The others were pleading with Naue to turn around, but that only seemed to make the arrogant wind more determined to go on in the same direction.
Leech unfolded his legs cautiously, but Bayang was too distracted to notice. He still wasn’t sure how much he could trust her. She’d told him that the original Leech—he didn’t know how many lives ago that was—had killed a dragon prince and made a belt out of his hide and the dragons had never forgotten. Bayang had been hunting him down in all the lives after that.
He and Bayang had tried to form their own separate peace and had even fought side by side against common enemies. But she was still as arrogant as ever and kept limiting what he could do with his magical devices.
Stupid, she wants to keep you weak and helpless. She was trying to kill you when you first met. Though she says she’s changed her mind and swears she won’t, she’s having second thoughts. The whisper came from the back of his mind, from memories lost in shadow. He thought he’d heard it in that cellar in Honolulu when they had been following Roland and Badik to an island. He had no idea what the voice was, but he wished he could get rid of it. The best he seemed to be able to do was shove it back into the shadows and try to ignore it.
He shoved those notions away as quickly as they had come. No, not Bayang, he told himself. She was as dedicated to protecting his life now as she had once been determined to take it. She’s…she’s just being overprotective.
Oh yeah? the voice taunted. Then show her you can handle yourself. When you leave the wing, crouch real low. You’ll slice through the air like a knife.
Leech wouldn’t mind proving to Bayang that she was wrong about him. His friend Primo had always been telling him to have more confidence in himself. Leech felt a little twinge when he thought about Primo. He’d died in the museum with Scirye’s sister, Nishke, trying to keep the ring from being stolen.
But this was no time to sit and mourn. As Leech began to hunch over, Koko glanced at him.
“Hey, where are you going?” the badger asked.
“I’m going to borrow a page from Bayang and Scirye’s book on how to handle a windbag.” As he rose within the frame, he called to the wind, “Great Naue, I dare you to race me now.”
“Ho, Half Lumpling?” Naue said. Since Bayang and Leech could fly on their own, they’d been elevated to the status of half lumplings. “Yet another challenge? Didn’t you see? A speeding arrow could not match Naue. How can you?”
“Scared?” Leech taunted.
“Come back!” Bayang shouted.
He ignored them, rising above the fragile-looking straw frame. He intended to turn Naue in the direction that Roland had gone. That way, they could resume the chase. However, as soon as Leech cleared the straw frame, Naue’s powerful air currents caught him and he began to tumble backward like a rag doll, like a kite, like a leaf.
As he fell head over heels, he thought ruefully that Bayang had been right after all. The lower profile did not let him manage the force of Naue.
He didn’t know which would be worse: her gloating or his breaking his neck.