Wings of Fury

1

FIRST ATTEMPT

They didn’t even wait until I was through the gate before they tried to kill me.

It didn’t work, of course; otherwise, this would be a brief story. But it was a good try, as attempts go, and it definitely clarified the situation.

The five-metre high, solid iron gates to the academy grounds were open wide to welcome the new cadets into the walled compound.

Butterflies fluttered in my gut as I neared the threshold.

This was it. The next step. My first foray into flight school, the famous Academy.

Walls all around the compound effectively closed it off from preying eyes, and I hadn’t been able to peek before, so it was all new to me.

I looked through the opening and, despite the enormous space behind, I still felt my gut jump at the thought of actually entering what I effectively saw as enemy territory, and my feet shuffled over the dirt floor. My eyes moved from side to side, taking in all the buildings that ringed the big central grass area. A strange smell assailed my nostrils that I couldn’t place. It wasn’t dragons; I’d had enough experience with their variety of odours in the station. The scent tingled inside of my nose, and I felt the tickles of a sneeze come on.

My eyes teared slightly, the tang in the air causing me to blink rapidly.

I dragged my feet, slowing down to postpone the inevitable. The point of no return.

What had possessed me to think this was a good idea?

It wasn’t.

I’d been press-ganged by Goldie and Clyde.

A line of stern men faced the entrance of the compound, their stance as one hard, arms crossed over their chest, eyes narrow and thin upper lips curled.

I counted seven men. A metre to the left of them, I recognised John. His friendly features were a breath of fresh air in the depressing disdain of everyone else around me.

Most of them I estimated to be in their middle age, somewhere between forty and sixty, like my father had been. Narrow eyes, pinched expressions, and clenched jaws hardly gave me that warm feeling of welcome, but I hadn’t expected them to.

My gut felt as though I’d swallowed a block of concrete, and it took all my courage to take the next step.

‘I am here.’

The words formed in my brain, and for the first time since the bonding, I embraced them, and the resulting warmth filled me with renewed courage.

The first day at school is always a trying time, I reminded myself. Yeah, this was different from pre-school though; there, no one had wanted to kill me.

It didn’t take long for the first one to try, though it wasn’t what or who I’d expected.

One of the guards who ringed the inside of the gates suddenly broke free from his station, raised his sword and stormed at me. His biggest mistake was a ludicrous war cry, or whatever it was. It was unintelligible and very, very, stupid. It basically announced his intention to everyone nearby.

Everyone, including Goldie.

He didn’t stand a chance.

He got nearer than I’d have liked, but I easily ducked under his frantic attack.

Goldie’s fire engulfed us immediately, like a downpour in a tropical storm. The blue and white flames were tinged with red and yellow. His most effective napalm. He didn’t hold back and spewed an enormous amount of flames over the two of us.

The man instantly dropped his sword and tried desperately to wipe the chemicals off his body. It was too late. His clothes caught fire, then his hair. The skin on his screaming face melted like an ice cube in the summer sun.

I held my breath, forewarned by the times Goldie had flamed me before. The attacker wasn’t that lucky. In his panic, he’d gulped in massive quantities of the heated air. His screams were cut short as the fumes burned his vocal cords and liquified the inside of his lungs.

The already lidless eyes held my attention. There was terror there, unbelievable horror. The oculus bulged almost out of the sockets before the left one burst from the heat. His silent scream and the spasms that racked his dying body emphasised his agony.

He backed away from me, one, two steps, then fell to the floor twitching.

The flames ate into his form, reducing it to a lump of burnt meat. The stench reached my nose and overpowered the smell of the napalm despite me holding my breath.

The thundering clamour of Goldie’s flames relented, and my ears rang in the resounding silence. The flames that danced over my body—and, as usual, filled me with awe—slowly died and left the stench of burned leather in my nose.

No one spoke. The only sound was the sizzling of burning grass.

I stared at what was left of my assailant. Not much. There never was when a dragon seriously flamed a human.

I could guess why he’d tried to kill me; the emperor’s decree. But who the man had been totally eluded me. He wasn’t one of the cadets. Most of them were still behind me, and I’d heard them run out of the gate as soon as Goldie lit up the compound. In the few seconds of his attack, I’d gauged him to be somewhere mid-thirties.

I’d never met him before. The realisation brought shivers to my whole body, never mind the residual heat from the flaming. My mind went numb at the prospect of the coming months.

