Dragon Rider (DragonMage Saga)

by Platt, S. P.

  Shylyn had been sitting thinking about this and had an idea. ‘Angel I think we need to be with our dragons and try and think this out as a group. They are a part of us and so with them we must find the way to go from there.’

  Angel looked at her and nodded. ‘You’re right they are part of us and these decisions must be made together. Come on I think it time we went to bed and sleep for tomorrow we must get to our dragons and with Gavrie back it is not going to be as easy.’

  What tomorrow brought helped them a little for with the Renegades attacking Gavrie had to make sure his students and the other wizards were ready. He had all the students start to learn attacking spells and defensive spells so this way they were going to learn some spells that could help them.

  Gavrie pulled the four of them aside. ‘This is going to get dangerous if we get attacked. I must let you learn, for you will need these if the school is attacked. Now listen to the teachers they know what they are doing and the best spells for certain attacks. You will still be required to practice your clearing the pathways exercise. As this is very important and cannot be stopped. Is that clear?’ All nodded their heads.

  Their first class was with an old teacher and he taught them how to defend and throw up defensive shields. This was like a bubble that you placed around yourself to stop certain spells from entering. They were there for half the morning and then the other half was learning weapon spells.

  The class was run by a young wizard, who would have left the school only last year. They found him good in some of the spells he taught, they could be used for their purpose. One spell was a small fire ball the size of your hand, you would build it in your hand and then using another little spell throws it at the target. The ball of fire would expand and envelop the object just so long as it was not too big.

  With that class finished they quickly grabbed some food and headed over to the door into the other deck and made sure no one was looking in their direction. Finding it clear they went through and quickly headed across the deck.

  They could feel their dragons eager to see them, as they had been able to feel their fear of the attacks and of going up against the Renegade Wizard. They were quickly to the deck where their dragons awaited them. Going over to be with their dragons they found a calm come over them now they were with them. They all found a spot in the sun on the deck and formed a circle so they would be better able to see each other as they talked about what was going to happen.

  ‘We need to work out how we will disrupt the wizard as he tries to work his spell, without getting caught. We could do what we did yesterday and as he weakens the spell we heal it again. The only trouble is he will get wise and come looking for us and we won’t be ready to face an adult wizard.’ Angel knew it would be hard.

  They needed new ideas as to what they could do. ‘What would happen if we were able to free his dragon from the spell he would be trapped here, but the only trouble being, we are in the same situation with us having to face him and he will be to powerful?’ Angel was starting to get frustrated as everything they thought of ended up having to fight the wizard.

  They did not at the moment know what to do, so decide to go for a fly around the deck just to help them think. They had been doing this for a bit when the dragons started doing mock fights and that got Angel thinking.

  Angel flew around each one indicating the deck. ‘What if we were to attack him in the air, then he would have to fight us and his dragon at the same time, which would give us an advantage?’

  They all smiled thinking it a great idea; the dragons were going to practice play fighting to get use to it. They stayed and watched them for a long time still thinking of things that could help them. Medwin suddenly jumped up. ‘What if we grabbed some Dragon Lances and learn to shoot them from the backs of dragons. That would give us another edge over him?’

  It was getting late so they headed back to school passing the area that had been damaged by the wizard. There was no sign of where the spell had been fixed. They all placed their hands on the area just to make sure it was good. They found a trace of the area and could feel the spell unbroken.

  Getting back to school they were again nearly late for the evening meal and Gavrie was in there watching them as they entered. He smiled at them and carried on talking to the other wizards at his table. They sat down and started to eat but every now and then looked at Gavrie and could see he was looking at them.

  Finishing their meal they hurried up to their common room where they could speak without being heard. ‘We're going to have to be careful, for you could see Gavrie looking at us as we come in late. Also every now and then he would look over at us with a funny look on his face. We’ll have to watch the time we spend with our dragons and make sure we’re back in plenty of time.’ Spoke Angel.

  Medwin nodded his head. ‘I saw him as well but we must put time in with our dragons that’s important’

  ‘We might be able to get our dragons to give us a ride to the last deck that can’t be seen from the school. That would get us back quicker and still give us our time with the dragons?’ Shylyn looking around at the others to see what they thought of the idea.

  Maive looked at them and got up. ‘There is one problem with that idea, the renegade wizard, for if he is around we can’t do that. We must be certain he’s not there.’

  Angel was looking out the window and had been thinking of something that may help. ‘There might be one way, we know when he is here because our dragons pick up his pain and anger, but what would happen if our dragons were taking us to the deck close to the school and the renegade wizard saw us as he come to the deck. We would be seen?’

  Medwin looked dejected as he spoke. ‘Then we will have to keep walking all that way back and just have to lose that time with our dragons.’

  ‘No there is a way if it works and it could be dangerous for us at the same time.’ Angel had them all looking at him.

  ‘Go on we need to know what your idea is?’ Shylyn looked around at the others.

