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“You could be just extremely adept at repeating scripts that your rider feeds you,” she said, looking between the two of us.
His lips curled back from his teeth, but he settled down on the ground, head resting on his paws. “Captain, I…” Keel said but she held up a hand.
“I have not given you permission to speak, Lieutenant. This place always ruins officers. Too many flirty students throwing offers of sexual favours is detrimental to discipline,” Keya said.
“Human/elves can’t fuck and follow orders? One might suggest that it is your kind that has the intelligence deficit,” Miazydar replied.
“Hmm, well, whoever I’m fencing wits with, I have neither the time or inclination to do so. This dragon will be coming under our jurisdiction, not the university’s, so any further overtures from the VC, you need to tell me or one of my people. You’ve obviously made a contact in Lieutenant Bowmere,” Keya said, nodding to Keel, “but any ADC personnel are authorised to bring you to me to discuss any further antics. I have an appointment in ten to inform Bhechro his little enrolment drive centrepiece is no longer his to play with, which promises to be as difficult.” Her eyes fixed on mine, steady and unrelenting. “I don’t enjoy playing politics, human girl, so don’t force me to. I promise; you won’t like the outcome.” Finally, she looked away. “The dragon is to be seen by the Corps veterinarian and the proscribed tests are to be carried out, without argument. The other dragons here can be used to ensure your compliance. Once he’s cleared for flight, you’ll work with Bowmere to ready yourself for the war games. The Queen’s not bending on that. Miazydar and his rider must prove themselves.”
“At a task we’ve never trained or prepared for,” I said.
“As you say. The government, Bhechro, want to take your dragon from you. You need to step up and become a rider for real, show them how the Corps responds to a threat. We strike without warning,” she said, her hand balling into a fist and striking her chest, the other soldiers repeating the gesture, “and fuck shit up. You would do well to do the same.”
We don’t have to do any of this, Miazydar said as Keel and the dragon doctor approached. I can teleport us anywhere we need to go on this damn continent.
Only the once though, I said. We’d never be able to come back. Societies are as much about who’s out of the club as in and right now, we pose a threat. We either find a way to compromise or they hunt us to the ends of the earth. I still don’t know how the hell they got through the portal.
Something to ask your pet magician. He cast a look over at Keel. The other one that you are less likely to mate with.
I’ll put in a call, shall I? I said with a smirk. Now, are you going to be a big, brave dragon and let the people take your samples?
He just bared his teeth, something that made the vet pause in his approach. Miazydar placed a claw right near the man and said, “Take your blood, then go. I wish to stretch my wings.”
The process wasn’t that quick, the vet steeling himself and examining Miazydar’s eyes, gums and teeth, nails and took his vitals. He seemed to think M was well and was surprised to hear about the possible keletha poisoning. He had to use his entire weight to palpate M’s stomach, trying to ascertain whether it was still inflamed, something that reduced Miazydar to giggles because apparently, it tickled. The vet took some notes on a device that looked like a small iPad but didn’t give too much away, saying he’d have further information when the tests came back. Then it was my turn. Apparently they didn’t trust the university staff and their blood tests, taking their own from me as part of their attempt to work out how something like me could also forge a psychic bond with a dragon, a feat no other humanoid had been able to do here.
“I can come by after lunch, help you out with your reading if you like,” Keel said as the others left.
“To tell you the truth, I’m most of the way through the pile,” I said. “I think I’ll be done by the end of the day.” Keel’s eyebrows shot up. I shrugged. “One of the positives about being a voracious reader is I can get through massive amounts of written material quickly.”
“Well, we better get onto your rider training,” he said.
“Yep, can we meet late tomorrow afternoon? Scalla wanted to take us on a picnic.”
“Oh, well, yes, of course. I’ll be by around five.”
He wanted to stay, demonstrate his suitability as a mate by helping you with a problem, Miazydar said with a chuckle.
That shit doesn’t really get my motor running, I said.
No, my little dragon, I don’t suppose it does.
23
The grass spread out before us like the most beautiful Turkish carpet. Wildflowers of every colour waved in the wind, the morning sunlight saturating the colours to a dizzying level of brightness. The field sloped downwards to where a natural spring tumbled over a fall of rocks, forming a crystal clear pool below.
“Wow,” I said, slipping off Miazydar’s back, “this place is just beautiful!”
We’d seen so little of Aravisia, it sucked that I was in a brand new country in a completely different parallel realm and all I was allowed to do was look at the four walls of the classroom or the cottage.
“I like to come out here on the weekends, get away from the politicking and bullshit of school,” Scalla said, taking the massive picnic basket Flea had just unfastened from my dragon’s back. It was lucky she’d packed so much, with Miazydar out of action, food was starting to get quite thin on the ground. “There’s a nice place to eat over here.”
She led us to a series of standing stones used to create a dolmen, a little like a stone lean-to, crafted with massive deep purple slabs. I looked closer at the rocks as we drew nearer. “Are these made from amethyst?”
Scalla nodded, spreading out a large blanket. “There’s a lot of it around here and the Brigintinians loved to build with it. This is one of the really early pieces. People come from all over to study it.” She saw my tense expression and smiled. “Not now though, but that’s what my colleagues are going to pose as. I figured it would give us a plausible cover.” I looked at Flea who shrugged and started helping himself to the basket. He was probably as sick of cheese sandwiches as I was.
I’ll keep watch, Miazydar said, coiling himself around the back of the stones.
“Where do you want the scraps?” Flea said, polishing off what looked like a chicken leg.
