Warmage uncontrolled the.., p.30
WarMage: Uncontrolled (The Never Ending War Book 3), page 30
“I know.” Bella wiggled her eyebrows and whirled to step past the soldiers toward the towers at the center of the city. “Come on, then.”
They jerked to attention, marched swiftly behind her, and occasionally glanced at the firedrake wheeling above their heads.
Raven sighed heavily and swiped loose hairs away from her face. She caught her long red braid and pulled it over her shoulder to give it a quick inspection. “Look at that. A tighter tie was all I needed.”
“Yes, Raven. Your hair is the greatest achievement of the night.”
Laughing, she slung the bow over her head and shoulder to rest against her back with the quiver and returned to him. “There were so many big wins today, Leander. But it’s important to celebrate the little achievements too.”
She paused when her gaze fell on the fallen bodies around her and the multiple piles of burnt raiders. A lump caught in her throat, and she swallowed it and forced it to remain unacknowledged.
“They would not have stopped if you’d given them the chance,” Leander rumbled.
“I know but it doesn’t make this any easier to look at. I have a feeling I’ll see this for a while after tonight.”
“Not as long as you would if you refused to acknowledge it now, War Mage. At least you’re looking now.”
“Yeah.” She opened her clenched fists and nodded. “If a war mage title is in my future, I guess I’d better get used to this. You’re right.”
“There is nothing more to see, Raven. Let’s go.” He lowered his belly to the grass and gave her a boost with his head as she climbed onto his back.
The young mage gazed over her dragon’s scaled head when he turned toward the center of Azerad. She squared her shoulders. Do the right thing when it’s most important, however and whenever that is. I’m trying, Grandpa.
Leander leapt skyward and skimmed a few feet over the field before he ascended sharply. The night had fallen and become quieter now that the battle was over. A few soldiers still moved through the city streets as they soared overhead, and the same situation prevailed at the center of the city around Governor Irlish’s estate.
“It’s gonna be a little hard to go back to the stables for another three days, isn’t it?”
He snorted. “Something tells me that silly little tournament will not continue.”
She smirked. “Great minds think alike, dragon. After this, the Tournament of Mages is pointless. Honestly, I’ll be happier if we are sent home tomorrow.”
“Me too.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Two days after the raider attack on Azerad, Raven, Bella, Henry, and Murphy stood in a line in front of Headmaster Flynn’s desk in his living quarters that doubled as an office. The headmaster took a deep breath and looked up from the rolls of parchment paper with a gentle smile. “Thank you all for taking the time out of your busy schedules to meet me this evening.”
The young mages chuckled a little nervously.
Henry shrugged. “Okay, I’m probably missing dinner right now—ow.”
Murphy elbowed him in the ribs and he grinned at her as he rubbed his side.
“I’ll make this as short and to the point as possible, Mr. Derks. Thereafter, if you like, you may join a few of your professors and myself in the common area outside the assembly hall for a meal. I believe it will be ready for our enjoyment by the time we’re finished.”
“Oh. Yeah, that sounds great.” He nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets.
“Excellent.” Flynn clapped briskly. “Of course, the ladies are also cordially invited. Now, let’s get to the point of this meeting. I asked the four you here because I want to personally thank you. Of course, you may think you already know why—and yes, defeating ruthless murderers and thieves on your own without any previous battle experience is a worthy feat. But I don’t believe any of you have been made aware of the full scope of the effects your actions have had on a broader scale.”
Murphy bit her lip. “Oh, boy.”
“That’s a precursor to positive news, Miss Murphy, I assure you.”
The other students laughed a little, and the girl grinned and folded her arms. There was no trace of a blush on her cheeks.
“In fact, it starts with your efforts yesterday, Miss Murphy, as well as Mr. Derk’s initiative and impressive aim.”
Henry raised his chin and wiggled his eyebrows as he cast Raven a sidelong glance. She smirked and shook her head.
