The Last of the Firedrakes (30 page)

I thanked Aunt Serena and climbed into the Everdale coach that was to take me back to Evolon. Erien got in with me, and we waved good-bye to my aunt, who was standing at the door to see us off.

Classes were interesting as usual, and I didn’t see Damien the whole first day I was back. He wasn’t even in warrior skills that day, which was a relief, but I wondered where he was.

I fiddled with my amulet while I walked back from my evening history class, through the gardens to my dorm. I looked at it again, as I had done countless times before. It looked so delicate and harmless, just a flat, round, gold disc with strange etchings embossed into the gold. Quite extraordinary that it held so much power. I slipped it back into my shirt.

It was getting dark, the sun had set, and the early hint of twilight filled the gardens with shadows. I quickened my step, pulled my mottled green cloak closer, and hurried on. It was getting cold. I could hear faint footsteps behind me. I looked back, but there was no one there.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a dark shape appeared, moving steadily out of the shadows. I recognized who it was instantly.

“Damien!” I said, trying not to let the panic in my voice show.

He had threatened to teach me a lesson, and this was it, I presumed. Now he was here in a dark, deserted corner of the grounds with seven or eight of his minions, and I was all alone. Even if I shouted, everyone was too far away.

Calisto also came out of the shadows. Damien and his friends surrounded me. I looked for a way to run, but they were everywhere and had surrounded me on all sides.

I was scared now. If Rafe had taught me to use knives, like I had asked, I might have had a better chance of defending myself. But who was I kidding? Even with knives, one against eight was not exactly a fair fight.

“What do you want?” I asked. I hated that my voice was a little shaky; I could feel the fear rush in. Whatever Damien had planned for me tonight was not going to be pleasant.

“I want to see if you are as brave as all the other disgusting Silverthornes,” he said, with a sneer. “Stay where you are and you may get a chance to defend yourself.” His tone was full of malice, and his dark eyes bore down on me. “You are nothing, a commoner from a distant kingdom, yet you think you are better than me, Damien, son of the Duke of Blackwater, one of the noblest and most magically powerful families in the kingdom. You don’t deserve to be in this school. I told you I’d teach you a lesson. Let us see what you’re made of.”

While I was distracted, one of Damien’s minions surprised me with a stun strike. It was weak, but it hurt, and I was dazed for a few seconds. I quickly put up my defensive shield, although it was shaky at best.

I tried to calm my racing heart and slowly shook off the stun. I strengthened my shield just in time, as five more stun strikes hit my shield and bounced off. It held, but only just. I drew more power and infused it into my defensive barrier. Damien and his friends didn’t stop their barrage of magical strikes. Attack after attack, stun strike after stun strike hit my shield and were thankfully deflected. I tried to think, but the attacks were coming at me so fast, I had no time to react except to shield myself. If I channeled my power into striking, my shield could drop.

The attacks were starting to become fiercer. At first, they were one at a time, but soon they were combining their strikes against me. I was getting tired; I’d never had to hold out to a magical attack for so long before. And even then it was against one person with Professor Tanko looking on.

One fire strike managed to get partly through my shield and scorched my leg before I could seal the breach. The pain was agonizing, but I held my ground.

I tried to remember everything Professor Tanko had taught me. “Keep your shield in place at all times. Don’t forget to seal the top and bottom as well.” I concentrated on the area and closed the break in the shield. I was getting tired. My legs had gone weak, and I fell to my knees, but still I drew more power into maintaining my shield. I just didn’t know how long I could hold out. My leg was hurting where the fire strike had hit me. It throbbed, and my skin was red and burning.

“Come on, get up Rory,” sneered Calisto. “You think you are so important because you are a ward of the Silverthornes. Well, let me tell you, your peasant blood is nothing compared to ours. We are Blackwaters, our magical bloodline spans generations, and no one even cares where Andrysia is.”

She hit me with a strong fire strike.

My shield was weakening again. I felt fear rush in, and her strike hit me on my shoulder. Pain shot through my arm, and I cried out in alarm. I put my palm over the area and reinforced my shield, drawing more power into it. I could feel my power source depleting. Soon I would have none left, and, if I tried to do too much, I could die.

