Dragon's Mage (An Advent Mage Novel), The - Raconteur, Honor
Read Dragon's Mage (An Advent Mage Novel), The - Raconteur, Honor Online
Authors: Honor Raconteur
Table of Contents
Chapter One: The Scaly Stalker
Chapter Eleven: Water Problems
Chapter Twelve: Sculpting Landscapes
Chapter Fifteen: Mhazzaekul Forest
Chapter Sixteen: Investigation
Chapter Eighteen: Instincts and Information
Chapter Nineteen: Arson Investigations
Chapter Twenty-two: Bridges and Promises
Chapter Twenty-three: To Be a Mage
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.”
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 mason 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.”