The moment Stesha grips my hand, I’m flooded with emotion. I’m about to ride a dragon. Not any dragon, but Nilak herself, a queen of a dragon. I have no idea why she’s chosen me, but I’m grateful that she has as Stesha pulls me close.
“Put your arms around my neck,” he tells me as he pushes off the ground and starts to climb.
I do as I’m told and hold on tight. I study his stern profile as he climbs, trying to reconcile my memory of Grandfather’s sad, skinny apprentice with the confident man holding me. The very confident, handsome Alpha who’s holding me. His muscles flex and bunch beneath my touch, and I’m very conscious that I’m pressed against him. I’m sure my face must be bright red, but Stesha doesn’t seem to notice.
Finally, our heads appear above Nilak’s back and Stesha helps me settle into the saddle, and he puts a loop of leather into my hands. “The ground is a long way down. Are you frightened?”
The cool wind lifts my hair. Perched up here, I feel so high above the world, as if I’m already flying through the skies. Nilak is a strong, lithe presence beneath me. “I have never felt more excited in my life.”
A slow smile spreads over Stesha’s face, and for a long moment, we’re gazing into each other’s eyes. I have the impression that he’s taking as much pleasure from this as I am. We’re sharing something important.
“Good skies, Zenevieve.” Stesha releases his handhold and plummets out of sight, and a moment later I hear his booted feet hit the ground. He saunters away from his dragon and turns around to watch us.
I hope I look as relaxed and confident as he does. I have just enough time to check I’m holding the leather strap before Nilak spreads her wings.
I wasn’t prepared for the sheer thrust of power as Nilak launches into the sky. I gasp and grip on with my thighs. But as we soar smoothly upward, I remember that this is Nilak, the pride of not one but two dragonmasters, and I’m safer on her back than I am on my own two feet.
The ground drops away until Stesha, the trainees, and even the dragons become tiny specks on the ground. Nilak is in complete control, and she takes me in a much bigger circuit than Damla took the others. We soar over the fields surrounding the city and approach the lake to the south. To my surprise, Nilak dives toward the glasslike surface, her long neck and back stretched downward until my body is nearly parallel to the water. She banks to one side, her wingtip skimming the water, sending it fountaining up into the air.
I whoop in amazement as Nilak soars back into the skies. Blood is singing in my veins as she flies back to the flare.Thatwas dragonriding.
A few moments later, we land lightly and elegantly on the dragongrounds. I push the hair out of my face, laughing in delight.
Stesha calls up to me, “Can you get down? Or shall I climb up to get you?”
I have seen the dragonmaster and other dragonriders jauntily swinging a leg forward over their dragons and sliding to the ground, plummeting so casually that some of them are taking off their riding gloves on the way down.
“I can get down,” I call back.
“Then face this way, both feet toward me, and I’ll catch you.”
I try to copy Stesha’s confident slide, but I misjudge it and topple forward. I yelp in surprise, and for a moment, there’s nothing between me and the ground except for what feels like acres of empty air.
Strong hands capture me, and I thud against Stesha’s chest so hard that he’s knocked back a step. For a second, both his arms tighten around me, and I smile against the small concave at the base of his throat. Then I slide down his body and land on jelly legs.
Stesha grips both my elbows, his blue eyes sparkling. I can see his dragines peeking between his lips as he talks. “So? How was it?”
“I felt so close to my grandfather up there. I felt like it’s where I’m supposed to be. Nilak iswonderful,” I gush.
“Isn’t she?” Stesha’s face glows with pride.
“I hope I’m chosen by a dragon just like her one day.”
“Have you met all the dragons of the flare? You must—”
A sour voice slices through our happy conversation. “If you two are finished fawning over each other, I’d like my turn. I didn’t get up before dawn just to stand around.” Emmeric is practically stomping his foot.
Stesha’s eyes grow flinty, and he releases my arms and steps back.
The second prince doesn’t seem to enjoy his sedate little fly on Damla. When he dismounts, he storms away without waiting to be dismissed. “Gods, that was a waste of time. Next time we had better do some real flying.”
Stesha tells us to come back in four days for our next lesson and dismisses the rest of us from the dragongrounds. My head is full of dragons. I think I must fly all the way home, because my feet don’t seem to touch the ground.
As I enter my home, I’m about to call out to my parents when I overhear Mother in the next room.
“But Zenevieve being in the city isn’t just about the dragons.” She sounds angry and frustrated.
Father sighs. “I know. But she’s happy for the moment, and she’s only fourteen. Can’t we let her be?”