I knew I would have to eventually fight them physically; my magical shield was about to fall. I wondered if I should take off my amulet, but Uncle Gabriel’s warning resounded in my head. If I took off the amulet, Damien would know who I really was. He would inform Lucian, and Morgana would come after me immediately. For now I was only safe because she had no idea where I was.

I calmed myself and got ready for the final blow. I was not going to let them defeat me. I was a princess, daughter of the greatest mage of this age, a fearless warrior, and the true King of Illiador. The thought gave me strength to further reinforce my shield, but time was running out.

Suddenly I heard Damien’s voice. He sounded panicked. “Let’s get out of here. Someone’s coming.”

They all left as quickly as they came.

I collapsed in a heap on the floor, my shield still defensively around me.

“Rory, are you all right?” a worried voice said.

I looked up to see Professor Dekela, the mastermage, crouching over me. I was safe, and I let my shield drop, but I was too exhausted to get up, let alone walk. Professor Dekela carried me through the mage quarters to his study and lay me down on a comfortable leather sofa. He was quite strong for an old mage.

He handed me a cup of what I recognized as snowberry milk, and I took it gratefully. Snowberry milk was wonderful for calming the nerves and restoring strength to the body, as well as aiding sleep.

The mastermage sat down on a matching leather armchair near me. He looked serious, and I was not sure how much I should actually tell him. If I squealed on Damien and his friends, they would hunt me down, and the next time I may not be so lucky.

“Who was responsible for this, Rory?” Professor Dekela asked slowly, but his eyes showed that he was very serious and concerned.

I shook my head. I didn’t want to lie, and so it was better to just keep quiet.

“If you don’t tell me, I will punish every student in this school until you do,” he said, in his usual matter-of-fact way. “I don’t think your friends would appreciate it, when all you have to do is to tell me who the aggressors of tonight’s attack were. I will not have any of my students behaving this way.”

I weighed the options carefully in my mind. It was no use lying; he would find out eventually.

“It was the Blackwaters, Professor,” I said finally, unable to keep it in. “Damien and Calisto, along with some of their friends. You cannot let them know that I’ve told you or punish them. If you do, they will make my life hell, and you said I don’t want to bring attention to myself.”

“I will think about it,” said Professor Dekela. “Tell me what happened, and then I will decide.”

“There were about seven or eight of them, and they attacked me out of nowhere,” I started. “I was stunned once. It was a weak stun, but then I got my shield up and held it. They didn’t stop. I got scared, and my shield dropped for a minute. That’s when the fire strike hit me on the leg.”

I showed him where I had got burnt.

“Are you saying that they used fire strikes on you outside of class?”

I nodded. “Mainly stuns, but a few fire.”

“We will fix that,” he said simply. He put his palm over the wound and closed his eyes. I had learned this in my healing class but had never done it myself. The pain vanished almost instantly, and the skin started to heal, although I knew it would take a few days to restore itself to normal. I showed him my shoulder too, where Calisto’s fire strike had hit me. He healed that as well.

“Now, let me get this straight,” said Professor Dekela, when I was feeling a little better. “Eight students attacked you out of nowhere and used stun and fire strikes on you.”

“And push strikes too,” I added, remembering my ordeal.

He frowned. “And you held your shield against so many magical strikes one after another?”

I shook my head. “At first it was one after another, but then, when they were not getting through my shield, they all struck together, maybe four or five at a time. I think they were trying to break my shield from all sides. I didn’t have enough power to strike back, so I concentrated on holding my shield.”

Professor Dekela was rubbing his chin, and his eyes were wide. “Are you trying to say that you held your shield against so many multiple strikes at a time for, what was it, about ten minutes?”

I nodded.

“And this is the first time you have created a shield against a real magical attack outside of class, am I right?”

I nodded again. What was he trying to say?

The mastermage rose. “That, my dear Rory, is quite impressive. There is only one mage I have seen who had so much power at your age.” He stopped, a faraway look on his face; he seemed hesitant to continue on that subject. “Nonetheless, this kind of behavior will not be tolerated in my school. Use of fire strikes on one of my students, ambush on school property . . . these students have to be dealt with in some way.”

