Spirit Blade: Book III of the Dragon Mage Trilogy

by Carey Scheppner

  The dragon landed easily in the desired area and the warlock dismounted.

  “Prepare to draw in another dragon!” he ordered.

  The lizardmages hurried to get in position for another attempt. The warlock wrung his hands in anticipation. This was too good to be true.

  * * * * *

  Galado surveyed his crew and their latest bodies. They looked much healthier than their previous bodies, which were well into the decomposition phase. But he had ordered them to make their previous bodies last as long as possible to avoid killing people and drawing attention to themselves. Thus they had gone west rapidly, and booked passage across Claw Lake to arrive south of the army garrison just west of the Jackal River. It was nighttime when they had encountered a patrol. The patrol consisted of eight people, two women and six men, who had stopped them to inquire as to their presence there. Galado had told them they were there to enlist, so the patrols had ordered them to follow them back to the base to sign up. As soon as their backs were turned, Galado’s men and women had sprung into action. Within minutes they had new bodies to use. That left two of Galado’s crew still in their old bodies.

  After hiding the dead bodies and chasing off the extra horses, the entire group went back to the base, and were ushered in without question, since they were recognized as members of the patrol. From there they went straight for a short distance until they were out of sight of the guards at the gate. Then they curved off the main path to skirt the outside edges of the encampment.

  By sheer luck, they heard noise off in some nearby bushes and stealthily investigated to find a couple having sex. Reacting quickly, they soon had the remaining bodies they needed to manage for a few more days.

  “I’ve always wanted to have red hair,” commented the woman who took over the body of one of the lovers.

  The old bodies were quickly buried in that same location so they wouldn’t be discovered. Two of Galado’s men always made sure to bring shovels for this purpose.

  “Now we have to blend in with the army for a while,” said Galado. “We should try to find out battle plans, and work toward finding a way to get out of here and go further west. I will find my living self in that direction.”

  “We could volunteer to go on patrol to the west,” suggested One. “By the uniforms of our patrol guard bodies, our arm bands have the same markings. We’re probably assigned to go together whenever our patrol is ordered to go out.”

  “Good point,” said Galado. “It looks like you’re the leader of that group, judging by the star on your vest. You’ll have to inquire as to your duty roster.”

  “Yes, Sir,” said One.

  “What about us?” asked the one who had the red hair.

  “You two will have to stay with me for now,” said Galado. “When the patrol gets permission to head out, we’ll try to volunteer to go along and hope there will be no issues.”

  “You could pretend to sneak out to make love,” smirked one of the others. The rest of the group laughed.

  “That’s not such a far-fetched idea,” said Galado seriously. He turned to One. “You’d better check in with your commander. Let them know everything is fine and then look into the duty roster. Find out when and if you’ll be assigned to patrol to the west. You may have to trade shifts with someone so we can get out of here sooner. I’ll take our loving couple here and see if we can find one of their tents. I need to get some sleep. We’ve been traveling nonstop for three days.”

  “Right, Boss,” said One. “Let’s go,” he said to the others. They rode off to the main path and disappeared from sight.

  Galado and the two lovers rode for a while in the hopes of finding one of their tents, but to no avail.

  At one point, a commotion in one part of the camp sent a number of people running to see what the commotion was all about. Curious, Galado and the others, who he found out were Six and Ten, hurried to see for themselves.

  A crowd was gathered in an area near several campfires. Even before pushing their way through the throng, Galado and his team spotted what the commotion was all about. Towering above them was the fearsome visage of a dragon. Roughly shoving people aside, Galado accessed a better vantage point in front of the crowd. Standing before the dragon was a human mage. He had a pointed hat and a serious expression. He was talking to the crowd.

  “With the help of a number of these dragons, we hope to improve our odds of success. Now we will be able to direct the dragon’s wrath at our enemies!”

  A number of those gathered cheered at this, obviously excited about having aerial support in their favour.

