Dragon School_First Flight

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  The moment that light filled the alcove I was slammed against the alcove wall. Sulfurous breath filled my lungs and I choked on the fumes. Something hard and sharp scraped across the wall beside my face. I steeled myself and looked. It was a massive claw. The other claw was on the other side of my face, while the webbing spread under my jaw. I was pinned against the wall, at Ieffban’s mercy. Should I scream? What would be the point? Death was only moments away. I would not lose my dignity in my last moments.

  Halt. Raolcan’s voice flooded my mind like a barked order. Halt what? I was pinned here. I could go nowhere. She is mine.

  The claws didn’t move. But the pressure of the webbing eased a little. Should I try to duck under his grip? Even if I could, I wouldn’t be able to run fast enough to flee him – not with my leg. I drew in a wavering breath.

  Touch her and I will shred you to scraps and then burn what remains of you until the fat bubbles out.

  Well, that really painted a picture. Delightful, Raolcan. You should be a poet in your spare time.

  I clenched my jaw in pain as the sound of fingernails on a slate – only magnified times fifty – filled my ears. The claws scraped at the wall and then I was released as quickly as I’d been caught. I fell to the floor, scrambling on hands and knee for my crutch. I found it, wobbled to my feet, and dashed out the door as quickly as a leg and crutch could carry me. I didn’t stop to look back. Who cared why the alcove was different or what Ieffban looked like?

  He's not nearly as good looking as I am.

  Thank you for saving me, Raolcan. Really, what would I do without you?

  Die. But let’s not dwell on that.

  As I rushed from the cage I smacked straight into a Dragon Rider. I stumbled, but he caught my elbows as my crutch clattered again to the floor. Light gleamed off a shaven head and dark eyes assessed me.

  “Well, you’re certainly curious enough to be Purple, that’s for sure. Would you like to explain why you were in another trainee’s alcove?” The look in Leng’s eye was danger and curiosity rolled up over each other.

  “I wanted to know why the curtains were so thick over his alcove.”

  Leng barked a laugh. “It’s a gift from his family. Servants of Dragon School can choose at age sixteen whether to join the servant ranks or try to be a Dragon Rider themselves. Tamas chose to try the harder path. His family doesn’t have much to help him except for this – dark curtains are said to keep the dragon docile and manageable. They are trying to keep him alive.”

  “Docile? I don’t think it’s working.” Still, it was incredibly sweet of them. I thought back to the servant talking so intensely with him in the dining hall. A relative, perhaps? His mother or aunt? And he knew what the bells meant, not because he was a Castelan, but because he grew up here.

  Leng laughed again. Either he found everything humorous, or just everything about me.

  “Don’t laugh. He nearly bit my face off. And why are all the dragons male? Where are the girl dragons?”

  This time his laugh came out a snort before he calmed down enough to answer. “Female dragons are larger and extremely elusive. Our arrangement with the Ha’drazen – the Dragon Queen – is for males only. They choose which ones and send them to a specific location where we round them up and bring them here. They are all young and most of them are completely wild until we gentle them.”

  “It seems like a strange thing to do to a creature that can think as clearly as we can. Shouldn’t they be free to live life as they see fit?”

  His gaze wandered off into the distance and his expression grew sad. “Are you free? Am I?”

  “You looked like the freest man in the world yesterday. I saw you fly high in the sky and then leap off your dragon like thistledown flying in the breeze.”

  His smile had returned. “Give it a week and you’ll do the same.”

  I felt a pang in my chest. I’d never leap like that, no matter how much I succeeded here.

  “I’m glad that you’ll be Purple, little sister,” he said with a smile. “Your curiosity marks you as a good choice for our Color. Follow that up with some wisdom and you might go far.”

  He strode off so abruptly that I had to take a moment to catch my breath. Dragon Riders sure were strange people. They were as wild and predatory as the creatures they rode. Although I was beginning to have doubts about whether we should be riding dragons at all.

