Chapter 9 Nyssa #2
Velira growled. You and I have a prior commitment.
Diana paused, brow quirking.
Oh?
Oh, she mimicked scathingly.
“One week,” I grinned.
Diana’s lip twisted into a lopsided smirk. “Deal.”
“Artemis — I want you to take Aphrodite and Hestia, and anyone else with minimal combat experience.”
The goddess nodded. “What am I to do with them?”
I met her steely gaze head on.
“They, more than any other, need to learn to defend themselves. I wouldn’t put it past Kronos or his army to target them… to use them for other nefarious purposes,” I said quietly.
The goddess understood my meaning instantly. Her dark eyes hardened at my insinuation, her teeth ground together audibly.
“I will train them,” she replied, equally as soft though doubly as lethal. “Never again will women pay the price for a man’s greed — not if I can help it.”
“Thank you.”
She responded only by spinning on her heel, bee-lining for the pair currently under Aros’ tutelage.
She spoke quietly with him, and his gaze flicked up to meet mine across the field.
Pain flashed briefly over his features. He, better than any, knew the price of masculine greed — and I was counting on that to save our friend from ever experiencing it.
I eyed my enormous purple furnace. And what exactly are you so eager to do?
Climb on.
You can’t mean…
She narrowed one golden eye. If dragons had brows, I’d have sworn she’d raised one.
Surely you can’t mean... Velira — tell me you don’t mean you.
Well, I certainly don’t mean the lizards.
My body thrummed in equal parts fear and elation.
Dragons hadn’t existed in Olympus for millennia. I didn’t think they existed in the mortal lands at all. They were a race we had long thought extinct, lost to the woes of time.
And then came Velira, hidden deep within Artemis’ Forest, on the precipice of becoming a hydra’s lunch. Velira, who had chosen to bond with me.
As she grew, I learned that her ferocity only matched mine — as did her tenacious sarcasm.
Climb on, godling. Or I’ll eat you.
You wouldn’t dare.
She made a noise that could only be described as smoky laughter curling in the back of her throat.
Hmmm, maybe not. But I can drag you along for the ride, willingly or otherwise.
She tapped one long, dagger-sharp talon on the ground in wordless threat.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“Fine,” I huffed, throwing my arms up. “But how am I to get all the way up there when you’re as large as a house?”
Rude, she drawled.
I snorted.
You’ll figure something out.
Frowning, I considered my options. Scaling her leg wasn’t at all appealing, nor was asking her to kneel. As if she’d heard that particular thought, her enormous eye narrowed. I smirked as I considered a third option.
I conjured an inky ladder, and laid it against her sparkling hide.
Clever, she admitted, but not quick. You’ll need to work something else out when you’ve got monsters on your tail and the only way out is up.
You’re the one with the tail, Vel.
Yes, and you’re going to get it stabbed or eaten if you continue to move at that glacial pace.
Rude.
She chortled as I sat, wedging myself into the hollow at the base of her neck. Golden spines trailed down her back just behind me, beginning at a metre high and slowly shrinking all the way down to the tip of her spiked tail.
Hold on, she warned.
To what?!
I screamed as she bounded into the sky, almost throwing me off. My arms wrapped around her neck as much as I was able, while her wings pounded loudly, propelling us higher.
In a matter of seconds, the arena was the size of a coin beneath us, Aetherion nothing more than tiny specks of buildings and lights. And still she took us higher.
Her thunderous wings were the soundtrack to my awe as I chanced a glimpse further out. My breath caught in my throat as I witnessed our world through a dragon’s eyes.
The peak of Mount Olympus was visible to our left; the setting sun blanketing the ocean to our right — all the way past the edge of Olympus.
“Vel, this is amazing,” I breathed, surprised to see that it came out in a clouded wisp.
That’s nothing. How’s this?
She sent me a mental image of her world.
Helios’ sun bled the realm a vibrant lilac — everywhere its light touched, bathed in shades of violet.
