Dragon Rider (DragonMage Saga)

by Platt, S. P.

  Angel’s brothers looked at him and Angel could see that same look on their faces that was on his mothers face, pride. They had lost the momentum and talked for a little while longer before deciding to go to bed.

  Contents

  A Night With The Family

  Angel slept well that night for he felt maybe that might be a bit of the worry off there shoulders with them trying to find out what the Renegades were up to, even with Angel and the rest knowing what they were doing. They just could not tell them but with the council looking into what he said they might stumble across it. They just had to hope it was the case.

  Their bedroom was a large room with five beds in but Angel and Medwin had chosen the beds over by the window and had all there things in shelves beside there beds. Angles brothers found some blankets and made up two beds across from them and they sat and talked about their days and what there patrols consisted of and where they went on them. They did not talk for long and were asleep very quickly.

  The next morning when Angel got up his brothers were still asleep so he crept out quietly and sat over by the window and looked out to sea. He was up early and after a time decided to go down and get some hot drinks for his brothers and the others when they got up. The main hot drink was a large bean that is soaked in water till it swells up twice its size.

  The bean is then dried and ground up to make a hot drink. This drink is slightly bitter but is loved as it refreshes you, especially in the morning. It has a funny name and is named after the tree that has a funny shape making it easy to harvest. The Fire Bean tree is shaped like leaping flames and the leaves are a red with yellow running down the middle.

  Fire bean tea is a favourite in the morning and Angel loved it. He got back to the room with two large pots and placed them by the fire to keep warm. Rho and Etha and Medwin were up and sitting talking when he got back. Seeing what Angel had they were over to him in a jiffy.

  Sitting back and looking out the window they all sat quietly when Shylyn and Maive came out to join them. Getting a cup of Fire bean they joined the rest, giving them a quite greeting before sitting down. There was a bang at the door and it suddenly opened with Tish coming in pushing a trolley with breakfast food on it, and more Fire bean tea.

  ‘Well it’s good to see you all up, come and get some breakfast before finishing the lances and then we are away. I have been to check the dragons and they are quite happy but I think will be glad to get away.’ Tish was pouring a cup of fire bean tea as she finished greeting them.

  ‘What happened with your meeting, are they going to do anything about Angel’s idea?’ Rho looked at his mother anticipation on his face at her answer.

  ‘They are going to look at the idea a bit more but some of us Dragon Riders will look to other places and try and see what they might be up to. There is some thought on maybe trying to draw Dragon Riders and Wizards back from other worlds. There is some thought they could be trying something on another world and drawing us back here to cover what they do there.’ Tish looked out the window as she told them.

  Angel, Medwin, Shylyn and Maive looked stricken when she told them what some of the council thought. They tried to hide it from Rho and Etha as they looked back from there mother. They had hoped they would look around home. They did not think about them looking off world.

  Tish turned back and finished her drink and moved to stand over Angel. ‘We must go now. With your idea we are going to be busy for awhile and will not be able to come see you till we can get a chance. I am not sure the problem might be off world and Gavrie is off the same opinion and will have some wizards look around our world. They will send word to wizards on other worlds and hope they may find something. Till there is something found we are spread thin.’

  Rho and Etha got up to join their mother looking at the four still sitting by the window. ‘By little brother take care and we’ll get to see you as soon as we can.’ Rho gave him a wink.

  Etha bent down and gave him a squeeze on the shoulder as he turned to go. The three headed off to the door where they turned as Tish spoke. ‘I really enjoyed last night talking to you and your friends as it’s been a while for me having a laugh with my sons and there friends. Take care, will see you as soon as I can.’

  Angel and his friends gave them a wave as they went through the door. They looked at each other before Angel spoke. ‘We are back to square one going to do this ourselves. So after lessons lets get to our dragons and talk over what we are going to do, we still have the book of legends to look at but I think it’s not going to help a lot.’

  Nodding their heads they get up and prepare to clean up their breakfast plates and head down to help with the last of the lances. It was a sombre lot that walked out of their room, as they had been hoping just maybe they might get the Wizards and Dragon Riders to find what the Renegade was up to, but now that idea has been dashed.

  ‘Come on Angel we must be strong it was a chance and we had to hope it might work. We’re back to doing it ourselves now and before we had that in our minds anyway so nothing has changed.’ Shylyn gave him a pat on the back as she tried to sound positive.

  ‘You’re right we knew we were going to have to do it and we had to try and see if we could get the others to help in a round about way. It didn’t work the way we wanted but it has got them thinking in the right direction. So they may cross paths with the Renegade as he comes but with them using the creatures to cover there tracks it not very hopeful.’ He smiled as he spoke and looked at Shylyn and the others seeing them smile as well.

  They went to the cave and the lances to see there weren’t many left to do. Gavrie was there overseeing the last of them. He looked to see them coming and got them to carry the last of the lances over to the area where the dragons will land to pick up the last of them.

