“But…” he said.
“Lieutenant, you can flirt on your time, not mine. I’m sure you’ll find a moment to ask her to the Ball after you’ve helped Vella with her turns. She thinks she’s demonstrating some unprecedented level of daring, but she’s actually an accident waiting to happen and I do not want her bloody father flying down here and getting in my face, so go. Jenris, you’re with him. Now, Tess.” We walked across the field towards a wooden contraption. “I get you feel like this is all a waste of time. It is, it really is. Irrespective of what my Lieutenant thinks, you’re not long for Aravisia, no matter the outcome. The directive from above is to get you to jump through the requisite hoops and out of the country, hopefully still bonded to your beast. Re-bonding an adult dragon rarely works, despite what the pencil pushers in the government think. They’re anticipating a surge in merit support, but it’s more likely to be an epic shit show when your animal eats the new candidates. You won’t be taking a place in the ADC. The rosy coloured future Keel is envisioning is just a pipe dream, so let’s just focus on the hoops and getting through them, shall we?”
She wasn’t unkind, but she was implacable as a rock. She talked me through the wooden dragon dummy and what we would do today. Why this first? I wondered, looking at the dragons and their riders flying in formation above me. Why this at all? I had experience flying, I would’ve been much better placed to start with what the other riders were doing, using Miazydar’s innate skills to fumble through.
Less risk to me. I’m the valuable one, to them, Miazydar said.
I nodded and got up on the dummy dragon’s back, grabbing the practice spear she threw at me. “OK,” she said, “let’s try some basic attacks. This one’s great for on the ground fighting. You keep your feet planted and you move your body, the momentum carrying the strike.” She demonstrated. “You’d think this would be better on a flying dragon, your feet aren’t shifting, but it throws your centre of balance off. Try it.”
I frowned, then shifted my stance, widening my feet until I felt solid on the wooden surface. It tipped and veered slightly, obviously being built on some kind of sprung contraption to try and imitate the movement of an actual dragon. I struck out, my arms moving my practice spear from across to my body into the space between us. I immediately stumbled, the wooden ‘dragon’ beginning to rock more wildly under my floundering until I lost my balance, forced to toss the weapon away as I fell backwards onto the ground. The sky spun above me, the swift flight of the dragons made dizzying by my swimming vision. I gasped for breath, my lungs feeling like I was fighting to fill them. Keya appeared next to me and offered me a hand, pulling me upright whether I wanted to be or not.
“Come on, cadet,” she said. “Time to get back on the dragon that threw you off.”
I tried the basic move again and again, falling off every time. Keya’s expression didn’t change, perhaps she’d been through this before. She might have, but I hadn’t. I got up, climbed back on, tried to find my centre, kept my knees loose, my grip on the spear firm, only to be pushed off with little effort. By the thirteenth or fourteenth time I’d fallen, I’d had enough. I couldn’t do it, I knew it in my bones, the ones that ached like hell. I tossed my spear as far as I could, ripping off my helmet and throwing that as well as my ears rang all the while. They didn’t need to poison me, they were going to kill me with a concussion and maybe that was the point.
“Cadet…”
“Look, can you fuck off? I don’t like to be rude but seriously, this is a waste of your time and mine. They’ve set me an impossible task, obviously. Miazydar talked to the others. What you want from me usually takes years for you to train an actual rider to do. This is suicide by dragon,” I said. Silence stretched between us and all I could see was her very nifty looking boots standing in front of me.
“OK, say you’re right, what does that mean for you?”
“That I’m going to die with my body broken, that my last view of the world will be of the sky I fell from as you lead my grieving dragon away to be re-bonded to someone.” I snatched up a piece of grass and chewed on the end.
Sometimes effort wasn’t enough, no one knew that more than me. I’d always done as I was told, been the unobtrusive one working hard in the background, not that anyone noticed and when they did, it was usually to point out the one bloody thing I’d stuffed up. Mum pointing out the one typo in my thesis, Ash not listening to me about the clients, unravelling all my carefully wrought alliances. I spat the grass out and got to my feet, walking towards the building.
