Chapter 44: The Storm Caller
Back at Wyrmwood Academy!
The nurses and doctors inside the Wyrmwood advanced medical Wing all has a relieved expression. The neutralizing synthesis had work and now the first year rider cadets were starting to stir on their bed. The grey pallor was fading from their skin, replaced by the faint flush of returning blood flow.
Painful Groans voices and confusion sounded softer in the room as the nurses moved quickly to check on the pulse rates of the cadets who were already waking up.
Gwyn did not bother attending to any of the cadets. Her eyes were fixed on Reynold’s bed. She was standing like a still statue beside his bed.
He was the only one who had not moved.
"His vitals are stable," Dr. Aris said, reading the monitor for the tenth time. He voice was filled with exhaustion. "His heart rate is strong. Brain activity is normal. The silver nitrite shell is holding the spores in dormancy."
"Then why is he not waking up or moving?" Gwyn asked. "Everyone else is up and asking for water."
Professor Valerius and Nymeria just stood at a corner. Valerius was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, watching Reynold. Nymeria was calm, her arms folded tight against her chest. Neither of them spoke, but the tension radiating off them was thick enough to choke someone.
Gwyn let out a frustrated sigh and turned away from the bed, looking toward the large windows. Her face immediately turn into a frowned.
Ten minutes ago, the weather had been bright but now the sun was gone and the sky outside was not their normal colour. It was kinda swollen with a bruised and unnatural purple colour. The clouds were even stacking and rolling over one another.
"Was a storm forecast for today?" Gwyn asked.
Dr. Aris, who had walked over to the system laptop to log the data, shook his head without looking up. "Not that I know of. The weather grid was clear this morning."
Professor Valerius pushed himself aways from the wall. He walked to the window, his eyes shifting as he he looked up at the sky. Then, his gaze snapped back to Reynold’s bed.
Just then, the atmosphere in the room shifted immediately. The air pressure dropped so fast and the monitor was beeping.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
It was Reynold’s monitor beeping.
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP.
The green line on the screen was reading fast. It was moving upward. It was so fast that the monitor blurred.
"What is happening?" Gwyn shouted, grabbing the bedrail.
"He is having a cardiac arrest..." Dr. Aris started as he rushed for the crash cart. He froze, staring at the screen. "No. Wait. This reading makes no sense." He began typing quickly. "The heart is not failing. It is overcharging. There is massive electrical interference!"
"Electrical interference?" Nymeria rushed to the window beside Valerius. She grabbed his arm, her voice dropping to a low murmur so other don’t hear. "Do you think he is doing it?"
ZZZRT!
The overhead fluorescent lights gave a loud buzz. They changed quickly to white then dark, making everyone to panic.
On the bed, Reynold’s body went stiff. His back pushed off the mattress then pushed back. His leg started drumming against the bed.
"Reynold!" Gwyn screamed. She reached out to grab his shoulder.
CRACK!
A spark of blue energy snapped from his skin to her hand. It felt like she just touched a live wire.
Gwyn yelled and snatched her hand back, holding her numbing fingers against her chest.
"Nobody should get to him!" Valerius yelled.
Even outside, a low rumble started. It sounded like a bass note that vibrated through the hospital’s steel frame, shaking the glass bottles on the shelves. It sounded like the sky was tearing open directly above the room.
"Sedate him!" Dr. Aris yelled, his composure shattering. "Gwyn, get the crash cart! Now!"
"No!" Valerius shouted, spinning around.
"Do not sedate him.."
It was too late. Aris reached for the wall phone to call for backup.
Before his fingers could touch the phone, the computer next to Reynold let out a high whine sound and the screen cracked down the middle and exploded in a puff of black smoke.
The main wall socket where the life support machine was plugged sparked with the sound of a gunshot.
"Get down!" Nymeria screamed.
BOOM!
A blast of wind erupted from the center of the bed. It was like a physical force.
Everyone inside was lifted off their feet. Gwyn was lifted off her feet and thrown backward. Dr. Aris slammed against the far wall, sliding down in a heap. Papers, clipboards, and trays of surgical tools flew through the air like shrapnel.
