Read The Dragon Hunter and the Mage for Free Online

could escape and roam around the palace, maybe visit the library. But tonight it looked like even that wouldn’t be possible.
    Sitting on his bed with a sigh he looked around, not that there was anything to see. His bedroom was kept empty by regular inspections from Sagun and his minions. In fact, the only thing adorning his walls was a dark mold stain shaped as a bearded old man, or a sinking ship if you tilted your head the right way. He sighed again and looked at the locked door, wishing he was a Wizard and had the power to open the lock, or simply pass through the wood. If he was a great Mage, Tarsus would not be able to treat him this way, but then again, maybe it was a good thing that he wasn’t a Wizard.
    If he had the talent and knew how to use it Tarsus would finally have a reason to get rid of him, hang him for the crime of practicing magic. He had done it to all the Mages of the Academy when they numbered in the hundreds, what would keep him from doing the same thing to a fifteen-year-old boy?
    A stone the size of an egg landed right beside him with a crack. It startled him, pulling him from his thoughts, but he immediately ran to the window.
    “Fadan?!”
    Down below in the courtyard, Fadan shushed him. Then he gestured for Aric to climb down. Aric struck his index against his forehead, asking if Fadan was crazy. Fadan simply crossed his arms.
    Well, it was a way out….
    Holding on to parapets, window shutters, and unleveled bricks, Aric climbed down the three stories separating him from the ground, finishing with a small jump that laid him at his half-brother’s feet.
    “Are you insane?” he whispered. “Want him to send me away for good?”
    Fadan shrugged and signaled him to follow him. They re-entered the building and followed along corridors and stairways, being careful enough to choose only the ones that were in the dark. 
    Aric kept looking over his shoulder. It wasn’t the first time the two of them had snuck out like that. In fact, he couldn’t remember spending more than brief moments with his brother unless it was at night, sneaking around, somewhere in the bowels of the Citadel.
    But today was different. He had heard Tarsus’s threat, and he didn’t like the idea of never seeing his mother or brother again.
    “Where are we going?” he asked.
    “Shh!”
    They were on the top floor of the north wing by now. Fadan tiptoed up a spiral staircase and Aric followed, still unable to stop looking over his shoulder. At the top of the stairs, Fadan pushed open a door that squeaked from the effort. Aric went in and his brother closed the door behind him.
    It was some sort of attic. There were tables and old chairs, some paintings, rolled carpets, and books, piles of books. Everything was thoroughly covered in a thick layer of dust, however, everything had also been moved close to the walls, leaving the center of the room empty as if it were a corridor.
    “What is this? A storage room?”
    Instead of answering, Fadan threw him a training sword. Aric’s mouth dropped as he wrapped his fingers around the handle and felt its weight. It had to have a metal core, it was too heavy to be made of just wood, and Aric figured that was exactly how a true sword should feel. He admired it as if he had just been handed a relic from the unification wars.
    “You want to learn or not?”
    Aric snapped out of it. Of course he wanted to. It was all he could think about.
    Fadan began by explaining how to properly hold the sword, then demonstrated some guard stances, trying to impersonate his master-at-arms.
    “Wait, I got lost. How was the previous one?”
    “Let me finish this one. You place your right foo t‒ ”
    “But I don’t remember the last one! Go slower.”
    Fadan sighed.
    “You hold the sword at waist level, like this. No, don’t bend that much.” He grabbed Aric’s hand, placing it in the right position, but his brother got angry and pushed his hand away.
    “Would you mind going slower!?” Aric