Race

The lights went out and Soot leapt. The first ring was to their left, but the course bent sharply left beyond it too, so Phoebe leaned hard in that direction as soon as Soot's first stroke stabilised them. From the other side of the stadium, Niki and Gerald Ipemas on Renner had more favourable angles. It was hard not to flinch as they flew almost straight at her.

Soot's jump was good, though, well up over the two gold dragons' heads. Phoebe tightened her ankle, hanging further off his flank to sneak round the inside of the ring just off Incandesia's tail. The gleaming copper-brown angles of the Guicheng Museum building slid past to the right as they climbed steadily towards the second ring. Niki had the speed edge as always, but up ahead were all the twistiest bits of the course, and Phoebe had the inside for the next corner, tight left around the city tower ahead.

They swung out right at the end of the museum building, through the second ring, not a full corner, just enough for Incandesia to stretch her advantage a couple of yards. Honey-coloured evening sunlight washed over them, shimmered back from the glass walls that framed the corner. Below, the street was a dark canyon, deserted but for race marshals.

Incandesia drifted wider, to the line she needed to make it around the tower. Phoebe grinned, hunching onto her left leg again and leaning out until Soot could cruise, wings at forty-five to the vertical, staying inside Niki, levelling out closer and closer still to the gold wings. Directly ahead was the black cylinder of Circle One Tower, reflecting a funhouse-mirror panorama of the city and the sunset, the third ring hanging just off to the left of it.

Phoebe let Soot drift slightly rightward, to fly directly over Incandesia's tail, relishing his enthusiasm. Below, Niki's long, narrow body stretched out along the gold's back, zir movements even and relaxed. Not a hint of weakness.

Through the third was a high drag over the conference centre – more dark glass, this time facing the sky, full of the spectres of clouds – with Incandesia inching ahead again. Phoebe held her stance, not presuming to tell Soot the business of finding his course. The fourth ring was hidden behind the tower ahead, another tight left-hander that opened into a diving right. Still smiling wickedly, Phoebe waited.

Niki drifted wide again, setting up for the turn, and Phoebe set her weight on her left hip, just enough to signal Soot to stay inside. As if he needed telling. His neck was out straight ahead, the blunt wedge of his head tilted just slightly towards the tower as it slid past. His stroke was as smooth as swimming.

The moment came, and Phoebe dropped down Soot's flank, right ankle hooked in its stirrup. Soot responded, a sharp twist of his wings that was now a well-practiced manoeuvre. It wrenched them around the edge of the tower, shedding speed hard but that didn't matter because there was the fourth ring and Soot could lunge over its lip, snap his wings open again in a swirling plunge and already be cutting back to the right as the canyon of the street opened beneath them.

"Well, we knew she'd have a good run at Niki through that first lap."

"There's no other dragon like Soot, even when he scares me he's beautiful on the wing."

"Can Phoebe hold the place, do you think?"

"Look at what she's doing through the junction – look at it! Beautiful stuff, all the way to the tenth ring is Soot's playground, he'll be vulnerable from there back to the stadium, but he really could pull it off."

"Meanwhile Feran's holding off Lucia nicely."

"Same issue there, really. We won't know the balance of power between them until we see them on the home straight. It matters more that Feran's not challenging Arden for fourth."

The street that led from the tenth ring back to the square and the stadium was eight lanes wide, a river of fluorescence and neon. The road itself was fenced off, staffed by marshals in bright viscose, but the sidewalks were full of pedestrians, craning up to watch as Soot powered past overhead. For Phoebe, the lights blurred to an almost psychedelic effect as she led the fifteenth lap home.

Talking to the team helped her keep focussed. "How does it look?"

"It looks like the last two laps, yeah, very consistent." Petunia's tone was bright. "Six tenths up by the tenth ring, then you lose a tenth to eleven, probably three more by the end of the lap."

Phoebe narrowed her eyes against the glare of the shop-fronts. Soot rose and fell steadily underneath her, and she barely had to think to match the rhythm of his wings. Building her lead by two tenths of a second a lap was a best-case scenario. "Adelie?"

