Dragonmancer

by Simon Archer

  I led Victoria to the most dirt-covered area and gave her a pat on the shoulder. She knew what I wanted her to do. I backed ten yards away from her, closed my eyes for a quick moment to focus, opened them again, and nodded my head her way. She clawed at the ground with her front foot and set herself in a lowered stance. Her neck curled back as she took a deep breath, and then it went forward. She opened her mouth and threw a burst of flames directly at me.

  Like the last time I had seen her breathe fire, the first flames were orange and yellow and spread quickly. It took almost no effort at all to focus on them. I put my hand straight out in front of me and made a swiping motion off to my left. The flames hurling towards me immediately swerved off to the distance and dissipated. A sense of power began to well up inside me as I tipped my head to Victoria again.

  She breathed another stream of fire at me. That one was both blue and orange and was significantly hotter than the first. I put both hands out, concentrating through the heat, and then through my hands in the air. The flames traveled straight up and kept going until they went out. Again, I nodded to Victoria, but this time I caught her eyes and stared directly into them. I wanted a continual stream of her hottest fire that time. She nodded back and took another giant breath.

  When the white-tipped, blue flames flew towards me, instead of putting my hands up right away, I stared directly into them. My vision zoomed in on each individual flame, and it was like I became part of them myself. Then my vision zoomed back out. I waved my hand in front of my face and widened my stance just before the fire would have engulfed me. I knew if my magic didn’t work, the flames would instantly kill me. I couldn’t let Victoria be the one to kill me as it would certainly kill her inside too. Plus, just the general concept of not wanting to die gave me ample motivation to focus like I had never focused before.

  It took every ounce of courage in me not to close my eyes as the flames reached the spot where I had waved my hand just in front of my face. I didn’t want to look my potential doom in the face, but I needed to know that I could truly control the fire. Right then, the first flames hit an invisible barrier just like the one at the cave. The fire spread out, making it appear that a wall was burning. All I could do was stare at it in awe. I’d felt the head rushing towards me, but now that I had contained the flames, I wasn’t hot at all. Reaching my hand forward, I touched the invisible wall, and it didn’t burn me.

  That was when I noticed my skin was smoking again. Excitement jolted through me, and before I really thought through what I wanted to do, I shoved my hand directly through the barrier. I closed my fist around a flame and pulled my hand out. Slowly I opened my palm, and as I’d hoped, a small blue flame was there, dancing brightly in my hand. My skin wasn’t burning, and there was no pain at all. I bounced my hand up and down, and the flame matched my movements. For a minute, I had no idea what I wanted to do with it. I was just absolutely amazed at what was happening.

  Victoria walked around the wall of flames and looked at me, bouncing fire in my hand. She backed up, turned her head to the side, took a breath, and then gently let out a puff of air. She looked back at me and nodded. She was giving me instructions. Trusting her completely, I filled my lungs with air, held the fire up in front of my face, and gently blew on it. It acted as though I had just sprayed aerosol hairspray at it. A stream of fire came off the other side of my palm. My mouth dropped open in shock. Then a question popped into my mind. If I could expand fire by blowing on it, would I not be able to blow it out anymore? Again, I took a deep breath, thought of the flame going out, and blew. The flame extinguished immediately.

  I whipped my head around to look at Victoria. I was like a kid who’d just received the keys to his first car. I ran to her and threw my arms around her leg. She had known that I had more abilities than just moving and holding fire when I hadn’t even thought of being able to use my breath to enhance it. She swung her head down to me and sniffed loudly. Once again, I had forgotten my skin was smoking. She pulled her head back slightly and let a tiny puff of air out that blew over me. My skin stopped smoking all at once. It was as if she’d just blown out a match.

  I ran to the other side of her and mounted her, pulling her up into an immediate launch. I had to get to Gale as quickly as possible and inform her of my new abilities. As we were flying, two figures appeared inside another empty circle on my arm. One was a flame, and the other were stars that I assumed represented magic. While I loved the magic that Heather taught me, each one of my new talents felt like magic anyway, and, of course, since I was preparing to battle fire with fire literally, I touched the flame symbol and watched it expand to fill in the circle.

  More power filled my body as Victoria and I flew, the thrill of my discovery fueling us both.

  30

  After landing, I ran into the Academy and headed directly for the Reflection room. Gale was usually in there, and I wanted to tell her the exciting news as soon as possible. I threw open the door and was met with Gale, Heather, Deyla, and Aron turning to stare at me. Having them all in the same place made me even more excited. It didn’t even bother me that none of them seemed too happy with me at the moment.

  “Hey, ladies!” I said, strolling by the tables to meet them around the podium. “I have news for you!”

  “Blake, we were just talking about…”

  “Nope! I don’t want to hear a word until you hear what I have to say,” I cut Gale off. She put her hand on her hip and looked irritated.

  “Fine, we will listen to your news first,” she replied, her face softening as she spoke.

  “I can control fire. I don’t mean just any fire. I can control blue fire. It’s the same kind of flames that came out of the Healing dragon’s cave at me,” As I told them, my excitement grew.

