by Dan Allen
Pert’s cursing was even louder than the spectators.
“Yeah, well, I’m not done yet,” Terith said in a low voice, as he stroked Akara encouragingly, “So get used to it.”
As he bent forward to caress his dragon, Terith saw a flash of metal beneath him.
Crossbow.
Terith pulled Akara sideways hard, trading valuable time for hopeful distance. Pert’s crossbow bolt whistled past, missing Akara’s torso by less than an armspan.
That was pure luck.
He looked back. Pert was reloading.
The lightweight saddle flexed as Akara’s ribs expanded with heavy breathing, but he couldn’t let her rest, instead he forced Akara into erratic feints to the left and right.
Another metal dart shot past his head.
“Hoo-ah,” Terith breathed, “that was too close.” He squeezed both his knees to signal Akara to pull in her wings. The pair dropped quickly, swiveling back toward the edge of the canyon, avoiding a third dart but forfeiting the powerful thermal.
Pert claimed the center of the slipstream and came level with them a hundred feet away.
“See you at the end,” Pert bellowed as his velra rose in the sky like the sun. “I’ll be sure to wait around for you so you can congratulate me on my marriage.”
Terith gradually slipped into Pert’s wake, aware of the widening gap to the new leader, while behind him the dral and two crossbred racers rose. Already the last five dragons were nearly out of the running.
As the second bridge came into view high in the distance, Terith kept Akara level. To his left, the village of Hintat shimmered in the sun. Spectators pointed as he flew on, straight and level, closest to the crowd but well below the leader.
“Keep it level,” Terith said easily. “Rest up.” He hummed a chant he often made when he seasoned her wings with ivy fruit oil. Her anxious heart’s rhythm slowed, though she kept her side-set eyes on the other dragons as they increased their height advantage.
When the second bridge was only a few hundred yards ahead and still high above them, Terith unshouldered his pack and drew out a three-finned whistler. He slipped the whistler’s thin tether line through his chest harness and squeezed a drop of ragoon juice on the fuse. It smoldered into flames instantly.
Terith aimed the whistler and ducked his head. His heart pounded.
With a bang, it ripped from his hands, soaring overhead as it spewed fire from the back end. Spectators crowding the ridge along the race route cheered wildly as the rocket sailed over the bridge.
“Missed!” Pert cried as the whistler cleared his still-climbing dragon by more than a dragon’s wingspan.
Pert didn’t know that the fins of the rocket concealed a grappling hook and the thick plume of smoke hid the thin, ivy fiber-cord tied to Terith’s harness.
Again, Terith leapt from Akara’s back. The rope pulled taught as the empty rocket lodged in the support webbing of the bridge a hundred and fifty yards over his head.
Hand over hand, like a man climbing for his life, Terith scaled the cord. His heel hooks looped the rope and cinched the rope intermittently as he pushed with his legs, then pulled with his arms, like an insane inchworm. Fully rested and riderless, Akara kept pace with Terith’s rapid sprint.
Terith summoned the light of awakening. The passage of time slowed as his body accelerated. His hands raced up the rope, drawing strength from the edge of eternity where soul and sinew merged with the light. Terith’s muscles blazed against nature, fighting gravity with undying energy.
The crowd from Hintat watched, awestruck at the supernatural climb. Terith had already climbed a hundred and sixty vertical feet without slowing.
Terith’s world consisted only of the cord and the bridge. His mind centered on the goal. He had to reach the bridge first. Otherwise any challenger could slash the rope, sending him into the deep. Terith continued his brutal pace for fifty more yards and then released the full power of the awakening, something he had only ever done in battle. Glowing, as if backlit by the sun, Terith moved upward as easily as if he were horizontal, scaling the last third of the rope in a desperate blitz.
Pert was closing on the bridge.
It would come down to seconds.
The winded velra made a desperate effort, climbing several feet with each beat of its wide wings. It came level with the bridge just as Terith clutched the wooden slats of the bridge with a gloved hand. He made a final pull and hauled himself onto the bridge. His muscles seized in spasms. The tissues of his arms ripped with agony.
