WarMage: Undeniable (The Never Ending War Book 4)

by Martha Carr

  “Yes! Now I only have…” She craned her neck to view the distance between her pile of rocks and the crevasse at the top of the cave. “Halfway to go. Right. You can do this, Raven. It’s like rebuilding that tiny bridge but with more magic and in a cave that belongs to who knows what kind of creature. No pressure.”

  She centered her focus again, stretched toward another large hunk of stone on the cave floor and took a breath. “Eri—”

  A thud and deafening scrabble like fifty blades on a whetstone stopped her. The cave trembled beneath a massive footstep…once, twice, three times. She whirled toward her makeshift escape ladder and extended both hands. “No, no, no!”

  The top third of the stones she’d piled leaned sideways and fell and all the others beneath crumbled to fill the cave with the deafening rumble of falling rubble. The young mage leapt away and covered her face with both arms, waiting for the noise to stop.

  When it did, she coughed, straightened, and waved a thick plume of dust out of her face. “You’ve gotta be kidding me. All this time trapped in here by myself and right when I’m starting to get somewhere, the whole thing is—”

  She put a finger to her lips and turned slowly. A slanted shadow moved against the far wall of the cave, followed by the grinding of stone moving against stone. The shadow disappeared but the rumbling, earth-shaking footsteps resumed.

  Raven stared at the end of the wide tunnel leading out of the massive cavern. It looks like somebody came home to check on their next meal. They’re not gonna like the way I taste.

  A black, shimmering thing peeked into the cavern and moved slowly. It looked like another shadow until an unexpected blast of hot air hurtled across the cavern and ruffled her hair. Crap. That’s only its snout?

  Massive claws clicked against the stone before they came into view, and the glistening black shape she’d seen grew bigger and bigger until one huge golden eye peered into the cavern and settled on her. The rest of the huge beast emerged slowly and its heavy body slid across the floor as it pulled itself fully into the chamber. It remained near the far wall but stared intently at the young mage on the other side.

  The creature’s entire body shimmered with black scales, each of them studded with sharp barbs and glistening points. A line of wicked-looking spikes rose from the back of its head and continued down to its curling tail. Sparks flew as these spikes brushed against the stone walls with screech after screech that set her teeth on edge. Finally, the beast stopped moving and gave her a little more time to take it all in.

  This is like ten of Leander at least. Mixed with a porcupine.

  It stared at her and the glowing golden eye was larger than her head. It snorted again and flurried a puff of dust and bones across the cavern. She coughed again and waved the dust out of her face.

  If it looks like a dragon and snorts like a dragon, maybe it talks like one too.

  “Are you the one who caught me?”

  It was only a guess, but the fact that those gigantic black talons could fit around her entire body and looked like what she’d seen after falling made it a fairly educated guess.

  The beast growled and lowered its head to the floor.

  That head’s as tall as Leander is when he’s standing. Try again.

  “I guess it doesn’t really matter what I ask you if you can’t understand me. So we’ll start there.” Raven raised her head and stepped forward. “Can you understand me?”

  Huge black nostrils flared in and out with each breath, and the giant golden eyes flicked to study her from head to toe. “Yes.”

  It’s voice cracked through the cavern, which made her jump and duck her head. I’m gonna lose my hearing after five minutes of this.

  “Okay. That’s a start.” She rubbed her ear and forced her hand down against her side. “My name’s Raven. What about you?”

  The beast raised its head again and stretched it toward her by at least six feet. “I don’t give my name to snacks.”

  Raven swallowed. “Yeah, I don’t either. But that’s the thing. I’m a mage. Not a snack.”

  “We shall see.” As it coiled its head like a snake ready to strike, the creature rose to half its full height to get a better angle from above. “You smell like a dragon.”

  “Well, that’s probably Leander.” I don’t care how nuts this is. Don’t look away from that eye. “He is a dragon. And my friend. And he’s terrified right now because someone knocked us out of the sky and brought me here without telling him where here is.”

