The Blood Racer (The Blood Racer Trilogy Book 1) (12 page)

              “You are correct,” Reed replied. “I met them earlier. Nice people. Interesting vessels, too.”
              “Speaking of new faces!” Lex exclaimed. “What do you think about our late entry? None other than Elana Silver and her fixed-wing that she calls the
Cloud Kicker
.”
            My eyes fluttered open at the sound of my name. Was I really making the race report already?
              Reed drew a breath through his teeth. “I don’t know about this one, Lex. We talked last week about the possibility of her entering. As she puts it, it’s ‘in her blood’, after all. She’s young, though. I think she might be too young to compete with some of our returning entrants like John Deseo, or the last race’s winner, Audra Carina.”
              I pursed my lips. I wanted to switch on my microphone and tell them to shut their yappers, but I just sighed. To be fair, just about everyone probably had the same opinion as Reed did.
              “I wouldn’t be so sure,” Lex drawled out. “I think little Miss Silver has something to prove. Audra knows how to fly, you’re right about that, but my eye is gonna be on the
Cloud Kicker
. She’s already causing a buzz, and the race hasn’t even started! It’s in her blood, Reed! Her
blood
! She’s a Blood Racer!”
              Reed chuckled at his co-host. “All right, calm down,” Reed said. “You can take your Blood Racer, but my money is on Audra and her ship, the
Mistress
, which is a mighty fine piece of machinery, I must say.”
              “On that, we can agree,” Lex spouted. “Oh, we’re getting the signal, now. The Archons have started the official countdown. Here we go, folks! Ten seconds!”
              I blinked repeatedly and swallowed loudly, feeling my pulse begin to rise again. It was then that I noticed the roar of the crowd that had massed on the Rainier docks. I could hear them even through my sealed cabin. So many people had gathered to watch the start of the race. They were all watching, cheering, rooting for their favorite contestant. There was a mountain of pressure that was suddenly upon me, and I felt cold all over.
              “Five seconds!” came Lex’s voice.
              I checked my floorboards to make sure I had my star chart and first clue. They were still there. Was I really doing this?
              “Three!” Lex shouted into the microphone. “Two! One! GO!”
              The air of Rainier exploded.
              The crowd reached a fever pitch as engines on every cradle were fired to life. I had never heard such a rumbling in all my days. It was a storm made from machines, sputtering and revving louder than any thunderclap. As I was flipping on my VTOL turbines, several people were already jetting into the sky, jumping out into an early lead. Seeing them take off like that made me feel as though I were already a thousand miles behind, which put me in an immediate panic.
              Growling and thinking rashly, I switched off my rear turbine and powered up the two on my front, listening to them roaring loudly behind me. Tensing my muscles, I felt my body pull against my harness as the two front turbines flipped the front end of my ship up and backward, propelling me off of the cradle in a backflip maneuver that seemed to amaze Lex and Reed.
              “Did you see that?” Lex was screaming. “Elana Silver! Incredible! Amazing”
              As I was plummeting straight down, I hit the ignition to my main engine and killed the turbines, pulling hard against the yoke to right my ship and gain some altitude. At once, I regretted this decision.
              The air was practically solid. A fleet of ships, hammered and welded into all shapes and sizes, was barreling out of the Rainier docks, blazing along like a manned supercell cloud. Ships were all around me, wings, pontoons, and propellers all nudging into one another. The swarm was practically skimming my wings and tail. I was in so deep that I could see the individual rivets of the clunker in front of me. This was too much. I needed to get out of the pack, but I couldn’t see in any direction. Was there anyone below me? As soon as this thought entered my mind, I heard the explosion come from high on my port side.
              I whipped my head toward the sound, eyes wide with horror as I saw the flaming wreckage of two mangled ships heading straight for me. In my ear, Lex was screaming again.
              “Nance and Kimble collide!” he bellowed. “They’re falling straight for several others!”
              Screaming in panic, I shoved the stick forward and dove almost straight down, wincing at the brightness of the flames as the wrecked ships plowed into the vessel that had been right on my starboard wing.
              “Now Graves is hit!” Reed observed. “Oh, no. Three ships down already. Oh, Graves launched his pontoons! He’s holding just above the Veil. We’ll get a rescue out there and get him.”
              Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was glad that Graves, whoever he was, was going to survive. The race had already claimed two lives and it was only ninety seconds old. Focusing once more on my flying, I continued my descent, dodging wings and pontoons as I went lower. The air was much clearer down here. The Veil was just beneath me as I leveled off, but I was out of the chaos from above.
            “That pack is dangerous, Lex,” Reed mused. “Several of them are adjusting altitude to avoid collisions. The
Amber Sphinx
is headed up. That’s Grace Buchannon, I believe.”
            “You’re correct,” Lex chimed in. “She’s joined by
Foxfire
, which is piloted by Darby Quinn from Ravencog.”
            “There’s plenty of them dropping low, too,” Reed pointed out. “Elana Silver and the
Cloud Kicker
, there’s Audra Carina and the
Mistress
…and who’s that just behind them?”
            Lex cleared his throat. “That’s the
Alpha Red
, piloted by a greenhorn named Rigel Campbell.”
           My head whipped around so fast that my neck popped. Rigel was here? In the race? That was impossible! He didn’t have a ship, nor did he have the money saved away to buy one. At least not one fit for racing. I bounced my cheekbone off the port side of my windscreen as I continued swiveling my head around to look for him. Where was he? According to Lex and Reed, he was behind me. Deciding that I wasn’t going to get a glimpse of him in my current spot, I lowered my throttle, slowing my pace for a few seconds and allowing the ship behind me to catch up. Once it had drawn even, I punched up my speed again to keep pace with it.
