M’alex bugled and dived after us and I could tell he was giving L’eesha instructions.
“i am flying—stop bossing me!” she protested.
And then, just as I was sure we were going to smash into the ground and split open like a pair of rotten melons, she spread her wings and caught an updraft, and we went soaring upward.
I caught my breath, trying to slow the pounding of my heart as Ryse flew nearer. I could tell from his face that he was bespeaking his dragon and that M’alex was still lecturing L’eesha.
“i saw other dragons do it like that—i don’t always have to fly like you do,” I heard her tell him. “Auri is holding on tight, and you made sure she was tied down—I knew she wouldn’t fall off my back!”
But Ryse must have sent something so severe that she suddenly became contrite.
“all right, i didn’t mean to scare you,” I heard her telling M’alex. “tell Ryse I said i am sorry. i won’t do it again.”
I was afraid that Ryse would tell M’alex to order her to land—we’d barely gotten started—but eventually he pulled back and the two of them flew to one side and a little below us. It was as if he was trying to be there to catch me in case I fell.
“You really shouldn’t have scared Ryse and M’alex that way,” I told my naughty golden dragon.
“i know—I am sorry.” She really did sound contrite. But then she added, “but wasn’t it fun?”
“L’eesha…” I sighed.
“oh, look—the others are flying, too!”
She was looking up and I saw that the Battlefield Signaling class was flying in formation. Or trying to, anyway. But some of the cadets kept getting the flags wrong and the result was a pretty sloppy maneuver.
“look at that—they’re doing it all wrong!” L’eesha exclaimed.
I could see that Professor Humbolt probably thought the same thing. Even from a distance I could make out the disgusted look on his weathered face.
“what are those things they are waving? the colored cloths?” L’eesha wanted to know.
“They’re signaling flags,” I said and explained how every flag meant a different action and how the riders used them to communicate between Wings during formations.
“they don’t need those,” was L’eesha’s opinion. “they just need someone to tell them how to fly!”
Then, to my surprise and dismay, she raised her mental voice and shouted,
“HEY! YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG! LISTEN TO ME!”
To my surprise every dragon in the class—and they were all older than her—turned their heads to look at my Golden Queen.
L’eesha proceeded to tell them exactly what to do.
“FIRST PUT DOWN THE SILLY FLAG THINGS—YOU DON’T NEED THOSE!” She ordered. “JUST ATTEND TO ME!”
After that, she had them flying in formation in no time. Even from where I was, I could see the surprise on Professor Humbolt’s face as the ragged, messy line of dragons suddenly tightened up and started swooping and diving in perfect unity.
I had never seen anything like it. It was like L’eesha was a conductor, leading an orchestra
“That’s enough L’eesha,” I told her, after she’d had them do some difficult maneuvers that we weren’t even supposed to cover for a few weeks yet. “Let them go.”
“i am not holding them against their will—they like listening to me,” she told them. “they know i am helping them.”
But she agreed to fly back to the Flight Terraces—I think because she was getting tired—and we left the class behind.
As we touched down, M’alex came to a light landing on the terrace beside us. Ryse was off his dragon’s back in half a minute and pulling me off L’eesha’s back the next second. As he crushed me tight against him, I realized that he still wasn’t over my Golden Queen’s little diving stunt at the beginning of our flight.
“I thought you were going to die—I thought I’d lost you,” he murmured, pressing his face to the side of my neck. He didn’t seem to care that there were other riders there, watching us. He just held me tight, breathing me in and trembling.
