Page 28 of Court of Rivals (Their Dragon Rider #1)

H arper

The days are flying by at the academy, but I’m no less disturbed by the king’s announcement, and I think his words are haunting more than just me.

It’s not that the men are being nicer, they’re most definitely not, it’s more like I’m catching them constantly staring at me.

When I come closer, they take a step back.

They almost seem afraid of me, until the princes start their bullshit, and then they’re right behind the three assholes, making my life miserable.

It’s like even the possibility of me “bringing about peace to the kingdom” is still not enough for them to pull their heads out of their asses. I guess I know what’s more important to them, their pride or their people.

The princes want to scare me off, but it’s not working.

No matter what they do, it just makes me want to be a dragon rider more.

When we first came here, I felt more like I was being dragged along by Ebron, but now this feels like where I’m meant to be.

Every time I’m on Ebron’s back, seated in a saddle made just for us, I feel alive in a way I’ve never felt before.

Lying on my bed, I read over a page about the Hollowborn.

The page talks about how the Hollowborn are on an island of nothing but death, ash, and volcanoes.

Their usable land is so little that they have to make use of the ocean as much as possible to find food and resources.

It also talks about this being the reasons behind their constant desire to steal our fertile lands.

And their desire to be close to life, when everything around them is just death.

To me, it’s kind of sad. Sad they live like that, and sad there has to be a war between us rather than some kind of trading system. Wouldn’t that make more sense?

There’s a knock at my bedroom door.

I call out, “Who is it?” from the bed.

“Roland,” comes a voice from the other side.

“Come in!”

A second later, he enters. His cheeks heat when he finds me on the bed. “Uh, it’s practice time with the dragons.”

I sit up, still frustrated by a schedule I can’t quite understand. “How should I know where to go and what to do?”

He looks sheepish. “It just takes time to figure out what we do.”

“Fair enough,” I say, sitting up and climbing off the bed. “So any advice for today? The princes seem to want me to follow their lead, but the dragons seem to be only willing to follow Ebron.”

Roland takes a minute to think, while I put my dagger into the belt at my hip.

“I guess if you’re going to lead, lead well. Stop doing crazy stuff, like flying into the water. Direct Ebron how to lead. Follow the formations.”

“Formations?”

Roland goes to the stack of books I have on my nightstand about dragons. He flips open one that’s titled War Dragons, and stops at a specific page, pointing to what’s on it. “This is the Arrowhead Formation.”

I stare down at it in surprise. It shows one dragon at the head of the pack of dragons and two behind the head dragon, two behind that, more spread out than the first two, two behind them, more spread out than the last, all the way back until the twelve dragons are in a perfect arrowhead formation.

I’ve seen a pattern like this before in migrating geese, which is pretty fascinating.

Roland turns to the next page. “The Encircling Spiral Formation.”

This one the dragons almost look random, but they’re all spaced out in a really tight-nit image.

He turns more pages. “Here are the combat maneuvers and the coordinated attacks.”

There are drive-and-strikes, where it seems you swoop down to attack enemies on the ground.

Rolling evasions, where you roll to avoid an attack from a Hollowborn in the air.

Wing-over-turns, reverse directions midflight.

The coordinated attacks are even neater.

There are Fire Runs, which require the dragons to all use their fire at the same time, Staggering Fire Burst, which allows the dragons to attack opponents constantly, between all the dragons, but help reserve their energy, and even something called a Pinch and Burn that involves two dragons blasting one opponent from two different directions at the same time.

“This is awesome! Why didn’t anyone tell me about this?” I ask.

He looks embarrassed. “I actually didn’t think about it, and they probably didn’t have any desire for you to actually learn anything.

” He turns more pages in the book. “But check it out, because there’s a lot more.

Endurance and speed drills, all the signals we use in the air, even psychological warfare. ”

I grin at Roland and kiss his cheek. “You’re sent by the gods themselves.”

A smile flashes across his face. “Thanks,” but then a bell tolls. “But, we’re, uh, going to be late.”

The last thing I want to do is give the princes a legitimate reason to complain about me, so I head for the door, with Roland trailing behind me.

