WarMage: Undeniable (The Never Ending War Book 4)

by Martha Carr

  The headmaster raised his chin and stroked his thin gray beard. “Thank you, mages. I believe your ten minutes is up.”

  “You believe us, don’t you?” Murphy asked, her eyes wide.

  Flynn frowned. “Mr. Moss, I’ll defer any other decision making to you.”

  William nodded and the headmaster turned away from the stables.

  “Headmaster, wait!” Bella hurried after him, followed closely by Murphy and Henry. “You have to believe us. If the riders go in there looking for her and get too close, they’ll be—”

  “Mr. Moss is clearly on your side, Miss Chase. He will direct his fleet with a well-laid plan to ensure as few people get hurt as possible.”

  “What about the giant dragons, though?” Henry asked. “We’re not making that up.”

  He ignored his students and stopped in front of Raven Alby’s large red dragon. “Leander. I would very much like to hear your thoughts on the subject of enormous dragons from across the sea. If you would be so kind as to share them with me, of course.”

  Leander pawed the ground and raised his head toward the sky with a growl. “I saw something in the sky. It was like a dragon and nothing like a dragon, but it was enormous. The fire felt like dragon fire, but it smelled like rage. I do not know what these creatures are.” He lowered his head to fix the headmaster within his glowing yellow gaze. “But I believe they have Raven Alby. I believe they think they know what’s coming to save her. And I believe they’re wrong.”

  “Thank you.” Flynn bowed his head, and Leander waited until the man looked up again to do the same. “There’s only one more thing to settle, then, and this is something I would never have asked if the circumstances weren’t so severe.”

  The dragon snorted. “Ask, mage.”

  “I believe the same as you. I also believe I have certain skills with magic that are starkly lacking among the riders Mr. Moss has gathered this morning. What I lack, Leander, is my dragon. Neither of us can replace what we’ve lost and I will do everything in my power to return Raven to you. I’m asking your permission to fly with you into the mountains to bring her home safely.”

  Henry’s mouth fell open. “Did he ask to ride Leander?”

  Murphy covered her mouth with both hands and nodded.

  “I didn’t even know it was possible.” Bella looked at them with wide eyes. “Is it possible?”

  Leander studied the headmaster of Fowler Academy and the dragon-rider veteran of the Great War. Finally, he lowered his head and closed his eyes. “For Raven’s sake and so we can get her back.”

  “And he said yes.” Henry clamped his head between both hands and shook it. “Is this real.”

  “It’s real.” Bella still seemed bemused. “Now, there’s nothing else we can do.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “One thousand two hundred and eighty-eight.” Raven lay on her back in the cavern and flicked her finger at the ball of magical light so it bounced a foot above her before it floating down slowly. “One thousand two hundred and eight-nine.”

  A shimmering oval of light opened in the air above her. The magical glow fell through it and onto her face but disappeared instantly. Bella Chase’s face stared at her from the newly cast Full Appearance.

  “Raven.”

  “Hey.” She swallowed and gave her friend a weak smile. “How’d it go?”

  “Well…” The girl glanced over her shoulder and shrugged. “We encountered a few roadblocks—”

  “But we busted right through ʼem, Alby.” Henry’s face appeared in the spellcast window, and he flashed her a thumbs-up before his grin faded. “Woah. You don’t look so great.”

  “Good to see you too, Derks.” She blinked and forced her eyes to open again.

  Murphy squeezed in on the other side of Bella and tried to smile reassuringly. “They’re on their way toward the sanctuary, Raven. They’re coming.”

  A flash of excitement and concern burst through her veins. “You told them about the megadragons, right? That they can’t simply fly here and expect to get me out of here by force.”

  “We told them everything,” Bella said, her lips tight as she focused on holding the Full Appearance open as long as possible.

  “Except for the fact that Murphy and I know this spell too,” Henry added. “You know. Trying to save you and not get expelled in the process.”

  Raven managed a small chuckle. “I appreciate it. Is Leander coming too?”