“It’s quite possible that we would never have become aware of the dangerous and unfortunate situation in which Miss Rodenmeyer found herself over the last few days if the two of you hadn’t returned to school grounds when you did. To be perfectly honest, part of me doubts we would have even found those raiders on the property before it was too late for everyone. But we did thanks to you two.”
Bella and Raven stared at Henry and Murphy. “You fought raiders here?”
Henry shrugged. “Well, almost directly below us.”
“He shot a raider off the outside of this tower,” Murphy added with a chuckle, “and I clubbed one on the back of the head with my favorite sparring ax.”
“Oof.”
“Which also conveniently released Miss Rodenmeyer from her captor’s arms and delivered her to the safety of Professor Gilliam’s.” The headmaster smiled at his students and cleared his throat so they’d all turn to face him. “It doesn’t take much to get the information one needs from a raider. Reading between the lines is fairly easy, even when those lines are vague threats and misdirection. These criminals took Miss Rodenmeyer and her family hostage and threatened their lives to compel her to help them break into the weapons shed to tamper with the Periview. Unfortunately, we lost the connection with Azerad’s replica and consequently, most of your first match, Miss Alby. I do hope you’ll recount it for us in full detail over dinner.
“I digress. The fact that a relatively uneducated band of raiders snuck into this school to dismantle a magical device and cut off our connection to Azerad gave me a hunch that they did not want us to see a planned attack in that city. One raider’s useless threat confirmed it. I sent word immediately to Governor Irlish and told him what had happened. He explained that his wife had come down with a sudden illness and things were a little chaotic at the time.
“I suspected that he didn’t want me to worry about having sent five of this school’s brilliant students to his city for the Tournament of Mages, which was why he hid the fact that his wife had been attacked not half an hour before by a single raider within his own home. I therefore took the liberty of alerting as many of my contacts as I could reach on such short notice. Miss Alby, your friend William Moss the dragon trainer was one of them.”
“Really?” Raven wrinkled her nose with a confused smile. “What did he do to help?”
“The better question is what didn’t he do.” Flynn folded his hands in front of him. “Mr. Moss and the dragon—Teo, I believe—delivered messages to the three closest cities and a few other small townships in record time. They were able to get word to the capital about the issues I predicted in Azerad. The message spread in a matter of hours, you understand, and William delivered one final message to the troops gathered at the breach in the great wall. They received their orders to return to their posts and prepare for a massive incursion of raiders. Whole contingents mobilized across the entire expanse of Lomberdoon, and the majority of the raiders inside the kingdom walls have been dealt with already.”
“What about the rest of them?” Bella asked with wide eyes.
“Unfortunately, there a number who slipped through the net, Miss Chase—a few escaped raiders we couldn’t reach in time. And this is where you and Miss Alby performed the unthinkable in Azerad, as I understand it.”
The two girls shared a knowing glance. On the other side of Raven, Henry whistled and muttered, “I can’t wait to hear this one.”
“You two were the final, instrumental piece that allowed us to work as one across the kingdom at large and quite far beyond it, to be perfectly honest.”
“What?”
Headmaster Flynn’s smile widened. “Beyond having eliminated an impressive number of infiltrating criminals who scurried across Azerad, as I’ve heard it told, the two of you were the only ones who thought to look beyond the governor’s estate. In rescuing Mrs. Irlish and the other two hostages at that western gate, you enabled Lomberdoon’s warning to Sterlin Velt and Everwiel regarding the larger threat of oncoming raider parties revealed by a few of the criminals interrogated that night.”
Bella frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“I don’t hold it against you, Miss Chase. When you have all the pieces, you’re remarkably skilled at putting them together. These pieces simply aren’t common knowledge.” Flynn spread his arms apologetically. “Azerad possesses the strongest model of the Periview in known existence. At times, it has been used to communicate with the governing bodies of Sterlin Velt and Everwiel when necessary. Governor Irlish would most certainly have agreed to hand his Periview over or even destroy it himself had those raiders successfully taken his wife out of the city. And, I imagine, the surrounding kingdoms, as well as our own, would have been quickly overrun. But that was not the case. With his wife tucked safely in their bed, the governor made the connection to the other kingdoms’ leaders and advisors with a warning of the threat they also faced. The last I heard, both their militaries made quick work of the largest band of united raiders in living memory.”
