Secret of the Dragon Egg (Dragon Riders of Avria Book 1)

by N. A. Davenport

  “I . . . I’m not sure what a shufflo is. Do you mean a buffalo?”

  Elder Madoc shrugged. “Might be what you off-landers call ’em.”

  “So, I know you said it’s a long way to the city,” Will’s mom cut in, seeming impatient with the turn of the conversation. “But when might we expect to see the first farm? They would at least have a phone we could borrow.”

  “Well, now,” Elder Madoc said as he leaned back and stretched his shoulders. “The first farm should be just beyond that rise, if I remember right.” He pointed to a low hill ahead of them with a thin scattering of trees. “They’ve got a lot of grazing fields for herds of shufflos. But they probably won’t have whatever it is you’re looking for. I think you folks don’t appreciate what’s happened to you. There is no way to contact the off-lands from here. You’d have to leave Avria first.”

  “Avria? Is that the name of this place?” Will’s mom asked.

  “That’s right. Everything from the northern cities of Fallshore and Ashfield to the southern coast.”

  “I don’t know where that is,” she murmured, frowning to herself. “What are the bordering countries? Have we made it to Europe? Or are we closer to Greenland?”

  Madoc gave a grumbling harrumph and shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know or care about your off-lander maps. That’s something the bards would concern themselves with, but not me.”

  “But you must at least know—” she started, but Will’s dad put a gentle restraining hand on her arm.

  “You’ve mentioned off-landers a few times,” he said. “I take that to be a reference to people who’ve come from somewhere off your beautiful land of Avria. Does that mean that other people have washed ashore here?”

  Madoc glanced back at them and gave a little grunt and a slight shrug of his shoulders. His expression reminded Will of his parents when he was younger and used to ask a million disjointed questions all at once. “The bards would know more about this. All I know is that about a hundred years ago, there used to be a lot more off-landers. It got to the point when almost everyone either was an off-lander or had an off-lander parent. But then it stopped, and there haven’t been any more since before my time.”

  “Hmm . . .” Will’s dad grabbed his chin and furrowed his brow.

  “What is it?” Will asked.

  “Well, it’s nothing. I’m just thinking about when there might have been a lot of shipwrecks in the North Atlantic . . .”

  “Oh, I see the farm!” Will’s mom sat up and peered over the mounds of supplies into the field ahead of them. The bird-drawn cart rolled up the road over the gentle rise. Will was amazed to see the fields filled with herds of shaggy, wooly, ox-like beasts, and in the distance there was a cluster of wood and stone buildings with a grain silo and a windmill. There were no cars, no tractors, and there didn’t seem to be any electric or phone lines running out to the buildings either. A stone wall followed the road and up along the field into the distance.

  “Ah, here’s the farmer now.” Elder Madoc turned to eye them with a wickedly amused grin. “Why don’t you ask him if he’s got that watchamacallum you were looking for?”

  “A phone?” Will asked.

  He snorted and scratched his beard. “Whatever it was.”

  Out in the field, a man was driving another cart, being pulled by another enormous bird. This one was less colorful and slightly smaller than the one Elder Madoc was driving. Will wondered if it was a female of the species, or perhaps their new acquaintance had a fancier breed.

  The farmer pulled his cart up to a pile of manure, hopped down, and started shoveling the dark lumps into the back of his cart.

  When he looked up and saw them, Elder Madoc raised his arm and waved. “Ho there!”

  The farmer waved back, hopped in his cart, and drove over to meet them. When he reached the wall, the man dropped to the ground and bowed low. “Elder Madoc, it’s an honor. What can I do for you?” he asked.

  Will noticed that, though his words sounded pleasant, the farmer eyed Elder Madoc with a wary, twitching nervousness, like he was expecting the older man to cause trouble of some kind.

  “Well, now, er . . . farmer . . .”

  “It’s Jenkin, Elder.” The farmer bowed again.

  “Just so, Jenkin. I’ve got some folks here, off-landers, you see.”

