Chapter 58 Kailin #2
I fastened the safety straps as we'd been shown. The harness was substantial but not restrictive, designed to prevent falls while allowing the range of motion necessary for flight control.
Commander Ravel handed me a set of goggles, and once I had them on, he asked, "Ready?"
I took a deep breath. "As ready as I'll ever be." I leaned forward, extending my legs as I'd seen other cadets do. “Please, take us up, Onyx, but be gentle if you can.”
"I am always gentle," Onyx protested in my mind, though I sensed his mental equivalent of a grin.
Ravel was lucky to be bonded to him. I had a feeling that other dragons were not as friendly or as talkative.
"They are not," Onyx said in my head. "Most dragons are too full of themselves."
I laughed and then braced myself as Onyx's muscles tensed beneath us.
He crouched slightly, and then we were airborne, the initial launch more vertical than I'd expected.
My stomach lurched with the sudden elevation change, but the sensation was surprisingly brief.
Within moments, we stabilized, soaring upward at a steady angle that felt almost comfortable.
The roof of the Citadel fell away beneath us, shrinking with alarming speed. I shifted my eyes forward and kept focusing on the horizon rather than the increasing distance between us and the ground far, far below.
"You're doing well," Ravel said as we leveled off. "Many first-time fliers close their eyes entirely."
That was what I had done during our first flight together, but I knew he wouldn't let me cower like that again.
"I'm tempted," I admitted, gripping the saddle handles with white-knuckled intensity.
"Look around you, Little Warrior," Onyx suggested in my mind. "What you humans call fear often dissolves in wonder."
Hesitantly, I allowed my gaze to sweep across the vista spreading around us. The mountains of Elucia stretched to the horizon, their peaks gleaming with snow and ice, the valleys between them green and thriving with spring's renewal. And in the distance was the ocean.
"It's beautiful," I murmured, momentarily forgetting my fear in the face of such majesty.
We soared higher, and I realized with surprise that my initial terror was already beginning to recede.
There was something about being this far above the ground that was qualitatively different from standing on a mountain ledge or balcony.
Up here, the concept of falling seemed more abstract, less immediate, and besides, I knew with absolute certainty that Onyx wouldn't let anything happen to me.
"You're correct," Onyx said. "I will never let you fall. But you should also note the difference between standing on the edge of a cliff and looking at the drop, feeling its pull, and the vastness of the sky where you are cradled by the air itself."
“I never thought of it that way,” I admitted.
Then again, I was a wingless creature, so I would never feel cradled by the air. This was a dragon's perspective that I couldn't share. Still, Onyx's joy of flying and confidence in his power and ability seeped through our connection and became mine in some synergetic way.
The dragon was lending me his strength, and it was intoxicating.
Ravel shifted behind me. "Onyx and I are going to teach you how to communicate your intentions during flight, signaling physically instead of verbalizing mentally."
"Why do I need the physical stuff when I can just ask Onyx for what I need him to do?"
"Because during battle, there is no time to verbalize your intentions. Physical cues are faster, and they become automatic. You don't need to think about them. You just execute the moves."
For the next hour, Ravel guided me through the basics of weight distribution and body positioning to indicate desired direction.
I learned how a slight shift to the left would signal a left turn, how leaning forward suggested increased speed, how straightening up indicated a desire to slow or hover.
Onyx was remarkably responsive, translating my smallest movements into smooth directional changes. The synchronicity of it was almost magical, as if we were performing a dance that my body somehow already knew the steps to.
I concentrated, picturing a gentle turn to the right. “Can we turn this way?” I thought, directing the question to Onyx.
"Of course, Little Warrior," he replied, banking smoothly in the direction I'd indicated. "I like the way you communicate. You don't overthink it. You simply show me what you want, rather than struggle to find the right words."
"Images often work better than words," Ravel added, joining our mental conversation. "Dragons think more visually than verbally."
"Are you eavesdropping on our conversation, Ravel?" Onyx asked, his mental tone teasing.
