Page 107 of The Horde King of Shadow

Now!I thought.

I sprinted as fast as I could off the short ledge, launching myself into the air, the tethers grasped tight in my grip.

Wind rushed in my ears when I went airborne. For a moment, the Tharken cliffs went quiet. I felt the force of Lygath’s approach more than I heard him.

Then I wasthere. His wings flashed before me, and I cried out when I landed on his back, the impact nearly stealing my breath entirely.Tight core, brace low,I thought, my teeth gritting as I drew in gasping lungfuls of air.

It was a clean landing, much to my surprise. But Lygath roared, and I actually saw a stream ofethrallescape him, bright red in the darkness of the night. Seeing it momentarily lost me my focus. My hands slipped, and I narrowly slid off his back. In a last desperate attempt, I tossed the tethers toward his neck, the sliding metal claspjustcatching, allowing me to straighten as Lygath picked up speed, thrashing.

His movements dislodged the clasp, and I gasped when the tethers slipped through my grip.

“No, no, no!”

The tethers fell into the darkness below, a winding snake that vanished. The Tharken Pass swallowed it. I went low, acting on instinct, bending flat over his back, and I tried to reach up to grip the sharp, taloned bones that jutted up near his wing joints.

Lygath thrashed.

“Lygath, hanniva!” I cried. “It’s me!”

He bucked again, whirling so fast, the force making me slide. I had nothing to hold on to, and he seemed determined to get me off him.

Confusion and despair outweighed my shock as I slid to the side…

The whole world tilted.

Then I was falling.

Lygath grew smaller and smaller above me, pumping his wings as he fled the pass, ascending higher and higher. He was silhouetted by the moon. That was the last I saw of him.

I was in a death fall. One I’d been well prepared for.

But I hadn’t expectedthis.

Rejected by the Elthika I’d been certain was meant to be mine.

Chapter 37

SARKIN

“The last rider finally decided to end hisilla’rosh,” Kyavor told me. “He’s being retrieved now.”

“Who?” I asked, though my mind was elsewhere.

“Nirin,” Kyavor said. “From the lake village. He wants to continue instruction through next year. To try again.”

I inclined my head. “Blood born?”

“No, his father is a fisherman.”

Then he would feel the rejection from an Elthika all the more sharply.

“Let him continue to train,” I decided. “He can stay in the Arsadia for the year if he wishes.”

Withstanding theilla’roshfor as long as he had, with a rejection, spoke for his mental strength. One day, he might make a good rider.

“I will. And all but two Sarrothian acolytes claimed an Elthika,” Kyavor reported. There was hesitation in his voice because we both knew that one of those acolytes was my wife. “We will add ten new riders, ten new Elthika to Sarroth’s horde.”

“Get a report on the new Elthika,” I said. “I’ll have Levanth deliver it to Elysom in the morning.”

---