A plume of flame billowed out from afar. It formed a fireball and rolled towards us.
General Thornicroft unsheathed his sword. It lengthened and morphed into the two-pronged trident I’d seen used in the drogott match. My heart jumped into my throat. With hands that trembled, I pulled out the Parched Sword and pushed my energy through its hilt. The blade transformed into a green flame that matched his weapon.
“Good!” he roared. “Now, knock it away.”
I whacked the fireball, and it exploded into sparks. A relieved breath whooshed out of my lungs. “What was that?”
“Your fear of dragons.”
“But I’m not scared of them.”
“Which is why it was so easy to defeat.” He stepped onto another black cloud and continued down the road.
I leaped after him. “Then why did a fireball come at us at all?”
“Only a fool would have no fear of dragons,” he replied.
We continued along the stepping stones until the darkness beneath us faded, and a lush garden came into view. It consisted of fruit trees, colorful vegetable plots arranged like flower beds, and a lawn dotted with large chamomile flowers.
“What are we doing in the Magical Militia headquarters?” I asked.
“This is your dragon quest, not mine,” he replied. “Clearly, something here is affecting your mental shields.”
I cringed. It was probably the day the Witch Matron told me I had no magical aptitude and ordered me to report to the palace for a meeting with Aunt Cendrilla and the Witch General.
“This way.” He stepped off a cloud, and his feet landed on the chamomile lawn.
I followed him, and we walked around the back of the refectory, where culinary witches served dishes made from home-grown produce. My mouth watered at the assortment of pies, roasted vegetables, chopped vegetable salads drizzled with sauces, and soups.
Among the busy tables crammed with witches eating and chatting over scrolls, sat a slender figure at a large, empty table. Her long, straight hair formed a curtain of platinum around her face as she rolled up a parchment and stuffed it down the front of her bodice. Then she picked up her spoon and stirred her soup.
I blinked hard. This was my first week at the Magical Militia Academy.
“What was that letter?” asked General Thornicroft.
“It was from Mother, saying she’d been recalled to the Fairy Fighting Force.”
He harrumphed. “You cannot blame General Sialia for returning to her duties after you flew the nest.”
I shot him a glare. Was that supposed to be a joke about Mother’s bluebird form? His stoic expression didn’t change, so I guessed he’d just been using the figure of speech. “That wasn’t the upsetting part of the day.”
A pair of sapphire-haired witches strolled past. “Did you hear? Cousin Orson’s visiting the Witch General.”
My other self shot out of her seat. “Father’s here?”
They stopped and stared at the other me. The pair were sisters, distant cousins from a branch family within the Noble House of Bluebeard. “I doubt he’d want to see you.”
Alba burst into a run. I turned to General Thornicroft. “Do we have to follow?”
“Come on.” He headed after her, keeping up with his long strides.
I jogged behind them. “I already know what’s going to happen. The witches were right. Father didn’t want to visit me.”
“If your dragon quest is showing us this incident, it is obviously important. Hurry and find someone to defeat, so we can move onto the next.”
The other me reached the courtyard, where Father had already boarded a flying carriage. He dipped his head as though reading through a scroll, and his wavy, blue hair hid his face. She yelled for his attention, but he didn’t even look out of the window. When the vehicle took off into the skies, she stopped running and bowed her head.
“Did you hear?” The taller of the sisters headed towards the front of the building. “Orson’s finally moved into the palace.”
My other self clenched her fists and followed after the pair. “What did you say?”
The younger turned around, lips quirking. “Steppe will be more stable, now that its regent is finally free to live with his lawful wife.”
The older waved a rolled-up copy of the Ogre Gazette. “At least the Noble House of Bluebeard is no longer a disgrace.”
I glanced at General Thornicroft, who stared at the scene playing out, his face twisted into an expression of disgust. As a friend of Aunt Cendrilla’s, he probably also thought that Mother and I had damaged Father’s good name.
“What do you mean?” My other self’s hand twitched toward the newspaper.
“Oh, you didn’t know?”
“Know what?” Alba asked through clenched teeth.
The sisters exchanged smirks, pausing to draw out the suspense.
“We don’t have to watch this,” I whispered to General Thornicroft.
He clamped a massive hand on my shoulder, holding me in place. “You will if you want to secure your mind and get rid of your clearscale.”
“Fine,” I snapped. “This was the first time I understood what people thought about me. They’re about to say that my birth out of wedlock was a blight on the Noble House, and I’d made Father a laughing stock for sticking with his concubine when he could have had the Queen of Steppe. All the ogre noblemen hated Father and wanted a more respectable and less human ogre for Prince Regent, and all the political infighting is my fault. They end by telling me Queen Cendrilla should have eaten me at birth, as was her right. Can we leave now?”
The ground beneath us disappeared, and we both fell through a black hole. My stomach flipped, but it was still less harrowing than riding a rapier red without a saddle.
General Thornicroft growled. “You were supposed to let the incident finish and then defeat those lying witches!”
“Experiencing it once was enough.”
We hurtled through the air. Somehow, the wind forced me to look directly into his scowl.
He snarled, “Facing each of these events and battling whatever comes at you is the key to plugging the holes in your mind!”
