Dragon rider, p.30
Dragon Rider, page 30
‘I’ll try not to hurt you,’ Jai said.
The chuckle from Frida only slightly hurt his feelings. He turned, and saw her gulp down her pill. No going back now.
‘Have you mana, lad?’ Rufus asked. ‘Even a dreg’ll do.’
Jai half-closed his eyes, quickening his breath. He slipped into the half-trance, giving the world a hazy overlay of his core. With each day, he could see more and more of it. It seemed so small, hanging in the void of his centre. Like a kernel.
A kernel with a small drip of mana within. All he’d managed to gather that morning . . . and more.
‘I have mana,’ Jai said. ‘But it’s more than I should have . . .’
Rufus nodded at that.
‘You’ve a good beast, so you have,’ he said. ‘’Tis common for bonded beasts to give their mana tae you, but rarely so young and rarely much. They get little enough of it as it is, being unable tae soulbreathe themselves. It drips into them, slow-like – she must’ve spent all morning pushin’ it your way. Takes a while for ’em to manage it at first, especially if you’re far. Winter felt you needed it more’n she. Clever girl.’
He chuckled, though Jai did not see the joke.
Still, he sent a pulse of thanks to his beast, and felt a sleepy acknowledgement in return. He was getting better at communicating with her too. This . . . transfer of emotions. It was like another language.
‘So when you’re far from your beast . . .’
‘Now lad. I’m loath tae waste it on trainin’, but I can’t well teach you tae manage your mana when you don’t have any. Cultivatin’s a lengthy process, and when your mana’s low, you’ll need other ways to protect yourself than external majickin’.’
Jai listened closely. Every sect, the Gryphon Guard included, taught their acolytes these lessons, often over years. He was going to have to pack everything into a week. Even learning the theory of a skill, even if he could not do it yet, would give him something to work towards when he finally ascended.
‘Charms and spells are all well and good, but internal majicking is more efficient. Now, your body’ll use plenty of mana on its own before you ascend – that’s why you’re almost empty. You’ll use mana if you run beyond your natural ability or strike a blow harder than your muscles’d allow on their own. Your enhanced senses even, come at a price. But that’s all subconscious-like. If you focus your mana, send it where ’tis needed, you can run even faster, should you wish. Strike harder. Even smell better and see farther.’
Jai’s eyes widened at that. This was what he’d paid for.
‘Shouldn’t Frida be listening to this?’ Jai asked. They were a fair way away from her, where the ground was a little more level.
Rufus grinned.
‘This, even she will know. Though that’s no’ saying much. These Dansk, they never formed a sect. Kept their dragons amid their royals and such. Oh, they know some things. Shared knowledge, passed down from parent tae child. But they relied too much on the strength o’ their beasts; cave bears, direwolves and the like. Beyond the mammoths of the far steppe, dragons are some of the largest beasts that can be bonded with.’
Jai shrugged.
‘I’ve heard that too. But Frida . . .’
He stopped himself. He’d told Rufus as little as he could about Frida, for her secrets were not his to share. But Rufus seemed to know she had once been bonded to a dragon.
Rufus misunderstood him.
‘Some Dansk nobility also ride dragons, true. Second sons and daughters o’ previous generations o’ royals, mostly, those that married into nobility and carryin’ on the tradition. Young Frida’s got a distant claim tae their throne, most likely.’
Jai nodded slowly. It wouldn’t be unusual for the daughter of a lesser noble family to serve as the princess’s handmaiden. Jai would ask her about it. For now, though, he needed to know more.
‘How does one safely . . . ascend?’ Jai asked.
Rufus looked at him with raised brows.
‘You don’t know much, boy, do you?’ he said.
Jai grimaced and inclined his head in agreement. ‘In Latium, the Gryphon Guard kept their practices secret. It was as if their knowledge of majicking gave them leverage over the imperial family. What I know, I know from my childhood amah, Balbir. My nursemaid. That, overheard conversations, and what little Leonid wrote of them. Or the old guards, speaking of the past wars. Fragments.’
Rufus ruffled Jai’s hair.
‘Well, lad. Ascension’s no’ really somethin’ you need tae worry about.’
‘Oh?’ Jai asked.
