Battle Mage Visions (A Tale of Alus Book 12) (7 page)

"I may be a child, but if the smart ass in the room made the comment, I would have asked why by now."

Eyes narrowing, Vareen's green eyes blazed at the falcon in his chair. Through gritted teeth, he asked, "Why?"

"Because none of you are healers," the boy said with a knowing smile.

Erethia answered before Vareen's anger could continue to rise. They all looked annoyed at his answer and she got to the point asking, "What do you mean we can't use the runes because we aren't healers? You are a healer? Both of you are?"

Bringing his leg down, the boy leaned on the table steepling his fingers before his mouth. Sebastian left the answer to his friend. He hated stepping on his fun and it was a distraction that meant he could remain out of the fire of their questions for a moment.

"Well, my fine wizards, I never said that you couldn't use the runes; but it is unlikely that you will be able to make or transfer them. Without a healer's gift, and I don't sense it in any of you since we know our own; you won't have the feel for them to create or pass them on. I may not be smart enough to have made one of my own yet, as you so perceptively said; but I can recreate any of them to pass it on to another.

"You don't need magic for them to work either. That's probably a real blow for you wizards. These runes can be placed on regular soldiers and battle mages. They're probably more useful for us than you anyway, since they are mostly combat related. Still, you'll probably want them to pass on to your people.

"If you show them to your healers, they might be able to use them; but just seeing them on paper isn't that helpful either.

"You said that you were experts on runes. How many can you actually use anyway?"

Gefflen answered the last with his recurring frown as he did. "Many runes are used for greater spells. Writing one in the air can create a wind for example."

"You mean like this? Gust," Elzen pointed his palm towards the ceiling and a breeze stirred the air. The boy wasn't trying hard; but like most battle mages who had been exposed to Sebastian's way of casting, which was based on that of their founder Hurst, he thought using a single word was superior to the advanced hand techniques used by wizards.

"I said greater spells," the elder wizard managed to say without snarling at the aggravating mage. "Drawn in a longer sequence, a wizard can access power beyond the normal spells. Drawn on stones in the correct way, a rune can become a trap.

"Imagine walking down a narrow path to attack a fortress to suddenly be caught in a tornado. An army could be blocked for a time and a smaller force might be eliminated all together with just one well placed rune."

Giving the man an appreciative nod, Elzen leaned back into his chair again and commented, "Well played, sir. I give that one to the wizard."

He waved the admission to Gefflen, but the look and gesture were certainly a barely veiled joke at the man's expense. Wizard Gefflen turned from the annoyance and asked Sebastian, "We will still want to see these runes. If we can't decipher them, as the boy attests, then we will summon our best healers to try.

"Is there any problem with the Hollow Swords or this locking rune?"

Sebastian thought on the question even as he answered it truthfully, "Healers seem best suited to using the runes placed on a body. They can feel them both as the ink and the magic used to make them. A wizard with sensitivity like that could probably do that also, but so far only healers from the mages and wizards have been able to duplicate them.

"Maura's had one for months and as far as I know, she's never been able to recreate it. She can use the rune easily though."

At the sudden turn of their eyes to the research wizard, the woman started. Marveling at the collapse of Maura's confidence before these wizards, Sebastian listened with the rest as she admitted, "Sebastian copied mine from my arm, the oval rune, and placed a second shielding rune on my other arm. I can use both, but I've never been able to move them like he has.

"The original use of the rune was limited to placing a dagger through the ink on an arm to hide weapons. Sebastian discovered channeling magic into them could hide the runes and make the oval lift from his skin to enlarge it for much larger items."

"And no other types of wizards have been able to make them you said?" Erethia asked sounding a bit disappointed.

Gefflen was intelligent and noticed a hole in the information. He said, "The mage traded runes and discovered the other uses. Where did he get them from in the first place?"

It was a question that Sebastian was prepared for and even Maura couldn't answer with the complete truth thanks to the vow that they had taken.

"You know that we found the Grimnal, Gerid Aramathea, yes?"

"How does he pertain to the runes? The myth was always that the Grimnal was immune to magic."

"To some types of magic," Sebastian stated offhandedly and continued onward. "It doesn't pertain to him exactly, however. His guardsmen have runes on their bodies. Their shaman gave us a few for helping to save the Grimnal's island from the emperor's men.

"He said that the only way they were willing to teach us more was if we could figure them out. I haven't gone back to find more, but Gerid was kind enough to allow me to trace them from his guards.

"If there are more, I would have to go back to his island to find out."

Erethia mused the idea as she questioned, "There are people with this magic still practicing it?"

"Some of the nomads north of the wall use runes similarly," he answered. Sebastian had met some of the nomads peacefully. It was his belief that after the Cataclysm some of the merfolk had given up life beneath the sea and become nomads. Not every group was likely to know of the markings, but those in the east, north of Hala, were part of the descendants still using runes.

The comment set Vareen and Erethia discussing the revelation as Gefflen sighed.

"It looks like we underestimated the depth of this new magic. We may have to spend more than a day in this abysmal cold after all."

Elzen perked up and asked, "Is Red Hall still warm?"

The head wizard glanced to the boy with confusion and admitted casually, "Warmer than here at least."

"Oh, Bas, why don't we take a trip there instead?" the younger falcon asked with a bit of hope in his eyes. Even the stoutest of north men preferred warm weather to the freezing cold which made up most of their winters. Just because they could survive it, didn't mean that they would rather not.

"I already have too much work here," Sebastian replied thinking of the complaints already voiced concerning his production of Hollow Swords.