My insides trembled. The altercation at the Magical Militia headquarters was one of the milder torments I had experienced. There were much worse incidents in my past. Some of them both painful and humiliating. I’d tried to push the most disturbing into the back of my mind. If General Thornicroft saw them, I’d never be able to look him in the face again.
The wind went into my eyes, making them water. “I-I need to…” My lip wobbled. “Can’t I do this quest alone?”
“With days, even weeks of practice, you can.” Wind billowed through his platinum hair, pushing it off his face. “But the clearscale might kill you before then.”
I jerked my head away.
“All right.”
Our feet landed on wood, and we stood in front of a rattling crate. Behind us was a version of myself hunched on the seat and clutching my wooden trunk. Ivan lounged next to me, reading aloud from a parchment.
“Why are we on the Fornax Flying Float?” he asked.
One of the planks making up the crate splintered, and the fuzzy, human-sized head of a hornet pushed itself out of the gap. Giant tortoiseshell colored eyes stared out at me from beneath thick, probing antennae.
“Gah!” A tremor seized my body, and I sucked in a breath through my teeth.
“Why, in the name of all things Ogrish, were you trapped in the float with a crate of oversized King hornets?” he growled.
“This didn’t really happen.”
“A dream?”
“Not really. It’s two events jumbled up. Ivan and I got stuck in the float with the crate of hornets, but it wasn’t until a few days later that I met them in person.”
“I see,” he said in a voice that meant the complete opposite. “Then you will defeat the hornets. How did you do it the last time?”
“I ran away.”
“This
time, you must stay and fight.” He stepped back to the other side of the float and spread his arms wide. “Do as I do. Create a net of fire.”
Orange flames spread out from each of his fingers and lengthened across the width of the float. I copied his movements, but my flames only stretched about a foot out from my fingers.
From the corner of my eye, I could see the hornet’s mandible opening and closing, seeming to lengthen with every clack. My insides chilled, even though sweat beaded on my temple.
“Concentrate!” he roared.
Still keeping an eye on the hornet trying to break out of the crate, I pushed more power through my fingers. My heart thrummed hard, and my breaths shallowed. I focused on the flames, lengthening them until they connected with the General’s and formed ten long lines of fire. Then he brought both hands together and twisted one palm, creating a lattice effect on the flames.
I copied his movements and completed the lattice on my side. “What do we do next?”
“Throw it at the hornet.”
“A-all right!” Mirroring General Thornicroft’s every action, I swung my arms and flung the fire at the crate.
The lattice of flames twisted through the air. Both the hornet’s antennae thrashed about, and the creature disappeared into the hole before the fire struck. Smoke rose from the wood, releasing the scent of burning. A buzzing shriek rang out from the crate’s interior.
“Watch!” General Thornicroft steepled his fingers. He pulled them apart, stretching five strings of fire across his chest, then he flipped one hand to the side, and with a flicking movement, created a small net. “Your turn.”
The first net of fire still burned over the crate, so I tried copying his movements but made a fireball. “Ugh. Sorry!”
“You will improve through practice.”
Another hornet’s head broke out from the crate’s side, but before it could fly out, another hornet jammed its self through. The pair screeched at each other.
“Throw it, now!”
I hurled my fireball at the crate, and it thudded on top of both hornets. A sizzle filled the air, accompanied by the scent of pollen and burned hair.
General Thornicroft leaned against the wall, guiding my movements as I generated more and more fire to attack the giant hornets. By the time I’d managed to perfect a net, both arms became heavy, and my fingertips throbbed.
“Good job, cadet.”
“T-thank you, sir.” I turned around, forming the largest net of all. “One last thing before we leave.”
He raised his brows. “Go on.”
Looking past the version of myself cowering next to Ivan, I flicked the fireball over their heads. It burned through the white wall and landed on Roseate’s pink hair. She screamed and overturned the float, tipping us both out.
General Thornicroft and I tumbled through the skies. He raised his brows. “Why did you attack the witch and not Cadet Longhorn?”
“There was no need. In real life, I punched him in the face with the fist of fire, then Father executed him with the Sword of Lightning.”
“A good answer.”
We slowed our descent and floated down toward a clearing in the woods. The walled city of Metropole stood on a hill in the distance, next to the hill that housed the barracks of the King’s Army.
A lump of fear dropped into my stomach, and I sped down to the surface with a groan. “Oh no.”
“This is the United Kingdom of Seven.” General Thornicroft dove after me. “Why would a foreign country give such a strong reaction?”
My insides chilled, and I splayed my hands out, trying to break my fall. “We have to stop this dragon quest, now!”
Chapter 8
The moment my feet hit the ground and sank into the leaf litter, a numbing terror seized my legs and sent nausea rippling through my belly. Trees surrounded the clearing, seeming to grow taller and tilt inward, and I shuddered. At the other end stood a stone hut—the place of my worst memory. I couldn’t go inside. No matter how many times I’d pushed that incident to the corners of my mind, it would resurface, forcing me to stuff it back down.
“I can’t do this.” My voice was a hoarse whisper.
