Dragon Rider (DragonMage Saga) (36 page)

It was good for them to know the
true situation and what they were up against. ‘We can fly in our bubbles but we
cannot fight in them for they easily burst with magic. We can be ready in an
area as long as there are dragons ready to carry us.

A thought come to Angel as he sat
listening and he waited till he could voice it. Gavrie and Tish looked at the
others around them and smiled. ‘Now you know what we have been keeping from
others. The situation is starting to get tougher all the time and we are
starting to find ourselves on the back foot. We need to find a solution and
soon.’ Tish could see a little worry on their faces as she told them.

Angel looked at Gavrie and
decided now was the time. ‘Gavrie why don’t you find what they are trying to
cover?’

‘What are you saying Angel what
do you mean find what they are trying to cover. This is how they always attack.
They use the creatures all the time in their attacks this they have always
done.’ Gavrie had a quizzical look on his face as he tried to see what Angel
was on about.

‘The power to open portals the
size needed to let that many creatures in would need a lot of wizards and they
are fighting their dragons at the same time. It will take a lot out of the
Renegade Wizards each time they open the portals. As you said the amount of
creatures coming through with each attack is getting more and more. That means
they are opening bigger portals each time. They are not going to be able to do
that for to long, as the drain on their magic is going to be too much.’ Angel
looked at them to see if they had worked out what he was on about.

‘I still don’t see what you mean,
tell me?’ Gavrie looked at Angel in anticipation of what point Angel was trying
to make.

‘The Renegades are going to
weaken soon and they know it so they have got to be doing something else with
the attacks covering what they are doing. You need to be trying to find out
what it is they are up to and soon for they know how long they will be able to
keep bringing the creatures through. So will have a time frame of when they
want the job they are doing to be finished. Now do you see what I am trying to
say?’ Angel finished talking and looked at them and waited for the comprehension
on the faces.

Gavrie and Tish looked at him and
then finely Angel could see the glint in their eyes as they got it. Gavrie got
up and Tish joined him, as he headed for the door. ‘Thank you Angel you have
given us something we need to look at right away, good work and good night.’

Tish looked at Angel with a big
grin of pride on her face. ‘I will not be back tonight or if I do it will be
late. We will need to call a council right now to talk this over; I’m really
proud of you, good night.’

Angel looked at Tish as she and
Gavrie left their common room and closed the door behind them. Turning to the
others spoke. ‘Well I guess I spoilt the rest of the night so let’s carry on
without them, as best we can.’

Angel’s brothers looked at him
and Angel could see that same look on their faces that was on his mothers face,
pride. They had lost the momentum and talked for a little while longer before
deciding to go to bed.

Contents

A Night With The Family

Angel slept well that night for
he felt maybe that might be a bit of the worry off there shoulders with them
trying to find out what the Renegades were up to, even with Angel and the rest
knowing what they were doing. They just could not tell them but with the
council looking into what he said they might stumble across it. They just had
to hope it was the case.

Their bedroom was a large room
with five beds in but Angel and Medwin had chosen the beds over by the window
and had all there things in shelves beside there beds. Angles brothers found
some blankets and made up two beds across from them and they sat and talked
about their days and what there patrols consisted of and where they went on
them. They did not talk for long and were asleep very quickly.

The next morning when Angel got
up his brothers were still asleep so he crept out quietly and sat over by the
window and looked out to sea. He was up early and after a time decided to go
down and get some hot drinks for his brothers and the others when they got up.
The main hot drink was a large bean that is soaked in water till it swells up
twice its size.

The bean is then dried and ground
up to make a hot drink. This drink is slightly bitter but is loved as it
refreshes you, especially in the morning. It has a funny name and is named
after the tree that has a funny shape making it easy to harvest. The Fire Bean
tree is shaped like leaping flames and the leaves are a red with yellow running
down the middle.

Fire bean tea is a favourite in
the morning and Angel loved it. He got back to the room with two large pots and
placed them by the fire to keep warm. Rho and Etha and Medwin were up and
sitting talking when he got back. Seeing what Angel had they were over to him
in a jiffy.

Sitting back and looking out the window
they all sat quietly when Shylyn and Maive came out to join them. Getting a cup
of Fire bean they joined the rest, giving them a quite greeting before sitting
down. There was a bang at the door and it suddenly opened with Tish coming in
pushing a trolley with breakfast food on it, and more Fire bean tea.

‘Well it’s good to see you all
up, come and get some breakfast before finishing the lances and then we are
away. I have been to check the dragons and they are quite happy but I think
will be glad to get away.’ Tish was pouring a cup of fire bean tea as she
finished greeting them.

‘What happened with your meeting,
are they going to do anything about Angel’s idea?’ Rho looked at his mother
anticipation on his face at her answer.

‘They are going to look at the
idea a bit more but some of us Dragon Riders will look to other places and try
and see what they might be up to. There is some thought on maybe trying to draw
Dragon Riders and Wizards back from other worlds. There is some thought they
could be trying something on another world and drawing us back here to cover
what they do there.’ Tish looked out the window as she told them.

Angel, Medwin, Shylyn and Maive
looked stricken when she told them what some of the council thought. They tried
to hide it from Rho and Etha as they looked back from there mother. They had
hoped they would look around home. They did not think about them looking off
world.

Tish turned back and finished her
drink and moved to stand over Angel. ‘We must go now. With your idea we are
going to be busy for awhile and will not be able to come see you till we can
get a chance. I am not sure the problem might be off world and Gavrie is off
the same opinion and will have some wizards look around our world. They will
send word to wizards on other worlds and hope they may find something. Till
there is something found we are spread thin.’

