Dragon School_Initiate Read online

  Table of Contents

  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

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Dragon School: Initiate

  Dragon School, Volume 2

  Sarah K. L. Wilson

  Published by Sarah K. L. Wilson, 2017.

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

  DRAGON SCHOOL: INITIATE

  First edition. November 25, 2017.

  Copyright © 2017 Sarah K. L. Wilson.

  Written by Sarah K. L. Wilson.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  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

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Behind the Scenes:

  Chapter One

  I pressed my cheek against Raolcan’s searing scales. On a night as brisk as this, it was hard not to revel in his warmth.

  Meanwhile, you’re chilling me to the core.

  I laughed sleepily and nuzzled in closer. In the week since we’d passed First Flight, I’d been sneaking up here to the stables every night to sleep curled against Raolcan. It felt safer here.

  It is safer. I will keep you safe, spider. You can count on me.

  “And you can count on me,” I whispered, wary of the stable guards making their rounds. If they saw me, I would likely be in a lot of trouble, although I hadn’t been caught yet.

  Never, not in my wildest dreams, had I imagined I’d be best friends with a dragon. I was trying to enjoy every moment of it that I could sneak because I’d hardly had a moment with Raolcan during school hours - beyond cleaning his stables.

  “We need to rush your studies,” Grandis Elfar had said on the dawn of the day we passed First Flight. “There will be time enough to learn to ride on the journey ahead.”

  “Journey?” Savette had asked, never afraid to speak up to an instructor. She tossed her perfect silvery hair and held her chin high.

  “We won’t speak of that yet,” Grandis Elfar had said. “For now, we have exactly one week to cram four months worth of geography, history and social training into your heads and then test you on it and I swear to the moon and the wide-open skies, I will not have any of you fail to learn what you need. You’re Inducted now!”

  It had come as a surprise to me after First Flight, that I was suddenly included in the ranks of the Inducted who had almost refused to acknowledge us only a week ago. I shifted against Raolcan, trying to ease the pain from my crippled hip that was a constant ache in the back of my head. I wasn’t even sure why I bothered shifting when it hardly seemed to help. This time, as I shifted, I felt the stiffness and creak of my brand-new uniform of grey leathers. It was a finer piece of clothing than anything I’d ever worn. I’d been given three full sets plus fresh underthings to go along with them and a leather bag with buckles to keep my things in. I still felt like a different person whenever I caught a glimpse of myself in a looking glass.

  “It’s a pity to have to wear leather all the time,” Starie had said when we were given them. “I smell like a tannery.”

  “I think I like them,” Savette protested. She looked perfect in hers, as if the form-fitting leathers had been cut to specification for her lithe figure.

  I hadn’t looked at the other girls for long. Comparisons get you nowhere. They only make you ashamed of what you should be grateful for. I didn’t need to be beautiful. I needed to be capable - and the leathers helped with that. With them, the bite of the wind would be lessened, the heat of Raolcan’s scalding scales easier on a long ride, and I could wear them many days without needing to wash or mend them. I let those feelings of gratitude fill me and replace any need to compare myself to others.

  You need to get back to the dorms, Raolcan’s mental voice cut through my sleepy reminisces. Soon it will be sunrise and you don’t want to be caught out of your bed.

  I clambered to my feet, adjusting my crutch to bear the weight my bad leg should have carried and gently caressed Raolcan’s wing before hobbling away. He was right, of course. It was only that since the night of First Flight there had been something strange in the air, as if everyone but me was waiting for something. It made me want to stay close to Raolcan.

  I eased my way onto the supply bench rigged to the pulleys and made my decent to the dorm level. I was getting better at riding that bench and it was saving me time. I just ignored the frowns and tried to remind myself that they didn’t matter. If the frowners found themselves with one working leg in a vertical structure like Dragon School, they’d be doing the exact same thing.

  I was almost outside the door of the girl’s dorm when I heard the sound of whimpering. Our filmy curtains were flapping in the stiff wind so it took a moment to find the girl curled into a ball under one of the windows, a white letter clutched in one hand.

  “Are you hurt?” I whispered, easing myself down to sit beside her.

  Savette pulled away from me but she didn’t stand up. She always did that, like she was allergic to other humans.

  “I’m fine,” she said, voice stiff.

  “I wouldn’t be outside in the cold crying if I was just fine.” I wouldn’t have said that a week ago. Saving someone’s life made you feel bolder around them.

  “I can’t be a Dragon Rider anymore.”

  “Why not?”

  She bit her lip, glanced at me like she was going to say something and then changed her mind and stood up. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  She was gone before I’d finished exhaling.

  Chapter Two

  The next morning, the girls’ dorm was alight with excitement.

  “Magikas!” Starie said excitedly to an older girl as we cleaned our teeth around the stone basin. “I heard that Magikas are coming here!”

