Dragon Bone Read online

  "But, sir—" the boy stammered, paling. Snow glared at him until he swallowed, nodded and walked away.

  "Anyone else?" Snow scanned the uncomfortable group and his eyes seemed to linger on two of them in particular. "Owning up won't lower your punishment one bit, but it means we know you're honest and maybe in ten years' time you'll have a chance of becoming a colonel. Anyone else?"

  The two who'd taken part in poking the lizard stood stock-still, which gave them away because everybody else was shuffling their feet from nervousness. There was no reply. Snow shrugged, crouched down and unzipped the bag. It was full of ice cubes. He tossed one at the lizard. It scuttled back, puffing up its neck, but ventured forwards to lick the ice. Its head shot out and its little jaws crunched it up with surprising strength. Snow reached out and carefully grabbed it by the middle, lowering it into the bag. It burrowed into the cubes and disappeared. He stood up with it—it must've weighed a ton, but he handled it like it was nothing.

  "These creatures are found in an extraordinarily small number of places," he said. "The Mernot mountain range is one of them. They thrive in an icy environment away from human contact, but it's breeding season and hatchlings are exploring their habitat. If any of you see one of these again, leave it alone. If you find one that's hurt or sick, get an officer to deal with it, don't harass it with sticks. You're dismissed, cadets. Enjoy your free time."

  He turned and stalked away. After some hesitation, Elstrin hurried after him. Snow's blue eyes

  were hard as diamonds, glaring straight ahead as he headed for the huge solid gate to inner HQ. "I've never seen a lizard do that. Aren't they cold-blooded?" Elstrin asked.

  "It's not a lizard," Snow said shortly. They reached the gate—he scanned his retina and

  fingerprint and spoke into a small voice recognition thing before the heavy metal slid open partway. It was dark inside; there was some sort of tunnel beyond the gate that bore through the wall. "You're not allowed in."

  "But it looks like a lizard," Elstrin said, peering into the bag of ice. There was no sign of the animal. "What is it, then?"

  "Lieutenant!" A couple of soldiers on the other side had seen them. "Do you have it?"

  Snow sighed and passed them the bag. They thanked him and left and he closed the gate again. "Have you had breakfast yet?"

  "No." Astonished for a moment, Elstrin grinned and followed him to the cafeteria. "Ooh, a date. I'm so excited. I didn't know the cafeteria had cosy little corners to enjoy coffee in."

  "It's not a date," Snow muttered unnecessarily. He grabbed a sandwich and a cup of fresh coffee, and went to sit at a table that was as far from cosy as it could possibly be. The hall was emptier than it was during normal mealtimes—most cadets were off checking out the recreational facilities that base had to offer. Elstrin took a generous helping of unhealthy stuff full of cholesterol and carbs— bacon and baked beans on toast, plus a messy helping of fries—and sat next to him. Snow raised an eyebrow at the food.

  "I'm a teenager, I get to eat all this crap without an excuse," Elstrin shrugged, taking a large bite out of his improvised sandwich. "So," he said around his mouthful. "What do I call the lizard that's not a lizard?"

  "Dragon."

  "Hm?" he mumbled, not really listening. Sleeping in had made him hungry, and he still hadn't gotten over how nice the food here was compared to school.

  Snow looked more amused than irritated now. "Maybe you need to get your ears checked. Infirmary's right next door."

  "You trying to make me lose my appetite?" Elstrin grunted, about halfway through his breakfast already. Snow stirred in the sugar and cream and took a sip of his coffee.

  "I said dragon," he finally repeated.

  Elstrin paused, about to pop the last bite in his mouth. "Are you bullshitting me?"

  "Do I look like I'm in the mood to bullshit anyone? It was a juvenile dragon." He chose at that moment to start eating, and didn't react to Elstrin's exclamation.

  "Holy fuck, you're serious. But—that was a lizard, not a dragon, it didn't have wings or breathe fire or—or I don't know! What the hell is a dragon doing in fucking Mernot?"

