Page 156 of Ashborne: Defiance

End of story.

54. You Can Do It

~ GRACE ~

“The queen wants to attend Grace’s flight assessment,” Donavyn said casually.

It was a few days after I’d stumbled on Voski, naked in his stable, and I’d barely seen him, except for some training. But now, both Ronen and Donavyn had shown up at this afternoon’s training session.

“As long as she doesn’t interfere, I can’t see why we should discourage her. She’s attended them before,” Ronen replied.

I was so thrilled, I turned my head to look at the men over my shoulder, to see if they were serious, and promptly tripped over the dangling harness in my arms and tumbled to the ground, only barely managing to avoid eating dirt and grass.

“Oh dear, I haven’t forgotten those days,” Bren said with a laugh, reaching down to offer me a hand, then, when I was on my feet, helping me untangle the harness. “I know it feels impossible right now, but it’s not. Just keep going.”

I nodded, but my cheeks felt hot, and I desperately wanted to look at Donavyn and Ronen, to see if they thought I was an idiot.

They were already talking about my flight assessment? It was the first step to becoming a Furyknight, the first test. Before I could begin the real training for the Furyknight trials, I had to be assessed as capable and strong enough to fly on my own, without supervision.

I had to harness my dragon without help, mount her, take off without falling, fly with others in formation, follow individual instructions for flight maneuvers, then land, dismount, and remove the harness—all without help or instruction.

Apart from learning knife-throwing skills, these were the only things my squad would currently teach me. Because, they said, no Furyknight should ever be forced to share their dragon. Until I could fly alone, the rest could wait.

Bren and my squad brothers had been generous with their time this week, spending hours teaching me how to harness and mount. But even though I had managed to get Koa harnessed a couple of times, and I’d even mounted slowly, and taken off a couple of times without falling, I still fell almost every time we landed—and sometimes when we took off, if my training buddy didn’t hold me in.

It was so frustrating!

Now, I couldn’t even walk carrying a harness? And in front of my squad captain and the general?

My cheeks flamed.

“Don’t worry about it!” Bren hushed to me, as I carried the untangled harness to Koa’s side. “You’re doing great—much better and quicker than I did!”

She’d told me how long it had taken her to have her flight assessment, and I assumed I’d take as long. Though apparently all those years of crawling in and out of windows and climbing walls and trellises was a great foundation. Bren swore that even though I was shorter, I was stronger than she’d been when she started.

I didn’t know if she was being kind. But I kept working. Every day. I was determined to give them no reason to deny me.

This was the first time I’d heard someone speak about my assessment, though. And it was Donavyn?

I stood at Koa’s side, Bren a few feet behind me, along with Gil, and Jhoare on Koa’s other side. Gil assured me that if I fell off while mounting, one of them would be there to break my fall.

I wasn’t sure he was joking.

I took a deep breath, looked down at the harness in my hands and spread my feet to shoulder-width apart. This was the most difficult part of the harnessing—throwing it high enough, and with the correct arc, to get the straps up and over Koa’s shoulder and neck, without throwing it so far that it slid off the other side.

I was still learning the knack.

I took a deep breath, sank down, then on the exhale, threw the harness in a high, wide swing, praying that I wouldn’t embarrass myself again in front of Donavyn.

I almost clapped when the straps dropped, with a slap, to Koa’s withers. She chirped. She’d been nervous the first few times we did this, but she was growing more calm every day. Except with my brothers. Sometimes if they moved quickly, she would snap her head to look at them, or dance aside.

We were working on that.

‘It’s very important to impress the general,’ I told her through the link as I hurried around, buckling straps, testing them, and trying to remember to do each step in the right order. ‘So if you can stand really still when I try to mount…’

‘I will hold you.’

I smiled to myself. She meant she’d be still and be a help to me. She was using words more and more—and I loved it. I also loved the way she used them. Because she’d show me images at the same time, so I was learning better what she meant when words failed her, too.