Battle Mage: Winds of Change (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 11) (48 page)

If he was them, the mage would have found a way to keep an eye on someone causing as much change as he had of late.

Looking around for prying eyes, Sebastian called a glowing gate and returned to the Black Smith Inn.

Walking into the inn, the mage spotted Ashleen waiting for him with Rilena and Evie at the table. She looked neither mad nor happy with him, but held an envelope between her fingers.

"Where did you go?" Ashleen asked appearing less interested in the answer than needing to ask it. "Evie told us you had some errands to run."

"I took a run and was performing a new experiment outside of Hala. It wasn't that big a deal, but took more time than I originally planned," the owl answered a bit vaguely. He could hardly announce to the inn that he had just come from the heart of the Dark One's empire after all.

"Well, you took long enough that they sent another letter for you, but the messenger didn't know if it required immediate attention. Apparently he is told as little as I am most days," the wilder finished with the hint of a frown. "Oh, you have some disappointed students waiting impatiently for you over there also," Ashleen finished pointing to a table near the front door and several tables away from the girls.

Wizard Helmar and his apprentices looked at him expectantly and he groaned. "I forgot about them," Sebastian stated realizing the healers had hoped to fit in more training for the runes before he had to go to the next guardian city to set their gate, though nothing had been set with the allotted time needed for working on the island's portal and negotiations.

Windmeer was the next projected gate and further west; so with each new city, there would be more time in the morning than the cities before them. The sun would reach Windmeer a little later than White Hall, while Falcon's Keep and Raven Hurst would each be later still.

Shaking her head at him slowly, Ashleen gave him a look of disappointment for a moment before she looked over at the healers. Quickly turning away from the sight, the girl covered her mouth as she stifled her laughter.

"I'm sorry," she whispered drawing the attention of the other girls at the table. "They just look so pathetic waiting there like fans waiting for a chance to see their hero. I know I shouldn't laugh, but seriously, Helmar in particular seems unable to get enough of you."

"They're not the only ones," Rilena stated glancing at Evie and Ashleen from her place beside them. The dark haired mage managed to avoid being caught by the other two girls before they glanced at her. "You know, all the wizards and battle mages that keep chasing him like dogs waiting for crumbs to drop from the table are just as bad."

Sebastian rolled his eyes at his friend before asking for the envelope from Ashleen. The girl passed it to him and the mage quickly broke the fold to see the note within. "It's from Raven Leros."

"What does he want now?" Ashleen asked not thinking about whether the message was a secret.

"To see me again."

"But he just saw you the other day and this mission was supposed to be two days instead of one. Can't you ignore him until tomorrow?" she asked looking annoyed by the constant drain on his attention. After the night before, Sebastian wished that they might have a little more time to spend together in fact. It had been fun and special with it being Ashleen's first time. He had a feeling Ashleen felt the same, but the owl was a soldier and his time often wasn't his own.

"I doubt that he will want to wait if he knows I am in the city relaxing. If he sent the letter so early, Leros must know that we are back. Even using the inn as a base to return for another day, he'd probably want me to check in before leaving," the man mused without enthusiasm.

Ashleen looked ready to pout spurring the mage to place his finger on her lips as she groaned in annoyance. "It shouldn't take long. I'll be back in a little while then, I guess."

Leaving the three women before more complaints could be vented, Sebastian walked to the castle. The gate guards all seemed to know him by now and, though he showed the pass from Raven Leros, the mage guessed that it would probably just take his word for entry these days.

By the time he was led to his leader's office, the mage was beginning to feel some aches in his legs. His body told him it had been a long time since breakfast and a lot of miles spent walking. The Dark One's city was actually a little bigger than the walled city of Hala in spite of the confines of the mountain it was hidden within.

"Good morning, Falcon Sebastian," the older man greeted him looking over a stack of sheets held together on a clip board. The falcon thought the man looked a little more tired than usual as well, as if he had been getting less sleep than normal.

"Good morning, sir," he returned the greeting. "You left a message to report in as soon as possible."

Nodding his bald head, the raven placed the clipboard and its contents on his desk, which was cluttered with even more papers and scrolls. "The king has expressed worry over the war in Litsarin. No word of the war has reached Hala since we sent an armada with troops to assist Sileoth in repelling the Dark One's invasion. Our ally only has a few walled cities to defend its interest there. Most of their people live outside of Litsarin's fortifications meaning that they will either wind up filling the cities to exploding or have to risk being killed while hiding outside.

"At least, that was the impression we were under when your people returned two months ago."

"On our trip back, we sailed from one end of Litsarin to the other. By the time we crossed the island using the southern route, signs of the Dark One's forces had been seen by the cities on the west coast of the island," Sebastian reiterated what he knew from his time away from Southwall. "With portal magic available, it is hard to tell how quickly they will move on Sileoth's holdings."

Raven Leros let the report lie in silence a moment before musing, "What made him decide to move now, I wonder?"

Worry over one of the reasons why flit through the younger mage's mind. Believing the raven's question rhetorical until the man gestured for him to speak, Sebastian wasn't forthcoming with all his opinions at first.

"It might be our fault for looking for King Gerid," he stated getting one worry off of his chest. "We triggered their black ships. We defeated them and at least one used a portal. Assuming that they ran home, the Dark One knows that we defeated them as well.

"Of course, we also freed the Grimnal from his island prison by the end of it all. That alone might make his armies choose to move and create chaos. The emperor might wish to remind us that he can strike at any time.

