Tricked Into Flight

Chapter 11

*Rakota's POV*

Once I was above the valley, I angled to the north. My sharp eyes scanned the ground as I cast a mage-sensing spell. The spells on the valley behind me glowed so brightly it wasn't possible to sense anything else, which was to be expected so close to them. Resigning myself to a long search and a lot of wasted magic, I kept flying to the area I had been assigned.

I made sure to remain within sight of at least two of the other dragons in case I needed to call them or they found the mages. No clouds currently hindered my view, so as long as I could see their distant silhouettes, that would be sufficient for my communication spells. My gaze returned to the ground as I cast the mage-power detection spell on the forest below again.

"Anything?" Serepha asked, her voice distant but clear as her magic brought her words to my ears.

I scanned the horizon until I saw her lithe form flitting through the sky and used the communication spell to reply, "Nothing yet, but I'm getting a lot of interference from the spells over the valley."

"Me too, but it won't be long before we're far enough away that they shouldn't cause too many difficulties."

We fell silent as we continued scouring the ground for any hint of mage power. It soon became boring. I was tempted to restart my discussion with Serepha, but I preferred to talk with her in person instead of over such a long distance. The only other dragon I could see was Andar, but he was the kind who couldn't cast while talking.

Well, there was one other option.

I glanced back at the human, who was absently gazing at the view with a more peaceful expression than what I'd seen so far. I used a touch of magic to let her hear my voice above the wind whistling past us and used the eavesdropping spell to hear her reply.

"What did you talk about with Randel?"

She jumped and looked at me with wide eyes, before promptly lowering her gaze. "Uh, we didn't talk for long. He seems to like talking about food."

I snorted. "Well, that's one way to put it. I think most of your conversation revolved around food, although he was doing all the talking. Have you ever entered a castle?"

"No, they don't let many people in, although I've never tried." She shrugged. "I guess I'm not a fan of crowds. I prefer small villages." Her gaze strayed momentarily to the ground below.

If she thought I was going to take the hint to drop her off at the village we were flying past, she was mistaken. Not while the magedebt lay like a shadow under my magic. But I was mildly impressed at how subtle the suggestion had been.

The distraction was welcome since my previous boredom was turning into frustration. I gave the village a hard stare as I cast the mage-power-sensing spell down. It bounced back without results, but there was a faint humming I couldn't quite track or pinpoint, like some powerful spell or shielded magic source was in the vicinity.

When I cast the spell again, the ringing was still present, as it had been for a while, but I couldn't seem to home in on it. Just to double-check, I cast spell-sensing and dozens of small spells in the village echoed back. Rat-repellers, anti-molding, lie-detecting, and various others all echoed back, but none had been cast within the last month, so there was no active magic worker present.

We were past the village now, and I aimed the spell at the forest ahead, yet the humming was still present and just as faint as before. With a frown, I kept going and put more power behind my next spell, casting it over another village we were approaching. The humming was slightly louder but still untrackable.

I scanned the horizon until I spotted Serepha. "Are your spells picking up any weird humming?"

"They were earlier. It kind of felt like a shielded mage stone. Could the mages have hidden some in the area in case they were needed?"