Chapter Five
“Segast?”
The call came from Ang Shi’s office as I walked past. I paused, stepped to his door, offered a salute which he returned.
“Come in and close the door.”
Unusually, he was not behind his desk, so I did as requested and moved closer to him. As ever his expression gave little away, but there was compassion in his eyes which made my stomach knot.
“Sir?”
I watched him swallow before he spoke. “This is not easy to say, and I know it will upset you, but you need to know. Your latest request for a transfer has been declined.”
“I see.” I was disappointed but not surprised. “Thank you for letting me know, sir.” I stepped away.
The fingers that curled around my hand surprised me and kept me in place.
“There’s more you need to know,” Ang said. The serious nature of his tone, the nearly sympathetic look in his eyes caught my attention. I didn’t pull away because I had a feeling I was going to need this human connection.
“Sir?” My stomach sank.
“With the official paperwork was a personal message to me from Flight Sergeant Robb, she deals with many of the staff movements and allocations around the North Eastern Seaboard.”
It wasn’t a conscious choice, but my hand gripped around his. I could almost see trouble barrelling towards me.
“She … indicated … in rather plain language … that Sky Commander Zemich has said that if you put in another transfer request citing Fin’s need for a better environment, he will order that Fin be seized and sent to the Reverend Fathers.”
Ice washed through me. “What?” I swayed on my feet.
Ang Shi grabbed me by the shoulders and guided me to sit on the edge of his desk.
My son didn’t need an orphanage, just a better socialisation option, schooling with children his own age. “No. They can’t.”
“Unfortunately, they can,” Ang Shi said. He stood so close I could feel the heat rolling off his body. His head was bowed to look me straight in the eye. One hand rose from my shoulder to my neck. Long warm digits on my skin, keeping me with him.
“You should understand,” he said softly, “that I will fight them all the way on this point.”
Hearing those words, my startled heart began to calm. If he would fight for us Fin and I were safe. It was a foolish and irrational thought, but it was an inner certainty that I felt at my core.
“Thank you, sir.”
He lingered close and for once I wasn’t uncomfortable with the proximity.
“Bear this in mind though. You will need to be careful on future transfer requests.” He shifted, standing straighter. I continued to see his personal support, but the man before me was again my superior officer. “Or better yet, stop making the requests and stay.”
Was that what he wanted? For me to stay? Only I couldn’t. I wanted something better for Fin. Which definitely did not include getting him sent to the Reverend Fathers. I would have to do more than wait another year before my next request, I would have to rethink my strategy for the request.
* * *
“Can I? Can I, Dad? Please? Please?”
Fin, now seven, was desperate to be allowed to ride a dragon on his own.
“Flight Sergeant Segast.”
I turned to see Shi at the human entrance to the dragon nests.
Unlike most Rider garrisons, we did not have a separate stable from the nests.
Mostly because the Fortress was on an island, and the dragon entrances to these caves were on the leeward side.
Anything built on the top of the island would require a lot of stone and work to build.
If we had a sick dragon, there were ways to get the animal in here without it flying, so there was little point in separating the stables from the nests.
On the positive side, that meant I only had one place to go looking when Fin disappeared, as he had that morning.
He was almost always down with the dragons.
“Yes, Flight Captain?”
Shi jerked his head to call me over. In the three years I had been here, I had learned that while Shi was a regimented being, he wasn’t without compassion.
He had been respectful and considerate with Fin.
I wouldn’t say the two of them got on, I think Fin was a little afraid of Shi, but they learned to accept being in one another’s company.
“Stay with Dora,” I told Fin. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
My blue was lying down, curled around and trying to sleep after a long night shift with me. Neither of us was in the mood to be pestered. Though Salvadora did wrap her tail around Fin and drag him in to cuddle up.
I marched over to Shi and offered him a salute as we met.
“I hear that Mister Segast—” He kept his voice low, not to carry. “—spent yet another night in the nests last night.”
It was surprisingly difficult not to gulp at that. The actions of Stable Master Eustace were not forgotten. They never would be. Thankfully, the new stable master was more understanding. “My apologies, sir. I have repeatedly told him not to do so.”
“Your tellings don’t seem to be working,” Shi said.
Which was itself an indictment of my command. Somehow, even despite the dreadful experience of Eustace’s actions, Fin would not be dissuaded from seeking out dragons or spending time in the stables.
“However, I understand that this is normal behaviour in childhood. I would also say that Stable Master Fenwick has reported that the dragons seem more docile while Fin is down here. A thing he noted, and reported to me, since the presence of the other young people here tends to have the opposite effect. Having spoken to the Stable Master, we felt it might be a good time to introduce Mister Segast to the world of working as a stable hand. If you find that agreeable?”
I would have found it more agreeable if Shi would call Fin Fin rather than Mister Segast, but had not had the courage to ask that favour, not even after three years.
Shi wasn’t unapproachable, but I was uncertain of how appropriate he would find that request and I did not want to cause upset with something that would lead to his discomfort.