  At least, if I must be owned, I am owned by someone who understands she has no right to my service.

  I felt a chill in my spine at Raolcan’s thoughts. They were jagged and filled with emotion. Thank you for saving me, Raolcan. I owe you a debt.

  I will consider it paid if you always remember that we are equals. You do not command this dragon. We are partners together.

  Chapter Nine

  When Raolcan’s alcove was clean to his specifications, I joined the line of trainees headed up the ladder to the top of the butte. They were in good spirits despite the events of yesterday and jests rang out from those waiting for a turn on the ladder. Savette arrived, breathless, behind me.

  “Are you okay?” I asked her.

  “Of course, I am.” She looked irritated, so I left her alone. She was a puzzle: kind one minute, distant the next. It was like she was working from a code that was entirely different from my own and completely opaque. I left her alone. Maybe I’d figure her out eventually.

  The line moved forward and I studied the pulley on the wall. This one was rigged with a long board and a couple of block pulleys for belaying heavy loads up the cliff. I squinted at it, trying to work out how they operated the system. If they could belay heavy loads up, then I could go up and down that way, although the thought still left butterflies in my belly. If I was honest, though, I knew that I’d never sit down for a meal again if I didn’t figure out a quicker way to go up and down between levels.

  By the time I reached the top of the ladder I was breathless and Savette – the only person behind me – had taken on an air of extreme patience. I didn’t know what made me feel worse; the insults of others or her longsuffering attitude. I thought it might be her. After all, it was easy to retaliate against insults, harder to ask someone to stop waiting so aggressively.

  I gasped at my first look at ‘topside.’ I’d expected scraggly vegetation and ragged rocks. I should have used my imagination more. A crystal-clear lake spread across the top of the mountain – the source, no doubt, of the water that flowed into Dragon School. Tall spires of various heights and designs encrusted the edge of the bluffs. They bore one thing in common – long branches spread from each one to provide a perch for dragons and silken banners flapped in the wind.

  Between two spires, a wide semi-circle of rock was hewed into steps – or seating, I realized after a moment. There was room on it for hundreds and our tiny wave of trainees were huddled together on the lower few steps. At each end of the semi-circle, a dragon was carved, posed in an aggressive posture as if ready to attack whatever came near. It was an imposing sight. I would have been nervous to address so large a crowd at the best of times, but when you added carved dragons and a cliff at your back, you’d need nerves of steel to speak to the people here.

  “Take your seats.” Grandis Leman stood a little to one side, looking much happier here in the open air, but his dark expression was still black as night. What made him so moody? Beside him was Grandis Dantriet, looking off into the horizon.

  “We are just about ready,” Grandis Dantriet announced as Savette and I hurried to take our seats. “Call the Inducted, Grandis Leman.”

  Leman pulled a silver whistle the length of his hand out of a pocket and carefully piped a three-note call. From behind one of the carved dragons, the Inducted ran out. Their close-fitting gray leather outfits made them look more like a team than our ragged band of trainees and they ran in a perfect line. They must train together physically as well as over books. I felt a pang as I realized that there would never be a time that I could run in a line like that. I c
ouldn’t even avoid holding Savette back on the way up the ladder.

  They lined up along the cliff edge and Grandis Leman stepped out in front of them.

  “Are you ready to be tested on maneuvers, Inducted?” he asked.

  “Yes, Dragon Rider!” they chorused together. Strange, they didn’t call him Grandis.

  “Prepare to mount your dragons!”

  I looked around with confusion and noted that the rest of my wave were just as confused until I finally followed Grandis Dantriet’s gaze. He watched the horizon, and then a moment later a chain of multicolored dragons were visible. Led by a Dragon Rider in black leathers and a Green dragon, and tailed by a second Green, the chain of dragons flew towards us with the speed of a strong west wind.

