#chassim

He tried hard to do as she commanded, but the weakness of his body betrayed him. He felt Chassim grip the back of his robe and push him forward. He caught at the strap on the dragon's chest. The man on the dragon clambered down the harness, clamped a grip on his bandaged wrist and dragged him up. He screamed in pain and scrabbled feebly with his feet, then his hands found leather and iron rings to grip. Chunks of the balcony were falling away as the dragon tore them free in her desperate bid to cling to the side of the tower. The rider dragged him up and held him before him on the dragon's back. Selden sagged forward, and then gripped tight as the dragon pushed off from the tower face. She swooped away from the structure as he screamed, "Chassim! No, go back, Tintaglia, fair queen! Chassim!"

"I… am… here!" Her voice was weak with terror.

He looked down. Chassim clung grimly to the rings of Tintaglia's harness, her garments whipping in the wind as the dragon fell suddenly away from the tower. He more saw than heard her wild scream as they plummeted together.

Then, with a sickening lurch, the fall became a glide. With a beat, beat, beat of Tintaglia's powerful wings, they slowly began to rise. Chassim, her teeth bared in a determined snarl, her hair a wild stream of glory around her face, climbed doggedly, ring by ring, until Selden's reaching hand closed over her wrist. Wisely, she did not trust his grip, but he could not let her go. Ring by ring, she came closer and then was hugging him as tightly as the man who held onto him. He twisted to see the rider and found himself looking upon an Elderling such as Selden had seen only in old tapestries.

"Sir, I thank you," he gasped. "Oh, Tintaglia, blue queen of the skies, most powerful and wisest of all dragons, I give you thanks."

"Little brother, I am always doomed to find you in the damnedest places," the rider said, and abruptly Selden knew that it was Reyn who clasped him so securely. "You look but two heartbeats this side of death," Reyn added.