Fledgling (The Dragonrider Chronicles) (4 page)

“I swear,” I told him, and my voice
wasn’t shaking anymore. I didn’t feel afraid. “You have my word.”

Something went skidding across the
floor and stopped just beside me. It was a set of iron keys. I looked back at
Sile
, who was watching with his eyes wide. He looked
completely stunned, like he was in awe. He didn’t have to explain to me what the
keys were for.

I bent to pick them up, moving to the
huge black padlock that bound the dragon to hooks in the floor with the heavy
chains. I unlocked the one that kept his head flattened against the ground. As
soon as it clicked and the chain went slack, the dragon began to flail.

I was too close to get away. The
dragon’s lashing tail hit me and swept my legs right out from under me, sending
me sliding across the floor on my back. I heard the chains groaning and
snapping, hitting the ground as the dragon let out a surging bellow of victory.
I’d had some near-death experiences before, but this was definitely way worse
than any of the others.

Sile
was shouting, and I glimpsed him
brandishing what looked like a long spear, running toward me like he was going
to try to rescue me again. The dragon wasn’t going to allow that, though. With
a vicious snarl, he tore off the rest of the chains, and reared back onto his
hind legs to open his wings.

He was as fast as he was big, and
snapped his head forward when
Sile
tried to stick him
with the spear, grabbing it in his jaws, and snapping it like a twig. The
dragon spat out the pieces of the spear, taking a threatening snap at
Sile
, who was already beginning to retreat.

“Stop! Don’t hurt him!” I cried. I
didn’t expect that to make a spit’s worth of difference . . . but it did.

The dragon stopped, hunkered on all
four of his feet, and shot me a glare of pure frustration with those huge
cat-like eyes. His tail kept swishing as he sat there, the leathery skin of his
wings folded up along his forelegs like a bat, and gave me an angry snort. He
made those popping, chattering noises again as he swung his head back around to
look at
Sile
, who looked just as stupefied and
shocked as I was.

The dragon was
listening
to me.
 

“Unbelievable,”
Sile
whispered. I could see his expression twitching, like thoughts were racing
across his brain, until at last his gaze panned slowly over to me. He didn’t
have much color left in his face. “Do it again.”

I swallowed hard; I didn’t want to try
it again. Any time now, my luck was bound to run out. Then I’d be torched with
dragon fire, or gobbled up like a kid-shaped biscuit. Gathering my feet under
me, I stood back up. The dragon was watching me again, studying my every move.
 

“If you’re really going to make this
deal with me, you have to show me,” I spoke to the creature again. “Show me
that I can trust you.”

The dragon turned and started walking
toward me. His large, curled black claws dug into the dirt floor of the arena,
and I couldn’t help but stagger back a few feet as he crept toward me,
chattering loudly all the way. His gait was strange to watch, oddly smooth and
feline for the way his body was built.

He stopped right before me, craning
his neck to sniff at me again. Then he started to crouch down. The dragon
lowered himself until his belly was flat on the ground. His huge horned head
was low, too, and he looked at me expectantly.

Before I could figure out what I was
supposed to do,
Sile
was right there beside me. “He
wants to seal the bond,” the knight explained as he grabbed me by the waist and
pretty much tossed me up onto the dragon’s back. “Don’t be afraid.”

Easy for him to say;
Sile
wasn’t the one straddling the neck of a wild dragon
who’d already proven he had a nasty temper. With my legs slung around the base
of the creature’s neck, sitting between the shoulders of his wing arms, I clung
to anything I could when I felt him start to move. There wasn’t much to grab,
though. His scales were slick, and the little knobby black horns that ran down
his spine to the tip of his tail were cone-shaped and hard to grip. I just had
to lay flat against his neck, my arms as far around him as I could reach, and
hung on for dear life as the dragon stood.

Sile
was laughing loudly. I saw him smiling
up at me as the dragon gave a wide yawn that showed me just how many of those
teeth he had. My heartbeat was skipping and pounding erratically. My head spun
like a top. I was sitting on a dragon. Not just any dragon, though. This one
was
mine
.

four

“You’ll
be stacking stones over my grave before I allow that repulsive little wretch
into this academy! Have you absolutely lost your mind?” The Academy Commander
was yelling so loudly I could hear him from outside his office. So could my
father, and all the other instructors who had come to gather outside the door.
They all wanted to see what the verdict would be, too. If the commander allowed
me to join in the training program and become a dragonrider, it would be the
first time in history a drop of
elven
blood had ever
been in a dragon’s saddle.

           
Normally,
I would have been humiliated. But I was so tired and
hungry,
I just wanted it to be over. I stood beside Ulric, staring down at the tops of
my boots while I listened to
Sile
Derrick argue my
case. For whatever reason, he was still insisting that I should be allowed to
join. I didn’t understand why. No one else had ever fought for me like that
before.

