The Veiled World by Vanessa Garden

Author:Vanessa Garden [Garden, Vanessa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Vanessa Garden
Published: 2021-02-16T06:00:00+00:00

16

Axel

Outside, by the weapons keep, all nine of us plus the blacksmith and the king gathered.

The eight sets of helmets and mail that hung on the walls were mirror copies of the original, earliest documented, helmets. The oldest documentation showed that they had been crafted in as far back as the Dark Age.

I mentally prepared myself for receiving the helmet with a large metal horn sticking out of the top of it. Ridiculous was the only word that could get close to describing how I was going to look wearing it. Then again, at least it wasn’t the hog helmet. That one was not only hideous, but it also had large metal tusks protruding from the front of the helmet, from the nose area. Ridiculous and dangerous. At least my horn was at the top of my head. I’d have to warn Amber not to stand too close to Rueben once he put on that helmet, so she didn’t get an eye poked out.

When I looked over, I saw her eyes searching for her helmet. But it wasn’t hanging against the wall by thick, rusty hooks like the others. No. Hers was a special helmet. The helmet worn by the last successful challenger.

It was well known that a splatter of blood still decorated one side of the helmet. The king refused to wash it off because he thought altering the helmet in any way would jeopardise the future luck that it might bring to the next dragon’s dodaem.

The dragon’s helmet rested in the king’s large, sun spotted hands. The entire headpiece was shaped like the head of a dragon, with flames streaming back against its jaw to look like wings of fire on either side of the helmet. The dragon’s mail was also designed so that it appeared as though the wearer was completely protected by a shield of flaming silver.

“For you, dragon girl,” said the king as he beckoned Amber forward to accept her armour.

She kept surprisingly steady for someone wearing ten or so pounds on her head. Even when the king draped the mail over her arm, she didn’t falter. Merely accepted it, muttered a thank you, and stepped aside.

She didn’t appear comical, as you would expect a teenage girl to look wearing a massive helmet of dragon’s flames and mail slung over her arm. She looked fierce and even fiercer still when the blacksmith handed her a sword, hilt, and belt. He fixed it around her waist and she sheathed the blade as though she’d done this every day for most of her life. Those pangs of jealousy I’d felt earlier returned and I hated myself for it.

The king repeated the procedure with each of us. I didn’t wear mine for long, as the horn kept scraping the ceiling. The hoots of laughter that followed me were short-lived as the king presented everybody with their own extremely heavy and ridiculous-looking helmets.

Lastly, Claire approached the king.

The king carefully slipped the helmet, with its lion head piece and the

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