Page 138 of Tailwind

The flare popped.

I only had to twitch my heel for Gottyk to run. He burst into motion, running at full speed with his wings tucked in. The ground ahead of us was disappearing. Nothing but blue sky waited for us. My proximity sensors buzzed behind and to my left. Thorne was closing the gap immediately.

I tapped my comms. ‘He’s trying to push me on take-off!’

He got closer still. He wanted to push me before we even got into the sky. I slapped my hand on to Gottyk’s shoulder blade, being his version of a proximity sensor. I saw his head twitch to the left, picking up on Thorne and the young dragon he’d been given.

He found more speed. A swell of emotion blossomed in my chest. He was fighting hard in this race too. We edged out in front of Thorne, keeping pace behind Omar Wilver on his Ballenir purple in front of us.

We reached the lip. Gottyk sprang from the ancient stone into the open sky. The ocean was so far away that it bled into the horizon. There was nothing but blue above and below.

Gottyk twisted, his head upside down before his tail had a chance to react. I was somewhere in the middle, following the curve of his spine as I threw myself to the left. My eyes fuzzed at the edges at the sudden direction change. This vertical hairpin turn was one of the most difficult in all of Volitant, but it wasn’t even the worst on this circuit.

The moment we were level again Gottyk’s wings were out. We flew forwards under the lip of the plateau. The giant underside of the island hung down like an airborne iceberg. Holes in the dark grey rock left it pockmarked, but there was only one we needed to find.

Around us the other dragons stayed on course. All ten raced for the cave entrance that led into the hollow heart of the circuit. I nudged Gottyk to keep his wings in – there was only room for three to pass through at once. We picked up speed and lost height as he took us plummeting to the tunnel opening.

Omar fell back behind us. We were gaining places every tenth of a second as we punched a hole through the air. My proximity sensors were constant as the whole pack bunched together.

Until Gottyk reared, roaring in pain.

I whipped my head around. Thorne. He blew past us, his dragon pulling its legs back in.

I jammed my hand against my helmet for comms. ‘Did you see what happened?!’

‘Keep flying, Lena. We’ll investigate that move from Thorne.’ Josie’s calm was supposed to rub off on me. It didn’t.

We rushed into the tunnel entrance behind the Mirendi whites. My stomach sank. We were last. The Preveres had gone ahead and I’d been slowed by Thorne. All of my training had been about skill, stamina and planning.

None of it had included dealing with riders who hurt my dragon.

Darkness swallowed us as we entered the hollow interior of the island. My visor shifted through the lenses, increasing the exposure so I wasn’t flying completely blind. The red arcanite lights from the Bolls’ suits were the only clues guiding me forward until I was blinded once more – this time from the light.

Seeing it in person was unbelievable. The tunnel opened up into a vast cavern, dipping below us for several miles. Every inch of it glowed with the brightest arcanite I’d ever seen. Raw, fully powered arcanite the size of buildings.

Gottyk arched above it all, awaiting my direction. I tapped into comms.

‘Best route?’ I asked. Considering everyone was ahead of me now, I at least should have data from Josie on where the arsenals were. The downside was that there were more than three routes. The arcanite formed a vertical maze of sharp crystals with dozens of overlapping paths.

‘Bach’s winning race, lap twenty, sixty-nine.’

Smiling, I tugged on the reins to the right. He’d been flying Vepari that season. Gottyk tucked in his wings and dived, following the same route the Prevere matriarch had taken nine years before. We wove through the giant spikes of solid light. The power they held thrummed through me, making me feel lighter. My teeth began to ache.

I loved every second.

‘Upper right,’ Josie called out the arsenal position.

I held out my hand and swiped the hilt of the weapon as we passed. It clicked into the palm of my glove and lit up, bright Kiestral orange, into the familiar axehead.

We shot through the cavern. There were no arcans here, not where the ancient arcanite could be damaged. As the only thing keeping the island afloat, destroying it would bring the whole thing crashing into the ocean.

None of us would win the race if that happened.

I tapped into comms. ‘Fastest way out?’

‘Veer left.’

Inside the giant hollow of the island the difference between up and down was blurry. At the speeds we were going, the forces in play made gravity nearly obsolete. I trusted Josie, following her instructions, and found the exit. It was easily missed. A dash of blue sky against the light of thousands of pieces of arcanite.