Darkmancer Chapter 12

The following morning I went up on the stage for the first time, as my role as the new headmaster. All the pupils were in the stage, the flow of power from the column of Ebon’stone hung in the ceiling was clear to see to me. 

“Ok, this morning you would all have received the new timetables, so please from Monday follow them. However, the reason why you have been called to this assembly is for the duties section that appears on your timetable. These duties are very varied and we are trying to turn this school into a fully functional citadel, so we will need the participation of all members. To begin with though there will only be a few options opened, I will announce those momentarily. However, to begin with I will explain what happens when you don’t have a duty but the planner says you do. There are 2 options opened to those who have no duties, you will be registered in the library or you can go to the house common rooms, where you will be registered. No where else will you be allowed, when there is a duty on your roster. Now onto the options that already open. The Ajbal Guard, a group of soldiers and defenders of the city, so if anybody is talented or even interested in learning to use a sword and defend the citadel in times of assault then please come to the headmasters office and applications will be administered from 10am until 12:30. The next group will be the Horticultural teams, they will be open to anybody with a green thumb, and will be opened to applications from 1pm until 2:30, the final group will be the craft halls, for those who enjoy the heat of the forge and the enchantment of the weapons and tool and applications will be open from 3pm until 4:30. So if you are interested in any of the three initial groups please come and see me at the allocated time. Would the following 4 people see me. Corry Homes, Lesley Annette, Ash Varden and Greg Fernal”

I walked of the stage and into my office in the hall. Soon there was a knock on the door and Corry, with the others that I had requested entered.
“Do come in, and close the door behind you”
They shut the door and walked closer to the desk
“You have been called to be the first of the Drake Riders. You were selected for your natural skills. All of you are powerful talented aero-manipulators with skill to command the air and wind around you. That is why you have been selected as the Drake Riders; Later on after I have finished with all the applications I will teach you how to ride the Drake’s”
“Sir, thank you for this” 
“No, you don’t have to thank me at all, after all you could refuse to become a drake rider if you wanted, and I could still find someone else”
“No, I think we all want to be a Drake rider” replied Corey Homes 

The rest of the group nodded in agreement
“Now the applications will be starting shortly and we will be very busy, so please will you meet me by the lake at 5pm”

They all nodded and left and I got all the things ready for the first round of the applicants. Fifteen minutes later Tom came in with the first round of applicants. With only 50 places opened it would be hard to get the best applicants. We finished at 12:30 and Tom and I debated, narrowing the list down until we had the best 50 applicants, sending Propaganda, who in his new role was acting as a run-around to find Terry Garnet with the list of his soldiers. We then started the next round of applications for the Horticultural teams then for the craft hall teams, with Propaganda, following up the notes after each of the rounds. When it was five minutes to five, I began to run across the fields in full flight as a horse to the shores of the lake. When I finally arrived, I found the 4 drake riders there already, sat on the shore looking across to the island, as though waiting to see the drakes show themselves. I came up behind, they turned and watched as I reassumed human shape.

“Hello there have you been waiting long?”
Corey looked at me and said
“No, only five to ten minutes. We still haven’t seen the drakes.”
“Well that’s expected, they shouldn’t be seen unless their bonded calls them, or if I call them.”
“What do you mean bonded?”
“All will be explained shortly, now stay still, I will call the drakes to us” 
I looked across to the island and said in a near 
“Come to me my Oak; bring your subjects to me as well.”

There was a loud roar, which seemed similar to a thousand trees cracking and falling, from the heavily wooded island rose five drakes, made of branch and leaf. Rather then flesh and bone, with teeth and claws black as ebony and has hard as diamond. They landed behind us and we all spun round to see the five Drake’woods. There was a loud gasp from the other four that stood behind me. I went forward towards the lead drake, he lowered his wooden head and I ran my hand along the scale like leaves along his head. I turned back to look at the drake riders.
“So do you want to learn how to ride these beauties or not?”

They all nodded in agreement. I showed them which drake would be theirs. I led Corey Homes over to Hickory, the only other male, with the exception of Oak, who was my drake, I cut Corey’s hand and allowed a drop to land on the vine-like tongue of Hickory, to bond the pair together, allowing Corey to call Hickory at will. I did the same to Greg Fernal, who was bonded to Willow, Ash Varden was bonded to Holly and finally Lesley Annette was bonded to Ivy. With each bonded to their drakes I would have to teach them how to ride the great flying beasts.

