Page 58 of Flameborne: Chosen
“Flameborne Kearney, you will be gratified to hear that on the day our Harle was Chosen, we brought him up and not only did it take himfourtries to salute, but I think he wept when we made him stand up.”
“I didnotcry!”
“He did shit himself though.”
“Shutup,Voski!”
It was all so surreal, I almost laughed, but I was on the edge of tears. I was losing my mind. My back ached from hunching on this constantly moving net. But standing up? They had to be deluded?
“The good news is, Harle no longer soils his pants when he has to stand, do you Harle?”
“I never did!” Harle snapped back while the others all laughed.
“Harle, please demonstrate for Flameborne Kearney how we stand attention on dragonback.”
There was another groan, but in a few seconds that beautiful dragon dropped into sight just ahead and below and I watched in horror as the man once again leaned forward, pulled his feet up under him, bracing his feet in the ridges of his dragon’s shoulders, and thenhe stood up. He leaned slightly forward into the wind, but he was upright.
The others crowed and whooped, and Harle raised a fist to the sky before dropping back down to sit and looking at me over his shoulder. “It feels impossible, but the net’s even easier. You balance better if you have one foot forward of the other. You’ll be fine!” he called back.
“I can’t,” I sobbed.
“You can. And you will,” Ronen called, his voice stern, but patient. “Every one of us has lived this moment before you, Kearney. We understand it. But youmustteach your body that your instincts areincorrect.You will not fall. And even if you do, your Dragon will save you.”
‘I will, Bren,’Akhane said softly.‘You know I will.’
Her conviction and kindness washed through me in that bond and I shook my head.
‘I know you will. I know you mean to. But, I can’t do this!’
‘You can, Little Flame. You can. I give you my word. The Creator put you here for me. You can do this. We can do it together.’
“Flameborne Kearney, we won’t land until you have walked the trial. Stand attention!”
Chest throbbing, eyes blurred with tears, I locked on Akhane in the bond and just told myself over and over that she’d catch me. She’d already done it once. She’s proven that she could. And so had I.
If I fell, I would live.
Swallowing back the pinch in my throat and blinking away the tears, I slowly shuffled my feet forward, inch by inch on the strings of the net,struggling when the sole of one boot caught and I had to lift the foot to release it. But eventually my toes were almost to my palms. But then I had to let go with my hands, and Icouldn’t.
“C’mon, Kearney!” one of them called.
I choked.
“You can do it. We all did!”
All men. All strong. All bigger than me and probably—
‘Their strength and size is a disadvantage in this,’Akhane said carefully.‘The wind flows catch them harder because they’re broader, and if they get off balance, their momentum is harder to slow.’
“Do it, Kearney!”
“You’ve got this!”
“Well, Akhane does, anyway.”
“Akhanedefinitelywon’t shit herself.”
“Shutup,Voski.”
