Violet Stormwing's Arc

Chapter 2 of 46

The summons came an hour after Theo left the pen. A servant found Violet still beside the black dragon and told her the lord wanted her at once. She wiped straw from her knees and followed. Refusing was not a choice. In this fortress, a rider who ignored the lord lost her stall, her mounts, and her name on the flight rolls. She could not chase the wild dragon if she was grounded. The hall sat at the top of the fortress, where wind pressed against the tall windows. Kael Kettrick waited by the far table. He was the lord who fed and housed every rider here, and his word decided who flew and who did not. His dark coat was stitched with gold, and a heavy chain hung at his chest. He did not rise when she entered. He studied her the way a buyer studies a horse. "Six dead men," he said. "Then a girl walks in with a bell and a collar. Fairweather says you tamed the black." "I did," Violet said. "Good." He set both hands flat on the table. "I have a use for a rider who tames the untamable. There is a beast in the war stables that bites its handlers. Break it, and every rider will fear your name. That is worth more to me than one wild dragon in the hills." Violet understood the trade at once. He wanted her chained to his stables, taming his mounts, building his reputation. If she agreed, she would never leave the fortress to find the last wild dragon. Her whole reason for coming here would rot in a stall. "I came to bond the last wild one," she said. "No rider has ever touched it. That is the beast worth my name." His jaw tightened. "You refuse me." "I offer you better." She stepped closer, past the fear in her chest. "Break your biting mount, and men say you own a tamer. Bond the last wild dragon, and men say your fortress raised the only rider alive who could. That story flies further." He was quiet a long moment. The wind rattled the glass. Then a slow smile spread under his beard, and she knew she had guessed his hunger right. "Thirty days," Kael said. "Bring the wild one back bonded, or you tame my stables and never argue with me again. Fairweather rides with you. He watches. He reports." He waved a hand. "Go." Violet bowed and left before he could add a price. She had won the freedom to chase the wild dragon. But she had won it on a clock, with Theo Fairweather at her shoulder the whole way, sending every step back to the lord. She trusted the collar's bell more than she trusted that easy smile. Now she had thirty days to prove the bell was enough.