Hayden saw two giant bowls set high in the air on top of what looked like whole tree trunks. The bowls were full of logs and oil. They flew over the one closest to them when they saw the other riders come over their own bowl.

              Hayden heard their dragons roar their challenges and their opponents respond in kind. They had flown high as they entered the arena, slightly higher than their opponents.

              Sebastian and Giles flew at the same pace that Hayden and Shane were flying. No one sped up or slowed down as they got near each other. They were close enough for Hayden to see Sebastian’s face under his helmet when it happened.

              Both Sullivan and Kurok tried to roll upside down so that they flew over Draek and Rilora’s back. Hayden had expected them to turn away at the last second and give chase to one another but when their dragons went upside he saw their mouths open up.

              DIVE NOW!! He screamed as fire came racing out of Sullivan’s mouth towards him. Draek brought in both of his wings and dropped as Hayden held his shield up over his head to protect himself from the flames.

              Draek started to drop out of the sky but Sullivan and Sebastian followed. Hayden lost sight of Shane and Rilora in the smoke as they fell to the ground. Draek pulled out of his dive just before he hit the ground, hoping that his pursuers would not be so lucky.

              His hope ended as they pulled out just as easily as Draek had. Sullivan kept trying to catch up and bite at Draek’s tail. Draek shot over the fighting armies and went straight for their opponents bowl.

              Giles and Kurok flew down in front of them, being chased by Rilora and Shane. It quickly got confusing in the air as scales and fire went everywhere.

              As Draek pulled out of the dive and flew just a few feet over the ground, Hayden noticed a shadow cast over them. He looked up and saw the outline of Sullivan as he came crashing down on top of them.

              There was no time to warn Draek or to do anything to stop them. Draek knew they were there so he folded his wings and got ready for the crash landing that was about to happen.

              Sullivan slammed into Draek’s lower back, just under his wings. Draek roared in frustration as they crashed into the ground; sending dirt and grass flying in every direction as they skidded to a halt. The ground troops barely ran out of the way of the dragons but quickly went back to fighting once they passed.

              Hayden got out of his saddle as fast as he could and went to check on Draek. There was dirt covering most of his scales, but he reassured Hayden that he was fine. Hayden turned to make sure Sebastian was doing the same thing, but instead he found him standing with his sword drawn, glaring at him.

              “Is Sullivan ok?” Hayden asked. The game was over for them, they had both been grounded.

              “Sullivan, fly,” Sebastian ordered. Sullivan struggled to get up and Hayden knew that the crash had hurt him. Draek had been flying low to the ground, but Sullivan had dove out of the sky at full speed. Sullivan got into the air and was barely able to fly off to where Rilora and Kurok were still locked in aerial combat.

              “It’s over, Sebastian, let it be,” Hayden tried to reason with him. Draek stretched out his wings and jumped in the air. He did not want to have to hurt, Sullivan but more importantly he did not want Sullivan hurting Rilora.

              Sebastian’s answer was a battle cry as he sprinted at Hayden. Hayden did not want to fight, but that did not mean he would not fight. Sebastian closed in the distance between them as Hayden drew his own sword.

              Their blades clashed together in the small amount of distance between them. Sparks flew from their collision as they began to dance around each other, each one keeping their shield up under their eyes.

              Hayden stopped trying to talk sense into Sebastian and just focused on not getting hurt. He saw judges running up behind Sebastian and hopped that they would make it in time to stop them.

              Sebastian grew desperate, he was just trying to hurt Hayden, and his moves became sloppy. Hayden disarmed him and kicked his feet out from underneath him, sending him sprawling to the floor.

              “I said let it be,” Hayden repeated. He saw the judges getting closer so he looked up to see how the battle in the sky was going. Draek was chasing Sullivan, who had his head turned around so he could see Draek while Rilora was now being chased by Kurok.

              Hayden watched as the two dragons flew straight at each other, Sullivan not paying attention and Rilora trying to outrun Kurok. Rilora roared and startled Sullivan so that he turned just in time to see Rilora do a sideways dive out of the way of having a head on collision in mid air. Kurok was not so lucky.

              The sound of two dragons smashing together in mid air was something that Hayden did not want to have to hear for a long time. Sullivan was already hurt from their crash landing, but as the two dragons tried to slow down and smashed into each other’s shoulders, Hayden knew it was going to be a while before either of them flew.

              Hayden watched as the two silver dragons plummeted to the ground, both seeming to be knocked out. He was about to shout to Draek, who was coming around to land near Hayden, when something hit the back of Hayden’s helmet and knocked him out cold.

 

__________________________

              Hayden woke up in the medical tent again, and he felt like he was getting to familiar with the inside of that particular tent. His head felt heavy and as if it was full of bells. He noticed his armor had been taken off and he was wearing just a pair of the grey pants he wore on a daily basis.

              “Hello?” he asked, he wanted to ask louder but even his normal voice caused his head to ache even more.

              “Good, you’re awake.” Shane came in with a relieved look on his face.

              “What happened out there?” Hayden asked as he tried to sit up. He felt the same as he had when Shane had knocked him unconscious, but this time the pain came from the back of his head and not his face.

              “Well after Giles and Sebastian’s dragons crashed together Rilora and I went and lit their beacon and we won the Crucible. Our team also was able to beat most of the other team and lower their flag!” Shane replied.

              “That’s good, but what happened to my head, how did I get here?” Hayden asked. He noticed a pitcher of water and reached for it. Shane picked it up and helped him drink.

              “Oh that. Well after the dragons crashed Sebastian got up and, while you had your back to him, he kind of hit you in the back of the head with his sword.” When Shane said the word “hit” he punched his own hand to make sure Hayden understood what he meant.

              “That’s what I thought happened,” Hayden said.

              “Really? I am surprised you are still able to think at all after that hit.” Shane looked serious for a second before he laughed at Hayden. “Come on, let’s get you up and ready. We have an awards ceremony to go to.”

 

______________________

              Hayden stood with the other archers who had placed second and third behind him. They both wore the same cloaks as before, but now they wore their hoods down and tried to look their best before the three rulers.

              Hayden wore a new pair of grays that had been given to him just for this occasion. They were the same color as his normal ones, but these were much nicer, and someone had taken their time to make sure they looked perfect.

              The three rulers were more intimidating than usual; partly because they were each in their full armor, but the main reason was because their thrones had been placed on a platform in the middle of the arena with the back facing one of the openings so that each of their giant dragons could sit behind them. The dragons sat like statues. Almost like Sebastian and Giles’s dragons.

              The three archers stood in front of the thrones so that they could receive their rewards for their events. Shane had already gone up and had gotten a new broadsword, one that had a copper blade that had drawings carved into the blade. It was beautiful as well as useful, it hadn’t been made as a sword that you would just hang on the wall, and it had been made as a weapon.

              Hayden had already gotten three of his rewards; since he had finished first in all three archery events and both of the knife throwing. He had first gotten a skillfully crafted harness for his four throwing knifes.

              It was white leather with small silver designs on the leather, it had the same design as the one he had used during the knife throwing event, but this was much better quality. The next item he received were three dozen perfectly balanced arrows. The arrows had white fetching and the arrow heads were all identical.

              He was then given a new quiver, also white leather to match his harness for his throwing knifes. One thing that he noticed that was different about this quiver was that it had a loop of leather on the side. Hayden looked at it for a second before he realized that it was meant to hold his bow. He was now awaiting his gift for the last of the archery events.

              “Hayden The Silver,” Elizabeth began, not getting up from her golden throne. “Come forth and receive yet another prize for your hard efforts.” Elizabeth had mentioned at least five times that all these events had been won by a first year rider.

              Hayden made his way up to the throne, bowed like he had done each time before, and waited for Elizabeth to tell him to stand up.

              “Rise up, Hayden The Silver.” As he did so she was handed a bow from a servant. She made a show of inspecting it and, finding it to her liking, she handed it to Hayden. Hayden knew it was a masterpiece when it was still in the servant’s hands.

              It was a recurve bow; most dragon riders used recurve over long bows because of mobility. The limbs were bent further than on any bow Hayden had seen; he knew that it was going to be hard work pulling it all the way back.

              He gratefully accepted the bow and stepped back with the other archers. Hayden and the other archers melted into the crowd, but before Hayden could get to comfortable they called him and the other two who had placed in the last knife throwing challenge.

              Hayden stood, once again, at the base of the platform and waited to be called up. This time he was given four throwing knifes that made the other set he had been given look like they had been made of wood.

              More designs, to match the harness, were carved into the sides of the blades and blade itself had a strange dip in the middle. They looked slightly off, but once they were in his hands he knew that he could throw them and hit anything he aimed at.

              Elizabeth called over a servant to hold all of Hayden’s winnings as she continued to hand out other treasures to those who won the remaining events. Hayden saw the most decorative pieces of armor and weapons get handed out.

              It soon became time to hand out the awards for the Crucible. Hayden watched as Elizabeth called up individuals who had accomplished some feat or another; they were all from the ground troops.

              “All four riders come forth.” Her voice rang out clear and loud over the crowd. Hayden had not seen Sebastian since the Crucible, but he knew that this was not the place or the time to get his revenge. His head still bothered him, but it was feeling much better then when he had first woken up in the medical tent.

              Hayden and Shane were the first to make it to the base of the platform. Hayden had stayed near it throughout the whole award ceremony and Shane had been standing with him. They waited as the people parted to make way for Sebastian and Giles.

              “All four of you competed with courage and honor.”

              Some more than others, Hayden thought. 

              “So I have decided to reward each of you.”

              Four servants walked onto the platform, two coming from either side, carrying something in their hands that kept covered up with cloth. A servant stopped in front of each of the riders and waited.

              “Sebastian, to you I give you the head of a desert leopard.” Hayden half expected there to be a severed head under the cloth, but the servant pulled the cloth off to reveal a helmet. “You showed bravery and the unwillingness to give up even though you had been beat.”

              The desert leopard was a gray and black leopard that lived in the shadow desert. Hayden had heard tales of its ferocity and how some travelers had fought one and left it for dead only to have it track them during the night and kill them.

              Sebastian’s helmet was molded to look like the top of a desert leopard’s head, with its teeth lining the top of the visor. It had tow flaps in the front that looked like paws with giant claws that could close and latch over the person wearing its mouth. The helmet had been made of silver to match his dragon.

              Sebastian reached out and took it, barely even looking at it. He stepped back and held the helmet under his arm.

              “Giles; you showed great cunning and the ability to trick your opponent to your benefit. To you I give the serpent.” The next servant removed the cloth over another helmet. This one looked like a coiled snake with its head resting over the visor.

              The serpent’s mouth was open, revealing two very real looking fangs. The helmet had the same opening flaps in the front to cover the user’s mouth, but the flaps looked like overlapping coils of the snake. This helmet was also silver as Sebastian’s had been.

              Giles walked up to the helmet and looked at it for a while before taking it out of the servant’s hands.

              “Shane; you fought even when your only ally had been grounded. You stayed on course and stuck to your task, never wavering under the pressure. To you I give the bull.” The servant in front of Shane pulled back his cloth and in his hands was a copper bull helmet.

              The bull’s snout came out to make the visor while the back of the helmet and the flaps in the front looked like the muscles of on a bull’s neck. These details were lost because the viewer could not help but to gaze upon the copper horns that shot out of the helmet.

              Shane walked forward and grabbed the helmet by one of the large copper horns and made his way back to the line of riders. That left only Hayden remaining. 

              “Hayden, you showed leadership, loyalty and obedience for rules and moral values. You led your team and your fellow rider to victory and let everyone else claim the glory instead of taking it for yourself. To you I give the eagle.”

              Hayden’s mouth hung open as the servant in front of him pulled off the cloth covering his helmet. Staring back at him was a silver eagle; it looked like an eagle was flying off the top of the helmet.

              The eagles head rested just above his visor, with the beak jutting out slightly. The eagle looked to be in mid dive to catch its prey so its wings were pulled back and shot out of the sides of his helmet and angled backwards. The eagle’s talons had been carved into the metal flaps that would close over and protect Hayden’s mouth.

              His eyes kept being pulled back to the eagle’s wings as he inspected the helmet. The wings came out of the helmet right above where his ears would sit inside. They were slightly longer than the helmet but they were detailed and did not appear to be frail.

              Shane had to nudge him with his elbow to break his trance and make him go get his new helmet. With all four of them having their new helmets there was only one award left to give out. The four riders stepped back away from the platform as Elizabeth called out the last name.

              “Cassidy,” she said softly. The crowd had grown quiet so that they could hear their queen speak. Everyone had seen the golden dragon and her rider in every event. She was the judge that called out every winner and settled and disputes between the judges on the ground.

              She had been standing with Shane and Hayden as they were given their awards, now it was her turn to step up to the platform.

              “Cassidy, throughout all the events you have been an overseer, you gave up the chance to compete in any events in order to do your duty. You behaved with honor and wisdom, like the golden riders before you.” Elizabeth pointed to herself. “You have done a great work and I shall give you a great reward.”

              A line of servants marched onto the platform in between Cass and Elizabeth. The first servant carried a golden halberd, a giant spear with an axe head under the spear head. The weapon, just like the others that had been given out before it, was a masterpiece of its craft.

              The servant with the halberd showed it to her, and when she nodded approvingly at it he moved to the side so the next servant could come before her.

              The next gift to be presented to her was much smaller than the halberd, it was a golden ring. The ring was simple, with no designs on the side but on the top of the ring; there was a dragon coiled up as if it were sleeping.

              Cass nodded at the second gift just as she had done with the first and waited for the last three servants to present their gifts.

              The next servant carried his gift covered in cloth so she knew that it was going to be a helmet like the other riders had received.

              “For all that you have accomplished, for keeping honesty and truth before your own desires and wishes, I give you the phoenix.” The crowd cheered when they heard this. The phoenix was a creature of legend; it had long been a symbol of wisdom.

              The servant removed the cloth, and in her hand was a golden phoenix helmet. It had the same shape and basic design as Hayden’s had, but her helmet had a long golden tail that flowed down the back of it.

              Wings came out of the side of the helmet, but these wings were graceful and elegant where Hayden’s eagle helmet looked much more aggressive. They had also placed two red stones in place for the phoenix’s eyes and they followed your gaze no matter where you stood.

              Cass nodded to the servant, but had a hard time pulling her gaze away as the servant moved to the far side of the platform. Even from where she had moved to, Cass continued to look at the phoenix helmet.

              “There are two gifts remaining for you Cassidy. One is to ease your mind while you travel the world and do our bidding for the greater good of Arvain. The other gift is something I personally wanted to give you.” Elizabeth waved her hand to signal that the next two servants should step forward.

              The first carried a metal box in his hands. The box was no wider than the man’s chest and barley came up from his waist to his ribs, but he was covered in sweat and seemed to be struggling with the weight of the contents.

              Another servant, the one that had Cass’s golden ring, stepped up and opened the box to reveal that it was full of gold coins; Cass was both confused and awed by it.

              “This is enough gold for a family to live comfortable on for many years to come. To be more specific, your family.” Cass understood what she meant and tears began to well up in her eyes. Her family was not well off nor where they poor, but both her mom and dad had to work every day to take care of their household. This would ease that burden for many years to come and the thought of that brought more joy to her than she thought possible.

              Her bottom lip quivered uncontrollably as the servant took her families fortune over with her other gifts. The last servant brought up the last gift.

              It was a simple leather bound journal, with a leather strap that went all the way around it to keep it closed. Cass looked at the book with some confusion.

              “I don’t understand,” she began.

              “I was told that you liked to draw, and one of the servants that cleaned your room for you told me that you had drawings covering most of your walls. I thought that you could take this with you on your upcoming journey and draw what you see.”

              Cass could not believe what she was hearing. This was not just a gift; this was so much more personal. Elizabeth The Gold had taken the time to learn something about her and give her something that reflected what she enjoyed doing.

              Cass took the journal from the servant’s outstretched hands, it was the only one that she had touched. She undid the leather strap and flipped through the pages. She could smell the leather and parchment as the flipping pages created a breeze that lightly tossed her hair back.

              For the first time since they had begun the ceremony Elizabeth stood up from her throne. Once she was at her full height the other two riders that sat on both sides of her, Caine The Silver and Bryce The Copper, stood up.

              “Now that we have finished giving out the awards to those that have competed honorably in the Festival of Games; I have one last gift to give and it goes to all the people of Celestial City.” Cass walked back into the crowd and stood with Shane and Hayden.

              More servants came onto the platform carrying sacks full of fruit, fruit from the Orchard of Souls. They tossed the fruit out over crowd and handed some to anyone who wanted any. The crowd loved it and Elizabeth could barely contain her pride as they cheered her name.

