Silver sucked in a deep breath and used her foot to scrape away some of the camouin down Hiyyan’s left side. They were almost to the curve. But Hiyyan’s breathing was heavy behind his disguise. She could tell he wanted to slow down.
“Almost, Hiyyan,” Silver said. She pictured a ferocious ball of energy and sent it to him. “We’re so close! Use your wing.”
Hiyyan tipped onto his side. Silver closed her eyes and dug her legs into his sides as hard as she could, so that she wouldn’t end up in the sea. Her fists were so tight her nails cut into the skin of her palms. She clenched her teeth.
“Arrgghhh,” she groaned. Her limbs were wound until bursting, her muscles straining in her arms and thighs. And still, she was slipping.
She dug down to the dark depths of her strength and put everything she had into holding on, but her left hand lost its grip on Hiyyan’s mane. Her body rolled. The greedy sea grabbed at her, desperate to pull her into its black lifelessness.
She shifted her weight to her right leg, still hooked over Hiyyan’s back, and held on. She had to stay on his back. For the win. For Kirja. To stay alive.
Silver screamed into the water. Her muscles burned. Not just hers, but Hiyyan’s, too. They both wanted to give up.
No! Hold on.
Hiyyan righted himself, pulling Silver away from the sea. With one more burst of strength, she forced herself upright once more. Gasping for breath, she looked around. The Floatillion was far behind, wheezing as it tried to catch up. They’d passed the Umbrillo. The only dragon that was beating them was the Shorsa.
The flags grew larger. They were almost at the end of the race. They had a shot at qualifying!
“Go,” Silver shouted. She did the only thing she could think of: She sent Hiyyan an image of Queen Imea handing Kirja over to Silver. “For your mother!”
Hiyyan tucked his wing, and with one great push that created a massive wave behind them, he thrust them over the finish line.
THIRTY-SEVEN
Silver threw her arms in the air.
“We did it!” she screamed. “Second place, but we qualified! And we’ll do even better in the next race.”
She hugged her Aquinder’s neck and caught her breath. She couldn’t keep a massive grin off her face.
But Hiyyan’s body was icier than the seawater—so icy that the camouin began to slowly soften.
“How can you be cold after all that swimming?” Silver said, worried. “Stay warm or the camouin’s going to drip into the sea.”
The other water dragons and their riders swam away from the finish line. Some reached out to shake Silver’s hand, congratulating her and patting Hiyyan on his masked nose. Silver’s chest puffed out a little more with each well-wisher’s comment. Other racers glared as they swam off, their festival aspirations dashed by the mysterious pair. And still others hovered, waiting to get a closer look at the odd-looking water dragon, unlike any breed they’d seen.
Silver gave Hiyyan a comforting rub, but his skin stayed cool under her fingertips.
“What’s wrong?” Silver whispered, moving close to Hiyyan’s left ear. Hiyyan turned his head in the opposite direction and gave her a low growl.
There wasn’t time to probe further. Silver quickly scanned the horizon. No Brajon, no Kirja. And no chaos among the crowds, as she’d assumed there would be if an alarm had gone up indicating that intruders had taken Kirja. Had they made it out of Calidia? She had to get to the cliffs to meet them. They had to get as far away as possible.
“Congratulations, Desert Fox.” The woman who’d registered Silver earlier in the day rode over on a pink-and-orange Droller. She’d taken off her flower hat, and she wore a blue jumpsuit made of some kind of shiny material that water rolled off of. It glistened as she looked down at the list she carried and made some notes.
The Droller, a massive water dragon able to carry twenty humans, greeted Hiyyan with a nuzzle rub. Silver recalled that Drollers were the most peaceful and calm of the water dragons.
The woman tossed a small purse to Silver, who caught it against her chest. “You have qualified for tomorrow’s semifinals. You must be at the seawall at high noon to claim your spot.”
Silver smiled, but the weight of the coins in the purse sat as heavy as the rock in the bottom of her stomach. She hoped Mele had helped Brajon find Kirja. She hoped she wouldn’t have to face the queen. Or Sagittaria Wonder.
Silver pressed her heels into Hiyyan’s side gently to get him to move past the woman and paddle past the docks.
Once they were behind the empty ships, she pulled his hood off.
“Hiyyan, I don’t know what’s wrong, but we have to go back to the cliffs. Kirja has to be there.”
Hiyyan’s mood immediately improved, and he let loose a mewl of excitement. With renewed energy, the Aquinder swam on. When they were out of sight of Calidia, Silver collected the softened camouin from his sides and put it into her bag, and Hiyyan opened his wings.
As they flew, Silver searched the shoreline for any sign of her cousin and Kirja. It all looked the same as before. When they got to the cliffs, Hiyyan hovered at the hole so Silver could retrieve her things. Everything was as she’d left it. But still no sign of the other Aquinder.
“Brajon!” she called. Her voice echoed off the walls and into the ocean. There was no reply.
They flew in circles for several minutes, hoping Kirja and Brajon would miraculously appear on the horizon. They never did. Silver’s chest grew heavy with the truth.
Brajon and Kirja were still in Calidia.
“We have to go back for them,” Silver told Hiyyan.
He let out a low growl, then stubbornly lowered himself to the ground.
“I’m sorry, but we can’t rest now,” Silver said urgently. “I know we still don’t have your mother, but I need your help. I’ve done all of this for you: traveled this far, upset my family, made these disguises. People think I’m a thief! And I don’t want to be face-to-face with Sagittaria Wonder again after she … she…” Silver’s face lit with shame, and she shook her head, as though she could shake off that first meeting with the great water dragon racer.
The water dragon refused to even meet her eyes.
“Hiyyan, I used camouin,” Silver cried. “If someone finds out about that, I don’t even know what would happen to me. But you just want to sit here and mope?”
For a moment, Hiyyan was silent. Then, his lips pulled away from his teeth, he raised his face to the slowly darkening sky, and he let loose an earth-shaking roar that choked off with what sounded like a sob.
Then he stomped off.
Silver dropped to the sand, hands shaking. So maybe the race had been hard. Maybe they’d both had to work for a good position. But that’s what it took to become a great water dragon racer! Hard work, struggle.
Nothing Silver had done so far on this journey was easy.
All to get Kirja back from Sagittaria Wonder.
All so Hiyyan could be happy.
Silver let out a breath and stared at the sea. If Hiyyan was happy, so was she. The reverse was true, too.
Behind her, Hiyyan crunched some pebbles as he moved closer. A vision filled Silver’s mind.
Hundreds of Aquinder soaring over burning desert cities. Their human riders roared victoriously, their faces bloodthirsty. They yanked the chains they used to control their water dragons, the metal digging painfully into the Aquinder’s mouths.
Hot tears rolled down Silver’s face.