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CHARLIE

O llie and two guards led me along a maze of hallways and staircases so intricate I couldn’t have found my way back if I’d been dropping breadcrumbs.

So far, so good, I thought.

My plan had been audacious. Crazy, really. I never could have hoped for the princess to find me and bring me straight into the castle. And yet here I was, not only inside but accepted into the court.

I was the world’s greatest ace. Would I be known as the world’s greatest spy, too? The thought brought a touch of a smile to my lips. That is, until I thought of Paemalla’s corpse laid out on the stone floor, blue-lipped and still. One of the perks of being a pilot was never having to see my kills up close. But looking at Paemalla, seeing firsthand that she had been strong and young and pretty, that she had friends and cousins who mourned her… well, it was a hell of a lot different than watching a dragon fall from the clouds then flying back to the base and getting cheered by the boys when I landed.

I thought of my little brother, Joey, a newly-minted infantryman on the front lines. He’d been eager to go, to earn a piece of the glory I’d gotten, although he didn’t have the eyesight to be a pilot. Joey would be seeing dead bodies like that all day long, up close and personal. Poor kid…

“You’re not very talkative,” Ollie pointed out as we walked.

I shook my head. “Just… rattled from the plane crash, I guess.”

“Tell me, where exactly did your plane go down?”

“Off the coast. Not far from where you found me.”

“How many others were on the plane?”

So, this was a friendly interrogation. Fine.

“Just me and the pilot,” I said.

“We should conduct a search, no? Perhaps the pilot survived?”

I shook my head quickly. “No. No, I saw him go down—with the wreckage.”

“Hmm,” Ollie said. “Perhaps we’ll send a search crew—just to be safe.”

I wanted to protest, but that would look suspicious.

“That would be good,” I said, my mouth feeling dry as I realized how precarious my position was. All it would take was for them to find the wreckage of the Silver Wraith inside that sea cave and I was a dead man.

Finally, we stopped in front of a narrow wooden door. Ollie opened it and gestured for me to enter. Part of me feared I’d see a jail cell. Instead, the space I found was larger than my one-bedroom quarters back at McNalley, and was furnished with luxurious carpets and rich tapestries. There was a canopied bed, a fireplace, a bookshelf full of leather-bound tomes, and even a copper bath, which was already filled with steaming water. A large window was open, and I crossed to it to find we were high up—at least two hundred feet off the ground—with view of the city. Beyond it lay the city wall, and beyond that, to the right, mountains rose in a series of jagged peaks. To the left, a grassy heath led to the sea. Far away to the west and lost in mist, I knew, lay the United Republic of Admar and Ironberg. Home—if I could ever get back there.

I turned back to find the guards had remained in the hallway. It was just me and Ollie, which made me feel better. The eunuch had the easygoing demeanor. He reminded me of a friend of mine from high school, Tommy—a laidback, friendly guy, the sort of fellow everybody loved. Although given the way Ollie had handled that bow, I imagined he was a hell of a lot more dangerous than Tommy.

He had crossed to a small table near the bookshelf and was pouring wine from a glass bottle into a pair of pewter goblets.

“Food will be coming soon, but perhaps this will get you through until then,” he said, offering me a cup.

I took it and drank gratefully. It tasted far better than any wine or liquor I’d tasted back home; it had a flavor of honey and coffee mixed with the faintest hint of a fine red wine. Already my body, chilled by my damp clothes, felt warmer.

“Mmm,” I raised my glass appreciatively, then glanced around. “It’s a beautiful room. Thank you.”

“Of course,” Ollie smiled. “You’ll find we treat our guests well—so long as they maintain our trust.”

“Right.” I licked my lips. “Say, I don’t suppose you have a cigarette?”

Ollie shook his head. “We don’t have such things here. I could perhaps procure you a pipe and some mangar. It’s good for creating spiritual visions.”

I chuckled. “That’s okay. I’ve had enough spiritual visions for one day.”

Ollie strolled to the fireplace and sat in a chair, gesturing for me to take the chair opposite. I sat.

“Yes. A dead dragon,” he said wistfully. “That is a rather spiritual sight. And not just any dragon; Horban the magnificent. That sight would be a wonder for anyone,” he shook his head, gazing into the fireplace. He leaned forward and, pointing toward the logs with two fingers, muttered a word in a language I didn’t understand. The logs flared with fire.

I repressed a gasp of astonishment. All my life I’d heard stories of the powers the Maethalians possessed. I’d always imagined they were nothing but children’s tales.

“How did you…?”

Ollie shrugged. “It’s… what is the word your people use for it? Magick.”

I sipped my drink. “And that makes you a magician, then?”

“I am Torouman,” Ollie clarified. “We’re an order of warrior sorcerers—and priests of the Star Father, technically, though we don’t have much in the way of religious duties these days. I was born the same day as Essa and am bound to her as protector. I’m a eunuch, as well. All the brothers of my order are.”

