Fledgling (Dragonrider Chronicles, #1)

by Nicole Conway

“I think we can agree that things are pretty lousy for both of us,” I went on talking to him, closing the distance between us. My voice was shaking because I was scared out of my mind, but at least he hadn’t made a lunge for me yet. “Let’s make a deal, all right? I don’t want to keep living with my father for the rest of my life, and I definitely don’t want to go to a prison camp. I want my life to mean something. And I’m pretty sure you don’t want them to cut your wings so you can’t fly anymore. You want them to let you go, but they’ll force you to stay here one way or another. Alone, neither of us can do anything to change the way things are going for us. But together, we could change both our destinies.” I was standing so close to him, I could smell the musk of his breath. I could feel it, too, hot and humid against my face. Reaching out, I could see my own hand trembling as I crept toward him. Just a few more feet. Then a few more inches. “Let me be your rider,” I pleaded with him. “I swear I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do. And when we’re finished, when the war is over, you’ll be free to go back to the wild. I won’t treat you like a dumb animal. You’ll be my partner. We’ll get through this together. We’ll be a team.”

My heartbeat was skipping and pounding erratically. My head spun like a top. I was sitting on a dragon. Not just any dragon, though. This one was mine.

“What are you doing with him?” Ulric barked, lunging forward like he might try to stop us. Sile stopped at the top of the stairs long enough to look back, casting my father a look that I’d seen Ulric give me many times; that look of superiority and disgust. “He’s no longer your concern, tackmaster. Remember your place.” Ulric’s eyes were burning like torches. His fists clenched in rage as Sile pushed me on ahead of him down the stairs. It was surreal, and I wasn’t even sure if it was really happening. Just like that, Ulric couldn’t put his hands on me anymore. Just like that, I was free.

“You think I should just let them kill you?” he yelled back. “Just because of who your mother was?” I fought to choke back the tears that stung in my eyes. “Anyone else would! So why? Why do you keep doing this? I deserve to know!” He looked at me like it was the stupidest question in the world. I heard him curse under his breath. “You’d do the same for me, wouldn’t you?” I stared at him. He’d answered my dumb question with another dumb question. “Yes.” He pointed at me accusingly. “That’s why. You understand that this isn’t just a contest to see who can be better between you and me, who can outrank the other, or screw the other over behind their back. Just because your mother is a Gray elf doesn’t make your life any less valuable than mine. I know you’d sacrifice just as much if it were my face being kicked into the dirt. Am I right? So you tell me, why would I stick my neck out for someone like that? Why would I want someone like that as my friend?”

For some reason, seeing everyone like that made me sad. I sat back on my knees and sighed. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was as close as I’d ever get to a party like that. Granted, this was a lot closer than I’d ever been before. But was I really just kidding myself? Did I really have a place with people like that? “Jae?” Beckah was looking at me with an unhappy quirk to her mouth. “I’m sorry you got stuck with me, instead of going to the party.” It wasn’t hard to smile at her. “No, it’s not that. I just always end up wondering how I’ll ever fit in with people like that. It was . . . kind of a fluke that I even ended up being a dragonrider at all.” “Well, do you like it?” she asked me frankly. “Like what?” “Being a dragonrider?” she asked again. I nodded. Just thinking about it made my heart beat faster. “Yeah. I love it.” She shrugged a little. “Then nothing else matters. Who cares about fitting in with them? If it’s something you really care about, then it shouldn’t matter what anyone else thinks.”

I had underestimated her. She was a kid, sort of, but she was brave, and she was definitely a lot smarter than I was. “Your dad is a good man, Beckah,” I told her. “No matter what else happens, you should know that.” “You are too, you know.” She gave me a meaningful look. I could see on her face that this is what she’d really come over to talk to me about. “Whatever you did back there, I know you just wanted to help us. You’re a good person. And if Felix and that other guy can’t see that, well, then they’re too dumb to be dragonriders anyway.” I blushed. “It’s not because they’re dumb, Beckah. It’s because I’m a—” “No, she’s right,.” Felix butted in suddenly. It startled me, and I turned around to see him standing behind us with his arms crossed. He didn’t look angry, or even wary of me anymore. In fact, he looked frustrated and embarrassed. “I’m sorry, Jae.”

