Warmage uncontrolled the.., p.23
WarMage: Uncontrolled (The Never Ending War Book 3), page 23
The girl nodded. “It’s really good.”
“I bet.” She took the single full glass on the tray and gulped half of it in one breath. “Wow. That’s even better than—”
“The orange juice at Fowler? Yeah. I was a little disappointed to find that out. I thought we were drinking the best at lunch and now there’s something even better in a city I won’t be able to see again for… well, probably until after we graduate.”
“But at least you’ll have a whole day at a shop full of…what were they again?” Raven lifted the silver lid on the tray and took one of the rolls first for a huge, hungry bite. These aren’t bad. Can’t beat Brighton’s, though.
“Spell-enhancing charms,” Bella muttered. “You’re not awake yet, are you?”
“I will be after I eat all this. Thanks for saving it for me. There’s so much here, though. Are you sure you had enough?”
“I had my own tray, Raven.” The girl tilted her head and regarded her with a pert little smile. “Apparently, all we have to do is leave these in the hall when we’re done.”
“Huh.” She glanced at her roll. “Didn’t you say you covered it again?”
Bella headed toward the door with a smirk. “I wanted to see if they sent you anything different for breakfast.”
She almost choked on her next bite of roll. “Did they?”
“No.”
“Oh, hey. This is the perfect time, now that I think about it.”
Bella exhaled a heavy sigh and glanced at the ceiling. “Not really. I’m trying to leave.”
“Trust me. You’ll want to hear this.” Raven washed the roll down with more orange juice, then went to her oilskin bag she’d placed on top of the trunk beside her bed. “I’ve been trying to tell you about these journals, right?”
“Really, Raven? Is it that important right now?”
Once she’d jerked her bag open, she turned to look over her shoulder and raised an eyebrow. “I found a ton of stuff about your mom, so… You tell me.”
“Wait, really?” Bella’s shallow irritation vanished completely and she took a few steps toward the end of the room before she stopped to look at the door. “What does it say?”
Raven removed the journal she’d been trying to read and held it up. “I don’t know.”
“Then how do you know my mom—”
“When I found her name, I stopped, okay?” She opened the journal, rifled through the yellowing pages, and located the leather bookmark. “There’s a whole list of war mages in here and each of them gets a page or two about everything they did for the kingdom, what they worked on, how they changed things.”
“Only a page?”
She laughed. “That’s your question? Some of them have one or two. There was even a page about both our moms. They did a lot together.”
Bella studied her from head to toe and folded her arms. “That doesn’t surprise me, honestly. It would have six months ago but it makes sense now.”
“Yeah.” Raven carried the book to her companion, her finger in to hold the page. “But actually, both Vanessa Chase and Sarah Alby have more than one or two pages written about them.”
When she opened it to the page she wanted and turned the journal, Bella’s eyes widened and she swallowed. “You didn’t read any of this?”
“Nope. It felt like something you should do first.”
The girl’s gaze didn’t stay on the open journal for more than a few seconds at a time. “We can look at it later, right?”
“Oh, totally. Between matches during the Tournament of Mages.”
Bella snorted. “We have all day, Raven. And all night too since we’re here for a week. I really want to find this shop.”
“Okay. We can look at it later. When you’re ready. At least now you know what I’ve been trying to show you all week.”
Making a face at the other mage, Bella took one last glance at the journal and spun away. “That would have been another distraction I didn’t need. This week, I have way less to focus on.” She opened the door to their guest room and paused. “Thanks for telling me.”
“Sure.” Raven closed the journal and grinned. “Just make sure that if you find anything about my mom, you’ll let me know too.”
“Ha. My grandparents weren’t war mage dragon riders storing important mage documents for decades. I probably won’t find anything.”
“Well, it’s the thought that counts, right?”
Bella chuckled and raised her eyebrows. “See you later.”
“Good luck with the charms.”
The door pulled firmly shut and the young mage headed out for her first shopping spree in Azerad. Raven tucked Connor Alby’s old journal under her arm and went to the breakfast cart again. When she lifted the lid, the thought of Bella Chase inspecting her private meal made her wrinkle her nose. She’d better not have licked any of it.
When she’d finished breakfast and dressed in her plain work clothes—which were still all she had—she slipped out of their guest room and headed down the hall. I remember how to get to Leander’s pen from here.
Except that when she reached the end of the passageway where she expected to find the wooden door onto the walkway outside, she encountered another hallway. This one was much wider and had two soldiers stationed outside a huge door on the left. “Huh. I must have gone left one turn too soon.”
“Excuse me.” A man in dark clothes and a half-cape carrying a thick shoulder bag at his side brushed past her in the hall. Before she could say anything, he shouted, “For Governor Irlish! Urgent message for the governor.”
The soldiers glanced at the messenger without a word, and the man pulled a large, folded piece of parchment paper from his bag and waved it around like he thought the guards couldn’t see him.
That’s the seal from the capital again.
Squinting, she tried to hear the messenger’s rushed conversation, but he was so out of breath that the guards probably couldn’t hear him, either.
