Fiona
Azric leads me to Inni, who seems more antsy than normal. Her claws click against the stone, and her wings ripple almostcontinuously. While watching them from across the roost feels normal, standing directly underneath one is very different. Memories of my fight with Sidon flash through my mind, but I remind myself Inni doesn’t have any desire to fight.
I still wish my bow and quiver weren’t lying on the stones behind us. Knowing she’s wary of my lightning arrows gives me some comfort.
Azric puts his hands on my waist, and wings spread from his back. It’s surprising just how much his touch still makes me tingle even when we’re standing beside four dragons. He leaps into the air, carrying me as if I weighed no more than his sword. Inni’s head swivels around to look at us as he sets me down between her shoulder blades.
“Strap her in, Azric,” she says softly enough that she sounds almost like a person, though there’s still an impossibly ancient quality to her voice. It reminds me she’s lived for an uncountable number of years. Thousands upon thousands. She’s seen more worlds than I can imagine.
Azric puts his hand on my waist and points to one of the thick spines that run down her back, as thick around as I am. “Sit with your back to that. It’ll give you a good view and is where I’d normally sit on long flights.”
I nod to him and try to get comfortable with my back to the spine. It’s not like dragons were made to be ridden. There aren’t saddles with places for my feet and hands to cling to. Instead, I wedge my gloved fingers between two of the glowing red scales at my sides and brace my feet against another two. My fight withSidon taught me just how terribly this could go if she does anything more than fly slowly.
As soon as I’m as comfortable and stable as possible, shadows wrap around me and become mostly solid. Across my waist, at my ankles and thighs, and under my breasts. They have some give, but not enough that I could slip out of them.
I look up at Azric, who isn’t sitting down. I expect him to at least have shadows holding him in place, but there aren’t any. “We’re ready,” he calls out. Inni takes a deep breath, and everything moves at once. We drop almost ten feet as she crouches, and then we explode upward.
I’m staring at the stars again as the sound of massive wings fills the air. The wind tears at my hair, and I try to grip the scales tighter. Still, Azric is standing beside me. His body is angled, and he balances his boots on the edges of Inni’s scales, his hand resting against the spine I’m tied to.
“Aren’t you afraid you’ll fall off?” I shout over the beating of Inni’s wings.
He smirks, and one of his wings spreads out. “Not really. Someone with wings doesn’t really ever fall. They’re just forced to stop being lazy.”
Things begin to change. Instead of staring at the stars, I look out at the horizon where the stars and duskthorn trees meet. Inni’s wings slow down until she’s gliding, and everything grows much quieter.
“We will circle Castle Lachlan even though there is a beautiful ridge only five miles away,” Inni calls out loudly enough that I haveno problem hearing her. “We do not wish for you to be disqualified from the trials, but when you are done, you should see it.”
I glance at Azric for a moment, and he’s grinning. I begin to actually look around at the land surrounding Braemarch. After my body’s become almost okay with how high up I am, it’s obvious why Azric spent so much time in the air with Inni.
It’s gorgeous. There are clearings in the duskthorns where tiny villages sit, thin plumes of smoke rising from human chimneys. The Great Loch can be seen at the edge of my vision. Its size is hard to comprehend from this distance, but compared to the villages, it’s enormous. The stars are reflected in its calm waters, and in that small section, the night sky seems to dip below the horizon.
“This is wonderful,” I whisper.
“This is a shitty first flight,” Azric says through a smile. “Just wait until you fly through the Ethereal Spine in spring. Have you ever seen a baby griffin? They’re everywhere, learning to fly for the first time. It’s like watching kittens with wings. Then there are the drakelings, who are some of the most adorable creatures in the world. The rivers and pools are crystal clear and sparkle in the sunlight like living gemstones throughout the valleys. You can watch the wolves hunt deer and rabbits. Hawks and eagles will approach you to understand what kind of bird is this big. That’s wonderful. This…” He shakes his head. “This is shit.”
I look around me and have to disagree. “Maybe you’re just a spoiled prince. Anyone with any sense would see this view and think there’s nothing more spectacular.”
He doesn’t respond for a few moments, his eyes on the horizon in front of us. Inni begins to turn us back around, and Azric says, “Maybe you’re right.”
“Fiona is correct. Anyone allowed to ride a dragon should be appropriately awed, or they should be eaten.”
I chuckle at Inni’s attempt at a joke. Azric’s grinning as well. “They say you were riding Inni before you could hold a sword. How did you make sure you didn’t fall?”
“I was very slow and very careful with him,” Inni says in a low rumble. “He knew how to fly, so the danger of him falling was not as great as it would be for you.”
Azric huffs. “It was irresponsible. I’d only begun flying a few months before, and I was anything but proficient. If I’d been afraid, my wings wouldn’t have grown as they should. Then…”
“I would have caught you. Or your father would have caught you. Or King Rhion would have caught you. Or Darian, or Ainslee, or even your mother. You had quite the gathering the first few times you climbed on my back. Do not criticize the ones who raised you when you were that young. There were mistakes made in your upbringing, but none of them happened then.”
Azric’s quiet for a few moments, and Inni takes the time to speak. “Lady Fiona, Azric does not tell me very much about you. What was your childhood like? What is it like to be raised by Rhaskar Thorne?”
“It was… difficult? Intense? I don’t know the right word. My life until I turned eighteen was filled with training. I spent half of every day with my tutor and the other half with my sword master. Then, in the evenings, I spent time with Rhaskar learning the lessons of the upper levels of the Priests.”
Azric interrupts. “You didn’t do anything for leisure? You didn’t go to the theater or learn to knit? No one taught you to play cards or an instrument? There weren’t any hunts? Rhaskar Thorne is as much a part of the nobility as anything else and is regularly present in public settings, isn’t he?”
I shake my head. “Rhaskar went to many events, but he didn’t allow me to follow him. I was not his daughter in that way. He raised me, and while he showed me affection behind closed doors, he never introduced me to the rest of the world.”
“But why not?” Azric asks.
