Read Dragon-Ridden for Free Online

common
folk,” the woman said climbing off Ripley’s lap. “I’ve heard that even the
Silva are traveling from their forests for it. Though with the recent trouble, this
year might not see as many people from other cities.”
    “Recent trouble?” Ryu asked
straightening in his chair and fixing the waitress with a sharp look.
    Pleased at the sudden attention,
the woman preened a bit before answering. “They’ve been discovering all sorts
of strange creatures lately. Most of them have been dead, but last week this
bird-like thing attacked one of the markets and tried to carry a woman off.
Thank the Saviors one of the dragon-ridden was there to stop it. The creature
killed three men.”
    Dragon-ridden? That sounded
interesting.
    “What are the dragon-ridden?” Tate
asked puzzled. Five sets of eyes swung towards her. Tate shifted uncomfortably.
You’d think she’d just announced she’d grown a third eye instead of asking a
simple question.
    “Where have you been living?” Trent
asked, disbelief in his tone. “Under a rock? Everybody knows that.”
    Tate flushed and dropped her eyes
to her plate. Well, she didn’t. She didn’t know much about this world. Even all
these months after waking up in that room, every time she turned around she was
confronted with something she didn’t understand.
    Her memories from before she woke
up were hazy, and what she did remember didn’t mesh with the world around her.
Sometimes it felt like she was still asleep and the world around her simply a
dream.
    “The dragon-ridden are a special
part of the imperial government. They are bound to dragons and serve at the
Emperor’s behest,” Ryu explained softly.
    “I don’t understand. Why are they
called dragon-ridden?” Tate asked confused. If they were bound to a dragon,
wouldn’t it be dragon-rider.
    “It’s not like that, Tate.” Trent
forgot about his food for a moment and leaned forward animatedly. “The dragon
and person form a bond, and afterwards the dragon lives inside the man. He can lend
his form to the man, but otherwise he just lives as a tattoo, sharing his
thoughts. Haven’t you ever dreamed of forming a bond with one? I have, even
though no one has formed a bond with one in over a hundred years. People say
the dragons have all died off, and the only ones left are the ones who’ve
bonded to humans. I think they’re just hiding and-“
    “Of course she didn’t dream of
being a dragon-ridden,” Riply said scornfully. “No woman’s ever formed a bond
with one.”
    “I don’t know. When I was younger I
always dreamt of being the first woman to bond with a dragon,” the waitress
said dreamily.
    Tate’s thoughts snagged on
something Trent had said. “You said the last one had been bound 100 years ago?
How could he have fought off a creature like that then?”
    “The dragon-ridden retain the
longevity of the dragons and can live for hundreds of years,” Danny said
quietly. “They serve the Emperor directly and are considered part of the high
nobility.”
    Tate stared at him before nodding
slowly, her mind digging through all the information that’d just been dumped on
her.
    There was a strong urge to touch
her tattoo. It was tingling again.
    Their information didn’t mean
anything. It was just coincidence that her tattoo was a dragon. Nothing more.
    Hadn’t Riply just said no woman had
ever bonded to a dragon before? There, a coincidence.
    She looked up to find Ryu staring
at her with a considering look.
    A chill slithered down her back.
Suddenly the food she’d eaten sat like a hard lump in her stomach.
Nevertheless, she picked up a fork and forced herself to take a bite of the
food in front of her.
    She’d think about this all later.
When not under another’s watchful eye. ‘Til then she’d put everything in the
back of her mind. Surreptitiously, she tugged the sleeve on her tattooed arm
down further until it covered her hand.
    Before walking away the waitress
leaned over and whispered into