Kai and Boneshadow, page 1
IN THE LAND OF DRACONIS,
THERE ARE NO DRAGONS.
Once, there were. Once, humans and dragons were friends, and guarded the land. They were wise, and strong, and created the great city of Rivven together.
But then came the Dragon Storm, and the dragons retreated from the world of humans. To the men and women of Draconis, they became legends and myth.
And so, these days, in the land of Draconis, there are no dragons…
…Or so people thought.
Under the heart of Rivven was a cave. Hardly anyone in the city knew it existed, and even fewer knew how to find it, and yet it was huge – a cavern so vast that you could hardly see from one end to the other. Soft glowing lamps hung from its roof like tiny suns, shining down on a world that was a home, a training ground, a school, and a place of secrets.
It was the Dragonseer Guild Hall … and today it was a racecourse.
“Come on, Boneshadow!” called Kai as they hurtled around the track. “You’re doing great!”
He glanced back as they reached the second bend. Behind him was Erin, then Tom and Connor almost neck and neck, then the others. Kai was leading, but they were only halfway round.
“How are you feeling?” he called down.
Beneath him, Boneshadow laughed. “Wonderful!” she cried.
Kai tucked his head down and grinned. He was in a saddle and his feet were secure in stirrups, but it wasn’t a horse he was riding. This creature’s skin was smooth and dry, and as white as bone. She had a long neck, and a large head, and on her chest was a red flare, and Kai sat tucked between two folded wings.
She was Boneshadow, and she was a dragon.
“Rockhammer’s close behind us!” Kai called. Behind him, Erin’s dragon, Rockhammer, was huge and fierce looking, with great spikes, and the ground shuddered with every stride. Erin’s face had a look of grim determination.
“He’ll get tired,” called back Boneshadow. “Hold on!”
They raced around the curve. Kai could feel Boneshadow’s powerful muscles move, and could sense her thoughts, too – the beat of her heart, the joy of running, the feeling that she could keep going forever. He could feel all this because, like the other children, he was a dragonseer. Boneshadow was his dragon, and he was her human.
They straightened out, and Boneshadow stretched her legs. The air whistled through Kai’s short black hair and made his brown eyes water, and he blinked and laughed. The ground shuddered, and he realised that Rockhammer was catching up with them. The big dragon was faster on the straight, where his long legs could eat up the distance. Ahead of them was the next fence. Boneshadow adjusted her pace.
“Ready?” she growled. Kai held on tight, and the dragon bunched her hind legs and leapt over the fence, landing with hardly a jolt. On her back, the white leathery wings stayed folded – like many dragons, Boneshadow could fly, but this was a running race only. Kai felt the thump behind him as Rockhammer leapt and cleared the fence too. He could hear Erin bellowing and knew they were right behind – but already the next bend was coming up, and Boneshadow, more nimble, leaned tight into the curve and pulled away again.
Rockhammer caught them on the third straight, coming up to the last corner. He was tired, Kai could tell, and his big pink tongue flopped around in his mouth like a dog’s. Twenty metres to go, and Boneshadow was just ahead. If they could make the corner, Kai knew she had the energy for the final sprint!
Erin shouted something into Rockhammer’s ear and the big dragon nodded. He started to drift sideways, into Boneshadow’s line. Kai glanced at him in alarm.
“Hey!” he yelped.
Ten metres to the bend and the big dragon was very close, almost brushing against them. Five metres…
“Whoa!” called Kai suddenly, and dragged on the reins. Boneshadow eased up immediately, and with a whoop Erin and Rockhammer took the racing line and pulled ahead around the corner. Now they were in the lead, and Boneshadow had lost her pace; she accelerated as they came into the final straight, and almost caught up, but Rockhammer stretched out his long neck and crossed the finish line first.
“YASSSSSS!” shouted Erin. Rockhammer gave a huge bellow.
Behind them, Kai and Boneshadow eased to a halt. Kai slid down from the dragon’s back and patted her.
“Sorry, Bone,” he said with a rueful smile. “If we’d gone for the turn, we would have collided with Rockhammer.”