           I looked over at the
Alpha Red
. Sure enough, there in the bubble cockpit, looking over at me with wide eyes, was Rigel. He looked almost like he was afraid of me, like a youngster caught stealing berries from the ice box. It probably had something to do with the look of confused anger that was currently contorting my face. This was why I couldn’t find him at the docks in Adams. He had already been on the starting line. Was that what that envelope was that he had left for Toby? Some sort of apology, or explanation?
           As I thought of it, I realized that I no longer had his letter. What had I done with it? It was somewhere around, but I had other things on my mind at that moment. I cast my eyes back over toward Rigel, still trying to absorb what I was seeing.
           His ship itself was of fairly simple design. It was shaped like a wedge, with the nose being the point. On the sides were what looked like wings, metal framework overlaid with fabric, but they were folded tightly against the fuselage. They looked to be adjustable, and must have served to direct airflow over or around the ship. On the bottom of the hull, there were two skids, like large, metallic skis, fixed in place. Of course, fitting with its name, the entire thing was painted in varying shades of red, some of which looked like nothing more than rust.
           As I looked over at him, Rigel adjusted his facial expression and gave me a wry smile, as if trying to ease my anger. I wanted to badly to click on my microphone and scream obscenities at him. Sadly, I couldn’t. I knew that radio contact between racers was against the rules, and I didn’t want to be disqualified. Aside from that, what
would
I say to him? That he shouldn’t have entered? That he was risking his life for a stupid reason? It wouldn’t mean anything coming from someone who had literally done the exact same thing. After all my talk about hating the race, here I was…racing. I was now the biggest hypocrite I knew. Deciding that I couldn’t focus on Rigel at the moment, I powered up my throttle as far as it would go and went back to observing the other ships around me.
           My descent - and my moment of shock with Rigel - had put me a few seconds behind. Above me, I could see the mass of ships beginning to separate and thin out. Several people were jetting off in different directions, which confused me.
              “I imagine the contestants are reading their starting clue right about now, trying to discern which direction to head in,” Reed was droning in my ear. I was glad he had said such a thing, though. I had already forgotten about the clue I had been given. Reaching down, I picked it up and tore open the envelope, pulling out the small sliver of paper that was inside. I braced my knees against the yoke to keep my ship steady as I read the clue out loud.
              “A bushel would take all day to collect, but a bucket is all you need. Gather them fast, try not be last, for some will trade clues for these seeds.”
              I looked down at the piece of rough paper in my fingers, reading it over a second time before staring blankly out my windscreen.
              “What the hell does
that
mean?” I shouted angrily to the clouds. Suddenly feeling my panic return, I read the clue a third time, hoping it would somehow make sense to me. All I could glean from it was that I was supposed to gather some kind of seeds. A bucket of them, to be exact.
             Perfect. Just perfect. I had entered the race only to be stumped by the very first clue. Was it too late to turn back? What was I thinking, joining this stupid race? I hated to admit it, but I was in over my head. I had no food or water on board, no idea where to go, but if I went back, the entire crowd would think me a coward. Or an imbecile. Did I really care, though? I sighed. As much as it sickened me, the answer was “yes”. I did care. Where was I supposed to fly, though? I had no heading. The only thing I could do was try and see where everyone else was going. That seemed to be my only option.
              As I hunched forward to stare up at the majority of the ships that were still at higher altitude, I noticed even more of a dispersion. People were heading off in all kinds of directions. Which one was the right one? If I guessed wrong, that would pretty much spell the end. I would be lost, and too far behind to catch up. Suddenly, however, a flash of genius struck me.
              “Audra,” I said to myself. Yes. If anyone was going to be heading in the right direction, it would be her. She was smart and calculating, and she had been through all of this before. She won the last race, after all.
              I pulled back on the stick gently, slowly rising beneath the mass of ships. It only took me a moment to spot the silvery glint of her polished hull. The
Mistress
was jetting off to the southeast, leaving twin trails of white smoke as she burned her thrusters. Not wanting to lose sight of her, I stomped on my own thruster valve, firing my hydros and relishing the jolt that went through my ship. Underneath the masses, I blazed a trail of my own, making sure to keep the
Mistress
in the center of my windscreen. As long as I was following Audra Carina, I knew I was going the right way. Once I had pulled within a few clicks of her, I switched off my thrusters and continued on just my engine.
              After a few minutes of staring at her shining outline in the sky, I was able to calm down a bit. The feeling began to return to my fingers and toes, and I was no longer feeling cold all over. My adrenaline was wearing off, and I was suddenly feeling sort of drained. I was also hungry, and I was really hating myself for not thinking to bring any provisions.
              In my ears, Lex and Reed were swapping racer stats, speaking in normal voices now that the roar of the crowd had died down. Of course, only a minute had passed before my name came up once again.
              “I’m telling you,” Lex said adamantly. “That Elana Silver. Did you see the way she took off from that cradle?”
              “I sure did, Lex. Impressive.”
              “It was outstanding!” Lex exclaimed. “Only seventeen years old and she’s got the chops of a seasoned veteran. I’m pulling for her to win this thing.”
              “I’m gonna have to disagree with you there,” Reed interjected. “My money is on Audra Carina. I can’t even recall the last time we had a winner return to compete again. I actually had the chance to interview her for a minute before the race. Do you know what she said to me?”
              “What did she say, Reed?”
              “She said ‘Anyone can win, but you’re not a true champion until you defend your title…and win again’.”
              “She said that?”
              “She sure did, Lex,” Reed said. “She’s out to cement her place in Dominion history. She wants to become a legend, and if you ask me, I don’t think anyone’s gonna be able to stop her out there.”
              “Well, we will find out in a couple of days, I guess,” Lex relented. “Elana, if you’re listening to this, I’m behind you, girl. There’s a lot of people betting on you. You can do it, Blood Racer!”