Fledgling (The Dragonrider Chronicles) (3 page)

As I understood it, its location was
secret. Only dragonriders and the craftsmen who worked for them actually knew
where this place was. That had seemed ridiculous to me before, but now that I’d
been through that grueling, narrow, and dangerous path that was the only way
through the mountains, I understood. If you didn’t already know where this
place was, odds were you weren’t going to find it just wandering by around in
the mountains.

Ulric drove the wagon through the gate
and into the complex, passing students and knights on the way. All the
buildings seemed to be set up around one central, massive circular structure.
It had a covered domed roof, and the entire thing looked like one large cave
carved right out of the rock.

“The breaking dome,” Ulric explained
when he saw me staring at it. I was surprised he’d actually cared enough about
my interest to say anything at all, but maybe this was part of the job. I
needed to know where everything was so I could run errands for him.

“What’s it for?” I dared to try my
luck to see how much he was willing to tell me.

Ulric just shrugged and made a
grunting sound at first, leaning to spit some of his tobacco juice onto the
ground. He’d been chewing it nearly nonstop since we’d left home. “Training.”

I stared at the massive structure as
we passed it. It was hard not to feel intimidated by it. It looked like a
massive stone turtle shell, with a rounded opening like a gaping maw. As our
wagon rolled by it, I was almost certain I heard it growl.

Ulric pointed out the buildings the
further we went into the complex. There were two dormitories, one meant for
instructors and high-ranking riders, and another for students. They both looked
the same on the outside, the same height and shape, with narrow windows. There
was a separate place for academics, and a gymnasium for combat training.

One very long, especially
strange-looking building was set at the back, directly behind the central dome.
It looked like a dollhouse with one wall missing so that you could see all the
rooms inside it. Extending from each of the ten levels were platforms made from
iron beams laid out like latticework. I watched the dragons come in close to
the building, flaring their wings to slow their speed, and stretching out their
strong back legs to grip the platform with curled talons as they landed. It was
like a stable for dragons, with each room being a separate stall for a dragon
to nest in. Ulric said they called it the Roost.

We stopped at last outside of one of
the two armory houses. One was set up especially for blacksmiths, with already
established forges and plenty of room for the smiths to work fashioning and
repairing armor. Its tall chimneys belched black smoke into the air, and I
could smell the familiar scent of scorched metal. It reminded me of
Katty’s
house.

As soon as we found our workstation in
the armory house meant for
tackmasters
, Ulric backed
the wagon up to it, and we started to unload all the crates and rolls of
leather. He put me to work opening the crates with a pry bar, telling me to set
out his tools while he went to stable the horse.

Even here, in the desert valley of
Devil’s Cup, it was still cool this early in the spring. But the air was so
dry, and I was so tired already, it didn’t take me ten minutes to be drenched
with sweat again. I tied my hair back to get it away from my face, not thinking
about it until I heard someone say the word “
halfbreed
.”

Then I remembered. Tying my hair back
like that exposed my pointed ears. They weren’t elongated and slender like a
full blooded gray elf’s would have been, but their subtle points were
definitely noticeable. And people were definitely beginning to notice.

There was a group of four older boys
standing just outside
Ulric’s
workstation, and they
were staring right at me. I didn’t know any of them, but I could tell they were
new students right away. They weren’t wearing uniforms or armor yet, and they
all looked seventeen. Naturally, they were all a good foot taller than I was,
and I knew they were laughing at me even without looking up to make sure.

I tried to ignore them. Nothing good
would happen if I said anything back, and I didn’t have much of an ego left to
defend anyway. They could say what they wanted; I’d come here to work.

I was stacking the empty crates
outside our workstation, making room for dragons to be brought inside like
Ulric had told me to, when I felt someone pull my hair. Someone grabbed my
ponytail, and yanked it hard enough to make me fall backwards. The empty crate
landed squarely on my chest.

It knocked the breath right out of me,
and I laid there for a few seconds looking up into the sky and the glare of the
sun in a daze. I thought maybe I’d imagined it. Maybe I’d just tripped. But
then a menacing face appeared over me. One of the guys who had been laughing at
me earlier was leaning over, smirking and looking back to his friends for
approval. For some reason bullies always needed validation that they were doing
a good job. Or at least, it seemed that way to me.

