Rhiannon - Dragonrider

Chapter Twenty Four - Double Grip

A couple of days later, there was something new for us noviates. We got to use a buckler - a small shield about the size of a saucepan lid - that some people use in their left hand instead of a dagger.

And I found myself paired up with Jenko in a sparring exercise. I took his sword blow on my buckler, taking the standard half stride back to absorb the force. Then I stepped forward and launched my own series of blows. "Buckler to sword..." I muttered to myself. "Step forward... dummy sunrise, reverse sunset."

As I swung a powerful blow up towards his ribs, he used his buckler, supported by his body and mind, to absorb the blow. Then we stood, looking at each other for a bit and gasping.

He'd got so much better since Psion had sorted out his mind lock. I mean... he was never going to be an outstanding student but at least he was starting to hold his own in our vicious little community. Last Saturday, he'd even managed to win his duel, down in the cage.

And he was even getting a bit more colour about him. Mind you... that was never going to be tricky. There were dead things with more colour than he used to have!

"You ready to go again?" he asked. Since Psion had done his thing, he'd been showing this puppy dog-like devotion to me and, a couple of times, he'd taken a rough word or casual blow that should really have been aimed in my direction.

I was starting to suspect that the work Psion had done on his mind had been even more complicated than I'd realised at the time.

"Let's go," I answered with a smile but we were interrupted by a whistle from Zalibar.

"Jenko, you go and join the Armenclethyfur's group," he said. "By the look of things, you won't be too much of a burden for them today."

Then he turned to me. "I've got a transitor group going out to fly amongst the cliffs up by Dunster Head. I'd like you to take Nero and go with them. You need to get a feel for the way a cross wind can muck up your steering."

"Yes, Sir!" I said, trying to keep the grin off my face as I hurried over to the mews.

Nero was snoozing at the back of his stall and the thin, brown coloured dragon didn't look all that enthusiastic when he saw what I wanted. "Come on, you," I told him as I got my mind lock in position. He gave me a bit of a look but reluctantly uncurled himself.

And when I led him out of the mews, Zalibar was shouting across the quad to Llynnonda, who was already mounted on Lippit. "Don't forget she's still a noviate," he was saying, "and whatever you do, don't let her do anything to Nero."

"So, I've got to stop you from killing yourself..." Llynnonda said... " and..." Her voice was completely flat but she added this funny sort of mental thing that I guessed was telling me she was joking... "not let you damage Nero."

I gave her a smile as I buckled on my spurs and forced Nero to lie down in the sand so I could mount.

Wastnonda, one of the older transitor boys, emerged from the mews with Taloon, a large, green female nag with a particularly bad temper. I mean... even I could tell that his grip wasn't firm enough for that particular bundle of malice.

"Wasty," Llynnonda called to him, "get a proper grip on Taloon and keep her away from the rest of the dragons. You know she's been aching to have a go at someone for weeks now!"

"All right..." he answered with a bit of a sigh as he tightened up his grip slightly.

I'd never flown Nero before and, as we took off, I could feel that he was much more jittery than the dragons I was used to. The other riders all seemed to know exactly what they were doing and, without a word from Llynnonda, they formed up into a tight V-shaped wing. So I hurried Nero across to a position at the end of one of the arms.