Chapter 14
I felt decidedlysilly in my face paint.
Even in the midst of hundreds of others, all wearing the school colors and proudly wearing navy blue garishly painted across their cheeks, I couldn’t get over the thought that I looked like a wraith or something.
“Woo!” Aiden shouted from beside me, standing up along with the others in a sequence that made it look like there was a wave of bodies rolling across the stands. When he sat back down again, he turned to me with a beaming grin on his face. “You look absolutely adorable like this,” he said, pecking my nose with his lips.
Oh, right.
That’s why I’m doing this.
The rest of our friends were either sitting in front of or behind us, to make it easier to talk to each other.
The stands stretched out on either side of us, all facing the Irish Sea. The arena had been roped off magically, the little bobbing buoys on the far side barely visible from the shore of the island. High above us, on either end of the arena, golden rectangular nets hovered, gently floating in a random pattern.
The only people within the space were the referees, wearing neon orange, and hovering on magic carpets. I hadn’t met the dragon riding or extreme sports education professors, so I wasn’t sure which one was which, but from what I could see at this distance, one was balding and the other resembled Professor Reynolds.
They were checking the warding and spellwork on the buoys and the nets.
A booming blast echoed through the fall afternoon air, heralding the introduction of the dragon riders.
I leaned forward eagerly, excited to get my first glimpse of these rideable dragons. They streaked into the arena from either end of the stands, our team in navy blue, and Academie Bellamie’s in scarlet red.
The immensity of the dragons still took my breath away. They were about the size of very large horses, if those horses had long tails and giant wings. The flapping of those wings thundered through the air, sending gusts of wind that set the flags whipping on their posts.
Each team did a lap of the arena, cycling between low and high. The audience roared in approval when our team swept past us, standing up and doing the wave again.
Finally, the dragons moved into the center of the arena, hovering in place while facing each other.
“It’s about to start!” squealed Una excitedly from in front of me. “My heart is pounding so hard I can barely think!”
One of the refs, the balding one, moved up between the teams, a black ball in his hands.
A whistle blew, the ball was launched up in the air, and the dragons swiftly flew into action.
The riders moved seamlessly with the great beasts, laying flat against the sinewy necks and gripping tightly to the harnesses.
Someone in blue grabbed the ball before it started falling, tossing it higher to someone else on our team. They lobbed it forward at such a high speed that I lost track of it for a moment, but obviously another rider in blue had caught it, because they wheeled their green dragon to the left in such a tight spin that it looked like a pirouette in midair.
They were closing in on the net, they took their shot...
And the goalkeeper in red swooped up just in time to catch the ball.
I expected there to be a pause for a minute while the teams sorted themselves out, but the ball was back in play almost instantly. The goalie tossed the ball in the air and executed a fancy leap from their dragon, flipping head over heels and kicking the ball while upside down!
I lost track of the ball again, because I had to watch the goalie to make sure they had landed properly on their dragon once more.
“I thought they had tethers keeping them attached to their dragons!” I gasped, pulling on Aiden’s sleeve.
“Nah, where’s the fun in that?” he said. “Oh no, they’re going to score—”
The audience collectively held their breath as a player in red approached the net.
Our goalie dropped between them and the net, but the ball went soaring over their head.
“No!” shouted several students.
But the net moved upward at the very last second and the ball bounced off the rim, dropping down into the hands of a blue rider.
“Oh my gosh, this is really quite exciting, isn’t it?” I exclaimed amidst the shouts of approval as the rider streaked low across the water, the ball tucked under their arm.
They were moving so fast that a wake was left in the water.
Another blue player dropped in front of the one with the ball, diving below the surface a second later, and then erupting in a spray of water and taking off, the wings of the red dragon beating hard.
“Wait...” I said, puzzled. The blue rider that had the ball didn’t any longer, but was still pretending they did.
“They did a Dvorsky-Palenka Switch!” Una exclaimed, leaning back and slapping at my calf.
