by Jada Fisher
But once she was ready, Elspeth was already standing at the door, smiling. If Ukrah stopped to think about it, it certainly was amazing that the most famous member of the Dragon Council was waiting around to ride with an orphan girl from the wilds. But, as it was, she didn’t have much time to waste, and picked up the pace to head out the door.
Elspeth’s long legs forced Ukrah to keep up as they strode out the front. There, the white dragon was laying down, the brindles gathered around her and making conversational sounds. It was quite cute, if she was being honest. It reminded her of the time she herself had been surrounded by the beautiful dragons, all copper and gold and deep umber.
In the hours upon hours of magic lessons, she faintly remembered reading something about brindles being tied to magic more than any other dragon. She couldn’t quite recall why. Something to do with…sound? Or resonance? She was pretty sure it had something to do with their invisible yet somewhat tangible roars.
“Hey there, you lot. Still trying to figure out where you belong in time?” Elspeth asked cheerily. The brindles parted for her, lazily spacing themselves more.
“What do you mean by that?”
Elspeth just shrugged. “A story for a different time, perhaps.”
Ukrah nodded, but she couldn’t help that her mind was taking off. Once she actually thought about it, it didn’t make sense for there to be so many brindles. Because when Eist was first in the academy, brindles had practically been wiped from human memory, causing none at the academy to recognize her mount. Surely that wouldn’t have been the case if there was anywhere between five to ten of the pretty dragons running about.
…so where had they come from?
The question remained unanswered, however, because they were climbing up onto the white dragon and taking to the sky.
Ukrah tried to ignore how her heart was beating hard in her chest at being so close to an important figure of their history. It was one thing to have her visit the manor once in a while, it was another entirely to be right behind her on the white dragon’s back. The stories the woman could tell, and the knowledge that had to be held in her mind… Sometimes, it seemed impossible that the woman was hundreds upon hundreds of years old, but that was the healing power of dragons.
The woman didn’t speak until they were well into the air, flying over the city faster than Ethella or Fior normally took them. But when she did, it was almost impossible to catch what she said.
“So I wasn’t entirely honest down there on the ground,” was what Ukrah could make out, and instantly, her stomach dropped.
“You weren’t?”
“No. I mean, yes, I think Voirdr is acting out because he’s getting too big, but I don’t think that’s the only thing.”
Ukrah swallowed. Her fears of being inadequate, of being not enough, flared up something fierce. “You don’t?”
Elspeth must have heard the change in her voice, as much as she had tried to disguise it, because the woman stiffened. “Maybe this should wait until we land. There’s a nice knoll to the west at the edge of where the mountains of Baeldred start to rise. Let’s go there.”
Ukrah nodded even though the woman couldn’t see her. Her stomach felt like it was in knots, twisting this way and that at the woman’s words. She almost wished that Elspeth hadn’t said anything at all until they landed. There was already so much weight on Ukrah’s shoulders, and she felt like she just wasn’t good enough.
I wake up from a nap and find myself absconded. How rude.
Ukrah almost flung herself from the saddle, jolting at the familiar sound of Tayir’s voice. Reaching into one of the packs on the white dragon’s side, she saw none other than the desert finch inside, cuddled up on what looked like some extra clothing.
“Of all the places, why did you have to sleep there?”
“Who are you talking to?” Elspeth asked, twisting backwards.
“Just my bird. He mostly does what he wants.”
“Ah, yes, I heard of your little familiar. He certainly gets into things, doesn’t he?”
I am not a familiar, and you are not a witch. Besides, I like this dragon. She’s soft and warm and sings prettily. Best sleep I’ve had since finding this form.
“I think he likes your dragon,” Ukrah answered the woman instead of replying to Tayir. But he was used to her half-responding to him in front of other people and just settled himself further into the pack.
It’s cold out there. Close the flap, if you please.