  Another growl rose in the creature’s throat. “You were interfering.”

  “With what?”

  “None of your concern, mage snack.” Still eyeing her warily, the great beast turned sinuously to walk in the opposite direction toward the corridor out of the cavern.

  “You will stay here for now. Until I decide what to do with you. Perhaps we will keep you as bait.”

  Raven blinked. “We?”

  “Five of us. We were driven out by the misuse of what you call magic. You know all about magic, don’t you, tiny mage?”

  Damn. Maybe I shouldn’t have led with that. “I know about it, yes. I don’t know about a misuse of magic, though. Is that what brought you here?”

  “We brought ourselves here,” the creature hissed. It turned and paced along the wall again. “Something woke us from our slumber across the sea. Something stronger than any of us could contain. And we came to this land to find our brethren whittled away into nothing more than livestock. It pains me to call them my kin, mage. You and your kind have whipped the dragon right out of them, and nothing but shells and empty husks remain.”

  He’s talking about trained dragons. That’s what all this is about. The dragons.

  “So tell me, tiny magical beast.” The enormous creature snorted again and narrowed those golden eyes. “How do you come to call a sheep dressed as my kind a friend?”

  “You don’t know Leander,” she replied and clenched her fists. “He’s not a sheep.”

  “You rode upon his back!” Stones and a rain of dust shivered from the cavern ceiling as the creature’s thundering voice shook the walls. “You have as much of a dragon’s scent on you as a human’s. What did you do?”

  Raven steeled herself and raised her chin, ignoring the ringing in her ears. “I saved his life. And he’s saved mine.”

  “That’s all?”

  The young mage thought she really was losing her hearing until she realized the gargantuan dragon from across the sea now hissed at her in laughter.

  “You think saving someone’s life isn’t worth a friendship?” she called in response. “Or even trust?”

  The hissing cut out abruptly. “I saved you from breaking your body on the ground, dragon mage. Are we friends?”

  She fought to not roll her eyes. It’s like starting with Leander all over again but with a much higher chance of death if I’m not careful. “Not yet.”

  The onyx-black dragon’s huge eyes widened. “But someday, hm? Perhaps when you find something from which to save me.”

  “Honestly, I doubt there’s anything in Threndor you’d need saving from. Just by the looks of you.”

  With a snort, the creature reared and shook its head. “You’re not even trying to impress me.”

  “I didn’t know that was why I’m here.” Raven shrugged and glanced around the cavern. “I’m not all that impressive when I’ve been dropped in the middle of a giant cave. Get me on Leander’s back and it’s a whole different story.”

  “You’re exactly like the rest of them. Using the beasts because you can.”

  The young mage gritted her teeth. “No one uses him. And no one uses me, either. So if you’re serious about keeping me here as bait, I’d reconsider. I may not be able to get out of here on my own, but I do have magic.”

  “Yes.” The word hissed out of the monstrous dragon as it turned and resumed pacing again. It’s barbed tail slid and scraped against the floor and walls and threw up billowing showers of sparks. “I s
mell that too. Tell me why we’re here.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “If you really have magic, tiny mage, use it to discover why it woke us from our slumber and brought us to this world. Tell me why we’re here, if not to release our kind, and I may let you live. You’ll have more than enough time to think about it.”

  The beast moved faster than seemed possible and darted across the cavern toward the corridor beyond in a flashing blur of black scales and sparks. Raven hurried after it but remained well behind the sparks.

  I’ve gotta see how that thing got in here.

  The cavern shuddered and trembled again, filled with the harsh rumble of grating stone. She thumped her hands against the rough walls for balance and stumbled down the corridor. One golden eye blinked at her from the other side before the rumbling started again. More dust and small pebbles dropped onto her head and back before what little sunlight had snuck into the corridor vanished completely with a resounding thud.

  The young mage waited in the darkness and listened to the clatter of the last rocks that fell from the walls. Everything fell as still and silent again as when she’d woken and found herself in this mess.

