by Martha Carr
The two mages in training exchanged a quick glance and shrugged in unison.
“Right. Let’s get to it, then. I want you to make another attempt at the Full Appearance. Who will go first?”
“I thought you said we would move on to battle magic,” Bella said.
“I changed my mind.” The veteran war mage sniffed and stared at the girls for an uncomfortably long time. “I want to make sure that your ability to perform that spell yesterday from the beginning wasn’t merely a random fluke.”
Raven wrinkled her nose. “It seems kind of unlikely that it would be random for both of us.”
“It’s also much more unlikely that either of you have the capacity to cast so much as half of the Full Appearance on the very same day you learned it. So you’ll do it again. Miss Chase, you can cast first. Go on.” Alessandra shooed them away with both hands.
“I know,” she told Bella. “My turn behind the stables.”
The girls snickered before she headed toward the long stables at the edge of the field. Leander ambled along behind her and stretched his wings a little in the pale morning light under the clouds that hadn’t yet cleared. When they slipped between the back of the stables and the edge of the forest, Raven put her hands on her hips and tilted her head back. “Ready!”
“All right, Miss Chase.” Alessandra nodded and stepped back to give her student room to work. “Have at it.”
Bella raised her hands and focused on the space between them. “Loquimi magus.”
The air shimmered in front of her, and the image of Raven’s wide eyes and broad smile appeared a second later. “Nice. I can see your whole face this time.”
The other girl’s voice came through with a tinny echo, but it was more than clear enough to understand.
Bella’s hands started to shake, and as Leander’s huge red face appeared over his mage’s shoulder in the circle of light, she released the spell. “Woah.”
“There it is.” Alessandra put a hand on her shoulder and nodded gravely. “That’s the drain I was talking about.”
“I’m fine.” Bella put a hand to her forehead, then lowered it and shook her arms out with a sharp sigh. “Do you still think it’s a fluke?”
The woman removed her hand from her shoulder and folded her arms again. “I am as yet still undecided. Miss Alby! You’re next.”
Raven cast her spell from the other side of the stables. The same long oval of shimmering light appeared in front of Bella, this one a little farther away than when she’d cast it herself.
“All right.” She gritted her teeth and her face rippled in the magic like a reflection in a pond as she looked at her trainer and fellow mage. “Full faces for both of us.” Even her tight smile didn’t hide the fact that she struggled to hold the spell.
“All right. I’m convinced. You can end it now, Miss Alby.” Alessandra nodded.
“I can what?” She squinted at the circle of light. “I can’t hear you.”
“End the spell, Miss Alby. That’s enough.”
“I didn’t… I can’t…” Her eyelids fluttered and the spell ended abruptly.
A piercing shriek was followed by the flap of powerful wings.
“That was too long,” the trainer muttered as she raced toward the stables.
“Raven?” Bella shouted.
Before the woman was halfway to the front of the stables, Raven hollered, “I’m fine! I’m—woah.”
Alessandra stopped and folded her arms again. The mage staggered out from behind the stables and Leander nudged her lower back with his muzzle to keep her moving forward. “That was pushing it, Alby.”
“I didn’t mean to.” She stumbled forward again when the dragon thumped his snout between her shoulder blades. After a few steps, she turned to pat the top of his head. “Hey, I’m okay. I’m good. I can walk and everything.”
“And it looked like you fainted first.”
Raven tried to blink her vison into focus so she could at least look like she met her trainer’s gaze. “I heard you talking, then I didn’t. What happened?”
“Distraction happened, Miss Alby. I told you this spell requires your complete concentration and focus. Do we need to postpone all this for a better time?”
“No. I think I got excited that Bella cast her Full Appearance much stronger than yesterday. And I thought I could too.” Or maybe there’s a giant, nasty-looking dragon thing flying around in the back of my mind.
“Well, you did.” The trainer nodded and looked over her shoulder at Bella. “Not a fluke, Miss Chase.”
“I know.”
“Good. Now that we’ve covered that, I don’t want to see either of you passed out on school grounds from trying to break your own records. Are we clear?”
“Yep.” Raven raised her hand again in a little wave. “This headache is warning enough.”
“Miss Chase?”
Bella folded her arms and glanced at nothing beside her. “Fine.”
Alessandra studied her for a while longer, then muttered to Raven, “The headache should only last another minute or two.”
“Awesome.”
“All right, mages!” The veteran war mage clapped and Raven groaned. “Take a five-minute break before we move on to practicing how to pull your focus in when you need it the most. I can’t have you passing out and falling off the back of your dragon when you’re casting a Full Appearance in the midst of a struggle.”
She glanced at Leander, who lowered his head and watched the woman stalk toward the center of the field to start some kind of stretching routine. “Sorry about that.”
Her dragon pawed the ground and turned away from her. “I didn’t enjoy it.”
“Me, neither. I won’t let it happen again.”
“No, you won’t.”
Still a little shaky, she lowered herself to the ground, crossed her legs, and closed her eyes. I’ll wait for the headache to disappear. Then we’re back in business.
