Dragon Rise

by D. K. Holmberg

  As Fes stared up at the temple, he felt almost as if he had to fight through the power pushing against him. It was a physical presence, almost a force that resisted him.

  “I feel… strange.”

  Fes nodded. “You’re feeling the fire mage magic.”

  “How can I feel that?”

  Fes shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve never really understood why I was sensitive to it. I thought I was the only one, and then I learned that it was because I was descended from the Deshazl. I still don’t entirely know why we can feel the fire mage magic, unless it has something to do with the connection to the dragons and the fact that the fire mages use the dragon relics in their spells.”

  “It’s pushing against us,” Nick said.

  “It is, but we have to ignore it.”

  He saw someone moving at one end of the street and looked up. Fes had hoped that he would encounter a fire mage—maybe even a high-enough ranking one that he could appeal to—but instead he saw a Dragon Guard.

  His breath caught. There was no mistaking the maroon and gold cloak, even in the faint light drifting from windows. It was barely enough to see clearly, but when the man noticed Fes, he started toward him.

  “Be ready,” Fes said.

  “Ready for what?”

  Fes nodded. “They don’t like me much.”

  Nick looked down at his sword. “I guess not, seeing as how you robbed them.”

  “I didn’t rob them,” he said. “I took a valuable dragonglass relic from them.”

  Nick chuckled softly. “It sounds like you robbed them.”

  “I suppose it does,” Fes admitted.

  A part of him feared that it would be Jaken, and he was relieved when he saw that it wasn’t. If it had been Jaken, what would Fes have done? He needed to alert the Dragon Guard of the potential of an attack, but he didn’t want to get into a fight.

  “It’s a late hour for arrivals,” the soldier said.

  Fes stayed mounted. It was better if they needed to make a quick escape. He hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but if it did, staying mounted would give him a chance to get free.

  “We would’ve waited until morning, but we were followed. I think it’s the rebellion.”

  The Dragon Guard soldier’s eyes narrowed, and his hand went to his sword. Would it be a dragonglass plate or would it be simple steel? If it came to a fight, a steel sword would shatter when confronted with the dragonglass blade.

  “The rebellion wouldn’t risk coming here.”

  “Don’t take my word for it; go and see. They’re camped out on the hillside just at the edge of the city.”

  Had he gotten a suspicious Dragon Guard or someone who was more inclined to dismiss him?

  “Why don’t you come with me, and then we can talk about what you saw. If the rebellion is out there, there’s probably a reason that they are after you. Were you with them and then deserted?” The soldier looked up at Fes, seemingly taking in his cloak before his gaze settled on the daggers sheathed at his waist. His hand squeezed the hilt of his sword. “You’re him.”

  “I don’t know who you’re worried about, but I think you should be more concerned about the soldiers sitting outside the city,” Fes said.

  “If there are soldiers here, it’s only because you led them here.”

  He started to unsheathe his sword, and Fes noticed that it was simple steel.

  He jumped from the saddle, pulling one of his daggers free and cutting through the sword before the man had a chance to brandish it.

  The soldier took a step back, eyeing the broken end of his sword with shock.

  “You are him.”

  “Listen. I don’t care what happened before, but there are soldiers on the doorstep of Dragash. If you do nothing, they will attack.”

  Fes wasn’t certain whether that was true or not. As far as he knew, they would remain motionless, waiting for the Deshazl to come out of the city.

  Unless they had some way of counteracting the fire mage magic. If they did, if they could somehow suppress the effect of the spell, what would happen?

  A Calling.

  How many in the city were susceptible to it?

  At least thirty, and possibly more. If they were powerful enough to control them, they could set them loose, attacking the city, and then what?

  More than ever, Fes feared to wait, letting the Damhur have a chance to get established.

  The soldier took off, and Fes watched him disappear.

  “Where do you think he’s going?” Nick asked.

  “For others.”

  “Why do I get the sense that’s not a good thing?”

  Fes shook his head. “Because it’s not. If they reach us and think that we are part of the rebellion, not only will they capture us, but it’s possible they will give the Damhur enough time to do whatever it is they intend.”

  “What do you think they intend?”

  Fes shook his head. “I don’t know, but the fact that they’re willing to sit there waiting makes me nervous.”

  He got the horse moving and headed toward the temple. They went quickly, but as they went, they had to navigate around people wandering in the streets.

  “Off the horse,” Fes said.

  “What? I thought you were worried about making good time.”

  “I am, but we can blend in better on foot.”

  Nick shrugged and climbed out of the saddle, and Fes slapped each horse on the flank, sending them running off in the city.

  “Maybe that will draw attention away for a little while,” he said.

  “Or it will leave us stranded,” Nick said.

  “We can always find other horses if we make it out of this.”

  “If?”

  Fes met his gaze. “This is dangerous. I don’t know what the fire mages will do, but I fear for the worst.”