           
“What
are you doing here, scum?” He sneered down at me. “We don’t like traitors, you
know.” I watched him disappear, and then a few seconds later, there was a boot
in my face. He put the heel of his shoe on my forehead and started to grind it
back and forth.

           
I
hadn’t even thought about fighting back yet. I was just trying to figure out
how to get the boot off my face and the crate off my chest. But suddenly both
were gone, and I heard the group of older boys cursing and yelling.

           
Rolling
over to cough and blink the dirt out of my eyes, I lifted my head to see a much
larger, fully armored man holding the boy who’d been using me as his doormat by
the ear. The knight was pinching the boy’s ear in his gauntlet-covered hand,
making him scream in pain, before finally letting him go. Something about the
knight was familiar. I couldn’t figure out what it was until he was standing
over me, grabbing me by the arm and hauling me
back
to
my feet.

           
“You
attract a lot of attention, boy.” The knight’s voice was immediately familiar.
It was the same one who had come to pick up his saddle from our house.

           
I
opened my mouth to say something, and immediately forgot what it was. I hadn’t
expected anyone to come to my rescue, least of all a knight. I remembered to at
least be grateful. “Thank you, sir.”

           
He
made an annoyed sound as he removed his white-crested helmet. Now I was certain
it was the same knight from before. He looked down at me with his dark green
eyes narrowed and scrutinizing. His dark hair was cut very short and beginning
to turn gray around his temples. Even though his skin was weathered, there was
still something wild and unpredictable in his eyes, which made it hard to place
his age. Still, I couldn’t imagine him being any older than Ulric.

           
“You
should keep a low profile,” he warned me. “Unless you intend on growing a spine
in the near future.”

           
Couldn’t
he see me? Sure, standing up to bullies and the other kids who gave me a hard
time sounded good in theory, but I knew better. I had no chance of ever winning
a fight like that. Better to let them kick me around some, use me as a doormat,
and get away with no broken bones, than get my arms cracked off just to prove a
point.

           
“Save
it,
Sile
. The kid’s a coward. Better that way. He’ll
live longer if he keeps his mouth shut.”
Ulric’s
voice growled, surprising me as he strolled up behind us. Immediately, I went
back to work moving crates.

           
The
knight frowned at me, looking disappointed, and I tried not to notice. It made
an urgent feeling twist in the pit of my stomach, so I turned my back to him
while I worked and tried not to listen to anything else they said.

           
“Who
is that?” I asked when the knight finally left to go back about his business.

           
Ulric
was setting up sawhorses, and scowling at all the work I’d done like none of it
was up to his standard. But I never saw him fix anything. He made another
annoyed grunting sound in response to my question. “
Sile
Derrick,” he answered, and spat another mouthful of putrid tobacco juice on the
ground. “Stay away from him. He should mind his own business, instead of
telling me how to mind mine.”

           
We
got the workshop ready just after sundown. It took a long time for me to drag
out base molds and fill them with packed wax shavings from huge sacks I had to
drag out of a storeroom. My arms were sore, and my stomach was growling so
loudly I knew everyone could hear it. I’d never been so tired in all my life,
but when Ulric glanced at me, I tried to look as composed and ready to work as
I’d ever been.

           
“We
start at dawn,” he told me, finally spitting out the wad of tobacco he’d been
gnawing on into a trash barrel. “You sleep in here, and mind our stuff. Have
the molds ready when I get here.”

           
Ulric
left me standing in the workshop, wondering what I was supposed to eat or where
I could sleep, as he disappeared into the complex. I was immediately afraid.
After the sun had set, the air had gotten very cold, and the wind howled
through the valley making an eerie, screaming sound.

           
I
couldn’t find anything to eat, but there were a few good swallows of water left
in one of the canteens we’d used on our journey here. I found
Ulric’s
sleeping pallet and unrolled it in a corner of the
shop behind a few stacked up crates of materials where no one would be able to
see me. I didn’t want to run the risk of those older boys finding me again.

           
Hours
passed. It was bitter cold. Even under the two quilts I had, I was still
freezing. More than anything, though, I was starving. I hadn’t had a good meal
since Mrs.
Crookin’s
bread, and thoughts of those
wasted crumbs were making my stomach tie up in knots. It hurt so much it put
tears in my eyes. I didn’t know how I was going to find the strength to work
the next day if I didn’t get something to eat before then.

