Rhiannon - Dragonrider

Chapter Thirty Five - The Gates of The Edify

As we took off from the quad, I guided Liberty up towards the Edifice for a bit because I didn't want people getting all suspicious. But as soon as we were out of sight, we circled round and headed back down towards the coast. As I guessed, Psion was snoozing in his cave.

"Wake up," I called down to him. "You've got a job to do. Come and fly."

"It's wet out there," he grumbled.

"I had noticed," I told him a bit sharply. "I've been out in it all night. Moving now, please. Something important's come up and I really need you."

Without another word, he uncurled and, moments later, he was flying at my side as we headed down the coast.

"Are you off somewhere, Young Mistress?" he inquired, when he saw my travel bundles.

"I'm going up to stay with Rhiannas until the quarter day."

"That's nice...do invite me over for tea when you're up there."

"Stop it, please," I said. I just wasn't in the mood for his whole humour thing. "Caronas managed to provoke Rhiannas into entering me in the Neophytes Gates Race... and making a terminal bet on the outcome."

Flippant Psion instantly evaporated to be replaced with my serious teacher, friend and servant. "To place above?" he asked

"To win."

"Oh dear! What did he think he was playing at?"

"I mean... it's the closest I've ever seen him to being apologetic about anything."

"I'm sure you'll find that a source of great consolation as he's reducing you to charcoal," he said, his voice becoming faster as the horror of the situation became clear.

"I was rather hoping to avoid the whole charcoal bit."

"I can imagine."

"And, of course, there's another problem."

"Well, naturally there is." Psion responded, almost hysterically. "Obviously, arranging for a transitor, who's only been flying for three months, to win the Neophytes Gates Race is not a sufficient challenge for a creature of my supreme abilities. Inform me, pray... what is this additional complication?"

"Carodoc knows about you, or at least he knows there is somebody."

"Of course he does. And you have understandable concerns that, should you prove victorious, he may choose to let the cat out of the bag in an attempt to save his own skin."

I gave a mental nod thing.

"It wouldn't work, of course," he added thoughtfully, "but he could well succeed in having you combusted too."

He went quiet for a bit and I could tell his mind was racing. "Whilst I have every confidence in your ability to emerge victorious from the race," he said at last, "there remains an alternative you may wish to consider. My capacities in the domain of concealment and illusion would permit us to remove ourselves unofficially from the island with minimal risk of detection."

I had to think about that one. Did I want to run away? Live with Psion and maybe, even Liberty, in secret.

"No!" I replied at last. It was almost an instinctive reaction rather than something I'd thought out. "I've still got jobs to do here. First I've got to win this race and then we've got to pay back the people responsible for my mother's murder."

We flew on for a while longer as Psion studied me in both domains. "You are truly your mother's daughter," he told me at last.

Then we carried on flying together for a while longer, both of us deep in our own thoughts and memories.