Guardians of Magessa (The Birthright Chronicles Book 1) (5 page)

Oglemophin took up residence in Hades, the
fiery underworld, and from there assaulted the earth, trying to turn the races
away from Elohim. After a damning covenant, Molkekk received his magical
abilities from Oglemophin’s extensive power. Even with his new might, Molkekk
knew that he would have difficulty destroying Magessa and waited patiently,
gathering more strength. Finally considering himself strong enough, he had
waged war against Magessa only to be thwarted by
a
magician named Jothnial.

Jothnial was a young elf with a long life
ahead of him, but he
chose to give it up to defeat
Molkekk. Just two years ago he had led an army of magicians to Molkekk’s
headquarters to confront the sorcerer face to face. The final confrontation
took place in the door of Molkekk’s base, a tower in the city of Volexa Temp.
The battle was bitter, and according to the stories
,
had lasted
for three days. At long last, Jothnial gained the upper hand
and dealt Molkekk a fatal blow. As he turned away from his foe, Molkekk rose
and delivered a strike to his back. Jothnial fell and died there along with the
evil wizard.

Molkekk's body died from the wounds
sustained in the fight, and in order to survive, he was forced to convert
himself into a spirit and bind his powers to the tower that was his
headquarters. Though his power was greatly stunted, Molkekk was still able to
fulfill his wishes by taking control of the inhabitants of the surrounding
lands. He also created a new race called the goblins, which had no will of
their own, but were instead an extension of his consciousness. Since his defeat
and confinement to his tower, he had lain dormant; nevertheless, the northern
gate of Saddun was always guarded against his inevitable attack.

In contrast to the large, magnificent city
gate, the barracks looked out of place
. The building
was only one story tall and about five hundred yards long.
This one building was actually composed of a score of
smaller ones all connected together and could house one thousand cadets, though
it remained empty for most of the day.

“So what’s with all the
activity around campus?” Cirro
asked
Josiah as they walked.

“They’re trying to make it
look better—more
presentable,” Josiah responded.
“You’ve been here less than a year so you don’t know this, but every year the
academy in Belvárd sends some of their students over here to visit. Don’t ask
me why. Maybe it’s supposed to build unity in the army or
something. Anyway, the people
in authority around
here find it necessary to make our campus look as nice as possible.”

“So that’s what’s up,” Cirro exclaimed.
“Yesterday I had an altercation with a teacher and got put on a painting detail
as punishment. We
put new
coats of paint on a
dozen buildings. Now they look as good as new. You’d think the counsel was
coming to visit from all the things that are happening.”

“Which means that you had better be on
extra good behavior,” Josiah said. “If they catch you doing anything out of
line, you’ll probably be planting flowers along twenty miles of road or
something like that.”

“Yeah, not exactly something I want to
do,” Cirro responded, “especially not in this heat.”

Josiah and Cirro entered the barracks and
were immediately assaulted by the strong stench of body odor.
It wasn’t because the building had an inadequate
ventilation system; there was just no way to decrease the smell of one thousand
sweating men.
Already
the lunch bell was ringing
,
so Josiah and
Cirro quickly changed into new
clothes and headed for the mess hall.

The dining facility was crammed past its
capacity as usual, but Josiah and Cirro had little trouble getting to their
table. They sat down and began to ravenously devour their meal.

“There's never enough food
at this place,” Josiah grumbled to Cirro. “It’s a
wonder we haven’t starved yet on these rations.”

 The
hall was
suddenly
plunged into silence, and Josiah looked up to see what had
caused it. A
high-ranking instructor
was
standing on a table at the front of the hall and holding up his hands for
silence. As soon as he got it, he began to speak.

“Thank you,” he said. “I have an
announcement. The time has come for the annual
academy
get-together. For those of you who
are new here, that means that some of
the cadets from the academy in Belvárd are coming to visit our campus in the
next few days. As such, you are expected to be on your best behavior while they
are here. Also, all of the cadets will be expected to help make our campus
presentable. You will be assigned by companies to do different tasks; you will
hear about that from your company leader.”

“What does that mean?” Cirro asked after
the instructor had gotten off the table.

“Exactly what he said,” Josiah replied.
Then he smirked and added, “Also, since we’re having company, we’ll be getting
better meals.”

“Well, you’re the barracks leader; so what
assignments do we have?” Cirro asked.

Josiah shrugged. “I haven’t heard anything
about them yet, though I’ll probably find out pretty soon.”

“This’ll be fun,” Cirro said
sarcastically. “I always thought that I’d end up planting twenty miles of
flowers, but I figured that it would be for something bad that I’d done.”

“It’s your dream to plant twenty miles of
flowers?” Josiah asked as he rose from his seat. “I’ll be sure that no one else
steals that job from you.”

******

The mess hall bustled with activity as
those who had finished their meal left and those who were on KP cleaned up.
Senndra sidestepped two of the cadets headed to the kitchen with massive stacks
of dishes. She trotted across an open area and squeezed past
two other cadets
who were talking. She pushed her
way out the mess hall doors and glanced around. Rita was nowhere in sight. 
Senndra figured that she would be in their dorm room since there were no
classes for two hours after lunch and the morning classes always
tired Rita out
.
She chose
the correct path and headed toward her dorm. She made her way into the building
and ascended the stairs to the second floor. As she reached her floor, she
could tell immediately that something was out of the ordinary. Two guards stood
by the door as though waiting for her. As she got closer, she was able to make
out
the design
on their
breastplates—a
fire-breathing dragon.

“Senndra Felling?” one of the guards asked
as she came to a stop at her door.

“Yes, what is it?” Senndra responded.

“Good news from the hatchery,” the same
guard answered. “Your dragon has hatched.
We have
been sent to escort
you there.”

