He managed to stay on his feet, and waved away the clouds of sand and dust his arrival had caused as Freefall was lowered more carefully.
A small crowd had already gathered in and around the rookery, including the other cadets in their squadron, some of the instructors, and a good number of the skybaxes.
He didn't see Romana anywhere, but Elwin and Kiyoshi were, as usual, right in the thick of it.
"Breathe deep," Kiyoshi said, slapping him on the back and making a face. "And take a bath."
"Nice to see you too," David retorted, but grinned. Having friends - real friends, and not just other people who didn't quite fit in - was a new thing. He liked it, though.
The litter touched the ground, and David quickly unfastened the straps securing Freefall. The skybax immediately stood up and hopped-shuffled onto the cliff proper, taking up a perch on an outcropping of rock.
The sky galley was freed from its moorings and drifted off to wherever it had been going in the first place, the crew waving and shouting good wishes at the crowd, who also started to drift away. The exciting part was over, and they all had work to do.
Kiyoshi ran a hand through his short hair and asked, "So what happened to Freefall?"
"I'm not sure, but now that we're back -" David never got to finish the sentence, because Freefall squawked and abruptly spread his wings, then jumped off of the perch and flew away into the maze of rock spires with no trouble whatsoever.
"Looks like he's going to live," Lorna observed.
David was not appeased. If anything, his frown deepened as he became more concerned. "That's so weird. He crashed. I was there."
"Maybe he was just faking it," Elwin offered up, shrugging.
"Yeah, but why?" Even as he asked the question, an answer rose to mind. Why would Freefall do that - fake an injury and strand the four of them out on a lonely mesa for an entire night?
Easy: For the same reason that Oonu had sent them to the edge of the desert.
Jesus Christ. His own skybax partner was plotting against him. And not just his - Stratus must have been in on it too.
He should've thought of it sooner, especially since Freefall had been clever enough to figure out that he'd gone into the World Beneath, and had in fact been waiting at the temple when they emerged. But there was that little thing of the skybaxes not talking with human voices, which made them seem less intelligent than they truly were. Obviously they were smart. And good actors to boot.David shook his head, amazed. It was a new experience, being manipulated by a pterosaur. It didn't feel any different than being manipulated by a human.
"Who can tell? Before I forget, Oonu wants to see you," Kiyoshi said, breaking him out of his thoughts. "And Romana too."
David looked around at Canyon City in general. "She's not here?"
"Galen said she was taking the long way back." Kiyoshi shrugged, unconcerned.
Elwin had obviously caught the alarmed note in David's voice, though, because he said, "She landed about twenty minutes ago and went straight to quarters. Don't worry so much."
David, who'd heard that one before, just sighed and ran a hand over his face. "Yeah, okay."
"We'll get her," Elwin said, pushing David towards the stairs. "Don't keep the man waiting!"
Oonu, it turned out, was waiting for him in the administrative offices, and when David got there, the instructor was going through a stack of documents with brisk precision. "Glad to see you intact, Cadet," Oonu said after the formal greetings.
"So am I, sir," he said, getting an idea in a flash of inspiration, and he added quickly, "Thanks to Romana."
Oonu lifted an eyebrow but didn't look up from the papers on his desk. "How so?"
"She saved my life, sir." He gave Oonu a brief account of the crash and his asthma attack, concluding with, "I wouldn'tve survived without her quick thinking."
"Indeed." The instructor finally set his pen down and met David's eyes. "Freefall?"
"Apparently back to full health, sir." And never in bad health to begin with. He wondered how he was ever going to explain that.
"Cadet Romana?"
"In her quarters, sir."
Oonu narrowed his eyes, and David got ready for the inevitable springing of a trap. He wasn't disappointed, either, because the next thing Oonu said was, "I trust you and Romana will both be ready to return to the squadron in two days' time. As wingmates."
"I sure hope so." Seeing the not-quite-happy look that response brought, David hastily tacked on, "I mean, I'm still not back to full health. Because of the attack. And the crash. I'm still pretty bruised from the crash. Sir."
"Three days," Oonu said, unimpressed. "Please send Cadet Romana to me as soon as possible."
If there was a God, and He was merciful, Romana would arrive to talk with Oonu without David doing anything. Knowing the problem had given him a chance to fix it, and he was pretty sure he had - but he didn't want to muck things up further before she found out. "Yes sir."
And one dismissal later, David was picking his way along the cliff path that lead back to his quarters. All issues with troublesome partners aside, there were exactly three things he wanted to do: get a real meal, get a bath, and go to sleep. In no particular order.
He wound up opting for the bath first and the sleep last, and was returning from the mess when he ran into Romana. Or, more accurately, she found him. "Romana," he said, his smile fading in the light of her furious expression. "What's going on?"
"Did you tell him that?" she demanded, not appearing to have even heard him.
"Tell who?"
"Did you," she asked again, pronouncing each word with the careful enunciation of someone who was a hair's breadth away from being angry enough to kill, "tell Oonu that I saved your life?"
"Yes," he said, frowning back at her and beginning to feel defensive. "Because you did."
Something dark and dangerous crackled in her eyes, and he realized that for all her poise and reserve, Romana was not a woman to cross. He should've known that her anger would be just as intense as everything else.
He made a mental note of the day's lessons: never forget how smart skybaxes are, and don't make Romana mad.
"Don't you dare patronize me," she said. "Don't you dare."
"I'm not patronizing you," he shot back. "I would've died and you know it."
"I told you this morning that I was afraid - And before evening-" She broke off, shaking her head. The storm in her eyes suddenly gave way to a sheen of moisture, and she turned her back to him. "I'm going to Sauropolis. I'll be back in three days. To rejoin the squadron or not."
That simple "or not" hit David more forcefully than any hysterical slap might have. To not rejoin meant leaving, and leaving the Corps meant forfeiting all privileges of riding skybaxes. He knew that part as well as anyone.
But he didn't know what to say to change her mind, or to make it better, and to be honest, he no longer wanted to do either of those things.
So he didn't say anything, and he walked away before she could.