Dragon School: First Flight by Wilson Sarah K. L

Author:Wilson, Sarah K. L.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: dragon, teen, disabled, disabled dragon rider, dragon rider, teen dragon rider, coming of age
Publisher: Sarah K. L. Wilson
Published: 2018-01-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

When Raolcan’s alcove was clean to his specifications, I joined the line of trainees headed up the ladder to the top of the butte. They were in good spirits despite the events of yesterday and jests rang out from those waiting for a turn on the ladder. Savette arrived, breathless, behind me.

“Are you okay?” I asked her.

“Of course, I am.” She looked irritated, so I left her alone. She was a puzzle: kind one minute, distant the next. It was like she was working from a code that was entirely different from my own and completely opaque. I left her alone. Maybe I’d figure her out eventually.

The line moved forward and I studied the pulley on the wall. This one was rigged with a long board and a couple of block pulleys for belaying heavy loads up the cliff. I squinted at it, trying to work out how they operated the system. If they could belay heavy loads up, then I could go up and down that way, although the thought still left butterflies in my belly. If I was honest, though, I knew that I’d never sit down for a meal again if I didn’t figure out a quicker way to go up and down between levels.

By the time I reached the top of the ladder I was breathless and Savette – the only person behind me – had taken on an air of extreme patience. I didn’t know what made me feel worse; the insults of others or her longsuffering attitude. I thought it might be her. After all, it was easy to retaliate against insults, harder to ask someone to stop waiting so aggressively.

I gasped at my first look at ‘topside.’ I’d expected scraggly vegetation and ragged rocks. I should have used my imagination more. A crystal-clear lake spread across the top of the mountain – the source, no doubt, of the water that flowed into Dragon School. Tall spires of various heights and designs encrusted the edge of the bluffs. They bore one thing in common – long branches spread from each one to provide a perch for dragons and silken banners flapped in the wind.

Between two spires, a wide semi-circle of rock was hewed into steps – or seating, I realized after a moment. There was room on it for hundreds and our tiny wave of trainees were huddled together on the lower few steps. At each end of the semi-circle, a dragon was carved, posed in an aggressive posture as if ready to attack whatever came near. It was an imposing sight. I would have been nervous to address so large a crowd at the best of times, but when you added carved dragons and a cliff at your back, you’d need nerves of steel to speak to the people here.

“Take your seats.” Grandis Leman stood a little to one side, looking much happier here in the open air, but his dark expression was still black as night. What made him so moody? Beside him was Grandis Dantriet, looking off into the horizon.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.