WarMage: Uncontrolled (The Never Ending War Book 3), page 24
He snorted. “I was gonna say weird castle, but yeah.”
“It is weird. Everything here is—like the whole city’s trying to be something it’s not. Or only half of it managed to turn into something different.”
Daniel squinted at her and lowered his head. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. It’s simply a feeling.” With a shrug, Raven gave him a quick smile and slowed as they approached the fountain in the middle of the garden.
The young mages stopped to stare at the carved figures at the fountain’s center. She tilted her head and studied it carefully. “I might be wrong, but that looks like two naked guys doing handstands.”
“Uh-huh.” His head tilted in the opposite direction. “So those two other streams of water… Those are coming from their—”
“Okay.” She clamped her hand around his upper arm to keep him from saying anything else. “Which way do we go now? Left or right?”
Slowly, he looked at her arm on his bicep and wiggled his eyebrows.
Raven jerked her hand away and looked at him from the corner of her eye. “I have no preference.”
“I’ll go wherever you want, Raven.”
Despite the fact that he sounds like Leander, he’s getting much smoother. She couldn’t help but smile at that as she nodded to the left and turned in that direction. “It’s probably a giant circle, anyway.”
“Uh-huh.” The young wizard followed with his hands in his pockets and the grin that brought out his dimples.
Raven slowed to let him catch up with her. When he didn’t reappear at her side, she turned and almost shouted in surprise. She would have fallen onto the path if he hadn’t slipped one arm around her waist, cupped her cheek with the other hand, and drawn her toward him. It didn’t play out as well as it could have with her still so off-balance, but the next thing she knew, his lips were on hers. She tried to find her footing, tripped on one of his shoes, and pulled away from him so she wouldn’t fall.
“Um…” She stared dumbly at him, then smiled at the ground while she tried to find the right words.
“Sorry.” Daniel chuckled and ran a hand through his hair. “Bad timing?”
“Do you mean sneaking up on me for a surprise kiss or, like, my life in general?”
Clearing his throat, he stuffed his hands into his pockets and shrugged. “Both, I guess.”
They shared another self-conscious chuckle, and she nodded. “Okay. First, I’m not a big fan of being snuck up on. Leander’s the only one who manages to do it, and he’s a dragon, so…I can’t hold it against him.”
“Huh. I didn’t know dragons could be so quiet.”
“I didn’t either until he started thinking it was hilarious to surprise me like that.” Raven shrugged. “And I have a thing about appreciating my personal space.”
“You kinda have to make an exception for that when you kiss somebody, though, right?” He stepped toward her and bit his bottom lip as he stared into her eyes.
He’s really laying it on thick. It’s better to be honest now than be caught up in something I’m not sure I want. I learned that lesson with the gala.
“Well, that leads me to the second half of the bad timing.” She took a deep breath and spread her arms apologetically. “I have so much going on right now, you know? This whole Tournament of Mages is only a tiny piece of it. I’m trying to balance all of it at the same time, and I’m not ready to…do anything serious with anyone. Right now.”
Raven pressed her lips together and waited for his response. That was gentle enough.
Daniel continued to smile and his gaze roamed her face. Finally, he nodded and looked away, his head lowered. “Yeah, okay. I can’t expect a girl with her own dragon to have much free time.”
She shrugged with a little chuckle. “It’s a process.”
“I bet. Can we… I mean, we can still hang out, though, right?”
“Sure. We can still hang out.”
He leaned toward her again and pulled his hands out of his pockets. “But nothing serious.”
“Right. And that has to be good enough.” Is he about to try again?
Daniel’s blue gaze did fall to her lips, but he stopped leaning in and simply said, “Cool.”
She laughed at that and covered her mouth. “Yeah. Cool.”
The young wizard stepped back and spread his arms with a goofy little bow. “I accept your terms, Raven Alby, as long as you don’t stop talking to me completely.”
