Battle Mage: Winds of Change (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 11) (3 page)

It was a safe spot set by the battle mage weeks ago after he had finally mastered the portal spell. His room in the Black Smith Inn wasn't large or overly fancy; but as an inn located within Hala's inner city walls, it was still considered a prestigious place to stay. Its prestige and placement so close to the king's castle had little to do with why Sebastian had taken residence there nearly two months ago, however.

He had used the inn for the Winter's Edge tournament, a competition held by King Alain to bring wizards from around the world of Alus to Hala. Not just Southwall's cities had participated but wizards from far off countries like those of Taltan and Ch'thal. Even the che'ther and mar'goyn'lya, races of land dragons and gargoyles, had come down from their mountain city to join with them in a competition designed to bring their countries closer together in a very large world.

Though he had used the inn before, it was the knowledge of the smithy behind the inn for which it had been named that had also drawn the battle mage to choose the Black Smith Inn for his stay once more. He had used the smithy to research new weapons that he thought might be useful for the mages and wizards of Southwall. After weeks of work, the mage had come up with a few new swords capable of holding magic inside intricate runes. The mage, jokingly referred to as an owl, had begun to understand the strange rune magic of the merfolk he had been shown because of this.

Rune magic had been proved useful in his fight inside the warehouse as well, though the magic swords had been left behind this time.

While Sebastian had chosen to stay in the Black Smith Inn rather than taking a room in the barracks used by the local mages, he hadn't been totally alone. He wasn't alone now either as the young man looked to the other bed as his gateway winked out of sight.

"Hello, Ashleen," he greeted the pretty, blonde, wilder Sebastian had first met months ago before his journey to the wizards' tournament. She was Kardorian, but their paths had become intertwined and eventually so had their hearts. While Sebastian had been tentative with building his relationship with the foreign, female wizard, Ashleen had made it known since their return to Hala that she was definitely interested in him.

The girl put down a leather bound book. It was likely expensive as most books were in the north. Cities like Hala had large libraries, but the cost made them less common outside of those institutions of learning or places like the wizards' schools. Whether Ashleen had decided to spend some of his money or had gone to the bank to call on the funds of her family from Kardor, the mage wasn't sure. He had come into money from performing a mission for the king, but Ashleen's family were wealthy nobles from the northern kingdom, one of Southwall's closest allies.

Wearing a light blue skirt with a matching top, which had no sleeves and was cut low enough to reveal some of the curves of her chest; Ashleen had been dressing lightly both because of the weather and because she enjoyed tempting him with what he could have. She pulled her legs under her to kneel on the bed and tilted her head before coyly replying, "Hello? Is that all you're going to say?

"You left me behind again for some mission and all I get to hear is 'hello'? I am a bit disappointed, but at least I don't see any apparent injuries this time."

He knew that she was teasing. The mission to New Harbor wasn't classified and Sebastian had told her that he was going to help wipe out the separatist movement started by spies from the Dark One. Using their portal magic, the enemy had infiltrated cities throughout southern Southwall and even the kingdoms of Sileoth and Marianis as well. Trying to create insurrections to destabilize and distract the kings, the Dark One had renewed his war with the people of Southwall and its allies.

"You knew that I couldn't take you with for more than one reason. First, you are from Kardor, so bringing you to fight our enemies could create problems for your country and ours since you technically have your own kingdom to serve.

"Secondly, I was under cover. Going alone was the easiest way to track down their headquarters. They had worked to hide its exact position from the guards of New Harbor, or so Count Terris' people have continually told King Alain's operatives anyway.

"Too many people involved with the mission would only complicate things."

"And third it was too dangerous, so you wanted to keep me safely hidden away here in Hala," the girl pouted, but again he could tell that she didn't truly mean it.

"It is certainly easier if I only have to protect myself in a fight," he stated neither confirming her opinion nor denying it. While Sebastian knew the girl was a powerful wizard with defenses which were instinctual due to her learning of lightning magic as a wilder before she was found by her wizard master, the girl was still a wizard and had little weapons training to protect herself beyond her spells. "They had warlocks who looked for auras besides. Yours as a wizard would be harder to mask than mine. My power is low enough that they missed it until it was too late."

Ashleen looked at him and her eyes glowed. "You still have magic to your aura, but I will say that it reads as disrupted or broken now. If I could go back and look at you when I first met you versus now, I probably would wonder if you were the same person."

"I think that the tattoos of rune magic might account for some of it," he answered with a nod.

"But that still doesn't mean you get to return and just say 'hi'. I want details. How did it go?"

Sebastian sat on the side of the bed and began to pull off his boots. With a little time before dinner, the mage hoped to relax for a bit. Ashleen was likely to want to meet up with their friends or find a place to dance with just the two of them, if they weren't available.

He had taught her to use healing magic for wounds, but it was hard for the wilder and draining when she tried to use the spells; so he couldn't just have the girl ease the ache from fighting with a spell. They had come to believe that her magic was designed to attack and destroy. Lightning magic was a part of her and healing wizards often found that they had to specialize in healing while abandoning most attack spells. The conflict inside them seemed too much for most.

A thud on the wood floor as the first boot fell was ignored as the young mage answered, "I had to listen to one of their speakers, a warlock, for over an hour spewing their ideas about breaking from Southwall to become their own kingdom or city state before I caught a recruiter's eye.

"The city guards came to break it up about the same time, but I managed to get invited to an abandoned warehouse they were using. I was taken before one of their leaders, who was also a warlock, before things started getting interesting."