  “When did you go to Airmed’s cave?” Gale was shocked.

  “Yesterday,” I said. “I was wiped out when I got back here, so I just went to bed.”

  “Not many people see the fire from that cave and live to tell about it,” Aron piped up. I looked over at her and smiled.

  “Well, now I think that I can not only live to tell about it, but get through it and into the cave!” My words made her mouth fall open in shock.

  “Now, wait just a minute,” Heather chimed in. “There’s no way you’re ready to take on that kind of magic even if you can control a little fire.”

  “I can’t just ‘control a little fire,’” I spat back sarcastically. “Who here, other than Deyla, knew that Victoria could breathe blue and white flames?”

  I scanned the room, and instead of looking at me, everyone was looking at Deyla.

  “Exactly,” I said when it became apparent nobody had known. “Well, Victoria and I went out to practice with it today. I can put up the same kind of barrier that the cave has in front of it. Even better than that, I reached through the barrier and pulled fire from the other side. I held it in my hand!”

  “How, though?” Gale finally spoke up again.

  “It felt like the most natural thing in the world! Plus, Victoria actually taught me something else I didn’t know I could do,” I nearly shouted, I was so excited.

  Since I knew that just telling them would lead to more questions, I decided to show them. I walked to one of the torches on the wall and took a deep breath. I glanced at the girls and then reached my hand into the flames, pulled one out, and returned to them.

  “Check this out!” I whispered as I held the flame in front of my face.

  I aimed my hand away from them and gently blew on the fire in my palm. My breath ignited the flame and expanded it as it shot off my hand. I closed my hand once the fire had died back down to one flame, extinguishing it. I expected someone to say something, be shocked, gasp in awe, but nobody made a sound. Instead, they all just stood there, mouths open and staring.

  “Now, do you see why I think I can get into the cave? All I have to do is push the barrier back a little at a time until I’m past where the magic to create the flames origin
ated from. Then Heather can work her magic to bring down the whole operation,” I explained to them.

  Finally, Gale closed her mouth and cleared her throat.

  “You are confident in your abilities?” she asked quietly.

  “I am one-hundred percent confident in my abilities,” I started. “Also, I was considering something earlier today. Whoever spelled the cave could’ve either wanted Airmed to stay in, which wouldn’t have worked. As a dragon, she would have been able to walk through the flames. So, I think there is something in that cave that someone wants to be kept a secret.”

  “That does make more sense. I never could quite wrap my head around why anybody would spell it at all,” Gale replied. “They can’t keep Airmed in, so what else could be in there that they, whoever they are, doesn’t want to be seen?”

  “I don’t know, but I truly believe we have the ability to get in and find out,” I told them with all the confidence in the world.

  The four of them looked from one to the other. It felt like they were communicating with one another through their eyes. They went on like that for over a minute, and I was beginning to get impatient when all four turned to face me directly.

  “We will go first thing tomorrow morning,” Aron told me. It surprised me that I didn’t get more of an argument from them.

  “That’s perfect!” Anticipation and impatience flowed through me.

  The five of us went our separate ways, me with instructions to spend the rest of the day resting. I tried telling them that I was no longer being drained by the magic I’d used, but they insisted. However, ten minutes after I got back to my room, I knew I wouldn’t be able to sit around and do nothing. I left my room and went just down the hall to Fitz’s room and quietly knocked on the door. I didn’t know his training schedule, but I hoped he had a bit of a break.

  Fitz opened the door almost before I could get my hand off it.

  “Blake! Hey, man!” he greeted me happily.

  “Hey, Fitz. What are you doing right now?” He backed up to allow me in, but I remained in the hallway.

  “Not much of anything. My next class was canceled. Some guy tried to play with potions without knowing much about them and blew some stuff up, so they are cleaning the classroom. Why?” he replied.

  “I’m going to see Cadia. Wanna come?” I wasn’t sure exactly why I wanted him to go with me, perhaps because he might know a way to sneak out of the Academy without being seen.

  Fitz’s eyes grew wide. “Do I ever!!” He didn’t waste another second on details. He grabbed his boots and put them on as he walked out the door to join me.

  “Do you know the best way to get to her lair without being seen?” I asked nonchalantly.

  “Sure, but why do we not need to remain unseen?” He seemed more curious than alarmed.

  “I’m supposed to be resting, but there’s no way I can just sit around in my room,” I replied.

  “Yeah, sitting around bored is bullshit. If you want to see Cadia without being seen, we’ll have to go this way,” he said, thumbing down the hall in the opposite direction we were facing.

  “Appreciate it, man. Let’s go!” I replied.

  I thought about giving him an out because I had a good feeling he’d get into trouble if he was caught with me, but I thought better of it. He was an adult and could make his own decisions, good or bad. The part of the hallway we headed down was new to me. I’d never been past my room door. It looked completely normal until it suddenly dead-ended.

  I glanced at Fitz, questioning whether he actually knew where he was going or not.

  Reaching forward, he slid his hand along the corner where the end and sidewalls met. Halfway to the floor, he pushed with all his might. A light crackling rang out just before the dead-end turned into a doorway.