  “There are not many of us yet,” continued the mage, “but more dragons are being brought under our control as we speak. We hope to have close to fifty by the time we are once again engaged with the enemy.”

  Once again cheers were heard.

  Galado was shocked. Fifty dragons? He had no idea the humans had managed to control one dragon, let alone fifty. This was something he did not know when he was preparing for battle against these forces. He had been killed before discovering this. With a shudder, he realized he was approaching the day of his untimely demise. He had to continue moving to find his original body quickly. Sleep would have to wait. He pushed his way back through the crowd with Six and Ten close behind.

  He wandered aimlessly for a while and swore he could hear the laugh of the previous host of his body within his head. When he was tired was when that voice bothered him. He was not surprised. He needed to rest. Before long, One and the others came up to him.

  “Well?” asked Galado.

  One smiled. “Sure enough, our roster had us going out in patrol to the west. We are due to go out there the day after tomorrow.”

  “No good,” said Galado. “We need to move sooner.”

  One frowned. “How soon?”

  “Tonight,” said Galado.

  “Don’t you want to sleep?” asked Six.

  Galado shook his head. “There’s no time. I have to reach my original body within a few more days. If I don’t, I will fail to save myself.”

  “Understood,” said One. “The next patrol to the west is due to leave in two hours. I will try to find their leader and see if they will trade shifts with us.”

  “Do it,” commanded Galado. “Take your group with you. Maybe you can shorten your search with more of you looking.”

  One nodded. “Right, Boss.” He was about to leave, but turned back. “Do you want us to take over the bodies of the next patrol if they don’t want to trade?”

  Galado shook his head. “It’s too risky. Just try to be very persuasive.”

  “Right, Boss,” said One. He turned and left with the others of the patrol.

  Galado turned to the lovers. “See if you can convince the guards to let you find a secluded area outside of the compound. If they refuse, try sneaking out. Don’t forget to obtain some weapons before you leave. It shouldn’t look unusual if you leave with weapons, since there is no security beyond the gate. Once you’re out, find a place where you can see the patrols coming and going and signal us when you see us leaving the compound. If you fail to see us, you will know we have failed to switch shifts. Then come back to the compound - and be sure to thank the guards so they are more likely to let you go out again another time should we have to do this again.”

  “Yes, Boss,” said Six and Ten in unison. Holding hands, they left for the west gate.

  Satisfied, Galado waited for One to return.

  A half hour later, One came up to Galado and reported success. The patrol leader due to go out was not keen on the west run, especially while it was dark, and gladly switched with One, whose shift was in the daytime.

  “Good,” said Galado. “Only one thing remains. I will need an outfit similar to yours in order to blend in with your patrol. Hopefully one extra person will not stand out in a patrol of eight.”


  “I think we can manage both of those things,” said One. “I know where our patrol is camped. There are sure to be additional uniforms available. As for our number, we can keep the guards busy with small talk. No one will take the time to count our number. If they do, we will be milling about out of formation to confuse them. Horses tend to be skittish when dragons are present.”

  Galado smiled. “Very good, One! It appears you’ve gotten yourself a body with a brain this time.”

  One smiled. “We’re getting the hang of these bodies. It’s not so bad, actually.”

  * * * * *

  Elsewhere in the compound, a young man named Paul was making a sketch of yet another dragon.

  Chapter 25

  Kazin circled the small clearing slowly as he prepared to make his landing. There wasn’t a great deal of room to land, especially in the twilight of early dawn, but he managed it with a great deal of alacrity. Once he came to a stop, he lowered his wing to the ground to allow Amelia and Sherman to disembark. Once they were safely on the ground, he transformed himself back into his human form. He still wore the ring of youth as per Amelia’s wishes and looked like a youthful mage freshly graduated from the Tower of Sorcery.

  “This place will do for the night,” said Sherman, looking around the clearing.

