Part Seven

It was two am when we finally landed in Bucharest. We retrieved our luggage and walked towards the exit. Near the doors were a table with one man sitting behind it, there was a line of five people ahead of us. We had received instructions that we were to report to the man sitting by the ‘Winter Camp’ table.

“Name?” The man spoke with a heavy accent and barely glanced at us.

“Wynter and Abigail Grey.”

He flipped over two pages before ticking off our names on his list. “There’s a bus marked Winter Camp just outside, it will take you to Sinaia and the camp. Keep these identity cards on you at all times. Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

It was a ten seater bus, very small in comparison to what I was used to seeing back home. Our identity cards were scanned and I led Abigail to the back and let her sit by the window. Twenty minutes later all ten seats were occupied and the bus started.

“Hey. Gerard de Yong.” He had turned in his seat and offered his hand in greeting.

“Wynter Grey.” I shook his hand as he smiled and then his gaze flickered to Abby.

“Hello there.” Gerard smiled broadly as Echo roared inside my head.

“My sister.” It was practically a growl.

“Easy there man. I just looked at her.” He seemed harmless enough, not that I was worried.

“Bad habit.”

“It’s cool man, I’d react like that too if I had a sister. I heard the Prince has been given an ultimatum, he needs to choose a bride.”

“Where did you hear that?”

“My cousin’s stepfather’s brother is a Royal Guard. Apparently that’s why unbonded women were called up as well.”

“He can’t meet women the normal way?” Gerard laughed loudly at my dry comment.

“Guess not. Uncle Tommo couldn’t say exactly what was in store for us only that a lot of us would be recruited. Honour and prestige and such bullshit.”

“You don’t sound very excited.”

“Rumour has it that future Sires will be recruited as well, go home to rule their lairs but be available to fight in the King’s war. There aren’t even talks of war. We’ve been living in peace for the longest time in history.”

“It’s good to be prepared even if there are no talks of war.”

Gerard nodded his head and turned back in his seat. The trip to Sinaia took just over two hours and the driver turned away from the town and into what looked like uninhabited land. As we reached the crest of the hill I looked out of the window and saw what looked like another small town.

Hundreds of cabins stood in lines with ablution facilities scattered in between. There were training areas, medical tents, mess halls and I felt a tingle of excitement. We were now one step closer to our goal.

We fell in line behind other people as we moved slowly to the front. It was a check point of sorts; they scanned your card and it would change colour according to your strengths and allocate you to the division you fell under.

“Cards.” The man behind the table held out his hand and I handed him mine and Abby’s at the same time.

“Rank?”

“None.” My expression didn’t change as he looked up for the first time.

“Lair?”

“None,” I answered him.

“The tent on the right is for women and men on the left. You may proceed.”

I squeezed Abby’s hand as we separated and I stepped into the medical tent. A nurse stepped forward and showed me to a bed where I had to sit. She took my blood pressure, looked down my throat, in my ears, up my nose and listened to my heart and breathing.

I was weighed and measured while she made notes of everything, even writing down my hair and eye colour. Her eyes had widened at first when I took my jacket off and her gaze landed on the tattoos on my arms.

“Take your shirt off please.” I complied and she swiveled her finger and I turned around so she could look at my dragon.

“Uhm … I’ll be right back.” She hastily left the tent and I sat back down on the bed. My dragon was an anomaly, something unheard of and not seen by many. She probably had no idea what division to put me in.

She appeared ten minutes later with a doctor, a man dressed in a green tracksuit and another man in a suit. I stood up as they entered the tent and the man in the suit took his glasses off. “Good morning, Wynter, may I call you Wynter?”

“Of course.”

“I’m Sorin Albescu, advisor to the King.” I shook his outstretched hand as he looked at me with interest.

“May I see your dragon?” I turned around so they could all look at Echo and faced them again.

“Please come with me, we will finish the identification process later.” I pulled my shirt back on and grabbed my duffel bag as I followed Sorin out of the tent just as Abigail emerged.

“I’m to report to the head mistress who will be in charge of my group. Everything’s fine, I’ll see you at lunch,” she whispered and ducked into another tent.

“Your girlfriend?” he asked me.

“My sister.”

Sorin led me past the cabins and into a grand tent that stood a few yards away from everything else. Inside was a large table with around twenty chairs, maps of the surrounding areas and two workers who stood ready for his orders.

“Leave us and you can take a seat.” He chose a seat opposite of where I sat down and waited for the two workers to leave the tent.

