Sky Riders: The Rising Sun

“But who could it be?” Caedis asked, his voice tense and anxious. “Who could Nocens have gotten for a Rider?”

Caelum and Eliana exchanged a look. Then she sighed and looked back at the human. “We know of one possibility. An elf name Ater. I entered his mind once, during a training exercise, and I saw the emperor’s sorcerer in his memory. Ater went missing in battle a short time later.”

“I remember him,” Ivi said shortly. “I remember his parents—the betrayers. You believe he joined the emperor to avenge them?”

Eliana shrugged and shook her head. “I don’t know. When I was in his mind I sensed pain and fear associated with the memory of Peior, not allegiance. But we can’t deny that it is a possibility he joined them.”

“The more important question we need to ask,” Caelum inserted, “is how he got his hands on a dragon’s egg.”

“Especially one that would bind to the Rider he wanted, be it Ater or another,” Oriens interjected, projecting his voice to all of their minds.

Eight of them sat in a circle on the stone floor of the Rider’s quarters—Denio, Kana, Ivi, Caelum, Caedis, Teleas, Eliana, and Oriens. These were the few she had told about the black dragon and her Rider.

“None of this really matters,” Teleas said, shaking his head. “What we should be focusing on is how we’re going to deal with this.” He looked at Eliana. “Do you know anything about fighting another Rider?”

She swallowed and shook her head. “Nothing.”

“If it comes to that,” Oriens added, “I have no concerns. The other dragon is younger than I, so she is smaller and weaker. You needn’t concern yourselves with our ability to defeat the other Rider.”

Eliana silently wished she had all of Oriens’ confidence in their abilities.

Denio spoke, looking at Teleas. “I have complete faith in Eliana and Oriens. Why don’t you?”

Teleas looked offended. “Well, I… I didn’t mean to suggest that… Of course I have faith in them! I was just merely concerned with whether or not they had any knowledge on the matter.”

“Of course they don’t,” an annoyed Caelum snapped. “How could they, when they’ve never encountered another Rider before, nor ever even expected to?”

“Watch your tone, elf,” Caedis hissed.

Kana piped up for the first time, surprising them all and distracting from the tension in the room. “Should we tell everyone?”

The group glanced at one another, considering the question.

Caedis spoke first. “Of course we should. The people have a right to know.”

“Whether or not they have the right to know isn’t the issue,” Caelum retorted. “This is about what’s best. And it is best not to tell them. All it will do is cause a panic. Then every human will be fleeing, leaving our troops with half the men and a doomed battle to fight.”

“What makes you think only humans will run?” Caedis snapped. “You think we’re bigger cowards than your kind?”

“Do I have to answer that question?” Caelum sneered.

Caedis and Teleas both moved as if to lunge at the blonde elf that sat beside Eliana. “Will you stop it?” the Rider shouted. She flicked her wrist towards the two men across the circle from where she sat. The earth shifted slightly beneath them so that they fell to their knees.

She turned her eyes on Caelum, seething. “Why are you acting this way?” she silently scolded. “I know perfectly well that you don’t believe humans to be any less than elves, so why are you acting like you do?”

He met her gaze and gave a dismissive shrug. “I don’t like him.”

She rolled her eyes and groaned in frustration, drawing the curious eyes of the other five people around them.

Oriens—the only one privy to their silent conversation—snorted and shook his head. “So you’re willing to cause a division between us, just to upset Caedis? That is the most foolish and selfish thing you could do, Caelum!”

The elf turned away and gazed at the stone floor, looking shame-faced after the dragon’s rebuke. Eliana looked back at the others, who were watching her carefully.

“We are going to lose,” she said flatly. They looked startled by her blunt, matter-of-fact tone. She continued, “If we can’t even trust each other, Nocens’ armies will tear us to shreds.” She met Caedis’ eye with a stern gaze. “I don’t care about your petty differences. I don’t care if you hate each other. If you’re going to kill each other, do it after the war—if someone else doesn’t beat you to it.