The Gray elves didn’t want me anywhere near them, just like the humans. I was both, and I was neither.

I looked at Felix squarely in the eye. “I’m going to fight for you. You said it yourself, that we’re in this together. We’re partners, right? So I’ll fight to watch your back. It’s the same reason I’m out here trying to save Sile. There aren’t very many people in the world who care what happens to me. You, Sile, Beckah, Katty, even Mavrik are pretty much the only ones. So I’ll do what I can to protect you, even if that means fighting in a war that’ll end up being a no-win situation for me either way. It’s worth it.”

“People like that, who betray their own kind, they don’t deserve any kind of justice. We should just throw him in the prison camp and see how he likes it.” I frowned at her. “You know, that’s exactly the reason humans and Gray elves don’t like me, Beckah. They both think I’m a traitor to my race.” I saw her expression fall. Her shoulders hunched up some like she was embarrassed, and she looked away uneasily. “That’s not the same thing,” she mumbled stubbornly. I knew she was still upset, and most of what she said was just out of anger and frustration. But it still stung. “You can’t just condemn someone, no matter what they’ve done. Everyone deserves justice, even traitors.”

“You go,” I told him. “Go get ready to open the gate. I’ll get Sile.” His eyes got wide. “Jae, you can’t go by yourself. What if something happens? What if you need me?” “You said yourself that I’ve got the better shot at finding him. I’m the only one who can speak elven and talk to the prisoners.” I held out my hand for him to shake. Something in my gut told me this might be the last time we ever saw each other. “You know this is the only way.” I could barely see Felix under the starlight as he looked down at my hand, and instead of shaking it, he took the big hunting knife he’d stolen from the barn and put it in my palm. “Yeah, I know. Just … try not to get killed.”

“Ah,” he growled, showing me a wicked smirk. “So you are the little piece of halfbreed filth that has infected my ranks. I heard about you and your wild, mongrel of a drake.” I squeezed the hunting knife in my hand, putting myself between the Lord General and Sile. “No,” I said. “I’m the little piece of halfbreed filth that isn’t going to let you murder my sponsor!”

“What right does he have to command you?” I continued. “A king should have the right to choose who rides upon his back. No one should force that choice upon you, or any of your kin! Take back your freedom!”

We laid Sile down in the grass and sat down to catch our breath. We didn’t speak at first. Instead, we just sat there watching the prison camp burn against the night sky. Sile grabbed my arm and squeezed it tightly, looking up at me with a sense of urgency. “Never do that again,” he growled. “Call to a dragon?” I wasn’t sure what he meant. I’d done a lot of things recently I probably shouldn’t have. “No,” he said hoarsely, and his grip on my arm weakened a little. “Risk your life for mine.”

Finally, the somber-faced instructor standing nearest to me went down onto one knee, putting a fist on the ground as he bowed to us. Like a ripple, all the others in the crowd began to do the same—even the guards from Halfax. Felix and I exchanged a wide-eyed glance. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I was pretty certain no one had ever bowed to a halfbreed like this before.

He didn’t waste any time. He bedded down in his nest of straw, putting his nose on his tail and closing his eyes. I could still hear him purring to himself as I left his stall and went back down the stairs.

I stood there for a few moments and watched him walk away. He climbed up onto Nova’s back, fastening down his luggage before he gave me one last wave and took off into the sky. I watched them go, climbing higher and higher, until they were nothing more than a tiny dark speck on the horizon. Mavrik lowered his head and started making those curious chirping sounds and blinking his big yellow eyes at me. A crystal-clear image of Felix and I playing chase through the sky on the backs of our dragons flashed through my mind. I knew it came from Mavrik. I turned around to pat his snout. “Yeah,” I told him. “Don’t worry. We’ll see them again.”