Page 95 of Tailwind

I could have imagined it, but I could have sworn she nodded as I spoke.

‘Sounds about right. Definitely an interesting way to start.’ He pushed off the trunk and came over to us. He looked at Ascil for a long moment before continuing. ‘What has been your problem with flying so far?’

I grimaced. There had been so many problems. Speed, turning, overtaking, stability, slowing down …

‘Consistency,’ I answered. It was the easiest way to sum up the fact I hadn’t performed anything well twice in a row.

Bach nodded. ‘I agree.’

I tried not to vomit. I wasn’t sure which was worse, him paying attention to my flying or him agreeing that it was flawed.

‘While you’re here you won’t fly the same dragon twice in a row. Each of them,’ – He nodded towards the aviary. – ‘comes with a host of quirks, preferences, flaws and talents. You’ll be running the same training every day, only on a different dragon each time.

‘You may have the same dragon for each race in Volitant, but that only lasts for two years at most. Unless you learn how to adapt quickly to fly in different conditions, you’ll always be on the back foot. Whether it’s each dragon, season, race or lap, something is always changing. The more you get used to it, the better you’ll be.’

The idea was daunting – most riders had a style and ended up flying with a team who bred dragons suited to it. The only style I had was copied from Bach out of sheer admiration. Now he was going to be judging me on how well I could maintain it while dragon-hopping. My nausea increased.

Bach had done this over three decades, I was about to learn it in three weeks. If anyone could train me how to do this though it was him. If I was fair to myself I figured that if anyone was obsessed enough to learn, it was me.

I squared my shoulders, feigning confidence. ‘Okay, let’s fly.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Ascil trotted in a circle while Bach observed us. I’d been in the saddle for two minutes and so far it had been the best two minutes of my life.

‘Which drills will we be running?’ I shifted my weight as I got used to her movements. Her monumental size felt less daunting after getting into the saddle, but the second pair of wings behind my legs still concerned me.

‘Tag,’ Bach replied. Before explaining any further he walked off into the aviary.

I attempted to twist around and watch what he was doing, but Ascil had decided to limber up, dipping into a stretch while her two sets of wings were flung wide.

He arrived back outside riding Vepari, which I tried to not take personally. Seeing the azure dragon in motion was stunning in itself, but with Bach in the saddle it was like watching a race cast from a decade ago. Her long white horns rippled slightly in shape, ending in points far sharper than the recent breed regulations allowed.

‘So cool,’ I muttered to myself. My stomach curdled with jealousy, despite that fact I was riding my favourite dragon of all time who, until an hour ago, I’d presumed dead.

‘She’d agree with you. Vepari knows just how good she is.’

The safety lines went taut as I jumped with surprise. Bach’s voice had come through helmet comms I hadn’t known about. His voice was clear and went directly into my ear, which was how he’d heard my comment – open comms like Josie had set up for me at Kiestral. At least he’d assumed I was talking about the dragon.

‘So, tag?’ I asked, diverting back to the training. I had a reasonable idea of what that meant, given we were both on dragonback and ready to fly. There was the logical, practical part of my brain that was hoping that I wasn’t about to be chased down by a six-time Volitant world champion when I hadn’t even won a race yet. Though, as Josie liked to remind me daily, that part of my brain was small, shrivelled and under-used. The rest of me, however, was lit like dragonfire at the prospect.

‘You’re going to take off and thirty seconds later so will I. Then I’ll take this,’ – He held up a training spear. – ‘and hit you with it.’

My flight suit cooling system switched on.

‘After that, you’ll try and do the same to me.’

He tossed a second training spear over. It was lighter than I expected and the end was dusted with white powder. So we weren’t going all out with arcanite weapons. I was almost disappointed. They might have been strictly regulated and not for public purchase, but since Bach had everything else that wasn’t on the market I wouldn’t have been surprised.

I also couldn’t help but noticed he’d added ‘try’ into the phase when I would be chasing down him. Nice to know my new mentor believed in me.

‘All right,’ I said. ‘Any rules?’

‘Your helmet comms will buzz if you go near the boundary of the estate. It’s around five square miles. There’s no height or speed minimum or maximum. We go until I say we stop.’

I nodded, not trusting my voice to keep my excitement a secret.

‘Go.’