Rhiannon - Dragonrider

Chapter Fourteen - Zalibar's School of Dragonology

When I woke up the next morning, the lair was still and empty so I practiced the exercises Psion had shown me until my head ached. By that time, I could throw up a reasonable defensive shield and move the pebble about with some sort of control... but even I could tell I was still really clumsy... and much too noisy.

I was sitting on the veranda, staring across at a patch of sunlight on the far wall of the Edifice, when Rhiannas finally emerged from his flute. Without any sort of greeting or explanation, he told me to get ready for a flight and I hurried to do as I was told. I mean... I was desperate to find out what he was planning to do with me but he made it pretty obvious that he wasn't interested in chatting.

Before long, we were flying out of the Edifice through the narrow stone tunnel. And this time, I was halfway ready when he did his tumbling turn thing as we burst out into the sunshine.

From the top of the mountain, he started gliding down towards the island's eastern shore. I sort of peered down from his back and saw that we were heading towards a large stone building near the top of the cliffs.

As we got closer, I strained to look past his neck so I could see where he was taking me. The house, and a couple of smaller buildings, were built along three sides of a rectangular courtyard. On the fourth side, facing towards the sea, there was a high wall, with a low stone gatehouse in the middle. At one end of the wall, there was some sort of wooden enclosure, open to the sky, whilst, at the other end, there was a rickety-looking wooden tower about twice the height of the house. It had a couple of dragons flying round it.

As we flew lower, I could see about thirty people in the courtyard, They were wearing armour and doing training type routines with swords and things but they all hurried out of the way as Rhiannas swept down. He landed on a platform just in front of a flight of stairs that led up to the main house.

"Ho Zalibar!" Rhiannas said as an elderly warrior hurried up the stairs and bowed to the dragon. "I have a new tyro for you. See whether she can be trained. Return her when she is capable of riding as a neck guard without causing me embarrassment."

I looked across at the ugliest face I'd ever seen. It was all lumpy and made even worse by a long scar that stretched from forehead to cheek. The man was quite short but powerfully built and he had a funny, lopsided hunched back. He was wearing a jacket and trousers made of heavy black leather with strange markings and, after a moment, I worked out that they were made of dragon hide.

"Yes, Sir!" the man responded promptly. Then he turned his piercing blue eyes on me. "Well, dismount, girl!" he barked.

I tried to do as I was told but, in my hurry, one of my spurs caught in Rhiannas's scales. I fell heavily onto the stone stairs.

Rhiannas flicked a glance in my direction. "Should she prove unworthy, you may dispose of her as you wish," he said. Then, without waiting for any sort of answer, he stepped off the platform, sprang into the air and disappeared off towards the mountain.

The ugly man looked down on me for a few moments. "Welcome to Zalibar's School of Dragonology," he said in a normal sort of voice but then he turned all savage. "Well... what are you waiting for?" he barked. "Get up!"

I jumped to my feet and looked nervously at the man.

"My name is Zalibar," he told me, "but I expect you to call me 'Sir', if you have to talk to me, but I'd rather you didn't. Rhiannas has asked me to train you and that's what I intend to do. He came to me because I am the best. I have very exacting standards and get angry with anyone who fails to meet them."

He paused for a moment to let this sink in, then added, "And you don't want me to get angry with you."

"Follow me," he barked as he walked down the stairs and across into the middle of the courtyard. He was surprisingly graceful for someone with such a deformed body but there was a hint of a limp there.