  “Magikas came here last year,” the other girl said with a superior air. There were two hundred of us at Inducted level now that our wave had been initiated. The initiated who came before us treated us like children – or maybe unwanted stray pets. “Two clusters of them led by a three-stripe and a two-stripe. They’ll think you’re inferior if you act like they are special.”

  “Inferior?” Starie sounded furious. “I’m a High Castelan!”

  The older girl sneered. “You’re Inducted, and until you’re brought before the Dominar to swear, that’s all you’ll be. Your titles don’t make you better than anyone else.”

  She stalked out and Starie whirled to face me. “What are you looking at?”

  I swallowed. I hadn’t done anything wrong, but con
flict made me nervous.

  “Why are Magikas coming?” I asked, trying to diffuse the situation. Unlike the others, I was a commoner and I’d never seen a Magika – not even one riding by on the common road.

  “They travel, hogweed.” Did Starie get away with talking like that in her High Castelan family? “That’s what Magikas do. They travel to find power wells and tap them, or to seek wisdom. And their apprentices travel with them. You’d better figure this stuff out or you’ll fail examinations and they’ll never let you swear.”

  Her smirk was meant to get a reaction from me but a twinge of pain in my hip distracted me. She could talk all she wanted. These twinges were because I’d pushed myself on the night of First Flight. Climbing all those levels with just one leg on a tight timeline and then leaping over the edge onto the back of a dragon was a whole lot harder than sitting a few examinations.

  I followed her out of the washroom and joined the stream of girls flooding out of the dorms and to their morning tasks. I felt a little bad about the fact that I had a leg up – ha ha – on everyone when it came to geography. I’d found that as long as I studied near Raolcan, he dipped into my thoughts and added visual memories of the geography I was studying. It was easy to remember the way a river ran across the landscape when you’d seen it in your mind’s eye. His added commentary lent depth to the studies.

  The ruby islands on the eastern reaches of the Dominion are oft-disputed and of no wonder. Their caves contain rich minerals and the ancient carvings of our ancestors, I’d read only yesterday.

  In the sea nearby sleeps the Crimson Kraken, Raolcan told me in my mind. One day she will awaken and pull the isles back beneath the depths. We dragons avoid the isles if we can.

  Study time was full of his asides. I found myself enjoying the time I spent reading. I had no idea the world was so large or so complicated.

  I followed the line of initiates heading up the ladders to the stables. Even at the back of the line, I caught more of their whispers.

  “Baojang,” one girl whispered. Without our studies, I wouldn’t even know the name of our massive neighbor to the east. “I have a letter from my parents saying that they’ve closed trade to our silver merchants.”

  “And now there are Magikas coming. I heard that we’re going to throw them a banquet when they arrive,” someone else said.

  When we arrived at the stable level Grandis Elfar was already waiting for us. Her mouth was in a thin line and the shadows under her eyes were darker.

  “Inducted,” she said, “you must hurry through your stable and tack today. All those in the most recent wave will sit examinations for geography and nations. Those in wave two will sit examinations for etiquette and castelans. Those in wave three will sit examinations for resources and logistics. Despite our best efforts, things here at Dragon School are changing – rapidly. We will do all we can to prepare you for what is ahead.” She paused and wiped her forehead with her neck scarf. “But we remain people under orders and those orders will be followed.”

  “What orders are those?” Starie demanded.

  Grandis Elfar’s expression grew dark. “That’s none of your affair, Inducted. Hop to work. All of you, get to work. Except you, High Castelan Savette Leedris. We need to have words.”

  I followed the line of Inducted, a bit behind them with my stilted pace. As I turned the corner on the narrow path around the dragon cotes, I looked back over my shoulder at Savette. Her shoulders were hunched and her arms wrapped around her body. I was starting to worry about her. Something wasn’t right and she wasn’t telling me what it was. It was hard to help someone when they refused to even speak to you about their problem.

  If it’s important, she’ll tell you at the right time, Raolcan said.

  I let out a long breath, letting myself relax into the feel of his mind against mine. I always felt safe with Raolcan.

  Chapter Three

  I was rubbing the last of the oil into Raolcan’s scaly spine when a flutter of wings and a loud thump drew my attention. Here, at the very end of the stables, there were no full dragon cotes past Raolcan’s and yet someone had had just landed – rather clumsily – in the cote beside his.

  Ahlskibi, Raolcan told me.

  His ears were up and his wings taut. Was something wrong?

  Yes.

  I pulled my crutch up from the ground, secured it under my arm and hobbled out onto the narrow path between the dragon cotes and the cliffside. The height hardly bothered me anymore but there would never be a time when I wouldn’t have to be careful walking here. I’d already lost one crutch over the side – that fateful night of First Flight – and I doubted that Dragon School had many more lying around. Dragon Riders were physical people. There were no other Dragon Riders like me. No one else with a broken body who still desperately wanted to ride.