“Very well,” Senndra said. She kept her
face emotionless, but inside she was ecstatic. “I need to grab some things from
my room, but I’ll be out in a second.”

She entered the room and headed straight
for the bunks. Rita was sleeping on the bottom one, so Senndra made sure not to
disturb her as she retrieved her sword from the top bunk. She strapped it onto
her left hip, grabbed her cloak from off the back of a chair, and left the
room. She followed her two escorts down the hall and the stairs, and back
outside. They took the same path Senndra
had traveled
only minutes
before and walked at such a fast pace that Senndra had trouble
keeping up. Soon they reached the mess hall and took another path that led
toward the top of the mountain. The way grew steeper, and Senndra was panting
before long. The guards’ pace slowed down as they progressed; however, Senndra
still had trouble matching their speed. After a long, grueling climb, the
hatchery finally
came into view
.

Senndra followed the guards through the
doors of the hatchery. One of them stayed with her while the other left.
Senndra did her best to keep a calm look on her face and not make her panting
too obvious. Gradually, her breathing slowed to normal and she was able to look
around. The room was entirely empty, with no furniture at all. In contrast, the
walls were covered with paintings, some of dragons and others of different
military settings. Senndra was about to walk over to the wall to better examine
the paintings when the guard who had left returned. Following him was a small
woman with white hair. She wore a
green,
loose-fitting dress that
had many pockets in it. With a flick of her
wrist, she dismissed the guards.

“Senndra,” she said when the guards left
the room, “my name is Miss Farley. I am the superintendent of the hatchery. You
have already been told by your escorts why you are here, so if you will follow
me, I will take you to your dragon.”

Miss Farley
turned
and walked back down
the hallway she had emerged from only minutes ago
with the guard. Senndra followed her to another large room. This one had chairs
in it and a receptionist on the far side. Miss Farley crossed the room,
unlocked a door with a long, bronze key, and entered another hallway. Senndra
followed her to another door that was opened by a different key which Miss
Farley drew from one of her pockets. The door opened to the top of a flight of
stairs, and Miss Farley descended them with Senndra close behind. The stairs
were almost pitch black, and emptied out into a dimly lit room. As Senndra’s
eyes grew accustomed to the dim light, the details of the room slowly became
clear. It was very long and narrow with small alcoves covering the walls. Miss
Farley was already walking across the room, and Senndra ran to catch up.

“Now I must ask you something,” Miss
Farley said after stopping in front of an alcove. “You do know what colors
dragons can be, don’t you?”

“Of course,” Senndra responded
immediately. “Dragons are most commonly red, orange, green, blue, silver, and
black, though they can be any color.”

“Do you know the significance of the
different colors?” Miss Farley questioned.

“With one exception, the color of a dragon
has no effect on its abilities,” Senndra answered. “A black dragon, however,
has increased abilities. Their scales are tougher, their claws are sharper, and
their fire is hotter. As you know, black dragons are a result of Molkekk's
attempt to mutate dragons to form a better and more loyal army. The mutations
were only marginally effective; the black dragon’s abilities were enhanced, but
not enough to give them a distinct advantage over other dragons. Also, the
mutation did not increase loyalty to Molkekk whatsoever. Of course, the side
effect of the mutation was that the dragons scales turned black, a trait that
they pass onto their offspring.”

“This, of course, is a bit of an anomaly,”
Miss Farley said, “since there is no known factor that determines the color of
a dragon. The black dragons are the only color that will have children the same
color as the parents one hundred percent of the time. “You were correct in
stating the colors of dragons, Senndra, but your situation is rather unique. You
see, the color of your dragon has not been seen for over five hundred years. It
is not a mutant as the black dragons are, but a natural variety; however, it is
different from other dragons.”

“What do you mean?” Senndra asked with a
puzzled tone in her voice.

“Your dragon’s color is mud brown, a color
only seen once before. As I mentioned earlier, that sighting was over five
hundred years ago. The dragon was killed in the Battle of Fire Water Marsh
before he was fully developed. In that time, he differed from other dragons in
the fact that he had no scales but only tough skin and that he could not
breathe fire, only very hot air. The one normal characteristic was the length
and sharpness of his claws. It is difficult to tell at this time, but it
appears as though your dragon has these same characteristics. Because of these
disabilities, you will have to take special care of him. Also when you begin to
fight, you will have to make sure that he does not become over-confident.”

Senndra was speechless and could only
watch in silence as Miss Farley stepped to the side, giving Senndra a line of
sight into the alcove. The little dragon inside raised his head and looked at
Senndra with tiny
eyes.  In that moment, Senndra
knew that she had fallen in love with the little creature.

******

“You ready to fight, Josiah?”

“Go away, Cirro,” Josiah said without even
opening his eyes. “I don’t want to do anything right now except sleep.”

“Come on. It’s been an hour since lunch,”
Cirro said. “Besides, if you don’t exercise, you’ll get fat.”

“When I get fat, I’ll come to you for
help,” Josiah answered. He swung his feet over the side of his bunk and dropped
to the floor. Except for an empty bunk here and there, the entire barracks was
filled with sleeping cadets. “I guess at least the training field will be
empty,” Josiah grunted.

“Exactly,” Cirro said.

The two friends walked outside and crossed
the campus to the training field. Josiah was still not completely awake when
they entered the building by the field to retrieve their weapons. With clumsy
moves, Josiah pulled a key from his pocket and
unlocked
his locker. He reached
inside and withdrew a sword and scabbard. He
slipped the sword belt around his waist, buckled it, then closed and relocked
the door of his locker. He walked to the door of the building, but before
stepping out into the open, dunked his head in a basin of water standing there.
The water was hot, but it still woke him up a little more. He wiped his face on
his sleeve and stepped outside.