There was a thoughtful pause on the other end of the radio. Ahead, where the high-rises fell back from the street to frame the square, the slice of open sky swelled like the end of a storm as they approached the low, squat line of the grandstands and the twelfth ring. The pause was a good sign, Phoebe knew Adelie would be checking with her team before answering.

"It looks good," Adelie said, eventually. "It's like lemon-and-lime, you know, that really bright green? He's hot but nothing to worry about. It might tighten up later, though."

"Niki comes through the first ring… there ze goes again, ze took a tenth out of Phoebe again that lap. Is the balance starting to shift?"

"Twenty-eight laps in, it could be. They're going to have to perch soon, I wouldn't like to be the strategist who has to make that call."

"Phoebe has four seconds in hand, Niki will need a bit more than a tenth a lap to catch her."

"Ze'll get it, I think. This is a lot like Circo Caria, and we never really got to see how that duel would have played out."

"What are you thinking?"

"I think the pace on the fast straights takes more out of Soot than tight corners through the towers do Incandesia. In a shorter race Soot would take it, but even if you don't think smaller dragons lack stamina, you've gotta admit this takes more out of him than the gold."

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"Maybe so, but if Niki catches up it'll be late in the race, and catching is one thing, passing quite another."

It was known as the Golden Ratio corner, tightening and tightening and tightening inward from the street after the eighth ring, round the curved face of the D-shaped Guicheng International Finance Centre tower, into the narrow gap between that building and the City Library, pinching even closer through the ninth ring to squeak past the corner of the Giles Hotel tower, then finally opening over a small park to the tenth ring and the boulevard back to the stadium.

Soot loved it, his whole body flowing through the line of the course, wings beating steadily as he leaned further and further from the horizontal. They took the ninth with Phoebe hanging below Soot's left flank, her knee howling with the thrill of it. The gusts and eddies between the three tall buildings barely troubled them at all. In the park below, the shadows were turning inky under the bushes as night fell. Ahead, the street blazed.

As Soot levelled out through the tenth, Petunia came over the radio. "Niki's on zir perch. I think you'll have like three seconds in hand."

Phoebe took a moment to focus on her own rhythm, steady with the rise and fall of Soot's back. "Adelie, can we keep this pace?"

"He's a little hot," Adelie answered without hesitation. "Solid yellows for core and shoulders."

"Already?" Phoebe knew better than to glance back and try to get a look at Soot's joints herself. Even if the evening and Soot's colouration weren't making him visually unreadable, there were no outward signs of the kind of strain Adelie and her team were measuring. Craning would just distract the dragon.

"You're pushing him really hard through this sector." The vet sounded like she was apologising.

Soot swung though the gentle bend at the eleventh ring, into the half-mile blizzard of light that led back to the stadium. Phoebe said, "I'm not pushing him, he's just really going for it."

"You might have to rein him in a bit, twenty-two more laps of this is going to be a lot."

"Phoebe Tenryuu comes through the first ring to start lap thirty-four and retakes the lead after the perch phase."

"Niki's hard on her tail, look."

"Two point nine seconds, ze gained a little more than we thought that last couple of laps."

"Looking bad for Phoebe."

"You think so? Soot's got the worst of the heavy phase out of the way and Incandesia's still got to go through it."

"Won't matter, Incandesia'll be slow this part of the first lap but Soot's pace was starting to drop even before the perches."

Phoebe held Soot toward the right-hand side of the lane through the stadium, setting up for the hard left out of the first ring. Ahead, the horizon was one half the fading, smoky orange of late twilight, one half the dark face of the museum building, now only faintly reflecting the lights of the square. There were scattered shouts of encouragement from the crowds in the stands to either side.

Incandesia was less than two lengths behind, and the big screens showed one of the camera drones had caught a perfect angle to frame the pursuit. Phoebe could watch the race slipping away from her without even twisting her neck. She held her stance, trying not to look, eyes forward.

They reached the ring and she lunged, trusting Soot to know the exact moment and he did, folding leftward and slicing through, tail swiping sideways behind them as his next stroke caught and began the work of lifting them past the museum. Phoebe recovered herself, steady astride Soot's shoulders, weight back a little to help the climb.

On the radio, Petunia said, "One second."

