Dragon Blood 5: Mage (3 page)

That afternoon, Amber lay on her bed, an arm flung over her eyes, the other stretched out so her fingers touched the book she’d just finished reading. The book she alternated between wishing she’d never opened and relieved that she’d been warned so they could prepare. Her head was filled with all the information she’d learned. It made her want to check on everyone. Even her grandparents. Obviously everyone could survive without her watching over them all the time. Even in battle. They’d managed to last nine weeks and five days without her protecting them.

She had no clue what she should be doing first. She needed to figure something out before she contacted Ronan. She wasn’t going to let him call all the shots. He’d said they needed Dragon Mages, well they could start with her uncle. And if the Hell Hounds were definitely coming she wanted to make sure her mother could protect herself. An image of her mother with a gun at her head came to mind and she quickly pushed it away, not wanting to give into the fear and anger that image always brought.

And she’d insist that Ronan let her tell the mages closest to her how to store power. She didn’t want all mages to know. That was plain crazy. Especially after what had happened with Shannon. She also needed more information. Knowing Ronan there were probably other things he hadn’t told her and didn’t plan to tell her. Reluctantly moving, she took out her phone and sent Ronan a message.
I’m ready to talk now.

She noticed him come out of the Void in her planning room before he disappeared back into it. Rising to her feet, taking the book with her, she headed for the bedroom door, only to stop as Ronan came out of the Void in front of her.

“What have you done to the planning room?”

Amber shrugged. She had no idea what had been done since she’d been away. “You’ll have to ask Rian.”

“I can’t stay in the Void in there.”

Amber grinned. “Well that’s handy.” She mentally reached for Rian.
“When did you make it impossible for Golds to stay in the Void in the planning room? And can we do it to the rest of the castle?”

“The materials are hard to come by, which makes them very expensive. Only the planning room and Crystal’s bedroom have been done. Golds can still enter those rooms from the Void, but they cannot stay in the Void while they are in them. You can also still communicate with your mind beyond the walls of those rooms.”

Amber laughed. He knew her so well. Of course she wanted Crystal’s room protected before hers.
“Thanks.”

“What did Rian say?” Ronan asked.

“That he’s planning to do more rooms.”

“Nice try, kitten. I know where the stone comes from and how impossible it is to get.”

“Where does it come from?”

“In the Hell Hounds’ world.”

Amber stared at him with narrowed eyes. “You better not be saying that just to convince me to break the binding.”

“No. It’s the reason why places like Feralenzi, that were made centuries ago, are full of it and yet it’s so rare now. There are two types. One that prevents anyone from walking through the Void and one that prevents mind talk outside of the area as well as Void walking. Obviously the second one is the more expensive.” He gestured towards the book she held. “Have you read it?”

Amber nodded. Before she had a chance to say anything Ronan reached out and took her to the planning room, through the Void. “Would it hurt you to ask?”

“Probably.” Ronan gestured towards a seat, sitting in one opposite. “Should we get all the questions, you’ve probably got, out of the way first?”

There was no way she was going to start with a question after that comment. “Actually I was thinking of starting with my demands.” She sat down, placing the book in front of her on the table.

“This is for your benefit too. You don’t get to make demands.”

“Yeah, I do. My uncle will become a mage. My mother if she wants to be. And Crystal and Mum will learn how to store power. As well as anyone else one hundred percent loyal to me. None of that is negotiable.”

Ronan stared at her, his gaze unblinking. Eventually he nodded. “I can see the benefits of those demands. Teaching Crystal and Donna about storing power would make our mages more powerful than anyone else’s. Roger’s from a powerful clan and it would be good to have them beholden to us. Giving your mother the means to protect herself, helps protect you. I’m impressed, kitten. A pity my sons never learned as quickly as you have.”

“Maybe they would’ve learned quicker if they’d had a decent reason to.”

“Are you saying surviving isn’t a good enough reason?”

Amber smiled, trying to mimic Ronan’s predatory one. “Surviving isn’t as important as living. But then I’m human.” She shrugged. “We tend to want to do more than just survive.”

“Any more demands?”

“Not for now, but I’m sure I’ll think of more later.”

“Don’t be smart, kitten.”

“Does that mean your feeling of having missed me is wearing off?”

“You need to be taking this a little more seriously. It’s been six years since the last binding was performed and already it’s starting to fail. The binding before that lasted nine years. It’s getting close to the point where it won’t work at all.”

“How do you know? Have you been working with them?” She remembered he’d once told her he was friends with some of his enemies.

“No, I listen and I hear rumours. It’s not hard figuring out the facts when the same group wants to buy both a captive Gold and a Pliethin. No questions asked, no answers given. And the years are getting closer and closer together.”

“Why couldn’t you just follow one of them back to wherever they’re taking the Gold and the Pliethin?” Amber gestured towards the book on the table. “Why did you need to get your grandfather’s notes?”