“Where are you off to, cadet? Are you just going to quit?”
I turned on my heel, glaring back at her. “Really, you’re going to go with the ‘you’re a quitter’ thing? Put the fire in my belly? Cut to a montage of me working real hard with awesomely stirring synthesiser music playing in the background.”
She frowned. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but yeah, I’m calling it as I see it. If you’re walking away, you’re quitting. You’re letting Graves have exactly what he wants. Of course, this is a difficult task, of course, they want you to fail. You came here knowing that, so why are you all of a sudden having a tantrum about it? From what my Lieutenant says, they’ve already tried to poison you and your dragon. What’s a few bruises to your ego?”
“Pretty sure more than my ego is getting bruised.”
“I’ve trained a hell of a lot of cadets over the years, but the one thing I can never teach is grit. Our motto as riders is ‘we strike without warning.’ People think it’s a threat, but the real meaning? We don’t threaten or prevaricate, we don’t dwell or mope. Every time a dragon rider’s knocked down, we get up and then we kick the fucking arses of the prick who did the knocking. Of course this sucks, of course training is hurting you, both mentally and physically. No one likes to fail over and over and over. You can’t control Bhechro, the university, Graves or even the ADC and you can’t control me. The only thing you do have agency over is yourself, so unless you’re going to pack up your crew and make a speedy escape over the border with us being ordered to follow hot on your heels with a kill order in effect, you need to get the fuck back on that stupid arse dummy and show me you actually deserve your place on your dragon.”
I stared at her, the Captain’s face flushed red with the morning’s exertions, her eyes snapping brightly in the morning sun. She was everything I’d always wished I was, strong, long, lean. She knew exactly what her body could do and wasn’t afraid to strike down enemies if required. I felt stronger when I was working out with the Battle Club regularly, but I’d never devoted myself to focussing on my skills like I would be now. She tilted her head, watching me closely as if she could sense the temptation inside me. You are the dragon, Miazydar insisted.
I’m feeling a lot more like a miffle, I said.
He chuckled, Get on that ridiculous dummy they have provided, take a deep breath and feel for your balance before you strike. Your training should stand you in good stead, if you allow it.
I nodded and Keya smiled and then turned to walk back to the dummy dragon.
I finally started to get it, my body feeling where the ‘dragon’ would move when I did and I compensated for it. The first few times were lucky, but then I was able to make the strike over and over and over.
“Okay,” Keya said, “you’ve got the feel for the terrain, now we’ll try some more advanced attacks. This one is the same, but you follow through with a step for extra momentum.”
The process began again, though I got it much more quickly. Keya could finally attempt to block my blows without sending me flying. I was able to use the tip of the wooden spear to trap h
ers and force it down, smack it away and jerk mine up to her throat. “Well done!” Keya said with a smile, standing with her weapon beside her. “You’ve done some fighting before?”
“A little,” I said with a shrug, “mainly with swords though.”
“I’m impressed, cadet. I thought this was going to take a lot longer. Now, let’s go again.” I stood on the ‘dragon’s back’, knees loose and able to counteract the movement, spear at the ready. Keya approached rapidly, forcing me to focus on keeping my balance as well as block her downward blow when it came, my spearhead moving in a small circle as I caught the head of hers and tossed it up and away. For the split second it took for her to recover, I was in under her guard, jabbing my weapon at her neck, the strike powered by the jerk of my arms and my forward momentum, the movement and the rapid sway of the dummy forcing the Captain back until she overbalanced. I watched her arms pinwheel as she struggled to right herself, trying not to smirk when she landed on the mat under the dummy. I let out a laugh at the Captain’s wide-eyed stare and gasps for air because for that moment I felt like it was all bloody possible. I could do this, I could get us out of Aravisia.
Keel arrived in time to help his superior officer. “What can I do for you, Lieutenant?” Keya said.
“It’s break time, I was just grabbing the two of you for lunch.”