She followed them into the pits at the end of the lap. The rest of the field trailed along, exhausted by the state of the track.
‘We’re good,’ Asta shouted to Torque through her helmet vents. ‘Just a boost.’ Torque fed Carmine his slurry as the crew removed his cleats and shoulder spikes.
It was a three-lap race. The next lap was all groundwork in the terrain. They would have one more pit stop before the airborne lap, with the canyon forcing the teams back on to the track for a ground-level finish.
Asta was out of the pits a half-second before Nat and beat her to the entry point, guarded by a pair of wolf-headed creatures with glittering fangs exposed. Nat was hot on her heels. Soon, it would all be over.
Carmine cleared the double fire hedge with a billowing blast of flame. Asta felt the heat of Vulture’s fire flare behind her, close enough to prickle the skin of her bent back. She pivoted Carmine toward the A-frame of the false ladder, and he climbed it in two bounds.
After triggering the beacon at the top, Carmine leapt for the plateau. But he overshot the landing and skidded on the steel surface, scrabbling helplessly. They bounced off a post and over the side of the plateau. Asta pulled Carmine’s head around as soon as they hit the ground. Vulture was already halfway over the obstacle.
By the time Asta came around for a second approach, four other teams had made it to the plateau, including Basma and Felix.
‘Shit!’ Asta yelled. She could control more from the front of the pack than she could from the middle. She could feel her plan unraveling.
Her only chance to catch up was the river trench, which lay ahead of them, seething with magic-made aquatic monsters.
Vulture led the charge into the water and wriggled quick and silent underneath the surface. The other teams swam awkwardly by comparison. Asta panted to enrich her blood with oxygen, sealing her vents just as Carmine dove in.
The rush of the water around her helmet filled Asta’s ears. She flattened herself against Carmine’s back to reduce drag as he waved his lithe body through the water with rapid, rippling movements. It was the longest trench that they had ever encountered, turning like a snaking river. Her lungs were burning, but they had already passed Basma and one other team. Asta was gasping for oxygen by the time they emerged from the water, and she unsealed the vents to let in a flow of air.
They regained their spot a few body lengths behind Nat and Vulture and entered the chute just ahead of Felix and Essie. At last, Asta had them both where she wanted them.
By the time they came out of the chute, Carmine was impatient to pass, biting at Vulture’s tail and making her mad. He pulled ahead, hitting the first fence out of the chute a few strides ahead of her. There was a fire hedge coming at them fast, and Asta felt Carmine’s skin go cold beneath her legs.
‘No,’ she shouted to him. He needed to save his energy. They would risk the fire.
Far behind them, from one of the teams still in the chute, the sound of a dragon’s roar rang out. The creature sounded terrified. Carmine was already springing for the fire hedge, and Asta could not look back. She pressed herself against her dragon’s still-cool skin. Unmitigated by Carmine’s blast, the flames of the fire hedge screamed with heat around her. The damp suit transferred the heat straight to her skin, and Asta cried out. But they were through in an instant. The steam that boiled from her clothes whipped away in the wind.
The mountain stood before them, with glittery zombie goats grazing and stumbling on its slopes. Their pastures were studded with grotesque, rotting carcasses. Those, too, sparkled with magic.
Vulture was in her element on the mountain. She tore up the side of it almost as fast as if she were on the wing. She was like a panther leaping from rock to rock, her feet exchanging little more than a whisper with the surface before springing on and up.
There was a beacon at the top, another halfway down the other side. The airwork flags were not yet raised, but a downhill jump, wings tucked, could save them time. After their failure at the plateau, however, Asta kept Carmine on the ground, clambering down the mountainside. Felix and Essie leapt past them, followed by Basma and Stryke.
It was only at this point that Asta realized that the other teams were nowhere in sight. She craned her neck, but the mountain blocked her view. Something had happened.
The trigger in her armband answered the flash of the beacon as they passed it, and Carmine hurtled toward the edge of a dry trench lying perpendicular to their path. The trench itself was sunk below track level. They would pass through it on their exit from the terrain. Carmine jumped the trench and sprinted around the side of the canyon towers to approach the last run of ground obstacles.
Ahead of them, Felix and Essie had overtaken Nat and Vulture, and Basma and Stryke were gaining fast. Vulture was fading.
That wasn’t good. Nat could fall behind, but not too far, or the timing wouldn’t work out, and Asta couldn’t stray too far from Felix. Basma had now passed Nat and was already two lengths ahead. Asta pushed Carmine until they were at Vulture’s heels.
‘Go on, buddy,’ Asta cried. ‘Tell her to move her ass.’ Carmine reached out and bit at Vulture’s haunches. The bronze-headed dragon whipped her head back, furious. She saw it was Carmine and kicked at him, her eyes blazing. He began to gain, and Vulture found a reservoir of speed to keep ahead of him.
Now in the lead, Felix and Essie cleared the next two fences, the false ladder, and the fire hedge as if it was a frolic in the park. It would be all Asta could do to keep up if he held this pace. Asta’s suit had dried somewhat since the last fire hedge, but still she did not let Carmine beat back the blaze for her. She crouched and braced herself. Asta urged Carmine past Nat and Vulture so that they jumped the hedge neck and neck with Basma. Stryke’s blast of flame offered little protection, and Asta could smell singed fabric and dragon feathers as they went through.
Felix and Essie tore down the ramp into the dry trench. As Asta followed, a movement above her head caught her eye. It was the first of the other teams, who were just now coming off the mountain and clearing the dry trench in great leaps.
A few seconds later, Asta and Carmine were out of the trench and heading for the pits.
‘Get him food!’ Asta yelled to Torque. ‘We’re going hard out there.’
Torque was ready with a beef and corn slurry.
‘What happened?’ Asta shouted as the crew changed Carmine’s gear for the final lap. ‘Behind us.’
‘The illusions,’ Torque bellowed back. ‘Went berserk in the chute. Spooked the dragons.’