She wrinkled her nose and pointed at him. “You don’t have to worry about that. You were the one avoiding me, remember?”
Daniel threw his head back and laughed, and his hands went into his pockets as they began to walk down the curved path again. “That was stupid of me, honestly.”
“A little.”
“Yeah… Don’t worry. I don’t make the same mistakes twice.”
Raven grinned at him and bumped her shoulder against his. “You know, that’s one of my top three rules too.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Connor Alby glanced up and down the hall before he slipped out of the guest chambers he’d been given and made his way down the dark corridors beneath King Vaughn’s royal chambers. If I find I’ve wasted my time on this entire endeavor, I’ll— No. I won’t give up, will I? I’ll keep looking until I find the truth. Or until it finds me.
He’d memorized the crudely drawn map one of the porters had slipped under the door to his chambers, and he took each turn exactly as instructed. This is insane. Sneaking around in the king’s castle like some teenager headed out to meet a girl in the barn.
The veteran dragon rider shook his head but kept moving. Not a girl tonight, though. A woman a little older than my Sarah would be, and she’s the only person in this damn city who isn’t blinded by a false sense of security.
Finally, he reached the narrow, unmarked door that could have led to any servants’ quarters and opened it quickly to slip into the room beyond. It shut behind him with a soft whisper of wood under layers of dust, and he turned to study a small anteroom that hadn’t been touched in decades. Lit torches flickered in iron sconces on the stone walls and cast dancing shadows across every visible space. A plain wooden table stood in the center with only two chairs. The seat on the far side of the table was empty, but a cloaked, hooded figure sat stone-still in the chair closest to the door, their back turned toward the old man.
“The past ignites the future,” Connor muttered. When the figure didn’t move or offer a response, he frowned. My memory’s fine. That’s the exact phrase she said to use.
“The future holds our fate.” The voice was low, cautious, and barely more than a whisper.
Holding back the sigh of relief he wanted to exhale, he moved quickly across the room and rounded the table to finally see the figure’s face. The black hole within the raised hood showed him nothing. “As far as I know, we’re alone,” he muttered. “If you’re the one who sent me that map, I’d very much like to see your face.”
Black-gloved hands raised slowly to pull the hood back from the figure’s face. The woman seated before him was slender and pale, and she stared appraisingly at him before she settled an almost violet gaze on the old man’s gray eyes. “Sit, Mage Alby. We have much to discuss and not nearly as much time as I’d hoped.”
Connor pulled out the squeaking, wobbling wooden chair and sat across the table from War Mage Athena. This is the woman King Vaughn’s entire council cast out just like that?
His unblinking stare made her glance self-consciously at the table, and her auburn hair cut just below her chin fell in a shimmering curtain around either side of her face. She dusted off a section of the table with her gloved hand and focused on him.
“War Mage—”
“All right, Connor. We can leave the formalities out in the hall and you can call me Kyree. At least while we’re sitting here.” Her smile was thin, strained, and carried as much trepidation and as he felt with the same kindling hope beneath it.
“I received your letter,” he muttered.
“Obviously. I’m sorry I couldn’t be more convincing to the council before you arrived.”
“Don’t apologize for that.” Connor scowled quickly but forced himself to calm and look her in the eye. “What I want to hear from you is why it’s taken over a month for us to have this meeting.”
“Hmm.” Kyree Athena’s thin smile twitched. “The king’s trusted advisors have kept a rather close eye on me. It’s a wonder my letter even reached you at all.”
“Are you a prisoner here?”
“Trust me, if I wanted to leave the impenetrable safety of our monarch’s unending hospitality, I’d be long gone.”
“From what I’ve heard of you, I’d say I believe every word of that.” He chuckled wryly. “As it turns out, what I’ve heard of War Mage Athena is as frustratingly little as what I’ve managed to find of you in Lomberdoon’s histories.”
