Cloak & Dagger: Book II of The Dragon Mage Trilogy (25 page)

Kazin shook his head. “It isn’t that kind of magic. It is a magic powered by the mind. If I will it to happen, it does.”

“How did you acquire that power?” asked Vera.

Kazin smiled. “Long ago, I defeated a dragon that lived in a cave far to the south of here. Your brother, Max, helped me to defeat it. When the dragon was destroyed, I obtained the orb, but not without your brother’s sacrifice.” Kazin shook his sadly. “I wish it had never happened. I’d sooner have Max back and give the dragon back his orb.” The black mage looked hatefully at the orb atop his staff. “But then,” continued Kazin, “we might not be here today. Too many important things have happened after that to regret my personal loss.”

“The orb gave you the power to transform?” pursued Vera.

Kazin looked at the cleric and realized that she had come to grips with her brother’s death. She was intent on learning, not reminiscing. “Not all at once,” said Kazin. “It transformed me physically over time. When my first transformation occurred, it nearly consumed me. The orb has a life of its own. It speaks to me with the spirit of the dragon whose spirit it contains.”

“A dragon lives in the orb?” asked Vera incredulously.

“Yes,” said Kazin. “During the dragon wars, when magic was much more powerful among men, the black mages managed to find a way to contain the dragons’ life essence by trapping it inside magical orbs. This way they could control the dragons for use in battle against the enemy. When the dragons were killed, their life force remained trapped in the orb. What the mages didn’t realize was that the dragons’ magic was also trapped in the orb. After the death of the dragons, any mage holding the orb became linked with the dragon, becoming able to magically become a dragon in mind and body. Most mages didn’t have powerful enough minds to resist the dragon’s mind control, and became permanent dragons. They wreaked havoc on anyone and everyone who stood in their way. Needless to say, they were hunted down and killed, and their orbs destroyed to prevent that catastrophe from happening again. Thus dragon orbs, like the one in my staff, were highly sought after. Few are known to still exist. After the dragon wars, large bounties were given to any man who killed a dragon and brought back the orb. Many lost their lives in such a quest for glory. Unfortunately, some real dragons were killed in the process too. That’s probably why any that survived disappeared from us forever.”

“Does anyone know what happened to the real dragons?” asked Vera.

“They disappeared without a trace,” said Kazin. “The occasional seaman who returns from a major voyage occasionally claims to have seen a real dragon way to the south or east, but reports are rare and sketchy.”

“Why are you in control of the orb?” asked Vera. “It hasn’t consumed you.”

Kazin smiled. “Not yet, anyway.”

Vera’s eyes widened. “You mean -?”

Kazin chuckled. “Don’t worry. My mind is still strong. When I first transformed, I didn’t quite know how to deal with the dragon’s spirit, but as time went on, I was able to suppress its urges. That’s one of the reasons today’s mages are always looking for dragon orbs. Our mental training is superior to that of our ancestors. Our magic is much weaker, but our minds are stronger. The modern mage is more capable of resisting magical assertion than a mage from the dragon war period. Now our mental training is an integral part of our studies in the Tower of Sorcery. It wasn’t all that prominent back then. Back then, if you could cast spells, it was all you needed to become a member of the tower. Also, in the past, magical spells were cast for every little thing. Now, it is used in moderation. We are more in control of our spell casting these days.”

“This mental training,” commented Vera, “is that why you can look into Cyril’s eye without becoming paralyzed?”

“Yes,” said Kazin.

“Can you teach me?” pleaded the cleric.

Kazin smiled. “It won’t happen overnight. It’s an acquired skill.”

“That’s fine,” said Vera. “I want to learn.”

“Very well,” said Kazin. He raised his hands and chanted softly.

* * * * *

Cyril took the second shift since he had little trouble getting back to sleep. It seemed like moments after Vera had taken her shift, however, that he was roused to wakefulness in the morning, if one could call it that in the mountains. It seemed to the cyclops that Vera glanced directly into his open eye for a split second, but she was not paralyzed, so he figured it was only his imagination. “Is it time to get up already?” he lamented.

“Yes,” said Vera softly. “It will be a busy day today. I can feel it.”

