Dragon School: Starie Night
Dragon School, Volume 19
Sarah K. L. Wilson
Published by Sarah K. L. Wilson, 2018.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
DRAGON SCHOOL: STARIE NIGHT
First edition. September 22, 2018.
Copyright © 2018 Sarah K. L. Wilson.
Written by Sarah K. L. Wilson.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Behind the Scenes:
For Eugenia, my beloved proofreader. Thank you for making my dreams easier to share.
Chapter One
I’m coming for you.
Relief flooded through me. Was Raolcan hurt? How far had the river taken him before he surfaced?
Not far enough – not as far as the Feet of the River. I could have used the healing there.
You’re hurt?
Not mortally.
If he was hurt, then he needed to rest. He needed to recover. He could come for me later.
Amel, nothing – not even death – will keep me from coming to your aid.
How were we even talking over such a long distance?
Our bond strengthens and grows. But now I must be quiet for a time.
Whatever he needed, he should have. I was just so happy he was alive. The tiny candle of hope I’d been carrying flared into a fire of hope.
“Don’t think a conversation with your dragon changes anything,” Starie said as she rose from her seat and turned to look at me over her shoulder.
I had almost forgotten where I was in my excitement over Raolcan, but now it all crashed back in on me. I was Starie Atrelan’s prisoner. I was in her magnificent pavilion. She thought she could use me for her own purposes.
“I want to use you as bait in my trap for Savette,” she said with a smile. “But for now, I have things to attend to, including bringing that masked man back to his senses. You’ll be guarded by my Magikas tonight. Don’t try to escape. I had them keep Leng Shardson. I remember the two of you being friendly. After all, you nursed him back to health all that time ago. I doubt you’d like to see the things I could do to him if you try to escape. I’ll see you in the morning, Amel, we’ll have much to discuss then.”
She snapped her fingers and a pair of Magikas hurried through the doorway.
“You know your orders,” she said to them. They bowed and seized me by the arms, pulling me up out of the chair. They had to drag my toes, carrying me in their haste. I couldn’t possibly use my crutch when they held me this way and the tip of it bumped uselessly along the ground as we hurried out.
They pulled me through the darkness in silence as my mind raced. I was in the hands of the most dangerous person in the Dominion – Starie Atrelan. These Magikas served her like slaves – something I never would have expected from such powerful people! Worse, she had the Pipe of Wings – control over dragons everywhere. But there was good news – my dragon was alive, Leng was alive, and Jalla’s army was untouched, even if it couldn’t reach us yet.
What I needed now, more than ever, was to keep my head. There would be an opening somewhere for escape – or even better – to bring down Starie completely. But if I let my emotions take control of me, I would lose the opportunity. I needed to focus. I needed to be cold as the wind and hard as the rock to see the right moment to strike. This was not natural to me.
The tent they took me to was guarded by two Magikas. Their hands glowed and radiating out from them was a dome of faint purple light. The tent was surrounded by the dome and as we stepped into it, I felt a shiver go through me and a lasting chill stayed under my skin.
“She’s your problem now,” one of the Magikas dragging me said. “The Chosen One says to deliver this prisoner back to her pavilion at dawn.”
The female Magika he handed me to shifted irritably. “Don’t give her to me. Push her into the tent. You know how hard it is to concentrate like this.”
He grunted and complied, but not before I saw the two guards frowning and shaking their heads at him. Whatever they were doing required concentration, did it? Hmmm. Every scrap of information I could gather would help.
I stumbled into the dark tent. The flap closed behind me so quickly that all I saw was a quick glimpse of some sort of pallet on the ground and nothing else. I tripped over something metallic with a ding and landed painfully on the ground, my crutch twisted under me.
“Amel? Is that you?” The whisper filled the tent.
I gasped in relief. “Leng! Are you hurt?”
“No,” his own relief leaked into his voice and a moment later I felt strong hands helping me to sit up and unstrap my crutch. “Did they torture you?”
“No.”
Strong arms pulled me to him and I leaned into Leng’s chest.
“Amel, I’m so sorry – about Raolcan, about everything.”
I leaned into him, letting the tears finally leak down my face as I pressed my cheek against his strong chest.
“How is Ahlskibi?”
“Alive. He’s hurt, though. I can’t hear his voice anymore. We’re too far away.”
I had forgotten that most Purples didn’t have the range that Raolcan did.
“Leng, I’m so sorry about Shonan. I had hoped ... I had been counting on ... he was one of a kind.”
Leng didn’t say anything but I felt his chest shaking with silent sobs. I wrapped my arms around him, hugging him tightly as if I could hold him together with just my arms.
“I love you, Amel,” he said, eventually. “If I didn’t have you...”
His voice faltered, like he couldn’t even say the next thought out loud. He let go of me for a moment to wrap our cloaks around us and some sort of threadbare blanket the Magikas must have left behind.
