Drakonika (Book 1) (47 page)

“
Well, he was...-” Zimbadur said, but he was cut off before he could say another word.

“
He doesn't remember anything!” Viktor yelled savagely.

“
He'll be fine...” Valezar assured him, as though he was afraid of a little boy.

“
All right...” Viktor snarled, then turned back on Magnus. “You're my brother.” He said grimly.

Magnus felt his heart pierced. He did not know what was worse; the words that Viktor had uttered, or the matter-of-fact tone in which he said them. Before he could even recover, Viktor decided to continue.

“Dragons exist, Magnus... I mean, I'm sure you have noticed, you're one of them... but you're not like the others. You were raised far away from the Dragon Empire. They have something, the dragons... an ancient artefact. It's the king of artefacts, called The Zirag. Most amazing, most powerful, most sought after... It is said it has the power to make miracles, and make every wish come true.” Viktor said in a mystified tone, his voice lowered almost to a whisper. “Our father is a mighty Warlock. He promised that if we help him acquire the artefact, we will get everything we ever wished for... Can you imagine that?” He said heatedly. “Everything...”

Magnus looked stunned. “But... I already have everything I could wish for...” He said finally. “I have a home, I study in a guild, I have fun and friends...” When he thought of his friends and the scary dragon transformation, he decided to add one thing. “Actually, I'd like my amulet back... that's what I would wish for.”

Viktor only scowled more. “The loss of your amulet was planned; you can't wish to have it back! It was merely a tool to safely lead you here.” He said, hoping he would refresh Magnus' memory a little. “If you didn't look like a human and if you did remember everything about yourself you would most probably...” All of a sudden, Viktor fell silent, a note of fear in his expression. Could it be that... even Viktor was afraid of Magnus' true nature? They both looked pale, as though none of them could believe it.

Solas' voice broke the silence. “Understand, I had to remove the amulet from your body... if I had not, you would have not regained your powers and your memory in the right moment.” He said softly. “And the moment has just come.”

Suddenly, it seemed to struck Magnus; of course! As a Member of the Mages guild, Solas had the permission to cast the invisibility spell without being arrested! And he used it to take the amulet away...

“
You're one of us,” Viktor said brightly, his face contorted in a maniacal expression. “You're a malicious, tempestuous and evil beast, you are the Black Prince! We must destroy the dragon kind and obtain the wondrous Zirag!” There was a hint of admiration in his voice.

Magnus still could not believe that Zimbadur and Valezar would have anything to do with something like this! Magnus himself did surely not want to destroy the dragons. Whatever reason they could have had for roaming the streets at night, he couldn't deny that he was one of them. But over everything else, he seemed to be interested in one thing the most. “Do you have the amulet?” He said finally, gazing at Viktor in such a way he looked as though he was hypnotised.

“What? Forget the amulet, we need to leave now...” Viktor said swiftly. “Solas, bring the book and the key!” He barked.

Solas shuffled towards them, opening the book on the page that Magnus had seen many times before. It was the page with the nine-pointed star drawing.

“Why are you giving this to me now? Wasn't it you who took it away from me?” Magnus demanded. Although he desired any information they could give him, he still couldn't help talking irritably. He had never felt so many feelings mingled before; awe, fear, confusion, longing... and anger.

“
Indeed.” Said Solas shortly, in the tone of explaining that one and one made two. “That's because back then, you were not ready. And now, the moment has come...”

“
Yes,” Magnus hissed. He hated to be treated like a kid, although he still was one. “You've said that already.”

“
Oh shut it, both of you,” Viktor growled insolently, the bossy look back firmly on his face. Solas and Magnus gave him an unfriendly gaze. “To tell you the truth, I didn't expect the Black Prince would be you. I was told it would be a boy accompanied by a dragon.”

Magnus felt as if he had been struck by a lighting. A dragon... could Viktor, in any event, mean the...

“Hm... Seems like he betrayed us.” Viktor snorted. “Hid his tail between the legs. Haven't you seen him, by any chance? He's small... Only two or three feet long... We should punish him for his misbehaving.”

