WarMage: Undeniable (The Never Ending War Book 4)

by Martha Carr

  “No I don’t.” She sniffed and nudged him away so he had to pull his arm free. “You look like a crazy person, though. Smiling like that.” They reached the end of the avenue of trees that shadowed the road to Fowler, and the huge clearing of the school grounds came into view. “Maybe pretend to still be sad, huh? If Flynn or any of the professors see you grinning and jumping around, they’re gonna know something’s up.”

  “Oh, yeah. I didn’t think about that. How’s this?” He stuck his bottom lip out in an exaggerated pout.

  Murphy snorted and shoved him away. “That’s even worse.”

  “All right. I’ll take it down. I’m fairly sure I can— Woah.” Both young mages stopped in the road outside the gates and stared at the gathering in the field. “That’s more dragons than yesterday.”

  “That’s more dragons than any day.” Murphy tugged on his arm to pull him with her toward the front gates. “Come on. We need to stick to the plan.”

  “The plan didn’t include a dozen dragons at our school, Murph.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” They stepped through the school’s front gates and into the main courtyard that teemed with Fowler Academy students. Everyone was talking about the dragons in the field and jostled one another at the stone archway to get a better look.

  “Why’d they bring so many?”

  “I heard they’re trying to stop another attack on the school.”

  “It’s weird, right? Suddenly, there’s all these dragons hanging around and Raven Alby’s not even here to show off.”

  “That’s Brighton’s dragon trainer out there. The Moss guy.”

  “Wait a minute. What?” Murphy turned toward the second-year talking about the dragon trainer. “That’s not supposed to happen.”

  “If William Moss is out there with all those other people, I guess sticking to the plan isn’t really an option.” Henry frowned.

  She caught his arm again and pulled him through the throng of curious, loud students. “We need to find Bella because she was supposed to be out there talking to—”

  “Murphy! Henry!” The other girl pushed through the students. Circling above her, Wesley screeched in greeting. None of the other mage students seemed to notice.

  “Do you know what’s going on out there?” Murphy asked and gestured toward the growing crowd inside the stone archway.

  Bella shrugged. “My guess is Flynn called in backup. I had a good look at who’s out there.”

  “From here?” Henry frowned at the students pushing each other out of the way to peer through the archway. “That doesn’t really seem doable right now.”

  “No, Wesley went to go check it out.” Bella waved them off. “But we have to—”

  “Wait, and he showed you?” Murphy’s mouth dropped open.

  “Yes, Wesley can now send me images like Professor Worley showed us. Hurray. Can we please focus on what actually matters right now?” Her companions nodded. “There’s a change of plans. Headmaster Flynn’s out there with the riders who came in from wherever. I saw two patches with Nadine’s banner and a few others. So, Murphy, you won’t find him in his office. And William Moss is out there too.”

  “Yeah, we heard the rumor—hey, watch it, Thomas.” Henry rubbed his shoulder and glared at the other boy’s back. “Put a few dragons out in the field and people lose their minds.”

  “We need to get out there.” Bella gestured for them to follow her as she headed toward the front gates. “They have no idea where Raven is, and they can’t leave without hearing what she told us last night.”

  “So you’re suggesting…”

  “That we run full-speed into a field full of dragons and tell everyone to stop what they’re doing and listen to us.” She peered around the corner of the wall surrounding the school and shrugged. “Unless you guys have a better idea.”

  “Not really…”

  He smacked his forehead. “We’re totally getting expelled.”

  “Not if you let me do the talking. Got it?”

  Murphy nodded and Henry gestured toward the field. “Lead the way, Chase.”

  Bella rolled her eyes. “Keep up.”

  The three mages darted out into the field. They were halfway to the group of at least a dozen dragons gathered beside the stables before another student in the courtyard pointed them out. “Hey, look!”

  Professor Gilliam shoved the students out of the archway and shouted, “Miss Chase! What do you think you’re—Professor Worley.”

