Dragon Rider (DragonMage Saga) (26 page)

*

They kept walking not daring to
look back at Gavrie for if they did they just don’t know what they would do if
he called them back. It’s the look he’s giving them lately they are not sure
of. They know they will have to be very careful around him.

Getting down to their hidden room
and finding they had not put a spell lock on the door. Remembering what Gavrie
told them they just ignored him and they all placed the spell on the door to
hide it. Any one of them could open it at anytime for as each one put the spell
on the door they each blended it in with the other spells there.

They entered the room and placed
their lock on the door and then proceeded to open the other door to the hall
leading off to the other deck. They put one of their spells on this door and
not the old one that someone long dead put there.

Contents

A Lesson Learned

Angel and the others knew that to
reveal, being able to look and see other wizards spells and even open them
would not go down well at all. They climbed the stairs to the tower door and
slowly looked to make sure no one was there. Finding no one they went quickly into
the cave of the next Dragon Deck so they could not be seen.

Reaching the next deck they find
their dragons waiting there for them. Climbing on their backs they got
themselves in a good position and the dragons lifted into the air with a
graceful flap of their wings. They proceeded to fly under the Dragon Decks and
along to their deck at the end.

Now they could really greet their
dragons and spent a good hour just playing with them, this doing a world of
good for them all. Eventually they spent the afternoon just playing and flying
close to the castle at this end. Angel knew they were not getting much done in
regards the Renegade but seeing the joy on the faces of his friends and
himself, he found that more beneficial.

They found there was no time to
play with their magic and so headed back to the deck close to the school.
Arriving not long before the evening meal they quickly gave their dragons a hug
and quickly ran to the next deck making sure they were not seen by the wizard
patrolling the tower.

After the meal they headed back
up to the library and carried on looking for all they could on the Renegades.
Angel was walking down one of the isles when he stopped at a book that caught
his eye. He called the others over as he realized it might be important.

They all came running up to him
and were a bit winded as his yell sounded urgent. ‘This book here has just
reminded me we needed to find out about Portals. The Renegades must be opening
one to bring the creatures through so we need to find out about them just as
much as the Renegades.’

Shylyn went over to the shelf
where Angel got his book and started to look. It was not long before she had
one as well. ‘Come on there are others here as well so we might as well all
look and see what there is about the portals?’

They soon had a dozen books
sitting on the floor at their feet. ‘Come on let’s get these over to a table
and start looking? There must be something in these and as we’re not having
much luck finding anything on the Renegades.’ Angel had four books in his arms
and was heading off to one off the tables at the end of the isle.

They all sat there and just read
till it got late. ‘I think we had better get these books back to the shelf’s
and we better get back to our rooms as it is getting very late?’ Medwin had got
up as he spoke stretching his arms high into the air.

Students still had to be in bed
at reasonable hours as they are still very young and if Gavrie had come in and
caught them he would not have been very happy. With them being younger than the
other first year students he would expect them to be in bed earlier. They got
back to their common room without any wizard seeing them. Going straight to bed
as they had found they were very tired.

They were up late the next
morning as they had slept in and they had to run. Deciding they had better miss
breakfast and get to class, not wanting to be missed at class. They would just
have a bigger lunch instead, and take some food with them for latter.

They found Gavrie was taking them
this morning and he was going to go over the shielding magic again to see if
they had been practicing it. ‘Ok looking at you lot, I can see you are all
bursting with energy so lets get in and show what you’ve learnt with your
shielding magic?’

He got them to stand and put
their shields up and he will throw a few balls of fire at them and see how
their shields hold. Gavrie looked at them and he could see they were tired.
Having been in the meal hall early he noticed they hadn’t come in for their
breakfast. So thinking they had a late night and so slept in, he was going to
wake them up very quickly.

He was going to have them learn
the hard way, that at their age they must get their sleep which in turn means
they have to go to bed at the right time. It would not do them any good to be
tired at the wrong time.

From now on he was going to make
sure they went to bed at the correct time but he also must get them to realize
they needed to have sleep. So he was going to wake them up with some hard
hitting fire balls. It would be the best way for them to learn.

Now let’s see what happens when I
send in a volley of fire balls. ‘Ok let’s see how your shields hold up to
this.’ He fires five quick balls of fire at them sending the extra one at Angel
so he got two quick hits on his shield.

He found their shields held fine
so he up the tempo and sent three at each of them to see how their shields
hold. He could still see they were quick but they did struggle with three hits.
‘Ok let’s see you with four hits.’ And he fired them before they had time to
realize just what he said.

The balls of fire hit one after
the other knocking them backwards and almost having them on the floor. Now he
could see they were sweating and that any more would go through their shields.
They looked at him and he could see in their faces they knew they couldn’t take
another hit.

‘Ok that will be enough if I
fired one more it would go through your shields. Now they were small fire balls
which I should have been able to fire at you for a long time and your shields
would stop them, but you all know if I send one more it will go through your
shield.’ Looking at them one at a time and his expression was not one of
happiness as he spoke.

They could see the anger in his
face as he spoke to them.

Angel spoke. ‘We were in the library
and got so engrossed in the spell books; we lost all track of time. We won’t do
it again.’

