Page 120 of Ashborne: Defiance

I left the question unspoken as Voski slowly took the harness from me and rolled it up, but kept his eyes on the dragons.

“Let them go first,” he said quietly, then stood patiently, waiting for Kham to call Koa out. Bren grimaced at me and whispered an apology as we followed them out the door, then down the aisle and out of the stable’s western wing entrance, into bright, early-morning sun. I hadn’t been through this door before, and had to squint against the sunlight, but soon recognized the pathway we’d taken to the Academy buildings the day before, and several wide, lawns and grooming areas we had passed.

“You know where you are?” Bren murmured.

I nodded. “I didn’t. Until I saw this.”

“It won’t take long to become familiar with the layout, but pay attention, and learn it as quickly as you can. Ask if you aren’t sure. But don’t expect anyone to lead you around. After your first day or two, you’ll be expected to work it out.”

I nodded, watching Voski’s back. He walked a few steps ahead of us, the harness in his arms. “Bren’s right,” he said, turning his head enough to be heard, but not meeting my eyes. “Pay attention. Gain your bearings as soon as you can—that way, if anything is urgent, you don’t have to waste time asking for directions.”

“Got it.”

Soon, the dragons reached a wide lawn on the slope between the main Academy building, and the building that housed Donavyn’s office, where we’d gone the day before.

Kham kept nosing Koa’s neck and crooning to her, which was a beautiful sound. And she preened, hearing it, though she still shook her head occasionally.

Her pleasure in him made me smile. And a little jealous.

Voski stopped at the edge of the lawn, watching them, frowning.

I tensed, wondering if he would be angry now. But he glanced at me from the side and there was no heat in his eyes. “You weren’t to know—and we aren’t accustomed to dragons who haven’t grown up in the herd, or spent many years around us,” he said quietly. “So, don’t carry this. It wasn’t your failure.”

Bren winced, but he didn’t accuse her of anything.

“What we will do, is make sure we don’t have issues again. I’ve had Kham ask her permission for me to harness her, and she’s said yes. But it’s etiquette to ask you as well, since she’s yours. May I harness your dragon, Grace?” he asked carefully.

“Of course!”

He huffed, but finally turned to look at me, though his face was expressionless. “Thank you. Now, since you’re here, we might as well start working on your training. Once I get the harness into position, you’re going to do the buckles. Then I’ll take the dragons to the clearing while you two get food.”

He looked pointedly at Bren. “She’s tired. Make sure she gets something filling. It’s going to be a long morning.”

The look that passed between them half-thrilled, and half-frightened me. But there was no time to wonder what they knew that they weren’t saying.

Voski stepped away, approaching Koa softly, while Kham hummed. Her ears flickered, but she stood still as he threw the harness in a high, wide arc that landed near-perfectly over her withers, the long straps dangling, slapping against her sides and legs.

She twitched, but didn’t back away, turning her head to sniff the leather as it hung down her sides, and fluttered her wings.

To my surprise, Voski put a hand on my arm and drew me forward, walking quickly, but keeping his voice low. “I’ll make sure it’s in the correct position. Since this is the first time it’s on, we’ll have to measure the buckle holes and show you how to make sure the straps are tight enough to be secure, but not so tight they hamper her movement or cause pain over time.”

Then, as if nothing had ever passed between us, as if he’d never been angry, or called me whining princess, he spent the next twenty minutes walking me through how to measure the straps—how to pull them together, make certain they were untwisted, and test under each buckle for room to move.

“…your fingers—well, for you, it’s probably a palm—should slide under the leather and be held securely, but not tightly. If you’d eventually limit blood flow if you left your hand there, it’s too tight. If you press your hand into her belly and the strap hangs, it’s too loose. When you’ve got it right, make certain every buckle is flat, and the leather straps firmly in their keepers. Loose, excess strap can catch on limbs or tangle other straps while you’re flying and pull the buckles open. Do you understand?”

I did. I followed his instructions, ignored the way the hair on my arms rose when he took my hand and placed it under the girth strap to show me where to test the tightness, ignored the goosebumps pebbling down my neck when he leaned over me to make certain I’d secured the buckle on her leg-strap correctly.

And then he unbuckled everything and told me to do it again, alone. Without his instruction.

I remembered how to check the buckles and to put all the straps in their keepers when a buckle was secure, but I secured the neck strap on the wrong spot at her chest, and had to undo half my work to get the chest-strap right.

But eventually, we stood there, side by side, and my dragon was harnessed.

Koa lifted her head and called. Kham answered her immediately, pride ringing in his cry.

Voski stood next to me, arms folded, nodding at Koa. “Well done,” he said. “You got it.”

“Mostly.”