The Dragon Games

Rhy's Lucky Break

There was nothing interesting to see in the hills, only miles of rolling green land framed against a perpetually grey sky. While I spent my days hiking and my nights sleeping in the cover of bushes, other pledges were already bonding with a dragon.

On just the second day of Blood Fest, a fey shot across the sky with a rider on its back, marking the first of many to follow. Lucky bastard, I thought at the time. The pledge had made out like a bandit, only spending two days in the arena and leaving with a top breed. Not to mention, they had sidestepped the fire, blood, and chaos that would inevitably arrive when the wyvern revealed itself. 

On my fifth day scouting the hills for Rauuk, I began noticing carrier birds. Small gray pigeons flitted through the tree trops with letters tied around their ankles. After shooting one down, I gave its letter a cursory glance, which began with the auctioned dragon's location and ended with a threat.

Tampering with pigeon carriers is a severe offense, I read as I roasted the pigeon for supper. Offenders will face automatic and nonnegotiable punishment.

But to have any chance at finding Rauuk, that was one rule I couldn't follow. Day by day, I shot any pigeon that crossed my path, hoping it would contain Rauuk's location. And day by day, I was disappointed, opening the letters to find basilisks, feys, and lindworms – seemingly every dragon in the arena except the one I needed.

The days wore on, the moon reddening each night. I had just reached the second week of Blood Fest when I finally shot the right bird. Unfortunately, it landed in a creek, and by the time I fished it out, water bled through the envelope, making the script ineligible.

I could only make out a couple of words scattered across the page. Edmund. Amphiptere. Golds. Where its location should have been was blurred out by a massive blob of ink.

I dropped the letter and sprinted in the direction the bird had flown from. Soon, I spotted two boys emerging from the trees, talking about how they would spend the reward money.

"Where is it?" I shouted, striding to them with my hand held high, black cracking across my eyes. "Where's Rauuk?" 

The boys whipped around and their eyes instantly went to my neck. The taller boy's face set with determination. I took up a fighting stance, only for him to slam his friend to the ground and sprint into the trees. I would have grabbed him with my divine, but the boy was smart, ducking out of sight behind thick shrubbery. I had no choice but to turn to his friend, a badly injured Windsor boy.

He had landed awkwardly on his side, trying to shield his right arm from any further damage. Burns covered it from wrist to shoulder, and his jacket had charred away and melted into his skin, creating inflamed patches of skin that oozed puss.

In some places, the skin had worn away entirely, letting bone peak through. It seemed unlikely that even the king's doctors could save the arm now or that there was any path forward but amputation.

"Please," he said, stuttering over the word. He had a dagger strapped to his side, but he did not bother reaching for it. "I meant no offense. I only helped Edmond Balthasar because I needed his –"

"I don't need your life story. Just Rauuk's location."

He nodded frantically and gave it in full. The longer he spoke, something jagged and familiar slipped into his voice, and my hand wavered once I realised what it was. We had the same accent.

"Are you from the qualifying tournament?" I blurted out.

He nodded, naming a poor district adjacent to the burrow. My hand dropped another inch as the beginnings of a plan formed in my mind... I wanted to help him and save Rauuk... what if I killed two birds with one stone?

"What's your name?" I said.

"R-Rhys."

"I'm Raven Black, nice to meet you."

He stared at me like I had lost my mind.

"You're too injured to find any dragons to bond with, but what if I could bring a dragon to you?"

Rhys understood my intentions at once, frantically shaking his head before I had even finished asking the question. "I can not bond with Rauuk. The other pledges already look down on me enough. They would never accept me if I flew the raider's dragon."

"Forget the others pledges. Your chances of becoming a dragon rider ended a long time ago — and not when your arm got burnt. When you couldn't hide your accent well enough."

Rhys flinched as if he had been slapped.

"You don't have to be Rauuk's rider," I said, offering him a hand up. "Just fly Rauuk out of the arena, and I'll do the rest. My time in the raiders has given me plenty of clients who will pay a fortune to get their hands on a dragon. You won't make as much gold as Edmond offered, but you'll do damn better than any other bid."

Rhys hesitated, but only for a moment. Then he reached forward, and our hands locked with a satisfying smack.

As we ran through the hills, it was hard to say what was more difficult – climbing up the steep incline or trying not to fall on the way down. Thankfully, we had time on our side. Odds are, we were much closer to Rauuk than Edmond.

He could be anywhere in the arena right now, maybe even attempting to find a dragon of his own to bond with. I figured the real challenge would be getting Rhys close enough to Rauuk without the dragon burning us both to a crisp.

"Raven!" Rhys said.

He had stopped running to gape at the sky like a death omen was written in the clouds. I followed his stare and let out a low curse. Seven birds flew overhead, each carrying a letter... The other pledges had spotted Rauuk.