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

  His straw-blond hair glinting in the sun, Starrus drew himself up, puffing out his chest as if he were a master mage. “I hardly think that the best use of a mage’s talents is pulling on the oars to get us to shore.” He quirked an eyebrow gazing down his nose at the captain.

  “I know that,” the captain snapped. “Which is why you’re on rat-killing duty. If we can’t find anything else, at least we can eat rat.”

  Ugh. Giddi’s stomach churned.

  Starrus reeled back, grimacing. “Surely you can’t expect us to—”

  “You’ll do what I ask, and you’ll eat what you’re given. Now, get to it, and stop those rats from ruining whatever else we have left.” The captain disappeared down the hatch to the main hold.

  Green guards swooped down to the ship, taking turns to alight and let their riders down to help with the oars. Goren gave them a grim nod as he and his team of riders descended into the hold to have their turn at the oars. Their dragons wheeled back into the sky above the becalmed ship.

  Cook shrugged. “The food’s kept down there.” He gestured at the aft hatch. “I’ll get back to the galley and scrape together something for when the men finish their shift. Bring me up what you can salvage.”

  Starrus flourished a hand at the rickety ladder leading down the narrow hole into the hold.

  Giddi grabbed the rungs and headed down into the gloom. When he was halfway down, Starrus’ boot landed on his back. Giddi tumbled down the rungs, smacking his shoulder and hip, and landed on the planks with a thud that knocked the wind out of him.

  Why, of all the stinkiest tricks! Anger burning through his belly again, he scrambled to his feet. He couldn’t dare let a single spark slide from his fingertips. He’d be tried for insubordination. He was only a lowly trainee mage; Starrus was his better.

  Giddi settled for a snort and let a tiny ball of green mage flame flare from his fingers. He gently set it free. The mage light bobbed around the stinking, stifling hold, casting an eerie glow over an assortment of barrels, bolts of cloth, chests, and jars. Ominous squeaking and the skitter of scurrying feet made Giddi’s back ripple with goose flesh. It wasn’t that he didn’t like rats…

  Gods, it was warm down here. The air was fetid with the stench of rat droppings. The taste clung to the roof of his mouth. Jammed itself down his throat, making his stomach roil.

  Starrus’ boots thunked as he clambered off the ladder and leaped to the deck. “That was a bit clumsy of you. Still, accidents can’t be helped. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

  Giddi refrained from rubbing his throbbing shoulder, not wanting to give Starrus the pleasure of knowing he’d hurt him. “I’m fine.”

  Red eyes ventured out from the shadows behind a chest, gleaming in the glow of Giddi’s mage light. A tail disappeared down the center of a bolt of gold-and-blue striped fabric.

  Giddi held his hand high, more light flaring from his fingers.

  There was a shrill squeak. Suddenly, a horde of rats scampered out of their hiding spaces from behind barrels and chests, the patter of their feet drowning out Giddi’s thundering heart. The hold seethed as they raced over a sack of flour that had been gnawed open, the contents littered with dark droppings. Sharp teeth gleamed in the dark. Vermin swarmed over bolts of cloth and skittered across trunks, a massive, furry tide.

  Light flared from Starrus’ fingers. “Kill the shrotty vermin,” he rasped and flung a bolt of green flame. His trainer’s mage flame hit a rat, blasting a hole in its side. The rat dropped to the planking, its body smoking. Others squeaked and fled, scampering behind trunks and barrels, worming their way through tattered bales of cloth. One dived into the half-open sack, and others followed, until the sack twitched and bulged like a dying corpse.

  Starrus thrust his hands out and set the sack ablaze. It crackled, the scent of charred meat filling the hold. He closed his fingers into his fist and the flames died, leaving a pile of smoking flesh, fur and ash.

  Giddi’s eyes watered and bile rose in his throat. He coughed, trying to swallow his gorge. He flung out a finger and shot a bolt of fire at a rat slinking along a beam on the hull. Engulfed in flame, it landed on a bale of golden cloth which flared to life, burning with a vengeance. Giddi twisted his fingers, pulling the energy back inside himself. The flames died.

