Page 71 of Tailwind

We alternated back and forth for the first ten laps. Sometimes I would pull ahead, then I’d fall behind to the tail. I was locked into the fight, battling against the bird-like arcans not only to get them out of my way, but to keep up with Colly.

It was thrilling to be able to race against a Prevere. The crowd had other opinions though. The cheering as we blew past the stands each lap was incredible, but none of it was for me. None of it was for Thorne. But it wouldn’t have mattered if they had known – I was going up against a dragon and rider in their home race.

As for the others, I’d not seen horn nor scale of them. Josie had kept me up to date as they’d passed or fallen back, but the mist was too thick for me to see them for myself. Occasionally a ripple from my proximity sensors told me someone was near, someone bigger than an arcan, but as far as I could see it was only me and Colly on the circuit.

The rain arrived just as Josie had predicted. As the droplets drained away from my visor I looked to my right, seeing Colly push forward into turn six. We’d been competing to beat one another out of this turn each lap and it was about to be mine again, whether he liked it or not. I nudged Gottyk downwards, using the drop in altitude to up our speed. We could fly underneath to take the same racing line and come out ahead.

We ducked and moved right, but the dull grey expanse around us wasn’t empty air.

The proximity sensors only picked up other moving objects: dragons, people and arcans. Stationary objects, such as mountains, were presumed to be avoidable by the rider.

Gottyk’s wing tip clipped the wall, shooting loose shale at us. It sent sharp pings through my suit and hit the saddle augments so hard that some went flying off into the circuit behind us. I tucked in tight as Gottyk rolled. His whole body spiralled, taking the energy of the impact and letting it move through him.

Without a clear sky there was no way to tell which way was up. My flight suit compressed my legs, forcing my blood to stay with all my important organs. My neck strained to keep my head from snapping back. Panic threatened to rise up, not from the collision, but the memory of the DNF at the Mirendi track.

I couldn’t let this happen. Not today. Not in my last Volitant race.

I rocked to one side and tapped my feet on Gottyk. He flung out his wings, catching the air. We levelled out.

‘Are you okay? I’ve lost access to Gottyk’s readings.’ Josie’s voice was a welcome sound after being thrown around.

‘We clipped a wall and lost a few augments. Not sure which. I can barely see my own hands.’ The deep clouds had blocked out the sun and the rain had made the air thick and blurry. In all my years of racing I’d never flown in conditions like this.

‘Have I lost Colly?’

‘He’s just ahead of you. The clip slowed you down. Everyone is struggling with visibility though. Omar and Ellas flew right into each other a lap ago and have dropped way back. You’re in third.’

Third. I was halfway through the race and I was third. A podium was within my grasp. An actual trophy could be in my hands in the next hour.

‘Lena, Bach is behind you, followed by the Bolls. I can only get your location from your helmet. The locator augments on Gottyk are gone. Be careful.’

I was flying blind in the storm and Josie was planning blind without her numbers. The casting orb in my helmet only saw what I did, which wasn’t much. If we managed to pull off a decent finish from this mess we’d have worked a miracle.

Gottyk wove through the mountain crags back across the start–finish line for yet another lap. The proximity sensors tingled and then shot up in intensity just as a flash of orange pulled up alongside us. Bach.

‘Team orders: let him pass.’ It was Hector. They didn’t have faith that Thorne could stay ahead so told me to give way to the rider with a better chance.

It made sense for the Kiestral strategists to ask for this, thinking I was Thorne. Even if they’d known the truth, it was still the right call. Bach was a legend for the history books and I wasn’t even a footnote.

I tapped my helmet to reply. ‘Understood.’

In all the races I’d flown so far we’d been separated by several other dragons and riders. Also skill, something that I would freely admit. When it came to Bach I had no ego, I knew he was the better rider, but I had flown to third place on my own merit.

If this was my last race then it was also my last chance to race against my hero. I wasn’t going to waste it.

I had Gottyk slow down for the entry into a corner, but Bach kept going. Rosinder only paused a fraction of a second before the mountainside, throwing herself into it at the last possible moment. It was amazing. I didn’t mind that I’d been overtaken, not when the one overtaking me was him.

I patted Gottyk’s shoulder. We could play this game, we’d done it before in the Victrolia forest. It was time to be a copycat again. Hunkering down against the gale-force winds, I pulled the reins near taut. There was no time for slack – whatever Bach did I had to do too.

My visor lenses shifted as I locked on to Bach. The rain made it more difficult, but thankfully he was in bright orange armour. I’d watched him fly this race countless times. I knew he liked to take the corners close. I knew he preferred the medium route even if he already had found an arsenal so he could build up more height before the first straight.

I just had to do the exact same in extreme wind, rain and fog. Easy.

Through the next few laps I was living my dream. On dragonback in the midst of a wild storm, following my hero as we sliced through arcans. The fans around the circuit and watching the casts back home would be confused, Thorne didn’t play nicely with teammates and he definitely didn’t like to fly like Bach.

I wasn’t Thorne though. Not in this last race.

I was Lena Paldon and I was the first woman to fly in Volitant. My heart had been stomped on, my career had been snuffed out and my fire had died, but I still flew. They could take away my wings, but nothing would stop me from racing.