The Blind Dragon Page 9

  "Yes, sir," Anna said.

  "Very good." Master Jason nodded. Then, louder, so that the weight crews could hear, "Back and spread for weights." He turned to Anna. "At your ready, dragon rider."

  Anna had been waiting to hear those five words her entire life. She stroked Dagger's white snout one last time, stepped back, and said in a soft, commanding tone, "Dagger, back and spread." As she said this, she squatted slightly and spread her own arms, as if they were Dagger's wings.

  Of course, she had no idea what exactly was going to happen and, for a brief moment, had a horrible vision of herself squatting with her arms flapping stupidly in front of the armory's weight crews while Dagger stared at her with blank indifference.

  But Moondagger responded as if he was born to it. He squatted back on his haunches, tail straight behind him, and spread his white wings wide. They slid perfectly into the carriages' wing slots. Anna kept her arms outspread. Dagger copied her exactly. His silvery eyes never left her face.

  "Smart." One of Master Jason's younger assistants grinned as he fit the weight arm down over Dagger's left wing. A soft click of iron on iron.

  "There's the hole from the traitor's bullet, just like she said." An assistant lifted his chin at Dagger's wing as he fit the weight arm on the other carriage. Clicks of iron as the carriages' mechanisms engaged.

  "First weights," Master Jason commanded.

  "First weights, sir!" his team replied.

  "He'll need to lower his wings at the shoulder. The carriage slots will keep them extended properly."

  "Of course, sir," Anna said.

  She slowly lowered her arms and said, "Down."

  Dagger mimicked her movement.

  "First weights, on," Master Jason ordered.

  "First weights on, sir!" the crew responded, locking and clacking the first iron plates into position at the rear of the carriages.

  "All right." Master Jason nodded.

  Anna took a deep breath and raised her arms to shoulder height. Dagger followed her action, raising his wings. As Anna had guessed, there was hardly any resistance from the first set of weights. Dagger's shoulders were already as large as those of a full-grown scout, probably larger.

  Master Jason's crew repeated the process four times. On the fifth set of weights, Dagger strained to lift the carriages' iron but did so in the end. On the sixth set of weights, the last set available on the scout carriages, he couldn't do it.

  "Easy," Anna whispered. She lowered her arms until they were at her sides. Dagger lowered his wings, copying her. "Well done." She stroked Dagger's white snout and kissed him between the eyes.

  "Weights off," Master Jason commanded.

  "Weights off, sir!" the team replied as they unshackled the weights and rotated the padded arms away from Dagger's wings. He still sat between the two carriages, but his wings were now free of the mechanisms.

  "Impressive," Master Jason said. "Easily passes the weight class of a big scout. Can't see any reason we can't fit him with light harness now. If his bladders are all right, then he should be fine. He'll be a strong one, Anna. Interested to see what he can do in a month or so. Couple of years should really be something. Give him a decade, I wouldn't be surprised if he outclassed Voidbane. Like father like daughter, eh?"

  "Thank you, sir," Anna said, trying to keep the insane pride out of her voice.

  "How's he navigating without sight? Master Khondus have any ideas? Master Borónd?"

  "I don't know," she said truthfully. "He flies as if he could see. As if he knows things."

  "Borónd'll figure it out."

  Anna nodded.

  "Let's measure his bladders across the board."

  "Yes, sir."

  "Retire carriages," Master Jason ordered.

  "Retiring carriages, sir!"

  The team rolled the weight carriages away from the platform and set them in their spots against the station's walls.

  "Bladder cords," Master Jason ordered.

  "Bladder cords, sir!"

  "We'll want his deepest breath, Miss Dyer."

  "Yes, sir," Anna said.

  Four assistants stepped to either side of Moondagger while Anna took position at Dagger's front. In the same crouched stance that she'd used before, she took a deep breath, the deepest she could take, and rolled her shoulders back so that her chest stuck out, holding her breath like that for a moment. Then she let her breath out. Dagger followed her example, took a huge breath, rolled his massive shoulders back, and let his breath out.

  "Good," Master Jason murmured. "One more time and hold."

