Dragon Trials (Return of the Darkening Book 1) (7 page)

“Point to Trainee Tenzer!” the Dragon Rider watching out duel called.

I can’t let him win!

This time when Tenzer stepped forward, I let him think I was just going to parry. Instead, I moved forward with the butt of my staff, slipping it behind his heel and pulling upwards. Thea had shown me this move. Tenzer wasn’t expecting it and went flying onto the dirt on his back, an instant loss.

“Win to Sebastian!” Our Dragon Rider clapped me on the shoulder. I reached down a hand to help Tenzer up. He grinned at me and didn’t seem to be worried that he had lost.

I had defeated one person, as had Beris, Thea, Syl, Jensen and Wil. Merik hadn’t. He’d been unfortunately teamed against Jensen, who had soundly beaten Merik. Things were looking up for me, I hoped. The next round was called. I was pitted against Beris, Thea against Syl, and Jensen against Wil.

The sun was rising higher in the sky, warming the late morning. The training area had started to heat up. I was sweating as I stepped into the marked chalk circle for my next duel. I could feel the eyes of the commander and the other Dragon Riders on me. They walked around us, passing quiet comments, and I could hear them talk about each trainee’s form and technique.

There was a clap and we started. I found myself looking at a ferociously grinning Beris. He baited me by darting the butt of his staff forward, pushing at me, trying to distract me I knew.

“What are you gonna do, poor boy?” Beris hissed under his breath. “Knock me out with your stink?”

I lashed out. He caught my blow, easily turning it aside and struck back. I only just managed to get out of the way in time. I turned to see that Beris advancing again, a grin on his face.

“Here! Take that!” he was saying, confident about his perfect technique. It was all I could do to block first one blow, then another, before the next blow rattled my staff. I had no time for anything but defensive moves, and barely those.

A painful slap of the staff across my bleeding shin, caused me to fall to the ground. I rolled and bounced back to my feet, stick still in hand before the watching Dragon Rider could call a win for Beris. I hopped up and down on one foot for a second, panting before gingerly putting my foot down again.

He’d hit my wound on purpose, I knew. He gave a narrow-eyed look that said as much.

Beris shrugged. “What you gonna do about it?” He laughed, and I charged.

It wasn’t a graceful attack, more of an outright assault, but he wasn’t expecting it. I was hot-faced angry and tired of always being quiet and backing down from him. Maybe that came from being raised to think all nobles were better than me, but I was done with that.

I wasn’t going to let him win.

I swung my staff and pivoted it in the palm of my hand. He parried and blocked me each time, but I was driving him further and further back. It was easy for him to block my blows, but that was my intention. I was setting him up, and he was arrogant enough to think I had no strategy working.

“Beris out. Win to Sebastian.” The Dragon Rider called and clapped his hands.

“What?” Beris suddenly stopped. He stared at the Dragon Rider, his face red and his mouth hanging open.

The Dragon Rider pointed down at our feet to where I had successfully forced Beris out of the chalk circle. Beris had been so confident he was better than me that he had forgotten the rules of the duel.

“That’s not fair,” Beris said. “He never even scored a hit on me!”

“Stop whining, Beris, you got to the second stage, which is better than most.” The Dragon Rider nodded to me. I had time enough to watch Thea win her bout against Syl, and Jensen won his against Wil.

Beris was scowling at me as he stalked away. The chalk was redrawn. There were three contenders left, meaning two fights. I waited for the judges to call out names, and heard with dismay that I would be dueling against Thea. Jensen would fight whoever won.

“Sorry,” I said to Thea and stepped into the ring.

“Don’t be. You’re going to lose.” She gave me a tiny smile. I had to smile back. That attitude let me know she would be okay if I won or lost. I could relax and just do my best.

With a clap from the watching Dragon Rider, we started. Thea performed like I had never seen before. She didn’t bother to hold the quarterstaff across her body like the rest of us, instead she twirled it over her head like a windmill before bringing it down as she spun her body across the circle with a graceful leap.

I dodged the first blow only to realize the move had only been a trick. She switched her grip lightning fast and sent a rapid blister of blows against me, landing a hit on my hip and then on my head.

I tried to raise my staff to defend myself, but she had done something strange with her own staff which forced mine out of my hands. Another blow from nowhere to the back of my knees sent me to the floor, weaponless.

“Yield?” she said, standing over me.

I moaned an answer and bowed over in pain.

“Sebastian out. Win to Thea!” The Dragon Rider clapped to end the match. Others had gathered to watch and were clapping for Thea. I was glad for her. She had worked really hard to get this good.

I limped out of the fighting circle, and the last fight between Jensen and Thea was being prepared. Sipping a cup of mountain water, I again watched the way Thea spun her stick faster than a dragon’s tail could spin, diving the staff around her body as if it was part of her. It was almost like she was dancing, lashing out with blows faster than anything we could manage.

But Jensen was good. He didn’t twirl his staff, but used it almost like a spear, one end stabbing, sweeping and making a wide space around him. It was hard for Thea to get past his attacks. He scored the first hit on her shins.

After that, Thea just moved quicker. When Jensen lunged forward in a strike that should have knocked Thea out of the chalk circle, she spun, sweeping out her staff to hit her opponent on the wrist, then twirling around to hit him on the side of the knee.

“Two hits! Jensen out. Win to Thea!” The Dragon Rider clapped again, and this time we all stood up and cheered. Thea had won the duel challenge, and I was happy that she looked so pleased with herself.

I was also happy the instructors called for a short break. The sun passed the midday mark and we were sent onto the less physical challenges. Tables were brought out and placed along one side of the training ground while overhead a huge, shielding flag was attached to the walls to protect everyone from the heat of the day.