Rho and Etha got up to join their
mother looking at the four still sitting by the window. ‘By little brother take
care and we’ll get to see you as soon as we can.’ Rho gave him a wink.

Etha bent down and gave him a
squeeze on the shoulder as he turned to go. The three headed off to the door
where they turned as Tish spoke. ‘I really enjoyed last night talking to you
and your friends as it’s been a while for me having a laugh with my sons and
there friends. Take care, will see you as soon as I can.’

Angel and his friends gave them a
wave as they went through the door. They looked at each other before Angel
spoke. ‘We are back to square one going to do this ourselves. So after lessons
lets get to our dragons and talk over what we are going to do, we still have
the book of legends to look at but I think it’s not going to help a lot.’

Nodding their heads they get up
and prepare to clean up their breakfast plates and head down to help with the
last of the lances. It was a sombre lot that walked out of their room, as they
had been hoping just maybe they might get the Wizards and Dragon Riders to find
what the Renegade was up to, but now that idea has been dashed.

‘Come on Angel we must be strong
it was a chance and we had to hope it might work. We’re back to doing it
ourselves now and before we had that in our minds anyway so nothing has
changed.’ Shylyn gave him a pat on the back as she tried to sound positive.

‘You’re right we knew we were
going to have to do it and we had to try and see if we could get the others to
help in a round about way. It didn’t work the way we wanted but it has got them
thinking in the right direction. So they may cross paths with the Renegade as
he comes but with them using the creatures to cover there tracks it not very
hopeful.’ He smiled as he spoke and looked at Shylyn and the others seeing them
smile as well.

They went to the cave and the
lances to see there weren’t many left to do. Gavrie was there overseeing the
last of them. He looked to see them coming and got them to carry the last of
the lances over to the area where the dragons will land to pick up the last of
them.

They did as he bid and just as
the last of them where placed, the words, ‘Dragon comes.’ They looked up into
the air and could see one dragon coming in to land. As the dragon got bigger
they could see that it wasn't his mother or brothers. Angel yelled for all
close by to move right back out of sight for the dragon was a young one and her
rider was having trouble controlling her.

‘She's a young dragon and her
rider is young, we must be all out of sight to give the rider all the help he
can.’ Angel was using arms waving to all the wizards to move off the deck and
go inside.

Gavrie came out to Angel and
looked; taking in the situation he moved into action and got all the wizards
and students moving into the school. The deck was soon clear of all wizards and
students. Having made sure they were all off the deck Gavrie was the last to
enter the school as the Dragon Rider landed his dragon.

Angel with his friends and Gavrie
looked from the door as the young Rider got down and soothed his mount. They
could see her wanting to leap into the air and away but her Rider was calming
her down. Angel could see he was a very good Rider, strong to clam her down so
quickly.

The Dragon Rider finely got her
to calm down and he then proceeded to gather the lances and place the carrying
straps around them and placing them under his dragon ready to left with them.
The Rider having got them all ready turned to Gavrie gave a wave and bow and
climbed back on his dragon and leapt into the air and were gone in no time at
all.

Angel looked at the small dot
that was a Dragon Rider till it was out of sight. ‘He was a strong Dragon Rider
to control her so. Being so young and never having been to the Wizard School. I
think in the future he will be strong enough to carry a wizard with his control
over her like that.’

Gavrie turned to look at him and
nodded his head. ‘Yes I think you are right and it was good spotting on your
part to see it was a young Dragon Rider and dragon. Now let’s get back in and
work out what the lesson will be for to day. I think we might look at Portals
today with your idea and how many Renegade Wizards it would take to open a
portal to let the creatures in.’

‘I will see you in the portal
class room shortly, while you wait you can try and work out how many Wizards it
would take to hold a portal open, letting in say a hundred creatures. Now off
and I will be there shortly.’ Gavrie turned and headed off down the hall.

The four of them turned and
headed up the stairs to the class where portals are learnt. They arrived to find
the class empty and found them salves seats. They sat there working out the
size of the creatures that have been coming through and how many there have
been in attacks.

The smallest creature is the size
of an adult human and the largest being the size of a dragon. So going by what
they help push over the deck from the last attack the average size would be
half the size of a dragon. Now to get one hundred through a portal, they would
need to come through in small groups as coming through in singles, you would
have no control over and they have been coming in one large mass.

The small groups you would only
need two wizards to keep open for an hour to get a hundred through. But with
the size groups that have been coming through, the portal would have to be at
lest four times larger so the Renegades would have a large group go through to
the target. Once open and held as long as possible to get one large group
heading for the target.

Gavrie came in as they had worked
out a size and Angel does not think Gavrie will like the answer. Gavrie looked
at the faces and could tell he probably will not like what they will have to
tell him, but he had an idea of the size needed so he might as well find out
what they have come up with.

‘Ok what have you come up with
and I will see if it matches what I think it will be?’ He went and sat over by
them and waited for their thoughts on the size.

Angel stood and started to speak.
‘Ok what we have come up with and we think we are very close to what it would
be. Judging by the amount that coming through and it’s getting more every time
they open it. The creatures’ sense when a portal is opening and will congregate
around that area waiting to come through.’ Angel wet his lips as he sucked in a
breath and readied himself. ‘We think they will have about eight to ten wizards
keeping the portal the size of the Dragon Deck open for a maximum of half an
hour before the power to hold it open gets to much for them and they have to
let it close.’

Gavrie sat there not saying a
word, his face as straight and not giving away anything. ‘I would have thought
it would be four wizards and a portal half the size of the deck. What makes you
think you are right?’