by Sam Hall
“Keep trying to tell you, size matters,” Jez said with a chuckle.
Scalla just pointed to the fields beyond where placid, solid-looking beasts with big pale blue eyes and shaggy pelts grazed.
“Much obliged,” the dragon said with a nod of his head and flew off to feed.
“Does he...? Is that...?” Scalla said.
“Well, thanks for giving us the keys and showing us around,” I said. “See you in class tomorrow?”
“Hmm? Oh yes, see you.”
“So what do we have here?” Jez said, walking through the cottage. She tested the kitchen taps and saw that water ran, though it did splutter a bit. “Running water’s good.” She opened a kitchen cupboard and then shut it instantly. “You’re going to need to take care of that,” she said to Flea.
“Why? What is...oh shit!” He cracked it again gingerly to see a spider the size of a bread plate just chilling there. “What do you expect me to do with that?”
“Kill it with fire, nuke it from space. I don’t care, but get rid of the bloody thing!” I said. “Look, it’s just sitting there, plotting our destruction. Eight beady eyes of doom.” All of our heads jerked up when we heard the sound of an animal’s scream. I winced, “I think Miazydar’s served himself dinner.”
“Yeah, well, he can shrink down to puppy size and knock that fucking thing on the head.” Flea said. “That’s not a ‘smack it with a thong’ job, that’d take a truckload of thongs and a flamethrower.”
“Wow, so not going with the whole alpha male thing to get the girl?” Jez said with a smirk.
“I didn’t realise smashing alien spiders got girls hot these days,” Flea replied. “I thought it was mind-blowing sex and deep pockets.”
Well, he definitely meets one of those criteria. The two of them turned to look at me and then Jez burst out laughing. Fuck, I said that aloud.
“Yeah, ya did, which brings me to my next point, what’s the sleeping arrangements here?” Jez said and walked down the hall. “Oh no.”
“What?” I followed her down and looked into the bedrooms. One was little more than a narrow strip, a small walk-in wardrobe would occupy the same space, but instead, there was a single bed topped with a thin mattress. In the main bedroom, obviously designed for the prospective dragon rider, there was a king sized four-poster bed, complete with curtains to create privacy. There was a large picture window behind it, giving us all a great view of the paddocks beyond where Miazydar was patiently scissoring the meat from the corpse of a beast with his teeth, then swallowing it.
“So I guess it’s just us girls in here,” I said brightly. This wasn’t ideal. I was well aware of Jez’s ‘extra-curricular’ activities and how cranky she got if she couldn’t indulge on a very regular basis. Hopefully, we had plenty of hot water and she could enjoy a whole lot of ‘girl time’ there.
“Oh no, if I’m gonna be pulling my forelock and cleaning up after your arse, I’m taking the single. No Netflix, no Instagram, no Spotify means I have a lot of time on my hands, so to speak.”
“But the shower...?”
“If you want to ever have a warm shower again, you’re gonna agree to this. You’ve already seen each other naked, so what does it matter? If you don’t want to fuck, make a blanket wall between you or act like adults. Anyway, I’m hoping there’s a bit of big, brawny and buck worthy in amongst the porter population and if most are staying in the dorms, I need somewhere to bring him back. You guys take the main room, it’ll be fine.”
Flea shrugged, walking past me to open one of the wardrobes and placed his bag inside. “It’s not a big deal for me.”
Right. He didn’t make eye contact, just ambled out into the living/kitchen area, looking at the fireplace. “Looks like a fire is all the heating we’re getting so I’ll find the axe and go and chop some wood. Jez, grab Miazydar when he’s finished and take him with you when you look for bedding. Either make him small enough to get on the other porters’ good sides or big enough to scare them into giving you what you want. I don’t reckon we should wander around here on our own. Once you’re back, we’ll go down to this village, get some supplies.” He looked at his cigarette packet with a shake of his head. “Got to remember to bring more tobacco next time we do this.”
