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

  “Well, no.” Hayden averted his eyes from Fendrel.

  “So you want to become a rider but you don’t know how or at what cost.” Fendrel looked into the flames as the wood started to crackle.

  “Do you know all of that?”

  “Every young child in Celestial City is taught about the riders.”

  So much for having an advantage. They both sat in silence and watched the flames dance in the wind. How could there be so much to the riders that no one back home would even talk about it. Hayden was deep in thought when Fendrel spoke again.

  “Don’t beat yourself up about it, boy. All you can do is learn what you need to and move on with it.” Fendrel’s eyes never left the fire as he spoke.

  “Will you tell me about the riders?” When Hayden finished the question, Fendrel finally raised his piercing eyes and looked at Hayden.

  “I will tell you about them, but not until tomorrow. We have two more days of walking ahead of us, and it will give us something to do while we walk.” With that said, Fendrel lay back down on his makeshift bed; although this time he did not stare at the stars, instead his eyes were closed tightly.

  Hayden thanked him politely and laid back down himself. As he was about to close his eyes, a streak of fire shot across the sky. As it lit up the darkness, Hayden could just make out the shining shape of the dragon that caused the disruption. Hayden sat up instantly, and without taking his eyes off where the dragon had been, he shouted at Fendrel.

  “Did you see that?!”

  “Tomorrow, boy, tomorrow,” Fendrel said as he rolled over and went to sleep.

  Hayden leaned back and with a smile and closed his eyes, waiting for the sleep that he knew would be difficult to find.

  Chapter 2

  Thud.

  “Ow!” Hayden rolled over onto his side, clutching his lower ribs. He blinked a few times to get the last bit of sleep out of his eyes. He quickly looked around to try to get his bearings and figure out the cause of his pain as Fendrel began walking away from him, shaking his head as he went.

  “You say you want to be a rider, boy, but you can’t even get up at a good hour, not to mention you whine like a baby when you get a soft kick to the ribs.” Fendrel made it back to his pack and began double checking everything while he spoke to Hayden.

  “You kicked me in the ribs?” Hayden questioned loudly.

  “Softly. I said softly,” Fendrel replied.

  Hayden got up slowly, trying not to cause any further pain. He stayed there for a few moments catching his breath and inspecting his side gently with his fingers. Just sore, nothing broken, he thought

  “Well are we going to sit here all day or are we going to cover some ground? We have two days to go, let’s not turn that into ten days.” Fendrel was finishing tightening everything down and hauled his pack onto his back. He turned to face Hayden and gave him a wave of his hand to say “let’s go.”

  Hayden already had all his gear packed up, as he had used his pack as a pillow the night before. He picked it up and trotted along after the old man. He was still angry about the kick he just received, but before he could voice his anger Fendrel spoke.

  “Before you keep whining about the gentle kick back there, I think it would be best to put it behind us and not waste any further time on it. We have much to discuss between now and the city, and I want to try to fit it all in.” He looked over his shoulder and eyed Hayden, waiting for a response. When one did not come, he turned his head back around and continued walking before he cleared out his throat.

  “Good, now before we get into how they pick the riders, you need to know why they pick them. When the metallic dragon eggs were first found, the world was starting to spin into chaos. The dwarves and elves were always at war with each other because the dwarves needed wood and the elves did not want to trade with them , so they dwarves took it.” Fendrel began talking as they trekked across the road. They had to take breaks to catch their breath once in a while, but they tried to keep moving as much as possible.

  “Everyone began to fight with each other soon after that, some of the races even fought amongst themselves. Once they each got their dragon eggs, everything calmed down for a while and a false peace fell on the land. While all the dragons were young, everyone focused on them, but once they got big it was only a matter of time before they started fighting again.”

  “It had been one year after the eggs hatched that the dragons were able to carry people long distances, and that’s when it happened. The first two to meet were the pirates and the elves. One day, while the pirates were doing one of their raids, the elves ambushed them and brought one of their green dragons to surprise and overwhelm them. As the dragon broke through the woods and leapt towards the sky it let out a long roar, issuing a challenge to the pirates below. To the elves’ surprise, the pirates did not run in fear as they had expected them to. Instead, one of the pirates blew a loud horn and two giant blue dragons shot out of the water like arrows, and went racing to meet the green dragon.”

  “The green and its rider were startled and they tried to slow down the blues’ assault. Just when the green opened its wings all the way up, the two blues hit it. The green was bigger, but not by much, and the two blues were moving faster. The blues knocked the green into the trees and one of its wings broke when they hit the ground. The green roared with pain and anger, but it was cut off short when one of the blues bit into its throat. It wasn’t long and the green was turning into stone. It was the first dragon to ever die. They went to hunt its rider, but they found the elf already dead even though he had not been hurt. The other elves ran, and soon the fighting broke out more than ever. Whole villages were burnt for no reason, and miles of forests were destroyed. Ships were sunk and thousands died. The stone remains of dragons were everywhere. The lucky ones lived a few years but very few stayed alive long.”

