The Broken Scale (The Dragon Riders of Arvain) (28 page)

             
Hayden looked in at a few more shops before he made his way down to the Housing District. He walked through the mazes of houses and looked for anything familiar; finally a man asked him what he was looking for.

             
“How do you know I am looking for something?” Hayden asked.

             
“Well you look confused and lost so I figured that you could use some help,” the man told him. Hayden looked at him and saw that he was a middle aged man, probably mid thirties, and he was playing with a child in the street.

             
“How would you know that?” Hayden asked as he moved closer.

             
“Well you have passed by here five times now, so that’s a good sign that someone is lost. If you want to keep your business to yourself that’s fine, but please let me help you so my son here will stop laughing as you pass by.” Hayden looked at the young boy who’s cheeks where filled with air as he tried to hold in his laugh. Hayden started laughing, which made the two strangers join in vigorously.

             
“Ok, I am hopelessly lost; it has been a while since I have been out this way and I am looking for a man named Fendrel.” Hayden was going to describe Fendrel to them, but the man waved his hand in the air before Hayden could start describing him.

             
“There is no need; we know who he is and where his house is. You have actually made it fairly close; all you need to do is continue down this street, turn left down the third street you pass, walk until you see the city wall and then make the last right before the wall. Once on that road you will see his house, it is the fourth one down from where you will be in case you have forgotten what it looks like.” Hayden thanked the man and his son and went on his way.

             
He stood in front of the metal building before he knocked on the giant cold door. The house had been cleaned up slightly, so it had a more lived in look than when Hayden had first seen it. Hayden knocked on the door and listened to Fendrel complain as he made his way to the door.

             
“Who is it at this hour and what do you want?” The upset voice shouted from behind the door. Hayden remained quiet and knocked again. “What what what? What do you……? Hayden?” Fendrel answered the door, pulling it open swiftly, but quickly changing his demeanor when he saw that it was Hayden on the other side.

             
“Hello, Fendrel, I hope I am not interrupting anything?” Hayden asked, he had not thought that Fendrel might be busy and he did not like the idea of walking all the way over here just to be turned away at the door step.

             
“Of course not, boy, please come in.” Fendrel ushered him inside the house. Hayden could tell that someone was living there but the home still seemed vacant. The house had a few new pieces of furniture, not brand new but newer looking than the ones that had been there before, and there was neither dust nor any spider webs anywhere.

             
The house no longer had a closed up and dirty smell to it, but it smelled just like the outside. Fendrel must not spend money on the incense and perfumes that some of the rooms in the Metallic Pyramid had, Hayden considered.

             
“I am glad to see you, Fendrel, I am sorry it has taken me so long to come and see you, they keep us very busy with all our training and classes.” He tried to continue, but Fendrel waved his excuses off.

             
“I know, boy, I know what they require of you, I am surprised to see you this early in your training though. I had expected to see you closer to the end of your training. So let me get a look at you; let me see what the riders have turned you into.” Fendrel walked around him and looked at the palm of his hands; he then stared into his eyes until Hayden started to feel uncomfortable.

             
“They have started to make a rider out of you it seems. You are walking like them, starting to look like them. At least it seems you are not afraid of hard work though.” They went into the sitting room that Hayden and Fendrel had spoken in the last time Hayden was here. They did not speak long before Fendrel cut straight to the heart of the visit.

             
“Although I am greatly enjoying your visit, I believe that it is safe to say you did not come all this way just to say hello?” Fendrel didn’t wait for a response before continuing. “Since I believe I am right on that subject, my question for you becomes a simple one; why are you here?” Although he had asked the question, it appeared to Hayden that by his body language he had no interest in what he had to say.

             
“Well I had a question for you.” Hayden told him about what had happened the other night. He told him that he was having a hard time figuring out what he was feeling.

             
“So you have come here to ask me how you feel about this. Don’t you think that the person you should be asking is yourself?” Fendrel asked Hayden before he had a chance to explain to the older man about what had happened with the shop owner. “It sounds to me like you have already made up your mind. You can’t ask anyone how you should feel, boy. Then you won’t truly feel it, you will be just following what someone else wants you to feel,” Fendrel told him as he left the room and returned with two drinks.

             
“I want there to be peace, but I don’t see away around war. I don’t want there to be war, but I feel like it almost has to happen,” Hayden said as he took the drink from his cup.

             
“That is something that I would have to agree with you about, boy, there is a war coming that will carve out the face of Arvain. Are you so sure that you are on the right side though?” Fendrel asked. Hayden thought about what Fendrel had asked while he slowly sipped on the fruit drink in his cup.

             
“What are the sides; the metallic dragon riders against everyone else?”

             
“That’s probably closer to being right than you realize. When the war finally breaks out the metallic dragon riders will band together as one giant army like they always do, while everyone has choices to make.

             
“It could happen like the first dragon war where the metallic riders will go from place to place conquering everyone and forcing them to join their side. Then when those that remain free from them realize that they have to join together it would be too late,” Fendrel told him.

             
“What if they tried to make a truce with the other races, tried to find some way to make everyone happy?” Hayden asked.