Well, if there was one creature she didn’t particularly want around during a vulnerable time, it was probably Tayir. Oh well, when Elspeth inevitably told her that she was ruining everything, at least the bird would remind her it was all because she was straying from her duty as a vessel or something like that.
Thankfully, it wasn’t even an hour before they began to lower, right onto a large, grassy knoll covered in trees. As they descended, she realized Elspeth was aiming toward a sort of rocky outcrop that was cut across by a rushing stream, a waterfall spilling over the side and down into the thick forest below.
…was that the waterfall that fed into the stream she had hid in all those months and months ago? It would still be a fair way off, but the direction was right. But no, that would be an uncanny level of coincidence. Not every stream or brook she saw from the west of the city led to the one that had brought her to Crispin.
Still, she couldn’t help but wonder, and once they landed, she headed over to the side of the brook, as if that would help her decide.
“I didn’t mean to worry you,” Elspeth said, joining her. “I just didn’t think this was a conversation we wanted to shout over the wind and all of that.”
“I appreciate that,” Ukrah tried to say evenly. Which was more difficult than she thought, considering she was about to get her own behind handed to her.
“Goodness, you’re so tense, I’m afraid you’ll snap. You’re not in trouble, Ukrah. Surely you must know that?”
“Do I?” the desert girl asked, risking a side glance through her lashes at Elspeth.
“Yes, goodness. Come sit with me. I come to you as a friend, not someone who would punish you.”
Well…that was a hopeful start. Following her, Ukrah let her spread a blanket over a fallen tree then sit on it.
“No, what I wanted to say is that Voirdr might be acting out because, and I do only mean this out of concern and not reprimand, you’re not entirely connected to him.”
“What do you mean?” Ukrah couldn’t help the alarm in her voice. She loved Voirdr right down into the deepest places of her heart. He made her feel loved and happy, and she hoped he felt that way right back, even if he was being an absolute terror. “He’s my world.”
“He’s your world, yes, but you’re not just you, are you?” Ukrah blinked at her a moment, trying to piece together what that meant in common tongue. “Yes, you are Ukrah of House W’allenhaus, but you are also something else entirely, aren’t you? Something not quite human.”
Ukrah nodded slowly. She wasn’t sure how much the woman knew about the rebirth of the old spirits and vessels and the like, but it seemed she was at least a bit knowledgeable. “I have…something inside of me that’s not me, but it takes over me every now and then. I’ve been having trouble reaching it how I want to because Voirdr’s abilities have been, uh, masking it, I guess?”
She nodded. “That makes sense. Very clearly, he recognizes it and is seeing it as competition. Something taking you away from him. Tell me, please, do you feel like something is pulling the two of you apart? Or causing any sort of rift?”
In truth, Ukrah hadn’t given much time to any of those thoughts, but suddenly, they all came rushing to the surface, like Elspeth’s words had given the phantom feelings solid form. “I…” A deep breath, parsing everything bombarding her into her own language and then common. Normally, the process was so streamlined that she rarely noticed it, but she found herself struggling with how to express the concepts forcing themselves to t
he forefront of her thoughts. “I suppose I feel a bit caught.”
“Caught? How so?”
“As in…” She licked her lips, fearing recoil from the woman, but she just looked at her with a concerned, lavender gaze. “As in caught between what my destiny is supposed to be as a rider of the black dragon and my destiny as a vessel of an ancient spirit, before the Three came to our world. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, how to balance the two, or why I’ve been given such gifts. I feel like I’m supposed to be either one or the other, and that being both is somehow mutually exclusive.”
Elspeth took a deep breath. “I see. That certainly is an awful lot to put on a single person’s plate. Especially one so young.” For some reason, just being told that she wasn’t an idiot for being so mixed up about things helped Ukrah immensely. She sank a little, the tension easing out of her bones. “I can’t even say where the line is or what you should do either way. But what I do know is that I have felt a strange sort of absence in my heart lately. Nothing lethal, nothing even too worrying, but it is a steady ache, nonetheless.
