But Nat and Vulture caught them again on the scramble. Flustered, Carmine missed one foothold, then another. Asta’s heart clenched. Maybe his leg was bothering him more than she had realized. At least the river trench would give his leg a break. As soon as they hit the water, Carmine was his old self again. He swam like a missile, putting Vulture back where she belonged, half a length behind him and losing ground as they sprinted for the fire hedge.
The hedge was tricked out to look like two oversized dragon skulls, mouths wide open with flames pouring out. Carmine’s skin went so cold that Asta’s damp suit stiffened with ice where it touched his side.
‘Easy, easy!’ she yelled. It had already been a taxing ride. He shouldn’t expel too much energy on the flame. He needed to save something for the airwork. ‘Okay, now!’
Carmine’s fiery breath blazed ahead of them, engulfing the structure and momentarily beating back the fire hedge for their leap across its width. But he had let loose an enormous blast of fire, much more than necessary for the size of the hedge. He was going to be exhausted.
In the back of her mind, Asta wondered if maybe the dragon wasn’t the one she was really worried about. There was pain in her body, deep pain, that she was doing her best to ignore. But she wouldn’t be able to ignore it forever. Her left leg kept threatening to give out on her, and she could almost feel herself being dragged across Carmine’s spines again. She didn’t think anything was broken, but she couldn’t be sure. And the pain in her back was making her queasy. Though that could be the hangover.
As soon as they cleared the terrain, Asta ran Carmine straight to the pit. Having shaken off Nat and Vulture, there were only two other teams ahead of them. The platform in their pit had been raised so that Carmine could stand above the crew as they removed the cleats from his leg guards.
‘He had a big flame out,’ Asta called to Torque. ‘And his back left leg got hurt in the pile-up.’
‘You good?’ Torque asked.
Asta nodded, but she felt as if the broken pieces of her were only being held together by her jumpsuit. Maybe shehaddied back there on the track, and she just didn’t realize it yet.
Torque gave the orders and ran to check out Carmine’s leg. Two of the crew were up on the platform beside Carmine, removing his shoulder spikes. Another member of the crew fitted the wind blinkers on to Carmine’s hood. Someone poured a protein-carb slurry down the dragon’s throat while Torque applied coagulant and a spray analgesic to his injured leg. The remaining crew were ready with a reapplication of the aerogrease.
They had lost a track position, with Nat and Vulture getting out of the pit fast enough to leapfrog both them and another team, but Asta took to the outer track again to the sound of wild cheering. The airwork flags were up. The cadence of Carmine’s footfalls settled into a single drumbeat, one thunderous groundstrike as his four feet ripped into the track in quick succession. At last, they could fly.
‘Wings,’ Asta called. Carmine put his wings out and began to beat them. They passed the team ahead of them and caught Nat and Vulture just as Vulture’s feet were leaving the ground. The dragons climbed with rushing flaps of their wings, fighting their way upward.
The crowd was wild with exhilaration now, and Asta felt like they were being lifted on their voices. Carmine strained to be let loose, but Asta held him back. The race was not over yet, and she needed to see what Nat would do.
Vulture landed on the small platform on top of the Needle a split second ahead of Carmine and Asta. There was no room for a second team on top, and Carmine was forced to land lower on the scaffold bars that ran down its side. Carmine snorted in irritation and clawed his way up the bars toward the beacon. The trigger on Asta’s armband flashed, and they left the Needle a full body length behind Vulture and Nat.
Vulture was gaining steadily on the front runner. Snagging the inside spot on the turn around the buoy, she took the lead, streaking through the air toward the mountain on the far side of the track.
Still, Asta didn’t let Carmine have his head. Nat was running Vulture too hot. She wouldn’t be able to sustain it. All Asta had to do was wait.
Vulture’s black-brown wings pounded the air, slowing her for a landing on the mountaintop. Illusory snow flew into the air around her. Then she was off down the mountainside in a reverse scramble. Vulture was unbelievably fast, like a rabbit with a fox on its tail.
There were two beacons on the mountainside, one illusioned to look like an ancient oak tree, the other, a shepherd’s bower. The terrain was uneven, studded with boulders, and Carmine stumbled over one of them near the first beacon. There was no room for error, now. Asta pulled Carmine up out of his stumble and into a leap that overtook the second-place racer.
The course emerged from the terrain in the middle of the final turn, leaving them with several hundred feet to run before the track opened on to the home stretch. Ahead of Asta and Carmine, Nat and Vulture were barreling toward the finish line, with Nat crouched in her stirrups as the dragon’s body rose and fell beneath her.
Asta took on the same posture and let Carmine have his head at last. Carmine’s long legs reached out, as if hungry for each step. The rhythm of his pace accelerated steadily as he came out of the far turn and then settled into the thumping gallop that Asta heard in her dreams. He must be exhausted, Asta knew, but he wanted this win as much as she did. If they hadn’t needed to stay at ground level to trigger the beacon’s transponder, they could have flown. Asta clung to the harness and hollered encouragement to Carmine.
His nose came even with Vulture’s tail, then her back legs, then Nat standing in her stirrups, then Vulture’s shoulder. Nat looked over at them. Asta could feel the fury burning from behind her visor. Nat leaned forward, trying to get more speed out of Vulture, but it was no use. The dragon was fading. Carmine raced ahead of her. Asta looked back to see Nat lose another position to the next team behind her. Asta faced forward again just in time to see the finish line whip toward them, under them, as her trigger flashed. To Asta’s surprise, rather than slow to a stop, Carmine threw out his wings and took them straight into the air. The crowd, which had already been screaming for the finish, roared like the ocean in a hurricane.
Carmine climbed and circled in toward the center of the track. He landed on the top of the Needle and threw back his head. His body chilled, and a jet of flame erupted from his mouth.
Asta raised herself in the saddle and pumped a fist skyward, laughing despite the pain racking her every limb. The response from the stands swirled around her and through her.
Satisfied that he had reclaimed his rightful place, Carmine leapt from the Needle, and they coasted back down to the track, which was already mobbed with reporters and photographers, the last teams having crossed the finish line while Carmine made his display.
Asta brushed off the questions being shouted at her and ignored the cameras. She brought Carmine to the pit and handed him over to Torque. She pulled off her helmet and gloves and looked up at the screens expectantly.
‘Did they already show the times?’ she asked Gem, once he had stopped hugging her neck.
He shook his head.
Something was wrong. Her name should be up there in first place with her race time.
The screen changed from a wide shot of the track to a close-up of a marshal in a checkered shirt.
‘The judges have called for a review of the race. Results will be posted once the review is complete.’
