To Fight and To Fold (Riders of Rishika #1)

Prologue

Don’t be late.

The one rule Aaryn had given herself this morning, and she’d already broken it.

Bent at most, she reasoned with herself. She was only a handful of minutes behind, and making up for it with every step slapped into the wet earth.

Rain poured from the sky in sheets so thick she struggled to lift her face to make sure she was taking the correct path. Despite the clouds blocking the sun, it was still so white and bright that the sight struck with all the gentleness of distant thunder. Her head ached.

Her long pink hair, which had been carefully braided, was ruined, smacking against her back with her movement, each plop felt within the depths of her skull.

Her threadbare shoes offered little protection, soaked within just a few steps outside of their meager hutch in the hills as she slipped and skidded her way to the bottom.

Her breath came in great puffs as she sprinted, skirts sticking to her thighs and calves.

The rain was what had awoken her.

She never slept past the sunrise, but of course today would be the day that a migraine would hit, that the barrier of even her thin blankets would be a blessing she couldn't indulge in.

Clutching her skirts, she ran through fields where once she would’ve stopped to pick flowers, and instead splashed through the gathering puddles.

She needed to look her best, after all.

A sad scoff left her lips.

She was drenched head to toe, and as lightning struck across the sky, so too did the pain through her temple.

With a stubborn grunt she pressed her soles harder into the mud and rain, eventually finding cobblestones beneath her heels.

“Apologies!” she shouted behind her as she raced through the market, dodging women and men in clothes that appeared more lavish and beautiful the closer she grew to the castle.

“You’re not gonna win the lottery anyway, girl!” someone shouted behind her.

Aaryn shook her head, refusing to allow the thought any room in her mind.

This lottery was her only hope.

She did not relish the remaining options her mother had presented to her.

“It’s been moved inside,” another voice called out to her.

Aaryn’s heart sank, lungs burning as her fingers curled into a fist, and she veered, aiming not for the main entrance to the castle, but the cathedral.

She hated to grace its beauty with her… herself, but she had no other choice.

Her hope began to dwindle as the spires of the church came into view, the stairs and walkway empty.

The crowd was already inside, the doors closed. Had they already begun the ritual? Were they not accepting any more entries?

She slid to a stop just at the bottom of the stairs, noticing a few guards keeping watch.

They were standing tall as they loomed at the top, but their intimidation was no match for the stone dragons amongst the spires of the cathedral glaring down at her. Daring her to enter.

Her steps faltered at the base of the marble stairs, rain striking her cheeks as she gazed up, lost. The crimson of the stained glass bled their history, depicting dragons and battle and loss and sacrifice.

She took a step forward, and lightning struck. The clouds above the deadly spires flickered with it, and Aaryn could have sworn she saw the Great Dragon in the gloomy shapes for just a moment, heard his roar in the thunder echoing close behind.

With her next step she imagined she felt his strength guiding her, a whisper of magic that no longer existed.

She wouldn't let anything deter her. Not this headache, not the guards, not the stone dragons and their gaping maws and sharp teeth.

The drip of her clothes onto the marble steps was barely heard over the rain spattering against the roof as she marched.

With heaving lungs, she reached the top, and the guards snapped to attention.

“It’s full,” the one on the left claimed.

Her cheeks went red, flushing as anger filled her. “There’s not room for one more person?”

Even through their armor she knew their glances were dubious as they studied her, dripping head to muddy toe.

“No. The ritual has already begun.”

Aaryn lifted both hands and scrubbed at her face in frustration.

“You cannot be serious,” she begged, and then turned her biggest, most rounded eyes up at them. “Please, just one more person. I’ll be so quiet. I won’t even sit. I’ll stand!” Were they worried she would track in the mud?

“Sorry, miss. Best head home.”

The left one took a step forward, hand held out as if to herd her off the steps.

Aaryn wanted to laugh. It turned out something would deter her after all.

She wondered what step of the ritual they were in. Were they praying to the Great Dragon to pick a lucky one? Were they chanting and calling forth what little magic was left in the world to choose the next Tethered?

Aaryn knew what it felt like to stand amongst a thousand other women, pleading to be the one to mark Evergale as a dragon’s home. Now she knew what it was to stand alone, having ruined her own chance at a proper future in this kingdom.

A shadow crossed above them, interrupting the unending gray of the sky, and she turned her head to the clouds, where she preferred it to be anyway.

A great beast—a dragon’s belly—flew above them, wings outstretched as the rider gripped their thighs in the saddle and banked to the right, back toward the castle.

Tears welled, indistinguishable from the rain dripping down her face as the majestic creature seemed to float effortlessly in the air, drifting away silently. Beautiful.

“I missed it,” she said quietly, as the realization finally settled within her.

“Maybe next time?” the guard tried to offer, his consolation empty.

She snapped her glare to him, too angry at herself to contain it.

Three years had passed since the last lottery. Three years since they’d found a new dragon, since his Tethered was chosen by the Great Dragon. How long would it be before the next one?

Aaryn was already too old to marry. At least to anyone with pockets deep enough to satisfy her mother.

And now she’d missed her only chance.

Her headache sharpened, lancing through her head, and she winced. Was this her punishment?

“You alright there?” A guard stepped forward, armor clanking, and she waved him off—

“Yes, yes, I—”

Her entire body seized, all function seeming to halt for a split second before she crumpled to the ground and opened her mouth in a silent scream.

To add volume would have hurt too much. It was as if her very skull was rattling, and she heard the jangle of the guards hovering over her.

Their voices faded in and out as she tensed, as the ache returned.

“Miss! Miss—hear me? —wrong? Go—help!”

Her whine interrupted their call for assistance, and she clutched at her head.

It hurt.

Distantly, through the mind fog and her vision, now bleary from agony, the doors of the cathedral opened, and a man in dark robes gasped.

“I-I’ve found her, sir! The Tethered is here!”

The pain stopped, and she went limp, afraid it might return if she moved a single muscle.

Her own pulse was loudest in her head, and she blinked, unsure if she’d heard him right, unable to gather the strength to ask.

Healers were called as she was bundled up and whisked away to the castle.

Not just past the large gates, but inside. Marble steps and great doors and hushed voices whispering about the event.

In her memory, Aaryn could not recall a ritual for finding the next Tethered—the lottery—concluding in such a dramatic fashion.

It wasn’t until she was lying in the infirmary that it began to dawn on her.

A kind healer with spectacles and gray hair and a proper doctor's uniform checked over her with tools their own village healer could only dream of.

A more casually armed guard stood just inside the door, Evergale's royal insignia emblazoned on his chest plate, signifying him as a member of the First Guard.

“I’m truly Tethered?” she asked. Her voice was weak.

He smiled kindly at her. “That’s what the ritual proclaimed, isn’t it?”

Her lips twitched. Her mother would be so thrilled.

“There it is, a smile,” the doctor interjected. “That’s a good sign. Do you have any questions?”

“Just one,” she answered, though ten more spawned in its wake.

“And what’s that?” he asked as he took her temperature.

“When do I get to meet my dragon?”