Page 92 of Tailwind

‘It’s not like I asked to be brought here.’ My voice echoed off the stone walls. ‘Well, I kind of did, but only after he offered. My point is that it’s pointless! I can learn infinite amounts of strategy, but it won’t do me any good on the ground.’

A stubborn copper pellet was lodged under the lip of one of Aloux’s large golden scales.

‘Mister, I have never met a dragon as big as you before.’ I got out the pick I kept in the keeper tool belt, perfect for such occasions. ‘I’ve raised hatchlings to adults for years, watched Volitant racing my whole life, so I can confirm you are by far the biggest boy on the continents.’

The stool I was using to reach his back started to give way as I leaned my bodyweight against the pellet. It shot out, sending me tumbling to the ground as the tension released.

‘Great. Not what I meant when I said I wanted to fly, but whatever.’ I sat on the millions of other bits of copper, staring at the ceiling where long slitted windows gave a view of the purple sky outside.

Vepari, the imperious Prevere blue, watched me from what I now knew was her favourite balcony. Her tail swung lazily, drifting in the open air. It was as thick as my body, matching the size of the rest of her.

‘You really do just keep growing, don’t you?’

It was a widely known fact about dragons – the older they got, the bigger they grew. It was harder to tell when all the dragons in Volitant were of a similar age. Each one was raised in the team headquarters for two years, from hatching to adulthood, then raced for two years before retirement, making all active dragons between two and five years old.

After that they were kept for breeding or training until they felt the Pull, which was usually after turning seven years old. Older dragons like Abenon, nine, weren’t unheard of, but his mother, Vepari … she’d flown with Bach in sixty-eight and sixty-nine, making her thirteen years old.

The two northern gold dragons were even older: fifteen and seventeen.

I patted the sleeping Aloux, oldest of the lot.

‘Do you know you’re a natural marvel? Is that why you stay here with grumpy Bach? To avoid the media circus if they all knew you were still alive?’

He snorted, sending copper pellets flying. A few made contact with me, stinging despite the thick overalls.

It made me miss Gottyk’s petulant huffs. That made me miss flying with him. It made me miss everything.

‘Well,’ I said to the old boy, ‘at least someone is happy to be here.’

A few hours of unconscious bliss later it started again. Except when I jogged up the slope to the aviary this time, someone had beaten me there.

‘Good morning. I thought you’d be happy to see me, yet there’s a scowl on your face suggesting otherwise.’ Josie was in keeper overalls, tool belt to match.

‘Is Gottyk okay?’ Bad news was delivered in person and Josie was the type to show sympathy by taking care of business. Every bad scenario possible flew through my mind, followed by the impossible ones.

She softened, pausing from sifting the pellets. ‘Yes, Gottyk is fine, Lena. I checked in with headquarters this morning and I’ll be going back tomorrow.’

I appreciated her restraint in not telling me to relax. She knew just as well as I did how attached keepers got to their dragons.

‘Then why—’

‘I asked her to help out from now on.’ Bach emerged from the kit room, dressed in an all-black flight suit.

I coughed, choking on the rest of the question still stuck in my throat.

‘It was brought to my attention that maybe I’d been going about your training the wrong way.’ In all the hours upon hours of casts I’d watched of Bach Lotiere, I’d never seen this before. He was sheepish.

I shot Josie a glare for snitching on me.

In return I got a genuine-looking shrug. Josie got back to sifting the copper, while very obviously watching us in her peripheral vision. Whoever had been the one to pass on my complaints had both a dead arm and crushed rib coming their way from the punch and hug I owed them.

Bach cleared his throat. ‘So, while you’ll still be on the schedule to help out, just like everyone else, most mornings you’ll be in flight training with me.’

My knuckles whitened as I clenched my fists, trying to hold in my urge to jump and yell in triumph.

‘Choose your dragon for the day and meet me outside.’ He fastened the buttons on the front of his suit as he exited the aviary, like he hadn’t just given me permission to begin living my dreams.

‘You’re not going to wet yourself, are you? Because none of them will let you fly them if you do.’ Josie snickered as dozens of copper pellets came at her, courtesy of my kicking.