  Jenkin’s eyes popped wide, and he looked back to see Will and his family.

  “They were wondering if you had something they’re looking for,” Elder Madoc continued dryly. “Let’s see, what was it again?”

  “A . . . a phone,” Will offered, but he lost all hope when he saw the amazement in the farmer’s eyes.

  “Yes, that’s what it was.” Elder Madoc smiled tightly. “You wouldn’t happen to have one, would you?”

  It finally sank in. Will suddenly realized that they must be in a place unlike anywhere else in the world. A place with strange animals the outside world had never seen. A land where people might wash ashore, but no one ever left. Somewhere with no contact to the outside world at all. His jaw clenched. Elder Madoc was mocking them. He knew that this farmer wouldn’t have a phone; he probably didn’t even know what a phone was.

  The farmer’s mouth made a little “o” of amazement. “A phone? Like tell-phone? My great-grandmother taught us a game called tell-phone, where you whisper messages along a line of children to see how the words change. Is your device something to do with that?”

  Will glanced at his parents, but they both seemed too stunned to respond.

  “That’s right.” Will sighed heavily. “Phone is short for telephone. It sounds like you don’t have one.”

  The farmer shook his head sadly, removed his hat, and wiped a layer of dusty sweat from his brow. “I’m afraid not. You won’t find anything like that in Avria. Maybe you don’t understand where it is you are . . .” His eyes flashed to Elder Madoc and back to Will. “This land is set apart from the off-lands. There are barriers that block any messages from going out. And getting away is stinging difficult, pardon my language. But Avria’s not all bad. You’ll learn to love it here.” He shrugged with an ironic smile.

  “You mean we’re stuck here forever?” Will asked.

  His mom gasped. “But we lost my brother at sea. And we have to get home! If there’s no phone, isn’t there at least someone who can help us?” She looked between the farmer and Elder Madoc.

  The farmer glanced up at Elder Madoc’s stern gaze and wiped his brow again with a frown. “I’m sorry I don’t have what you’re looking for. There might be some folks in the city who could help. That’s your best bet as far as I see.”

  “You’ve helped quite a lot, thank you,” Elder Madoc said, nodding with satisfaction. He turned his head to gaze sidelong at Will’s family. “Well then, shall we continue? It is a long way to Aldlake still.” He flicked the reins, and the cormant started walking forward again, pulling them along the road.

  “How can this be?” Will’s mom whispered as they settled back into their uncomfortable seats. “No phones? No contact with the outside? This place is impossible. How have we never heard of it?”

  “I don’t know,” his dad said. “And I’m not an expert in ornithology by any stretch of the imagination, but I’ve never heard of cormants before.” He nodded toward the giant bird that was pulling them along. “Or shufflos, for that matter, which is what I assume those are.” He gestured to the fields where the big shaggy beasts were grazing. “Could this be some undiscovered land? Maybe there’s something that prevents it from being detected from the outside.”

  They rode in silence from then on. Now and then, the cart would splash through a deep puddle that hadn’t quite dried up from the storm. They passed a few other farms as well, stone buildings with peaked wooden roofs surrounded by fields. Sometimes the fields grew grains, fruit trees, or vegetables, and sometimes they were filled with herds of shufflos, flocks of cormants, or passels of dark-skinned sharp-tusked boars.

  When evening came,
Elder Madoc drove them to a flat area between the road and the river, climbed out of his seat, and spread his arms up in a bone-cracking stretch. “All right,” he announced, turning to face them. “It’s time for you folks to earn your keep.”

  Will jumped out of the back of the cart with his parents. His legs wobbled from being cramped up so long.

  “You two.” Madoc pointed at his parents. “Clear the area and gather enough wood for a cooking fire.”

  “Okay,” his mom nodded.

  “And boy.” He pointed to Will. “You follow me. I’ll teach you how to care for a cormant.”

  While his parents busied themselves following Elder Madoc’s directions, Will followed the hefty man up to the huge colorful bird. Up close, it looked even bigger, its strange yellow eyes flashing and its orange beak snapping. It ruffled its feathers and scratched at the ground with a sharp talon as Will drew near.

