but later you’ll have to wait patiently for me.’ He took the snort as a good sign and carefully clambered into the saddle. It wasn’t particularly difficult, but he preferred to keep an eye on Fen’s reactions. If bess suddenly decided to set off, the dragon might get a bit of a knock about.
Once seated on Fenrir’s back, he waved once more to the master and Gizel and steered his mount towards Solvein’s side gate. Bess, having been repeatedly told to behave himself, walked calmly and smoothly. He, too, was looking around with curiosity.
The traffic, though he could have sworn it should be heaviest in front of the main gate, seemed to be thickening in this spot with every passing second. One carriage after another stopped just long enough for their passengers to step out. The types of vehicles also differed significantly from the aristocratic carriages that pulled up elegantly at the Academy’s main entrance. Here, too, one could see such carriages, but alongside those bearing coats of arms, there were plenty of more modest ones, as well as those available for hire in the city. A little further on, the dragon also spotted an approaching omnibus drawn by a massive karven.
He gently steered the bess and they set off through the gate. In his heart, Draco was grateful that everyone seemed to be trying to avoid getting too close to the approaching Fenrir, although many people did stop to take a look at the rarely seen mount. In the passageway itself, they were even let through by a few cadets on horseback, clearly from a senior year, who set off after the reptile, chatting amongst themselves and complaining aloud that they would have given an arm and a leg just to be able to ride a bess.
Mindful of his master’s warning, the reptile turned immediately after the gate, though he couldn’t imagine how anyone could have missed it, given that all the riders were heading in that very direction. Once they’d left the crowd of pedestrians behind, it was possible to pick up speed, which
