THE FOUR MYSTICONS flew through the air on their massive griffins, swerving this way and that. The glowing orb was up ahead. They urged the great creatures on, trying to get as close as they could to it.
“Faster, Izzie!” Arkayna cried, holding tight to her griffin. She never took her eyes off the orb.
Tazma, their Solon (the fancy Astromancer word for trainer), stood on a floating energy platform below. She watched the girls pursue the orb. With a wave of her hand, she split the ball into four smaller balls—one for each Mysticon.
“Divide and conquer, Mysticons,” she called out.
Zarya rode Archer, a griffin in the back of the flock. Beside her was Choko, a cute, fuzzy little critter who always stayed near the Mysticons. Archer flew out front, and Zarya lined up an arrow, aiming for one of the balls. But before she could fire, Arkayna swooped down in front of her. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! She took out the four orbs with precise fire bolts from her magical staff.
“Thanks for the assist,” Zarya said, rolling her eyes.
“You’re welcome!” Arkayna said, not realizing Zarya was being sarcastic. She steered Izzie down toward the energy platform and landed in one graceful motion. Flying griffins was second nature to her, so it was silly for her to have to practice with the others. She’d been training at the castle for years.
Arkayna was the princess of Gemina and the daughter of Queen Goodfey. For as long as she could remember, her mother had taught her to defend the Dragon Disk, an ancient artifact kept in the castle treasury. Their clan had taken an oath to protect the Disk after the first Mysticons fell defeating Necrafa, Queen of the Undead. That had happened nearly a thousand years ago. But in just the last few weeks, the Disk had started glowing again, ready to bestow powers on a new group of warriors. The evil Dreadbane and his skeleton army had sensed a new era was coming and tried to prevent it. During an attack on the castle, he’d turned both of Arkayna’s parents into bone.
But they’d also failed to stop the Dragon Disk from activating—and a new team of Mysticons was born! Arkayna, driven to find a way to restore her parents to normal, had quickly become their unofficial leader. With the help of the Dragon Disk, Arkayna had been transformed into the fierce, fire-bolt-shooting Mysticon Dragon Mage.
Joining Arkayna was Emerald “Em” Goldenbraid, whom she’d known for years. Em, a dwarf from a small town outside Drake City, had been Arkayna’s griffin wrangler at the castle. Em had become Mysticon Knight, with an energy shield and a powerful sword. Their team was completed by two street urchins—an orphan named Zarya Moonwolf and Piper Willowbrook, an elf Zarya loved like a sister. Zarya had been transformed into Mysticon Ranger, with a bow and magic arrows, and Piper had become Mysticon Striker, armed with spinning hoops. Together they had to find and unify all four pieces of the Codex, the mystical book that shared power with the Dragon Disk. But the Mysticons also had to learn to work together as a team.
They had some help with that, luckily. The Astromancers were an ancient order of mages who protected the realm, and they’d trained the first Mysticons centuries before. But they were also notoriously hard to please. Nova Terron, head of the Astromancers, had assigned Tazma to help train the new Mysticons here at the Astromancer Academy.
“Griffin training, check!” Arkayna said as her friends landed their griffins beside her. “What’s next? At this rate, we should be through everything by noon.”
“The Dragon Disk will activate when it senses you are ready,” Tazma said. “But there is much work to be done beforehand.”
“Hear that, girls?” Arkayna asked. “We’re going to need some hard work from you.”
“Whatever,” Zarya grumbled.
Tazma glanced from the other Mysticons to Arkayna. “Perhaps a more difficult trial is required … of you,” she said.
She led Arkayna down to an ancient stream. It was at the bottom of a steep hill, with a long staircase leading up to huge stone statues of the original Mysticons. She handed Arkayna two empty buckets and smiled.
“Seriously? You want me to haul … water?” Arkayna asked. “Forgive me, Solon Tazma, but … why?”
“If you want to save the king and queen,” Tazma said sharply, “you’ll have to trust me.”