As mentioned in a previous post (See Dragon’s Guardian), this book actually inspired Kaylyn’s story. I had written most of Seyda’s story, until I wrote a throwaway line about Seyda reminding someone of the first Dragonrider. As I read that line, I wondered (what if?) Who was the first Dragonrider and how did that happen? Kaylyn’s story came a little faster because I had already done a lot of world-building with Seyda’s story. Now I could go back and put some of those things into context. Where did the message mirrors come from? What was it like learning about gaining enhanced abilities and the dangers of the mindlink?
I’ll be honest, this one wasn’t going to be ready by the summer. I try to put out one a year, and I’d fallen behind. But because of the pandemic, I, a public school teacher, was sent home during Spring Break, and stayed home until August. That was a lot of free time on my hands, and I did turn a significant amount of it to finishing this book.
I was asked if I had given the dragon Covid (when the dragon gets sick, minor spoiler), and I just want to say…that part was written way before the shutdown.
Chapter 1
“Any sight of them yet?” Erik yelled up to me.
“Nothing yet!” I called back down. “Have Leah or Tyrone heard anything?”
Erik shook his head. “Do you think they’ll be delayed?”
“I think they would have sent word if they knew they’d be delayed.”
Erik motioned me down. “Well, if they aren’t here yet, let’s make a run to town.”
I grimaced. “You said I was done with the ointment.”
“This one is the last,” he promised. “And it won’t smell as bad.”
“Promises, promises,” I retorted before I ducked inside.
It was a quick trip to Rowanwood, the closest town to where we were. We didn’t want to miss when the senior Dragonriders came back, and we’d been working on Icosagon. Workers had come and replaced the glass ceiling, but everything else we were handling ourselves. It wasn’t the most glamorous part of being a Dragonrider, but I still loved it.
Being a Dragonrider was everything I had ever wanted. I felt at home at Icosagon and looked forward to each day. I had friends, people who were teammates and who I trusted, I had Erik, my best human friend, and most importantly, I had Windsong.
My bronze dragon was just as settled and happy as I was. Windsong had learned how to blow flame, and I had recovered from the attack by Malcolm and the other poachers who had tried to kill us and take our dragons. With Malcolm captured, we should have felt safer, but our victory had come at a cost, and we were just waiting for the debt to be called in.
Malcolm had threatened to expose the senior Dragonriders who had used questionable measures to force their dragons to accept them. I had used a quick maneuver to declare Malcolm an enemy combatant and isolated him from anyone who wasn’t military. We still answered to military law, but the Elders weren’t military and they weren’t looking to dispense justice, but whatever would improve their standing in their political and social careers. The Elders hadn’t been happy with what I’d done, and I was waiting for their retaliation.
We had taken precautions. I’d started by writing a letter to my sister, warning her about what the Elders had said. She was sure it wouldn’t happen, and I’d rolled my eyes at her naiveté. Rather than argue with her, I’d written a letter to Lady Kaylyn Madara and Lord Raz Greenclaw. We all had, actually, as we were ordered to give a report on the situation. Lady Kaylyn was the first Dragonrider, and the highest authority inside Dragonrider law. She and her husband, Raz, were in charge of all Dragonriders and Dragontrainers. But as Lady Kaylyn was known for despising politics, and Raz was an Eagle, like me, I had no doubt the two of them would be absolutely fair, and I wouldn’t argue any punishment they gave.
In response to my report, copied word for word to Lady Kaylyn, Raz, and my Eagle mentor and guardian Ulric, I’d received a letter back. I kept the letter locked away, but I’d read it so many times I had it memorized. Lady Kaylyn had written to me. It was the closest I’d come to meeting her yet. The seniors and their dragons had been called down to Icosagon to discuss things in person. The other juniors had promised over and over that we wouldn’t destroy Vesta while they were all gone. Moonclaw stayed behind just in case. I wasn’t included in the promises because I had still been working on my recovery and they hadn’t thought I could cause any problems.
Their departure had included pale faces, queasy stomachs, and a lot of comfort from their dragons. Their return was drastically different. Whatever Lady Kaylyn, and likely Raz Greenclaw, had said to them, they’d been forgiven as well. There were no tears, no shame. They chattered easily. Maggie even asked me about Raz. “Have you ever met him?” she asked. “You know, since you’re both Eagles.”
I shook my head, trying to keep the wistfulness from my expression. “No, I haven’t. I hope someday I can.”
“I hope you do. He’s someone worth admiring. And not just because he’s an Eagle.”
“Do Lady Kaylyn and Justin know you’re admiring him?” I teased.
