Free Dragons and Destiny by Candy Rae

manage as well as this
Shona?
    “Rilla,” Shona
said, “a thousand welcomes to you and Zawlei.” She executed a quick
bow in Zawlei’s direction. Rilla had learned that such courtesies
were appreciated by the Lind. “I’m Shona. I’ll be looking after you
for a while, help you settle in. Let’s get you both to your
quarters so you can freshen up after your long ride. Food too, you
look as if you could do with a good meal, didn’t you stop at the
Supply Stations along the way?”
    “Yes,” answered
Rilla, “each night.” There was no need, Rilla decided, to tell
Shona that she, despite Zawlei’s support felt nervous and
apprehensive about the about turn her life had taken. She kept one
hand on Zawlei’s withers as Shona talked.
    Shona didn’t
pursue the matter for which Rilla was grateful.
    “You’ll be
stiff and sore,” continued Shona, “but we’ll leave the bath for a
while, the bathrooms will be fit to bursting with cadets at this
bell.”
    She began to
lead Rilla towards a conglomeration of large two-storied buildings
and eyed her new charge. “You don’t look that sore.”
    “I’m not,”
Rilla admitted. “I’m used to riding. I had a pony of my own at
home.” A wave of homesickness swept over Rilla as she remembered
Lightfoot and she wondered how Zilla was getting along looking
after him. As they neared the first of the doors of the buildings,
Danei and Zawlei veered away and Rilla suppressed a surge of
anxiety which Shona was quick to notice.
    “Don’t panic,”
she soothed. “They’ll be back soon. My Danei is taking your Zawlei
off to look over the complex and then probably they’ll go on to the
hunting grounds to get something good to eat.”
    “Hunting
grounds?” stammered Rilla. During their journey to Vada Zawlei had
eaten at the Supply Stations but the meat had already been dead and
butchered. She had forgotten that in their native habitat the Lind
hunted live meat.
    “A mile or so
to the south of here,” explained Shona. “Our friends like to hunt,
it’s natural for them and the Vada keeps the area well stocked.
They’re not averse to having their meat served on a platter so to
speak but they hunt once in a tenday if not more when they can.
There’s virtually no hunting in Argyll though most farmers will
provide culls. Mostly our vadeln will provide payment if asked but
they’re more usually paid as a reduction of their contribution to
the defence tithe. Probably they’ll not hunt tonight though
Danei’ll show him the kill-sheds.”
    “Kill-sheds?”
    Shona laughed.
“I’ll explain later, come along and get settled in. This is the
girl’s barracks. There are three. One for the girls, one for the
boys and a much smaller one for adult cadets. What age are
you?”
    “Seventeen.”
    “Oh. You don’t
look it. I thought you about fifteen. You’ll not be a junior.
That’s for the fourteen and fifteen year olds who still attend
general lessons.”
    “I finished
schooling last year,” Rilla offered the information. “Passed the
Leaving Exam too.”
    “Good,” said
Shona, “that means that you’ll soon catch up with the rest of us.
My sixteenth birthday was last month and I’m a senior cadet.”
    Rilla was
relieved Zawlei had explained the Vada rank structure.
    “I get the
single white stripe?”
    “Zawlei told
you? Good. That’s right, a wide one and you’ll keep that until
you’re ready to be slotted into one of the standard training
year-groups. Probably the Thirds with me and Danei.”
    “When do you
think that will be?”
    “Depends on how
fast you learn.”
    “Riding and
sword work?” Rilla ventured to ask.
    “And the rest,”
answered Shona with another grin. “First Aid, Living off the Land,
Scouting, Tactics, Lindish; not many from Argyll know much more
than a yes and a no.”
    “I can speak it
a little,” said Rilla. “My family runs an inn on the Southern Trade
Route and there’s no Supply Stations that close so we get Lind
passing