“Whatever you find in there will not harm you,” said General Thornicroft in an unusually soft voice. “But we must go and finish your quest.”
I sucked in mouthfuls of air, but they caught in the back of my throat. My head spun, and my vision turned grey around the edges. Trying to keep the tremble out of my voice, I said, “You don’t understand.”
“Did someone die?” he asked.
“I-I think so.”
“Friends? Family? Allies?”
I shook my head, and the movement caused a fresh wave of dizziness. Lowering my gaze to the fallen leaves, I rubbed my chest and forced shallow breaths in and out of my lungs. If I had taken the time to defeat those witches at the Magical Militia, it might have given me the courage to face this memory. “Can we come back to this one later?”
“Why the reluctance?” asked General Thornicroft.
“I-it’s… I can’t. P-please don’t make me do this!” I tried to break away, but General Thornicroft grabbed both my arms. It was futile. No power in the Known World could make me go into that hut.
He gave me a gentle shake. “Calm yourself, Cadet!”
I pressed my trembling lips together and breathed hard. This might have been the incident that had started the holes in my mind. After this, I hadn’t fully trusted Father or Aunt Cendrilla.
“Good. I will be at your side. Who are we about to face?”
Before I could answer, four cloaked and hooded men stepped out from behind a giant oak. The largest of them carried a crying and squirming bundle wrapped in ropes and sackcloth.
A moan stuck in my throat, and my leather flying jacket tightened around my ribs, cutting off my air. Their captor was my seven-year-old self.
“C-can’t we attack them from here?” I asked.
“No. We must wait for the most painful part of that memory. That’s what caused the damage to your mind.”
“Why?” the word came out as a gasp.
“It’s how the dragon quest works.” He shook his head. “Avoid it, and you will continue to suffer Fyrian’s symptoms.”
I blinked hard, trying to clear my vision, cold sweat beaded on my brow. He was right. I had to face this. “A-all right.”
The screams of my younger self pierced the air, setting my teeth on edge. Back then, I’d been so small and helpless.
“Auntie Rilla, Auntie Rilla!” she screamed from within the sack.
My own eyes filled with tears of rage. In a moment, I would realize that there was only one person in the Known World whose love for me was true.
The taller of the trio jabbed a staff topped with a tiger’s eye crystal into my younger self. “Someone silence the brat.”
“No need,” replied the one holding me. “This part of the forest is deserted.”
“But still, might she sprout claws or a beak?” asked the third.
“Our sources tell us the child has yet to develop her powers.”
Each scream of my younger self for Aunt Cendrilla to come and rescue me tore into my heart. I wanted to look away, but icy fear kept me in its grip. Even though I knew Mother was on the way with reinforcements, and the men would be defeated and punished, the scene playing out before me still sent tremors down my spine.
“Very well,” said the man holding the staff. The wind blew off his hood, revealing long, black hair, a receding chin, and a pointed nose. “Ready the extricator. I wish to perform the extraction and be halfway across the Cursed Sea before anyone sends a search party.”
Blood drained from my face, replaced by cold despair. The man was talking about the collar alchemists used to extract a being’s life-force. I shook my head.
They disappeared into the stone hut, and a large hand landed over my shoulder blades and guided me to follow the men.
“Time to go,” murmured a voice so t
ender, it couldn’t have come from General Thornicroft.
A boulder of dread dropped into my belly, making me double over and groan. I wasn’t ready to confront this memory. I glanced up at my instructor, meeting his quicksilver eyes. “What happens if I fail, sir?”
“Do not consider that option.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Do not miss the opportunity to slay the damage from this memory. I will be here to help, but you must act now.”
I nodded. “A-all right.”
On legs as unsteady as saplings, I marched alongside the General across the clearing. Only his strong hand on my back kept me from crumbling onto the forest floor.
“Hold on, Alba!” A familiar voice chirped. I glanced up into the canopy to find a large bluebird with a plumage shining as bright as sapphires and a breast as red as rubies. Her obsidian eyes glinted with fury.
“Mother.”
General Thornicroft glanced up. “You are lucky to have such a formidable mother in General Sialia.”
Flying behind her in formation were four other birds about the same size, indicating that they were also low fairies, and behind them flew smaller bluebirds.
“What is that swarm?” he asked.
From what seemed like leagues away flew hundreds of creatures, many the size of the giant locusts that had surrounded the capital. I shuddered at the sight. “They’re bee hummingbirds.”
“Friends!” cried mother. “Those humans have my chick. Who will fight with us!”
A chorus of bloodthirsty chirps filled the air.
“Do you understand them?” asked the General.
“Only the fairies,” I replied. “Real birds just sound like chirping.”
“Come on.”
My feet froze, despite the gentle hand pushing on my back. I shook my head. It was too much. My chest seized up, tightening until all the air emptied from my lungs.
“Bluford?”
My hands clutched at my neck, and I gasped for air.
“Bluford, take control of yourself!”
The entire dreamscape shattered into splinters, and I fell back into the bed of my hospital room. General Thornicroft flew several feet and landed hard against the wall. Hairline cracks formed behind him, cutting through some of the runes.
Dragon Mage Academy Box Set Page 51