We both just nodded. Flea didn’t say a lot, so when he did, we all tended to pay attention. I hauled my bag in from the front of the cottage and started to pack things away as Jez brought a bucket and some rags. We both began to clean up, first by grabbing the drop sheets over the furniture. Miazydar had returned and was happy to get onto spider eating duty. Apparently, they were a delicacy and the perfect way to round out a meal. We carried the first sheet out, making sure to keep each end held high to pool the dust in the centre to flick it off outside.
“Be careful,” I said as Jez walked backwards. I heard the regular chopping sound of Flea making firewood. Jez looked over and stopped so abruptly I nearly walked into her. “What the fuck, Jez?” She grinned and jerked a thumb over her shoulder. Flea was indeed breaking up logs into kindling, but he was doing so shirtless.
People tend to assume strength means biceps bigger than your head, but I’d met guys like that at uni who could bench press their own body weight but struggled to do anything useful like changing a tyre or opening a jar of pickles. Flea’s was the opposite. His had a lean muscular elegance to it, not an inch of fat on him, tattoos swirled up and around his ribs to form a solid mass over his chest and down his arms. His muscles bunched and released as he swung the axe down, my mouth going dry as I watched.
“Tess? Tess?”
“What?” I looked back to see Jez grinning.
“And that’s the real reason why I am resigning myself to that pitiful pallet. You want him, he wants you. You’re seriously vitamin D deficient and you only just started the cure.”
“Vitamin D?” Jez grabbed her crotch suggestively. “Oh, right.”
“Embrace the D by embracing your inner Jez. You could be dead tomorrow, they were talking about killing you today. Fuck him, fuck him often, in as many ways as you can think of, because who knows what tomorrow will bring? It’s what I intend to do.”
“You’re quite the philosopher when you want to be,” Miazydar said, emerging from the house, picking big hairy spider legs from his teeth with a claw.
“I like to call it Jez’s fucking philosophy, fuck it or tell it to go get fucked, there’s no in-between.”
“Yes, well, I believe I’ve eradicated all the arachnids from the cottage as well as some other pests. You should be quite safe in there now. Now, Flea mentioned you needed support when gathering bedding?” She nodded. “Perhaps we should take care of that now if we’re to visit the village before sundown.”
“I’ll just strip the beds before we go,” Jez said and disappeared back inside. Flea paused for a moment, wiping his brow with the back of his hand before looking over at me. I dropped my eyes hurriedly, busying my hands with flicking out the dusty sheet.
By the time Jez walked out with the bedding, I’d revealed a couple of armchairs, a couch and a dining table that could fit four. I started mopping up the accumulated dirt on the benches when I heard someone walk inside. A hand was placed on my hip as the tap was turned on. Flea filled a glass of water, drinking it down while looking out through the kitchen window.
“It’ll be OK, Tess,” he said, dropping a kiss on the top of my head before disappearing back outside.
The two of them took Miazydar and some gold and went down to the village as the dinner bell sounded. I hustled over to the other side of the campus, only able to work out where I was supposed to go by following the stream of students. The dining hall was big, though nowhere near as elaborate at the main building. Rows and rows of tables filled with people made up the vast majority of it. I filed in with the last of the stragglers, conscious of the many eyes on me as I looked for a seat. Most people stopped what they were doing and turned to take a look as I passed. I was relieved when I found a table with
only a few on it, taking a seat down at the end where all places were empty. Entering a place full of strangers was always bloody nerve-racking, you imagined people looking at you strangely, but this time it wasn’t just insecurity.
“Hello, you must be the new dragon rider.” My head jerked up to see a guy with a wave of brown hair take a seat beside me. He resembled those effortlessly casual male models you find in magazines, walking on beaches in dress pants and a shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He looked expectantly at me until it belatedly occurred to me to reply.
“Yeah, I’m Tess,” I said, putting out my hand.
“Alden,” he said and rather than shake, he held it. It was weird, he just kept it cradled there, but I didn’t feel like it was due to different social rituals. “This is Grey, Rylan and Vella,” he said, indicating a girl and two guys who had also approached. He patted my hand and then let it go. “So, you’ve come to Lohirikam to study. What degree are you taking?”