Alessandra hadn’t simply been blowing smoke. The two girls did spend the rest of their training that morning seated in the grass, trying to meditate under their trainer’s guidance while she intermittently made honking noises, clapped sharply, and cast slightly explosive spells a few feet away to distract them. When she finally released them for the day, she didn’t even wait for the questions to start. “Battle magic tomorrow, mages. I highly recommend you keep up with the meditation. You never know when you’ll need it.”
On that note, the woman left and marched in her usual stiff fashion toward Fowler Academy’s main courtyard.
Raven lay back in the grass with a sigh and spread her arms out at her sides. “This is definitely not what I pictured as part of war mage training.”
A few feet away, Bella exhaled a long, slow breath. “That was harder than the Full Appearance.”
“Seriously?”
“Sitting still and doing absolutely nothing? Are you kidding me?” The girl plucked a handful of grass and tossed it against the slight breeze. “Give me something to read or study or practice, and I’m fine.”
“This was practice, Bella.”
“Yeah. Practicing boredom. We’ll be masters of that in no time.”
Raven laughed and rolled onto her side to look at the other young mage. “You are serious.”
“It’s simply not my favorite. At all.” Bella pushed to her feet and brushed the loose blades of grass from her clothes. “I hope she actually gets to the battle magic tomorrow. I was looking forward to that.”
“Me too.”
“I’m going home. See you tomorrow.” She headed toward the main road but turned after a few steps. “Have you read those pages yet?”
She stared at the midday sky that had cleared considerably since morning. “Not yet.”
“You might not wanna wait any longer. Plus, once you read about your mom, we get to switch and read the rest of the journal, right?”
With a curious smile, she sat fully. “I finally got you interested, didn’t I?”
Leander’s warm breath fluttered against the back of Raven’s neck. “Headache gone?”
“Oh, yeah. Alessandra was right. It only lasted a few minutes.”
“You’re still concerned.”
She turned to look up at him and smiled. “Not about the headache. I can’t stop thinking about that dragon-not-dragon thing. It’s really confusing.”
“I won’t take you out to look for a giant flying creature neither of us has seen before.”
“You picked up on my idea to go for a little ride, huh?” Raven stood, brushed her clothes off, and glanced at the sky. “Of course we’re not gonna go looking for it, Leander. But I do want to get into that sky. We didn’t have time for it yesterday.”
He stepped back and spread his massive, translucent wings. “The dragon trainer won’t know what to do when he sees us two days in the same week.”
“Ha. I think you’re right. Let’s forget about draining spells and mystery flying things and go make his day, huh?”
The dragon lowered his neck until his head rested beside his front leg and waited to boost her onto his back. “If you can still get on after falling over with a headache.”
She grinned, took a few steps back, and pointed at him. “You always know how to motivate me.”
Before he could respond, she ran toward him, jumped, and had an extra boost from her dragon familiar’s powerful head beneath her boot. The second she reached his back, Leander was already a foot off the ground and headed toward Moss Ranch.
The wind rushed past her face, buffeted her long red braid, and billowed through her open jacket. She spread her arms and savored the feeling of flight, but she found herself quickly opening her eyes again to scan the clear sky.
I’m not paranoid. I only wanna know what the hell that thing really is.
Chapter Twelve
William Moss whooped with excitement when he saw the huge red dragon and his rider glide toward the dragon stables. He snatched his hat off his head and waved it at them, folded his arms, and grinned. By the time they landed outside the fence around the dragon paddock, the trainer had pulled himself together enough to not throw himself at her for a hug.
“Twice in three days, Raven?” His smile faded and his eyes widened at his next thought. “You didn’t show up with seriously bad news or something, did you?”
She laughed and patted Leander’s long neck appreciatively. “I don’t think I’ve ever shown up here simply to give you bad news.”
“Well, you haven’t been here this much since you and Leander moved to Fowler, so I had to ask. Are you coming down?”
“I wasn’t planning on it.” Raven studied the dragons milling around the huge field within the magically enhanced fence. “Do you think Teo might be up for a ride?”
He smirked. “Teo’s always up for a ride.”
“Great.” When she realized her friend hadn’t moved, she tilted her head. “I feel like there’s a but coming.”
“I’m waiting for you to ask if Teo’s rider wants to come along too.”
Leander lowered his head and hissed twice, which made both young people chuckle.
“I’m sorry. William Moss, would you and Teo care to accompany Leander and me for a ride on this fine spring day?”
“Hey, I like it when you make it sound fancy.” He pointed at her. “It almost sounds official.”
“I’m guessing the official answer is still yes.”
William stuck two fingers in his mouth and leaned toward the fence of the dragon paddock as he emitted a loud, piercing whistle. A few of the dragons out there responded with shrill screeches but only Teo made his way toward the fence and the trainer they both considered his rider.
The lithe green dragon stopped on the other side of the fence and studied William with his silvery eyes. “You called?”
He smirked. “I saw you running around out there with Isabelle. I had to get your attention somehow.”
“Yes.” Teo swiveled his head for another glance at the pale-blue dragon in his clan.
“Hi, Teo.”