           
Sometime
after midnight, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I got to my feet in pitch
black, and snuck out of the workshop. The complex was quiet in the dead of
night. Almost all the students and riders were asleep, and their dragons were
snug in the Roost. Only a few were still out flying low patrol patterns around
the walls. I couldn’t see them, but I could hear the hum of the wind off their
wings and long scaled tales whenever they swooped in close.

           
I
was looking for anything edible I could get my hands on without being caught. I
walked past the two armories, spotting the smoldering fires from the forge that
still glowed. I wondered if I could sneak in there to sleep. At least it would
be warmer closer to the forge.

           
On
my way past the breaking dome, my steps got slower, until finally I was
standing before the gaping doorway, staring into it with my skin shivering. It
felt deep and monstrously dark in there, as though it were the bottomless abyss
of some dark cave.

           
That’s
when I heard it. Before, I thought I was only imagining that building growling
at me. This time I was sure.

           
A
deep, rumbling growl echoed from within, and I tripped over my feet backing
away from it. I looked back over my shoulder. There was no one else there. No
one was watching, or playing some kind of trick on me. But I didn’t feel like I
was alone. There was definitely something in that deep, dark cavern of a
building, and it felt like it was calling out to me.

Three

I
knew I should have just gone back to the workstation and tried sleeping again.
Ulric might remember to bring me something to eat in the morning, if I was
lucky. After all, nothing good could possibly come from nosing around in the
secret places of the academy. Going into the breaking dome alone so late at
night was a terrible idea. Probably the worst idea I’d had yet.

           
I
had almost talked myself out of it. I was scared of what I’d find in there, or
worse, of getting caught red-handed by my father. Whenever I got caught
somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be, people tended to suspect the worst right
away. I’d probably get accused of being a traitor again, or a spy, or something
ridiculous like that. If the gray elves were going to try to spy on Blybrig, I
was pretty sure I’d be the last person in the world they’d ever want to send to
do it. Too bad no one else was ever going to agree with me about that. This
couldn’t end any way but bad for me.

           
But
I just couldn’t help myself.

Like an idiot, I started to walk
toward the gaping mouth of the building, staring up at the cavernous entryway
that towered over me. It was so dark inside I couldn’t see my hand in front of
my face. I smacked right into a wall. Stumbling around with my arms out, I
followed that wall and realized it was actually rounded to follow the circular
external shape of the dome. It was like an enclosed arena made of solid rock. A
structure like this wouldn’t be
fazed
by a dragon’s
snapping jaws or flashing flames.

A sudden sharp hiss off to my left
made me flinch and gasp, spinning around to see there was a faint, golden light
trickling from around the corner. It felt far away, and as I walked toward it,
I couldn’t tell if I was getting any closer or if it was actually moving away
from me. A few more steps brought me around the curved inner wall, and there
was a sudden thundering roar. It was so loud it rattled the floor, and made me
clamp my hands over my ears. I could feel the pulsing under my boots coming from
some kind of impact, like when Ulric was working with his hammer and I could
feel the ground vibrating under my feet.

The gold light was coming through a
half-cracked set of massive iron doors. They towered over me, so big a giant
could have used them without having to worry about bumping his head. One of
them was open just enough that bright light poured out from within. My heart
was hammering in my ears. Something smelled like smoke, and I could still hear
the sound of that rumbling growl like thunder.

I’d come too far not to see whatever
was making such a racket inside. Inch by inch, I hedged toward the crack in the
door, and finally peered in. The light was bright at first, so I had to squint
to see. All I saw was a flash of blue scales, and another trumpeting roar made
me run for cover behind the heavy door. I was shaking so badly I could barely
stand up, and I still wasn’t sure what I’d seen in there.

“Get a good look?” An angry voice
snapped at me suddenly.

I almost fainted from terror. A big man-shaped
shadow was looming over me, standing right behind me. I couldn’t think, I
couldn’t even breathe, and didn’t know how to even begin explaining myself.

