The Edda river stretched out miles into the horizon. The water glinted in the sun like millions of shining diamonds prickling through groves of trees and long plains of grass. In the far off distance the very edges of a mountain range could be seen, shrouded by blue sky and clouds of what seemed to be a distant storm. The river was dotted with trade ships that made their way back and forth between the many port towns that occupied the banks of the water below.

Akaysha dipped slightly in the sky as a strong gust of wind brushed over her wings. The other dragons around her flapped along, the sun shining off their respective coloured scales in a rather brilliant array of light. The villages down below looked up toward them, and Ragin could see some pointing and arm waving in their direction. To become a dragon rider was everyone's dream, and every child wished it with all their hearts. Even to see a dragon was a memorable sight.

'How are your wings?' Ragin asked his dragon as she pulled them in for another flap.

'A little tired. But not as bad as before.'

'That's good. Just don't push yourself.'

He felt her rumble of agreement through her neck as they continued to fly. They hadn't stayed too long in Hedarth. After the attempt at Ragin's life Arya had decided to forgo the planned two-three day rest stop and continue on to the mountains as quick as their dragon's wings could take them. All the riders had been a little surprised and disbelieving at his story, but after repeating it in the ancient language they had no choice but to believe him.

He suspected none of them really had realised the danger he was in. Ragin knew, or at least he had an idea at what Foeswarn was capable of. There were hundreds after his head currently, and it was only a matter of time before they caught up to him. Especially considering the oaths sworn in the ancient language to get him, no matter the cost. The hefty sum over his head also was a good persuasion for most bounty hunters. And he knew that unless he found somewhere to hide in relative safety he would never find peace from them.

It was a frustrating dilemma because he was now flying toward New Doru Araeba, and while being well fortified with thousands of wild dragons surrounding the mountains... everyone knew where it was. It would only be a matter of time before someone managed to make it through and threaten his life. He wouldn't be able to stay there, which meant he would have to figure out a way to get around the oaths they would undoubtedly force him to swear. But he had already thought of one way that may work.

'Ragin... is Mr. Foeswarn after you because of me?' asked Akaysha softly in his mind.

He was startled at the question, and was even more startled by the feeling of guilt from the dragon below him, 'Akaysha, this isn't your fault. It was just an unfortunate series of events is all. You can't be blamed for what has happened.'

'But still, the reason he is after you is because of me? Right?'

'The reason he is after me is because I stole you from him, and he considers you his property. Men like that don't easily forgive such trespassing, especially when it involves such a prized possession as a dragon. And I have a strong feeling that he was somewhat responsible for your ability to use magic so easily."

There was silence from Akaysha, 'Maybe. I don't really remember much of what happened after I hatched. The only reason I really remember the escape is because you do.'

'I know,' he placed a hand on her neck, lightly rubbing the scales, 'Just do tell me if anything sticks out at any point in the future.'

'I will.'

The two continued to exchange thoughts as they flew, passing time until the sun closed on the horizon and they settled down once again for the night. Another fire was made, and the riders set up their bedrolls under the wings of their dragons. Then, as morning arrived, they packed up and set off again.

Occasionally they would stay in place for a day, just to give the dragons some time to rest from the long flight. During those times Ragin found himself growing more comfortable around the others. They still didn't trust him. The only reason they gave him so much freedom was because of the oaths he had sworn in the ancient language, but they were respecting him a little more.

Every day they got a little closer to the mountains, and every day Ragin found himself growing more and more anxious about what awaited him when they finally arrived. He had spotted Arya with that mirror multiple times, talking to people on the other side. He had no doubt they knew about him by now. They knew who he was. Part of him wondered if he would live to see out the week. There were dragon riders there that hated the Black Hand far more than Eon and Brokk did. And some of those riders were quite powerful.

There was one rider in particular that Ragin was dreading to meet. An elf, by the name of Theaden. He had been the leading face in the fight against the Black Hand, and it was well known that he had a personal grudge against the assassins, though for what was a mystery. Ragin had seen the rider on multiple occasions, and most of the time that was while hiding from him. He was powerful, even compared to most elves, and had been a rider for a little over a century now, but had lived far longer. Ragin had even heard rumours he had been one of the elven warriors back from when Galbatorix walked the earth.

