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“We’ll begin with basic maneuvers,” Fordham said in his commander voice. She wanted to laugh, but this was who he was. When he instructed, he reverted to who he’d had to be to survive the House of Shadows.
“Excellent.”
“We’ll start with showing you how to use the bond to steer. You should be able to do it when you’re not on the dragon, but I find it much easier the first time while astride.”
Kerrigan nodded and then followed his lead, getting on Tieran’s back. Fordham sat on Netta across from them in the meadow.
“Now, there are two ways to move the bond. The first is with your hand, as if it were reins.” Fordham held his hand out in front of him and gently moved Netta’s head from side to side and then moved her body backward and then forward. “This is the easiest way, but in combat situations, you’ll need both hands for magic casting. Go ahead and try.”
Kerrigan gulped. “It’s been a while. I might be rusty.”
Fordham crossed his arms and waited without a word.
She muttered under her breath, “Here we go.”
She held her hand out gently in front of her, grasping for a bond that didn’t exist between them. She moved her hand right and then left, but nothing happened. She blushed at the look on Fordham’s face as he watched them together. Then, she went back to concentrating. Not that any amount of concentration would fix this.
She squeezed Tieran’s sides with her thighs and coughed out, “Come on.”
Tieran huffed and then spoke into her mind, Right. Now, left. And backward.
She followed his directions, moving her hand to follow his head. But the look on Fordham’s face said that he could tell something was off. Maybe it was the split-second difference between Tieran’s head movement and her hand. Maybe she was just imagining it. Could he know that Tieran was the one issuing the commands? And if he didn’t see it here, would he see it later? Because this might work in practice, but it wasn’t going to be practical in a battle.
“Good,” Fordham said with a nod. “The second way is mental. You don’t move your hand at all. Just use the strength of the bond to guide Tieran, which we’ll do later in the week. Once you have a handle on hand-steering.” He turned Netta to stand next to them. “Normally, as you know, we’d have obstacles set up around the arena for us to veer around. We’re going to have to use the forest for that. Netta and I will guide you through the first pass to get the hang of steering with the bond.”
Kerrigan nodded. “Sure.”
Tieran backed up a pace and then settled. This is ridiculous, Kerrigan. You cannot steer. There is nothing there for us to connect with. It will just be me flying with you on my back. That isn’t what the program is for.
“Shh,” she hissed.
Fordham glanced at her in confusion. “Set?”
She nodded. “Yeah, we’re ready.”
Following Netta through the trees was as exhilarating as any other flying she’d ever done, but Kerrigan wasn’t in control. She had no reins or tether to her dragon. Each time she reached for something—anything—to get them through it, she found open air. She gritted her teeth and pushed herself to do more than just sit there.
But Tieran was right. It was ridiculous. She wasn’t doing anything. And she didn’t know how they were going to hide this from everyone else.
Fordham directed them to try a pass of their own. The first one was easy. But as they progressed past the beginner’s course, Kerrigan realized why the bond was so necessary. She couldn’t feel Tieran beneath her. Not really. She only had an abstract sense of what he was going to do at any given point. And when he decided to take Fordham’s instructions literally, as he would do in battle, she had no concept of what was coming next, and that resulted in her slipping and crashing down into the trees.
Her shield collapsed with the fall. She yanked on her air magic to cushion her fall, but still, she landed hard on her back, torn up from the trees on the way down. Air rushed out of her lungs, and her eyes burned.
“Gods,” she groaned.
Tieran circled around and came back for her. You don’t look so good.
“Let’s do it again, jerk,” she said, groaning as she came to her feet and climbed back on her dragon.
But a dozen more runs, and she was still falling off of his back. Her shield stayed in place almost every time, but that hardly made a difference. It was muscle memory, not talent. Even when Tieran started to warn her, she’d still lose momentum and cling to him for her life. It was obvious they were out of sync.
Four days later, when they hadn’t progressed to mind-to-mind bond control and she was still landing on her ass in the snowy forest, Fordham called it quits for the day.