‘That’s because there’s nothin’ tae be done about it,’ Rufus said, grinning. ‘Once your core’s grown and thickened enough, it’ll just happen on its own accord. Might survive it, might not. Some folk can’t take the strain of it.’
Jai stared at him, shocked.
‘I’ve seen a man ascend while swimming in the ocean. Watched him drown while doing it. Seen a couple ascend in battle, get their throats slit. Even heard o’ a woman who ascended while twixt her lover’s legs.’
He slapped Jai’s back.
‘Just need a strong heart. Or be too stubborn to die. I reckon you’ve got the latter quality at least.’
Jai took a deep breath of fresh air.
‘So, you said I can strike faster?’
Rufus blurred. He moved so quickly Jai hardly saw the blow coming. Rather, he felt the red flare of pain across his shoulders.
The big man danced back, flashing Jai a grin.
‘That’s tae . . . properly motivate you.’
Jai gritted his teeth, lifting his sword. The thing was so rusted and blunt, he had picked it up by the blade on more than one occasion.
It isn’t that sharp, right?
He lunged forward, and practically felt the mana seep from his core as he gave the sword a wild slash. A swift slap from Rufus’s branch spiked it into the ground, and Jai found himself staggering past the middle-aged man. The swift shove that followed sent him face first into the ground.
‘We’ll work on your technique another time. For now, let me teach you tae channel that blow. First time’s the hardest. I need you tae focus on your core when you push your body beyond your natural abilities, be it a sprint or blow.’
Jai brushed himself off, pushing away his annoyance by reminding himself that he wouldn’t have cared had Frida not been watching.
Indeed, looking at her now, she was no longer watching. Rather, she sat upon the wagon’s footplate, cross-legged. She looked strange . . . in fact, her hair practically stood on its end, flaring up slightly around her as if she had rubbed her feet on a woollen rug. Whatever the lustration pill did, it packed quite a punch, it seemed.
Jai picked up his sword from where it lay and gripped it in both hands.
‘I’ve got hardly any mana,’ Jai said. ‘So this one has to count. What do I do when I strike?’
Rufus jabbed the stick at Jai’s chest.
‘You squeeze your core as the mana leaves it. Push more through. It’ll follow the same route to whatever limb you’re using, there’ll just be more of it.’
Jai closed his eyes.
‘Not much use if you have tae close your eyes tae do it,’ Rufus said.
‘I’ll figure that out later,’ Jai muttered. ‘I need to learn how to do it at all first. Now let me focus.’
‘Not much use if you need quie—’ Rufus chuckled, then held his hands up in peace when Jai flashed him a glare.
Jai closed his eyes once more. Drifted to the trance. Saw his core, floating in that abyss. He was loath to waste the precious mana that Winter had given him. But he needed to learn this.
He focused on the movement he was about to make. Rufus was just in front of him, and a little to his left. He needed to take a single step and cut to the side in a swift, short chop. He could feel the anticipatory twitch of the muscles. Knew where the mana would go.
Still, he waited. He let his mind drift to his core. He could almost feel its walls. They were as much part of him as the heart they resided in.
When he soulbreathed, he dilated to breathe in.
Now . . . he squeezed the core to push out. Like letting out a great gout of breath, pent up within him.
He let the mana rush through his body, roiling through him like fire in his veins. Swirling, waiting for where it would be willed. In that same moment, he made his move.
The air thrummed with the speed of the blow, and Jai felt himself spinning as his blade met nothing but air. He had not expected such force and his back muscles strained hard at the sudden twist of his body. There was a thud as his sword chopped a deep tuft of turf from the ground.
Jai saw Rufus a few feet away, pawing at his beard.
‘Damn near gave me a trim, lad,’ the portly old man cackled. ‘You’re a fast learner, I’ll give you that. Terrible, terrible technique though. Now, square up. ’Tis time tae show you what swordplay really—’
Jai gave him no time to react, slashing once more with the last of his mana. Rufus’s hand darted forward, latching like a vice upon Jai’s wrist. He yanked, once, and butted his head forward. Jai felt the hard slam of Rufus’ forehead, and his own nose squashing like overripe fruit.
Pain.