  Snow made a non-committal noise, swallowed and said, "Mountains."

  "But—it's cold up there," Elstrin stammered. "Lizards freeze in the cold."

  "If you call them lizards one more time I'll show you a fully grown one and you can take it back."

  He sat forwards, eyes wide. "Really? Meet a real dragon?"

  "What are you, five? No, you're not allowed in, remember? They're not lizards. How is a domestic duck the same as a harpy eagle?"

  "At least they're both birds."

  "Very different birds. Dragons and lizards are both reptiles, both cold-blooded, but very different. Turtles can swim in waters close to freezing, and some snakes survive subzero temperatures— certain dragons push, if not break, that envelope. The ones living in the mountains are most comfortable when it's around minus ten degrees during the day."

  Elstrin slumped back and tried to take it all in. "Shit. Why didn't you tell them? Those guys hurting it."

  "They didn't ask."

  "But after we finish cadet training we get told?"

  "Yes."

  "Why?"

  Snow regarded him with a calm stare. "You ask a lot of questions."

  "It's what you're supposed to do when you don't know something. There, that wasn't a question."

  He lasted two seconds. "Why?"

  "It's a little overwhelming to discover that the mountains that go on postcards to promote the place you grew up in are home to a rare and dangerous species of apex predator whose very existence is doubted by many."

  "Hey, I handled it fine," Elstrin said. "But yeah, I guess others might not. So how long have they been here? How come nobody's said anything about them at all?"

  "They're good at hiding themselves, and most people who happen to see a flying shape in the sky wouldn't automatically think dragon. It's a pretty remote place up there, and it's technically part of HQ, so you need permission to go in. They don't mingle with humans anyway—"

  "Hang on. You said flying. That li—um, dragon—it didn't have wings."

  "They grow out of the skin at around six months when the bones are a little less brittle, or a tiny bump will break them. The limbs mature first." The walkie-talkie clipped to his hip suddenly let out a stream of vaguely understandable static, and Snow stood up. "I have to go. Try not to gossip about this. There's no real harm if you do, but we'd prefer it if you didn't ruin the big surprise. Some of the lieutenants wait three years just to see the cadets' faces when they go in and find a huge live dragon waiting for them."

  "What, just 'cause they pissed their pants when they saw it all those years ago?" Elstrin snorted. "Doesn't mean they have to laugh at others for doing the same."

  "It makes them feel better," Snow smiled. He clapped him on the back and moved off, leaving his empty cutlery behind. Elstrin finished his breakfast in silence and cleared the table. He was about to go when a cadet slid into the seat opposite him.

  "Hi," the boy said, smiling. He extended a pale hand across the table. "I'm Vel Matthews."

  "Elstrin White." As soon as Elstrin shook it, the hand withdrew. Vel slid him a piece of folded paper like he was a crime lord handing out the address of his next target. He had hair the colour of rich red wine that fell around his face carelessly, and clear, mischievous grey eyes. He looked shockingly like a young model, except he lacked the boastful, arrogant air that Elstrin associated them with, and seemed merely friendly.

  "Address to the party tomorrow night. By 'party' I mean a lot of crazy, drunk and high dudes, and loud music. Apparently we're allowed to host gatherings at our own expense provided we don't turn up hung-over on Monday, but nobody told the officers about the booze and drugs. How close are you with that lieutenant with the white hair?"

  Elstrin shrugged, a little wary. "We were just talking."

  "He looks super hot and completely unapproach
able. I say you've got three years—give it a try,"

  Vel grinned. "Well, don't tell him about the party, okay? I'll see you around."

  He started to stand and Elstrin caught his arm, astonished. "Wait. You're… gay?"

