CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Riders, I was realizing, weren’t generally trusted to do their own adjustments on their augments before the race. I’d been sidelined while Gottyk was checked over for a final time. Josie had assured me it wasn’t personal. Not this time.
‘Lena!’
I turned to see Quinn dodging around the other teams, heading towards me.
Colly followed, smiling and waving to the casters on the sidelines as he went.
Their sky-blue armour popped against the deep grey stone and I was envious of the white fur around their collars. My suit was heated, but it wasn’t cosy.
‘How’s the mood at the back of the grid?’ I teased them and pulled them into a hug one by one.
‘I’m optimistic,’ said Colly, stating the obvious. ‘But Quinn’s not so sure.’
Quinn sighed as his teammate threw an arm around his shoulders. ‘It’s possible for me to finish with more points than Jas, but I need to be up there.’
He nodded towards a mass of deep forest-green uniforms a few spots ahead of me. Both Jas Thokan and Ellas Ruan had been lucky with their starting draw.
‘Nothing like going up against your old teammate to get you motivated, Quinn.’ Theo bumped up against my side, setting my proximity sensors off even on the lowest setting. I jabbed the spike on my elbow pad into a gap between his armour, smiling as he flinched.
‘Just be thankful you’re not starting next to him.’ I gestured to the other half of the Kiestral team. Thorne and his new dragon would be launching right behind me.
Colly rocked on to the balls of his feet. ‘I have to overtake all of you if I want to be on that top podium step. Can’t get much worse than that!’
A knot pulled tight in my chest. The aim was to win – that was always the case when I raced. I had a lot more than just points riding on the outcome though.
The three other riders standing with me were some of the best I’d ever seen. Quinn was fighting for second place in the championship, Theo was more than capable of being in the top five and Colly was having the best rookie year of the past two decades.
‘All right. Enough complaining. Helmets in.’ Theo straightened his arm, holding his helmet out at waist height.
My throat thickened. It was a sabotage tactic, bringing this back before my career-defining race.
The Prevere boys stared blankly at him.
‘We bump helmets before the race. For luck.’ In my peripheral I saw him look over at me. ‘Lena and I used to do this all the time.’
‘It started with head-butting, but Pops made us change it.’ I lifted my orange helmet, the top of it knocking against his.
It wasn’t sabotage. For the first time in five years the memories of our old races didn’t hurt.
Instead it reminded me of why I was doing this at all. ‘We fly fast and fight fair.’
Our purple and orange helmets were joined by two sky blues: seven, eight, fifty and ninety-nine.
‘Fast and fair.’ Theo repeated our old mantra and nodded.
‘Break it up,’ Josie cut in, pulling me backwards by the shoulders. ‘No time for your superstitious athlete rituals. Go back to your teams before your poor strategists have a collective heart attack. Go!’
We dispersed, following orders. I watched the back of Theo’s head as he returned to his team. For so long I’d wanted to go back to the way things were, erasing the betrayal to find comfort in the familiar. Turns out there was no going back, but that was okay.
‘Helmet on, Lena. Please focus and stop acting like a rookie.’ Josie walked me back to Gottyk as I shoved my helmet on. The pre-race jitters were getting to her.
‘I am a rookie,’ I said, pushing up my faceplate to see her scowl lovingly at me.
It made me think of her wise words – something about being such good friends that we didn’t have to be nice to each other anymore.
Josie, for all her intelligence, wasn’t always right. ‘I’m glad I get to do this with you.’
Her scowl softened, but only into a frown. ‘You’re not going all mushy on me now, are you?’
‘Neither of us do mushy, Josie. I just want you to know I’m grateful. Getting this far … It’s thanks to you.’ I clapped her on the shoulder and hauled myself up into the saddle. ‘At least ten per cent thanks to you anyway.’
Her arms folded across her chest. ‘You really are shit with numbers.’
‘Who needs numbers when you’ve got wings?’ I flexed my legs, sending Gottyk’s wings rustling for added emphasis.
‘Meathead riders!’ She backed up with the rest of the team, making space for Gottyk and the other nine dragons to launch.
I took a deep breath and closed my faceplate. Peace settled over me. The sounds from the plateau around me were muffled, letting me sink into the quiet. The visor sprang to life, sharpening the view of the five riders and dragons in front of me. I could feel Gottyk pawing at the stone, ready to go.
‘Lena.’ Josie’s voice came through the comms. I found her in the crowd. ‘Win.’