“But right now, there are thousands of men, women, and children just outside this cave that are depending on us. We cannot let them to suffer simply because we can’t get along. If we allow ourselves to be divided, they will all die.”

There was silence in the cave as seven pairs of eyes watched her carefully, taking in her words. At last, Ivi spoke, shattering the quiet like ice on a frozen pond.

“I may no longer rule the elves,” she said quietly, “but I still have their best interests in mind. And right now, my people’s best interests are intertwined with your people’s best interests. We must protect them from this new threat. And the best way to protect them from it is to keep it from them, at least for the time being. Wait to tell them about the Dark Rider until it is absolutely necessary.”

The eyes of Eliana, Oriens, and the elven royal family turned to Teleas and Caedis, who were looking at each other, brown eyes locked to green, considering. At last, Teleas turned to the rest of the group.

“Agreed,” he said gruffly.

“Caedis?” Eliana prodded.

The young man’s eyes stayed glued to the stone floor. “Fine,” he grumbled.

She nodded. “We’re agreed then. We will not tell the others about the Rider.”

“What about the villagers from my group?” Caedis asked, looking up. “They know that dragon attacked us. They know that it looked like it was working for someone.”

Eliana sighed. “We can’t stop them from telling the others their story without raising their suspicions. Allow them to speculate. But for now, no one outside this room will know for certain that there is another Rider out there.”

There were answering nods from around the circle, then five of them rose and exited down the long tunnel of the cave. Only Oriens, Eliana, and Caelum remained. The Rider groaned and lay back on the hard stone. Caelum shifted closer to her and gazed down at her face.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

“For what?” She knew perfectly well what he was sorry for, but she wanted to make him say it.

“For the way I behaved towards Caedis.”

Eliana ran a gloved hand over her face, irritated. “You promised me you would stop goading him, Caelum.”

“I know,” he sighed, “but it’s difficult. Knowing the pain he caused you for so long makes me hate him. In fact, I hate almost everyone from Vegrandis based on principle alone, but Caedis… You always said he was the worst, and I hate that he was never punished for the things he did to you.”

She looked down at his hands and saw that they were clenched into white-knuckled fists against the dark stone floor. She reached out and took the one nearest her, gently loosening the tight fist until it lay open and relaxed. She pressed his open palm to her cheek and turned her face to look up at him.

“Thank you,” she said with a soft smile.

“For what?” he asked with a confused chuckle.

“For caring enough about me to risk disintegrating our entire army,” she answered, laughing softly.

He laughed as well and brushed the back of his knuckles against her cheek. “We should go,” he said softly. “There’s much to do if we’re going to be prepared for the arrival of Nocens’ armies.”

He pulled her up from the floor, and the two of them proceeded down the tunnel, out to the village. Oriens flew out of the upper entrance, promising to meet them at the training fields after a short hunt. Caelum and Eliana walked slowly through Amiscan, surveying the activity around them.

Both humans and elves now darted down the streets between the huts. All of the huts now had human residents, except for one on the edge of the village, where Ispera and Laurus lived and Healed any of the sick or injured.

The rest of the elves—including Caelum and the royal family—had moved into the nearby forest, where they fashioned homes out of the trees.

They at last exited the village and came to the training fields. They were more crowded than they had been the last time Eliana had been in Amiscan, but that was as expected. The population of the little military outpost had increased four-fold.

Now, both humans and elves crowded the grassy expanse. Bows twanged, sending arrows flying at padded targets. Sorcerers and elves practiced their different kinds of magic. Both races battled hand to hand—armed and unarmed. Swords, shields, spears, and fists collided with a great amount of noise.

Eliana was pleased to see that many of the sparring groups contained a mix of both races. Humans and elves practiced together and coached one another, as if they had always been a part of the same army.