  A rat skittered along the ceiling and launched itself at Starrus. The rodent sank its teeth into his trainer’s shoulder. Starrus bellowed. Giddi threw a tiny fireball at the rat and its body fell at Starrus’ feet, twitching and reeking of mage flame. Three more took its place, leaping at his trainer, but this time, Starrus was ready. Hands out, Giddi’s trainer let out a swathe of blistering fire that killed all three rats. He mopped his brow then extinguished the burning carcasses. “Filthy vermin,” Starrus snarled. He kicked one of the rat carcasses across the hold. It thudded against a trunk, spraying ash and charred fur.

  Giddi spun as a rat scampered across his boot. Flame seared from his fingers. The rodent’s fur lit up like a ghostly green halo. The rat’s shrill squeal rang through the hold, nearly slicing his ears in two, then it was silent.

  Five rats rushed at Giddi, their high-pitched shrieks ringing in his ears. His pulse pounded. Energy boiled in his core and coursed through his arm. He thrust his hand out and a bolt of flame shot out of each fingertip, the luminescent green light making Giddi squint as it hit the rats and neatly sliced off each off their heads. The headless carcasses ran in circles, their necks cauterized by the mage flame and stinking of cooked flesh. Then they dropped dead. Giddi spun to fend off another attack, flinging out his hand and severing another five rat’s heads.

  “How in the egg’s name did you do that?” Starrus gaped. “Have you been holding back?”

  Of course, he’d been holding back. Starrus was so jealous, even the slightest display of power had his trainer cracking down on him. And of course, they had to control the fire or they’d set the ship alight.

  Giddi swallowed, his throat as tight as a hangman’s noose. “I don’t know. No, sir.” He stared at his hands, hoping he looked perplexed. “It just happened.”

  “So, you didn’t even try?” Starrus sneered.

  Giddi shrugged and spun as another wave of rats leaped from a bale of cloth at him. He blasted the rats backwards into the side of the hull with a gust of wind that also knocked Starrus sideways. His trainer hit a pile of barrels with a sickening crunch.

  “Are you all right, sir?”

  “Of course I am,” Starrus snapped, nursing his hip. He stalked over to the ladder and clambered up the rungs to perch halfway up. He narrowed his eyes at Giddi. “I’ll supervise your training from here. By the time I count to thirty, I want twenty rats dead.”

  Starrus began to count in slow, measured tones. Flame danced from Starrus’ fingertips illuminating the hold as the rats charged Giddi. His trainer made no move to kill them, counting in an icy monotone that made Giddi’s neck prickle.

  A rat leaped at Giddi’s leg, teeth bared. Giddi smote its head off then slit the gut of another with a burst of flame.

  By the time Starrus had reached twenty-five, Giddi had only killed ten rats.

  He mopped his face. “Sir, could we swap places? I’m exhausted.”

  “Ten more to kill in five seconds. Twenty-six…” Starrus kept counting, flame dancing at his fingertips, a nasty smile on his face.

  Giddi spun, shooting flame, but the rats kept coming.

  When Starrus reached thirty, he started from zero all over again.

  Giddi soon lost count of how many times Starrus had reached thirty and how many rats he’d killed. He slumped against a barrel, panting, sweat dripping down his neck. “Could I please have a rest? Or a swig of water?” He motioned at the waterskin hanging from his trainers’ belt.

  Starrus smiled and sent a plume of mage flame toward Giddi’s boot. Giddi jumped aside and the barrel exploded into flame, the stench of burning rum roiling through the hold. Giddi swayed, the fumes making him dizzy.

 
“Sorry, I was aiming for a rat.” Starrus said. Smiling grimly, he extinguished the flame.

  Last time Giddi had checked, he hadn’t resembled a rat in the slightest. For the sake of the First Egg, the sooner he was off this ship, the better. He pursed his lips and staggered behind a wall of chests shoulder high, to the darkest corner of the hold.

  His mage light reflected on hundreds of gleaming pinpoints of light. Holy dragon smoke! He let his mage light flare higher. The rats had shredded huge bales of cloth. Hundreds of rats of all sizes were scurrying away from the green luminescence. He’d found their nest.

  The sight of the nest and the injustice of Starrus’ treatment rankled, making Giddi seethe. He channeled his anger, letting power course through his arms, and set the nest and every rat alight. The mage fire blazed like a funeral pyre, the cloth and squealing rats engulfed in licking tongues of flame that devoured them. For a moment, Giddi wished it was Starrus who was aflame.