‘I know you won’t do it again as
you are now on a curfew, you will be in bed at dusk for the next four weeks.
You must learn that at your age you have to have sleep for if you don’t it
affects your magic and in affecting your magic your body can’t shield itself
very well. Till you are older and your body learns to do with less sleep you
have got to have it.’ He stood there for a time looking at them after he had spoken,
they could see he was very serous about the curfew.

They did not know were to look
for Gavrie just stared them down. They couldn’t look at him and they had never
seen him this angry before. Angel decided he would have to say something. ‘We
are really sorry but we never knew it could affect our magic like it did. It
was getting really hard to stop the fire balls; it was as if our magic had
shrunk back in to our centre. I could barely push it out to keep the shield up
and I could tell one more hit and it would have gone. We just never thought
anything like that could happen.’

Gavrie took pity on them and
relaxed his face coming back to a caring smile. ‘Ok it is very important for at
an early age your magic is still learning about your body and you are just
learning about your magic. The other first year students who are older than you
it’s the same but they at lest have age on their side but you lot don’t. Your
bodies are still too young for magic but there is nothing I or anyone else can
do about it. All we can do is try and tell you and let you find out what you
can and cannot do.’ Looking at them, he felt fear for them. They were so young
he just has to keep a closer eye on them.

His pity for them at the shock
they must have got just then got the better of him. ‘Go and get something to
eat. You also stay in your room for the rest of the day and get some more sleep
and let your bodies catch up.’

They headed down and grabbed a
large meal and headed off to their room. They could feel their bodies did need
the sleep and the food. They got back to their room, ate their meal and found
they were very tired and went to bed.

The following morning they headed
down for breakfast and in the hall found Gavrie sitting there looking at them
as they came. They tried not to look at him but found it very hard not to. They
were feeling guilty about yesterday and not wanting him to say anything more
they tried not to get his attention.

They ate and headed off to class
which today was on little spells, ones that you would take for granted. These
were spells like creating balls of light and setting a fire in the fire place.
Moving items around the place, placing writing on paper without pencils and all
those little things that one takes for granted.

In the afternoon Gavrie called
them to his room and they all went there knowing they were going to lose the
library for a while. They knocked and Gavrie bid them enter, his voice not
sounding to stern. They approached the desk where Gavrie was seated writing in
a large book.

‘Now lets see what we are going
to do with you in the afternoons as I do not want you in the library for at
lest the rest of the week. You need to learn the hard way that it’s important
for you at this age to get your rest. That means if you go back to the library
again it is likely to happen again. So a week without it should help you
remember you must stop when you need to.’ He spoke softly not wanting to sound
to stern, as he wanted them to still keep their curiosity.

They had a crestfallen look on
their faces but he kept to what he had decided. ‘Now as to what you can do in
place of that. I think you can spend the afternoons in your room or your secret
room and let your magic flow in and out of your bodies. Also you can do your
magic channels and make shore they are clear. A week of that should make it
clear to yourselves its very important for your magic to get the rest it needs
that your body needs.’

Gavrie indicated the door and
they left and headed back to their room grabbing some food on the way. Sitting
in their room they had almost forgotten what they had learned the other night
about Portals. Angel looked at them and asked Medwin what he had found if
anything.

Medwin jumped up and smiled as he
started telling them. ‘The book I read had the spells needed to open portals
but it says you need at lest three wizards to open a medium size portal. The
spells are incredible; the pattern alone is so complicated, three wizards would
be hard pressed to remember each and every pattern to the spell.’

‘So if the book say you need at
lest three to make a medium one then what the Renegades are opening and
bringing all those creature through. There would have to be at lest five or six
at lest to open something large enough to get some of the really big creatures
through.’ Angel had a far away look on his face as if he could see how that
many could do it.

Maive coughed and looked around.
‘My book says the portals are at the best of times not that stable and are
likely to come apart at any moment, even as the wizards are casting the spell
and the portal is partially open. The more Wizards there to help cast the spell
the better the chance the portal has of staying open.’

Angel stood up and walked around
the room. ‘What I find interesting is, there are wizards working together with
their spells. That normally does not happen and only around here when we are
under attack. They are working together and until our wizards can do the same
all the time we are in danger. We will have to hope that working together will
show them it’s good to do.’

Angel comes back and sits down.
‘I found that a portal the size needed to bring the amount of creatures through
has got to be close to the area the creatures are attacking. So I work out that
with the creatures attacking the Riders School, Hatchery and the Wizard School
the portal has got to be out at sea somewhere.’

They talked for a little longer
till there was a knock at the door. They jumped up and Shylyn went over and
opened it. Gavrie came in and looked to make sure they were all there. ‘It has
just gone dusk so you need to get to sleep now away you go and just for a while
I will sit down here in your common room to make sure you do go to sleep, now
go.’

They looked at Gavrie and headed
off to their respective rooms while Gavrie went and sat down taking a book out
of his robe pocket. He had a deep purple robe with gold inlay around the
sleeves and neck. There were large pockets on each side and they had gold
inlays on them as well.

*

Gavrie looked at them go and
settled down and started reading he would only stay for a short time as he is
pretty sure they will be a sleep very quickly. He knew what happened this
morning was going to take a lot out of them and they would be like this for a
few days till their bodies come back to normal.

After half an hour he climbed the
stairs and found they had indeed gone to sleep, going back down he went up the
girls stairs and found they were the same. He left their rooms and headed back
to his room knowing in the morning they will have found he had been right and
they will hopefully see they need their sleep.