The headmaster leaned forward and smiled at the young war mages in training who stood in front of his desk with startled expressions. “All because you two worked together to face a threat even you did not fully understand. Three kingdoms owe their lives to the four of you. I’m sure we’ll think of something to commemorate that.”
The huge, circular room at the top of Fowler Academy’s tallest tower fell silent. On the floor at Henry’s feet, Maxwell croaked loudly and startled Flynn, who jumped a little in surprise.
Henry chuckled at his toad familiar. “You can say that again.”
The students burst out laughing, and Flynn allowed himself a good chuckle with them. He gestured toward the door and took a deep breath. “That is all for this little meeting of ours. You’re free to enjoy the rest of the spring break. All four nights and three days of it before classes resume. Please do feel free to join us for dinner. It’s a special occasion, however private.”
“Thanks, Headmaster.”
“I’m starving.”
“Henry…”
The four heroic young mages turned silently to move out the door after Bella pushed it open and led the way down the stairs.
“Miss Alby, I would like a few more minutes of your time before you join your friends if you please.”
“Oh. Uh…sure.” Raven leaned toward the stairwell and muttered, “You guys go on. I’m staying for dinner, obviously, so I’ll be down there in a short while.”
“Don’t take forever, Alby!” Henry waved before he hurried behind Bella and Murphy to descend the winding staircase.
She turned slowly to face Headmaster Flynn and nodded. “If this is about the whole riding without a saddle thing, or me taking Leander out of the stables in Azerad to fly around the city, even though it helped save three kingdoms… I know I’m breaking many rules here. But I promise it’s all for good reasons—”
“Let me stop you right there, Miss Alby.” The headmaster cleared his throat and fought back a chuckle. “I didn’t ask you to stay behind so you could receive your own private lecture.”
Startled, she took a deep breath, exhaled, and frowned. “Okay…”
“I thought this might be of a more personal nature for you and I simply did not wish to cross a line by announcing it in your friends’ presence. I’ll leave that decision up to you.”
The young mage swallowed and stepped toward the desk. “You heard something about my grandfather, didn’t you?”
“Even better.” Flynn smiled at his desk and removed a folded piece of parchment paper from beneath the scattered piles of other documents. “I received a letter from Connor Alby. Two, actually. And one of them is addressed to you.”
Raven’s heart fluttered in her chest. Finally. “What does it say?”
The headmaster shrugged and offered her the folded missive. “I have no idea. I’m not in the habit of reading student mail, Raven, even when it’s addressed to one of my most astonishingly capable students.”
With wide eyes, she took the last few steps to his desk and accepted the letter. It was stamped with an unbroken sigil from the capital stamped in bright-red wax. “Thank you.”
“It’s the least I can do. Of course, this has nothing to do with what you’ve done for this school and Brighton and far beyond Lomberdoon over the last few weeks. But it’s a letter with your name on it.”
“It’s honestly the best news you could give me right now.” She rubbed her hand over the unbroken wax seal.
“I’m glad. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll hurry to the first floor to alleviate these hunger pains. Doing so in good company can’t hurt much either.” With a knowing smile, Flynn stepped around the awestruck young mage and nodded. “Feel free to take your time here. When you’re ready, I would still very much like to hear about your single match in the Tournament of Mages. I imagine the tale will be quite riveting.”
“If you want riveting, Headmaster, maybe you should summon Daniel Smith to the school and have him tell it.”
Headmaster Flynn responded with a loud, booming laugh and headed out the door to descend the staircase. “We shall see, dragon rider. Or is it war mage?”
