by Alan Carr
“I have some things I need to take care of,” I told Boe, and he looked knowingly at the desk, then nodded at me.
“Meet us down in the study when you can,” he said, and tossed me a starberry. I grabbed it out of the air and took a bite. The sweet and sticky juices stained my lips and melted as they passed through my mouth.
Yes, today was going to be a good day.
***
This time, I grabbed only a single sheet of parchment paper and didn’t sit down at the desk until I had a reasonable idea about what I was going to write. I drew letters in the air with an imaginary quill and imagined the words coming out looking neat, or at least legible. Then I sat down, took a large bite out of the warm bread loaf, and I wrote.
“Dear Daija,” I began, and the words came through me and onto the page easily after that. They were awkward words, but they were the best I had, and I hoped that she would be able to understand me through them.
I explained about the prize ticket and being too late to get the tapestry for her. I told her I wished we had more time together while the festival lasted, and I apologized that I was too late getting back to say goodbye. Then I explained about trying to write to her before, how I had trouble finding words for what I was feeling. I tried to write about the accident, and told her what few details about it I knew, and explained about waking up weeks later at my parents’ house. Then about the rumors of the dragon and how I thought it meant I would get a chance to see her in Chialaa Valley, and how nothing turned out how I wanted it to. I wrote that I was happy to see her, and that I couldn’t understand why she wasn’t at all happy to see me, but that I now knew. I apologized that I didn’t explain everything as soon as I saw her. I had a lot to apologize for, and I wasn’t yet done. When I got to the last part of my letter, I had more trouble finding the right words. I wanted to be honest, and I wanted to be understanding. The problem was that I wasn’t completely sure of my feelings yet, but as I wrote to Daija I believed what I was writing. I told her that I decided it was great that she was training to fight dragons, that I understood that the only way we could know if everyone is right about only men being Dragon Masters was for someone to try to prove them wrong. I explained how I cared about her and worried about seeing her hurt or killed, but how I had seen her with her dad and seen how good she was. I asked her to forgive me this one more time, and said that I wished we could have a duel and find out which of us was better with a sword. I finished by imploring her not to hate me anymore, but that I understood now why she had hated me.
I refused to read back over the letter after writing it, and instead quickly signed it, dated it, then held it up to the sunlight to help the ink dry more quickly. When I felt it was properly dried, I carefully folded the parchment, wrote Daija’s name and location on the outside, and took it into the Rector’s vestibule to have it sealed and assigned for the next delivery. I was filled with nervous excitement as I handed the letter over to one of the Rector’s attendants and so I ran rather than walked back to the study to join Boe with Magnilda.
For the first time that I could remember, I felt free from any burdens.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Birthday
We received word about the first Dragonbirth sixteen days into Flame. Every Stone Soul in my class gathered in the training grounds when word got around about the courier who had arrived proclaiming the Dragonbirth. Master Walker came out to meet us dressed in his full dragon slayer’s armor: a glowing, impressive display of etched flames and embossed patterns done in shades of red and silver with golden accents. I’d last seen this outfit five years ago, and I’d forgotten how impressive it was. I wanted one.
“The first dragon of the year has been born at last, south of Aericaia, along the eastern peninsula,” the Dragon Master announced in an even voice.
I felt a rush of relief. There was basically no chance that the dragon could get to either my family or Boe’s without having to get past Stone Soul teams from Rægena. In fact, the Dragonbirth was just on the other side of the impassable Paraxin Mountains. Well, the mountains were impassable to us, though I supposed a dragon could likely fly over them with minimal worry. That probably meant that many of us would remain in Rægena to provide protection in case the dragon did come by that route.
Master Walker wasted no time in giving out the first assignment. “Sagan, take your team north through the forest to the foothills of Mount Rae. Head around the Paraxins to Aericaia and then south along the coast.”
I looked at Irvin and saw that he was practically hyperventilating. I couldn’t tell whether it came from the honor of being given the first dragon quest assignment, the excitement of our first Dragonbirth, fear of what could come next, or some combination of the three. It had been different for me in my first dragon quest. Of course that hadn’t been a dragon quest at all, and it had been a duty that our team had volunteered for.
“Wyatt,” the Dragon Master gave out another assignment, “take your team south around the Paraxins then up the southeastern coast. One of your teams,” he added, addressing both teams now, “should meet up with the dragon before you meet up with each other. If you’re lucky, you’ll meet up with the dragon and each other at the same time and can join forces. Remember your training. Work as a team. Bring back the dragon’s heart.”
Irvin’s body was still rising and falling rapidly with his breathing. Calvin, the other dragon quest leader, was nodding vigorously.
“Well, go,” Walker said to them, and with a wave of his arm the two teams ran to gather their readied supplies, collect their horses, and begin their dragon quests. I joined in the chorus of those of us remaining who were yelling out our encouragement to them. We were envious. We were relieved. We were on edge. There was a dragon in the Realm.
