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CHAPTER ONE
"Get up!" Dust falls from the ceiling as someone raps on my door, hard. I don't want to get up. But it's Choosing Day and I have to be present, even if I cannot be chosen.
"Zircon!" I'm not warning you again!" Then the footsteps whisk off to torment, excuse me, wake up, my siblings.
Perhaps I should back up and explain a bit. My name is Zircon Kvoth of Eyran Village, which is pretty much nowhere. But nowhere is still big enough for the Dragon Riders to come here to test everyone truning 17 this year to join them at Kesrtal Hold, the Rider fortress and headquarters. If you have any magic at all, the stone will tell you, and off you go!
Anyway, I swing my legs out of bed and flick the curtians next to my bed open. Light streams in and I blink several times, momentarily blinded. Then I grab the outfit I had set out on my chair the night before: A loose white tunic, black leggings, and soft leather boots. I slip out of my nightdress and into the clothes, then as an afterthought, I threaded a thin leather belt with my hunting knife around my slim waist.
When I go downstairs, I see my elder sister Ketleyn dressed in a simple white and blue dress, her hair piled on top of her head. She doesn't say anything, however, as she has long since accepted the fact that I refuse to dress like a proper lady. In fact, I have refused to become just another meek housewife, because I can weild a knife and shoot a bow just as well as, if not better than, all the boys my age in Eyran.
"Eat something, Zircon." says my mum Betha. She plunks a bowl full of steaming porrige in front of me. It doesn't stay full for long.
"You ate fast." Mum observed icily as she reached for the now empty bowl.
"Zircon is a growing girl!" replies my brother as he sweeps into the room. He is dressed the same as me, but with a sword like all the young men of Eyran, not a knife like me. Ketleyn sighs disapprovingly across the table.
Mum pulls open the door. "Shoo, and don't be late!" she tells us as we file out.
In the village square the men have erected a platform with a podium in the middle. I suck in my breath as I see what is behind the platform.
A glittering bronze dragon stands behind the platform, a tall man stroking it's neck. I realize that must be the Rider who is officiating this Choosing. I feel my brother Kvar tap my shoulder.
"A dragon, Zi!" A real, live dragon!" he whispers, amazed
You see, a dragon has not been present at a Choosing for over thirty years, just Riders. And I won't even get to go near it, because girls don't participate in the choosing.
The Rider steps up to the podium and withdraws a perfectly round, pale grey stone from his robes.
"May I have your attention!" calls the Rider, and the waiting crowd falls silent. "When I call your name, please come up and touch the Stone Of Mirial!" he continued. "Evanor Blynn"
A lanky blond youth steps up and approached the Rider, then reached out and brushed the stone with his fingertips. Instantly it flashes a deep blue. The Rider nodds and motions for him to step to his right. Out of nearly twenty people tested, three more join Evanor. The Rider scowls.
"We need five magicweilders!" he announced. "16-yearold boys, please."
O feel a sharp tap on my shoulder and spin around. I see Thrifk, a bulky bully who enjoyes teasing me more than anyone. He failed the Choosing, but that doesn't matter to him.
"Ooh, is the girly sad she didn't get chosen to touch a rock?" he sneers. "Poor little thing!" he takes a step toward me, but I act first.
I lunge foreward and knee him in the croch, then backhand Thrifk so viciously he falls to the cobbled ground. I turn around in time to hear the Rider read the last 16-year old boy to line up.
Then he slowly raised a hand, curling all his fingers into a fist except his index finger. A finger he points straight at me. "And her." the rider says.
CHAPTER TWO
I freeze. What did I do wrong?
"I'm sorry?" I ask the Rider in a small voice.
"You heard me." he replies coldly. "Get up here."
Shaking, I begin to walk slowly toward the platform like I am walking toward my execution. The Rider's are an icy blue-white, cool and piercing. He looks me up and down, in my tunic and leggings. If he is surprised, he hides it well. A huff reminds me of the bronze dragon. I turn to him, and I feel my shaking body still as he breaths hot air over me. Then I hear a mighty voice come from, even though his mouth does not move.
You are bold, O huntress. he blinkes a moten eye once. You can do great things. Approch the stone, Huntress, and it shall explain your mystery.
I nod slowly and turn to face the stone. My fingers tremble as I reach out to it. When I brusk it with my fingertips, it is startlingly hot. I barely contain a gasp.
Then the dragon speaks to me again. Red for fire, green for earth. Blue is water, violet is sky. Silver is form-changer, black is dead-raiser. And gold is one of us.
I nod shaikily. The stone shines like a polished moon. Then is whirls through every color of the rainbow. Then color fades away. There is a disapointed sigh from the watching villagers. Tears gather, but I refuse to let them fall. As I take my hand away I glance at the rider. I recognize the feeling in his eyes all too well. I have let him down.
CHAPTER THREE
WILL DO MORE LATER |
