“No, magic doesn’t work like that. First of all, you must have power to draw from. A mage doesn’t carry much magical power in and of themselves. It was part of the reason why they were always willing to marry dragons. The bond between dragon and mage allowed them to have the resource of a dragon’s power. It made their magical core very strong.”
Cameron blinked at him, taking this in. “So…a bond between dragon and mage was something like hooking a mage up to a battery for life?”
Alric snorted, his smile becoming a little crooked. “Something like that, yes. And mages are able to work great magic, but they have to use the right components to do so. They have to direct their magic or link up with other mages to do the greater magics.” Alric’s enigmatic smile was back in full force. “To carry on your metaphor, it’s rather like the ability to design an engine. If you know nothing about engines, and never try to work on them, how do you know if you have the talent or not? But if you do learn properly about them, and use the correct power and resources, the engine will run.”
“Huh. No one ever mentioned any of that to me. Halmeoni seemed to think that magic just happened. But she also said her mother was paranoid about working magic, that she barely let anyone see her do it. She certainly wasn’t going to teach anyone else how. I think a lot of information got lost because of her attitude.”
“It only takes three generations for information to be lost.” Alric sighed, and with that sigh sounded a mountain’s worth of regret. “After so many mage clans were lost in the Dragon War, we believe the mages who survived went into hiding, possibly fearful of being hunted down. Even generations later, I cannot say your great-grandmother’s attitude was unreasonable.”
And that put it into perspective, didn’t it? Cameron couldn’t remember what set the Dragon War off to begin with. He wasn’t sure if his history class in high school ever covered the why. Just the destruction it’d brought about to the world, and how they’d lost both dragons and mages because of it. All he remembered was that when dragons and mages duked it out, things like the Sahara happened. Magic could be pretty destructive.
The rest of the conversation abruptly derailed as they ascended into the mountains. The Cooper climbed steadily, winding around the mountain road, and in between the evergreens, snatches of the castle revealed itself. Cameron almost put his nose to the glass trying to get a better look.
It stood like a fairytale, all white and pristine as it soared into the sky, the round towers at the top ending in conical tin roofs. It looked like something out of a child’s storybook, and Cameron had to blink several times to convince himself his eyes weren’t playing tricks. “Holy shit, Alric! That’s a stunning castle. And you live in it?”
“I do indeed, along with the rest of my family. It’s a very large building so it can accommodate all of us with ease.” His expression turned sad for a moment. “More than we currently have, in fact.”
Cameron sensed some tragic history behind that statement. He didn’t want to pry and reopen old wounds. So, he changed the topic a little to something else. “How long has the castle been standing? You said it was to replace the other one that burned down in 1300-something.”
“You’re correct. It was built late 1300 and finished in early 1400. So, some time.”
“The upkeep on this thing must be insane.”
“Oh, I have a little help on that. Fortunately.” Alric’s mouth grew in a smile that suggested he’d just told a joke, something Cameron didn’t know enough to get. “But there’s something up here that I want to show you—oh Scheiße.”
Cameron’s head snapped around to see what had caused Alric to swear. For a split second, he didn’t see anything and was confused. Then he saw it, soaring through the clear blue sky, angling down and toward their direction.
A dragon. In full flight.
“I told him not to do that,” Alric sighed, already sounding resigned.
Cameron wanted to say words. Many words. They garbled together, unable to release a single syllable; his eyes threatened to pop out of his head altogether. “Ashohjokjsdfronheeeeee—”
“Sorry, that’s Ravi. As I’m sure you’ve discovered, he’s impulsive.”
Not the question Cameron meant to ask, but crap on a stick, that was the same guy who’d glommed onto him yesterday?! But the guy yesterday had dark hair and a sort of Middle-Eastern look, and the dragon above his head was a slate blue, and those colors didn’t really match up, and why was Cameron thinking about colors of all things when he had a dragon literally flying overhead, and wow, brain, can we focus a little here on the important things?