  Along the cliff’s edge, the Inducted stood so close to the drop that I feared they would fall over the edge. If they stood so close, where would the dragons land? I stood, without thinking, my heart in my throat. What were they thinking? This was far too dangerous! The dragons were so close now that I thought they were diving straight for the semi-circle, until they wheeled at the last second, curving to swoop parallel to the cliff face.

  The lead dragon dove beneath the edge of the cliff, disappearing from view, his green silken scarves fluttering in the wind. Directly behind him was a saddled white dragon with no rider. That dragon dipped below the cliff edge and then – lightning fast- one of the Inducted leapt from the cliff.

  “No!” I gasped. I’d just witnessed a suicide. Horror gripped my chest, dark and thick. He would be falling through the air, falling to his death. Someone needed to dive one of those dragons down and save him. Why was no one screaming? Why weren’t they moving? They had to hurry!

  And then another Inducted leapt, and another, all down the line of Inducted. My mouth went dry and my heart raced a thousand miles a second. I didn’t mean to clap a hand over my mouth but it went up on its own, clamping my scream inside. What madness was this?

  “And that,” Grandis Dantriet said proudly, “is how you mount a dragon. Who wants to be first?”

  Chapter Ten

  The Inducted wheeled their dragons around and up, climbing so we could see them stretched out in a ragged line. They struggled to fly in sync with one another, instead turning reluctant dragons more slowly and aggressive ones far too quickly. I couldn’t make out particulars from so far away, but I got the sense that they were still nervous and it made them more clumsy.

  Even with that in mind, they were spectacular. They flew low over our seats, so we could see every scale on the bellies of the dragons. Spectacular was too weak a word to describe the dragons’ movements. They’d start bunched up, filled with energy longing to be released, and then they’d explode forward, their wings shuddering as they flapped them down, muscles flexing and skin stretching out along the wings. Glittering eyes and shining scales glinted in the sunlight and thick leather straps ringed the dragons’ bellies and shoulders, holding Inducted tightly into their saddles. How in the world did they keep from getting motion sick? I was guessing that as many people lost those grand breakfasts we ate as not during the training process.

  The dragons turned a corner, fringed wings and scintillating tails displaying in every color and variation from ombre golds to albino whites. I gasped in pleasure, still standing as I had been in my shock. It felt wrong to sit for such a grand display. To fly like that – what a dream come true! Even if it meant leaping over the side of a cliff? I wasn’t sure about that. I got sick bubbles in my belly and hot fear sliced through the backs of my thighs when I thought about leaping over the side of the cliff. What if Raolcan didn’t catch me? What if I slipped off the saddle? What if I couldn’t leap correctly because of my leg and I fell too close to the side and smacked the cliff?

  “The art of gentling a dragon goes back eight generations in our land.” Grandis Dantriet’s voice cut through the ambient noise with power. “Our ancestors have taught us the fine skill of bonding with a dragon and then riding him. It is only after your First Flight that you will be eligible for induction into our ranks. As you can see, it’s more challenging than you may have guessed.” Grandis Dantriet grinned, the lines in his weathered face deepening into the passion of someone doing what they loved best in the world. “Every wave of Dragon Rider trainees goes through Induction in the same way that you will. First, you choose a dragon and with that, a potential Color. Next, you watch the students in the wave before yours ride their dragons. If what you have seen is too much for you, there is always room in the servant ranks. There is no shame in serving others. It’s a good life of hard work and purposeful duty. You may choose it at any time in this process. We want none in our ranks who do not truly wish to be here. So, choose wisely. Choose the path you wish to take. Tonight, the bonding commences. Once you have bonded with your dragon you will be forced to continue on your path much more forcefully. We will not have dragons wasted and a dragon will only bond to one person. This is your last chance to easily choose a different path. You have until sunset to make your choice.”

