11. Lois #2
I focus on his breathing – the way his chest expands and slowly deflates behind me, matching him breath for breath as much as I can.
I’m pretty sure his lungs must be twice the size of mine, though – and the same could probably be said about his heart with the way I can feel the thump, thump, thump of it, too.
“Thaaat’s it,” Az murmurs. “You’re doing so well for me, Lois.”
He’s stroking my neck again like he just can’t help himself. I don’t mind. I think it actually helps to keep my mind off the bajillion miles of nothing that’s between me and solid ground.
After a little while, I feel another light chuckle at my back. “You know, you get very bossy when you’re frightened, little female.”
Before I get a chance to respond, he releases my throat and deftly slips his arm from my grasp. “Here,” he says, handing me the reins of his drak, physically curling my fingers around the multiple leather straps. “Why don’t you boss my other ladies around for a while?”
“No. I don’t-” I stammer, shaking my head.
“Gently tug on this one to steer us in that direction,” he murmurs, leaning over me to demonstrate, his warm hand covering mine as he performs the slight movement for me to see. “And the same for the opposite. To slow us, we need pressure on all reins and to-”
“What about to land us safely in one piece back on the ground?”
Lady… or Puff, I’m not sure which, tilts her head up and roars into the night as if offended at the suggestion.
“In good time,” Az laughs softly from behind. “They need to stretch their wings, and you need to relax. Look,” he says, helping me to steer the huge double-headed dragon-creature until in front of us, lit up like a festive cluster of Christmas trees, lay the climbing towers of the palace.
I have to admit, it is a wonderful sight.
The city sprawls beneath us in a haze of gold and white.
All the people and their lives carrying on down there, represented by a few glowing points of light.
But the dots aren’t just in the streets that branch out like veins carrying the life force of the Xaviann city, or in each individual illuminated room, looking like a scattering of stars that spilled across the ground.
No, there are flying lights around here, too – flying lights from flying ships.
Some are small; one dot zooming through the airspace, and some are several dots long, representing a much larger craft coming in to dock or going out to travel.
“What if we fly into one of those cruisers?” I ask, the sudden thought making me panic and peer around for any nearby ships.
“We’re flying above the standard cruising altitude.”
Of course we are.
“And besides, ships of all shapes and sizes are equipped with all kinds of automated scanners and detection systems to help them fly safely. How do you think they’re not crashing into each other every day down there?”
Swallowing, I peer down, and sure enough, I see what he means. Those little cruisers whiz about all over the place, but they always manage to avoid each other.
“Relax, Lois,” Az repeats, and this time, I take a breath – one bigger and steadier than before.
It takes a little while, but as I’m experimenting with the reins, steering us ever so slightly this way and that, I think I finally start to feel calm – or as calm as you can be this high up in the sky.
It is beautiful, though. The blanket of black above us, sprinkled with stars, and the hubbub of city life below us.
At some point, Az leans forward, his arms under mine, reaching to give his drak a scratch in a specific place on both shoulders.
The creature makes a pleased-sounding trilling noise.
“Gooood girls,” he rasps in my ear, and for some reason it feels like he’s including me in that particular bit of praise.
And I can’t say I didn’t like it.
“C’mon,” he says, covering my hands on the reins and making a clicking noise with his mouth, causing us to change course.
All this time we’d been circling above the city’s skyline without going too close to anything. But now, we seem to be heading straight for the largest tower in the palace, Lady and Puff’s strong wingbeats whooshing behind us, and the night air ruffling through my hair.
Az whistles in a distinctive, two-note kind of way, and that seems to be all the drak needs to swoop down suddenly, making my stomach drop.
“I got you,” he says, that strong hand spanning my middle again like he anticipated my panic.
It works, because as we loop and swirl around the towers of the palace, whooshing past all the ornate, stained-glass windows, I can’t help but let out a whoop and a laugh.
We dive down only to soar back up again, spiraling around all the towers and turrets reaching into the skies.
And then we do it all over again. Through the windows, I can see light and darkness, the busyness of the staff areas as they bustle around making sure palace life is as it should be.
I’m pretty sure I see Lady Zalora seated at a desk, playing one of her virtual tile games on the glow of her comms projector.
There are staff in Zann’s rooms, shaking out white dust sheets to cover all his furniture while he’s away on a strange planet.
When we zoom past the tallest tower, there’s a balcony with some figures on it.
As we fly by the first time, we’re going too fast for me to see, but Az snorts behind me and makes us fly by again, his hands over mine as he gently pulls back on all the reins to slow us.
By the time I’m able to focus on the balcony again, Prince Kiahn and Niska are clutching sheets to what are clearly their naked bodies.
“What the fuck are you doing, Az?” Kiahn shouts, shoving Niska behind his large, naked frame – the sheet he’s loosely holding to his crotch barely covering anything.
Az makes another, different whistle sound, and Lady and Puff start flapping their wings so that we can hover in mid-air in front of the balcony, only making tiny dips and lifts in an effort to stay in one place.
There’s a pair of red lacy women’s underwear hanging off of one of Kiahn’s horns.
“Just enjoying the night air, brother,” Az teases from behind me. “What are you two doing?”
“None of your fucking busin-”
“Lois? What are you doing on that thing?!” Niska steps out from behind Kiahn to ask – a move that startles her princely husband so much, he promptly drops the sheet covering his sizable cock in an effort to wrap Niska’s sheet more firmly around her naked body.