Page 53 of Tailwind

‘From the train. My proximity sensors were going off the whole time.’

Oh no. He’d had his augments on.

‘From the way they kept steady on my back, I figured you were keeping pace with us, going through the same path.’

I’d been so stupid.

‘Sorry!’ I blurted out. ‘I didn’t mean to disturb you. I was just letting Gottyk have a warm-up and then we saw you two ahead and we thought we’d give it a go and—’ I was rambling. I stopped myself, but the sudden awkward silence was worse.

‘No problem.’ He waved away my apologies. ‘It’s only fair Gottyk finally gets a good rider. Now, if you’ll excuse us,’ – He slid his faceplate down. – ‘I need to get her some breakfast.’ He patted his dragon on the shoulder and they took off, following the route of the Victrolia gold.

I sat there for a long moment.

‘A good rider.’ I whispered it to myself, letting the words bounce around my head over and over again.

Gottyk huffed and set off into a run. Overhead the Victrolia gold went past us once more. I realized Gottyk intended to take off so grabbed the reins and shut my faceplate once more.

Bach had been able to tell that the Victrolia gold, now only a sparkle in the trees ahead, was going to be back in perfect timing.

I looked around us, letting Gottyk lead. There were augments glinting on the ground between each tree. We’d found the race circuit. Those augments would cast the barrier shield during the race tomorrow, stopping us from going out of bounds or harming the fans when crashing out.

I’d been so focused on Bach that I hadn’t realized we’d cut through the forest back to the circuit, right next to the aviary.

‘Looks like you get some breakfast too, bud.’

Gottyk let out another of his happy coos. I wanted to join in too. After all, Bach Lotiere had just called me a good rider.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Once my keeper duties for the day had been dealt with I found a secluded spot to eat my dinner. The Victrolia headquarters were vast. The long low buildings hugged the base of the hills behind them and blended into the edge of the surrounding forest with their log walls and moss-green roofs. All to house their massive team and numerous dragons.

It took me a while to find a good spot: a grassy slope that looked over the moss-covered buildings and into the forest. My dinner had been warming my hands through its container as I’d wandered around. By the time I sat down on a smooth rain-worn rock to eat my insides were caving in out of desperation.

The smell wasn’t ever as good as the food back home. In fact, the further south I went the less interesting it tasted. However, this was the land of wheat and meat. What it lacked in complexity it made up for in size and comfort. I opened it up and began to dig in: a gigantic potato topped with red meat, cheese and a brown sauce that was quite possibly gravy. I hadn’t had the patience to ask. I just wanted to get it and go.

‘Hey!’

The dollop of food dropped off my fork and back into the box as I lifted my head. I’d thought I was alone. Evidently not, because striding up the hill was Colly Balen, the Prevere rookie. He was waving at me with a big smile on his face like our single interaction last week had confirmed me as a new best friend. He was also carrying food.

Oh no. He was going to join me. I’d been trying to avoid this situation by picking a cold and grey spot to eat.

The gangly teenager cleared the slope in seconds and folded his long limbs to sit next to me on my rock. I’d only been there for less than a minute, but I felt that arriving first gave me ownership.

‘Nice spot, Lena! Look at that view.’ He held a hand up to his brow to shield it from the lowering sun and looked out over the Victrolia base like it was the ocean.

‘Um, hey.’ As disappointed as I was that I was no longer alone, it was difficult to be mad with Colly. With people like Theo I was well versed in telling them to go away in the most colourful language I had, but Colly exuded an innocence that I couldn’t bring myself to ruin. Even asking him why he was acting so nice felt rude.

‘What did you get?’ He opened up his own dinner, revealing two potatoes with only cheese, no meat or sauce. ‘It seemed like they had weird combos of foods to put together.’

I showed him my own dinner. ‘Have you not been here before?’

He looked at me, bizarrely earnest. ‘No, I’m a rookie.’

It was his first year flying in Volitant. All his previous racing would have taken place locally to where he lived, meaning he wasn’t from here. Judging from his lack of accent to my ears, he was likely from north Gedeinia too. He was also still looking at me, except now he had the face of a kicked hatchling.

‘You don’t remember me, do you?’

Panic shot through me. I scrambled to backtrack and hopefully remove his hurt look. ‘Oh! Well I know we bumped into each other in the city last week …’