She landed with her usual unnecessary elegance, folding her wings with a flourish.
"Good afternoon, Alar,"she said, and her voice in my mind was warm, amused, and slightly concerned, which meant she was reading my emotional state through the bond despite my attempts to shield it.
"Good afternoon, Vey."
"You're tense again. You need to loosen up."
"I'm doing my best."
I hadn't told her about the dreams either.
She lowered her body for me to mount."You need to trust me."
I winced. How could I trust her when Kailin had seen her making a fatal mistake?
I climbed onto her back, settling into the saddle and strapping in. The bond flared between us as the physical contact amplified it, and I felt Veynathei's presence fill the corners of my mind, warm and vast and slightly intrusive.
I raised my shields, then double-checked my harness and the saddle straps. Everything seemed secure.
"Let's fly,"I said.
She launched, and the roof fell away beneath us.
The training exercises for the first two weeks post-bonding were straightforward. We were supposed to get to know each other and get used to flying together. That meant solo flight through the intermediate course, with a series of waypoints marked by colored flags planted on mountain peaks. It was easy to navigate the uncomplicated course, maintain altitude through the variable winds, and return to the Citadel.
I checked my straps even though I wasn't supposed to do that mid-flight. I'd checked them twice on the ground before mounting, and I'd even tightened the secondary harness that most riders considered overkill for a training exercise.
Everything was secure.
We approached the first waypoint, a red flag on a narrow spire. Veynathei banked to circle it, and I shifted my weight to match her turn, the movement automatic after days of practice.
"That was good,"she said."Just try to loosen up a little. Your thighs are gripping my sides like you are trying to squeeze the life out of me."
I didn't even know she could feel it through her hard scales. I forced my leg muscles to relax and loosened my hold.
The second waypoint required threading between two peaks, and my entire body tensed as we entered the gap. It was wide enough for three dragons flying wingtip to wingtip, but the rock walls rising on either side triggered a rush of dread that tasted like burned metal at the back of my throat.
Kailin's words echoed in my mind. A narrow gap between two peaks. Wind catching her at the wrong angle.
"Alar." Veynathei's mental voice cut through the rising panic. "Relax. This is not a big deal. We've done this every afternoon for the past six days."
"Something about this pass is stressing me."
"The gap is wide. The wind here is calm. There is no danger."
"It's not rational."
I'd heard Kailin describe my death in detail, and it happened in this exact kind of terrain. The woman I loved saw me fall through a gap just like this one and hit the rocks below, and every time we flew between these peaks, I saw the vision superimposed over the mountainous canvas.
I couldn't tell Veynathei any of that.
Vey was young, a teenager in dragon terms, still developing her instincts and her confidence. If I told her that the seer who had saved Podana had seen her make a rookie mistake that caused my fall and then fail to save me, it would destroy her confidence, and that might impact her performance in exactly the kind of situations where she needed to be at her best.
She would second-guess every turn, overthink every correction, and the instincts that made her such a naturally graceful flier would be replaced by hesitation, which could be more deadly than any sudden crosswind.
So, I kept it from her, and I hated myself for it, because the bond between us was supposed to be built on trust.
She cleared the gap and climbed, putting distance between us and the peaks. I pulled back, indicating that I wanted her to slow down.