"It's hardly eavesdropping when you know I can hear everything through our bond," Ravel said.
"You didn't hear it when Onyx talked to me in class earlier today," I reminded him.
"True, but that was because I wasn't tuned to him, and he wasn't projecting his thoughts at me. A lot of the communication depends on the intent."
"Always the instructor," Onyx lamented. "Ravel doesn't chat. He either commands or teaches. I have to pry from him miserly morsels of gossip."
Ravel chuckled. "Didn't I tell you what a gossipy bunch the dragons are? They like nothing better than to talk shit about their humans."
"That's not true," Onyx protested. "We only talk shit about you, as you have so eloquently stated, when you deserve it. Do you hear what I have to contend with, Kailin? It is so refreshing to have someone as articulate and wise as you to talk to."
"I'm offended," Ravel said. "You're such a ladies' dragon. You are still upset about not getting to bond with a lady rider and being stuck with me."
The whole conversation was happening inside my head, and even though it was strange, I was getting used to it. I had to admit that Ravel and Onyx's banter was amusing, and I wondered whether they were doing that to keep me entertained so I would forget to be afraid.
"I don't regret bonding with you, my dear friend," Onyx said. "But I've been listening to you for decades, and you have nothing new to tell me. Even your gossip is stale."
Decades?
How old was Commander Ravel? Given his incredible looks, I had assumed he was in his late twenties or early thirties.
He chuckled in my ear. "Thank you for the compliment, Kailin. I'm in my fifties, and I've been bonded to Onyx for over thirty years. Riders don't age physically once the bond solidifies. It's one of the benefits of the connection or one of the burdens, depending on your perspective."
I knew that. But I also knew that most riders didn't make it to middle age.
Oh, wow. Middle age. I almost laughed when I thought about Ravel being my father's age.
Talk about an attraction killer.
Ravel chuckled again. "I wish it worked in the other direction as well, and I could think of lovely young female cadets as daughters, but I have a secret to share with you, Kailin. When you don't age, the urges of the young don't lose their potency; we just learn to manage them better."
It was so embarrassing that he had heard my thoughts, and even more embarrassing that he'd admitted to being attracted to me but managed it because it wasn't allowed.
Had he admitted that, though? Or had he been talking in generalities?
"You are a lovely young lady, Kailin."
I was going to die.
I was so bad with that mental communication thing. I needed to get better at shielding. "It's just pheromones," I stammered. "I'm in a relationship with Alar Tekum. Well, calling it a relationship is somewhat premature, but we are close, and I like him a lot."
"No worries, Little Warrior," Ravel said. "I'm not interested in you that way either, but I would need to be dead not to notice how beautiful you are. And sweet. Let's not forget that."
"I hate it when people call me sweet," I admitted.
"Why? Is there anything wrong with that?"
"No, it's just not who I am. There is darkness inside of me."
"I know," he said softly in my ear. "I was there that night, and I've thought about you often since then, and wondered whether the event had shaped you.
I was afraid that it would make you bitter, inured, or hollow, that it would make you lose some of your humanity.
I was happy to find out that none of that had happened, and that you were just as sweet and lovely as your brother described you. "
So, Dylon was the culprit behind the misconception.
I laughed. "I'm surprised that he described me in such complimentary colors. Usually, he either calls me a brat or a dreamer."
Onyx was oddly silent during our exchange, and I wondered if his silence meant that he was enjoying the juicy gossip material and was afraid to interrupt the flow.
A rumbling chuckle was my answer. "Keep talking, Little Warrior. I haven't heard Ravel reveal so much in years."
"I don't have much more to say. Not right now anyway. But I have to admit that I'm surprised. Are many of the riders your age or older?"
"Many are," Ravel said.
"But I thought that most riders don't get to age because so many get killed."
Ravel was silent for a moment before answering.
"It happens, but not as often as the rumors claim.
The Shedun developed weapons that can cause a lot of damage to dragons' wings.
When those are too badly damaged for their fast healing to fix, both rider and dragon can plummet to their deaths.