  His cheeks burned with shame. He’d never had such vile thoughts before. He monitored the fire, making sure the ship’s timbers didn’t catch, and quenched it, reeling the sathir back inside himself until the last flame sputtered and died.

  He stood for a long moment, casting mage light over the charred remains. Sweat soaking through his shirt, he was so exhausted he could only summon a faint yellow glow—yellow, the color of a beginner. In a flash, he was back in Fieldhaven at the archery tournament where he’d met Anakisha and been so excited to compete that he’d accidentally let a wall of green flame rip at the target. He shook his head. If only he’d kept control—if only he’d hidden his abilities—his trainer wouldn’t be so venomous. With a stab, he realized he’d just made the same mistake again.

  Giddi shrugged and shone his pale-yellow light into the corners. Not a single rat was twitching. All dead.

  He stood, his breath rasping, gathering his strength. His insides were hollow, his power depleted. Giddi wanted to curl up on a soft pallet and sleep. But Starrus was waiting, so he stood and breathed, counting until he’d inhaled a hundred times.

  Now that the rats were still, through the bulkhead he heard the splash of the oars and soft chant of the sailors as they heaved. He massaged his shoulder which was still throbbing where Starrus had kicked him as they’d descended into the hold. That seemed like a lifetime ago.

  Slowly the soles of Giddi’s feet began to tingle as he drew in new energy from his surroundings. With every breath that rasped through his aching lungs, Giddi let the life force of the sea and the air around him trickle back into his aching body. His fingers tingled. Slowly his lungs stopped aching. Burnout—he’d never been this close before, but then again, he’d never released that much sathir with such wild abandon. He’d contained his talents, worried others would be scared of a boy with so much raw power. Worried his trainer would hold back and not reveal his precious secret—the secret that drove Giddi to obey him.

  Slowly the well of sathir in his belly replenished until he had a humming coil in his middle. The stench of charred rat flesh coated his mouth. He spat and stole out from behind the wall of sea chests.

  Starrus was still sitting halfway up the ladder, languidly examining his nails. “Oh, there you are, boy. Are we done?” His trainer stretched out a hand and took one last look at his manicured fingernails—nails that had likely never seen a pail or mop, nor done a day’s honest labor.

  Giddi picked his way through the smoke-hazed hold, his boots slipping more than once on burnt rat corpses—the squishes underfoot making him shudder.

  He nodded at Starrus, too tired to speak. Hopefully, his trainer would be happy with him now.

  Starrus pointed at a chest. “You missed one.” A nose poked out from behind the chest, twitching. Starrus aimed a thin stream of mage flame at the final rat and killed it. “Next time, make sure you get them all.” He turned and clambered up the ladder.

  Giddi gaped at the ungrateful wretch’s back, his fingers twitching with temptation. Gods, what was he thinking? He’d never wanted to blast anyone before, let alone hit someone in the back like a coward. Starrus brought out the worst in him. Giddi grabbed the rungs and climbed the ladder. It was ironic: trainers were supposed to tease the best out of you.

  Starrus scrambled out of the hold and Giddi followed, squinting in the bright sun.

  “How’s the situation down there?” the captain asked.

  Giddi remained silent, letting his trainer do the talking.

  Starrus grimaced. “Not good, sir. The rats are fine—we killed them all—but many of your goods have perished and there aren’t any decent foodstuffs left.”

  We killed them all! Giddi refrained from snorting. Starrus had only dealt with a handful.

  “I was afraid the food was spoiled.” The captain shook his head and yelled to the first mate, “Bring them some lines, so they can do something useful.”

  Starrus smiled ingratiatingly. “Captain, if you have a spare sack, I can volunteer my trainee to clean up the rats and toss them into the sea.”

  He what?!

  The captain ran an appraising gaze over Giddi. “Good idea, but don’t throw the carcasses overboard. And when he’s done, you may choose a finely-carved chest as a token of my appreciation.”

  “Thank you, sir.” Starrus’ smile was as oily as roast eel. And twice as stinky as a raw one.

  Overhead, Rengar furled her wings, her emerald scales flashing as she dived down to the ocean. She plunged her neck in the water, then backwinged and ascended in a spray of water, a silver fish flapping in her dripping jaws.

