Dragon Rider (DragonMage Saga) (48 page)

Getting to Gavrie’s door, Angel
hammered on it calling out to Gavrie. The door opened and they could see Gavrie
was not very happy at being woken up. Angel pushed past and into the room with
the others following him. Gavrie turned and could see the near panic in their
eyes.

‘What’s wrong now at this time of
the morning, it had better be good?’ Gavrie looked at them knowing that what
ever brought them here was scaring them.

Angel looked at the others and
stepped forward. ‘The creatures are about to attack and this time there are
going to be thousands of them not hundreds but thousands. They will be here
very soon and if we are not ready for them they will have us. Please Headmaster
you must believe us?’

‘How do you know they are coming
I need to know how you know they are coming?’ He looked at them and the panic was
becoming very noticeable in the way they fidgeted while they waited.

‘We can’t tell you, but you must
believe us they are coming and if we don’t find away to stop them they are
going to over come us.’ Angel was having a lot of trouble trying to hold it
together as he spoke.

Gavrie looked at them and he
could see that where ever they got their information from they believe it so
very much, he is going to have to act and soon. We move now I think. He was up
and dressing as he told them to raise the alarm. They ran from the room and
down the hall using magic to ring the emergency bell.

The bell rang loud and long as
all along the halls doors opened and they headed down to the Meal hall to find
out what was going on. Angel got down there before everyone else and waited for
Gavrie to come. They would not say anything for now it was up to Gavrie.

The hall soon began to fill with
wizards and students and soon there was not much room. Gavrie came in with the
other head wizards following behind him, pushing through the throng of wizards
and students alike. Angel looked around and could see there would have been
about five to six hundred wizards in the hall.

You never got the hall this full
before as a lot of wizards were usually away but with the attacks coming thick
and fast they were slowly returning and at the moment there were a lot here.
The word had been sent out that the school was under attack along with the
Hatchery and the Dragon Riders School.

They had been asked if they
weren’t needed else where they were to come back and help at the school. The
Dragon Riders had their own problems and there were a lot of their riders of
world at the moment. So they had been returning in one’s and two’s over the
last weeks.

Normally there are between one to
two hundred wizards at the school with there being up to about two hundred
students. These ranging from first year students to the fifth year, that being
the last year before becoming a full wizard. The number of students in their
years differs for some years there are more and some there are less.

At the moment they have more in
the senior classes with the first year only having thirty students. This was a
quite year and it allowed the wizard teachers to give them a bit more help and
this allowed Gavrie to work with Angel and his friends who were two years
earlier than is normal.

They were going to need all the
help they can get and with the extra wizards here it was a help. They were
going to be surly pressed to beat of this attack and Angel and his friends were
worried. Their dragons felt it in them as well and tried to calm them down and
relax them.

Aura came into his head and he
could feel the calm she was radiating to him. He looked at his friends and
could see by the look on their faces their dragons were with them as well. The
feeling descended over him and his friends and they began to relax and think
like they have been doing in other tight situations. It was the sheer number of
creatures that were going to be coming that had upset them.

‘Angel you must do your excurses
and clear the magic paths for they are blocking with all the magic that you
have been using. They need to be cleared so you can use the magic to its full
use.’ Aura had looked at his paths for he would normally not be this fearful.

Angel looked within himself and
could see Aura was right he did need to clear them and soon. He looked within
and followed the magic paths right down to the very core of his being. To the
smallest little path until there was no way forward and he had come to the very
tip of the paths.

His breathing relaxed and he
began to think again and he felt good, the worries there but he could handle
them now and think them back through. He looked at his friends and they looked
back at him, smiles on their faces. They looked visibly relaxed and ready as he
now did.

They waited for Gavrie and the
head teachers to reach the end of the hall where their tables normally were.
Their tables were on a slightly raised platform and this way when they were
here eating they could look over the other tables and keep an eye on the
students.

Reaching their tables Gavrie
rapped on the table for quite as there was a lot of talking going on in the
hall. With nearly six hundred in the hall the noise was very loud and it took a
few loud raps on the table before it quieted down. He looked around at all in
the hall before he spoke. He wanted the quite to linger for a little yet for he
needed them to understand what was about to be said.

‘We have a grave situation coming
for at this very moment a portal is being opened with a lot of Renegade
wizards. Now you all know what that means, on average ten Renegade Wizards
opening a portal will only be able to hold it for a short time allowing the
creatures to come through.’ He stopped and looked around needing them to understand
what was about to happen.

He looked at Angel and his group
and gave them a nod before carrying on. ‘Double those numbers of Renegades and
you have them opening a larger portal and from what we know of the creatures
from the Dark Realm, they can sense a portal opening and will gather there
waiting.’ He posed again needing to let it sink in for they needed to come to
the same conclusion he and Angel had.

Angel looked around at the faces
and could see a few thinking hard working on the sums that would show them how
many creatures they were about to face. Angel looked back up at Gavrie and
could see him taken in the look on the faces to see who was coming to the same
thinking that they had.

‘The amount of creatures on the
other side of the portal must be in the thousands and if a very large portal is
opened and held for a short time as that is all the time they will be able to
hold for. How many will get through with the creatures pushing from behind to
get through. They can smell the blood from great distances and when that portal
opens they will poor through.’ Again he paused to look around at the faces and
what he seen told him they were coming to the same thoughts as he has.

Angel’s group all looked around
and could see the look in the eyes of the wizards close to them, and it was
fear for they had worked out the amount that would be coming not could be but
would be coming.

