Page 90 of Monsters of Air

I had never been in a city before, I thought I had when I was in Xrotte. But this… this was so much more.

Everything was alive, the endless jigsaw of streets filled with people, the business full, the streets clogged with more carriages than I had ever seen. This was not like Xrotte, though. The moment people realized they had dragons and riders walking through, they parted, opening a path to the center. They stopped to stare, to bow, to throw flowers before us. This wasn’t the reception my Da had led me to believe I would get. This was more. Beautiful. But, it was how we had done funerals back at home, and I found my chest tightening.

Philit and Landers stood on either side of me, Zilon walking behind me as though the three of them put me into their protective bubble. I would have fought against it, but between the people and the city I kind of felt like I needed a shield. It was all too much, and I didn’t know where to look. There were too many buildings, too many people. Too many beautiful things that pulled my focus.

“Welcome to the Castle of Aire,” Tanja said as we turned a corner to more cheers. She grinned back at us before motioning to the massive brown and white castle at the end of the road.

I had never seen a building so tall. Hell, I didn’t even know they could make buildings that tall. It stretched as high as the mountain, with floor upon floor of windows, and balconies, and gargoyles. Tall spires twisted around each other, looking like the base of a dragon cock as they stretched to the sky. The similarity couldn’t be a coincidence.

Guards lined either side of the marble stairs, each one a dragon with wings stretched behind them, and a sword at their hip.

Weapons.

Dragons with weapons.

If I had to guess, they couldn’t breathe fire. They were riderless as they stood there, looking at the riders and dragons with as much reverence as the people in the city had. There were so many of them, lines that stretched up the stairs and over the bridge to a cobblestoned pathway where carriages were parked.

Philit had talked about a rider shortage, but this… there were so many. My heart clenched, the same type of loss I felt and seeing the dragon’s bones rattling against my rib cage.

“Rayna,” Landers whispered, his hand flattening against my back. I exhaled, forcing the feeling away as I pulled my focus from the dragons.

A massive fountain sat in the midst of the carriages, directly before the entrance to the main building. It was of a dragon, laying on its stomach, a rider by his side, petting his head. Water circled the stone statue, spewing from the mouths of smaller dragons that were carved into the edge of the base.

“The fountain is based on the first dragon and rider pair,” Tanja said, noticing what held my attention. “The little dragons represent us, the offspring. Each dragon also has a rider, you’ll notice them more when we get closer.

She was right. Once we got close enough, I could see the riders all hugging the dragons backs, all locked into place. The carving was intricate. Perfect. You could see every inch of their connection.

The fountain gurgled and tinkled with a sound that was almost musical. Mesmerizing. It rang in my ears as though it was calling to me, pulling me closer. Zilon and Philit had to help me up the stairs before I tripped over myself.

Which was good, because tripping my way into the main hall would have ended in an embarrassing stumble, and me face first in the marble floor before at least twenty dragons. Which probably would have been nothing after mooning Tanja.

The dragons turned as we entered, all of their faces disinterested until they saw us. Three dragons, and one rider with pants ripped so much that I might as well not be wearing them at all. I could only imagine how we looked after travelling for weeks through a mountain, but judging by their sneers it wasn’t good. They all milled around, clearly waiting for an audience, all of them moving before us as they staked their place in line.

Tanja just charged ahead, leading us over the marble floor and past the stained glass windows toward a pair of double doors at the end. The closer we got to the doors the more dirty looks we got.

“Don’t be scared of the king. He’s just an old man who’s cranky because he never found his rider.” Tanja laughed as we reached a set of double doors, the sound bouncing off the marble floors. Her dragon gave another harsh grunt, steam hissing past his teeth.

“He never found his rider and he became king?” I blinked at her, I had heard that before, but now after feeling the connection and seeing all those riderless dragons I was even more confused. “I thought dragon’s weren’t powerful unless they had a rider?”

“Unless they are cranky old coots who have been around longer than anyone else,” Tanja laughed.

“Seriously, Tanja, I won’t be surprised if he chops off your head one day.” Captain Corniz gave her a look, she just ignored him and pushed her way closer to the doors.

“He won’t. Shall we greet my lovely uncle now. He must miss me by now.”

“Doubt that,” Captain Corniz said. But he looked his arm through Tanja and as soon as the doors opened, they walked through like they were royalty.

I guess if she was his niece, they were. We stumbled behind in our travel worn clothes. Landers at least made half an effort to look like he belonged, but that was probably because he had been in situations like this before. The rest of us just stared around the ornate hall with our mouths hanging open, even Philit who was all about the proper order of things couldn’t quite contain himself. Everything here had to be made of gold. Gold and diamonds and everything else precious and expensive.

My chest tightened. There were months my family went with minimal food, and he lived like this.

I bit my tongue and forced myself to focus forward, too scared I’d make a fool of myself if I looked around and accidentally tripped over nothing.

A man with a booming voice made me jump as he called out, “Presenting His Majesty, the King, Teodar Laskis the Third. Your majesty, we bring Dragon Captain Duran Corniz, his rider, Tanja Corniz and their company.”

Dragons lined the sides of the huge black rug we walked down, none of them saying anything as they watched us pass them. They were all staring at us, I meanwhile could look nowhere but ahead.

An ancient man sat on a massive gold and red throne, gold and white robes draped over what looked like a powerful frame. He was an older man, easily triple my age and with enough gray hair to prove it. His wings were easily the largest I've seen, the inky black span of them impressive even with the aged and gray scales. A trimmed beard covered his face, only making it harder to get an idea of what he was thinking. I could only see his eyes, dark eyes stared at us blankly as we approached.

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