Called by the Dragon novel Chapter 2

Before the jagged mouth of a deep canyon, twelve children in beige desert garb scurried to line up in two rows of six. Towering and narrow, the passage that snaked ahead was far darker than it should have been in the rising light of the dawn, but not a single child betrayed even the slightest shade of fear. Instead, they looked straight ahead with wide, alert eyes, some even eager.

A bald man in hardened leather armor paced before them, staring hard at each small head he passed. “Let’s get this out of the way: yes, you might die. We’ll send notice to your family with your remains for a burial. You might have been hand-picked to come here, but you’re nothing special yet. Not until you pass through the Gauntlet. And no one feels sorry for you just because you’re still knee-high and knock-kneed. Is that understood!”

Twelve childish voices chimed in uniform assent. The man grimaced. He swore these kids got smaller every year. “None of you are going to make it through the Gauntlet on the first try, so don’t get any stupid ideas if you want to live to try again tomorrow. Only been done once before, and none of you have the right look in your eyes. You won’t get far. But that’s why you’re here, so you can harden and grow and stop being useless little brats. You might think you’re special for getting farther than the rest, but you’re only on the brink, nothing but fodder until you prove yourself. Understand?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Then…” The man moved off to the side with one final stride, letting his heavy boot fall onto the loose, sandy dirt with a thump. “Go!”

The children took off with a scramble toward the gorge’s entrance, the rustle of their clothes accompanying their frantic footsteps as they entered the darkened passage. They left behind the commanding officer, who stared after them with a stern expression.

“Bit cruel, isn’t it? I think a few would make it here and there if you didn’t batter their confidence like that before they even start.”

He didn’t even turn to look at his adjutant, a slender young man with blond hair, blue eyes, and dashingly high cheekbones. “Be quiet.”

“Alright, sir. You’ve got it, sir, no lip from me. Then…want to join the pool we’ve set up? I’ve put money on the girl with the long black hair. She’s got feral eyes, maybe more used to desert terrain than most of the recruits. We’re thinking she’ll make it a third of the way.”

“Shut up.”

“But Captain Sanson…”

“I will strip you down to your smallclothes if you don’t stop badgering me, you dolled-up palace reject.”

Louten pouted. “I knew I shouldn’t have taken this post. All of you are too coarse, and this place is nothing but dust and rude words.”

“Maybe stop chasing the wrong skirts, then. Being banished out to the desert garrison in the sands here will teach you to slide in under the wrong covers, won’t it?” Captain Sanson shook his head. Burdened with an unhardened pretty boy out here in the desert fringes…Louten wouldn’t last long, not with the growing rumors of rebel uprisings every year and the sharp, dry sands encroaching on fertile territory more with each season like an unstoppable disease. Not to mention all the dangerous beasts starting to slither out of the desert on top of everything else, too. Louten could barely hold his clothes together without an attendant to help him pull back his perfectly groomed hair; what was he going to do if they were ever raided? Couldn’t even stay out of Sanson’s hair today while he handled the first day of Gauntlet training. Absolute pest.

He peered down the gorge and waited for the first shouts to ring through the eerily dark canyon. Didn’t have much hope for this year’s batch of the most promising the Imperial City had to offer, because those children weren’t the only ones being tested today. If anything, they were only the bait. Playthings.

Someone was coming. They would find out who.

* * *

Boots stomped along the sands as the children rushed along the bottom of the gorge. The craggy rock walls on either side towered higher and higher, and the meager light shining through the divide failed to illuminate the shadowed passage. Tall, stalagmite-shaped stacks of weathered rock stood guard at irregular intervals along the way, some skinny and barely an imposition while others were nearly three meters wide at the base, forcing the runners to clamber around the gigantic monoliths.

Soon, the natural corridor narrowed even more. Two meters wide, and then just one, until the children were sliding forward one by one down the descending slope like droplets of water funneling downward. And the deeper they went, the darker it became, until finally the jagged tops of the gorge converged and blocked nearly all the light, leaving only scant, scattered reflections of daylight to glimmer against the rocks and sands.

“Oh, “Oh, look at that! I knew you were up to something when you didn’t meet us at the river choke point, you dirty cheater!”

Another voice rang out, a strong, masculine one that echoed around them. The wrangled wyrm renewed its struggles once more at the sudden appearance of an armored man strolling in from behind it, but the rider gave it another punishing jerk of its spear and forced it to settle.

The newcomer was a young man with a strong, cut jaw and a cleft chin. Sandy blond hair and dark blue eyes glimmered even in the murky half-darkness of the gorge, and the mixed metal and leather armor snugly framed a tall, muscular stature. He approached with slow steps, moving expertly around the wyrm’s twitching tail as he twirled a sword in one hand. The air of a trained, confident soldier, but the smile curving his mouth was playful rather than dangerous. He stared up at the creature’s bleeding head and grinned, ignoring the gaggle of staring children entirely. “The others shouldn’t be far behind, so sadly, you won’t be snatching your win this easily. But, hey. Nostalgia. I remember when I was a kid making my first Gauntlet Run here, like those kids. How’s it feel to be on the other side now after all these years? Being the chaser instead of the chased?”

He received no answer.

“Oh, come on. No need to be so serious.” He twirled his sword in his grip once more before positioning it in front of him with both hands on the haft. “Rookies don’t get to clear the Gauntlet on the first try, whether you’re here for the First Run like these kids or for the Second, like us. Save yourself some time and just come down. If we’re quick enough, I’ll split half the kids with you, and we can take the win together this time before the others get here.”

Still no answer. Some of the children surreptitiously began edging toward the wall, confused by whatever was happening but still desperate to escape. If those two adults were going to remain distracted, then perhaps this was their chance to -

“Ah, don’t move, you little runts.” The man hadn’t turned toward them, but it was clear who he was speaking to. They all froze, eyes glued to the glinting tip of his sword, and were reminded very clearly they had no weapons of their own. “All of you stay exactly where you are. Uncle Pierro will take good care of all of you - as soon as he gets this lady here to agree. What do you say? Are we going to team up, or are we going to settle this the hard -”

He leaped out of the way just in time to avoid being crushed by the wyrm’s diving head, which bashed through a natural rock pillar formation before slamming into the wall with a screech. Instead of withdrawing and trying again, the creature shuddered with an echoing wail before collapsing in a limp pile across the floor of the gorge. All was silent as ‘the lady’ dismounted from the head, one slender leg gracefully swinging over the thick neck and joining the other to stand upon the loosely packed sand. She bent over to slide her spear out from behind the wyrm’s fangs, belatedly freeing its maw. With an experimental heft, she steadied her grip on the weapon and stared back at the other soldier, who grinned even wider.

“I should have known better than to negotiate with you. Come on, then. Let’s get down to business, Anzi.”