“A what?” I asked.
Bruce leaned over Aiden, his hands outstretched. He shook his left hand. “Okay, this one is the white dragon that was rushing the pitch—”
My confused expression made him halt.
“The white dragon was flying quickly from one end to the other close to the water,” he clarified.
“Got it.”
Now he waved his right hand. “This is the red dragon. It dove in front of the white, right?”
I nodded. I had seen that. It almost looked like they were going to collide.
“At the very last second, after the red had started its dive and the water was spraying, concealing their actions, the white tossed the ball to the red.” His right hand moved under his left, imitating the dive underwater. “Then the red took the ball up high, away from the white, while the other team was still going after the white. See, look, the red’s going to try to score... Yes!”
The audience screamed their approval as Blackthorn Academy scored the first goal of the game.
My mind was still blown by the transfer of the ball. “That is such a complicated move!” I said, shaking my head. “It must take a lot of practice.”
“It does,” Bruce agreed, nodding. “It’s named after the riders who invented it. They were a great team.”
“They must have been.” I turned back to the game when a large black dragon whooshed past the stands, so close I felt I could have reached out to touch the tail.
Obviously that would have been impossible, since the barrier in place prevented anything from passing through, but it still felt like I could have succeeded.
It took me a moment to find the ball—once again in possession of our team—and I watched the trio of dragons pass the ball back and forth.
“It’s like an extremely complicated game of monkey in the middle,” I said with a chuckle.
Aiden was the only one who heard me and he laughed quietly. “Don’t let them hear you say that,” he murmured in my ear, making me shiver. “They take this game very seriously.”
“I meant no disrespect,” I said, surprised. “I’ve said the same thing about other sports.”
“This is nothing like other sports,” Aiden said gravely.
“No, it really isn’t,” I agreed, watching as the trio fumbled the ball and it dropped into the waiting hands of a French player.
The dragon of the player descended into such a sharp dive that I could see a gap between the rider’s ass and the saddle. The ensuing splash as they hit the water completely soaked the barrier in front of us, making me extremely grateful for its presence once again.
“What’s going on?” I asked, standing up along with everyone else to try to see where the rider had gone.
“He’s going to swim underwater for a little while, and then come up unexpectedly,” Bruce said. “This works best with blue and black dragons because their scales blend in with the water.” He pointed at the violent water. “Even the uniform is obscured from view. The dragon’s probably swimming upside down.”
I shook my head. “That’s impressive.”
Suddenly, the water exploded upward with a blue dragon and rider. The dragon flailed a little, gaining height slowly.
Almost too slowly.
A giant white and black head erupted right where the dragon had left the water, followed by a sleek body. Sharp teeth snapped right where the dragon’s tail had been a moment before, and everyone shouted in surprise.
“An orca!” I gasped. “Wouldn’t they clear the water of dangerous animals before setting the barrier?”
“They should have,” Bruce said grimly.
Everyone from both teams stopped at the sharp whistle blast from one of the referees.
“An intermission while we usher the orca out of the barrier and find out how it got in,” boomed the referee, his voice magically enhanced.
The dragons filed out of the arena slowly.
“Do you think that dragon got hurt?” I asked, trying to spot the blue dragon that had almost been orca food.
“No, I think it’s fine. But even if it wasn’t, there are healers waiting for them,” Bruce reassured me.
“It’s very odd that an orca made its way into the arena,” Aiden said quietly. “The barrier is nearly impenetrable, as you saw. It only opens when the dragons enter or leave, and just for them.”
“So only in the air?” I asked.
“Think of it like a theater curtain,” Aiden suggested.
“How do you know all this?”
His lips quirked up in a smile. “Dragon Polo is my dad’s favorite sport. I’ve been attending games since I was very small.”
“How have I never even heard of it before this year?” I shook my head, dismayed with my lack of knowledge of an area of the magical world.