I tried not to look too surprised. With his round face, rather shapeless body, and doughy-looking hands, he looked more like a librarian than a warrior. And being a eunuch… that I couldn’t imagine. But as I looked at him more closely, I thought I could see a bit of what he was talking about. A shrewdness beneath his civility. A power in the way he gestured with his hands.

“In truth, I’m not the most renowned among my order,” he said with a sigh. “Any of us can light a fire. That’s a children’s trick. There are other Torouman fifty times more powerful than I.”

“Hoatan is one, too?”

Ollie nodded. “Yes. He’s bonded to the queen.”

For a moment, the only sound was the fire crackling and the wind whistling outside the window.

“Your princess doesn’t seem to like me much,” I observed.

Ollie laughed. “No one likes you much. But that’s not so surprising, you’re the enemy. And anyway, I’m sure the feeling is mutual after Essaphine kicked your legs out from under you and tied you up.”

This forced a grudging smile out of me. This fellow, Ollie, had a sense of humor, at least.

“Essaphine said something about duty. She said she couldn’t be my escort because she had some duty brought on by her sister’s death?”

Ollie nodded. “The death of an Irska, the lead dragon rider—Paemalla, in this case—triggers a challenge among all the dragon riders to discover the next Irska. The second highest ranked rider was Laynine—who is cousin to Paemalla and Essa.”

“Laynine… the one who was on the floor crying?”

Ollie nodded. “She and Paemalla were best friends—and lovers, if you believe the rumors. Her grief will be powerful. Anyway, as the second highest Skrathan, Laynine would automatically ascend to the position of Irska. But it is the duty of the queen’s heir to challenge for the top spot. And Essaphine is the last offspring of the queen. Her brothers and sisters—who were also dragon riders—have been killed.”

Most of them by me, I thought with a secret pride.

“So, Essa must challenge Laynine,” Ollie concluded, and sipped his wine.

“Okay…” I said, processing what Ollie was telling me. It made sense. But it didn’t explain the chill that had pervaded the room when the topic of the challenge came up. “What did Essa mean about the queen giving up on her?”

Ollie leaned closer to me, keeping his voice low. “Laynine is the highest ranked rider, Essa the lowest. In any challenge against Laynine, Essa is sure to fail. And failure means death.”

The fire crackled and spat as Ollie’s words sank in.

I’d only just met this princess and so far, she’d treated me like garbage. And yet, something in me rebelled at the thought of her dying—at least before I got the chance to kick her legs out from under her, tie her up, and humiliate her like she’d done to me.

“If she can’t win, why doesn’t she just refuse to challenge Laynine?”

Ollie frowned. “Impossible. She is a princess and a dragon rider. The challenge is a tradition that goes back to Aulucia the White. For Essa to run from such a duty would be unthinkable.”

“Well… she might win,” I pointed out.

Ollie shook his head sadly. “There are several events in the challenge which all the riders will participate in, and these are deadly enough, especially for a lowest-ranked rider like Essa. But the final event of the challenge is a one-on-one duel between Essa and Laynine, and jousting is a critical part of it. With one arm, Essa can’t both hang onto her dragon and hold a lance.” I saw the slightest tremble in his lips. “Paemalla’s death has sealed her sister’s fate as well. Essa will die. It’s only a matter of time.”

Ollie stared into the dark pool of is drink in a long and thoughtful silence.

So, the princess had only a short time to save herself—or die. That would certainly explain why she wanted to spend her time training rather than babysitting me. And yet I wished she’d decided to keep me with her. Watching how the dragon riders trained could provide valuable insights about their tactics—and how to defeat them.

Abruptly, the Torouman stood and went to the window, looking east, toward the mountains rather than the sea. In the distance, there rose a series of green hills that grew increasingly tall and rugged, until at the horizon they became jagged peaks. From a crater near one of the larger peaks there rose an orange glow. Steam rose in writhing, serpentine tendrils.

I crossed to the window, too, and saw what I at first took for a flock of birds gathering around the peak. But no—at this distance, birds would be no larger than specks. The flying things I was seeing now must be huge… Dragons.

Ollie turned up his glass, gulping the last of his drink.

“I must go. Essa will need me. Do you play Torzame?”

“What?”

“Torzame. It’s a similar to your game of chess.”

“I play chess a little,” I said.

Ollie nodded. “Good. I’ll have a Torzame board delivered to your room and I’ll teach you the game.”

He gave me a final glance from my muddy boots to my messy hair.

“An attendant will be in soon to feed you and get you cleaned up. You’ve arrived at a very poor time, Kit, but I’ll do what I can to aid you while you’re our guest. If we could do our part to foster some understanding between our people, perhaps we can help bring an end to this terrible war…”

His words drifted off as he gazed once more out the window at the orange, fiery mountains and the gathering of dragons there. Then, with a nod to himself, he turned on his heel and departed, the door banged shut behind him. The final sound I heard was the clink of the bolt as the guards locked me in.