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  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  DRAGON SCHOOL: BRIGHT HOPES

  First edition. May 7, 2018.

  Copyright © 2018 Sarah K. L. Wilson.

  Written by Sarah K. L. Wilson.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Behind the Scenes:

  For anyone who needs hope in a dark place.

  Chapter One

  I knew I was in bad shape because I kept flashing in and out of consciousness like life was one big bad dream told in multiple little flashes. I’d hear people talking or open my eyes for a minute and then darkness, as if I’d fallen asleep during a story and was only catching it in little chunks.

  Hubric was arguing with Savette in the background in this flash.

  “I don’t know where they are! We all were transported to slightly different spots. Maybe Kyrowat and Raolcan came out closer together than Rasipaer did. Maybe he just got transported a little further away.”

  “But if they are still back there, then we have to go back for them!” Savette sounded nervous. Who wouldn’t be after what we went through?

  “Absolutely not. Rasipaer will understand. We must get to safety. He and Iskaris will be doing the same thing. Both the Dominar and Amel are gravely injured and it’s lucky that we were at least in mind-range of each other. Now, we must fly for help. Here, help me finish this pallet. If you ride Raolcan and I ride Kyrowat, we can each take one of the wounded with us.”

  Savette’s tone was gentler than it had been. “Don’t worry, Hubric. I’ll take good care of her.”

  The dragons must be fine if they were carrying us. I let the darkness swallow me again.

  The next time I came to, I opened my eyes enough to see a campfire. Across from me, the Dominar lay on a pallet, his arm being tended to by Savette. Why did that feel significant to me?

  “I don’t know, it’s like it wasn’t dressed at all,” she was saying to Hubric. “It must have been really hurt in that final battle. Good thing he’s hearty and muscled. He should at least survive the injury. Should I take his mask off?”

  “Absolutely not. We’ll get them to healers as soon as we figure out where we are. Soon there will be some sort of town or landmark to tip us off.”

  “Still no word about Rasipaer?” she asked.

  “I haven’t asked Kyrowat in a while, but I know he’s still searching for Rasipaer with his mind. I don’t want to bother him while he’s trying to tend to Raolcan. Maybe tomorrow we’ll have Kyrowat carry both the wounded to give Raolcan a break.”

  “Raolcan won’t like that.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  This time, when the darkness came, it was filled with fitful dreams of fleeing through underground tunnels. I woke with a gasp to find it was midday, and I was strapped down in a pallet, with nothing but air and sky above me. I pushed against the straps.

  Easy, spider. It’s just me. I’m carrying you.

  They’d said he was hurt. He should be resting.

  It takes a lot more than that to get this dragon down.

  Please, Raolcan, take care of yourself. My consciousness began to fade as he sent me one last thought.

  After I take care of you.

  The next time I woke up, the world was spinning so badly that I had to keep my eyes closed. I heard Savette’s voice and what sounded like another argument with Hubric.

  “Because getting her to a healer is more important!”

  “Don’t tell me that,” Hubric said, his voice harsh. “We need you alive, Savette, and there’s only one way to do that now.” Someone coughed – a terrible, hacking cough. “Don’t tell me that you don’t know what’s happening. We don’t have much time if we’re going to save your life. Raolcan says -”

  “Raolcan would want Amel healed before she dies of her injuries.”

  Hubric cursed. “Savette, Amel and you both need help. You can both get it in the Lands of Haz’drazen. That’s where we need to go, not some sky city close by. And don’t think I won’t pull rank on you, Initiate. I’m a full Dragon Rider. What I say is what will happen.”

  “And I’m the wife of the Prince of Baojang and according to you, the Chosen One of legend. I’m pretty sure that tops ‘full Dragon Rider.’” She almost sounded as haughty as her old self, but then she deflated. “We both want the same thing, Hubric.”

  “I know we do.”

  They sounded grim, like something terrible was happening. There was a moan from nearby and then a voice. Was that Iskaris? It sounded like his voice. Perhaps they had found Rasipaer after all!

  “Water.”

  “Don’t move, Dominar. I’ll fetch it for you,” Savette said. There was a rustling sound and then the sound of water being poured. “Let me help you up to drink. Here.”

  I faded from consciousness and woke again in the night. It was getting harder and harder to hold on to full thoughts.

  “Shhh,” Savette whispered from beside me. “Don’t make a sound. Hubric told me not to try this, but Amel, I’m dying anyway and I think you are, too. This is the only way I could think of to help, so please, hold still.”

  She took my head in her cold hands. I should say something to tell her everything would be alright, but I was just so tired. She’d understand...

  “I think that if I focus very, very hard...”

  A moment later she was panting and gasping. “It’s no use. I just don’t know what to do.”

  She shouldn’t be working so hard to help me. She should be resting.

  “Come on, please work, please work, please be true. This has to be true, I just know it.” She sounded desperate now. Was she crying? I thought I felt a hot tear hit my face. “This has to work. Come on, Amel!”

