Summoner school 7 a reve.., p.7
Summoner School 7: A Reverse Portal Fantasy, page 7
“It can always get worse,” I said and then smiled at the seer. “But we’ll face whatever it is.”
She took another deep breath, let it out, and then sagged in on herself like the weight of the world was on her shoulders.
“You need to go see the ancients,” she said. “Convincing them to help us is the only way that you’ll be able to win this war.”
“The ancients?” I asked as Sarya gasped. “Who are the ancients?”
“Dragons,” Sarya whispered. “She’s saying that we need to go see the dragons.”
Chapter 5
“Dragons?” I repeated. “Like Ira? Or like the creatures that are mentioned in old legends that liked to burn down towns and then eat everyone?”
Lady Ofrunbelle coughed out a raspy laugh and then poured another glass of water. My question was completely crazy since the summoner textbooks did mention that there were non-sentient dragons that we were allowed to catch, but that meant that there were sentient ones that we weren’t allowed to catch. The seer downed her drink and then turned to me with a small smile still on her wrinkled face.
“Neither of those are the ones that you need to seek out,” she said and flipped her braids. “You will need to seek those that have been in hiding since the days of Merlin.”
I nodded like that made sense and then turned to see that Sarya had paled so much that she was practically a ghost. We’d already come across plenty of deadly monsters over the last few months, and that included technomages and cultists that wanted to rule the nine realms, so a few dragons didn’t seem like they should be that terrifying. I ran a hand through my hair and tried to think about what could possibly scare my mate so much.
Ira didn’t talk much about how she’d been born. In fact, the dragon-woman never discussed her parentage. The only reason that I knew about her half dragon and half human lineage was because it had been a topic of discussion around campus when the brilliant professor had been given the role of headmistress.
There hadn’t been much about dragons in my textbooks except for the passage about those we could catch and those we couldn’t, but I’d never even heard of where the creatures were based. If we needed to go on some epic journey to find them, then it would need to be fast because we only had two days left before Jason’s deadline. The seer had been right about the wind elementals and the moving base the last time that she’d scried for us, so I assumed that she was right this time, but we didn’t have months or even years to search.
“What am I missing?” I asked.
“The dragons that she’s talking about have locked themselves away in their own realm,” Sarya said and tapped her long fingers on the table like she needed to get nervous energy out. “They’re highly intelligent, powerful, and vindictive. They won’t like us coming to their home.”
“Is it a locked realm?” I asked with a lifted eyebrow. “Are we even going to be able to get in? Or is it like the gnome realm where it’s just hard to find without their permission?”
A silence fell on the room as the other supernatural people all exchanged glances as if they didn’t really want to be talking about the dragon realm. Their education had clearly included more about the creatures than my grandmother’s had. The only stories I could remember that involved the winged beasts involved the epic end to Morgana’s reign, and the fall of King Arthur and Merlin, but even then, there hadn’t been many dragons in her version of events.
“It’s not locked,” Lord Thanak said. “It never was. And it’s easy enough to find. Any child with a transportation amulet could enter, but not many come back out again.”
“It’s one of the stories that we all hear when we’re kids,” Sarya continued. “The dragons don’t appreciate visitors, and they’ll steal whoever manages to find them. No one ever tries anymore.”
“Plenty did right after they were first cursed,” the seer said in her raspy voice. “So many were lost in an attempt to open communications with them again, but they were angry, and they have long memories. Longer than most of us.”
I sighed and tapped my foot as I processed everything. If the dragons really were that terrible, then we didn’t have a chance of convincing them to help us before the deadline. I was sure that the stories about them had to be exaggerated, like most children’s stories meant to keep wayward kids from wandering too far, especially since one of them had clearly mated with a human to have Ira, and she was only about forty, so it wasn’t that long ago.
“You’re sure that we need their help?” I asked the seer. “There’s no other option?”
“I’m positive,” she nodded and ran knobby fingers over the scrying bowl. “There were no alternatives. If you want to win this war, then you need their help.”
“They’ll never agree to help us,” Lord Thanak huffed. “They’ve been locked away for fifteen hundred years. The only reason that we know that they’re still alive is because very rarely we’ll see one of their bastard hybrids.”
“Careful,” I warned. “Ira Lovelace is a hybrid, and I won’t have you speak ill of her.”
“Ira is an exception,” the scout leader said. “She has made a name for herself that didn’t involve mayhem, but many of her kind are not so honorable.”
“That’s because there are so many of those hunters that don’t even consider them sentient creatures,” Sarya snapped, and the room warmed a few degrees as rage washed off of my mate. “Of course they’re going to attack everyone. If someone tried to steal my magic and tortured me in the process, then I’d take it out on everyone I came across.”
The scars on Ira’s back flashed across my mind, and anger raced through me. I’d known that the dragon-woman had been captured, that terrible things had happened to her, and the hatred for those hunters never quite diminished. It was a miracle that the headmistress hadn’t become embittered, but she wasn’t the type to take out her pain on those who didn’t deserve it.
