“Ice dragon,” Cheleya commanded another dragon mage spell into being. The air changed in front of her right hand pointed at the pool. Both the pool and the gargoyle in it became cold and stiff. The shape of a sinewy dragon hurled into the pool before Mor’treya could escape and the water froze binding her legs. Ice formed on the gargoyle’s rough clothing hampering her upper body as well.
A scream of anger raged from the mar’goyn’lya, but Cheleya’s attention was no longer on her bound friend. The dragoness knew that would only hold the woman for a short time and it was time to see if her master would win over his student.
Cor’Dargan’s speed on land was the only thing keeping him from defeat. His stone runner title had been earned long ago and it was one of the spells that he still often used. It was also magic that he had created and few had come to master.
Hovering in the air and dodging the stone projectiles thrown at him easily, Alk’leyal fought him with an advantage. The fact that he had failed to defeat the che’ther bound to land was beginning to frustrate the wizard, but it was just the latest conflict between the two races. Before their world burned and they fled to Alus, che’ther and mar’goyn’lya had been in a struggle for dominance of their world. The creatures of the air looked down on their enemies, but the strength of the giant land monsters could never be overcome.
Only when their world was dying from a sun that sought to burn the life from them all, had the two races come together for mutual survival.
Then they found their races reduced to a few thousand total surrounded by humans numbering in the hundreds of thousands and perhaps more, so they continued to work together forming stronger bonds. Though neither che’ther nor mar’goyn’lya held any hatred for their brothers any longer, they still often considered who was better. The gargoyles ruled the air and lived in their eyries, while the massive dragons built their city and farms on the lower ground.
Dragon magic brought those two worlds together in a unique way. Che’ther became human in form and learned to fly invading the world of the mar’goyn’lya letting them learn more of their brothers. The gargoyles reaped the benefits of having che’ther farms and goods, but there was a certain amount of resistance to the dragon mages. They worked together, but their iron hold on the air was lessened by those who could fly as humans with their amulets.
Such differences often sought to abolish their cooperative world, but they continued to live together in harmony even so. Cor’Dargan could feel the mar’goyn’lya’s enjoyment at fighting a che’ther even if he was in human form. It was a return to the days of old when a gargoyle could challenge a dragon to prove their dominance over those on the ground.
“You’re not bad, Stone Runner, for a farmer,” Alk’leyal chided the che’ther raising stone barriers to weave between separating him from the winged wizard. “If you were stronger in fire or wind, perhaps you could even beat me, but you are trapped with that limited earth magic. You can’t reach me, but I can reach you. I admit that you are quick or this would be over already, but you are on borrowed time.”
“Your advantage of flight saves you the same disaster,” Dargan countered as he determined his options. The wizard was correct that using his current tactics left him on borrowed time. It was only a matter of Alk’leyal catching him in the open before the farmer was done. “I would use wings to join you, but I fear that I am like a newborn calf on its legs for the first time. My daughter is the one to fear in the air.”
Pointing towards the pool and Mor’treya fighting to get free from Cheleya’s ice spell, Cor’Dargan added, “Your friend has discovered that for herself apparently.”
A quick glance towards the pool gave the farmer a chance to strike back in the gargoyle’s confident dismissal of him. Stone lifted beneath Dargan as he sent his magic into the ground around him as well. Hundreds of pounds of earth rose in roughly three foot sections all around the gargoyle. Leaping from the stone column beneath his feet, the che’ther raced forward using his stone runner spell from one step to another closing the distance so fast that Alk’leyal was nearly within his grasp within seconds.
“How?” the wizard exclaimed in shock trying to lift free of the surrounding stone.
Hands coming together in a clap, Dargan brought the stone up and around the gargoyle trapping wings and arms before he could rise. Letting the weight of the stones carry Alk’leyal towards the ground, the farmer released the remaining steps that were taxing his strength quickly. A thundering of booms as the heavy earth returned to its origin brought other eyes to their match in surprise.
