Elurian pilgrims had to desperately want to become dragon riders to go to all the trouble of getting here. The extensive security checks, the tests, the genealogy proofs, and then proving themselves worthy to their fellow pilgrims. Elucians thought of Elurians as soft and spoiled. Most resented the competition for the coveted spots on the Dragon Force, which was absurd since one either had the gift or not, and the number of participants didn't matter. It wasn't as if there were quotas.
We needed as many riders as we could get.
"Kailin!” Shovia's voice cut through my thoughts. "Are you even listening?"
I blinked. "Sorry, I was just thinking about all the trouble Elurians have to go through to join the pilgrimage."
Shovia grinned. "That alone is reason enough to pursue them. I like tenacious men." She flipped her long, glossy hair over her shoulder. "So, are we done with this boring refresher? Can we start planning what we're going to wear tonight?"
"We are not done," I quashed her enthusiasm. "I didn't explain electromagnetic field fluctuations yet." Shovia's disgruntled expression made me laugh. "Think of it this way. Ifthe conversation turns to dragon navigation, do you remember enough to impress the Elurians with your knowledge?"
I knew she didn't. Science had never been Shovia's strong suit.
She groaned dramatically. "That's not how I plan to impress them, but I'll stay if you promise to make it quick."
8
ALAR
"A masterful strategy is three-dimensional: the visible action, the concealed purpose, and the ultimate goal."
—Commander Brusdick Gorlin, Elite Forces' Vedona Academy
As we entered our room at the Pilgrims' Lodge, Codric dropped his bags on the floor and sat down on the narrow bed. "The mattress is as thin as a pancake, and there is no bedding." He let out a long-suffering sigh. "The things I have to endure for you. This is by far the poorest excuse for a room we have ever stayed in."
At least it was clean, and my initial scan didn't discover any bugs or spiderwebs.
"First of all, you are not doing this for me. You want to be here as much as I do. Secondly, we knew that there would be no bedding, and that's why we have sleeping bags. And thirdly, we are lucky to have a private room for just the two of us. Most of the other pilgrims are sleeping in communal halls and use communal showers. This room is as fancy as it gets around here."
Thousands of Elucians came thrice yearly to Skywatcher's Point for the pilgrimage, and they all stayed in this sprawling lodge. In fact, the entire economy of the small town was probably based on accommodating the pilgrims.
I dropped my luggage next to Codric's and walked to the window. "The view more than compensates for the lack of amenities."
"It's pretty out there," Codric agreed. "But it won't make sleeping on this mattress any more comfortable."
"It's just for four nights. You'll live." I shifted my gaze back to the stunning scenery outside the lodge.
I'd seen pictures and vids that tried to capture the natural beauty of this land, but they hadn't done the grandeur of these rugged mountains justice. The constant light show playing in the skies was just the icing on a spectacular cake.
Still, the beauty of these inhospitable mountains couldn't have been what had drawn the first Elucians to them. They were easier to defend than the flats and gentle hills of Eluria or the swamps of Sitoria, but they certainly made survival more difficult in almost every other way.
Had it been proximity to the dragons?
I had studied what I could find about Elucian lore, but there wasn't much that was known to outsiders.
According to the Elucian creation myth, Aurorys had no human beings until the Two-Faced God Elu had opened a divine portal and called people forth from another world, giving achosen group of them the ability to communicate with dragons. Those had been the first Elucians.
The story was no doubt an allegory and not an actual account of how people had come to be in Aurorys, especially given the mythical numbers. Seventy-three thousand people had come through the portal, of which precisely seven hundred and thirty-one were chosen by Elu to become the first Elucians. Three hundred and sixty-five young women and three hundred and sixty-five young men were touched by the god and given the gift of telepathy so they could bond with dragons. A wise woman had been touched twice and given the additional gift of prophecy, and she'd become the first shaman.
I would have preferred a scientific explanation that didn't involve divine intervention, but we didn't have any, and we could only speculate about our origins. The oldest human remains discovered to date were estimated to be about fifteen thousand years old, so obviously we weren't the product of natural evolution, which led me to conclude that humans were settlers from somewhere else in the universe. I didn't believe in divine portals or magical manifestations of something out of nothing, so I had to assume that those first humans had arrived on ships.
Our scientists postulated that there were numerous populated worlds in the universe, but because of our problematic atmosphere and geological conditions, we couldn't launch ships into our own sky, let alone space. The chaotic conditions also limited communications between our towns and cities to what could be transmitted through cables, so communicating with other beings on other planets was not possible either.
Still, our inability to launch spaceships didn't mean that other intelligent beings couldn't travel through space, and it was possible that one such ship had crash-landed on Aurorys, bringing with it the first settlers.
The Elucians were the oldest civilization on our planet, so if there had been a ship, it had most likely crashed in the Elucian Mountains, but to date, no wreckage had been found.
After the Elucians had been exiled from their land, the Sitorians had combed through every nook and cranny for centuries, searching for dragon eggs, and when they couldn't find any, they'd offered bounties for anyone who did. Many Elurians had taken up the challenge, and yet nothing had been found.