A long blade was in Pert’s hand as he passed over the bridge, but it was too late to slice the cord. He drove the velra ahead furiously, hoping to increase his lead, while Gomder, the rider on the dral, closed from behind.
Akara crossed over the bridge just ahead of the dral, with strength to spare from the easier climb without a rider. Terith ran and leapt on, using the last of his fading awakening to pull himself into the harness where he collapsed, his muscles shaking.
Akara surged forward as the dral loomed just behind her.
Terith snapped the reins at the unmistakable sound of a dragon gulping air. Akara dropped several feet instantly.
A gust of dragon fire from the dral dissipated only a few feet behind Terith, bathing him in a stifling blast of heat.
A roar rose up from the crowd of Hintat spectators, a mix of screams, cheers, and curses.
“Rough play, eh?” Terith said, rubbing his especially stiff right shoulder and tightening his grip on his reins. He looked back to check the distance. The dral was now gaining, its hunting instincts overpowering its fatigue.
Terith guided Akara aside to let the rider pass, but Gomder’s dral kept Akara in her sights. Terith watched in some disbelief as he knocked a broadhead arrow into a short-bow. He only had to wound the dragon to keep Terith from finishing.
“Too tired to play fair?” Terith called. “Maybe you want to leave the race early.”
As Gomder drew back the stout bow and sighted, Terith angled the reins. Akara twirled in tight spiral, ducking under the dral. Terith pulled the leather tie free and squeezed the stomach pouch full of dragon fire. A concentrated blast of red blaze from the pouch raked the dral’s belly, curling up around the sides of the narrow-bodied serpent.
Black smoke fanned by the dragon’s wingbeats rose around Terith’s attacker as Akara completed a circle, falling in behind the dral.
The maneuver cost Terith another hundred feet on Pert, but his henchman Gomder was in trouble.
Terith cupped his hands and shouted to the panicking rider. “Never oil your saddle before a race!”
The rider banked for the ridge as his flaming harness lit the afternoon sky.
He won’t make it, Terith thought as the fellow headed for the trees not far from Hintat. The fire-damaged harness leaned to one side and Gomder pulled the reins hard, desperate to get land underneath him before the harness broke free.
His seared dragon shrieked in anger at Terith’s attack, but rather than heading for a landing spot, it jerked its head toward Akara and let fly another blast of flame.
The sudden twist sent Gomder to one side, and with the shift of weight, the belly strap snapped and the harness rolled.
With the volley of fire inbound, Terith had no time to make his decision as Gomder toppled backward.
Terith leaned forward and Akara dove, folding her wings and accelerating.
The rider, tangled in the stirrups of the harness, swung under the dragon. The neck strap of the harness held for a moment, then sheared away, sending Gomder spinning into the abyss.
Akara matched the speed of Gomder’s descent, then pulled up and snagged him with her powerful hind legs. They had lost a hundred and fifty yards in altitude by the time she pulled level.
Akara’s eyes turned to Pert’s dragon still ascending and distancing it
self. For five long minutes, she struggled to gain altitude with Gomder in her claws, before she finally reached the cliff edge.
Terith whistled to Akara and she dumped Gomder into a tree.
Terith hoped it was full of blood hornets.
By now, Pert’s velra was a waning spot in the distance. With the strength-to-weight advantage of the larger dragon, Terith had no chance to catch him in a distance race.
Akara breathed heavily, her strength slack from the arduous ascent carrying the weight of two riders. Terith cursed his luck—only a fool would ride a dragon as disobedient as a dral. The dragon had nearly cost his rider his life. Instead, it had likely cost Terith the race. Terith’s instant decision to save one man was a half-witted stunt that had just sealed his defeat. For several minutes, he wrestled to make his heart understand the magnitude of what he had just done.
If the Montas fall to Pert . . .
Terith tried to keep his distant nemesis in view as the dragons settled into their migratory rhythm. He looked back and spotted the crossbreed racers not far behind in a half-wing formation, conserving energy.
