Chapter 7
Karson led the way beyond the academy grounds. I smiled, watching him as the trail unfolded for us. It was a used track, wide enough for both horses to walk beside one another and still have room from the thick brush. For a time we were silent. I was taking in the tall trees that surrounded us. From pines, oaks, and willows it was the largest of all trees that held my attention. Grand trees were enormous, anywhere from two hundred feet to a thousand feet high. We were heading towards one; days’ away maybe; and I spied the top of it in the distance with hope we could visit. The grand trees were the one thing that was near impossible to reach via a horse from Draeos. La’Kera had yet to fly to one and wanted desperately to try.
I glanced at Karson on his stallion. He’s solid build made him look ready for anything, strong and comfortable. I heaved a sigh, relaxing into the walk as our horses trotted on. Slowly the path thinned, and he turned off on a single trail to which he was in front and I was behind. Able to watch his shoulders, his back flex and his biceps ripple whenever he tugged on the rein’s to manoeuvre around the terrain, which was slowly becoming jagged and rocky. The sound of a stream was close by, the songs of birds twittered around the area with wrens and pigeons gathered in large flocks. For a time, I was lost with watching Karson. Trying my hardest to focus on my task of … horse riding. I found my eyes flicking to him constantly. Taking in his golden tan, his black hair curled and waved at his neck and on the edge of his shoulder line. He was good looking, just with a horse now. It was nothing but a crush. That’s all it is.
I was seeing respect for him, what my crush entailed wasn’t possible. He was my mentor, and I shouldn’t bother thinking about him on any level other than training. Taking on his words from before, I smiled. Focus on being a Ryder. It occurred to me I hadn’t accepted the transition. I loved La’Kera. We had joined as on, I with her. Not because it wasn’t a choice. It was just the way things happened, but I hadn’t accepted me as a Ryder. It had me pause as to La’Kera in her thoughts. It was the same for her. We had accepted each other, mood swings, odd and strange ways we look, or talk about things, but to be a Ryder … I her Bond, yes … but a Ryder of Dangora. A guardian of the lands, chosen by Drae’Gon himself. It had me questioning several more options I hadn’t thought about, creating more answers that were neither the right one.
Karson turned mid way along the trail, taking in his noble black mustang to side glance me. He struck up a conversation on my history, unlike my former teachers; he covered a lot broader area about my knowledge of Dangora. My home, my lifestyle in Plumridge, rules, tolerances, and even foods and farming methods. It was odd, for a time I was lost to my memories. Telling Karson about my life in Plumridge, smiling brightly to the way things were, and maybe a hope of seeing it.
“The Festive of farming is always the best time of year, as to the season of seeding.” I was sad I would miss it this year. As I puzzled over the logic, a look crossed his features as I realised my thoughts. I would always miss it. Never again would I walk the meadows, the farming sheds, the houses of preparation, and the stalls of gathering town folk. The seasons of change would be their business. Not mine. I paused in any more talk and he noticed instantly.
“You fear what will become of your life now?”
“No.” I glanced around the trail we were taking. “I fear not being a part of their lives. What I was … I can never be again.”
“That is true. You are no longer bound by the laws of a simple girl. It is the law of Ryders you now hold your oaths to …” He turned the conversation to what I had learnt at Draeos since arriving. That wasn’t to my liking.
Most of what I learnt was through simple nods and smiles. I had failed through my own means; maybe Bronson was only part of the reason. I recited several facts, my basic level of knowledge to Karson, I realised in the past six months; I didn’t know that much. He was disappointed in my lack of knowledge on anyone remotely famous in the Ryders, or the herds. I might have read books, answered a few questions or achieved some pass on them, I never worried about the big issues.
“Your history of Dangora and Dragon Lore is your most valuable ally in a fight,” he soothed.
“How so?”
“Learning about what others did before you, will aid you in ways you never thought possible. Where one fails, you will not.”
“If I’m in a battle with a viper, I’m not going to recite the last ten kings to the creature, now am I.”
Karson turned in his saddle, to arch a brow. “We have had only six kings in Dangora. Ryder kings that is. Ten if you include all the beings of the land as a whole.”
“Oh.”
“That’s why having the knowledge of a lost battle aids us in defeating our enemy.”
“Things aren’t so bad now. The delgori seem the bigger issue, right. Few vipers attack at all nowadays.” I shrugged, not wanting to get to much deeper into this conversation.
“The delgori are indeed the larger problem. That does not mean you can’t learn about past fallen Ryders to know better ways to take them out. The first Ryders, discovered that exposure to sunlight and fire from their Bonds, was the only way to kill them. It was later discovered by the second Ryders of that time, of decapitation. A blade thrust through the heart, in the right conditions will work just as effectively.” He inclined his head. “Why do you mock the Ryders before your time?”
“I just never thought of it as important before.” I didn’t look at him. Staring at the path my horse was taking. “Besides, we have come along way. Since coming to Draeos, I realised how much more advanced we are. Seeing EzRah, the force of the Ezanguards, the way food is prepared and the collection and trade of supples, from foods, clothes, and furniture. It’s different from my town, that’s just because we’re so small, and limited.”
“Yes and no. Your township is mostly dangorian; few want anything to do with magic, especially if it’s magic that is visible. Other than the Ryders to keep the vipers at bay. Without those luxuries, many don’t want to stay on there.”
“So you’re saying it’s my town’s fault that we were attacked by vipers six months ago.”
“It is no ones fault. The vipers attack all things south of the Terrill, you know that.”
“Yes, but you’re saying if my town was more like EzRah in luxuries, we would have had a Ryder there all the time, not just now and again from Durant.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. It’s hard to say. You can’t blame one thing for something everyone suffers. Life for us, you will discover, is … limited at times. We are … ageless, endless if you will. But to wait for something that may not come, is a test to many Ryders will.”
I puzzled his words. Was he saying that a Ryder wouldn’t wait forever?
La’Kera thought the same words.
I don’t think it’s that. It’s the fact that their Bond may be the one that is bored. We love to fly. She trailed off.
In the end, all I could think was; nothing and no one was prepared, no matter the training.
“I mean not to upset you.” His voice was cautious. “It is the way of the lands, the tells that are spoken of. Do you blame your people for not protecting themselves better? For not having more aid when needed, or do you blame the Ryders for not being there when asked.”
“Both,” I whispered. He heard; he had dragon-hearing. “If Plumridge was more like Durant or Plumton, we would always have had a Ryder there, but to do that, we would’ve had to have wizards, magic and all things associated with it around us. That would make us like the others and we’d be less like we were.”
“It would make you as you need to be. Magic is the next topic I wish to discuss with you.”
I shuffled in my saddle as he trotted further from Draeos and into the wilderness of Stone Heart.
“I hear you have yet to be in control of any one element.”
“Well, that’s because no one remembers what a Dy’Monian was able to do. I don’t know how the dragon’s can keep tales of an O’Nixian herd that is de
emed lost for three hundred years more and know all about its true power, but me and La’Kera—”
—“We’ll get your answers,” he said. “As you were saying. Your level?”
“I can kind of use all the elements. I don’t have a good control.” I watched as he guided his horse into a clearing. We’d been riding for an hour. I was stiff, sore, and wanting rest I would never get. My body might have to accept that was how it was going to be from now on.
“The best thing would be to master one of the elements. Then we can work out which is your better elements.” He pulled his horse to a stop; dismounting, with a nod from him, I was following. I smiled at how easy it was to read his actions, even if it was only my second day. We were bonding as a mentor and tutelage should.