“If he’s going to be underfoot, he might as well become useful. ”
Shi nodded. “Then you will bring the matter up with your son as your own idea.”
I blinked. “Sir?”
“You are his father. You must be seen as bringing him good news. If you are still against the boy flying solo, I will command him to drop the subject. I will tell him that I will not have my dragons used for such frivolous activities as a joyride.” His features tightened for an instant before he could regain his composure.
“Lord Aurexian has an opinion?” I asked.
“On every matter.” Shi rolled his eyes. And I realised that that was the first time I had ever really seen him even approach anything which might be considered relaxation.
“And your opinion on me allowing Fin to fly?”
He took a moment to consider. Glancing over to where my son was leaning against Dora.
Face set and glum, he was stroking the feathered end of her tail.
Unlike the other dragons, blues had mostly scales but feathers over their shoulders, wing bones, paws, and tail ends.
Those feathers helped them stay warm in the polar regions where they hailed from.
The end wing feathers also assisted in stabilising the dragon in flight.
Personally I found the particularly fluffy feathers between their toe pads quite the cutest thing. “My opinions are irrelevant,” Shi said.
“Opinions?” I asked.
He searched my face. “Such as my opinion on your beard.”
My eyebrows flickered up at that. I’d grown the beard to cover the scar my failure to heal myself had left. “It covers the scar.”
“That scar is nothing to be ashamed of,” Shi said quietly. “It is a mark of your fatherhood.”
So apparently he had a negative opinion on my beard. Not what I wanted to hear. “And your opinion of allowing Fin to fly?” Which I suddenly wasn’t sure I wanted to hear either.
“I am not the boy’s father. The choice is yours. However, of the two young people living in Unkea—” Only two now the eldest had left for the sake of his education. “—he is the only one I would even consider it for. But not until tomorrow.”
I nodded. “Dora needs her sleep.”
“Salvadora is a dragon. She can go three days without sleep if necessary. You, however, cannot. Tomorrow is also likely to be a better day weather-wise for a first solo flight.” He stepped away, paused and moved back. “A short first solo flight. The boy is not tall for his age.”
And in dragon riding, height did matter.
The neck of a dragon is wide, and the seat bone is close to the juncture of neck and shoulders.
Anyone under two paces tall would struggle to seat well or get a good thigh grip.
Fin wasn’t that tall yet. However, his communication skills should see him through.
Shi now gone, I walked back to Fin. His lips were pressed together, and a frown furrowed his brow.
My footsteps faltered. He looked oddly like his mother when she would not take no for an answer.
Pain sliced into every nerve ending. Six years, and still I missed her, my Sasha, and when those matching brown eyes glowered in my direction it was impossible not to think of her.
“Come on, Fin, let Dora sleep.”
That little chin wobbled up, turning his mouth down. His hold on her tail feathers was white-knuckled.
“What’s always a rider’s first concern, Fin?”
“Their dragon,” came back the tutted response.
“Look at Dora. She wants to sleep. So we need to let her sleep. And you need to get to school.”
With a huff, Fin laid her tail on the ground and stroked down the feathers he’d been holding. Then stomped straight past me and up the stairs.
He’s not happy, Salvadora said without lifting her head.
“Well aware,” I told her silently. “Get some sleep. I want you on full alert when you take him out for his first solo tomorrow.”
Her head popped up at that, and I was paused from following my son when her tail wrapped around me for a quick hug.
* * *
Fin stomped all the way back to our rooms. Slammed his bedroom door.
I shouted at that. Not something I’m proud of, but I did it.
My shoulders slumped. The urge to go apologise was huge, but that was the weight of parenthood.
Single parenthood, especially. Ang Shi might have offered to be the bad guy and let me be the good, but when raising a kid alone, you had to be both.
At my bedroom door, I paused to consider if I should speak to Fin first.
“Sorry.”
My spine straightened. I turned around to see Fin hanging out of his bedroom doorway. I should ask him what for and why and do all that clever parenting stuff, but honestly, the night shift was hard, and I just didn’t have the energy. I turned toward him and leant against the doorjamb.
“Would you like to spend more time in the stables?”
He frowned. “What, like you want me to live down there?”
That brought a small smile to my lips. “No, but Stable Master Fenwick will let you work down there as a stable hand. You’ll get to spend time with the dragons and learn the job of a stable hand and all those things that you kind of know, but this way you’ll learn properly.
You have to understand that this is a job, not just playtime with the dragons. ”
His little eyes lit up. Not just his eyes. “I’ll need to think about it.”
Yeah, for about a nanosecond. He’d already decided to do it, I could tell. “Good. You do that. You also need to get to school, and we’ll talk about it after. When I’m awake. When you’re not all shiny. Gods, boy, that can hurt the eyes, tone it down before you get to school.”
The impact of his run and hug would have knocked me off my feet were it not for the doorjamb. I folded my arms around him and hugged him just as tight.
“Love you, Fin.”
“Love you, Dad.”