Page 80 of Flameborne: Chosen

Oh, right.

I’d forgotten this wasn’t the end of the task.

Dammit.

My jubilation sinking to dread, I walked to Akhane’s side, reaching up to pat her high on the leg, then took hold of the loops we’d made and knotted onto the end of that strap. The climbers’ clutch. Two of them.

They worked by tension and friction, gripping the leather strap when weight or pressure was applied, but sliding when there was no tension placed on them. My father had made some for me when I was small and needed a way to climb the rope to the hayloft in the barn.

But those were made from dry rope. These had been constructed from leather and even though the Leathersmith believed they would work, he’d never tried them before.

This would be the test.

Praying I wasn’t going to fall at the last hurdle, I turned each loop outwards so I could put a foot in each one, hands on the strap above my head until I stood a couple of feet off the ground, upper body held close to the strap by my hands, and a foot in each loop, like the stirrups of a horse.

Then I lifted my weight off the top loop, using my toe to lift it as high as I could bend my knee, transferring my weight to that foot so the downward pressure made it catch and lock, then using that to step up, pulling the other loop, that was now slack so would slip again, up with me.

Hand over hand, I crawled up the rope. The first few steps were awkward—the leather grain didn’t want to release as easily as a rope knot—but soon I found the rhythm, and within moments I stood chest-height to Akhane’s withers.

There was a nervous moment when I tried to get my foot out of the stirrup to throw it over her back, but caught my toe on the ridge of her wing and almost toppled over backwards, but luckily I still had a grip on the mounting strap.

Then I was there. I was finally there. Letting my weight slide me back to that space between her wing ridges, my knees hooked there to keep me in place.

I was able to grab the safety strap and clip myself in.

I sat there, silent, my jaw slack.I’d done it.

I’d harnessed and mounted my dragonalone.

With a screech, I bounced on Akhane’s back as she lifted her chin and bugled again. Then I leaned forward, hugging the thick base of her neck.

‘Thank you, Akhane! Thank you!’

‘I knew you could do it, Little Flame.’

I barely heard Donavyn and Kgosi celebrate, I was so ecstatic. And exhausted. I knew it was getting late. I needed to bathe and sleep and Akhane did as well. But I was overjoyed.

Donavyn came to stand at Akhane’s leg again, and slapped her shoulder. “Well done, Akhane. She’s steady as a rock, isn’t she?” he said, smiling up at me.

With his head tipped back and eyes dancing, that smile stretching his cheeks, which were stubbled and shadowed because it was the end of the day, he looked ten years younger.

There was a bare flash in my mind of sliding my hand to that stubbled jaw and letting my nails curl into it—

I swallowed and blinked.Where had that come from?!

“Th-thank you, Sir. Thank you so much for—”

He lifted both hands, shaking his head. “I’ll take your gratitude, Bren. But your job isn’t done. You need to get down and take her harness off. I know you can do it. And I’ll be there tomorrow to celebrate it with your squad. I want to make sure they know how determined you were. But, still. We don’t celebrate in truth until the job is done, yes?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Very good, Flameborne. So, show me—how do you dismount with this system you’ve devised?”

Then he stood back and my heart sank because that was when I realized that I’d stepped out of the loops. The lack of tension meant they’d slipped all the way down the mounting strap and now dangled just feet from the ground.

I sighed. “I’m going to have to jump down,” I said quietly. “I’ll figure out a way to—”

“Flameborne, what were you told about dismounting?”