The Taming

Fly with Me

Her shoulders slumped in defeat, as she looked over the edges of the tower. Her voice nearly masked by the rushing rivers of water flooding around them. "I suppose you consider being up here like flying?"

He frowned at her, but the corners of his mouth tipped up. "This is nothing like flying."

He took her hand. "I'm a flyer too, remember?"

But she was eyeing the water garden pouring from the edges of this tower in fountains that splayed into the cascades that rippled over every other rooftop and the bailey, to pour down over the outer walls and into the mote.

Hiding everything from Radix.

Rainbows were tossed over everything below. Brightened by the sun shimmering through the flowering waters.

He lifted her hand to his lips. Kissing the back while he met her bright eyes. Wide with wonder, as they were.

He dropped her hand and lifted his arms. Giving a slow turn. He closed his eyes and envisioned the dome of water, rising. Higher and higher. Lifting beyond the stone walls, to hover high above it. Sealing them beneath those rainbow streams. He'd just raised the roof of her border by leaps and bounds.

"Fly with me?" He turned to her. Face softening as he gave her a coaxing look. His lips moved with a more deliberate measure.

"Don't do that thing with your voice."

"Because it makes you want to obey me?" He gave a half-hearted smile.

"No. Because you'll never be certain what I sincerely want to do."

That smirk dissolved as he gave her a nod.

She stepped onto the ledge of the stone tower. Letting the wind sift through her silver strands and tease at her dark blue dress. Making her look like a statue there.

As beautiful and ethereal as any artist's dream.

He memorized the moment. Set on recreating it with charcoal on parchment, later. It's too gorgeous to forget.

She leapt from that tower. Causing someone in one of the lower rooms to shout in concern.

It was a male voice, but from this distance, with the wind and water in his ears, he couldn't tell who it was. He didn't much care at the moment either.

She fell, her skirts fluttering around her legs and her arms open as if to welcome the fall. Then at the last moment she twisted in the air. Closing her arms to her chest and crossing one leg over the other to spin her. Her pale hair whipped into coarse black. Dark wings split the back of her dress to emerge. Splaying wide enough to cover the width of the bailey just below her. She tipped back and let her wings carry her upward. Soaring into the sky, toward the peak of those watery falls.

Sebastian took that moment to leap clean over the wall. Dropping feet first. When he knew he was far enough from the towers to have enough room. He stiffened his legs and let his body adjust into the shape he loved most.

The golden dragon.

He let those sparkling wings refract the glints of rainbow sunlight and toss them back up in spirals of golden light that one could mistake for a falling ray in the distance. He let the wind pass beneath his wings as he swooped them in and out. Lifting him several feet higher, with each gentle sweep. He climbed through the air until reaching the elevation she was at.

She was there doing flips in the air. Spinning in twirls and then rotating to draw vertical circles with her body. Seeing he was closing in, she straightened to give him clearance.

He silently moved in line with her. His thin bat-like wings, trimmed in feathers along the bone were perfectly designed to be silent when he was coasting.

She flapped next to him. Her quick beats were more akin to a hummingbird. She buzzed sideways and forward, then adjusted to stay next to him. The smile on her face lit the sky. So contrary to the dark shades of her guise. Her eyes were flashing brightly. Still uniquely blue instead of the usual blood red. She exuded joy as if her every breath were a taste of life.

Sebastian could hardly take his eyes off her. He flew along the edge of their watery cage. Letting his wings brush against the water, guiding him around the parapets of the castle.

The moment was stunning, unbreakable in such a fragile time.

Or so he'd thought.

In moments a green dragon appeared behind them. Rising from around the bailey to circle upward. Floating just behind them.

Sebastian tossed his head backward and pulled back gold lips to bare his teeth.

Rhyers seemed oblivious. Flying quietly behind. Enjoying the moment.

Eventually a long-maned, red one began flying upward. Bobbing his head as he thumped wings that had grown unaccustomed to flight.

Sebastian hadn't even realized Mardichi was in the castle.

It soon appeared that no dragon was willing to miss out on the opportunity.

They rose from the ground, soaring over the bailey and twining around the parapets like birds near a nest. Flying sideways, some going faster than others. But all of them savoring the time in flight.

It was a rare occasion they got to take dragon form. Deragan had forbidden it, save in times of urgent circumstances. Because it made them too easy for the demon to detect.

Hard to hide a dragon in the sky.

But here, behind the concealing waters of WaterRose, they were safe.

And I just opened the door for them all to have a reprieve.

Sebastian wanted to curse all his brothers for their intrusion into a sacred moment. But it was hard to have angst against them when they appeared as happy as Elsabet to be in the air.

And she didn't seem to mind at all. She zipped between them. Turning with incredible agility to run her clawed feet along the side of Rhyers' massive snout. In return he huffed, sending her whirling. But the green dragon spun sideways and caught her in his talons. Righting her.

Alazareth. Sebastian recognized. Wondering where he'd come from.

It seems everyone is at the stronghold today.

She was laughing uproariously.

Alazareth attempted to toss her forward to the red dragon but before Mardichi could stretch his feet to grasp her, she'd laughingly dodged them all.