The Broken Scale (The Dragon Riders of Arvain) Read Online Free Page B

One of the jobs of the watch guards in the towers is to mark the people in their territories. Everyone born to the five earth dragons (red, white, black, blue, and green) gets marked so that even if you wore a disguise and tried to get a different egg, someone would be able to tell. Since you weren’t marked, they know you are neither a pirate nor a barbarian. Don’t even ask how they mark them, you aren’t ready for that yet” Fendrel watched Hayden as he spoke and could already sense the question that was forming on his mind before he asked it. Fendrel did not want to speak about marking with one so young.
    “Who guards the towers?” Hayden asked, continuing to play with the blade of grass as he spoke. “ Are there riders that live outside of Celestial City?” He finally looked up at Fendrel as he finished his question.
                  “Ha, well of course there are riders that live outside the city. What did you think you would be doing as a rider, huh? Flying out to save the day and being back home in your warm bed before nightfall when the scary things come out at night? When a rider and his dragon reach their first year after the dragon hatches, they are considered fully fledged riders. That means they get the rights of the riders, but they also get the responsibility of the riders.” Fendrel groaned as he slowly got up, using a nearby branch for support. Hayden watched him dust himself off and look around as he put his hands on his hips.
                  “What do riders do besides keep the peace?” Hayden got up as he spoke and dusted himself off also. He led the way back to the road and waited for Fendrel to catch up.
                  “You make it sound like that’s an easy job, boy. For the first five years after you become a full rider, you have to spend at least one year at each of the five towers. If you can somehow survive all that, then your dragon will be big enough to fly for days without stopping and it will also be fast enough to get to any tower within two days hard flying. You will then have the pleasure of patrolling and carrying goods from tower to tower. There is always lots of hard work to be done protecting Arvain.” Fendrel had been climbing through the thick underbrush around the trees that they had been sitting under for some shade from the relentless sun. Hayden reached out a hand to Fendrel, but the old man pushed his hand away. “I am ok, boy, but thank you.”
                  “So once you’re done doing all that, then what? What happens after you play messenger boy?” I need to learn as much about being a rider as I can before we get to the city. I don’t want to get into something that I am not ready for, Hayden thought to himself as they started back out on the road. The trip so far had gone smoothly. They had run into a few travelers thus far, but everyone kept to themselves and no one even acknowledged them as they went on their way.
                  “Well that all depends on the rider, boy. Some decide to just fly around and help wherever they can, calling everywhere and nowhere home. Others continue to serve and go through the ranks until they lead the army of dragons. Some even have aspirations to sit on one of the three thrones. Some just leave everything behind and fly around. Usually the older ones choose to do that: spend the last few months they have together flying around. Once, while traveling by land to a port city where Eytherka ends and the Star Light Plains begin, we found a plateau that stood almost two hundred feet tall. When we got closer to it, we could see a giant stone dragon, a silver by the size of it, sitting on the edge with a stone rider sitting in the saddle. They both had moss growing in patches on them and the rain and sun had caused to stone to turn different shades of grey. They appeared to be watching the sun rise when they died.” They hadn’t been walking long while Fendrel