Maggie laughed. “Not that kind of admiring. And before I forget, Danny has a letter for you.”
I nearly ripped the letter from Danny’s hands. He didn’t even notice, too busy trying to get Spiritheart’s gear off so she could go hunt and see her mate, Scarface. “We told them that you were the one who came up with the idea of locking Malcolm away using military law,” he said. “And we kind of hinted that we knew you were an Eagle since we weren’t sure if Raz knew that we knew. I hope that was all right.”
“What did he say?” I asked. Excitement burned, but I didn’t let it show too much. I didn’t want him to know how much I idolized Raz and Kaylyn.
“He said you learned your lessons well and that you knew the value of taking care of your own. He and Kaylyn will be taking over keeping Malcolm locked away.” Danny paused, as if recalling something, then he met my gaze. “We are all very grateful for what you sacrificed for us,” he said sincerely. “Lost family, injuries, political enemies. I don’t want you to think we don’t remember that we owe our lives mostly to you.”
My heart glowed at the sincerity in his tone while his blue eyes melted my insides. “You’re welcome,” I said softly.
Danny pulled the last strap off Spiritheart. With a snap of wings, Spiritheart took flight, disappearing into the sun.
“I’ll help you carry this in,” I offered.
“I’ll get it,” Danny said. “You shouldn’t be overworking.”
“I’m fine,” I insisted. And to prove it, I hefted the saddle over one shoulder and started to haul it in.
“What is this?” Gretel screeched. Danny hurried forward at the sound, concern creasing his brow. I winced.
Inside, the place was a mess of ropes. Ropes of all sorts of lengths were securely tied to railings, beams, crossing to one place, then back across. Danny’s jaw dropped. “What were you doing?” he asked no one in particular.
“We leave you alone for five days, and you do this?” Gretel shouted at the gathering juniors. “We specifically told you not to make a mess!”
“We didn’t,” Bobby said mildly. “We woke up one morning, and it was like this.”
“Are you saying someone broke in and tied ropes everywhere?” Vern demanded sarcastically.
“You put these ropes up, you’re taking them down. All of them,” Gretel growled.
“But we didn’t,” Bobby said again. He nodded to me. “She did.”
I scuffed my foot over the floor when they all turned to look at me. “In my defense, you didn’t tell me to do or not do anything,” I said meekly.
“You did this?” Vern demanded. “By yourself?” He glared up at the juniors, waiting for an accomplice to admit to the mess.
“Well, I was having problems sleeping one night.”
“And you decided to tie every rope we owned into some kind of knot all over the building?”
“It serves a purpose. I was going to take it all down today.”
Danny rubbed his temples. “What is it for?” he asked with a touch of weariness.
“I’ll show you,” I offered. I reached for a rope.
“No.” Danny held up a hand. “You’re too weak to be climbing.”
“You might as well let her,” Erik said, leaning against the rail near a rope. “She’s been climbing all over for two days.”
“Doing what?” Maggie asked as I tied the first rope around my waist.
“Cleaning places I never want to clean,” Leah said with a shudder.
“It wasn’t just cleaning,” I objected. “It was for protection. Malcolm’s men were all over this building. I wanted to make sure they hadn’t destroyed anything or left anything behind.” I climbed easily up the short rope, bracing myself against a wall as I tied the secondary rope around my waist. Then pulled myself until I could reach the knot where the secondary rope was tied. “They left some more weapons behind, by the way. Three spiked disks, four quivers of arrows, and a vial of some kind of red liquid.”
This caught their attention. “Red liquid?” Justin asked. “Where is it?”
“I found it here.” I had climbed up to the third rope, pointing to where it was tied. The spot was just above Bobby’s room, between his room and the next floor, where a beam ran around the inside of the building. There was a kind of shelf, and not only had it been absolutely filthy, it had been where I’d found most of the weapons, and the Atberry heirloom ring. I hadn’t the heart to tell Bobby that I thought Malcolm had lived in his room based on the amount of dust and grime on the heirloom ring. The bottle hadn’t been at all dirty. “I put it outside, in a box, next to the ramp. It almost looked like bottled blood.” And the heirloom ring was hidden in my trunk. I had no idea what to do with it.
Justin left immediately to get the box.
“I washed all the weapons,” I said, continuing to untie ropes and let them drop to the floor below, speaking louder as I climbed higher. “Just in case. I’ve heard of people poisoning spiked disks.” With all ropes untied except the one I was currently on, I slid back to the floor.
“She had us washing everything,” Rylee said. “My hands looked like prunes. Do you know what the liquid is?”
“If it’s what I think it is, it explains how they were planning on selling the dragons,” Gretel said. “Did you find anything else? Any damage?”