  “Maybe I should have stayed with Nina.”

  Fes chuckled. “That was my suggestion.”

  On foot, heading toward the temple was slower, but he hurried, walking at a quick and brisk pace. The magic from the temple pushed against him, and he worried that merely by coming here, he would be cutting through the spell in some way that would influence it.

  Where were the fire mages?

  They had to be here somewhere. Fes expected the fire mages to appear, needed them to appear. Without them, his plan wouldn’t work as he intended.

  They rounded a corner, and finally, he saw a fire mage.

  He was dressed in a long black cloak and was older, both signs that he was probably higher ranking within the fire mages. What degree was he? From what Jayell had told him, there weren’t many first-degree fire mages, and even second-degree fire mages were rare enough.

  As he approached, he faltered. What was he thinking? He hadn’t come with much of a plan. He didn’t even know what he was going to do, only that it had to involve the fire mages. He approached slowly, and as he did, he heard shouts out in the city.

  The fire mage had been watching him but turned away, seemingly ignoring Fes and Nick. He pushed out with a powerful spell as he headed toward the outer sections of the city.

  “That was odd,” Nick said.

  “They’re making their move,” Fes realized.

  Whatever it was that the Damhur intended was happening. But what was it?

  Fes didn’t know and worried that whatever was taking place would be more than what he and Nick could do.

  “Come on,” he said.

  Nick frowned. “Where are we going?”

  “We’re going to see what’s happening.”

  “I thought you wanted to get the fire mages involved.”

  Fes nodded. “That’s what I wanted, but I’m worried that is what the Damhur wanted, too.”

  He kept a respectful distance behind the fire mage, not daring to get too close, and as they went, Fes felt the pressure of other fire mages slowly building behind them.

  What was it that he felt? It was fire magic, but he didn’t know
where it was coming from. He motioned for Nick to wait. As they did, stepping off to the side of the street, others appeared. There were dozens of fire mages.

  “I have a bad feeling about this,” Fes said.

  “I thought—”

  Fes patted him on the arm. “They weren’t afraid to come here,” he said. “Why wouldn’t they be afraid with so many fire mages?”

  It was more than that. They had ventured into the empire, going as deep as the village where Fes had been with the other Deshazl, seemingly unconcerned about the fact that they might encounter members of the empire—or fire mages.

  Why?

  “They’re waiting for others,” Fes realized.

  “How do you know?”

  “The ones who captured us weren’t all of them. They couldn’t have been. I was taken from the capital, and they still managed to smuggle me out. I think they had taken all of those they Called and were planning to bring us wherever their home was. But the rest?”

  The rest would have been somewhere else. They would have been someplace where they could attack. Maybe they were still wandering the land, Calling others.

  Or maybe they had joined up with the rebellion.

  What had he learned about the rebellion? They were little more than small bands of soldiers, typically found along the outskirts of the empire. Fes had seen that there was some organization to them, but even that was limited. When he had traveled with the rebellion, he hadn’t felt any sort of sense like the Calling.

  Maybe not all of the rebellion worked with these others, or perhaps these others directed the rebellion.

  The pressure of fire magic continued to build around him, and Fes headed with Nick toward the outskirts of the city again. Nick stayed silent, and they walked quickly, though no longer feeling the resistance pushing against them. Fes hadn’t expected to, as the resistance seemed designed to keep them from the center of the city—and the temple.

  When they reached the edge of the city, Fes looked out, and his heart seemed to stop.

  The line of people he’d seen before was still there, but no longer was it only a few dozen. Hundreds of people were out there. Mixed within them were strangely glowing orbs. If Fes didn’t know better, he would have suspected that they were dragon pearls, but no dragon pearl was that large. They had to be the size of an adult’s head.

  “I really don’t like this,” Nick said.

  Fes looked out. It wasn’t so much that there was a line of people, but it was that there was a line of people circling the entirety of the city.

  The fire mages who had come to the edge of the city looked out, ignoring Fes. Several of them whispered to each other. What did they detect from the glowing dragon pearls? What magic emanated from them?

  “Well, is this what you wanted?”

  Fes shook his head. “This isn’t what I wanted. This is worse. Much worse.”

  “Why?”

  “I know you don’t love the fire mages, and I can’t say that I know what you’ve been through, but they can provide protection, but I wonder if even the fire mages know how to handle what’s coming.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I fear this has not been seen for centuries.” If what he’d learned was right—and Fes increasingly thought that it was—then the ancient war, the one that he’d long assumed had been between the empire and the dragons—had been something very different.

  As he stood there, feeling fire magic radiating from behind him, sweeping out from the temple, there was another sense. This one built slowly, gradually increasing, rising from outside of the city as it continued to push inward, pushing against the spells from the fire mages.

  And they were caught in the middle.

