The Broken Scale (The Dragon Riders of Arvain) Read online

  The room was big enough to fit a large dragon, which Hayden assumed he would have by the end of the year. There was a large open mouth cavern near the vacant side, and when Hayden walked down it he found what looked like a drawbridge with chains and cranks on the side of the walls.

  When he pulled the crank down the door slowly lowered itself and it lead to the outside of the pyramid so that his dragon could come in and out when it got too big to go through the door anymore. He continued to explore their rooms and found a small wash room off of the main room.

  Hayden had found food in the main chamber and his dragonet was already gorging on the raw meat they had left, Hayden had been worried about the smell but he watched as the silver hatchling even licked the blood off the floor, leaving no trace that there had been anything there before.

  Hayden loved the almost vacant room and sat down on his bed to eat his own food. While he ate he looked at the clothes they had laid out for him. The clothes were very bland and plain, being nothing more than grey pants, a grey shirt and a grey cape. The cape would start on his left shoulder and clasp in the middle of his chest, leaving his right shoulder completely uncovered as the cape went underneath his right arm.

  He already knew how it would look because everyone in Celestial City wore capes like this one. Hayden put the food down and was startled to see the silver dragonet sitting in front of him staring at him.

  “I had heard rumors about what dragons can do, I know you will get to be huge of course, and that you can fly and breath fire. I also heard that you can do magic, cause things to happen for no reason and with no explanation, I also heard you can read minds and talk to people through your mind.” Hayden leant forward as he spoke, knowing that most of the stories he had heard about dragons coming from the Harvest Tavern back in Erskine were just the ramblings of old drunks.

  Yes and no. A voice sounded in his head, it was not the normal voice that he heard when he talked to himself and he was sure he had not meant to think it.

  “Was that you?” he asked the hatchling.

  Yes. He heard, clearly in his mind, the same voice as before. It was a male’s voice, and deeper than his own by a little bit.

  “You can talk to me then?” Hayden was too amazed at what he was hearing to be concerned with whether or not he was crazy.

  Instead of answering, the hatchling just nodded its head. Hayden felt his heart start racing again and his lungs fight for air as if he was under water or the air he was breathing just wasn’t enough. Calm down or you are going to pass out, Hayden, the dragonet spoke in his mind. Even though Hayden was not sure how to feel about what was going on, he did calm down and try to figure out what was happening to him.

  “If you have been able to talk this whole time why haven’t you? When you first hatched why didn’t you say hello or something?” Hayden had to keep telling himself to calm down and keep his breathing under control.

  Because if I would have done that then you would have reacted like you are now, but in front of everyone. This is how it has always been; the other riders are probably hearing from their own dragons now. His dragon’s voice was calm and soothing and it did help to ease the struggle that was ragging inside of Hayden’s mind.

  “What else can you do that I don’t know about, you said yes and no to my earlier questions.”

  Dragons can all mind speak with their riders, but only their riders and other dragons. No other human will ever hear me but you, and although I can hear them talk, I cannot hear their thoughts as I hear yours. We can breathe fire and fly like you said, but we have no magic or any kind of strange ability like that that I know of. As his dragon communicated with him, Hayden continued to calm down until he was normal and not on the verge of passing out anymore.

  “Oh ok, so you can actually hear my thoughts, I won’t have to speak in front of you all the time?” Hayden asked.

  That is correct, you can just think and I will hear it as if you spoke it.

  “This is amazing. I guess I have to name you now don’t I?” Hayden asked.

  The dragonet made a deep muffled sound that Hayden figured was laughing. You don’t name dragons like you do children; dragons are hatched already knowing our names. My name is Draek.

  Chapter 9

  Hayden and Draek spent the night talking to each other; Hayden did most of the talking by recounting some of his most prominent childhood memories. At first he was very apprehensive about sharing some of his past but Draek was his dragon now and Hayden did not want any secrets between them.

  Hayden told him everything he wanted to know and did his best to answer all of Draek’s questions. He had a hard time explaining some things to Draek but he was more knowledgeable than Hayden thought a newly hatched dragon should be. When Hayden failed to describe some things he had to picture them for Draek to understand.

  Although Draek was too young for memories of his own, he did have a better understanding about dragons then Hayden did. Draek knew things about dragon histories that Hayden had never even heard about.

  So how long have you been waiting to hatch? Hayden had stopped speaking out loud hours after they had started talking.

  I don’t know. A dragon’s egg is a giant stone; there is no live dragon inside an egg. If you break an egg open it’s just like breaking a rock open.

  When the egg is unharmed it can withstand immense heat and frigid cold with no affect to the dragon that it will one day become. If they would have broken my egg like you said they were trying to then they would have had silver. The dragons are the egg.

  Hayden was having a hard time grasping the idea of a dragon being a stone. He had always thought that the outside was just a shell and that there was a dragon on the inside. They had spent some time talking about how dragons hatched but all they had accomplished was confusing Hayden even more.

  Hayden gave up on the subject and decided to change it to something different. So how are we connected? Hayden asked.

