*Rakota's POV*

I glared at the mages as they gathered around the cooking fire and finished setting up their tents. My muscles strained against the magicked restraints as if I was trying to lift a mountain as opposed to just tossing off a handful of ropes. They must have spent years creating the spells on this net.

I reached for my magic and bared my teeth in a silent snarl as the herbs still prevented me from using it. Magebane ferns were so rare I'd only ever seen five plants, so I wasn't sure how they had managed to find enough of it to drug the entire lake. As soon as I was free, I was going to check the area for more of the infernal plants and destroy them – after I took care of these impetuous whelps.

My claws dug into the soil as if it was the mages' bodies instead. How I wished the dragonkin could just kill all the humans and not have to put up with their foolishness ever again! The fire spell formed in my mind, but with my magic incapacitated by the blasted fern, nothing happened.

With a growl, I strained against the ropes again, fantasizing about tracking down every last human and wiping them off the face of the planet. These mages would be first and after that... My thoughts trailed off, knowing the other dragons would only allow me to destroy several cities before stopping me.

If all the humans died out, so would the dragons.

But nothing said we had to let them all live, and none of the magic rules prevented us from killing fools like these. They may have found a record of the three-day binding spell – one of the strongest the humans had ever created – but their scrolls apparently failed to mention the other spells needed to contain me during that time.

The fern's effects would wear off by morning and then they would learn the true power of dragons. I'd bring their plans crashing down around their ears and savor the fear in their-

Clink. An arrow skittered across the ground and stopped by my hand, interrupting my thoughts. I tried to turn my head, but the netting held me bound. I waited impatiently since something unexpected was happening.

Clink. Another arrow hit a stone. My hearing was keen and let me track the various arrows. As best I could tell, the shooter was aiming for the ropes and not at me. Not that I'd be able to feel an arrow if it hit me.

With each arrow, a tiny bit of magedebt built, so faint I could barely detect it. My lip curled up in disdain; even with my magic unusable, the magic rules still demanded that a favor be returned. I could easily ignore something like this without repercussions, especially since the person didn't show themselves. The magic would assume they chose to remain anonymous.

I impatiently waited as arrow after arrow whizzed through the air without any of the ropes loosening.

Then silence.

If this was one of the mages taunting me, I was going to-

The rapid patter of leather shoes interrupted my thoughts, and the magedebt suddenly skyrocketed. The twang of a rope being cut was like music to my ears. The magics pinning me down became weakened and were no longer balanced.

As much as I wanted to shred through the remaining anchor ropes and netting, I waited. Another twang rewarded my waning patience. Then another, and another. Each one further disrupted the spells trapping me.

I shifted the slightest amount, wondering if my stillness would trick the human into cutting more ropes. My escape wasn't in question now, but if a few more were cut, I could do so with style. The footsteps hesitated, then resumed their hasty pace.

The netting became loose enough that the rope no longer made any sound when cut. The human finally came within my sight; a young female whose fear soured the air. Her eyes never left the campfires as she swung her knife at another anchor rope.

Since she was clearly about to run for the hills and the netting no longer bound me in the slightest, I saw no point in letting her think she had been the one to free me. With a roar that shook the trees, I reared onto my hind legs and flared my wings, throwing the detested net to the side like a clump of weeds.

Half the mages fell to the ground in surprise, as did my would-be rescuer. I grappled with my magic, but it was still out of my reach. Just as I was about to lunge forward to attack with my claws, three mages clustered together and started chanting as they held up a flat stone with a carved rune.

I recognized the spell as the same type they'd immobilized me with the first time. If my magic was working, I had half a chance of blocking such a powerful spell, but that wasn't an option right now. My muscles quivered in thwarted rage, but alas, vengeance would have to wait. I had survived a century of battle by knowing when to retreat and replan an attack. As much as I detested it, this was one of those times.

Warning tingled along my mage senses, cautioning me that the magedebt to the female was too large to ignore. Magic demanded balance. Unless the debt was repaid, my spells would slowly weaken over time.

With a furious snarl, I bounded forward and grabbed the human as I leapt skyward. My wings unfurled and bit into the air, forcing me higher. Without my magic to aid my flight, my wings rowed through the air instead of allowing me to glide gracefully like an eagle.

Roughly half of the magedebt disappeared as I took the human out of range of the mages. I snorted in annoyance when it became apparent that simply rescuing her wasn't going to be sufficient. It was times like these that I wished magic was capable of listening to reason so I could inform it that it was blowing this completely out of proportion.

The mages' binding spell needed three days and the herb would have worn off by morning. Even if they had somehow managed to negate my magic that long, several dragons regularly patrolled this area. If they didn't find me before the spell was cast, there was a good chance I'd be able to free myself, and if not, the patrols would help me.

It would have been a serious blow to my pride and have taken me decades to live it down, but it was hardly life-threatening. Despite my mental tirade, the magedebt remained unchanged, siding with the human who had risked her life to help me.

I shook my head in aggravation. The squirming sensation against my palms was yet another reminder of the human's presence. She had curled up enough for me to completely wrap my hands around her. She'd be cramped, but at least I didn't have to worry about her slipping out of my grip.

After my recent brush with the mages, I felt like killing any human I crossed paths with, but with the magedebt still present, this particular one's death would come back to bite me in the tail. It was best to settle the debt quickly. Luckily, it was pretty easy to bribe humans, and a bit of gold or a spell should suffice.

I dismissed the magedebt from my mind since I had more pressing matters at the moment, such as where I'd stop for the night. As much as I wanted to reach Gradon's Point, where two warriors were stationed at all times, it was too far to fly without the aid of my magic.

I could already feel the growing strain in my wing and shoulder muscles. I tried to tap into my flight magics, which were more of a magical ability than a true spell and only took the faintest wisps of power, but to my disgust, they didn't work while the magebane fern held sway over me. Stupid plant. Turning those stupid plants into charcoal was going to be my new hobby for the next decade or so.

My eyes scanned the starlit darkness as I recalled every decent layover spot. A certain cliff came to mind, one far from human villages or roads. It would work. I angled my flight and gained altitude, seeking any winds heading in that direction.

Now that I had a destination, my thoughts circled back to the shadow mages and my anger rekindled anew. A growl rumbled through my chest at the memory. Not only had they drugged the cool waters of one of our most popular resting spots, but they had the gall to cast an immobilization spell on me and had been planning a binding spell.

Foolish human mages never learned, regardless of how many we killed or how many whose magic seed we permanently stripped away to form magic-producing crystals for our own use. Every decade or so, another one decided he was wiser than all of his ancestors combined. Instead of doing something productive, like helping fend off the naga, they tried to bespell a dragon in their drive for power and greed.

It took a force of will not to clench my fists in anger at their short-sightedness. The naga were forever trying to sneak into the human lands and slaughter them like sheep. The only thing stopping them were the dragons, and instead of the mages actually trying to help protect their people, they were obsessed with enslaving dragons. Intelligence was clearly not their strong suit.

If nothing else, it united the dragonkin and gave us a common cause. Any mage who tried such a thing was immediately tracked down and neutralized. The dozen shadow mages in the valley would discover this very shortly, but they had at least one pre-charged immobilization spell left, so it'd be a fool's errand to attack them alone.

I was no fool. They were going to pay for their actions.