  “Strider doesn’t know you yet,” Madoc explained as Will took a nervous step back.

  “Now, watch.” He clipped a lead into the bird’s halter and tethered Strider to the cart. Then he unfastened the harness and showed Will how to lead the cormant to the river for a drink. While it was gulping up water, he used the bird’s distraction to feel along its body for any sores under the feathers.

  “It’s hard to see an injury with your eyes,” he explained. “Their feathers cover their skin. So you have to feel with your hands to know if the harness is rubbing too much.”

  “I don’t know if I’ll remember all of this,” Will said. He was tired and confused. This man was expecting him to learn a lot of things all at once, and Will was still in shock from their boat sinking in the storm and washing up in a strange land.

  “You’d better remember!” Madoc snapped. “Strider is going to be your responsibility, understand? If your family wants to ride in my cart and eat my food, you need to work. Or do you always expect people to give you things for free? Is that how things work in the off-lands?”

  “No,” Will mumbled sulkily.

  “Speak so I can hear you. And you’ll address me as Elder, or Elder Madoc. Show a bit of respect.”

  “No, Elder Madoc.” Will couldn’t quite keep all the sulkiness out of his voice.

  When the cormant had finished its drink, Elder Madoc showed Will how to use a soft brush to get the dust and dirt out of its feathers, then a coarse brush to scrub the dried mud off its legs and claws. They fed the cormant from a sack of grain in the cart, then tied its lead to a stake in the field for the night.

  By the time they finished, Will’s parents had cleared the level area and had a nice pile of dry sticks for a fire.

  Will quietly made his way down to the water while Elder Madoc and his parents got the flames going. His salt-crusted clothes were chafing painful rashes in his skin, and he was desperate to get them clean, or at least un-salty.

  He waded into the river, stripped off his clothes, and rinsed them out in the clear, cool water. After laying them out flat on the rocky shore to dry, he dunked his entire body underwater to rinse the sand and salt out of his hair as well.

  When he surfaced again, blowing water from his nose and shaking droplets from his hair, Will noticed a thin stream of smoke drifting up from their camp already.

  Rather than heading back to the camp and risking being put to work again, Will floated in the river for a while, letting the cold water soothe his chafed, sun-scorched skin and sore feet.

  Then a bit of movement in the sky caught his attention.

  Will stood and gazed up into the deepening blue overhead. Three gigantic creatures were flying inland toward the distant mountain range ahead of them.

  He’d almost forgotten about the strange yellow birds—or what he’d thought were birds—flying into the storm, but these great beasts were soaring lower and closer, and there was no mistaking them for birds this time.

  Their bodies shone red in the evening sun. Long tails trailed after them with spade-shaped tips. They each had four legs, the front two tucked close to their bodies and the rear two held back along their tails. Their wedge-shaped heads stretched out before them on powerful necks, and their broad, majestic wings carried them effortlessly as they soared on the wind.

  Will only had one word for what he was seeing, but it was impossible. It was nuts! He was sure it must be a dream!

  Then the creatures turned slightly and stroked their powerful wings through the air to keep their speed.

  Will’s heart leaped in his chest.

  There were people riding on them! What he’d thought was a darker shade of skin or a shadow at the base of their necks was actually the straps of saddles! And human beings were sitting in them, riding on the giant flying beasts.

  As they caught another current and soared higher, Will watched with bated breath as their shapes grew smaller and smaller in the distance.

  Then he finally said the word out loud. “They’re dragons.”

  Chapter Five

  “Will! Come on up here, there’s food!”

  Will heard his mom’s voice call from the campsite. He tore his eyes away from the dragons in the distance and tugged his still-damp clothes back on. The moisture in the fabric did nothing to soothe his chafed and irritated skin, but he was too excited to care. He scrambled up the hillside to join his family as quickly as he could.

  “Did you see them? Did you?” He pointed vaguely toward the mountains as he stumbled up to his parents.