  We are connected in every way; when you touched my egg half of your life essence, what makes you you and what keeps you alive, went into my egg and is now what is keeping me alive. That’s why if you die then I die and it works both ways. Draek walked over to where Hayden was sitting and looked into his eyes.

  Hayden thought about what Draek had said and he thought that he understood it. So not only are our thoughts shared with each other, but what drives us is shared too. If I wanted to do good or bad then you would have the desire to feel the same way? Draek nodded at Hayden and spoke in turn.

  Our emotions now run off into each other also; if I am angry or cheerful or if you are mad or in a loving mood then it will affect the other. When I hatched you were in a fit of rage against that silver rider, so I felt the same way you felt and attacked him too.

  Pain does the same in a way; if you break your arm then the initial shock and pain will transfer to me and for a few seconds it will feel like I have broken one of my front legs. Hayden sat listening with his mind to Draek’s mental voice.

  That would explain why I have always heard of riders fighting from dragon back and not fighting on the ground, because if one would get hurt during the heat of battle then it could prove fatal to the other, Hayden thought to Draek.

  True, and what proves fatal to one is also fatal to the other. Never forget that your life is no longer your own, it is now mine also. If you pass beyond this world then whether or not I am ready or if I want to, I will have to follow you there.

  Hayden thought about what Draek had said. He had never had to worry about anyone or have anyone counting on him before. Now there was someone who would be directly affected by whatever choices he made from this point on.

  Being mad at Ricen could have cost Ricen his life and the life of his own dragon. Ricen deserved the beating he was going to get, but Draek would have killed him just on Hayden’s emotions alone. He would have to watch it to make sure he never lost control again.

  They decided it was time to go to sleep, it would be light
out soon and they would be required to show up to the celebration. Hayden went and lay down on the mattress and moved around to get comfortable when he noticed Draek walking in circles over the cold ground in the middle of the giant opening.

  What are you doing over there? he asked and Draek stopped his walking and looked at him.

  The dragons always sleep over here. When I grow this will be the only place I will be able to fit. That’s what this part of the room is for; your bed is where you sleep and over here is where I am supposed to sleep, Draek answered his question.

  I understand that once your bigger you will have to sleep over there, but you are not bigger right now, why not come over here? There was not enough room on the bed to allow Hayden and Draek to lay comfortable, but Hayden would be much more comfortable knowing that he was near to him. He could tell by listening to their link that Draek was happy about it too.

  He did not pretend to come over slowly or take his time but instead he galloped and slid into the mattress. Hayden scratched the skin behind the fins on Draek’s head. Hayden lay down with Draek’s head on the bed and his silver body laying sprawled out on the floor. He laughed to himself thinking that for one so smart he was still just a child.

  Hayden closed his eyes and became lost in a world of flying dragons, a world he now belonged to, a world Draek and himself now fitted into.

  They were woken up by Benet beating on his door and shouting till Hayden responded. Hayden tried to stretch out the sore muscles and was painfully reminded about the rope burns and scrapes on his back that he had gotten the day before.

  I am awake, come in.

  There was no answer to his response so he said it again but the banging on the door kept coming.

  You aren’t speaking out loud you are still only thinking, I can hear you but whoever is on the other side of the door cannot, Draek said.

  Oh sorry, I was so used to this. “I am awake, come in,” he said out loud. Yes, Draek, I can tell the difference, he thought before his dragonet could ask his rhetorical question. Draek made the same laughing noise and began to stretch as Hayden got off his mattress and made his way to door to meet Benet.

  “Well good morning, dragon rider,” Benet said as he pushed past Hayden and made his way into the room, walking straight to Draek. “And good morning to you, silver wings.” Draek nodded his head.

  “His name is Draek,” Hayden told Benet, not in a rude way but to inform him on what to call the silver dragonet.

  “Draek,” Benet said slowly, trying it on his tongue to see if he liked it. “It is a good name, you will wear it proudly,” he told Draek.

  “So what brings you down here this early in the morning?” Hayden asked.

  “Well, I have come to make sure the four of you are awake and ready to go; today we will be parading you guys around for the whole city to admire. You guys will have fun today, which is good because tomorrow your training starts, and trust me when I say that it is no walk in the park, for either of you.” He took his time looking at both of them in turn.

  “They don’t want us telling first timers what to expect so that you guys won’t have a jump on the training. The trials were nothing compared to what you have before you; how you do here will decide whether you become a general in the flying army one day or be nothing more than a messenger.”

  Although being a messenger was not the worst thing in the world to be doing, Hayden could feel the desire to be a great leader, flying in at the front of every battle, seeping over from Draek’s mind.

  “Now come on, you two, get ready and look your best. Hayden, clean up and put on the clothes they laid out for you. Once you are done, meet the other three in the corridor, I will be waiting for you there.” He bowed slightly to them and bid them both farewell.

