DragonRider by S. Rodman
both far too good at pool. If Tegwyn and Dai weren’t also getting thoroughly thrashed, I’d feel utterly humiliated.
It’s noisy in the rec room, several other groups are in here, but I’m getting used to it. The idea of living by myself in a tiny flat is starting to feel bizarre. Cooking for one. Watching television alone. The unending silence. The weight of nothing but your own company. I never want to experience that again.
Natasha takes her shot. The white ball slams into the maroon ball and effortlessly rolls it into the far right pocket. It’s flawless. She makes it look easy.
A siren wails, cutting through the air. Scattering my thoughts and reverberating in my skull. All other noise in the rec room ceases as everyone stops what they were doing. The crowd files out calmly. My heart is hammering, I’m feeling the exact opposite of calm. Cai hasn’t officially declared that I’m ready to fight, but I’m sure I’m very close to the expected standard. He has seemed pleased with me the last few times we have ridden.
I follow everyone else to the kit room and start pulling on my riding leathers. Agitation is itching along my skin. Will the riders on watch manage to hold the fort until the rest of us get there? I don’t know any of them well, but my concern still spikes for them. The idea of anyone getting hurt is awful. As for the thought of a tylwyth getting through… I can’t even go there.
My leathers seem to creak loudly as I head towards the stable. Heralding their newness, and therefore my inexperience. I can’t tell if my trepidation is because Cai might not let me fly, or because he might.
As I reach the stable, I see Cai standing by the entrance with his arms crossed, watching all his riders efficiently flow in. His fierce blue gaze flicks to me and I freeze mid-step. Other riders swarm around me while I suffer Cai’s intense attention. My palms are sweating and I want to swallow but my throat is too tight. I stare back at Cai and wait.
He nods. A brief decisive gesture that sets my feet in motion. I hurry past him. I’m both relieved and terrified. Luckily, my muscles have learnt this routine and they pick up Ri’s saddle without needing a single conscious thought from me.
I find Ri amongst all the other dragons in the huge, dimly lit cavern easily. He is thrumming with excitement and anticipation. There is not a grain of concern or fear in him anywhere and it makes me feel better. He clearly has faith in my abilities, because he is brutally honest and if he was at all worried, I’d know about it. As well as being able to sense it.
I swiftly attach the saddle onto my dragon’s back. Then I swing up into place, put my goggles and mask on and try to brace myself. I’m about to go into battle. On a dragon. It’s surreal. A large part of me cannot comprehend that this is really happening. It feels like a dream.
I glance around and see that Harlen is astride Zh, right at the front of the stable, the closest to the drop. He doesn’t look back at me, but his presence is still comforting.
Je is saddled and next to Zh. Waiting patiently for his rider. I think we all are.
A few heartbeats later, he appears. Cai strides over to Je and vaults onto the dragon’s back in a fluid move that looks inhuman. My stomach flutters and my chest tightens. Every fucking time. I really, truly must remember not to watch.
Ri chuckles, and I give him the psychic equivalent of the finger. It merely amuses him even more.
Cai lifts his hand up and as one, all the dragons step forward. Je and Zh drop first and then it’s a steady stream until it’s Ri’s turn. I close my eyes and cling on tightly. It’s soon over and we are soaring through the night sky, drifting into formation.
There are six bonded dragons in front of me, with Je at point. Six more are behind me. Unbonded dragons fly beside us, scattered around our tight formation.
I want to whoop with joy. We feel like a pack, a tribe, a family. I adore it. I am part of a flight. And it means the world to me.
The dark night air is brisk, even though it is full of the scents of summer, warm grass and sweet flowers. But the clean, crisp smell of the ocean is rapidly taking over. We are flying further than I’ve flown for training and despite the fear and the sombreness of the occasion, I can’t help feeling exhilarated.
A flash of green arcs across the sky. Beautiful and ethereal. The Northern Lights. I’ve always wanted to see them and now I get to do it from dragon back.
“What do you think the Northern Lights are?” asks Ri.
“Um, magnetic something or other bouncing away solar flares?”
Ri snorts in indignation. “They are the portals, ignorant human.”
What the? I blink through my startled astonishment as my mind yet again readjusts everything it thought it knew about the world. Then I grumble, “Not my fault no one told me.”
“I suppose so,” concedes Ri.
I huff and don’t answer him. I always thought the Northern Lights were pretty and spectacular. A wondrous natural phenomena. Discovering they are a dangerous threat is a bitter pill to swallow and I don’t like it.
