Dragon's Mage (An Advent Mage Novel), The - Raconteur, Honor Read online

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One: The Scaly Stalker

  Chapter Two: Words

  Chapter Three: Friends

  Chapter Four: Training

  Chapter Five: Mellor

  Chapter Six: Moving In

  Chapter Seven: Jobs

  Chapter Eight: Contracts

  Chapter Nine: Amendments

  Chapter Ten: A Bad Day

  Chapter Eleven: Water Problems

  Chapter Twelve: Sculpting Landscapes

  Chapter Thirteen: Plan C

  Chapter Fourteen: Emergency

  Chapter Fifteen: Mhazzaekul Forest

  Chapter Sixteen: Investigation

  Chapter Seventeen: Marble

  Chapter Eighteen: Instincts and Information

  Chapter Nineteen: Arson Investigations

  Chapter Twenty: Results

  Chapter Twenty-one: Trickett

  Chapter Twenty-two: Bridges and Promises

  Chapter Twenty-three: To Be a Mage

  Epilogue

  The Dragon’s Mage

  A novel from the world of the Advent Mage

  Honor Raconteur

  Raconteur House

  Published by Raconteur House

  Manchester, TN

  Printed in the USA through Ingram Distributing.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  THE DRAGON’S MAGE

  A Raconteur House book/ published by arrangement with the author

  PRINTING HISTORY

  Raconteur House mass-market edition/September 2013

  Copyright © 2013 by Honor Raconteur

  Cover Illustration by Katie Griffin

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

  Purchase only authorized editions.

  For information address:

  Raconteur House

  164 Whispering Winds Dr.

  Manchester, TN, 37355

  ISBN: 978-0-9910395-0-0

  If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  www.raconteurhouse.com

  Other books by Honor Raconteur

  Published by Raconteur House

  THE ADVENT MAGE CYCLE

  Book One: Jaunten

  Book Two: Magus

  Book Three: Advent

  Book Four: Balancer

  Advent Mage Compendium

  The Dragon’s Mage

  Special Forces 01

  The Midnight Quest

  Kingslayer

  There is the risk you cannot afford to take,

  and there is the risk that you cannot afford not to take.

  -Peter F. Drucker

  To Rosie and Velvet, the dragon lovers.

  Since the great Magic War, magic in Chahir has been out of balance. The King of Chahir forbade any magic or magic user from his soil, leading to the exile or destruction of entire magical families. Within the course of a decade, magic was nowhere to be found in the boundaries of Chahir. This state of affairs lasted for nearly two hundred years, until the appearance of the Advent Mage.

  Rhebengarthen was the first Mage born that society knows of on Chahiran soil since the Magic War desecrated that land. His appearance signaled an awakening of magic in Chahir and a restoration of the natural magical balance. After his appearance, Mages of each type have slowly started to appear: fire, water, air, earth, elemental. The sole exception to this are the Weather Mages. As of the day of this record, that type of Mage has failed to reappear in modern times. We fear that the bloodline for this ability has died out completely and we will never again have Weather Mages.

  Earth Mage Rhebengarthen quickly became a man of great magical and political power. Within the course of three years, he assisted in the change of magical policy in his home country of Chahir, and they are now grudgingly accepting of magic again. King Vonlorisen of Chahir charged him with constructing and managing the building of a magical academy in Chahir, the first to be seen in modern times. Magus Rhebengarthen did so with the aid of several other magicians, including those from Coven Ordan, and built the academy upon the Isle of Strae. It now stands upon a land that does not touch the sea, accepting and welcoming any student from Chahir.

  The placement of the Strae Academy on the Isle, away from the mainland of Chahir, proved to be a wise decision. King Vonlorisen changed the policy of accepting magic, but the people of his land still hold the deep prejudice against it. King Guin Braehorn of Hain has worked closely with King Vonlorisen to change this attitude but it will be many years before magic of every kind is welcomed again in the land of Chahir.

  -An excerpt from the Magical History of Chahir

  Prologue

  I really needed to be better behaved than this. After all, I was sitting in the main courtyard of the Academy, in full sight of anyone that happened to glance out a window. As a fully-trained, nineteen year old Magus, I was supposed to be setting an example for the younger students. Openly fidgeting wouldn’t be much of an example. A little self-conscious, I tugged at the collar of my shirt, making sure it lay straight, and then smoothed out my red and gold traveling robes. I fully planned to ditch the mage robes as soon as I left the island. They were (in my opinion) too garish and attention-grabbing. I didn’t want to announce my identity to people at large as I travelled. Any other mage in the world could do so without trouble, but Fire Mages, well…our reputation had taken a very heavy blow and the world no longer trusted us.

  The well informed would likely be able to guess what I am whether I wore the mage robes or not. I had a very long ponytail, caught at the nape of my neck, as all mages did. Besides that, I’m a blond with fair skin and grey eyes. I might as well be wearing a sign saying ‘Chahiran Mage.’

