Riding the Serpent's Back Read Free

struggled to put out of his mind the noises she had made with Chi in the night, the two of them adding to the earth’s groans.
    Apart from the abdominal bulge, Cotoche was a slight woman of about Leeth’s age. Her skin was dark, her eyes a jade green that would be highly prized in some of the more primitive settlements along the Hamadryad. From their very first encounter, Leeth had found her immensely attractive.
    Without preamble, Cotoche said, “I used to ride on coursers when I was little. Before they killed my father. Is Sky strong enough to carry two adults?”
    “Of course,” said Leeth, his heart surging. Travelling such short distances each day, he had taken to sending Sky off to soar alone while he walked with the others, struggling through the jungle growth with the horses and pack-mokes as he tried to get to know the people of Chi’s group.
    Today they would fly. He set about reconfiguring the harness.
    A short time later they were ready to go. Chi had set off earlier, riding his black horse with old Karlas Herckle mounted behind him. Already, they were lost to sight in the thinning jungle.
    “Will you be all right?” asked Leeth. “With the...baby, I mean?”
    Cotoche nodded, and then waited as Leeth helped her onto the crouching courser’s back and strapped her in. When she was secure, he straddled the beast’s shoulders behind her and tightened his own belts. With his arms around Cotoche he could feel the squirming movements of the seven-month foetus in her belly.
    He gave Cotoche a reassuring squeeze and then thought the command-shape into Sky’s mind. Fly .
    Sky grunted, straightened, heaved her wings into a V until they caught the irregular breeze that swirled in the small clearing. Then, with a single downward sweep, the courser lifted into the air. For a few seconds they were jerked roughly from side to side, up and down, as Sky struggled to lift through the gaps in the overhanging trees. And then there was a sudden change in the air – a new crispness replacing the dank humidity of the forest – and they were twenty, thirty paces up, lifting clear of the trees. Cutting across the breeze at an angle, Sky relaxed into a steadier rhythm of lazy wing-beats, interspersed with short, stiff-winged glides. In a short time they were beating their way over Chi and Karlas and then they were out in front of the group of travellers.
    Cotoche whooped and yelled down at Chi and the others, and Leeth settled back a little, aware that he had been holding her more firmly than necessary.
    Sky was coping easily with the extra weight and Leeth felt proud of the beast. He thought more commands into Sky’s head, taking them up higher so that the travellers appeared as tiny as termites, the trees like diminutive clumps of moss.
    “How did you learn that you had the Talent?” asked Cotoche, leaning back into his embrace. “There aren’t many people who can fly like this.”
    “I was twelve,” said Leeth, distractedly. He reached up to move a strand of her dark hair out of his mouth and smoothed it back against her head, only for the wind to lift it free again. “Playing alone on the Senechal Terrace in Laisan – the Terrace overlooks a bay full of lobster-rearing cages and fish farms. It was one of my favourite games: watching the gannets flying out over the bay, picking on one and trying to will it to stop and dive. I thought it was sheer chance, that I was playing a kind of gambling game with myself: will it or won’t it?
    “One time, I picked out a bird and sure enough it broke its flight as if it was about to dive, but then it turned and flew in towards me. I watched, fascinated. It came closer and closer, directly towards me. So fast! I never knew they flew so fast. Then suddenly I could see the yellow staining on its neck, those squinting little black and blue eyes, that dagger-like beak. I realised it was coming straight at me and I threw myself to the ground. I felt the rush of air as it passed over