              “We had neglected to hand out the fruit grown in the Orchard of Souls for some years now and for that I am deeply sorry.” She lowered her head and put her right hand over her heart as if it hurt her.

              “But today will be a day to go down in history; not just because the Festival of Games is over, and not just because today we are reinstating an ancient tradition. Today is the day that you, the people, shall get your revenge on those that tried to destroy our orchard. Justice will be given out today!”

              She raised her hands up over her head as she shouted the last few words. The people were screaming and cheering so loud it made Hayden’s ears ring.

              Hayden hadn’t been paying too much attention to what she had been saying, thinking it was just the closing speech, but he quickly gave her his full attention when she spoke of the ones who had damaged the orchard.

              Draek, I have a bad feeling about this, something is wrong. Hayden quickly relayed what had happened so far to his dragon. Draek spoke to a few other dragons to find out what was going on. His reply did nothing to help him.

              Hayden, I am sorry. Hayden did not ask him what he was sorry for, Elizabeth was speaking again.

              “A few nights ago the brave Metallic Riders finally found what they had been searching for since that faithful day when our beloved orchard was all but burned down. They found a squad of dwarf soldiers and a red rider hiding in the mountains and trying to make it back to their clan.”

              The crowd’s cheers had gone to shouts of what should be done to the dwarfs. Things Hayden had never thought of, and was surprised to hear, come out of the mouths of the people around him.

              “I hear you my people and I listen to your cries. Judgment will dealt here, bring forth the guilty ones.” Hayden could not help but look to the direction that dwarfs were being led in from, hoping that they had gotten the wrong ones.

              Those hopes were smashed and broken the moment he laid eyes on the first dwarf, Bureg the Swift, the red rider.

 

 

Chapter 24

 

 

Hayden watched in horror as they marched the dwarfs up onto the platform. At first no one in audience made a sound, everyone was shocked into silence at the sight of the dwarfs. Then the sound came like rain that moved across the land and eventually washed over you. The sound of cheers, insults and demands that they be killed on the spot where the shouts that reached Hayden’s ears.

The dwarfs barely resembled the ones he had met. All their worn clothes were now ripped rags that covered nothing. Their nakedness was concealed by dried up blood and dirt that had clumped together.

They all wore wounds that had not even begun to heal; some Hayden could tell were clearly infected. All of their hands were bloody and raw, liked they had been worked down to the bone.

“NO!” Hayden screamed so loud that his throat instantly became raw. His voice was lost in the crowd and not even the people standing next to him could hear him.

Elizabeth allowed the people to rile themselves up to the point that they wanted to climb into her platform and take matters into their own hands. She raised her hands to quiet them and when that did not work her golden dragon roared so loud it shook the ground beneath their feet.

“These are the dwarfs that have destroyed most of the Orchard of Souls. They stand before us now ready to face their judgment.” She turned to face the dwarfs.

They did not have their heads down as they stood in front of her. Their hands were chained in front of them and their feet were shackled together. They each held their heads up and met her gaze as she stared at them.

“How do you know that it was them that did it, did they admit to it?” Cass’s voice rang out like a bell over the crowd, stunning them as they heard her question. Although Hayden could only guess how nervous she was her voice did not give her away.

“They did not need to admit to it, young Cassidy. We know it was them who burned down our beautiful orchard. It was the dwarfs that have time and time again insulted us and attacked us when all we have ever wanted was to live in piece together.” Elizabeth might have been looking at Cass, but she was speaking to everyone.

“But wasn’t one of them supposed to be a rider? Where is the red dragon?” she asked. Hayden wished he could have stopped her, he knew that these were the right dwarfs and that at this point there was nothing that could be done to save them. Cass was only making it worse for them and for herself.

“This one here is the rider.” Elizabeth pointed to the Bureg. “But his dragon fled and abandoned his rider as we neared their encampment. The red dragon was last seen flying as fast as the wind would carry it with it tail between its legs. I myself am surprised that it hasn’t yet died from embarrassment.”

The crowd laughed with Elizabeth, but everyone quickly quieted down because Bureg was also laughing. Elizabeth looked both shocked and disgusted as the bloodied dwarf gave a deep husky chuckle that ended with him spitting a glob of blood at her feet.

“You arrogant fool,” he choked, his deep voice sounded muffled by the swelling in his face. That was all he got to say before one of the guards standing near him punched him in the face. Elizabeth raised her hand at the guard.

“Let him speak, it’s the last words he will get to say.” She smiled maliciously at the dwarf and made a hand gesture for him to continue.

“You prove your folly by what you say, rider of the golden demon. Nothing but lies and false boastings seep from your forked tongue and drip into the wounds of your blind people, causing them pain that you call pleasure.” Hayden had to tell himself to breathe, and by the mouths that hung open all around him he knew that others had to also.

No one had ever spoken to Elizabeth, or any of the other three, that way before. Bureg knew he was about to die so he had no reason to hold anything back. Maybe Elizabeth wanted to hear what else the dwarf had to say or maybe she was just so shocked that she couldn’t stop him, either way he continued on.

“We dwarfs had done nothing but stand by while you and your metal atrocities have tried to extinguish us like a fire that you have kicked dirt on. But this time you have gone too far. While you kept us in cages and beat us, Trohen my brave dragon has flown to my brother, my clan chief. He got there last night and has told my brother everything you have done to us.

“The old drums and have been brought out, and now the mountain tops ring with the beat of war. The dwarf clans are uniting to end your rule once and for all. Soon the dwarfs will come as an avalanche and burry you in the rock.”

He finished his speech without anyone interrupting him; no one thought to move or make a sound as the raspy voice told them his message. Elizabeth continued to stare at the dwarf; Hayden had no idea what horrible thoughts lurked within her head.

Hayden thought that the situation could not get any worse when something unimaginable happened; Bureg saw Hayden and recognized him.

“Silver rider,” he said. It was this statement that woke Elizabeth from her angered state. She followed the dwarfs gaze and saw that he had spoken about Hayden.

“You know him, he was the one that saw what you had done in my orchard and he chased you away into hiding. He told us all about what happened, if it wasn’t for him we would have never had found you.” Elizabeth leaned in as she spoke to him.

Even though she was lying there was no way for Bureg to know. All he knew was that he had been captured and that they had known immediately what they had done, and the only person who could have told them was Hayden.

Hayden barely heard what Elizabeth said to Bureg, but he could not make a sound to protest what she was saying. The look of anger, hurt, distrust and betrayal one Bureg’s face kept him immobilized.

“That is enough of a confession for me,” Elizabeth said. She walked away from the dwarfs and towards her throne where her halberd was. Bureg held his head up high, without breaking eye contact with Hayden, and bit down on his lower lip, causing his matted and pulled out beard to poke out.

“Trohen, I am so sorry. I have failed you, forgive me,” Bureg struggled to say through tears that just started to flow down his face. He was not afraid of dying, but he knew that his death meant that Trohen had to die also.

Hayden’s heart felt like it was getting ripped out of his chest, he could only imagine what Bureg was going through as Elizabeth walked back up to where he stood.

“Any last words?” she asked as she leant against her weapon, using it like a walking stick.

Bureg opened his mouth, but before any noise could come out Elizabeth went into action.

She kicked the bottom of her halberd with her heal and flipped the weapon over so that she held the bottom part in her hands and the axe head was high in the air. Bureg never saw her move because he was still looking at Hayden.

She did not hesitate once the axe head was at its highest point; she swung it as hard as she could, grunting as she did so. The axe head seemed to glide right through Bureg without touching him.

Elizabeth followed through with her swing and brought the weapon back to her side so she could rest on it.

“I believe you have said enough,” she said.

Hayden was still looking into the dwarf’s eyes when the bottom part of his beard fell free in one solid piece. Bureg’s eyes never changed as his body fell to the floor and his head rolled off the platform.

 

_________________________

 

              Hayden woke up from his dream covered in sweat. It had been almost two months since the dwarfs had been killed in front of him, but still every night he had the same dream. A dream where he stared into the lifeless eyes of Bureg’s severed head.

              He sat up and tried to clear his head and catch his breath. He dreaded going to sleep any more, knowing what awaited him in his dreams every night. He had found himself sleeping less and less until it started to affect him. He then decided that he had no choice but to deal with it. Whether he slept for hours or only a few short minutes did not matter. As soon as his eyes closed he saw Bureg.

              Hayden still remembered the cheers as Elizabeth herself cut down each dwarf, one by one she stabbed at them and left them bleeding to death on the platform. Soon the platform looked the deck of a fishing ship that had started to gut the fish on deck; blood everywhere and a few of the bodies still shaking.

              Hayden had dropped to his knees and screamed over and over again, Cass and Shane had to drag him away as the crowd pushed to be closer to the killings. None of the dwarfs had screamed, but Hayden had done enough for all of them.

              Cass and Shane had taken him to Fendrel’s house, hoping that they could get him out of eyesight there until he regained control of himself. Fendrel’s house however was locked.

              They had beaten on the door for a few minutes while Hayden was still trying to scream, even though his voice had gone out, before they had even made it back to the city. An older lady saw them knocking in the door and came up beside them.

              “Hello, young riders, if you’re looking for Fendrel he is gone, he packed up and said he wasn’t coming back for a while.” She had spoken softly because she saw that Hayden was in bad shape.

              They had no other choice but to go back to the pyramid and do the best they could on their own. Nothing could help Hayden; his mind had all but gone at that point. Cass had gone and gotten him something to drink that had put him to sleep.

              That was the first night that the dreams had started. He relived the moments when the dwarfs died again and again that night, and for many nights to follow. Over the next two months there was a different feeling around the city.

              It was one thing to talk about a battle and people dying when it was far away and you did not have to see it, but when the killing was right in front of you it was something completely different. The streets seemed empty because parents did not want their children running around. Everyone seemed to keep their windows closed at all times now, not just because winter had come and snow had started to fall just after the Festival of Games.

              A cold front had blown in from the south right after the festival, and it brought with it frost in the morning and a constant gray forecast over the city. Farmers were making sure that their fields and barns were ready for the winter that was upon them.

              Hayden had barely noticed his training starting back up. His physical training had slowed back down and he was almost numb to the sessions. He saw Lirand yelling at him but the words never made it to his ears.

              He did the workouts, but he did not get tired or even feel like he had done anything at all. Shane would be sweating and out of breath after their workout and Hayden would just stand there as if he was ready to start.

              Estraken had given them the last week off; he said that he had one last lesson to give them before they were done but he needed time to prepare it. This gave Hayden and Draek more time to fly above the city together.

              The dragons had finished their training before the Festival of Games so they had nothing to hold them to the ground. One time Cass had seen Hayden standing in a clearing all by himself, he was wrapped in winter grays and just staring at the sky.

              It had been days since she had heard him speak so she got Shane’s attention and together they were going to go and talk to him. When they looked to make sure he was still there, even though it had only been a few seconds, he was gone and she could barely make out the shape of Draek flying away. The snow continued to fall in sheets and bur all signs of life under its glittering wonder.

              Hayden sat in his bed and closed his eyes, knowing what would come but unable to stay awake. He awoke the next morning and tried to forget the horrible night he had, even though it was becoming an almost nightly event.

              Two more months and they would be fully fledged riders; they would end their one year training when winter ended. Hayden felt better this morning than he had in a while, and they would have no physical training today because they were going to spend the whole day with Estraken.

              Draek had gotten up with the sun to go hunting; he said the prey was easier to find when they were first waking up. Hayden got ready and made his way to the door, and he passed by the pile of dust covered gear that he had gotten during the Festival of Games. It was still where the servants had put it; he had yet to even touch them.

              He went through the winding halls until he was at Estraken’s door, which was open, and he walked right in. He was used to seeing Shane, Giles and Sebastian, but today Cass was with them. Giles and Sebastian had pulled themselves even further away from the group, now they didn’t even make fun of Hayden or Shane.

              Cass smiled softly at Hayden as he made his way into the room. Hayden hadn’t spoken to her in some time. He was afraid to speak to any of his friends except for Draek anymore, he was afraid that they would judge him for what he had done. For his part in the dwarfs dying.

              “Good, you’re here, that’s all of you right?” Estraken counted each of them while pointing at them. “Now today is going to be your last lesson, after that if you want to continue to come here and ask question you can but you are no longer required to.”

              He coughed into his hand and pulled his golden cloak tighter around himself. “This cold weather gets to me every year.”

              “So what is our last lesson?” Shane asked. He did not do it rudely, but they had learned that if you don’t keep Estraken on track he was liable to ramble on for hours.

              “Ah, today we are going to the lowest room in the Metallic Pyramid,” he said proudly.

              They all just stared at him for a few seconds, no one quite sure how to respond to what he said.

              “Ok, but why did that take you so long to get ready for it then if all we are doing is going down to the lowest room?” Sebastian asked.

              “Because I had to find the door; now follow me.” He started to climb the spiral staircase, being extra careful not to knock any of the random scrolls or artifacts that were lying around off. They had also learned that when it came to some of the things that Estraken did there was no explaining them.

              Estraken led them to the top of the stairs which ended abruptly at a bookcase. He reached out and pulled the bookcase so that it swung on hinges just like a door. Hayden would have never have guessed that there was a secret passage way in Estraken’s library.

              Behind the bookcase the passage way was a just a staircase going down, no decorations of any sort just stairs and more stairs. Estraken grabbed a torch that had been hanging on the wall by the bookcase and led the way down.

              “How much further can it be?” Shane asked Hayden and Cass as they continued down what seemed to be a never ending staircase. They had been climbing down for a while now and Shane voiced what would be the first of many complaints.

              “Well it would have to be a good ways down wouldn’t it, it is the lowest room in the pyramid after all,” Hayden responded.

              Hayden had not thought about answering, but it seemed to just come out. Cass and Shane were both just as surprised to hear his voice. They did not want to badger him so they let his response go, but they did smile at each other.

              They continued their dissent until the staircase opened up and they were at the top of a giant open room. This room was unlike anything Hayden had ever seen, it looked like it was made of black stone instead of metal.

              The spiral staircase continued to wind down until it leveled out on the floor. The room was longer than it was wide and the ceiling was tall and rounded. The room was dark but there were five glowing orbs in the base pillars that grew almost to the ceiling.

              There was a red and blue orb on the left side, white and black on the right, and a green orb on the far wall. Besides the torch that Estraken held and the five orbs there were no other lights in black room.

              The five young riders stood in awe of the room, not knowing what its purpose was or what the orbs where, but not asking either questions. The rider’s barely moved off of the bottom stairs but Estraken continued walking to the center of the room.

              Hayden watched as the torch was not bright enough to cast light on the walls so it encased Estraken in an orange glow as he made his way deeper into the darkness. He moved to the right of the room and held his torch as high as he could and touched the side of one of the pillars.

              The flames from the torch licked the wall and shot to the top of pillar. The fire on the walls stayed lit momentarily but ignited a ring around the top of the pillar. The fire continued to race around the room on tracks that seemed to be filled with oil. The fire went from pillar to pillar, igniting a ring around the top of each one.

              Soon all five pillars were alight and a giant hanging chandelier that was hanging in the center of the room started to light up. The chandelier was made up of multiple metal tracks that looped in an out of each other. Each loop was now on fire and the room lit up.

              Hayden followed the flames as much as he could, fascinated by the racing fire as it continued to grow. The last pillar to light on fire was the one that held the red orb. He watched as the ring of fire slowly lit around the top of the pillar and revealed a giant red dragon that had been lurking in the darkness of the unlit room.

              Hayden reached for his sword that was not with him, he had left in his room. Draek was not going to be able to help him this deep underground. He heard all the others gasp and shout about dragons, but something was wrong.

              “A green dragon, run!” Shane yelled.

              “Look out ,it’s a blue dragon!” Cass screamed.

              “Let me out of here, it’s a white dragon,” Sebastian yelled as he pushed Giles out of the way to run back up the steps.

              “A black dragon,” Giles said calmly, almost in awe, as he stood back up after Sebastian pushed him.

              “Please calm down, they will not hurt you,” Estraken said. He stood next to a giant round table that was actually a giant map. The hills and mountains rose off the table and the oceans and river had actual water.

              Hayden couldn’t take his eyes off of the dragons. He stared at the red dragon, but the dragon did not move, it did not breathe.

              “They’re not real,” Hayden said in wonder.

              “Oh they are very much real, they are just very much dead,” Estraken said. He sat down on a chair and looked over the map.

              “But, if they are dead, why do they have color and look so alive?” Hayden asked. He remembered the first time he had seen a dragon and how when it died all the color and shine left its scales as it turned to stone.

              “Well, after the first war, some of the Metallic Riders thought that it would be a good idea to have some of the other dragons to study. So they went to all the places where they killed dragons and they took the best looking dragon body from each place.

