She tightened her grip until her knuckles went white. Then she nodded.
Hiyyan burst into a run.
Silver bounced on his back, clenching her thigh muscles and digging her feet in, determined not to be thrown off again. Her eyes squinted against the sting of rushing air. She anticipated what it’d feel like to fly, and her thoughts went back to the feeling of soaring down the sand dunes on Brajon’s dune board.
It will be freedom, she thought to Hiyyan. It will be everything.
When they had gained enough speed that the orchard trees blurred together, Hiyyan gave one great thrust of his wings. Silver’s stomach dropped to the desert floor as they darted into the air.
She sucked in her first breath of sapphire-blue sky and let out a sound of pure wonder.
The air was crystal clear and cool. As Hiyyan flapped his wings, he radiated happiness, and his emotion seeped into Silver’s bones. She loosened her grip and slowly, carefully sat up higher and higher. Her hair whipped behind her, snapping at the ends. The wind bit at her lips and ears.
The feeling of flying was hard to describe. She felt unstoppable, and exhilarated to her very core. Everything she’d ever wanted, and everything she wanted for Hiyyan, was coming alive in that moment.
“We did it, Hiyyan!” Silver said. She laughed and laughed as they soared across the desert. “Woooooo!”
Her shrieks must have startled desert foxes back into their underground burrows and made sleepy desert beetles roll over on their backs. Hiyyan honked, too, his joy echoing over the sands.
Silver never would have predicted how natural it felt to be on Hiyyan’s back. How smooth and graceful they both were. Especially for two creatures who flopped and tripped whenever they went about on their own two, or four, feet.
In the distance, Silver saw the indigo of the sea.
“Let’s go this way.” She tugged gently on the left side of Hiyyan’s mane.
As he turned, his body was all muscle and power. Silver held on tight again so she wouldn’t slip down his side. Her feet tucked into the nooks where his wings met his body.
Every turn and swoop felt huge. Like they were carving the sky into pieces. Eventually, Silver got comfortable enough to sit up fully, her back tall, and close her eyes to just feel the world rush past her.
“We have to fly as far from Calidia as we can,” she said. “The clouds will help camouflage us, and I don’t think there will be very many people looking up when they’re distracted by the races, but just in case, we have to be careful.”
Silver looked back at Calidia. The palace towers pushed into the sky above all else. From up this high, she could even see the sea. The great cargo ships that waited at the docks looked like children’s toys. She wished she could see Kirja from here.
Silver craned her neck farther over her shoulder. Deep in the orchards, a smattering of specks roved among the trees. One of those specks stopped moving and seemed to be looking up. She quickly looked forward again. Had any of them seen her?
There was nothing to do but move forward with her plans. She still had her disguise to count on. With her arm outstretched toward the water, Silver sent her thoughts to Hiyyan. See that cliff? Let’s enter the sea on the other side of it. We’ll be out of view of Calidia there.
Hiyyan grunted his response, and Silver grinned. When Kirja had been rescued and this was all over, Silver would test the limits of their communication, moving farther and farther away from Hiyyan to see if he could still hear her. It had worked when she was in the orchard and he was near the river cave. Maybe there was no limit to how far apart they could be.
They flew over the cliff, and as soon as the dragon cleared the rock, he dove toward the water. Silver’s mouth opened in a silent scream. Salty sea air rushed past her ears so loud it sounded like rampaging herd animals. Her stomach wasn’t near her feet anymore; it had lurched up and got stuck in her throat.
“Hiyyan!” Silver’s eyes teared up. She could see nothing but water.
And then, Hiyyan hit the sea with a monumental splash. Silver had time to suck in one last breath before they dove under the waves. She squeezed her legs and clutched her fists around the dragon’s mane. Silver’s lungs began to burn, but before she started to really panic, they burst back up and bobbed on the surface of the sea.
“I can’t swim—you know that!” she sputtered. Her clothes were soaked, but at least her bag, made of soft but tough leather, repelled the water.
Hiyyan snorted and paddled his legs.
“Oh, you would have saved me if I’d fallen off?” Silver coughed up seawater. “I think a better idea is that we get you fitted for a saddle.”
This time, her Aquinder growled.
“Just learn to swim? That’s easy for you to say. I don’t have webbed toes like you do.”
The Aquinder huffed two short breaths. Silver glared and squeezed seawater out of her hair. Hiyyan laughed.
“Since we’re bonded,” she said, “what do you think would happen to you if I drowned?”
She laughed as Hiyyan’s jaw dropped open.
“Enough teasing. Time to be serious. The race is in a few hours, and you’ve never even swum in an open ocean. So … swim.”
Hiyyan didn’t have to be told twice.
THIRTY-FOUR
The dragon pulled his wings close to his body and paddled harder with his legs. They picked up some speed, but Silver knew it wasn’t nearly fast enough to win any races.
“Use your tail, too,” she suggested.
He swished his tail side to side—slowly at first, then more quickly as he established an easy rhythm. That definitely helped them gain speed. Hiyyan sank lower into the water, and Silver followed his lead until her head just barely reached over the top of Hiyyan’s, letting her see what was ahead of them.
“Now your wings,” Silver said.
The Aquinder unfurled his wings over the water, skimming the surface with their tips. He dipped them under, pushed them back, lifted them, and dipped again. Each time he dipped, Silver thought she was going to slip off his back. But after a few rows, she got the hang of the rhythm.
“Okay,” she said. “Faster now.”
Hiyyan followed her instruction, rowing his wings quickly. His movements were rough at first. It took a few attempts, but it wasn’t long until he seemed to figure out the best height to lift his wings, and how deep to put them in the water to gain the most speed as quickly as possible.
Good, Silver thought. Keep it up.
He responded with an image of them flying away from Calidia with Kirja in tow.
Exactly, Silver thought. For Kirja. And for us.
She wished she’d stayed longer near the seawall and watched the other water dragons practicing. She had no idea what kinds of water dragon abilities they might be up against. She didn’t even know the length of the races. Was it a sprint, or a longer distance? Would they have to surge forward quickly, or was there time to build up their speed?
Silver swallowed. She wasn’t well prepared for the races. She wasn’t well prepared for any of the things she was doing. But she was going to succeed. There was no other option.
“On the count of three, turn and go back the way we came,” she told her Aquinder. “One, two, three!”
Hiyyan was a natural at turning. He dipped one wing into the water and spun them around, then propelled them forward in a straight line again.