Chapter 38 - 37 : middle-grade mage.

Chapter 38: Chapter 37 : middle-grade mage.

Courfeyrac looked at the hand holding him.

The owner let go at once and said:

"Don’t take it personally. Anything more will only make trouble for the both of you and hold up the trip."

Courfeyrac kept looking at Gil. Then Gil made to shout again.

One of the three said sharply:

"Gil. Shut your mouth. If he wants you dead, no one here can save you."

Gil ground his teeth, but he said nothing.

Courfeyrac stood there a few moments longer, then went back to his place and looked at his plate, most of what was on it knocked off during the fight.

"Ruined my supper... trash."

Nobody laughed.

He set the plate aside and went back for another.

Noah was still in his seat, watching the show with some amusement.

The magic shield had caught his eye, but it wasn’t the important thing. Gil was half a step from low-grade mage and had trained well inside a Golden house, and even so Courfeyrac needed only a short while to turn the fight around. It seemed outside tools counted for a lot more in a fight than Noah had thought.

While the nobles were still whispering over the details of what had happened—

Bang!

The Magic Balloon lurched.

The hall tilted to one side. Cups slid off the tables and a number of students had to grab their chairs.

"What happened?"

A second impact came.

Harder than the first.

Then a sharp cry rang out from outside, like the screech of a maddened eagle, and after it came the beat of heavy wings.

Every eye turned to the windows.

A big shadow passed alongside the Magic Balloon.

Noah got up and moved to the nearest window. He watched the creature wheel off for a moment, then swing back toward them, and now he could see it more clearly. The head and chest of a huge eagle, a hind body like a horse, two broad wings and long talons.

He paused.

"A griffin?"

The picture was close to the creatures of legend in his old world, but he caught the difference a second later. The griffin he knew had the body of a lion.

"No... it’s a hippogriff."

Before he could turn a soft voice came from behind him.

"We meet again."

Ethan had appeared behind him, trying for a confident tone and to share what he knew.

The creature let out a cry, pulled its wings in, and dove at the Magic Balloon.

Boom!

A white barrier appeared around the hull the instant it struck.

The hall shook hard.

"Get away from the windows!"

An Academy staff member’s voice came from the corridor.

The hippogriff circled the Magic Balloon, then came back around and struck the barrier with its talons. The light shivered and fine cracks showed on it before they vanished fast.

A number of students backed away.

No one cared anymore about what had happened between Gil and Courfeyrac a moment ago.

A voice came from up top.

"Stay inside."

Noah lifted his eyes.

A man had appeared on the outer deck, standing in the middle of the wind without any sign it touched him.

The hippogriff dove again.

The man raised his hand.

Blue threads showed between his fingers.

The next instant they shot out.

Several lines of lightning spread through the air and closed around the hippogriff from different sides. The creature screamed and tried to change course, but the mage shut his hand.

The lines of lightning gathered around it all at once.

Boom!

Blue light swallowed its whole body.

The air shook.

The screaming stopped.

Once the light faded, the hippogriff’s body started to fall between the mountains, smoke trailing off its feathers.

Silence settled over the hall.

The mage came back into the Magic Balloon like he’d finished some ordinary task.

"A middle-grade mage..."

Noah kept looking out the window at the spot where the creature had disappeared.

The Magic Balloon steadied itself, then carried on toward the Academy.

The rest of the trip went by with nothing near the level of the hippogriff attack. Flying magical beasts began to appear here and there, and even a few came close to the Magic Balloon before veering off, but there was no second clash. Most of the students settled back into the dull routine of eating, sleeping and staying in their rooms as the days went on. Gil had been quiet since the fight in the dining hall. He kept out of the same room as Courfeyrac as much as he could, while the other looked like he’d forgotten the whole thing.

A few more days later, the Magic Balloon lurched again. This time no creature’s cry followed, no alarm. Noah looked out the window and saw the ground close below them. Then a few minutes later the voice came from the pipes running along the corridors, announcing that they had arrived and telling every student to gather their things and file out in order.

"Looks like we’re here already."

Noah took his bag and his Academy card and left the room. The corridor was filled with students, some of them livelier than they had been the whole trip.

The Magic Balloon door opened and the students started down one by one. Noah stepped out, but there were no huge towers or palaces like some of the students had expected. Just a wide stretch of land cut through by narrow roads, thick trees running along one side, the rest of the area lost among rocks and rises.

One of the students looked around and said:

"This is the Academy?"

"No."

The voice came from the man who’d killed the hippogriff during the trip. He’d gotten down ahead of them, a long staff in his hand, two other staff members standing behind him.

"This is only the outer part. Follow me and don’t stray from the road. The areas around the Academy get cleared out on a schedule, but there are always creatures that come back or slip through. So if one of you decides to wander off alone and dies, don’t expect me to go looking for the body for his family, whatever background he comes from."

It wasn’t long before something moved among the trees. One of the students stopped and looked toward it, but the shadow was gone before he got a good look.

"What was that?"

"Keep walking."

The mage didn’t add a word.

Some minutes later they heard a loud sound from above. One of the girls lifted her head and saw, in the distance, a monkey dropping straight down through the branches at her face. It was a small monkey with two red eyes and claws longer than they should have been, and she froze for a second instead of backing away.

The mage raised a finger.

A tiny blue mass shot out and hit the creature in the middle of its body. It dropped to the ground screaming, then white smoke started rising off it as its flesh ate away fast, until after a few seconds nothing was left but a black mark on the dirt.