  The adults sat around a small cooking fire. A round iron pan rested directly on the burning sticks and held several sizzling, lumpy meat rolls.

  “See what?” his dad asked, gingerly tossing a steaming roll between his hands like a hot potato.

  “Up there, you didn’t see?” Will kept pointing into the sky, but the dragons had long since flown out of sight. And he didn’t want to sound crazy saying he’d seen flying red dragons carrying people on their necks. What if he’d imagined them after all?

  “You saw the dragons, did you?” Elder Madoc grunted and shrugged his shoulders like this was a matter of little concern to him.

  Will’s parents stared in shocked bemusement. His mom tilted her head like she thought she’d misheard him.

  “So they really were dragons!” Will felt too relieved to worry about Elder Madoc’s dismissive attitude. “I thought . . . but, were they really carrying people on their necks? I wasn’t imagining that part, was I?”

  “Oh, they were, most likely. Dragons rarely go anywhere without their riders.”

  “Riders?” Will asked. “Dragon riders . . .”

  “They’re a nuisance. All of them! Especially the greens. Coming in and terrorizing our herds and flocks. Taking whatever animals they choose to feed their greedy appetites. Lazy brutes, that’s what they are!” He poked the fire with a long stick, sending a shower of sparks into the air.

  “Here, son, have a meat roll,” his dad held out the dark lump of meat he’d been cooling in his fingers. Will took it and sat by the fire with them.

  “It seems there’s a lot about this place that we need to learn,” his dad said, taking another roll from the pan.

  “Undoubtedly.” Elder Madoc took a bite of his meat roll and scratched his fingers through his beard. “But you don’t need to concern yourselves with dragons or their riders. You won’t be dealing with their kind.”

  The look Elder Madoc gave him told Will that he’d better drop the subject. He’d get no more information about dragons anytime soon.

  The group finished their meal and slept out in the open on the grassy ground around the smoldering fire.

  The next morning, after a small breakfast of hard cheese, it was Will’s job to groom Strider and get the cormant harnessed to the cart so they could continue their journey.

  Elder Madoc had other jobs for his parents to do, from checking their gear to re-packing the camp and re-filling the water skins. Elder Madoc had several large leather bags with twisting caps for carrying water.

  From then on, the journey
became monotonous, every day a repeat of the day before: riding in the cart through relentless heat, snacking on heavy foods to keep up their strength, making camp in the evenings, sleeping under the stars. Then they’d pack up and do it all over again.

  Now and then, Will would glimpse dragons flying in the distance. Sometimes they were red, sometimes green. Once or twice he saw golden yellow wings flashing in the sky.

  They got caught in a light rain shower one night, but Elder Madoc was prepared for this. They simply crammed themselves under the wooden cart at night and slept fairly dry.

  As they traveled, the farms alongside the road got bigger and fancier, with large stone buildings, multiple barns, trees with varying kinds of colorful fruits, vast herds of shufflos, and bright flocks of cormants.

  The smells coming from the fields weren’t always pleasant, but Will never tired of admiring the colorful feathers on the massive birds. Now and then, a flock startled at something and raced over the hills together, as fast as cars speeding over a highway.

  Whenever they stopped for the day, it was Will’s job to care for Strider. In the evening, he took the harness off and led the bird to water, groomed it, checked it for sores and broken feathers, and gave it dinner. In the morning, he gave it a more thorough grooming before strapping the harness back on.

  One morning, as Will led Strider from the river back to the cart, he stepped on a sharp stone and his foot slipped. As he stumbled to the ground, he felt Strider’s lead rope slide through his fingers before he noticed the pain searing through his foot.

  When their boat was sinking during the storm, Will never had a chance to find his shoes before rushing to the life raft. The hike over the beach had roughed up his feet already, scratching his soles and making them tender. But this jagged stone was sharp as a knife and had caught the middle of the arch where he didn’t have any callouses.

  “Owww!” He wailed and curled up on the ground, grabbing his foot and hoping the slice felt worse than it was.