Gloria Oliver (2 page)

Kel’s answering shrug was mostly dispelled in his armor. “It’s just payment for the trouble and also the fact your daughter is being taken so far from home.”

Talia frowned, sure the damage and the inconvenience weren’t worth a small fortune. And why would the knights pay them so much more than her parents paid to get her into the guild? It didn’t make any sense to her. Was this truly a normal practice of the dragon knights?

“If you’ll get your things, I think Clarence is about ready to go.” Talia found herself once more the recipient of Kel’s shy smile.

“Ah, sure.” She turned away as a bolt of excited fear shot through her. It was true—she was really going. It
was
happening. Sudden mixed feelings rose inside her but not all of them were made of the unhappiness she felt over the last few days.

Picking up her bag from where she’d left it on the porch steps, she suddenly found herself surrounded by her parents. The tears she saw gathering in her mother’s eyes told her more than anything that this was real.

“Talia.” Her mother took her in her arms and hugged her hard. She felt tears rising to her own eyes. Her mother eventually let go.

“Be good, won’t you? I know you’ll make us proud.” Her father took her in his arms and hugged her fiercely. Tears shone in his eyes as well.

She almost sobbed then. How was she going to go on without them?

“Be strong, my daughter.” He slipped one of the rubies into her hand. “Write us if you can.”

Her mother wiped away at her eyes. “Don’t forget us. And remember we love you.” The sorrow in her mother’s eyes brought home to her that it was as difficult for them to let her go as it was for her to leave.

Yet they still wanted her to do this.

She felt her throat grow tight. “I will. And I’ll try real hard. I love you.” She hugged them both at once.

She was going; she was really going.

When she finally let them go, all their eyes were filled with tears. Talia turned away and wiped at her wet face, then searched for where she had dropped her bag. It was gone. Glancing around her, she spotted Kel with it, as he secured it to the battered two-person saddle strapped to the dragon’s back. She hesitated a moment, then walked over to join them.

Almost there, she turned around to take a last look at her parents and her home. As hard as she could, she tried to engrave into her memory the view of the whitewashed house with its sloping porch, the plowed fields with their earthy smell and swaying stalks of wheat and corn, the barn with all the sheep, cows, and horses. It would be years before she saw any of it again. But she would be back. Of this she was sure. And she would make her parents proud even if she possessed no idea of what it was she would be doing.

Her eyes stinging, Talia turned away and forced herself to approach the dragon. She quickly rubbed her eyes as she caught Kel studying her.

“I’ll need to show you a couple of things before we get started,” he said.

She noticed his light, amused smile as she still hesitated to get too near to Clarence. She made herself step closer.

“See these?” Kel pointed to a number of long, leather straps hanging from the saddle. “I’ll help you tie them on once we get you up. They’ll make sure you stay on your seat in case anything happens. The Administrator frowns on us losing any new students.” His expression was serious but his eyes were full of mirth. Clarence snorted behind them.

Talia wasn’t sure she wanted to know just how exactly they went about losing a student.

“There’s a place here you can use to hold on to.” He pointed to a grip on the front of the back seat of the leather saddle. “If you feel you’re slipping at all though, you might want to hold onto one of Clarence’s scales instead.” Gently he lifted one of the dragon’s green, oval-shaped scales from where it lay flat against its brothers. “It’s attached to his skin here, and it takes a lot to make one of them come off. It won’t hurt him, so don’t worry about it. He’s also worm-free, so you don’t have to be concerned on that account, either.”

Her brows drew together, not knowing about half of the things he just mentioned or what they meant.

Why would a dragon have worms?

“Here, I’ll help you up.” Kel cupped his gauntleted hands together to give her a boost up Clarence’s broad side.

Still tense and apprehensive, she put her foot in his cupped hands and, with a tentative hold on one of Clarence’s scales, pulled herself up onto the back seat of the large saddle. Now that she was on board, the scent of oil and possibly jasmine mixed with the strange, animal scent she smelled before.

The leather saddle felt comfortable and warm, and looked to have been used heavily. Its surface was smooth, though not as smooth as Clarence’s scale.