We all shook our heads. “We checked what we could,” Erik said. “We have a letter to Captain Marcell, asking if he could send someone else to look for any kind of threat, but we were going to wait for you first.”
Justin returned with the box, his face grim. “We need to hide this someplace. Quickly,” he told the other seniors.
“What is it?” Rylee demanded. “What’s it do?”
Justin sighed. “It’s a sedative, a very potent one. But not for humans. It’s called Dragon’s Blood. It comes from a tree. When you slice the tree, it looks as if the tree is actually bleeding. If you give this to a dragon, the dragon becomes…well…lethargic. Almost comatose. They can’t fly, or flame, and they can hardly move, depending on the dosage. It makes them easily controlled because they’re easily confused. They have moments they can’t remember.”
I deliberately avoided meeting anyone’s gaze, but I couldn’t help but wonder how they knew all of this. I knew several others would be wondering the same.
“We have used it, but not for the reasons you think,” Danny said. I jerked as if I’d been caught, and saw others do the same. “It’s used when a dragon is hurt, seriously hurt. It calms them enough that we can help them. But most dragons don’t like how it makes them feel, so they prefer to be asleep. If anyone got their hands on this, they could potentially take or kill a dragon while it was defenseless.
I called to Windsong, relaying this information. I reached for the bottle and studied it carefully. “How much does it take?” I asked. “Is it strong? A few drops?”
“A few drops wouldn’t put them into the state you wanted, but it would give you an edge. It would certainly slow a dragon down.”
“What about humans?” Erik asked.
“It actually helps our kind. Just not theirs.”
“Does it work if a dragon touches it?” Rylee demanded, wringing her hands nervously.
“No. It has to be inside them. Tossing it on them won’t do anything. Toss it in their mouths, or in some kind of injury, that will do something.”
I pulled the stopper, taking a deep breath of the liquid as Windsong came in, followed by Firestar. I offered the bottle to Erik. He wrinkled his nose at the smell. “I won’t forget that scent.”
I tilted the bottle, poured a single drop in my hand and held it out to Windsong. She sniffed it, Firestar craning his neck to do the same. Then Windsong licked the drop from my hand. I put the stopper back on, watching with the other Dragonriders. Her eyes were a bluish color, thoughtful, and then dark orange seemed to swirl right into the blue. It was as if someone had started to mix dark orange paint into blue. The eyes were still blue, but that orange mixed with it, as if she were confused.
“Windsong?” I asked.
She shook her head once. Twice. I could feel her confusion. I’d hear a thought, and then I would hear nothing. Then another snatch of thought. “It’s changing how she thinks,” I said aloud. “She has to work to remember things. She can’t seem to control the mindlink. It’s as if there’s a bee buzzing in her head, distracting her from focusing.”
“Is there a way to stop it?” Bobby asked, ever the tactician, looking for the solution.
“It has to run its course,” Maggie said, brushing her hair out of her eyes. “The more the dragon has, the more it will affect you too. It works for six hours before it starts to wear off with a full dose. A single drop like that will last half an hour, maybe less depending on the dragon.”
Windsong shook her head again, her eyes closing. “The room swirls and twists, as if it can dance,” she told me. “It spins my head until I feel as if my head is backwards, but when I move, I am not in the position I feel myself in.”
“Do you know where you are? Who’s here?”
For a dragon, something like this was easy to recall, even had there been two hundred people in the room. They always knew every name. Windsong tried, and though she knew every person and dragon in the room personally, she couldn’t come up with them. “You are…Seyda. Erik. Firestar. Danny and Maggie. Moonclaw. Rosewing.”
I felt alarm. “Rosewing? Who’s that?”
I felt Windsong’s confusion. She started to twitch restlessly.
“Seyda, calm,” Justin ordered, seeing that reaction from Windsong. “Right now, you’re her anchor. Give her small things to hold onto. The more upset you are, the worse she will be. She can’t control herself, so you have to allow her to have something to calm her down.”
“But she knows everyone here,” I protested. “Everyone here is her friend and she can sense what they feel.”
“Everything around her is what’s driving her out of control. She can’t differentiate who is feeling what, or why. Your mindlink is the strongest emotion. Whatever you feel is what she’s going to reflect most strongly.”
Erik stepped forward to move beside me, and Windsong suddenly growled, the eyes turning to red. Firestar immediately grabbed Erik by his jacket with his teeth, pulling him back. I adjusted myself so I was standing directly in her line of sight. “It’s all right, Windsong. I’m right here.” I made myself soothing. “You’re all right. Just you and me. Who am I?”