“I’m going to guess that your family isn’t big into sports,” Bruce teased.
“Honestly? I’m not sure they’re big into magic,” I replied with a sigh. “My parents work in the city for non-magical companies. Grandfather might have introduced me to the sport, but he lives too far away for a casual visit. Also, I think he’s more into the mysterious knowledge of magic than the sports.”
Aiden chuckled. “That sounds about right.” He pinched my chin lightly. “Rather like someone else I know.”
I blushed. “I come by it honestly.” I gave myself a shake. “But back to the orca. Could it have swum in when the barrier opened?”
“I suppose so,” Aiden mused, rubbing his chin in thought. “It could have been in the right place at the right time. Unlikely, though. The barrier opened only on the shore side, remember? We would have seen it.”
I frowned. “That does seem strange.”
Loud guffaws met my ears, and my gaze was drawn to Chuck and a couple of his friends seated close to the edge of the stands, near the lower end.
There was a strange square object at his feet.
“What is that?” I muttered.
“What?” Aiden asked, confused.
I waved him off, sharpening my eyesight with a spell.
The dimness of the day was fortunate, as this spell also let in way too much light. The cloud cover filtered the sunlight, which was suddenly way too bright for my poor eyes.
But now I could see what the object was.
“A fish tank?”
I released the spell on my eyes, blinking at the sudden change of lighting.
“Why does Chuck have a fish tank?” I asked Aiden.
“A what?” Now it was Aiden’s turn to frown.
“That’s weird,” Bruce added. “You wouldn’t bring a pet to a sporting event. Not a goldfish, anyway.”
“Oh my God,” I gasped, both my hands over my mouth. “Aiden! Do you remember seeing Chuck on the outskirts of town?”
“He was buying something,” Aiden said. “You think he bought an orca? It was a pretty small package, if I recall.”
“What if the orca was shrunk?” I suggested, eyebrow cocked. “It would fit in a fish tank easily.”
“You really think so?” Bruce asked skeptically.
“I really do. Think about it!” My voice rose in agitation and I took a breath to calm down. “If the fish tank had a spell on it to shrink anything put inside it, kinda like my purse, then the orca would be perfectly safe in there. The instant it left the tank, it would grow back to its original size. Here’s what I think happened; the dragons flew through the barrier at the start of the match, and Chuck tossed in the tiny orca at the same time. Nobody saw him do it because everyone was focused on the dragons, obviously.”
“That makes sense,” Aiden said slowly. “Especially if there was a timed slow growth on the orca, since it didn’t appear until several minutes in.”
Bruce shook his head with a chuckle. “It’s a brilliant plan. Really hard to pin on him, too. Clever bastard.”
“Thankfully, nobody got hurt,” I said. “It could have caused an international incident, and he and his asshole buddies are laughing it up. What jerks! And to think he made me feel sorry for him about the whole Richard thing.”
Bruce tilted his head. “What whole Richard thing?”
“They were in a situation last year and he wanted to try to restart it this year, but Richard died before he could talk to him,” Aiden summarized.
“Huh. Wouldn’t have thought that. Maybe this was an attempt at making Richard notice him.” Bruce waved a hand carelessly. “This would’ve taken planning, so he must have ordered the orca a while ago, in the summer, and then he decided to go through with it anyway. Harmless prank, thanks to the quick thinking of that rider.”
In the meantime, the referees and several teachers had managed to corral the orca and usher it outside the barrier. Then they did another sweep of the interior for large animals.
The whistle blew sharply. “The game will recommence in a few minutes, once the dragons and their riders are ready. Apologies for the delay,” said one of the referees.
A few minutes later, the dragons reentered the arena and the game play picked up again.
It was a close game, the teams scoring one after the other.
I was surprised that the riders still seemed willing to enter the water for their special maneuvers, but I guess they were a bit of a daredevil to even want to play this sport, so it made sense that a scare like the orca wouldn’t deter them for too long.