Then he stepped into the light, and I
knew right away who it was.
Sile
Derrick was frowning
down at me with his big, muscular arms crossed over his chest. He wasn’t
wearing his armor this time, instead he had on a tunic and pants that stank
like sweat, and were a little scorched around the corners. He glared down at me
like I’d done something terrible, still waiting for an explanation.

“I-I thought I heard . . .” I started
to speak, but lost my nerve. None of the excuses I could think of sounded even
slightly convincing.

He shook his head, frowning harder
down at me with his dead eyes narrowed. “Go on, then. Get a good, long look,
boy.”

I opened my mouth to protest. I didn’t
really want to see what was in there anymore. I’d seen enough.

He wasn’t going to let me off that
easy, though. With one of his big hands planted on my shoulder, he steered me
around and back toward the crack in the door. Again, the bright light blinded
me, and I had to squint to see what was inside. But as I blinked away the
glare, I saw the arena.

It was a huge, circular room with a
dirt floor and a domed ceiling made out of solid steel with big iron cross
beams. It had to be at least thirty—maybe even forty—feet tall, lit
by torches that filled the room with golden light. I’d never seen a room so big
before, and my mouth was hanging open long before I even saw the dragon.

He saw me at the same time, and our
eyes locked from across the wide arena floor. At first, all I could do was
stare at him while he glared back at me. I stopped, terror making my legs go
completely stiff even with the powerful knight’s hand still gripping my shoulder.
I didn’t want to go any closer than was absolutely necessary. Part of me was
beginning to wonder if my punishment for nosing around would be becoming a
late-night dragon snack.

I’d never seen a dragon up close
before, but now I was standing only a few yards away from one. He was tied down
to the floor with heavy iron chains. His head, neck, wings, legs, and tail were
all clamped down to the ground so that he couldn’t do much more than snarl at
us. And that’s exactly what he did.

His big yellow eyes stared right at
me, pupils narrowed into slits, and he curled his lips up to snarl. Then I
heard that growl again, that thunderous rumble, and all my hair stood on end. I
must have gone a few minutes without taking a breath, because I started to feel
faint.

“It isn’t very often we are able to
catch a wild dragon.”
Sile
Derrick was looking at the
creature, but he wasn’t frowning anymore. He looked almost sad, watching the
dragon that was still showing us his rows of pointed teeth. “In the old days,
all dragons were born wild. When they chose a rider, they were brought here to
be broken to a saddle. It was like a sacred bonding ritual that paired the two
forever as allies. That’s why they call this place the breaking dome. But now
dragons are bred like horses. They don’t have a choice about who will become
their rider, like they did in the old days. That is—unless we come across
a wild one like this.”

I’d stopped trembling, and started
breathing again. It didn’t look like the dragon could
move,
otherwise we probably would have already been his midnight meal. “Who did he
choose?” I wanted to know.

Sile
shook his head. “No one. We’ve tried
about twenty different candidates, but he won’t even let us put a saddle on
him. He’s sent a few of them home in crutches, in fact. They were lucky to get
away without losing a limb.”

I swallowed hard. The dragon blinked
at me, giving a loud snort out his nostrils that sent a puff of hot air
blasting at my face.

“The Academy Commander has decided
he’s too dangerous to let anyone else try. He’s too old to be ridden. If he
were younger, maybe then we could break his spirit enough to let someone ride
him. But we can’t risk anyone else getting hurt. It’s bad enough to have riders
die in battle, let alone in training.”
Sile
let his
hand slide off my shoulder, and he gave a loud sigh. “I’ve been trying to
reason with him. It’s a shame. He’ll have his wing tendons cut, most likely,
and be used for breeding.”

That didn’t sit too well with me. He
refused to conform, to be broken to the will of a rider, and so they were just
going to take away his freedom altogether? Why did they have the right to do
that? Hadn’t he been born free? The more I looked at the dragon, tied down to
the ground and glowering at us with wild fury, the more I understood his anger.
He’d never fly again, if these knights got their way.

“If he had a rider,” I started to ask.
“If someone could ride him, I mean. If it were possible, would he still have to
have his wing tendons cut?”

Sile
met my gaze as I glanced back up at
him. There was a strange twinkle in his dark eyes when he answered, “I’d like
to think that if he was willing to take a rider, then there’s no reason he
couldn’t fly forever with the other dragonriders.”

