“No?” He asked, raising one hoary eyebrow dramatically. “You know who I am, girl?”
I nodded.
His smile was not pleasant. “Speak up then.”
“You’re a Purple Dragon Rider.”
He barked a laugh. “I’m Hubric Duneshifter. If you don’t know me by name then Dragon School isn’t what it used to be.”
I’ve heard of him. He’s a legend. His dragon, Kyrowat, is one of the oldest bound to a rider. He is deeply respected by dragons everywhere.
“This is the trainee, isn’t it?” he barked at Ephretti. “Where are her leathers? Why is she in this dress”
I stood, pulling myself up on the quarterstaff. “I wore the dress as a disguise to sneak into the moneylender’s.”
“Ha! You move more slowly than I do. What’s with the cane?”
I felt my cheeks heat. “My leg is crippled.”
He shrugged. “We all have our troubles. Why don’t you want the High Castelan returned to her family, Initiate?”
“She needs help.” How did I convince him? Should I share her real reasons, or were those private?
“Exactly. Help she can get from her father.”
“No!” All eyes were on me. Even Leng’s. I swallowed before I spoke. “She needs magical help. She touched magic. Used it in our battle. She needs help.”
Everyone was frozen like ice had felled the room. Dashira’s metal tool fell from her hand, hitting the wood floor with a clatter. Ephretti began to back slowly away toward the trap door, her eyes fixed on Savette. Hubric’s eyes narrowed and then he burst into laughter.
“She touched magic. And no one said anything? You just wrapped her in a blanket and put her by the fire?”
He leaned over, clutching his knee as his bellows of laughter filled the room.
“It’s not funny!” Dashira cried, at the same moment that Leng spoke, his words rushing out in panic.
“I didn’t realize. Thought it was a hallucination from the pain.” His face was horrified. Why? What were they all so afraid of?
Hubric recovered himself suddenly, looking around the room with a piercing gaze. “Well, she hasn’t exploded yet, so she probably won’t. Some people – people with very, very strong wills – can manage it on their own without killing everyone around them. It looks like we are lucky. The High Castelan Savette Leedris is made of stern stuff.”
“I’ve never heard of that,” Dashira said, recovering her metal tool and taking it over to the basin to wash it.
“You doubt me because I don’t ride a White? I’ve seen it twice before,” Hubric said. “But I’ve traveled further than you poor greenhorns can imagine – and I’ve seen more than you will in your lifetimes. Some people live tame lives. That’s never been my way. We’ll bring in a Magika to help her through the early stages. That should take care of that.”
“The Magikas kidnapped her. They want to bring down the Dominion. We can’t trust them,” I said. Maybe someone would finally trust me.
Hubric fixed me with a weighing gaze, but a flicker of a smile hovered around his lips. “Not the Magikas. The Dusk Covenant. Not all Magikas are a part of that conspiracy.”
“All the ones I’ve met are.” I wasn’t willing to trust one with Savette. Not now.
His smile still wasn’t friendly. Why did he find me so laughable?
“And you’ve met all of them, have you? A common girl with a bad leg?”
I refused to answer, but I felt my face grow even hotter and my heart was racing in my chest. I wasn’t wrong. We couldn’t trust Magikas. I’d never trust them as long as I lived.
“We have one of our own in Vanika. A Lightbringer. He will help.”
“Lightbringer?” Someone had to explain this to me.
Hubric looked at Ephretti. “Maybe instead of pulling me away from important matters, you could have handled some of these basic explanations yourself. Or are they too much for you? Should I talk to Abreeda about your incompetance?”
“No, of course not.” Ephretti seemed worried. “I was busy retrieving her friend from the Blacks. They had her in custody. She’s on her way right now.”
“What did you tell them? You’ve already let too many people into our secret today.” He looked at me as if I was part of the accusation.
“She’s not my fault,” Ephretti said. “And I told them nothing except that she was my apprentice.”
“A lie?” Hubric asked.