When they had their gear packed, Kazin led them back to the intersection where his orb had turned orange the day before. The orb turned orange again and Kazin concentrated. Suddenly, the wall before them shimmered and undulated.

Vera gasped. Kazin had not spoken a word of magic. “How did you do that?” she whispered.

Kazin did not answer her question. “Follow me,” he ordered. He stepped into the portal and disappeared from sight. The others quickly followed.

They took a few effortless steps and arrived in a small cavern with three branching tunnels. Kazin turned and the portal disappeared, displaying an ordinary stone wall. His staff continued to glow orange. The mage made a slight mark on the wall to reference their passing. A short gust of wind materialized out of nowhere and echoed down the right tunnel. “Follow me,” said the mage again. He led the others down the right tunnel. His staff returned to its original green glow. The trio exited the cavern and walked for nearly an hour, the wind guiding them whenever they were faced with a choice of direction. Several light tremors raged through the mountain as they went.

“The wind gusts seem to be a little stronger in the lizardmen’s realm,” commented Kazin. “We must be getting closer.”

The cleric and cyclops remained silent, content to let the mage lead the way. They were glad the mage had bumped into them. They were in over their heads, but the mage’s presence was comforting.

At one point, the companions passed another spot where Kazin’s orb changed colour.

“Another portal?” asked Vera.

“Yes,” answered the mage. “I suspect it leads back out of the lizardmen’s realm.” A slight breeze urged them to continue the way they were going. Kazin made a mark in the opposite wall. “Perhaps we can come back to it.” He turned to continue their original course.

The path began to drop steeply and curve to the left. Not much further, Kazin’s staff changed colour again. This time, however, it turned pink.

“A portal?” asked Cyril.

Kazin looked perplexed. “Yes. But there’s something different about it.” He concentrated. The concentration became strained and beads of sweat appeared on the mage’s forehead, but he persisted.

Vera was worried that Kazin was overdoing it, and was about to break his concentration despite the risk of retribution, when the portal finally opened.

Kazin breathed a big sigh of relief. “It was magically locked. Now that I know what I’m dealing with, it should be easier next time.” He looked at the others. “Be prepared for trouble,” he cautioned.

Vera and Cyril nodded silently.

As one, they stepped through the portal.

The companions ended up in a winding passageway that went left and right like a never-ending snake. After moving along the passageway swiftly but cautiously, they could hear running water. Shortly after, light could be seen ahead of them. Kazin chanted a quick spell. “We are temporarily invisible,” he explained to the others when they didn’t see anything obvious happen.

“I can still see you,” murmured Cyril, his low voice barely audible above the sound of running water.

“With this particular spell, invisible people can see one another,” answered Kazin.

Cyril nodded in understanding.

The trio crept silently forward and reached the area that emitted the light. The sound of splashing water was much louder here. Before they knew it, the companions wound up in a circular chamber lit by torches with several passageways leading away from it. In the center of the chamber was a spectacular fountain of water. The fountain shot a good twenty feet straight up to the ceiling. At its zenith, the edges of the water returned to the floor in perfect symmetrical formation. The water on the floor ran in deep grooves around the fountain and drained into a large hole in a never-ending spiral to disappear from sight.

Vera quickly chanted a spell and grinned. “It’s clean water!” she exclaimed. She grabbed her nearly empty wineskin and stepped forward.

Kazin stopped her and did a spell of his own. Satisfied, he turned to the cleric. “It’s safe to proceed. There are no magical wards protecting the fountain.”

Everyone filled their wineskins, drinking deeply and refilling their wineskins repeatedly.

Suddenly, a lizardman came upon them from one of the passageways. Vera was about to cry out when she remembered they were still invisible.

Cyril snuck up behind the unsuspecting lizardman and grabbed his head. With a quick motion, he snapped the creature’s neck. The creature sagged to the floor, never knowing what had just killed him.

Vera looked away from the brutal scene. She was never comfortable with grizzly brutality like that, but she also knew she had to get used to it in the days ahead.

“We’d better dispose of the body,” said Kazin.

The cyclops nodded and threw the dead creature over his shoulder.

Unfortunately, another lizardman happened upon the scene right then and saw his companion hanging in mid-air.

