CHAPTER SIX
‘Ninth place, Thorne. Bach placed fifth. Get back to the aviary and we’ll see to the broken comms later. There was some of the old Thorne in that race, nicely done.’ Hector’s message barely cut through the fog in my head.
Thorne’s recent races had been so bad that ninth didn’t earn him criticism. I shuddered as the disgust rippled through me, knowing just how far he’d fallen.
Roaring crowds welcomed the top three riders as they took to the podium.
As much as the helmet tried to lower their volume, it kept climbing.
The small island in the centre of the lake was swarming with people.
Casters captured the moment, projecting gigantic versions of Quinn, Jas and Ellas on to the banners hanging on the cliffs.
Thankfully no one bothered us during that time.
Many of the other riders flew by their team’s grandstands, decorated with the sponsors’ logos and filled with dedicated fans.
Bach was already disappearing into the gloom of the cave ahead of me, only the whip of an orange tail for me to follow behind.
We swooped down into the basin and landed on the cave lip. A few Volitant staff rushed forwards to take the reins, but I waved them off. I didn’t want anyone taking these last moments away from me.
I stayed quiet as Gottyk walked us back through the tunnels to the aviary. I took it all in, the feeling of the suit and armour, the view from dragonback and the feeling of having just finished a race. Ninth. I could do better if given another chance. I could win.
I unhooked myself from the saddle and slid off Gottyk’s back, failing to shove the longing for more out of my mind.
The fact that Thorne hadn’t called a halt to the race meant he hadn’t made it out of the aviary.
At least I had that going for me. We entered through the double doors to a still and silent room. He hadn’t woken up at all.
I let go of the reins, allowing Gottyk to wander over to the water trough. I closed the doors behind us and placed my forehead against the solid wood, the metal of my helmet – Thorne’s helmet – making a dull thunk.
My arms hung limp as I stared at my feet. The adrenaline I’d been using had run out. I was empty. Everything was sore. My shoulders refused to relax, my legs felt permanently bowed and my neck had been used as a whip for almost an hour.
A shaky deep breath was all I could manage. I had to do my real job. Gottyk needed his gear taken off, cleaning and feeding. The aviary needed packing up to be ready for the travel team to come in and move it all to the next circuit in just a few hours.
With trembling hands I pressed the latch by my chin, releasing the helmet from its constraints. I pulled it off and breathed in the warm air. Thorne would ensure I lost all of it.
I turned the metal chunk in my hands. Thorne’s number, eighty-two, painted in white on the side. The helmet looked up at me, no longer filled with the white glow behind the eyes.
My breaths got shorter. Without the visor everything seemed blurry. The flight suit cooling system turned on again. I couldn’t feel the helmet through the gloves despite the force feedback … my fingers couldn’t feel anything.
The door shuddered open and banged against my foot.
‘We need more pellets for—’
I staggered back, the helmet clanged on to the floor. Rosinder’s keeper, Josie, stood in the ajar doorway. Her mouth was open as her eyes passed over me. She met my gaze. I wanted to move to stop her from calling someone. I needed to do something.
I couldn’t.
I couldn’t breathe.
My mouth opened, trying to gulp down air, but it wasn’t enough. The blurring got worse as I bent over, tugging at the collar of my suit. I heard the door close. She’d gone to tell someone. Bach. My hero would know me as a liar.
‘Stand up.’ Josie’s words were firm, but the touch on my shoulder was gentle.
I did as I was told.
‘Good. Lift up your arms.’
I hesitated.
Josie took my elbows and pushed upwards, making me hold my arms out to the sides. ‘It opens up your posture, helping you get air into your lungs. Now, deep breaths.’
She paused, watching me with a calmness that was far out of my reach.
‘Tell me how you dress down Gottyk.’
I turned the question over in my mind. I started reeling off the routine.
As I spoke, Josie left my side and followed along.
She started undoing the clasps on his riding gear and hung it up in storage, her long glossy hair somehow staying out of her way without being tied back.
Gottyk watched me, his eyes flicking nervously from my head to toes.
