by Jada Fisher
Magic
The Brindle Dragon, Book 5
Jada Fisher
Contents
1. Same People, New Faces
2. Valuable Lessons
3. A Family that Eats Together…
4. Worse than a Nightmare
5. Just an Average Interrogation Between Friends
6. Double-Cross
7. Loss
8. Confrontation
9. During, After, Before, Always
Thank You
Fantasy Reads Newsletter
1
Same People, New Faces
Eist walked along, enjoying the breeze on her face as she strolled the familiar path from her home to the academy. After the previous year, when she hadn’t been allowed to leave during the harvest break because of her injuries, she had certainly enjoyed being in her childhood cabin again. Fior had loved it too, even though he was starting to not fit in the small but cozy place.
Grandfather had wanted to walk with her on her first day, but he was so busy with a dragon laying an absurdly large clutch that he hadn’t been home in two days. Eist wasn’t too upset about it, though. She could always visit him at the academy whenever she had free time.
Not that she’d have much free time, however, considering they were about to enter their fourth year. Their penultimate year. The year where the tests got harder and the training more dangerous.
But she was ready.
Or at least she liked to think she was.
Fior nudged her hip with his blunt nose, his scales even more shiny and copper in the sun. Just like the previous year, he had grown again, slowly but surely. He was almost to her waist now. Sure, he was no Veralda, or Ethella, but that didn’t matter. She had faith. At least she was short enough to have a hope of riding him one day.
Although not as short as she had been before. It almost seemed like her body was trying to make up for the previous year, shooting up a couple of inches and widening even more. Eist wasn’t thrilled about that part, considering being a smaller target was easier, but she liked the thick muscles and lines in her thighs too much to complain. She had been tempted to maybe try crushing a melon from the market between her legs, but the thought of cleaning up the mess always dissuaded her, even if it would have been quite the stroke for her ego.
Eist chuckled to herself at that. How odd to be almost eighteen winters and thinking about smashing fruit between her thighs. Certainly not a normal line of thought. If she wasn’t a dragon rider, she definitely would not have been able to dedicate so much of her life to strengthening and training her body.
No, she’d probably be expected to look for a husband, and learn other ‘womanly duties.’ The thought was utterly foreign and seemed so wrong that for a moment, it made her feel awkward in her own skin. Thankfully, she was able to dismiss it quickly because she was a dragon rider, and nothing was going to take that away.
Except maybe an untimely death at the hands of a certain sorcerer.
Eist flinched at that. She wasn’t going to think about him. She’d done a pretty good job of not letting him haunt her every thought since she had returned to the academy from the woods last year, but he still had a habit of creeping into her dreams and the dark corners of her mind.
There were quite a few things that she tried not to think about while enjoying her peace over the break, and almost all of them involved death, chaos, and the looming threat that she could feel hovering at the edge of her vision at all times.
Fior gave a little chirp, nudging her again. While he had certainly seemed to enjoy the break away from the academy, he seemed to be anxious to go back.
“You miss your friends?” Eist asked, patting his head. He trilled and scuttered ahead to where the path from her home met the main road. There were already dragon rider hopefuls filing in.
There were less of them, she noticed, and less families with those that did arrive. She didn’t want to think about what either of those two things meant and contented herself with scanning the horizon for any familiar faces.
Fior barked beside her, pointing his snoot in the air and jumping quite high several times. She followed his gaze and saw three familiar shapes flying in the sky.
Veralda, Ethella, and Gaius soared in the air, the sun glinting off their red and gold scales. Even from as high up as they were, Eist could tell that they had grown again, with Veralda being the hulking mass of the trio.
But even Gaius, who was a golden dragon and one of the smallest breeds, was nothing to sneeze at. Eist had no doubt that he was finally big enough for Ain to fully ride, and he was quite the tall fellow.
She watched them contentedly, her mind slipping into a daydream about one day sitting astride Fior’s back with her halberd glittering in the sun, but she was drawn back to reality as a wagon rolled toward her with three more figures she knew quite well.
There sat Athar, Dille, and Ain. While the latter two spent the entire break down in Margaid, Athar only went for the last month and a half. Eist had missed his presence a bit around the house. Even with all he had to do, he often would visit her and Fior once or twice a week.
“Hey, stranger,” Dille called, standing up. Eist tried not to notice how her friend had filled out even more and had only grown more beautiful. It also seemed strange that not noticing took quite a bit of effort. The young woman held out her hand and Eist gripped it while jumping, allowing herself to be swung up into the wagon.
“Good to see you,” Ain said, tilting his head from the front. It didn’t seem possible, but his hair was bleached even whiter while his skin was a golden brown. And of course, he had grown again, just like everyone else, but at least it was only a couple of inches and more muscle as opposed to the giant leaps everyone seemed to have taken the previous year.
