Skyriders


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 VIKING
 An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, New York
 
 
 
 First published in the United States of America by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2023
 Copyright © 2023 by Polly Holyoke
 Frontispiece illustration copyright © 2023 by Brandon Dorman
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 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 Names: Holyoke, Polly, author.
 Title: Skyriders / Polly Holyoke.
 Description: New York : Viking, 2023.|Series: Skyriders ; book 1|Audience: Ages 8-12.| Audience: Grades 4-6.|Summary: When monsters emerge to attack the empire, it is up to twelve-year-old Kiesandra and her beloved winged horse N'Rah to prove to herself and the imperial army that she has what it takes to lead them to victory and survival.
 Identifiers: LCCN 2022027498|ISBN 9780593464410 (hardcover)| ISBN 9780593464434 (paperback)|ISBN 9780593464427 (ebook)
 Subjects: CYAC: Winged horses--Fiction.|Human-animal communication--Fiction.| Monsters--Fiction.|Friendship--Fiction.|Fantasy.|LCGFT: Fantasy fiction.|Novels.
 Classification: LCC PZ7.H7435 Sk 2023|DDC [Fic]--dc23
 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022027498
 Ebook ISBN 9780593464427
 Cover art © 2023 by Brandon Dorman
 Design by Lucia Baez, adapted for ebook by Andrew Wheatley
 This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
 The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
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 For my brave Sarah and Jessie, who fight the storms of injustice and dive into the challenge of helping others.
 I am so proud, and I love you both so much.
 
 
 
 
 Chapter One
 Junior Sky Courier Kie Torsun sighed in relief as she and her skysteed, N’Rah, shot out of the black rain clouds into the bright sunlight. She checked to make sure her mail packet and harness were still secure. Once again, they had survived a wild, gut-twisting flight through the mountains.
 “You were amazing back there,” she told N’Rah warmly and hugged his neck.
 A little weather just makes our day more interesting. How is our time? N’Rah asked. She heard his words clearly in her mind as wind ruffled his damp golden mane. His long wings swept up and down in the steady travel pace he could hold all day.
 Kie wiped raindrops from her flight goggles and pulled her timekeeper from its waterproof pouch. “We’re tight,” she admitted, her belly clenching. They couldn’t be late delivering an emergency dispatch.
 We can make it. N’Rah snorted and flew faster, his wings glinting gold in the sun.
 Trying to help, Kie hunched low against his neck. “If we rack up another on-time arrival, we’ll earn five silver dashins, which could pay for more of Uncle Dugs’s heart medicine. I’m afraid he’s been stretching it again.”
 He did look a bit gray when we left. N’Rah peered back at her, and she felt the concern in his mental voice. Her skysteed loved her stubborn old uncle almost as much as she did.
 The green foothills below slid past rapidly, and soon they reached the dusty yellow plains. The sun-seared air became so hot that Kie shrugged out of her flight jacket and tied it around her waist. Out of nowhere, a downdraft grabbed them.
 Hold on, N’Rah warned her as the air currents sucked them down. Kie clutched the dive strap across his withers. Instead of fighting the draft, N’Rah folded his wings and dove into it. They plummeted toward the yellow grass below like a kyr hawk swooping down on its prey. The ground came rushing at them. Kie’s whole body tensed. Would N’Rah be able to pull up in time? He soared out of the draft a hundred feet above the ground and used the extra momentum to speed them on their way.
 Kie let go of the breath she’d been holding. “You reckless horse,” she teased when her heart had slowed a little. “I just left my stomach five hundred feet above us somewhere.”
 N’Rah bucked playfully. I am NOT a horse.
 “I’ll remind you of that the next time I’m feeding you sweet oats and shoveling up your road apples.”
 I see N’Meary and Topar waiting for us to relay, N’Rah announced happily.
 Much like hawks and eagles, skysteeds had incredible distance vision. Before long, Kie spotted N’Meary’s white wings stroking the air as she hovered above the relay station. The stationmaster would be outside, ready to clock their time.
 “We’ll make it, two minutes ahead of schedule,” Kie announced with relief after she glanced at her timepiece again.
 They flew up beside Topar and his pretty palomino mare. “You look like a drowned rat,” he said with a grin. Because his mother was a Ledari from the Western Desert, Topar had brown skin and wore his black hair in a ponytail after the Ledari fashion. Unlike the Ledari, he had bright green eyes, which must have come from a mysterious father he never mentioned.
 “You’d look like a drowned rat, too, if you’d just flown through the mountains in a thunderstorm,” Kie said, bristling at the comparison.
 Topar’s smile vanished as he glanced back at the dark clouds shrouding the jagged peaks in the distance. “I’d never fly through a mountain thunderstorm. We’ll take the dust tornadoes and grytoc attacks on the plains and desert any day.”
 “Guess that’s why we fly the mountain