Jai did not realise he was on the ground until the world swam back into view. He snorted, and a rush of warm blood gushed from his nose, running down his face and into his ears.
‘Ain’t no airs and graces here, lad,’ Rufus chuckled. ‘Fightin’s no sport. It ain’t a dance. It’s a brawl. That means ’tain’t just a blade you’ll be usin’.’
Jai gurgled incoherently, spitting the blood from a split lip. Rufus nudged him with a foot.
‘On your feet. Again!’
Chapter 65
Jai gulped down as much of the stew as he could, groaning at the thick slurry of nutrition his body so desperately needed. Somehow, gnawing on some wrinkled raw vegetables in the days before meeting Rufus, had not done the job.
He made sure to leave the dregs for Winter, who gulped them down with her snout pointed to the darkening sky like a baby bird.
Jai winced as he put the bowl away. His body was a mass of welts and flowering bruises, not to mention the various muscles he’d pulled. Rufus had not been kind in their sparring. To his credit, though, he’d struck, parried and dodged no faster than a normal man might.
Swordplay, Jai now realised, was far more complicated than he’d thought. There was far too much to hold in his head at once. The positioning of his feet – something he’d never even thought might matter – seemed to be all Rufus talked about. That, and his balance, and where his weight was spread. It reminded him of his brothers’ first attempt to teach him to ride a horse. Utterly strange to him, yet somehow made to look effortless by the teacher.
He’d hardly lifted his blade before Rufus was haranguing him about one thing or another. And even when he did manage to get it right, the next hundred things to think of were pointed out: the position of his opponent; the stance of his opponent; the length of his opponent’s blade, the length of his own. And this before he’d even begun to think about striking.
Soon enough, he’d given up on getting things perfect, instead attempting to wipe Rufus’s smirk from his face. In some ways, he’d brought the beating on himself.
‘Cheer up, lad,’ Rufus said. ‘Might never happen.’
‘What might?’ Jai muttered.
‘Just a sayin’,’ Rufus chuckled. ‘But you’ve a dark look on your face that says you needed tae hear it.’
Frida had eaten her meal while they were sparring and now sat upon the wagon’s footplate, cultivating. In this, Jai had at least some relief. His lesson with Rufus had been many things, but impressive was not one of them.
‘I’ll never learn to fight like you,’ Jai said. ‘I can’t hold everything in my head at once.’
Rufus shook his head ruefully.
‘You’re no slower a study than most, I’ll grant you. But I’ve seen dull-witted brutes fight better’n most too. Trainin’ with a blade ain’t learned from no book. It ain’t earned with smarts neither. It’s practice. Practisin’ so your body remembers. Not your mind. Soon it’ll feel like second nature. Like dancin’. Or fuckin’.’
Jai rubbed at a bruised shin.
‘My body won’t be forgetting that in a hurry.’
Rufus laughed.
A small, white snout nudged at Jai’s elbow, and he made room for Winter to leap onto his lap. She looked up at him with wide, blue eyes and lapped at one of his bruises.
‘Good girl,’ Jai said, scratching her beneath her chin. She purred at that, and burrowed deeper before exposing her belly for a rub. It was pink-tinged, like a puppy’s. Jai could not help but oblige her.
‘So, lad,’ Rufus said. ‘What’d you do to convince our resident noble to let you have that hatchlin’? Or even bond with it? Gryphon Guard’ve been tryin’ tae get hold of one for decades . . .’
Jai had no intention of sharing what he knew with the old Gryphon Guard, whether Titus knew the secret already or not. Rufus had his secrets. Jai would keep his own too.
‘She didn’t,’ Jai said. ‘I did it on my own. Just . . . happened.’
Rufus leaned closer, glancing at Frida. She pursed her lips, though her eyes remained closed.
‘Go on,’ Rufus urged.
‘One more word, Jai, and those taps from Rufus you’re nursing will feel like gentle kisses by the time I’m through with you.’
Frida’s voice cut off Jai’s chance to deny him, startling Winter with its loudness.
‘I wasn’t . . .’
‘One. More. Word,’ Frida snapped.
The girl remained cross-legged, with eyes closed. Even unable to meet her gaze, Jai sensed her fury.
