Desperate to keep her magic hidden, Katerina goes to great lengths to avoid dragons and mages. When she gets cornered by evil mages, her only chance at escape involves freeing a trapped dragon.
* * *
Katerina's biggest fear i...
My knuckles were white from how hard I held onto the handle attached to the saddle. It wasn't because the flight was rough – to the contrary, it was smoother than a horse or even a wagon – but it was a long way down.
I'd never been higher off the ground than the city walls, so this was an unwelcome learning experience. The winds in the sky were also cold. Rakota ignored me, which made it easier to bear. My heart rate eventually slowed down as I realized how secure the harness straps were. I began looking around, trying to spot any landmarks or villages.
The view was spectacular.
No wonder nobles paid a fortune for a flight. I doubted any tower in the world would let people see the world spread out below them like this. From up here, I could see villages and roads with people so tiny they almost looked like ants. That only reminded me of how high up we were, and I swallowed hard, resolutely forcing myself to memorize their locations in case we landed nearby.
I wished I could pull my map out, but that would involve letting go of my handhold, and the wind would likely rip it from my grasp. Nothing looked familiar from up here, but most landmarks were roadside stone carvings or signs which I wouldn't be able to see from this distance.
Rakota glided through the skies at remarkable speeds, with the barest wingbeat keeping us aloft. The land we crossed in minutes would have taken hours on foot. It was a good thing I didn't have a specific destination because I had no idea where we were or where we were going.
I'd never heard of dragon outposts before, but dragons didn't go near human cities or villages often, so it made sense they would gather somewhere else. A shiver ran through me at the thought of being around more dragons. Rakota's earlier intense stare had terrified me into thinking he'd sensed my magic, but he'd just been checking the harness straps.
I wasn't sure how much longer my magic would evade detection. It was like rolling a set of dice over and over until both matched. A dragon might not be as cruel as the mages who had trapped Rakota, but I had no desire to be used as nothing more than a magic source, and I wanted to evade that fate as long as possible.
Rất tiếc! Hình ảnh này không tuân theo hướng dẫn nội dung. Để tiếp tục đăng tải, vui lòng xóa hoặc tải lên một hình ảnh khác.
*Rakota's POV*
Two dragons were relaxing on the stone peak as I began spiraling down. I recognized the purple one as Qwest and the orange as Victorya. Qwest did a double-take when he saw I had a passenger. He walked to the edge for a better look as I turned my flight into a dive.
The human let out an "Eep!" and held onto the saddle for dear life but didn't scream as we plummeted past the rockface. I flared my wings as we neared the ground, slowing our descent without magic.
I landed lightly and lay down, glancing back at the pale-looking human whose hair was escaping the hair tie and fanning out in all directions. "Off."
Her hands shook as she undid the harness and started to climb down. About halfway to the ground, her hands slipped, and she slid down my scales. With an annoyed huff, I used a touch of magic to slow her fall. She landed with a light bump, although the spell barely did anything to negate the magedebt.
