She Who Sees Through Darkness

Part Twenty-Five

I'll come, Payaa decided. Can you get my harness?

Katrina ran to fetch it, and Payaa climbed up to the terrace. It took fifteen minutes to get all the straps in place. At last, she climbed onto Payaa's back and clipped the climbing harness wrapped around her legs to the loop in the saddle. Payaa rose. Her weight shifted back onto her legs, and Katrina slid back in the saddle. She had an uneasy feeling she sat atop a mountain.

This is going to be very cold, she thought. The mountain pitched forward. Katrina's breath caught. She squeezed her eyes shut.

Wind slammed across her face, and then she was falling. Terror laced from her mind to Payaa's, and the wyvern stuttered, pushed past it, and spread her wings. Air blasted against the wide surface, throwing them upwards with a jolt. Payaa flapped rapidly, bringing her speed under control. Katrina lost herself in the pattern of strokes—strong and sure, like oars in a river, or feet pounding on asphalt. An athlete. Some identity they shared.

Payaa loved this.

Katrina opened her eyes. They danced across the sky, taking in clouds, the low sun, exploring them in dizzying detail. Clutching the saddle so hard her fists hurt, she dared looking out through the junction of Payaa's shoulder and neck. Her vision darted across the thin fall snow, picking out shadows, rocks, and tracks.

Caribou tracks, Payaa told her. Thousands more flock here in winter, and we eat like kings. Through memories, Katrina could feel her dive, closing her talons around a buck and snapping its neck as she pushed back into the sky, muscles straining gloriously with the weight. Where did you want to go?

South, along the border. She turned her head northward, following the rounded mountain peaks as they swept around, cradling the valley. Thousands of shadowy crevasses lined their sides, cast in relief by the setting sun. The mountain hosting the fortress rose nearly twice as high as the surrounding peaks. Katrina wondered if it truly was natural.

Your government built the facility. Perhaps they built the mountain as well. It was accompanied by a conspiratorial tone. Katrina made note of the 'your'. Well, I can hardly claim them as mine. Your constitution doesn't give citizenship to wyverns. She extended the vertically-oriented membranes on the tip of her tail and banked into a sharp turn.

The motion threw Katrina sideways. The safety harness cut into her stomach, forcing the air from her lungs. She gasped in pain.

Sorry! Payaa thought. I thought you were ready!

Tell me before you do something like that, Katrina thought. With her thoughts held back, she couldn't detect Payaa's intentions.

Payaa leveled out, keeping her flight path steady and her speed even. Katrina drank in the cold, fresh air as it poured over her. Payaa's heat warmed her legs, and her beating heart chased off the rest of the pain the temperature might have caused her. She was tempted to stay quiet and enjoy it, but she knew what her job was. How much do you know about my government?

I know it has three branches, a powerful bureaucratic arm, a more powerful military, and it's considered the most powerful government in the world. Payaa paused. That intrigue in your mind tells me that you know more about it than I.

Shit. She'd overreached—everything was wide open, ready for wyvern access—but Payaa withdrew, sliding her thoughts back into her body, reminding herself where her boundaries lay.

I meant it, Katrina, I won't push you. We all have our secrets. This connection—it's new to me, as well. It's not like talking to another wyvern. It's okay if you want to put up some walls.

Katrina swallowed. Heat rushed to her face. "I just . . ." she muttered, and realized how stupid a gesture it was, asserting her independence from Payaa by speaking out loud, rubbing in something Payaa couldn't do. Would the scientists have kept mistreating her if Payaa had cried out in a human voice?

Probably. They aren't very good people. Flashes came of white lab coats, pictured from the eye level of a young wyvern crouched on cold tiles. Most of them were expelled from academia for unethical experimentation. Why else would they isolate themselves from the rest of the world to study here? Could we think of something more pleasant?

Katrina's mind went to her house in the Adirondacks, the feel of her feet on the hiking trails. Payaa welcomed the memories, though she held herself back, not prying. She'd never left the borders of Wyvernhall, and seeing the outside world on a screen wasn't the same as remembering it. A screen had no context; a memory told you how you could feel.

Where's our destination? Payaa asked as she glanced southward. To Katrina, the flat landscape appeared much the same as it spread outward. But in Payaa's thoughts, a firm line cut the land in half, marking where they could and could not go. We're almost at the southern border.

Katrina smiled, donning bravado like a cowboy in a movie. We're crossing.

Payaa mistimed her next wing beat. They dropped five meters. A flurry of frantic flapping kept them airborne. But—the border! Dr. Harper's armed the border with short-range missiles, and if anyone tries to cross—Veick's tried! He's still covered in shrapnel wounds! He nearly died!

There's a gap, Katrina told her. Along the southern border, marked by an icy rise. They couldn't find enough solid ground to sink the launchers close enough together to get full coverage. It's over a hundred feet wide. We can fit.

There's a dozen other places within the border we could go. Are you crazy? Dr. Harper had demonstrated the missiles for her and her siblings when they grew large enough to fly long distances alone. If they didn't kill a wyvern outright, the missiles would knock them from the sky and let the ground do the rest. You're risking—

Relax, will you? Katrina thought. It'd be my skin, too. The icy rise in question lay just ahead. This relationship goes two ways. I can't be comfortable with you if you don't trust me. It was a mean, manipulative tactic, but enough to make Payaa turn southward, hesitating. Katrina slipped her mind into the wyvern's, grabbed control of her wings, and used the muscle movements she'd picked up to propel them through the gap.

A wave of shock swept through Payaa's mind as they passed through unharmed. Katrina used that to take the next three wingbeats. Payaa reached for control and Katrina relinquished it before Payaa could push into her mind and unveil her purpose. Warmth spread through Katrina's chest.

I can't believe you just—

Come on, Katrina thought. You're out. For the first time in your life, you're out. Fly on back to your cage if you want. Me, I'd suggest we continue southward. Let's go see MountOrso—it's the biggest peak in the area, and it's barely an hour away. Let's go have some fun.

Fun. Payaa turned the word over in her head, thinking of Veick, her children, the rules she'd never dare break. Maybe things had changed. They wanted wyverns with pilots. They wouldn't dare hurt one of the wyverns who they'd managed to bind. And here was her chance—her pilot wanted this. Her thoughts flew to Tayamlaa, and Quickfingers. She'd named him, claimed him. To have someone on your side like that . . . Can you promise me you'll tell Dr. Harper this was your idea?

Katrina pulled on a smile. Next time I see her, I will.

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