“I love you, too,” I said.
“Can I hold you tonight?”
“Yes.”
I don’t know when I fell asleep, but his sweet breathing as I slowly drifted off was the only thing keeping me sane. Maybe I was doing the same thing for him.
Chapter Two
Morning came too quickly. We were given water and a thick porridge and a single candle to eat it by before the sun came up.
The Magika left us with a terse reminder. “Eat. The Chosen One wants you at dawn.”
We did eat, but between bites, Leng tested the magic barrier surrounding the tent. He peeked his head out the side of the tent, running his hands across the barrier.
“It keeps us in,” he whispered to me. “I can’t force my way through. It’s as tough as glass.”
Neither of us dared to talk more about escape – not when every word could possibly be heard by our captors. I didn’t dare tell him that Raolcan knew where we were or that there might be some way to topple Starie if I were careful. I did take out my book of prophecies and together we read again the prophecy that he’d quoted to me only a few days ago. It felt like a lifetime had passed since that day.
“When the people of the earth sound horn of battle,
And the la
nd trembles and is torn,
When the skies are rent in sorrow,
And the depths bring help no more,
Then the lame and the blind shall lead them,
And guide them from the storm.”
“There’s something there,” Leng said when we were finished. “It just keeps picking at me, like there’s something I should be seeing there...”
“Well,” I said, grimly, “the depths won’t be bringing help anymore. The Troglodytes won’t be coming to save me. Now, it’s up to me to appease them.”
“And didn’t it look like the skies were tearing when Shonan died?” His voice faltered a little over the word ‘died’ like he could barely get it out. “When all that snow fell out of them, it was like they’d been ripped.”
“Neither of us is blind,” I said with a half smile. We were grasping at straws. We just wanted to have hope in something.
He held my hand as we finished our breakfast, like he couldn’t bear to not be in physical contact with me. I couldn’t bear it either. We were both drifting out beyond the point of no return. It was as if we had swum out into the ocean and been pulled by a current to a place where no one had ever been. We couldn’t swim back and no one was coming for us. I just wanted those last hours to be full of him. I resented Starie for taking me from him. I resented our breakfast every time he let go of my hand to take a bite. I just wanted to hold on to him forever.
When we were done, he helped me strap on my crutch and gently brushed my hair from my face and helped me straighten it. His big fingers were surprisingly quick as they braided the stray hairs back. I bit my lip nervously at the sweetness of the gesture and then cupped his face in one of my hands to quickly steal a kiss.
He held my palm to his face and smiled boyishly.
“You don’t have to rush. It’s not like you’re taking something I don’t want to give.”
Shyly, I stretched forward and kissed him slowly, lingering over the closeness, resting in the acceptance and welcome of his answering embrace. If these were our last hours or days, they would be sweet ones.
A cough broke us apart. “Time to leave.”
I felt my cheeks heating as Leng moved to let me hobble to the side of the female Magika.
“I don’t care what you do in here. But when we leave you obey, or you suffer the consequences,” she said, as if she was giving us some sort of gift. Maybe she was. I didn’t know how Magikas handled their prisoners other than the time we found them torturing Leng and Savette. Maybe not torturing us was a mercy from them.
My belly squirmed at the thought of that, but I schooled my expression to blankness and followed her out of the tent and through the camp.
The army camped here was larger than the one that had crossed the bridge. Clearly, Starie had brought them with her. Voices called across the camp as the first light of dawn lit up the snow-crusted field. Fires exploded in sparks as new wood was tossed in and pots or kettles were arranged over them. Sleepy soldiers stumbled out of tents or back into them in the general chaos of a huge group of people sleeping and eating out of doors.
“No distractions,” my guard said, poking my back with a finger. I hobbled on.
“You’re a Magika,” I said, for lack of a better subject to talk about. “Have you been in the Dusk Covenant for long?”
She barked a laugh. “Oh, look at the lip on this girl! So, because I use magic you assume I belong to the Dusk Covenant? They should be flattered.”
“Don’t you? Don’t you all serve the Dusk Covenant and their Chosen One now? Aren’t you working with elements from Baojang and the Rock Eaters and Ko’Torenth to trade our dragons for power?”
Her eyebrows rose and she smirked.
“Sometimes, Dragon Rider, knowing only half the story is worse than knowing nothing. Your tongue is full of half-truths and half-understanding.”
“Then enlighten me,” I countered. I could see Starie’s orange pavilion ahead, dusted in white snow. We would be there soon and before we arrived I was hoping for some shred of information to use against her.
“We – the Magikas of the Dominion – are the heart of this land. We are the power it was built on. It is we who craft dragonsteel. It is we who built the great cities of the sky and the wonders of this land - the bridges, statues, and healing arches. If we are telling you that something is wrong here, if we are saying that a treaty needs to be made with foreign lands, if we are the ones negotiating the price of it, shouldn’t the rest of you listen?