If I can convince them to join a formation, he thought, we all might have a chance.
Terith waved encouragingly and slowed Akara, letting the racers close, while Pert’s velra gained even more time.
Terith’s dragon took the lead position in the formation. Both the crossbreeds moved in close behind its wings, catching the updraft of every wing stroke. The sizes of the dragons were well matched for formation flying.
Terith recognized the riders. Remo and Tamm were northerners who trained with him for a season after their commissions as riders.
“Now this is a race!” Remo shouted excitedly. “Three against one. We’ll rotate lead—this is just what we needed.”
Tamm hollered at Terith. “Did I just see what I thought I saw back there?”
“You mean Gomder?”
“He tried to kill you! And you just threw away a shot at the lead to save his foul skin. You’re a fool, Terith . . . always were.”
“Maybe we all are. But we have to catch Pert before the tunnel. I don’t want to be stuck behind his fat dragon in there. It’s the only place a small dragon has the advantage.”
With the advantage of the wing formation, they gained steadily on the velra. As Akara’s head began to wag, Tamm, the rider to his left, rolled into the lead position, breaking the wind for the other two.
And now we see, Terith thought, whether two full stomachs of fruit can keep up with centuries of breeding for endurance.
“Lead hard, Tamm. We can catch Pert,” Terith encouraged.
“He’ll attack us if we do,” Remo called. “I’m happy with second.”
“We can’t let him win,” Terith said fiercely, “for the sake of the Montas.”
“Risky business, Terith,” Tamm warned. “You’re talking about our lives here.”
“All our lives,” Terith called back, “our families, our people. It’s down to us. We’re the only ones who can stop him. Besides, it’s three against one.”
“We came unarmed to save weight,” Remo explained. “Picking a fight isn’t exactly on our to-do list.”
“You have dragon fire.”
“Short range—not good enough against his crossbow. He doesn’t miss, Terith. We don’t have your awakening. We can’t dodge crossbow bolts.”
Terith gritted his teeth. “All right. I’ll make you a deal. Just get me within range of Pert. If I can’t stop him . . . then I’ll let both of you finish ahead of me.”
Tamm exchanged looks with Remo. Either way, one of them was guaranteed a daughter of Ferrin.
“Will you swear it?” Remo asked.
“On my mother’s blood.” The awakening passed from mother to son. This was an unbreakable oath. If he did not keep it, he could lose the awakening forever.
Tamm nodded.
“Deal,” Remo said.
Terith felt the weight of his oath settle on him, a burden only his vulnerable soul could bear. He looked ahead. Pert was nearing the final bend in the canyon before the cliff-side entrance to the tunnel.
“Tunnel is coming up,” Terith called. “We’re running out time.”
“Not yet, we aren’t!” Remo cried.
Remo’s entire body flared with light that quickly surrounded his bonded dragon, risking everything to release his awakening so early in the race. Tamm joined, his bonded dragon soaring with fresh energy. Both dragons beat the air with a furious intensity, as if they had just taken off at the start.
“Yeah!” Terith cheered as Akara settled in between the two accelerating dragons in a reverse vee, catching updrafts on both wings.
“Be ready!” Tamm shouted.
Riding the current ahead, Akara’s breathing eased. She would have to be well rested for the fight.
“Are you going to make a dive attack?” Tamm shouted from the second position, silhouetted against the lowering sun.
Terith shook his head. “I’ll make a feint and then go for the tunnel. I’ll ambush him when he comes in after me. You stay back and let your dragons feed a bit until they’re ready for the second half. Just make sure nobody else goes in ahead of you.”
“And then?”
“Don’t stop for anything.”
As the trio of dragons closed the remaining distance in a burst of awakened speed, Terith drew the hood of his riding leathers over his head and pulled up the mouth cover, leaving only his eyes uncovered. A clash with Pert could end in fire.
When the long-snouted face of Pert’s barrel-chested velra was only a few hundred feet away, it suddenly turned as it spotted the motion in its peripheral vision. Pert snapped the reins to slow his dragon, drew his loaded crossbow and aimed it across his arm.