              “Once they picked which one they liked a group would go there and break the bodies up and transport them back here. Then they made this room and rebuilt each dragon and painted them up so they looked as real as possible.”

              Hayden looked at each dragon and was amazed at the differences between each of them.

              “To think that all these different creatures are called dragons,” he said out loud to himself.

              “It’s amazing,” Cass responded to him.

              Hayden looked back at the red dragon; it was very similar to Trohen, but this one was bigger, much bigger. Its horns were larger and there were patches all over it that looked to be pointed stone.

              The blue dragon was longer than the other dragons and much skinnier, but its wings were amazingly large. It had a long neck, and the spikes down its back looked like fins. It had one claw outstretched and Hayden could barely see that it was webbed. It also had two fins on the end of its tail that reminded Hayden of a fish’s tail.

              The white dragon looked like it had been carved out of ice. It had very few scales and almost no spikes on its body. Hayden was surprised to see it with so few defenses, but he was sure that it was not easily defeated. It did have a pair of horns that jutted out of the back of its head that looked a lot like the horns that were growing out of Draek.

              The black dragon frightened Hayden the most because if he looked right at it the dragon seemed to disappear into the darkness around it. The dragon did not have four limbs and a pair of wings like all the other dragons; it had two hind legs and it had claws coming out of the wings like a bat. The beast was thin enough to see the outline of its ribs. The horns that grew out of its head actually grew down around its head, meeting in front of its mouth.

              The last dragon was the green dragon. It looked like it was a forest on its own. The horns on its head looked like they were tree trunks. It was larger than the blue dragon but smaller then the red, falling somewhere in between those two.

              It had vines growing down under its chin, and its wings did not look like the normal membrane on a metallic dragon’s wings, but looked more like leaves on a tree. Its mouth came to a point and it had slanted eyes like a lizard. Its talons were very curved and looked like they almost touched the point where they grew out of.

              All the dragons had two things in common; they were each a lighter shade of their color on their stomachs and their colors grew darker as it came around their backs. And they all looked to be ferocious.

              “I don’t know about their methods, but the dragons do look good above the eggs,” Estraken said.

              “Eggs? What eggs?” Shane asked.

              “The eggs underneath the dragons.” Estraken pointed at the blue dragon that was over a glowing blue orb.

              Hayden realized that he was looking at dragon eggs from each of the earth dragons. He walked over to the red dragon egg, and as he got closer he knew that Estraken was telling the truth.

              It had the same shape that Draek’s egg had, but instead of it being a solid color it looked the molten rock. Hayden remembered working with the blacksmith when he would poor out the liquid metal and it would glow from the darkest red to an almost white yellow, just like the egg.

              He moved on to the blue egg and examined it. It was darker blue, almost black at the bottom, and grew lighter as it made its way to the top of the egg, just like when Hayden had opened his eyes under water in the river by his village.

              The inside of the egg seamed to flow like moving water, it gave Hayden the sense that he was moving but the egg was standing still on its stone stand.

              The green egg was every color green that Hayden could imagine, and they all were interwoven like vines and plants growing on top of each other. He got lost trying to trace one color strand, trying to find where it stopped or started.

              The black egg was the next one Hayden walked to, it was a whirlwind of grey and black sand with a light glowing from the center. Hayden tried to look into it but the storm inside the egg was too strong to see anything through.

              The last egg was the white egg. It looked like it was made out of frozen water. It was clear in some parts and cloudy in others. Hayden reached out and touched it and it felt like ice under his hand.

              He turned back to Estraken, who was watching as the riders moved from egg to egg in their own pattern. He was looking at him when Hayden turned around.

              “Are they … are they still in their?” he asked.

              “The dragons? Yes the eggs are still good, they could still hatch,” he answered.

              “I don’t understand though, you said that the different races keep their eggs hidden and that the Metallic Riders had been searching for them but they had never found them. How did these get here then?” Cass asked as she gently reached out and touched the blue egg. Hayden wasn’t sure, but it looked like the water rippled at her touch.

              “That’s right, we have been searching for many years for their eggs, but we have never found their hiding spots. You see, these eggs weren’t found, they were given to us by the leader of each race.” Estraken leaned back in his chair and motioned for the riders to come and join him around the map table.

              He then told them about their last lesson, underneath the watchful gaze of the five stone dragons and the un-hatched eggs.

             

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 25

 

 

 

 

             So then each race gave the Metallic Riders one of their dragon eggs, to show that they would not rise up against them, Hayden explained to Draek.

              They had flown together and found a small clearing full of fresh snow; they had landed to take a rest away from the world. Hayden had told him everything he had learned the day before with Estraken.

              Draek had been very interested in the eggs and what the other dragons looked like. He was just as surprised as Hayden had been to find out that each dragon had looked no similar to each other than two people did.

              Hayden had learned more about the other races and just what their dragons could do. The blue dragons stayed in the water almost as much as they did in the air. They could hold their breath for long periods of time and they could swim faster than a ship could sail.

              Estraken had told them that they did not breath fire either, he had said that they breathed boiling water and steam instead of flames. Hayden had stuck his hands in boiling water when he was a child and he remembered the pain all too well.

              Hayden already knew a lot about the red dragons since he had met a live one. He did learn that the boulders and stones that grew over their bodies came from them smashing into stone and the stone embedding in their scales and skin.

              The green dragons were the closest to the metallic dragons. They had the same basic body structure but their jaws were thinner and came to a sharper point. Estraken had told them that the green dragons had caused them a lot of trouble during the war because they could blend in with the forest around them.

              They spent a lot of their time in the forest and they could move on land just as fast and elegantly as they could maneuver in the air.

              The black dragons had more in common with bats than just their appearances. They liked to hide in dark caves where it was hard to see them and they could hook their claws in to stone and hang upside down.

              Estraken had warned them that the black dragon’s fire was one of the worst out of all the dragons. Since the black dragons lived in the shadow desert they would accidently eat sand that had gotten on their prey. The sand would stay in their system until they released their fire and when they did it wasn’t only fire that came from their mouths but a rain of hot liquid glass.

              “If you avoided their fire but happened to get some of the glass on you”, Estraken said, “It was an unthinkable pain. The liquid glass would not only burn you immensely, it would also stick to you as it melted through your skin.”

              The white dragons were the most interesting to Hayden. At first he had thought that the lack of scales and spikes or horns would have put the white dragon at a distinct disadvantage but Estraken told them otherwise.

              The white dragons were the most nimble and agile, they could move and bend like a snake and they were the fastest fliers because of their lack of scales. They did not have the extra weight to hold them down.

              The biggest advantage that white dragons had was what they could do instead of breathing fire.

              They spit out this liquid that is supposed to be able to freeze anything on contact, Hayden told Draek as he tried to describe the dragons.

              How is that better than fire? Draek asked.

              Well, during the war they would freeze soldiers in their tracks. Make ice walls in the middle of roads so that they could not get supplies or reinforcements where they needed to go.

              They could freeze riders and dragons just as well. But Estraken said that they also sweat out the same liquid but in a way so that they kind of control it. They could cover themselves in ice armor, creating spikes where they wanted to as well as thicker armor over more vulnerable spots.

              If their armor got melted or cracked off they could make more to replace it. If they felt like they were going to lose the battle they would shake off all the armor and extra weight and fly away. The ones chasing them wouldn’t have a chance to catch them.

              Hayden told Draek everything that he had learnt and seen, and they tried to imagine what the other dragons would look like in flight. They had seen a red dragon before but the other dragons seemed so strange to them.

              Hayden watched as Draek blew fire all around the clearing, melting the snow and ice and burning up the tan grass beneath it.

              Is something wrong Draek? Hayden asked as he watched his silver dragon finish off the last of the clearing. When they had arrived it was white and untouched, but now all that remained was mud and charred dirt.

              There is so much we don’t know. There is a whole world out there and we can’t even go see it yet. We have to do whatever someone else tells us to do until they decide something else for us to do.

              Draek let out a puff of smoke as he continued to tramp around in the mud, making what had been his shinning scales brown and dirty.

              I know how you feel. Hayden couldn’t say anything else. As much as Draek was in Hayden’s mind, Hayden was in Draek’s. He knew just how his dragon felt about being stuck in one place for so long and being told what to do every second of the day.

              I feel like we are wasting our time, time we won’t get back, Hayden said. Draek stopped what he was doing and looked at him. They both had the same feeling deep inside.

              Hayden got back onto Draek’s back and they flew over Celestial City for the hundredth time.

              Two more months, then we will get leave, Hayden said, happily awaiting the day when he wouldn’t have to stare at the metal city.

              Then we get to watch some other fortress for a year, then another one after that. A few more after that and then we get to come right back here again.

              Hayden had given himself a false hope as he thought about his future until Draek popped it before it could get anywhere. Draek was right, but Hayden did not have to like it.

 

___________________

              The next month crept by as they got closer to the end of their training; now that Estraken was done teaching them it allowed them to have more free time. Hayden took this time to go back to Estraken’s library and back down to see the dragons and eggs.

              Cass and Shane both joined him when he went to learn more about the other riders around Arvain, and Estraken loved to answer their questions. They enjoyed spending their free time together flying and just being in each other’s company.

              Hayden returned to Fendrel’s abandoned house every few nights; hoping that his friend would return. Each time he went all he found was a locked door.

              With only a few weeks to go before winter started to let up and they ended their first years training, their physical training and battle training both ended. They spent their time with Elizabeth as she prepared them for their last hill to climb.

              “After the first flight ceremony is over you will land right in front of the pyramid where you had first began your training. After that we will begin the celebration with the people and move into the pyramid to finish, and declare you all full riders.”

              The plan did not seem that difficult but Elizabeth insisted on being the one to tell them. She made sure not to tell them what the first flight was, and Hayden still thought it was a pointless exercise because the whole city knew that they could fly, but Elizabeth told them it was tradition.

              “Now after the ceremony is over you will not leave Celestial City immediately. There is no more training, but we do want you all to have a few weeks to get your selves ready; say goodbye to your families and friends.”

              Elizabeth had asked to speak with them in the Hall of Stories, and she sat in the golden throne in the center while the five riders stood in front of her.

              “Your first year will be spent with the Sea Serpents. They are human, and the easiest to handle, so it won’t be too hard for you all to adjust. The five of you will be together every year and there will still be other riders helping you.”

              She unrolled a scroll that she had resting in her lap. It was a map of Arvain, much like the one they had seen with Estraken, but this one was simple drawings.

              The map had no detail as to where, if there even were any, the other race’s cities were located. The map only showed Celestial City near the center, the city was even drawn with metallic ink so it shined on the paper, and five different towers; one in each territory that had been given to the five races.

              “Now you will be living in this tower.” She pointed at a tower that was on the edge of the coast. The map showed five islands off the coast that were all within flying distance of the tower. “There is a small settlement around the tower so you will feel more at home.

              “Blacksmiths, cooks, leather smiths and almost anything else you could ask for will be there ready to serve you. It shouldn’t be too hard for the five of you to adjust.

              “You will have work to do while you are there though, so I hope you weren’t thinking this was going to be a relaxing year on the ocean. You will be asked to learn all you can about the race that you are with. We like it when our riders are familiar with every race, so if there ever is an uprising we can try to predict what they will do. It also helps if we need to force them to do something.” A servant brought in a tray with drinks and fruit slices for the riders.

              Elizabeth emptied to contents of her drink in one swift motion, but she passed up the fruit slices.

              “They are from the Orchard of Souls; I hate that infested forest and everything that comes out of it. I was glad when that dwarf burnt it down; I thought it was going to allow us to build something new there. Who knew that we would be replanting and making it even bigger?” Elizabeth leaned back against her throne and closed her eyes for seconds as she gathered her thoughts.

              “Your training is finished and you have one month till first flight, so I want the five of you practicing flying together and working together. When you are at the different towers you will have to fly patrols together and I want you all to be able to cooperate.

              “Lastly, and then you are dismissed, I want every one of you to remember that, while you are out there dealing with these other races, they are not us. They do not follow the same rules as we do and I don’t want you to hold them up to our standards. If one of you die or get hurt then we have lost something great. If, during a confrontation, you kill a few blue riders that is no big deal. Do I make myself clear?”

              All five riders nodded their heads, but only two actually believed what she said. She took her time looking into their eyes to make sure that she had been understood. When she was satisfied that her point had gotten across, she let them leave with the promise that they would practice flying in formation that day.

              As soon as the five riders made it out of the Hall of Stories, Giles and Sebastian, without even speaking to them, turned and walked away from them. Shane, Cass and Hayden decided to make their way to the dining hall and eat before they did their flying.

              “Well what do you think?” Hayden asked.

              “I am thinking that it would be great if they didn’t have that nasty green paste that they say is mashed vegetables for lunch,” Shane replied. He sighed to himself as they walked into the dining hall and saw the thick green mounds on everyone’s plate.

              “I think he was talking about what Elizabeth said, Shane,” Cass laughed softly as Shane realized what he had done.

              “Oh, right,” Shane responded. “Well I am thinking we don’t have a choice in the matter. This is what new riders have to do, whether we agree with it or not,” Shane got back on topic.

              “I know that, and it’s not what we have to do that bothers me. I know we have to try to keep the peace and guard the land, but I don’t like how she talked about the Sea Serpents. She made it clear that she thinks that they are worthless and not as important as we are.”  Hayden spoke quietly so that only Cass and Shane could hear him.

              They all got a plate full of food, or what they were told was food, and found an empty bench to sit on that was away from everyone else. As Hayden sat his plate down he cringed when he saw the green paste slightly jiggle.

              “I remember when you used to talk like that, keeping the five races submitted and at bay.” Shane spoke mockingly, but Hayden did not get mad. He knew that he was playing with him, but he also looked back and saw the truth in what his friend said.

              I really was like her.

              But you are not anymore. That is what makes your paths different. Draek’s voice was stern and left no room for doubt. Draek had answered his question before he even got a chance to ask it.

              “I was kidding, Hayden.” Shane made sure that Hayden knew that because Hayden hadn’t responded right away. Hayden nodded at Shane to show him that it was fine and to leave it be. He tried to scoop a spoon full of the green paste into his mouth, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

              “I don’t see a problem here though. I know we don’t agree with what she says, but the next five years will keep us away from here and her ideas. You said it yourself, Hayden, what we have to do is not bad. How much trouble can one person cause?” Shane shook his head as he looked down at his food, but he did not have the same problem that Hayden had. He dove right in and shoved spoon full after spoon full into his mouth.

              Hayden looked at Cass and their eyes met. For that moment they were both thinking the same thing, and they both knew it. One person, especially Elizabeth The Gold, one of the Three over the Metallic Riders and self appointed Queen of the Celestial City, could cause unimaginable trouble for all of Arvain.

 

____________________________

              The next day the three friends stood in front of the main gate that led to the Metallic Pyramid. They each wore their ridding gear, but they had on extra furs to help with the winter’s cold. They stood there, huddled up together, with their dragons waiting for two more riders to show up.

              They had been waiting for some time and Hayden found it amusing to watch the amount of steam that came from their dragon’s breathing compared to how much he could make. He even tried holding in his breath longer to see if that would help him make more steam, but no matter what he did he could not compete with the dragons.

              “I don’t think they are coming,” Shane spoke out. They all had cloaks on instead of their normal capes and Shane was the only one with his hood down around his shoulders. Hayden did not understand why because even though Shane said he was not cold Hayden could tell by his glowing red ears that he was lying.

              “They might be late,” Cass said defensively. She kept her gaze on the gates, hoping to see Giles and Sebastian come through with their dragons. They were supposed to practice flying patrols together, according to Elizabeth, as they would be doing for the next five years.

              Cass had asked Shaylin to speak to all four of their dragons and tell them where and when to meet. Shane and Hayden had been more than happy to do as they had been asked, but Giles and Sebastian had not replied.

              “Cass, I don’t think they are coming, we should go ahead and start without them,” Hayden repeated. “Besides, do either of you know how patrolling works? What all are we supposed to do while patrolling?”

              Shane thought about the question for a second, but he shrugged his shoulders and admitted that he did not know.

              “I don’t know, but they do.” Cass pointed up over the pyramid. She pointed at a group of eleven riders, ten copper led by one silver, flying in a V pattern. “They are flying patrols over the city and they have agreed to let us follow them.”

              Cass sounded like she had gotten a great gift for someone, but the person that she intended on giving it to didn’t want it. Hayden and Shane were both impressed by her outgoingness.

              They jumped into their saddles and fastened all their restraints and leg harness. Once they were all secure Hayden waited for the signal to fly. Even when it was practice they had been taught to always make sure the sky was clear of other dragons and wait for their leader to signal that they were ready to fly. You didn’t want all the dragons trying to fly up at the same time and crashing into each other if they were taking off in a confined space.