  The air practically shimmered with power. All around him rose heat that came from spells crashing into each other. As Fes continued to stand there, aware of it, he could detect the way that the spells were pushing back, forcing the fire mage spells toward the center of the city.

  They were being overpowered.

  Fes turned and looked behind him. Here he had thought the fire mages were incredibly powerful, and many of the fire mages he had encountered had been powerful, but whatever it was that these others were doing somehow was even more powerful.

  Could they have the same fire magic?

  They were questions that he’d have to find the answers to later, but for now, he needed to focus on what was happening and how they were caught in the midst of it.

  “We’re going to have to help the fire mages,” Fes whispered.

  Nick jerked around and looked at him. “We’re going to have to what?”

  He nodded into the darkness. “Whatever they’re doing is overpowering the fire mages.”

  “Look at how many mages we have around us! They can’t be overpowering all of this!”

  Fes saw as many as he ever had at once. How many of them were trainees, little more than embers? How many had real power, the third degree or higher?

  And how much of this was his fault?

  They had come here looking for help, but could they have guided the Damhur to the fire mage temple?

  It wasn’t that Dragash was hidden, but with the power pushing outward from the temple, there was a certain deterrence. If he felt it, maybe the Damhur would have as well.

  Could their appearance here be his fault?

  “How do you propose we help?”

  There was something to the dragon pearls that mattered. Fes wasn’t certain what, or how they were being used, but more than ever, he was sure that was the key. Perhaps it was the spacing. They seemed to be almost perfectly spread apart, their glowing building, creating something of a force that pressed inward. If they could disrupt that, then they should be able to allow the fire mages to be more effective.

  “I’m heading out there,” he said.

  Nick grabbed his arm, preventing Fes from going anywhere. “Think through this. They have some way of Calling us, controlling us, and now there are hundreds of them. Going out there would mean that they would overpower you. It’s too dangerous.”

  He was right. But, maybe there was some way to ignore the Calling.

  Fes pointed to Nick, and they hurried along the street. He stayed near buildings, shadowed in the overhangs, until he found a fire mage who looked older than the others. It was a woman with gray hair that cascaded around her shoulders, the hood of her cloak thrown back. Heat and power radiated off her. He couldn’t see what she held, but he suspected there was some artifact in her hand.

  “Her,” Fes said.

  “Who? The fire mage?”

  Fes nodded. “We’re going to have her help us.”

  “The fire mages won’t help. You saw what happened when that soldier came across you.”

  “I saw it, but this isn’t a soldier. This is a powerful fire mage who can feel the same thing that I can.”

  He raced forward and grabbed the fire mage, pushing her up against the building. He clasped one hand over her mouth and slipped a dagger up underneath her chin. “Don’t talk.” He met her eyes, and a glimmer of recognition flashed behind hers. “Good. It seems as if you know who I am. Blink twice if you do.”

  She blinked twice.

  Fes leaned forward. “I’m going to move my hand, and if you scream, the knife goes into your throat. Do you understand?”

  She blinked twice.

  Fes removed his hand.

  “You shouldn’t have returned. You shouldn’t have brought them. You shouldn’t—”

  Fes jabbed upward slightly with the dagger. “None of this is my fault. Well, they did follow me, but I didn’t bring them here. Can you tell what they’re doing?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Release me, or I will—”

  Her spell began to build, and Fes used his other dagger to slice through it. He was careful to only cut through one of her spells and tried not to remove anything else that she might be involved in.

  “You won’t be able to use your fire magic on me. Don’t even try.
I can feel it when you do. Now. Can you tell what they are doing?” He nodded toward the edge of the city. He didn’t know whether or not the fire mages had the same ability to detect what was happening, or whether it was something tied only to his Deshazl connection.

  “They are using the pearls, though they have more power than I have sensed in quite some time.”

  “Good. They are dragon pearls.”

  “You didn’t know? You’re with them.”

  Fes shook his head. “I’m not with them. And I fear that they pose a threat to the empire.” Let them couch it in those terms, and maybe she would be more inclined to assist him.

  “There are nearly one hundred fire mages in the temple. They pose no threat.”

  “Really? And how many fire mages are more than embers?” He stared at her, and he could see from the slight twitch of her eyes that the number wasn’t that great. It was as he feared.

  “Can you feel how their magic is pushing yours back?”

  Her eyes widened. “How do you know?”

  “Because I can feel it.”

  “Are you”—her gaze darted to his dagger before looking back up to his face—”a mage?”

  “I’m not a mage. And I suspect you know exactly what I am.”

  “Deshazl,” she breathed out.

  “That’s right. What do you know about the Deshazl?”

  “I know that they are nearly extinct.”

  “Not quite as extinct as you might believe. Now, I’m going to need your help.”

  “I have no intention of helping you, especially if you’re with them.”