“Aw, Ain, you don’t have to lie for me,” Eist teased.
He rolled his eyes, a typical Ain response. “Did you at least manage not to get embroiled in some ridiculously one-sided battle while we were gone?”
“I behaved myself,” she answered wanly, settling between Athar and Dille. He just gave her a solemn nod, then kept his gaze in the distance. “I’m glad you’re safe,” was all he said.
She supposed she was feeling a bit flippant after so much time with just her and Fior at home. “When am I ever not safe?”
He just gave her a look, and Dille snickered.
Eist couldn’t particularly blame him, however. Even after they had survived the battle in the canyon, things hadn’t exactly slowed down.
They’d been drawn in front of the Elspeth and several other dragon riders. It was an intimidating situation, and every bit of it was burned into Eist’s mind.
They had explained as much as they could as convincingly as they could without letting anything about magic slip. Although the woman seemed to accept their explanation, Eist wasn’t entirely sure that she was fooled. Her eyes were just too keen, too wise, and they seemed disappointed as they swept over them.
A comfortable sort of quiet settled over them as traveled the short length left to the academy. Ain’s manservant pulled to the side, allowing them all to get out. Eist was prepared to jump out just like the boys, but she was stopped when Athar stretched his arms up to her in an offer.
Eist hesitated for a moment. She wasn’t weak or injured; she didn’t need his help. But the idea of his giant hands gripping her waist and setting her down like some dainty lady wasn’t…entirely disagreeable.
She gave him the slightest of nods, and he did just that. Eist felt her cheeks burn a bit as she quickly uttered a thank you as soon as her feet were on the ground.
She was saved from any awkwardness, however, when her name was called. Sh
e barely had time to turn before Yacrist was sweeping her up in a strong hug. She couldn’t speak for a moment, her face was so pressed to his chest, and she noticed that he had bulked up even more over the break.
Funny how she hadn’t noticed that before. He often visited her multiple times a week despite his many duties, and even sent a carriage for her to visit him at the Grand Palace. She was always apprehensive going back to that place, and to be completely honest, she would have liked to avoid it forever, but she felt a bit guilty refusing Yacrist.
It wasn’t that his family was mean, or that he was in any sort of dire straits, but Eist had learned that the type of man Yacrist had to be as the son of the Lord of the House was entirely different than Yacrist, her dragon rider and friend.
And sure, maybe she just liked being near him. He was comforting, and funny. And after the whole excursion experience, she knew she could trust him.
“Come on, you got to hog her all summer,” Dille said with a roll of her eyes. “Give some of us a chance.”
“You all act like I’m some sort of commodity,” Eist groused right back with mock seriousness.
“If people are still talking about what happened last year, then you almost are, a bit.”
Eist glowered at her dark-skinned friend. “Please, don’t remind me of how it was last year.”
While Eist had never exactly blended in, considering that her parents were the late, great Myridepf and Pravik of W’allenhaus, her partial deafness, her witch’s eyes, and her stunted dragon that looked nothing like anyone else’s, once the shock wore off, most of her academy mates treated her as just that: another dragon hopeful.
But after word got out about how she had not only basically told three dragon riders to shove it, but also had rescued fifty others who’d been taken by a raving madman using the Blight’s power to corrupt them, well, there was no sinking into the background then.
The Blight’s power. Hah! It would make Eist laugh if it wasn’t so infuriating about how adamant they were on pretending that magic wasn’t real. That it didn’t exist and somehow it was the dark, evil entity that the sorcerer had been wielding. And while Eist knew that the Blight definitely inspired the man, maybe even gave him boons and powers he might not have otherwise, she was acutely aware that his magic was from her world and would work as a tether to break the Blight free from its bonds and enter the realm again.
“Oh, come on, it wasn’t so bad.”
“Says you.”
“As much as I would hate to interrupt what is certainly a thrilling bought of banter,” Ain said from beside them, “why is there such a large group gathered in the front training yard?”
Eist pulled her attention away from her friend and sure enough, there was quite the group assembled. “Did they say something about an address or speech before the break?”
Dille shook her head, a quizzical look on her face. “This feels unsettling. Is anybody else unsettled?”
Eist nodded, the same sort of prickling sensation rising along the back of her neck.
“Well,” Yacrist said with a shrug, draping one of his heavy arms over her shoulders. The movement was simple, but it pulled her a bit further away from Athar. “We might as well go listen to whatever they might be saying. Maybe it’ll have nothing to do with us.”
“I’d like that,” Eist murmured. “But does it say something about my ego that I think that’s not very likely?”
“Your ego is fine,” Yacrist said, pulling her toward the crowd. “Just like the rest of you.”
“I don’t know,” Dille said drolly. “I could do without the rushing off into danger all on your lonesome like the rest of us are incompetent.”
“I s-s-second th-that,” Athar added.