“It was more than just the location. You’ve read them. Do you think you could have worked all that out by yourself? Without those details it would have been impossible to break the binding.”

“I wasn’t expecting you to work it out by yourself. I just thought that when you found their location, you could have gotten the information from them.”

“They don’t have this information. No one does but us. They’re asking for pure Gold Warriors. That’s what they think the problem is. Not that the binding is starting to fail, but that the quality of dragons they’re using is causing the problem.”

She didn’t even bother suggesting they try and explain it was the binding failing. She doubted the Knights would be willing to listen. They’d probably think it was all about preventing the deaths of more dragons. “Can you get Pliethins to make more mages?”

“I’m already ahead of you, kitten. I have quite a few stored away. We need the humans now. Once that would have been easy. They were gathered from the Knights.”

“Why didn’t all Knights become mages?”

“There used to be two types of mages. Dragon Mages created with dragon blood and a Pliethin and the Knight Mages created with dragon bone and a Pliethin. Both could see Hell Hounds, only Dragon Mages were able to use dragon powers. The Knight Mages gained more strength.”

“I thought you didn’t know how to make Dragon Mages.”

“I didn’t. It was in my grandfather’s notes.”

Amber gestured towards the book. “It wasn’t in there.”

“You don’t have all his notes.”

Why didn’t that surprise her? “You have to stop doing this, Ronan. We aren’t going to win if you keep half the information to yourself.”

“We’ll win.” His predatory smile momentarily formed. “You’ll make sure of it. Especially with the amount of lives at stake. Lives you want to protect.”

“You don’t want to see what will happen if any of those lives are harmed because you didn’t give me all the information I needed,” Amber said.

“You threatening me, kitten?”

“No.” She held his gaze. “I’m warning you. Don’t piss me off.”

“Are you sure you won’t have kids with Rian?”

“Positive.” More so now that Crystal wanted him. But she certainly wasn’t about to tell Ronan that. “What else do I need to know?”

“If I give you the rest of the notes, you’ll want to share them.”

“Probably.”

“I’ll think about it.” He paused. “You need to find humans. More than the handful you’ve already decided you want to turn into mages. I have some, but nowhere near the amount we need. And don’t go recruiting them from the same place they got Cooper from. That boy is useless.”

She couldn’t help smiling. Nor could she argue Ronan’s statement. Cooper was almost afraid of his own shadow. “I have at least one other person in mind.”

“You’re going to need more than one. Who is it?”

“Angela.”

“You better not be planning only to use teenagers as mages.”

“You said you wanted mages we can trust. I trust Angela. She’s also not weak like Cooper.”

“Who else?”

Amber shrugged. “I’ve got a few ideas, but I need to talk to some people first.”

“What ideas.”

She smiled. “You’ve got your secrets, I guess I need a few of my own.” She laughed when his eyes narrowed. “Don’t worry about it, Ronan. I’ll tell you all about it after I talk to a few people.”

“Don’t go making any mages without my approval.”

She gave a half shrug, gesturing towards the book. “I also want to make copies of this so everyone else can read it. Without having to wait days for all of them to get through it.”

“Only your immediate allies. Your people. Not your mother and grandparents though. Kade, Crystal, Jasper and Rian.”

“What about Flinn? He should be able to read it too.”

Ronan shook his head. “Sometimes you trust far too many people.”

“Sometimes you don’t trust enough. I will be letting Flinn read it.”

Ronan rose to his feet. “Call me when you have some humans organised.”

Amber also rose, nodding. “Of course I will.” She grinned. “You’ve got the Pliethins we need.” He disappeared into the Void and she mentally reached for Rian, asking him to join her in the planning room. Before she even thought about finding humans, she needed more copies of the journal.

After Amber sent Rian to make photocopies of the book, she walked down a hallway beside Crystal, their arms linked together. When Crystal remained quiet, she asked, “I thought you said you wanted to talk to me.”

“Did you give Daray permission to be in the Void?”

“No.”
Before Amber could tell Daray to get out of the Void, Crystal let go of her, reaching out her arm and disappearing. She stared at the spot her friend had been. It took her a moment before she could speak. “Daray, get out of the Void.” He appeared, halfway down the hallway. Alone. Fear hit her. “Crystal?”

Crystal stepped out of the Void beside him. “What?”

“You were in the Void.”

“No I wasn’t. The moment I reached out for him he disappeared then reappeared further along the hallway. I’d nearly reached him when you called him out.”

She stared at her friend, not sure if she should laugh at Crystal’s disgruntled expression or try and convince her she’d entered the Void, without any help. “Uhm, Crystal, you disappeared.”

The disgruntled expression was replaced by excitement. “Really?”

“Yes, really. Didn’t it look any different to you? Didn’t it feel harder to walk along the hallway?”