"His new monsters are more powerful than ever and I fear that the ones we have seen aren't all that he will hit us with either. Certainly if Sileoth doesn't hurry, the magical might of the warlocks and those monsters could level their cities soon enough."

"But why Litsarin and the attack on the Twins?" Raven Leros questioned once more to discover the mage's beliefs after being to Litsarin and being involved in the fighting at the Twin Towers as well.

"We saw enough evidence to believe the eastern cities of the island are actually seed cities of the Dark One. They might even have been originally settled by his people after the Cataclysm. Most of the people we met were human, but there were a few who tried to avoid us. We found men and women that looked a lot like the orcs we've fought north of the wall.

"If they were afraid that we might act against Litsarin, maybe they simply chose to take action first. It would be hard to hold an entire island that size. It's as big as Sileoth or Marianis after all. Pushing out Sileoth to take their cities, it wouldn't take much to reinforce them to fend off anything Sileoth can send.

"The Dark One knows that Southwall doesn't have enough soldiers to watch the wall and sail off to take such a large place. If Sileoth wasn't our ally, the king would have been forced to let the matter lie. Even if letting the Dark One have Litsarin is a cause for worry, in other situations we would let him have the island.

"Strategically, this gives them a stronger presence on the North Sea. If they can establish trade, they have the resources north of the wall and Litsarin thanks to the portals. They can seed the island with gates and move his armies easily from one end to another or to his capitol to protect his interests."

The older man nodded, "Much of what you said is what we have been thinking. The biggest question no one has been able to answer is; why haven't we received a message by now? Trained birds should have flown to New Harbor or Southpoint by now. Those should have been switched over to birds which could be sent to Hala, but we have heard nothing from the armada or Sileoth since your people returned here months ago."

Having a feeling that this was why he had actually been called, Sebastian waited rather than volunteering to use his gate in New Harbor. It wouldn't help if something was going on in New Harbor to risk someone being captured at the other end of his gate.

"We were thinking of having you bring a team of messengers to New Harbor. They can take a ship to Tarmand from there."

Sebastian shook his head as he listened to the idea. Leros wasn't giving this to him as an order. There was a question unasked by the man that Sebastian heard even so. "If there is a faction intercepting the messages or something else equally efficient, then our messengers could be intercepted as well. The portal spell is known to the wizards and soldiers of New Harbor, even if they aren't certain how to use it or where. As long as they aren't part of the problem, then it is safe."

"But if Count Terris or someone else with some influence is behind the silence from the front, then we're sending men into a situation that they might not be ready to escape. The weakness of these portals would make anyone using them vulnerable."

Sebastian thought of his trip through Palose's gate and said, "I may have an answer for that, but once through the portal door, we still can't be sure that they can catch a ship to Sileoth or return."

Leros looked at the younger man quizzically. "What are you thinking then?"

"Maybe we need to take out the middle man and all that distance," the owl answered even as Sebastian thought about what he was about to say. "You have heard that there are people from Mar'kal teaching a new type of magic that they call 'Dragon Magic', correct?"

"You have learned this magic already?" the raven asked incredulously.

"It is remarkably similar to battle mage spell casting, but one of the spells unique to it is the creation of magic wings for flight."

Eyes narrowing at the thought as he scrutinized the younger man before him, Leros finally asked, "What are you thinking?"

"I can use the gate to New Harbor and implement my plan if there are men waiting for us to make our move. Once I am past the portal area, I can fly to Tarmand and meet the king. I can set up a new portal there for them, if King Qeyless allows a gate; then our problems of interception should be solved.

"At worst, I can make a gate outside the city that they won't know about," the mage added thinking of how to work around the king, if necessary.

"That would be a breach of faith, Sebastian," the raven cautioned him. Again the raven hadn't technically told him no. "Can you actually fly that far though?"

"I can fly faster than any ship under full sail with a strong wind. I can probably make it to Tarmand between an hour and two hours, sir."

The man's eyes widened and he asked without thought, "That quickly?'

A nod was the mage's only answer.

"How soon can you be ready to go?"

"I was supposed to go to Windmeer tomorrow to secure their gate. Depending on how you rate the necessity of each, I can do one or the other, unless I do it today," he finished with a bit of a tired sigh.

"We're pushing you harder than we should, aren't we?" the older man replied noticing that Sebastian also looked a little worn. "Would you even have the strength to do it today?"

"If I return to the inn and eat a large lunch, I should be alright, sir."

Wincing slightly before giving the order, Leros finally said, "Try to do it today then. If you run short on time, set a gate on Sileoth's side of the channel and you can use that to get into the capitol quicker. If Windmeer has to wait an extra day or two, so be it. They have precautions in place and have since Darius first opened the gates."

Another mission, Sebastian thought wearily, but this one would give him a chance to test his wings more thoroughly than he had so far. Falconi Martina had told him that she could fly for a couple hours, so the fledgling dragon mage hoped that on a full stomach that he could do the same. His speed was about triple a fast ship under full sail, so it shouldn't be outside the window of his ability to fly across the channel between the countries in that amount of time.

After leaving the castle, Sebastian hurried back to the inn. The healers were still there looking hopeful to get some training in with the battle mage. Another idea about that had come to mind during the walk back from the raven's office.

"Helmar, I'm being sent off on another errand after lunch that will take the rest of the day. I need you to see if you can find someone who can make books this large," he indicated the length of his forearm from elbow to the middle of his hand. "We will need at least four, more if this works and you want to train more wizards the same way."