Rhiannon - Dragonrider

Chapter Thirty Three - Squeezing The Node

It was a quiet Saturday afternoon and I had nothing to do.

I'd won my cage duel which meant I got let off most of my chores... so I'd checked my kit and sharpened my dagger and I was lying on my bed, enjoying having a bit of free time for a change, when Jenko came crashing into the dorm.

"There's going to be a duel up in the Edifice," he panted, stumbling over his words in his excitement. "Zalibar says I can take Lippit up to watch. D'you want to come?"

As I jumped to my feet, he charged recklessly down the rickety staircase. I followed him a bit more cautiously, strapping on my belt and spurs as I went. By the time I'd made it down into the quad, he'd rushed Lippit out of the mews and was already mounted. "Come on!" he called.

With a surge of will, I jumped up onto the dragon's shoulders, using my weight to bite one set of spurs into his flank as I landed, and let my momentum swing the other leg over, snapping those spurs home too. "What are you waiting for?" I laughed as I clapped Jenko on the shoulder. "Let's go!"

Of course, in spite of our urging, Lippit climbed up towards the mountain at little more than his normal sedate pace and we were only just approaching the mouth of the Edifice when we heard the sound of the great gong.

"That's the challenge!" Jenko yelled as he brought Lippit over the gaping mouth and pushed him into the steepest dive the lumbering dragon was prepared to contemplate. As we dived, I could see three rings of spectators circling within the Edifice.

"Riff raff like us have to go in the inferior observer ring, right down by the Henge," he told me as we continued to dive. The superior ring's in the middle and intermediate's at the top."

"Made it!" he said as he guided Lippit into the packed ring. "They're just about to start."

Two dragons were perched on the Henge stones, facing each other. The larger one, who Jenko said was called Pennas, was crouched in an aggressive pose on the Han gate with an impassive looking neck guard on his shoulders. The smaller, Lloynas, who was crouched opposite him, didn't have a guard.

"The Lloy family has pretty much been a vassal to the House of Quaro for years," Jenko explained, "but it looks like they've lost that support now. He couldn't even find anyone to ride as a neck guard for him. Pennas certainly wouldn't be looking that confident if it was Quarodu he was facing."

You could see that Pennas was enjoying the situation. As the challenged party, he got to make the first move and was using his right to delay things and intimidate the smaller dragon even more.

Suddenly he jumped... but he didn't head towards Lloynas... instead he climbed hard. "That's the traditional start when a stronger dragon is fighting a weaker one," Jenko explained. "First he'll go for height then he'll stoop down on Lloynas."

As the two flashed past us, Lloynas was still trying to stay with the larger dragon but he just couldn't match his power. He broke from the climb and began to circle, cautiously studying Pennas with his eyes and mind as the larger dragon circled above him.

Suddenly Pennas stooped down in a roar of billowing flame. But Lloynas rose and managed to deflect it. I scrambled to throw up a shield for the three of us as the wild wave of flames churned towards us but we could still feel the heat as it passed.

But one of the riders in the ring just in front of us wasn't quick enough and took the full force of the flame. He went tumbling from his mount and crashed into the sands below.

Above us, Lloynas had countered with a flame of his own and, for a moment, the two battled in the cloud world until he managed to deflect the attack and send Pennas tumbling downwards until he was almost level with us.