The Dragon Games

Drakes

If the spectators expected Blood Fest to kick off with a bloodbath, complete with flying axes and severed heads, they were in for disappointment. When the trumpets blared, ear-splittingly loud, the pledges walked into the wilderness, making light conversation with their groups. 

Our equipment bags were too heavy for sprinting – stuffed with weapons, medical supplies, and food – and the rules forbid unwarranted violence. It still happened, of course, but not in broad daylight with hundreds of witnesses, when the only dragons around to fight over were smaller than manatees.

Soon, my group split from the rest. Gordo unraveled the clue, looked at if for five seconds without saying a single word, then let out a long string of curses. 

"Blithering old madman hack," he seethed. "Every year, the prophet deteriorates further. My grandfather got a nice, clear phrase, my father got a riddle, and we don't even get words. I don't know how the old baboon wasn't fired decades ago." 

 To prove his point, he held up the clue, revealing rows of strange, alien symbols.

It took me a moment to place the language: Irxaus, the mother tongue of the original dragon riders. The Irxaus people were an extinct race, and their language has been out of use for centuries. 

I only vaguely recognized it because Sammy showed me a few constellations originally recorded in Irxaus, but none of the phrases he taught me were on the clue. I had no idea what any of it meant, but it seemed Elio did. He stared at the lines, mouthing the words as he read them. Halfway down, he paused, his brows raising.

"What?" I said.

"Do you understand it?" Bianca said.

Elio squinted at the alien text, his brows pinching together. "Bits and pieces..." 

His voice sounded far away, his thoughts a million miles away from the group. "I studied Irxaus when I was a boy, but it'd take me some time to decipher the clue. At a surface-level glance, all I can recognise are a few words. The crimson moon, stones, one drop ..."

"Good gods!" Gordo exclaimed. "You understand this dribble? We could have a chance at Blacktooth!"

"Elio could have a chance at Blacktooth," Bianca corrected, narrowing her eyes. 

As they bickered back and forth, I pulled ahead, keeping a few steps out of hearing range. Bianca tried to draw me back into the discussion, but I dodged her attempts.

"You were Samuel Crenshaw's closest confidant, weren't you?" Bianca said. "Has he ever said anything about solving the clue? How he bypassed Skydescent and stole a dragon?"

"If he told me, I don't remember. But he loves astrology. It probably has something to do with that."

Bianca nodded eagerly, latching on to any scrap I threw her. "You're good at astrology. You can use that to –"

"So the clue about stars has something to do with stars?" Gordo hollered from several paces back. "Well done, Black! Impeccable logic!"

I threw up a rude hand gesture. Gordo had a point, though. If I knew how Sammy solved the clue, maybe I could help, but left to my own wits, they'd be better served asking the woodland critters. Besides, I had no desire to solve the clue in the first place. 

Even if I didn't have Rauuk to worry about, I never wanted to cross paths with Blacktooth again. There was a difference between finding a powerful dragon and whatever the hell Blacktooth was. A beast like that reminded me of Drax, only leading to chaos and destruction.

The longer we walked, the denser the trees became. I hadn't realised how far ahead Bianca and I pulled from the boys until a hollow shout rang out behind us.