              “Well, Hayden, are you ready or what?” Cass asked, her spirits having lifted since she got in the saddle. “We are waiting on you, you lead this.”

              Why are you always so slow to take off? Draek’s voice came through his head before he could give the signal. Hayden was about to reply to him when Draek suddenly jumped into the air, slamming Hayden back in his saddle.

              Follow me! Draek told the other two dragons. Hayden had to focus on leaning forward because he felt like he was being pulled in half. The three dragons gained on the eleven, who were leisurely flying.

              They want us to form up behind them and try to copy their movements, Draek told Hayden as they came up underneath the other riders. Hayden and Draek slowed down and fell in behind them, making their own flight pattern behind them.

              Once they were in place the other riders increased their speed and Draek and the other dragons followed them. They went in the same direction until they had passed over the Celestial City and it was getting smaller and smaller behind them.

              The riders in front of them dove down together and gained speed, Hayden and the others continued to follow.

              What are we doing? Hayden asked.

              Following. They are showing us how they do their patrols. They know that closer to the city will most likely be safe but the further they get away from it the better chances are there will be enemies, Draek said.

              Hayden decided to stop asking questions, for the moment, and just watch. He noticed that the dragons moved their heads from side to side as they look over the ground underneath them. Their riders kept their eyes on the sky, looking for other dragons.

              Their patrol lasted most of the morning, and by the time they had returned Hayden thought he was frozen to his saddle. Snow had fallen half way through their patrol, but they stopped for nothing, not until they had finished.

              Hayden, Cass and Shane went inside to Hayden’s room to warm up. They had a servant bring in warm drinks while their dragons flew off in search for food; the cold did not bother them too much.

              Hayden and the others got out of their ridding gear and changed into their normal grays; as soon as Hayden was in fresh clothes he added more logs into the fire.

              “Well there was a lot more to that than what we had thought,” Hayden said as he sat down with his friends. He watched the fire spread onto the new logs as he listened to Draek give orders to the other dragons.

              “A lot more,” Shane agreed.

              “I can’t believe that all that is still necessary. The war has been over for so long,” Cass said. Hayden didn’t respond because the only thing he could think of was how the Metallic Riders had treated the dwarfs.

              If they treated the other races like that then Hayden did not have to wonder why they would continue to fight back. Hayden never doubted becoming a dragon rider, but it seemed like he was on the wrong side more and more.

              They stayed together until right before night fall, when their dragons returned. Hayden and Cass hadn’t been alone since before the Festival of Games, but he did not press it anymore.

              Sometimes it was by sheer chance that they wouldn’t be able to have some private time, but there were other instances when he knew that she avoided it on purpose.

              When their dragons got back, Shane left first to make sure that Rilora was taken care of. Of all the dragons there it seemed that she required the most maintenance, and if she did not get it then it was bad for Shane.

              Cass stayed for a little bit after Draek walked in. The silver dragon circled his sleeping area like a cat and plopped down with a loud thud.

              I am going to sleep, so if something bad happens between you two I don’t want you thinking about it all night. Draek lifted up his head and stared at Hayden with one of his giant silver eyes. Hayden remembered when Draek’s eyes were small enough for him to cover them with his hands. Now it would take both hands just to cover up most of the eye lid.

              Nothing’s going to go wrong. Hayden fired back. Cass noticed that they were speaking to each other and wondered what they were talking about.

              “Is everything ok?” she asked. Hayden walked over and sat down next to her, closer than he would have if Shane had stayed.

              “Yes, Draek is just saying that he thinks I am going to mess this up,” he said before he realized the words that were coming out of his mouth. Cass’s eyes got wide and her mouth opened slightly.

              Draek shook his head and laid it down. Cass got up and walked out of the room, leaving Hayden trying to apologize while sitting on the floor.

              Not a word, Hayden said as Draek laughed. Hayden jumped onto his bed and covered up with the extra furs he had, and tried to go to sleep without thinking about what he had just done. It proved impossible.

              The last few weeks of their training began to feel like real training again. They got up early to do their patrols every day; they flew with different groups because no group flew patrols every day. Giles and Sebastian joined them every so often, but they were not with them all the time.

              When they were with them they still ignored them for the most part and they completely ignored Hayden’s orders. They learned to just live with them and hope that it would get better.

              Before Hayden and Draek thought about it, it was time for their first flight. Hayden had been so focused on their training and flying with Draek in the snow storms that he forgotten about it.

              Hayden got dressed in his armor and furs; it felt just like the Festival of Games all over again. It was early in the morning but Draek was already gone, and he wasn’t answering Hayden.

              Draek, this isn’t funny, where are you, we are going to be late? He shouted in his mind as loud as he could but he got no response. He could feel Draek, but Draek was ignoring him. He was sure that he was about to be embarrassed when he went to do his first flight without his dragon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 26

 

 

 

              Hayden walked through the halls of the pyramid, still trying to get Draek to answer him. He had been told to meet everyone in the Hall of Stories to get prepared for their first flight. When he walked through the giant door he realized that he was the last of the riders to make it there.

              The other four riders were surrounded by servants who were cleaning and polishing the armor that they wore. Hayden didn’t realize how bad his armor looked until he stood next to Cass and watched how the light from the torches danced off her gleaming golden armor.

              “Is Shaylin answering you?” he asked Cass as servants quickly surrounded him and stared cleaning and polishing his armor.

              “No, but the servants told us not to worry that, it is part of the first flight ceremony. Apparently we have to do something on our own, like a rite of passage.”

              “This doesn’t make sense,” Hayden complained.

              “Does it ever?” Shane asked as they made him turn around to clean the back of his armor.

              The servants made the riders take off their capes and helmets; they told them that they wouldn’t need them with what they were going to have to do. Once the rider’s armor was clean they lined up just outside the Hall of Stories and waited to be marched out.

              Since the snow had first come up from the south the servants had kept twice as many torches inside the Metallic Pyramid lit to help take the edge off the cold. It was better than being outside, but it was by no means warm.

              Benet walked down the hallway in his full rider gear. He tried to look official and serious, but a smile could not help but creep onto his face when he saw the young riders.

              “It has been some time since I last saw you five,” Benet said as he got closer. They knew it was him before he had spoken, but they all wanted to hear his voice, just to make sure. Giles and Sebastian seemed to be completely oblivious to Benet and they remained quiet.

              “Benet!” Cass, Shane and Hayden seemed to shout simultaneously. Hayden hadn’t seen him since Benet had fought the dwarfs back during his early part of his training.

              “It’s good to see you guys, but we will have to catch up later. I asked for a special job today and that job is escorting you five to your last challenge as trainees.” He bowed slightly to them and turned to walk back the way he came. He ushered for them to follow but to remain silent.

              They walked past the dining hall and Estraken’s library, using the same corridors that they had used almost every day of their training. They walked out of the Metallic Pyramid and past the blacksmith’s shop where they had all trained.

              They passed every place that had been important to their training over the past year as they made their way out of the city. They took the same paths to their training ground and they all looked at the snow covered clearings that had once been the home of pain and sweat.

              They continued walking through the forest, making sure to be careful about not touching an overhanging branch. Unless they wanted to accidently bury themselves or the person next to them underneath the snow that was suspended overhead.

              Snow began to fall in thick flakes as they made it out of the forest, it stuck to their furs and, as the snow fell harder it started to impair their vision. They walked through the thickening snow and made their way to the River Savior.

              The river was covered in ice near the snow covered banks, but at the center of the river the water still raged on. They walked alongside the river until they came up to a bridge that would allow them to cross over safely.

              The bridge looked to be made out of snow and ice. Benet walked across the bridge with ease, but the five riders all took their time and were carful crossing over it. No one wanted to fall down in the snow; if they were unlucky enough to fall into the raging water below them it would mean death within minutes.

              When they made it to the other side of the bridge, having slid down the last few sections, they were starting to get a little winded. Trudging through snow with all the weight of their gear on was becoming a harder task then they had thought.

              Benet did not slow down, he did not speak at all to them, and if any of them made a noise he turned around swiftly and silenced them. They made their way past the arena Elizabeth had decided to keep it up and reuse in the years to come and headed to the Orchard of Souls.

              They made their way through the rows of snow covered trees until they made it to the center where all the trees had been burnt down. Waiting for them were four dragons: a silvers, a gold and two coppers.

              Bryce, Elizabeth and Caine sat on the back of their dragons while the other silver dragon had an empty saddle. The saddle on the silver was unlike any Hayden had ever seen. It had a seat for the dragon rider, but it also had straps all along the sides of the saddle and was much longer than any Hayden had seen.

              Benet led the five riders right up in front of the dragons.

              “Welcome,” Elizabeth said from the back of her dragon.

              “I have brought the five riders who have done all that has been required of them save one thing; your approval,” Benet spoke formally. When he finished his small speech he left Hayden and the others and got onto his dragon’s back.

              “Our approval; the only thing standing between being a trainee and a full rider. Are you ready to face the biggest challenge of your lives?” She did not wait for them to answer, instead she pointed to Benet and his dragon.

              At her signal, Benet and his dragon walked in between the two groups.

              “Each of you, climb up on the saddle and grab hold of the straps.” Benet had lost his friendly tone in exchange for a serious formal one. Hayden was the first to move, and he did as he was told.

              There where two leather handles for him to grab onto and two metal rings on the bottom of the saddle that jutted out and was big enough for him to put his feet in. It wasn’t uncomfortable for Hayden and he could hold himself up.

              The others followed his example and climbed up. Benet wanted them to be as even as possible so Giles, Sebastian and Cass got on one side while Shane was next to Hayden.

              When Benet told Cass to go to the other side it was the first time in a while that Sebastian acknowledged Hayden, but it was only with a devilish grin. Hayden could do nothing about it but grit his teeth.

              “Hey, at least you got me on your side,” Shane said; trying to cheer Hayden up, knowing how he felt about Cass.             

              Hayden guessed that they would have to fly like this and figured that this was the test; they would fly over the city and then land and it would prove their bravery.

              “You will have to show absolute trust during this; you will be afraid but don’t let it rule you.” Benet spoke quietly so that only they could hear him. Elizabeth was the first to take flight, and as soon as she was clear of them the others followed.

              Hayden had been in the air many times in the last few months; sometimes without his saddle. This time however, was an entirely different experience for him. He felt the same sensations he did while flying, but now he was not sitting on the dragon’s back, now he was holding on for dear life.

              His hands were gripping so tightly that they were starting to hurt, even though he was wearing gloves. Normally he would try to match his body’s movements with his dragon as Draek struggled to fly higher. He couldn’t do that from the side of a dragon though and the wind was strong enough to almost pull him off.

              The dragon was much bigger than Draek, so it had no trouble flying with the extra weight. Hayden was expecting it to fly just above the city, but instead all four dragons continued to fly higher and higher until they were about to break through the clouds.

              Hayden looked down and saw just how far up they were and was reminded again that the only thing holding him onto the dragon was his half frozen hands. The silver dragon started to level off and Hayden decided it was best not to look down any more.

              The clouds had been one giant thick sheet of white ever since the first snow storm. Everyday seemed to be nothing but grey skies and constant snow fall. Hayden watched as the thick clouds engulfed them and cut back his visibility to almost nothing.

              He could see the others’ shapes, but no more, and he could feel the wetness that came from flying through clouds dampen his fur. He got a weird sensation as he realized he could not see the ground below him or the skies above him, nothing but grey filled his vision.

              Hayden held on even tighter as he felt the dragon start to turn in the air. His feet slipped off the metal rings and for a second he was stretched out and his feet were dangling freely in the air.

              Hayden’s lungs seized up and he couldn’t ask for help or even breath, all he could do was try to pull himself up. His heart seemed to stop beating all together as his body rose closer and closer to where his feet could get back into the metal rings. His right hand started to slip and he pulled even harder.

              His put his foot into the loop just before his hand slipped off the leather strap. He started breathing again once he was secure against the dragon. No one seemed to notice what had just happened, and just as Hayden was about to tell Shane they heard Benet’s voice through the clouds.

              “Trust is what holds a rider to their dragon. Trust is what makes us deadly in battle and trust allows us to survive as long as we do. If you do not trust your dragon with your life, for yours are linked together, then you are not worthy to become Metallic Riders.”

              They listened to Benet speak as the wind seemed to carry his voice back to them.

              “It is time for your last test, one last trial, one last sacrifice. You must be willing to trust your dragon above all reason and above everything in this world. You know that if you fall from this height, you will die. Nothing can change that truth; you will hit the ground going so fast that all we will have to do is put dirt on top of you.

              “Even so, your last challenge is this: jump.” There was silence after that last word. Each of them heard it but none of them believed it.

              “You want us to jump, as in … off your dragon?” Sebastian asked. His voice squeaked slightly as he talked. Fear was all too apparent in his voice.

              “Jump,” was all that Benet said.

              Draek where are you? Draek, answer me! Hayden desperately tried to feel his dragons mind, but all he met was nothingness, just like the clouds around him. Fear grew like a tree in his heart; starting off small and insignificant but quickly growing and spreading throughout his body till it was too thick to cut out.

              Hayden started to panic and he grew disoriented and confused. He wasn’t sure if things were starting to get fuzzy or if it was just the clouds around him closing in. He heard the voices of the others but he couldn’t make out what they were saying.

              Each of them seemed to be trying to shout over the other one. Hayden felt his grip slipping and something told him deep inside that it was ok to let go. The voices around him stopped, everyone seemed to be facing him like they knew he was about to do something, just like how he knew he was going to do something.

              He looked over at Shane and the clouds cleared just enough for them to see each other’s faces in the clouds. Shane looked confused and Hayden could only guess that he looked the same way.

              Shane asked a question that Hayden never heard. Hayden looked down at his hands and let his mind go blank. He stood up on the loops and pushed off the dragon with his hands, letting go of the straps and letting his feet fall free of the loops.

              He heard voices yell his name as he stretched out his arms and kept his feet together while falling away from the dragon. He caught a glimpse of the dragon’s shape in the clouds and it reminded him of a giant fish swimming in the water. It was the last thought in his head before the wind was sucked out of him and he started struggling to scream.

              Hayden fell through the clouds, he knew he was falling but he could not see anything. Finally the clouds broke around him and while he had been falling through the clouds he had managed to turn himself over so he was facing the ground that was, but would not remain so for long, far away.

              All sense of calm and any feeling he had that made him think that he was doing the right thing left him as quickly as he had left the dragon. His arms flailed around him and he knew he had made a drastic mistake.

              He yelled as loud as he could but his voice sounded different to him, almost dragon like.

              Hayden was about to yell again when he heard the sound again, this time he was sure it was a dragon’s roar. He turned himself over again so he could face the clouds; the sensation of falling backwards was more terrifying than seeing the ground rushing up at him.

              The clouds were further away now; he had fallen so far in such a short time. He knew that he did not have much time left before he hit the ground bellow. He realized that just as Draek’s thoughts jumped back into his head.

              It was like taking a bath; all of Draek’s thoughts and emotions flooded him at once. There were so many thoughts and feeling that’s they all got jumbled together. Hayden could pick out sorrow and worry among them.

              I am sorry, Draek; I was being stupid and jumped off. I am so sorry, I shouldn’t have done it. Hayden felt his eyes tear up, but the air rushing past him pulled them off his face before they could roll down his cheek.

              You did great, Hayden; you trust me. Hayden was confused again. He did not understand what it mattered if he trusted Draek if they were both about to die.

              The clouds above Hayden ruptured as Draek came tearing through the sky. The clouds exploded around him, and as he passed out of them they twirled around his wing tips. Two lines of white streaked behind his wings as he dove faster and faster, heading straight for Hayden.

              Hayden saw all that and was relieved to see his dragon; his friend. Draek had his riding saddle on and was catching up to Hayden. Hayden got excited as he realized what Draek was trying to do.

              Turn so that you are falling head first, you will go faster but I will still catch you. Hayden tried to do what Draek said but as it was more difficult than he had thought it was going to be.

              He finally got it right, and Draek was telling the truth because once his body was lined up he immediately started picking up speed.

              Draek was falling just like Hayden was, but faster. He gained on Hayden and accidently passed him. He opened his wings up slightly and slowed down, but then Hayden passed him. It took them a few tries before Draek got the speed right.

              Once they were falling side by side Draek turned so that the saddle was facing Hayden. Hayden had no say in where he was falling so it was up to Draek to slowly move close enough to him so he could grab on.

              The first attempt Draek did not move far enough over and Hayden was still out of reach.

              Move closer, you’re still too far, Hayden told Draek. Draek then moved too far over and knocked into Hayden, sending him tumbling through the air. Hayden immediately slowed down and Draek shot past him.

