Maidens & Killers

Conscription

     The moment that my feet hit the other side of the infamous Basgaith parapet I take my first deep breath of the day. Despite the fact that I feel like I have trained for this madness for most of my life, there is nothing like feeling the wind whip you around while hundreds of feet in the air. The rain today did my fellow cadets and I absolutely zero favors, either. I look around for a familiar face, as one of five daughters of a prominent northern Lord, there should be a few. It takes me only a brief scan of the field quickly filling with dragon rider cadets to spot Violet Sorrengail and Dain Aetos, standing off to the side of everyone else.  They look like they are in a deep, intense conversation and I almost don’t interrupt them. But I don’t see anyone else that I recognize, and I meet the eyes of more than one rider bearing a rebel mark, so I head in their direction anyways. I catch a few snippets  of their conversation as I walk up, and they seem to be arguing about whether or not Violet is actually capable of not dying. Which is fucking weird. I smile at Violet who is facing my direction and the second that our eyes meet she forcibly breaks away from Aetos. “MAEVE! You made it!” 

I wrap her small frame in a hard hug, “ Of course I made it and you did too.” 

      Violet just nods with what may be unshed tears in her eyes looking up at me. I dwarf her, as I always have since we hit puberty and I shot up six inches. If no one knew I was from the northern mountains, my shade too pale skin, and bright green eyes topped with  a mass of dark red curls that I refused to cut shorter than my shoulders would give me away immediately. Looking around I note that I atleast won’t be the tallest female here, which would be a welcome change. At 5 '8 I usually towered over the girls back home, including all of my sisters, and no amount of physical training could change what my mother called my “child bearing hips” and ample chest. Not that I will ever bear anyone's children if I get my way. That's all my sister Ashe’s gig. Her and my sister Bea are in a race to see who could repopulate our small mountain town if you ask me. I let them have that too, kids just aren’t in Soren and I’s future and we are on the same page with that. My heart squeezes when I think of my boyfriend Soren, he’s being conscripted today too. But after months of arguing and petty fights, he will be completing the infantry test today while I just completed the dragon riders parapet. 

     Violet grabs my arm and pulls me out of the transe that I seem to have fallen into, “Come on, I want to find the girl who crossed in front of me Rhiannon. Dain told her to put us in his squad, let’s see if we can grab you too.” 

I shake my head, “No, no it’s okay. I don’t think I want to be in Dain’s squad.” I try to stop her by pulling on my arm that she has a hold of. The absolute last thing that I want is someone thinking that I was being shown an ounce of favoritism. I have fought my whole life against the stereotype of the pretty rich girl that all of my sisters seemed happy to play right into. 

Violet stops and turns to look at me, “Are you sure?” She looks confused as to why I wouldn’t want the safety net of being under Dain’s protection, and I don’t have the heart to tell her that I’ve never really trusted Dain the way that she seems to. I can’t put my finger on it but, there is just something about him that makes my skin crawl slightly. I don’t think that he's necessarily a bad guy, just a little untrustworthy.  

“I’m sure, I don’t want any favors. I’ve got this,” I say with what I hope comes out as confidence. 

     I line up next to Violet in a crowd of other cadets who have survived the parapet, and give a slight smile to the golden skinned girl that Violet has begun talking to. She must be Rhiannon, and  I’m glad that Violet seems to have bonded with her. I was scared for a second that… no I won’t think that way. It’s not that I don’t want to be Violet’s friend, I just can’t afford to make any mistakes or have any distractions.  I have to be successful here, I cannot fail because that means death. I am here for a purpose, not only to be a dragon rider but also to show my two younger sisters that they can be so much more than just a pretty plaything. They can be beautiful and powerful; alluring and deadly. I hold my head a little higher as I see the wing leaders and other members of leadership line up at the front of our large group. I immediately notice the rebel heir, something Riorson, is obviously a respected rider here. A third year with a hell of a lot of patches under her flight jacket begins to call out cadet names and assign them to squads and wings. I hold my breath and listen for my name. 

     I let my breath out as quietly as possible when I hear Violet and Rhiannon’s name called without mine attached to it, though mine isn’t too far away. “Maeve Holsten. Third Squad. Flame Section. Fourth Wing. “  

I push my way through the remaining cadets standing in a group to line up behind my squad leader, a girl that I don’t recognize.  

I assess the rest of my squad, there’s sixteen of us and see no one else that I recognize. Good, I think. No ties to distract me. 

   There is some sort of discussion happening amongst leadership though. I look at Violet one line over and she has also noticed the commotion. There is an announcement and suddenly Riorson is my wing leader not the short haired girl who was before which makes Violet look like she swallowed a bug. There is a lot to unpack in that situation, but I don’t have the mental capacity to do the unpacking right now.  I need to stay focused.  Riorson has a presence that demands respect, so there is no surprise that he gets it immediately from us. “ Fourth wing cadets, follow your squad leaders to your rooms. Section leaders meet with me,” he says without having to raise his voice. 

    I scurry to follow behind the girl who must be my squad leader with everyone else in my line. As we walk past Riorson though,  I notice for the first time an absolutely massive rider standing next to him. He bears a rebellion relic that barely peaks out of his shoulder, not up his neck like Riorson’s. We make eye contact for the briefest moment, fleeting really, but there’s a charge there unlike anything I have ever felt before. It slams into my chest like I’ve been electrocuted or had someone’s power forced into me all at once. I gasp and the large blonde cadet in front of me turns around, “That’s Garrick Tavis our section leader, and of course Xaden Riorson our wing leader.” I nod my head slightly in response.  Garrick’s hazel eyes appear to follow me for an unusually long time as I walk into the riders quadrant building. 

    I’m shown to a small dorm style room with two small beds and two trunks. There is a petite brown haired girl with multiple rings in her nose that is assigned to the other bed and she introduces herself as Kayte. I introduce myself as well but I make sure that my body language stays closed off. I don’t want to get close to anyone here, not knowing if they will see the end of the day tomorrow. Kayte unpacks her rucksack and crawls into her bed wearing a large shirt and loose flight pants, most riders sleep in some stage of dress in case some calamity happens in the middle of the night. I know that I should sleep dressed as well. But there are certain things that I cling to, I have to cling to, from home so that I don’t completely lose myself here in Basgaith.  Stuffed in the bottom of my pack in a small ball is a luxury that I still can’t believe I brought to this place with me.  I pull out the ball of thin material, and glance at Kayte’s bed. Her breathing is steady and she is making a slight whistling noise, probably coming from her nose rings. I quickly strip all of my clothes off and pull the sheer thinly strapped nightgown over my head. The silk material has no place here and as I pull my hair out of its tight top knot to fall to my shoulders I KNOW that I look completely out of place here, like a maiden in a building full of killers. But it brings me some comfort to crawl into my new bed and feel like myself, and after all I'm here to prove that I can be both.