Page 71 of The Dragoneers of Longbourn and Pemberley
Rosings and his white dragon were directly behind them. The jaws of the white dragon were clamped around Lelantos’ tail. Lelantos continued to buck, panicked, but his tail was stuck in the strong jaws. Both the dragons were slowing, the pack of riders behind them catching up. Rosings had a wicked rictus grin. He didn’t care about winning: he just wanted Lelantos to suffer. Was it because he hated Valeraine, or hated Lelantos for firing on his dragon? Both, mixing with his vile personality.
Valeraine needed to do something, now. Lelantos was being injured, and panicking. Her heart raced, from both his fury and hers. If they stayed in this lock, they would have no chance of winning. “Steady!” she called to her dragon, hoping he could hear over the snatching wind. She pressed her palm into his hide, sending her intentions and needs. He responded by calming a fraction and bucking less.
Valeraine turned in the saddle, and began to crawl along the back of Lelantos’ spine. There was a tugging at her harness, and she realized: her tether. She would never be able to get close with it attached. She needed to help Lelantos, now. Valeraine detached her tether, trusting in her balance and her dragon’s steadiness.
She crawled to his back haunches and dared to go no further onto the tail proper. Those white jaws needed to open for a moment, and they would be free. Blood leaked from the dragon’s mouth. Lelantos’ blood. Lelantos was desperate, fearful and angry, and attempting to stay still for her sake. She would rescue him.
“Rosings!” she shouted, then thought better of continuing. Her voice might give her away her.
Valeraine instead drew the knife from her leathers and threw it at the white dragon’s head. She had no skill, but this was a close target, and the wind of their flight aided her.
The wooden hilt bounced off the white dragon’s pale blue eye, and the dagger fell out of the sky. The dragon’s jaws immediately sprang open with a roar.
Lelantos seized the moment of freedom, springing forward out of reach with a burst of wing flaps.
The sudden motion sent Valeraine tumbling off his back, into the open air.
Whenever Lelantos would dive, her body would panic. She would quiet it with the knowledge that she was secure in the saddle and Lelantos had everything under control with his sturdy wings. She could enjoy being at the whims of gravity.
This drop was not like any of those before it. No comfort could be found. She was falling to her death.
“Sidton!” she heard Rosings yell, seemingly in genuine worry.
Valeraine spun through the air, unable to control her direction. The ground was approaching. How close was it? Her orientation was snatched away by her wild whirling.
She had been foolish, and this was the end of it. Everyone would discover she was the masked rider, and Longbourn would be shamed.
She had failed everyone.
Something slammed into her, sending her spinning even faster. She saw a flash of something green. Lelantos? He was trying to rescue her, but he had no practice with aerial hunting.
Something clamped around her chest, ripping the breath from her.
The green was all before her now, familiar scales. Lelantos’ underside. His claws were wrapped around her midsection, pricking into her leather armor.
She was alive.
In the corner of her eye, there was an expanse of burgundy.
Lelantos jerked in the air, ramming into the other dragon. Lelantos managed to right himself, gaining altitude.
Valeraine craned her neck to see if Pemberley had fared so well, and saw instead the red dragon in a dangerous spin, losing elevation, failing to right itself. The dragon hit the ground with a whump and a tumble. Snow sprayed into the air.
Lelantos flew on.
Valeraine watched the mess of the dragon on the ground, not springing back to the sky. She couldn’t make out Pemberley from this distance.
He could be dead from that impact.
He could be crushed below his dragon, or with a snapped spine.
Or he could be perfectly fine.
This was her chance. She couldn’t see the pack of riders from her inflexible vantage point in Lelantos’ claws, but theyhad likely already passed her. Rosings would come in first, and someone else next. But she could still beat Pemberley, and still have a respectable placing in the race.
She had survived the fall due to miraculous flying, and now she could still finish this derby.
She knew what she needed to do.