“Yes. Well, I suppose there’s a reason for that as well.” Kyree folded her gloved hands and settled them in front of her on the table. “Because I believe, with all my being, that magic is, in fact, returning to the people of our great kingdom and even those living beyond it. Quickly and very possibly with consequences we can’t begin to understand. Not alone, at any rate.”
“I feel the same.” Connor nodded and leaned back in his chair. “You’re looking at a spent wizard who is quite unmistakably not spent at all.”
The woman’s eyes widened briefly and she leaned forward. “We do have much to discuss. Would you like to start, or shall I?”
The veteran dragon rider gestured toward her with a nod. “Please. I’ve spent the last month scouring this maze of a fortress to prove to myself that you exist and you’re more than a story whispered behind doors closed and locked for the night. Tell me what you know.”
“As you wish.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
The next morning, the two girls followed a spindly older man in a neat black tailcoat through the governor’s estate.
“This is it.” Bella glanced at Wesley perched on her shoulder, and the firedrake screeched eagerly. “The start of the Tournament of Mages. Now we get to show them what we can do.”
Raven smiled at the other young mage’s short, confident pep-talk to herself and her familiar. It sure would be nice to head out to the competition with Leander. I’ll get him soon enough.
When the older man opened the door on a higher level of the estate than their guest room, the sound of the cheering crowd waiting for them outside struck them instantly. Raven grinned. Bella raised her chin and squared her shoulders toward the arena set up for this year’s event.
“Over there, if you please,” the man said with a little bow and gestured to the right.
“Thank you.” Raven smiled at him, and the girls stepped out onto the massive overhanging arena three times the size of the dragon terrace.
On their right, Alessandra and the other students waited for them in a portion of the stands that surrounded the entire perimeter of the terrace. In the center, an obstacle course had been erected within the arena—walls to climb, hoops to send spells and familiars through, platforms to jump, and training dummies everywhere.
Raven leaned toward Bella and muttered, “I bet those dummies down there aren’t anywhere close to Alessandra’s at Fowler.”
The other girl snorted. “I bet you’re right. We’re so overprepared.”
Their trainer gave them both a curt nod when they reached the group representing Fowler Academy. The crowd of dignitaries, landholders, city representatives, and Azerad’s honored guests applauded as the last two mage students joined them. The loudest cheers and whistles came from the people of Azerad themselves—those who’d braved climbing all the stairs to see young witches and wizards battle each other for this year’s prize and the honor of winning.
The veteran war mage nodded across the circular arena toward the stands on the other side. “Mandrose Academy is over there, straight ahead. The Ziel Institute is at three o’clock. Watch and absorb as much as you can, mages. Each school teaches slightly different techniques. If all of you learn theirs before they learn ours, we have the advantage.”
The two girls filled the empty spaces between Alessandra and the rest of Fowler Academy’s competing students. Raven found herself standing between Bella and Daniel.
He smiled at her, and after feeling his gaze on her for a full fifteen seconds, she finally looked at him. “Hi,” he said quietly.
She gave him a small, closed-lipped smile. “Hi.”
Immediately, she returned her attention to the arena as the announcer walked into the middle of it. As long as we don’t distract each other today, we’re fine.
A woman in a scarlet dress joined the wiry man with crazy gray hair in the center of the arena and muttered a spell before she pointed her wand directly at the man’s throat. Raven leaned toward Bella and whispered, “They have their own mage.”
“Of course. Every major city has at least one. Probably more. Where did you think they all go after graduating from one of the schools?”
She shrugged. Out to war like my mom and Grandpa. I didn’t think about serving an actual city.
With the mage’s spell, the announcer’s voice boomed across the arena terrace. “Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to this year’s Tournament of Mages!”
The crowd went wild again, and he raised his hands with a chuckle to quiet them.
