Fate of Dragons

Chapter Eighteen Part II

Orrie's wings blew sand from the beach against the walls of the mage council's chambers. Tesa and Glenna scrambled down from his back and rushed up the wide steps into the chambers. The rest of their group was assembled there before the council already. Malía raised her eyebrows at their entrance, but said nothing.

The council of seven mages sat again in their places at the long table on the dais. Scimir and Emric wore bland smiles. The two mages at the end who had protested against the dragons wore vague looks of displeasure. Tesa felt a flutter of hope at their expressions.

"We will spare too much talk," Scimir began. "Let it be known that the High Council of Mages of Yennar Lei has decided to aid the Arethian Dragons and Dragon Riders in exploration of the monument known as the Spires. We shall work together to make a plan, for we do not wish to encounter this group, the Karume, blindly."

With that, Scimir stood, and the rest of the council followed. Without another word, they filed out of the chamber through a door in the back wall. Emric caught Malía's gaze briefly and inclined his head.

"That's it?" Glenna whispered to Tesa. Tesa looked to Malía, who looked stunned, too.

"I expect we'll find out more details in due time," Malía said.

Three days later, Tesa stood in a field of sparse grass and trees that smelled sweetly of fruit just outside the walls of Saldive. She adjusted the straps on her pack and felt the hilt of the dagger at her waist. They had insisted on giving her one, even though she was not trained in fighting. It did make her feel better to have it, she admitted to herself.

In the days since the Mage Council's decision, Malía and Emric had worked tirelessly to come up with a plan. Sometimes the planning involved the dragon riders and Renna, and sometimes it involved the Council and other mages from Yennar Lei. The result was an army of mages accompanying the riders on a trek up the mountain, somewhere, Emric assured them, that no one from Yennar Lei had gone in hundreds of years.

Tesa had her doubts about that, but now the pace of their mission finally satisfied her. They were finally taking action.

Beside her, Orrie held his head high, his neck arching back and curving gracefully so that his head dipped down toward Tesa. Around the base of his neck, he wore a leather collar studded with shining Yennar Lei jewels. The brown leather and the multicolored jewels contrasted with Orrie's pearly white scales, which reflected different colors in the sun. The other dragons wore collars just like his.

The collars had been a point of contention for Tesa at first. She had had too many experiences with bound magic stones being used against their wearers, including the poor rock dragons that had pursued her from her home mountains on her first journey to the city of Areth. In an attempt to control them, the Karume had embedded spelled stones into their skin.

Emric had allowed her to examine the spells in the stones as he explained the function of each. They were shields, or rather, one shield. The stones worked together to create a web of spells that would protect Orrie from almost anything.

Emric's eyes glittered almost as much as the stones now did in the sun as he accompanied her in magesight through each stone.

"You will be a powerful caster, with proper training," he said.

"My training keeps getting interrupted," Tesa answered, her eyes still on the stones. "But in Arethia, this magic is forbidden."

"Perhaps the rest of your training will not occur in Arethia."

Tesa pulled back from magesight and stared at him, hoping to determine exactly what he meant.

"We're going to save the dragons and return to Arethia to defend it," she said with more certainty than she felt. She had to believe it.

Emric's eyes were sad, but he smiled. "I hope you return to find something left to defend."

Now, as she readied herself to march up the paths to Diven's caves, Tesa tried to banish that conversation from her mind. No matter what happened to Arethia, what was happening there now, the dragons still had to be saved. Even if they might not be able to save Arethia. Tesa shook her head to clear her thoughts. They would be able to save Arethia. They had to. They had to try.

While they had waited for the mage council's decision, Malía had sent messages to the other cities in Yennar Lei where the other dragon rider patrols had gone to search for the missing dragons. With any luck, the other patrols would be here within a few days. They'd decided not to wait for them before they made the assault on the Spires, for already they'd lost much time in planning, and the Karume could be doing anything up there.

Malía stood at the head of the group, wearing the grim expression that Tesa had grown accustomed to seeing on her. Emric stood beside her, and next to him, to Tesa's surprise, was Mr. Mao. She'd thought him just a simple guard, set to babysitting her. Apparently he was more important than that, which made Tesa wonder just why he had been chosen to guard her. He stood near Emric now with the same wide-eyed stare that he always seemed to have.

Aside from Tesa and Glenna's short jaunt outside the gates, the walk through Saldive to this rallying point had been the first time that the riders had left the temple since they'd arrived. They'd left in small groups so as not to attract a lot of attention. It was possible that the Karume watched the temple, or, Tesa shuddered to think, had spies inside the temple, just as in Arethia.

In the distance the water of the bay sparkled behind the roofs of the city. Tesa could make out the masts of the ships at anchor poking up over the buildings. Though the sun had barely been up an hour, she already felt the heat of it.

At a signal from Malía, the three dragons loped away from the humans and into the field. Gira led the charge. He ran with his head down and his wings back, bounding across the open space until he made one final leap into the air. He flung out his wings and was aloft. Gira's wings carried him up until he was a speck in the sky. Orrie and Aerix followed shortly after.

Tesa shielded her eyes, wishing she could be atop Orrie on this flight. But that wasn't part of the plan. The dragons would be acting as patrols, watching from above and relaying useful information. Or intervening in the case of an attack. The dragons flew up high in the air before they turned and came back towards the spires. They would be so high up that the dragons hiding in the caves may not see them. That was the hope, anyway. They didn't want to trigger another attack.

At a signal from Malía, Sirrek led a group of his mages on the path, beginning the long march up to the spires. These mages who led the group carried a variety of bags and pouches, tied at their waists, around their necks, and even dangling from their arms. They were wielders, Tesa had been told, which meant they could use the spell stones, but not create spell stones of their own.

There was no escaping it, though. They needed the help of the mages of Yennar Lei. And behind them, as they followed Malía's lead up the rocky path, came the greatest help of all. One hundred mages, from casters to sensers and every rank in between. Though Tesa still didn't understand all of the roles, she trusted what she'd been told. Mages were arranged into groups that combined each type of ability with magic, and these units had been trained to work together using the best of their skills.

She hoped they were trained well enough for this. They would have to be able to fight the Karume guarding the dragons, but avoid hurting the dragons. Even if those dragons were attacking them. Tesa had been assured that the shield spells contained in those little pouches had been tailored and cast specifically for this job.

Tesa shielded her eyes against the sun and found Orrie's outline in the sky. He was so high he appeared to be no bigger than a bird.

I hope this works, Tesa sent to him.

We can do it, Orrie answered. We have to.