Kazin muttered and cast a fireball into the surprised lizardman just as more appeared in the chamber rolling a couple of barrels.

“Retreat!” shouted Kazin to the others. He waited for Vera to run past him back the way they had come. Cyril dropped his useless baggage and sprinted after the cleric. Then Kazin followed, hot on his heels.

Fortunately, Kazin’s voice was sufficiently muffled by the fountain that the lizardmen scurried down the wrong passageways in pursuit. This gave Kazin the time to cancel the invisibility spell and unlock the portal they had entered by. They passed through it only to hear someone coming toward them here as well. That forced them to backtrack further.

When they reached the portal they had bypassed earlier, Kazin stopped and looked at the others. “What do you think?”

Light suddenly appeared ahead of them, answering Kazin’s question for them. They were surrounded. The mage concentrated, opened the portal, and they were through.

The passageway that materialized before them curved sharply to the right. It also went down at a significant angle. The three companions paused when they heard a large number of voices some distance away.

Kazin looked back at the others, who nodded. They knew forward was the only way to go.

They traveled a few more minutes, the voices getting louder. An occasional roar could also be heard. At last, flickering light could be seen ahead of them. Creeping cautiously, the companions arrived at a platform jutting out from a rock face overlooking a vast chamber below. Keeping back so as not to be seen, Kazin, Vera, and Cyril looked below them.

Vera gasped. “Are those all ogres?” she whispered incredulously.

Kazin eyed the spectacle below in awe. “Incredible! There must be thousands of ogres gathered here! I’ve never seen so many all at once!”

Cyril pointed. “Look over there!”

The others looked where Cyril pointed. On an upper ledge at the far end of the chamber they could see a massive ogre, along with two much smaller robed figures.

“That must be the ogre chieftain,” said Kazin.

“Who are the mages?” asked Vera. Her question was answered when one of the cloaked figures threw back its hood. The cleric gasped again. “A lizardmage!”

“Yes,” said Kazin somberly. “I wonder what they’re up to.”

“Look!” exclaimed Cyril. Behind the lizardmages a portal opened. A small contingent of lizardmen appeared, hauling a cart laden with barrels. The portal closed and one of the lizardmages beckoned the ogre chieftain. The chieftain turned to his followers and shouted out an order. A few moments later another ogre came up to the platform. He lifted the lid off one of the barrels and grabbed a mug that hung on the side of the cart. He dipped the mug into the barrel, brought the mug to his lips, and paused uncertainly. The crowd below became silent. The ogre chieftain gave a nod and the other ogre drank. A moment of silence passed, followed by another. At last the ogre who drank put the cup down and nodded to his chieftain. The chieftain said something, but his voice was drowned out by the cheering of the crowd below. The chieftain shook hands with one of the lizardmages and turned to the crowd to speak. The crowd fell silent once again. This time the ogre chieftain’s words could be heard across the entire chamber. Kazin assumed the lizardmage had amplified the ogre’s voice to carry farther.

“In exchange for good water,” bellowed the chieftain, “we will cease our hostilities toward the lizardmen. We will then join them in their war against the humans - the true cause of our suffering!”

Vera gasped again while the crowd murmured loudly.

“Also,” continued the chieftain, “I have been informed that the human magic users have been disabled! With the lizardmen and their magic, we will encounter minimal resistance!” The crowd roared while the chieftain spoke on. “The spoils of war are ours to do with as we please!”

At this, the crowd went berserk. “Let us prepare for war!” screamed the ogre chieftain.

The ogres filed out of the chamber’s many exits, excitedly yelling and cheering. The lizardmen left via the portal, leaving the cart and barrels for the ogres to take with them. In a matter of minutes, the chamber was empty.

Kazin and Vera looked at each other. They had to stop the ogres from launching their attack! With black mages dying and clerics overloaded with patients, the humans didn’t stand a chance!

“Someone has to alert the Tower of Sorcery and the Tower of Hope!” said Vera anxiously.

“Don’t look at me,” said Cyril. “Who’s going to listen to a cyclops?”

“We’re too far into the mountain,” said Vera. “If I go, how will I open all the portals we went through? Besides, even if I could get back to the first portal entrance, I still couldn’t get out the way we came in, remember? I’d be lost.”