***
While we continued to wait for reports of the second Dragonbirth, Boe insisted that I spend time with him in the study to cram as much Dragonlore as possible into my head, just in case any small detail could hold the key to defeating a dragon in battle. In turn, I made Boe spend time with the rest of the team in the training grounds, practicing, for much the same reason. We made a routine of rising early and bringing food for ourselves and for Magnilda and Sterling to the secret study, and then in the afternoons we would train for a few hours before taking supper and retiring to the bunk. There was plenty that we wanted to accomplish, but we also wanted to ensure that we got a good amount of rest.
“So have there been any really unusual Dragon Masters?” I asked on the twenty-seventh day of Flame. I’d been trying to get around to the topic of women Stone Souls and why there weren’t any, but I didn’t want to bring up the subject directly with Boe always around. I knew that he’d start talking about different perspectives and all this confusing unrelated stuff, and I just wanted a straight answer. And it wasn’t like Magnilda was great about giving straight answers, but maybe she would give me the answer I was looking for if I just asked the right “wrong” question.
“Oh, plenty,” Magnilda answered enthusiastically, “there was a Master named Richards in 225 who was born with a stump of a tail. He kept its existence hidden his whole life fearing that people would think he was some kind of half dragon. After he slayed both dragons born that year just one week apart, he announced the existence of his tail. So his kingdom rose up in revolt against him and he was killed. His fears were right, you see.”
“You’re kidding,” I said.
“Oh, no, absolutely a true story,” Magnilda said, and then she started toward a bookshelf to go find the records of the incident for me to read for myself. I should have known better.
“No, no,” I said, “that’s fine, I believe you. It just seems so wrong.”
“Yes, I agree,” she told me. “One thing you have to understand about people, they love their heroes but they love their safe traditions even more.”
“So that’s why you still haven’t told anyone about the Dragonborn?”
I asked.
This caught Magnilda by surprise, but she took it in stride. “So Boe’s been telling you some stories of his own?”
“It was just something that came up, back when we were on the dragon quest,” Boe blurted out as quickly as he could.
Magnilda nodded. “Yes, I suppose you had a right to know there could be a reason for a dragon to be out wandering Lævena in Tephria even though all the dragons were supposed to be dead.”
“Tephria?” I asked. I wasn’t familiar with the term.
“Oh, well I suppose you call it ‘Early Flame’ then, don’t you? Just another name for the same thing. People love giving many names to the same thing.”
“So why are they called Dragonborn?” I thought this sounded like a smart way to bring the conversation back to that topic.
“Because they’re born from two dragons,” Boe said.
“The prophecy does seem to make a distinction between dragons who are simply born from the Stoneflame and something called a Dragonborn,” Magnilda explained, “Though the prophecy also mentions Dragonwhelps, which could be another classification altogether. Or it could be nothing. What do you think, Caedan?”
I had no idea, and I told her so.
“I suppose you haven’t really focused on that,” Magnilda said, understanding. “Boe and I have spent quite a long time trying to work out the meaning of the prophecy, after all.”
“How much of the prophecy have you figured out?” And for that matter, have you figured out yet why someone knocked me out and stole it? I didn’t ask that last part out loud.
“Just this and that,” Magnilda replied, distractedly, “nothing that will help you in your next dragon quest, I’m sure.” That was her way of closing the topic down to further discussion. Fine, I could still try to find out the answers to some of my other questions.
“So what other unusual Dragon Masters can you tell me about?”
“There was this one guy,” Boe said, “who killed three dragons in one year.”
“Yes, he was killed by the next dragon he faced though,” Magnilda said, “he got too sure of himself. It didn’t help that everyone in the Realm started calling him Master Invincible.” She was looking at a book shelf and it seemed that she was able to recall the contents of each book on it by staring at its spine long enough. “Yes, oh yes, how could I forget,” she started excitedly, “Master Coville.”
“Let me guess,” I said, “he killed a dragon when he was just five years old and then he died?” I was starting to see a kind of pattern to these stories.
“Oh, no, don’t be silly. Well, there was a Dragon Master like that, young Master Karl, but he was eight years old. No, Master Coville was far more interesting.”
Boe sat down beside me, and I could tell this was one he hadn’t heard about before.
“Master Coville was a wizard who didn’t know he was a Stone Soul,” she explained, “his parents kept it a secret from him and raised him up as a powerful fire wizard. They told him his whole life that anyone could kill a dragon, that you didn’t have to be a Stone Soul.”
“But you said that he was one,” I said, confused.
“Yes, his parents were playing a very dangerous game. Got them killed, in the end.”
“Naturally,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“They did get many other people killed first,” she said, “but that’s a digression for another time. So Master Coville spends his life believing anyone can kill a dragon and training to be the one who proves it to the world.”
“Using magic?” I interrupted.
“Yes, you see, he really is a very interesting fellow as these things go. Everyone uses the sword to kill a dragon, but Master Coville did it with a spell.”
“Like the Ice Lance Sterling’s master tried?” Boe asked this question.
“No, though he was actually the inspiration for Sterling’s master, there’s no question about that in my mind. No, you see, he spent his whole life so in tune with Flame magics that he had to develop powerful protection spells to avoid accidentally killing himself. He burned his whole village down, once, on accident of course.” Of course. “So one day he finally hears about a Dragonbirth and rides to confront the dragon, he casts his protection spells and is about to cast another spell to attack the dragon, but he gets eaten instead.”