First up was dragon-spotting. We were separated out individually and each given a piece of paper, quill and ink. I was dreading this test because my writing wasn’t the best, but Merik had said you didn’t have to be the best speller to be a Dragon Rider, just a good reader. Thanks to my ma, that I could do.

Across from us, a patch of wall was kept uncovered and shone brilliantly in the sun. Far above, one of the adjudicators hoisted a piece of board, roughly cut into the shape of a dragon. It cast a perfect shadow down on the wall.

That’s easy, a short-necked forest green,
I thought, writing down the words. It appeared obvious to me because the neck to body ratio was small, and the creature was stocky.

Next I saw a long, sinuous barbed tail with wings that fanned out to fine points.

Got to be a blue of some kind.
They generally liked colder places and they have those long wings to help them glide over the snow
.
I tapped the writing feather against my chin.
Aha! A blue stealer!

The challenge progressed, different silhouettes being displayed faster now. I thought I was doing well, but maybe I was just getting it all wrong. We went through all of the more common species: the small white, the double-tooth black, the marsh green, four-winged ossifer.

The last was one that had Thea excitedly leaning her head down as soon as the shadow appeared on the wall. A crimson red—our dragon. I still didn’t know her name yet. I wondered about my score, and about dragon names, while handing my paper to the instructor and waiting for the results to be read out.

“First place, with ten correct answers, trainee Syl!” the commander read out, making me stamp the ground in exasperation.
What did I get wrong?

“With nine correct answers, trainee Smith!” My exasperation evaporated as a wave of disbelief and happiness rushed over me. I turned to see Thea nodding encouragingly. I thought my heart would burst.

Next came Merik, then Beris and Thea in joint fourth, followed by Shakasta and the others. I had done well. Very well! Now I was glad I had stuck with it during those hard first days. I might not ever be first at all things, but my fears of being last in all tests were now banished.

“Trainees, you will perform, one at a time, a map challenge,” the commander called out. Long, cylindrical pots stoppered and filled with bits of papyrus were put onto the tables. The commander looked us over. “We will set a sand clock running. When we sound the horn, you must try to identify and track the clues from one map to another, leading you to solve the mystery of where a missing dragon and its riders might be. You will be judged as to how long it takes you! Each challenge is different, so do not think you can succeed by copying the efforts of another.”

Butterflies swarmed in my stomach like young dragons, but Merik gave me a thumbs up.

Names were draw one at a time. Each time the Dragon Horn blew and another trainee ran to the table. Two ran out of time before they could finish. And then my name was called. My hands chilled and sweat popped on my lip. The horn blew loud enough that it seemed to shake my bones. I ran to the tables to start on the first map.

This one was easy. It was a map of Mount Hammal with a list of codes and annotations along one side. I read down the list quickly.

Red flag in a circular pattern meant a general warning, and green flag for forest. A missing dragon was last seen flying north. Looking at the map these clues meant that I was looking for a forest directly north of the enclosure. There were the woods on the side of the mountain itself, but I rather doubted any dragon and its riders would get lost only a few miles from home.

Checking the map, I scanned for the next nearest forest.

There…Wychwood.
I took a ruler and drew a red line from Mount Hammal to the blob of color that signified the unmarked Wychwood forest to the north, then turned to the map tube, looking for a more detailed map of the region. I could find nothing that matched exactly, but an aerial map was close. Swathes of orange, reds and blues indicated the lay of the land. Again, I saw annotations on the side of the map. Three small banner-ribbons meant three dragon beats high elevation. And the blue flag stood for water.

I searched the area. The three small banner ribbons I knew were like scarves that were added to the flag poles to indicate how high or low a feature was. One scarf-like ribbon meant about house height, two ribbons meant castle height, and three ribbons meant even higher.

That’s quite a high elevation,
I thought, frowning at my map. There were no white patches of high mountains on this map…and what did the blue for water mean?

I scoured the different hills and dips of the forest until I saw a feature that might fit the bill.
Eagle Falls?
I’d heard of that place. It was supposed to be quite high.
That could certainly make it ‘high water.’ I drew a red line to the area, then held up my hand and waited for a Dragon Rider to come to me.

“Yes, scrub?” he said his voice stern.

I told him my findings, that I thought that the flags told me our dragon and its riders must have travelled to Eagle Falls, in Wychwood Forest.

He nodded. “As you and your team search the falls, you find the downed dragon has taken ill. The riders tell you there is a rare herb that is not stocked at Mount Hammal that can heal the dragon. You must retrieve this rare herb that only grows in beech trees just below the snowline.”

Herb. Beech. Under the snowline.

I nodded and turned to the map tube for a much larger map of the surrounding area. I found an elevation map that showed the white patches of the highest mountains, but they didn’t say what type of trees grew where.

I turned to a smaller, land map for the different shapes of tree drawings and found several woods that must be beech a few hours away by dragon. But beech didn’t grow that high up. I didn’t know what to think. I couldn’t find beech that fit the description of living near the snowline. I scanned the woods, but no, each stand of trees seemed to be in the valleys and nowhere near the hills.

What would make a cold place hot enough for beech trees?
I thought.
Don’t follow the woods…look for the current maps!

Rummaging through the map canister, I found what I was looking for, a strange sort of map with place names written along the sides and arrows pointing all directions. I knew from my time in the Map Room these arrows were air currents, either blowing down from the cold north or up from the warm south.

By laying the names over the elevation map, I could track where the cold air flowed down one side of the Leviathan Mountains and out into the foothills. There was only one place where an arrow of warmer southern air crept along a wide river gulf, pooling into an area surrounded by frost-bitten hills.