The Broken Scale (The Dragon Riders of Arvain) (47 page)

             
Close to a hundred screaming people had ran back to the arena when the horn had blown. Some were yelling about how they felt about the new plan, some good and some bad, others were yelling just to yell. Some did it just to ease their nerves.

             
“Do you think it worked?” Shane asked. Hayden had been wondering how long it was going to take for him to ask, and it took a little longer than he had thought it would.

             
Before Hayden could answer a horn sounded off at the arena, its sound resonating off the trees. Hayden put his helmet on and tightened the leather strap that kept it in place. He had his shield on his arm, but his sword was in the sheath on his back. He figured there wouldn’t be much use for it while flying through the air.

             
Hayden and Draek took off, leaving a cloud of dirt behind them. Rilora and Shane were right behind him; Rilora was more excited about the event than any of them.

             
Hayden started taking in deep breaths as they neared the arena. The trees started to thin out and he could make out the stands. The paths that were beneath him were worn out from the recent marching of the mock army that was his team.

             
Hayden came into full view of the arena and his team.

             
When Hayden had asked them what they had been taught to do in a battle situation like this they told him
that normally the two armies would line up and march towards each other. As the distance between them shortened they would go from marching to running until they were at a full sprint and they clashed into each other.

             
Then it became a one on one melee as everyone swung wildly at each other until one army started to overtake the other, then the losing side would try to run away. Hayden thought that they were playing a joke on him as they described their battle tactics to him. 

             
Hayden had guessed that the strongest and most glory driven fighters would be in the center, because the ones on his team demanded to be there. They also told him that sometimes the ones in the middle could get in front of the others and make a giant arrow head shape, much like the shape dragons made while they were flying in groups, and try to push through the center of the other army and try to split them up.

             
Hayden knew that they would be trying to do that to them. If they could run right through them it would humiliate their army.

             
Hayden’s plan was to let them through.

             
At first everyone was against his plan until he drew it out on the ground in front of them.

             
“They will rush the center and try to blow right past everyone, so we let them do that. They won’t be expecting too much resistance so when no one fights back they won’t suspect anything.” Everyone still looked suspicious as he gave them more details.

             
“Then, just before they break through the other sides of our lines, we stop them in their tracks; we will put the strongest ones in the back to make sure of that. Then everyone else turns and hits them from the sides, that way instead of them splitting you all in half they will be surrounded and they will have to fight from both sides.”

             
Understanding started to creep onto everyone’s, face but there were still a lot of questions about the plan.

             
“How do we know that we can stop them, and for that matter if we do stop them how is surrounding them going to help if they are better than us?”

             
“You will have to stop them no matter what; they will have made it a good ways through with no one even trying to fight them so they will be expecting the last line to fall apart like the others. When they don’t do that it will catch them off guard. The key to making this work is to stop their momentum; once they get going it will be hard, but if you can slow them down you can win it.”

             
They had finally agreed to his plan and they started to work on making sure everyone knew their part and they tried to get as coordinated as they could in the short time that they had left. When the horn sounded they had a pretty good idea of what they were going to do.

             
Now, as Hayden and Draek came closer to the arena, they could make out the sounds of a battle. Hayden tried his best to make out who was who but from the distance that they were at it was impossible.

              The one thing he could clearly see was that the other army had done just what they had thought they were going to do. They had made it almost all the way through their army before they had been stopped.

             
There was no clear winner yet and the fight was far from over, but they had their opponents surrounded and that was a good sign.

             
Hayden looked up and left the ground troops to finish on their own, it looked like there were flags on either side of the arena and they could be lowered. Hayden guessed that the goal was to beat the opposing army and lower their flag.

             
Hayden saw two giant bowls set high in the air on top of what looked like whole tree trunks. The bowls were full of logs and oil. They flew over the one closest to them when they saw the other riders come over their own bowl.

             
Hayden heard their dragons roar their challenges and their opponents respond in kind. They had flown high as they entered the arena, slightly higher than their opponents.

             
Sebastian and Giles flew at the same pace that Hayden and Shane were flying. No one sped up or slowed down as they got near each other. They were close enough for Hayden to see Sebastian’s face under his helmet when it happened.

             
Both Sullivan and Kurok tried to roll upside down so that they flew over Draek and Rilora’s back. Hayden had expected them to turn away at the last second and give chase to one another but when their dragons went upside he saw their mouths open up.

             
DIVE NOW!!
He screamed as fire came racing out of Sullivan’s mouth towards him. Draek brought in both of his wings and dropped as Hayden held his shield up over his head to protect himself from the flames.