We've developed more effective evasive maneuvers, mostly thanks to General Zorian, the Chief of Staff of the Dragon Force.
The man is a brilliant rider, and thanks to him, casualties have drastically declined. "
His words relieved a lot of my anxiety about my brother, though I knew the danger would always exist as long as the Shedun kept attacking, and regrettably, that was never going to stop.
There was no negotiating peace with people who glorified death and destruction and wanted the total annihilation of dragons and Elucians so they could move to Eluria, conquer it, and subjugate its people to achieve complete dominion over Aurorys.
As long as we stood between the Sitorian ambitions and the fertile grounds of our neighbors, the Elurians could keep living in their comfortable illusion of safety.
As we continued our flight, Ravel guided me through progressively more complex maneuvers—banking turns, gentle climbs and dives, even a slow spiral that made my stomach flutter but didn't trigger the panic I'd feared.
Throughout it all, Onyx maintained a running commentary in my mind, while fortifying me with a steady stream of his warmth and strength.
"You're a natural flier," he told me after I successfully guided him through a series of sharp maneuvers. "Your brother has the same instincts."
"You know Dylon?" I asked.
"All dragons know all riders," Onyx declared.
Ravel shifted behind me. "As I told you, the dragons' favorite pastime is gossip. They also like to boast about their riders, so I wouldn't trust everything that Jagura says about Dylon."
"If you say so," Onyx said.
We soared over a mountain ridge, and I gasped at the beauty of the valley that opened up below, a verdant expanse bisected by a ribbon of silver that was the Veren River. From this height, the settlements along its banks looked like children's toys.
"The Shimmering Valley," Ravel commented. "One of the most fertile regions in all of Elucia."
"It's incredible to see it from up here." I was awed by the perspective, suddenly realizing that I was thousands of feet in the air, with nothing between me and the distant ground but dragon scales and rushing wind, and yet I felt calm. Exhilarated, even.
“Thank you, Onyx,” I thought to the dragon who made this possible. “I couldn't have done this without you. You helped me overcome my fear of heights and flying.”
"I've done nothing, Little Warrior. You conquered your fears yourself. I merely provided the opportunity."
"We've taken longer than everyone," Ravel said. "The others are likely to be done by now, and we don't have time to work on your blocking, but don't worry. We'll work on it next time."
With the initial panic and the subsequent exhilaration of the flight drills, I'd completely forgotten that we were supposed to practice mental blocking.
By the time we turned back toward the academy, I felt transformed. The fear that had defined so much of my life hadn't disappeared entirely, but it had been put in its proper place, no longer an insurmountable barrier but merely a caution to be respected and managed.
The Citadel came into view, the immense stone structure clinging to the mountainside like a natural extension of the rock face. The roof where we'd departed was empty now, save for the solitary figure of Major Harlow.
Onyx descended toward the roof with fluid grace, his massive wings spreading to slow our approach. I braced for the landing, but it was smoother than I'd expected, more like stepping from one level to another than the bone-jarring impact I'd feared.
Major Harlow waited for us to dismount. "Commander Ravel, Cadet Strom," he greeted us. "I trust the training flight was uneventful?"
"It went very well," Ravel said. "Cadet Strom shows similar talent to that of her older brother."
I felt a flush of pride at his words.
"Good," Harlow nodded. "The other cadets have already departed for the mess hall. Dinner service has begun."
"Thank you, Major." I wasn't sure what to do next.
Was I supposed to rush to the dining hall or say goodbye to Commander Ravel and Onyx and wait for them to dismiss me?
"Farewell for now, Little Warrior," Onyx's voice rumbled in my mind. "I'm looking forward to our next flight together."
"Me too," I said. "Thank you for the flight." I bowed to him and Ravel respectfully, feeling a blush creep up my cheeks when I remembered our frank talk about our mutual attraction.
"Tomorrow, we will work on your mental shields," Ravel said as Major Harlow departed. "You've had enough excitement for one day."