“Go on.” One of them nodded for the man to enter.
“Thank you.” He disappeared into the room and she decided to stroll casually past to explore a little.
The guards had turned to watch the man they’d let enter. Raven caught a glimpse of an opulent room on the other side of the door lined with bookshelves. Sunlight streamed through a domed glass ceiling to illuminate a huge desk in the center of the room. Behind it sat a man with dark hair and a black mustache. He stood when the messenger approached and accepted the letter with a small frown of confusion.
He doesn’t look too happy about that urgent message.
The guards turned and saw the young mage move at a snail’s pace past the study. “Keep moving.”
They stepped together and blocked her view as the man behind the desk looked up and saw her there. One of the guards caught the iron rings on both doors and pulled them shut quickly.
She glanced from one to the other and smiled despite the fact that both muscular men stared at her with no expression whatsoever. “What is the quickest way out to the dragon stables?”
One of the men rolled his eyes and gave her curt directions. Both watched her leave.
By the time she finally found her way to the dragon terrace, Marcus the stablemaster was already neck-deep in feeding a few dozen dragons their morning meal. The air was filled with snorts, grunts, and impatient quips from the dragons who grew hungrier by the minute as they waited for their turn to be fed. The man had three other stable hands helping him, but they weren’t fast enough for the dragons’ liking.
She was halfway toward the end of the stables when Marcus turned, saw her, and held his hand up. “No, no. Not now, mage.”
“I’m only coming to check on Leander. I won’t get in your way.”
“This isn’t the time for a little girl to be around a horde of hungry dragons at feeding time, got it? Get on your way. You can come back when things settle a little.”
Raven folded her arms and frowned at him. “I won’t go near any of the other dragons.”
“It doesn’t matter. Go on.”
She sighed belligerently. He’s not gonna go back to his work until he sees me leave. “Fine.”
“Later. Go on.”
She turned, hurried toward the walkway, and turned right like she meant to wander to some other part of the estate. When Marcus and his stable hands returned their full attention to dumping huge sacks of feed into each stall, she darted around the other side of the stables and hurried along the back of it toward the very end.
No one keeps me from my dragon. She reached her destination and poked her head over the little window in the side of his stall, which was apparently only available on either end of the stables. A smile bloomed on her lips when she saw Leander curled tightly in the corner, his eyes closed and his breathing slow and even. Now I get to sneak up on him.
The minute she opened her mouth, his eyes snapped open and his gaze settled on her. “I heard you the minute you came around the other side.”
Her shoulders sagged as she curled her fingers over the edge of the window. “Damn. I really thought I had you.”
“Not today, little girl.” He raised his head slowly, glanced through the front of his stall, and turned toward her. “He told you to leave.”
“Yeah, I’m not really in the habit of taking orders from grumpy stablemasters who don’t understand what you and I have goin’ on.”
“That’s an excellent choice.”
“They’re making their way down here quite quickly, though. I don’t know how long I can stay.”
Leander sighed with ill-concealed impatience. “Go if you have to go. I’ll be fine.”
“You keep saying that.” She chuckled softly. “It doesn’t stop me from wanting to check in on you. How’s it going?”
“The dragons here are very quiet.”
Raven fought back a laugh. “It doesn’t sound like it to me.”
“I don’t mean vocally, Raven. They don’t have much to say about anything at all other than food and the next time they get to wear a saddle. And you.”
“That doesn’t seem so bad.”
The dragon shifted his hind legs and glanced out the front of his stall again. “They’re quiet as if they’ve been threatened too many times for making natural sounds. For thinking or feeling.” He sighed when he saw her confusion. “I’m starting to think your flyboy trainer friend had far more tact than those who trained these dragons. They seem…empty.”
“Oh. That doesn’t sound very good.”
“No.”
“Has anyone said anything about you?”
Leander closed his eyes. “I heard two trainers imagining what they’d have to do to me if I broke free and they couldn’t use a lead.”
“Are you serious? That’s ridiculous.”
“They had no idea what they were talking about.”
Raven grinned at her dragon familiar and nodded. “Of course they don’t. Hey, if any of those trainers or other riders try to mess with you, feel free to mess back.”
He looked at her again with a rumble in his throat. “I don’t need your permission for that, Raven.”
“You definitely don’t.” She peered around the corner of the stable and jerked her head back. “Those guys move fast. I’d better get out of here. It’s a good idea to stay out of trouble if I’m gonna represent Fowler Academy while we’re here. I’ll come back later, okay?”
“Whenever you can. I’ll be right here. Sleeping. Counting down the minutes until I get out of here.”
“Okay. Breakfast is almost here. Bye, Leander.”
He closed his eyes and settled his head on his forepaws again. She ducked around the back of the stables and headed toward the end of the dragon terrace and the walkways that would take her farther into this weird palatial environment everyone called the governor’s estate. I’ll have to ask William about dragon-training methods. It sounds like someone might be hitting the train a little too hard or maybe in the wrong ways.