I stared back at the dragon again. His
yellow eyes were glaring right back at me, but he’d stopped snarling and
growling. I saw the end of his tail twitching back and forth, and the way his
sides
rose
and fell under his blue scales as he
breathed. “Can I . . . can I try?” I didn’t even realize I’d asked that out
loud.

Sile
was very quiet. It made me terrified
of what the answer was going to be. I thought he’d probably just laugh at me,
call me stupid, and send me on my way. After all, the idea that I would ever be
allowed to be a dragonrider was totally ridiculous. Dragonriders came from rich
noble families. I was
the nobody
of nobodies. I was
just a halfbreed.

“Move slowly,”
Sile
answered quietly. “And keep looking in his eyes.”

I nodded shakily. My legs felt like
jelly as I took a step toward the dragon. One step, then another, and the
creature looked bigger and bigger the nearer I got to him. His scales were a
sapphire color mottled in darker, slate blue. Three sets of horns as black as
onyx crowned his head, matching his black claws on his wing arms and hind legs.

When I was only three yards away, his
ears shot up to perk right at me. He had two small, almost feline looking ears
that swiveled in my direction for a moment before flattening back against his
skull. His snout wrinkled up again, and he let out a low growl of warning. I
was too close for his liking.

I couldn’t imagine I looked nearly as
intimidating as
Sile
did, or even as any of the other
new riders who’d already tried to get on him. I was a scrawny little kid. I’d
make a good toothpick for him. But now, I was praying that would work in my
favor. If I didn’t look like a threat, maybe he wouldn’t treat me like one.

“Please,” I spoke to him. I didn’t
think he could understand me. It just made me feel better to talk to him. “I
know what it feels like, believe me. They don’t know what to do with you. And
now they want to keep you here like some kind of prisoner. It’s not fair. It’s
not right.”

The dragon kept growling at me, but he
didn’t move again. I just locked my eyes on his and tried not to think about
how close I was to the end of his snout as I kept moving forward. His head was
large, much bigger than a horse’s, and I could see his nostrils flaring as he
breathed in my scent. His scales were larger than some of the other dragons I’d
seen already. They shone under the golden torchlight like polished blue steel.

The more I looked at him, the more I
noticed his features were sort of feline in shape. He was like a cross between
a lizard, housecat, and a bat. His snout was short, and his eyes were large
like a cat. The undersides of his hind legs and the thumbs on his wing arms had
pads on them, too. His body shape was almost like a bat’s, except for the long
lizard-like tail and lean muscles rippling under his scales. He had two
powerful back legs, but his front ones were connected to his wings. All dragons
had that same kind of basic physique, though I hadn’t noticed any of the others
looking as cat-like in their faces, and I certainly hadn’t seen any other blue
ones.

“I think we can agree that things are
pretty lousy for both of us,” I went on talking to him, closing the distance
between us. My voice was shaking because I was scared out of my mind, but at
least he hadn’t made a lunge for me yet. “Let’s make a deal, all right? I don’t
want to keep living with my father for the rest of my life, and I definitely
don’t want to go to a prison camp. I want my life to mean something. And I’m
pretty sure you don’t want them to cut your wings so you can’t fly anymore. You
want them to let you go, but they’ll force you to stay here one way or another.
Alone, neither of us can do anything to change the way things are going for us.
But together, we could change both our destinies.”

I was standing so close to him then I
could smell the musk of his breath. I could feel it, too, hot and humid against
my face. Reaching out, I could see my own hand trembling as I crept toward him.
Just a few more feet.
Then a few
more inches.

“Let me be your rider,” I pleaded with
him. “I swear I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do. And when we’re
finished, when the war is over, you’ll be free to go back to the wild. I won’t
treat you like a dumb animal. You’ll be my partner. We’ll get through this
together. We’ll be a team.”

My hand touched his head. My heart
felt like it had stopped beating. I could feel his scales under my palm. They
were smooth like polished marble, but warm and alive.

The dragon perked his ears again, his
snarl finally fading away. He made strange popping, clicking noises like the
chattering sparrows did when they squabbled with each other. His yellow eyes
stared at me, and his nostrils puffed as I moved my hand down toward his nose,
letting him sniff me.