Dragon Mage: Riders of Fire Dragon Masters Book Two - A Dragons' Realm young adult epic fantasy adventure Read online

  Riders of Fire Dragon Masters is the prequel series

  to the award-winning, bestselling Riders of Fire series.

  Eileen Mueller is a USA Today bestselling author.

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  EileenMuellerAuthor.com

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  Dragon Mage and the Riders of Fire Dragon Masters series are works of fiction. All characters, events and locations in this book are fictional. Any resemblance to persons or dragons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. No dragons were harmed in the making of this book, although there may have been a few injuries to bolt-flingers, mages and sailors.

  This book is copyright. No part may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic means, including photocopying, recording or by any information retrieval system without written permission from the author, except for short excerpts for reviews, in fair use, as permitted under the Copyright Act. Dragons’ Realm, the Riders of Fire world, and its characters are copyright.

  Dragon Mage, Riders of Fire Dragon Masters book 2 © 2021 Eileen Mueller

  Typesetting © Phantom Feather Press, 2021, American English

  Cover Art by Christian Bentulan © Eileen Mueller, 2021

  Dragons’ Realm Map by Ava Fairhall © Eileen Mueller, 2018

  Phantom Feather Press Logo by Geoff Popham, © Phantom Feather Press, 2014

  Paperback ISBN: 9780995137417

  Phantom Feather Press

  Wellington 6021, New Zealand

  [email protected]

  www.phantomfeatherpress.wordpress.com

  Magic, every time you turn the page.

  Dedication

  Keep on striving. Never give up hope.

  After the dark, there is always a new dawn

  and the sun will shine again.

  Table of Contents

  Map of Dragons’ Realm

  Prologue – A Year Ago

  Bound for Naobia

  A Fine Catch

  Naobia

  To the Rescue

  Frugar

  Goren’s Wrath

  Lush Valley

  Naobian Mage Council

  Robandi Strait

  Homeward Bound

  Rescue

  The Wastelands

  Fieldhaven

  Robandi Silent Assassins

  Fox

  A Plea for Help

  Metropoli

  Coin

  Hand-Fasting

  Dancing

  Marketplace Mayhem

  Montanara

  Arena

  Beast

  Dragons’ Hold

  Deathstalker

  Plans

  Chained

  Zaarusha

  Emperor Haakin

  Antics

  Revelation

  Stealth

  Return to Naobia

  Yanir’s Pledge

  Mage Training

  Free Prequel Novelettes: Silver Dragon & Bronze Dragon

  Dragon Pirate, Riders of Fire Dragon Masters, Book 3

  Master Mage, Riders of Fire Dragon Masters, Book 4

  Coming in 2021 & 2022: Riders of Fire Dragon Masters

  Riders of Fire – complete series available now

  Praise for the Riders of Fire series

  Eileen’s Dragon Adventures for Younger Readers

  Acknowledgements – Is your name here?

  About Eileen

  Herbal Lore in Dragons’ Realm

  Map of Dragons’ Realm

  *Fieldhaven is known as Last Stop years later in Riders of Fire.

  Prologue – A Year Ago

  Giddi caressed Ma’s hand, his sit bones aching from perching on the hard chair next to her bed all night. He’d stayed up, keeping vigil. There was no one to relieve him, so, apart from short privy breaks and grabbing food for both of them, he’d been at his mother’s bedside for days.

  At least now she was sleeping peacefully. Her breathing was so quiet he could hardly hear it, like the whisper of a faint breeze through a strongwood on an almost calm day.

  Crisp footfalls sounded in the hallway. The bedroom door opened. Master Mage Balovar entered and closed the door quietly. “How is she?” he asked, nodding at Ma, his dark eyes concerned.

  Ma’s eyelids fluttered. “Hello, Balovar,” she said, her voice as weak as a hatchling’s wings.

  Balovar leaned over the bed and kissed her forehead. “How are you doing today?”

  She smiled, her eyes drifting shut and her hand slipping out of Giddi’s onto the quilt.

