Called by the Dragon novel Chapter 4

Anzi remembered this place, every bend, every dip, every shadow. Or so she wanted to think, but that was impossible. This was part of the desert, which changed day by day. Nothing was ever the same, especially not after almost six years.

She had come here when she was twelve just like those recruits. After two years of rigorous training and advancement through the ranks, she had been named one of the dozen most promising and put through her First Run. She had completed it on the first try. Was the only one who’d ever managed it. There it was, the memory of stumbling over and slapping her hands on the tower of circular stones that marked the finish point, bleeding and heaving with two broken ribs, a shattered nose, and both eyes so swollen she’d barely been able to see. How she had managed to fight off the senior soldiers chasing her and make it to the end, none of the officers knew, until the four Second Runners had come trotting out of the gorge with bruises and open wounds. Had they fought between themselves over tagging Anzi, their commanding officer had asked. And they had answered yes - but that Anzi had done the worst damage. She had fought back, fierce and dangerous, even breaking one of the soldier’s arms in her violent escape. He had lifted his wounded limb with a sheepish smile to prove it. The girl had clumsy magic, he had said, laughably so, but a powerful body to compensate. Very powerful.

She had become the first and only Runner to make it to the end of the Gauntlet on her first try. They still made her stay and continue to train on the course for the rest of the year, but after that, things were never the same. She made up for her weakness in arcane combat with her prodigious fighting ability and advanced year by year, always at the apex.

It was still that way. She was days shy of eighteen but already here. Pierro and the others were a handful of years older than she was, having worked their way to this point in the usual time. But not her. And she didn’t want to wait to let them catch up, either. This was her last year before she qualified for the greatest honor in Imperial Service.

Becoming a dragon rider. Induction into the Premier Guard, the most prestigious in all the land.

Her heart throbbed in her chest with such violence she had to suck in a deep breath as she ran on, searching for the three missing children. The colonel had explained that to complete this stage, everyone needed twenty-five marked seals, captured targets. Across several tries, the limited points would be distributed among the four Second Runners who caught them, with the task becoming harder and harder over the weeks as the children became more adept at avoiding capture. Twenty five points, twenty five targets was all one needed to complete this stage. The pursuing squad should work together, then split the points equally. Efficient. Easy. Fast. It would take time, but it was the best way.

But she didn’t want to split anything. Didn’t want to work together. Didn’t want anyone slowing her down. She would do this by herself, and she would finish this trial alone. She deserved it, camaraderie be damned. She didn’t care about the others and the humiliation they would face. If they weren’t good enough to stop her when she was all alone, then they didn’t deserve to advance with her anyway. She was already earmarked for final selection - she was the favorite. She was the most promising. If she didn’t grind the others into dust and prove here and now that it was a waste of time to dally any longer, it could be months before she got what she wanted. Hence the risky maneuver of sprinting the fifteen kilometers all the way to the other end of the canyon. Instead of fighting over all of the targets at once, she had meant to mark the majority of them here then chase after any that slipped away.

Only she could do that, the fastest out of everyone by far. And she had enough strength in her to fight, too. Dangerously.

She deserved this. She deserved to win.

That left one problem. The escaping targets would be running straight into the arms of the other, and they were already on their way. If she didn’t get to them quickly enough, it would be a vicious brawl - not one on one, not even one on two if Pierro regained consciousness in time. He was out of commission now, but he would recover soon. Too soon.

She couldn’t lose here. She was here to be a dragon rider, and no one was going to stop her.

Anzi glanced down at her hands as she sprinted down the gorge and grimaced at the silver liquid coating her hands and arms all the way up to the elbows. It had been necessary, all the warm serpent blood dripping down her fingers as she splattered it over every child with a quick swipe. The wyrm was alive, but she had needed its scent to mark the recruits and drive off other serpents. It had been the only way. She wasn’t a mage; she couldn’t set up a barrier seal to protect the unconscious children. Or Pierro for that matter. He was an ass, but they were comrades. Besides, no one should suffer being eaten alive.