  “Oh, yeah. He’s—”

  The grating of stone on stone rose from the other side of the cavern, shook the walls, and reigniting her fierce headache.

  “What’s that sound?”

  “A visitor.” She frowned. “I have to go. You guys worked fast. Thank you.”

  “We all want you back and safe, Raven,” Murphy said. “You’ll be—”

  She waved her hand over the Full Appearance and muttered, “Finis magus.”

  The shimmering circle of light vanished and her hand flopped onto the cold stone floor. Sorry, guys. I can’t take any chances.

  The screech of the monstrous dragon’s spine-riddled side and tail against the cavern wall echoed around her. More sparks lit up patches of the darkness on the other side of the chamber, even with sunlight spilling through the crack in the ceiling.

  He stopped in his usual place and sniffed the air. “What’s wrong with you?”

  Raven sighed and ignored her pounding head and the black hole in her belly. “That’s a very long list right now.”

  “You look sick. Why do you look sick?”

  Is that a hint of concern? I guess I’m not a snack today, either.

  Slowly, she pushed herself off the floor to shift slowly and face the massive beast. She crossed her legs beneath her and shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I’ve been stuck in a cave with no food or fresh air for the last two days.”

  “That’s not very long.”

  She snorted. “Humans generally eat three times a day. Or, according to my best friend, twice that at least. Merely a minor oversight on your part.”

  “I see.” The gigantic black dragon curled his body to turn back toward the corridor and sank onto his belly. “I can change that.”

  “That would be very much appreciated.”

  “Tell me what you’ve discovered.”

  Licking her lips, Raven stared at the crack in the ceiling. “That it’s really not as easy as I thought to discover the mysteries of magic waking ancient dragons with no food, water, or fresh air for two days.”

  The dragon growled. “Do not test my patience, mage.”

  “I can’t help it. We call it being hangry.” The dragon stared at her and she leaned forward. “You know, hungry and—forget it. I’m talking to a giant dragon from across the sea named… Oh. You never told me that part.”

  Golden eyes narrowed beneath the glinting black ridges of the creature’s scales. “If you must have a name, you may call me Po.”

  She stared at him and couldn’t help a smile. “Po? Does that mean something?”

  “What I am called cannot be translated to the human tongue.”

  “So you went with Po. Wow. Personally, I would have gone with something a little more intimidating, you know? Like Smaug or…give me a minute. I’ll come up with a better—”

  A sharp hiss issued from the other end of the tunnel leading out of the cavern. Po lifted his head and stared at the entrance, and Raven watched the shadow moving along the wall. Great. Now, it’s a party.

  “This has gone on long enough.” The new voice was all hissing and grating timbres. “You were wrong.”

  “I have not decided,” Po growled.

  “So let me decide for you.” A second ancient dragon not quite as large as Po stepped into view. His barbed scales and massive spikes along his spine were exactly the same, only the new creature was a vibrant, glittering emerald-green. Eyes of the same color flickered around the cavern and finally settled on Raven. “This? This is what you’ve made
us wait for?”

  “This one is different.”

  “You cannot read the signs!” The green dragon lurched toward the larger black beast and hissed angrily. “The rest of us see right through your lies. I will not defy our calling because you wait for a snack to decide our fate.”

  “Now, hold on.” Raven raised her hand and let it slap against her thigh. “We’ve been over this already. I’m not a snack, I’m—”

  “Finished.” The emerald beast reared and opened his terrifyingly huge mouth. The glow of dragon fire illuminated in the back of his throat as the rumble filled the cavern.

  Shit. Here it comes. Raven clenched her fists and waited for the two seconds that felt like two hours.

  The black dragon roared as the other unleashed a column of churning flame at the young mage seated cross-legged across the chamber.