  “How do you know this is here?” I asked, impressed a little.

  “I’ve been here a long time, man. Wherever we end up in this labyrinth of a place, there are always at least two ways out. In this case, the path to the staircase, or this,” he said, motioning to the door. “They just aren’t always apparent.”

  It surprised me to learn what he’d told me and was very appreciative of the knowledge. I followed him through the door which immediately led down a steep flight of stairs. The door closed behind us, and for a moment, the passageway was completely dark.

  Slowly, a light glow began illuminating the stairs. It was similar to the path lights in a movie theater. We continued down for what seemed like a quarter mile before making our way to a small cavern deep underground. There were torches lighting the walls, but the room was bare otherwise.

  “Where are we?” I asked Fitz, glancing around to find another opening in the room.

  “We’re right beside the top portion of Cadia’s lair,” he said with a proud smile.

  “Why would Gale take me outside and around and all over the place if it was this easy to get there?” I wondered out loud.

  “No reason to bore you when she has the opportunity to demonstrate how elaborate and amazing this place is,” he replied as though it was obvious.

  I followed him to the other side of the room, where he stood and examined the wall. He found a faint seam in the stone and repeated his slide-and-push trick just to the left of it. That door led to a dark tunnel that veered off to the right. The passage was darker than the first, so we both had to move through slowly until our eyes adjusted. It curved left and right a few times, and suddenly, we found ourselves in the same cavern that Gale had taken me to, only we were on the other side of it. It was just as pitch black as it was the first time. The only reason I knew where we were was because of the tiny bit of light spilling out from the passageway. However, the door soon closed behind us, cutting even that out.

  “I’ve never been here before,” Fitz said, his voice dripping with awe.

  “You know how to get here but have never come? Why not?” Fitz didn’t seem like he would pass up the opportunity.

  “She’ll only come up for the Dragonmancer, and since we haven’t had one before you, since I’ve been alive anyway, there was no reason to,” he replied.

  “Well, let’s see if I can get her attention.” I closed my eyes against the darkness and whispered, “Cadia.”

  I wasn’t sure how Cadia had known I was here the first time I’d come, other than some secret connection I wasn’t aware of. It wasn’t long, however, before the same glow as before started to emanate from the dark hole in front of us. It steadily grew brighter until Cadia’s eyes were in full view directly in front of us. I glanced over to Fitz, whose eyes were like saucers and mouth wide open. Turning back to Cadia, I looked deep into her eyes.

  “Hello, Cadia,” I thought, knowing she’d hear the words in my mind.

  “Hello, Blake,” she greeted me. “I see you’ve brought someone new.” She glanced at Fitz.

  “Yes, this is my friend, Fitz. He’s a loyal Ponathian and has led me to see you when I didn’t know my way,” I thought to her.

  “He is welcome, as are you. Do you need something?” Her mind spoke to mine. I hadn’t come with the intention of needing anything, but now that she’d asked, I decided to get some information.

  “Are you able to show me glimpses of the future yet?” I asked her.

  “I am not. I did want to congratulate you on your success with mastering fire, however.” I hadn’t considered that she would know about that.

  “Thank you,” I replied. “Why, if you can see the future, can’t you just tell me about it instead of waiting until I’m able to see it with you?”

  “The images I see would make sense to you differently than they do me. You are out there, in the world, having experiences different from mine. If I were to tell you about a place, and you went there, thinking my description matched what you were seeing, there would still be a chance you were in the wrong place. Seeing it for yourself is necessary for the sharing of visions,” she replied, logically.

  “I understand,” I replied truthfully
. “There really wasn’t anything I needed from you. I simply wanted to visit again.”

  “I appreciate your time. I must go now, and so do you. Take your time here in the cave, if you wish, but heed the Leaders’ advice and get yourself rested up for tomorrow. You are going to need it. And please tell Fitz that he is welcome to visit. Even though we cannot communicate, I am a good listener. That part of my story has been lost over the years.” Her eyes pierced mine, and I knew I would be following her instructions to the letter.

  “Thank you, Cadia. I will tell him.” I thought to her as she started sinking down, back into her dark hole, taking the light in the cave with her. The passageway door opened by itself, giving us a tiny amount of light to see by.

  I looked at Fitz, who hadn’t moved, and whose face hadn’t changed expression. I chuckled and decided to wait and see how long it would take for him to regain his faculties. It was a full two minutes or so before he could even shift his eyes, and another one before he finally closed his mouth.

  “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” I asked him, wondering if he would be able to speak. He cleared his throat and looked at me.

  “She’s the most beautiful dragon I’ve ever seen,” he whispered.

  “She wanted me to tell you ‘hello’ and that you are welcome to come to talk to her anytime,” I told him. His mouth fell open once again.

  “When did she do that? It was completely silent in here the whole time she was up!” His confusion presented as excitement.

  “We talk with our thoughts,” I explained.

  “That is the coolest thing I’ve ever heard of anybody doing!” he spoke out, finally raising his voice above a whisper.

  “It’s pretty cool to be able to do it,” I laughed. “Let’s get out of here. She said we could stay, but there’s really no reason to.”