             
“You know that that can’t happen right now. There have been too many wrongs done and with evil people who will only be happy when everything on Arvain is enslaved to their control, happiness cannot come easy.” Fendrel spoke as one who knew firsthand about what was going on. Hayden knew some of his past and that what happiness Fendrel had found had not come cheap. “Whatever happens will be bad for everyone in Arvain; that is one thing that we can be sure off.”

             
Fendrel changed the subject from the war that he was sure was coming and started talking about Draek. “So how large has he grown by now? His shoulders should be taller than you by now,” Fendrel asked.

             
“He is taller than me, when I ride him around the training grounds he has to kneel down so that I can climb up. I am surprised that he isn’t flying though, they have been working out their wings for months.”

             
“Boy, you have so much to learn. Draek has probably been flying ever since he first doubled his size. They just don’t like the dragon riders knowing that because they don’t want you doing anything foolish, like actually trying to fly. Until you have been properly trained that is.”  Fendrel laughed as Hayden tried to deal with the realization that once again something had been hidden from him.

             
“Don’t feel bad though, boy, no one else knows about it. It is a secret that riders keep from everyone and they only tell the first years once they start training them how to fly. I am not supposed to know about it and neither are you, so don’t tell anyone, and do not try to fly Draek,” Fendrel told him.

             
“I don’t understand why Draek hasn’t told me about this. I feel like I am only reading half a book and being told that there is no more and yet I can see the other half closed in their hands.” Hayden was having mixed emotions of anger and betrayal. He could feel Draek starting to awaken, so he focused on controlling his emotions and keeping them in his own head, not letting them run over into Draek’s.

             
“And that is how you will feel for a long time still to come, boy. The riders are made up of levels of secrets, and once you make it to the next level and you think you know everything, there is another level on top of that one with all new secrets.” Hayden had a feeling that that was the case, but hearing it out loud seems to have had made it fact to him.

             
“So Draek and the others can all fly, right?” Hayden asked.

             
“That is right, you catch on fast, boy, I had forgotten how easily you figure everything out after someone explains it to you.” All the time that Hayden had spent with Fendrel he could tell when the old man was just trying to pick fun at him.

             
“You said that they don’t want us trying to fly before we have trained, was there an accident or something?” Hayden asked.

             
“All together there has probably been close to twenty accidents. Young riders trying to prove themselves by trying to fly a dragon that wasn’t strong enough and they plummet to the ground below them. A few just fell right off their dragons because the saddles weren’t on correct or they weren’t using a saddle at all. The last ones before they made up the story about dragons not being able to fly until eight months were all four new riders one year. They tried to fly through a storm that was more violent than it seemed.

             
“They never found those young riders but one of the older dragons was trying to get them to land when they hit the worst part of the storm, that’s the only reason that we know what happened.” They continued to talk about what Fendrel had been doing since Hayden had gotten Draek, which wasn’t a whole lot of anything as far as Hayden was concerned. As the evening began to turn into night Hayden began making his way out of the house when he thought of one last question.

             
“Fendrel, if they tried to keep all these secrets kept within the riders then how did you find out about them, and are there any more you know?” Fendrel leaned against the metal door and slowly started to close it behind Hayden.

             
“That’s a different conversation for a different time,” Fendrel said as the door clocked into place. Hayden could not help but to smile, he had known that the old man’s answer was going to be something like that.

             
“May there be no fear found in your heart,” Hayden told Fendrel, who was standing on the other side of the door. It was something that those trained by Tynan said to each other instead of good bye. Hayden was told that it was something of respect to tell it to someone else, and Fendrel was the only other person he had told it to besides those training with them.

             
He wasn’t sure if Fendrel had even heard him, but he did not wait around for a response. The streets were dark as he made his way back to the ever looming pyramid. He walked quickly as the air began to have a slight chill that made him shiver. He made it back to his room and sat down with his back to Draek.

             
The large silver dragon’s warmth, quickly getting the cold that had crept into Hayden’s bones out, was enough to make Hayden comfortable and fall right asleep. Draek rumbled, and the shaking woke Hayden up, he had only been asleep for a few hours.

             
Are you mad that I did not tell you I could fly?
Draek’s voice was low and almost ashamed, like a child that had done wrong.

             
Of course not, Draek, they made you keep a secret, but at least now we can talk about it together.

             
We can, but not now; they have cancelled all of tomorrow’s work outs and lessons. They have something else for us to do then, and we get to be together for it.
Draek’s voice had quickly changed to a more excited tone.
We have to leave early though because it is a long walk and if we are late they will still make you wear the heavy thing.
Draek told Hayden as he starched and yawned. Hayden had to watch out when he did this so he didn’t get knocked down by a wing or tail.

             
We could get there faster is we flew there together instead of walking,
Hayden told Draek, and he saw the excitement and rebellion in the large silver eyes.

             
Yes we could!!
Draek soon fell asleep, but it was not that easy for Hayden, knowing that soon he would be flying a dragon. But sleep did come and it seemed as soon as he fell asleep Draek was waking him up. Hayden got up and ready as fast as he could; today he awoke with plenty of energy.