  Worley slipped under the archway and nodded. “They must have missed the memo. I’ll bring ʼem back.” He hurried after the young mages, his teeth clenched.

  “Headmaster Flynn!” Bella shouted. The dragon in front of her stretched her wings and staggered back. The surprise rippled through the others, and a few startled shrieks filled the air. “Headmaster!”

  “Watch out!” Henry jerked her back with a handful of her shirt seconds before a silver dragon’s head swung toward them.

  Murphy went in a wide circle around the dragons and skirted the barn.

  “What’s going on over here?” A man in a navy flight suit raised his hands to pull one of the startled dragons down before his gaze settled on Henry and Bella. “Students aren’t allowed out here this morning. Go on back to the courtyard.”

  “We have to speak to Headmaster Flynn.” Bella ducked and tried to see through the milling dragons stretching their wings and walking across her view. “I know he’s out there.”

  “Miss Chase. Mr. Murphy.” Professor Worley came up behind them and folded his arms. “You might not have heard but the field’s closed to students.”

  “Yeah, this guy told us.” Henry gestured toward the man in the flight suit. “Whoever he is.”

  The man scowled. “Professor—”

  “I got it. Thank you.” The professor motioned for Henry and Murphy to come with him. “Right now. You’re already in enough trouble running into a group of gathered dragons like this. Don’t make it worse.”

  “We need to talk to Headmaster Flynn,” Henry argued. “Seriously. Raven got—”

  A piercing screech rang through the air, followed by a guttural bellow that made all the other visiting dragons fall still. Bella and Henry glanced at each other, then raced around the dragons to see Leander standing on the far side of the field.

  The red dragon bucked his head up and down, his wings stretched wide. He flapped them once and blew Murphy’s hair away from her face as she stood directly in front of him with her hand outstretched.

  “Miss Murphy!” Headmaster Flynn bellowed as he strode across the silent field toward her. “I must ask you to step away from Leander and join your fellow students in the—”

  “They found her,” the red dragon growled.

  “They…” The man gaped in surprise when Bella and Henry came running around the edge of the field and stopped beside the girl. He turned to gesture for the other dragon riders to wait and approached the three young mages who stood in front of Raven Alby’s familiar. “I made myself perfectly clear when I said the three of you were to have no part in this.”

  Henry stepped forward. “Right. But we—”

  “We didn’t do anything, Headmaster.” Bella stepped closer to Flynn, and Henry shoved his hands in his pocket. “Raven contacted me again last night and told me more about where she is and what those creatures are.”

  Flynn pressed his lips together and studied the other two students. “What about you two?”

  “Bella told us everything,” Murphy lied. “We believe her.”

  “Yesterday, you had a hard enough time being in the same room together in my office.” Flynn tugged his beard. “What changed?”

  “Raven got taken,” Henry muttered. “That’s what changed. And that’s the only thing that matters right now, don’t you think?”

  “Indeed, Mr. Derks.” The headmaster looked at Leander hovering behind the students. “The riders Mr. Moss was diligent enough to round up for us were about to take off for a s
earch party. I do sincerely hope you three have a good reason for delaying Raven’s rescue.”

  “We might be delaying the search party,” Bella said. “But it’s because we know where she is. Relatively speaking.”

  “You want to hear this, Headmaster.” Murphy crouched to scoop Fritz into her arms. “That search party won’t make it very far if they don’t hear what they’re up against.”

  The man studied his students’ eager faces. “You have ten minutes to convince me that they weren’t ten minutes wasted.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Out near the stables, please. You’ll say what you have to say to the entire fleet of riders who’ve set their own well-being aside to ensure Miss Alby’s. Make it good.” Flynn spun quickly and headed toward the stables.

  “Whew.” Murphy glanced at Henry and Bella. “I definitely liked our original plan more.”

  “Yeah, well, things change. Come on.”

  Henry stepped beside Murphy and leaned toward her. “What were you thinking going up to Leander like that? You’ve never been that close to him before, Murph. He could’ve broken you in half if he wanted—”

  “That is not what I want, mage.”