Dargan searched the arena and the air above looking to help if he could.
“Too bad you destroyed the power of my amulet,” Cheleya stated to Malaketh as the two stared at one another in a stalemate of inaction. The girl had risen to confront her master leaving little space between them to react. For his part, Malaketh seemed wary of his student and her ability to use magic with greater skill than he expected. “If you had that, I bet that you could have made me willingly follow you back to Mar’kal. I might even say that I willingly stole from the academy and serve the Dark Emperor, but you chose to seal the pieces inside of me to prevent my ever changing back to a che’ther!”
Her words were becoming heated, but she maintained a cool, calm demeanor awaiting his attack. If the fight went too long, she had no doubt that Mor’treya would be rejoining Malaketh in the sky to try and destroy her. Unfortunately, the dragoness had no idea if she could defeat the man who had taught her much of what she knew. She could only hope that the adage that those who couldn’t do taught, applied here. Sadly that rarely happened in the wizard world however.
“I don’t know what you mean, my former student. Perhaps your meddling with artifacts that you couldn’t understand or control put you in this state. Your strange fixation on trying to make everyone believe that I am the criminal here is appalling, young lady. Surely the wizards in Mar’kal will have to look into what is coloring your mind. Is this what made you turn against Mar’kal and steal from the Academy of Magic?”
“Shut up, Malaketh! The others can’t hear you here. They are too busy fighting each other to pay attention to us right now.
“You can stop lying to the air, because I know what you did to me.”
“Lying to the air,” the man said in amusement. “Fine, if you are done talking then it is time that I show you why I am a master and you are still a student. I will hate harming that pretty little human face though. Truly it is amazing what these amulets will create. If I didn’t know better, I would think that you are one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. Alas should you fall from the sky and crush your beautiful skull, it would truly be a shame.”
Twin flaming dragon claws reached for the girl projected from his outstretched hands reaching to snare the dragoness.
“Wing strike,” Cheleya snapped as her right wing twisted with her body. Striking almost faster than the eye could see, the wing sliced like an iron blade through the pair of claws.
His eyes went wide with surprise, but Malaketh was a master as he had said and quickly countered with fire and wind. Tornadoes of fire spun from his hands to strike at the dragoness like dragon fire.
Ducking and diving towards the ground, Cheleya sought to avoid the flame as the wizard guided his spells to chase her at an angle. His reach was surprising, but the girl managed to escape the fires much to his annoyance.
Turning to face him from a greater distance, Cheleya noted that the man touched his amulet before a surge of power sent a bolt of darkness to try and strike across the distance. Countering with the dragon claw spell, the dragoness watched as Malaketh’s eyes narrowed seeing his spell easily thwarted by the dragon magic.
The two faced off while Cheleya wished that the others had seen her master’s use of dark magic. It was a spell that wasn’t used in Mar’kal, but she had heard mention of the spell being used in the tournament. The girl had also seen the shrike wizard fight with such a spell and watched drag
on magic defeat his. The night magic had many strengths, but it was a counter to elemental magic. Apparently Malaketh had yet to learn that dragon magic wasn’t elemental based and thus was the perfect defense against the dark magic of the emperor’s wizards.
“Ice dragon,” Cheleya ordered a second ice spell directing it at her master. Malaketh tried to dodge it, but the girl was too fast. The icy construct clipped his left wing freezing it instantly causing the wing to break, but the master didn’t panic despite the setback. It was a momentary win as the man had barely dropped a dozen feet before a new wing was called forth with another spell.
“Dragon gale,” the man fired off a second spell an instant later.
A torrent of wind whipped the air tossing the girl like a leaf before a storm. Seeing Cheleya at his mercy, Malaketh chained another spell greedily hoping to crush the dragoness with his next blow. “Dragon breath,” he ordered blowing his student a fiery kiss as a stream of bright orange fire launched at the faltering dragon mage. With confidence that he was the master and she merely a student, Malaketh didn’t fear as he lost sight of her behind the cloud of flame.
