Fourth Race

Adelie

Adelie lay on the couch, looking over Phoebe's shoulder as she cackled at something on-screen in whatever shooty nonsense she was playing on Adelie's Wintendo Kitsch. Phoebe had taken the console the moment Adelie put it down to try to focus on work, but she was making so much noise, and Adelie's brain was so fried, that nothing was getting done. Petunia had tried her best to avoid 'we need to talk' ambiguity in asking to meet with them, but saying that it was a budget problem didn't make it that much less worrying.

Taut with anticipation as Adelie felt, the sound of the door made her actually jump. Petunia's taxi must have been too quiet to cut through the noise of Phoebe's game. Adelie struggled up to sit with her feet curled under her in the corner of the couch. Phoebe didn't look round immediately. There was a pause, and then Petunia entered the room, coat neatly folded over her arm.

"Hi Adelie, hi Phoebe," Petunia said, and the waver in her voice showed that she wasn't any happier about what she had to say than they were going to be. "How's it going?"

"Gimme a sec," Phoebe answered, with only a faint twitch of her head in Petunia's direction.

Behind Phoebe's back, Adelie rolled her eyes. "You want some tea or something, Petunia?"

"Nah, I had boba on the way here." Petunia put her coat on the arm of the sofa – it was still the only proper furniture in the house – and sat down beside it. Sparkly blue toenail polish glittered through her green tights.

"Oo, what flavour did you get?" It helped to focus on the familiar.

"Just lychee green tea, nothing special."

Which didn't leave a lot of room to say anything that might help the mood. Adelie reached out with one leg and poked Phoebe in the back. "Come on, we should get started."

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"Okay, okay, let me just finish this match, I'm nearly – ope, there it goes, I died." Phoebe put the Kitsch down and half turned. "Guess it's just not my day." Then she turned all the way round, still sitting on the floor, and looked at Petunia. "Okay, boss, what's up?"

Petunia had produced a notepad and pen from somewhere, and was tapping her fingers steadily on the pad where it lay in her lap. Adelie watched her take a deep breath, then speak. "Realistically, what are our prospects for the next race? In finishing position, I mean."

"What do you mean, Petunia? It's our time to shine, we're gonna win."

"Realistically, Phoebe." Adelie recognised the fatigue in Petunia's voice. "Can we beat Andoal?"

"Is it that bad?" Phoebe's voice came out in a hoarse whisper, like she'd just had the wind knocked out of her.

Petunia looked down at her notes. "If we win, a hundred thousand royals from the championship points plus fifty from the podium bonus, we can cover costs for race five. Second, we might just have enough if we pull out of the championship immediately after the race and come straight home." She met Phoebe's gaze again, and the emotion in her face startled Adelie. "I'm sorry, I looked everywhere, there's just no way we can afford away stabling for the Taranto leg."

"What if we fly home each time?" Phoebe said, but there was no hope in her voice. Flying to every race from the farm had been desperate cost-cutting and a serious risk to Soot's health, and it only worked at all because all the races so far had been within a few hours' flight of Rindburg. With the league continuing on to the south coast, that was out of the question after this race.

Petunia shook her head sadly. "I costed up some options for overnight stops, but even then it's too much."

"No…" Phoebe looked down, plucking at the carpet with an idle hand.

Adelie said, "Can we get more sponsors? Or what about your backers, Phoebe, could you go to them for more money?"

"I don't know." The dragon rider didn't look up. Her purple crownfeathers curled close in around her head, hiding her face. "I don't know how to get sponsors, I just want to race."

Adelie thought of Soot, hopefully slumbering gently in his barn right now. He wanted to race, too, she understood that much. But even the cost of his meals was horrifying, especially with the expensive treatments he needed to manage his allergies. Adelie could eat instant ramen for a month and not save enough to cover more than a few days' food for the drake.

With her shoulders hunched, Phoebe looked smaller and younger than Adelie could remember ever seeing her before. Not really believing it herself, but needing to do something to attack the silence, she said, "Well, we've got to go to the next race. You can win there, right? It's possible? Then maybe we'll get some sponsorship offers."