Caelum and Eliana found a small amount of space to the side of the training crowds. “Well, what are we practicing?” she asked, resting her hand on her sword’s hilt at her hip.

The elf shrugged. “You’re more than adept at the bow, and your magic is decent and improving rapidly, so there’s no need to practice that at the moment. So, that leaves either swordsmanship or unarmed combat.”

She chuckled and shook her head. “I’d rather not have you throwing punches at me today. Let’s try swords.”

He feigned disappointment. “What a pity. Ah, well, another day then. For now…” He finished his sentence by unsheathing his sword and taking a fighting stance.

Eliana smiled and mimicked him. She knew that any time she fought Caelum, she was guaranteed to lose. He’d been trained in battle since birth, and her human half would never allow her the agility and strength of a full-blooded elf. Still, she always enjoyed the struggle.

They started out slowly. Caelum took a small step forward, flicking his sword towards her shoulder. Her golden blade met his silver one with a satisfying sound and pushed it away. She copied his movements, and he blocked her sword just as easily.

He advanced with more force now, smiling as he tested her defenses with a series of complicated movements. She read him easily and managed to sidestep each of his attacks with little effort.

“You’re improving,” he said with a grin. “You might actually make this interesting for me.”

She laughed. “I’ll do my best not to bore you.”

Though she knew his words had been nothing more than a jest, they still spurred her to fight harder. She attacked now, thrusting at each opening she saw, spinning out of reach of his blade every time he tried to take the offensive from her.

She forced him to continue defending as she battered him with an endless series of attacks. Caelum laughed again, staggering backwards as her sword forced his down towards the ground. “When did you get so good at this?” he asked.

She smiled coyly at him and answered, “I had a good teacher.”

He stepped quickly around her, making an advance of his own. “Don’t forget though,” he said, “that I may not have taught you all of my tricks.”

With incredible speed, he thrust towards her midsection. She barely managed to turn her blade down quickly enough to block it. With a sudden flick of his wrist, Caelum wedged the point of his sword under Eliana’s hilt. With a twist, he jerked it from her hand. The golden blade flew through the air and landed perfectly in Caelum’s hand.

He raised both swords up to her chest and smirked.

Eliana stared at him, and gave a short laugh of surprise. “How did you do that?” she panted.

The elf lowered the swords and gave a low, sweeping bow as he answered, “Practice.”

He straightened and flipped her sword around, handing it to her hilt first. Eliana took it and shook her head as they both sheathed their blades.

“I am never going to beat you, am I,” she said.

He chuckled. “Probably not.”

“Thank you for the encouragement,” she replied, rolling her eyes at the sky.

“But,” he added, raising one finger, “you will probably beat just about anybody else.”

Eliana’s response was interrupted before it even formed on her lips. “Prince Caelum! Captain!” an angry voice shouted.

They both turned towards the source of the noise. A tall, muscular, fair elf was storming across the crowded field, creating a wide path between the training soldiers. Caelum moaned when he saw him.

“Who’s that?” Eliana asked.

Before he could answer, the elf had reached them, eyes narrowed in anger. “Where’s my sister?” he snapped, leaning close to Caelum. He was a few inches taller than the elven prince, and much more thickly built.

Eliana raised her eyebrows in surprise. She’d never heard an elf speak to Caelum like that before. Most of them kowtowed to him, despite his insistence that they don’t.

Caelum frowned but refused to move, despite the few inches that separated him from the other, fuming elf. “Barus.” He spoke quietly, but the words dripped with poorly suppressed disdain. “You would do well to remember who you are addressing.”

Barus took a step backwards so that he was no longer uncomfortably close to Caelum. “My apologies, sir.” He sounded anything but apologetic.

Caelum nodded sharply, though it was apparent he’d noticed the insolent tone as well. “Now, what do you want that is so urgent that you must speak so rudely to your commanding officer?”

“My sister,” Barus repeated. “Where is she? The last I knew, she was here, in Amiscan, training with you. I arrive with the rest of the elves from Iterum and learn she’s been banished! Where did she go?”

