Dragon Dodgers (Wounds in the Sky Prequels Book 1) by V. R. Cardoso

Chapter 1: The
Watcher And The Runner

     
    Enrig chased Merriqh
up the corridor, dodging weave baskets, pitchers, and even passing
workers. His arms rasped against the naked rock walls and he felt
the smell of wet stone with every gasp.
    “ Merriqh!” He called.
“Merriqh, wait.”
    He was forced to slow down when he reached the exit
chamber. Luckily for him, so was Merriqh. The room was packed full of workers. A mob of
half-fed beggars, desperate enough to risk their lives on the
surface for a dozen gold Spades.
    “ You have to take me.” Enrig said.
    “ No, I don’t.” Merriqh replied.
    The king’s overseer was a balding man with three scars and
a limp that he had earned in the days when he himself had been a Watcher. Enrig swallowed
a curse. He was trying his best not to be annoying, but even he
could tell it wasn’t working.
    “ Yes, you do. You need
me.”
    “ Why?” Merriqh inspected a pile of empty containers, then gave a
group of workers permission to carry them. “You’re still a kid,
you’re too slow to be a Watcher.”
    “ No, I’m not!” Enrig said. “Ugas is larger than a bull, are you
saying he’s faster than me?”
    “ Hey!” Ugas cried from
across the room. “I can hear you, you piece of snot.”
    Enrig ignored him.
    “ And I have better sight
than most of them, too.”
    “ Bullshit!” Yelled someone
behind Ugas.
    With few exceptions, t he group of Watchers Merriqh employed was a bunch of
overpaid slackers. Even the overseer could see that. They were
gathered at the corner closest to the exit, as they would be the
first to leave the safety of the underground.
    “ Oh yeah?” Enrig asked. “Last Fall, who spotted that Dragon on the
third day of the harvest?”
    For a moment, no one answered
him.
    “ You did.” Merriqh conceded.
    “ Exactly. And almost too late, because it
was his quadrant.” Said Enrig pointing at a
Watcher called Teric.
    “ Fuck you, kid!” Teric
growled. “The sky was darker than my asshole.”
    Enrig dismissed him with a hand
wave.
    “ You want excuses,” He told Merriqh. “fine. Stick with them. But
if you want Watchers that can actually spot Dragons, give me a
job.”
    Merriqh scanned his
grumbling team of Watchers and then looked up a ventilation shaft.
They were so close to the surface, he could see the sun, shining
from it, like a bratty child sneaking a peek.
    “ I promised your mom I
wouldn’t.” He said with a low voice.
    Enrig’s eyes went wide.
    “ Are you serious?!” He
said.
    “ She’s your mother!” Merriqh yelled. “She worries about
you.”
    “ She didn’t even recognize me this morning!”
    Merriqh was taken
aback.
    “ Breath of Fyr… That bad,
huh?”
    Enrig was barely fourteen, but he
looked older, drier, as if childhood had been sucked out of
him.
    “ It gets better when she’s
passed out.” He replied. “Are you gonna give me that job or
not?”
    “ Alright.” Merriqh said. “I guess I can use a second pair of eyes in
the Northwest Watch.”
    There was a collective groan among the Watchers, but one of them
stepped forward and took Enrig by the shoulders in a friendly
embrace.
    “ Come on little cousin,
you can watch my sky while I nap.”
    His name was Cavill and he was as tall
and blonde as Enrig wasn’t. He ruffled Enrig’s hair, making him
pull away while pushing back a smile.
    “ Alright, you lazy bums,” Merriqh yelled. “this crop won’t
harvest itself. Let’s go!”
     
    * * *
     
    Targon’s gray cloak
flowed like a cape around him. Thick mud covered his boots as they
splashed across the forest floor. The sun was already above the
tree tops, and he could feel the temperature rising as sweat began
to drip from his forehead. He lowered the scarf covering his mouth
and pulled his hood back. He stopped, then whistled and raised a
closed fist.
    “ Everybody change.” He
ordered.
    Around him,
twenty shrouded figures undressed their cloaks. The darkness of the
group was replaced with a colorful mix of