The Best Dragon Rider

By Tami Veldura

The dragon races are Luella's way out of poverty and abuse, she just needs to keep her head down and obey the stablemaster. She needs to feed the dragon queens, cut their wings, and chain them down. She needs to raise the next generation of racers and one day she'll rise up on the back of a dragon and fly away from this wretched place.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tami Veldura
• Release date: Mar 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9781941319529

Tami Veldura

Tami Veldura is an enby/aro/ace author of queer fiction. They have published short stories in anthologies Fresh Starts, Hauntings, Love Among The Thorns, Love Is Like A Box Of Chocolates, the magazine Galaxy’s Edge, and they are a contributing member of the scifi magazine Boundary Shock Quarterly. They publish new work every month, crossing every genre, but always featuring queer characters and found families.As S.T. Lynn, they write uplifting, sweet, and tropey fantasy fiction, featuring women front and center. Including fairy tales, elves, magic, and happy endings for young adults and young-at-heart.

Book preview

The Best Dragon Rider

By Tami Veldura

They're going so fast! Neron said as he leaned further out of the stable door. His oversized shirt fell off one shoulder and he hiked it back up absently.

Outside in the distance, over the coliseum walls, dragons swooped and dove through rings, climbed between wooden platforms, and snapped at each other whenever they got a chance. Huge teeth filed down flat still left bruises and tore scales.

Luella grabbed his arm and dragged him back into the safety of the stable. Careful, she hissed, Don't let them see you. Their stablemaster Keros stood with his beefy arms folded over his fat belly only a few feet away discussing something with another stablemaster. Probably negotiating rutting for next season.

Still, the lure of the dragon race caught Luella too, and soon she was leaning out of the doorway again with Neron, trying to catch more than a glimpse of bright scales and flashing wings. The coliseum stood like a beacon in the middle of the city: all white stone and shining metal. It would take at least an hour to walk to the outer city from here, and Luella had never been any closer than that. From this distance, the dragons were little more than darting birds.

The dragons trained to race the obstacles were unlike any others. They were tall and long, their wings pointed for fast turns and steep dives. Some had elaborate horn crests they used to knock other dragons out of the race.

And then there were the riders: small, tightly wound people, mostly women, who clung to the backs of their monstrous beasts and guided them with crops and kicks and yanks on the reins pierced through tongues.

Luella was going to be a dragon racer one day. The best there ever was. She'd race in the Tournament in Ferro Amir, miles to the east, and she'd win.

Hey!

Luella and Neron both started at the stablemaster's hard voice. He was already marching toward them, arms swinging hard around his belly,