Page 46 of Dark Shaman: Eternal Hope (The Children Of The Gods #100)
Two dragons in one morning is more than I've ever seen around here before, but it isn't just fear I feel when their roars echo off the mountains. It's awe at their raw power, and I wonder if they sense something we don't or if they're watching us as well.
—From the journal of Kailin Strom
A s I rushed into the classroom, my books tucked under my arm and a cup of caff clasped in my hand, Shovia regarded me with an amused expression on her face. "Gran keep you in the apothecary?" she asked when I took my seat next to her.
"I was late to work." I placed my books on the desk. "My feet hurt so badly after the trek this morning that I had to soak them before starting my shift. Normally, that wouldn't have been a problem, but with all the pilgrims arriving at Skywatcher's Point, the apothecary is busier than usual."
Shovia leaned back in her chair. "I thought you were done with training. You were supposed to stop a week before the pilgrimage to give your body a chance to rest and replenish its stores."
Since there would be no food during the climb and water would be rationed, it would have been best to take it easy, but my plans had to change after we'd been given our equipment for the pilgrimage.
"I would be done if not for the drakking boots. I'm still trying to break them in." I took a sip of my cold caff. "Why do they make us all wear the same stuff?"
"Humility and equality," Shovia quoted. "All pilgrims are assigned the same equipment. It is our tenacity that gets tested, not our ability to purchase the best equipment to help us on the trek."
"Yeah, yeah, I know." I rolled my eyes. "So no one has an unfair advantage, but that's the epitome of hypocrisy. The whole thing is about finding the few chosen ones who can communicate with dragons. There is nothing humble or equal about that."
For a moment, Shovia seemed lost for words, which didn't happen often. My best friend might not excel at academics, but she had a sharp tongue and life smarts to animate it.
"For the rest of us it is," she finally said. "The pilgrimage is a bonding experience, and it prepares us for our military service. It's not just about identifying a fresh crop of dragon riders."
She was right, of course.
Supposedly, the pilgrimage wasn't a competition. The goal was to make it to the summit, get one's destiny revealed by the shaman, and come down ready for service.
At least that was the official version. Rumors claimed that pilgrims were watched, and that their performance on the trek was taken into consideration when final assignments were determined.
I took a sip from my cold brew. "You should have joined me. You know that we will also be evaluated on our performance."
Between the two of us, Shovia was no doubt the better athlete. Her father was the coach at our old school, and he had made sure his daughter excelled at sports and aced all the fitness tests.
I, on the other hand, had done poorly on most of them, with rope climbing being my absolute worst.
Still, despite my failure to meet the qualifying minimum in this event, Coach Emil had given me a passing grade and allowed me to graduate, either because I had been an exceptional student in all the academic subjects or, what was more likely, because I was Shovia's best friend.
She chuckled. "Even with all your training, you'll still need me to drag you up the mountain to the summit."
"I'm much better now than I was four months ago, and I won't need your help."
Shovia was still smirking, which was annoying. "I love you, and I wish you the best of luck, but just in case you need help to finish the pilgrimage, I want you to know that I will not leave you behind for the medics to evacuate, even if I have to carry you on my back the rest of the way."
I knew that it wasn't an empty promise. Shovia wouldn't leave me behind even if she had to crawl to the finish line with me on her back. But I was a perfectly healthy twenty-one-year-old woman, and there was no reason for me not to make it to the summit on my own.
"I appreciate the sentiment," I said. "With all my heart.
But don't worry. I will make it on my own two feet.
" I leaned over and kissed Shovia's cheek.
"And I promise that I will not be the last to arrive.
I won't be the first either. You, on the other hand, will probably be in the lead without even breaking a sweat. "
Shovia regarded me with a serious expression on her face.
"That's not how it works. We are divided into groups, and we can't overtake those ahead of us unless there is a good reason for it.
The real enemy is the thin air and the hallucinations it induces, and how we deal with it will factor heavily into how we are judged.
I'm pretty good with high altitudes, but I still have a zero chance of becoming a dragon rider.
Not that I want to. You know which post I want. "
I grimaced. "Spying's even more dangerous than dragon riding, and there is no guarantee the Spy Corps is the destiny that fate has in store for you."
Even though everyone had to serve, and women could theoretically be assigned to any arm of the force, Elu rarely chose combat assignments for women, probably because of the brutality and barbarism of our enemies. There were plenty of other jobs we could do that were no less important.
The two exceptions were dragon riders and spies, and the reasons for the exceptions were simple.