Using his temporary blindness, Cheleya called forth a fire wall like the wizards she had watched in the tournament. It was a spell known to the girl, but one that she had barely trained to execute. In her desperation, a thick wall of the solid flame appeared between her and the stream of dragon breath while she released her wings dropping from the gale force winds.
Once more her magic created her crimson wings to glitter in the night like flame. Malaketh spotted the girl below him and used a dragon claw to try driving her from the air. It was a quick reaction, but not quick enough as Cheleya responded with a slash of her wing.
“Wing strike,” she declared making her wing like iron with the sharpness of a shrike blade. The glowing claw was split in two before the spell faltered into nothingness.
Lifting higher into the air, the two traded attacks with fireballs with little results as each simply caught them on their shields deflecting them away easily. Malaketh reassessed his student as they took stock of each other trying to think of a way to best their opponent. For the master, it was a humiliating moment. His strength and skill had made him a teacher of the art. How could a dragoness trapped in a little girl’s body, with only a year of training; be able to trade him blow for blow and more importantly how could she look so calm doing it?
He reached for the black amulet thinking to try his magic on the girl. It was a thought of frustration more than desperation. Malaketh was certain that he could defeat his student, but the wizard’s patience was dwindling after weeks of trying to rid him of the tenacious little dragoness.
Before he could try his attack, a scream of anger preceded a gargoyle winging like an arrow for the dragoness. Fireballs and flame were driven by anger and a newly created wind. Caught before the combined attacks, Cheleya called upon the defense of a dragon pulling her wings around her creating a cocoon. Her spell hardened the crimson membrane like armor as she dropped through the fire letting gravity take her below most of the projectiles, but Mor’treya wasn’t so easily put off by the stunt already seen before. It was a simple movement and lacked the speed to separate the dragoness from her magical ability.
As fire reached for the girl from the gargoyle’s newest attacks, she spun out of her protective wings letting them beat to halt her momentum. A shield of wind expanded from her left hand spinning and destroying Mor’treya’s small fireball spells with ease.
“Air lance,” the dragoness ordered the battle mage spell taught to her by Olan only days before. Flinging the spear, Cheleya willed the shaft to strike the mar’goyn’lya in the chest with enough force to knock the breath from her lungs. Unable to speak as she gasped for air, Mor’treya’s fires disappeared and her wings faltered forcing the gargoyle from the fight to recover.
“You fool, can you do nothing right?” Malaketh screamed at the injured woman as she descended to land on the ground beneath them. His eyes swept to the rest of the battleground seeing the mar’goyn’lya giving ground to the che’ther wizards. Anger swept through the man and his left hand grasped the black amulet again. “Fall!” he ordered pointing with his right hand and forefinger. Cheleya could feel a rise in magic around the master, but she held her ground waiting for the affect of his spell to manifest.
Confusion rippled across his face and he repeated the word once more.
Giggling to increase the man’s anger intentionally, Cheleya chided the human, “You can’t control a broken amulet, Malaketh, can you? Thanks to your attempt to kill me, you can no longer control me.”
A growl of irritation led the man to fall back from the girl stopping her words as Cheleya waited to see what he was about to do.
“Destroy Cheleya,” he ordered loudly descending towards Elenek as he used the power of his amulet. The che’ther paused in his battle with the mar’goyn’lya, Stas’kel. Eyes glazed over, the dragon turned his attention from the gargoyle blindly following Malaketh’s order to attack his new opponent. He said nothing but the magical words and didn’t seem to know her beyond being his target thanks to the black amulet.
“Destroy the girl!” the master ordered using his black magic on Lystheir. The second che’ther lifted into the air on dragon wings seeking her target as the little blond began to fly up and away from the people that had once been her defenders.