  ‘We ask the renegades dragon to give us a warning when they are coming.’ He looked into their surprised faces as he told them.

  ‘How do we ask a dragon who hates wizards and is being held with magic spells to help another wizard?’ Medwin spoke the question that the others where wanting to ask.

  ‘We tell the dragon if he helps us we will do all in our power to free him as soon as we are able to. We can work at freeing the spell you all saw the spell; we can go to the library and look it up. It’s our best hope of being able to spend the time with our dragons and get back to school in plenty of time to stop Gavrie getting suspicious?’ Angel had them all thinking on the idea.

  ‘Let’s sleep on it and see if anyone can come up with anything else that might help?’ Medwin headed off to bed.

  The rest of them nodded and did the same except Angel he went over to the window and sat looking out to sea. In his mind he was thinking on what he had suggested when Aura come into his thoughts. ‘It’s a good idea and from what we think, is the only way to get back in time and spend time with us.’

  ‘I’m glad you think so, it will be tricky to try and persuade the dragon to do this for us. What if we can’t free the dragon then we will have got its hopes up for nothing?’ It pained him to think he couldn’t help the dragon and it thinking he lied just to get help.

  ‘It’s a chance the dragon will take, for if I was him I would do it just for that one chance of freedom. Come now you need sleep for tomorrow I think you will find the others will all agree that it’s the only way. Goodnight Angel?’ Aura left him to think on what she had said.

  ‘Goodnight Aura it will let me sleep easier.’ Angel got up and went to bed thinking she will be right.

  Angel awoke in the morning to Gavrie standing down in their common room waiting for them. Medwin was already there sitting having a drink. Gavrie had brought them their breakfast so they did not have to go down stairs. He could tell this was about them getting to meals late so they
were going to have to be on there guard.

  When they were all seated and eating with Gavrie joining them there was not a word being spoken. Gavrie looked at them one by one till he was back looking at Angel. ‘Do you want to tell me why you have been late for meals the last couple of days?’

  Angel looked at the others and then back at Gavrie, he was going to have to make this sound very convincing. ‘We have been doing the exercise of clearing our magic paths. The magic it feels so good, we forget and we all do it because we’re sure we can come out of it on time. We don’t want to lose that feeling so we haven’t had anybody looking to keep the time for us.’

  Gavrie looked at them all and could see a guilty look on their faces whether it was feeling guilty for that reason or another, he was not sure but he could see with him coming to them about his feelings and what he has noticed has made them think about what they do.

  ‘Ok, but if you come late one more time I will have another wizard do it for you I can’t have you being late for meals they are very important at your age so this will be a warning.’ The look on his face told them, he meant it.

  ‘We won’t miss any more meals and will be there on time every day. We know it is important as when we do get back and start eating, we eat as though we are starving.’ Angel looking guilty and trying to look away.

  They all had guilty looks on their faces and so Gavrie got up and walked to the door, but turned as he had his hand on the handle. ‘Today and for the next four you will be in the library, the wizard there will be showing you how to find books on spells.’

  *

  After closing the door he stood there thinking. They are hiding something so I’m going to have to keep a close eye on them from now on. There is something important about the four, as they are unusual in they work together, Unheard of.

  Wizards are normally loners and will not work their magic together, as they like to be the best and that means keeping their spells to themselves. The only time they come together is to teach the young wizards to create spells. The other times, if they are attacked they will come and fight together but still not reveal the spell.

  At the school the teachers don’t mind if students go off alone to learn their magic, it has always been like that. Wizards are very individualistic and will go out of their way to protect their magic. Once they leave the school after learning all they can they find their own secret place to store and work their magic. Their secret place is well hidden and protected by strong spells.

  They may be very individualistic but they will defend each other very strongly if attacked. With Angel and his friends being together this is very unusual and is the reason Gavrie is keeping an eye on them. He will see once they start to really learn how to do magic if they will still want to learn together.

  *

  Finishing their breakfast they headed off to the library to see who was there to show them what to do. They arrived at the library but there was no one there so decided to look for books themselves. They knew they needed to look for spells of defence and attack.

  ‘The best way to do this is I think by starting at the first book and then working through them from there. If we get the first four books and then see what that will show us?’ Angel was walking over to get the first book as he spoke.

  They all followed and were soon sitting down at a table looking to see what was there. They were all in the A’s books and it took them all morning going through the four books. They knew this was going to be a long job and a tiring one at that. They finished the first books and headed down for a meal and then get to their dragons. They would discuss the books when they are alone with their dragons and see if there was anything in them that might help.

  Taking some food with them they headed over to there favourite corner which is a fair distance from the main entrance into the school. The dragon deck being very large was meant to hold three to four dragons landing at a time.

  Angel and his friends had gone through the door when it was quite and no one watching. They moved through the decks very quickly stopping just for a short time at the place the spell had been weakened. Finding it fine they quickly moved to the last deck where their dragons were waiting for them.

