Orrie emerged flying from the door. The small group of dragons and others still waiting to cross through tumbled back away from the door.
"Oops," Tesa said. She hadn't thought about the people still waiting to come through before jumping back through the door.
Nevertheless, Orrie powered on, pumping his wings to climb above the trees, then hurtled through the air toward the beach. On the path below, Tesa could see the Yennar-Leian healers headed toward the beach. So, they had decided to return to their people. She didn't blame them, but felt a ping of sadness.
Rain pelted them and Tesa briefly thought of weaving a shield with her magic. But she would need the energy if she were to help hold off the mages from reaching the door before all of the dragons and riders went through.
They reached the beach to see that the ships had arrived near the shore. They were anchored now, and small boats filled with mages made their way to the beach. Tesa saw some of them point up at her and Orrie. She was glad when he wheeled around and she saw that more dragons had joined them. Orema on Delna, and Neela on Aerix.
We can't fight them head on, Orrie said.
A gust of wind buffeted them. Orrie folded his wings and dove to avoid it, but it followed. Tesa realized that it was an attack by the mages. She slipped into magesight, where she could see the magic being used.
It came from the little boats as they sped to shore. They hadn't even reached the beach yet, and they were attacking.
So much for venerating dragons, Tesa muttered.
I think they want to capture us, Orrie replied. They could use much more than wind if they meant to harm.
Tesa rolled her eyes. Not again.
The last ones are almost through, called Gira. Malía still stood guard over the open door. Malía says just keep them on the beach until we're all through.
Right, Tesa answered. To Orrie, she said, How are your flames? Let's provide a distraction.
In magesight now, Tesa could see the magic directing the gusts of wind, so she lent her sight to Orrie. He dodged the buffeting winds in a little dance through the air, and began to circle closer to the boats arriving on shore. In her peripheral vision, Tesa could see that Orema and Neela had joined her, having gotten Malía's message from Gira as well. Soon, more dragons joined, and they formed a darting, cavorting flock. Since not all of the other riders were mages, they weren't able to avoid the gusts of wind as well as Orrie did, but they coped with the blasts well enough anyway.
The first small boats had almost reached the shore. Orrie dove down in front of them and spit out a blast of flames in their path. Shouts rang out and the boats scattered into disarray as some attempted a dead stop and others turned to avoid the flames. On their next pass, though, the Yennar Leian mages had constructed shields, for the boats continued on unflinchingly toward the flames.
Well that didn't last long, Tesa said. What now?
You and Neela make a shield, said Aerix, flying close and following Orrie's dodges of the wind gusts which had resumed now that the mages on the boats had regained their bearings. Tesa was about to ask for clarification about what kind of shield, when Aerix sent an imagined image of the boats being stopped dead by a wall of water gushing up from the sea before them.
Just a bit longer, called Gira.
Tesa nodded and sent her assent to Aerix, who then split away from Orrie's side, readying to get in place so he and Neela could anchor their side of the shield. Tesa reached out to the water and gathered energy around her, just waiting for Neela to begin her part of the wall. Before they could start, a blast of sparks hurtled toward Aerix.
Look out! Tesa called the warning but Aerix turned too late. The blast of magic glanced across his shoulder and he dipped down in the sky. His flight faltered but he soon regained his flight. Tesa could see his right wing falter but he struggled back into the air anyway.
The shield, he said, Now!
Tesa released the energy that she had been holding close and directed it toward the spell that Neela now wove. Neela's magic seized upon Tesa's, and the water surged up ahead of the boats, rocking them backward in a swelling wave. Another blast of fire magic had shot out from the boats toward Tesa and Orrie just as they launched the spell, and it fizzled ineffectively as it passed through the wall of water.
Overhead, the steady rain that had been drizzling down began to pour harder. Lightning flashed in the now dark sky, and a crash of thunder soon followed.
They can control the weather? Tesa shouted to Orrie, who responded with a distracted shrug.
More spells coming, he said, then suddenly dove down toward the water. Hold on, he said just as Tesa realized that he wasn't going to stop before reaching the water. Tesa leaned forward as far as she could and hugged her arms around his neck.