“Okay,” I said and forced myself to take a deep breath. “If the dragons really are as bad as all that, then we’re going to need to have someone with us that can help. Sarya and I will go to Magia Schola and have Ira come with us so that maybe they won’t attack us right away.”
“She’ll never agree to that,” Sarya said. “And we can’t ask her to go to them. Dragons are the most proud species out of all of us. They’ll never accept a half-breed like Ira. That’s probably why she ran away in the first place.”
“You have no choice,” the seer said and then stood with a grunt. “The scrying bowl showed her there with you. If you want their help, then you need to convince Ira to come with you. If not, then don’t expect to win this war. The cultists and the technomages will complete the spells and rule the nine realms with an iron fist. Blood and death will become commonplace, and the shadow creatures will feast on the mana of any that they find. There will no longer be any chance of banishing them to the purgatory realm.”
The old dwarven woman met my gaze and held it for a few heartbeats before she started to hobble back out of the room. There had been an urgency in her eyes that echoed through my entire body even after the seer was long gone.
“She’ll never agree to this,” Sarya repeated and stood.
“But we have to try,” I said. “And Ira knows better than most what will happen to the nine realms if we aren’t able to stop Jason and his followers.”
“May the Guardians of the Ancient Hunt be with you,” Lord Thanak said. “We will have eyes on the base from a safe distance, but I cannot send more scouts to get close again. As it is, I now have notices to give to the families of the scouts that already perished. Go and do your part to convince the dragons to join us, and we’ll do ours and make armor.”
I nodded at the interim king as he sighed, motioned to one of the soldiers to come over, and started to give orders. Lord Thanak appeared to have aged right in front of me, and the heavy bags under his eyes seemed even heavier than when we first arrived. I flashed a reassuring smile when he glanced in my direction and then left the exhausted dwarf to his work.
“Do you really think that you can convince Ira to come with us?” Sarya asked as we walked out of the great hall.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But we have to at least talk to her. The seer was right the last time that she scried, so it makes sense that she’d be right now.”
Bane and Storm followed closely behind us like they expected the dwarves to attack at any moment, but then again, every one that we passed glared at us like we’d personally been responsible for the dead scouts.
It didn’t take me long to open a portal into Magia Schola, but the barriers fought against me for a few seconds longer than usual, and I was just about to panic when they let me through. I gasped and put a hand on my chest as blessed air washed back into my lungs, and Sarya did the same when she made it through. The shields shimmered as Bane and Storm passed through them, and I patted the moose-sized banehound on his side as he sneezed irritably.
“What in the nine realms is that thing doing here?” Lady Wilna snapped as she came out of the nearby greenhouse.
The willow-like nymph glared up at Bane as if he was a wayward dog that had dug through her garden beds, but he just sniffed the professor like she was an interesting new friend.
“He’s hanging out,” I shrugged and smiled. “I promise that he’s not going to dig or anything. And he’s not going to attack anyone.”
“That’s besides the point,” the professor glowered and put her hands on her hips. “Banehounds are notorious for their fear spell. You and your friends may skip all of your classes, but the main student body does not. They’ll be coming out any minute now, and I don’t want a mass panic. You recall him right now.”
I glanced up at the banehound, but he was already one step ahead of me and slowly started to dissolve. The dust that Bane had become drifted toward the onyx stone in my pocket. I almost felt bad for the big wolf-ancestor, especially since he seemed to really like people, but there would be time for him to socialize later, and the last thing that we needed was to have everyone on campus freak out.
“Better?” I asked.
“Much,” the nymph said and smoothed her dress. “Now, I understand that Prof… I mean Headmistress Lovelace has given all of you permission to do field studies, but please inform Atlesia that her plants need tending.”
“I will,” I said with a smile.
“And make sure that you go to your classes,” she warned. “Field studies are important, but there’s only so many lessons that you can miss before you fall behind.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I nodded and then laced my fingers through Sarya’s. “We’ll make sure to talk to our professors.”
The willow-like nymph glowered at us for a few seconds as if she wanted to give another lecture, but she turned with a huff and stomped back into the greenhouse. A few of the vines started to wither as the professor passed them like her irritation had leaked into them, but then they recovered so much that they almost blocked our view into the glass building.
“At least she didn’t give us detention,” I laughed and started toward the administration building.
“I don’t think college has detention,” my mate smirked. “But if we were in her class, then she might fail us. I think Lady Wilna is even more strict than Headmistress Lovelace.”
“Maybe,” I said and then picked up my step.
Lady Wilna had been right about the students coming out of class, and I didn’t feel up to any small talk with my classmates about where I’d been over the last few days. No one in my group of friends had been around much since the last half of the spring semester started, so there would be plenty of questions, and then everyone would want to go to Ira to ask if they could have field studies, too. It was more hassle than it was worth, especially since the headmistress would need to leave the office for at least the rest of the day so that we could go to the dragon realm.
I dropped Sarya’s hand as I raced up the winding staircase to the headmistress’ office, but the redheaded elf stayed right behind me. The sound of our breathing was the only thing in the marbled hallway, and another shield blocked the way to Ira’s door like she was worried that there would be another attack. I stopped dead in my tracks as the plastic wrap feeling washed over me, but it quickly gave way and let both of us pass without incident.
