Tricked Into Flight

Chapter 27

*Rakota's POV*

Diondin and I glided in a figure-eight pattern just above the trees while we waited for the two humans to be the only ones on the road.

"The horseback rider is almost out of sight," Diondin commented, keeping me informed since I had no way of seeing what was happening without casting a scrying ward, and such a thing could tip off a mage if one was hidden in the area.

"Those mages better not be hiding in the city," I muttered.

"Like Victorya said, they probably won't take those pre-charged runes into the city. There are too many mages around, and someone would notice."

I hoped he was right. The mages had somehow shielded them from my senses when they ambushed me by the lake, so they might be capable of sneaking into the city undetected. Time would tell.

"Is the road empty yet?" I grumbled impatiently. I knew humans were slow, but this was beginning to really highlight the differences between wings and two feet. No wonder Diondin hadn't been in a hurry to take off when they left the village.

"Now it is." He banked to the side to appear above the road, easily dropping straight down. I quickly followed and discovered he'd landed right in front of the humans.

I landed on the other side. "Are you sure the mages went north, and it wasn't just a lie?"

"She seemed genuine, and no one else said anything that made me think differently," Katerina said.

"Let's get out of here before someone shows up," I said as I crouched down.

She quickly climbed up and began fastening the harness straps. When she was done, she glanced at Brandon, then back at her harness, and back at his as confusion appeared on her face. I compared the two harnesses, both of which were the standard type. I didn't see any difference between them, other than his straps being a slightly darker color to match Diondin's harness.

The straps could only be arranged one way except for... Then I spotted it. Brandon had put the shoulder straps on top of the secondary straps instead of sliding them underneath. The exact thing I had told her not to do on her first flight. Such a detail didn't matter with how the harness straps were connected, but she had remembered and noticed the difference.

Instead of giving her time to figure out how to ask questions, I said, "Hang on. We'll take you to the next village."

I took off and once more skimmed the trees without gaining height since it would only be minutes before we had to land. The short flight would have taken the humans hours on foot.

Ahead, I could already see Andar landing among the trees. The village down the road was half the size of the last one, about the size of the mining village. Hopefully, it wouldn't take the humans long to check this one.

Slowing my flight, I confirmed there was room for me to land beside Andar. Randel was already on the ground, although the coil of rope was now secured to the saddle. As soon as my feet were on the ground and my wings were folded, Andar took flight so Diondin could land. Katerina was already undoing the straps, casting a second glance at Brandon's harness setup.

The humans quickly slipped to the ground and began walking through the trees.

"Can I pretend to be a trader again?" Randel asked with more excitement than he usually expressed.

"That wasn't really pretending," Katerina told him. "You did a good job last time. We just have to think of what you can trade for."

As they began discussing their plans, Diondin and I took off and kept low as we regrouped with the others some distance from the village. None of the clearings around here were large enough to hold seven dragons, so Victorya, Qwest, and Grandel opted to wait in other smaller clearings while Andar, Diondin, Serepha, and I gathered in the largest one we could find.

Diondin and Andar promptly settled down with their eyes half closed as they opened the bond between them and their rider. Even though I knew they were using special spells to let them hear and see what their rider did, I couldn't sense the magic. Like our flight magics, it was more of a magical ability than a true spell and something only possible with one's rider.

It also meant that being a spectator was extremely boring. Resigning myself to a long wait, I curled up and forced myself to relax. Serepha laid down nearby, also keeping an eye on the other two. It would take a while for the humans to reach the village and start digging for information.

At that point, Andar and Diondin would occasionally tell us bits of news to keep boredom at bay. Most of the time it was about what their rider was doing or if they heard something interesting, but sometimes it was tidbits like Katerina feeding the riders without asking for anything in return.

Her sacrificial giving had actually been creating some magedebt for Andar and Diondin, although they hadn't figured out the cause until then, and it hadn't accumulated to anything that might impact their magic down the road. Brandon buying her flour had remedied that, although he'd done so without knowing about the magedebt.

I regarded the magedebt lurking under my own magic. It was getting heavier and darker as time went by since the debt wasn't being repaid. I wasn't doing anything to reduce it, apart from basic things like providing firewood, so it was progressing faster than I had anticipated.

In fact, forcing her to help us search for the mages was amplifying it, and the numerous short flights weren't having any impact since they were all my idea. But it was a temporary price I was willing to shoulder; Andar and Diondin both said the villagers and sellers spoke to her much more freely than to their riders.

Andar had simply stated that Randel was Randel, so he didn't expect much from him in a village setting. Had they been in a court or around nobility, Randel would have been in his element. According to Diondin, Brandon was doing well, but was also struggling in the remote villages even though he normally passed seamlessly through larger marketplaces. It was like the merchants could sense something slightly different about the riders and weren't as forthcoming with information.

"Are they at the village yet?" I quietly asked.

"They just left the forest and reached the road," Diondin replied patiently.

I huffed and shook my head, wondering if there was time for a nap before they reached the village.