              Sorry, Draek said as Hayden tried to right himself. Draek slowed down and they tried again, but this time Hayden was in a hurry because he noticed that the ground was close, very, very close.

              Hayden was able to contain his panic and focus on getting into the saddle while Draek lined up to try again. This time he moved slower, and even though Hayden was upside down, he was able to grab onto the saddle.

              As soon as his hands gripped leather they went to work without his brain telling them what to do. Which was a good thing because his brain was saying “We’re going to die” over and over again in his head.

              He pulled himself onto the saddle and strapped his legs in. He had to look down to tighten his safety straps.

              Hurry up, I need to pull up, Draek seemed urgent and it caused Hayden to look up from his straps, which he had just finished tightening. They were close enough to the ground that Hayden could see people, who had been watching the dragons, were running away from Draek.

              I’m in, go!! Hayden leaned as close as he could to Draek as he pulled out of the dive. Draek tried to fly out of the dive instead of stopping himself. As he pulled out of the dive, not losing any of his speed, he flew right through the city.

              Hayden looked up just in time to see them flying straight for the golden dragon statue on the northern corner on the wall. Draek did a quick spin, and when he righted himself he flew clear of the statue.

              Draek did not have to flap his wings as they rose into the air; they were still going so fast he just glided.

              We have done it, Hayden, we are now Metallic Riders! Draek could not contain his excitement; he roared and blew fire in every direction. Hayden laughed at him, but joined in with his own shouting.

              An old man stood in the woods and smiled as he watched Hayden and Draek fly through the air. He had come a long way just to see them finish their training.

              “Good job, you two,” he grumbled to himself. He pulled his fur cloak closer to his body and tried to fight off the ever creeping cold. Now that he had come back to see them it was time to leave again. He knew that it was no longer safe for him around Celestial City. He turned to disappear back into the woods, but someone was standing right in front of him.

              “Leaving so soon, Fendrel?” the man asked. Fendrel recognized the voice and lowered his head. There was no way for him to escape his fate; even if he had run from it for many years.

              Hayden heard screams coming from above and turned to watch the others free fall through the clouds. One at a time he watched as they popped out of the clouds, only to have their dragon burst out right behind them and catch them.

              Everyone made it out fine, no one had as close of a catch as Hayden and Draek had. Giles and Sebastian flew off straight for the Metallic Pyramid while Hayden and his friends decided to celebrate before they went back.

              They lined up in their normal formation and circled the Celestial City; shouting the whole way. They each broke off from the formation to do flips and turns in the air, after which they would return to their spot.

              They did a few laps before making the flight back to the pyramid, where a crowd had grown. The people and dragons that were there moved away to make room for the three landing dragons.

              The ground was covered with people moving around like ants. Hayden guessed that they were there to congratulate them on finishing their training. As their dragons landed and the wind storm that they had created died down, the people around them quickly ran to them.

              “Go back to your rooms and get your weapons and gear then go to the Orchard of Souls and meet the other riders,” a guard yelled at them. Hayden was about to ask what was going on when Draek and the other two dragons raised their head and turned to face some unheard sound.

              “What is it?” Hayden asked out loud. He heard Shane and Cass ask the same thing to their dragons.

              Draek did not answer Hayden; he seemed to become a statue underneath him. Draek finally crouched down and almost threw Hayden out of the saddle. Hayden stumbled to get to his feet but Draek kept nudging him towards their room.

              What are you doing? What’s going on?  Hayden asked. His friends were getting the same treatment from their dragons.

              Get your gear, quickly, we have to leave immediately, Draek finally told him. Hayden ran through their room and strapped on his sword. He grabbed his shield and his eagle helmet and tied them onto Draek’s saddle. He quickly strapped on his throwing knives and made sure that each blade was securely in its sheath.

              The whole time Hayden was getting his gear Draek didn’t answer him anymore and he kept looking out of their room like he was expecting to see something coming.

              The last thing that Hayden grabbed was his bow and quiver; he left his bow unstrung and he strapped the quiver onto the saddle and made sure that he had everything.

              Draek started to almost walk in place because he was so nervous. Hayden could feel him being anxious to go and thinking of nothing else but getting into the air.

              Are you going to tell me what’s going on? I know you know something, Hayden asked as he climbed up and got in the saddle. He strapped himself into the saddle; it was much easier staying still and doing it than while falling.

              Draek did not answer, and the moment Hayden was finished Draek broke into a sprint and ran out of their room. Hayden held on tightly and tried not to get jerked back.

              Draek did not stop running when they cleared the Metallic Pyramid; instead he jumped onto the roof of one of the buildings and used it to throw himself into the air. Draek was flapping his wings as soon as he left the building’s roof.

              “Draek, what’s the matter, what is going on?” he shouted in his mind and out loud; hoping that either one would get through to him. Hayden quit talking when they got high enough over the tree line for Hayden to see that the clearing in the center of the Orchard of Souls was full of dragons.

              There were more in the air above the orchard, just flying lazily in circles because there was no room for them to land. Draek joined the circling dragons, but flew low enough to the ground so that Hayden could make out who some of the riders were.

              Who is that in front of everyone? Hayden asked Draek. Draek’s mind seemed calm again now that they were with the other dragons.

              Elizabeth, she is telling everyone what has happened, Draek replied solemnly.

              Hayden waited for Draek to elaborate, but no more came from his dragon. He wondered what could have happened to cause all this. A few dragons took off from the ground and it allowed Hayden and Draek to land in their spot.

              As soon as Draek folded up his wings he moved in between two other dragons so that he could make more room for others to land. From this place Hayden could hear what Elizabeth was saying.

              “They have finally gone too far, pushed us when we have done nothing wrong,” she shouted over the dragon riders and many cheered.

              “The dwarf rider spoke true when he said an army was coming. A few of the clans have banded together and are on the war path.” A hush went over the crowd as she spoke. Hayden couldn’t hear the few hundred dragons around him; everyone was silent and trying to hear what Elizabeth had to say.

              “They killed our riders that were guarding the northern tower; they have killed all our friends. That is why we had no warning; that is why they have made it so far. All of our scouts that they have encountered have been overrun and slaughtered.” Angry growls came from both dragon and rider alike.

              “But they did not expect us to have patrols flying all around our great city. They did not expect our riders to spot them and now we can avenge them that have fallen by those devil’s hands!” she shouted at the top of her lungs.

              Hayden could not believe what he was hearing; war had finally come to them. Draek jumped into the air before Elizabeth could say any more. Part of Hayden wanted to know what else she had to say but a bigger part of him wanted nothing to do with any of it.

              Draek flew straight up through the circling dragons, making his way higher and higher as they neared the clouds. He leveled off when there were no more dragons above him and circled high above the others.

              What are we going to do, Draek? Hayden asked. He leaned over and looked at the multitude of dragons bellow. He didn’t know how many dragons the dwarfs had, but he was almost certain it wasn’t enough.

              We wait, Draek responded. Hayden did not have to wait long before he saw Shaylin and Rilora fly up from the circling dragons and fly level with Draek.

              “What’s happening?” Hayden yelled out as soon as they were within ear shot.

              “The dwarfs came down out of the mountains a few nights ago and killed everyone at the northern tower. Every group of Metallic Riders they have encountered they have killed, that way no one could warn us,” Cass shouted back.

              “They are close now; a local patrol group spotted them less than a day’s flight away. They are marching straight for us and we are going to go out and meet them before they can make it to the city,” Shane added.

              Hayden had no idea what to say or do. He knew that being a dragon rider meant that he would have to fight. He had spent the last year training with weapons, not just for tournaments, but for actual battles.

              “Hayden, they expect us to fight also, now that we are full riders,” Cass yelled.

              Hayden had guessed as much, but hearing it out loud put a lump in his throat that made it painful to swallow.

              “How though, we haven’t trained with any of the wings; we won’t know how they work together,” Hayden knew what Cass’s response was before the words left his lips.

              “We are going to fly together, the five of us,” Cass said. Hayden looked down at the ground and found Giles and Sebastian on their dragons. They were easy to pick out because they had the smallest silvers.

              Hayden heard roars from down bellow; he heard them and he felt them as all the dragons roared in unison.

              What’s going on now? Hayden watched as the dragons started flying off in different directions. Most flew towards the northern point of the city, but a lot of them flew out randomly.

              She is done speaking; now it’s time to fight. Draek turned and began flying in the same direction as most of the dragons. Hayden didn’t have to tell his friends to fall in behind them; they already knew what to do.

              Hayden knew that Giles and Sebastian would eventually join up with them, whenever it was convenient for them. So he did not worry about trying to talk them into hurrying up.

              At first the sky seemed to be full of chaos as the couple hundred dragons tried to get to their wing leaders and form up. It didn’t take long before they were all flying in their organized patterns and Three Rulers took the lead in front of all the other dragons.

              As they cleared Celestial City, Hayden’s heart sank even more as he saw the thousands of soldiers marching in a line. There were still more pouring out of the city and joining the ranks. Mixed in with them were wagons and giant weapons being pulled by horses.

              They flew further on and began ascending, Elizabeth wanted them flying above the clouds so that the dwarfs would not see their numbers. Right before they broke into the clouds Hayden saw another large number of horsemen ridding in the same direction that they were all going.

              Hayden had heard their trainers boast about how quickly the cities army could be summoned and ready for war, but Hayden was still shocked to see it firsthand. All the soldiers seemed to move in together and become one giant army; it reminded Hayden of a bunch of small streams and creeks merging together to form a river.

              This river just happened to be thousands of soldiers and dragons flowing straight for an unsuspecting dwarf army. Hayden did not want to fight, let alone kill any of the dwarfs, but it seemed that that choice had been taken from him.

              It was quickly going to become a matter of kill or be killed.

             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 27

 

 

Hayden and Draek broke through the clouds and flew into the clear skies. Hayden looked down at the blanket of white underneath them. He watched as more people poked out of the clouds as their dragons rose up. He turned to watch Cass and Shane quickly fall in behind him and level out, just as they had done over and over again. Giles and Sebastian were slower to follow, but they were there nonetheless.

 

All the other riders got in their wings, and soon all the dragons were soaring smoothly like birds flying north before winter came. Elizabeth’s wing was made up of the Three Rulers and two of the biggest silver dragons Hayden had ever seen. As they started to make good distance, one of the silver dragons in Elizabeth’s wing broke off and circled back to Hayden’s wing.

As Hayden watched the giant dragon fly through the other wings, the dragons in its way had to move unless they wanted to get hit. Draek slowed down to make more room between him and the wing in front of them.

The giant silver turned sharply and flew right in front of Draek, forcing him to fall in behind. Their wing adjusted to the change and they flew with three on one side and two on the other. As they moved back into position, Hayden heard Cass’s voice over the winds.

He turned to face her and realized she was shouting, but he could barely make out what she was saying. He couldn’t hear her clearly but he could see her yelling “no” over and over again.

What’s going on, Draek, what’s wrong with Cass? Hayden asked. Shane had the same confused look on his face that Hayden had. Elizabeth has commanded that Cass go back to Celestial City. She says she is too valuable to risk in this battle. Draek had no emotion as he spoke, his mind was still focused on the upcoming battle.

 

Hayden heard Shaylin roar in frustration as she turned around and made her way back the way they came. Cass was rubbing her eyes and Hayden guessed she was crying as he watched them dive into the clouds and disappear from his sight.

They are both upset, Draek said. Hayden did not respond right away. He hated seeing Cass and Shaylin upset, but he also was glad that they were not going to be a part of what was coming. Hayden did not want to be part of what was coming.

Their new wing leader flew them faster than the other wings were going, so they moved up closer to the front. They overtook all the wings except for Elizabeth’s, who stayed in front the whole time.

Hayden got more and more nervous as they continued to fly. They were going very slow, so they wouldn’t get too far ahead of the ground troops, but Hayden felt like they were going too fast.

Draek stayed quiet throughout most of the flight. Whenever Hayden tried to see what he was thinking about all he saw was difficult aerial moves that he was concentrating on. Hayden tried to think about everything he had learned over the past year, all the weapons training that had been drilled into him, but no matter how hard he tried to think about it, the only thing that popped into his head was the thoughts of death. His mind followed that path and he saw himself having to watch Shane get killed. He shook his head, trying to make the thoughts fall out.

 

He decided to watch the clouds pass underneath him as he settled for just being distracted. That’s when he noticed Elizabeth turning in her saddle and shouting at the other two Rulers. Hayden thought that maybe the dwarves had already given up and she was telling them it was time to turn around. His heart skipped a beat when she lowered the face guard on her helmet, grabbed a spear from the side of her saddle, and with her dragon roaring underneath her, they dove into the clouds.

 

The other dragons in her wing all performed the same maneuver: they flew up into the air a little higher, and then dove straight into the clouds. Before Hayden could finish making sure his helmet was on tight, Draek was lunging into the air and diving into the white mist bellow. It took everything Hayden had not to scream, it was just like his first flight all over again. Falling wasn’t all that bad, but falling when you can’t see anything around you was different.

 

Hayden did not know what to expect when they came through the other side of the clouds. He tried to clear his head as best he could as the clouds started to thin out and Hayden made sure his shield was on securely, and he grabbed a spear from the side of his saddle.

They broke through the clouds right behind Elizabeth’s wing. All of the dragons kept their wings in tightly so that they did not slow their fall just yet. The scene bellow Hayden was something that he had been told about, but nothing he had ever seen: thousands of armored men stood in lines with their weapons pointed in the air, Some of them carrying flags that flapped in the wind. The snow covered ground in front of them was pure and clean without a single footprint in it.

 

Behind the lines of soldiers were archers with dozens of arrows in the ground in front of them. The soldiers in front stood almost shoulder to shoulder so that their shields touched, but the archers left a few feet to move between each other.

The last row was made up of a few men on horses who had higher ground then everyone else; they were the leaders and they were observing the approach of the dwarf army.

Hayden watched as the dwarves poured in through a clearing on the other side of the field where the battle was about to take place. There was no order to the dwarves as they marched up, they did not even line up like the army in front of them. They had no archers as far as Hayden could tell, it seemed that their entire army was made up of foot soldiers that carried giant swords and axes that seemed too big for them to carry.

 

The dwarves stood their ground until they finished moving into position, then they started running at the awaiting army. Their disorder became more apparent as some dwarves got in the front of others and their lack of stamina became apparent as they made it halfway to their enemies.

Hayden and Draek had fallen from a high altitude, so they could watch the dwarves’ arrival as they soared down to the upcoming battle. Draek and the other dragons opened their wings slightly and changed the direction of their fall so they would fly right over the dwarves without being too close to their own troops.

As the dragons got closer to the dwarves, Hayden saw fear come over them as some tried to turn around and run from the oncoming dragons. Elizabeth gave the order to fight, and her gold dragon let loose its flame. The dwarves were not caught unawares as they hid behind their fire hardened shields. Elizabeth’s dragon’s flames washed over their shields as she passed over them. The other dragons in her wing were following her direction by trying to incinerate as many dwarves as they could while they passed over. Somewhere beneath them a dwarf blew two loud bleats on a horn, the sound echoing off the hills where the dwarves had come from

.

As Draek opened up his wings and prepared for his first pass over the dwarves, Hayden watched in horror as hundreds of red dragons took to the sky from somewhere behind the hills and made their way swiftly toward them.

Hayden was so surprised to see the number of red dragons that he almost missed the dwarves moving giant cross bows onto the tops of every hill. The crossbows took four to five dwarves just to pull them back, and the bolts that were loaded into it were bigger than Hayden.

Draek reached the first line of dwarves and released his fire just like the dragons had done before him. Hayden’s wing still flew in formation as they made their pass, and at the same time, Hayden saw the crossbows take aim and fire their bolts.

He could not hear the snap of the giant ropes that help the crossbow bolt, but he could see them jump back as they sent the bolts flying through the air. Hayden could not speak or even think as he watched the bolts heading straight for him and the dragons behind. Draek noticed them as he took a deep breath and prepared to release another stream of fire. Instead, he roared a warning as loud as he could, signaling to the dragons that the giant weapons were now a threat.

 

The first bolt struck the silver dragon that had been leading them in the side, right under the wing joint. The impact sent ripples across the dragon’s body and forced it to lean to the right. The first bolt was followed by another one that hit the dragon right over the left shoulder, killing the silver giant; though the dragon never made a sound because the two bolts hit so fast. Immediately following the second bolt, the dragon plummeted to the ground below. Draek dove down even lower to the ground, trying to avoid the bolts that were flying overhead.

 

As Hayden watched the silver dragon fall, he saw a bolt that had been fired low looking to strike the already dead dragon. Draek was still in his shallow dive when Hayden noticed that the silver dragon was almost completely turned to stone, a sure sign that they had already suffered a loss.