“Watch out!” Remo shouted as the light around him finally faded.
“Break!” Terith called.
The gray-green crossbreeds broke left and right. Terith feinted an escape to the right, banking just as Pert fired. But Terith had no intention of fleeing. Akara’s wings folded and she dropped precipitously in a barrel roll, diving clear of Pert’s crossbow shot and heading straight at Pert.
The velra pulled up hard, keeping Akara in its sights as it gulped air, readying a blast of blinding dragon fire.
Instead of leveling for the fight, Terith continued his dive, streaking past Pert and straight into the dark shadow of the cliff wall. Fog swarmed around him as the entrance to the tunnel loomed.
Soldiers posted on the ridge overhead waved a flag, noting his arrival. The guards posted on the opposite side of the megalith would send a smoke signal to the summit of Candoor indicating which challengers had passed the tunnel.
At a breakneck pace, Akara dove into the openmouthed cavern.
“Left, right, down, right, down.” Terith counted off the practiced maneuvers as Akara took advantage of her narrow girth, plunging ahead into the darkness. Terith drew out the torch from his pack and squeezed out enough fumes to ignite it.
Light spilled into a wide hall as Terith shot into the largest of the caverns. He pulled back sharply on the reins. Akara instantly spread her wings full wide, stroking hard to brake. Her strong legs absorbed the last of their speed as they slammed into the wall.
Sensing Terith’s motive for an ambush, she took a perch out of view of the entrance through which Pert would arrive in a few moments.
Terith readied the spear-tipped whistler and tossed his torch on the ledge near the exit. The flames lit the chamber with a pale flicker, throwing back long, deceptive shadows.
The spear-tipped rocket had one purpose: killing a dragon. If he critically wounded the velra, dark awakening or not, Pert couldn’t win the race.
Flickers of light danced in the opening of the cave as Pert’s velra illuminated its path through the cavern with dragon fire.
Terith lit the rocket.
A burst of dragon flame heralded the velra as it entered the cavern and spread its wings, somehow anticipating the ambush.
The rocket shot from Terith’s hands and ripped a smoking tear straight through the wing of the velra, missing its vital torso. Terith quickly drew his knife and dove aside creating two targets.
Pert’s dragon tracked Terith and angled a burst of fire directly at him. Instantly Akara pounced on the much larger velra. But it was too late to stop the velra’s fire. Red-orange flame swallowed everything in Terith’s sight.
Terith wrapped himself in his dragon-wing cloak as the flame superheated the air around him. Terith rolled out of the cloak and onto his feet as waves of residual flame roiled along the roof of the cavern.
Akara’s attack on Pert’s larger dragon knocked the second half of the flame burst askew, giving Terith a chance. He leapt from his elevated position as Pert jumped from his dragon, bent on a midair collision.
Terith never even reached Pert. He was knocked back and down as if he had collided with some invisible obstacle. Terith’s back slammed into the ground under the force of Pert’s dark awakening. Terith’s skull crashed against the stone with a hollow thud.
Head spinning from the impact, Terith had no chance to summon a defense as Pert clamped his hand around Terith’s jaw and rammed him against the wall of cavern. His stunned mind didn’t even register that his knife had fallen from his hand.
Terith’s whole body was being crushed by the invisible pressure.
“Lilleth said you’d die in the deep.” Pert spat in Terith’s face. “She was wrong.”
Pert plunged his fist into Terith’s stomach, dropping him limp to the floor.
Unable to draw a full breath, Terith look up to see Akara pinned down by the velra. The saber claws of its hind legs grappled with her wings. It held her neck between its rows of needle teeth.
“And you won’t need your dragon, will you?” His dark beady eyes and sweat-covered face glinted in the torchlight, pale and wild like a living skull.
“I know what you did. I know about the dark awakening.” Terith forced the words out, fighting for breath as though he were speaking with a massive stone on his chest. “I’m not the only one.”