She sent another view of the god-filled city below — every lantern and every fireplace glowed a searing amaranthine.
And while every source of flame was the same jewelled tone as her scales, everything else was lived in shades of jade.
Her glimpse of a passing messenger bird: lime. The snow-capped peak of Mount Olympus: sage. And as she descended, people became easier to spot in their vivacious shades of viridian.
You truly see everything like this?
Everything.
Always?
Always.
I blinked to clear my sight, clogged as it was by emotion. Her images cleared from my mind and my vision returned, now a truly lacklustre thing to behold.
Are you ready? she asked with barely concealed excitement. Her head pivoted so that one eye could meet mine.
I grimaced. Ready for what, exactly?
Her serpentine lip pulled up at the corner in a devious draconian smile.
Flight training, she purred.
“Flight training?” I repeated dumbly.
Did you suddenly develop hearing loss? she sniped. Yes — flight training. I am one of your greatest assets in this war. And if you’d care to look past your own fears, you’d see it.
Hey, uncalled for.
That ridiculous brow-that-wasn’t-a-brow lifted again in unveiled judgement.
It’s called for, Nyssa. We need to train — together — if we’re to stand any chance against the monsters Kronos will no doubt employ. Between my fire and your shadows, we could take out half his army!
Icy dread crept across my heart. She was right. He’d have beasts, traitors, and Titans too — if they managed to escape the shitshow that was the crumbled gates.
Everything alright up there? Caelus asked, his voice echoing faintly like he’d called across a great chasm.
Fine, I sent back.
No reply. Figuring out how to send the thought down so far, and expending enough effort to do so, was difficult — more so than I’d anticipated.
I tried again.
We’re fine.
I knew I’d been successful when his cloying concern morphed into something lighter like relief.
We’re about to start flight training, though. Be ready to catch me at a moment’s notice, I joked.
Lykos and I are doing the same. A pause. And I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life for you to fall for me.
A scoff bubbled at the back of my throat.
Always with the theatrics, Golden.
Anything to make you smile, Nightshade.
If you’re done being disgusting, can we train now? My purple menace cut in. Apparently I’d managed to broadcast the thoughts down both tethers without meaning to.
Caelus’ presence faded as he laughed himself back down to his own lessons.
This is going to be violent, isn’t it? I asked the interrupting dragon.
Of course it is.
Give me one moment.
With a flick of my hand, an inky rope curled around the front of her neck. I gripped the shadow-forged reigns tightly, took a steadying breath, then sent: Alright then, let’s go.
Words I may yet regret ever conveying.
Velira immediately tilted, tucked her wings in tight, and speared her body at the ground.
Down, down, down we dove.
The flats outside Aetherion grew closer with every passing heartbeat, the scattered trees growing larger, and the landscape more defined.
Vel?
She angled, aiming right at something I had taken to be a white hillock — I was so very wrong.
Lykos’ lithe body sprinted across the open plain, a rider visible on his back.
Velira?
Sensing my nearness, Caelus twisted in his saddle, eyes wide. The fact that I could see the contrasting black and silver meant we were dangerously close to impact.
VEL!
At the last possible moment, her lilac wings flared with a resounding leathery crack.
My body was thrown into her thick, muscular neck, as hers glided perpendicular to the ground, swooping past the giant wolf and his precious cargo.
Vel nipped playfully at the beast on her way past, Caelus grinning as we soared by.
I whooped with joy, threw my arms out, and tasted the wind on my fingertips as we flew.
I’m fucking flying!
You are, she laughed, climbing higher.
What else can you do?
Oh, it’s like that is it? Hold tight.
She twisted sharply to the right — but unfortunately my body stayed left.
Velira twisted again, screeching and diving — and I watched it all play out from below, in slow motion, as I plummeted to the ground.
“Well, I didn’t bet on that,” my imagination taunted as the ground rushed up to meet me.