              “Look out!” Hayden shouted as the bolt struck the stone dragon and shattered it in midair. Chunks of stone went flying in every direction and showered over the dwarves beneath them. Draek tried drastically to avoid being hit by any of the larger pieces, but one managed to fly right over Draek and strike Hayden.

              Hayden saw it coming and he knew there was nothing he could do to stop it. He raised his shield and tried to use it to protect himself, but he doubted it was going to help. The force behind the stone that was once part of a dragon was more than anything Hayden had ever experienced. It knocked the wind out of him, pulled him out of the saddle and made the left side of his body go numb.

              Draek had been flying low to avoid the rocks so the fall to the ground wasn’t enough to kill him. The army of angry dwarfs that he landed in the middle of, however, was enough to kill him.

              Draek knew the second that Hayden had been hit that something was wrong. He turned his long neck around in time to see Hayden hit the ground underneath him, but he could not turn around on the spot, an army of metallic dragons were still flying behind him.

              Hang, on I am coming back for you, Draek said as he continued his pass and tried to find a way to turn around. Hayden got up slowly and struggled to get air back into his lungs. His body was tingly and sore all over, but breathing was the most important thing right at that moment.

             

              Most of the dwarves around Hayden were hiding underneath their shields from both the dragons and falling projectiles. None of them noticed Hayden for a few seconds, which allowed him to catch his breath and slowly draw his sword.

              The dwarfs nearest him heard the sound of his blade leaving its scabbard and peeked from under their shield to see what had made the noise. “Rider!” the nearest one to him yelled. All of a sudden the dwarves forgot about hiding under their shields and they quickly became focused on killing Hayden.

             

              Hayden shook his left arm to speed up the blood flow, then moved his feet apart and took a comfortable stance in the middle of all the dwarf soldiers.

              The first few ran at him wildly, swinging their axes or giant swords with metal rings through the back and yelling. The first one tried to chop Hayden in half with one arched blow. Hayden stepped to the side to avoid the axe and he jabbed his own blade into the neck of the dwarf, dropping him where he stood.

              Hayden’s mind went blank, his brain no longer told his body which moves to perform or where to go. His body seemed to have been taken over and was doing a good job of defending himself.

              The other dwarves quickly met the same fate as the first one. This was nothing like practicing sword play, where you waited for your opponent to strike and tried to disarm him without hurting him.

              A dwarf would swing at him, then Hayden would dodge or block the blow and then counter with a killing stroke. Only a few of the dwarves countered his first strike, and the ones that did succeed did not live through his second.

              The dwarves continued to throw themselves at Hayden. One after the other he swiftly ended their lives, he left none lying in pain in the red stained snow.

              Hayden was no longer cold, and all he could smell was the stench of the unwashed dwarves who had been at a hard march for some time now, and the metallic smell of blood that was building up around him.

              The dwarves started backing away from him, trying to find his weakness before they would lunge in and strike. It was getting harder for Hayden to use his speed to his advantage, dwarf bodies were stacking up around his feet and Hayden almost tripped twice on them. The snow around them had also turned into a blood and mud mixed slosh that was as slippery as ice. The dwarves would run in at Hayden, but were unable to slow down or stop once they realized they were going to die.

             

              The dwarves continued to circle Hayden, growling and cursing at him, making feints to try and draw him out. Hayden dared a quick glance into the sky to see if Draek was near, but the red dragons had arrived and now the sky was full of chaos as the two armies met in the air.

The archers opened fire on the dwarves, firing in organized volleys, one after the other. The arrows fell down on them like snow; blankets of arrows littered the ground and dwarf bodies. Hayden continued to fight as the arrows fell around him. He deflected a few with his shield by accident. The dwarfs backed further away from him, leaving a large circle around him open.

 

Hayden spun in circles, making sure none of the dwarves were trying to sneak up on him. He looked up for a second time and he caught a glimpse of Draek fighting off a red dragon and diving towards him. Hayden wasn’t sure how he was going to get back onto Draek’s back, but he was sure they would solve that problem.

GET DOWN!! Draek’s voice echoed through Hayden’s head. He was about to turn around to see what he was supposed to be ducking from when something grabbed him by his cape and jerked him into the air.

The force of being snatched up by his cape almost dislocated his left shoulder. He watched the ground shrink away from under his feet when he realized that his shield had fallen off and was now resting on the pile of dead dwarves that he had just fought.

Hayden looked up and found a large red scaled claw holding onto his cape. The red dragon dodged other dragons as he flew higher and higher into the air, zigzagging between flying projectiles.

The dragon lowered his head and snapped at Hayden. Hayden tried to slash his sword at the dragon’s maw, but neither of them seemed to be gaining ground. Hayden held onto his cape with his left hand, he wasn’t sure how long his cape would hold his weight.

Out of the corner of his eye, Hayden saw a copper dragon diving at them. He tried to keep the red dragon’s attention by stabbing at his belly and slashing at his face. The red dragon continued trying to kill him and never saw the copper coming.

The copper slammed into the red dragon’s back, grabbing the red dragon’s shoulders and dragging it into a front flip. The red dragon roared with rage and let go of Hayden so that it could concentrate on fighting the copper dragon.

Hayden was relieved to be free from the red dragon, until he remembered that he was flying through the air.

DRAEK, HELP ME!! He couldn’t make out which way was up or down as he spun helplessly through the air.

I got you, Draek replied calmly as he swooped down and snatched Hayden out of the air, catching him in his claws. Draek turned upside down and threw Hayden into the air, then quickly corrected himself while Hayden was still in the air. Hayden fell onto his back and latched on to Draek’s wing joints. 

 

              “Don’t you ever do that again!” he shouted out loud, completely forgetting that Draek could hear his thoughts.

              Quit screaming and get back into the saddle, Rilora needs us.

Hayden did just as Draek suggested. He climbed back into the saddle, but whenever he had gotten knocked off of Draek, he had broken every one of the safety harnesses. He had to hold on with his legs alone.

              Hayden looked up and saw the dragons fighting everywhere, none of them caring if their battles caused them to fall into other dragons, sending them plummeting to the ground.

              The red dragon that had grabbed Hayden had broken away from the copper it was fighting, which Hayden could now tell was Rilora. The red snapped at Rilora just as it had done with Hayden. Rilora fell for the red dragon’s tricks and became infuriated. She lashed out and snapped at the red dragon’s neck. The red dragon reared back and unleashed it’s lava like flame onto Rilora’s face.

 

                            Rilora made a noise that Hayden will never forget. It wasn’t a powerful roar and anything close to that. It was a dragon’s scream, crying out in pain. Draek and Hayden were close, but not close enough to stop the red dragon from attacking again. It pulled its neck back and got ready to hit Rilora with more of its liquid fire.

 

                            Hayden grabbed his bow from the side of his saddle and notched an arrow. He had fired arrows from on top of Draek many times before this, but none of them mattered as much as this shot did. Hayden let out his breath and, when his lungs were completely empty, he released the arrow.

              The arrow flew right into the red dragon’s open mouth and stuck in the back of its throat. The red dragon let go of its grip on Rilora and slowly started to fall to the ground. It made no sound, went limp, and spots around the dragon’s neck started turning to stone.

              The red dragon’s rider screamed and begged the dragon to answer him. It almost broke Hayden’s heart to see a rider torn from his dragon, but they had both just tried to kill him and had almost successfully killed Rilora.

              The copper dragon was in a fit of rage, and even though she could see that the red dragon was dying, it wasn’t enough for her. She dove down at the red dragon, and right before they would have collided, she flipped forward and slammed her tail into the dragon’s neck.

              The dragon’s neck had already started to turn to stone, so when Rilora’s tail struck, it shattered. The dragon turned to stone almost instantly and the rider’s cries were cut off. The dragon’s stone body and head fell on top of the dwarves underneath and crushed a few unlucky enough to not get away.

              Hayden nodded at Shane as he flew back up to fly behind Hayden. They tried to avoid any fights, but it was impossible. Dwarf riders saw that their dragons were smaller and they knew that they were younger and less experienced then the other Metallic Riders. They thought that their youth meant weakness, but everyone that tried to attack them learned that they were wrong.

              Do you hear that? Draek asked as they flew underneath two dragons, a red and a copper, that were fighting as they fell out of the sky. They broke apart just before hitting the ground. They then flew back up into the air and did the whole thing over again.

              Hear what? How can you hear anything with so much noise? Hayden asked. He had his bow out and was firing arrows at dragons and riders alike.

              There are drums somewhere. Draek moved his head from side to side as he looked for the source of the drums.

              It could just be the ground troop’s signals, Hayden thought, and he looked around too, but his eyes were not nearly as good as Draek’s so he couldn’t make out any details on the ground.

              No, they use horns not drums. It’s the dwarves. They are up to something. Hayden watched the ground troops marching in an organized bunch, cutting down any lone dwarves as they moved towards the large mass of them.

              Hayden saw their horsemen surge up from behind their lines; they had been hiding out of sight so the dwarves wouldn’t see them so they could flank them

              The battle was over, the dwarves were outnumbered and were about to be over run. Their dragons were scattered and defeated, some were even trying to flee, but they were being chased down by full wings.

              Hayden thought that the dwarves were trying to signal their retreat to the few that were alive. That’s when he saw the cloud of debris rising behind the dwarves.

              The cloud had started in the nearby forests and was quickly moving to come behind the dwarfs. Hayden watched as trees fell around the cloud and a huge gouge was cut into the forest.

              Do you see that? he asked Draek. He was pointing from Draek’s back, but he lowered his hand when he realized that Draek couldn’t see where he was pointing.

              I do, but what is it, some kind of dwarf weapon? Draek slowed down his wing beats so that he was just going faster than gliding.

              Or is it more of the horsemen coming to surround them? Even as Hayden asked, he knew that was wrong. The ground troops had collided with dwarves, it looked like waves crashing against a stony cliff. The horsemen had seen the forest start to fall and something moving straight for them.

              They pushed their horses faster, trying to reach the dwarves before They reached what they were trying to get to.

              Can you get closer to it so we can see what it is? Hayden asked. Draek pulled in his wings in response to Hayden’s question. They dove quietly through the frigid air as they made their way down to the battle.

              They were flying over the horsemen, close enough to hear their horses complaining in protest to being so close to a dragon, when the last of the trees fell down and they got a good look at what was coming at them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 28

 

 

             Hayden had never seen any animal like the ones running at them. They looked like small dragons but without wings, they had almost no neck and they had three giant horns jutting out of their head: one on the end of their nose, one in between their eyes, and one on the top of their heads.

              Their hides looked to be made out of grey plates of armor set on top of each other. They were a few feet taller than the giant battle horses and they were much broader and wider.

              The beasts ran shoulder to shoulder and they continuously smacked their heads into the beast beside them, as if this was all some giant game. The dwarfs that rode them had saddles that they stood on and their reins were tied around the largest horn on the end of the beast’s noise.

              The creatures’ front legs were thinner than the back legs, and the front feet had almost finger like appendages to grab things. The back legs were thick with corded muscles, and when they ran the back legs propelled them forward while tearing up the ground behind them.

              Hayden was terrified when he saw these animals. They were the things that had haunted his childhood dreams, he had thought that creatures like this were myth but now he was seeing them first hand.

              The creatures were further away from the dwarfs then the horsemen were, but they were moving much faster. The dwarfs were locked in battle with the foot soldiers and it was unclear who was winning.

              The metallic army had depended on their cavalry to overpower the dwarfs, but they were now faced with something of equal or greater force. The horsemen urged their mounts to go faster; if they were afraid of the beasts they didn’t show it.

              The creatures and their riders made it to the dwarfs first, but they did not stop to fight, instead they divided into two groups and went around the fighting so they could face the horsemen head on.

              They had barely started to file back into their center ranks when they collided with the horsemen.

              Draek pulled up before the impact happened. Hayden heard the sounds as the horses ran head first into the horned creatures. He tried not to look down but he couldn’t help himself.

              Some of them hadn’t met yet so he watched as the horses tried to use their weight and momentum to knock their opponents over. It would have worked if their opponent was smaller or slower but these creatures were neither.

              The horses did what they were trained to do, what they had been bred for. When they slammed into the dwarf’s mounts some of them were impaled instantly, others were hit by the creature’s front arms, but a few unlucky ones got smashed to the ground and torn apart by the monsters teeth.

              Hayden could see the horsemen trying to stay in control of the battle, a battle that they had lost control of very early on. They tried to keep their men together and further wedge the dwarfs into two groups.

              The dwarf’s creatures had the advantage over the horses, but the soldiers ridding the horses had the advantage over the dwarfs. Just like the horses had been bred for this purpose, most of the men had known from a very early age that this is what they were going to be doing. They had been training for years with these animals, honing their skills.

              These dwarf riders didn’t carry weapons and it was obvious that their mounts were still undisciplined and untrained. Once the initial shock of the beasts was over, the horse men started gaining ground.

              Do you think we should help them? Draek asked as the circled overhead like a vulture over a fresh kill. Hayden had been so drawn into what was going on below that he hadn’t thought about helping out.

              He drew another arrow and sent it racing down to plant into the shoulder of a dwarf rider. The dwarf grabbed his shoulder in pain and, by doing so, he yanked hard on the reins. His mount obeyed and rammed another dwarf, the two beasts and their riders tumbled to the snowy ground.

              I think we should. Hayden notched another arrow and sent it after another dwarf, he noticed Shane was throwing his spears and causing pain and havoc for the dwarfs. They both dove down over the dwarfs, and their dragons released their fire over their biggest groups.

              The dwarfs had forsaken most of the armor that they normally wore; it was too cumbersome to wear while controlling their mounts. Shields were impractical and impossible to use while ridding so they too were not carried. Those were two mistakes a lot of the dwarfs wouldn’t get the chance to make again.

              The other dragons were still focused on the fight in the skies, trying to round up the last of the red dragons and reform all the wings. None of them noticed what was going on below except for Hayden and Shane.

              The first pass that they made was devastating. The creature’s instincts told them to run away when dragons were near, but they were so close together they could only climb on top of each other as they tried to escape.

              The dwarfs realized their mistakes when Draek and Rilora exhaled fire down upon them. Nearly half of their numbers succumbed to the flames; many others were gravely wounded or lost their mounts.

              The horsemen did not cheer as their enemy was burnt down. They closed ranks and marched their horses forward, killing anything that moved in their way.

              The dwarf riders tried to get their mounts to jump into the ranks of the horsemen. They were trying to kill their enemy, but also so the dragons couldn’t burn them. Draek and Rilora continued to dive down over the battle then turn around in the air and do another pass.

              They stopped blowing fire and used their teeth and claws to do their killing. They grabbed the animals in mid air as they tried to jump over the horsemen’s lines. Once they had them in their grasps they would use their claws or teeth to kill them. If they didn’t have a good enough grip on them to do that safely then they would just fly up and drop them.

              Hayden and Shane continued to rain down their bolts and spears, injuring or killing all they hit. The horsemen continued to push into the dwarfs, dispatching the riders with a quick blow of their sword.

              Other dragon riders finally realized what was happening on the ground and flew down to help out. Two full wings joined in to help Shane and Hayden, and in no time the dwarf riders and their wicked mounts were all dead.

              Hayden had hoped that some would surrender, but they continued to fight to the last man. When there was only one dwarf rider left he did no slow down his assault, he continued to lash out and drive his mount to attack as if he still had an army to his back.

              The dark horned creatures were the dwarf’s last hopes. With them gone the battle had been won, but the dwarfs were not giving up their losing fight.

              The only dwarfs remaining were foot soldiers that had been in the initial advancement. They stood in a large clump with their backs together; they still had their weapons raised.

              Draek landed just behind the ring of foot soldiers that had the dwarfs surrounded. Hayden stayed in the saddle and sheathed his weapon as he waited for everyone to find their place.

              Elizabeth and her wing landed, they got off their saddles and waited for the man who led the ground battle to greet them.

              “Elizabeth the Gold, it is an honor,” the man said as he bowed down before her. He wore armor like the other soldiers, but his was still shinny and had no sign of damage on it.

              “General Guthren, I see that you have managed to defeat the dwarfs.” The general smiled and bowed a second time. “But at a great cost of our cavalry, I couldn’t help but watch your charge get shattered by their beasts. If it wasn’t for my brave riders we would be cleaning your bodies off the field.”

              All sense of pride quickly left the general’s face, and he tried to bow again and grumble on about being sorry, but Elizabeth pushed past him and made her way to where the dwarfs were.

              The others in her wing flanked her on either side; they walked in the same way as they flew. More ground troops ran in to surround the dwarfs.