I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Apparently meeting someone at uni was much the same in any dimension. “I’m not. I already have a degree in arts and business management. I’m not from Aravisia and my only way of getting home with my dragon is to finish some elementary units and attain honorary citizenship status.”
“Not Aravisian?” Grey said with a frown. “Then how the hell did you get your hands on a dragon?”
“That’s a really long story...” My voice trailed off as VC Bhechro moved to stand at the head of the dining room.
“Good evening students. With the way the rumour mill works, I assume it is not news to any of you that we have a new dragon on campus. Maransher is the only unregistered dragon that has been found in 287 years. He is not currently affiliated to any of the families and, if his rider does not pass her proscribed units, will be available for bonding with one person from the pool of the highest-scoring candidates. Learning matters here at Lohirikam. We pride ourselves on providing a top-class education to all of those fortunate enough to merit a place and many of our graduates have gone on to take positions in one of the branches of government. But this, this opportunity is what puts the fire in the belly of many of you and for the first time in over 20 years, one of you could be the lucky candidate to become a dragon rider. Enjoy your meal, students, because tomorrow you must work harder than you ever have before.”
I looked down at my empty white plate. It was to be expected, I guess, if this society was built on using dragons as the ultimate reward for working hard, the law of supply and demand dictated that my needs as the possessor of a rare commodity didn’t mean much in the face of ravening desire. I was the stumbling block to success, social position and the privilege of being Miazydar’s companion. It was selfish, but I was bloody glad Flea and Jez had stayed. I wasn’t sure if I would survive the academic Hunger Games shit that was surely going to follow in the next three months.
“Are you OK?” the girl, Vella said.
“Yeah, it’s just been a big day. I expected to stand before the Council, explain what had happened and go on my merry way. Instead, I’m stuck here having to prove I should 1, not be executed or 2, be allowed to stay with my dragon. I’m processing as fast as I can, but it’s not fast enough.”
“Stick with us,” Alden said. “Riders need to look out for each other. They all want what we have. You can’t trust any of them.”
“OK.”
“Let’s eat,” Rylan, a guy with shaggy dark hair said. “If we’re going to have one of Alden’s little ‘strategy’ meetings, I need to do it with a full belly.
Well, Lohirikam had one thing going for it and that was the food. While I didn’t recognise a lot of it, it smelled delicious. The other riders stayed close to me as we worked our way down the buffet line and if anyone else tried to make small talk, they were quickly rebuffed. “You don’t want any of the merits near you,” Alden said, “especially not your food. We’ve all got targets on our backs, but you doubly so. If something were to ‘happen’ to you, your dragon would automatically go to one of them.”
“You’re saying they would poison me to get to Miazydar?”
“As long as it can’t be traced back to them, yeah,” Grey said. “You’ll get it all in History of Dragonology. The last time they tried this shit over 60 students were killed.”
“Are you serious?” I looked at the heaping plate of food, my first real meal for the day, and felt a lot less hungry.
“You’re safe so far, nothing had been announced to the merits until now,” Rylan said. He sighed when he saw me just sitting there, pulling back the sleeve of his jumper to reveal a silver bracelet with a chunk of clear quartz attached to it. He waved it over my food and it glowed faintly green. “Green means good, so eat.”
I forced myself to pick up my fork and dig in, conscious the four of them were watching. They seemed satisfied once I’d taken the first mouthful. Everything went quiet for a while, at our table at least. We focussed on eating while everyone else focussed on us. I saw people pointing and looking over as they spoke.