Ira’s office door was slightly opened as if someone had come to visit and didn’t shut it all the way, and I carefully pushed it wide. The dragon-woman was buried in a pile of paperwork, but she motioned to the two chairs in front of her desk like she’d expected us. I let out a sigh of relief that nothing was wrong and that the headmistress hadn’t been attacked, but the stack of scrolls and books that surrounded her was higher than usual.
“How are you fairing, Sarya?” Ira asked as she finally looked up.
The dragon-woman’s yellow and purple slitted eyes were filled with sympathy behind their silver-rimmed glasses. It was unusual for the headmistress to show any sign of emotion other than strict disapproval, but Ira had started to soften over the last few weeks. That probably had more to do with our evolving relationship than any softness on her part, but then again, the death of the old headmaster had left a big hole at Magia Schola, so the tough woman might’ve decided that a gentler approach was best when dealing with students who were still in mourning.
“About as good as can be expected,” Sarya said and glided down into one of the chairs while I plopped down in the other. “We still have two days until the deadline. I assume that you’ve already heard all about it?”
“Caros and Delores stopped by this morning,” the dragon-woman sighed and leaned back in her chair. “I know that you don’t plan to give away the last piece of the immortality spell. How did your meeting go with the dwarves?”
“Better than I thought it would,” I chuckled. “No one tried to attack us. And, for the most part, they don’t blame us for Lord Nadouk’s kidnapping. Lord Thanak is temporarily taking leadership, and he’s already promised to make as much armor as he can for our troops. The dwarves have also volunteered to fight when it comes time. Jason’s base is currently in the northern mountains. Some of the dwarven scouts have been killed for checking it out, and the wind elementals are agitated, but at least we know for sure that Rina’s tracker works.”
I shifted in my seat and glanced at Sarya as I tried to figure out how to bring up what the seer had told us. My mate knew a lot more about the politics of the nine realms than I did, so if she said that the dragons wouldn’t welcome us, then I believed her. I was also sure that Ira wouldn’t want to join us on our journey, especially since the dragon-woman had never mentioned her parents before, but Lady Ofrunbelle had been very clear about what we needed to do if we wanted to win.
“What is it?” Ira asked as silence descended on the classroom. “You have that look that you get when something is wrong. Did the dwarves give an ultimatum?”
“Not exactly,” I said and then cleared my throat. “But their seer did do some scrying…”
“And?” the headmistress asked and lifted a perfect black eyebrow.
“And we need to go to the dragon realm,” I said.
Ira’s already pale face somehow managed to become even whiter until her complexion would’ve put Professor Edinbock to shame. The dragon-woman took off her glasses, cleaned them, and then slid them back into place. She took long steady breaths as if the mere mention of the dragon realm had sent her fight-or-flight reflexes into overdrive, and I felt bad for what had to come next, but it was that or we would lose the nine realms.
“And you need to come with us,” I said into the quiet that had fallen on us.
“Absolutely not,” Ira said and stood.
The dragon-woman flipped her long black robes back and started to pace behind the desk as if she was ready to make a run for it. It was the first time that I’d seen the strict woman lose all sense of composure, and her fear was almost palpable. Ira stopped, gripped the back of her desk chair, and then studied my face as if she wanted to make sure that she’d heard me right.
“The seer said that it’s the only way that we can win the war,” I said in a gentle tone. “We need the dragons’ help. And you need to be our ambassador.”
“They’ll kill us all the second that they see me,” Ira said and ran a hand over her already smoothed back hair all the way to the perfect bun that kept it all in place. “I’m not exactly welcome. The dragons don’t like half-breeds like me. And… and I didn’t leave on the best of terms.”
I stood and walked around the desk to put my hands over hers in comfort. It was hard for me to ask the dragon-woman to go back to the home she’d left behind, especially since it seemed like something terrible had happened there. But I forced a reassuring smile onto my face and then motioned to Sarya.
“We’ll be right there with you,” I said. “All we have to do is go and convince them to help us. If Jason and the technomages manage to win this war, then even the dragons won’t be safe. I’m sure that they can be reasoned with.”
“You don’t know them, Andrew,” she whispered and then swiped at a tear. “They hate everyone. They’re nothing but vengeful, evil old lizards that are only concerned with themselves. There has to be another way.”
“The seer was very clear,” I said. “I need your help. The entire nine realms needs your help.”
“We’ll be right there with you,” Sarya said. “And if they try to hurt you, then we’ll sic the mardrom on them. Right, Andrew?”
“Right,” I grinned. “And then they’ll die terribly. Probably at their own hands.”
Ira took a deep breath and smoothed her skintight black dress as if it was suddenly wrinkled. There was a fight in the dragon-woman’s eyes that hadn’t been there before, and I could almost see the moment that she decided to come with us. The headmistress pulled her shoulders back, nodded, and then flashed a rare smile.
“That would be worth the trip,” she said. “This will likely end in disaster, but for the nine realms… for the nine realms I will go. When did you want to leave?”