“Our agenda here is the only thing left that can save the world. But no, you fool beast-riders and your misread prophecies think you know better, don’t you? You just keep messing everything up, throwing up a half-obstacle here or thwarting a carefully laid subtlety there – like a dragon in a spun-glass shop crashing around and breaking everything. If this was left to you, the entire Dominion would be a burnt-out husk by now. You should be grateful for us.”
We were at the entrance to Starie’s pavilion now, but I wished we weren’t. I wanted to hear more. The Magikas, it seemed, saw the world through a very different lens.
“Show respect in there. The Chosen One is our last hope.”
She stalked away before I could answer or even ask her name.
Chapter Three
"Amel, excellent. You'll be traveling with me today," Starie Atrelan said as I entered her pavilion. She was seated before the large gilded mirror, brushing her long red hair while around her servants bustled packing up her blankets, folding chairs, and rugs.
I watched her arm where the tattoo ran up it. She'd received that in the mountains at the Dawn's Gate, but I was still puzzled about how. She caught my gaze in her mirror and grinned wider.
"I treasure your ignorance, Amel. It amuses me to no end."
I amused her?
"You wonder how I was marked when you are certain that only your false Chosen One could be marked, hmm?" She handed the brush to a servant beside her and tucked her hair back.
Something strange in the mirror caught my eye, but when I turned to look at it, there wasn't anything there, only a strange distortion that made the inside of the pavilion look different. Even Starie looked distorted for a moment, like a watery current was running through her.
A servant threw a black cloth over the mirror as Starie finished with it. I chewed the inside of my cheek watching as they carted it away. There had been something there. Definitely. Hadn't there? Or was my mind playing tricks on me?
Starie adjusted a leather cord around her neck, smirking at me. The Pipe of Wings hung from it, like an amulet of power. And of course, that was what it was. With it, she had nullified our dragon allies. With it, she could conquer the world.
"And I will," she whispered as she closed the distance between us. "And now, Amel, we go over the rules. It's handy that you brought a friend with you. Handy for me, that is. If you try to escape, I'll have one of his limbs removed with you watching. Try to take the Pipe from me, and I will do the same. Give me trouble? I will have the Magikas torture him in front of you when we stop for the night. Understand?"
I swallowed. I understood very well what Magikas could do to a man. And I was under no illusions that Starie had a heart.
"I understand."
"Good. Follow me."
She strode from the pavilion and I hobbled along behind her. The bright light of dawn was already spreading over the horizon and Starie's golden dragon was waiting.
"You'll ride behind me," she said. I felt my eyes growing wide. Why did Starie Atrelan want me to ride behind her? And would her dragon even allow that? After all, she already had taken from me what she wanted - the Pipe. "I want so much more than that. We have a lot of catching up to do."
A sick feeling welled up within me. What more could Starie want from me? And would I be able to give it without compromising the people I loved? The more I was around her, the more chance there was that I would do something that displeased her - and Leng would suffer the consequences.
St
arie mounted promptly and then nodded her head briskly to a pair of Magikas who, grimacing, helped me up on the back of the saddle. The golden dragon snapped and snarled. Starie made an irritated clicking sound with her tongue until he settled himself. Golds had thick armor and the ridges cut uncomfortably into my thighs where the saddle didn't protect them.
All I could think about was the dragon I was supposed to be riding today. I hadn't heard from him again since that quick moment of assuring me he was still alive. Was he hurt? Was he with friends? Was there anything I could do to help him? The silence in reply to my thoughts was deafening.
The servants finished decamping and around us guards began to form up - mostly Dragon Riders, their faces steely and hard - with Magikas sitting behind them in the saddles two, three or four to each dragon. They wouldn’t be able to fly all day like that.
"My actual army is not far," Starie said casually as I watched one of the groups of Magikas pushing Leng to their dragon. Our eyes met for a brief moment - just long enough to share a burst of courage and hope. "We'll rejoin them now that the task here is complete. We have something we need to bring south as quickly as possible."
She meant the Pipe, of course. With that she would win handily over Savette, but why was she being so mysterious about it? I glanced north, looking as far as my feeble human eyes could. I saw figures on the road, but no dragons and no Sentries. Likely, Jalla and her army were still building a bridge or finding another road to Dominion City. I couldn't rely on them for help. Anything I came up with, I'd need to be able to do myself.
At Starie's signal, the dragons around her leapt into the air and her servants and the Magikas unassigned to a dragon started down the road. Our own dragon took to the air, and Starie called back to me, "And now, Amel Leabrought, you will tell me everything you know or have learned about Savette Leedris."
Chapter Four
Around us, the snow had begun again, in little whirls and glittering puffs as if the world were trying to make up for the darkness of the times with diamond specks of sparkle.
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