So it
was
him. That's why Magnus had the feeling that the dragon had known something... But that would mean the dragon was an innocent creature who only escaped in order to save himself from those evil plans of destroying his kind! Suddenly, Magnus couldn't help covering his little dragon acquaintance up. “Uh... No. I've never seen a dragon in my life. I mean... as far as I can remember...” Magnus lied quickly, hoping nobody would notice his suspicious stuttering.

“
That's too bad...” Viktor grieved. “He really gave me some hard times identifying you. If there wasn't for the ball... I might have never had found that you were the one I was looking for.”

Magnus looked awestruck. “The ball...? So... it was you, who-”

“No,” Viktor interrupted him, because Magnus was being too slow with asking questions. “That was Serena. She followed your
friend
, Maren,”he fizzled, as though it had caused him great difficulty to utter the word
friend
, “And I followed her. I didn't sleep so well, Darius kept tossing in his bed and I heard noise from the street. My father has mentioned the crystal ball to me, but I never thought I would see it with my own eyes... I wasn't raised in Sinei. If you haven't found it, I'd never see it. And I would have never found out that the Black Prince was you, thanks to the little lizard traitor... It was the ball that told me the truth about you.”

Magnus remained silent for a moment. “Okay, if your father knew about the ball, why didn't he just... take it? If he's a warlock, he would surely want such a powerful artefact, wouldn't he?” He asked suddenly, and from Viktor's surprised expression he deduced it was an unexpected question. 

“Because it's the only thing he can operate in this world through. He can't remain here, it would kill him. He doesn't belong here. And I... I've never met him personally...” Viktor said blankly, then fell silent for a while and afterwards, he spoke again with renewed vigour. “He was the hooded figure you saw in the vision. Before he had to leave this realm, he hid the book in the Mages Guild for this day, when we would meet here all together to open the first gate. There is nine of them... father is waiting for us behind the ninth, that realm is called the End of Worlds. Only you can read the book,” Viktor breathed almost in an implying tone, “only you studied with him personally. You have to read the incantation!”

“
You're crazy!” Magnus shrieked. He almost felt like running away. “I don't know what you're talking about and I am
not
leaving. I have friends here! I need to get my amulet back!” He cried desperately.

“
I see... you've already lost your mind! Look... if you open the gate, you will free Ragna of the nightly haunting...  and you'll get your amulet back.” As Victor said that, he pulled his black coat off his chest and revealed a silvery pendant shimmering in the candlelight. Then he covered it again.

Magnus barely breathed. “My amulet! Give it back!” He reached towards him to pull his coat, but Viktor's strength surprised him. It seemed their power was matched.

“It was real pain when I had to pretend I was just a useless loser all the time,” Viktor said with a malevolent smile. “But I'm not.”

Magnus didn't speak. He felt the blood pounding in his ears as he quickly tried to think of a way to retrieve his amulet.

“Read-the-book...” Viktor said gravely, gazing at Magnus firmly with his dark eyes.

Magnus' look hardened suddenly, and although he was hardly realizing all that information he had learnt at the moment, he decided to act like he knew all and was on their side. “Of course I'll read it, what did you think?” He growled. “And by the way, you can keep that little priceless trinket on your neck, looks really classy on you.” He said tartly and darted his gaze into the book afterwards.

“But, I thought... I thought that you-” Viktor stuttered, but when he realised what Magnus had said, he tore the amulet off his neck and dropped it on the floor. Suddenly it appeared that he was looking at Magnus with respect.

“
I was just testing you, fool.” Magnus said, then he took the star-shaped key from Solas' hand carelessly and he might have scratched him a little by doing that. “Now, let me read the incantation...” He cleared his throat and started reading. “Dar garoth im na lei, torokkur n'fir goler!” Magnus yelled, sounding a bit lame.

There was a moment of silence. Everyone waited for something big to happen, but they couldn't feel anything. “Are you sure you've read it all right? I don't... I don't feel like something happened... do you?” Viktor said, and he looked around the room, but Solas, Valezar and Zimbadur just shook their heads.

“Well, maybe it was supposed to be... maher? Or... gaber...?” Magnus said, as he kept gazing into the book.

“
Argh... don't tell me you can't figure those characters out!” Viktor snarled.

“
Patience, dear brother, patience...” Magnus said calmly. He kept reading the last characters in so many ways, and it took so long, they have waited to see more visitors.