  “Oh, sure. Roll a huge rock in front of a giant hole and trap the mage inside. Exactly like every other gigantic dragon that wasn’t supposed to exist.” Raven tossed her hands in the air and let them fall against her thighs with a smack. Disgruntled, she sighed and turned to return to her satchel and the area that had become her own personal space.

  “Circum inlustro.” A soft ball of light elevated from her finger and floated in front of her to illuminate the corridor until she stepped into the cavern. She looked up at the crack in the ceiling and the bright sunlight spilling through it. “He wants to know why five dragon monsters woke up across the sea. If Elizabeth hadn’t read about that in books, I’m sure I won’t find those answers anytime soon.”

  She stopped beside her satchel, pursed her lips, and sat beside it with her legs crossed. I’d better come up with something, though. I don’t think that beast had much patience to begin with.

  Raven waited until dark for the giant black dragon to reappear. When he didn’t, she mustered what energy she had left and shook her hands out. “Okay. No problem. We can do this again.”

  Her stomach emitted a ferocious growl and sweat beaded at her hairline. Well it’s not like I’m too busy to eat. Ignore it.

  After a deep breath, she focused on Bella Chase’s face. “Loquimi magus.”

  The shimmering circle of light appeared instantly between her hands. Bella’s face appeared a second later, and the dark-haired mage looked up from whatever she was doing. She seemed startled to see her face hovering in front of her.

  “Raven! You’re okay!”

  “Yeah, so far. How’s Leander?”

  “Pissed. Scared.”

  “That sounds about right. Listen, I know a little more about the creatures that brought me here.”

  “Creatures?” The girl’s eyes widened, and she looked over her shoulder before she leaned toward the Full Appearance spell that hovered over the desk in her room. “As in plural?”

  “Yep. There are—”

  “Wait, wait, hold on. Can you cast this spell again but with two other people?”

  Raven rolled her eyes and swayed where she sat. “Bella, I haven’t eaten in twenty-four hours. Probably not.”

  “Okay. That’s okay. I’ll do it.”

  She frowned when her arms started to burn. The image in her Full Appearance spell crackled. “What two other people?”

  Bella grinned. “Murphy and Henry.”

  “What?”

  “I taught them. Don’t worry. They’ve actually picked it up really well. It’s surprising, honestly. I didn’t know either of them had the—”

  “Bella. I didn’t cast this spell for a friendly chat.”

  “Right. Sorry.” The girl’s smile faded, and she nodded in response. “I’ll open the spell for all four of us from here. You just…don’t wear yourself out, okay?”

  “No problem. I don’t have much to do here anyway but don’t take too long.”

  Bella smirked. “Are you kidding?”

  Raven lowered her hands and closed the spell. Her body tilted sideways, and she thrust her hand against the ground to keep herself upright. “Nope. You will not pass out, Raven Alby. Pull it together.”

  She glanced at the stone floor, rolled her eyes, and lowered herself slowly to lay on her back. Just in case.

  Bright stars winked at her through the crevasse in the cavern ceiling. The pinpricks shivered and three patches of bright, wavering light appeared in the air above her. Bella’s face was much closer than the others and her jaw worked as she strained to maintain the spell.

  “Good work, Bella,” Raven muttered.

  “Almost. Murphy!”

  Murphy’s eyes flew open, and she bolted upright in her bed. Bella’s Full Appearance spell moved when she did and angled itself to stay in front of her at all times. “Holy crap.”

  “I heard you did some training, Murph.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t expect this.”

  Raven smirked. “Henry. Henry Derks! Get up!”

  He rolled over in his bed, scratched his armpit, and farted in his sleep.

  “Oh, come on.” Bella rolled her eyes. “Henry!”

  He sat and flailed around in the sheets. “Who…what…you—ah!” The wizard thumped backward onto the floor, and the wavering circles of the girls’ faces followed him. “Raven! Oh, man. I’m so happy to see you. Are you—”

  “I’m okay. Really. We gotta make this quick, ʼcause Bella’s casting this spell and it’s heavy.”