“I see from your paperwork that you have no rank and no lair. How is that possible when your dragon is so rare that most people have never seen one.”

“My grandfather was Lucas Grey, Sire of Aurora, Illinois. He was the first to merge with a gray dragon. My father was the younger son of twins, they both merged with gray dragons. The eldest son took over as Sire and his son, my cousin, is now the Sire of Aurora.”

“Remarkable.” He hadn’t written anything down and I had to wonder why the King’s advisor was so easily accessible and involved with admissions.

“Hence the no lair and no rank. My father moved away and lived his life, raising us and working on his farm.”

“Technically you can claim the lair in Aurora because of the familial link.”

“I could but technically we live in another state and have no dealings with the lair.”

“Unfortunately there is no division for gray dragons so as a start you’ll have to join the violet division.”

“I really don’t care what division I’m in.”

“Your aura is strong, what have you been doing since finishing school?” Sorin’s eyes were inquisitive and I could tell that he missed nothing.

“Working for the Elite Hunter Unit.”

“How long did you work for them?”

“Five years.”

“I’ll be watching your introduction with keen interest. I’d like to see what you are capable of.”

“I’ll try my best not to disappoint.”

“I like your sarcasm, dragons with no fire are no dragons at all.” He stood up from the table and so did I. I followed him out of the tent and into the identification tent. “Good luck, Mr Grey, I look forward to seeing your progress.”

“Thank you, Mr Albescu.” I bowed my head at him in respect because I actually liked him, even though he was closely affiliated with the King.

The identification process didn’t take that long. They took retinal scans, fingerprints, blood samples and photographed my dragon. A new identification card was printed with all my information on it and I was surprised to see that it had a gray tint to it. I also received a metal bracelet that was gray and locked around my wrist, water-proof and unbreakable.

The next tent was where I met my team leader. He seemed like a no nonsense guy, he was built like a warrior but he didn’t come close to me. I was bigger and taller than almost everyone here except one guy who looked like he ate the chicken instead of the eggs for breakfast.

“My name is Costin Barbu. I’ll be your team leader for the duration of your stay. You will be three per cabin and no exceptions will be made for replacements. There are allocated days that you will have to yourself. On training days there will be no drinking or smoking and no consorting with women. Training starts at seven am, breakfast is from five thirty to six thirty, lunch is at noon and training stops at five pm. Break the rules and you’re gone, again, no exceptions.”

“Got it.”

“Oh and no killing, fighting is fine, but no killing.” He had said that last part with a smile as we walked past cabins and he stopped at the last one, or the first one, depending on how you looked at it. “After lunch you will report to the Store where you will be handed training uniform, towels and eat wear.”

“Eat wear?”

“Think of it as a uniform for eating your food.” His English was far from perfect but he got his point across.

“Thanks, Costin.”

I opened the door and found it empty. I was the first to arrive, I looked around the cabin and chose the bed that stood apart from the other two by the window. There was a small bathroom attached at the back with a shower, basin and toilet.

I inserted my identification card into the slot above the bed and my name appeared above the slot. I pushed the duffel bag underneath the bed and headed out of the cabin to familiarize myself with the camp.

“Grey!” I heard a voice calling and I turned around to scan the crowds. It was admission day and hundreds of people were milling about, finding their feet.

“Hey, Nicolas!” I said as we bumped fists.

“I was wondering if I’d see you here. This is great, right!” His excitement was on another level complete with big smiles and bright eyes.

“Yeah it’s great.” I had to fake the excitement and I couldn’t be caught not being like everyone else.

“We’ll catch up later, I need to go find my cabin.” He left in a rush with his bag slung over his shoulder and disappeared into the crowd.

I followed Abigail at a distance and mapped out her cabin in my mind, measuring the distance and then fell in line behind her when we all reported for lunch. She looked okay as I scanned over her, her bracelet was gray like mine and she gave me a small smile.

Dinner was much the same as lunch; we couldn’t complain about the food, it was good. Abigail was in a group with Sire daughters because they also didn’t know what to do with her. Apparently Sorin had informed them to place her there after meeting me.

In the coming week especially, a lot of dragonkin would be sent home as people bonded or broke rules. There were ten camps like this one and we were thousands of dragonkin in Romania. I had seen Cali too but I was good at blending in and she hadn’t noticed me.

The burner phone was hidden in my duffel bag that had an extra space in the false bottom and I had checked in with Clark. I closed my eyes, feeling ready and glad that I was already on their radar.