Needless to say, having such a strong and dangerous opposition right from the beginning didn't bode well. It didn't help that Ragin's view on the elf was far from friendly. The last time he had seen the elf had been when Theaden had stabbed a blade through Vanir's chest, black dragon fire washing down around them as the Black Hand's stronghold fell. It was a memory that was seared into his head. He had spent long nights thinking about how he was going to get revenge on the elf.

'We are getting close now,' said Akaysha as they reached the very edge of the mountains, 'Firnen says at our pace we'll be there early tomorrow morning.'

'Yay,' even in Ragin's thoughts the sarcasm was thick.

'Hey... it might not be too bad,' she said, 'You seem to be getting along a little more with the other riders.'

'Akaysha, I could probably tell you a hundred reasons why it isn't a good thing. First and foremost... once we get there we will be stuck, and Foeswarn will be able to find us all the more easily. Second, I don't think Foeswarn will be the most imminent life threating person I have to worry about why we are there.'

'Theaden?'

'You were listening to my thoughts?'

'It's rather hard not to catch onto a few things when they constantly tumble and twist in your mind.'

Ragin grunted in response.

Akaysha seemed to hesitate for a moment, a small amount of guilt worming its way through their connection, 'I'm sorry.'

Her rider sighed softly, lightly patting her neck, 'Don't be. I'm still unused to how close our connection is. I forget that its natural for a dragon and rider to share each other's thoughts and emotions. It's just... there are some things about my past that you shouldn't know.'

'If you say so,' she replied, but Ragin thought he could detect a small amount of scepticism in her words.

He sat back in the saddle and looked out at the surrounding mountains. They were bigger than the mountains of the Spine, but not quite the same size as the Beors. Snow adorned the tops of many of them, despite the lateness in the season, and down below was mostly grass with the occasional tree sprouting from the ground. A small homestead also occupied the very edge of the mountains with what looked to be a blacksmith, a small farm and an inn for any travellers that happened to come by.

Ragin studied the sides of the mountains, seeing signs of human influence even as high as the dragons were flying. There were a number of walking tracks scattered along these mountains, steps carved into rock and ropes for when the trail grew a little too steep. Ragin wondered what had possessed these men to create tracks up so high.

As he looked across the mountain side however he spotted a man, lying flat along a smooth area of the path. Ragin only managed to spot him because he felt the flitter of thoughts in the back of his mind, when in a place like this he expected to hear very little. The man had something outstretched in his hands, like a long straight stick, pointed directly at them. At first glance Ragin thought it might have been a 'looking eye', a long straight apparatus that made it so when you looked through the smaller side, everything in a certain area became zoomed in, but somehow he felt as though that was not the case.

'Akaysha, can you see that man?' he asked.

The dragoness turned her head, 'Yes. He's holding something. Hey... doesn't that look kind of similar to that weapon Mr. Foeswarn used to...'

Suddenly a large bang filled the valley, and Akaysha's thoughts were cut off by a spike of pain in her right shoulder. She let out a roar, falling a couple of metres in the sky before flapping her wings heavily a number of times. The other dragons panicked, growling in surprise at the sound and then moving to anger when they realised that whatever the source had hurt Akaysha.

Ragin winced as each flap of Akaysha's wings caused another spike of pain nearly as painful as the first. She wailed lowly gliding down toward the ground below as fast as she could without flapping her wings or falling. Her rider gritted his teeth and looked up to where the man was now standing, levelling whatever the stick was to his eye again, and aiming it down toward them.

Without even thinking Ragin barked, "Jieda!"

It worked. The weapon splintered, causing the man to leap back in surprise and stare dumfounded at his now useless tool. The rider slumped in the saddle, the amount of energy used to destroy whatever it had been was startling, but considering the distance at which it had happened and the fact that Ragin had no idea what it was made off, he considered the payoff worth it. Thinking back, he could have quite easily killed himself by using that simple spell.

