The silence was absolute. The wind had died. The auroras pulsed overhead, green and violet and silver, and the debris field glittered with ice crystals.
My teeth were buzzing again. That persistent hum that I'd felt since we crossed the boundary, stronger now, resonating through my jaw and into my temples. It had to be the altitude, or the magnetic fields, or maybe even stress, but as the last dragon descended toward me, I wasn't sure any of those explanations were correct.
None of the other expedition members had said anything about their teeth reacting strangely. I'd have to ask them once I was reunited with my team.
The dragon landed, a sleek blue-gray male, and once he lowered himself as low as he could go, the rider extended a hand to help me up.
The scales were warm under my palms. Warmer than I'd expected, warmer than any surface had a right to be on a frozen mountain. The texture was smooth but with a subtle grain, and I could feel the vibration of the dragon's breathing, the slow, powerful rhythm of lungs designed for impossible altitudes where human lungs faltered.
"Hold on tight," the rider said, handing me a pair of goggles. "Keep your head up if you can, but it's okay if you want to close your eyes and lean your head against my back."
I kept my head up.
The dragon launched, and the mountain fell away beneath us, and for one blazing, transcendent moment, I understood what it meant to fly.
The wind tore at my hair, ripping strands free from my braid. The cold bit my exposed skin. My stomach dropped, and every rational part of my brain was screaming that humans were not designed to soar through the sky.
But the irrational part, the part that had always dreamt of dragons, felt like it was finally home.
The flight lasted only minutes. A short hop over the border peaks to a field station on the Elurian side, where hover-vehicles waited to transport us. But those minutes rewrote something fundamental in me, something I couldn't undo and didn't want to.
When the dragon landed, and I dismounted on shaky legs, the rider offered me a hand to steady myself.
"First time?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Did you enjoy it?"
"I loved it. I didn't want to miss anything. Thank you."
"You're welcome, Princess Idrilia of Tarina."
He studied me for a brief moment, then nodded, mounted up, and his dragon launched back into the sky to rejoin the formation heading east toward the peaks.
I stood on solid ground and watched them go until they were specks against the auroras and the sky was empty again.
6
SHOVIA
"The day of bonding you join a family that spans a thousand years. Every rider who came before you and will come after you is your kin."
—General Lesten Zorian
"Can Zarathen do that thing where he folds one wing and spirals?" Codric asked while adjusting his collar in front of the mirror.
"He can do things that would make your Thessirath dizzy." I sat on the edge of the bed, working a sixth pin into my updo. "During our first flight, he rolled completely upside down just to see if I'd scream."
"Did you?"
"Of course not." I paused, remembering my reaction to Morgateth's massive head shooting toward Kailin, his jaws gaping wide as if he was about to snap her head off. "I might have gasped. Quietly."
He chuckled. "You don't need to keep proving that you are a badass, Shovia. We all know that you are, despite losing it when Morgateth snapped his jaws at Kailin. Though to be fair, I wanted to scream too, but I couldn't because I had no air left in my lungs and I was afraid to breathe."
Codric turned from the mirror, looking splendid in his formal dress uniform. The dark blue with silver piping suited him as if it had been designed with him in mind.
We'd been talking about our dragons nonstop since we'd parted from them on the roof of the Citadel and walked shaky legged back to our posh apartment in the officers' wing. We'd been rehashing every moment of the bonding and the first flight, and none of us had run out of things to say. It was like falling in love for the first time, when people could spend hours dissecting a single glance or a single touch, except this was bigger than romance. This was two souls merging, and the aftershock of it was still reverberating through the five of us.