There was a knock on the door.

“Ah, Penelope and Miss Foxmoor,” said the mastermage, looking over at the door. I turned to see Professor Plumpleberry and Vivienne walk in.

Vivienne ran over and hugged me. I winced when she touched my arm. “What happened?”

“Damien happened,” I said simply.

Penelope looked livid.

Professor Dekela cleared his throat. “I summoned your roommate and Professor Plumpleberry when I brought you here. They will take you back to your room, so Penelope can tend to your wounds. I expect you don’t want to be alone tonight.”

I nodded gratefully. I would never have asked. I didn’t want to sound like a scared little girl, but I was glad that I didn’t have to walk back to my dorm on my own.

“And there is something else,” said Professor Dekela.

“Yes, Professor,” I said.

“After you are feeling better, come and see me. I would like to arrange some extra classes for you. It seems you have a lot of untapped power, and it would be a shame for it to be overlooked.” He glanced at Penelope, who I noticed nodded slightly.

“Thank you, Professor,” I said gratefully, following Penelope and Vivienne out of the room.

As we walked along the flowering paths and down the main avenue of cherry blossoms, I told them what I had told Professor Dekela. Vivienne shared Penelope’s anger, but they both agreed with me that, if the mastermage expelled Damien, it would definitely bring the Blackwaters down on my head, and I didn’t want them snooping around into who I really was.

I felt humiliated. How could Damien do this to me, eight against one? He was always a coward, bullies usually are, and that’s why he always had his cronies following him about. I was sure I could beat him one on one, even with my binding amulet on.

I decided that I was going to give more interest and time to my studies and training. I was suddenly extremely determined to be better than him. I knew I could do it, but I needed help. And now the mastermage of the university was willing to look into my studies personally. If I applied myself and worked hard, I was sure that I could challenge him to a public duel and beat him in front of the whole school.

I hardly slept that night. Nightmares of Damien and his cronies hunting me down plagued me every time I tried to fall asleep.

I woke up in a cold sweat. It was still dark, and Vivienne was sound asleep on the other bed in the corner of the room. A light sea breeze wafted in as moonlight shone through the little window and the trees threw rustling shadows on the bedroom floor. A shadow moved near the curtains, and my breath caught in my throat. Had Damien come to finish off the job, or had Morgana finally found me?

“Rafe!” I whispered, relieved beyond belief as the moonlight finally lit up his face. He wasn’t wearing his mask.

Rafe came over, knelt down by my bed, and hugged me.

“Are you all right?” he asked softly, holding my face in his hands, his grey eyes glittering in the moonlight.

I nodded, lowering my eyes. Did he really care what happened to me, or was he just upset that he wasn’t there to save me this time?

“What are you doing here?” I said, trying to keep my voice low. “What if someone sees you?” I glanced over at Vivienne’s side of the room, but she was still sound asleep.

“Penelope told me what happened,” Rafe said, holding both my hands in his. He spoke quietly, and Vivienne didn’t wake up. “I had to come and see how you were. I thought I told you to stay away from the Blackwaters.”

“I tried,” I said indignantly, “but they cornered and attacked me when no one else was around. What was I supposed to do?”

Rafe muttered something about needing to teach them a lesson.

“You can’t do anything about it, Rafe,” I said. “Promise me you will leave it alone. The Blackwaters are powerful nobles, related to the king. If they catch you, you will be hanged.”

Rafe laughed. “Don’t worry, Aurora. I can handle the Blackwaters.” He got up and sat beside me on the bed. “The only person I can’t seem to handle is you. I wish you would learn to listen, especially when it’s for your own good.”

I tried to look offended, blood rushing to my face. I was lucky it was dark and he couldn’t see my embarrassment.

Vivienne stirred in her bed.

“I should go,” Rafe whispered. “But I want you to meet me tomorrow night in the cellar of your dorm house.”

“Where are we going?” I asked, but only because I was curious. The truth was I would follow him anywhere.