Could she even read? I had assumed so when I’d seen her look at the books, but with the poor, you never knew. It was possible—
‘They’re training. But I don’t believe it’s with her brothers,’Kgosi said, his tone a touch dark.
I frowned.‘Then, who?’
‘That is preciselymyquestion,’Kgosi growled and flapped faster, propelling us forward.
Moments later I heard a distant shriek and my heart jumped.
‘Keg—’
‘On it.’
My heart pounded in my chest as every possible danger a young dragon and an inexperienced Flameborne could meet ran through my head in ever-more-alarming scenarios. By the time we over-flew them, I was leaned forward on Kgosi’s neck, urging him faster, a cold sweat chilling my skin where it was bare.
But when I saw what had caused that shriek, the cold chill ignited into pure rage.
I didn’t even need to speak to Kgosi—he was already angry. I wondered if my dragon was rehearsing his lecture as well.
They were out here at night, alone, not another dragon or Furyknight in sight,flying.In direct contradiction of the orders given toeveryFlameborne in the Reach.
Kgosi gave an angry blast and Akhane jerked her head up, her wings tilting instinctively away from the sign of aggression—which tipped her body and to my horror, threw Bren sideways bodily.
Bren was tossed over Akhane’s shoulder with another shriek. I gave a shout of alarm, praying she’d clipped into her safety strap—and it cut off in my throat as her momentum was stayed suddenly like she’d been yanked by the hand of God.
Akhane corrected her line, flying up and into Bren’s overbalance and moments later they were climbing, Akhane calling frantically, no doubt trying to reassure an angry Kgosi, while Bren grabbed and scrambled, desperately pushing herself back into her seat.
I didn’t know how she’d caught herself, but I was just glad that she hadn’t fallen—we’d all had more than one landing swinging on the end of a safety strap. And no one walked comfortably after that for a time.
But Bren was so weak…
God, my blood ran cold.
“Land your dragon! NOW!” I roared.
Bren’s head snapped up and for a moment we were close enough that I could see her eyes—wide and terrified. Then she hunched over Akhane’s neck, and Akhane banked again, spiraling down to a small clearing among the trees—not even the launch hollow.
I opened my mouth to roar at them to fly back to the Keep, but Kgosi came to life in my head.
‘No, Donavyn. This shouldn’t be addressed in the presence of others,’he growled. I couldn’t tell if he was angry about the rule breaking, or about being forced to adjust my assessment of it, but I trusted my dragon. So I glared down at the females until they swooped into that clearing, Kgosi and I right on Akhane’s tail.
And to my horror, as Akhane lurched to backflap and slow their momentum, Bren was once again thrown sideways.
But this time, her dragon had no room to go swerving into her fall.
When Akhane’s feet met the earth with the resonant thud we were all accustomed to, Bren was shaken out of her seat entirely. But instead of swinging on the end of a strap, she was plastered to her dragon’s shoulder, like a frog on a wall.
“She’s fucking tied down!” I snarled.
Kgosi rumbled his disapproval and we plunged, my anger rising higher every second.
~ BREN ~
After being shocked at the appearance of another dragon in the sky over our head, I lost my concentration, and the force of Akhane’s landing threw me off. It was frustrating, but the new straps I’d added to the harness kept me high on her shoulder, close enough to crawl back up once things settled down. I’d known I wasn’t likely to a sit landing yet, so this stopped me from getting wrenched too far off her back, or swinging on the end of a safety strap, unable to get up or down until we found someone to help.
But the straps had stretched with all my falling, and instead of keeping me against her withers, I was plastered against the base of her neck, both legs dangling over her shoulder. There wasn’t enough give in the straps to let me straighten and reclimb the mounting strap, but there was too much to keep me on her back.
Dammit.
