Chosen: Book 1 in the Dragon Queen series

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d slept past dawn. It never happened at home, where there were chores to do before the shop opened. I still wasn’t prepared to call what I’d seen a vision, but whatever it was, it had worn me out.

The sun was high in the sky when I threw the shutters wide and looked out. Dragon’s weight pressed against my shins. He’d been curled at the foot of my bed, but now he stretched his long body and small wings. I couldn’t see him, only feel his movements, but I could imagine the yawn showing off his tiny teeth as he came awake.

I reached forward to scratch his neck, fumbling until I found the right spot. He twisted, leaning into the caress. I smiled, then reminded myself that he wasn’t a pet, and certainly not my pet. I couldn’t let myself grow attached. Dropping my hand, I turned to the window to see Midwood in the daylight.

The weight of Dragon settled on my shoulder and I glanced round, reassured that he wouldn’t be seen when I found nothing visible. The courtyard below was mostly empty, washing blowing in the wind and a rug hanging to air.

And the entertainers’ wagon was parked in one corner. Guilt assailed me. They’d intended to go on to Muirland City at dawn. I hoped they hadn’t changed their plans because of me. In daylight, my imaginings of the night before seemed ridiculous. All I’d done was lose us a precious day. I wondered if we could still set off; we might only lose a couple of hours instead of the whole day.

Voices sounded below. Brunna – Brun – pushed out from behind the rug. Mim followed, a carpet-beater in her hand. She began to beat the rug, dust blooming out as the blows landed. I couldn’t hear their words, but it was clear the two were chatting.

Brunna said something. I saw Mim shake her head. Brunna pried the carpet-beater from her, pushed her away and took over the cleaning task. Mim said something, then stood poised, checking Brunna was watching. She sprang into action, turning a cartwheel, a flip and then another cartwheel. When she was done she turned, bowing at her audience – Brunna – before hurrying back and wrenching the beater from Brunna’s hand and pointing to the space she’d just left.

I smiled. Did she really want Brunna to copy her? That wasn’t going to...

My jaw dropped. Brunna stalked into the middle of the courtyard. My lips curved. With a great deal of prompting, Brunna attempted a cartwheel. She didn’t look half as elegant as Mim did, but when she straightened to Mim’s applause she was grinning.

I sat back. We’d only been gone a day and Brunna was already flourishing. I wished I could say the same for myself. But nothing was going to flourish while I hid away in our room. Time to face the music for the delay I’d caused.

When I ventured downstairs the tap room was empty. I rang the bell on the bar and the owner, Shae, brought me eggs and bread to do service for both breakfast and lunch. Dragon liked eggs more than he had cheese, fortunately, since I could guess the looks if I demanded steak for breakfast like some lord. We were halfway through our meal when the door banged and Brunna walked in.

“Rea and the others are still here,” I said.

She nodded. “They decided to wait, too.”

“Not because of me, I hope.” Perhaps they were anticipating the coin we’d give them for the lift. I set my fork on my plate. We should have settled on a price the night before.

“Because of what you saw,” she said.

A blush heated my face. “You didn’t tell them!”

She looked surprised. “Of course I told them. Didn’t they deserve a warning?”

I raised a hand and then dropped it to the table with a thud. It had seemed so real the night before, it was only in daylight that I realised how stupid I’d been. “It was probably nonsense,” I muttered. “A dream.”

Brunna took a seat beside me, her heat radiating towards me. “They trust you.” She smiled. “They think you might be gifted with magic.”

I snorted. Then shoved her. “Women don’t have magic. I hope they don’t think I’m some kind of witch.”

She shrugged. “Mim says men and women are each as likely to use magic in Surran.”

“We’re not in Surran,” I reminded my friend. “The last thing I need is people thinking I have magic.”

“What if you do?”

I glanced around, checking we were alone. “I don’t,” I hissed. “I suppose Dragon might be ... affecting me. Which makes it even more important to get rid of him as soon as we can.”

