CHAPTER EIGHT
One of the benefits of Josie also being a keeper was the lack of suspicion raised when we started spending time together.
We spent the journey to the Mirendi circuit going over potential strategies for the race, finally in a context I could understand.
After sleeping until the sun crept through the broken blinds we tidied the cabin and headed to our actual jobs … together.
We wove through the clusters of Kiestral crew that had spilled out of the cabins in anticipation for the arrival. Josie gave and received polite nods.
‘You’re popular,’ I muttered behind her as she led the way to the dragon carriages.
‘I work for Bach Lotiere,’ was her reply as her tall frame parted the river of people.
The enthusiasm I’d seen while going over plans the night before was gone.
Instead she was back to a neutral tone that gave nothing away.
I understood her implication regardless.
Bach Lotiere wasn’t just a hero to me, but to many.
Where Thorne literally demanded respect, Bach had earned it through his determination, hard work and humble nature.
Not only in the races, but outside of them too.
Naturally, people wanted to be around him. Myself not included – the less he saw of me the better. Josie was a conduit to him. Other members of the Kiestral crew knew this and, it seemed, treated her as an extension of the legend.
‘So, they suck up to you?’ I asked, not particularly caring if anyone overheard.
‘Yeah.’
‘And you let them?’ If anyone started to try and lick my boots to get to Thorne they’d be horribly disappointed.
She tapped her pass card on the security augment by the doorframe to get into the first dragon carriage.
‘Why not? If it makes my life easier then why shouldn’t I enjoy my briefing notes laid out early for me? An extra set of clean overalls in the aviary. It’s not like I’ll ever get reparations for my stunted career, so I’ll take what I can get.’
‘We’re very different people …’ Where I was set to burn with anger at every slight I’d ever received and be happy to set everyone around me on fire too, Josie had taken a higher road – slightly. Mine was warmer though.
‘All right, see you in the aviary, yeah?’ Josie turned and offered a light wave as she carried on down the corridor to Rosinder’s carriage.
‘Yeah, later.’
It was the kind of exchange I hadn’t had in so long. An easy-going goodbye. A promise to catch up later. Casual. Friendly.
This could backfire on me. Sure, Josie was promising to help me, but promises were easily broken.
Regardless, she knew my secret. There was no getting around it.
I tapped my card by the interior door and focused instead on the heavy scent of dragonbreath that escaped into the corridor as Gottyk’s compartment hissed open.
‘Hey, buddy,’ I said, entering his private cabin.
His orange scales clattered against the copper pellets as he rolled on to his back, stretching out his limbs and tail.
The space was half as big as his usual stall in the aviary and there was no overflow for his augments, my flight suit or armour.
Still, it was purpose-built for him to travel in comfort, which was more than I got.
‘Careful. If people see you rolling around like this your mystique as a fierce racing dragon will be gone.’ I tickled under his chin as he let out cheerful huffs. ‘We’re arriving soon. You’ll be able to stretch these wings in no time.’
Happy-sounding grumbles ricocheted along his neck.
With him being upside down, I could see the sound reverberating under the peach scales.
They darkened to a deep orange around the sides and then got brighter on his back.
It was a marvel every time I saw them. No amount of time spent with dragons ever took away their majesty.
Even if he was nothing more than a good boy who loved chin tickles.
The train slowed. I shifted my weight to counterbalance it. The heated pellets rolled through the room, warming my feet and ankles.
Out of the window the sparse rocky hills gave way to a familiar view: Eauveil.
Tall, pale stone towers erupted into the sky, scattered against the coast. Below them clustered shorter buildings, forced together by the lack of land available in the exclusive cove. The ocean glittered beyond the impressive architecture, gently rocking the hundreds of boats moored in the harbour.
Eauveil was one of the more bizarre places to visit as an outsider.
The average citizen had an income four times the continental average.
There were more luxury vessels anchored in the harbour than there were fishing and trade boats.
Where other cities exported goods, livestock and other tangible trades, Eauveil’s main export was lifestyle …
and it was the richest city on the southern continent because of it.