Ephretti shifted uncomfortably.
Hubric tilted his head to one side. “The Dominar – glory to his reign - arrives tomorrow and he has decreed all Dragon Rider trainees should be elevated as soon as possible. This other girl is Green?”
“Yes.”
“Good. It’s not a lie. We raise her to Color today and you will take her on as your apprentice.”
Ephretti gasped.
“You have a problem with my order, Dragon Rider?”
Ephretti shifted, a mulish look on her face. “It’s customary to choose your own apprentice. I don’t wish to take on a girl I do not know.”
“Ha! Should have thought of that before you made this mess. You’ll take her as a penance for that alone and be glad I don’t set you something worse.”
I swallowed. I was struggling to follow the nuances of everything they were saying, but I knew that if I concentrated I could learn a lot from this. Interactions between full dragon riders who weren’t teachers wasn’t something I’d ever seen. Leng’s constant moans and sighs as Dashira dug into his wounds weren’t helping me concentrate.
“She’s Estabis Castelan.” Ephretti said, her tone neutral.
“Even better. Estabis has loyalties to the Dominar – glory to his reign - and to Leedris. We will use her well for the Lightbringers.” He turned to me, “Which, for your information, child, are a secret group, formed to fight evil, darkness, and the insidious reach of the Dusk Covenant. Even in the Dominion, we are not free from the grasp of evil and our regular defenses are being breached by spies and interlopers.”
If there was one group I wanted to see fall, it was the Dusk Covenant. Hubric stood and poured himself a cup of water from the pitcher beside the basin. He turned to Leng as quick as a cat hearing a mouse.
“Leng, I of all people, know what it is like to seek independence, but you are now paying the price for your hotheadedness. Learn from this. No other penance is necessary, but as soon as Dashira can patch you up enough to fly, you are needed. Be ready.” He turned to Dashira. “What happened to the ones she was with?”
“They gathered them up to return them to training.”
He snorted. “And what should we do with this one?”
Dashira and Ephretti exchanged a glance. Ephretti spoke, “We could return her to them.”
“She knows too much.” Hubric was watching me with eagle eyes like he could see beneath my skin to the inner workings of my mind.
“This isn’t Amel’s fault,” Leng said, but Hubric threw up a hand to silence him.
“We can’t keep her with us. She’ll hinder the cause. Leng is the only Purple here other than you,” Dashira said.
“And that is a problem because ...?” Hubric tilted his head again but Dashira only flushed an uncomplimentary shade of red. Hubric’s gaze turned to Leng who was just as red-faced. He barked a laugh as if he knew exactly why Leng couldn’t take on my education. “I haven’t taken on an apprentice in a very long time, but it seems that will be changing now.” He turned to me. “It’s unconventional to take one who is only Sworn. Usually, we wait until you are in a Color. But it isn’t unheard of. When the Dominar arrives, you will swear to him. And from now on you have the dubious privilege of being my apprentice. First order: stay here and care for that latent volcano you call a friend. I will send for you when I need you.”
He rose, slowly, as if it was as painful for him to stand as it was for me.
“Now that the mess is sorted out, I have urgent business to return to.”
“I thought you were p
laying cards?” Ephretti said, surprise on her face.
“Precisely.”
Chapter Seven
Ephretti and Dashiva kept out of our room as much as possible over the next hours. Their frustration was clear whenever they entered to get something from the cabinets or to bring us fresh food and water. Leng and I passed the time in idle chatter, trying not to dwell on everything that had happened. We spoke of our families, the farms we were raised on and our love for dragons. I liked him this way. Intense and focused, still, but also with his eyes shining with remembered joys and passions.
As we spoke, I tended to Savette, who had yet to wake up, bathing her hot head with water and checking that she wasn’t too warm or too cold. She mumbled constantly and I was worried to see that her hands seemed to glow faintly. Was she winning the battle against the magic within her or succumbing to it?