The halls are busy with dragon riders hurrying for the training area, laughing and joking, but their smiles stop reaching their eyes when they see me.

There’s a strange energy like I’m a hot piece of metal, and they’re afraid to touch me and get burnt.

“You’ll see a change in some of the dragon riders over the next few days,” Roland says.

“Why?”

“They’ll be changing out the dragon riders that guard Gore Rock with some of our guys.

Those men are going to be exhausted after battling with the Hollowborn for the last three months.

The guards are switched out every three months, because that seems to be about the limit we can handle before we need downtime. Or, of course, when someone dies.”

Gore Rock is well-known by all Dravari people.

No matter where you are on our continent, you hear the stories of the many battles that have taken place there.

It’s the one island with resources between Narthyx, our lush continent, and Volcaris, their content full of volcanoes and ash.

The Hollowborn have to stop at this island to rest before coming to Narthyx, so ninety percent of our battles occur there.

It’s few and far between when their people make it past the island and onto our lands, but it does happen.

He glances at me. “You should know. Those men will likely be tired, recently injured, and still in battle mode, so they may not be as… friendly as the dragon riders here.”

“You’re kidding me, right?”

Roland shakes his head and gives me a sympathetic look. “Your best bet might be to just completely steer away from them.”

“Noted,” I say, not wanting to even imagine a pissed off dragon rider, if the dragon riders here are all peaches and cream.

“I guess today we may see some of the princes’ female dragons trying to impress Ebron again,” Roland says with a smile.

Because they seem to be the dragons Ebron is focusing on the most. “Right. And their dragons are…?”

“Prince Gareth has Sylvara, the silver dragon. Prince Lucien has Verdraxa, the golden dragon, and Prince Alaric has Nythera, the white dragon. Their dragons are the strongest and most powerful of the females.”

Of course.

Ebron better be focused on other females today.

There’s silence between us for a long moment before he says, “When we get to the practice yard…” But then, just stares at me.

“Yes?” I frown, prodding him to keep going.

“Well, the princes weren’t particularly happy about me dancing with you.”

I roll my eyes. “Those guys are the worst, but they’re all bark and no bite.”

“Maybe,” he says, stuffing his hands in his pockets and looking guilty.

I kind of want to ask him if that means what I think it means, but I don’t want to ask. I want to believe that regardless of what the princes said, Roland will stand up and be my friend, even if people don’t like him for it, despite all signs saying the opposite.

We reach the practice yard. I turn to ask Roland a question, but he’s already separated himself from me, weaving through the other men.

See, every time I think he might not be too bad, he acts like a damn coward, and my vagina dries up like a desert.

I could never fuck a man with that little backbone.

I see the three princes in their separate groups of three or four riders, talking, looking casual.

I think I’m beginning to piece together how this place works.

There seems to be twelve dragon riders at any one time that are working together as a unit.

They train together without their dragons each day, and with their dragons multiple times a week.

There are probably a hundred other, at least, dragon riders that have not earned dragons yet, and a second and third group of twelve dragon riders that practice in units around our schedule.

It makes for a lot of dragon riders and interesting schedules for everyone.

Squaring my shoulders, I stride up to Prince Gareth.

He doesn’t smile. He never really smiles, but he seems to be enjoying the conversation he’s having with two dark-haired men who are built nearly as large as the prince himself.

For half a second I think about how nice it is to see him connecting with his friends, but then his gaze swings to me and his mouth pulls into a thin line.

“Should I have Ebron come to the practice yard?”

“You’re going to do whatever you want anyway, so why ask?”

It startles me, but I try not to show it. “Good point.”

Reaching out with my mind, I sense that Ebron is near, even though I don’t know why. How do you feel about another day of practice?

Ebron sounds amused. I’m ready.

Then, head over!

“Okay, he’s coming.”

“But not because you commanded him to, because you asked him to, right?” The two men next to Prince Gareth snicker.

I smile. “Yes, because I asked him to. Because Ebron and I have mutual respect for each other. Because we’re partners in this.”

Prince Gareth shakes his head. “You’re not partners. You’re dragon and rider. How long is it going to take you to figure that out?”