  “There’s a small stream just south of here,” said Kazin, “not that there are any horses to water.”

  The companions had been nearly as far as the city of Arral when Amelia informed them they were losing ground on their quarry. It was evident from her orb that those they pursued were making time by not sleeping for the night, and in the process they were avoiding making any changes to the flow of history. In order to gain time, the companions came to the conclusion that they needed to risk flying instead of riding. With rumours rapidly spreading about dragons being ridden by mages, it was now less of a concern for Kazin to fly. If he were spotted from below, it would only add fuel to the rumours that they already knew to be truths. One of the only dangers would be if the mages below them considered them to be a threat and decided to do something about it. The other danger was if mages, who were trying to capture a dragon with an orb, unleashed a spell to capture Kazin without realizing he was already a dragon mage.

  This concern was put to the test when that very situation had occurred as Kazin flew south around Arral to avoid detection by its inhabitants. Some mages far south of the city had been concealed in the woods and had brought their magic to bear on the companions as they had flown overhead. Kazin had lost his concentration and almost fainted, while his altitude suddenly dropped. Sherman and Amelia had been warned something like this could happen, and Amelia had reacted by raising a shield to protect Kazin from the magic below. Kazin had immediately recovered mentally, but had continued to lose altitude. Sherman hung on while Amelia had switched her spell from a shield to a haste spell. Kazin had been alert enough by then to mentally resist the spell from the mages, and he rapidly shot out of range of the spell casters below, much to their astonishment. Once clear, Kazin had turned back to Amelia and thanked her for her quick actions. From there, they had made wise use of the haste spell to cover ground more rapidly than before. After that, Kazin had found a place to land and he apologized for the rough ride. He had forgotten the mages of old had more powerful magic than in his time. From then on, the companions had unanimously agreed to travel only at night when humans would not be able to see well enough to cast such spells.

  Now they prepared to make camp for the day in an area that was well away from any human habitation. Several tree branches were gathered to make a shady area where they could sleep.

  Sherman took the first watch, knowing Kazin was exhausted from his flight, and Amelia had expended some energy with her spell casting. Shortly before his watch ended, he made breakfast and gave some to Amelia when he woke her for her shift.

  Kazin was woken up later to relieve Amelia and he looked around their campsite curiously. Something was different. “That’s odd,” he said. “I don’t remember the trees as being so dense this morning. The clearing was bigger. I’m sure of it.”

  Amelia smiled at him. “You’re right. It was getting a bit too bright for you to sleep properly, so I called the trees in closer to provide additional shade. It also helped to cut out the wind that had picked up.”

  Kazin could hear the tree branches as the wind whistled through them, yet not a single gust could be felt in their sleeping area.

  “Where did you learn to do that?” asked Kazin.

  “Some of it was in the old spell book we found,” said Amelia. “Unfortunately, much of that page was missing, so I had to improvise. Your lessons in improvisation came in handy. Without your training, I wouldn’t have been able to make it work.”

  “You are a very capable student,” said Kazin, beaming. He rose, gave Amelia a kiss on the cheek, and then walked past the protective trees to find the stream and wash up before taking his turn with watch duty.

  Amelia blushed as she prepared to get a few hours’ sleep before dusk. Her dreams were romantic in nature, prevailed by a young, blond haired, blue eyed mage.

  Kazin’s watch was initially uneventful, but near dusk he heard a shriek that he instantly recognized as that of a dragon. Fully alert, he waited and, sure enough, he heard it again. Ordinarily it shouldn’t have bothered him, but for some unknown reason it caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand on end. Looking at his companions, he saw that they still slept soundly, so he put up some magical warding to protect them and prepared himself to investigate the sounds he had heard.

  He transformed into a dragon and leapt quietly into the air. As he flew low over the trees to avoid being spotted in the day’s dying light, he didn’t notice the pulsing, red light of Amelia’s orb as it peeked out of her cloak beside her blanket.