“It’s familiar, though. Just something I thought I was done with long ago. I forgot what it was like to be one part of a half, but now that there is another black dragon, now that I know you, I would like to be a bigger part of your life. Maybe that will help you find balance, maybe it won’t, but I’d like to try.”
Huh, what a world where she was sitting here, with the leader of all the Dragon Council looking at her with a lonely sort of admiration that Ukrah understood, perhaps a bit too much. To think she had started out being an extra to her village, an unnecessary part.
“I wouldn’t mind seeing you and Sleipffynor a bit more. Especially if it helps Voirdr behave.”
Elspeth grinned brightly, looking quite young for a moment. “Thank you. I know things didn’t go well in the academy for you, but if it makes you feel better, both Ale’a and I have been expelled at one point or another.”
Ukrah’s eyes went wide. “What? Really?”
The woman nodded, her lips curling into a cat-like smile. “Ale’a’s dragon ate a well-to-do young noble. Or at least most people thought he was well-to-do. He really was a predator that hunted amongst the poorer girls of the city. Girls he thought no one would miss. And maybe they wouldn’t have, if Ale’a wasn’t poor herself and visiting her mother at the time.”
“And what about you?”
The woman shrugged slightly. “It was another time. One where women had only been added as dragon riders for a couple of classes, not even a generation yet. Some of the staff and classmates took exception to that. I got into a lot of fights, had people try to sabotage me. Then someone took it too far, and I made sure it ended there.”
Ukrah swallowed, the woman’s serious tone saying so much, and yet she found herself wanting to know more. “What happened? How did you end it?”
“The details are not important. What is important is that he’s dead and I am here. We do what we must to survive, and I am sure that you will do the same.”
“I don’t think I’ll—”
Elspeth waved dismissively. “The details of our situation may be different, but whether it’s you, Mryidepf, Eist or me, we’ve all gone up against things that seemed impossible at the time. I’m not stupid. I know that the birth of another black dragon means the world is trying to prepare itself for something. Trying to heal and grow power before whatever the next Three or Blight or whatever is. Your journey is just beginning, and I have no doubt that you will face many truly awful, unspeakable things.”
Ukrah found herself swallowing again. “At least you’re not trying to deny it.”
“Not at all. I am guilty of doing far too much of that back when Eist was young, and we all paid for it. Maybe, if I had been more proactive, less locked into not making the same mistakes I did before, Yac—” She stopped short, shaking her head. “The past is the past, and while we can learn from it, I don’t think it would be wise to dwell there. What’s done is done.”
Ukrah nodded. She understood that feeling. Sometimes it was the only thing that kept her from giving into the guilt that still rose from her nightmares. Guilt over what she had done and the fact that she’d had to exile herself from her own homeland.
“To a different sort of future then,” Ukrah toasted.
“Yes, definitely, and hopefully one with no gods.” Elspeth let out a dry chuckle. “I’ve had my fill of false deities, thank you.”
“I can imagine. I was young when Eist cleansed them, so I didn’t live for centuries with them.”
“Yes, it was quite a shock to hear that the All-Mother that I had dedicated my life to was from another world, a dead world, and had escaped to our realm to try to outrun the Blight. The kind of shock I hope to never go through again.”
“But could you imagine?”
She laughed outright at that. “Please, I do not want to. If I think it, it might come true, and I will not be responsible for the end of the world.”
“Fair enough.”
They sat there for a moment, and Ukrah pulled out her waterskin to share. They both sipped at it and for a moment, it was so easy to sink into the peacefulness all around them. Sure, it would have been nice if Voirdr or Crispin were there, but it was rare that Ukrah ever had such a quiet series of breaths, to just think and feel and look out at the beauty of nature.
Even after all her time in the civilized lands, she still found the tall things so beautiful. They were green and strong and just so wonderful to look at, especially when there were a bunch of different types all around each other. She was beginning to develop favorites, but she still appreciated all of them.