I went to Oak’s side and he lowered down to allow me to mount him, I climbed up and told them to watch me and listen then to do the same. When I was on his back I walked to the point between the wings behind the neck.

“When you’ve mounted them sit on this point, then place your legs behind you, until you find a flap, push your feet into the flaps, and some vines will wrap round them to hold you in place” I pushed my legs into the flaps. “Then lay along the back of the drake and run your hands out until their bent in front of you, then search for another set of flaps and place your hands inside them” I laid along the back and pushed my hands into the flaps, gripping the branches. “Inside you will find some branches, grip them. They act like reins do for horses. Pull the left one and the drake banks or turns left, the right one makes it bank or turn right. Pulling both at the same time makes the drake stop. And by pushing the branches your feet rest on makes the drake move faster, or in the air dive, or fly faster depending on the situation. Now you try, mounting before we go for a flight. “Oh, but before you mount, in front of your mouth when at heights, you can find a special mouth and nose piece that will supply you with fresh oxygen, if needed.” I demonstrated where to find it and how to put it on. “Now let’s mount up”

The four began to mount up like I had taught them, following the instructions down to the letter. When they were all laid against the back of the dragons with their feet and hands in the grooves, a thick vine wrapped over out waist and pinned us against the dragon. There was a panicked shout from the riders. 

“Don’t’ worry, there only the equivalent of a seatbelt, nothing to worry about. Now to make the beast fly, simply push with both feet and pull with both hands, and they will take off”
I pushed and pulled on the controls and Oak took of, with a great flap of his wings, we lifted of into the air. Followed swiftly by the rest of the riders. 

“This is amazing” Corey bellowed at me.
We flew along the field until we reached the edge of the gardens, where a group of Nymphs and Vine’Lords with the aide of several mages were building a wall. We flew overhead and out into the open clear skies, I went into a dive, oak tucked his wings into hi body and fell parallel along with the rock surface of the Lev’stone, I looked back and saw the others following me down. we rode down along the surface, travelling down the rock, for minutes we fell down the rock, I was taking in the rock, already plans were forming in my mind, large craft halls cut into the rock of the pillar, more rooms internal horticultural chambers. As well as a hanger for the Lev ships, a new piece of technology I intended on using. When I reached the bottom I pulled up and began to return back to the original point, climbing up the pillar to the school was slow and hard work for the Drakes, but minutes later we reached the top. We flew over the wall, and along the fields back towards the lake, I landed and pulled my feet out and my hands. The vine around my waist loosened and vanished back into the drake; I leapt down and landed on the floor. The other riders were doing the same, when we were all of the backs of the drakes; they flew up over the surface of the lake and into the island, vanishing into the trees.

Corey came over to me
“Thank you for the honour of riding these drakes, it was so much fun riding the drakes. Will you always be riding with us?”

“No, more often then not I will not have time to ride, so it will fall to you, to train the riders, and when the drakes have young, I will send you new riders for training, but for now I must go and work in the office, remember that your duties roster will new be pure drake riding. However it won’t be fun riding the drakes, I will set one third aside for training in one of the labs, one third on drake riding, and one third in the combat room with the guard. So that you can fight and fly, as well as use your considerable skills in the aerial field”

They looked slightly disappointed, but I knew that they accepted that they would have to learn all of the skills needed. I headed of down the fields, sprouting wings from my shoulders and flying over the fields to the main entrance, I walked into the hall and to the office, I entered and walked through the small hidden door in the panel walling and into the next office. Tom was sat at the desk, he looked up.

“How did the drake riders go?”
“Fine their all naturals, but that’s no why I'm here”
“Oh, then why?”
“Why is there a wall been built along the edge of the field, firstly, secondly I need a team of geomancers to come and help me begin to crafting out the new chambers in the rock under the school itself.”
“Well, I can soon have a team of the schools best geomancers sent to the room now, one moment”

Tom called for Propaganda, who was through in the next room, to go get a team of ten geomancers from the geology room. He looked back to me and said
“Now, about the wall, well I thought that a wall at the edge of the field would be useful, not only would it stop anyone falling of the edge, but also it will look impressive, more like the citadel effect that you want for the school. After all it was you that said this was no longer a school but a citadel.”