Akaysha half crash-landed on the ground below, keening as the pain spiked once again. Ragin quickly unbuckled the straps from his legs and jumped to the ground. He quickly ran his eyes over her, managing to find the injury. Blood seeped from a number of cracked and broken scales around Akaysha's shoulder, just before her wings, just missing the saddle and where Ragin rested his leg during flight.

He glanced up as Haraytor and Freya landed beside them. The red headed girl leapt off her dragon's back and quickly ran to where Akaysha was slumped against the ground, still groaning as pain flooded her body. As far as Ragin could tell, it wasn't a large injury, especially not something that would be able to take down a dragon, but from what he could gather from her mind he was quite wrong. It was like her whole body had had a spear driven through it.

There was a roar from above them and Ragin looked up to find Firnen bathing the side of the mountain in green flames. He wasn't quite sure, but he thought he heard someone scream as they were burned alive by the massive dragon. The others quickly circled down to join them and Ragin turned his attention back to the wound.

Like the one he had suffered months ago, and from what he could gather from the turmoil in Akaysha's mind, he knew that there was likely one of those softer metallic balls in the wound, and before they healed her they would need to extract it. Taking a deep breath he sent some calm and reassuring thoughts toward the dragoness, trying to shield her from some of the pain. If it was anything like what he had removed from his own shoulder, he would be able to use magic to get rid of it.

Taking a deep breath he muttered in the ancient language, "Remove the projectile from Akaysha's shoulder."

Once again his energy level drooped rather startlingly and he was forced to take some of his dragon's energy to maintain the spell. The dragoness hissed, her whole body tensing and Ragin narrowly missed having his head swiped by an impulsive wing. Regardless he continued with the spell until a narrow and wickedly sharp point appeared from the wound. It was only then he realised that not only had it cut her flesh on the way in, but it was doing so on the way out as well. Alarmed he quickly pulled out the rest of the spike and cursed as a dragon blood leaked over his fingers, giving a burning sensation.

The projectile looked like a mini arrow head, but with a small cylinder attacked to the back instead of a shaft. No wonder it had hurt so much. Akaysha was lucky it hadn't gone right through her with how fast it had been moving. If Ragin had been his by something like this with when he was shot he would at the very least would have ruined his shoulder beyond repair, but it most likely would have killed him on the spot.

"Ragin? Is she okay?" Arya asked as she came up beside the rider.

Ragin held up the projectile, "I found this in her shoulder. She's in a lot of pain."

The elf let out quite a violent curse, before she gently leaned over and murmured a long spell of healing over the dragon. The spell seemed to involve words of binding muscle and tendons back together as well as fixing chipped bone. It worked, and the muscle and flesh knitted itself until it looked as though there hadn't been a wound at all, besides the cracked scales and drying dragon blood. But the pain died from Akaysha's mind and Ragin was able to communicate with her again.

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

'I'm fine... thank... thankyou Arya Ebrithil,' the dragoness shook softly.

Ragin was a little surprised at the title, but he didn't comment and instead pattered her side in relief.

"What was that?" Freya said.

The thief shrugged, "Mr. Foeswarn has developed some knew weapons it seems. He used something very similar on me a couple of months ago, but this one seems to be a more upgraded version."

"If Foeswarn has access to weapons that can take down a smaller dragon in a single shot then he is a very dangerous man indeed," Eon spoke.

"I am of the same mind as Eon," Arya said, "We need to get this information back to Eragon as soon as we can. Can you fly Akaysha?"

Akaysha nodded her head, 'I can fly.'

"Very well. Let us head to New Doru Araeba as fast the winds will carry us," Arya grunted, "Before another attempt is made on you and your rider's life."

Ragin quickly swung himself back onto his dragon and they once again entered the skies. He pocketed the small spiked projectile as he did, thinking to study it later for any idea of how it was made. Every bit of information about the weapon was now invaluable, considering that Foeswarn was now giving his assassins access to them. Ragin just wished he hadn't completely shattered the thing that had launched the projectile.

He turned his attention ahead as this time the dragons made quite a fast pace toward their home.

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Hey guys! New chapter! I hope you enjoy. Sorry for the long wait, have recently moved house and am still getting everything sorted out. Anyway, vote if you did enjoy and comment what you thought. The next chapter will be out soon. See Ya!

Pennator^^