  “Even the human barbarians in the southern ice land began to desire more than what they had, and they thought the bone thieves would be the easiest to defeat. No one came back from that raid, but some say you can still find some bone thieves wearing the fur armor that the barbarians wore. The battles raged on for years, consuming everything in their path. No one helped each other, and there were times when one of each of the five colors of dragons met and they all fought until there was one winner.” Fendrel ushered Hayden to stop so he could get a drink of water. Walking almost nonstop was hard work for an old man, and talking for most of that walk just winded him faster.

  “Some humans escaped a sinking ship and were able to sneak through Eytherka while the elves were fighting red dragons from the North. They made their way inland and followed the River Savior until it forked to the north and east. It is there they created Celestial City. It was a few more years before they started to mine into the ground. It was originally for shelter against the constant threat of the dragons, but while they were digging, they started to discover underground caverns filled with gold, silver, and copper. The city began to flourish as they started digging deeper and deeper, their greed leading them on.” Hayden was struggling not to ask questions after every sentence. He’d heard the history of Arvain before, but never in such detail about the dragons.

  “They found the caverns that housed the metallic eggs while digging late one night. They were tired and thought they had just found large deposits of the minerals they so desperately wanted. As they were counting their find, one of the men touched a copper egg and it hatched for him. There were two others with him that were counting, so each one touched a different color egg, one silver and one gold. They then counted the remaining eggs, determining that they had found two hundred copper eggs, twenty silver eggs and only two golden eggs, and that is what we base our money system off of: ten copper pieces equal a silver and ten silver pieces equal a gold.”

  “When word came out that they had found the eggs, the town’s people lined up to get theirs, and it wasn’t long until they were almost gone. They kept one gold and just a few of the silver
s and coppers hidden away from the people.

  “They tried to keep them hidden in the caves until they were big enough to fly, but there were so many of them it was impossible. Soon, the other groups noticed the metallic dragons as they flew over, but did not give them thought because they were small and of no concern, especially when they had fully grown dragons to fight. That was their fatal mistake. The metallic dragons grew much faster and bigger than the other dragons, so it didn’t take long for them to reach a size big enough to defend themselves. It was said that some of the bigger metallic dragons could carry a rider as early as eight months after it hatched.” Hayden remembered hearing about how dragons were not strong enough to carry human riders until they were a year old.

  “One day, two red dragons ambushed a white dragon not far from the city - by this time the iron walls were beginning to go up, and before the reds could ground the white, a silver and three coppers swarmed in and killed the two reds. The white did not know they were trying to help, so it attacked them. The silver did the only thing it could, and killed the white. The first copper, silver and gold riders met that night to decide what needed to be done with the other races of dragons. They decided the only choice they had was to build and army out of the metallic dragons and attack each of the dragon races one at a time.”

  “They started with the whites. It took them a few months to get ready for the attack and during that time they killed every dragon that got near the city. They flew out together as one giant unit- the whites never stood a chance. The fight did not last long, as only five whites made it to the air and died in the battle. By the time any more could even attempt to get off the ground, they knew that defeat was imminent. Close to a hundred fifty dragons the same size as theirs came thundering at them in groups of ten. The barbarians (now called the “Frost Fangs” by the metallic riders) were forced to serve them. The leaders of the metallics, the first three that found the eggs, took some of the white riders and their army to the elves. The elves already had dragons in the air to scout for the next attacks from the pirates, when the massive metallic army flew over the horizon. All the green dragons came together in a giant clearing and they realized victory was not an option, so they surrendered without bloodshed.” Fendrel spoke without emotion while Hayden did his best to imagine the battles he was describing.

  “The pirates were next, and they met them on the beach during a raid and they thought their surprise attack from the water would save them. The surprise attack from the air with the army of metallics, whites, and green dragons prevailed, and the pirates soon fell in line. The reds would have been more difficult to find, but they had all their dragons and riders heading to meet the metallic army to avenge the death of their two riders. They had the best chance, but alone it was hopeless. They were fighting seven to one, but they fought relentlessly, leaving only four of them remaining when the fighting subsided. The remaining reds were so brutally injured in the fight that the metallic riders did not want them to join their campaign.”

  “The blacks were last. With the metallic army now having conquered everyone else, the bone thieves followed the elves’ lead and surrendered without a fight. The metallic riders went back to Celestial City victorious and with their army invincible, they created the Metallic Pyramid and set up the Thrones of the Three. One of each of the metallic riders sits upon the Thrones of the Three: one copper, one silver, and one gold. That way no one person rules without any one to keep them in check. They first three to rule locked up the remainder of the metallic eggs so that not just anyone could get one. They started holding trials (a series of hard physical and mental tests to challenge a person in every way possible) once every year to limit the number of people getting dragons and to make sure that no one who was not worthy to become a rider gets an egg.”

  “Every year, when the last year’s four new dragons and their riders are ready to have their first flight, the elder dragons donate all their eggs to the already existing horde of eggs. During that same week they have the trials to see who that year’s new riders are going to be. They only allow humans who are not bound to the white or blue dragons to go through the trials. They tried to get all the other races of dragon eggs, but they could never find them.” Fendrel seemed to be reading Hayden’s mind, because he was just asking himself what happened to the other race’s eggs.