All of a sudden, another Valezar and Zimbadur panted into sight, running from the long dim corridor.

“Eh?” Magnus breathed when he looked up from the book, thinking he must have gone insane. There were two Valezars and two Zimbadur's in front of him now!

“
You two!? Why did you come here?” Viktor snarled.

“
Oh, we were just going to have tea at Valezar's place when we met the kids in the need of some help dealing with a dragon...” Zimbadur said, sounding quite courteously, when he realized there was no mirror before them. And there stood another Valezar and Zimbadur just there...

“
Solas?” Valezar said

“
Valezar?” Magnus whispered.

“
Zimbadur?” Zim said in a shaking voice, looking horrified, as he gazed at the second Zimbadur, who was staring back at him quite unfriendly. He never thought he would have lived to see his own clone! But something was definitely way off about it...

And that was when Fjalldís, Elmar and Lars emerged in the doorstep, along with Maren, who held her hand straight against the fake Guild master and Valezar. “Almeroth, reveal the truth!” She shrieked. There was a beam of light coming from her icy belt and just a moment later, instead of the two mages standing next to Viktor, they were looking at two monstrous creatures with dark skin.

Dopplegangers!

XX. Peace Restored in Ragna

The dark creatures did not attack. It appeared they were waiting for Viktor's order.

“Well, that explains a lot,” Magnus said lightly, his face contorted with a slightly dumb expression. And no wonder, who would not get confused in such a moment?

Maren looked quite relieved to find Magnus in his human-like state, as she was afraid he would have had turned into a savage beast by the time they arrived.

But for Viktor, this was a most unfortunate meeting. “Damn... do you know how much work it was to copy Zimbadur perfectly? We even had to fake that conference of mages to be able to study him for longer.” He snarled. “Well, no offence, Valezar... but you were kinda easier to copy.” He said impudently and gave the old mage a short careless gaze, but Valezar seemed to keep his temper buried deep under the surface as always.

While Viktor was bragging about the great abilities of his Dopplegangers, and the real Zimbadur and Valezar were preparing for a  fight, Solas was standing around with a very uneasy expression, seemingly waiting for the first chance to escape cowardly, and  Magnus continued in reading silently. His eyes were sliding the pages so rapidly, he literally saw the strange characters switch up and down, which made the reading even harder. They seemed to be really hard to get if the reader was under a lot of stress and pressure... and that was exactly Magnus' case right now. But what was he looking for, if he had already known the opening incantation?

“I thought the meeting was quite odd...” Zimbadur retorted. “I did not see any of the known faces; besides, nobody seemed to really care about the problems of Aria's magick folk...”

“
Nonsense. You took the bait all right,” Viktor sneered insolently, a note of amusement in his voice. “Plus, I think you really liked one of those Doppleganger ladies, didn't you?”

Zimbadur opened his mouth to go on with his observation about the fake mage meeting, but when he felt Valezar's surprised gaze on him, he paused for a moment. “That's not true...” He whispered  to his old friend, but not very convincingly.

Maren was praying to the dear Holy Moly for their safety, but it appeared that Lars did not have much faith in anything he could not see with his own eyes. He was hiding in the back, pretending he was not even there, trembling all over. He had never seen such monsters in his life; in fact, he had never seen any real monsters in his life, and this would probably give him nightmares for the period of at least two months.

One of the creatures let out a terrible screeching sound.

Fjalldís was determined not to look at the frightening monsters. Instead, her gaze focused on Magnus, who was skimming through the pages of the black tome faster than she had ever seen him reading any of the books that Aedan gave them. “What is he doing?” Fjalldís whispered to Maren, leaning slightly to her side.

If the room was silent just moments ago, they could hear voices carrying all around now. Viktor, Zimbadur and Valezar continued nagging, Elmar tried to calm terrified Lars, the two dopplegangers seemed to converse in their own strange language of creaking noises and Solas mumbled some words of protection under his breath with his eyes shut tightly. Only Maren and Fjalldís stood focused on the gist of the matter, though behind all that noise it seemed as unimportant as a grain of sand in the desert.

