Three arduous hours in the saddle had left Lori’s shoulders aching. The sun dipped low, cloaking the sky in amber and indigo streaks. Nearly five o’clock, and the relentless focus was grinding her down.

  As she scanned the stormy skies, her eyes caught a sudden movement—a black bird ahead, struggling fiercely against the unforgiving wind. The bird was tossed about, wings flailing in a desperate bid for control. Its flight was erratic, each gust threatening to hurl it into oblivion. For an instant, she had hoped it was Wakiye, but it couldn’t be. It was just a crow, or a raven, lost in the storm.

  As they flew closer, the bird's struggle intensified. Lori could do nothing but watch helplessly as it was nearly thrown aside by a particularly violent gust. For a moment, it seemed the creature would be lost to the storm. But then, with a renewed burst of strength, it managed to right itself, continuing its desperate battle.

  Lori checked the pilot’s console, making a note of the compass heading, and when she looked forward it seemed the bird was heading right for them. The distance between them closed rapidly, the bird's erratic flight path now a direct collision course. Lori frowned, wondering why this bird, tossed around in the air, would be heading for them.

  “Oh, no,” Lori said aloud as she realized what the black bird could be. “You have got to be kidding me.” She whistled for Jangles to turn to port a few degrees until the black bird was directly ahead of them. Jangles realized the little black bird was their target, and looked back at his pilot with a brief, withering look.

  The black bird seemed to gather all its remaining energy and launched itself straight at Lori with the precision of a staggering drunkard. Lori barely had time to gasp before the bird crashed into her chest with a flurry of feathers. She flailed her arms, trying to fend off the unexpected assailant as the bird flapped wildly, as if equally startled by its choice of landing spot. Wings, feathers, and exasperated cries were all Lori could see or hear as the bird found its bearings.

  Jangles glanced back, curious and wondering what in the world was going on.

  In the midst of the chaos, Lori suddenly felt the bird's frenetic movements transform. The flurry of feathers gave way to the soft warmth of human skin, the bird morphing into a young woman, her slender arms and legs wrapped around Lori’s neck and waist in an unexpected embrace.

  The young woman was slender, her pale skin contrasting sharply with her short, jet-black hair. She wore a blouse, slacks, and boots, all in varying shades of purple. Her eyes were a striking curiosity with slightly red irises. She breathed heavily from the effort of her flight.

  She clung to Lori, sitting in the pilot’s lap, a sheepish grin spreading across her face. Her vibrant eyes sparkled with a mixture of amusement and relief. "Hi, Lori!" she greeted, her voice carrying a light, melodic tone despite the furious, heavy breathing.

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  Lori felt a mixture of surprise and frustration. “Selene? What are you doing up here?”

  Ford shouted over Lori’s shoulder. “Are you nuts? Why would you be flying in this storm?”

  Lori glanced back at her father, his face covered in a kerchief, and she could tell his face was red with anger even through the dusty flight goggles.

  “I am so sorry, Mr. Drake, but I had no choice!” Selene became very conscious of the manner in which she sat on Lori’s lap, but after a moment of fidgeting, found there was nothing to be done about it, so she settled for lowering her arms and steadying herself by resting her hands on the pilot’s console near her backside.

  Selene took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. "My father," she began, her voice urgent as she shouted over the wind, "he was extremely worried about the disturbances at Hakitaw. He couldn’t get a ride on a train or a thunderbird because the Crater Rim Run race is on at Craterton Forge. So, he decided he would take his balloon and use his sorcery to guide it there. But," she paused, her eyes filled with concern, "he’s become so airsick that he can’t concentrate at all, and he’s in danger. I had to find you and Jangles to help."

  Ford frowned deeply; his anger tempered by the gravity of the situation. "He’s in his balloon in this storm?" he growled in disbelief.

  “For God’s sake,” Lori shook her head. “Do you have any idea where he is?”

  Selene grinned. “No. I don’t even know where we are.”

  “How long have you been flying?”

  Selene kept that nervous grin on her face. “Since this morning?”

  “And when did you and Bing take off from Craterton Forge?”

  “Yesterday morning?”

  Lori hated the way Selene spoke as though she were always asking a question. “Any idea how far you traveled before the storm hit?”

  “Maybe a third of the way? Maybe halfway?”

  “Okay,” Lori sighed in frustration. “Look, you’re going to have to get off me. You’ll have to climb back behind Devin, and I’m not sure there’s enough room, but you’ll have to make do.”

  Selene agreed and cautiously disengaged herself from Lori and made the precarious crawl back. She hung onto Lori’s arm with a vice-like grip as she worked her way around Ford’s leg. Devin grabbed her arm and lifted her easily and she had no trouble settling in behind him. Lori always forgot how strong Devin was despite his small, pudgy stature.

  Lori looked at her folio, somewhat smushed by Selene’s bottom. She unfolded the tile map and tried to guess where Bing might be. Hakitaw was northwest of their position, and Craterton Forge lie nearly due north from there. The problem was that Lori had no idea how fast the balloon could travel, magic or no magic, storm or no storm. She traced her finger to the halfway point between the two cities. If the storm had started when the balloon was in that area, the counterclockwise turn of the storm could have driven Bing fifty miles or more east.

  Yet Selene had been travelling in this storm since this morning, and guessing by the way she had been flying, couldn’t have been traveling more than ten miles per hour. Lori put her finger on a spot that might have been eighty miles north by northwest of their current position. If he was here, and she was literally betting on it, that meant that either the storm wasn’t blowing as consistently as she thought, or, more likely, Bing didn’t have the slightest idea how to fly and had set out in the wrong direction to begin with. Bing was a powerful sorcerer, but he couldn’t find his way across the street let alone across the country.

  Lori marked the time and their speed on the map and signaled Jangles to turn starboard several degrees. She let the whistle drop and swore to herself that if Bing’s stupidity got her dragon killed, she would put a bullet in his head.