Elzen looked towards the ceiling and raised a finger as he thought aloud, "Red Hall does have an unprotected gate though, which could be a security issue. Maybe it is time to head south and make a new gate for them. I mean, we wouldn't want the emperor's warlocks to use it to invade the school after all."

Rilena nudged the boy with a frown and complained, "Stop trying to get Bas to take you to other places. I know you well enough to guess that it isn't about escaping the cold weather as much as escaping your work here."

Though Elzen and Rilena typically weren't given assignments, since they were assumed to be working with the owl mage; battle mages and wizards in the city had to report to command. From there they were assigned various duties from having set patrols or guard duty to cleaning duties that most viewed as punishment. When no one was in trouble, even mages with sparkling records could wind up with work that they hated.

It was all part of what they had to do to earn their stipend, which was sizable for mages and wizards. They were basically conscripted soldiers, since magic was too dangerous to remain ungoverned. Few found a way out of service at a young age, so they were paid fairly well for their service.

Waving off the pretty mage's remarks, the younger falcon replied, "Well, I'm sure that he'd bring you along too, so I don't know why you're picking on just me here. Besides, we would be working, just not here in the cold."

Rilena could complain and tease Elzen, but in truth, since he could heal and perform many of the spells that Sebastian could, the boy was less likely to be forced into the worst jobs. Unlike him, she was no healer or able to transfer runes. Elzen often was assigned to rune duty as new soldiers and mages were given the protection and other useful runes.

Appearing to like the idea, Wizard Gefflen nodded. "I could run the idea by the high wizards. I'm sure we could get you a few days in Red Hall. If you build a gate, how much time would that take? We could schedule more time to pass on the other magic and have more students on hand to try them."

Sebastian waved off the man's insistence and answered, "If that is what they want, I will go where they need me. You'll have to get that past Raven Leros and maybe even King Alain. He tends to want to know where I am working as well."

A chuckle from Serrena drew his attention. The fire wizard commented, "Well, he's basically a national treasure. Alain even sends him to visit kings like King Qeyless of Sileoth."

The thought wasn't exactly wrong. Sebastian had been allowed to sail off to look for the Grimnal based on a hunch and some equipment loaned to him by High Wizard Darius. When he returned with even more new spells, Raven Leros and the other battle mages started trying to keep him out of dangerous situations. It didn't always work because he was also the most adept at using portal magic. If more wizards or battle mages learned how to do what he did, Sebastian had no doubt that he would end up confined to Hala or one of the schools to train more wizards and mages.

"Red Hall could use his training as much as any school and spread the magic faster," Gefflen stated and the owl mage wondered if he said it aloud to see if the argument sounded convincing. It was likely to be a similar statement that would be the man's argument to get the leaders of Hala to send him away for any length of time.

"Well, until then," the fire wizard Hassar moved the conversation back to the magic that they had come to see, "what of these Hollow Swords?"

Wizard Gefflen had kept his people on task. Before Sebastian tried to show them how to make the Hollow Swords, they checked out the gate apparatus. Erethia drew the runes onto a large pad of paper. Using a glued spine, several large sheets were bound together. Only among wizards and their schools was such a thing likely to be found. Paper makers charged a greater price than regular people could usually afford. Using up paper for drawings was virtually unheard of because there was the possibility of waste.

Ignoring the probable cost of the pad, Sebastian led them through using the gate. As usual among any students trying to learn portal magic, few could understand the spells deep enough to actually create a gateway. Hassar had the talent, while the other four merely wound up watching the fire wizard or Sebastian use the gates and locks on them to turn the openings around. It was still important to see and even those without the talent might be able to teach the basics to other wizards in the future.

His lock rune was simple enough. Sebastian wasn't sure that Hassar or Erethia, who recorded the markings, could ever copy them onto metal; but it wasn't his first concern. The mage wouldn't mind having someone else capable of doing the work, but imparting the knowledge always made him worry that someone would get a hold of the magic and use it against Southwall.

That was unlikely to happen with teachers and leaders of a Southwall school, but spies who were good at their work could infiltrate into areas the mage couldn't believe. A human wizard had become a teacher in the dragon city of Mar'kal only to later reveal that he was working for the emperor after more than a decade of learning and teaching dragon magic.

It wasn't his story, but the girl who had taught him the spell to fly had lived through his betrayal. Added to a friend being turned into an instrument of betrayal last summer, Sebastian was understandably leery.

After an hour, the Red Hall wizards had exhausted their questions for him on that matter and they waited for Sebastian to fetch one of the newest swords ready to go to the armory. It had been made using his formula for steel. Whether the metal was truly better for sword making by a normal smith, he wasn't sure. The mage did know that the wrong steel would break under the stress created by the runes of a Hollow Sword. An inferior blade had failed his test of drawing in power from the earth and nearly killed him when it had failed catastrophically.

It had exploded in his hand and sent shards into his body from his legs all the way up his torso. Only Ashleen's nursed skill in healing had kept him alive for skilled healing wizards to actually use their magic to bring him back to full health. The lightning wilder would likely never be adept at healing. It went against the nature of lightning and that was part of who she was, but it had been enough that day.

Sebastian brought the blade and placed it onto the table. While he had searched for a sword that felt best to him, Ashleen had brought back food and drink. She would be his battery once again, but to teach the magic, at least one of the Red Hall wizards would try to monitor his progress by using a physical connection to the mage. It was the only way he knew to pass on the information on what he was doing during the magic use to create runes.

Orlen was an earth wizard and had the greatest tie to metals. Hassar was used to the fire of smithing and knew metals also, but not in the way an earth wizard did. Begrudgingly, the fire wizard gave in to the general consensus and let Orlen be the one to ride his left shoulder.