  Light flared around me, filling me up with the feeling of a beam of sunlight on your face – only this beam was inside, washing, repairing, making everything bright and fresh again. I relaxed into it, not stopping the waves of light from rolling over me. I didn’t know how long it lasted, but when it was done, Savette reeled back in a coughing fit.

  I was lying on a blanket on the hard ground. Something dug into my hip. It was dark around me, with only a sliver of moon to make movements distinguishable, but not people. Above me, the silhouettes of tree branches swayed in the song of the wind. I sat up. What was that feeling in my head? I hadn’t felt this in a long time. It was – free. Free from pain and free to think again.

  We were in a clearing, the dragons off to one side – dark mounds in the dark night. Were they sleeping? In the middle of the clearing, a fire had died to embers and I saw two bundles of cloth on either side of it. Hubric and the Dominar. Savette must have crept over to heal me in the night. She was still coughing, but no one came to check on her.

  “Savette? I whispered. “Are you okay?”

  She laughed, a breathy whispery laugh.

  “I’m dying,
Amel.”

  Chapter Two

  “I thought I was dreaming,” I said slowly. The ground was so cold, and the wind chilled my body through my tough leathers. Savette must be freezing in her light dress and cloak. She pulled in her knees so that she was hugging them to her chest and I scooted closer, wrapping the blanket around us both. “When I saw Eeamdor fall, I thought it was just a bad dream.”

  “It was real.” There were tears in her voice.

  “Did you just heal me, Savette?”

  “Yes.” She sniffled. “Hubric told me not to. He told me to save my strength.”

  I agreed with him. She should have saved her strength.

  “Where are we?”

  “Just north of a sky city called Umtal. We saw it in the distance when we landed here. Hubric recognized Magika Tower in the cityscape - a tall tower with a disk at the top. I think we should go there. The Dominar’s arm is bleeding badly. I’m worried that his infection is back and I was worried about you. We didn’t think you could live for much longer.”

  Wait. Raolcan! I still didn’t hear him in my mind.

  “Savette, is Raolcan okay?”

  She nodded. I could feel it despite the dark as her shoulder rubbed against mine.

  “Sort of. He was injured in the battle, broken ribs, we think. He can still fly. Kyrowat said he would heal quickly, but he needs rest to heal. He went into that dragon deep sleep state when we stopped for the night to try to regain his strength. He’s very insistent that we go to the lands of Haz’drazen. He’s certain we can get help there from the Queen of Dragons.”

  “Savette?”

  “Yes?”

  “Thank you for healing me. Thank you for saving my life.”

  “You’re welcome, Amel. You’re my best friend, you know. I don’t think you should die with me.”

  “You can’t die, Savette.” If she did, all of Hubric’s hopes – all the hopes of the Lightbringers – all my hopes? – would be gone forever. It was hard to imagine a world that didn’t have Savette in it.

  She snorted. “Maybe you should get some sleep. Do you feel okay? Are you really healed?”

  “I am,” I said. I felt perfectly fine.

  “I put your crutch beside you on the ground,” Savette said. I felt around until my hand closed over it. “It’s amazing that it survived everything. Good thing it had those straps. After Eeamdor...” her voice faltered. She coughed and started again. “After Eeamdor flicked us with his tail, the dragons had to get us back in the circle. They dove in while I was finishing tuning the portal. I didn’t get it right. I mean, I don’t really know what I’m doing with them and I... well, we ended up in mid-air and scattered. Kyrowat caught Hubric and the Dominar while they were falling and Raolcan caught you and me. I was just falling, falling, falling, sure I’d die and then his purple claws snatched me out of the air like an eagle with a fish. We don’t know what happened to Rasipaer or Iskaris. They must have come out further than we did – or maybe they were hurt more. We couldn’t find them. Hubric’s really upset about that. I think he thinks of them as his responsibility.”

  “Do you want to get some sleep, Savette?”

  “I can’t really sleep, Amel. I just cough the whole time.”

  “Your eyes are dimmer.” The cloth around her eyes barely glowed. “Is that because you used all our power healing me?”

  “They were already fading. I think it’s because...”

  Because she was dying. Words of the Ibrenicus Prophecies tumbled through my mind – words of hope and destiny. None of them would be fulfilled without her, would they? It was funny, because before when Hubric wanted me to believe that a healthy, powerful Savette could save the Dominion I just couldn’t bring myself to believe, but now that she was broken and withering – now that all hope seemed lost – I was certain that the prophecies were about her and not Starie. And I was certain that they were true. There had to be a way to save her life again.

  Words of the Ibrenicus prophecies came to my mind, unbidden.

  For in the day of darkness the Chosen One will find hope in our hearts, and from hope truth, and from truth, light that opens doors

  The Chosen One needed our hope. I was going to make sure that she had all of mine.