  They did as he bid and just as the last of them where placed, the words, ‘Dragon comes.’ They looked up into the air and could see one dragon coming in to land. As the dragon got bigger they could see that it wasn't his mother or brothers. Angel yelled for all close by to move right back out of sight for the dragon was a young one and her rider was having trouble controlling her.

  ‘She's a young dragon and her rider is young, we must be all out of sight to give the rider all the help he can.’ Angel was using arms waving to all the wizards to move off the deck and go inside.

  Gavrie came out to Angel and looked; taking in the situation he moved into action and got all the wizards and students moving into the school. The deck was soon clear of all wizards and students. Having made sure they were all off the deck Gavrie was the last to enter the school as the Dragon Rider landed his dragon.

  Angel with his friends and Gavrie looked from the door as the young Rider got down and soothed his mount. They could see her wanting to leap into the air and away but her Rider was calming her down. Angel could see he was a very good Rider, strong to clam her down so quickly.

  The Dragon Rider finely got her to calm down and he then proceeded to gather the lances and place the carrying straps around them and placing them under his dragon ready to left with them. The Rider having got them all ready turned to Gavrie gave a wave and bow and climbed back on his dragon and leapt into the air and were gone in no time at all.

  Angel looked at the small dot that was a Dragon Rider till it was out of sight. ‘He was a strong Dragon Rider to control her so. Being so young and never having been to the Wizard School. I think in the future he will be strong enough to carry a wizard with his control over her like that.’

  Gavrie turned to look at him and nodded his head. ‘Yes I think you are right and it was good spotting on your part to see it was a young Dragon Rider and dragon. Now let’s get back in and work out what the lesson will be for to day. I think we might look at Portals today with your idea and how many Renegade Wizards it would take to open a portal to let the creatures in.’

  ‘I will see you in the portal class room shortly, while you wait you can try and work out how many Wizards it would t
ake to hold a portal open, letting in say a hundred creatures. Now off and I will be there shortly.’ Gavrie turned and headed off down the hall.

  The four of them turned and headed up the stairs to the class where portals are learnt. They arrived to find the class empty and found them salves seats. They sat there working out the size of the creatures that have been coming through and how many there have been in attacks.

  The smallest creature is the size of an adult human and the largest being the size of a dragon. So going by what they help push over the deck from the last attack the average size would be half the size of a dragon. Now to get one hundred through a portal, they would need to come through in small groups as coming through in singles, you would have no control over and they have been coming in one large mass.

  The small groups you would only need two wizards to keep open for an hour to get a hundred through. But with the size groups that have been coming through, the portal would have to be at lest four times larger so the Renegades would have a large group go through to the target. Once open and held as long as possible to get one large group heading for the target.

  Gavrie came in as they had worked out a size and Angel does not think Gavrie will like the answer. Gavrie looked at the faces and could tell he probably will not like what they will have to tell him, but he had an idea of the size needed so he might as well find out what they have come up with.

  ‘Ok what have you come up with and I will see if it matches what I think it will be?’ He went and sat over by them and waited for their thoughts on the size.

  Angel stood and started to speak. ‘Ok what we have come up with and we think we are very close to what it would be. Judging by the amount that coming through and it’s getting more every time they open it. The creatures’ sense when a portal is opening and will congregate around that area waiting to come through.’ Angel wet his lips as he sucked in a breath and readied himself. ‘We think they will have about eight to ten wizards keeping the portal the size of the Dragon Deck open for a maximum of half an hour before the power to hold it open gets to much for them and they have to let it close.’

  Gavrie sat there not saying a word, his face as straight and not giving away anything. ‘I would have thought it would be four wizards and a portal half the size of the deck. What makes you think you are right?’

  ‘Because the average size of the creatures coming through is about half the size of a full grown dragon. Now letting them come through a small portal means they have to keep them bunched up till they get a large enough group to let them attack. They have been coming in large groups and there have been larger groups hitting the Hatchery and Riders School. So they need at lest eight to ten wizards to open a big enough portal to let at lest five to ten creatures at a time coming thru. This way they can just let them go straight to the target and by the time they get there it’s a very large group.’ Angel stopped and looked at Gavrie to see what he thought of there calculations.

  Gavrie looked at them for a time and got up and started to leave, he stopped at the door and turned around. ‘I find I am going to have to tell the council we are going to have to prepare for bigger groups of creatures. I think the Renegades will try and make bigger portals. We got word a force of two hundred just attacked the Riders School and the riders took some casualties.’

  Angel looked panic stricken and looked at Gavrie. ‘They are all right having beaten off the creatures and are hunting the last of them now. I am going to get them to try and send out patrols in the hope it will stop the Renegades opening them to long. That way it will cut down the time they have to let that many creatures through.’ Gavrie looked once more at them and turned and walked out the door, just as he left he yelled out. ‘The rest of the day you can do library work.’ He headed off down the hall and out of sight.

  They looked at each other and headed out the door and to the library. This would give them another chance to see what they could find. They will start at the outside isles and work in and only looking at the top shelf.