              Dragon wings still flew throughout the sky. Draek looked up at the dragons and Hayden watched as they broke into three groups: one group seemed to be heading back to Celestial City, one group went off the way the dwarfs had come, and the smallest group stayed behind and continued to circle over head.

              Where are they going? Hayden asked about the group that was heading to where the dwarfs had originated.

              They are going to pursue the red dragons that had escaped and take back the Northern Tower. Elizabeth wants it back as soon as possible. Hayden watched as they disappeared into the clouds.

              What are we supposed to do? he asked.

              She wants us here. Draek did not sound happy about being forced to stay here and Hayden did not want any attention from Elizabeth right now.

              She pushed past soldiers who had their weapons drawn and pointed at the dwarfs. There were less than a hundred dwarfs left alive.

              She glared at them and took her time letting them see her, letting them know that it was she who had defeated them.

              “Lay down your weapons.” She spoke loudly but was not yelling.

              The dwarfs did not respond to her demand, they looked at her as if she was nothing more than a bug telling them what to do. She smiled at them and waited patiently for them to obey, as it became apparent that they were not going to do so she made them obey.

              One of the soldiers next to her had his bow and arrows on his back, the bow had not been unstrung yet. She reached over and took the bow gently in her hand and drew out a single arrow. She examined them carefully, making a show out of it for the dwarfs.

              She notched the arrow and gave the bowstring a slight tug so she could feel the weight of it. When she had finished her inspection of the bow she faced the dwarfs again, this time the smile was gone.

              “Put down your weapons.” Her voice left no question that it was a demand that should be obeyed.

              The dwarfs no longer looked defiantly at her; instead they looked confused and afraid and looked to each other for guidance. One dwarf tightened his grip on his battle axe and stepped forward.

              “We will never…” he began to speak but was unable to finish. As soon as he got the first few words out Elizabeth drew back the bow and fired the arrow in a blink of an eye. Hayden had never seen anyone fire so fast in his life.

              The dwarf never realized what she was doing and never made an attempt to dodge the arrow that sank into his neck.

              He stopped speaking and just stood there, looking at the arrow shaft that was protruding out of his neck. He looked back up at Elizabeth, his face sad and confused, like he did not know why she would do such a thing.

              His body fell backwards, to reveal to the dwarfs behind him. They all clenched their weapons and began to scream at Elizabeth. She grabbed another arrow, notched it and pulled it back to full draw.

              “LAY DOWN YOUR WEAPONS!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.

              The dwarfs finally obeyed her, one at a time they stepped forward and threw down their battle axes, maces, and whatever else they had carried into battle.

              She did not release the tension on the bow until the last dwarf dropped his weapon. Elizabeth looked at the pile of dwarf steal in front of her. She handed back the bow to its rightful owner and then made her way in between the dwarfs and their blades.

              “Mercy,” a dwarf near the front said softly. The dwarfs around him pushed him and scolded him for showing weakness. Hayden could see the dwarf who had spoken, and he could tell by the shortness of his beard that he was younger then almost every other dwarf.

              He kept his hands around a necklace that he wore; he kept playing with it between his fingers so Hayden had a hard time making it out. From the few glances Hayden got of it it looked to be a small metal hammer.

              Elizabeth stopped to look at the dwarf that had spoken; she was like a cat that had just heard a mouse.

              “Please, I have a wife, and she is pregnant with our first.” The dwarf continued to talk even though his fellows continued to try to silence him. He had tears falling freely from his eyes and he stared at the hammer in his hands.

              “Mercy? You ask for mercy?” She raised her hands to the dwarfs as she spoke. “You have openly attacked and killed my people; you march towards my city with the intent for war. You challenge us in battle, and all this has been done for no reason, we have done nothing wrong to you, and yet you ask for mercy?”

              When the dwarf she was speaking to did not answer her she looked to the others, but they all remained silent. Finally a low, gruff voice came from the middle of the group of defeated dwarfs.

              “You attacked our clans for no reason; you captured and killed our people for no reason. When we retaliate you say we have done so unprovoked. Your reign has come to an end, Elizabeth The Gold, the scale has been broken and now everyone will see you for what you are.”

              The dwarf spit at the ground at her feet. Elizabeth turned her back to the dwarfs like she was thinking about a difficult subject.

              “No one will know about this if there are not any survivors. Kill them all.” She walked away as the soldiers surrounding the dwarfs drew their bows back and fired into the midst of their enemy.

              Hayden could do nothing but watch as the dwarfs were shot down. Some tried to run at the soldiers, even though they had no weapons they swung at the soldiers with their hard fists. But it was all for nothing, even the ones that managed to knock down a soldier or two were quickly run through.

              The dwarf who had spoken up about mercy just stood amongst the chaos. He was unmoving like a stone in a creek, as all the dwarfs were running around him screaming, fighting and dying.

              He kept his hands tight around his hammer necklace, saying a silent prayer that only he could hear. Then he brought it up to his lips and gently kissed it, as if he was kissing a new born baby’s head.

              Then two arrows struck him in the chest; he was still wearing armor so the arrow did no pierce him all the way through. He staggered back a few steps from the impact of the arrows. Another flew and hit him just above his right hip, then shortly after that a fourth one found its home in his back left shoulder.

              He still tried to stand, but he had to drop to his knees. Hayden jumped out of his saddle and ran as fast as he could to the dwarf. He was the last one still upright out of the almost hundred dwarfs that had been there.

              Soldiers were moving around from body to body, using their spears to make sure that they were dead. He was the last dwarf left alive.

              Elizabeth raised her hand to stop the thirty archers that were about to end the dwarfs life. She walked slowly to where the dwarf knelt, being careful not to step on one of the many bodies.

              She stopped before the dwarf, blood starting to slowly drip out of his mouth. He was starting to have a hard time breathing, death was almost with him, but he still raised his head to look her in the eyes.

              “Mercy?” she asked him mockingly. The dwarf stared at her, never pulling his eyes away from hers. He sucked in his lower lip and shook his head. Elizabeth nodded her head at the dwarf’s answer.

              Hayden made it to the edge of the soldiers, they had all moved in closer now that there was no threat from the dwarfs. He pushed people out of his way, grabbed men by their helmets and yanked them back if they didn’t get out of his way.

              Every time he moved a person two more people took his place. He knew he had to be getting closer to where the dwarf was but he felt like he was making no progress in the throng of armored people.

              He pushed his way through the last group of people but he tripped on someone’s foot. He fell face first into the bloody snow. He propped himself up just in time to see Elizabeth draw her blade.

              She carried a long thin blade that had a slight curve in it. The blade was small but it was also strong and sharp. The first thing someone would notice about it was that it was gold, just like the rest of her armor.

              She looked the blade over as she held it in her hands. She cradled it like a child and she admired it like a painter; it was a killing device and a work of art. She pointed the tip of her blade in between the dwarf’s eyes.

              “Ever seen a blade so beautiful?” she asked the dwarf. He continued to stare at her, but he could not help but to quickly examine the blade. He allowed a small smile to cross his face.

              “I have seen children make better blades to chop wood with.” His smile grew larger as the words left his lips.

              Elizabeth joined him in his smile. She pulled the blade back over her left shoulder and brought it across in one smooth motion. She held the pose for a second and then returned the blade to its sheath.

              Hayden thought that she had cut in front of the dwarf for a second. The dwarf remained perfectly still and the smile still on his face. But then he fell to his side and his head rolled off his body.

              Elizabeth bent down over the dwarf body and grabbed something, then made her way back to her dragon.

              “I want all their bodies burnt, stack them up and let the dragons burn them up.” She passed Hayden, who was still lying down on the ground. He started to get up when he realized she was staring at him.

              “Hayden The Silver has fought bravely today. I watched you kill dozens of dwarfs from the ground and then take out just as many dragons.” She threw something at Hayden which he caught against his chest. “A little something to remember this day by.”

              She walked over to her dragon and jumped into the saddle. As her dragon jumped into the air Hayden opened up his hands to see the hammer necklace the dwarf had been wearing; the chain was still intact but there was a blood smear on the hammer.

_______________________________

              Hayden and Draek were on their way back to Celestial City, flying in their normal flight pattern with Hayden in the lead. Giles and Sebastian had both made it through the battle, but Hayden did not know what they had done during the battle. He knew there were a lot of dragons in the air but didn’t remember seeing them.

              Hayden and Draek kept their minds open to each other. Hayden was lost and confused about what had happened. He knew battles were something he was going to have to go through, but he never imagined them going the way this one had gone.

              He knew that he would never forget the smell of the burning bodies. He looked back over his shoulder and he could still see the tower of black smoke rising in the cold air.

              As they had flown away from the battlefield it started snowing, and the snowflakes were giant puffs of white that looked like clouds slowly falling from the sky. As they had gotten higher into the air, Hayden had looked over the battle field and noticed that the snow was starting to cover it up.

              Nature was trying to cover the blood and bodies, trying to cover the red with white. Trying to forget what evil had happened, something Hayden would never be able to do.

              Hayden kept looking down at his hands; they still had smears of blood on them. He was already starting to see faces of dwarfs in his head. The things that he had done were starting to haunt their way into the darkest points of his mind, staying in the shadows where Hayden knew they were there, but he couldn’t see them clearly.

              Hayden, enough. Draek’s voice was soothing and friendly but also stern and commanding.

              The deep voice of his dragon resonated in his mind and kept him from slipping into madness.

              You acted bravely, and honorable; you did what you had to do to stay alive. You did not attack innocent people who had no way of stopping you. You were in a battle with warriors, and they were intent on killing you. You did what you had to do. Draek’s reasoning started fortifying itself in Hayden’s mind.

              He started realizing that Draek was right, and that if he wouldn’t have done what he did then they would both be dead.

              Thank you Draek, I am sorry for thinking that way. Hayden never had trouble admitting when Draek was right, which happened to be quite often.

              It’s ok, Hayden. We don’t have to like the things we are forced to do, but we do have to find a way to live with them. The dragons that I had to kill today, they were no different than I am now. In another life we could have hunted together, flown in a wing as equals. In another life. Draek started to pull his consciousness away from Hayden’s.

              Draek, no, you said we have to be strong. Hayden hated having to plead with Draek. He knew that the dragon was hurting just as much as he was. He knew that Draek was so focused on making him feel better that he wasn’t taking care of himself.

              Hayden, I don’t want to have to do that again. I don’t want to fight in their battles just because they say so. Draek lowered his head and tail as he flew. He slowed down and Shane matched his speed, Giles and Sebastian flew past them and continued on the route to Celestial City.

              We won’t have to Draek, not anymore and not ever again. Draek turned to look at Hayden with his big silver eye. He did not have to ask the question for Hayden to already start answering it.

              As soon as we get back we are leaving Celestial City. We will pack everything we need and we will leave together. Hayden knew that the idea sounded crazy. Something deep inside him told him that it was right.

              Where will we go? What will we do when they come looking for us, what if they find us? Draek was asking questions but he did not sound skeptical about the idea.

We will go wherever we want to, and they will never be able to find us, ever. Hayden had no idea where they could go where the Metallic Riders wouldn’t find them, but with war having reached them he hoped that they would be too busy to notice him gone until he was far away.

The rest of the flight back to Celestial City, Hayden and Draek continued discussing their plan to leave. They would pack everything that they could carry on Draek’s saddle and they would fly west until they reached the elves, then from there they would figure out where to go next.

They arrived back at the pyramid and Draek landed right in front of their room. Hayden jumped out of the saddle and led the way inside. He was already taking off his armor when made his way inside when he noticed that someone was sitting on his bed.

“Hello?” he asked. The person was a young woman, but she had her back to Hayden so he could not tell who she was. She turned around and it was the last person he was expecting to see in his room.

“Cass, what are you doing here?” Hayden asked.

“I am here to see you, Hayden.” She had been crying, her eyes were blood shot and puffy. Hayden walked over to comfort her when he saw her new sketch book that she had gotten from Elizabeth; it was open to a drawing she had been working on.

It was Hayden. The drawing was of Hayden in his armor, his sword drawn and by his side, his shield strapped to his other arm. His head was hung low and his face was shadowed so that he could see no details. But he knew it was him, the person in the drawing wore his eagle helmet that he had worn during the battle and all around the figure were dwarf bodies piled up.

The drawing version of himself looked deadly, it looked like a ferocious warrior, but it also looked sad. Like he had been given this talent only to realize that the talent was evil. The drawing reflected what he was feeling inside.

“How did you know?” Hayden asked her.

“Draek told Shaylin everything, Hayden.”

Hayden turned and looked back at Draek, he felt betrayed by his own dragon.

“Hayden, don’t be mad at him, please. There are more important things to worry about right now. The ceremony that is scheduled for tonight, for us finishing our year of training.”

Hayden interrupted Cass and started packing as he spoke. “I don’t care about some ceremony, Draek and I are leaving right now, and there is nothing you can say that will keep us here.” Hayden stared throwing extra clothes into the saddle bags.

Cass started crying again as she spoke. “Hayden, I know what you’re planning, but you can’t leave now. Hayden, they have Fendrel, and they are going to kill him tonight during the ceremony.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 29

 

 

Hayden heard the words that came out Cass’ mouth but he did not understand them. He stopped what he was doing and turned to face her.

“What did you say?” he asked quietly, as if whispering about it would make it less true.

“They have Fendrel. I am not sure how they did it, but they found him. They plan to kill him during the ceremony.”

Hayden did not understand anything she was saying. None of it made sense to him. “But why would they want to kill him, he has done nothing wrong,” he asked.

“The dragons are the ones talking about it, they told Shaylin and she told me about it. They are saying it’s a duel forty years overdue.” Cass was holding back from completely falling apart, but only just.

Hayden turned to look at Draek, to see if it was true. Draek lifted his head and listened. Hayden waited patiently. He was still trying to get his mind wrapped around everything Cass had told him. Draek finally lowered his head and faced Hayden; he slowly nodded his head in agreement to what Cass had said.

“Hayden, I am sorry but you can’t leave now, we have to find a way to save him,” Cass begged him.

Hayden had been thinking the same thing, but he had no idea how he was going to do it. “We have to save him. So how long do we have before the ceremony starts?” Hayden asked her while he continued to pack up Draek’s saddle.

“Not long, maybe an hour or so from now. They are going to signal the start of the ceremony with a loud horn blast, and then we all go into the Hall of Stories. What are we going to do?” She was starting to calm down, but Hayden could tell she was not thinking rationally, she was desperate.

“We are going to go to the ceremony to save Fendrel, and once he is safe, Draek and I are leaving. We won’t be a part of this any longer.” Hayden finished packing up everything he could in Draek’s saddle bags, which was almost everything he owned. He looked around his room and for the second time in his life he was leaving what he had called home.

Cass had left to go get herself ready and to inform Shane on what had all happened in their absence. Hayden did not know how they were going to save Fendrel, or how he was going to escape from this city, but he had to try, he had to succeed.

The room was completely empty except for his decorative clothes that a servant had laid out for him before he had even made it back from the battle. He stared to put them on and get ready when he heard the horn blast echo through the halls of the Metallic Pyramid.

Draek raised his head and looked at Hayden, they both looked into each other’s eyes, and then Hayden finished putting on his new cape, and he turned to leave the room.

He closed the door behind him and when he turned to head down the hallway, he noticed Shane leaning against the wall and Cass standing beside him. They were obviously waiting on him and they both were dressed in their new clothes.

Shane matched Hayden’s outfit entirely except for their cape. Their grey clothes were made out of nicer material than the usual outfits they wore, but they all had the same basic design to them. Hayden’s cape was closer to a soft silver color while Shane’s was a vibrant copper.

Hayden barely noticed Shane, though, when he stood next to Cass. She wore a nicer version of her normal grey clothes, but with a brilliant golden cape. Her hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail. Seeing her dressed up almost made Hayden forget about the importance of what he was about to do.

“Ready?” Cass asked him.

Hayden never thought that a simple question like that would be so hard to answer, but truthfully he had no idea if he was ready. “Yes,” he told her, better to let her think that he might have a plan rather than the fact that he really had nothing.

“Come on, let’s get it over with,” Shane said. The three friends turned to walk to the Hall of Stories. Hayden wondered how many more times the three of them would set out together after tonight. He forced the thoughts out of his head. He did not want to get distracted with so much at stake right now.

They made it to the giant doors that led into the Hall of Stories. The doors were open and Hayden could see that the hall was full of riders, everyone wearing one of three colored capes. All talk and noise died down instantly when they walked into the hall.

Every pair of eyes stared at them and the crowd separated to let the three of them walk up to the thrones. As the crowd moved, Hayden could see the Three Rulers sitting on their thrones with Sebastian and Giles already standing in front of them.

