The Broken Scale (The Dragon Riders of Arvain) (43 page)

             
I am glad they have becomes friends with Fendrel. He needs all the friends he can get right now,
Hayden told Draek. He wanted to talk to him for a second because once the event started he would be trying to concentrate again and that meant shutting out Draek.

             
We all need all the friends we can get, but yes I am glad to. The old man being happy means a lot to me.
Draek let his appreciation for Fendrel slip into Hayden’s mind. Hayden knew that Draek cared for the man, because if things had gone differently than Fendrel would be Draek’s rider.

             
Hayden smiled; when Draek was happy it was easy for him to be happy. He made his way to where the group was waiting. The man who had been making fun of him spoke for the first time since Hayden had won the first archery event.

             
“You’re not participating in this event too, are you?” he asked.

             
“I am,” Hayden responded. He still did not like the man and saw no reason to explain himself.

             
“That’s not fair; he has already won all the archery events. Judge, can’t you make him not compete?” he asked the judge that had just walked up to probably tell them the new rules for the first of many times.

             
“There is no rule saying a winner of a previous event has to leave another event.” The judge went on to tell them the rest of the rules, but Hayden quit listening. He had already put his hands on the knife handles and was just waiting to be told what to throw them at.

             
Finally the judge finished talking and told them were to go. This first event was going to be different. Instead of them all throwing at the same time they would each take turns with two knifes each and they would only count the better of the two throws.

             
The one who threw the worst would be disqualified and they would line up again, but each time they lined up the distance between them and the target grew by a few feet. They lined up and awaited their turns to throw.

             
The same man was still complaining until he went to throw, and on his second toss hit the third ring from the center, closer than anyone had hit so far. He quit complaining and started to try to make Hayden mad again.

             
Hayden waited his turn, and when he finally stood at the line to throw he had shut the world out and saw only the target. He took his knife out, he knew it was already balanced but he checked it again, and took aim.

             
He threw the knife and watched it go end over end until it sank into the center of the target. There was no need for him to throw a second knife so just walked off the line so the next person could throw.

             
As he walked off he heard the man who had just been making fun of him say something about there being no point in any of them competing if they were going to let a rider compete.

             
The knife throwing events looked a lot like the archery events. Hayden seemed to effortlessly win round after round until he had won all
of
the events.

The games were done for the day after the knife throwing, Hayden was excited to spend time with his friends
, but it seemed that that was going to have to wait. Hayden was thronged with people telling him how good of a job he did. He tried his best to find his friends, or any familiar face, but he couldn’t make out anyone in the crowd.

Enjoy yourself, your friends are already back with Fendrel and
they will meet you at his house,
Draek told him. Hayden was relieved and, despite his best efforts, began to enjoy himself. Hayden was in the center of the crowd when guards finally came and began to break everyone up.

Everyone left peacefully and there was no incident, which Hayden was relieved about. Once the crowd had thinned out enough he made his way through the people and started his long walk back to Celestial City.

___________________________

Hayden heard the laughter coming out of Fendrel’s house, his friends were all in there and having a good time. Hayden knocked on the door and it was Cass who answered it. She threw her arms around his shoulders and gave him a quick hug before letting him in.

“He is here
, guys; we were worried that some mob had carried you off to their tavern or something.” She gave him a half smile that let him know that she was kidding. She grabbed his hand and pulled him inside before he could answer.

I could really
get used to her being like this,
Hayden thought.

Draek replied back immediately.
Not this again.
Hayden did not know if he was joking or not, Draek did not give half smiles like other people Hayden knew. Hayden reassured him that they would not have a repeat of last night and that he could control his thoughts.

“Hayden, the great archer and knife thrower, we are honored to have you grace us with your presence this evening.” Fendrel stood up and made a mock bow as Cass and Hayden walked into the room.

“Why thank you, good sir,” Hayden replied and returned a bow to Fendrel.

From there their night was filled with laughter, food and drink. They listened to Fendrel tell more stories about the time he spent with the elves. They spoke of dreams after their dragons had grown to full size and Fendrel told them about all the corners of Arvain.

The sun had set long ago and the streets were dark and silent, the drunken fans had long since passed out in one gutter or another. Hayden and Shane sat up near the fireplace in Fendrel’s common room and just talked. Fendrel had fallen asleep in his chair and was snoring so loud that Hayden had suggested smothering him with his cape.

Cass had stretched out on the longest seat and
had fallen asleep some time ago. Hayden kept looking back at her and smiling; she was beautiful even while she was asleep. Draek had fallen asleep along with the other dragons.

“So are you going to compete in any more events?” Shane asked.

“Not until we do the rider ones; I would like to enjoy the rest of the games and watch them with you guys. What about you, are you doing any more?” Hayden got up and poked the dying fire, trying to get it to last a little longer.

“No
, I am good with my one win, plus Rilora and I have some work to do before we compete again.” They had not spoken about the day before and Hayden did not want to. He used the fire going out as an excuse to start to head back.

Hayden was trying to think of a way to wake Cass up without disturbing her too much. Before he could act Shane reached over and smacked her leg.

