And here was one landing in Raven’s Mill. Apparently with the purpose of flying them down to the sea. And then accompanying the expedition to the Isles.
“You have got to be joking,” Daneh repeated for him. She was still puffing from the trip up the hill and now looked at their “rides” with total befuddlement. “Tell me we’re not riding those down to Newfell.”
“Okay, I won’t,” Edmund said, chuckling. “But you might want to start climbing on.”
“Cool,” Rachel said, then looked more closely at the True dragon. “Excuse me, Miss Dragon?”
“The name is Joanna,” the dragon said, lowering her head down to Rachel’s level. Despite a mouth full of very long teeth she had flexible lips and a mobile tongue that permitted quite clear speech. “Joanna Gramlich. Most humans have a hard time telling dragon sexes. How did you know?”
“We saw you at Marguerite’s birthday party,” Herzer interjected. “So you’re now part of the Freedom Coalition? That is wonderful to hear.”
“That is a long story,” the dragon replied acerbically. She had a fairly high-pitched voice that still rumbled. It was a tough trick. “I prefer to use the term ‘independent contractor.’ Duke Edmund prefers the term ‘mercenary.’ ”
“A mercenary dragon?” Rachel gasped. “Why?”
“Do you know how much food it takes to run this damned form?” the dragon said. “I was caught like this by the Fall. I got really tired of trying to catch my own food.”
“Joanna works for room and board and a fairly high salary, which she takes in gold and gems,” Edmund noted dryly.
“And don’t forget combat bonuses,” Joanna said.
“I won’t. But this is a diplomatic mission.”
“Sure. Like it’s going to stay that way with you around. Are we going to sit here jawing all day or are you ready to go? I can take two. I’d prefer the females; they look lighter. One of the wyvern riders can double up with the duke. I hope the big boy can stay on wyvern-back.”
“I don’t know,” Herzer temporized. “How do you control it?”
“Don’t try,” Joanna snapped. “It will follow me; it knows who the pack-momma is. Just strap in and hang on.”
Herzer hefted his bag and walked over to the wyvern, looking up at it askance. The body wasn’t much longer than a horse, but the giant legs bulked it to nearly twice the weight and three times the height. The “saddle” was a pad on the back, held in place by double straps running from the neck back to the legs; the wings attached all the way down the rest of the body. There were four reins that ran up to the beast’s head but Herzer knew darn well that he had no idea what they were for.
The skin of the body was smooth with small, pebbly scales like a lizard, and it was clear that the wyverns derived most of their genes from lizards. The wing skin, on the other hand, was almost scaleless and what could be seen seemed more like a bat’s. There wasn’t much to be seen of it because the way the wings folded and refolded, most of the open skin was folded under the flight bones.
The wyvern turned its short neck to the side and glared at him out of one baleful, and very human-looking, eye. After a moment it made a sound, something like a very large dove, which sounded either questioning or querulous. Or, probably, both. Or so it seemed to Herzer.
“Hi,” someone said, walking up behind him. It was one of the wyvern-riders, and Herzer started when he realized that it was a she. In their leather uniforms and helmet it was hard to distinguish sex at any sort of distance. “I’m Vickie. Let’s get you strapped up.”
“O-kay,” Herzer said. “Where do I put this?” he asked, holding up his bag. He’d packed one spare uniform and some light clothes including a bathing suit someone had dredged up in his size.
“Don’t ask Joanna, or you might not like the answer,” Vickie said with a smile. She took the bag and stepped nimbly up the wyvern’s legs to the top where she attached the bag just behind the saddle. The dragon made another questioning sound and shifted the leg she was standing on at which she slapped it on the side. “Shut up, Chance.”
“The way this works is you lie down on his back. Don’t try to sit up. It looks great in pictures and it works like shit in reality. See the slots on the side?”
“Yup,” Herzer replied. He’d been giving the harness a good look. “How do I handle the reins?”
“Like Joanna said, don’t,” Vickie replied. “I’ll hook them up, though. The top reins are for up, the bottom reins, which hook to your feet, are for down. Pull right with the top reins to go right, left reins to go left. Don’t try to do a stoop, you won’t like it.”
“What’s a stoop?”
“If you don’t know what it is, you don’t want to try it. Just hang on and don’t mess with the reins. Chauncey will follow us just fine as long as you don’t mess with anything.”
She waited as he climbed up the wyvern, then attached straps across his thighs. There were clear grab straps on the front but the only thing actually holding him on were the thigh straps. She finished by hooking the bottom reins onto his boots and pushing the top reins, which were one continuous circuit of leather, under his body.
“The worst part about riding dragon-back is learning to keep your legs still. You go and stretch and this bad boy is going to head for the ground like a falcon. Got it?”
“Got it,” Herzer said settling his body in the seat. He was glad he hadn’t brought his armor; it would have been very uncomfortable. “Is it Chance or Chauncey?” he asked.
“It’s Chauncey,” Vickie admitted. “I call him Chance for short.”
“What’s taking so long, Vickie?” Joanna bellowed and Herzer realized everyone else was already mounted. “You’re supposed to be mounting him up, not arranging a mounting!”
Vickie looked at him with a dyspeptic expression. “Gotta go.”
“See ya.” Herzer grinned, wriggling closer into the seat. “We’ll arrange the other some other time.”
Vickie chuckled and patted him on the butt as she climbed down.
“Thanks, but I don’t go both ways,” she said as she jumped nimbly to the ground.
“Pity,” Herzer muttered as he watched her mount her wyvern. As soon as she was on, Joanna spread her wings and with a massive blast of wind, lifted off the hill and swept down over the river.
Chauncey was apparently well trained because with a bound that caused Herzer’s neck to snap back he leapt forward and upward into the air, following the larger dragon. Immediately the air was filled with wings as the formation of dragons reached for the sky.
For a moment it was all that Herzer could do to control his vomit reaction. The combination of the height and the up and down motion of the wyvern as it got up air speed was sickening. But after that brief spasm he found himself caught up in the spectacular view. The dragons were making a curving climb to the right that carried them first out over the Shenan River, which glittered in the early morning light, then over the town of Raven’s Mill itself. Looking around he realized that they were already higher than Massan Mountain. As he thought that he grabbed the straps because the wyvern suddenly stopped flapping. For a moment he thought something had gone wrong but it was just a glide period as the formation turned towards the mountain across the river.
As they passed back over Raven’s Hill Herzer felt an upward motion that wasn’t from the dragon and realized that they had passed over a thermal. Apparently to take advantage of it the dragons began their slow wing-beats again and they rapidly gained height until they lost the thermal and ceased flapping. They crossed the river at a gentle glide and Herzer had to wonder where they were going. The ocean was to the east but they were going west.