Hayden led the way as they marched down to the thrones. Elizabeth was looking directly at Hayden while Caine and Bryce seemed to be off in their own world, both of them looking intently at the contents of a goblet.

“Now, all five of you are here. These are our newest riders. They have not only successfully completed their year of training, but they have also proven themselves in our recent battle.” Hayden listened as she worked the crowd, building them up to cheering.

Every time she made a speech, she seemed to be the most comfortable in front of everyone and having them cheer at her words. The crowd filled in behind them as she continued to talk.

“They have each done everything that had been required of them and so much more. This is the first year that more than four riders have been chosen. This is the first year in some time that not only were three silvers hatched, but also a beautiful golden dragon.” As more cheering came, Hayden wondered if the people just cheered when she paused or if they were really listening.

“Each of you has earned many gifts during your year of training and the Festival of Games, but tonight you shall receive the greatest gift. Tonight you will be accepted as one of our own. You are now Metallic Riders!”

Once again, more cheering erupted. Hayden was barely paying attention to what she was saying. He was still trying to figure out where Fendrel might be and when they were going to bring him out.

Elizabeth stood up and raised her hands high above her head. Servants began filing in carrying steaming platters of food, and cold drinks that Hayden was sure would make him forget the night. 

Elizabeth shoed the five riders off and sat back down on her throne and jumped into a heated conversation with a servant. Hayden turned where he was and made his way through crowd to the nearest servant with drinks.

He quickly grabbed two and tried to drink the first one as fast as he could. He only managed to spill most of it on his chest and nearly choke on the rest. Cass ran over and patted his back, making sure he was ok.

“Hayden, what are you doing?” she asked in a hushed tone.

“I am trying to relax,” he said trying to defend himself.

Cass lightly placed her hand over his and removed the still full cup from his grasp. “This is not how you do that.” She placed the cup down on a passing servant’s tray. The servant did not notice the extra weight.

“Cass, what if he’s not here and we are just wasting our time,” Hayden asked. He was still scanning the crowd, trying to find his friend, but it seemed to be a normal celebration and everyone was enjoying it. Cass looked into his eyes, seriousness written all across her face.

“I hope we are just wasting our time, I hope he is not here. But Hayden, he is here and we have to save him.” She grabbed his now empty hand, gave it a squeeze and led him over the where a servant with a big tray of food was.

They both snatched up as much food as they could carry in their hands and moved off to a corner where they could be alone and talk in private. Hayden realized that he had not eaten since the battle. He started shoving big pieces of food in his mouth and caused his cheeks to puff out.

Cass nibbled gingerly on her food while she casually looked over the crowd, searching for anything odd. There was nothing wrong, nothing going on, nothing but people having a good time. Shane walked over to them and joined their corner.

“I have gone all over this room and nothing, no one knows anything, or at least they are not talking about it if they do,” he said. He grabbed some of the food from Hayden’s hand and ate in the same manner that Hayden did. Cass couldn’t help but look from Shane to Hayden and shake her head at them.

Hayden and Shane looked at each other and shrugged as they kept stuffing their mouths full of whatever food a servant carried by them. The ceremony continued to drag on until it reached a point where everyone was full and were finished drinking, even though some should have been finished long before.

The noise in the Hall of Stories started to die down. Everyone had heard all the battle stories that were worth hearing. They had seen the best and the worst reenactments of what some of the riders had done, or imagined they had done, during their encounter with the dwarf army.

Hayden saw some of the older riders calling it a night and saying their goodbyes as they walked towards the still open doors. Elizabeth stood up from her throne while a small group of servants came on to the platform and removed the thrones, the other two rulers asleep in theirs.

“Friends, I know that the night is late and you are all battle worn. I know that your beds call to you and you wish to answer them, but not yet. We have one last surprise for the newest of Metallic Riders. A game, long overdue.”

There was less cheering now than there had been earlier, most likely because everyone wanted to be in bed, some had made their own around the room. They all slowly and miserably walked up to the platform. Soon everyone in the room was pushed up against each other and surrounding the platform, waiting to see what Elizabeth had in store for them. They did not have to wait long. As soon as Elizabeth was sure that everyone was watching the platform she nodded to a servant that was standing near doors behind the platform.

 

 

The servant opened the door and a small group of armed guards marched in with and old, beaten man between them. Hayden heard the door open and turned to see what was going on. He saw the light from the room illuminate Fendrel’s bruised and bloodied face, and his heart stopped beating in his chest. He heard Cass whimper and squeeze his hand while Shane growled under his breath.

 

The guards marched him to the center of the platform and, when they were sure that he wasn’t going anywhere, and Elizabeth nodded to them. They left him and went back through the door they had come through.

“Fendrel.” Elizabeth spoke like she was speaking to an old friend. “It’s been too long since we last met.” She waited for Fendrel to speak, hoping that he would have disrespectful remark for her. Instead he stood there with his head held high and his jaw clenched shut. Elizabeth looked the broken old man up and down, taking him in. Hayden could not look away from him; his mind was racing through half thought out plans that would never work.

 

“Many years ago, many many years ago, Fendrel was among the multiple young men and women who tried for a dragon egg when it was his turn. He showed great promise and he would have made a great dragon rider, except for one fatal flaw: you lacked the ability to complete a task.”

Many of the riders that were watching everything unfold in front of them were confused. Some had never seen or heard of Fendrel, while others remembered him from his trials, but were wondering why he was in front of them now.

“You were given one simple task, and then you would have been given the thing you had dreamt about, a dragon egg. Your weakness held you back and forced you to give up your dragon.”

“But we are not here to revisit past failures or look down upon others faults. We are here, tonight at this very moment, to show that we do not share this man’s weakness. We finish everything we start, we will prove this tonight, then we will prove this to all of Arvain as we start our Crusade.” People clapped and cheered but it was obvious that they were doing either out of fear or confusion.

“You were in a trial that had since been unfinished. You were to kill your brother or he kills you. You are here to finish that trial.” Fendrel lowered his head, and for the first time since they had brought him into the Hall of Stories, Hayden looked away from him and looked at Elizabeth.

The door where they had brought Fendrel through opened for a second time. Instead of an old man walking out there was a young, muscular man in grey clothes and a silver cape. Hayden knew that dragon riders aged must slower due to their dragons but he had never seen the difference up close before.

              Hayden knew the second he saw him that he was in fact Fendrel’s brother. Morgane walked up and stood next to Fendrel as Hayden looked from one to the other. They looked almost identical except one was a younger version of the other. Fendrel had aged forty years since their trial, but his brother looked to be only to be four or five years older than Hayden. A dragon rider could live for a few hundred years so every three or four years for a dragon rider were like one year for a non-rider.

              Morgane walked around Fendrel and looked him up and down. He spent a lot of time looking into his brother’s face and how he had aged.

              “So this is what I will look like when I get old?” His voice was identical to Fendrel’s. The only things missing were a slight rasp that made Fendrel sound thirsty all the time, and the slight undertone of sadness in his voice.

              Morgane was a proud man who had most likely gotten everything he had ever wanted since his dragon had hatched. Hayden realized with a sickness in his gut that he had gotten everything he had wanted since Draek had hatched for him.

              A few people in the crowd laughed at Fendrel, they looked down on him as if he was beneath them. Fendrel looked both sad and disgusted at his brother, almost the same way his brother looked at him.

              Morgane walked over to the far end of the platform and removed his grey shirt, his chest and back were covered in tightly corded muscles and scars. He had a warrior’s body and it had been tested and found true.

              A guard jumped onto the platform and made Fendrel walk to the opposite side of the platform. They ripped his shirt off and threw the tattered and stained cloth to the ground. Fendrel’s body was strong, but it was obvious that he was outmatched. He was in no shape to fight his brother and win.

              “This is not a death sentence Fendrel, nothing of the sort. All you have to do is kill your brother and then you will be free to go.” She pointed at the doors that still stood wide open. She was the only one that laughed now, everyone else was silent and uncomfortable.

              A guard handed Morgane a large silver broad sword. It was bigger than any of the blades that hung on Tynan’s walls. Morgane gave the blade a few practice swings, and when he was sure it was balanced, he hefted the heavy blade onto his shoulder and turned to face his brother.

              The guard that stood on the platform with Fendrel handed him a dagger to defend himself with. Hayden recognized the dagger when Fendrel pulled it out of the small sheath, it was the one that he had made during his training. It was uneven, unbalanced, and poorly made; a bad match up against the giant broad sword.

              “Are both of you ready?” Elizabeth asked. Morgane shouted a loud war cry to signal he was ready, but Fendrel did nothing. Elizabeth did not even look at him to see if he would respond, so it did not matter. “Fendrel, I hope you do better than you did that fateful day, or this will be over quickly. Begin!” she shouted.

              Morgane began swinging his silver blade in circles, switching it from one hand to another but never allowing it to slow down. He growled as he moved towards his brother and prepared to kill him.

              Fendrel turned his head and looked into the crowd. He instantly found Hayden and gave the young man a small smile. He nodded at Hayden and turned his attention back to his brother just as Morgane was lunging at him.

              Hayden watched in horror as Morgane stabbed his blade at Fendrel’s chest. Morgane’s entire body was tensed up as he put all his force behind the blow, intending to run his brother through and end the duel in one blow.

              At the last second Fendrel spun to his left and used his dagger to deflect Morgane’s thrust and send him stumbling past. Fendrel stepped back and lowered himself into the perfect dagger fighting stance.

              Morgane looked at his brother and looked at Elizabeth. He had been expecting his brother to put up a small fight. He was not expecting a serious challenge from the old man, and that’s exactly what he was faced with: a chance that he might lose.

              Before Morgane could start another attack, Fendrel took advantage of his momentary break and started his own attack. His reach was much shorter than Morgane’s, so he had to get in close. He covered the distance between them in a few short steps and started slashing and stabbing with his blade.

 

                            He kept the dagger in his right hand but he switched his grip on it just as fast as he slashed at him. Morgane was forced to defend himself from the continuous barrage of dagger attacks. He struggled at first because he was used to blocking full length blades, but with a dagger up close he had to time his blocks perfectly. He couldn’t use the length and weight of his blade to his advantage at such a short distance, so he pushed Fendrel back and slashed wildly at the space between them so that Fendrel couldn’t slide in again. 

 

                            Now that they were further apart, Morgane could swing his blade and bring it down with devastating force. Fendrel did the best he could to avoid the blade instead of trying to block, but the dagger couldn’t take too many strikes from the bigger sword without breaking.

              “You have some skill brother, but do you think you are worthy to add your mark to my body.” Morgane stepped back to catch his breath while he talked. Both fighters were starting to sweat and Fendrel was already breathing heavily. Morgane pointed at the scars that covered his upper body as he spoke.

              “The best fighters in all of Arvain, human and nonhuman, have made these marks before they each died by my blade. This blade in fact, and you think that you can scar me or even beat me? You might be good, but you are not that good.”

              Morgane shook his shoulders and stretched his neck as Fendrel stood in his stance, unmoving. Morgane took a deep breath and ran back at his brother. Fendrel dropped lower into his stance and sprinted to meet his brother.

              The sounds of their blades colliding rang off the walls of the hall. No one spoke as the brothers fought each other and grunted as they put all their strength into their blades. There was no clear winner as they continued fighting, and every time Morgane got the upper hand Fendrel did something to level out the field.

              They broke apart again, but this time Fendrel was panting and rested his arms and his knees. Morgane paced back and forth like a dog that was being denied a meal. “You can’t beat me! You are old and weak. You were not worthy to be a dragon rider. I was and I still am!” Morgane was angry; he started screaming at Fendrel as he rushed at him. Fendrel was still calm and ducked underneath his blade and slashed at Morgane’s exposed chest.

             

              Morgane stumbled and fell down, dropping his blade and let it clatter against the platform. He grabbed his side and chest where his skin had been cut open and pulled his hands away to see them covered in blood. The wound wasn’t deep or life threatening, but it did hurt, and blood was flowing freely down his side. He slowly stood back up and examined the wound to make sure it wasn’t going to affect his swing.

 

                            The cut started near the center of his chest and went down at an angle until it ended above his left hip. The wound was going to scar and it was going to be the biggest scar on him. Fendrel stood up straight and faced his brother.

              “You are unworthy to be a dragon rider. You were willing to kill your own brother because of your greed. Even now you can’t beat me even though you have all the advantages.” Fendrel’s voice cut through the room like a blade all on its own.

              It hit everyone’s heart, and soon the riders were looking at each other as they realized the truth in his words.

              “You are wrong Fendrel, I am worthy of being a dragon rider and I can beat you.” Morgane picked up his blade, smearing his own blood across the swords hilt. They stood apart from each other and glared into each other’s eyes.

              Fendrel lowered his head and closed his eyes; he was tired and worn out from the fight. Morgane ran at him and the fight started all over again. After a few quick blows, Fendrel pulled away and tried to retreat to catch his breath, but Morgane was ready to finish the fight.

              As Fendrel moved to the far side of the platform with his back to Morgane, a thought crossed Morgane’s mind. If he tried to run at him, Fendrel would hear him and counter him just like he had done every time before. He needed a new strategy and he had just thought of it.

              Morgane held his blade over his head and started to run at Fendrel. Fendrel started to turn to block his brother’s attacks, just as Morgane knew he would do. Morgane was still well out of reach from Fendrel and instead of continuing running at him he stopped and threw his blade with all his might.

              Fendrel had just turned completely around when the silver sword plunged into the center of his chest and dug in all the way to the hilt. He felt the force of the blow, but was still in shock as he stared down at the protruding hilt so he didn’t feel the pain.

              His body gave out and he fell to the floor with the blade sticking out of his back, propping him up so he couldn’t lay flat. Morgane walked over to his dying brother and bent down so that they were only inches apart.

              “And brother, I am still willing to kill you.” Morgane stood up and pulled his blade from his chest, allowing Fendrel to lay flat on the floor as he died.

              Hayden had not registered what had happened when Morgane pulled his blade out of Fendrel. The sound of the blade leaving flesh and metallic scent of blood filled his senses. He watched as Fendrel’s body stopped moving, as his friend died by his own brother’s bloodied hands.

              Elizabeth cheered and soon others followed her example. Morgane held his bloody blade above his head and yelled until his face turned red and his veins bulged out of his neck.

              Cass covered her eyes and buried her face into Hayden’s shoulder. Shane lowered his head and closed his eyes tightly. Hayden just looked on as the other riders cheered for his friend’s death.

              They carried Fendrel’s body off the platform and through the door that he had, just moments before, walked through. The guards put his body down and walked back into the hall, but they left the door open.

              Hayden gently pushed Cass off of his shoulder and made his way through the crowd. People got mad as he pushed his way through, but no one tried to stop him as he made his way through the door.

              Fendrel’s body had been put to the side of the corridor so that no one would trip over him. Hayden knelt down and grabbed his still warm hand. He quietly said his farewells and thanked his friend for everything that he had done for him.

              When he finished, he wiped the tears from his face and stood up to leave. He hesitated, and before he walked away, he knelt back down and took the dagger that had once been a gift off of Fendrel’s chest and held it carefully in his hands.

              He did not walk back into the Hall of Stories, but instead went down the corridor and made his way back around to his room where Draek awaited him. When he opened the door, Draek was already knelt down and ready for Hayden to jump into his saddle.

              Hayden moved quickly and silently over to his dragon and placed the dagger he had taken in one of the saddle bags. As he climbed into his saddle he noticed a pool of water underneath Draek’s head.

              He was about to ask what it was from when Draek turned to look at him and he realized that Draek had been crying. He had no idea that dragons could cry, but it was something he never wanted to see again.

              I am sorry, Draek, he told his closest friend. Draek had witnessed everything that had happened through Hayden’s eyes, Draek had even used Hayden to say his final goodbye to Fendrel. Draek did not answer, but there was no need. There was nothing that could have been said to ease the pain of losing Fendrel. Hayden tightened his straps and patted Draek on the neck, signaling to him that he was ready to go.

             

              When they made it out of their room, there were two dragons waiting for them. Hayden thought that their plan had been discovered already and that they were going to have to fight their way out. That was, until the dragons stepped closer and Hayden saw Shane and Cass sitting on their dragons with their own saddles loaded down just as Hayden’s was.

             

              “What are you two doing?” he asked even though he knew the answer.

              “We are coming with you,” Cass said. Shane nodded at Cass’s words.

              Hayden knew that there was no point in arguing with them. Truth be told, he wanted them to come with him. Going on this journey alone scared him and he could use his friends.

              “Thank you, all of you.” Hayden wasn’t just talking to Cass and Shane, but to all three dragons that were willing to follow their riders.

              With nothing else to be said, the three riders and their dragons took to the night sky and started out on their long journey.