5. Idrilia #3
"What if I need to throw up?"
"Turn your head to the side and aim downwind. My dragonia doesn't appreciate being soiled."
Commander Pentell mounted in front of him. "The other two dragons will land one at a time. The riders know what to do. You just need to help the injured get up, and they will do the rest. We'll take this group now and come back for the rest of you."
"Yes, ma'am," Jeffson saluted her.
"Thank you," I said, giving Gavon an encouraging smile.
The commander nodded, and then her dragonia launched from the slope with a powerful thrust, sending loose rocks cascading down the mountainside.
I watched them go and hoped Gavon would manage not to throw up.
The evacuation continued just as Commander Pentell had said, with one of the hovering dragons landing and collecting Denna.
Trevan, with his swollen knee, was next.
The rest of us waited for the dragons to return from their first round of evacuations.
"Scary beasts," Jeffson murmured next to me. "Useful, though."
I nodded. "Thank Elurion for the dragons. We would have died on this mountain without them."
Jeffson smiled sadly. "I wouldn't have allowed you to stay, Your Highness. I would have sent you down with the least injured porters."
I looked down my hooked nose at him. "As if I would have agreed to go and leave the others behind."
He smiled again. "I would have tricked you. Told you to get help and come back for us."
"It wouldn't have worked. I would have insisted that you get down and get help while I stayed behind with the injured."
We argued until the dragons returned for the rest of us.
The pickup continued in the same manner. A single dragon landed while the others held position above. A passenger mounted behind the rider, was strapped in, and then the dragon launched into the air, sending debris skittering down the slope.
With each departure, the mountainside grew emptier and quieter.
Jeffson, Kelth, Sorel, and I were the last four remaining when the dragons returned for the final pickups.
"You should go next," Jeffson told me.
"I go last."
He looked like he wanted to argue but recognized the expression on my face and nodded.
Sorel went first, then Kelth.
Jeffson and I waited on the mountainside with one dragon circling above and the vast, empty silence pressing in around us.
The dragon descended for Jeffson, and once he was mounted behind the rider, he gave me a nod that expressed more respect than he'd shown me during the entire expedition.
And then I was alone.
The silence was absolute. The wind had died. The auroras pulsed overhead, green and violet and silver, and the debris field glittered with ice crystals.
My teeth were buzzing again. That persistent hum that I'd felt since we crossed the boundary, stronger now, resonating through my jaw and into my temples.
It had to be the altitude, or the magnetic fields, or maybe even stress, but as the last dragon descended toward me, I wasn't sure any of those explanations were correct.
None of the other expedition members had said anything about their teeth reacting strangely. I'd have to ask them once I was reunited with my team.
The dragon landed, a sleek blue-gray male, and once he lowered himself as low as he could go, the rider extended a hand to help me up.
The scales were warm under my palms. Warmer than I'd expected, warmer than any surface had a right to be on a frozen mountain.
The texture was smooth but with a subtle grain, and I could feel the vibration of the dragon's breathing, the slow, powerful rhythm of lungs designed for impossible altitudes where human lungs faltered.
"Hold on tight," the rider said, handing me a pair of goggles. "Keep your head up if you can, but it's okay if you want to close your eyes and lean your head against my back."
I kept my head up.
The dragon launched, and the mountain fell away beneath us, and for one blazing, transcendent moment, I understood what it meant to fly.
The wind tore at my hair, ripping strands free from my braid. The cold bit my exposed skin. My stomach dropped, and every rational part of my brain was screaming that humans were not designed to soar through the sky.
But the irrational part, the part that had always dreamt of dragons, felt like it was finally home.
The flight lasted only minutes. A short hop over the border peaks to a field station on the Elurian side, where hover-vehicles waited to transport us. But those minutes rewrote something fundamental in me, something I couldn't undo and didn't want to.
When the dragon landed, and I dismounted on shaky legs, the rider offered me a hand to steady myself.
"First time?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Did you enjoy it?"
"I loved it. I didn't want to miss anything. Thank you."
"You're welcome, Princess Idrilia of Tarina."
He studied me for a brief moment, then nodded, mounted up, and his dragon launched back into the sky to rejoin the formation heading east toward the peaks.
I stood on solid ground and watched them go until they were specks against the auroras and the sky was empty again.