9. Morek #2
"Shouldn't we get something to eat?" Shovia asked.
"You should. The lamb skewers on the second table are the best, but the cheese pastries run out fast, so grab those first."
As my friends spread out to collect food, I leaned back in my chair and enjoyed the scene.
The quintet was together, all five of us, bonded, dressed in matching uniforms, and surrounded by people who'd survived the same crucible we had.
It felt like all the pieces had finally clicked into place.
When a sharp rap of metal on crystal silenced the room, I turned toward the sound and saw that General Lesten Zorian had arrived and was now standing at the head of the hall.
The room fell quiet.
"Tonight, we celebrate," he said. "Twenty-six cadets entered the Day of Volition, and twenty-six cadets bonded with dragons. That is unprecedented in the history of the Dragon Force."
A murmur rippled through the room. I hadn't known the number was unusual.
Twenty-six out of twenty-six meant no one had been rejected.
Not every dragon who had come to the ceremony had found a match, but since there had been many more dragons than cadets, I hadn't been surprised that every single one had been paired with a dragon, but apparently that was rare.
"It was a long process, and some of you had to wait through long hours of uncertainty until your dragon arrived.
Some of you bonded with dragons who are accommodating and easy to get along with, and some of you bonded with dragons who are difficult and whose reputations precede them.
" His gaze flicked to Kailin for a brief moment.
I thought of Korthax, who had practically bowled over two other cadets in his eagerness to reach me.
No slow, dignified procession for him. He'd taken one look at me, or maybe a sniff, and decided that I was his, and the feeling had been so mutual and so instantaneous that I'd been ready to climb onto his back before either of us had exchanged a single word.
Some bonds didn't need deliberation. They just needed recognition.
"From this day forward, you are riders," Zorian continued.
"After the celebrations, you will resume your training as riders, not cadets.
You will make mistakes, and you will correct them to become even better riders, and you will do that not as individuals, but as a family. The Dragon Force family."
Family.
My blood family was in Skywatcher's Point, but they felt very far away tonight. The people around me, though – Kailin, Alar, Shovia, Codric, and the twenty-one other cadets who'd shared this journey with us – were now my family too. A different kind, forged in a different fire, but just as real.
"The Dragon Force is the smallest branch of Elucia's military, but we carry the greatest responsibility," Lesten went on.
"We are the shield of our nation, the fire that keeps the darkness at bay, and the wings that carry hope to the furthest corners of Elucia and sometimes Eluria.
" The General's expression was both proud and solemn.
"Today, during the bonding ceremony, five of your brothers and sisters flew a rescue mission in the Tarinian Mountains.
Civilians trapped after an avalanche, stranded on a mountainside with critical injuries, are alive tonight because dragon riders answered a flare. "
I saw Kailin's chin lift at his words. She'd seen the flare and notified Nyxath, saving the trapped Elurian civilians from waiting long hours for the rescue to arrive.
"That is what we do," Zorian said. "We protect.
We serve. We fly where no one else can reach, and we bring back those who would otherwise be lost. Whether the threat comes from the Shedun, from the mountains, or other natural disasters that our beloved Aurorys throws at us, we accept the challenge and meet it head on. "
He raised his glass. "To the newest members of our family. May your bonds be strong, your instincts sharp, and your courage equal to the demands placed on you."
"To the riders," the room echoed, and crystal rang against crystal.
I drank, and the wine was better than anything that had ever touched my lips, including the highland whiskey Ravel had gifted us before the Day of Volition.
After the toast the General made a round of the room, exchanging brief words with each newly bonded cadet, and when he reached our table, he paused, his gaze passing over the five of us and lingering on each face for a few seconds.
"The famous quintet. All bonded."
"Yes, sir," I said, because someone had to say something.
"Your dragons chose well." He gave us a nod and moved on.
The rest of the brass stayed for another hour, then drifted away in ones and twos until only the younger officers and the cadets remained.
Someone produced a second case of wine. Someone else found a way to coax music from the ancient speakers in the corner of the hall, and the Elucian folk songs that started playing brought a smile to my face because I felt particularly patriotic tonight.
Codric, predictably, was the first to start singing, and his voice was good enough that people actually stopped talking to listen.
It was one of those bawdy Elucian ballads he'd sung at the Pilgrims' Lodge the night we'd first met, and by the second verse, half the room was singing and laughing, and the other half was blushing.
Shovia wasn't among the blushing. She sang along.
Morek from six months ago would have been in the middle of that crowd, singing the loudest and making a fool of himself for laughs, but tonight's Morek sat at the table with a glass of wine and watched his friends, feeling contented and grateful.
We'd made it. All five of us.