  Once Benet was gone, Hayden made his way to the wash room with the garments he had been given. There he bathed and put on new clothes and examined himself in the mirror. He looked just like everyone else. Except a lot of the people he saw in town wore brilliant colors and his were a dull grey. That was ok with him though, he did not like the clothes that made someone stand out.

  He gently washed his hands and tried his best to keep the wounds from reopening. While he had been cleaning he examined the wounds and found that they were healing nicely. His hands hurt the worst and were going to take the longest to heal.

  Once he was finished he stepped outside his door with Draek and found that he was the last one to have gotten ready. They all had matching clothes, and Giles and Sebastian did not seem to like it.

  Shane’s little copper was affectionately rubbing its head on Shane’s leg. The bags under Shane’s eyes showed that he did not sleep that much either. Shane saw Hayden walk through his door and waved him over. Hayden had to walk past Giles and Sebastian to get to where Shane was standing.

  As he passed he noticed that they both still looked like they did not notice their dragons. They were not giving them any attention or showing any kind of affection towards them; it was almost like they did not care about their dragons.

  Those poor dragons, Draek said to Hayden.

  What do you mean? I know they don’t look happy right now, but their riders might warm up to them.

  No they won’t. Remember, I can see the dragon’s mind like I see yours. Their riders are evil and have no room in their blackened hearts for love or compassion. Those feelings are already beginning to taint the dragons; after one night with them they have already begun to turn towards darker thoughts and they are very short tempered, they heard me try to talk to them and they now want to fight because I “dared” to touch their minds. I am going to hate to see what they become after years with their riders.

  Hayden had no response to Draek, and his dragon wasn’t looking for one. Now Hayden had seen what could happen if their connection was abused. He was amazed that so much damage could be done within just one night.

  As he neared Shane he introduced his dragon to him.

  “Shane, I would like you to meet Draek.” Shane told the silver how happy he was to meet him.

  “Hayden, I would like to introduce you to my copper, Rilora. Isn’t she the most beautiful thing you have ever seen?” Hayden looked at the copper that was staring up at him, he could not tell whether or not it was a boy or a girl but he knew that she was a beautiful dragonet.

  “She is beautiful, she is a fine dragon.” Shane and Rilora both seemed to appreciate the complement and both Shane and Hayden watched as the two dragonets walked around each other in tight circles. Then all of a sudden Draek jumped and the wrestling match was on.

  Hayden had to move against the wall that Shane was against to avoid getting a painful tail whip to the legs. They both watched on with adoring eyes as their dragonets played together.

  “So you look like you had little sleep last night too,” Hayden said.

  Shane nodded to him, never taking his eyes off his copper. “We got settled into our room and started eating. Halfway through our meal she asked me how I liked the food and I about choked on what I was eating. We started talking, I guess that’s what you would call it, and we lost track of time. Then we laid down to rest and before we could get comfortable there was a knock on the door from Benet saying it was time to wake up. How did your night go?”

  “A lot like yours did actually; when we were done exploring our rooms we sat down to eat and the Draek and I started talking. It was very different at first and a little unnerving but we stayed up almost all night too, just talking about everything and anything.” Hayden straitened his cape as he stayed near the wall; it had become ruffled up with him trying to avoid the still fighting dragons.

  “Have you seen Cass at all?” Hayden asked Shane.

  Shane smiled at Hayden before he answered, “No I haven’t, when Benet left your room I was already ready and waiting out here so he told me he would come back in a few minutes, and that he had to go and get her.” Shane tried to keep a straight face the whole time, which made Hayden start to blush
.

  “Good, you are all ready; then we don’t have to wait on any one.” Benet spoke loudly as he made his way back down the hall. Trailing behind him was Cass and her golden dragon. It was hard to figure out which one drew the most attention.

  Cass’s dragon was slightly smaller than Draek, and where Draek had a broader chest and was thick all around, the golden dragonet was thin and walked with its head held high and its legs moving like a cats, two by two, with smooth fluid movements. The golden also had no distinctive marks, just like the giant versions. Hayden noticed that Rilora was chewing on the end of Draek’s tail playfully, but he was sitting still, not paying her any attention and staring at the gold like he had never seen it before.

  Then Hayden’s eyes landed on Cass herself. She was wearing a version of the grey clothes that the four men were wearing. Were they had grey strait pants and their shirts the same color with long sleeves, she wore the same color clothes but her pants were slightly baggier, and they were worn lower than theirs. Her top was not a shirt but it looked like a large triangle piece of grey cloth that was tied around her chest, the point going down to her navel, allowing her stomach to be seen. She had no sleeves or anything on her shoulders but the same cape that went down the center of her chest and covered her left shoulder but allowed her right shoulder and arm to be free of the cloth.

  Her dark hair hung loose on her shoulders, except one strand that stayed in her face, and she wore the same grey shoes that went half way up her calf. Hayden had been unable to get a good look at her body when they had first met, but now that a lot of the mystery was gone he was impressed. He decided that Cass was the one out of the two to keep his eyes on.

  We should stop staring, Hayden thought to Draek.

  We should but in a few seconds, was his reply.