  “Sequantur flamma!” she screamed and extended both hands. Her spell and the force of the great beast’s attack met each other with a crack of power. She threw her arms up and the flames hurtled up and away from her to direct the entire conflagration toward the crevasse in the stone ceiling. Fire burst from the mountainside along the northern peaks of the Mountains of Jared and seconds later, everything fell still.

  When all the flames were gone, her exhausted arms dropped and her hands fell into her lap. Her head drooped to her chest as she swayed over her crossed legs. Beads of sweat rolled down her forehead, cheeks, and the bridge of her nose before they dropped into her palms. I’ll take care of that later.

  “What?” The green dragon hissed again, and the black beast behind him rumbled in amusement. “This can’t be.”

  “It can,” Raven muttered. “It is. Look, if you guys want to keep me around to find your answers, I’m gonna need food. Water, at the very least.” She pushed to her feet and stumbled a little before she regained her balance. Then, she spread her arms and sighed. “So how about it, Po? You feed me, and I’ll…well, I won’t feed you. But I’ll help with your magical questions.”

  “You little—” The green dragon skittered toward her and scattered sparks in all directions as his massive claws and spikes dragged across the stone.

  “Ecflicto!” The white light burst from her hand and struck the creature dead-center in its snout.

  He skidded to a stop with a nerve-racking shriek like steel on stone and snorted a billowing cloud of thick black smoke. His green eyes rolled, and he shook his head vigorously before he stretched his neck to tower over the young mage. Nostrils she could’ve climbed into flared as he sniffed her and snorted again.

  The force of his breath made Raven stagger and she pointed at him and glared into one large emerald eye because she couldn’t look at both of them at the same time. “Do you want another one?”

  “Enough,” Po rumbled. “I have seen enough. Get out.”

  The green dragon swiveled his head slowly to look at Po, then snorted again and stalked out of the cavern. His massive spiked tail pounded against the wall beside Po’s head. The black beast didn’t react at all to the explosion of sparks and the crumbling stone at his brethren’s disgruntled warning.

  “For a mage who looks as ill as you do, that magic was more than powerful enough to find the answers I seek.”

  Raven’s legs trembled, but she raised her chin and clenched her fists. I’m gonna have to bluff my way through the rest of this. Only until backup arrives. “Those were all simple spells. They don’t take much focus or energy, so…”

  “Hmm. Come with me, tiny mage. We will set you right. And then you can commune with magic for my answers.”

  “Sounds good to me.” She scooped her satchel up and almost toppled forward. Her teeth gritted, she slung it over her shoulders and moved as fast as she could across the cavern while she avoided the showers of sparks Po left in his wake. Commune with magic? These old dragons really have no idea how this works. I can’t simply toss a coin in and ask a question.

  When her guide vanished from the tunnel entrance, she took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. Here we go. Be ready for anything.

  The gust of wind when she stepped out of the tunnel almost knocked her over. Po turned his massive body to block the wind and stared at her from his looming height.

  “Wow.” Raven gazed at the enormous valley of jagged stone and craggy cliff faces, all of it as sharp and cold and unforgiving as her hosts. How far into the mountains are we?

  A shriek from behind made her jump, and she turned to gape at a massive silver dragon, this one with spikes lining the back of her head to look like a dragon’s crown. A pure-white dragon clutched one of the stone spires poking through the valley, his tail wound around the base. The spikes punctured the stone itself with the force of his grasp. He echoed the shriek, and a shadow passed over the valley before a gargantuan dragon with golden scales landed on the edge of a cliff to her right.

  That one’s as big as Po. And they’re all staring at me.

  “We are the five,” Po said, his voice strong enough to punch through the wind howling through the stone valley. “My brethren do not believe you are of much use to us at all, tiny mage.”

  Raven glanced at the dragons surrounding her. The emerald beast crouched yards away on the wide ledge and watched her intently. “Well, I guess that depends on what you want me to do.”

  “You may start,” the silver female above her snarled, “by telling us why we should believe anything you have to say.”

