Page 16 of House of Ashes
He opened the pack, and I was taken by surprise as he began to pull out coils of rope instead of food.
A lot of rope.
He looked up at me and met my eyes for the first time that morning. “I couldn’t bring the gear all the way from Jhazra, so we’re going to practice with this.”
Typically, once a dragon and draga had bonded, the dragon was outfitted with a custom saddle for his rider. Growing up, I had seen everything from basic leather tack to full ceremonial armor for dragons.
This was…absurd.
Think of Varyamar. I closed my eyes and breathed in and out. Think of home.
For a moment I could almost smell the jasmine and morning glories of my ancestral eyrie, and that made up my mind.
There were no flowers on Mistward Isle. I would brave riding a dragon with a rope to smell that again.
“We make reins out of it.” I picked up a coil of heavy rope, running my fingers over the coarse fibers. “It won’t be comfortable, but we can do it.”
“I knew you’d come around,” he said, with a smile that made the corners of those heart-flame eyes crinkle.
“Just shift already. Daylight’s burning, and if Kalros is still out there…” I let it go unfinished. He could take on Kalros himself—but not with me on his back.
He took the rope from me and rapidly tied several knots that made my eyes spin. I couldn’t begin to replicate what he’d done, but I was left holding a massive lasso of rope.
But Rhylan wasn’t done. I gritted my teeth as he held the lasso, refusing to relinquish it to me.
“We need to work out a basic communication system that won’t be obvious,” he said, and I nodded.
“Clearly.”
“If you see incoming dragons, nudge me with your left heel. If you feel that you’re slipping, nudge me with your right.”
“And if I do slip, just scream all the way down and maybe you’ll catch me in time.”
He surprised me again when he favored me with a broad grin. I could almost believe he didn’t loathe me when he smiled like that. “I’m fast.”
“What if I want you to speed up, or land, or rise?” I asked.
Rhylan’s grin died as quickly as it’d come. “No. I make those decisions. You’re going to have to work more on the façade, pretending that our minds are seamless.”
I didn’t like that much at all. A bonded pair communicated all things through the mind-speech, from the omnipresent trust for each other, to their movements, the wind, the thermals.
He was my only choice; I’d have to figure it out.
“Understood,” I said crisply, taking the lasso.
Rhylan ran his hands through his dark hair, giving the sky another once-over. “Well…I suppose it begins now. From this moment on, we must assume that we’re watched. Enjoy the flight, darling.” His lips smacked a mocking kiss at me.
He stepped back and began to shift, even as I made a gagging sound.
Maybe this morning was a little too early to begin working on the charade.
Within moments he stood before me in his full dragon form, just as impressive as he’d been in the Koressis Training Grounds.
Rhylan had caught the eye of every young draga in those days. Now he was bigger, his head fifteen feet above the ground, all four clawed limbs thick with muscle, his wingspan wide enough to blot out the sun.
Every inch of him gleamed the inkspill, glossy black of his House’s lineage, from his scales to the spiraled black horns crowning his skull. He was a true scion of his line.
Gods, any unmated princess would fight me to the death with tooth and claw, at this very moment, for the chance at a mate bond with Rhylan.