I’d had all this in the back of my mind for some time, of course, but I’d been telling myself it was a problem for the future—something I could forget about for now. However, hearing the Cavern Master say that L’eesha was going to rise for her first Mating Flight soon was sobering.
I thanked him for the information and resolved to talk to Ryse about it so we could map out some kind of a strategy. But before I could do that, a new problem arose…or maybe I should say an old problem came back.
Because as I was about to leave the Dragon Caverns, I heard a commotion outside.
I had heard the dragons singing all together and humming as one on Impression Day and Hatching Day. But this sounded like every dragon at the Academy was hissing at once.
Turning my head, I saw that L’eesha had stopped eating and was hissing too—her long neck raised, and her bloody teeth bared in warning.
“What is it, sweetheart—what’s wrong?” I asked her.
“danger!” she sent back to me. “a threat coming from outside!”
“Danger? What kind of danger?”
But she only kept repeating that a threat was coming. It appeared I had to see for myself if I wanted to know what it was.
Despite L’eesha begging me not to go, I ran quickly through the honeycombed maze of the Caverns until I came to the arching exit that opened onto the side of the mountain.
Looking out, I saw a lone rider on a common Green dragon flying towards the Flight Terraces, which jutted out of the Old Drake on the level below me. The rider was listing in the saddle, barely hanging on and his dragon was flying erratically.
As he got closer, I saw to the shock that it was Chud Larson. After the Mating Flight, he’d been reassigned to Wide Patrol, flying through the far reaches of the kingdom to be sure all was well and that the Madlings hadn’t returned.
It was the same task my own father had been charged with—though it was far beneath his station as a rider from a Great House flying a Crimson Gold-wing. Most considered it a punishment detail since the Madlings had been gone for so long and no one expected them to ever come back. But it was an Academy tradition to keep patrolling all corners of the kingdom and so riders still went out for weeks or months at a time and then returned to report when their assignment was over.
As Chud got closer, I could see that something was terribly wrong with him. One side of his face was swollen—so puffy it must be hard for him to see from his left eye—and there were streaks of gray crossing his skin that looked disturbingly like some kind of blood poisoning.
“They’re coming!” he shouted, his voice hoarse and ragged as his dragon stumbled to a landing on the broad ledge of the Flight Terraces below me. “They’re coming!”
“Who’s coming, lad?” I heard one of the Terrace workers ask as they helped him dismount.
But Chud didn’t answer. Instead, he started laughing manically—a low, hoarse, dreadful sound that had no humor in it at all.
“They’re coming!” he choked out again and his dragon reeled and went to her knees. She was trembling all over with exhaustion as though she’d been flying as hard and fast as she could for days and was on the point of collapse.
Indeed, even from where I was, a level above them, I could feel her fear for her rider. She nudged Chud with her snout and made a soft, pitiful sound filled with worry.
“she wants someone to help him,” L’eesha said, and I saw that she had come up beside me. I’d been so busy watching Chud, that I hadn’t even noticed. “he’s sick,” she added.
“Someone needs to get the Healer,” I said and turned to go but L’eesha stopped me.
“i already told the Head Master’s dragon to tell the Head Master to get her,” she said.
“The Head Master? You didn’t have to get him involved,” I said, feeling a stab of apprehension.
“i thought he should know,” she said. “this is very bad. his dragon is saying he was bitten by a Madling.”
“What?” I rounded on her, my heart pounding. “No—that can’t be true!”
L’eesha looked at me, her rainbow eyes blinking slowly.
“it is what his dragon says. she is sending out the warning—that is why all the dragons are hissing.”
Indeed, they all were, and the sound was high and eerie, putting my nerves on edge. A moment later, I saw Professor Zephyr, the Head Healer, hurry out to the ledge. She was followed by the Head Master.
By now Chud Larson had stopped laughing but what he was doing now was hardly an improvement. He was leaning against his dragon’s side, staring up at the sky. His swollen, gray-streaked face had a blank look on it and greenish foam was leaking slowly from the corner of his mouth.
“God and Goddess,” I whispered, staring down at him. “He looks terrible!”