  The first mate came up to the captain, a sack in his hands. “Here you go, Captain.”

  “What’s good enough for a dragon is good enough for us.” The captain reached inside and handed Starrus a short stick that had twine wrapped around it with barbed hooks on the end. The captain leveled a gaze at Giddi. “We’ll need the rats as bait. It’s time you both caught us some fish.”

  A Fine Catch

  When Giddi emerged from the hold with a sack of burnt rats, the captain handed him a fishing line. “With no wind, it’ll take us longer to get to shore than we thought.” He gave a grim chuckle. “We’ll have no choice but to start eating each other unless we catch some fish.”

  Giddi had fond memories of fishing with his father when he was a littling, before Pa had disappeared on his quest. He smiled, remembering.

  It was a hot summer’s day. Giddi and Pa sat on the edge of the riverbank watching the fish flit about the swimming hole.

  “How old are you now, son?” Pa asked, a cheeky twinkle in his eye. “Seven summers? Eight? Old enough to catch us a tasty supper?”

  “C’mon, Pa.” Giddi poked his father’s ribs, making Pa twitch. “Stop teasing. You know I’m already nine summers.” He puffed out his chest and thumped it. “I’ve been practicing. Watch this.” Giddi held up his fingers and shot a thin stream of mage fire at a rock on the far side of the bank. A spray of sparks ricocheted off the rock and fell onto the surface of the water, making the fish scatter as if they’d been stung.

  “Nice flame, there, but you’ll never catch a meal like that, boy.” Pa laughed. “I’ll show you a trick.” Pa took off his boots and stockings and rolled up his breeches, then dangled his legs off the edge of the riverbank, wriggling his toes in the water. “If you hang your toes in here long enough, an eel will come out from under the bank to have a nibble and then you’ll be able to catch one.”

  Giddi arched his eyebrows. “Are you serious?”

  “I’m serious.” Pa’s mouth twitched.

  Giddi rolled up his breeches and dunked his toes in the water. Even though the day was warm, the water was chilly. “By the dragon gods, it’s nippy Pa.”

  “Excuse my pun, son, but nippy is the last thing you want when you’re luring eels,” Pa teased.

  Giddi wriggled his toes, and sure enough, after a while a large eel stuck its head out from under the bank, nosing around his foot.

  “Quick, pull your feet—”
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  “Ow!” Giddi yanked his feet onto the bank and examined the bite on the edge of his big toe. “It’s bleeding, Pa.”

  “Now,” Pa urged, “use your mage flame.” He yanked his feet above the water. The eel reared up out of the river, jagged jaws wide, trying to snap at Pa’s feet. “Quick, son.”

  Giddi sent a flaming bolt of mage fire at the eel’ s head. The blast hit its head behind the eyes, instantly killing it. As its body slumped into the water, Pa reached an arm into the river and grabbed it. Although the eel was dead, its body twitched and contorted in his father’s hand, lashing his arm with its tail.

  Giddi shied back.

  “It’s all right, lad. They always do that when they first die. I reckon the eel’s telling us life is worth fighting for.” Pa winked. “Life is always worth a fight, whether it’s your own life or someone else’s. Remember, that with great power comes the responsibility to protect others.”

  Giddi looked at the eel forlornly. “I didn’t protect him, did I?”

  Pa’s belly laugh boomed across the river, startling a fawn, which fled through the trees, its white tail flashing. “No, this eel is providing our family with sustenance so we can protect others.” He ruffled Giddi’s hair. “Now fetch me that stick you whittled so we can cook this delectable fellow and surprise Ma when we get home with supper.”

  “Come on, boy, stop dreaming.” Starrus’ voice cut through Giddi’s thoughts.

  Giddi passed a burnt rat to Starrus, the smell of the carnage making his belly churn. The only consolation was that Starrus looked just as queasy as he drove one of his hooks through the rat’s upper lip and flung his line overboard.

  A flurry of silver shapes shot toward Starrus’ rat, making the teal ocean ripple.

  Starrus’ line went taut. “A fish, straight away,” Starrus crowed, his face triumphant as he wound the line on his stick, heaving on the twine to pull the fish in.

  Giddi cast his line out.

  Starrus grunted and yanked, his face turning red and the veins in his forehead standing out.