Orrie slipped neatly beneath the waves, and the world went quiet. His wings folded back on either side of Tesa and he pushed himself through the water with powerful pumps of his limbs. He reemerged quickly, shaking water from himself as he climbed back into the sky, though it hardly seemed to matter. The rain came down in sheets now, soaking Tesa's clothes through and spattering against Orrie's hide.
They got them, Orrie muttered and Tesa twisted in her saddle to see what he meant. Then she cursed. Aerix and Delna struggled in the air against a net woven of magic threads. The net must have been what Orrie was avoiding when he dove under the water. The two dragons squirmed and flapped, but their efforts only kept them aloft, not going forward. The net kept dragging them backward toward the boats even as the boats inched forward. Neela's wall of water had dissipated.
Not again, Tesa said. She gritted her teeth and urged Orrie toward their floundering friends.
We're through! Gira called from the island. Emric is ready to close the door.
More riders had arrived to help, and their dragons joined Orrie in a swarm. They dove at the mage boats despite their shields, blowing flames and generally being a nuisance. It gave Tesa a chance to focus on the magic of the net.
These were Yennar Leian mages, so they would be using bound magic to create the net that now captured the dragons. That meant the energy the spell used would be stored in a stone or gem. Tesa reached her awareness toward the boats, searching for the magic with her magesight. There, a rope of it, trailing back to the lead boat. Tesa seized it, tried to siphon it away from the net spell. The magic flooded her, threatened to overwhelm her. She found herself struggling to contain it, and had to let some of it go.
The net is still there, Orrie said helpfully.
Then, all of a sudden, Tesa's burden was eased. The flow of magic from the spellstone in the lead boat was drawn in many directions, leaving Tesa with a thread she could easily manage.
Fly up, she told Orrie.
He had been circling the boats, and now expanded his circle and climbed up in a spiral through the air. Tesa could see Aerix and Delna break free of the net as its power dissipated. She followed the lines of magic to see who had helped her. They led to a cluster of figures on the beach. The healer mages. Tesa gasped. She thought they had been coming to aid their fellow Yennar Leians, but they had been coming to help the dragons. Or perhaps they had changed their minds when they saw the dragons trapped. Did it matter?
As they'd fought, the boats had continued their approach to the beach, and they were almost there now. But everyone had made it through the door, so it didn't matter anymore. Now that the dragons were free of the magic nets, they could go.
Let's get back to the door, Tesa sent to all of the dragons, so she could be sure everyone had reached the same conclusion as her. She received brief mental nods of acknowledgement, and the dragons ceased their harrying of the oncoming boats and swung around to head back toward the forest.
Tesa was ready to follow, but she had to make one stop before she returned to her home. She nudged Orrie and he flew down to the beach to land in front of the healer mages who had helped them.
"Thank you," she said. Orrie lowered his head and nuzzled the nearest mage in thanks. Their faces glowed in delight.
"It is nothing," said one of the healers, a woman with bright smiling eyes. "The dragons have become our friends. We don't want to see them harmed or trapped. It would be nice to have them live in Yennar Lei once again as the legends say, but not against their own will. We can see that you speak truth when you say you have not enslaved them."
"You can come with us through the door, if you like. It's a lot colder in Enval, but I don't want you to get in trouble for helping us."
"Thank you for the offer," said the healer. "But we would prefer to stay here. We can deal with any penalties that are imposed upon us. The healer's code allows us some freedoms."
Tesa didn't know anything about the Yennar Lei healer's code, but she wouldn't have time to ask more, for the boats filled with mages were pulling up on shore. She nodded her thanks once more to the mages who had freed her friends, then clung to Orrie as he ran up the beach and launched into the air.
They were the last pair besides Malía and Gira, who waited by the door pacing. When Malía saw Tesa and Orrie approaching, she began to gesture anxiously. This time, Orrie didn't slow down, he just flew down straight through the door.
And then they were flying up instead of down, and Tesa clutched her stomach at the sudden change in orientation. Orrie beat his wings backward to halt his upward dive before he breached the top of the trees, and came to a rough landing on the ground.
Malía and Gira followed immediately after them, and at Malía's command, Emric closed the door behind them.
Tesa caught her breath and smiled in relief. They had made it. The dragons had returned to Arethia.