I could feel the ache in my shoulders, it’d crept up without me realising it, hunching over my food. Just focus on the food, the taste, the sensations, I told myself. This kinda tastes like chicken with some kind of limey, fruity sauce. This tastes a bit like a potato, definitely some kind of tuber, though there’s a bit of a water chestnut element to the texture. The problem was my brain was going: So, who’s going to try and kill you? Who wants Miazydar the most? They haven’t even seen him yet, and they’re thinking about killing you. What about Jez and Flea? What will happen to them? There must be at least some kind of social prohibition about outright killing prospective dragon riders, otherwise, it would just be continual social upheaval, but does that protection extend to their porters? The lower classes are always traditionally the more vulnerable in a society.
I knew how to find out. I needed to start asking questions. I could ask the guys here, I was getting gently curious side looks as we ate, but my mouth stayed engaged with eating. Could I trust them? They’d approached me first and seemed nice enough, but apparently Scalla, the cute and bouncy, was also potentially Scalla the assassin.
Everyone at the table finished their meals before me, so I pushed mine away as well, not really feeling the unusual taste extravaganza. I felt a rising tension in my muscles, I needed to get out, get back to the cottage and make sure everyone was OK. “We’re going to the Common Room to do some study if you like,” Alden said as the four of them got to their feet.
“I can’t—.”
“Not yet, you’re not ready, we get it. I know how it felt when I first came here and the only way they’d take a dragon from my family is if I was deliberately trying to sunder the bond. Take some time, we’ll be here, because Tess, you’re going to need some allies. What do you have tomorrow?” I pulled my folded timetable from my back pocket and smoothed it out on the table. “What does this say?”
“Oh, sorry, this is the Aravisian version.”
“You have multiple versions? Aren’t you Aravisian?” Grey said.
“Um, no, I’m from Earth.”
Well, that set the cat amongst the pigeons. Looks were being thrown left and right but I had no idea what they meant and I was now too tired to try and untangle the complex social dynamic.
“I’ll be very interested to hear your story when you’re ready,” Alden said. “You’ve got Elementary History of Dragonology tomorrow morning and so does Vella. She’ll take you to class if you like. Which room are you staying in?”
“I’m in cottage 5, near the eyries.”
“I better escort you back. I need to see Taz anyway,” Alden said.
“Your dragon?” I said and he nodded.
“We’ll meet here for breakfast and then we’ll go to class,” Vella said.
Alden and I walked in silence in the dark. I was glad for his company, for all that he might slice my throat as soon as we turned the corner. I hadn’t thought about night falling as we had our meal and it was dar
k as pitch on the way home with only a sliver of a moon above us. “Well, you’ve certainly made things more interesting,” Alden said.
“Yeah, interesting. In my world there’s a curse: “May you live in interesting times’.”
“I admit a debt of gratitude to you. There’s always an amorphous air of envy at school with the merits knowing that the likelihood of our bonds being broken is very slim, but they hold on to that hope that one of us is going to fuck up epically. Now they have you to direct that at and I find the lack of attention curiously refreshing.”
“Um, you're welcome?”
He laughed. “I know, I’m sorry, it’s not much help to you.” He stopped, forcing me to do so as well. “I just want to be honest with you, Tess, scrupulously so in this case. You may not appreciate that now, but you won’t get a lot of that here.”
“OK, well, thanks. Look, I can see the cottage from here, I should be fine.”
“As you wish. Tazalith, my dragon, he’s the big green over there on the right. I like to come and say goodnight to him before bed. Until tomorrow?” I nodded. “Sleep well, Tess.”
11
I stumbled into the cottage, slamming the door behind me, instantly surrounded by warmth from the fire and the smell of booze. I kicked off my boots and walked into the living area to see Jez toting a bottle of something and Flea with a glass in his hands.
“Tess! Have a drink with us. We went to this lovely little village and bought tons of food. So cheap too! And we found this stuff. What’s it called again?”
“Shay,” Flea said.
“Yep, Shay will make your day. Have one!” Jez said, staggering to her feet and looking through the cupboards.
“No, I can’t .”
“ ’Course ya can! Not like you have to get up and take a meeting with the Pussy people of Pospington, do ya? What do you think it’d be like, going down on a girl Pussy?” Jez said, hand on her chin, eyes swimming in their sockets as she considered it.