“Alright, I take it back. That part of your character could use a little work.”
“You all make it sound like I’m some sort of self-sacrificing idiot.”
Ain snorted at that. “Please, don’t let your fan club make it sound so noble. I see right through you.”
“Do you?” Eist asked, raising an eyebrow at the smirking man.
“Yeah. You’re just racing ahead so you can steal all the glory. Notice how no one really gossips about us at the great rescue that all of us were there for.”
From anyone else, Eist would have thought that perhaps they were bitter, but she knew Ain far too well for that. He was poking fun, which was one of his only ways of expressing friendship.
“If you want all the infamy, consider stealing a dragon rider’s mount against direct orders.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
There was a shared chuckle through the group and then they were at the crowd. Sure enough, Elspeth was there, along with the same dragon rider woman who had spoken to them at length all those years ago.
“Greetings, dragon hopefuls. We are incredibly happy to have all of you returned to our fold. We are sure you notice that there are less of you, but such is the way of academy life.”
Eist tried her best not to roll her eyes. She remembered that once she had held nothing but respect for the woman, but after her pseudo interrogation last year, and the council’s continued denial of magic…well, it made Eist wonder, that was all.
“I understand that last year’s excursion did not go as planned, and that we lost several of our brethren. We’re also sure that many of you have heard…rumors of events and tensions mounting during our break. But I encourage you to ignore all of those distractions while you are here.
“This is your penultimate year in our care, and it will be the hardest yet. You will be cementing all of your foundational training and progressing to live steel for your weaponry. This is when you will polish all of the skills you need as riders, so that next year will be entirely dedicated to mounted battle with your dragons.”
Eist’s stomach dropped at that. While Fior had grown, he still was much too small for someone of even her short stature to ride. If he wasn’t big enough by the next year… Would they be left behind? Relegated as some sort of messenger or assistant to the upkeep of the academy?
While there was no shame in either of those two positions, it wasn’t what Eist wanted. She hadn’t been almost-murdered multiple times just to end up as a groundskeeper.
Besides, she had a feeling that the times would not allow anyone peace for a great while. Between the sorcerer, his strange conversion, and the Blight, she didn’t know how long things would simmer before finally boiling over.
No, there wasn’t peace in store for everyone. Eist could feel that they were on the precipice of battle.
A battle many people wouldn’t survive.
Her stomach twisted, but Elspeth kept right on talking. “So, study well, and dedicate yourselves to your lessons. Keep your head down and block out all the noise that you may overhear. You’re on the eve of everything you’ve been working for, young ones, and I cannot wait to see what all of you do!”
No, Eist corrected mentally. You can’t wait to see what we survive long enough to do.
2
Valuable Lessons
Eist practically vibrated with energy, dancing from foot to foot as she waited for Ale’a to hand her the weapon she had been waiting for.
Three full years of training, three full years of punching and kicking. Two years of using wooden practice weapons. One year of using a dulled shortsword.
But finally, finally, it was time for her to be handed a real, live—
“What is that?” she asked as Ale’a approached her with a staff ending in a wooden blade.
“Your practice halberd.”
“But I thought—”
The tall woman gave a little chuckle. “Eist, while it’s true you’re one of the top of your class, did you really think you would start off with an actual halberd when you’re just beginning?”
Of course. That made sense. But it didn’t matter that it was practical reasoning, her stomach still twisted with disappointment. “I just…”
Ale’a reached
forward, her calloused hand resting on Eist’s shoulder. “It’s alright. Knowing you, you’ll be ready for the real thing in a month or two. In the meantime, why don’t you join the others in the polearm group? If you can survive being separated from your merry little band, that is.”
Eist grinned wryly at that. “We do tend to spend a lot of time together, don’t we?”
“It’s important to have allies that you can trust. Especially in these times.” Eist felt a bit of relief at that. At least Ale’a wasn’t the type to deny that there were things going on in the background that the council was trying to deny. And everyone else in power, it seemed. “If I had your crew back when I was in the academy, maybe things would have turned out differently for me.”
“Differently?” Eist echoed. “Did they go particularly badly?”
The large woman just shrugged. “That’s a story for another time. It would have been nice just to have friends, that’s all.”
“Can you believe, when I first started, I told myself that I would be fine entirely on my own?”
“Hubris is an interesting thing. At least you learned before losing out on the connections you have now. Granted, I’m not sure how I’d feel about around half of my friends being in love with me.”
Eist twirled her new wooden practice weapon around her fingers. “Huh?”
“Don’t play coy now, you know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t think I do.”
“Fine. Also, something for later then. For now, the polearm group.”
Eist nodded and headed off, ready to tackle this challenge just like she tackled everything else. Fior padded happily after her before scampering off to play with his other dragon friends. He would have a part in her weapons training soon enough, but first, she had to learn the basics.