Magnus turned another page of the book, and it seemed he had finally found what he was looking for. And to his astonishment, he had also found something much more. As soon as his eyes slid the line of strange characters which he was searching for, he caught sight of a lettering that read 'The first Gate entrance'
.
Ignoring Zim and Viktor, who were now arguing about the lameness of the meeting's atmosphere, Magnus looked beneath the lettering at a sketch of a clock tower drawn in black ink. This picture seemed strangely familiar to him... In fact, he had a feeling that he had seen this tower before. Then it suddenly struck him; the clock tower at Ragna's main square! And now he realised that he had had the hint all the time right before his very own eyes; there was a nine-pointed star clock on the tower, which looked exactly like the key he was holding in his right hand. Magnus put on the most agitated expression he was able to act, and trying to convince himself he was a better actor than Rodrick, he looked up from the book. “I got it!” His voice, which instantly earned him the attention of all the mages, children and monsters present in the room, beamed in the sound of fake victory. “I've figured it out! But we need to move to the clock tower on the main square, where the gate is located!” He said, a little too audibly for Viktor and Solas who were standing next to him.

It looked that upon hearing those words, Viktor had completely disregarded Zim's and Valezar's presence, while Maren, Fjalldís, Elmar and Lars did not even exist for him. Neither his, nor Zimbadur's side could see what was really going on; but for Magnus, who was standing in the middle of the happening, it was clear. Both sides had been trying to earn as much time as they could: Zimbadur and Valezar for the actual reason that Magnus was browsing the book for, and Viktor for the illusion that Magnus needed more time to figure those last characters of the incantation, so that they could finally open the gate and get out of there. And as it seemed, it had just happened. “All right, let's get out of here!” Viktor said with new vigour, then climbed on the windowsill. “Magnus, take the book!” He called. “You two, finish them off,” he commanded the dopplegangers darkly, as he disappeared outside in the darkness.

Solas looked quite worried for his own safety; only seconds parted them from a real battle that would take place in the salon, so he decided to depart at once. “Take the key!” He said indignantly, as he was climbing over the sill and with a muffling sound, he fell sprawled into the grass below the window. Apparently, he had forgotten that jumping from such heights was a bit of a too big feat for his age.

Magnus could hear a silent groan. He stuffed the star-shaped key into a pocket under his cloak. Now, that none of his “comrades” was watching him, he grabbed the amulet from the floor and quickly slipped it on his neck under his tunic. Although it felt a little cool, he was truly overjoyed to have it back. There would be no more scales, wings, horns, fangs or even claws growing on him any more! He felt like the victory was half-way his. Then he gave his friends one last look. “To the clock tower!” He cried, and seizing the big tome under his right arm, he  jumped out of the window in one brisk move, determined to finish his play to the very end. After all, he had got a good training in acting countless times.

There was another groan, this time much louder, and it did not come from Magnus. “Damn kids...!” Solas moaned in a hoarse voice.

There was a moment's pause in which Valezar and Zimbadur exchanged wordless looks, but when the two dark creatures drew closer with dangerous screeching, Valezar made a step forward.

“Go!” The old mage bellowed resolutely over his shoulder. “I cannot run, but I can take care of these two rascals right here! Take the kids out, Zimbadur! Quickly!” He yelled, when a bright electric ball emerged between his palms, in which pale-blue light the whole room was now ablaze in.

The guild master was his friend long enough to know that Valezar could handle this situation without being killed. Dopplegangers were no third graded monsters, but someone who studied magick all his life had very high chances of defeating two of them all alone. With a sudden rush of understanding, Zim nodded in agreement and as Valezar faced the dark skinned creatures with long limbs, he quickly pushed the horrified children back into the dim lit corridor. Maren looked hypnotized; that was a real powerful attack spell forming right there between Valezar's hands! But there was no time to admire his great skills in magick, because Zim had dragged them to the entrance hall before they could see the flash of bright light burst out of the social room, which was normally used for private chatter among the mages and playing board games in winter, now being torn apart by two vile monsters that had charged at the old mage standing his ground in front of the doorstep. Even Lars forgot to start crying in the shock.

