Could I do such a thing? I wasn’t even sure, but I also knew I couldn’t let Commander Talon know that. It was better for all if they thought my control over the wind was complete. “I only call upon the power of the wind in desperate situations,” I said, which was the truth.
“It shouldn’t be desperate, but Neo can fly low to avoid it.”
That wasn’t reassuring, but I tried not to let my apprehension show as Commander Talon took my leather bag and secured it to the back of Neo’s saddle. When he finished, he held his hand out to me. “I’ll give you a leg up.”
I looked at the huge expanse of eagle before me, without a mane or withers to help me pull up. “Where do I hold on?”
Commander Talon reached up and grabbed a piece of leather from the saddle and harness secured to Neo. “You can use this to hoist yourself up. When you get up there, kneel and then sit back on your heels so that your legs don’t hinder his wings.”
Commander Talon joined his hands together in front of him to give me something to jump from, and I put my booted foot in the center of his palms. I gripped the leather strap and sprang from his joined hands, feeling a powerful boost at the same time, as Commander Talon launched me into the air.
I landed on Neo’s back much more roughly than I would have done to Shazeera, and without thinking, I put my hand on his feathers to apologize. Neo turned his head slightly to look at me, and I yanked my hand away with a yelp.
His feathers were much tougher than I expected them to be, still smooth, but with a rigidity to them that made them nothing like chicken or goose feathers. I was positioned just behind his head, in between his wings, which rose on either side of me. Neo was bent forward so that his back was level, his wings outstretched to keep his balance.
With one hand on the same strap I used, Commander Talon sprang from the ground and pulled himself up at the same time, settling into the saddle behind me much more lightly than I did. He knelt, too, his powerful thighs on either side of mine. I glanced down at them, heat rushing to my face. I definitely hadn’t expectedto be sitting this close to him. As soon as he was on Neo’s back, the eagle folded in his wings and straightened. In that moment, I realized why he’d been bent forward in the first place. When he stood, Commander Talon and I were nearly vertical, and it was only my strong leg muscles—honed from years of riding bareback—that kept me from falling back against Commander Talon’s chest. I gritted my teeth and squeezed, legs pressed into smooth feathers. My hair was tumbling back onto Commander Talon, no doubt directly into his face.
“Neo,” Commander Talon said, his voice slightly strange since we were effectively hanging onto the eagle’s back like a pair of ticks, “remember that we have someone who has never flown before on your back.”
There was a shifting beneath us, and then Neo leveled out again, once again allowing us to remain horizontal on his back.
“Was it because I landed so roughly on his back?” I asked, and I couldn’t believe I was worried about an eagle’s comfort. But then again, this particular eagle had not just me, but Shazeera at its mercy, and I couldn’t afford to offend it. “If so, tell him I’m sorry.”
I turned my head just enough that I could see Commander Talon out of the corner of my eye, but he appeared to be smiling. “Believe me, you are so light that you’re nothing more than a fly landing on his back. He didn’t even notice.”
“Good,” I said.
“You will need to hold on now, though. He’s going to lift off first before taking hold of your horse.”
Cold fear trickled through me at that announcement, more on Shazeera’s behalf than my own. I glanced over at her where she stood, head hanging in her exhaustion, eyes still blindfolded.
Shazeera, the eagle is flying over to you now. Be ready.
Shazeera lifted her head, her ears twitching this way and that, and I knew despite her fatigue, she was afraid. My stomach churned with a sickly mix of regret and nausea. She was doing this forme.
Neo shifted again, and we seemed to be lowering as he crouched. On either side of me, Neo’s powerful wings pumped once, then twice, and then we launched into the air, leaving my stomach far behind. Commander Talon was right in that Neo flew like we were no more than flies on his back. He flew high above Shazeera, talons spread.
I barely had time to think to Shazeera,The eagle is coming now—faster than I thought.
Neo grabbed hold of her, claws wrapped carefully around her belly. And then, with a weak scream from Shazeera, Neo pumped his wings rapidly until we rose higher in the air. The wind buffeted my ears with every beat of his wings, louder than the roar of thunder.
Are you all right?I asked Shazeera, but all she could convey to me was the sense of weightlessness, and the ever-present wind.
Commander Talon gently touched my shoulder. “Lean forward just a little,” he said. The moment I did so, I slipped beneath the airstream, and the wind grew much calmer. He did the same, leaning forward with me slightly. “Better?”
“Yes.”
“Your horse didn’t die of fright?”
I turned to glare at him—this didn’t seem funny to me—but the wind grabbed a lock of my hair that had come free of its braid and threw it into my face.
With a laugh, Commander Talon reached forward and pulled it out of my mouth for me. “That’s something else I didn’t think about,” he said, pointing to his own short hair.
And then Shazeera finally answered me.I’m not being pierced by talons, so I’m well enough.
I let out my breath in a powerful sigh. I hadn’t realized how tense I was until I knew for sure that Shazeera was okay. But now that I did, I couldn’t help but notice my surroundings.
The sky. How long had I stood below, staring up at it in awe? How many times had I wondered what the clouds felt like? Now, we flew through them, and it was like riding through mist on a cold day. The clouds were a brilliant white, made brighter by the sun, and when I glanced down at the earth I knew to be below me, I couldn’t see anything anymore. There was nothing but the bluest sky all around—like we were in the middle of the ocean.