Brunna shrugged as though the death sentence Muirland women with magic could expect was nothing to be alarmed about. “Mim was cool. Besides, it made a good cover for your strange behaviour.”

I groaned. Because I’d been hiding Dragon. Well, maybe it was better to be thought magical rather than mad. No doubt it would be pleasant to have people bow and scrape around you like the mages did.

“The troupe will be losing money,” I chided.

Brunna shook her head. “Col’s got work for the day felling trees. Mim’s helping here, and Rea is making repairs to the wagon. They aren’t wasting the day.”

Unlike me.

Shae appeared with food. Rea came in and made us a three. “Hey, Brun. Good morning, Alliss.” She sat the other side of Brunna, away from me. I wondered if that was the effect of believing I had magical skills. Did mages get that, too – isolation?

“’Day, Rea. How’s the wagon?”

“Good. We can leave tomorrow.” Her eyes slid to me. “If it’s safe.”

“We need to get to the capital. We’ll be fine tomorrow. We could leave now, if you like. I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.” I felt hot at the waste of time. My dream, vision, whatever it was, didn’t seem like anything someone should base important decisions on.

“Shae! Shae!” The door burst open. A dishevelled youth staggered inside, breathing hard.

The owner appeared from the back room. “Whatever is it?”

“Bandits. There’s been an attack.”

Shae’s eyes widened. “Where?”

Blood rushed in my ears. I already knew what the youth was going to say.

“On the road to the capital. Eight spans on from here.”

~

Bandit attacks were rare in Muirland, but not unknown. They’d hit a travelling party an hour’s walk out of Midwood. A family of six were dead, their valuables and the horses from their coach stolen away.

The afternoon grew increasingly unreal. Brunna and Col and a few others from the village took the wagon and fetched back the bodies so they could be decently cremated, and so the authorities could be informed and their relations given the sad news.

I’d felt numb until that point, but when the covered shapes were lifted respectfully down from the back of the cart reality crashed in. Heat climbed up my spine and ringing began in my ears. I clenched my fists, glad of Dragon’s solid claws gripping my shoulder. I wouldn’t faint. I wouldn’t let myself be so feeble. My vision had been real – and here was the result. Nausea swam through me at the remembrance that I’d been prepared to send our companions on without us, into danger. It wasn’t that I’d cared only for me and Brunna and Dragon; more that I hadn’t thought beyond how it affected us. I certainly hadn’t thought about how it might affect others caught up in the moment: the parents, children and grandmother who would never now reach their destination.

Dragon nudged my face and I risked a quick rub of his neck. I knew he was trying to console me and I tried to be consoled. It would have done no good to add to the casualties, but it was only now that I wondered if I could have lowered the number. Some sort of warning – maybe I could have alerted the authorities.

Rea sat down beside me. I abruptly shifted my fingers from Dragon’s invisible neck as though I’d been scratching my ear. “Thank you for the warning,” she said gruffly.

“I didn’t know that’s what it was,” I replied.

I felt her eyes on my face. I kept my gaze determinedly on the scene before us. The village beadle, a tall, bald man, had arrived to take the details about what had happened. I hoped he wouldn’t want to speak to me. “First time that’s happened?” she hazarded.

“I don’t have magic.” Fear spiked through me. Someone might denounce me for a witch and then I’d really be in trouble. “It was just a dream.”

Rea set a calming hand on my arm. “You’re safe. We’re just grateful for your ... dream.”

“I didn’t know this would happen.”

Rea understood. “You couldn’t have stopped it.”

“Couldn’t I? I didn’t even try.”

At the corner of my vision I saw Rea’s shoulder lift. “First time? What would you have done? Can you imagine the beadle riding to the rescue on his carthorse, his grandfather’s sword held high, on the word of a crazy-sounding guest staying at the inn?”

As I was sure she intended, the picture she painted twitched a smile at the corners of my mouth. But still… “I could have tried.”

“And next time, I’m sure you will.” Rea rose and went to help.