  There was no curtain covering the entryway to the next cote, but I was still careful as I turned the corner around the curve of the cliff and looked in. I’d almost had my face torn off the last time I stuck a head into a strange dragon’s cote.

  Raolcan had been right. Ahlskibi, Leng’s purple dragon, was hunched within the cote, his head low over something – prey? A kill?

  I gasped when I saw it was Leng, limp on the floor, his black leather clothing slick with blood and a wooden cylinder gripped in one hand. What should I do? No one would hear me if I called out from so far down the stable line, but I didn’t dare leave him.

  Bells. Above your head. Look for a red rope.

  Raolcan had come to the rescue again. I found the red rope hanging above my head and stretched upward to pull on the knot at the end. I didn’t hear a bell, but hopefully, someone did further down. That done, I limped toward Leng, wary of Ahlskibi who had laid his massive head down beside him.

  “Don’t be angry, Ahlskibi. I’m just checking on him. Easy, now. I just want to see if he is okay.”

  Nervous fear made my hands tremble as I drew close. His jaws were so large and so close that I could feel his hot breath gusting over Leng. I put a palm above his mouth, sighing with relief at the feel of his exhale. It was light, but it was still there. I felt his forehead – hot. Where was his injury? There were no obvious marks on him despite the blood. I sank into a one-legged crouch, but my balance gave way, dumping me onto the ground. Not a problem. I could work better from here, anyway. Leaning up on one knee, I gripped his side and rolled him over, gasping at the dark quarrel sticking out of his lower back. Blood oozed out from the wound. I bit my lip. What did you do for a wound like that? The oilcloth! I jammed it against the wound, trying not to move the quarrel, but he still gasped at my touch.

  “Elfar?” he asked.

  “It’s me,” I said, realizing too late that he couldn’t see my face and that I couldn’t lean him back down so that he could. I needed to keep his weight off the quarrel. “Amel Leafbrought. Ahlskibi landed in the stall next to Raolcan’s.”

  “Hurt,” He gasped.

  “You were shot in the back. I rang a bell for help.”

  “Ahlskibi.” He coughed. “Is he hurt?”

  I looked at him, but how could you tell? He wasn’t bleeding. He looked like he wanted to flame something. How could I tell if he was hurt?

  You could ask. As always, Raolcan was to the point.

  “Are you hurt?” I asked him.

  No answer. Perhaps Raolcan could ask.

  He’s unhurt.

  It was pretty irritating that he wouldn’t speak to me directly. I knew he could. He’d done it before.

  It’s purple dragon tradition, Raolcan said.

  I rolled my eyes but Leng needed to know. “He’s fine.”

  “Baojang. Scroll.” His hand reached around and handed me the cylinder.

  “I think you should rest,” I said, uncertainly, stuffing the scroll into my waistband. “I’ll hold onto you.”

  He slumped like he had passed out and I held him there, wobbling on my one knee, until finally there was the sound of feet running and th
en Grandis Elfar burst into the cote with four Dragon Riders - guard bands around their arms. They must have been the ones on watch.

  “What happened?” she asked me, as she motioned to the other men to position the stretcher they’d brought.

  “I was with Raolcan and we heard them land. There’s a quarrel in his back.”

  “Leng?” Grandis Elfar leaned in close to Leng at the same moment that one of the Dragon Riders gently took over bracing him up on his side. The other helped me to my feet, business-like in his desire to clear me out of the way and help Leng. I hobbled to the side of the cote, my eyes riveted on Leng. How bad was his injury? Would he recover?

  Grandis Elfar was whispering to him. I strained my ears to hear, but only heard the word “Baojang.” I played nervously with the cylinder he’d given me before I realized what I was doing and then froze, guiltily. Leng muttered something and I felt a pang in my chest. I needed him to be okay. Apparently, Ahlskibi felt the same way. She bared her teeth as the Dragon Riders gently lifted him onto the stretcher and then carried him away.

  I chewed on my thumb, then realized what I was doing and stopped just as Grandis Elfar’s eyes fell on me. “Will he recover?”

  “It’s not mortal. They’ll take him to the infirmary.” She had a strange expression on her face, like she was considering something. “I’m glad you chose Purple, Amel. Days are coming when we will need more of your kind.”

  Why did that sound so ominous?

  “He gave me this,” I said, offering her the scroll.

  She held out a hand, but then drew it back before she could take the scroll. “It’s marked with the purple seal.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means that it may only be given to a Dominion Envoy. Or carried by a Purple Dragon Rider.”

  “I’m not either of those,” I said, nervously.

  Her expression was grim. “By law, I can’t take it from you. You must keep it for him either until he can take it back, or until you are in contact with a Dominion Envoy or a Purple Dragon Rider. You must not break the seal or read the message.”