Regent

by Brian Rathbone

  * * *

  Chase shook his head. Before him stood Catrin in the craziest outfit he'd ever seen. She'd taken supple leather and created a tight but flexible body suit covered with straps, rings, and zippers. Her ears were covered, and over her eyes she wore clear lenses mounted in leather-wrapped iron rings, which were attached to a second pair of rings with flaps that tapered into a strap and buckle. "You look like Strom attacked an otter."

  Catrin grinned back at him and turned around. Then she climbed up onto the saddle. Chase continued to shake his head as he watched her draw the straps and buckle herself to the saddle. The largest straps secured her at the waist, and other smaller straps formed an interplay. Cinching tight on one strap gave slack to another, and because of the clever design, Catrin could move around on the massive saddle while still being firmly tethered. It was brilliant and insane.

  Hunching down as if she were in mid flight, Catrin moved her feet to an upper set of toeholds and wedged herself under the two massive shield flaps, which were lightly armored and apparently padded inside. "You see," came Catrin's muffled voice. "There's enough room for me and a few things."

  "Even if we could make a thousand of these, we don't have a thousand dragons. We have one and we're not certain he'll fly again."

  "Don't you say that," Catrin said, looking imposing despite her ridiculous garb. "Kyrien could fly now if he wanted to, but we are not ready. We are unprepared. And why are we unprepared? Because we did not listen to me."

  Chase let out a brief sigh, which was cut off by another sharp look from Catrin. How anyone could expect to be taken seriously with those goggles on was beyond him, yet somehow she pulled it off. The pair of knives holstered on each leg did help, he supposed. "Yes. You're right. Let's not have that argument again. My point is that I don't think this saddle provides a solution to our immediate problems."

  "What's your solution?"

  Chase searched for words, but he could find none that hadn't already been said by Catrin herself years before.

  "Then don't look down your nose on what might be part of the solution."

  "Perhaps it will help to mollify the Arghast as well," Chase admitted. "They're quite unhappy that you've not taught them to fly yet."

  "Don't start with that either. How am I supposed to teach someone how to do something I don't know how to do?" Catrin asked in futility. "At least not without a ship, that is," she admitted. "That doesn't change the fact that I haven't ridden a dragon . . . yet."

  "The problem is this: If we take that saddle down there and put it on Kyrien, the people are going to expect you to fly. The Arghast will expect you to fly. And we both know it isn't even close to safe for Kyrien to fly with Reaver patrolling the skies and demons on the ground. What makes you think the ferals won't immediately gang up on Kyrien?"

  "I don't intend to fly yet. There will come a time, yes, but not yet. For now we will just need to explain to everyone that it is simply a test to satisfy my curiosity and that we will not be flying."

  "You know how much turmoil this will cause."

  "I do and I cannot fix that. People are going to have to come to grips with the fact that the world has changed. We ourselves must either change or die. Deal with it."

  It was clear to Chase that he would not win this argument. The truth was that he partially agreed with her. Still, he did not look forward to the uproar it would cause. "When?"

  "Now."