If she could ever go home, she would bring them a tree just so they could look at it. Granted, it would probably die on the journey if she took it by wagon, so she would probably have to wait for Voirdr to be big and strong enough to carry it there.
But she probably was never going to be able to go back to the desert, so there was no point worrying about it.
They drank back and forth until the canteen was almost empty, Sleipffynor coming up behind them and settling against their backs, giving the two women something to lean against. It was strangely lovely, and Ukrah turned her face up to the sky, letting the breeze touch it.
She loved the bit of moisture that was always in the air, making sure nothing ever got as dry as the desert. She loved that she didn’t have to worry about sun-bleached hair or burning cracks into her lips. Ever since escaping, she’d never had blisters on her shoulders or even really known what it was to be truly hungry.
“Wait, what is that?”
Ukrah jerked back to attention, but she was a bit light-blind from tilting her head upward for so long. Rubbing at her eyes, she blinked them rapidly until she could make out a small form far below, cutting through the trees.
They wove in and out of sight, the bracken keeping them from being visible in a straight line. Ukrah was no expert but she was pretty sure that was a human shape, most likely a hunter or some sort of trapper.
Except hunters didn’t usually have dogs trapping them.
“Oh, that’s not good,” Elspeth said, jumping to her feet as the dogs jumped into view. They were large and vicious things, armed with sharp teeth, and no doubt sharp claws. They were gaining on the runner, who only seemed to be out of their maws because they had a head start on the beasts.
“Come on!” Elspeth ordered, practically vaulting onto her dragon. Ukrah tried to follow her, but she wasn’t nearly as graceful, so the woman stretched out her hand, gripping the desert girl’s arm and hauling her up. The moment Ukrah’s butt touched the thick leather saddle, they were off, swooping down so sharply that she started to feel herself rise.
Letting out a very undignified yelp, she wrapped her arms around Elspeth’s strong waist, holding on for dear life as they hurtled downward.
Whoa! What are you doing out there!?
But Ukrah didn’t have the wherewithal to tell him what was h
appening, her heart in her throat and her eyes on the figure as they ran. As they came closer, more of them came into view, and it became clear it was a young woman, clad in a dress that once might have been brightly colored, but now was faded and encrusted in dirt. There were tears in it, but whether they were scratches from the trees or from an attack wasn’t clear as she vaulted over fallen trees and dove under rocky outcrops.
She certainly had stamina, that was for certain, but stamina wasn’t going to be enough to get her away from the snarling hunting dogs. No, Ukrah may have not been from the civilized lands, but she still knew that the girl would not enjoy what those beasts would do to her if they caught up.
Elspeth clearly knew that too, and the next moment, they were crashing through the canopy and down to the ground. They landed with a resounding jolt, shaking the ground and making Ukrah’s spine rattle. Sleipffynor lowered her head, opening her jaw wide and letting out a snarl that was truly haunting.
The dogs didn’t need a second warning. They skidded to a stop as a pack, letting out petrified sounds before fleeing, their tails tucked between their legs. But neither Ukrah nor Elspeth were dumb enough to think that was the end of it. Where there were hunting dogs, there were hunters, and it would do no good to have the girl where they could find her—whoever they were.
“Get on!” Elspeth cried to the girl, who was caught in a thick bramble of thorns, her foot clearly wedged between two rocks.
“I can’t!” she answered breathlessly, finally turning to them.
It was the first time Ukrah got a good look at the girl, and she was the last thing the desert girl had expected. She had long, long raven curls that looked impossibly neat considering all that she had gone through, and big brown eyes that looked like honey in the bright sunlight. Her skin was impossibly pale, so she couldn’t be a slave…right? But then why was she running like a slave?
Ukrah didn’t understand it, but she didn’t get an answer, because soon crashing sounds issued from the trees closest to them, and several men who had to be slavers burst into sight.