“If she’s made it this far, she has a chance,” Leng said from his seat in the chair. He seemed to prefer sitting up. Lying down put his wounds in contact with the floor or the blankets. They shouldn’t be keeping us in this room. Leng and Savette should have beds and be properly taken care of. “Stop frowning. Hubric will send someone for her as soon as he can.”
“He was going to play cards.” I couldn’t keep the bitterness out of my tone.
“And where do you think affairs of the nations are discussed?”
I looked away, embarrassed. What did I know about affairs of nations?
“Hubric is a powerful Dragon Rider with influence and with a mind that spins webs like a spider.”
“I can’t tell if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”
He chuckled and I looked at him intently for the first time since we’d arrived. His chuckle vanished and he seemed to shrink from my gaze.
“Why do you do that? Why don’t you want to look at me?” I tried to keep the accusation out of my tone, but he had admitted that I saved his life. Why was he still like this when he knew that I was on his side in everything? “One minute we’re friends and the next you’re cold as a winter wind in the mountains.”
He shuffled his feet, and after long moments he looked up at me with a sheepish expression. It was like a little boy who had been caught doing something wrong.
“Every time you see me, I’m broken,” he admitted, twisting his fingers together. He looked like he’d exposed his heart and offered me a dagger. What did he think? That I judged him?
“Leng,” I said gently, hobbling to where he was. “I will always be broken. It doesn’t make me weak. When I see you hurt it doesn’t make you weak.”
“I couldn’t keep you from the grasp of the Order and it’s dangerous to be a part of it.” He picked at the table.
“I don’t need you to do that. I can chart my own course.” I tried to make my expression calm and certain.
“I couldn’t save your friend.” He met my gaze, his eyes pools of dark grey like a stormy sky.
“But, you tried.” Didn’t he realize that my affection for him wasn’t based on what he did? I liked who he was. I liked that intense look on his face. I liked how he preferred to be alone. I liked that his face lit up when he spoke of his childhood home.
“I can’t keep you from the judgment of Dragon School, even though you don’t deserve it.”
That was a problem. I didn’t know what I was going to do about it. Grandis Elfar had said she’d throw me out of Dragon School if I left and then I’d gone ahead and done it anyway. My only hope was that if I made it to Sworn before I saw her again then maybe I could stay. Maybe I could convince Hubric to keep me. I’d have to work very hard. I’d have to persuade him I was worthy.
Leng wasn’t done, but his cheeks flushed as he spoke. “I can’t even touch you – can’t even tell you how I feel about you.”
It looked like both admitting the fact of that and admitting that it mattered to him was almost too much. Pain and longing filled his eyes in equal measure and I felt a glowing, tender spot in the center of my chest like he’d warmed something frozen in the ice.
I bent over him and kissed the top of his head. “But I can touch you.”
He looked up at me, lips parted and surprise in every feature. “You shouldn’t.”
I really shouldn’t. There was already a good chance I would be kicked out of Dragon School and if Ephretti or Dashira caught us kissing I was sure they would do whatever they could to finalize that. Plus, I wasn’t sure that I should feed into Leng’s hot and cold attitudes, but I found his courage and vulnerability enticing – his willingness to open himself to me, of all people. It was like a precious flower found in a dark forest. I didn’t want to stamp on it. I wanted to tend it and make it grow.
I leaned down, my own lips parting, leaning toward him. I pressed my lips gently to his – feeling their softness, leaning into the warmth of his embrace. He pulled back gently, smiling at me, eyes bright and gentle all at once. I wanted more. Just one kiss was not enough – not when they were so good. I leaned forward again.
He stopped me, a single finger pressed to my lips. “No more. Not yet.”
He swallowed, and I could tell he was trying to gather himself. How should I take his rejection? I felt embarrassed that I had tried to kiss him only to be prevented? He didn’t want me. I had misjudged.
He’s protecting you again.
“Wait until I can promise you everything,” he breathed. His unhurt hand reached out and clutched mine, like I could rescue him from a fall.
