The Broken Scale (The Dragon Riders of Arvain) (38 page)

             
“Enough, this fight is over. Clearly Shane The Copper is the winner!” The two fighters stopped their onslaught and turned to make their way back to the judge. Shane was happy to have won, but he did not gloat or hold it over her head. There was a time for celebration, but right now was not that time. 

             
His opponent was not mad; she had figured out early on in the fight that she was out matched and had tried everything to get the upper hand. But as the fight lingered on she slipped further and further down until right before the judges called the fight she was about to give up. She held her head up though because she had made it all the way to the end, the last round, which was much further than most of the other fighters had gone.

             
Before they could make it to the judges a strong voice cut through the cheering and silenced the crowd; causing Shane and the female fighter to turn to and face the thrones.

             
“I am sorry judge, but I do not think that Shane The Copper is
clearly the winner
. I believe that this young lady still has some fight left in her. I say that the fight continues until I can clearly pick a winner, which won’t happen till one of you can no longer stand up.” Elizabeth had stood up in front of throne that way all could see her. She looked on expectedly, awaiting their cheers.

             
When they did not come her smile faded and the soldiers and riders that were in the crowd started cheering and pushing everyone around them till they started cheering too.

             
The crowd did not like this change; the two fighters had both fought well and Shane was the winner without a shadow of doubt. To force the two fighters to continue on until someone gets hurt was not how these games were supposed to go.

             
Shane was torn on what to do, but he decided that he could not disobey a direct order in front of all the citizens of Celestial City and get away with it. He mouthed “I’m sorry” at the other fighter and made his way back to where they had fought; awaiting the fight to begin anew.

             
She had other plans though.

             
“I am sorry, Lady Elizabeth, but I have lost this fight and do not wish to be hurt by or to have to hurt this fighter. I will politely decline your offer.” She bowed low and turned her back on Elizabeth, heading to the exit of the arena.

             
“I am your queen, not some noble woman to be disobeyed. Now stay and fight.” Elizabeth was doing a good job at not screaming at the woman, but her anger and irritation was evident in her tone.

             
“You are queen of the dragon riders and of the people of the Celestial City. I am neither, my Lady, and with that said I will take my leave.” She made it to the arena entrance, leaving everyone stunned and their mouths gaping wide open. No one had ever done such a thing, and no one knew what was going to happen next.

             
Shane and Hayden were both sure about one thing though. As the disobedient fighter turned and got out of their view Elizabeth turned to the guards around her and started giving out commands; as gossip spread over the crowd like a tidal wave they both knew that they would never see the fighter alive again.

             
The only other person who was sure of it was the fighter herself; as she ran as fast as she could to get away from the arena. She did not even clear the tents when she heard the thundering sound of hooves charging towards her and the unmistakable sound of a dragon taking to the air. She stopped running as the sounds grew closer; she drew her sword and held her shield up. She was going to die, but it was going to be on her terms and she wanted to take some of them with her.

             
Dying alone did not seem like much fun, better to let a few of them enjoy the cold embrace of the eternal sleep with her.

Chapter 19

Hayden did not plan on competing in any of the events for the rest of the day. He had originally signed up to compete in all of them
, but decided it would be best if he waited until the next day’s events, which just happened to be the archery and other long range weapons tests.

Hayden
was sure he would be up to participating in those because they did not directly involve contact to his face. A runner kept coming into the medical tent to ask if he was going to compete for each event.

             
For the most part he was alone in the small tent; the medical area was made up of one large tent where everyone that had been hurt was first brought in to make sure they were going to live, and it was surrounded by ten small tents where the patient would go once they were deemed not dead. This gave him time to connect with Draek.

             
He was mad at himself because during the two rounds that he had fought he had all but pushed Draek from his mind. He tried to stay focused on the task at hand that he had forgotten about the ever constant presence of his dragon in his mind.

             
I am sorry you know,
he thought to Draek for what had to be the fifth time. Draek was probably getting tired of hearing it but it reassured him of just how bad Hayden felt. Draek might be a dragon, but to Hayden Draek
was
a part of him like nothing else could ever be.

             
I know you are, you did fight very bravely and you have greatly improved since you first started.
Draek’s thoughts always seemed to surround Hayden, taking over his whole mind. On more than one occasion he found himself ignoring a conversation he was having with someone to listen to Draek speak. Most people seemed to be ok with it, since he was a rider and all, but sometimes a person would get very frustrated with him.

             
Thanks, but I still lost the event, and I was sure I was going to win.
He knew that Draek was going to try to make him feel better, but deep down inside he did not want to feel better, he had lost.

             
You did, but you lost to another great fighter, who won the event and happens to be a friend of yours. You heard what he said about your fight with him being the most challenging.
Shane had come to see him after the medic said he was ok, and had in fact told him how good the fight was.