Caelum shrugged calmly. “I don’t know. I told her she could return to Iterum, but evidently she decided not to.”

“And why was she banished?”

“Raena attempted to kill Rider Eliana.”

“That’s a lie!” Raena’s brother shouted angrily. “She would never do such a thing!”

The elven captain’s brow furrowed angrily. “Barus, do not interrupt me. There were several who witnessed it and attested to the truth of the story. If you do not believe me, ask them. Or,” he looked at the Rider who stood beside him, “perhaps you would like to tell him, Eliana.”

Barus turned his eyes on her; they were a deep blue and simmered with anger. She met his gaze calmly. “It’s true,” she said simply. “Raena and I were sparring. She became angry. Things got out of hand. She used her magic, and she tried to kill me.”

Barus shook his head stubbornly, but he turned and stormed away without another word. Caelum sighed and shook his head. “I swear, that entire family was put on this earth to make my life as miserable as possible,” he muttered.

Eliana stared after Barus’ broad, retreating back. “So, I guess that confirms it. Raena never did go back to Iterum,” she said quietly.

“I suppose so.”

Eliana sensed Oriens’ presence drawing near, and she looked up. The dragon glided low over the tops of the trees, his vast wingspan reaching out over their branches. The air whispered over the membrane as he backpedaled once and landed softly on the grass. Immediately, all eyes were on them.

“You know, you have a way of attracting attention,” she said with a shake of her head.

He winked one large eye at her. “I like it,” he teased.

“I have an idea,” Caelum said, interrupting their silent conversation. “Oriens, you must have some ingrained knowledge about fighting other dragons.”

He nodded his golden head once. “A little, yes. I suppose knowing how to not get your heart ripped out by another dragon comes along with the survival instinct.”

Eliana gave Oriens a dirty look. Caelum either did not sense the dragon’s sarcasm or had chosen to ignore it, because he turned to the Rider. “You and Oriens should practice some aerial maneuvers. It may not be much, but he may be able to help you be a bit more prepared in case you do come up against that Dark Rider.”

She looked at Oriens. “What do you think?” she asked out loud. “Will it help?”

He shrugged his massive shoulders. “I suppose. But we need my saddle.”

Caelum glanced around quickly and found a young elven soldier nearby, who was firing arrows at a distant target. He called him over and ordered, “Go to the Rider’s quarters and retrieve her dragon saddle. And be swift about it!”

The boy saluted and sprinted away. Eliana shook her head, chuckling quietly to herself. “I still find it strange when you do that,” she said.

Caelum looked at her curiously. “Do what?”

She gestured in the direction the boy had gone. “Order people to do things. They salute you and bow to you, call you ‘Prince’ and ‘Captain.’ It’s just strange, because you’re so different with me. You’re just Caelum.”

He smiled and ran a finger down the bare skin of her left forearm, away from the thousands of eyes that were on them. “And I’d like to keep it that way,” he whispered.

The young soldier reappeared, the black saddle cradled carefully in his arms, causing him to stumble awkwardly through the milling crowd of soldiers who still watched Oriens with wide eyes. He extended the saddle towards her, breathing heavily.

“Thank you,” she said, taking it from him.

He bowed deeply. “My pleasure, Veholum,” he answered quietly. Then he trotted back to where he had hastily dropped his bow and quiver.

Now Caelum chuckled. “I still find it strange when people do that to you. I expect it, but it still somehow catches me off guard—Eliana, the mighty Sky Rider.”

She rolled her eyes at him as she vaulted nimbly over Oriens’ back, swinging a strap around and under his broad neck. He was soon saddled, and she swung up onto his back, securing her legs.

Caelum patted her boot from where he stood on the ground. “Be safe, both of you. And good luck.”