  “Ah!” He leapt sideways and spun to see Leander walking behind them, his head almost over Murphy’s shoulder. “Jeez! You can’t sneak up on people like that, you…you dragon.”

  “Obviously, I can.”

  Henry gave Murphy and Leander a wide berth as they passed the other gathered dragons and their riders. “I meant figuratively.”

  “And figuratively, Henry, I don’t care about anything but finding Raven. I will hear you speak of what you know.”

  “Right.”

  Murphy slipped past the red dragon’s lowered head to walk beside Henry. “That’s how I got so close. We all want the same thing.”

  “Including not crapping our pants when a dragon sneaks up behind us.” Henry shook his head and adjusted his shoulder bag with a grunt.

  “Henry?” William Moss pushed through the gathered riders and headed toward them. “What’s going on?”

  “We got word from Raven last night.”

  “You heard from her?”

  Murphy nudged Henry in the side. “Oh, uh…Bella Chase did. We’re here for moral support, basically.”

  “What did she say? Is she all right?” William stepped in front of the mage students to block their path. “Seriously. If you guys know something, you have to—”

  “That’s what she’s about to do,” Henry said and pointed beyond the trainer’s shoulder at Bella. “You’re gonna want to hear this too.”

  William spun to face the girl, who stood beside Headmaster Flynn in front of the stables.

  Flynn pointed at Henry and Murphy and crooked his finger. “A joint effort got you three into this. Only a joint effort will get you out of it.”

  “Great.” Henry shoved his hands in his pockets and stepped forward.

  “We got this, Henry.”

  “Yeah, as long as Bella does all the talking.”

  With the three young mages standing in a row in front of the gathering of out-of-town riders and their dragons, Headmaster Flynn swept his arm toward the group. “Miss Chase, Miss Murphy, and Mr. Derks have delayed our search to bring us important information about Raven Alby’s disappearance. Her life may depend on what you’re about to hear.”

  “It does,” Bella added.

  Flynn leaned toward her and raised an eyebrow before he muttered, “I certainly hope so, Miss Chase.” He clasped his hands behind his back and stepped away from the students to listen.

  She cleared her throat and Wesley swooped out of the sky to perch on her shoulder. “Raven contacted me last night with something basically like a calling potion.”

  The riders in the front of the group frowned or gave each other confused glances.

  “Which…most of you don’t even know about because that’s magic. Okay. The how doesn’t matter, but she told me as much as she could about where she is and what took her two nights ago. Raven and Leander were attacked by a dragon—”

  “That’s outrageous!”

  “Headmaster Flynn, we don’t have time for this.”

  “No trained dragon would deliberately knock another rider out of the sky. Not to mention abduct another rider.”

  Wesley screeched in a miniature version of a dragon’s angry cry before he launched a huge ball of fire into the air. The agitated riders stopped talking.

  “Please hear me out.” Bella scanned their faces and took a deep breath. This is what I was made to do. To talk sense into people and get things done. So do it. “These aren’t normal dragons we’re dealing with. And I don’t mean the wild ones with clipped wings or any of those that might still live off the ranches somewhere. These dragons came from across the sea—”

  “Do we have to stand here and listen to this girl’s wild fantasies?”

  “There aren’t any dragons across the sea. Everyone knows that.”

  “We need to fly—”

  Leander uttered another earsplitting bellow, lowered his head, and swung it across the entire gathering as if spraying them with dragon fire instead. The other dragons shuffled nervously and tossed their heads, but everyone was silent again.

  The red dragon lifted his head and seemed to grow an extra few feet. “Listen to the girl. If you think you know more than a mage who’s spoken to Raven herself, go home.”

  Henry nodded at Leander with a crooked smile. “Okay. I like his style.”

  The dragon looked at Bella. “Speak, mage.”

  “Thank you. From what Raven said, these dragons are massive—bigger than anything I think any of us has seen—and there are five of them. They came from across the sea because they think it’s their duty or something to…free the other dragons on Threndor.”