  Anna took another deep breath, just as she had before, holding her breath, raising her chin. Again, Dagger mimicked her. But this time, as Dagger held his breath, his upper chest continued to swell as his flight bladders took in additional air from the gill-shaped intakes under either side of his jaw. After half a moment, there was additional swelling along his flanks, his lower spine, and his groin as his flight bladders filled.

  "Hold," Master Jason said.

  Anna held her breath. Dagger did the same.

  "Cords," Master Jason said.

  The four assistants stepped to Dagger and swung their bladder cords around his chest, flanks, lower spine, and groin. They called out the measurements in turn.

  "Twelve palms, four fingers!"

  "Nine palms, four fingers!"

  "Seven palms, two fingers!"

  "Six palms, one finger. And . . . six palms, even!"

  An assistant took down the measurements on a board then ran to a far door that led beneath the armory to storage.

  "Let's get him stretched out and balanced," Master Jason said.

  "Yes, sir."

  "How much you weigh, Anna?"

  "Seven stone, almost exactly, sir."

  "When you weigh last?"

  "Three days ago, sir."

  "All right." Master Jason nodded. "Balancers, seven stone."

  "Balancers! Seven stone!"

  Two big armorers went to the wall for a saddle weight, retrieved a seven stone strap, and carried it back to the dais, holding the strap between them. Four other assistants stepped up onto the platform. The first two stood near Dagger's chest, where the saddle weight would be placed, the second two stood at Dagger's tail with a wooden crate of tail weights. Dagger kept his eyes on Anna, completely ignoring the assistants' activity.

  "Extend," Anna commanded, bending forward and lengthening the word, craning her neck so that Dagger could understand what she wanted.

  Moondagger got it immediately. He pushed his head forward and stretched his white tail straight back. His form was near perfect, like he'd already been trained. Anna stepped up and touched two fingers to his throat, raising his head slightly.

  "Good." She nodded.

  Master Jason said softly, "Let's get his wings open."

  Anna stepped back, crouched, and spread her arms. Dagger unfurled his wings, spreading them wide, neck craning forward, balancing on his hind legs. His rear claws gouged into the dais's wood.

  "Saddle weight," Master Jason ordered.

  "Saddle weight!" the crew repeated.

  The two assistants at Dagger's neck smoothed down his spinal crest. The moment they had done so, the two big armorers with the saddle strap gently lowered the seven stone belt across the base of Dagger's neck. As Dagger took the weight, his rear claws flexed, digging into the platform's wood, and his tail went up—but only slightly. The moment his tail rose, the two assistants at his rear placed a weighted strap over the tail's tip. They'd estimated the weight correctly. Dagger leveled out immediately and was able to relax his claws.

  "One and one half stone!" an assistant at Dagger's tail called.

  "One and one half stone," Master Jason repeated, shaking his head. "Really quite fine. Near perfect form, too." He turned and looked at Anna. "Well done."

  "Thank you, sir." Anna smiled.

  The assistant who'd taken Dagger's bladder measurements had returned from storage, bringing four oth
er crew members with him. Between them, they carried the components of a leather scout rig. At the same moment, Master Zar and little Gregory came back with a simple suit of scout armor, pads, harness, undergear, and riding tackle, all slung together on a storage hanger.

  "How'd he do?" Master Zar asked Master Jason, glancing at Moondagger.

  "Flawless," Master Jason replied.

  "Good." Master Zar nodded, looking Dagger over with an appraising eye. Little Gregory cooed from his place on Master Zar's shoulder and nuzzled the Master's ear.

  "Those Tevéss idiots in the yard still blocking our door?"

  Master Jason nodded.

  "Any reaction to the noise in here?"

  "No," Master Jason said.

  "Their mistake." Zar shrugged. "Let's get her saddled and armed." He unslung a wool bag from the storage hanger and tossed it to Anna. "Get those clothes off. Here's your undergear. Use that closet there. Think I got your size about right. Be quick about it."