Boneshadow shook her large white head. “We were ahead of them,” she said softly. “They should have given way for us.”
“I know,” said Kai. “But I didn’t want to take the risk. Anyway, the race was fun even if we didn’t win, right?”
Boneshadow chuckled and rested her head against Kai’s shoulder. “Of course,” she said. “But I’m not sure Vice Chancellor Creedy agrees…”
Kai looked up. Striding towards them were two of the senior Guild members. Vice Chancellor Creedy was dressed all in grey and his face was drawn into a dour scowl. Beside him was Daisy, who taught self-defence. She walked with a bouncing happy stride, in bright-yellow leggings that seemed to glow in comparison to Creedy’s dull robes.
“Boy!” snapped Creedy, pointing at Kai. “What was that?”
Kai blinked. “Um… Well, sir, I didn’t want—”
“You pulled up,” said Creedy. “You had the racing line and you pulled up!” He scowled. “This isn’t a game, you know. The purpose of these races is to learn how to deal with high-pressure situations. Do you think, when real danger arises, that being nice will help? Hmm?”
Kai shook his head. “No, sir.”
“No, sir,” repeated Creedy. “I despair.”
Beside him, Daisy grinned. “Oh, it wasn’t so bad. That was some good racing, Kai! And, Boneshadow, you took those corners well.” She nodded her head towards Creedy and gave a tiny wink, making Kai grin. Creedy sighed.
“Och, away,” he said irritably, waving a hand. “That’s enough for today. Put away your harnesses – tidily now!”
Kai and Boneshadow headed back to the training ground. Ahead of them, Erin was doing a victory dance and Rockhammer was walking in a great swagger, his huge mouth open and grinning.
“It was a good race,” said Boneshadow as they headed back.
“Yeah,” said Kai.
Would have been good to win though, he thought.
Kai carefully folded up Boneshadow’s harness and packed it in one of the chests by the training ground. Erin had left hers sloppy and undone, and Kai tidied that away as well, before wandering back to the dining hut with Tom, his best friend.
“Good race!” said Tom. He’d come third on his dragon, Ironskin. Tom was taller and bigger than Kai; he was a blacksmith’s son, wide-shouldered and strong, where Kai was slim. Ironskin was tall and broad too, and her skin was a deep dark red, with bright lines like fire in a forge. She and Tom were alike in personality – both were loyal and protective.
“Did Creedy give you a hard time?” asked Tom.
Kai shrugged. He didn’t really let it bother him. Some people got worked up about things, but Kai was always able to let them wash over him. “No, he was fine.”
Tom laughed and shook his head. “You’re too nice, Kai,” he said.
Kai smiled. “Funny, that’s what he said too.”
They reached the hut, and Kai turned to Boneshadow. “See you later,” he said. Boneshadow nodded. And then, as Kai watched, she faded away until she was completely gone. Beside her, Ironskin did the same.
The dragons were from a different world, a world that was hard to imagine. Drun, who taught summoning, called it a world of ideas. “Every dragon is different,” he’d say. “They each got their own shape, their own way of bein’. You’re dragonseers, and that means you all got the power to reach into their world and make a connection. And if they want, they can come across. And when they do, their shape, the way they are … comes from you.”
Kai could still feel the faint whisper of that connection in his mind, and he smiled. He and Tom entered the hut and sat down for dinner just as Hilda, the cook, was serving up. This evening it was a rich potato pie, perfect after a day of exercise, and the children tucked in, chattering.
There was Cara, pale and thin, sitting very still as she liked to do. Cara often kept to herself, but today she was looking at a map of Ellis’s. Ellis was showing her routes, drawing them carefully with a pencil. Then Mira, short but bustling with energy, her long black hair tied back and smears of oil on her face as usual, for Mira loved tinkering with machinery. Connor was reading a book at the table, his curly hair hanging over his face like a curtain, and Erin sat at the head of the table, looking pleased with herself and telling everyone again how she’d won the race. Tom grinned at Kai and rolled his eyes, but Kai didn’t mind.