  They reached the library and decided which end they where going to start at. Finding no wizard in here they were quick to start there search. They did the same as the last time when they found two books and so Angel and Medwin climb to the top shelves and edged along looking.

  Shylyn yelled out wait and ran down the isle and stopped at two ladders that were on wheels and she pushed them back to where Angel and Medwin were. ‘This might make it easier to look and a damn site safer.’

  Medwin was on his one in no time followed by Angel. Now the girls slowly pushed the ladders along letting them look quicker. This isle was quick as it held nothing of interest and so moved to the next isle. They were half way along it when Angel called for Shylyn to stop. ‘I have something here that might help, it’s a second book of Legends and is marked number two.’

  Dropping the book down to Shylyn, she placed under her arm and carried on pushing. That was the only luck they had that morning and so took the book back to there room where they hid it with the others. They then went down for lunch before heading down to their secret room and going through to their dragons.

  They arrived out on the deck to find their dragons waiting for them. Having greeted them they were quick to be up and headed back to the dragons cave at the end. Before they were half way there Angel called for them to go up and onto the deck as Angel wanted to check the old spell as they have not done this for a while.

  They arrived up on the deck and dismounted walking over to the area the Renegade was working on. Angel stood just before the spell with Medwin, Maive and Shylyn standing back just a little so Angel could be undisturbed while he checked it.

  Angel let his magic work at the tips of his fingers as Angel looked with his magic at the pattern of the spell. Looking to find the spot and sure enough there it was. Angel studied it. The pattern is still good and the hole is not any bigger but he can see the healing they helped was slowly weakening.

  They were going to have to work the healing spell again and see if they can get it stronger again. Even if it keeps holding, that’s all they can hope for till they can stop the Renegade. Angel prepared himself as he slowly brought up his fingers.

  ‘We are going to need to do the healing spell again as the old healing spell is only just able to hold it but is weakening.’ Angel looked at them and could see they were ready to give him their magic to use. No worries about doing it at all.

  Shylyn moved to his right with Maive moving to his left and Medwin staying just behind him. Angel knew he could rely on them for his life. He readied himself and his magic just tickled the old spell around the hole. He worked the spell as he drew in his mind the healing spell. Once it was formed he sent it to the hole and allowed the spell to work its way around the edge of the hole.

  Angel slowly worked his spell into the edge all the way around the hole till he meets back at the beginning. ‘There we will see if the spell will hold longer, you can see the spell starting to work and if you look the hole is shrinking. Now this is going to really annoy the Renegade when he is back here next time. But from the look of it he is getting a lot better with the old spell each time he comes back. Our time is running short.’

  They carry on back to the deck and sit just at the edge of the cave and practice there magic channels together. They cleared them even though they find nothing to clear out of them. They next go on to working their shields and seeing how much stronger they can get them with there dragons working their magic into them as well.

  Their shields were getting very strong. ‘Ok I want to try something now don’t try and stop me as we need to know if this works. Medwin I want you to cast the fire ball spell but make it bigger as I want to see how the shield handles it.’

  Medwin looked with a hesitant look on his face. ‘Are you sure on this, our shields are only just getting started. They might not handle a large fire ball and if we go back with you burned we would have a lot of explaining to do.’

  ‘I need to know what h
appens when we get hit with a bigger and more powerful spell. This is the only way and we need to test it now. So hit me with one four times bigger than normal.’ Angel braced him self as he spoke.

  Medwin stood back and readied himself for the spell. ‘Ok here we go I will aim it right at your chest, are you ready?’

  Angel looked at him and nodded, Medwin cast the spell and a ball of fire four times the size they have been doing in lesions, headed at Angel. The ball almost got to within four feet of him when his shield come up and froze it. Angel yelled to fire another one and Medwin did what Angel asked and fired another, the same size.

  This time the ball of fire hit the same spot and Angels shield flared but still held. The shield was a blaze as the second fire ball had hit and then expanded around the shield. This they did not expect but Angel still held his shield.

  ‘Now this was very unexpected the second fire ball has flared around my shield. But the shield is holding very well so hit me again with one the same size and lets see what happens.’ Angels face showed the joy in seeing something that unexpected.

  Medwin fired again and hit the shield and enveloped it increasing the fiery blaze around Angel. Angel still felt he could hold it a long time. Angel called out to the others and spoke. ‘Now I am going to cast a spell and see if we can attack while enveloped in a shield with fire raging around it.’

  Angel pictured the fire ball spell and fired, but nothing happened, not a thing so he did it again and it would not work the second time. Angel had a worried look on his face as he tried to cast of the spell off that was creating the fire around him. The fire was not going; it was still enveloping his shield.

  ‘Medwin can you get rid of the fire around me as I can’t do it, from what I can feel, my magic is holding the fire ball spell at bay and will not let me cast a spell?’ Angel was starting to get a little panicky as he tried to get his magic to work.