  "Yes, sir!" Anna nodded. She patted Dagger on the side and jogged to the closet. There, she stripped, rolled her clothes into a ball, and put the clothes into the wool bag. She stepped into the undergear, adjusting its straps at all the proper joints. Like all such gear used in House Dradón's armory, this set was made of white Eulorian silk and fit well. Tight at her wrists, ankles, and neck, but a bit looser at the joints. A number of loops, frogs, and clasps would fasten the undergear directly to the padding she'd wear beneath her leather armor. She spun her arms in a few circles and twisted this way and that to be sure there was no bunching or pull. All felt in order, so she left the closet, jogged back to Dagger, and stood directly in front of the dais.

  "Trim work," Master Jason ordered.

  "Trim work!" the team replied.

  "Let's get him flat for a moment, Anna," Master Jason said.

  Anna nodded, stepped up to Dagger, and said, "Down. And steady."

  Moondagger lowered his head to the edge of the dais. Master Zar stepped onto the deck with his trimming knife and clippers, smoothly lifted the crest from Dagger's back, and cut the thin fin tissue between the splines in front of the dragon's shoulders where his saddle would rest. As was typical for scouts, the Master would trim Dagger's crest from his shoulders to about a quarter of the way up his neck. As Master Zar snipped the splines away, he murmured soothingly and dabbed a waxy touch of silver sealing balm onto each spline after it had been cut. Moondagger behaved perfectly throughout, as if he didn't feel it.

  Master Zar stepped down and shook his head. "Like he's already been trained."

  Master Jason made an affirmative grunt. Anna tried, with zero success, to keep the giant smile off her face. Master Zar lifted a bushy purple eyebrow and rubbed the Dallanar Sun on his forehead.

  "He makes it to ten years, Anna, nothing in the Kingdom will stop him," Zar said. "Nothing on Dávanor, that's for sure."

  "Thank you, sir." She nodded, dizzy with pride. Master Zar's compliments did not come quickly. Or often.

  Dagger snorted.

  "Pad and saddle," Master Jason ordered.

  "Pad and saddle, sir!" his team responded.

  The armorers moved forward as a unit, placing the pad over Dagger's neck and back where his crest had been trimmed. The leather saddle followed. It was a typical scout rig, small and light. It had no horn, and its fork and gullet had a deep, concave profile that tapered smoothly into its leather belly pad. This pad would allow a rider to lay flat along a dragon's neck and would keep both soldier and mount comfortable. The saddle's stirrups and fenders were also mounted farther back than was normal, the assumption being that the scout rider would spend most of her time prone.

  As the team buckled and clipped the saddle in place, an assistant stepped up to Anna, measured the length of her arms, then called out the length to another assistant who fixed a grip belt on Dagger's neck at the appropriate distance away from the saddle. The grip belt carried two leather-bound handles set inside molded leather wind screens, one along each side of Dagger's neck. This was the typical position for a scout rider's hands. Like all scout rigs, there were no reins. Instead, speed, direction, and elevation were communicated by voice and by pressure applied to the dragon's neck through the grip belt and through the rider's knees. Obviously, the rig was set for speed, not combat. A series of ten bronze clips—three along the inside of each thigh, one at the outside of each hip, one above the crotch, and one at the tailbone—would lock her leather riding harness to the saddle, while two buckled thigh belts would provide the primary points of attachment. Hooks and clasps jingled as the team finished up.

  "Arm rider," Master Jason ordered.

  "Arm rider!" the second team of assistants answered.

  As the first team continued to work on Moondagger's gear, the second team armed Anna. She handed the silver dagger Master Khondus had given her to Master Jason for safe keeping while they worked. They started with light padding over her undergear, then fit the leather plates of her scout armor over that. When her armor was secured, they fit her riding harness over it and buckled it into key points of her gear.

  Master Jason handed back Khondus's high silver dagger. Master Zar handed her a light helmet of Abúcian leather, a pair of riding gauntlets, a steel revolver, a bandolier of shells, a riding scarf, and a set of goggles.

  "No Dradón marks on this gear, Anna," Master Zar said, looking over her armor. "Don't know what you'll run into. Might be an advantage not to look like a House Dradón rider."

  Anna nodded, lifting her chin so that an armorer could buckle the collar of her neck guard.

