All Chapters of Called by the Dragon: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Twelve children in beige desert garb were lined up in two rows of six, standing in perfect formation before the mouth of a sandy desert gorge. Towering and narrow, the passage that snaked through it was far darker than it should have been in the rising light of the dawn, but not a single one of the children betrayed even the slightest shade of fear. Instead, they looked straight ahead with wide, alert eyes, a few of them even looking eager for what was to come."There are a dozen of you, but none of you will make it to the end. It has been done only once, and I expect will never happen again. Not when it's your first time, anyway." A bald man in hardened leather armor began pacing slowly before them, first to the left, then to the right, then back to the left again as he stared hard at each small head he passed. "But this will teach you endurance. To harden your mind as well as your body, that no matter how many bruises and falls you take, you will always rise up and try agai

Anzi remembered this place. Every bend, every dip, every shadow. Or so she wanted to think, but that was impossible. This was part of the desert, which changed day by day. Nothing was ever the same, especially not after almost five years.She had been brought here when she was twelve, just like the children back there. After two years of rigorous training and advancement through the ranks upon being Selected for service, she had been one of the dozen most promising ones, and she had been put through her First Run just like everyone else.She had completed it on the first try. Despite it being so long ago, she remembered it all too clearly, the memory of stumbling over and slapping her hands down on the tower of circular stones that marked the finish point, bleeding and heaving with two broken ribs. How she had managed to fight off the Chasers and make it to the end, none of the officers knew - until the four soldiers had come trotting out of the gorge a few minutes lat

 "You look like shit."Anzi looked up to see Pierro standing in the hallway just outside her open door. She hadn't noticed his approach because of the irritating noise that this barracks building tolerated, the humming of constant conversation leaking through the cabin walls and even occasional shouting. In the Imperial City, noise beyond a whisper was never tolerated in sleeping quarters. If soldiers wanted to socialize and speak freely, they went to the recreational buildings.No discipline here at all. Desert garrisons really were this disorganized."You don't look so good either," she told the other soldier, making sure to look him up and down with a deliberate, pointed expression from where she sat on her low cot. "You could have left the trash talking behind when I knocked you out, by the way."He sidled into the tiny room with his hands clasped behind his back, looking around from left to right and floor to ceiling with casual innocence. She s

 The Imperial City, from whence every good thing flowed. This was the cradle of the nation that had unified every divided territory from the western edge of the Adaraat Desert all the way to the sea. This was the birthplace of all things just and fair, all things meant for greatness.And of course, the seat of the Emperor's power could be nothing less than grand and breathtakingly beautiful. Far below in the distance, Anzi could see the colors of the sprawling city blend and ripple into each other like threads in a tapestry, the red banners of the various districts twining with the green of the thick vines that grew freely around every building, every structure. This was two hundred kilometers from the desert, well into the fertile range, and the mages of the Imperium always made sure to keep the earth here thriving.Many generations before, this place once had another name, but the Emperor had decreed long ago that it would give it up and simply become the Imperi

Anzi had never been in the palace before, but once traveled, she never forgot a path. With all of its winding hallways and endless rooms, it was better to simply retrace her steps and go back the way she had come in. From the courtyard, she was sure she would be able to find a straight path that cut through the palace to the outside.What worried her more was whether the guards would open one of the massive gates for her in the first place, but with an important foreign chieftain at her side, perhaps they would let her through without demanding an extensive explanation. Besides, getting out of here was sure to be easier than getting back in.Maybe she should have asked about that before leaving the throne room in such a hurry."How long have you been a soldier?"She looked back at the man and resisted the urge to take a sidling step away from him as they walked down the hallway. She had pulled her hand out of his grasp long ago, but he was sticking too cl