Would every day be like this?

A tightness pulled at my chest to where I felt dizzy.

This was going to be very hard.

They didn’t try again after that. Not for a while. And never overtly. It was more that they—instructors and cadets—created the circumstances that would pose the most dangerous situations for me, so that I would hopefully end up dead without a specific culpable, and therefore very deceased, person.

Goldie’s actions on that first day brought home what the consequences would be of a direct attempt. The way he’d flamed the would-be assassin convinced all that he didn’t care who tried.

And if they were all dead, it would, I suppose, defeat their intent.

2

CADETS

Flight school was as bad as I’d presumed it to be.

Worse even, if that were possible.

Well, it was.

Both possible and worse.

It wasn’t what I’d expected. The books I’d read at the scribe’s house portrayed it as a bustling establishment where hundreds of teenagers and young adults learned about the wonder that was a dragon. They were the new heroes who had bonded with their own fantastic soulmate to keep us all safe. Their life would be a continuous adventure filled with awe and heroism.

Yeah.

Right.

There were eleven of us.

The ones who’d bonded with their dragons at the ceremony.

The other surviving potentials were somewhere else. A different school where they could only pretend to be bonded. Where they didn’t have a dragon. Where it was probably safer.

Of the ten Elite sons, at least eight wanted me dead, preferably yesterday. The other two hadn’t decided yet. My money was on them joining the consensus that women had no right to be here. I was slum trash and all that crap.

Okay, I came from the slums. But that wasn’t my fault, was it? No one can help where they’re born. If we could, then I guess it would be a lot busier in the mansions on the hill.

Mind you, after only a month rubbing shoulders with these obnoxious bastards, the slums seemed like a more friendly and character-building location to hail from. They gave obnoxious a new deeper meaning.

The only thing that prevented any of the other new recruits from enacting their murderous fantasies was Goldie. He’d made it absolutely clear to all the recently bonded dragons that if any of their riders tried to kill me, he would personally incinerate the culprit and the bonded dragon to boot.

There had been shocked roars and angry ones. Then one massive blast from Goldie and only agreement and nods from the others.

It gave me some respite.

Not for long, of course. Goldie’s rule was against actively killing me. He had said nothing about wounding or harassing me. That was apparently okay. Allowed. And maybe even welcomed by him.

The bastard.

Our ‘honeymoon’ had lasted all of two days.

The initial glowing feeling both of us had experienced at the bonding ceremony had quickly dissipated and was once again replaced with the intense dislike we’d had for each other. I wouldn’t call it hatred. Not yet. But at the rate he was going, it wasn’t an impossible outcome in the foreseeable future.

‘It’s going to take some getting used to,’ Clyde had said, trying to placate my anger.

‘No kidding. Wow, why hadn’t I thought of that? Oh wait, I did. I even told you. Both of you. Multiple times.’

His deep laughter melted my anger.

It always worked. I couldn’t stay mad when he did that. I tried. But there was something there that resonated with my soul. He could placate me every single time. Not just with his laughter. With his love too.

Clyde and Goldie were opposites in that regard.

Goldie received the brunt of my sarcasm, only fair because he was generally the reason for it. And it was more fun for me. Either he didn’t understand, or he was deeply offended. I preferred the last option.

Clyde found it immensely amusing, for some reason. I know; his reaction kind of defeated the goal. That was probably why it worked.

I had been kicking myself since that fateful day.

Why the hell had I let them talk me into this stupid bonding? I should have followed my gut feeling. I knew it was a bad idea.

Fat lot of help that was. Reminiscing about ‘what if,’ ‘I should have,’ and more of that crap. I was stuck with him.

Another hurdle had been where to live. The instructors had tried to force me to move into the dorms in flight school. It hadn’t worked out.

Big surprise there.

The first night, two of the teachers tried to kill me. They broke down the door to the small room I occupied and attacked the form in the bed. Too bad it hadn’t been me.

Clyde and I had foreseen an attack.

Again, not rocket science. The emperor had placed a reward on my head. Preferably delivered separately from my body. The incentive wasn’t overt, of course. That would have been a direct attack on the dragons. Solanx’s presence at the bonding ceremony clarified that I was under her—and the Convocation’s—protection. It didn’t take a genius to understand that killing me would have repercussions.

It hadn’t stopped Draven, though.