“Oh, enough!” grumbled Connor at last. Erin was tall and athletic, while Connor far preferred reading his books, and the two of them often squabbled.
“Oh, sorry,” said Erin. “I thought maybe you couldn’t see the rest of the race, being so far at the back!” She gave a loud booming laugh and Connor bristled.
“It’s summoning practice tomorrow,” he said. “Not that most of us need practice…”
Erin scowled. She’d been in the Guild for longer than any of the others, but she couldn’t get the hang of summoning Rockhammer, her dragon, and needed help every time.
“It was a good race,” said Kai, stepping in before they started arguing. “Well done, Erin. Rockhammer was brilliant.”
Eri
“Only about twenty times,” muttered Connor, but Erin ignored him and told her story, while Kai patiently listened. Erin liked telling the story – it always cheered her up – and Kai didn’t mind hearing it again.
“… and then this huge boulder crashed down on to the house!” said Erin.
Sometimes she exaggerated, and sometimes the details changed. Kai wondered if there was another story she wasn’t telling. But he kept nodding and smiling.
“… and when I saw who’d rescued us … it was Rockhammer!” finished Erin. She grinned around the table. “What about you, Kai? How did you meet Boneshadow?”
Kai smiled. He could feel the dragon’s presence in his mind, listening in. She liked the story as much as he did.
“In a book,” he said.
“A book?” asked Mira, frowning.
Kai nodded. “My mum looks after animals. She treats them, and studies them. She knows so much about them! And she’s got all these books on anatomy, and bone structure, and things like that. She collects books wherever she goes.”
Connor looked interested, despite himself.
“Some of the books are ancient,” said Kai. “They’ve got pictures of animals that don’t even exist – gryphons, basilisks … and dragons. She showed me the pictures, and there was one, looking out of the page, and, I don’t know, there was just something about its eyes…”
He shook his head, remembering. “I couldn’t sleep that night. It was like the book was calling to me. I got out of bed, crept downstairs… I could see the book on the shelf and it seemed to be glowing.”
He remembered the feel of the old paper, crackling as he turned the pages, and there it was, the drawing, in faded old ink – a strange white creature with a red flare across her chest. Her mouth was open and sharp teeth showed, but her eyes seemed friendly. She was staring at Kai, and somehow, even though it was impossible, Kai had known she could see him. He’d reached out and stroked a finger down the line of her back, and stared in astonishment as the drawing stretched its neck, as pale as bone, and blew a tiny puff of breath like a shadow across the page.
Hmm, a voice had said – not out loud, but inside his head, like a dream. Bone … shadow. Yesssssss…
“I knew right then,” said Kai. “I knew she was my dragon.”
And you were my human, said Boneshadow.
Erin sniffed. “That’s nice.” She sounded bored. “Mine was more exciting.”
“Of course,” said Kai, smiling.
It was the boys’ turn to clear up after dinner, and the four of them – Ellis, Tom, Connor and Kai – were on their way back to their dorm when they heard a horn blowing from the centre of the Hall, long and clear.
“That’s the Gathering Call,” said Connor, surprised. “What’s going on?”
They turned back towards the main buildings. Kai reached out in his mind and called Boneshadow, and she appeared beside him. She stretched her neck and sniffed.
“What’s happening?” she asked.
“No idea.”
They gathered in front of Berin’s office. Berin stood, waiting, with Malik.
Berin was the Chancellor of the Dragonseer Guild. Tall and graceful, with dark skin and white hair, she wore a light-blue robe and carried a staff. She smiled as they arrived. Beside her, Malik was dressed in black, with curling black hair. Officially, Malik was one of the King’s Clerks, managing the paperwork needed to run the kingdom. But secretly he was a member of the Dragonseer Guild. He looked worried.
Kai glanced around as they arrived. Everyone else was there – the other children, Creedy and Daisy, Drun and Hilda. The children had all summoned their dragons, except for Erin. Connor’s dragon Lightspirit was a thin, twisting creature, almost snake-like. Ironskin loomed over Tom, while Pathseeker, Ellis’s dragon, stood shoulder to shoulder with Ellis. Mira’s strange Flameteller, with his bronze colouring and straight features, stood like a clockwork toy, and beside him were Cara and Silverthief, whose shifting colours seemed to blend into the background. They waited, curious.