“Time to get up, we are leaving,” he said. Hayden smacked him on the arm and Shane just shrugged his shoulder mouthing ‘What?’.

Cass stretched and smiled with her eyes still half closed. She seemed to glide to the door and walked straight outside,
forgetting to close the door behind her. Hayden shook Fendrel up and told him they were leaving while Shane ran outside to make sure Cass didn’t wander off.

The three riders made their way back to the pyramid, it had been a long day and the walk seemed to take forever. By the time that they finally made it back Cass was awake enough to go to her room by herself. Hayden had hoped that they might get to be alone before she turned in for the night but he had no such luck.

__________________________________

The ground shook underneath their feet, the air around them thick with sweat
and the smell a thousand different kinds of food. Hayden and his friends were on their feet, screaming at the top of their lungs as their favorite rider shot pass them, completing another lap around the arena.

Today’s events were the most exciting
, short of the dragon’s events; it was the horse riding events. The events consisted of everything from horse races, jousting and obstacles to archery while on horseback and fighting from the saddle. The first events of the day were the races, and everyone was into them, even the people who had started off not interested. The excitement was like fire going from one dried piles of grass to another.

The horses came sprinting near the stands, their riders crouched over them smacking the horses, urging them to go faster. Hayden listened to the thunderous sound of their hooves smacking the ground and kicking up dirt as they propelled them forward.

The races ended and they brought out the jousters. They wore armor that was made of solid plates that had been stamped together. They weren’t beautiful to look at and the person wearing them had very limited movement. They were meant to protect the wearer from being run through with the tree trunk of a lance that their opponent was carrying.

“So you like the horse races?” Cass asked Hayden. She had watched as his face lit up when the horses had been near and how he had stood on the tips of his toes to see them when they were on the other side of the arena.

“Of course I do, that was amazing.” He turned to face his friends. “Have you guys ever seen something like this?” he asked.

“Actually we have, they
have horse races every year right before winter comes,” Shane answered.

Hayden lowered his eyes, reminded again that he was an outsider from a small village. Cass saw the look and tried to
cheer him up.

“Well what did they do b
efore winter in your village?” she asked. Fendrel tried to reach out and get her attention before she could ask but he was to slow. Fendrel had spent a lot of time in small villages like Erskine. He had been in that particular town for almost an entire summer one year.

“If we were lucky
, and had had a good harvest, the whole town would get together and help store the food and try to help insulate some of the less fortunate people’s houses. That way the poorer people didn’t freeze to death.”

Cass had no way to recover from Hayden’s response; luckily the next event started and their conversation got drowned out by the cheers around them. Cass looked around trying to see if anyone could help her
, but Fendrel just shook his head and Shane turned away from them.

The jousters clashed and sent splinters into the air; the crowd went crazy as one man was toppled off his horse.

___________________________

Hayden sat on the back of Draek as they flew just over the clouds. The sun had set
, and at this height the stars looked like he might have to duck down to avoid them. They had been flying just to fly, alone with no one to bother them.

Hayden looked out at Draek’s wings and watched as he would glide for a while then flap them and glide some more. He could the see the stars reflected off Draek’s wings
, so it looked like there was nothing but sky above and below them.

Hayden hadn’t gone to Fendrel’s with the others, he had excused himself during the jousting and had met up with Draek and had been flying ever since. No other dragons were near them, most had gone to sleep and the ones that were patrolling around were flying much lower than Draek.

Do you think it will always be like this?
Draek asked.

Like what?

No worries, no fear
, just peace and quiet.

Hayden thought about it and could not think of an answer. He was afraid, even high above his worries he was afraid of what was
going on around him. And peace; it seemed that were ever he turned he saw more and more proof of the crusade that Elizabeth was planning.

A war that would engulf everything was just about to happen
, and it seemed that there was nothing Hayden could do to stop it. Draek felt his worries and doubts in his mind and, not able to think of anything to would make it better, folded in his wings and plummeted down.

Hayden yelled at the sudden change from smooth flying to free falling. Draek roared his delight and opened up his wings to soar back into the air. He went to pull the steep dive into a backwards flip but pain shot through his shoulders.

Hayden stopped screaming out of fear and started screaming out of enjoyment. He knew that Draek would never let anything happen to him and he knew the saddle wouldn’t let him fall off. Hayden felt Draek shudder underneath him as he pulled out of the dive. Draek tried to hide his pain but Hayden knew immediately what was wrong.

We need to be careful with your shoulder, our events together start tomorrow.
Hayden knew that he didn’t have to remind Draek to be careful or about their events coming up. Draek knew very well what was going on but Hayden couldn’t help but worry.

They continued to fly around into the night, neither of them needing sleep. They let their minds meld together and Draek felt Hayden’s thoughts move from one thing to another. Like a small fish in the water darting around and never spending more than a second at each point.

Draek’s thoughts were slower to change course; once he was on something he stayed there till he saw it through to the end. At one point during the night they watched a dragon and his rider that were supposed to be patrolling land in a clearing in the woods were no one would see them.