  Kazin reveled in the wind as it rushed past him, cooling his reptilian body. It would be too easy to become a dragon full time. Only his mental discipline kept him from succumbing to that temptation. Many mages did not have that discipline, especially in this time in history, and they wound up controlled by the dragons they were supposed to be controlling. Those mages and dragons were extremely dangerous, and were ultimately chased down and destroyed by other dragons and their mounts, or other mercenaries hired strictly for this purpose. How Kazin had managed to control the dragon within his orb for so many years was beyond him.

  Now he flew toward where he thought the dragon cries had come from. Peering intently through the long shadows cast by the trees below, he caught a glimpse of what could have been a dragon below. He also sensed a magic similar to the one he had experienced earlier when he had almost fainted. Choosing a suitable spot not too far away, he made his landing stealthy and silent. Then he became his human self again.

  Quickly and carefully, he made his way to where the dragon was. As he got closer, he could hear voices. It was the voice of a dragon conversing with a mage.

  Kazin cast a silence spell on himself and crept as quietly as he dared through the forest to get close enough to not only hear, but see the speakers as well. Once he got close enough, Kazin was surprised by what he saw. Not by the mage, who was an ordinary, middle aged man with dark hair and a traditional black cloak worn by black mages, but by the dragon. It was the tiniest dragon he had ever seen. It must have been a very young one.

  “I didn’t want one so young,” grumbled the mage. “Go away!”

  The dragon eyed the mage’s orb warily. “I cannot! Please don’t make me do that!” it pleaded. “I cannot abandon the orb!”

  The mage swore. “I don’t know how to reverse the spell,” he muttered. “Remove your essence from the orb so I can draw in another dragon!”

  “I can’t!” cried the dragon. “I don’t know how! It’s your magic!”

  The mage swore again. “Great. If I show up with you, I’ll be the laughingstock of the entire conclave of ma
ges!”

  The dragon drew back in surprise. “What? Why? What’s wrong with me?”

  “You’re a puny runt!” retorted the mage. “What use would you be to us?”

  “I’m not a puny runt!” snapped the dragon. “I just haven’t grown up yet!”

  “Exactly,” said the mage with a wave of his hand. “Now go away!”

  “Not without the orb,” said the dragon coldly.

  “I can’t do that,” said the mage flatly. “If I do that, the arch mages would have my hide. Orbs are not easy to manufacture. The orb stays with me.”

  “And I stay with the orb,” said the dragon firmly. “If you want to get rid of me, you’ll have to part with the orb.”

  “I will not,” said the mage. “Now be gone, or I’ll have to use magic on you.”

  “I’ll fry you on the spot if you so much as open your mouth to cast a spell,” said the dragon.

  “You can’t hurt me!” said the mage scornfully. He held up the orb. “If you do, you’ll destroy the orb and you will die!”

  The dragon recoiled somewhat. “Maybe. But I’ll die if I’m away from the orb anyway. Either way, it makes no difference to me. You, on the other hand - …”

  The mage shook his head. “You can’t have the orb, so you might as well go away and die in dignity. Maybe then your essence will leave the orb and I can use it to find a real dragon to control.”

  The dragon straightened its neck. “I am a real dragon!”

  “You give me no choice,” said the mage. He did a quick chant and shot an ice bolt at the dragon’s chest.

  The ice bolt struck true and the dragon shrieked in pain. At the same moment, Kazin felt a stinging sensation in his chest. He doubled over in pain and fell down, revealing his presence.

  The dragon glanced at Kazin and then back at the mage. “So!” he cried. “You are trying to trick me! Well, I’m not as useless as you think, mage!” With a great blast of flame, he spewed a sizeable fireball at the mage. Without time to react, the mage screamed and held his hands over his face instinctively, throwing the orb aside in the process. His hands were a useless means of protection as the fireball struck him. He was thrown to the ground and his body was consumed so quickly that he could not utter another sound.