  I glanced at the door, resisting the urge to fidget once again. Wasn’t Garth done yet? Even though the morning sun shone with uncharacteristic warmth for northern Chahir, warm enough to induce me to take a mid-morning nap right there in the courtyard, I didn’t even feel remotely tempted to relax. I wanted to go. I wanted to leave the Academy, strike out on my own, and start my own life. And I couldn’t do any of that until my mentor/old professor/friend came out of his office and gave me formal permission to leave!

  Taking a deep, calming breath, I clamped both hands on my knees. The deep breath didn’t noticeably get rid of my jitters, but I took another one anyway.

  Strae Academy hadn’t existed for more than a year. I hadn’t been here for more than six months which, granted, wasn’t unusual for mages. A mage only had to master their own magic and refine their abilities over their element—maybe learn some history and a few practical points of magic while they were at it. We didn’t require nearly as much school as any other type of magician. Even though I had been here for six months, I couldn’t say that I would miss the place. The Academy had been built by Garth and a group of other magicians, and they had done an amazing job. It looked more like a castle than a school, with towers and inner gardens and perfectly fitted stonework that a master maso
n would envy. It had been, admittedly, the perfect place to study.

  But I was done with school now and the sense of freedom that came with that was as exhilarating as it was daunting.

  On one hand, I was a full-fledged Fire Mage and could go wherever I wanted. On the other hand, I was a full-fledged Fire Mage so I actually had to work for a living. The thing was, I wasn’t sure how many commissions a Fire Mage could get. I might need to go back to being a sword smith just to be able to pay the bills.

  Granted, with my control of fire, smithing would be a lot easier now.

  The door opened, finally, with Professor Garth ushering out a student with a smile on his face. “—talk to my wife,” he was saying to the young witch, “she has excellent puzzle spells to keep a meuritta occupied. If you’re still stumped, go speak with Trev’nor. He’s very good at providing string puzzles too and I’ve yet to see a meuritta that can resist those.”

  The girl smiled up at him gratefully, a tinge of embarrassment in her expression. “Yes, sir. Sorry.”

  “No, no, it’s not something to apologize about,” he assured her with a laugh. “I assure you, my nreesce did something much worse. Now you know who to go to for help, so we should be able to keep this from happening again, right?”

  “Yes, sir,” she agreed ducking her head. “Thank you.” With a last smile, she turned and darted off.

  “What was that about?” I couldn’t help but ask.

  “Ah. She’s the owner of the meuritta that got into the Sewing Club last night,” Garth explained with a roll of his eyes. Despite the fact that he only had eight years on the student who had just left, he looked far older, especially with that parental look on his face. Of course, that pure white hair he had made him look much older. As he spoke, he absently tugged on the collar of the dark brown magus robes he wore, a habitual gesture I’d seen him do ever since he put them on and became Dean of this school. “Poor girl came to me in tears, sure that her pet was going to be punished. I think the Sewing Club is more to blame. They didn’t put any of the secure locking spells on the door after they left yesterday and with a campus full of meurittas, that’s asking for trouble.”

  Truly, meurittas couldn’t resist string. The Sewing Club would be like the ultimate playground to them.

  “So, are you ready to go?”

  “I am,” I responded, trying not to sound like a giddy five-year-old about to embark on some grand adventure.

  Garth turned and started walking toward the main gates. “Have you decided where you’re going?”

  We’d talked about this a week ago, when I gave him notice that I was leaving, and at that point I hadn’t been sure. Now I had a much better idea of what to do next.

  “I think I’m going to head to the Empire of Sol,” I responded as I fell into step with him.

  “Sol?” he repeated in surprise. “Why Sol?”

  “I want a dragoo,” I admitted easily.

  Garth still looked a little confused. “Krys, what could you possibly need a dragoo for?”

  “Well, the way I look at it, he’ll be great as my familiar.” Garth groaned, a weary expression on his face, and he opened his mouth to go into his usual lecture. I cut in before he could say a word. “And yes, I know you keep telling us that we don’t need a familiar to be a true mage—”

  “You don’t,” he muttered.

  “—and I’m not wanting a familiar just because you have one,” which was the reason why everyone wanted one and why he reacted like this. “It’s just that I’ve discovered the hard way we need someone around with enough intelligence to keep track of us when we’re in the middle of a job. You’ve said that yourself a number of times.”

  “And that part is true,” he admitted. “Fine. As long as you’ve thought this through. I just don’t want someone getting a familiar because I have one.”

  I wished him luck with that. As the Advent Mage, everyone looked to him for an example, his students especially. Garth set precedents all the time without meaning to.

  “No, I thought about it. I really can’t handle meurittas, they’re too much trouble for me. I didn’t get chosen to be a Rider by any of the nreesce, and I’ve been around all of them by this point, I think. The only other semi-intelligent creatures I know of are dragoos.”

  “Well, there are dragons too,” he offered with a mischievous smile.