  Balovar pulled up another chair, gingerly placing it next to Giddi’s. “A messenger bird from your father arrived for Starrus today,” he said quietly. “This time, he enclosed something for you.”

  “He did?” Giddi burst out, then hushed as Ma stirred.

  Pa had finally contacted him. It’d been moons since he or Ma had heard from his father. A year ago, when Starrus had returned from a secret quest without Giddi’s father, he’d told them Gideon—Starrus’ trainer and Giddi’s father—had been delayed on secret business.

  Maybe Pa was finally coming home.

  Balovar passed a piece of creased parchment to him. Giddi was so excited, he nearly dropped it. He ran his thumb across the imprint of a flame in the honey-yellow wax seal. Yes, it was Pa’s seal, all right. Eagerly, he broke the seal.

  Dear Giddi,

  I’ve hurt my hand, but I trust you can still read my script. My apologies for passing this message on via Starrus, but he’s the only one I can trust to deliver it safely. If anyone else knows my whereabouts, I’m in risk of being endangered.

  Son, you’re of age now.

  Giddi puffed up his chest. He was eleven years’ old, and proud of it.

  Because I can’t be with you, I’d like Starrus to train you in my absence. I’ve taught him everything I know, and he’s an honorable man. Heed him, and learn well. I hope to be back with you and your ma soon.

  Until your flames light up the night sky,

  Your beloved,

  Pa.

  ‘Back with you and your ma soon?’ Giddi could scarcely believe it. Ma had always told Giddi that Pa would come back, but he’d been gone twelve moons, now.

  Hang on. If Pa was coming home soon, why would Starrus need to train him? Giddi sighed. Pa’s words were a platitude to make him feel better, not a promise.

  Balovar leaned in, “Do you mind?” He plucked the letter from Giddi’s hand and read it aloud to Ma, his voice a gentle murmur.

  Then he passed Giddi back the letter and stood. He tousled Giddi’s hair—as if he were a littling.

  When would adults see he was grown? Giddi didn’t need to be petted like a newborn dragonet. He rolled his eyes at Balovar’s back as the master mage turned back to Ma.

  “I hope you get better soon.” Balovar nodded at Ma, then strode to the door. On the threshold, he paused. “You know you’re like a son to me, Giddi. Come and see me if you need anything.” He turned the doorknob. “You can start training tomorrow with Starrus. I’ll meet you both in the clearing at noon.”

  As Balovar shut the door, Ma stirred and tried to
sit up. She coughed, spasms rattling her chest, then slumped even deeper into the pillows. Her eyes bright with tears, she whispered, “I miss Gideon.”

  All these moons, Ma had never said that once. She’d comforted Giddi, told him Pa would be home again soon. Never once had she shown sadness.

  Giddi squeezed her hand. “Like you said, Ma, he’ll be home soon.” Although, from the sound of things, that was highly unlikely. “Don’t worry. Just rest, so you can get better.”

  “I want to see him again.” Tears spilled from her eyes. She grasped the covers. “Find him, Giddi. Find your father.” Her chest rattled with a mighty spasm, her head lolled to one side and her breathing stilled.

  “Ma.” Giddi picked up her limp hand and felt her wrist for a pulse.

  Nothing.

  His heart thundering, he touched her neck. Still nothing.

  And her chest was still. No breath ghosted from her lips.

  “Ma, no!” he whispered.

  Eyes stinging, he placed her hand back on the quilt and kissed her cheek. “Good bye, Ma.” He was enveloped by the scent of her lavender soap.

  Her last words burned through him. Find him, Giddi. Find your father.

  He had to be brave. He had to find Pa.

  Bound for Naobia

  Giddi sighed and dipped his mop in the battered pail. He wrung it out and shoved it back and forth across the bloodstained deck. Gods, this was a gruesome job. It had been bad enough seeing the needless slaughter in battle. They’d barely cleared the corpses of dead pirates and sailors away before Starrus had started ordering him about, putting on airs in front of the ship’s captain as if Giddi were a slave—not a mage in training. It was as if Starrus was oblivious to the carnage, the dead people, the heavy weight of grief weighing on Giddi’s chest.