“I don’t need promises.” I needed him to stop being so elusive and difficult to understand.
“A kiss is a promise. Wait, and I will make you that promise when I can swear my whole self to you.”
That seemed overly extravagant. What did he mean by it?
It’s the way dragons do things. We wait until we can promise our whole selves. Would you want your mind in the mind of someone you can’t respect? Would you want to open your most vulnerable self to someone who might discard you?
I wasn’t asking for a lifelong commitment, I just wanted to connect with him – to prove I was with him.
Maybe you should be asking for one. Maybe he’s right and that’s what you deserve. He’s clearly a Purple. He’s picking up dragonish perspectives.
He could just go ahead and be human again, then. I stepped back, clenching my teeth to keep an emotional reaction off my face. I didn’t want him to see that it hurt.
He let go of my hand and I braced myself for him to swing back to coldness, but instead, he reached a hand up to my face, caressing my cheek gently and said, “You deserve more than you realize, and I will make certain that you get it.”
I gasped. Did he mean that? He stood.
“I need to go.”
“Your wounds are still open!”
He smiled, little lines forming around his eyes. “The real hurts are mending. Time to be back to things.”
He shrugged into his leather shirt - painfully, since he was still a mass of bandages - and then strode to the door. He stopped before he opened it and turned back to me, smiling despite his focused intensity.
“Trust Hubric. He can help you. And wait for me. I’ll return to you.”
He left so suddenly that I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.
Chapter Eight
What in the world had gotten into Leng? He’d practically fled the room after admitting that he cared for me more than I’d ever expected.
That man runs deep.
And he also ran unpredictable. I wasn’t sure I liked that.
Judging by the way your heart won’t slow down, I suspect that you liked it just fine.
I was still staring at the door, completely floored when it banged open and Hubric strode through with another man in his wake.
“She’s by the fire,” Hubric said. I started to hobble toward Savette, protective instincts taking over, but he pointed a finger at me. “Stop. Let Magika Zavin do his work. What’s your name again, Initiate?”
“Amel.” I was his appr
entice and he didn’t know my name? I watched the Magika carefully out of the corner of my eye. He looked too young to be doing this. His robes were a dark blue and made of a dull fabric, completely unadorned. He was nothing like the other Magikas I had seen before. Was he an imposter?
“Stop glaring at my associate, Amel. He’s far better at his work than you are at yours. Here.”
Hubric threw a sack at me and I caught it one-handed. A moment later I had to drop the bag to catch the crutch he threw my way. It glinted in the firelight and I gasped. Had he bought me a metal crutch? It seemed he had. It was bronze and engraved with a dragon around the armband. I’d never owned anything so fine in my life.
My mouth fell open but when I looked up at him to say thanks he was waving his hand dismissively. “I don’t like gratitude so don’t thank me. An apprentice shouldn’t like her master. She should feel terror at his presence.”
His tone didn’t sound at all like his words. It was a bit crusty, but more like an indulgent grandfather than the harsh master he claimed to be. Were all his harsh words just a cover for the fact that he really did care?
“Go get changed.” He motioned to the lavatory. “The Dominar – glory to his reign - arrived an hour ago and I’ve put in a word with his Hashutan to get us an audience.”
The Dominar? Really? Even though they kept saying that I needed to swear before him, I could hardly believe that they would let someone like me anywhere near him. It seemed far too incredible, more like a dream than reality.
“Stop gaping like a fish on the dock and go put on your leathers, or do you wish to be dismissed from Dragon School?”
“No, sir,” I stammered, rushing to the lavatories to dress. Maybe if I could just get sworn in by the Dominar before anyone found out, I would be allowed to stay in Dragon School. They couldn’t possibly throw me out once I’d sworn ... could they?
I think you might need to confess your plight to Hubric.
Not now. Definitely not before he’d grown to like me.
I think you’ll find that lies – even lies by omission – tend to follow you around.
Dragon School_Sworn Page 3