             
Draek started to drop out of the sky but Sullivan and Sebastian followed. Hayden lost sight of Shane and Rilora in the smoke as they fell to the ground. Draek pulled out of his dive just before he hit the ground, hoping that his pursuers would not be so lucky.

             
His hope ended as they pulled out just as easily as Draek had. Sullivan kept trying to catch up and bite at Draek’s tail. Draek shot over the fighting armies and went straight for their opponents bowl.

             
Giles and Kurok flew down in front of them, being chased by Rilora and Shane. It quickly got confusing in the air as scales and fire went everywhere.

             
As Draek pulled out of the dive and flew just a few feet over the ground, Hayden noticed a shadow cast over them. He looked up and saw the outline of Sullivan as he came crashing down on top of them.

             
There was no time to warn Draek or to do anything to stop them. Draek knew they were there so he folded his wings and got ready for the crash landing that was about to happen.

             
Sullivan slammed into Draek’s lower back, just under his wings. Draek roared in frustration as they crashed into the ground; sending dirt and grass flying in every direction as they skidded to a halt. The ground troops barely ran out of the way of the dragons but quickly went back to fighting once they passed.

             
Hayden got out of his saddle as fast as he could and went to check on Draek. There was dirt covering most of his scales, but he reassured Hayden that he was fine. Hayden turned to make sure Sebastian was doing the same thing, but instead he found him standing with his sword drawn, glaring at him.

             
“Is Sullivan ok?” Hayden asked. The game was over for them, they had both been grounded.

             
“Sullivan, fly,” Sebastian ordered. Sullivan struggled to get up and Hayden knew that the crash had hurt him. Draek had been flying low to the ground, but Sullivan had dove out of the sky at full speed. Sullivan got into the air and was barely able to fly off to where Rilora and Kurok were still locked in aerial combat.

             
“It’s over, Sebastian, let it be,” Hayden tried to reason with him. Draek stretched out his wings and jumped in the air. He did not want to have to hurt, Sullivan but more importantly he did not want Sullivan hurting Rilora.

             
Sebastian’s answer was a battle cry as he sprinted at Hayden. Hayden did not want to fight, but that did not mean he would not fight. Sebastian closed in the distance between them as Hayden drew his own sword.

             
Their blades clashed together in the small amount of distance between them. Sparks flew from their collision as they began to dance around each other, each one keeping their shield up under their eyes.

             
Hayden stopped trying to talk sense into
Sebastian and just focused on not getting hurt. He saw judges running up behind Sebastian and hopped that they would make it in time to stop them.

             
Sebastian grew desperate, he was just trying to hurt Hayden, and his moves became sloppy. Hayden disarmed him and kicked his feet out from underneath him, sending him sprawling to the floor.

             
“I said let it be,” Hayden repeated. He saw the judges getting closer so he looked up to see how the battle in the sky was going. Draek was chasing Sullivan, who had his head turned around so he could see Draek while Rilora was now being chased by Kurok.

             
Hayden watched as the two dragons flew straight at each other, Sullivan not paying attention and Rilora trying to outrun Kurok. Rilora roared and startled Sullivan so that he turned just in time to see Rilora do a sideways dive out of the way of having a head on collision in mid air. Kurok was not so lucky.

             
The sound of two dragons smashing together in mid air was something that Hayden did not want to have to hear for a long time. Sullivan was already hurt from their crash landing, but as the two dragons tried to slow down and smashed into each other’s shoulders, Hayden knew it was going to be a while before either of them flew.

             
Hayden watched as the two silver dragons plummeted to the ground, both seeming to be knocked out. He was about to shout to Draek, who was coming around to land near Hayden, when something hit the back of Hayden’s helmet and knocked him out cold.

__________________________

             
Hayden woke up in the medical tent again, and he felt like he was getting to familiar with the inside of that particular tent. His head felt heavy and as if it was full of bells. He noticed his armor had been taken off and he was wearing just a pair of the grey pants he wore on a daily basis.

             
“Hello?” he asked, he wanted to ask louder but even his normal voice caused his head to ache even more.

             
“Good, you’re awake.” Shane came in with a relieved look on his face.

             
“What happened out there?” Hayden asked as he tried to sit up. He felt the same as he had when Shane had knocked him unconscious, but this time the pain came from the back of his head and not his face.

             
“Well after Giles and Sebastian’s dragons crashed together Rilora and I went and lit their beacon and we won the Crucible. Our team also was able to beat most of the other team and lower their flag!” Shane replied.

             
“That’s good, but what happened to my head, how did I get here?” Hayden asked. He noticed a pitcher of water and reached for it. Shane picked it up and helped him drink.

