“You mean you actually fight air-to-air combat on those things?”
“Yes.”
Gilligan whistled. “That must be something to see. I imagine your tactics
aren’t anything like ours.”
“Well,” Karin said slowly, “there are many things to consider. In general,
the rider who starts with the best position will win. That usually means
diving on your enemy from above with the sun at your back. But of course
there are many other things you must consider. Relative strength, level of
training.”
“It’s the same with us,” Gilligan told her. “If we get in close we try to
have the advantage in height and position. Diving out of the sun is a
favorite tactic.”
“We do that also,” Karin said.
“Do you break off after one pass?”
“We might. It depends on numbers and your dragon’s fighting potential.
Some dragons, like Stigi, are very strong and fierce. In a melee I would
have a considerable advantage.” She paused and frowned. “Still, there are
a great many things which can happen in such a situation. Diving on an
enemy and past him is surer.”
“Have you ever been in a dog fight?”
“Crave pardon?”
“That’s what we call short-range air-to-air combat. Dog fights.”
Karin considered. “I see. Yes, the expression is somewhat apt. But no, I
have never been in battle of any sort.”
She hesitated for a minute. “Mick, may I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Are you bonded to another?”
Mick looked up from the fire. “I beg your pardon?”
“Bonded? I do not know your customs, but do you have a life companion, a
mate?”
“We get married,” Gilligan told her. “I was. Not any more.”
“Your wife died? I am sorry.”
“No, we’re divorced-that means we ended the marriage.”
Karin grew solemn. “Among us that is not a thing done easily.”
“It isn’t easy with us either,” Gilligan said, thinking of the lawyers,
the interminable conferences, the constant phone calls and the months of
aching, gaping hurt.
“Forgive me for asking, but how did your wife displease you?”
Gilligan smiled mirthlessly into the campfire. “She didn’t displease me. I
displeased her. I think. Or maybe we just displeased each other. Anyway,
she had her choice of rotating to Alaska with me or leaving me, so she
left.” He snapped the twig and threw it into the fire.
“Look, it was nobody’s fault. Okay? It’s just that I’m a pilot and an Air
Force officer and she couldn’t handle that.”
For a while neither of them said anything. “I understand, somewhat,” Karin
said slowly. She sighed. “I was to be married once, while I was in
training. But Johan wanted me to give up flying. I could not do that.”
The fire turned the pale skin of her cheeks ruddy and painted reddish
highlights into her blonde hair.
“I couldn’t either. God knows I loved Sandi, but I just couldn’t give it
up.”
Karin looked up at him and smiled slightly. “We are two of a kind then.”
“Guess so,” Gilligan agreed.
They sat by the fire for a while in companionable silence.
The next morning Karin took Stigi out into the open and carefully
exercised him. She was frowning when she led him back into camp.
“How’s the wing?” Mick asked, seeing her expression.
“Not good. It is healing, but only slowly. It may be another half-moon
before Stigi is strong enough to bear us away.”
“Is it infected or something?”
“Nothing like that. It is simply taking more time than it should to heal.
If I did not know better I would think he was not properly fed.” She
sighed. “As it is, I suspect it is simply the nature of this place. It is
harder for dragons to stay aloft here, you know.”
“I hadn’t noticed.”
She led Stigi back to his resting place and spent the next hour or so
grooming him and talking to him. To Mick, lounging under the overhang, the
sight was remarkable. Beauty and the Beast, he thought.
Karin was still frowning when she left Stigi and came to sit beside him in
the shade.
“Something else wrong with Stigi?”
“No. Nothing like that.” She dropped down beside him.
“What then?”
Karin bit her lip. “Mick, there is something else you should know. After