Drakmoor

The capital is cut into the walls of a crater and every morning hundreds of winged shapes rise out of it. The locals call it the breathing. Drakmoor runs on dragon fire, in its forges, its lamps, and its politics.

A child of a rider clan is paired with a hatchling before either can walk. They grow together, sleep in the same hall, and learn each other's tempers. The bond goes both ways. A rider who loses a drake rarely lasts the winter, and a drake that loses a rider goes to the high cliffs and does not come back. The clans call this the terms.

The terms come from the first rider. The story says she did not tame a dragon. She bargained with one, and the bargain has a rite the clans still keep in a circle of standing stones on the plateau. They do not discuss what the rite holds in place. They do not discuss what the drakes do when it is late.

Britannia has never landed a fleet on Drakmoor. Almania sends surveyors every year and every year the surveyors come home early.