Wizard's Rescue

Here goes nothing, he thought as he said the spell.

The Dragon warriors were still dazed when a column of fire appeared in front of them! "GIVE UP THE GIRL," Jarlath projected again, "OR YOU WILL FACE THE CONSEQUENCES!" He smiled in satisfaction. It was relatively easy, by unleashing the fire imprisoned in rocks, to create a column of fire over a small location for a brief time, which was hopefully all he needed. "Okay, it's your cue Matt," he whispered.

Now came the trickiest part of all. The Illusion of Numbers was the trickiest spell Jarlath knew, and was famous as the plague of final exams. But Jarlath could do it better than anyone in his class, although this was really not saying much. And hopefully, it was only needed for a brief time. So, as Matthias rushed at the warriors, Jarlath whispered some words, and to the Dragon's warriors it appeared that a medium-to-large squadron of warriors, all looking like Matthias, were rushing at them. They started to flee.

But Jarlath had not taken one thing into account. As he said the spell, he lost concentration on the column of fire. His magical feild lost cohesion, and the rock in front of him burst into flames! Reflexively, he stopped the magic, leaving Matt alone, without any magic to back him up. Oh no, thought Jarlath, what am I going to do now?

But inspiration struck. He had enough strength left for one voice projection. And he could project it from any location he wished...

Pulling all his mental resources together, he said, in the most dragony voice he could manage, "LET THE GIRLS GO. I HAVE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS FOR YOU TO DO." And he projected it from the mouth of the cave.

The warriors thought that this request was a little odd. But they feared their master, the Dragon, above any enemy, so they let the girls go and returned to the cave.

"Come with me," said Matt once the warriors were at a safe distance, "before the Dragon finds out what happened." So they moved for the rock where Jarlath was.

Jarlath introduced them. "In case you're wondering who we are, I'm Jarlath D'Honaire, and this is Matthias Firegryphon."

"We," said the older of the girls, "are Belinda and Carola, princesses of Aqularia."

Jarlath was pleasantly surprised. Not only are these girls beautiful, Jarlath thought, they're royalty. We really hit the big time, rescuing Aquilarian royalty! We'll be famous, not just in our school, but all over the kingdom and in Aquilaria, too!

"So why are you here?" asked Carola.

"We're on a quest to stop the evil wizard Vaeren," said Matthias. "Except, to tell the truth, we're kind of lost. Would either of you know how to get to Vaeren's tower from here?"

"Actually, yes," said Belinda. "The Dragon had much trade with Vaeren, so we overheard all the trade routes. We know how to get there quikcly. The only problem is, the trade routes are full of servants of the Dragon."

"But," said Carola, "I know of one that is little used, because it's kind of dangerous. It's risky, but at least there's no chance of getting caught by the Dragon. We can help guide you there."

1. And so, the four unlikely heroes set off...

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