“Hello, Raven Alby. Leander.” He inclined his head toward them both. Raven returned the gesture, and Leander spread his wings halfway before he folded them against his back again.
“They wanna go out for a ride,” William muttered. “What do you say?”
“I could fly.”
“That’s what I thought.” The trainer walked a couple feet down the fence and unlatched the gate closest to the stables. He held it open for the green dragon to step through, and the gate shivered a little when he closed it again. He glanced at Raven and Leander and pointed at the stables. “We can’t all be fancy and saddle-less, war mage. Give us a few minutes.”
She bit back another smart retort and instead, replied, “No problem.”
Ten minutes later, he led Teo out of the stables with the full dragon saddle and harness in place. He grinned at Raven still atop the red dragon’s back. “Ready when you are, war mage.”
Raven grinned. “I’m always ready for this.”
“Excellent.” William chuckled, gave Teo’s bright-green scales a little pat so the dragon would lower himself to his belly, and stepped into the stirrup to swing his leg over the saddle. “I’ve missed flying with you two.”
Teo dipped his head. “As have I.”
“Thanks, guys. Exactly like old times, right?”
The trainer grimaced at Leander’s lack of saddle or harness and raised an eyebrow. “Almost.”
With another grin, Raven gave them both a little salute before Leander launched skyward with a mighty beat of his wings. Teo followed a second later, and the two dragons wheeled in a wide turn above the dragon field below them. A few of the Moss Ranch dragons raised their heads to watch, but most of them didn’t seem to care.
As he eased his dragon alongside Leander and they settled into smooth flight, William returned Raven’s salute. She laughed. “Did you guys have anywhere specific in mind?” he asked
“Not really. I thought I’d let Leander take the reins on this one.”
“Very funny.”
“Thanks.”
“Okay, Leander,” the trainer called over the buffeting wind that streamed over Teo’s gracefully long neck. “Wherever you want. We’ll follow your lead.”
The red dragon turned his head slightly to look at his counterpart. “I hope your rider will let you keep up.”
Teo uttered a short screech that sounded much like a spontaneous laugh. “I don’t need him for that.”
Raven burst out laughing, and William frowned playfully at the reins in his hand. “Raven Alby, I think you and your dragon are becoming something of a bad influence on Teo.”
“All in good fun, dragon trainer. Now, keep up.”
The second she said it, Leander beat his wings and hurtled higher above the wisps of clouds left from the day before. The young man only needed to put a little pressure on Teo’s reins before the green dragon streaked after the war mage and her familiar. “You do realize Leander’s not exactly trying to lead by example, right?”
They leveled out a few feet below Leander and to the left. Teo turned his head on his long neck and studied the dragon trainer with wide, amused silver eyes. “Of course I do. But Raven might be.”
William glanced at her. He could only see her leg over Leander’s back, her outstretched arms, and her profile. But the redheaded mage’s eyes were closed, her head thrown back against the wind as she enjoyed the feeling of flight on a dragon without anything to tie her down. “Maybe.” But most of us aren’t so lucky to have that kind of a connection with a dragon.
Leander led them northeast in sweeping patterns that took them over the forest, the small hamlets outside of Brighton, and a few mining sites at the foot of the Mountains of Jordan. She looked at all of it in delight, recognized a few m
ountain ridges, and patted her dragon’s back. “Are you taking us to—”
“Yes.” He lowered his head, beat his powerful wings a few times to gain altitude over the peaks of the mountains, and climbed steadily higher the farther north they flew. “It calls to me today. A future I might have had if it weren’t for you.”
Raven smiled and blinked away a few tears before the wind stole them from her cheeks. Those are only from the wind. It happens all the time. Mostly.
“We really are turning this into a blast from the past, aren’t we?”
The dragon didn’t have to answer.
When the young mage glanced over her shoulder at William and Teo behind them, the dragon trainer gave her a questioning look. She shrugged and her smile widened. I said I’d let Leander take the reins, didn’t I?
They glided over a wide ridge of jagged stone that rose higher than the other mountain ranges they’d passed. Once on the other side, a broad valley stretched out below them and the long grass and wildflowers provided bursts of color between the hundreds of clipped dragons who called this sanctuary their home now. The voices of so many wild beasts without flight rose to meet them.
Raven swallowed and watched the various clans in the sanctuary move in small groups. Bursts of fire, thick black smoke, and a few columns of glittering dragon frost erupted skyward below them. They’re much more active than last time.
Finally, Leander descended to land on the other side of the valley on a rounded hill covered in fresh spring grass. Teo and William alighted beside them a few seconds later.
“You’re still full of surprises.” The trainer waited for the green dragon to lower himself before he dismounted. “I gotta hand it to you, Leander. This is the last place I expected you to take us.”
“Expect the unexpected, flyboy.” The red dragon looked at him with narrowed eyes. “Especially from us.”
He laughed and ran his fingers through his hair as if to tidy it. “That’s where I’m at these days, anyway. Whew. What a ride.”
Raven leapt from Leander’s back and landed softly in the grass. “It’s a perfect day for it, huh?”