‘Are you ready to scare the shit out of people with more money than sense?’
Gottyk rolled upright, tilting his head at me.
I grinned. ‘It’s a tight circuit, but that’s what makes it fun.’
The train glided over the tracks and swooped down into the city itself.
At this slower speed I caught glimpses of preparations for the race.
Banners hanging everywhere for all the different teams – the white and red of Mirendi taking centre stage.
The telltale signs of augment work were there too, flashes of light shimmering in the air signalling the near-invisible race barrier.
It would protect the residents of the city from the ten fire-breathing dragons going over one hundred miles an hour just feet away from their homes.
There would be no canyon to fly down, no caverns to weave through, no forests or mountains.
In a few days we would be racing in the city streets of one of the oldest cities on the continent.
Gottyk’s wingtips would brush past the open windows of the residential buildings.
We would take the hairpin corner around the city bank, circling more wealth than any one person could fathom.
Eauveil wasn’t just the host for the race, it was the race.
As I let myself enjoy the excitement that was beginning to rise up within me, the train finally slowed, ready to stop.
The carriage was cast into shadow as our final destination loomed above us: Mirendi Headquarters.
The tallest building in the city, made from the old local stone at its core and expanded with a rail station made of metal and glass at its base.
The train pulled in, swapping the warm stone streets for a far more clinical and clean platform.
‘All right, bud.’ I turned to Gottyk. ‘Are you ready to show them what we’re made of?’
His big eyes blinked at me. Then he sneezed.
I couldn’t help but smile.
‘I’ll take that as a yes.’
‘It’s a bit much, right?’ I asked Gottyk as I stared through the floor-to-ceiling window at the side of his stall.
The aviary was on the upper floors of the tower. From the ground floor we had been lifted up, still inside his carriage, and deposited seamlessly so Gottyk’s cabin was now locked into the floor, walls and ceiling of the tower. It was only the beginning of the excess available in the city.
He didn’t reply. My dragon wasn’t really in a talking mood, he was too busy using the luxurious amenities of the Mirendi aviary.
A giant roller brush was installed on a wall, which he was currently rubbing his neck against. There was also a sunken pool for him to relax in, one that made my skin tingle from the heat if I went too close.
I wondered if Thorne had something similar at his spa.
The view though was something to envy. My dorm room was several floors down towards the interior of the tower, so my view was limited to stone walls and, amazingly, more stone walls. As architecturally significant as they supposedly were, I much preferred to look out over the ocean.
It was several streets away, but the height of the Mirendi Tower let me see almost the whole city and the water beyond.
The harbour was teeming with people as the city prepared for the race.
Many Volitant Chroma riders retired to this city, enjoying the expensive tastes it catered to.
The harbour, full of horrendously expensive boats, was the most obvious place to see those tastes in action.
My stomach growled. I had my own tastes to look after too.
I bid farewell to Gottyk and was flatly ignored, so I felt no guilt as I found my way out of the aviary to the dorms. After a quick change of clothes and a couple of wrong turns I reached the pedestrian lifts.
The augments that had brought the train carriages up into the tower clung to the outside like a giant steel spine.
The centre of the tower had a smaller version, just for moving people up and down a few floors.
Some of the other crew from Volitant teams joined me in the glass and bronze cage.
I took a place by the glass, wanting to watch the ground speed towards us.
The others looked pale with maybe a hint of green as we plummeted back down to the ground floor in the human-sized augment.
The lift we’d ascended in had cranked us up slowly, almost painfully so.
This one was more my speed. My stomach made the familiar plunge as the floor dropped, taking us with it.
I was quite happy to flatten my forehead against the window, watching the floors disappear upwards around us.
It was a shame that so many people who worked in Volitant never got to experience flying.
Enough people had private wyverns to travel around on that they weren’t a rare sight, but since the cost of buying one, looking after it, learning to fly and getting a licence was more than an average person would see in a lifetime …
Well, it was something only the upper classes could afford.