  "Want you to have this, too," Master Zar said. He handed her a brass telescope. Three pale moonstone buttons were set along the telescope's long axis. The oculus was ringed with lapis lazuli.

  "Thank you, sir," Anna said.

  "Comes from Kon," the Master said gruffly. "Lord Garen gave it to me two years ago. Has some interesting properties. You'll see."

  Anna saluted him, sheathed the telescope in the leather loop at her side, and pulled on her riding gauntlets, locking their straps down tight. She holstered the revolver at the small of her back, swung the bandolier over her head, and slid the high silver dagger into its inverted scabbard across her chest. She tucked her helmet beneath her arm, took a deep breath, and turned to face the launch platform.

  The morning sun and the endless sky beckoned. Behind her, as if on cue, Moondagger rose on his haunches, spread his white wings wide, lifted his head to the vaults, and roared.

  In unison, the armory crews saluted them.

  Anna returned their salute, crossing her chest with her fist.

  "Arming master," Master Zar asked formally. "Is the rider ready for orders?"

  "Sir." Master Jason nodded, fist crossing his chest. "The rider is ready."

  31

  MOONDAGGER SAW A massive, black dragon.

  Anna was playing on him.

  She was five years old.

  The dragon was impossibly huge. He had enormous black horns, a gigantic black tail, and wings like the black sails of a massive ship. His eyes were deep, orange slits, the burning color of a volcano's heart.

  Anna was tiny. Just a child. And yet she still managed to climb up the front of the dragon's nose, using his giant, hooked fangs to hold onto, climbing until she sat between his nostrils, a tiny speck of a girl planted squarely on the broad shelf of the black dragon's mighty snout.

  She settled herself there, crossed her legs, then bounced up and down a couple of times.

  "Wake up!" Anna shouted.

  The fiery eyes of the dragon stayed closed. He gave a contented sigh.

  "Wake up, sleepy!" She patted the scales beside her. "I wanna talk to you!"

  "Gentle," Father said from across the stable. "He's resting." Father checked the flight log at the small desk, goggles up on his forehead, gauntlets folded and stuffed up into the bandolier at his chest. "He wants to take a nap."

  Anna paused. "I wanna talk to you," she whispered. "I wanna te
ll you something."

  The dragon barely cocked his head. Anna put her little hands down to keep her balance.

  "See!" she cried. "He wants to play!"

  She patted the big dragon fondly. Her tiny hand was smaller than his smallest scale. She scooted towards the front of his snout and stroked his delicate facial scales, the fine silvery hairs on his black nostrils.

  "He's a good boy," Anna stated.

  "That he is." Father walked to her and patted the dragon's massive jaw. The dragon rumbled contentedly, the bass vibrato unbelievably deep.

  "He's old," Anna pointed out.

  Father nodded. "To you and me. But dragons live their time differently. By his own life, he's just become a young man."

  "He's a good young man," she said.

  Father smiled. "Indeed."

  "I want to ride him."

  "You ride him all the time."

  "I want to ride him like you ride him."

  "If I step down, or if I'm killed, then Lord David will choose his next rider. Maybe it'll be you. Then, when you step down, or if you're killed, the next High Lord will choose another rider. And so on."

  "You won't be killed."

  "Death isn't defeat." He pulled her ear and winked.

  "You always say that." She squirmed away.

  "It's true. My father died in the service of Lady Tamara, Lord David's mother. He wasn't afraid to die. Your mother and I fight for Lord David. We're not afraid to die."

  "I'm not afraid either."

  "'Cause you're so smart." He kissed the top of her head.

  He smelled like clean leather and straw and fresh air. "There're things more important than life."

  "Honor, love, and family." She nodded.

  "Exactly."

  "You won't die," Anna said confidently. She leaned over and kissed the massive dragon on the nostril. It was kinda wet, but she didn't care.

  "Listen here, young man," she told him. "You don't let him die. Hear me? That's your job. You keep him safe. You protect him."

  The dragon's massive orange eye peeled open, huge and eternal, a glowering pit of unquenchable heat. Moondagger saw his own eyes reflected in it, two pale lozenges surrounded by timeless fire.

  And in that moment, Moondagger understood his ultimate duty.