Before Malaketh could control her father, the che’ther tore the amulet from his neck throwing it to the ground as his human form began to change. Normally words of magic would exact the change, but the circumstances of the battle weakened the artifact’s ability. The change didn’t go quickly, however, and Cor’Dargan staggered as he tried to use his magic as dragon and human limbs shifted fighting for control of his final form.
Readying to attack the farmer wizard as he fought to control his body as it changed and grew ever larger, Malaketh was startled by a cascade of fireballs coming from the direction of the city walls. A roar could be heard uttering each word as the attack struck trying to end the human’s life.
Cheleya noted the fire came from the sky and wondered who it could be since most of those who could fly were suddenly pursuing the dragoness.
“Malaketh, you tried to kill me! Now I’ve come to return the favor,” a familiar voice to Cheleya sounded from the darkness. Kel’lor’s features lit briefly with each cast of flame, though the dragoness was too busy fending off the attacks of the other che’ther to see him for long.
“But you’re supposed to be dead!” the human cried giving way as if before a ghost. His shield caught the flames effortlessly as he desperately clung to the black amulet in his other hand. His eyes sought the confused mar’goyn’lya around him and he shouted, “Don’t just stand there. Stop, Kel’lor!”
Following the power of his amulet, the three mar’goyn’lya heeded the man’s command instantly. Their attacks were straightforward as they rose into the air from three places to attack the lone gargoyle.
Kel’lor’s transformation charm was nowhere in sight as the mage had learned from the lesson given in the hospital, but he was still facing the dark amulet’s power. Pulling back from his assault on the master, he was forced to defend himself from his three kinsmen attacking him now. His attempt to save the day thwarted, Kel’lor joined the fray but against his people instead of the man who had attempted to kill him.
Chapter 32- Winged Dragon
The air was alive with the sounds of wizards battling. Fire and wind roared through the sky as Cheleya and Kel’lor fought off the combined strength of the tracker team.
A dragon looked up watching from the ground wondering what he could do to help the two looking so alone as they fought their defensive battles. Cor’Dargan had been forgotten for the moment as had Mor’treya, who had landed near the pool where everything had started only minutes earlier.
Feeling clumsy walking on four legs after being in human form for so long, the che’ther moved to the grey skinned garg
oyle. “Have you seen enough yet, woman?” the deep rumble of a dragon’s voice questioned the mar’goyn’lya.
A frown crossed her face and Mor’treya looked like she expected the giant creature to attack her, even as he greeted her in turn. She was still breathing hard from the blow of the air lance, but it was obvious that Cheleya had merely meant to stop her without intent to kill. They had been friends and the dragoness still hoped to salvage what they had once had, or so Cor’Dargan thought as he looked at the powerful gargoyle humbled but nearly unharmed.
“What have I seen?” the woman asked refusing to give in to him or anyone. A grudge had formed in her heart for the dragoness, which she had yet to reason through in her head. Whether it stemmed from watching Cheleya excel at flight beyond many mar’goyn’lya, which seemed unnatural to her at best; or being left behind without a word of goodbye, not even she knew.
“The amulet, of course. Can’t you see what he has done? Lystheir and Elenek were protecting Cheleya and now they are attacking with the intent to destroy her. Your own mar’goyn’lya blindly attack Kel’lor and you say that you can’t see the dark magic of your master? Perhaps his constant berating of you for a fool is well deserved after all,” the dragon finished with a sniff of disgust.
The frown deepened as her words came out in scathing fashion, “I am no fool, but I follow the will of the council. She needs to be taken back to Mar’kal for trial, so why am I a fool for doing what our people demand?”
“If you can’t answer that for yourself, then you are already lost. We are wizards and citizens of Mar’kal. The city and the council serve us as we serve them, but we still have freewill to know what is right and wrong. If you can’t see that, then stand aside while I see what I can do to help them survive. Malaketh isn’t trying to take them alive or have you missed his words as you gasp for breath, which you are only able to do because Cheleya spared you.”
Battle Mage: Dragon Mage (Tales of Alus) Page 42