  “Yes, that’s exactly what I need,” I answered dryly, “a two-ton, fire-breathing mount that eats a whole sheep for breakfast. No thanks.”

  He laughed, giving a slight shrug. “Well, it’s true no one has seen one in the past fifty years. You’d have better luck finding a dragoo, certainly. Still, if it’s a dragoo you’re after, you probably won’t be able to get one in Sol. They’re very expensive there and most people won’t sell them because they’re a mark of high rank.”

  I blinked. I hadn’t known that. “So where can I get one?”

  “Libendorf. Granted, that means that you have to catch one wild and tame it, but as long as you have bacon in tow that shouldn’t be difficult.”

  I’d have thought he was kidding about the bacon if I hadn’t seen Major Xiaolang’s dragoo consume bacon like an alcoholic would a fine brandy. “Bacon. Right. Any other tips I should know about?”

  “I’d ask Xiaolang,” Garth told me as we rounded the corner and came into view of the main gate. “He’ll want to see you anyway.”

  That was true. “Any messages you want me to pass along to him or your sister?”

  “No, not really. Chatta and I spoke to them by mirror last night.” His face softened slightly.

  It had caught quite a few people by surprise when Asla, Garth’s adopted sister, had agreed to marry Xiaolang. After what her first husband had done to her, no one thought she would trust a man again well enough to re-marry. There was a great deal of celebration all around when she and Xiaolang were married. This especially delighted Asla’s children as they adored Xiaolang. I’d taken the news with relief and happiness for them both. Asla, out of all of us, had the worst story about her coming into her powers. Not many people faced being burned alive because their own spouse turned them in.

  “I’ll stop in for a day or so and spend some time with them.” I needed to pick Xiaolang’s brain anyway on where to get a good dragoo.

  We were past the main gate now. I looked out over the main port, toward the direction of Sol. Chatta and some of the Coven Ordan magicians had rigged a glamour over the shore. It looked like there was a hundred yard gap between the shore and the ocean, with nothing but a bottomless chasm in between. Even though I could see the massive amount of magic behind the spell, I still couldn’t quite see past it.

  The glamour is a tightly kept secret. Whenever any of us need to leave the Isle, someone has to build a bridge across or take us. The glamour is never dropped.

  Garth took the stone resting on the shore—left for this purpose—to build a quick bridge to the ocean dock two hundred yards out. My boat currently sat there, patiently waiting for me.

  I hefted my pack a bit more onto my shoulder as the bridge solidified. Garth turned and offered his hand, which I took in a firm grip. “Good luck,” he told me with a slight smile. “And if you run into trouble, or just need advice, don’t hesitate to contact us.”

  I had a mirror broach in my pocket, given to me by Chatta just this morning, for that very reason. “I will.”

  Halfway across the bridge, with the ocean wind ruffling my hair and making my robes flap around my ankles, I heard a voice calling out behind me. I turned to see Garth waving a hand, a broad grin on his face. Cupping both hands to his mouth, he called out, “GOOD LUCK!”

  I waved back, smiling too. “THANKS!”

  I had a feeling I would need all the luck I could get.

  Chapter One: The Scaly Stalker

  I was being stalked.

  That was worrying enough in and of itself, but being out here in the wide, remote desert region of Libendorf made it infinitely worse. The area ha
d some very large predators that even a Fire Mage like myself would have a hard time handling. I had my shields fully up; a dome of fire licking on the outer edge to prevent attack, even though doing so made me roast from the heat. Libendorf’s weather rather resembled an oven even on the best of days and here I was making it worse by surrounding myself with fire. But I didn’t dare drop my shields.

  Whatever was stalking me was large. Very large. As a Fire Mage, I’m more sensitive to heat than anything else, so the bigger a mammal is, the easier it is for me to sense it. This thing produced a great deal of heat. More than a dragoo, even, and that was saying something. Actually, if it had been a dragoo, I would have been beyond happy. The whole reason why I’d come out here to Libendorf in the first place was to get a dragoo familiar of my own. Buying one anywhere in the Empire of Sol would’ve quickly broke my very slim budget, so coming out here to catch and tame one myself had seemed like a grand idea a week ago.

  I hadn’t had second thoughts until the stalker had shown up two days ago. The distance between us never varied, the stalker always hovering just out of my sight. And I really wanted to know how this thing managed that, considering there was nothing here to hide behind. I slept with one eye open at night, nothing more than a heavy doze, for fear of what might happen if I totally let my guard down. But even then, the stalker didn’t come any closer. Either this thing had a rather large territory, one that I was still encroaching on, or I’d attracted a very dangerous animal somehow. Now the question stood: what do I do about this? I couldn’t very well keep on ignoring it. For one thing, it would be very dangerous to let it keep stalking me. It might pounce and devour the minute I dropped my guard. But for another, I hadn’t seen even one dragoo. And it was the middle of mating season! I should’ve been tripping over them according to Xiolang. If I didn’t get the stalker to go away somehow, I’d never lay eyes on a dragoo, much less lay hands on one.