Ulrike, Kara, Karsten, Cullen and Arboris were all left dragonless.
Now that they have all chosen, we will call our cousins. They are a little wild, but there are some among them who would choose a rider, as well.
I barely had a chance to wonder what a little wild meant for a dragon, before a piercing whistle overwhelmed my senses.
There was a moment of silence, of silent wait.
Dark shapes came flying then through the air, from high up on the mountain. I figured they must have their roosts high up on the mountain peak, out of sight. Looking at their approaching forms, I could see their auras from afar. They were all the colors of the rainbow, bright and powerful, but somehow a little wild like Yesenia had said.
There was at least a dozen of them. The largest was a bit bigger than the smallest of the six dragons around me. They were longer and skinnier and more snake-like than the other six. Their bodies shimmered in the light, and their eyes were a bit smaller. They were staring at the six dragons.
I heard Yesenia speak through my connection with her. Cousins, we call you here to choose a human rider, if you would have one. The one on my back is a bloodsinger, a bloodprince, and he has sung to me of our past and our future. I am pledged to him now. The wind blows to us the smoke of change. All of you have sensed it. Soon we will be rid of a great evil or be plunged into an even greater one. Join us, if you will help us, with rider or without. Tonight we fly where these humans would take us.
One of the wild dragons, a deep shimmering purple and the longest of all of them, tossed its head. You give up nearly a thousand years of freedom for these humans?
Yesenia snorted. Had you heard him sing, Yusef, you would have battled me to be the one to bear him. He is the one we dream of. Have a look at the others before you scorn their offer. They may not look like much on the outside, but there is power in all of them.
I watched them turn their scaled heads to stare at Ulrike, Karsten, Kara, Arboris, and the smith. There was a pause. I think Yusef will choose Kara, but we will have to wait and let him act.
Suddenly the dragon roared, spat fire and leaped into the air. It soared high up and then flew down, circling around.
Kara had walked out onto the rocky plateau, away from the others.
He likes to be very flashy, that one.
Yusef landed still spinning around Kara, and then his body lay silent, encircling her. She waited until his head was right in front of her face, then reached out her hand, and touched his neck. The dragon roared, and then was silent, waiting. Kara mounted its back.
Then Arboris was stepping forward. If there was anyone in the group who was not dwarfed by the dragons it was he. Standing a whole two feet taller than the rest of us, he waited for the dragon who was calling him to act. He did not have long to wait. A massive black dragon, almost as long as Yusef but twice as wide leaped into the air. She spat fire in a circle around Arboris, who stood silently, watching and waiting. Then she landed right in front of him, with a blast of wind that would of knocked me right over. Arboris barely swayed.
The dark eyes of the dragon twinkled in front of Arboris, and he reached up a gigantic hand. He touched the dragon once on her cheek, ran his hand down her thick muscular neck. Then he mounted her, just where her neck met her shoulders. She spat fire into the air and sang a high note, then was silent.
Andromeda is very strong. This man, if he is a man, must be strong as well. He sure is big for a human.
I know little about him. He has just joined our party. He has giant and tree blood in him.
And great strength from such a mixture, I would guess.
Then it was Karsten’s turn. I could not imagine what he was thinking, now. To go from baking bread to being chosen by a dragon, and a wild one at that. But I knew that Karsten had become a cook by choice, not by necessity; that he had been almost as powerful a wizard as Elias when he was younger, and that he had not lost his gifts, just left them idle. Now would be another story. A long thin green dragon spun up into the sky and circled around and around Karsten, as it went higher and higher in the sky. Finally it was just a little point in the sky, moving around in a great circle.
Then she was plummeting down, like a green arrow coming straight down at us, and as the dragon fell closer, it looked like she was falling right at Karsten, in his circle.
Don’t worry, Octavia likes her thrills. But she won’t hurt him.
He did not flinch.
She landed on top of him.
Or so it seemed to all of us, for I was not the only one to draw in my breath sharply.
Then Karsten was out from under her, and climbing onto her back, and Octavia gave a great cry that made the stone shake and hurt my ears.
She can’t breathe fire, but she can break rocks with her voice.
Ulrike stepped forward then.
Even seated atop a dragon, with dragons all around me, I still could not keep my eyes off her. Although my blood told me that part of the enchantment had come from our shared passage through the Mother Tree, there was something more to it than that, something tremendous that made me want to go out there and battle any dragon who would want her.
I wanted her to be mine, to be mine alone. I wanted to hold her, to feel her green warmth against my chest. She was beautiful, but so was Kara. There was something more there, that I still could not figure out.