  Murmurs of surprise and concern floated amongst the dozen riders. Their dragons shared silent glances but turned their attention quickly to the young mage.

  “She said they have something against mages for some perceived misuse of magic. And these giant dragons are especially angry with dragon trainers. Probably riders too. If they see a group of dragons carrying humans to rescue her, I don’t think they’ll care about who makes it through that attempt.”

  “And we’re supposed to believe the tale from a teenage girl who claims she spoke to Raven?” The man in the navy flight suit stepped forward, his dragon’s harness hanging loosely in his hand. “I’m sorry, miss, but I can’t afford to put my stock in hearsay. Not with someone’s life on the line.”

  “She’s telling the truth,” Murphy shouted. “Why would she make this up? Why would Raven make any of this up?”

  “Wait a minute.” William Moss stepped beside the mage students and turned to face his fellow dragon trainers and the other riders who’d answered his call. “It makes sense.”

  “We followed you here, William,” another rider shouted. “But you should let your father speak. He’s the one representing Moss Ranch.”

  His gaze flicked toward Headmaster Flynn and he folded his arms. “My father, Roderick, has entrusted me with this gathering and to lead the fleet to find Raven Alby. I speak for both of us today. What we should focus on is everything Miss Chase told us. Raven and Leander were at the Haverson Ranch two nights ago when it burned to the ground. I know you’ve all heard of it. Some of you might have seen it. That’s where she was taken. And four other dragon ranches have been destroyed in the same way in the last week. Sure, there was another fire out in Canterdown a few days ago, but so far, that’s an outlier. And they all look the same. Not only burned buildings but complete demolition by dragon fire. Only not from our dragons.”

  “That hardly proves that a clan of gigantic dragons from across the sea have come to burn our ranches, Moss.”

  “True. But I saw the same thing at the sanctuary a few days ago too.”

  Another murmur of surprise rose from the riders. “The dragons we clipped and sent to that valley mig
ht have even been the first attack. Four dragons were dead and the valley had been scorched to ash. The others were terrified and angry, and they had no idea what had done this to them.”

  “They called it a monster,” Leander added and raised his head.

  “Yes, they did.” William nodded at the red dragon. “And these monsters, even if they are enormous dragons, took Raven Alby, a mage with a dragon familiar. I’m sure I’m not the only one here who can see that Leander isn’t like the rest of our dragons. He was never trained and was almost sent to the sanctuary himself before she stumbled upon him. Sometimes quite literally.”

  Leander snorted.

  “I have no problem believing Miss Chase’s story or that it came straight from Raven. I don’t understand magic, but I know Raven Alby as well as I know myself.” He swallowed and stared at the ground for a moment. “So I say we listen to these mages who risked more than we know to warn us of what we’d fly right into otherwise.”

  “We still don’t know where she is, William.”

  “I don’t buy it.”

  “We’ve wasted enough time already.”

  Leander screeched again. “Ask your dragons,” he roared.

  Every rider looked at the dragon beside them, and none of them knew what he meant.

  “Truth,” a silver dragon muttered.

  A green female on the other side of the group raised her head. “Truth.”

  The other dragons quickly took up the one-word vow and their voices rose together. The riders were astonished but didn’t interrupt.

  Bella folded her arms and looked at William with a smirk. “Dragons can smell a lie.”

  He met her gaze and raised his eyebrows. “Yes, they can.”

  When the short chant was over, Headmaster Flynn cleared his throat. “Miss Chase, did Raven happen to give you a location of where she may be now?”

  She nodded. “She thought she was somewhere in the mountains near the dragon sanctuary.”

  “In a cave,” Henry shouted. “With a giant crack in the ceiling!”

  Shooting the wizard a warning look, Bella muttered, “I was getting to that part.”

  “Right. I know you told me. I only wanted to make sure you…hadn’t forgotten.” He glanced quickly at Flynn and shrugged.