Zimbadur held the door open for the children to bolt out into the small courtyard of the Ragnan Mages Guild, following them closely as he shut the door behind them. Maren had never seen the courtyard at this late hour, when all lights faded out, except for the moon and a plant crawling up the walls and towers with its white flowers glowing with bright light, illuminating the vicinity. None of them could help looking up to the dark skies for a moment, this sight was just too magickal to resist. There were fireflies rattling around and as Zim remembered of one time when he forgot his window opened at night and dozens of these lighting bugs flew into his room, a sentimental smile escaped him. For a while, they were staring up, dazed by the magnificent view, with nothing bothering them except for a muffled sound of Valezar fighting the two dopplegangers back in the mage social room. But then the beautiful and highly romantic sight was ruined by a black silhouette that dashed through the sky above the towers of the Mages Guild. And that silhouette had large bat-like wings.

The reaction to that was immediate and absolutely predictable. Lars started screaming madly, Elmar kept gazing up at his flying theory that had just come to life and Maren with Fjalldís gave a terrified yelp. Zimbadur deduced it was time to move; the streets could be flooded with those huge fire-breathing creatures shortly.

While there was a real chaos starting in the town, the police station was busy with something else. The general was sunk in his comfortable armchair, his back facing the windows of the wide tower. There were two of his policemen standing by, making sure the little criminal that was sitting on the sofa right before them would not escape, but that was most unlikely to happen anyway. The large office was lit by candles and torches and the windows were not boarded, as they never had been; the police station was protected by an invisible shield of invulnerability. No other building in the town could afford having such great and efficient method of defence.

“How many times do I have to tell you?” Darius said insistingly, his  hands still a bit stiff from the previous paralyse spell that Xanthar had used on him. “Look, I'm telling you, I did
not
steal it! It wasn't me!”

The general leaned over the table slightly, looking Darius directly in the eyes. “And I'm telling
you
; your words have no relevance here.” He said in a voice of deadly calm, then looked back into the papers strewed on his office desk. It was not hard to guess that the parchments he was looking at were the documents about Darius, which Aedan had given him along with the information about all other novices that studied in Sinei.

Darius' eyes widened. His gaze fastened upon the large windows behind Xanthar and his two policemen dressed in black long uniforms embroidered with blue and silver. He was speechless for a moment.

One of the policemen noticed Darius' terrified expression and found it so amusing he had even forgotten he was in the presence of the general and he guffawed heartily. “What's the matter? Scared of the Dark Pit?” He  scoffed, and the second policeman joined him straight after.

“
Or perhaps the penalty of... death?” He said, his face twisted in a frightening expression. Xanthar continued in reading, as it looked that not even the noisy outbreak of mirth coming from both sides could make him look up from the scrolls.

Ignoring their jeers, Darius sunk deeper in the sofa. “D-d... dragons... There are dragons outside!” He stuttered in a shaking voice, pointing a trembling finger in the direction of the huge windows.

Predictably, the policemen laughed even more; but something in the back of their minds told them to look over their shoulders. It was a slightly uneasy feeling... what if that little brat was telling the truth? They slowly turned around, and confronted their worst fear they had felt in the last several years. The Ragnan monsters were just outside the windows of Xanthar's office, dashing over  like bolts of lightning, their wings spread wide quivering in the dark cold air of night. There were so many it seemed they were having a whole meeting out there.

The sniggers died out immediately as the policemen broke into sweat. “Er... general...? It appears we might have a problem of some magnitude here...” Said one of them, his heart sinking.

“What?” Xanthar said in his usual disgruntled tone as he finally looked up from the papers on his desk.

“
We have an assault of dragons on the town, sir,” the second policeman on Xanthar's left said, but it sounded as though he did not even believe his own words.

Xanthar took a deep breath. “There's no such thing as dragons,” he grunted, when finally, a terrible jangle coming from the street under the station made him turn around. And he stood up so suddenly they could hear the sound of his armchair creaking on the floor as he pushed it away. He swayed. Those were... real dragons?

The answer was waiting outside. Xanthar strode to the other side of his office, followed by his policemen who seemed to be holding their breath, and looked down into the street through one of the large windows of the tower.

Darius' gaze kept returning to the door's handle as he was thinking frantically whether to take a run for his freedom or not. In the end, he decided to stay; sitting on a sofa in the police station was way safer than roaming the streets right now, even though he had to spend the night in Xanthar's office.