  Giving them a good welcome they sat down at the edge of the deck and talked. ‘Medwin, you Shylyn and Maive will have to go through the clearing path exercise with your dragons. You will need to be able to do like Aura and I, use our magic together. This I feel is going to be very important.’ Looking at them and their dragons.

  ‘Yes I feel it’s important as well and we keep letting other things come in the way of doing it.’ Shylyn had been dying to do this.

  Turning to their dragons they each started to clear the paths one at a time. Angel and Aura were going to try other things while they cleared their magic. They started to go through looking at each others magic to see deep down how it differed.

  ‘Let’s play with the fire spell that we made bigger in class and see if we can do anything else with it?’ Getting himself in a comfortable position Angel looked into Auras eyes and could see the anticipation of doing some magic.

  ‘How will we join our magic at the start of the spell or shall I join when you have it going?’ Her mind sang with the joy of what they were going to do.

  ‘I think I will get the spell working and make it as strong and big as I can, then you join me and we will see how much bigger it’ll get.’ Angel felt the same feelings as Aura building up in himself. Magic was a strong feeling in him and he enjoyed it.

  Sitting very still they looked at a spot that wasn’t too far and then Angel remembering what he did the other day formed the spell. Where they were looking a little fire appeared, Angel then changed the spell so it would get bigger and bigger and bigger. The fire was now a very large jet of flame going straight up into the air.

  It didn’t take up a lot of room but was concentrated into the air. ‘Aura I think that’s as big as I can make it at the moment so join me now with your magic. I will form it around the fire and push your magic into the fire to make it go higher.’ Angel was concentrating on the pattern in the spell as he asked Aura to bring her magic in.

  ‘I am coming in now, I will let my magic join with yours and you can make it grow more. You have built a big fire and have kept it to that one area, lets see how high we can go now.’ Aura was pouring her magic into Angels as she marvelled at what they were doing.

  Angel slowly directed her magic into joining his magic letting it increase the strength of the fire pattern. In doing this the fire, went straight up as high as the mountain, catching Angel and Aura by surprise. They quickly realized what they had done and Angel quickly pulled the magic from the spell. The fire dropped down to nothing in seconds.

  Realizing they may have been seen and just hope if they had it was not the Renegade Wizard. The one thing they don’t want to do is let him know their magic. Angel and Aura looked at each other and the look on their faces; it was just pure surprise and joy at what they had done.

  ‘We had better not do that again, so we will have to do something smaller with more magic. Let’s see if we can do the flying bubble but we want to put it around us and see how stable it is. That’s if we can do it as it’s one of the hardest spells to create.’ He was now starting to come down from the high of the spell they had just done.

  ‘We were going through the first four master books in the library and they told of the flying bubble spell. I went to that part of the library to see if the book was their and had a quick look at the spell, I think I can do it or I will try and do it.’ Angel looking in the same spot as before while telling Aura of the master book

  ‘Here goes now we form the pattern like a ball of rope wrapping it around and around into a ball. The hardest part is keeping gaps between each strand the same. That’s it around and around, now Aura bring in your magic and weave it in with my magic and then we keep going around.’ As he concentrated on the pattern something started to go out of place and the bubble su
ddenly went very small very quickly till you could no longer see it.

  Angel looked at Aura with a horrible expression on his face. ‘If we had put the bubble around us we would have died.’

  Aura spoke to him with just as much horror in her voice. ‘It’s alright we didn’t did we. Putting the bubble out around nothing is what any wizard would have first tried. But we do have to be careful as that was the second spell we have tried and has gone wrong.’

  ‘Yes, I think for the day we will do no more and try and see what went wrong. Tomorrow when we are in the library I will have another look at the spell and see what it says about it.’ Angel got up and looked at the others still doing their exercise.

  Aura moved over to them. ‘I think it might be time to bring them back as it is getting late. It would appear the wizard is not coming to day so we will be able to give you a ride back to the school?’

  ‘That will be good as those two spells took a lot out of me how about you?’ Asking as he knelt down to Medwin and tapping him on the shoulder.

  ‘I am a little tired but will be fine. I am bigger than you and will be able to last that little longer.’ Aura was doing what he was and stirring her sister and brothers.

  They brought the others out of there exercise and Angel and Aura told what they had been doing and what had happened with the two spells. Looking a bit sheepish as they explained. They found the time was getting on and they would need the dragons to give them a ride back.

  They landed and jumped down and gave their dragons a hug around the head. Aura looked at Angel before speaking. ‘I don’t like the idea of trying to get the Renegade Dragon to help us. With all that fear and anger it releases in his mind he is a very dangerous dragon. If he does help, you will have to be able to free him for if you don’t he will bring the wizard to us.’

  ‘We will find a way to release the dragon as soon as we see the spell and can work out how to dissolve it.’ Angel looking at the others nodding there heads in agreement.