Rhiannon - Dragonrider

Chapter Thirty Seven - The Dirty Tricks Department

For the next few days, my life was pretty simple.

Dee would wake me up early with a cup of tea and I'd take a gentle jog around the lair in the watery half-light, guiding myself as much by my will as with my eyes. Then I'd do my mind and body stretching exercises out on the veranda while I looked out over the unreal dawn of the Edifice.

After a quick breakfast, I'd fly out on Liberty to meet Psion. He mostly concentrated on fitness, with particular emphasis on the Sheer Climbs which, he promised me, were going to give me a decisive advantage in the race.

Our descents still weren't as quick as we'd like, simply because Liberty just wasn't all that heavy. Psion taught me a couple of tricks for increasing our speed though. I learnt how to guide Liberty into the slipstream of an illusionary dragon and how to form a bubble of pure will round us, to smooth out the airflow.

We spent our recovery time talking about tactics with loads of emphasis on what I called 'The Dirty Tricks Department'.

Of course Psion pretended to get all huffy about that description!

Then, at noon, Liberty and I would fly with Rhiannas. He'd show me the best way of attacking the flutes and gates... and the best way of getting between them. Funnily enough, the straight line wasn't always the quickest... particularly for the Sharfroi and Cinder gates which were next to each other. For these two, he taught me this amazingly high, tumbling turn. I mean... it felt all wrong but it seemed to work!

And, whilst Liberty was recovering, we'd talk about the books I was studying.

I'd have a snooze after lunch and then I'd go out for a run. The first time I'd tried running along the staircases and ring pathways, I'd been terrified but, after a couple of times, I'd managed to overcome my fear of the stupid drop. I mean... I really knew I could rely on my will to stop myself from falling. Once out of the Edifice, I found a narrow path up towards the top of the mountain and, once, I'd even spotted the crocodile of Zalibar's pupils as they slogged their way uphill. I noticed that Carodoc and Quaro-Deryn weren't with them.

And, as night was drawing in, I'd take Liberty out again, diving through the flutes and gates, trying to put Rhiannas's ideas into practice.

And every spare moment was filled with the books. Often, I'd take them down to the kitchen and read by the range whilst Dee was busy with her embroidery.

With three days to go, I was out training with Psion when I was pretty much thrown over Liberty's shoulder again, after a particularly sharp turn. The little dragon let out a tiny flash of flame in an untypical show of temper. "This is utterly unsupportable!" he barked. "If you are to survive the coming encounter, we shall have to retrieve your mother's spurs."

"You've still got my mother's things?" I asked, totally astonished. "Where have you been keeping them all this time?"

"They are up in a lair in the Edifice that I established following her brutal murder."

"But won't it have been looted by now?" I asked. "I mean... you've been skulking around out here ever since then, haven't you?"

Psion gave me a bit of a pained look. "As I am sure I have mentioned on more than one occasion, I am uncommonly adept in the fine arts of concealment. As long as I continue to 'skulk' out here, whilst it will not technically be invisible, I am confident that the lair will remain unobserved."

"Isn't a lair quite a big thing to hide?" I asked. I mean... it was a tricky sort of idea to get my head around.

"It is nothing like as ostentatious as that of the House of Rhian," he replied. "'A simple lair,' as it were, 'but mine own.'"