  Chapter Three

  Eventually, she nodded off, her head bobbing against my shoulder as she fell in and out of sleep. I laid her gently on the ground, wrapped her in the blanket and then pulled myself up on my crutch. I felt good – better than I had in weeks. My head was clear, and my hip didn’t even twinge as I settled my crutch on my arm and limped over to Raolcan.

  He slumbered like a small purple mountain beside Kyrowat. Kyrowat’s eyelid cracked open, fixing me with a baleful stare for a moment before shuttering closed again. He was clearly warning me not disturb his friend. I wasn’t going to wake him. I just needed him to know he was loved. I settled my blanket around myself and leaned into his warmth. I may have drifted off for a little while, but it was still dark when my eyes fluttered open.

  “Amel? Is that you?” Hubric whispered. He crouched in front of me, his arm held out like he’d been about to shake me awake.

  “Hubric?”

  He sighed with relief. “I was worried when you weren’t where I left you. Thought you’d wandered off in your fever.”

  “Hubric, I need to apologize. About those messages-”

  “No.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t want to talk about that, and I don’t want it to happen again. I ... I thought you were dying ... I thought that this was the end of everything and here you are, lying against Raolcan like nothing ever happened. I swear, you are almost glowing. This ... this isn’t the time for recriminations or regrets. It’s time to hope again. Shall we agree on a fresh start?”

  “Fresh start,” I agreed, my eyes moist. I blinked back the tears. Whenever I thought Hubric was going to scorch me he ended up being more tender than a mother with her newborn.

  “I delivered the messages to the Dominar when he woke up last night. He’s in a lot of pain, but his mind is still there. So, that’s an end to it.”

  I nodded.

  “We made it, apprentice. We went down into the belly of the earth, but the earth couldn’t hold us. We’re free.”

  I smiled, but I was worried. He gave the messages to the Dominar, did he? If my memory of Eeamdor wasn’t a dream then maybe I hadn’t dreamed the other part of that memory, either.

  “Hubric,” I said, “I need to talk to you about something.”

  There was a scuffling sound from close to the fire and then someone lit a candle and walked toward us. My words died on my lips as the light reflected off of the Dominar’s carved mask. I didn’t know what face was behind that mask, but I suspected it wasn’t the face that had been there when we entered the warrens. I clenched my jaw, meeting the eyes set in that unyielding mask. Were they ruthless eyes, or was I imagining things?

  “You’re both awake. Good. As soon as it is dawn, we fly to Umtal.” His voice was muffled by the mask, but it didn’t sound like the Dominar. It didn’t sound like Iskaris, either. Was he disguising his voice?

  He walked away without awaiting a reply and Hubric made a clicking sound of disapproval with his tongue.

  In a whisper he said to me, “Amel, as soon as the Dominar is finished with our services we must get Savette to the lands of Haz’drazen.”

  “We should go there now,” I said.

  “We don’t fly against the Dominar’s orders.”

  “But what if he isn’t the Dominar? I saw him do a strange thing, Hubric. I saw him drag an unconscious Iskaris out of that circle just before we were transported away. I dragged the man back in but... I don’t think the man in that mask is the Dominar.”

  Hubric scoffed. “I think you weren’t entirely conscious, Amel. A lot of the things you remember from the past few days are mixing with dreams in your mind. Don’t trust them.”

  But I did trust them, and I was certain that if I rippe
d that mask off the Dominar’s face I’d find the face of Iskaris with his mocking scowl beneath the burnished silver of the mask.

  Chapter Four

  “Raolcan?” I stroked his shoulder gently. “Raolcan?”

  Kyrowat growled.

  “Take a step back, Amel,” Hubric said from where he was trying to repair a saddle strap. We didn’t have much left in the way of gear. The blankets had survived the underground battles, as had a little water and some hard tack, but there was no tea or kettle or change of clothing for any of us. What hadn’t been lost during our scuffles with Ifrits, had been lost in that tight squeeze through the last warren.

  I stepped back quickly – Kyrowat’s expression brooked no nonsense. He reared back and coughed a tiny puff of flame on Raolcan’s side. What the...

  I’m up, I’m up!

  Raolcan reared up like someone had ... lit him on fire. Yeah, that made sense. But as soon as he saw me, his expression warmed and he leaned down slowly until his great head rested against my shoulder.

  Amel! You’re awake and well. It’s like a dream come true.

  Tension I didn’t know was building up in me gently unwound in his embrace. My dragon. With him, I was safe. But what about him? Hubric said he was injured.

  Nothing a good night’s sleep won’t fix. I feel better already.

  I frowned, crossing my arms over my chest. Of course, he was going to be stubborn. That was just like him. He was probably badly injured and hiding it from everyone.

  Would Kyrowat flame me if I was damaged as badly as you think?

  Who knew? That dragon was unpredictable and prickly as an old barn cat.

  Of course he is, but that doesn’t mean he’s a bad dragon. He wouldn’t hurt me intentionally.

  What kind of dragon was Haz’drazen? If we were going to bring Savette to her, then Raolcan must trust her.

  She is wise, though not without her faults. She sees the world in her own way.