Rainbow Dragon (Dragon Rider #2) | On Hold | Pending Rewrite

Chapter Nine: The Importance of Research

The warmth of the fireplace was comforting as they all milled around the room, borrowed books in their hands as they made their way through the reading list Oz had set them. Sora sighed, curling up in the large red armchair situated right by the fireplace. They were back in the place they were staying at – one of the many Outer City owned residencies in Central City.

Silver sat opposite her, sitting primly in a silvery grey armchair, book neatly positioned in her lap. Callum and Beatrice had vanished in the middle of the pile of the books waiting to be read. The silence made her wonder if they'd fallen asleep snuggled under the mound of reading material waiting to be read. She made a mental note to check on them later.

Leif sat to her left, sitting neatly, holding his book up as he read from it.

"Learn anything yet?" she asked.

"No." His lip curled. "It's just about some 'Wills of Gold and Silver', whatever that rubbish is. Nothing about any sort of necromancer..."

Silver sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of her nose. "The Wills of Gold and Silver have everything to do with necromancers and dragon riders, you imbecile!" she hissed, slamming her own book shut. "How idiotic and uninformed are you?"

"They're just ideologies made by the mages... they don't even do anything. My tutor told me everything there is to know about it." Leif folded his arms. "It's a load of rubbish. Mages just created the tale so they didn't feel ridiculously weak in comparison to dragon riders." He stomped his foot. "There's no way a piddly mage could ever curse a dragon rider!"

"You know, you're just encouraging a mage to curse you by talking like that," Silver muttered.

"Mages. Can't. Cast. Curses."

The door clicked open. "Actually they can," Oz said, closing the door behind him as he trudged into the room.

"What're you doing back so soon?" Silver glared at him. "You should've spent more time grovelling for forgiveness from Rae."

"Huh..." Eir mumbled from where she lay on the rug behind Sora's seat. "You hear that, Twin? It's Rae."

"Her precious Rae of sunshine," Eisa murmured, and Sora just knew they were grinning at each other – and probably making a bet of some description.

Silver threw her book at them, a slight smirk appearing on her lips as she heard the distinct sound of paper making contact with skin. "Anyway," she said, glancing over at their instructor. "You were backing me up on my point. Continue."

Sighing in exasperation, Oz went to the window, leaning back against the sill, surveying the room with dark eyes. "As you know, dragon riders are unaging and are generally more powerful on the whole, correct?"

Leif and Sora nodded. That was basic knowledge.

"In this world there's a balance between power. Dragon riders can't die of old age. Mages can, but from their mortality comes another power – one tied to death itself. That's what curses are, though they're mostly classed as a forbidden class of magic."

Leif swallowed. "But my tutor said—"

"Princess, forget everything that stuffy idiot taught you," Oz grumbled, folding his arms across his chest. "Some people are very biased on topics when it comes to mages and dragon riders. Unfortunately it seems your tutor is one of them." He shook his head. "Hardly surprising. The Dragon Palace and the Dragon Council are breeding places for imbeciles who think they've got some sort of superiority over the rest of us 'common' folk." Green eyes lingered pointedly on Leif. "Luckily for you, I happen to excel at beating superiority complexes out of people... by force if necessary."

"I don't think the last part of that statement was necessary," Sora muttered. "I mean, it's you we're talking about here. You're way too punch-happy." She rubbed at her head, the phantom pain of his knocks to the head haunting her.

"You'll thank me for those punches one day, you know," Oz said. "The head has the least protection more often than not, since you don't tend to cycle magic through it regularly."

Silver raised an eyebrow. "And punching us is supposed to help?" she asked scathingly.

"Moving on," Oz said, tactfully ignoring her question. "The Wills you mentioned... they do exist. In fact, they exist everywhere, or so rumour has it. Though it's speculation as to whether animals have it too." He paused, glancing at the moon. "To understand the Wills, you need to look into the three people who created them."

"Three?" Sora mulled it over. "There was a necromancer, a dragon rider... and a mage?"

"That's pretty much what Leif and Silver just told you." Oz sighed. "Care to hazard a guess as to who exactly those three were?"

Leif scowled.

Silver's eyebrows knotted together.

"I can assure you, they're quite famous..."

Sora bit her lip, and Oz finally took pity on them and their lacking historical knowledge.

"The Founders of each of the cities."