“Before we begin, I’d like to explain why this year’s competition is especially unique. Of course, we have fine young witches and wizards from each represented school. Mandrose Academy, the Ziel Institute, and Fowler Academy.” Each group of students cheered for their school, but their voices didn’t come close to the noise the crowd raised. “And special recognition goes to two students this year who’ve shown exemplary mastery over their abilities in magic, working with their familiars, and combat training. For the first time in recorded history, two of our competing mages were selected to attend this tournament in their very first year at Fowler Academy.”
Oh, great. Here it comes. Raven glanced at Bella, but the other girl was preparing herself to meet the grand announcement with a proud smile.
“Bella Chase and her firedrake familiar Wesley, and Raven Alby with her dragon familiar Leander.”
The crowd picked up a cheer but it was immediately drowned out by an earsplitting screech from below. Raven turned over her shoulder to see the dragon terrace immediately below them, overlapping by a few yards. She could see the end of the stable where Leander was kept and she grinned.
He’s cheering too.
When his dragon call filtered into a low roar, the crowd in the arena terrace went wild, shouted, whistled, and stamped their feet. She grinned and raised her hand in a small wave.
Daniel glanced behind them too, saw the dragon stables, and shook his head. “That is so cool.”
She chuckled. “Yeah. It kind of is.”
“Now that’s out of the way and without further ado, I officially open this year’s Tournament of Mages. Our first match is between Anika Delaine from Fowler Academy and Terry Bolton from Mandrose Academy, here with the fox familiar Maritsa and the warthog familiar Rudy, respectively.”
The crowd erupted in cheers, and Anika turned from the end of the line of Fowler students to smile thinly at Alessandra. Her fox familiar trotted swiftly behind her as she passed her fellow students to clear the stands and head toward the center of the arena. Directly across from them, Terry and his warthog did the same.
Daniel chuckled. “This’ll be interesting. She has, like, two feet on the guy.”
“Well, it’s not a height competition.”
He snorted and shook his head, and she smirked.
“Take your places now, young mages. Over here, thank you.” The announcer stepped out of the arena, followed by the mage directing his voice with her enhancement spell. “The rules are simple. Use anything on this course to your advantage. Points will be deducted for any undue physical harm that was not a direct result of your opponent failing to deflect a spell or otherwise counter an attack. Basically, don’t hit your opponent while they’re already down. On my count, you will begin.”
The announcer counted down, and the first match started.
“Adsulto protentia!” Anika shoved both hands forward and Terry catapulted away.
“Auferetur,” he shouted, and a white light bloomed beneath him to slow his descent and land him gently on the arena floor. He settled squarely on his feet, and the crowd burst into cheers again.
“Do we have any idea yet where Mandrose Academy’s specialty lies?” Alessandra muttered and watched the two war mages in training from the corner of her eye.
“Defense.” Bella stared at the arena and watched intently.
“Hmm. Perhaps. Keep watching.”
Alessandra’s vague answer didn’t affect the girl at all. She nodded but was already certain she’d given the correct answer.
I wouldn’t have even made a guess after seeing only one spell. Raven smirked at the black-haired witch beside her. Wesley peered over Bella’s shoulder, his lithe neck stretched to its fullest extent to watch the match with the same intensity. Overprepared. She wasn’t kidding.
The sparring students circled each other in the arena and exchanged spells in a series of attacks. Terry’s assault spells were erratic and poorly aimed compared to Anika’s, but he had impressive control over deflecting or at least protecting himself against her much stronger attacks.
He had moved the fight onto the platforms of various heights, which forced his opponent to climb after him if she wanted to stay within an accurate range. When he reached the tallest platform, a huge bell dinged from somewhere in the stands.
“Excellent work, young mages,” the announcer boomed. “A fine opening match. You may return to your places with your schools, and the judges will calculate your respective points for this round.”
Cheers, shouts, and encouraging whistles filled the arena terrace once more while the two combatants returned to their groups. Anika grinned when she walked through the stands past Alessandra, her cheeks flushed only a little. The trainer nodded, and when the girl passed Raven, the redhaired mage leaned forward and muttered, “That was great.”