She nodded, then signaled to Oriens that she was ready. He leapt into the sky, snapping his wings open and pulling them upwards. His flight drew a cheer from the watching humans and elves, and she sensed his satisfaction at their admiration. She decided not to remark on it. Once they were at a decent height, Oriens turned towards the ocean.

“We can practice over the water,” he said. “Then if something happens, you at least won’t be hitting the hard earth.”

“Do you plan on dropping me?” she asked with a smirk.

She heard him laugh in his throat as they soared out over the rolling waters. The sea was a beautiful green-tinted blue in the sunlight, clear and bright.

“So what’s first?” Eliana asked.

“The important thing you have to remember is that, in a battle with another dragon, I will often have to react on instinct. I will hardly have time to think about what I am going to do before I must do it. So you must always be—“ He suddenly rolled in the air, causing her to throw herself forward on his neck and cling to his neck spikes. “—prepared,” he finished, as they leveled out.

“That wasn’t funny!” she snapped.

“You stayed on though,” Oriens pointed out with a chuckle. “That’s the important thing. Did you have any sense of what I was going to do before I did it?”

“Briefly,” she answered. “Not soon enough for me to prepare myself.”

“That’s good,” he said with a short nod. “It means you are in tune with my instincts. As our bond becomes stronger, my instincts will become your own, and we will be able to fight as one.”

“But how can I fight from your back?” she asked. “It seems like I’ll hardly be more than a nuisance if you have to face another dragon.”

“Magic and arrows will be easiest, obviously. But if it comes to fighting the Dark Rider, and you must use your sword, it will be very difficult. I cannot fly close enough past another dragon for you to reach the Rider with your blade. You will only be able to use it when I meet the other dragon, tooth and claw.”

She grimaced slightly at the idea of being on Oriens’ back as he grappled with another beast in the sky. “Will I even be able to stay on when that happens, let alone wield a sword?”

“Let’s see,” he answered.

The golden wings braked suddenly, jerking them backwards and throwing Eliana forward in the saddle. He tumbled, fell and rose, twisting through the sky. He flew at full speed towards the cliff, colliding with it and sinking his claws into the stone. Eliana felt the impact all the way to her teeth. He shoved off the cliff and hovered over the water again.

“We’ll need to work on that. You were struggling just to hold on,” he said. “Now, for more complicated maneuvers.”

“More complicated?” she asked in disbelief, still trying to loosen her clenched jaw.

Oriens rose higher above the sea. “Yes. If I am pursued by another dragon, or even that Dark sorcerer again, I may be forced to out fly him. Though I’m certain I will be faster than the black dragon, if I’m not, I will have to out maneuver her. Now, hold tight.”

Eliana quickly cinched the extra straps around her wrists. The wings beside her suddenly snapped back to the dragons’ scaly sides and they plummeted like a stone towards the water. The wind whipped back her untied hair and stung at her eyes as they gained speed, racing nose first towards the blue waters.

She was familiar with this particular maneuver and, as she’d expected, the wings opened at the last possible moment, carrying them level with the water’s surface for a few moments before he pulled them upwards again. He banked hard left, then right, then suddenly upwards again, perpendicular to the earth, his snout aimed straight at the sky.

He carried her through a series of stomach-twisting corkscrews, loops, and barrel rolls until Eliana could no longer tell which blue was the sky, and which was the ocean. Finally, she tapped on Oriens’ neck. He leveled out, allowing her to reorient herself.

“Better?” he asked after a moment.

“Yes, but I think that’s enough for today. Maybe tomorrow my heart will be out of my throat and back in my chest again. We can try again then.”

He laughed. “Very well, my little one.”

They turned back towards the cliff and Amiscan. Oriens flew straight up the mountainside and down the opening to their quarters below. Eliana dismounted, relishing the feeling of solid, unmoving earth beneath her feet.

Oriens sensed her relief. “Oh, come now, Eliana. It wasn’t that bad.”

She gave him the most withering look she could muster. “Easy for you to say! You were the one driving that whirlwind!”