Chapter Thirty-Three
It was easy enough to make her way off the estate and into the city itself, where the rest of Azerad’s citizens worked, lived, slept, and went about their daily lives. Despite her anticipation, Raven didn’t stay out there for long.
“Hi. Excuse me.” She smiled at the fourth person who’d actually looked at her when she addressed them. The man scowled at her as they walked toward each other. “I’m looking for this shop that—”
With a grunt, he strode past her and disappeared into the milling crowds along the narrow alleys and streets that wound through the city. From a higher story in one of the long rows of what had to be small homes built on top of each other, someone shouted a long string of profanities. Whoever they yelled at sent a verbal attack in return, and a woman seated in a chair beside a staircase to the stoop looked up and hollered, “Cut it out! We’ve been listening to your crap all morning!”
She stepped away from that side of the street and pushed through the crowds. I’ve had enough of this. I’d be that cranky too if I was crammed in a city this size with so many other people.
Only one young mother with a baby on her hip gave the young mage a genuine smile, and when her baby echoed the expression, it gave Raven a chance to take a breath. “Busy morning, huh?”
The mother nodded slowly. “There’s always something going on. You’re not from here, are you?”
“No.” She chuckled. “Brighton, actually.”
The woman laughed in surprise and her baby tugged at the strands of long brown hair that peeked out from beneath her mother’s cap. “Well, no wonder you look like you’ve been chased by a bear. Go take a walk through the gardens.” She nodded toward the upper-level terraces that stretch over the city marketplace and residential quarter. “Instant peace. I can promise you that.”
The young mage gazed at the underside of the terraces, which were plain-looking and had no more decoration than the stone streets beneath her feet. “Anyone can go up there?”
“Whenever they want. As long as they keep the shenanigans down and don’t hurt the gardens themselves. Of course, more people would be in those gardens now if it wasn’t such a haul up so many stairs.”
Smart move, I guess.
“Thank you.” Raven made a goofy face at the baby, who laughed and reached for her red hair before she passed them and started toward the central towers. “Have a good one!”
The mother used her child’s hand to wave at the redhaired teenager who darted away from them. She huffed and shook her head. “All the way from Brighton. What’s a girl like that got business in Azerad for?”
She took the staircases to the governor’s estate two steps at a time until she was about halfway. From that point, she had to pace herself. “Phew. These were much easier going down.”
Eventually, she reached the first layer of circular walkways around the central towers and took a minute to catch her breath. She wiped away the stray hair stuck to the sweat on her forehead and cheeks and turned left toward the southwestern group of gardens that jutted from the main buildings like large, round tree branches.
The first garden was filled with rosebushes beginning to blossom with a maze of pathways that wound through the trimmed bushes. She took a deep breath and sighed. “That smell is amazing. There’s no shade, though.”
The second garden terrace was positioned slightly above the first and looked more promising—small, narrow, neatly trimmed trees meant more for shade and aesthetic than for fruit. Not an orchard. Definitely shady.
Raven climbed the last short group of five stairs to the second level and strolled toward the next circular garden hanging over Azerad’s bustling life below. A tall arch served as a narrow entrance and the remainder of the attached terrace was blocked off by hedges pruned to look like horses in various action poses. The archway itself was covered in vines and bursting with flowers already for this early in the spring. “Perfect.”
She stepped beneath the arch and into an entirely different world. Birds chirped within the thick foliage on tree branches. More pruned hedges—these in the shape of tall birds like storks, herons, and cranes—lined the main footpath leading into the trees. It branched off somewhere in the distance, and she heard the burble of water from a fountain up ahead.
“Yes.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “This is—”
“So much quieter?”
Raven’s eyes flew open, and she spun to where Daniel Smith stood behind her with his hands in his pockets and grinned.
She regarded him a little cautiously. “Well, I was going to say better, but yeah. Way quieter too.”
“And cooler.” He chuckled and wiped his forehead as he gazed at all the trees that formed another arch over the walkway. “It’s not that hot out yet—unless you’re running up endless stairs two at a time.”
Her mouth dropped open. “You were watching me?”
“Trying to keep up with you, actually.” He scratched his head and stepped toward her. “You’re fast, Raven. I’ll give you that.”
“Compliment accepted.” She smirked at him and started walking. The young wizard didn’t miss a beat and kept pace beside her as if they’d walked through this garden together for years. “So you’re not a big fan of the city down there either, huh?”
“For the most part, no, if I’m honest. It has a few redeeming qualities.”
“Oh, yeah? Like what?”
Daniel chuckled. “I found a really good meat pie. The next guy over was selling the same thing but I thought it was better to buy one from the two kids helping their aunt than from the sweaty man next door missing half his hair. On his head, at least.”
Raven laughed when the wizard exaggerated a little shudder. “Good choice.”
“I thought so. And I found you down there.”
She looked quickly at him and raised an eyebrow. “Your pickup lines might need a little work. I’m not part of the city.”
“Well, no. But I thought it was a good transition.” He gave her his flashing grin and moved closer as they walked. “It’s almost impossible to figure out where you’re going inside that…”
“Estate?”