Once she settled herself in, Kel climbed up with the ease of long practice, using the scales as foot and handholds to climb up. He sat down in the saddle backwards so he would be facing her.

Going slowly and explaining as he went, Kel showed her how to take each of the saddle’s straps and where to loop them to safely secure herself in her seat. Once he tested their handiwork to make sure it was tight, he turned around and strapped himself in as well. When he was done, he took his helmet off the pommel before him and put it on.

Talia grabbed hold of the groove before her with a yelp as Clarence rose to his feet. She could feel his muscles moving beneath her, bringing her higher into the air than a horse ever could.

“The trip is going to be long and a little bumpy, too, I’m afraid.” Kel turned his head in her direction.

“You might not have noticed it, but Clarence is cross-eyed and he has an inner ear problem, too. It tends to make our trips a little interesting.”

“But—” The word had barely left her lips when Clarence swept open his long wings with a snap.

Realizing what it meant, she grabbed hold of the saddle even tighter. Clarence’s legs churned the ground and he went into a snaking run, then leapt into the air.

Talia was jerked back as the dragon moved. She held on for dear life. The wind whipped past her, smacking her as if it were angry. She turned to look down and watched in horrid fascination as all she knew shrunk below her. As Clarence pumped with his awesome wings and spiraled upwards, roads became thin lines and fields took on the look of squares on a quilt. A thick dark blue line below them she was sure must be the Morrass River. Beside it, the small town of Queegam was turned into dozens of small dollhouses with ants crawling all about.

The wonder of the view was just beginning to imprint itself in her mind when Clarence stopped his climb and leveled out. One of his wings dipped too far to the right and suddenly tilted them sideways.

The saddle shifted, and with a scream clamoring in her throat, Talia released the saddle’s groove and grabbed hold of two of Clarence’s scales. The scales were almost cool to the touch, but this was pretty much lost to her as Clarence overcompensated for his original error and threw them all sailing in the opposite direction.

The ride at no time grew steady. Without fail, every few seconds Clarence would invariably dip too far one way or the other. It was all she could do just to hold on. She kept wishing the saddle held more straps, that it was nailed to Clarence’s back, or better still, that she’d never left the ground to begin with.

A strong gust of wind caught Clarence’s wings like sails and pushed them all back. Talia’s scream was lost in the wind as Clarence tilted backwards and over.

When the dragon twisted back to the right direction things got worse as he somehow got them turned upside down. Clarence dropped like a rock and took them with him. Talia tried to scream again but shut her mouth as her stomach rose to her throat. Any sound she might have made was stolen by the wind as if it were rejoicing in her misery. She clung on, her heart hammering in her chest, as Clarence was finally able to right himself.

Sorry
. Clarence’s tone seemed shy and at the same time amused.

She felt a metal-shod hand on her shoulder but wasn’t willing to open her eyes. Was this what it was to be a Dragon Knight? She wanted nothing to do with it. She wanted to go home.

The dizzying ride continued for what seemed like forever. They dipped, they dropped, they rolled.

Hardly was there a moment it could be said they went in a straight line. She just held on knowing she had no choice but to endure it. But how did Kel do it? And he had willingly got back on after the horrid landing at her house and with the dragon falling on top of him, too. Was he mad, then?

We’re almost there
. Clarence’s voice came easily into her mind.
If you look, you can see the school
.

Despite her stomach’s strong protests, Talia opened her eyes to see where she would soon be living.

A large mesa rose before them snuggled amidst tall mountains. Nestled in the middle of this mesa was the largest building she’d ever seen. Instinctively, she knew what it was. It could be nothing else—and it was grander and larger than she ever imagined from the stories told by the bards who occasionally traveled through town. It was a castle.

Clarence circled the mesa, almost as if he were giving her a chance to get a good look. His circling pattern brought them closer and closer. The structure grew before them the nearer they came. On top of the castle, at a steep angle, was a white flat dish with numbers. After a moment, Talia realized it was a clock—and it was huge! The one which was such a source of pride and joy to Queegam was nothing in comparison.