  Should I feel grateful to have a choice? Somehow, it made things harder. I’d come here so that I wouldn’t be a burden on my family. I hadn’t realized servanthood would be an option. A life as a servant here with plentiful food, a warm bed, and useful chores was everything I could have hoped for - before. Now, after meeting Raolcan - after watching that glorious display – I wasn’t sure that I could walk away from it. Could I just settle for something less? Quit without trying? It felt like quitting even if it was safer and made more sense. Imagine if I succeeded? Who needed to walk or run quickly when they could fly?

  “We all know what you should choose, peasant girl.” I heard the whisper, but I didn’t turn around. “And I think you do, too. All you do is hold up the line.”

  I colored in shame. It wouldn’t hurt so much if it wasn’t true. I didn’t turn around because I didn’t want to confirm my suspicions. Only Savette had been held up on the ladder, and I was starting to think that we were friends. I couldn’t bear to look back and see her lovely face mocking me.

  “Two things happen tonight. First, you will go through the bonding ritual.” Grandis Dantriet was addressing us again. Beside him, Grandis Leman looked bored, his eyes occasionally trailing the dragons still looping around us in a ragged ring. “And secondly, you will place a secret vote in this jar.” He held up a clay jar with a lid. “The first person of every wave to mount their dragon suffers a significant disadvantage. We have lost over half of those who have tried first. It is, however, a great honor to succeed. First Rider is a title we respect. Choose the First Rider of your wave carefully.”

  It took a moment for his words to sink in. Lost? Did he mean... dead? By the looks on the faces around me, he did.

  “In the past, we have drawn names randomly for the dangerous task of First Rider. But, this time we have decided to let you vote. We start a new tradition with you.”

  The dragons finished their circle and dove over our seats again, this time spinning so that their riders were upside down and then right side up again. I gasped at the thought of doing that myself. It made my head spin just thinking about it.

  “You have until tonight to make both your decisions. I suggest you take that time to meditate, rest and eat well. You will need all your energy and mental acuity. Bonding will take a lot out of you and the choice you make will determine your future. May the sun shine on you. We will convene at the stables at eighth bell. If you are late, or do not arrive, then your decision has been made. You will continue on as a servant of Dragon School. Whatever your choice, we embrace your service.”

  The two Grandis turned and left, leaving us silent in the stands.

  After a moment, we looked at one another and Starie stood, bumping me with her shoulder as she walked by and stating loudly, “I’ll be voting for you, cripple. Unless you choose the right thing tonight.”

  Jael followed her, shrugging at me as he passed.

  I bit back a retort. If I
wanted to prove her wrong I’d have all the chance I needed soon enough. What hurt worse than Starie’s words were the other trainees. None of them would look at me as they walked by. Not even Savette or Tamas. If I chose to bond with Raolcan tonight, it was clear whose name they were going to write down on their papers. A choice to try to be a Dragon Rider would mean the task of First Rider, too, and with it a fifty percent chance of death. How badly did I really want to ride a dragon?

  Chapter Eleven

  By the time I’d descended the ladder to the stable levels there was no sign of anyone else. Likely, they were doing as they were told and resting, meditating and eating. The thought of going to those huge dorms with every eye on me made my stomach lurch. I didn’t need more people who doubted me to fill me with self-doubt. I made my way along the ledge – although not too close to the alcoves. I didn’t need a repeat of this morning. I still felt a bit shaky when I thought of that Green dragon. Imagine leaping onto the back of a creature like that! Would it shake you off? Would it try to? How quickly could you strap yourself into the saddle?

  I stopped beside one alcove where a saddle was hanging on a peg. The complicated straps culminated in a wide harness for the rider, including a waist strap and shoulder and thigh loops. It looked like it would take a long time to strap on, and when Leng had leapt off his dragon onto the ledge, he hadn’t been wearing it. Did most Dragon Riders wear them, or only trainees?

  I walked away, letting my mind wander over the idea of leaping – on in my case more like dropping – over the edge of a cliff and onto a dragon. I could envision what it would take to decide to do it. I could envision landing hard on the scaly, slippery saddle. What then? Would I strap in? Would Raolcan try to buck me off?