  Luckily the captain was goodhearted, not like the Scarlet Hand. The pirate’s hands had been tanned, not red but it didn’t take much imagination to guess how he’d earned his name. Rumors said the new scourge of the Naobian Sea ate the hearts of his enemies. After seeing the bloodshed and carnage from their short battle today, Giddi believed it. The man was ruthless. He shuddered, suppressing the memory of a young green rider whose body had been sheared in two on dragonback, he and his injured dragon falling into the sea for the sharks to devour.

  Giddi shrugged and kept on mopping. There was nothing for it. Hopefully his luck would change when they reached Naobia.

  Sailors called to each other as they reattached the rigging to the newly-mended main mast. It’d been lashed together with ropes after a green dragon’s tail had caught in the rigging during their battle earlier that day against the Scarlet Hand—a bloodthirsty new pirate captain. Without the mast and sails, the ship had lolled on the sea like a good-for-nothing layabout, rising and falling on the swell, a miasma of burned flesh and charred timber hanging over it.

  A few green dragons darted around the boat, their riders catching ropes from the sailors below and leaning out at daring angles to attach them to the spars or throw them to sailors up the masts.

  Goren, leader of the Naobian green guards, wheeled on his emerald dragon, calling out to the other dragon riders. He’d been at it for the past hour, and his voice was nearly hoarse.

  Giddi mind-melded with Goren’s dragon, Rengar. “Why doesn’t he mind-meld with their dragons instead of yelling? That’d save his voice.”

  “The riders and dragons can’t hear him when he mind-melds. Only I can,” Rengar replied. “We can hear you, of course, because you’re the dragon mage. Other than that, we only hear our own riders. Besides, sometimes Goren prefers to bellow to give himself an air of authority. He’s rather young to be leader of the green guards, you know.”

  Even though Goren was young, he was at least ten summers older than Giddi, and the dark-haired dragon rider barely needed more of an air of authority. There was a toughness about him, as if he’d grown up on the streets, that made Giddi more than a little wary.

  Finally, the sails were furled and ready, and the crew awaiting the captain’s instructions. The captain prowled along the damp deck, running an eye over the shrouds.

  Giddi plunked his mop back in the old wooden pail and leaned against the railing. He mopped his brow. It was much warmer on the Naobian Sea than back home in Great Spanglewood Forest. Thank the Egg he’d stowed his mage cloak in a hammock below deck.

  “Trim the sails,” the captain bellowed, “but don’t put too much strain on that mast. It has to get us to Naobia.”

  Sailors sprang into action, heaving on the ropes. The mast creaked ominously as they unfurled the mainsail. The soot-stained fabric snapped and caught in the breeze; the edges charred from the fiery breath of Scarlet Hand’s sea dragon.

  Giddi shook his head. Who’d have thought a pirate could tame a sea dragon.

  The captain stalked along the deck, inspecting his crew’s handiwork. Giddi snatched up his mop and swabbed another dark stain on the planking. As the captain passed him, water crested over the side of his pail and splashed the captain’s boots and breeches. Odd. Giddi hadn’t noticed the ship tilting on the swell.

  The captain spun, his jaw snapping shut, and glared at Giddi.

  “Sorry sir, I must’ve kicked the bucket.” He grinned and added, “Not metaphorically, but literally.” Although his foot hadn’t been anywhere near it.

  The captain’s face broke into a wry smile. “Come on, boy don’t be sloppy. You’re not drowning those stains, you’re cleaning them.” He shook the water from his boots and strode off.

  There was a muffled snigger behind Giddi’s back. He spun. Sure enough, he hadn’t nudged the pail at all. Starrus was grinning, his hands twitching. His flaming trainer had used his magic to slop water over the captain on purpose.