             
It did kind of make him feel better that the person who beat him went on to beat everyone else; but he still did not like to be beaten.

             
So what do they have you doing now?
Hayden asked.

             
Well, since it will be our turn to compete soon they don’t want us doing much work so that we don’t hurt ourselves before we get a chance to show off our strength. They also want us to hunt as much as we can right now so that we won’t miss any of the events.

             
Hayden and Draek continued to communicate for most of the morning, and around lunch time the games came to a stop for everyone to eat and rest and celebrate what all they had witnessed.

             
Fendrel came into the tent to see Hayden during the lunch break. Hayden could hear the cheers and commotion coming from the arena as its many occupants began to trickle out in search for food or drink. Hayden guessed that most of the taverns had been working all morning preparing large quantities of food in anticipation for the crowds.

             
“How are you feeling, boy?” He asked as he pushed Hayden’s leg to the side so he could sit at the foot of the bed.

             
“Better, but they want to me to rest until the afternoon games start to make sure that I did not hurt my head real bad.” Hayden had stopped bleeding a while ago, and although his nose was very sensitive to the touch he did feel much better. He was ready to get out and watch the rest of the events before turning in for the night.

             
“That’s a good idea; you did really well out there by the way. You definitely showed everyone what a rider was made out of.” Fendrel patted Hayden’s leg as he tried to encourage him.

             
“Thanks, I appreciate that.” Hayden was like everyone else and liked to hear if someone thought that he had done a good job.

             
“Don’t worry about it. I really was impressed by you right up until the point where Shane busted your head open and dropped you like sac of rotten onions.” Hayden had been sitting up, but when Fendrel spoke he threw himself back onto the bed. The rubbed his temples to try to relieve the headache that he was getting and he let out a soft groan to show his how uncomfortable he was.

             
“Don’t feel bad; if I would have been hit in the head like that I would probably have a major headache too.” Fendrel laughed as Hayden groaned even louder.

____________________________

              Hayden was sitting next to Fendrel on one of the benches in the arena. The Festival of Games had started again and the crowd was now full of excitement and watered
down ale. Add the sun beating down on them and so many people crammed together that fights quickly become a favorite pass time.

             
They tried to keep the events coming one after the other to keep the crowds’ attention. Any amount of down time led to more fights and soldiers had to be called in to break them up.

             
The next event to take place was another close combat; all the single events were done first before they went to the team events. Shane had decided to take this one out as well but he had politely declined their invitation for him to join them in the stands.

             
Hayden still hadn’t seen Cass yet and he knew that Sebastian and Giles would probably not compete until the dragon riding contests. Shane and Hayden were actually the only two dragon riders who competed in these competitions. Dragon riders tended to already think that they were better than everyone else so they did not waste their time with the open competitions.

             
Even if Hayden and Shane were to win every event they would just tell them that they had won against commoners and that it did not matter. Hayden had long since stopped trying to befriend the older riders; for one thing their beliefs and ideals were so different than his own that they argued more than they talked. The biggest problem was that most of the older riders were off doing missions of some sort.

             
Hayden had once thought that Celestial City was home to the dragon riders, but since his first arrival he had learnt that it was more like a tavern than a home. The dragon riders would fly in from all parts of Arvain, spend a few nights and head off in another direction to another untold adventure.

             
Hayden shook his head clear of the doubts and questions that he had for Dragon Riders; this was not to place or time to be worrying about that now. Hayden watched as the next events began, and this event was hand to hand combat with no weapons.

             
Hayden watched as the combatants were thinned out just as they had done when Hayden had fought. So the crowd was given many different fights to keep their attention; at least that was the plan.

             
When the final two fighters started the last round they quickly ran out of steam and the fight dwindled out until they were both bent over trying to catch their breath. The crowd quickly became bored and started booing.

             
It wasn’t long before some members of the audience decided that they could put on a better show than the fighter on the arena floor. They believed it so much that they decided to show people, and fights quickly broke out everywhere again.

             
Hayden and Fendrel watched as ground troops tried to flood the stands, doing their best to stop the fighting without adding to it. The crowds saw this as a chance to expand the fight and did their best to push everyone around them, forcing the fight to grow bigger and bigger.

             
“We should probably try to head out before the real guards show up,” Fendrel yelled over the roar of the fights so that Hayden could hear. Hayden was about to ask what he was talking about when he heard the sounds of giant wings flapping.

             
The sun got blocked out as if rain clouds were in the sky, but as Hayden looked up he saw the sky
had been filled by three dragons and their riders.

             
What’s going on there, Herrdiga just sent out a call that three dragons and their riders were needed at the arena.
Draek’s thoughts came quickly and sounded as if he was shouting in his mind.

             
Nothing to be worried about, just most of the crowd is drunk and bored and they started fighting and it has all gotten out of hand. Fendrel and I are trying to leave right now; who is Herrdiga?
Hayden had never heard of that dragon before.