He’d let it be known with the riders that he wanted me dead, no matter the consequences. Not a very good move. Or a surprise either. I would have disappointed me if he hadn’t.

Anyway. They tried. And were instantly incinerated through the opening where the big window had been.

Goldie took offence at their attempt.

He was still quite literal in his reactions.

No one wanted me anywhere near the school after that. At least not before or after the lessons.

That was completely acceptable to me.

Clyde and I stayed at the station again, in our head-keeper’s house.

Home.

3

FLAMING

‘Oh, for fuck’s sake.’

He’d done it again.

I turned towards him, my blood boiling.

‘Will you stop doing that?’ I shouted. ‘This is getting to be fucking ridiculous.’

My voice carried over the noise of the thundering fire that quickly engulfed me. Not that he needed to hear the words. It was obvious in my stance and features that he was—once again—seriously pissing me off.

The flames danced over my lower body, lighting up the surrounding space in the early evening sky. We were on the training field outside the station and in front of the academy. Blue, red and white flames alternated their slow rhythmic journey from my waist down to the ground where they burned the grass, then sizzled and slowly died.

He did this a lot, suddenly flaming me for no apparent reason.

Not only did it make me look ridiculous—and I could do without that—but it singed my uniforms, and I had a hell of a job trying to patch them up. This meant another late night polishing the leather and trying to get the burnt smell out. Roll call would be fun—again.

‘It doesn’t hurt you,’ he answered in my head. The words portraying his complete lack of interest.

‘So why do it?’ I shouted in my mind to avoid the deadly rising fumes.

The flames diminished as he closed his massive maw. The last remnants of the fire left the acrid taste of smoke and singed leather in my mouth.

‘It relieves some of my tension,’ he answered.

Relieved some of his tension? And he thought that was a good enough reason? A valid one?

‘Oh, well.’ My sarcasm surfaced again. ‘That explains it. You need to relieve stress. You should have said.’

‘I did.’

‘After the fact,’ I stated. ‘Kind of late, don’t you think?’

He shrugged, which I found extremely irritating. Along with just about everything he did. Or didn’t do.

I mean two could play that game. If he wanted to know tension, then I’d give him some extra. He was the reason mine was up in the stratosphere.

‘Do you think you might find some other way to relieve your undoubtably terrible stress?’ I continued. ‘I mean, I wouldn’t want you to be so uptight that anyone who saw you would think you’re a pompous, old, stuck-up bastard who can’t make a good solid decision, now would I?’

He cocked his massive head and looked at me with a mixture of question and renewed irritation, added with a tinge of surfacing anger.

‘You are making fun of me.’

I refrained from commenting. He was finally getting it. Well, sometimes. Occasionally.

‘Whatever made you think that?’ I asked innocently.

‘You are.’

‘Well, you do make it so easy. It would be criminal not to.’

He pulled his head back up, extended his neck to open his chest and took a deep breath.

‘Uh, huh.’ I warned him, wagging my finger at him, like a recalcitrant child. ‘Cut that out. Be a nice little dragon.’

I looked around the clearing. The other cadets were staring at us again. The almost daily show was once again on the road. Shit.

‘Look around you, Goldie.’ I swept my arm around us. He swivelled his head on his long neck and observed the spectators. ‘You’re making us both look bad again. Is that what you want? To look stupid?’

‘I don’t look stupid,’ he answered vehemently. ’Their laughter and disdain are reserved for you.’

‘I guess you would know. You’re the one who chose me, after all. Surely, they’re not doubting your choices. Or your intellect.’

That registered, and he settled down on the ground again. He glared at the other dragons and their riders, encouraging them to quickly go and do something else.

‘Find some other way to relieve your stress, you fucker,’ I continued softly. ‘Your tantrums cost me an arm and a leg in new uniforms every single time.’ I tapped out the last of the flames on my arms. ‘I don’t know why you keep doing it, anyway. It’s not like it will actually kill me.’

‘I can still do that. One talon and you will be history.’

It was the last straw.

I turned to him again, my eyes blazing. ‘Then do it!’ I shouted. ‘I’m sick of all your hollow threats. Because that’s what they are. Either do it, or don’t and shut up. Make up your fucking mind.’

‘You would be dead if I did,’ he pointed out completely redundantly.

‘No kidding, genius. Yes, I would, and at least that would mean the end of your continuous moaning. A massive improvement in my book.’

He had no retort to that, huffed and took off.