Balconies protruded from the castle on every side. Large flying buttresses held the whole structure together, making it look even larger and grander than it already was.

Close to the stone castle was another building. It was almost as large as the former, but made of wood rather than stone. The exterior was almost identical in design, but held long slit windows instead of balconies. A wooden castle? It was something she’d not heard of before.

Surrounding the castles were cultivated fields and a small forest. On one side of the fields was a large strip of land which ran from one end of the mesa to the other, lined by bushes and trees. Once they came close enough, Clarence dived for it.

Talia lost all feeling in her hands, her knuckles turning white, as the ground seemed to rush up toward them. The castle and mesa grew rapidly around them as they headed straight down. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the approaching doom. Her mind screamed at her she was about to die.

Clarence shifted up as the ground blurred before them like a wall and plowed into the strip of land, claws first. Talia’s teeth clacked together from the impact, which made her already tight jaw hurt. The dragon slipped, his legs going out from under him, and he slid across the ground on his stomach. His body tilted sideways, throwing dirt up everywhere even as he continued to slide.

Talia ducked down onto the saddle, trying to avoid the flying clumps of earth. She held on with everything she possessed, and watched the rolling dirt as Clarence dipped slightly more to one side, shifting her even closer to the moving ground. With cold fear, she recalled his landing on her father’s fields. While Kel might somehow miraculously survive being landed on by a dragon, she doubted she would be as lucky. As fast as she could, she sent out quick prayers to as many of the twenty gods who watched over her land as she could recall.

Clarence’s body plowed into a thick line of bushes which appeared as if they received this kind of treatment on a regular basis. Talia felt her heart rise into her throat as she saw the lip of a cliff not ten arm lengths beyond them.

Both of Clarence’s claws reached out, grabbed like anchors onto the dirt, and brought them to a rough stop before they could go over the side.

Talia made her lungs breathe again, until that moment absolutely sure they wouldn’t make it. Her eyes were locked to the cliff’s edge not five paces from them; she was sure they were still about to fall.

“Talia, are you all right?”

She heard Kel turn around before her, his concern obvious in his voice. Not trusting herself to do anything but scream if she opened her mouth, she forced herself to nod instead. He quickly undid his straps and then turned fully in the saddle to work on hers.

Once they were all loosened, she found she still couldn’t move. Her numbed fingers were still wrapped tightly about Clarence’s scales and didn’t seem in any mood to let go.

Kel didn’t say anything, but slipped out of the saddle to the ground and removed his helmet, shaking his damp hair. Clarence lay quietly, craning his neck to look at them, and waited for them both to get off.

Talia tried again to make her fingers move, but they were having nothing to do with it. She felt stupid and self-conscious half-hanging as she was from the saddle, but couldn’t bring herself to attract attention to her present predicament. Even as she tried fervently to think of what she could do, she noticed Clarence’s eyes focus in her direction. Kel suddenly turned from where he was retrieving her bag as if someone were speaking to him.

“Oh, you’re right.” Kel let go of the straps and quickly pulled the gauntlets off his hands, letting them drop to the ground. He half-climbed back on the dragon, an apologetic look on his face. “Here, let me help you.”

Talia glanced away as his hands touched her fingers and carefully worked to pry them off Clarence’s scales one by one. She flinched as the blood flowed back into them again and they tingled with pain.

“Don’t worry, they’ll be as good as new in a minute.” Gently, he put her right hand between his and rubbed the feeling back into it.

She tried not to cringe as the pain in her hand got worse before it got better. After about a minute or so, he let go of her right hand and took up the other. As she experimentally flexed her fingers, he reached up to help her down. “Thanks.”

Once on the ground, Talia found her knees feeling weak, but they held. She was very grateful. She was sure she’d already made enough of a fool of herself for one day.

After studying her for a moment to make sure she was all right, Kel turned back to Clarence and quickly retrieved her bag. He gave it to her and then picked up his gauntlets and helmet. “I’ll meet you at your place once I’ve taken her inside. All right?” He glanced over at the dragon. The boy nodded as if he received an answer though Talia didn’t hear anything.