  "Aren't like sixty percent of the guys here at least bi-curious?" He chuckled. "This guy two doors down my room wants to murder me for it, except he's scared he'll get diseases if he touches me. I'm gonna spike his drink and make him blow me. Most of 'em are more than happy to, as long as they don't remember it in the morning."

  Remembering to close his mouth, Elstrin said, "I, um, never expected…"

  Vel sat back down more comfortably. "Look, I don't know if you were closeted or beaten up or

  just plain outnumbered or whatever, but all that's gone now. This is different. My brother used to get so much shit for being bi until he came here. The officers don't stand for any kind of discrimination. You don't have to hide anything."

  "Yeah, I know. I'm just surprised, I guess. It's still sinking in."

  The grin crept back to boy's lips. "Oh, it'll sink in by tomorrow all right. Tell you what—I know all the tricks. I'll show you how to have a good time. Partying is a delicate little explosion of chaos. You have to handle everything with care."

  Elstrin laughed a bit. "Yeah, okay. That'd be nice."

  ---

  He spent Sunday morning exploring the rest of HQ. To his delight, the recreational building had

  a small library with a collection of old dog-eared books. He found a few texts on wild dragons and caught up on some reading until a faint drum loop snatched his attention. He ventured to the end of the corridor and peeked into a doorway to find Vel drumming away on a simple kit, his eyes closed and arms moving very naturally. The room was cluttered with second-hand instruments: a few guitars with missing strings, a battered keyboard and a miscellaneous box of percussions. Another guy was there, sitting on an old amp with a guitar and accompanying the drums with simple chords, head down, dirty-blond hair swinging as he nodded lightly to the beat. He wasn't quite as good but he seemed content to let Vel take the lead.

  He noticed Elstrin first and stopped playing. Vel paused. "Oh—hey," he said, brushing his hair from his eyes. If he was dressed in something more suitable he'd look right like a teenage rock star. "Come on in. This is Andrew, my boyfriend. Andrew, Elstrin White."

  Trying to hide his surprise, Elstrin shook hands and nodded at the drums. "You guys are good."

  "No, he's good," Andrew corrected. "I'm just here to add a bit of melody."

  "My very modest, unselfish boyfriend," Vel added with a smile. He bounced the drum sticks on the snare. "Do you play?"

  Elstrin almost laughed. "No. If I so much as walked into the music room in my school they'd throw a table at me. For contaminating the equipment."

  "Poor guy," Vel said, sharing a secret smirk with Andrew. He got off the creaky stool and offered the sticks. "Give it a try."

  "I'll really suck," Elstrin warned, but he sat down anyway, mostly because he'd never done so before. He looked blankly at all the similar but different bits and pieces around him. He took the chipped drum sticks and poked one of the cymbals gingerly. "Um."

  Andrew fiddled with a small metronome and connected it to the amp. The room was suddenly full of a paced beeping. He excused himself and went out. "Don't mind him. He can't stand bad music. That's the hi-hat," Vel said, pointing at the thing to Elstrin's left. "That's the snare, those three are toms. That's the ride—no dirty jokes please—and those two are crash cymbals. The pedalled one is the bass. To begin, you hit all of them like it's your worst enemy's face. No holding back the first time."

  It went awkwardly. He wasn't very musically talented at all, and keeping a beat was remarkably more difficult than it sounded. He couldn't coordinate his foot very well and the robotic click of the metronome was always faster or slower than his hands. His arms ached after just twenty minutes, when normally half an hour of exercise wouldn't hurt. He called it quits after an hour of embarrassingly horrible drumming and passed the sticks back to Vel. "I'd better stop or people will start complaining."

  "Yeah, I agree," Vel muttered, laughing. "So what're you good at?"

  "Um… getting myself into trouble and kicking my way out of it?"

  "God, why is everyone a rebel in here? It doesn't look nice on report cards."

  "In case you haven't noticed, we're not in school anymore," Elstrin pointed out.

  Vel shrugged. "I wouldn't know. Never went."

  "How come?"

