CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO #2
Inside the giant hollow of the island the difference between up and down was blurry.
At the speeds we were going, the forces in play made gravity nearly obsolete.
I trusted Josie, following her instructions, and found the exit.
It was easily missed. A dash of blue sky against the light of thousands of pieces of arcanite.
We burst out into the open air. The ocean shimmered miles below and the sky was starting to fill with grey clouds. In the distance was land – the Crescent, a thin crescent strip of green against the deep blue.
I tugged hard on the reins, arching backwards. Gottyk followed the motion, taking us up in line with the lip of stone above us. It was time to mirror the vertical hairpin of turn one.
I flattened against Gottyk’s spine, moulding myself as close as possible as he spun upwards. We overshot the edge of the plateau before being able to turn into the rest of the circuit. There were no barriers here – overshooting this corner was its own punishment.
‘Mirendi ahead. Keep pushing.’
‘Arcans?’
‘The first round is pretty much clear, but keep an eye out.’
The benefit of being last.
We wove through the stone gardens of the Sky Pillar, not going above the treeline that was the only clue as to the height of the circuit. The ancient stone statues loomed over us, watching from the past.
Josie’s voice cut through my concentration.
‘Incom—’
I didn’t hear the rest as a heavy piece of metal collided with the side of my head.
My armour reverberated all over, spreading the impact around my body.
Every fibre of my being vibrated, shaken to the core.
I lifted a hand to my visor, trying to swipe whatever was blurring the lens.
But there was nothing there to block my vision – it was my eyes that had lost focus.
I blinked, clearing my vision. It gave me only a half-second to react to the next assault. I brought my axe up, bracing with both hands as an arcan in the shape of a miniature wyvern dive-bombed me from above.
‘Are you okay?’ Josie’s voice crackled through the comms.
I wasn’t in a position to answer as I hooked the wyvern to the side, shoving it from me as Gottyk flew forwards. It tumbled away, giving a moment’s reprieve.
My hand lifted to the comms pad on the side of the helmet: ‘Probably.’
Up ahead I saw the flash of an orange tail. I locked on to it, hungry.
‘Actually, I’m already feeling a lot better.’ I spun my axe as Gottyk pressed forwards. I may not have flown with someone as vile as Thorne before, but he hadn’t ever experienced racing me either.
Gottyk tucked in his wings as we sped through a gap between two stone pillars, half-crumbled and leaning together for support.
Thorne came fully into view as we entered a straight section of the circuit. His young dragon was holding up well as they weaved along, a year younger than Gottyk, held in reserve for situations like these.
‘The Mirendis must have improved over the last lap.’ I tapped into comms. ‘The Boll brothers managed to overtake Thorne even after his spectacular start.’ My attack on Thorne wasn’t confined to flying. I spoke to Josie, but hoped the race cast would play it for fans at home.
Let them be his final judge.
‘Next wave incoming.’ If Josie was concerned that I would be facing Thorne and arcans at once, she didn’t show it.
I brandished my axe.
‘Time for some team spirit.’
I had Gottyk keep pace with Thorne as we reached the limit of the proximity sensors, just over one dragonlength behind. Then I waited. The grey clouds surrounding the island helped the arcans remain obscured until the last moment, but Josie got in faster this time.
‘Back right!’
I swung around, whipping the axe upwards. The hook of the blade caught behind the false wyvern’s wing, letting me wrench it forward. I disconnected the hilt from my glove as I swung it around, letting it carry the momentum forwards. Directly at Thorne.
The arcan made contact. Enough to really slow him down, not the sandbagging he was doing to boost the Mirendi scores. If he was willing to sell out and disgrace what little honour he had left, then I would use it to my advantage.
We overtook him.
More arcans descended upon us as the circuit took a wide sweep through the overgrown vegetation around the base of the pillar, though I couldn’t help but notice they were all aiming for me.
One after another they battered against my armour, ignoring Thorne who had managed to pull up next to us.
The bright white glow behind the eyes of his visor was as menacing as my own. We were mirrored – flying flat out on our two Kiestral orange dragons.
The trees got more and more sparse, opening up out on to the starting plateau. I was about to cross the line for the first complete lap – I wasn’t going to do it in last place.
I tilted, leaning Gottyk to the right. Thorne adjusted, using the space of the plateau to avoid us. Then we tilted back to the left. We wove along, ignoring Thorne. It only took a couple of repetitions for him to give up on anticipating our moves.
I bit my lip, gleeful. It had taken Bach the better part of an hour to let down his guard.
Gottyk moved right a final time, going all in. We cut Thorne off, forcing him to avoid a crash with us. We made it to the end of lap one.
There was a big difference between me and Thorne. He was washed up, past his prime by a decade and had let his skills rot. All of that had let me overtake him, but it wasn’t the difference that mattered.
He had forgotten the joy of racing.
Once again the plateau vanished beneath us and we catapulted into the open sky. I was racing my dragon at the fucking Sky Pillar. No one was going to stop me from enjoying it.
Together Gottyk and I passed through the arcanite caves.
With my axe stowed on my back I could move in sync with my dragon.
I thought of my flight with Surquet, the way the metallic Forge dragon had been able to anticipate what I wanted.
Gottyk seemed to read my mind, reacting like he wanted to prove himself.
We danced through the shining opalescent maze. Gottyk was sharp and graceful, twisting around the stones with intention. When we flew with the path instead of fighting to find our own there was no need to slow down.
We caught the other riders and their dragons as we reached the Monument Yard.
Any arcans that targeted me I used as projectiles against the other teams. Volitant could send as many as they wanted – I’d spent my life dealing with more dragonshit than everyone else and survived. That wasn’t going to change now.
Lap by lap we pulled ourselves forward. We passed the Bolls on their Mirendi whites, we lost Omar and Colly somewhere in the caves, putting us in fifth.
‘Yellow light in the Monument Yard. Jas Thokan and Mac Boll collision as the Mirendi was lapped.’ Josie’s update arrived with only one lap left. ‘They’re okay, but they’re out. Push now.’
We were fourth. One more overtake and I would be on the podium. Pulling off three in one lap … the win would be well-deserved if I could do that.
‘Josie, who’s ahead of me?’
‘Ellas Ruan in first, Quinn Potts in second …’
Only the current Volitant Chroma Champion and the rider who had beaten me my entire junior career.
That was fine. There was a slight pause before she told me who was next.
I’d been keeping track though – there was only one other rider left.
More frustrating than the other two combined – the rider who could match me move for move, who knew me as well as I knew myself.
‘Theo Vaspre, three seconds ahead.’