“I agree with you Thomas, but I am the headmaster and leader of this community, I need to be informed, otherwise in the next council meeting I will look like a fool. But I agree, however, there will need to be a large and impressive gatehouse, in place of the old gates. It needs to a large bridge sticking out into the air; I will get the geomancers to deal with that after the craft hall is built”
“What do you mean built?”
“I’m taking the geomancers down to the east wing to start building a large craft hall in the rock that the fortress floats on, eventually the rock will be a warren of activity and chambers as and when we need them”
“Ahh, so you want to use all space in the fortress”
“Yes, I intend on creating a much larger craft hall to accommodate for the more projects that will be occurring now we have to a self sufficient community, after all now they will be supplying the school with all their supplies. The guards will need their armour and weapons forged in the hall. The drake riders will need some armour and weapons as well, also the halls will be producing all sorts of objects, that before could have been bought”
“Well, then I hope that all of the work goes well. But may I add a small suggestion myself?”
“Of course, your input is invaluable to me, because without your management skills then I would be unable to run this place at all”
“Get the Geomancers to carve out another large hall. The guard will need training and practice hall, they currently have to train on the fields. In bad weather, that is not much good. Their own hall would mean they could train all the time”
“Ok Tom, the drill hall will be crafted out, with an en-suite armoury and changing room, I will get some of the aqua crafters to form new pipes into the rock to supply water into the showers”
“What are we going to do about water?”
“What do you mean, we have plenty”
“Yes Sam I know, but reserves eventually run out. What do we do when the storage tanks run dry?”
“I will use the Tear of Lustria to fill them, by making it produce the water needed. Didn’t you realise that the school has its own Tear of Lustria, it always produced the water for the school”
“Where is the control’s for the tear then?”
“In my office with the controls or the other supply crystals, the Heart of Electrum, supplies constant power, the Bowel of Golgotha, cleans the waste away and the Breath of Atmos supplies the gas throughout the school. And the Kokara Jewel, can produce all sorts of food, and sends it to the main pantry. All the controls are on a special panel hidden on the back wall, each day I refill the reserves and clean out the waste. So don’t worry we wont die of poisoning or dehydration, or starvation.”
“That’s a comfort”

There was a knock on the door and Propaganda walked in.
“Sir’s the Geomancers are here, what would you like me to do with them?”
“Thank you Propaganda, Samiel will take charge of them”

I walked out and the Ten Geomancers followed me in complete silence down the corridors along the passage ways to the east wing of the building. I walked around the ground floor passage ways with the geomancers in tow, looking for the perfect entrance way into new area. I found an area of corridor, and asked them to link their powers to me. I sent out ten dark filaments and touched each one of them, linking them, they lined up behind me and I opened my palms, the walls began to melt, flowing, a large circular stair formed out of the flowing rock, just like I pictured in my mind. I walked down the stairs, the geomancers, whose powers I was channelling kept behind. The stairs dropped down several floors worth, before I stopped the decent, walking ahead, forming a long wide corridor. A copy of the corridor above, I sent it down and opened the end into a large hall, roughly 75 metres long and 50 metres wide. The hall’s basic form was formed, now for the detail. Forges, rose from the wall along the back wall, Anvils came near, and cabinets flowed out of the stone. Tables rose and tools grew on the selves, once fully formed they changed composition into normal tools and disconnected from the parent rock. The new craft hall was formed. 

The geomancers clapped and looked around the new hall, fully fitted ready for the crafting. I had created pipes in the rock connecting the gas powered forges and blow torches to the gas system. The water pipes connected and I knew the sinks and troughs could be filled with water.

I walked out and a door formed in the frame and became dark mahogany, closing behind us. I carried out the same operation on the next room forming a large drill hall, with weapon racks and all the paraphernalia needed for the room, before working on the armoury, leaving enough space for weapons for almost a thousand people. I walked back into the drill hall and realised what was missing, a platform rose from the back wall with some stairs connecting the observation deck to the ground. Under the deck I opened another door way, this time I created lockers that filled the huge room, enough lockers for 300 people, I went to the back and formed a set of showers so that 10 people could wash at the same time, connecting the pipes to the water supply, and the drains to the waste pipes, along with the toilet cubicles behind the showers. When all the work was done I disconnected from the geomancers, allowing them to sit down on the benches in the changing room to regain their strength. I opened a dark portal and went back to my office.