"By that you mean, the warlock realized you were a battle mage and they tried to attack you," the girl summarized sitting back on her lower legs beside him. Her skirt only covered the upper half of her thighs revealing skin that had become tanner since they had returned to Hala. The summer had been unusually warm for a city in northern Southwall and Ashleen had taken to wearing clothing that was nearly scandalous during the day.

She had become his assistant and apprentice as well, since coming to the Black Smith Inn. They worked in the smithy together. Between the heat of the forge and the summer air, Ashleen wore almost as little as the men working the fires. Such outfits had disturbed Ivol, the smith, and his son; but no more so than his wife Hilda, who ran the inn. At first the woman had tried to fight the younger girl on it, but after weeks of making apparent that she wouldn't change her ways; Hilda had apparently given up for the most part.

"I was checked for weapons..."

"Which you hid with the rune," she nodded.

The second boot dropped with a thud and Sebastian lay back across the bed dangling his legs over the mattress edge. Her blue eyes followed his face, but the girl merely slid off of her legs sitting with them curled against her as she rested against her arm.

"So when the warlock, Wiler, began to question why I had magic and what I was, it was pretty much time to distract them until the others arrived. I pulled the black sword. It is definitely ridiculously sharp and strong," he added getting distracted from the main story.

"You weren't getting very serious if you didn't pull out one of the Hollow Swords," Ashleen stated with a bit of a frown. She knew that he was always testing things out. The black sword had been an interesting discovery while looking for the best swords he could find in the city in an attempt to make the best blades he could to build more Hollow Swords out of them. While an impressive weapon, it wasn't the best for use with magic, though it was an excellent blade.

"I didn't need the overkill of a Hollow Sword," he explained. "My mission was to capture as many of them as I could. The king and his advisors want to try and find out what the emperor hopes to achieve with these new tactics. If it is just to distract us while he wages war on Listarin with Sileoth, then it is as we figured; but why now?"

"Of course, it is a distraction," Ashleen replied with a shake of her head. It seemed obvious, but his second point didn't have an answer. The dark armies of the emperor had tested the wall for over a century, but had become quieter over the last several decades. While his soldiers continued to fight Southwall beyond their wall, the war seemed to have become over land that didn't truly matter to the people living south of the great wall.

"Anyway," he continued as the girl seemed willing to let him tell his story, "I caught them by surprise using a variety of spells that they wouldn't expect from a battle mage."

Laying onto his shoulder beside him, Ashleen's breath touched his cheek as she said, "Like what?"

"I used reflex, of course, to get an edge on them. Then I put a few to sleep with that spell. I had to use a dark shield to absorb the warlock's fire spell. The portal rune, of course, was used to pull a sword and the defense rune shielded me when the one shield wasn't enough.

"I can nearly turtle up with that shield, if I want."

"None of the lightning I taught you?"

"No, but I pulled up a portal temporarily behind them preventing the warlock from escaping when he lost too many men. It would have taken them to Hala where a bunch of wizards and battle mages could have subdued them, but they didn't risk running without knowing where it went."

The girl pushed herself up on her elbow to look at him in surprise. "I thought you needed a Hollow Sword or a staff to draw that kind of power."

Ashleen had become enough of a confidante to learn his trick to increasing his basic strength. Drawing power from the earth could supercharge a wizard or mage, but drawing it directly usually would result in burning out a wizard with the excess of power. A staff of wood was a good conduit that acted as a limiter and separated him from the power enough to draw the extra energy in a safer way.

Unfortunately, he had learned that there were other consequences to over use of the world's power. It wasn't meant for men to use in the opinion of experts like High Wizard Darius, an immortal who knew firsthand what such power could do to wizards abusing the power. He had told a tale of wizards dying as old men, except that they were barely twenty years old and burned out because of the decision to use spells of devastation and chaos.

"They had wood crates there. I simply placed a hand on one and used it long enough to create a portal. The wood burned a bit, but I doubt anyone else noticed or will figure out why."

Ashleen frowned and replied, "If you plan to hide it from the emperor's warlocks and your own wizards, you shouldn't leave signs of using the power."

She placed her head on his shoulder again with a sigh that sounded like the girl considered his lack of caution a problem. Perhaps Ashleen believed he was becoming arrogant in its use, but Sebastian wasn't sure that she was wrong if he had to admit it to himself. He had planned to hide his use of the earth's power, but the mage found that he was using it quite often in combat.

It was part of why he hadn't drawn the Hollow Sword. Sebastian could use the special rune blade to pull strength from the earth creating powerful magic held in the weapon that he could release with power beyond his own, unaided strength.

"I wonder if there is maybe a safer way to contain extra magical power. Drawing from the earth the way you do is too dangerous and you know it," Ashleen stated letting her breath touch his skin as she looked at the side of his face again.

"I've been contemplating that as well," he answered before turning his head to look at the girl. Finding her blue eyes looking at him from only a few inches away, Sebastian wasn't surprised when Ashleen tilted her chin up bringing her lips to his. The kiss was gentle and soft. He could smell the flowered scent of her perfume and perhaps that of the soap she had found in the markets that was more expensive than the mage with a farmer's background could imagine.

Their talking paused as they repeated their kiss and he felt her right hand slide up his chest to caress his neck. Sebastian could feel a slight electricity between them and it wasn't just from their bond. Ashleen, as a wilder, always had her power on and couldn't prevent at least some of the defensive electricity leaking from her skin. Her power came from her connection to the earth and Sebastian often wondered how she could be tied so closely to it without burning up as they knew would happen to most wizards. If he could ever figure out how that worked, maybe the mage wouldn't need a staff to tap the earth's energy.