‘Fine,’ Rufus muttered. ‘Keep your secrets.’
They sat silent, waiting for the tension to ease from the air. Jai fiddled with his sword, testing its edge. He pulled his thumb away. It was still sharp enough to cut.
‘Here,’ Rufus said. ‘Hand it over.’
Jai did so, and the grizzled warrior looked it over, flipping it one way and then the other, before testing it with a few swift jabs in the air.
‘You took this off Tullia, right?’ Rufus asked.
Jai nodded and held his hand out for the blade. Winter purred, and lapped his palm with a smooth, wet tongue.
‘’Tis a fine blade. Good balance. Looks like strong steel, probably a Damantine blend, forged local. Must’ve been her father’s afore she let their estate run to ruin on drink and expensive tastes.’
Jai looked unconvinced.
‘Here,’ Rufus said. ‘Watch.’
He cast about the clearing, scrabbling on hand and knee. Jai looked on, utterly confused. Soon enough, Rufus returned with a handful of pebbles.
‘Carin’ for your blade’s important. Now, a whytblade’ll keep better’n any steel, but you still gotta oil it; oil its scabbard too. I’ll loan you some o’ mine. But this one . . . needs sharpenin’.’
He held up a stone.
‘There’s better’n this out there, but it’ll have to do. Quartz ain’t a bad whetstone, as they go. See, you need a flat one. You take it and you . . .’
Rufus stuck his tongue between his teeth as he scraped it down the side of the blade. Rust fell away like stubble against a razor as Rufus dragged the stone along the full length of the sword.
‘See, you do this for half the night and you’ll have a sword that’ll lop the heads off a dandelion. ’Course, if you don’t keep sparrin’ with me, that’s all you’ll be cuttin’ with it. So, we train every lunchtime, till you’ve got the grasp o’ it. Deal?’
Jai let out a long breath, wincing at the ache from the bruising along his ribs.
‘Deal,’ he said.
He already knew he was going to regret it.
Chapter 66
A hand clamped over Jai’s mouth, silencing the yell that came unbidden. Rufus’s bearded face filled his vision, a finger pressed to his lips.
Jai raised his hands in supplication and he was slowly released. He sat up, heart hammering, dizzied by the sudden rush of adrenaline, and confused by a deluge of fear from Winter.
Frida was crouched beside him, peering out from the wagon, her head turned to the heavens.
Rufus leaned close, until his whiskers tickled Jai’s ear.
‘Gryphon Guard,’ he breathed. ‘Hunting. They . . .’
He paused, cocking his ear to the sky, his fingers dancing along his earlobe. Rufus’s eyes flashed white.
‘They seek a Dansk girl.’
Jai hardly dared breathe. Winter rustled in the straw and Jai urged her silent with a thought.
So . . . they had found Frida’s dragon. Seen where the soulgem had been cut from its chest, with a whytblade no less. They knew she was alive, and soulbound. On the run, with full knowledge of the coup at the palace.
Of course they were hunting her. How could they not be?
Rufus pulled Frida back from the entrance, practically hurling her into the back of the wagon. He let out a loud curse.
‘Move your lazy bones, boy,’ Rufus snapped. ‘We have guests.’
Jai stared, even as Rufus rustled in his bags, pulling forth a manacle. Before Jai could say a word, the big man had snapped it onto his wrist, then tapped Jai’s gorget. He nodded towards the doorway, before taking a bottle of liquor from his bags.
Frida furrowed her brow as he uncorked it, but rather than taking a swig, Rufus dashed most of it over Frida, and Winter too. Immediately, the acrid stench of booze filled the cart, and Rufus splashed liberally in his own beard for equal measure.
Jai hardly had time to pull off his father’s armour before he was yanked by the scruff of his shirt and shoved bodily into the open air.
Outside, a man crouched beside the embers of their campfire, and even in the thin light of the crescent moon, Jai could see his golden armour glinting.
Jai opened and closed his mouth, unsure of what to say. Behind the first man, a pair of gryphons prowled back and forth, their yellow, eagle eyes firmly fixed upon him. Each was as large as Navi, and the khiro whickered nervously from where she had been haltered beside their wagon.