The red slowly started to fade. “You are…Seyda. You are…Seyda.” It flickered in and out. I could tell she was losing the ability to keep her thoughts just to me. They were spreading to the others in the room.
I rested my head against hers. “Yes. I’m Seyda,” I thought back to her. Her frustration was turning her eyes pink, but the swirls of orange confusion were still there. “And we’re at Icosagon. Elizabeth helped give it that name, remember? Lizzie adores you. She says you’re one of the most beautiful things she’s ever seen.” I continued to talk mentally to her, just to keep her focused. The pink went away. Slowly, the orange faded. Within twenty minutes, Windsong was back to normal.
“Well, that was interesting,” Erik commented. He and Firestar were sitting nearby, observing. “If that’s how they wake up, I don’t think I’ll use that at all.” He held out my letter. “You dropped this, by the way.”
“Thanks.” I rubbed my hands over Windsong’s nose. “Are you good?”
“Yes.” Her voice was calm now that her control was back. “I do not like Dragon’s Blood.”
“Agreed.” I got up and retrieved the letter from Raz. Everyone else was cleaning up the ropes or attending to their own dragons as they returned from hunting. “What did Justin do with the Dragon’s Blood?”
“He got on Diamondflame and took off, saying he was hiding the Dragon’s Blood from all of us.”
I didn’t take it personally. After learning that there were ways to manipulate our dragons, Justin didn’t want any of us getting tempted. Not that I thought he had to worry. While we had our differences sometimes, I wasn’t concerned that any Dragonriders would feel the need to cross the line with their dragons.
Now that Windsong was settled, the other seniors came up to talk to me. Oddly, each of them thanked me for protecting them and for rescuing their dragons. I suffered through each conversation, wanting only to open the letter and read it now. When Maggie finally finished her mixed apology and gratitude speech, I quickly made an excuse and escaped to the room to read Raz’s letter. Like his wife’s, it thanked me for protecting the other Dragonriders and commended me on my actions concerning Malcolm’s attack on Icosagon. As I read further, I suddenly understood why all the seniors kept thanking me. Raz had told them not to forget the gift I was to them. Perhaps they’d thought it a suggestion for immediate action; I knew it was a warning. There would come a day when my being a part of them was more a curse than a blessing.
At the end was a personal note.
Your loyalty to your fellow Dragonriders has helped to confirm that the seniors deserve a second chance. While they committed grievous harm to themselves and their dragons, they have also done well by you, and I trust Spiritheart when she says you do not offer your loyalty freely. They are aware that they will be under closer scrutiny, and that they must make things right. If you should ever think that one of the Dragonriders steps out of line, a senior or a junior, I ask that you let Kaylyn and me know immediately. This is a problem we don’t want repeated. Rule five applies here as much as it does in its original context.
I shivered slightly as I folded the letter. I didn’t want it to get to that point.
The next day, with Erik’s permission to start training again, I went to Rowanwood. Mason was waiting for me. “So, when did you get on the bad side of the Elders?” he asked me as I stepped in the back of his shop.
I narrowed my eyes. “Have they come to you?”
“They have, indirectly. I was offered a position across the country, promised government contracts. I turned it down.”
I sighed. “I’m sorry, Mason. I was going to warn you.”
“I’m sure you were. So, what happened?”
I explained it, and he shook his head. “The Elders have been there too long. They’ve forgotten their purpose.”
“Then you don’t think I was wrong?”
“Wrong?” He chuckled. “I think you said what everyone’s been thinking for the past six years.”
I shrugged. “I wouldn’t back down. It probably would have been smarter.”
“No, it would have been what they were looking for and it wouldn’t have been what I’ve come to expect out of you. Don’t start second-guessing yourself.”
“But what about you? If they’ve come after you, it’s only just started. They’ve decided to declare war, if that’s not too dramatic.”
“No, I think declaring war is exactly what they’ve done. And they’re expecting you to crumple.” He flashed a grin. “Because you don’t have your parents supporting you.”
“I wish that didn’t matter so much,” I said quietly. “Father’s infuriated with me, Maribell says. He won’t allow my name or Dragonriders to be spoken of in the house. She’s terrified to tell him about Danny.”
“She’ll have to. The Elders are going to make sure that’s known.”
“I know. I’ve warned her, but she doesn’t believe they’ll do it.” I drew my sword. “Erik’s finally cleared me. I’ve been a bit out of practice, so don’t wallop me too hard, all right?”
“Would I do that?” Mason asked innocently.
I grinned. “You might feel a little bad about it, but you would.”
He lifted his fire poker. “Then we’ll do this today, so I don’t feel so bad.” He crossed his poker with my sword. “Come at me.”