              “Oh that. Well after the dragons crashed Sebastian got up and, while you had your back to him, he kind of hit you in the back of the head with his sword.” When Shane said the word “hit” he punched his own hand to make sure Hayden understood what he meant.

             
“That’s what I thought happened,” Hayden said.

             
“Really? I am surprised you are still able to think at all after that hit.” Shane looked serious for a second before he laughed at Hayden. “Come on, let’s get you up and ready. We have an awards ceremony to go to.”

______________________

             
Hayden stood with the other archers who had placed second and third behind him. They both wore the same cloaks as before, but now they wore their hoods down and tried to look their best before the three rulers.

             
Hayden wore a new pair of grays that had been given to him just for this occasion. They were the same color as his normal ones, but these were much nicer, and someone had taken their time to make sure they looked perfect.

             
The three rulers were more intimidating than usual; partly because they were each in their full armor, but the main reason was because their thrones had been placed on a platform in the middle of the arena with the back facing one of the openings so that each of their giant dragons could sit behind them. The dragons sat like statues. Almost like Sebastian and Giles’s dragons.

             
The three archers stood in front of the thrones so that they could receive their rewards for their events. Shane had already gone up and had gotten a new broadsword, one that had a copper blade that had drawings carved into the blade. It was beautiful as well as useful, it hadn’t been made as a sword that you would just hang on the wall, and it had been made as a weapon.

             
Hayden had already gotten three of his rewards; since he had finished first in all three archery events and both of the knife throwing. He had first gotten a skillfully crafted harness for his four throwing knifes.

             
It was white leather with small silver designs on the leather, it had the same design as the one he had used during the knife throwing event, but this was much better quality. The next item he received
were three dozen perfectly balanced arrows. The arrows had white fetching and the arrow heads were all identical.

             
He was then given a new quiver, also white leather to match his harness for his throwing knifes. One thing that he noticed that was different about this quiver was that it had a loop of leather on the side. Hayden looked at it for a second before he realized that it was meant to hold his bow. He was now awaiting his gift for the last of the archery events.

             
“Hayden The Silver,” Elizabeth began, not getting up from her golden throne. “Come forth and receive yet another prize for your hard efforts.” Elizabeth had mentioned at least five times that all these events had been won by a first year rider.

             
Hayden made his way up to the throne, bowed like he had done each time before, and waited for Elizabeth to tell him to stand up.

             
“Rise up, Hayden The Silver.” As he did so she was handed a bow from a servant. She made a show of inspecting it and, finding it to her liking, she handed it to Hayden. Hayden knew it was a masterpiece when it was still in the servant’s hands.

             
It was a recurve bow; most dragon riders used recurve over long bows because of mobility. The limbs were bent further than on any bow Hayden had seen; he knew that it was going to be hard work pulling it all the way back.

             
He gratefully accepted the bow and stepped back with the other archers. Hayden and the other archers melted into the crowd, but before Hayden could get to comfortable they called him and the other two who had placed in the last knife throwing challenge.

             
Hayden stood, once again, at the base of the platform and waited to be called up. This time he was given four throwing knifes that made the other set he had been given look like they had been made of wood.

             
More designs, to match the harness, were carved into the sides of the blades and blade itself had a strange dip in the middle. They looked slightly off, but once they were in his hands he knew that he could throw them and hit anything he aimed at.

             
Elizabeth called over a servant to hold all of Hayden’s winnings as she continued to hand out other treasures to those who won the remaining events. Hayden saw the most decorative pieces of armor and weapons get handed out.

             
It soon became time to hand out the awards for the Crucible. Hayden watched as Elizabeth called up individuals who had accomplished some feat or another; they were all from the ground troops.

             
“All four riders come forth.” Her voice rang out clear and loud over the crowd. Hayden had not seen Sebastian since the Crucible, but he knew that this was not the place or the time to get his revenge. His head still bothered him, but it was feeling much better then when he had first woken up in the medical tent.

             
Hayden and Shane were the first to make it to the base of the platform. Hayden had stayed near it throughout the whole award ceremony and Shane had been standing with him. They waited as the people parted to make way for Sebastian and Giles.

             
“All four of you competed with courage and honor.”

             
Some more than others,
Hayden thought. 

             
“So I have decided to reward each of you.”

             
Four servants walked onto the platform, two coming from either side, carrying something in their hands that kept covered up with cloth. A servant stopped in front of each of the riders and waited.

             
“Sebastian, to you I give you the head of a desert leopard.” Hayden half expected there to be a severed head under the cloth, but the servant pulled the cloth off to reveal a helmet. “You showed bravery and the unwillingness to give up even though you had been beat.”