I tried to assist, but when the whisperings and glances became too much I retired to my hired room. I didn’t understand what I’d seen the night before. I’d accepted it on instinct. Now, ideas of what my vision had been – and what that made me – flew around my head like a cave of bats flying into twilight. I knew the stories of children who turned out to have undiscovered magical abilities – hidden mages. But as much as I might envy the easy lifestyles of mages, I couldn’t be one of those few. Mages were always men. Women weren’t strong enough to control magic, and any who tried to use it received the death penalty. My vision had kept us safe – but had it just put me in mortal danger?

Dragon curled in my lap and my fingers stroked restlessly over his scales. “Is this because of you?” I murmured. Dragon butted my ribs and rolled over, exposing his belly to be rubbed. His only answer was that familiar, crooning sound of satisfaction, which increased when I took the hint and stroked his smooth belly.

Dragons worked with mages, providing the magic mages needed so they could use it for the benefit of the kingdom. But if the vision was because of Dragon, why had he shared it with me? I wasn’t a mage. More importantly, I wasn’t trained. I didn’t know the details, but I knew mages undertook years of training. I’d understood magic had to be coaxed from dragons to be used by mages, that it was a difficult, delicate process.

What I’d experienced had been effortless.

Pa’s scathing voice rang in my head and I nodded along with his acerbic comments – it took a rogue to spot another. Maybe the mages were skilled as much in deceit as in magic. How better to make themselves appear remarkable, and valuable, than by convincing everyone that what they did was difficult, dangerous and could only be safely done by a select few?

Despite the situation I smiled in admiration at their audacity. There would be riots if people discovered that anyone could do what a mage did – that the important thing was the dragon, not the human.

~

No further visions assailed me and we left a subdued Midwood the following morning. Col sang, with more gusto than skill, to ward off the silence that settled over the forest. We all must be thinking of the events of the day before, but no one said a word, and none of my companions raised a murmur of the possibility of delay. They held absolute faith that if there was danger a vision would have warned me. If this was the sort of responsibility mages bore, I wanted none of it.

We reached Bestham, a town three times the size of Midwood, at nightfall, and the troupe once more earned their keep by putting on a show. This time, Brunna helped them, shifting props and walking around with a hat to collect pennies when the show finished.

We didn’t discuss the matter openly, but we made the tacit decision that we were safer together than apart, and Brunna and I stuck with the troupe for the next four days as we rolled across Muirland’s terrain. Fortunately, no more visions assailed me and the roads were peaceful.

On the fifth day, Muirland City came into sight. Peering out the side of the wagon, Dragon heavy on my shoulder, I gasped as the last of the trees fell away and Muirland City rose into view on the horizon. The city was set on a hill, edged on the far side by cliffs where the river rushing for centuries had split the land in half. After that, forest began that ran all the way from the city to the Firethorn Mountains in the distance.

The heath before us was shades of green and brown. By contrast, Muirland City glowed whitish grey. My breath caught, wondering if the brightest spot, where the sun bounced hard off the stone to dazzle us, was the famous palace. Built from sandstone hewn from the northern quarries two centuries ago, it was said to be filled with wonders from around the three kingdoms.

But we weren’t going to sight-see. Tucked away in the city was the mages’ tower, just as famous as the palace, although filled with mystery rather than treasure. It was the home of magic in Muirland – and anything else it contained was a secret known only to the mages themselves. It was there I would hand over Dragon and, I hoped, get a cure for Pa in exchange.

His claws shifted on my shoulder and a pang of loss slid through me. I’d miss the creature. I hardened my heart; I’d missed Pa more. Dragon felt as though he was straining upwards, looking for something in the sky overhead. I touched his claws on my shoulder. A few birds were circling overhead. Dragon had only attacked rats and lizards so far. I wondered if he was considering larger prey.

The birds cried out, angling their wings to dive. My heart surged in alarm, and I flinched as they came closer. Then I blinked as the birds vanished. In their places, four people sprang to life, standing at compass points around the wagon.