Tricked Into Flight

Chapter 43

*Rakota's POV*

I remained on the ledge beside Katerina, who was having more difficulty coming to terms with the unexpected promotion than I had expected. Discovering she was a Wellspring had been a complete surprise for me, and having her hidden abilities come to light was probably a big part of her internal dilemma.

The magedebt was completely gone, and the magic continued to flow into me, albeit more slowly now. I absently cast another fire-extinguishing spell as a spark hit the woodpile below. The spell didn't even touch the staggering amount of magic currently at my disposal. It took humans a lot of magic to cast a spell, whereas dragon magics were far more efficient, honed by millennia of heavy usage when we didn't generate much on our own.

The other dragons might not have sensed her abilities before, but with the sheer amount of magic still streaming into my reserves, they'd notice almost immediately now. Her secret wouldn't remain a secret for long, but I hadn't lied when I said it was difficult to track down Wellsprings.

It often required direct contact if they had their shields up, and even then, they could evade detection. She probably wasn't the only one carrying an amulet with a spell so shoddy it created tiny flares to cover up anything that might leak past their protections.

Serepha had undoubtedly heard our conversation but remained silent while Katerina and I grew accustomed to the bond. I wasn't sure how much the human could sense, but if I focused on the bond, I could dimly make out her primary emotions, which were currently confusion and dismay. Diondin said most riders could only tell which direction their bonded dragon was in, but I wasn't sure if that held true for Wellsprings or not.

I kept an eye on her while letting her sort out her thoughts. She wasn't throwing a fit yet, although I expected some sort of backlash eventually. Diondin and Andar both warned me that it could take more than a few weeks for her to accept the bond if she was tricked into it.

Now that I knew she was a Wellspring, I was prepared to be doubly patient. It wouldn't be easy, but I was sure it would pay off. I didn't remember much about my mother's rider, but I did recall that trying to force her to do something rarely worked well. But if you put forward an idea, let her think about it, then gave her some incentive, she usually did it cheerfully.

I just had to think of some good incentives or something she wanted. Visiting her relatives semi-regularly wouldn't work since she was currently worried about me or others tracking them down. There had to be something that would interest her. I just needed to come up with some plausible ideas.

Kat rose to her feet and walked toward the ramp without saying anything. This was the first time I'd seen her give someone the cold shoulder, but it was almost identical to what my mother's rider had done when she got really upset. Assuming human females behaved similarly, I expected her to start venting her anger or scolding me in a couple of hours.

That would be difficult to tolerate, but it was common with new riders trying to adjust, and I had known she wasn't a complete pushover. Her options to lash out were quite limited and were pretty much restricted to words. She wasn't capable of physically harming me, and the magic laws around the rider bond would draw her back if she tried to run away. She might not be a servant running away from a cruel master, but her fairly easy-going nature and lack of goals would make the transition to a rider smoother. 

Ignoring Randel, who had quite the fire going, Kat kept walking until she was closer to the trees. She pulled out her bow, fired an arrow at a large tree, went to fetch the wayward object, then returned to her previous spot to try again.

"Don't bother her," I quietly told Randel, using magic so only he'd hear my words.

I didn't need him blundering in and causing a fight. He glanced at her stiff posture and tight lips and turned his attention back to the fire without a comment. I checked the bond again, noticing that the confusion had mostly disappeared and was replaced with worry, frustration, and traces of simmering rage and despair.

The frustration and anger I had fully expected, but the despair was harder to understand. She was a rider now and had the full privileges and protections that came with that position. It wasn't like I was locking her in a dungeon, so why did she feel traces of hopelessness and being trapped? Yes, I had tricked her into the bond, but she had truly been ready to help me. She just hadn't realized quite what that entailed.

I regarded her as she fired the bow again. The swirling emotions shifted with her thoughts. It was surprisingly easy to tell when she was worried about her relatives and when she was objecting to the rider bond and all the changes that came with that.

The despair only appeared when the worry and guilt set in, so it was tied to her magical ability. Or rather, that she had been discovered, and given her comments, she was scared her relatives were now in danger – some of whom were undoubtedly also Wellsprings.

Considering how widely her relatives were scattered, it was a small miracle no mage had discovered them yet, and their magic was a valuable resource. Kat was right about one thing; all it would take was one wayward whisper or one close brush with an observant mage for them to be discovered. If only there was some way to protect them before word got loose or possibly even convince some to share their magic with dragonkin. 

Having them all become riders wasn't an option. Dragons lived for centuries, and we only ever had one rider, so we were very finicky about who got that extreme honor and when – assuming we even wanted one. Some had already cast that spell, which increasingly narrowed down the handful who might currently be considering it. I mulled over the limited information while Kat continued trying to hit a ball of grass she'd hung on a tree trunk.

As the hours passed, Kat's silent fuming gradually faded into worry and a faint sense of hopelessness. Frustration occasionally rose, although it lasted shorter and shorter durations as she mentally wore herself out.

When I was younger, my mother had told me that if humans fretted over something, they often needed to speak their mind to finish cooling down. It was time to give Kat a nudge and an opening before this dragged on too much longer. Andar had passed by in the distance a few times, only to be warned off by Serepha, but he would grow impatient before too much longer.

I was also getting tired of waiting. In theory, I had known the bond would react if a rider was upset, but I hadn't realized it was as persistent as a fly buzzing in my ear. I was beginning to see why dragons often catered to their riders so much, going far beyond the basic necessities.

Someone like Randel was easily satisfied with food, but Kat was going to need a different approach. There had been plenty of time for me to come up with ideas. Now I just had to see if I understood her concerns and motivations as well as I thought I did.