  "I just didn't." He spun the drum sticks once then tossed them back in the box of percussions. "Never thought there'd actually be a drum kit in here. What else do you think HQ is hiding?"

  If only he knew. "Dragons," Elstrin joked.

  To his surprise, Vel frowned. "Hey, don't laugh about them. They actually do exist. I've seen one before. It was like this tall—" He raised his hand to shoulder-height, "—this weird greenish colour and it had claws like an eagle. I was walking around the edge of the woods and there was a pack of those scrawny wild dogs you see nosing at rubbish at night, in front of me—and it just charged out and snapped one of them up like it was a chicken. Scariest fucking thing I've ever seen. You wouldn't mock a dragon if you saw one."

  "I wasn't mocking them. I was just making an unlikely guess. Anyway, I've seen one before too."

  "Really? Where? They're not exactly all over the place."

  "Near the mountains. I kinda—dared myself to go in there. To do some soul searching, I guess, or maybe just to make myself feel in control of my own life."

  "How philosophical," Vel snorted. "And instead you found something ten times more powerful than a tiger."

  "Oh, no. It was a baby. About this long. I didn't touch it."

  The redhead frowned at him. Elstrin cleared his throat, examined the dented plastic surface of the snare drum, until Vel exploded, "You're fucking joking."

  "What?"

  "Come on, rumours spread. I knew it wasn't a lizard."

  Elstrin gave in with a smile. "Fine, yeah, Snow told me yesterday. He said not to gossip about it."

  "You're doing a great job of that," Vel said sarcastically. "Don't worry, I won't tell a single soul."

  "Not even Andrew?"

  "Andrew's someone else, isn't he? That's how secrets get out. We all have a best friend to share everything with, and before you know it, suddenly the whole building knows you wear pink silk pyjamas to sleep."

  "Speaking from personal experience?"

  "Very funny. How did a dragon get all the way into a place crawling with big scary humans?"

  "Dunno," Elstrin shrugged, letting the weird pyjama example slide. "Apparently it's breeding season. I wouldn't have seen that white thing at all if those guys had kept their sticks away."

  Vel was quiet for a while, then he muttered, "That is wrong on so many levels."

  Elstrin blinked, and they burst out laughing at the exact same second. As much as he wanted to grow up, being a teenager could be just as fun.

  Chapter 4

  By the time Vel led Elstrin to the top floor of Apartment F, the sky was turning deep blue, and the party already seemed to be in full swing. He could hear the thud of music leaking out of the closed windows on the top floor, and the way up was littered with occasional beer cans. The corridors were packed with people celebrating their first days in HQ. It was dark apart from rotating disco lights and lasers placed in the corners. There were crates of beers stacked against one wall, sweating despite the relatively cool temperature outside.

  "Where'd they get these?" he shouted above the music, grabbing one and hoping he was doing the right thing. He really had no idea what happened in parties.

  "I don't know—maybe they bribed the supply trucks," Vel yelled back. "You drink often?"

  "No—wait up!" He hurried after Vel, who was already making his way through the crowd. All the doors were open, and he felt sorry for the cadets living on this floor for having their
rooms trashed.

  "Let's see how creative they got…." Vel peeked into the first doorway. "That's gonna get

  confiscated when there's a room check," he told Elstrin, pointing to a large laptop that could double as a small television that no doubt cost a lot. Some crappy war movie was on but at least twenty guys were in there watching and cheering whenever something blew up—a glance at the titles littered on the bed told him later in the night they'd be watching a different kind of action film. Vel rolled his eyes and tugged him to the next room. The guys in there were playing some variation of truth-or-dare involving cards, or maybe it was just a really strange game of strip poker. Either way, the crowd seemed mostly drunk (a remarkable achievement considering how early it was). The other three rooms were crammed with dancing people. More cadets were arriving by the second—even the stairway was starting to block. "Come on," Vel said, pulling Elstrin into the throng.