“No, I don’t have that problem. When I’m in the Void, it’s Flinn who slows me down. He can’t move as quick as I can. The Void feels like walking around here. Just the very tiniest bit of haze over everything.” Crystal grinned. “I can’t believe I entered the Void on my own.” Then she frowned. “I have no idea how I did it. Make your warrior go back into the Void.”

When Daray looked at her, Amber nodded. He disappeared. She chuckled as Crystal muttered and stretched out her hand, dropped it again, paced back and forth a couple of times and then disappeared. “You’re gone.”

Crystal reappeared. “I am?”

“No, you’re back again.”

Crystal swore. “You might as well call Daray back out. I have no idea how I did that. I’ll work on it later with Flinn. Anyway,” she drew the word out, “Let’s go to the fountain.” She shot a glare towards Daray. “Since some people don’t believe in giving a person any privacy.”

“Would you like me to take you there?” Daray asked.

“You might as well make yourself useful,” Crystal muttered.

Daray continued to look towards Amber, waiting for her to speak.

Amber barely managed to hold back a smile at the noise Crystal made when Daray ignored her comment. She nodded. “Take Crystal first.”

“I was told not to leave you alone,” Daray said.

Crystal glanced around the hallway. “There’s no one else in the Void.”

“Take Crystal. I’ll be fine. You won’t be long.”

Daray reached for Crystal and disappeared, reappearing a minute later on his own. He held out his hand, waiting for Amber to take it before he took her through the Void to the fountain.

Crystal was sitting on the edge of the fountain, swinging one of her legs back and forth, the heel of her boot hitting the stonework of the fountain. “Now maybe we can talk. Without a million people listening in.” She shot a look towards Daray.

Amber sat beside her, waiting until Daray had retreated several metres before she spoke. “What did Rian say?”

Crystal grinned. “Wouldn’t you rather hear how good he can kiss?”

Amber laughed. “Sure.”

Crystal threw her arms around Amber. “I can’t believe he kissed me. Whatever you said to him convinced him to stop saying no to us.”

“All I did was fire him.”

“Are you sure?” Crystal drew away from her. “Seriously?”

Amber nodded. “Yeah, but he said he wasn’t.”

“That sounds like him.” Crystal continued to grin. “I can’t believe how happy I am. I seriously didn’t think I could get any happier than I was. Absolutely nothing could steal my happy.”

“Well…” Amber drew the word out.

“Oh please don’t,” Crystal begged.

“Should I start with the good news first?”

“There’s good news?”

Amber nodded.

“Ronan’s involved and there’s good news?”

Amber laughed at the disbelief in Crystal’s voice and in her expression. “Yeah. There’s good news. Although I don’t think Ronan thought it was good news.”

“That makes more sense. What is it?”

“We can tell Inge. And we can make her a mage if she wants.”

“Inge? Our Inge. As in Angela, in Brisbane.”

“Yep.”

“Now?”

Amber laughed again. “No, not right now. Later.”

“I can’t wait. Do you know how hard it’s been not to tell her? And she’s annoyed with you that you didn’t go to schoolies with us.” Crystal paused. “What happens if she’s not interested?”

“What do you mean?”

“Will Ronan do anything to her if she knows about dragons, but isn’t interested in becoming a mage?”

“She’s mine. It doesn’t matter how Ronan feels about it.”

“When are you going to tell me what’s happening?”

“Tonight. I’m just waiting for Rian to get some photocopying done for me.”

“Should I be worried?”

Amber stared at Crystal not sure what to tell her.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll look out for you.”

“How about I look out for you?”

Amber reached for Crystal’s hand. “We’ll look out for each other.”

“Deal.” She squeezed Amber’s hand. “Now are you going to tell me why we’re allowed to tell Inge about dragons?

Amber shook her head. “Nice try. You’re going to have to wait until Rian comes back with the photocopies.”

“That’ll be ages away,” Crystal grumbled.

“I doubt it. Not with how efficient Rian is.”

“Well he better hurry up, because I’m dying to know.”

Amber really wished Crystal hadn’t used that exact phrase. She didn’t want to think about anybody dying, let alone Crystal. “He’ll be back soon enough and then you can read all about the latest surprise Ronan has for us. But I wouldn’t look too closely at the pictures if I were you. They’ll probably give you nightmares.”

“That’s just what I need,” Crystal said dryly.

“We’ll meet tomorrow morning and discuss it. All of us, including Jasper, Flinn and Rian. But no other warriors for now.”

“Flinn isn’t going to like that. If you get to have your first warrior there he’ll want his,” Crystal said.

“He won’t be there as my first warrior. He’ll be there as co-owner of Temolae Keep.”

“He’s still not going to like it.”

Amber shrugged. “That’s his problem.” She wasn’t about to tell Rian that he couldn’t come to the meeting tomorrow because it’d upset Flinn. A lot of things upset Flinn. He’d just have to get over them.