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You came.
Of course I did, Miazydar said.
That’s not a good thing. I need to do this, to earn my place here. I need to do this without you.
Why? Why must you do this without me? Everyone else has their dragons here, why not you?
Because Captain Keya said, because the Queen doesn’t wish your colouring—
Bullshit.
My dragon never swore, his voice sounding, to my mind, like Benedict Cumberbatch’s. I guess the whole Smaug voiceover thing was probably a factor, but to me, he had the same stiffly aristocratic tone that seemed to hide a million hidden depths.
Take me to the ground, Miazydar, I said.
He obeyed but when we reached the sand, Keya was standing with Hunderly at her back, looking pissed. M obviously figured he’d double down on his bad behaviour and strode forward, sheltering me in the canopy of his wings, hissing abuse at the two of them. Hunderly, a heavier weight dragon than mine, shifted slowly, his stance making it apparent he was more than confident he could meet any threat my dragon made head on.
“He’s supposed to be in the breeding pens, ready to cover Her Majesty’s queen,” Keya said jabbing her finger at Miazydar.
“No cage you could build can hold me,” he snarled back, snapping his jaws at her. “You ask too much. None of your little toy soldiers are being asked to free fall from thousands of metres above the earth, to be caught by other rider’s dragons. You ask too much.”
“Maybe I do.” Keya had removed her helmet, no doubt to prevent herself from broadcasting to the entire rider contingent practising. “I’m just a soldier like all the others here. I get my orders, just like everyone else and I’m expected to obey them or face the consequences. The consequences here being Hunderly being redeployed to a ground-based soldier. The Queen came up with this display, it’s she who designed your role in it. Does she hope you fall to your death, to become little other than a smear on the sands? I’m sure she does, when she remembers to think of you. You’re an aberration, Tess, and absolute monarchs don’t enjoy aberrations. I’ve tried to do the right thing here, I’ve used every damn trick in the book I have to try and get you ready for this bloody event and you know what, you’ve risen to every damn challenge. I don’t have time to coddle or console you through this last bit, all I can do is throw you in and hope you’ll come out on top. Sabelina’s ready to take your role at any point, she’s your understudy. They’ve got it all planned out, what they’ll do if you can’t step up. But Tess, you can’t let them win. If you can make the jumps, fudge the fights, but make those jumps, the people themselves will award you citizenship. You’ll be a star and even Her Majesty knows not to fuck with the populace’s darling. So dragon, I need you to go back to the cage you’ve been assigned and await the dubious pleasure of throwing a leg over her majesty’s beast while your girl dominates this event. Can you do that? If
anything goes wrong, you can be here in a heartbeat, right?”
“As long as I’m not too far away. They spoke of moving us to the breeding complex?” Miazydar said.
“OK, that’s less than a click from here. Will that be an issue?”
“No, much further than that and it becomes harder, but no, that should be fine.” I heard the massive sigh in Miazydar’s chest and then his neck curled around so I was caught in its serpentine coil. My heart, he said.
And you are mine.
The rest of the day was spent jumping, jumping, jumping. The experience was beginning to numb me. Keya wanted to go higher again, I went. She wanted to do several jumps, capture, jump, capture sequences where I was travelling from dragon to dragon like some kind of bizarre platformer game, so I did them. When I landed on a dragon’s back I went through the motions of fighting whoever was there. Everyone seemed content to just move through the fight sequences then let me jump again, well, except for Sabelina.
I’d just landed in a crouch on the back of a grey-green dragon when a rider attacked. A wooden spear came crashing down on my shoulder, sending pain shooting through my aching body. I jerked to my feet, unfazed when the dragon shifted abruptly under me. I’d gotten my air legs awhile ago and now automatically compensated for it. The rider didn’t seem to expect that so I performed a roundhouse kick to the face, not putting too much power into it or my foot would smash into their helmet. Instead, it was more a shove, particularly as I aimed for the chin rather than the skull. The rider’s head was sent flying, the kick tipping their helmet back and dragging them with it. I snatched up the spear as they lost hold, trying to not fall from the dragon. I watched them closely in case I needed to call for a pickup.
“So where’s mine?” I said through the mic. “If this is a spear sequence, you should have enough for both of us.”
“Not a spear sequence,” came a feminine growl. She jumped to her feet and fell into a fighting stance. “That was a lucky shot. Let’s see what you’ve really got.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’ve got to jump in 30 or Keya will reign hell on both of our arses, so can we get this done quickly?”
She answered with a strike. I blocked her arm, then her leg easily with the spear. The wooden training spears were lighter than the plasma and perfect for this kind of thing. When I heard her huff of frustration, I began to spin the weapon in front of me, the wood slamming into her limbs each time she struck. She paused, her breath coming hard, so I took the opportunity to strike instantly, bringing the butt up in a wide sweep. She reacted too slow, so I caught her on the chin as she flipped backwards. “Fuck!” she yelped. Her trajectory was off, she was going to end up landing off the dragon.
“Pick up needed in—”
“I don’t need a fucking pick up,” she grated. She was clinging to the side of the dragon, the beast shifting under her as her nails dug into its scaled skin. It must’ve been her beast as it began to get agitated, bucking underneath me as it struggled to help to her.
“Let go,” I said, “I’ll jump and your animal will catch you.”
“Don’t need—”
I shook my head. “Whatever. Pick up needed in fifteen,” I said.
“Roger that. Jump now, I’m close and en route.”
It wasn’t until lunchtime finally came that I found out who the rider I’d fought was. As soon as she landed, the rider marched over to me, took off her helmet and threw a punch. I jerked back once, twice, then kicked out a leg and swept hers out from under her when she wouldn’t stop. Sabelina looked up at me from the sand, wide-eyed and out a breath from her fall. “What are you doing?” I said. “What is your fucking problem?”