‘Then I brush him down.’
Josie picked the short wire brush.
‘Not that one.’ I selected Gottyk’s favourite and joined him in the stall, moving automatically. I’d finished brushing down his front left leg before I realized Josie had stopped.
She had her arms folded, weight leaning on one leg.
‘Where is he?’
I kept on brushing. ‘His room.’
The adrenaline that had abandoned me after the race came rushing back as Josie headed through the doorway to the rider room. Instead of the vast thoughtlessness that had come over me only a moment before, now there were countless panicked ones bombarding me all at once.
After a while, she returned. Her long sleek hair had been tied back at some point, revealing her ears and their multiple gold piercings. Her gaze seemed to be focusing on something far beyond me and Gottyk.
‘Wha—’
She held up her hand.
I balked and carried on. ‘What are you going to do? Just so you know, it wasn’t my fault.’
Even the armour couldn’t protect me from the cutting look I received.
‘I was thinking.’ She pulled a small notebook out of her jumpsuit pocket and flicked through the pages. They were covered in notes. Tiny handwriting interspersed with numbers, grids and other diagrams so dense it made me feel the same.
‘There’s a facility,’ she said, writing something out as she did. ‘It advertises itself as a luxury spa, but it’s really in-patient rehabilitation for rich people.’ She tore out the page and handed it to me.
It was an address. I looked up at her.
‘I know I look crazy, but I don’t need to check myself in somewhere.’
Her eyes fluttered shut and she took a deep breath.
‘For Thorne. This place can only do business if they keep their mouths shut. It’s an open secret among the wealthy and by extension the staff.
If you can get Thorne there, they’ll see the augment marks on his arm and take him in, no questions asked.
They run a tight facility. Patients need to be completely free of arcanite effects before leaving.
They even test their potency before letting them leave. ’
I took the address from Josie.
Josie cleared her throat. ‘Like I was saying, we need more pellets next door. Do you have any spare?’
The words went into my ears, but when they reached my brain they were jumbled and wrong. ‘What?’
‘Do you have any spare pellets?’ Her words were punctuated and slow. She was speaking to me like I was an idiot.
‘But—’
‘I’m going to go into that crate over there.’ She pointed at the storage by Gottyk’s stall where he was now rolling on his bedding, completely calm. ‘And then I am going to take a sack of copper and return to the aviary next door. Do you understand?’
My head moved up and down.
Josie brushed past me, the haptic feedback sensitive enough to pick up on the sleeve of her keeper’s jumpsuit. She did as she said. She took the bedding for Gottyk’s sister and slid back out through the doors.
No one else arrived.
Needing something to do that wasn’t vomiting, I went back to my job. I continued the steps, saying them out loud even though Josie was gone.
Still, no one else showed up.
I stood at the low wall that surrounded Gottyk’s stall and watched him eat the food I’d laid out for him.
Finally, I understood what Josie had been telling me.
There was somewhere to put Thorne. She’d taken the pellets and left.
That was all. She hadn’t told anyone. The weight of it pressed down on me harder than any G-forces I’d ever felt.
I’d had a taste of everything I’d dreamed of, of everything I’d been working towards my whole life. I could wait for Thorne to wake up and hand it back to him … or I could take it all for myself.
All I had to do was move one of the continent’s most famous, rich and notorious riders from the aviary to the city without anyone noticing.
Finally, I had a favour I could call on my big sister for.
I sat on the low wall that bordered Gottyk’s stall.
My keeper jumpsuit was back on but it did little to remove the grime of an hour’s racing.
I needed a shower and fresh set of clothes, but there wouldn’t have been much point given that I was stress-sweating all over again as I waited for my sister to remove Thorne.
Cam came through the doorway from the rider room.
She’d somehow found a Volitant staff uniform – not too dissimilar from her usual look – with a black shirt, tough canvas trousers and thick boots.
Except these were all branded with the red winged ‘V’.
She’d acquired the outfit sometime between me finding her under the grandstands to ask for help and her showing up with Lynk and Trea.
She walked over, hands in her pockets and shoulders squared.