Dragon riders were rare, and good dragon riders were even rarer. If a woman could bond with a dragon, she was a rider. Besides, if she fell off a dragon or the dragon was hit and they both went down, there was no surviving that, and there would be nothing left of her for the monsters to violate.
As for spies, women made the best ones because Sitorians were dismissive of females, and they notoriously underestimated them.
"I know it's dangerous." Shovia assumed a dreamy expression. "But it's exciting, and I will get to see the world."
"What is there to see? Nothing is better than this." I waved my hand at the window. "We live in the most spectacular place in all of Aurorys."
Shovia turned to look at the view. "It's beautiful, but that's all I have seen since I was born. I want to see so much more."
Did she think it was a game?
"It's not safe for Elucians out there." I tried another angle.
I didn't want to lose my best friend, even if it was temporarily, when she was gallivanting around the world on assignments.
Shovia snorted. "As if riding a dragon over these cliffs and fighting off murderous hordes of monsters is safe."
"I'm not going to get selected, but speaking of dragons—" I intended to tell Shovia about my encounter with the two this morning, when our instructor flounced into the room with a whoosh of billowing skirts.
"Good afternoon, class," she chirped. "Are you looking forward to another fascinating lesson about the wonders of Aurorys?"
The woman was much too chirpy most days, and today her high-pitched voice exacerbated the slight headache I'd been nursing since the excitement with the dragons earlier.
I tuned her out.
I didn't need a comprehensive refresher to pass the last test before the pilgrimage. I still remembered everything I had learned about the physics of our planet, and I had my books to look up anything I was iffy on.
Instead, I turned to look out the window.
Skywatcher's modest academy building enjoyed one of the most spectacular views of Elucia.
It was nestled on a narrow ledge carved into the side of a towering mountain, and the builders had incorporated large windows into the classrooms, saving the students from the boredom inside by providing them with a magnificent view of the rugged landscape outside.
Raw, untamed mountains jutted out of a vast ocean, while curtains of ethereal light danced across the sky, their colors shifting from deep greens to vibrant purples with streaks of red and blue weaving through the display.
Shadow and light played across the faces of the mountains, revealing and concealing their features in a constant, subtle flux.
In the distance, I could make out the faint silhouette of a dragon and rider gliding through the sky, a dark shape gracefully navigating the rivers of light. They moved in perfect harmony with the shifting magnetic currents—the ultimate conquerors of our world.
Was it one of the two I had encountered on the trail?
I had assumed that they had strayed from their training quadrants in the heat of battle, but seeing another dragon sailing through the sky over our area caused me to reassess that conclusion.
The Citadel and the aviary were not far from Skywatcher's Point, but it wasn't often that dragons flew over the town. Their training grounds were on the other side of the Citadel, and to see three of them in one morning was alarming.
As I considered possible reasons for their presence, dread pooled in the pit of my stomach.
Had worm tunnels been discovered nearby?
Were the dragons patrolling the area?
I shuddered as I imagined the vile demonic creatures pouring out of a tunnel dug out by one of their enormous worms. That was how they managed to sneak up on our villages unseen.
The mountainous terrain of Elucia was impossible to infiltrate with a substantial ground force.
There was only one port where people and merchandise were transported up from the valley, and it was extremely well guarded.
No one we didn't want to let into Elucia could cross into our country through the official route.
The alternatives were either to fly over or to tunnel up.
Only Elucians could ride dragons, so that left the tunnels, which were dug out by the Sitorians' giant worms. They were as exclusive to them as dragons were to the Elucians, but unlike the dragons, the worms had no say in what they were forced to do.
They were dumb creatures, enslaved and controlled by the Shedun.
I watched as the dragon twisted and dove through the air. As it got closer, I could see that it was black, but I wasn't sure it was the same one I had seen earlier. The rider leaned low, appearing as one with the beast's sinuous neck.
They plunged toward the ocean, pulling up at the very last instant. I recognized the maneuver. It was definitely the same one I had seen before.
The dragon twisted mid-air, jaws opening wide, and released a thunderous roar that echoed off the mountain's face and rattled the windows of the academy.
It wasn't a warning cry.
It was a victory roar.
I let out a shaky breath, my pulse slowly returning to normal as I watched the dragon glide away and disappear beyond the eastern peaks. Most likely, it had just been another practice run, but if there had been danger, it had been dealt with, and we were safe.
Still, three dragon sightings in one morning?
Danger must be close, even if we didn't realize it yet.