  “Besides the fact that I really like being alive?” Despite her situation, she chuckled. “I guess the main reason would be that if I jerked you around and made all kinds of things up, you’d all know. Dragons can smell the truth. Or a lie.”

  The five watched her silently. Then, the white one stretched his neck out from behind the spire of stone. “But the truth and what you believe may be very different things.”

  “True. I’m not sure I could pick out those instances for you. That doesn’t make for very strong belief, does it?”

  “This one is part of the problem too,” the green male spat.

  “What problem is that, exactly?” Raven turned toward him and tilted her head. “The part where you tried to fry me and eat me? Or the part where I stopped you?”

  The green beast’s wings shivered and stretched halfway from his back as he lowered his head and glared at her. “You think you’re here to control us. All our kind. To pit a dragon against themselves to forget their own will and answer only to yours.”

  “Okay, I don’t know where you got that idea, but that’s not the way it works.”

  “Then explain,” Po added and bent his neck in a massive U to look at her while his body faced the jagged stone valley below.

  “I can’t speak for the dragon trainers themselves because that’s not what I am. But I can tell you about mages and dragons.” She took a deep breath and glanced from one looming ancient dragon to the next. “We’ve worked together for centuries. Not every mage has a dragon, and not every dragon has a mage. But my grandfather did. He had the same connection with his dragon that I have with mine. And that’s what I was made to do too. Yes, there might be a few dragons who didn’t have the best trainers and that definitely needs to change. But those are the exception. Most trainers do a great job of forming relationships. Everyone knows you can’t tell a dragon what to do and even asking politely isn’t enough without building trust first. Believe me, I learned that the hard way.”

  “Did you train this dragon?” The female voice came from the golden dragon perched on the cliffside.

  Raven looked at her and shook her head. “Not really. Leander’s my familiar.”

  “Familiar what?” the silver female asked.

  Pinching the bridge of her nose, she sighed. “No, that’s what it’s called. Every mage has one. Like a partner. They help us with our magic and we help them grow stronger. It’s a win-win for everyone and my familiar happens to be a dragon.”

  “That’s no different than lashing a beast with a whip until he moves t
he way you want,” the green dragon snarled. “A partnership.”

  “No, it’s not.” A wave of dizziness washed over the young mage, and she closed her eyes again and shook her head. Hold on. “Leander and I have an even stronger connection because he’s my familiar. We can sense each other. Almost like sharing thoughts—” She stopped and looked across the valley. Careful. Can’t give too much away.

  “This is absurd,” the white dragon growled. “This human may have an abnormal fondness for that runt of hers, but this changes nothing.”

  “We should fly tonight,” the silver beast rumbled. “Attack again—”

  “No.” Po looked at her and snorted. “We wait.” His massive head tilted slightly so he could fix an eye on the tiny mage beside him. “This one and I will speak of that…connection between a mage and a dragon familiar. I would hear more of that, mage.”

  “Sure. I could talk about Leander all day.” Raven shrugged. “And I will as soon as I eat something.”

  “Yes.” Po’s rumble of amusement echoed between the spires of stone and the jagged peaks. He glanced at the green beast. “Bring this snack a snack.”

  The emerald one snorted and turned in a tight circle on the jutting precipice before he vanished into an overhanging cave.

  Finally. Let’s hope whatever it is, I can keep it down.

  A minute later, the dragon returned and lifted one enormous forepaw to toss a hunk of charred meat at her. It thumped across the ledge and rolled itself in a fine coating of dust and small pebbles. Raven stooped to pick it up and held it out in front of her. “Out of curiosity, what is it? Not that matters. I’m merely…curious.”

  “Cattle,” the green beast spat.

  “Okay… It’s the biggest steak I’ve ever seen.” She did her best to brush the dirt off the outside of the charred chunk, lifted it to her mouth in both hands, and ripped off a huge chunk with her teeth. “Not bad. It could use a little salt, though.”

  Po snorted, and the other five stared at her with vengeful disdain.

  Raven spat a pebble out and swallowed. “Thank you.”