“We could start a whole new order,” she replied with a smirk. “I kinda like the sound of dragon mage.”
“Hmm. It’s something to think about, most definitely.” With that, he hurried down the stairs and disappeared from view.
She waited another minute and couldn’t bring herself to do more than stare at the unbroken seal on the letter from Connor Alby. Finally, she flipped the folded parchment paper and grinned. “War Mage Raven Alby, huh? Thanks for the status boost, Grandpa.”
Raven slid her finger slowly beneath the fold in the letter and broke the wax seal. With a deep breath, she unfolded the parchment paper covered in her grandfather’s unmistakable handwriting and began to read.
A day later, Raven stood beside the newly fortified stables on Moss Ranch, her arms folded as she watched William tack up another board against the back of a stall one particularly upset visiting dragon had kicked out of place three days before.
“I still can’t—ow.” He shook his hand out, glanced at his thumb, and hissed a sigh before he hammered the last few nails in. “I still can’t believe you went to Azerad to help Fowler Academy win a Tournament of Mages prize and ended up saving the governor’s wife, the entire city, Lomberdoon, and two other kingdoms all in the same night.”
“Hey, you know me.” She spread her arms extravagantly and smirked. “I’m all about breaking records.”
He turned and shook the hammer at her. “I thought you were breaking tradition.”
“Well, someone told me how bending tradition works, and I think I like that definition a little better.”
William laughed, pounded the final nail in, and stood from his crouch. He took a step back and nodded. “That oughtta hold until the next rowdy beast I lend a stall to for the night.” He flipped the hammer in his hand, hooked the head over the top rung of the low fence outside the stables, and turned. “So what’s next for the great War Mage Dragon Rider Raven Alby.”
“Jeez, that’s a mouthful.”
“Well, you gotta find something catchy, whatever it is.”
She smirked. “What do you think of Dragon Mage?”
His head tilted thoughtfully, he wrinkled his nose. “Nah. That sounds like a dragon casting spells. And lemme tell you, Raven, if that ever happens, I don’t care how much of a black mark it puts on my reputation. I will take off my dragon-trainer hat, toss it into the mud, and maybe stomp on it a few times. I’ll call it an entire life well-spent before I move onto something that won’t make me completely lose my mind.”
Raven burst out laughing and he couldn’t help but chuckle with her.
The dragon trainer removed his wide-brimmed hat to wipe the sweat off his forehead, then jammed it over his long blond hair again. “I’m serious. Dragons have enough power as it is.”
“Can you imagine Leander with magic?”
He thumped both hands against his chest, spun in an exaggerated circle, and staggered against the fence post. “Let me die, please.”
“I thought more along the lines of hilarity with a side order of chaos, but death probably isn’t that far off the mark.”
Slowly, he opened one eye and raised an eyebrow as he smirked at her. “You know him better than anyone. Could he handle his own magic?”
“You mean beyond terrible strength and epic flight and breathing fire?” Raven shrugged. “Yeah, I’m sure Leander would be fine. He’d have me to show him how it works.”
William pushed away from the fence and pointed at her. “And that’s exactly why I decided to quit worrying about you altogether, Raven.”
“You mean it wasn’t because of all the times I told you not to worry about me?”
With a small, thoughtful smile, his gaze fell to the trampled grass and dirt between them as he stepped toward the young mage. “I realized you and Leander have each other’s backs no matter what. You made that very clear. So, yeah, I had to come to that conclusion all on my own before I decided not to worry about you.” He bit his lip, and his gaze raised slowly to meet hers. “It doesn’t mean I don’t think about you.”
Oh, man. What am I about to step into right now?
She hesitated but smiled at him, and for a few seconds, she thought he’d step closer, at the very least. Maybe even all the way.
“But…” He clapped and turned away from her to head down the fence surrounding the dragon field, where all Moss Ranch’s trained beasts milled around with their respective clans. “You completely changed the subject and didn’t actually answer my question.”