           
“You’d
spit in the faces of our ancestors? On our most sacred tradition?”
Sile
yelled back. I heard what sounded like someone
smacking a fist down onto a tabletop. “This is how we began, Commander
Rayken
. It is our creed; the very foundation of what this
brotherhood was built upon. Any rider chosen by a dragon must be allowed to
join us—that is our first law!”

           
“And
what about all our glorious dead who have fallen in battle to those
silver-headed heathens? Are you willing to spit in their faces, instead?” The
commander started yelling again. It made my throat begin to feel tight. “By
letting that boy in here, you are acknowledging that there is nothing wrong
with what he is. He would be a stain on the reputation of our brotherhood. I
don’t care if it was a king drake that chose him. That does not forgive his
bloodline!”

           
There
was silence for a moment. I thought it was over. I didn’t know whether to be
relieved that a decision had finally been reached, happy that I wasn’t going to
have to endure being bullied by knights who were supposed to be training me, or
sad because I wasn’t going to get to fulfill what might have been my destiny.

I flicked a glance up to the dozen or
so instructors, all ranking officers, who were standing around waiting to hear
a decision as well. I was afraid of them. They were all strong,
powerful-looking men with the same cold eyes that
Sile
had. Did I really want to become one of them?

           
“If
you don’t let him in, you are sending the message that our old ways really are
dead. You’ll be suggesting that the spirit of the dragon no longer matters at
all, that we’ve bred them down to stupid beasts no better than winged pedigree
dogs!”
Sile
countered, but his voice was somewhat
calmer. It carried more emotion than anger now. “I know you’ve heard those
accusations whispered at our backs, just as I have. They say we’ve fallen from
our glorious past, and become nothing but power-hungry relics without souls.
That is not the legacy I want to leave here for the world to remember. That boy
can help us change it. We can prove that our heritage is not dead, that we
still honor the creed of our forefathers.”

           
“Have
you even seen that boy? He couldn’t possibly weigh a hundred pounds soaking
wet. He won’t last two weeks. The other fledglings would be three years his
senior. They’ll eat him alive.” The commander’s tone wasn’t any less hostile.
“You’ll be scraping what’s left of him off the dormitory walls.”

           
“I’ll
watch over him,”
Sile
interrupted. “I’ll be his
sponsor.”

           
“You’re
a fool, lieutenant. What’s come over you? Why does this halfbreed mean so much
to you?” The commander sounded suspicious, but he didn’t wait for
Sile
to give him an answer. “What has his father said? Even
as a tackmaster, I doubt he has in the income to pay for the equipment needed.”

           
“I’ll
take care of that, too. If these are your only real objections, then give me
your blessing so I can begin my work. I only have two days to get him fully
outfitted and ready to begin.”
Sile
snapped sharply.

           
I
heard the commander sigh. It was the sound of defeat. My heart jumped with
hope, making my eyes water.

“Very well,” he relented. “But you are
going to get that boy killed. His blood is on your hands, Lieutenant Derrick.
Remember that. You wanted this.”

           
There
was a brief silence before the door opened, and Lieutenant
Sile
Derrick came out of the commander’s office. His expression was steely and
focused. He didn’t give my father a second look as he stormed past the crowd of
other knights who were still gathered around. He grabbed my shoulder on his way
down the stairs, and started to drag me along with him.

           
“What
are you doing with him?” Ulric barked, lunging forward like he might try to
stop us.

           
Sile
stopped at the top of the stairs long enough to look
back, casting my father a look that I’d seen Ulric give me many times; that
look of superiority and disgust. “He’s no longer your concern, tackmaster.
Remember your place.”

           
Ulric’s
eyes were burning like torches. His fists clenched
in rage as
Sile
pushed me on ahead of him down the
stairs. It was surreal, and I wasn’t even sure if it was really happening. Just
like that, Ulric couldn’t put his hands on me anymore. Just like that, I was
free.

           
Or
maybe I’d just traded in one horror for another.

           
I
should have been exploding with gratitude for
Sile
.
He’d just fought fiercely so I could stay here and be trained as a dragonrider.
But as we paused outside the officer’s dormitory, I couldn’t help questioning
his motives. No one had ever helped me do anything before, and generosity of
this magnitude was a foreign concept to me. It was frightening. I barely knew
this man, and already I owed him my life.

           
He
seemed to pick up on my hesitance as we walked in silence toward the breaking
dome. “Commander
Rayken
is right, you know. The other
students will be at least eighteen. They are probably going to give you a hard
time.”

           
I
rolled my eyes. “Everyone gives me a hard time, sir. I’m used to that already.
That’s not what I’m worried about.”

           
“Well,
all right then.” He laughed under his breath. “What are you worried about?”

           
It
was hard to pick just one thing. I was worried about my own physical ability. I
was worried about owing a stranger my life. And more than anything, I was
worried I wouldn’t be able to keep my promise to my dragon. If I couldn’t make
it through this training, then I’d be failing more than just myself. I’d made a
deal with that creature, and I wanted to keep my word. Both our lives depended
on it now.

“I haven’t eaten in about two days,” I
told him instead. I didn’t want to look weak. Well, weak-
er
. “I guess I’m just worried
about food, right now.”