  “They allow the other groups to have their own dragons, but they must register. The ruling three then divided the land amongst the races: the elves got to keep their forest, the pirates get control of the sea, the dwarves still have their mountains, the bone thief’s have the desert, and the Frost Fangs have their icy home. They put a giant tower in each territory to help keep order in Arvain.” Fendrel spoke quickly, without giving Hayden the chance to ask questions. He never even looked back to see if Hayden was even listening; although he knew he was. Fendrel stopped recanting the history of the riders when they stopped for a quick rest and a meal. They were making great time while he spoke, so they could afford to take another break.

  Hayden just sat on the ground and played with a blade of grass idly in his hand as he dwelled upon what he had learned during their walk. How could I not know all this? I didn’t even know about the towers in the territories.

  “What do you mean about them only allowing humans who weren’t bound to the white or blue dragons to compete for the metallic dragons?”

  “Everyone is bound to one color of dragon or another, so if you were born at sea with the pirates, you would have to try for a blue egg. If you were born in the frozen wasteland, then you would have to go for a white egg. Dwarves are the only ones who go after the red eggs and the elves after the green, whereas bone thieves are the only riders of the black dragon. No one has ever gotten an egg that wasn’t of their color. One of the jobs of the watch guards in the towers is to mark the people in their territories. Everyone born to the five earth dragons (red, white, black, blue, and green) gets marked so that even if you wore a disguise and tried to get a different egg, someone would be able to tell. Since you weren’t marked, they know you are neither a pirate nor a barbarian. Don’t even ask how they mark them, you aren’t ready for that yet” Fendrel watched Hayden as he spoke and could already sense the question that was forming on his mind before he asked it. Fendrel did not want to speak about marking with one so young.

  “Who guards the towers?” Hayden asked, continuing to play with the blade of grass as he spoke. “Are there riders that live outside of Celestial City?” He finally looked up at Fendrel as he finished his question.

  “Ha, well of course there are riders that live outside the city. What did you think you would be doing as a rider, huh? Flying out to save the day and being back home in your warm bed before nightfall when the scary things come out at night? When a rider and his dragon reach their first year after the dragon hatches, they are considered fully fledged riders. That means they get the rights of the riders, but they also get the responsibility of the riders.” Fendrel groaned as he slowly got up, using a nearby branch for support. Hayden watched him dust himself off and look around as he put his hands on his hips.

  “What do riders do besides keep the peace?” Hayden got up as he spoke and dusted himself off also. He led the way back to the road and waited for Fendrel to catch up.

  “You make it sound like that’s an easy job, boy. For the first five years after you become a full rider, you have to spend at least one year at each of the five towers. If you can somehow survive all that, then your dragon will be big enough to fly for days without stopping and it will also be fast enough to get to any tower within two days hard flying. You will then have the pleasure of patrolling and carrying goods from tower to tower. There is always lots of hard work to be done protecting Arvain.” Fendrel had been climbing through the thick underbrush around the trees that they had been sitting under for some shade from the relentless sun. Hayden reached out a hand to Fendrel, but the old man pushed his hand away. “I am ok, boy, but thank you.”

&
nbsp; “So once you’re done doing all that, then what? What happens after you play messenger boy?” I need to learn as much about being a rider as I can before we get to the city. I don’t want to get into something that I am not ready for, Hayden thought to himself as they started back out on the road. The trip so far had gone smoothly. They had run into a few travelers thus far, but everyone kept to themselves and no one even acknowledged them as they went on their way.

  “Well that all depends on the rider, boy. Some decide to just fly around and help wherever they can, calling everywhere and nowhere home. Others continue to serve and go through the ranks until they lead the army of dragons. Some even have aspirations to sit on one of the three thrones. Some just leave everything behind and fly around. Usually the older ones choose to do that: spend the last few months they have together flying around. Once, while traveling by land to a port city where Eytherka ends and the Star Light Plains begin, we found a plateau that stood almost two hundred feet tall. When we got closer to it, we could see a giant stone dragon, a silver by the size of it, sitting on the edge with a stone rider sitting in the saddle. They both had moss growing in patches on them and the rain and sun had caused to stone to turn different shades of grey. They appeared to be watching the sun rise when they died.” They hadn’t been walking long while Fendrel spoke, but he stopped and faced Hayden. Looking at him, he began to speak again. “You have the power to do whatever you want, don’t let anyone tell you that you have to go one way or another. Whether you become a rider or not, never let someone else tell you how to live.”

  Hayden stopped walking to face Fendrel as he spoke. Fendrel put his finger to Hayden’s chest as he spoke. Hayden nodded his head, and that was enough of an answer for Fendrel to turn around and keep walking without another glance at him. Hayden could not help but think that something had happened in Fendrel’s life to cause him to have such strong feelings about the subject, but Hayden thought it best to not bring it up now. Hayden decided to change the subject to something else.