fool myself into thinking that I could do this without her? She was the most important thing, my best friend.
When we got to her cave, I lit what was left of the old bramble and settled in next to her on a stone. The orange flames cast long shadows on the craggy walls. Ignimitra was curled into a ball, her tail resting on the top of her head.
I cleared my throat, hoping to get her attention. She cracked an eye at me, surveying me lazily. My palms were clammy, my throat dry as a chip.
“I’ve been doing some thinking,” I coughed softly. “I realize that I haven’t been treating you the way you deserve.”
The purple eye didn’t look any more interested. I pressed on.
“Life here on the mountain has been...more than we both expected. Different, you know? I’m your tamer. It’s my job to make you feel safe and nurture you. But I haven’t been really doing that.”
I moved closer to her.
“When I found you in the Ruins, I was...” Tears squeezed my throat, I bit them back. “I was trying to find my place in the world. I planned on selling you, to use the money I’d get to pay for the training that I needed to get into this Academy.”
“You chose me. I wasn’t ready, but you still chose me. You saw something in me that I still haven’t been able to see in myself,’ I heard my voice cracking. “You must feel upset that you chose me. Because I’m still not the person you need me to be.”
“But tonight, I’m making you a promise. With my life.”
&
nbsp; I took my blade and ran it lightly along my hand. Red bubbled to the surface, and I held my hand down, allowing it to run along my wrist and fall to the cave floor.
“I will become worthy of your trust, Ignimitra. I’ll protect you with my life. That’s my oath.”
My legs gave way under me, the blade clattering to the floor. Hot tears streamed down my face, as if every emotion that I had bottled up for the past seven years spilled out of me at once.
“Please, forgive me,” I whispered, pulling at the roots of my hair.
Sobs racked my body. Maybe I was already too late. Perhaps Ignimitra had already given up on me. But then, I felt her hot breath on my neck.
I raised my head slowly, finding her a few inches away from me.
She touched my forehead gently with her snout, but made no sound. I put a hand there, relishing the warm feeling under my fingertips. It felt like forgiveness, like drinking a glass of water after a morning of training in the sun.
“Thank you,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around her big head and rubbing my head against her crinkly skin.
A single tear fell from her eye
Chapter 19
A week passed quickly.
Our fusion bond still hadn’t been awakened. It felt like it hardly mattered now. We’d grown closer since that night. Ignimitra’s happiness mattered more. Since I started putting her first in my thoughts, she was happier than ever before.
Worrying about the future had driven a wedge between us, so I chose to live in the present. Whatever happened, as long as I had her, I would be fine.
Despite his threat in the last assembly, the Headmaster was scarce around the Academy. There were no more late-night announcements, and no random appearances at our training sessions. Whatever that was happening outside of our borders had his attention.
I was grateful for that.
To account for our lacking fusion bond, Avek taught Ignimitra and I non-verbal cues that we could use during our mission. Even so, we were still the weakest link in the formation.
Because of this, Avek decided that we would fly a special formation—in class, we had learned that it was only for escorting sick dragons—to protect Ignimitra in the event we ran into trouble. Nurik would lead, Ignimitra would fly behind him and Titan and Zelkor would fly on either side, just behind Ignimitra.
Dragon Academy Page 19