With eight laps still to go, that was way too close. Incandesia was just the faster dragon over that long stretch back to the stadium. Even if she fell back over the first part of the lap – and she wasn't losing as much there as she had been – she was creeping ever closer by the end. It was just a matter of time.

"Soot doesn't look like he's struggling, he's still faster through the towers."

"Doesn't matter whether he's fading or not, he's not fast enough."

"It's a foregone conclusion, then?"

"Unless Phoebe's been holding him back and they've got a secret turn of speed they're keeping for a last-ditch sprint, I don't see what she can do."

"Will she settle for second?"

"She should, Ipemas is no threat from behind and there's nothing to gain by risking Soot."

"Phoebe, you've got to back him off! The projection looks like it's on fire!" Adelie's voice squeaked slightly as it came over the radio.

Phoebe righted herself on Soot's back as they crossed over the park after the golden ratio complex, relaxing for the brief moment when Niki would be out of sight behind. There was still no sign of Soot wanting to slow down, and he'd been steady through the towers. They took the tenth ring together, smoothly, Phoebe hunkering low on Soot's back.

"How reliable is the projection?" She asked. The model that the team used to predict how Soot's condition might deteriorate late in the race was still a work in progress, it had been unreliable before, and there were only five laps left.

It was Elice who answered first, "It's a lot better now-"

"Radio discipline, Elice," Adelie cut in, much more calmly than she'd spoken to Phoebe. Then she finished, "It's reliable now, Phoebe, Elice and her team have really made progress on the correlation issues. And it's almost red in places, you've got to slow down."

"Feran's pulling away from Lucia now, it's taken all race but it looks like that duel is finally over."

"One for the ages, that one."

"Even if they finish in the same positions they started?"

"Gave us a hell of a show, though, didn't they- wait, look, Phoebe's slowing."

"Not by much, Soot's still flying well."

"Yeah, look at Phoebe's stance, it's steady, she's just backing him off. Sensible."

"Niki's already on her aaaaand there ze goes, through into the lead."

Phoebe watched Incandesia slide past as Soot flapped carefully into the stadium. She couldn't parse the crowd's noise well, but it sounded mixed and muted compared to what she was expecting. She let herself sit upright a moment longer, to make sure Soot wouldn't race off again in pursuit. He was always at his most frantic when right on another dragon's tail.

This posture was easier on her legs, too. Now the worst of the pressure was off, she could feel the fire in her knees and calves. The post-race shower was going to feel great. Still, she settled forward again as they came up on the first ring, suppressing a groan. There were still three full, long laps to go.

Soot bobbed and swerved through the first ring, clearly taking the hint about taking it easy. Phoebe went with him, but resisted the urge to throw herself hard against the stirrups. They came up smoothly into the climb across the face of the museum, Soot's wings too dark to make out in reflection against its metallic walls. Above, the sky was the same shade of deep indigo.

"Six seconds back to Ipemas," Petunia chirped over the radio.

Despite the pain, and the frustrating sight of Niki up ahead, Phoebe grinned. The towers would still be fun even in these final stages.

"Okay Phoebe, let's come to you. You must be disappointed you couldn't quite hold on to first to the end?"

"Of course I am, Sam, but it was still a good race for us."

"Soot looked amazing through the first two sectors, was it just the pace through the last two rings?"

"Basically, yeah, Incandesia's just got the wings on us."

"There aren't the same long straights at Ma'anshi Reservoir in two weeks, you must fancy your chances there?"

"Definitely, we're really looking forward to it, it's a beautiful course."

"This must put you in great shape for the championship, right? You're only a point behind Lucia, a good result at Ma'anshi could catapult you into the driving seat."

"I don't know about that, Sam, I really don't know. It could be, but Feran will also be strong and I'm not counting out Niki, of course. Arden's still in with a shot too, right?"

"He is, but he'd need two very strong results and the rest of you not to score very much."

"Well, ok, would you feel comfortable counting him out, Sam? Tell me that."

"You think he'll go well next time too?"

"Fleet's pretty good at tight manoeuvres, you know. He's won there before."

"So you're not counting your whelps just yet, then?"

"I've got a championship to win, Sam, I don't have time for that kind of distraction."