‘What did he do?’ A cap covered the mess of her short dark hair, but not the flat expression on her face. It might have intimidated some, but it didn’t work on me. I’d seen her cry the first time we’d seen a dragon in person. I was immune to her bravado.
I shrugged. ‘An explanation wasn’t part of the favour.’
She examined me. ‘Did he hurt you?’
If I answered that honestly, if I told Cam what had happened – what had been happening and building for over a year – there wouldn’t be anything left of him to recover. Maybe just some bad-smelling wyvern excrement in a week.
Yet I couldn’t lie to her, either.
‘Please, just get him out of here and to the … spa.’ My voice hitched.
I was saved from the death stare she was giving me as Trea and Lynk came in from the rider room also dressed as Volitant crew. Between them they carried a bag of dragon feed. It was lumpier than normal and had been resealed.
‘How you going, Lena?’ Lynk was far too cheerful for someone carrying an unconscious rider in a sack. That said, I’d never seen him in any other mood.
‘All good, thanks.’
‘Hey,’ called Trea, holding up the other end. ‘That was you flying in the race then, yeah?’
Cam turned and glared at them. ‘Did you forget to mind your business?’
The two of them simply laughed and went on their way, taking Thorne out of the aviary.
‘They’re family. They’ll keep it quiet.’
I nodded. I didn’t doubt it. They were more family to me than my own parents were.
‘Are you sure you’re okay keeping tabs on him? Moving him there is one thing, but I don’t know how long that place will keep him for. Apparently he’ll need to pass an arcanite-residue test to leave.’
Cam shook her head. ‘It’s fine. The crew will fight over taking shifts to keep watch.
It’s an easy job. We can encourage the staff there to keep their mouths shut.
’ She checked the door over her shoulder.
‘As for how long the residue will stay in his system, it’s hard to know.
Depends on how long he’s been doing this for.
So, you’ll keep racing while he’s gone?’
I nodded. ‘That’s the plan.’ What I didn’t say was that was my entire plan. I hadn’t thought further than this moment and each time I got close to trying my mind fuzzed over and my fingers felt numb again.
She finally cracked a smile. ‘Good.’
It wasn’t a surprise that Cam wanted me to keep racing. She’d been on the receiving end of my five-year bad mood.
She leaned to look past me into the stall. ‘But you owe me a favour.’
‘No joy rides on my dragon. Absolutely not happening.’ Disguising myself to fly Gottyk was hard enough; there was no way I’d be able to do it for Cam. I wasn’t convinced she’d ever come back.
Her smile split into a toothy grin. ‘I was thinking of an egg actually.’
I hopped off the wall and aimed a kick at her. ‘Time for you to go.’
Hands still stuffed in her pockets, she turned to leave.
She didn’t bother to check if the coast was clear, she got away with everything by having enough confidence to seem like she belonged. It was Cam’s world and we were just living in it. She placed a hand on the door to stop me from shutting it.
‘You need anything else, you send me a message, okay?’
I tried to shut the door. ‘Whatever.’
She shouldered into it, stopping me. ‘Swear.’
‘I called you in for this, didn’t I? I know you’ve got my back.’
Satisfied, she finally released the door. ‘All right, see you next time you’re home.’ She waved over her shoulder as she sauntered off down the tunnel. ‘Say hi to Theo for me.’
All the goodwill she’d built up evaporated. Cam might have just solved a major problem for me, taking on a risk on my behalf just to make my life easier, but she was still my sister who knew exactly how to get under my skin. My stomach churned.
I shut the door and turned back to the aviary. All the gear was cleaned and packed away, ready to be moved to the next circuit. Thorne was gone. The two Kiestral riders were now Bach Lotiere … and me.
For the first time since I’d launched myself into this mess, I started to feel excitement without the weight of dread hanging underneath it.
Though if I wanted to finish higher than ninth place, I was going to have to fly faster and hit harder. I looked at Gottyk, curled up on his bed of copper, fast asleep. His nose let out little jets of steam as he dreamed his scaly dreams.
Together we could do it. There was no one left to get in our way.