  “It really is,” the girl added through clenched teeth.

  “So just listen and don’t ask me to explain something. I’m telling you everything I know.” Raven pushed herself slowly to a seated position on the stone floor as she spoke. “The creature that took me is essentially a huge dragon—like, ten times as big as Leander. And…a little different but mostly dragon. There are five of them from somewhere across the sea. They’re attacking all the dragon ranches in Lomberdoon because they think that’s why they were awakened—a crusade to free all the dragons because magic has been misused, somehow. I don’t know what that means, but my guess is these things are super-old and obviously super-dangerous. So far, they haven’t tried to eat me, so that’s a plus.”

  “Not funny.” Murphy looked like she was about to cry.

  “Hey, if we don’t have humor, Murphy, what’s left?” She glanced around the cavern. “I’m in the mountains somewhere—it’s all rocks and cliffs—and I’m in a cave with a giant crack in the ceiling. I’m fairly sure it’s somewhere near the valley of clipped dragons so if anyone happened to fly over it, they might see me waving at them.”

  “That’s great! We can send someone to find you that way!”

  “Not with five legendary beasts flying around, Henry. Sorry.”

  His smile faded and his shoulders slumped where he sat on his bedroom floor.

  Raven sighed regretfully. “I’ll try to find out as much as I can. These megadragons think mages have been misusing magic and totally destroyed what dragons are supposed to be, so they don’t like any of us. If someone tries to come for me here, they need to know that.”

  “Someone’s definitely coming,” Murphy said with a nod. “We promise.”

  “I know, Murph. So I need you guys to get all this info to Leander, William, and Headmaster Flynn, okay? They need to know, and I’m sure they can think of something together.”

  “Yeah, we can do that.”

  “You got it, Alby.”

  Bella grunted. “I can’t keep this up anymore.”

  “That’s okay, Bella.” Raven nodded at her. “You did great. I’ll see you guys soon.”

  The wavering circles of light with each of her friends’ faces rippled and disappeared. The young mage ran a hand over her hair and looked at the stars through the crack in the
ceiling again. “But sooner rather than later would be really nice.”

  She stretched on the floor again, used her satchel as a pillow, and curled in a tight ball. Her stomach growled, and she brushed her fingers against her mother’s pin on her jacket.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The next morning, Henry and Murphy met at their usual spot at the fountain in Brighton’s town center on their way to school.

  “How crazy was that last night, huh, Murph?” He nudged his fist playfully into her shoulder and grinned broadly. “That was us. Doing real high-level spells!”

  “That was all Bella last night.”

  “Yeah, but it wouldn’t have worked if we hadn’t learned the Full Appearance in the first place. And Raven’s okay. So far so good. We have a plan, and we have something to do about it. We’ll have her back by the end of the day. I know it.”

  Murphy gave him a small, tired smile and glanced at Fritz, who darted between their feet. “You sound excited given that your best friend is locked in a giant dragon’s cave.”

  “No, I’m excited because my best friend is locked in a giant dragon’s cave and is still alive. There’s a difference.”

  “As long as we get her message to the people who need to hear it.”

  They moved beyond the center of the town and walked silently down the road heading northeast toward Fowler Academy. “Murphy.”

  “Yeah.”

  “She’s gonna be okay.”

  She shrugged. “I know. I keep thinking about what that must be like for her. All by herself. She’s probably terrified.”

  “Nah. Raven Alby’s not afraid of anything. She’s careful, sometimes, sure. But that’s it.”

  “I know I’d be terrified.”

  Henry nodded. “Yeah, me too. But I don’t think she’d be able to cast a Full Appearance to anyone if she was really that scared. She’s holding up. We have to do the same thing.” He threw his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in for a sideways hug. When she didn’t respond at all, he lowered his head to look at her and frowned. “You look like you’re about to cry.”