Sile
laughed again, clapping a hand on my
back that made me stumble some as I walked beside him. “That we can fix. You
look like a scrawny stray cat, boy. Maybe some decent
food’ll
put more meat on your bones.”

I blushed. It was embarrassing to have
my stature pointed out more than once in a day. “Yeah,” I mumbled back.
“Maybe.”

The dining hall was in the ground
level of the student dormitory, and that’s where
Sile
sat me down in front of a tray stacked with roasted meat, freshly baked bread,
boiled eggs, and cold milk. My mouth was hanging open. The smells were
fantastic, and I seized my fork like a weapon, preparing to go to war with the
first thing I could get my hands on.

“Eat up,” he commanded. I noticed he
wasn’t sitting down to join me for this incredible breakfast. “I’ve got to go
get your paperwork filed and put in orders at the armories for your gear. You
know where that is, don’t you?”

I nodded.

“Good, come straight over when you’re
finished. We’ve got some catching up to do.”
Sile
smirked, going on about his business, and leaving me with a fork in my hand and
a mountain of food to tackle.

I was too busy stuffing as much into
my mouth as I could to realize I was being watched. I gulped down three boiled
eggs, shoveled in several big bites of the roasted meat, and drained my glass
of milk before I even stopped to breathe.

The food was so good I didn’t even
notice it when someone came over and sat down across the table from me. There
were lots of empty seats in the dining hall. The four long tables stretched
from one end of the room all the way to the other, with wooden benches on
either side. A few hundred people could have easily sat in the dining hall to
eat without being too crowded. So there was really no reason anyone would have
sat by me . . . unless they just wanted to.

I looked across the table into the
grinning face of a boy I didn’t recognize. He was a lot older than me, maybe
eighteen or nineteen, with shaggy dark blonde hair and light brown eyes the
color of amber. I got the feeling right away that he was probably going to make
fun of me. That’s generally how things went. So I braced for the inevitable.

“You keep eating like that and you’ll
make yourself puke,” he said. I watched him reach out to tear a hunk off my
loaf of bread and pop it into his mouth. “You must be the new kid.”

I sat back away from the table some,
still armed with my fork, but not willing to fight him for my food. I could
part with a few pieces of bread as long as no one was wiping their boots on my
face. “Yeah,” I answered hesitantly. “H-how did you know that?”

He just laughed. “It’s a small place.
Word travels fast here. Especially when it concerns a halfbreed and a wild
dragon. And in case you hadn’t noticed, you’re the only halfbreed here,” he
pointed out matter-of-factly. “Word is you’ll be joining us in the fledgling
class in a few days. Guess that means we’ll be classmates.”

I wasn’t sure if I should be talking
to him or not. I didn’t get the feeling he was going to hurt me, not like I had
from the boys who’d beat me up the day before. He looked at me like I was an
interesting insect he wanted to mess with, not squash under his heel. Even so,
I wasn’t sure
who
I could trust.

“We’re both new kids, then.” I tried
to sound confident, like I wasn’t afraid of him.

It made him laugh again, and he stole
another piece of bread off my plate. “Right, right. I guess so, huh?” He was
chewing loudly, looking at me with a thoughtful expression for an uncomfortable
minute before he spoke again. “So what happened to your face?”

I blushed so hard the tips of my ears
were burning. Whenever Ulric hit me, it tended to leave hand-shaped bruises on
my skin. I bruised easily anyway, and he never held back just because I was a
kid. Of course, I’d also cracked my head off the ladder pretty hard. I probably
had a nice black eye to show for that, too. And then there was the whole mess
with the other older boys. After all that, I probably did look like a walking
corpse.

“I fell.” I told him guardedly.

He arched a brow at me like he wasn’t
buying that for a second. “Into a giant foot, apparently. You’ve got a boot
print on your face, you know.”

My ears were on fire, and I couldn’t
stand to look at him much less answer that. I sat with my shoulders hunched and
tense, staring down into my lap while he kept picking at my plate. Finally, he
stood up and left without saying another word. He sauntered out of the dining
hall with a confident swagger in his step. I didn’t even know his name.

Stuffing down a few more bites of
food, I cleaned up my tray quickly and set out for the armory. The dragons were
taking flight from the tops of the high outer wall, already grouping together
in patterns as they soared overhead. I could glimpse their riders for a few
seconds whenever they swooped past, and see that they were using hand signals
to communicate to one another. It was unfathomable to think I’d ever be like
that. Dragon or not, I couldn’t see myself as one of those powerful armored
men. I couldn’t see myself as anything.

A familiar thundering growl made me
look back over my shoulder just in time to scramble out of the way as my dragon
swooped in low to land. He cupped his leathery wings, and only missed crushing
me by a few feet as he touched down. He let out a deep bellowing roar. Under
the shining light of the morning sun, he was even more fierce and beautiful
than he had been the night before. His blue scales gleamed, and his black horns
shone like volcanic glass.