“Get ready!”warns Ri and my heart rate triples. I can feel it in my throat, hammering away.
I cast my gaze across the sky, looking for portals as I summon my magic and get ready to start closing them. Focusing makes my nerves fall away. I’m good at magic wielding, I love it. Doing it from dragon back, in battle to protect Earth, just makes it even more rewarding. I can do this.
Cai gives the command to break formation and swoop into the fight. Ri banks to the left and I see a portal open a few feet above and to the side of us. Ri flies towards it as I cast out my magic and close it. But I’m a hairsbreadth too late. A tylwyth squeezes through. It plummets towards the earth, and Ri dives after it. The sudden movement flips my stomach over, but I don’t let it distract me.
I have a good line of sight and we are close enough, so I send out a blast of magic and disintegrate the tylwyth. Ri swoops back up, towards where the portals are opening. I feel numb. The only other thing I’ve ever killed is a squirrel that I hit accidentally with my car. Maybe I’ll freak out later, but right now I’m fine. In fact, I’m more than fine, I’m eager to do it all again. I’m scanning the sky, looking for signs of another portal opening and the only thing I feel is a zealous need.
I spy one and urge Ri towards it. He cuts through the air gracefully and I close the portal before anything gets through. A triumphant whoop of glee escapes me just as we glide past Je. Cai looks even more formidable than ever with his goggles and mask on but he gives me a thumbs up. The gesture fills me with dizzying pride.
Ri banks hard, and I realise he has seen another portal. I summon my magic and surrender myself to the rhythm of the battle. Swoop, bank, dive, fly. Close a portal. Chase an invader and blast it. Repeat.
The night is filled with the beat of dragon wings and the sizzle of magic and the determined cries of riders. The tylwyth are eerily silent and they don’t fight back. They just try to get past our defence. Their behaviour unsettles me. It stirs something buried deep within, a thought that is just out of reach, like a memory I just can’t grasp. But I dismiss it. Of course their behaviour is odd. They are alien demon fairy things. They are hardly going to act like beings from this realm.
“Kirby, Harlen. Five have got through. Pursue!” orders Cai, through my earpiece.
Ri folds his wings and we fall into a dive. The tylwyth are ahead of us, it’s going to be hard to catch up with them, gravity likes things to fall at the same speed, so it’s going to be against us. Zh and Je join the dizzying race to the ground. Dragons can shape themselves in a way that is more streamlined than the lanky tylwyth, so hopefully wind resistance will slow them down, but it’s going to be damn close.
They are too far away to disintegrate with a blast of raw power, but I have a heart stopping spell that works at a fair distance. I’m probably close enough for that. But do tylwyth have hearts? Only one way to find out.
I close my eyes and reach out with my magic. There is a beating heart in the invader’s chest. It’s startlingly similar to a human one. This is great, I can squeeze it and make it stop. But wait, there is something else here. Something that connects the creature to its comrades. A hive mind? Whatever it is, I think I can still this one’s heart and send a blast out that will cease the hearts of the closest tylwyths at the same time. There is nothing to lose by trying.
I open my eyes and see the five tylwyths falling, sprawled and lifeless through the sky. A wave of Ri’s impressed astonishment washes through me.
“How the hell did you do that?” barks Cai in my earpiece.
“It’s hard to explain,” I say.
“When we get back to the castle you are going to explain in minute detail!”
“Yes, sir!” I grumble.
Riders are extremely informal, in my opinion. There really is no expectation for me to call Cai sir, but he is pissing me off. Can’t he be happy for me? Proud? Pleased? He really doesn’t need to act as if I’ve done something wrong.
Zh swoops into position next to Ri and Harlen gives me a big double thumbs up. Cai would kill him for talking unnecessarily over the comms, so I really appreciate the gesture. At least someone is proud of me.
A quick glance around confirms that there are no more portals and no more tylwyth. I guess we will stick around until Cai decides the attack really is over. But it looks like we are done for tonight. No one is hurt. No invaders got through. I call that a success.
It’s a shame I won’t be returning to a celebration, instead of a grilling from Cai. But maybe he won’t interrogate me for long and I’ll be able to escape and celebrate with Harlen, Tegwyn, Dai and the others. And I know Natasha and Rowan will be keen to congratulate me on my first fight.
So if Cai goes easy on me, it will all be good.
I can only hope.