Some story. “Why did you call him a Master if he just gets eaten by the dragon?”
“That’s what makes him so interesting,” Magnilda scolded, but she was clearly glad that I’d misunderstood, “he was swallowed up but the Dragonsfire didn’t burn him. Didn’t hurt him at all. Still, the toxin was paralyzing him, so he used a dagger to begin trying to cut himself free from inside the dragon.”
“Woah,” Boe said it, but I was also thinking it. I was trying to picture the scene.
“The toxin was working too quickly and he wasn’t able to breathe, you see. So the dragon was thrashing around with this wizard inside of him, and the wizard was slowly dying inside the dragon and trying to get out. When they eventually found the dragon, she was just lying there dead and nobody could tell how she’d died. When they cut her open to investigate, they found the remains of Master Coville there, his hands squeezing the dragon’s black heart.”
That story made me queasy.
“So how do we get those fire protection spells?” Boe asked. His eyes were wide and I could tell that he was thinking of all the possibilities such a spell could afford us.
“Well, you’d have to start by training as a fire wizard from birth,” Magnilda answered, chuckling.
All of this was getting us nowhere.
***
I felt like we were making good progress with our training. The shorter, more intense bursts of training felt more like what we could be likely to expect when we really faced a dragon. After our first dragon quest, I understood how all the long days and nights of running and drills were preparing us for the endurance test of actually keeping up with the dragon and trying to get ahead of its path of destruction. But I felt like this part was important, too, and we hadn’t had enough of it. Plus, it felt great to know that we’d only have to worry about a few hours of training before we could just enjoy supper and relax until the next afternoon.
We were also building some kind of new team identity, now that we were just the four of us. Shortly after the first Dragonbirth, Bayrd and Gable had some kind of falling out that made things uneasy for a couple days. Still, they joined Boe and I most afternoons to participate in the team exercises.
“I think Caedan should take over as team leader,” Gable said unexpectedly on the thirty-fifth day of Flame. Bayrd was trying to get us to master a tricky four person maneuver that seemed too complex to have any chance of coming up, let alone working against a dragon, and the three of us were protesting loudly against the drill.
“Seconded,” Boe stepped in quickly.
Bayrd growled something I couldn’t understand at Gable, but Gable just responded with an exaggerated bow. I realized that was it, that it was two against one. Well, three against one if I included myself. I was our new dragon quest leader. Nice!
“So, time for an early supper?” Gable grinned.
“Time for some two on twos,” I said smiling back at him. I stepped over to Bayrd and shrugged at him, and then we readied our practice swords and charged at the unprepared Boe and Gable, knocking them over. I helped Boe up and then reached out a hand to Gable when Bayrd turned his back on us. “It helps to draw your sword,” I taunted. “Again.”
This was going to be fun.
***
But the fun only lasted one day. Just when we’d started our afternoon training on my birthday, the thirty-sixth day of Flame, a lone Stone Soul rode into the training grounds. One riderless horse trailed behind him. I didn’t see what direction he’d approached from, but I recognized him as Adams, one of Irvin’s team. I felt a hollowness develop in my s
tomach. Everyone rushed over and surrounded him. He was supposed to report to the keep, but we weren’t going to let him by until we knew what had happened with the dragon, with the rest of his team.
“I failed,” he said, a pained expression on his face. “We all failed. They’re all dead. She killed them all.” It was what we’d all feared. A numbness came over my body. The first real dragon quest in our class, and they’d caught up with the dragon, and four of them had died. Irvin was dead. I tried to picture his face, but it seemed blurry and indistinct. Adams nudged his horse forward and the crowd of gathered Stone Souls let them pass to make their report to the keep. We slowly and quietly dispersed, and I felt like everyone else must be experiencing what I was experiencing. Those were our friends. Those could have been us. We’d all been training for this together for ten years, and it hadn’t been enough.
I cancelled group training for the day and walked with Boe to the mess hall. We didn’t eat anything, we just sat and looked around. There weren’t very many of us present at that early hour but the emptiness of the hall felt deeper than that. And I knew that it was deeper than that, I knew that it would always be more empty now. I knew that there were four of us who would never have a chance to join in song during one of the great feasts, or complain about the chef’s special breakfast pudding. Four of us who would never again laugh, or cry, or love. Or even feel the immense sadness that I now felt.
Warley’s sister, I now knew her name to be Caisi, walked up to our table carrying two mugs of something warm and steaming. She was the only one of Warley’s family I’d seen since the sentencing. I’d heard they’d all been assigned to various rich and noble houses in the area, but Caisi showed up in the mess hall the day after sentencing and it seemed she’d be serving as a servant here in the keep. Thinking about Warley now, considering everything, it seemed completely wrong what we’d done. We should have gone along with him when he said he was joking. He didn’t deserve this fate, most of his family certainly didn’t deserve this fate. We were his team and he’d trusted us, and we’d turned on him. Like rabid wolves. Except for Boe, he was the only one who’d showed any compassion, any sense of understanding at all.