Gavrie began again and this time
he spoke the amount for those who were still trying to work it out, mainly the
students and few of the older wizards who were slowing down in their age. The
look coming from those who had worked it out but they still wanted to hear it
from Gavrie.

‘There will be about two thousand
creatures coming and some of them will be large for the other portal only
allowed the smaller ones through. But this portal will be large and so there
will be some very large and powerful ones that are going to take a lot of
killing. Now we have to get ready for them as we will not have a lot of time. I
will send a call to the Dragon Riders and hope they will be able to send some
Dragon Riders to help but we must remember they have been under heavy attacks
as well. So lets prepare I want all senior wizards to come up to me now and all
other wizards get into groups of ten at lest. Now go get ready, oh the students
will go to the cave and get as many lances ready.’ He finished and began
talking to the other wizards around him.

Angel looked at his friends and
they started to move to the door and head to the cave. They were out the door
and crossing the deck when Aura comes into his head. ‘The portal is forming and
it is massive, about the size of the Dragon Deck that you walk over. They will
not be able to hold it open that long but it will allow a great many through.’

‘Aura you must get away from
there for if the creatures see you when they emerge they will come for you?’
There was fear again in Angels mind and it was for Aura not for himself.

'We are being very careful and will
leave if it looks unsafe, we will stay here till we can tell you how many are
through. The Renegades are spaced evenly around the portal weaving the spell
and it is nearly complete. You will need to tell your Headmaster how big it
is?’ She left his mind to concentrate on watching the Renegades.

Angel looked at the others and he
left to speak to Gavrie leaving the others to go to the cave. Angel looked into
the hall and could see Gavrie still talking to the other senior wizards. He
moved into the hall so that Gavrie would see him, which Gavrie did. Gavrie
indicated to him to go over to the door at the side of the hall.

Angel got there as Gavrie left
his group talking of what they plan to do. Gavrie come to the door and through
where Angel was waiting. ‘Headmaster the portal is nearly complete with the
size being as big as the Dragon Deck outside. There are twenty Renegades spread
around the portal weaving the spell that is almost complete.’

There was shock on his face as
Angel told him the size. He looked around and Angel could see the fear that was
in his face. ‘Headmaster it will be alright we will win I’m sure something will
happen, help could come from the Dragon Riders.’ Angel tried to sound hopeful
for the look on Gavrie’s face had shocked Angel.

Gavrie looked at Angel knowing he
had seen the look he had given when Angel told him. He had to reassure Angel it
would be alright and he had to sound it. ‘I know something will come to us we
are very strong and they are only mindless creatures so we will win as you
say.’

Angel gave a half hearted smile
and was about to turn and leave when Aura comes into his mind. ‘The portal
opens and they come, they are pouring out in their hundreds no there are
thousands of them, small ones mostly as they are the ones in the front. There
are big ones coming out now but the Renegades are starting to waver in holding
the portal open.’

There was nothing for a few
minutes as Angel waited for Aura to say more, and then there was pain in her
voice as she spoke again. ‘The dragons they die, they would not leave when they
could have. They just stayed there with the Renegades trying to get them to
move away. The Renegades magic was so weak they had no control over the dragons
and they just let the creatures kill them. It was their way of getting final
release.’

Angel could feel her pain and let
it envelope him for he grieved for the dragons as well. Gavrie looked at Angel
as the tears streamed down his face knowing that something was wrong. He placed
his arm around Angel trying to comfort him but the tears still streamed down
his face.

Angel looked up at the
headmaster. ‘They died all twenty dragons the Renegades controlled. They would
rather have died than lived with the control the Renegades have over them. They
knew what they were doing for the Renegade wizards were very weak from holding
open the portal for so long. The dragons would not move and the creatures just
swarmed over them. They did not last long but the loss of just one dragon is
bad but to lose twenty is a great loss.’

Gavrie looked at him and could
see the great pain in his eye and tears come to him for as Angel had said
losing twenty dragons is something they have never come across. He knew Angel
was in communication with someone who was close to where it happened.

‘Headmaster they come and there
are over two thousand of them, but there are more small than large we must
prepare for the battle to come.’ Angel wriggled out of Gavrie’s arms and headed
for the deck to prepare for what is coming. His thoughts turned to what all the
other wizards would think if they could see the thousands of creatures that are
now heading up over the mountain the quickest way to where they waited for
them.

Contents

The Battle Begins

Angel came out and joined his
friends; he could see the red checks where the tears had run. They felt the
loss just as hard as he even though he had been brought up around dragons. They
looked around and found the groups of wizards were almost ready, they where
scattered all over the Dragon Deck and there were groups up on top of the
school.

The sun was now on the horizon as
it was looking like a great day weather wise. The sky will soon be dark with
the creatures as they attack, then the day will have lost all that beauty. They
were ready and now it was just wait and see, hoping it was not going to be bad.

Aura came into his mind as he
looked up into the sky. ‘They are almost at the top and will be over soon. Be
careful Angel we will be close and if you need our magic it is here for you.’

‘Thank you Aura but you are going
to have to stay away from your cave for the creatures will check along the
Dragon Decks making sure there is nothing for it to eat there. We need you to
be safe so stay away from the Dragon Decks you are worth more than us. We will
be ok, take care.’ Angel almost had more tears in his eyes as he spoke to Aura.

All of a sudden there were yells
of, look up there. They all came out of the cave and looked up to the top of
the mountain. There they could see hundreds of small dots flying over the top
of the mountain. The creatures are coming and soon the hundreds turned to
thousands. The time was here and Gavrie took control.