Outside the facility, everywhere had gone dark. The wind was blowing heavily. It was too strong that it lifted some of students off their feet. Heavy dust and object was busy flying around.
Suddenly lightning struck the ground, causing damage.
Inside, Gwyn coughed, waving away the dust. She grabbed the leg of a heavy table to steady herself. "Reynold!"
Professor Valerius was on his knees. He squeezed his eyes shut, his lips moving like he was chanting a spell. He crawled toward Reynold’s shaking bed.
Reaching the bedside, Valerius ignored the sparks jumping off Reynold’s skin and grabbed his wrists. He was still chanting and shouting words in the Ancient Tongue.
One of the nurses raised her head from behind as she stared at Reynold, whose body was glowing with a faint, terrifying blue aura.
"How?" she gasped, wiping dust from her face. "He is a Dragon Rider. Riders don’t have cores and they can not channel!"
Dr. Aris pushed his broken glasses up his nose, staring in horror at Reynold.
"By the flames?" Aris’s voice trembled. "He is a Two?"
"A Two?" Gwyn murmured as her eyes widened, staring at her best friend as if she was seeing him for the first time.
.....
Back in Aether Kingdom!
The annual ceremony had just ended, and the castle was quiet.
Queen Hadassah walked into the royal bedchamber while removing the heavy gold necklace from her neck. She looked tired.
Keturah followed her in, closing the door behind.
"He did not have to die," Keturah said softly.
Hadassah placed the jewelry on the table. She did not look up. "This is the nature of the tournament, Keturah. Men bleed for glory."
"He was not bleeding for any glory," Keturah said. "He was just trying to please you."
Hadassah paused, her hands on the jewelry box. She turned slowly. "Please me?"
Keturah nodded. "That young boy. He told me before the match. He hoped that if he won, you would notice him. That maybe you would make him one of your personal bodyguards."
Hadassah’s expression softened but she was quick to cover it up. "A foolish..."
BANG!
The big balcony windows blew open with a force that shattered the bar.
The force of the wind was much that it send the heavy window curtain moving violently.
"What on earth?" Hadassah gasped.
Before they could react, the sky outside flashed with lightening then followed by a thunderstorm.
An object like scattered pieces of broken objects was carried by the wind and it hurtled through the open window, heading straight for Keturah.
"Watch out!" Hadassah quickly moved and she slammed into Keturah, tackling her to the thick carpet just as the objects smashed into the mirror, shattering glass everywhere.
The two women just lay on the floor for a second, breathing hard.
"Are you okay?" Hadassah asked, pushing herself up on her elbows.
Keturah shook her head, eyes wide. "I... I am fine. What the fu*k caused that?"
Hadassah scrambled to her feet, ignoring the glass pieces. She rushed to the open window, her gown whipping around her legs. She looked up.
The sky was very cloudy. It swirled directly above the mountains. But it was the symbols that froze the blood in her veins.
The lightning appeared again then , it showed an image on the sky.
It the symbol of a dragon’s head, perfectly intertwined with the eight-pointed star of Magic.
Hadassah’s face turned into a frown as she gripped the window tightly.
Meanwhile, at the capital, King Kaelen sat on the edge of the big King’s bed. He was groaning as Queen Seraphina dug her thumbs into the knots in his shoulders. She was massaging his shoulder.
"You don’t have to worry to much about the boy, my love," Seraphina cooed.
"He is bond to three dragons and one of them happens to be the oldest dragon. " Kaelen grunted.
"You can always have him to do your..."
CRACK-BOOM!
The thunder was so loud that it shook the paintings frame on the walls. The tall standing mirror in the corner cracked.
Seraphina screamed, covering her ears.
Kaelen was on his feet quickly. "A Storm Caller," he muttered.
He walked to the window and threw the shutters open. The wind hit him and he squeezed his eyes but flipped them open again.
He looked up and he saw it. The Dragon and the Star symbol burning together in the sky.
His face twisted into a deep, terrified frown.
"A Two," he murmured.
He turned around, barking orders at the guards stationed outside the door.
"Someone fetch me Magnus!" Kaelen roared, his voice shaking the room. "Send the royal Raven immediately! The Council meeting has been shifted to tomorrow morning."