  Scowling, Giddi dunked his mop and kept swabbing.

  Later that afternoon as Giddi was tying off a rope on the boom, the end of the rope whipped out and lashed his wrist. A nasty red welt rose on his inner arm. By the flaming First Egg, it stung. As he rubbed his stinging flesh, his eyes meet Starrus’ gaze.

  There was a malicious glint in his trainer’s eye. “I hope you’re all right,” Starrus said. “There’s not much you can do when ropes catch in a gust of wind.”

  What gust of wind?

  Starrus always played dirty when no one was looking. And no one was here to reprimand him. They were far from the Mage Council or any other mages—except Master Mage Findal, the Naobian mage who’d been kidnapped and was on the Scarlet Hand’s ship heading for the Wastelands. Starrus was right—there was nothing Giddi could do.

  Giddi snatched the end of the rope again, determined to ignore Starrus. It slid through his fingers, burning his palm and leaving a trail of torn skin. Giddi’s belly burned with rage. He thrust out his injured hand. “Look what you did.” His anger surged, rushing down his limbs. Energy coiled in his palm and wind gusted from his fingers across the deck.

  Starrus, caught by the sudden gale, flew backward, slamming his back on the rail, then landed on the deck on his backside. He clambered to his feet, face thunderous.

  Giddi hastily tied off the rope, picked up a pail, and strode toward the newly-appointed first mate. The last one had been buried at sea only a few hours ago. The first mate was talking to a sailor who was bent over a barrel, nailing a lid back on.

  “How long until we get to shore, sir?” Giddi asked.

  The first mate squinted. Shading his eyes with his hand, he looked up at the creaking rigging. “The best part of five days, depending on whether the mast holds. If not, it could take a week or longer.”

  Giddi groaned. A week with Starrus? These past few hours already felt like forever.

  §

  On Giddi’s third day on the merchant ship, the wind died. The ship’s sails drooped, hanging flaccid. The timbers of the ship gave the odd creak, but the shrouds hung slack. Occasionally, a small puff of breeze made a sail flutter, and the crew hopefully stirred, just to have their hope die as the breeze did.

/>   The sky was a clear and cloudless carpet of endless cerulean-blue. Giddi yearned to soar on dragonback over the sea. No such luck. He was still here, trapped under Starrus’ watchful gaze. There was no glade nearby to wander off into, no clearing where he could escape unnoticed for a few moments of peace. Nowhere to go where Starrus couldn’t find him—only this shrotty ship.

  The ample-bellied cook ambled out of the galley toward the captain, cursing under his breath. His ruddy complexion was marred by a ferocious scowl, the paleness of his sun-bleached eyebrows almost comical. “By the shrotty lice-infected tail of a cranky dog. Captain, the hold is overrun with rats. They’ve eaten the hardtack, all but a wee barrel, and dirtied our supply of flour.”

  “What of the dried beef and salted pork?” the captain asked.

  “We used the last of the beef yesterday and a rat gnawed through the last barrel of pork. The water ran out of the hole, then they got in to soil it, so now it stinks of rat dung.”

  The depth of the captain’s scowl matched the cook’s, but his was anything but comical. “How did this happen? I thought someone was on hold duty.”

  “Ook was killed in the battle, sir, and no one thought—”

  “Of course, no one thought.” The captain sighed. “I’m the only one who thinks around here. How bad is it?”

  “We’ve enough for a bite of supper tonight and some broth in the morning, sir.” The cook yanked off his hat and wrung it between his hands. “We’re still at least three days from shore.” He gazed at the limp sail. “If not more.”

  “All hands to the oars,” the captain bellowed.

  Sailors rushed down into the hold.

  “My oarsmen will be hungrier than a nesting dragon with all that hard work.”

  Giddi nodded. Pulling oars would be much more strenuous than running up the rigging and trimming a few sails.

  The captain spun on his heel, all business. “You two!” He waved a hand at Starrus and Giddi. “Get down to the hold too.”