It wasn’t a request.
I nodded. That same fire I’d sensed in her when she’d cornered me on the train was in her eyes. The same one that fuelled me every time I took off on dragonback. I felt it, letting it light up every fibre of my being.
The plateau was clear except for ten dragons and ten riders. Five teams. One last chance.
The flare popped.
I only had to twitch my heel for Gottyk to run. He burst into motion, running at full speed with his wings tucked in. The ground ahead of us was disappearing. Nothing but blue sky waited for us. My proximity sensors buzzed behind and to my left. Thorne was closing the gap immediately.
I tapped my comms. ‘He’s trying to push me on take-off!’
He got closer still. He wanted to push me before we even got into the sky. I slapped my hand on to Gottyk’s shoulder blade, being his version of a proximity sensor. I saw his head twitch to the left, picking up on Thorne and the young dragon he’d been given.
He found more speed. A swell of emotion blossomed in my chest. He was fighting hard in this race too. We edged out in front of Thorne, keeping pace behind Omar Wilver on his Ballenir purple in front of us.
We reached the lip. Gottyk sprang from the ancient stone into the open sky. The ocean was so far away that it bled into the horizon. There was nothing but blue above and below.
Gottyk twisted, his head upside down before his tail had a chance to react.
I was somewhere in the middle, following the curve of his spine as I threw myself to the left.
My eyes fuzzed at the edges at the sudden direction change.
This vertical hairpin turn was one of the most difficult in all of Volitant, but it wasn’t even the worst on this circuit.
The moment we were level again Gottyk’s wings were out. We flew forwards under the lip of the plateau. The giant underside of the island hung down like an airborne iceberg. Holes in the dark grey rock left it pockmarked, but there was only one we needed to find.
Around us the other dragons stayed on course.
All ten raced for the cave entrance that led into the hollow heart of the circuit.
I nudged Gottyk to keep his wings in – there was only room for three to pass through at once.
We picked up speed and lost height as he took us plummeting to the tunnel opening.
Omar fell back behind us. We were gaining places every tenth of a second as we punched a hole through the air. My proximity sensors were constant as the whole pack bunched together.
Until Gottyk reared, roaring in pain.
I whipped my head around. Thorne. He blew past us, his dragon pulling its legs back in.
I jammed my hand against my helmet for comms. ‘Did you see what happened?!’
‘Keep flying, Lena. We’ll investigate that move from Thorne.’ Josie’s calm was supposed to rub off on me. It didn’t.
We rushed into the tunnel entrance behind the Mirendi whites. My stomach sank. We were last. The Preveres had gone ahead and I’d been slowed by Thorne. All of my training had been about skill, stamina and planning.
None of it had included dealing with riders who hurt my dragon.
Darkness swallowed us as we entered the hollow interior of the island.
My visor shifted through the lenses, increasing the exposure so I wasn’t flying completely blind.
The red arcanite lights from the Bolls’ suits were the only clues guiding me forward until I was blinded once more – this time from the light.
Seeing it in person was unbelievable. The tunnel opened up into a vast cavern, dipping below us for several miles. Every inch of it glowed with the brightest arcanite I’d ever seen. Raw, fully powered arcanite the size of buildings.
Gottyk arched above it all, awaiting my direction. I tapped into comms.
‘Best route?’ I asked. Considering everyone was ahead of me now, I at least should have data from Josie on where the arsenals were. The downside was that there were more than three routes. The arcanite formed a vertical maze of sharp crystals with dozens of overlapping paths.
‘Bach’s winning race, lap twenty, sixty-nine.’
Smiling, I tugged on the reins to the right.
He’d been flying Vepari that season. Gottyk tucked in his wings and dived, following the same route the Prevere matriarch had taken nine years before.
We wove through the giant spikes of solid light.
The power they held thrummed through me, making me feel lighter. My teeth began to ache.
I loved every second.
‘Upper right,’ Josie called out the arsenal position.
I held out my hand and swiped the hilt of the weapon as we passed. It clicked into the palm of my glove and lit up, bright Kiestral orange, into the familiar axehead.
We shot through the cavern. There were no arcans here, not where the ancient arcanite could be damaged. As the only thing keeping the island afloat, destroying it would bring the whole thing crashing into the ocean.
None of us would win the race if that happened.
I tapped into comms. ‘Fastest way out?’
‘Veer left.’