Fight or Flight

Chapter 29

Simon

I am rid of the Wellspring magic.

I paused as I looked at the coded words I had just written on the paper. I had never imagined I would say or write such a thing... but... it was true. All of my magic was gone now. Any new magic I generated flowed almost instantly to Enola over the rider bond. There was nothing left for a mage to detect. No danger of them suspecting I was their path to power. No chance of them learning about other Wellsprings through me. And even if somehow they did suspect something, and tried to capture me... they would have an enraged dragon to deal with. One with all the power of a Wellspring charging her already significant arsenal of spells.

For the first time in my life, I was safe.

I am now Enola's rider. I am able to confirm one last thing that Katerina wrote about – the rider bond has limits. There are some things I am physically unable to write about now. All I can say is that those details are largely unimportant to us, and are in place to protect the dragons.

The dragons pose no danger to us. We can take them at their word that they are safe to live among.

As a final note, I would suggest extreme caution before approaching any dragon about a rider bond. While it does offer us a significant advantage in that it will drain our magic, it is an extremely sensitive issue to them – again, for reasons the rider bond will not allow me to discuss. It is one thing if a dragon wishes to take a rider, but we should make sure not to pressure the dragons about taking us as a rider just for our own safety. That is certain to cause offense, and may even lead to the dragons rescinding their offer of a safe haven. Make sure everyone understands this.

That probably wasn't strictly true – the dragons weren't likely to turn down the chances Wellsprings presented for them, even if they were being nice about how they were going about it – but I could easily imagine just how many problems would be caused by frightened Wellsprings pestering dragons who had no interest in starting a family just yet. Better to scare them a little with something cryptic than to let them get into pointless fights with their new neighbors.

Our new neighbors?

I signed the letter and folded it up – these soldiers had a decent supply of pencils, and they had been more than willing to let me use one. They were grateful to Cess for his help with the bandits, and that had rubbed off on me once they had learned I had been involved in saving his life – and they had become even more welcoming on top of that when Captain Mason had arrived at the camp an hour or so ago. I was sure they would be happy to carry the letter along with some of their own dispatches, too, which saved me the cost of hiring a courier.

Not that money was likely to be a problem for me much longer.

A check of the still-unfamiliar rider bond told me that Enola hadn't moved from the last time I had checked. Which meant she was still at Cess' side. The blue dragon had passed out early on during the 'surgery', and the pink dragon had joined him as soon as Cess' wound had closed up, only taking the time to move to his uninjured side before sprawling beside him in sleep. It had been cute, actually – she had draped one wing over him, covering up the missing scales and still-tender skin, then curled her body around his.

I had led the healer and the soldiers out of the tent, cleaned up as best as I could without disturbing them, then left the couple together. Cess probably needed rest after what he had been through, and I was sure Enola could use some rest, too. And they would probably appreciate some privacy to discuss a few things in.

But that had been several hours ago. Cess might still need more rest, but I was pretty sure Enola would be hungry soon. And... we had a few things to discuss, too.