“We’re sorry to disturb your evening,” said Berin, “but a situation has arisen.” She nodded to Malik, and he stepped forward.
“Dragonseers,” he called. “You have all been summoned to the Royal Palace … by order of the king.”
Kai and the others stared at Malik, and there was a buzz of worried chatter. Malik held up one hand.
“Let me explain. You may be aware of a trade negotiation taking place just now?”
“The Southern Cities,” said Connor.
Malik nodded. “Exactly. The kingdom of Draconis is negotiating a new treaty with the city nations of Borolo and Venn. The King’s Clerks have been working hard: preparing agreements, making copies, revising and so on. We’re almost finished, and the Clerks’ division went for a celebration dinner. But…” He shook his head. “It seems there was a bad batch of mutton served at the meal, and they’ve been struck down with food poisoning. All of them, nearly.” He looked irritated.
“There’s no one to complete the work. Prince Harald has been leading the negotiations, and he suggested—” Malik hesitated. “He suggested we should use the apprentice clerks.”
It took Kai a few moments to realise what Malik meant, and then he turned to Tom in shock. Tom stared back, amazed.
Kai and his friends were dragonseers, chosen and brought to the Guild because they had a unique power: to open a path to the world of dragons, and invite a dragon into their world. But the rest of Rivven didn’t know that. They thought dragons were a myth – tales to frighten small children, of horrible fierce creatures who hunted humans.
And so, to the outside world, and even to most of the children’s parents, there was a different story. Officially, the children were apprentice clerks, learning a trade to help them through their lives.
And now Prince Harald wanted his apprentice clerks to turn up for work.
“But we can’t do that,” said Erin, looking alarmed. “I mean, we’re not real clerks!”
“Certainly not you,” muttered Connor. “Can you even read?”
“Shut up!” she snapped, but Berin held up a hand.
“Calm yourselves.” Her voice was confident and soothing, and Erin, glaring at Connor, fell silent. Berin smiled at them all. “This is an odd situation, but you have been learning your clerk skills. You can all read and write well, you can tally tables and create contracts. No one expects you to be experts – Prince Harald just needs you to finish copying some documents. Malik will come with you and look after you all. Think of it as a rather unusual adventure.” She beamed.
“Now. You’ll set off first thing, so take this evening to pack what you need, make sure your clerks’ uniforms are clean and get an early night. Tomorrow you will meet the prince.”
She nodded to them, and they were dismissed.
“Sounds exciting!” said Boneshadow as they walked back. “I’ve always wanted to see the palace.”
Kai grinned. “Me too! But I don’t think you’ll be able to appear much. I’m not sure what King Godfic would say if one of his clerks turned out to be a dragon!”
The next day, the children gathered in the centre of the Hall. Each of them wore their official apprentice-clerk outfits – dark-grey tunics and capes – and they carried packs with clothes, feather pens, ink pots, penknives, slates and chalks; everything they would need. Malik was waiting for them, and as soon as everyone was assembled, they set off. Out of the Guild Hall, through the great doors, and along the mysterious Clockwork Corridors that led outside. Kai felt the corridors move as they walked, twisting and shuffling ahead and behind, creating an impossible maze that hid the Guild from the world.
They left through a small door in a tiny, forgotten cottage in a quiet lane. Malik checked each way, then waved the children out, and they stepped into the city of Rivven.
Rivven was the largest city in the land of Draconis. It was a sprawling, thriving place, full of merchants and craftsmen, houses and inns, blacksmiths, tanners, carpenters, artists, and even farmers, for many small crofts and chicken coops squeezed in between the other buildings. It was dirty, smelly, loud with shouting and gossip, constantly busy, piled up on top of itself and bursting with life. Tiny passageways, great streets, smoky corners and open squares – and above them loomed the Royal Palace, sitting atop a huge hill of volcanic rock.
