Battle Mage: Winds of Change (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 11) (51 page)

Sylvaine shook her head and corrected, "I heard a man's voice say 'sleep' before they fell to the floor. I was in the bedroom when the attack happened."

Pointing to a gash in the wall above her, the young woman added, "A black sword plunged through the wall behind me. I had hoped to catch the intruder by surprise if he entered the bedroom, but instead I was put to sleep as well.

"When I awoke, I was on the couch instead of on the floor in the bedroom," she finished appearing slightly confused by the last part of her story.

"A sleep spell and these strange nut shells, the latter look like corrinuts, could something have been put inside them to explode?" he queried aiming the question at the true wizards around him.

Dorgred shook his big shoulders, and Wendle looked no more certain.

"In one of the books I've read," Sylvaine said looking thoughtful with each word, "I remember something about a nature spell. It mentioned placing magic within a living thing like a nut. The potential for life allows wizards to put their magic inside of the nut and can be made to explode.

"It didn't seem like a spell brought from the Dark One's warlocks, but lots of wizards from North Continent joined him in the past. Maybe one of them brought the spell to Ensolus to record it?"

"Could someone have learned to place light inside of the corrinuts?" Palose questioned aloud.

The others all shrugged.

"Then while you were all confused, blinded and stunned, they said sleep and you were all rendered unconscious. Was it magic or a chemical, I wonder?"

Again the others shrugged, except for Sylvaine. "I think that it might have been magic. A chemical could have affected the user if he wasn't careful and it was instant.

"I heard the word and then it was darkness, when he caught me by surprise."

Palose tried to sense any lingering magic, but sensing others magic wasn't his strong point. His senses could be raised by spells, but reading magic had no spell that he knew.

Sighing the dark mage asked, "Other than using the portal, was anything else done?"

The others looked unsure.

Wendle spoke up and said, "I don't think we were the person's objective. They were prepared for a defense beyond the portal and used the explosions of light to defeat any defenders waiting for him.

"He didn't kill us and even carried Sylvaine to the couch."

Sylvaine frowned at the statement and added in confusion, "You know, I don't even think I hit the floor. They... he caught me and put me safely on the couch. I don't feel any pains from a fall."

Dorgred rubbed his side and the younger residents all appeared to have some form of dull pain from their falls.

"Could it be the same person who closed your portals in Southwall?" Dorgred asked curiously.

Thinking about the closing of his gates, Palose knew that it hadn't just been one person. It couldn't be. No one in Southwall or among the allied wizard colleges around Alus had ever been known to use portal magic. There were wizards trained to close the gates because of the fear that the portals would weaken the barriers between worlds. No one knew what would happen if it did, but everyone feared the worst.

Without using portal spells, it would take more than one person time to close the gates around the world.

"I lost three around the same time. It could have been three different wizards closing them, but the timing makes me fear that someone has given Southwall the magic of the gates. The battle at the Twins definitely had Southwall bringing their troops to the towers using portal spells.

"How they could have traced my gates to open them is beyond me though." He looked at Sylvaine, who had read more books from the library in Ensolus than he had by far. The girl was very intelligent and that was part of why he loved her.

Unfortunately, the apprentice looked stumped. She closed her eyes trying to think without distraction and the others waited for her to answer. After a minute and a big sigh, Sylvaine shook her head, "I feel like I read something about it, but since I could never cast a gate, I only did a quick read through of the principle book concerning the spell. It was short, but covered many theories about portals. There was something. I am sure of it, but I can't think of what it was."

Palose thought that he would have to go to the library and borrow the book about portals again. Sylvaine was believed dead by the warlocks of Ensolus. Her team of warlocks and soldiers had been attacked and killed by the barbaric nomads living to the south.

When Sylvaine had used her necklace stone to call to him about the danger, it had been too late. His rage had turned the dead against the nomads then, but he had been forced to carry her lifeless body home through a portal. His resurrection magic had brought the girl back to him, but it had still pained him greatly when the mage had arrived just in time to watch the woman he loved die.

Now the one he believed had set her up to die to gain his attention without distraction, had to believe that she was still dead and gone.

"Can anyone track his magic or smell?" he asked before trying his hound spell. With a heightened sense of smell, Palose tried to find the scent that didn't belong in the house.

The wizards were all forced to shake their heads again.

Moving to Sylvaine, he moved close sniffing the girl's neck making her blush. Besides teasing her and getting a chance to touch his lover a moment, Palose was able to catch the foreign scent on her clothing. The hint of musk that a man carried could be smelled by his heighted sense. Wanting to find this man who had intruded into his home, Palose quickly moved to the front door guessing that was likely his destination.

Once on the doorstep, the mage hurried down the steps turning towards the north and the lake there. Before he had gone twenty feet, Palose lost the scent and felt confused.

Dorgred and Wendle had followed him outside, but at his sudden halt, the men looked at each other in confusion.

"The scent is gone," Palose stated. "He must have used magic to cleanse his scent in case I should try to track him. He must know of the hound spell and made sure that I couldn't follow him."

"If the path started north, then maybe he released the spell after awhile," Wendle suggested.

Palose had thought the same thing and moved back to the street leading west and noted the scent went about as far in that direction as well. Again it disappeared quickly leaving the dark mage frustrated. "I think that he used another spell after confusing the direction of the trail. I doubt that someone clever enough to do that would stop using it until he left."

"You think that he has left Ensolus?" Dorgred questioned.

Nodding, Palose replied, "He used a portal to enter the city and I would guess that he left the same way. Most likely, whoever did this used the opening to scout the city.

"I am guessing that a wizard of Southwall learned the spell and figured out how to find other gates as well. Then they reopened my old gate entering the house."

"What do we do now?" Wendle asked. "Are you going to stay and try to pick up his trail again?"

The question made the questions of Palose's allegiance tickle the back of his mind. Atrouseon had overwritten his love for Southwall. He was sure of it. Yes, he had reasons to blame Sebastian and the leaders who sent him north of the wall, but he doubted that without Atrouseon's magic to push him he would ever have betrayed his country.

Palose no longer cared about Southwall, but was that because of his feelings or those planted by the necromancer who returned him to life?

"I need to get back to Litsarin. I can't leave them long without being noticed. It's not like I can go back and say that I went home to find out what happened to you all. Telling them I have my own personal portal point, or resurrected friends, would go over no better, don't you think?" he asked the two men. Both knew that the warlocks feared resurrection men. They watched Palose closely and were ready to kill him if he looked ready to turn against Ensolus. Finding out there were more resurrection men raised by the first would lead to an army sent to destroy them all.

The men merely nodded and followed him back inside the house. After a kiss and embrace with Sylvaine to give him new energy, the dark mage stepped through a new doorway back to the battle field.

Chapter 26- King Qeyless

By the time Sebastian spotted the large island to the south, he was sweating as if he had been working the forge for hours. The thought of being able to land for a little relief from the hours of flying still had to wait. From his height above the water, the mage could see for miles. Luckily his wings could maintain his speed no matter how exhausted he was becoming. They weren't dependent on his physical strength but that of his mental and magical power.

When the mage made landfall on a beach somewhere on Sileoth's north shore, Sebastian could barely stand. His back and legs were exhausted from trying to keep his form as horizontal as he could. Air resistance would only slow him down making the journey take even longer after all.

Collapsing onto his knees, he released his wings to rest. Sebastian opened his bag placing Evie on the ground beside him as the tired mage searched for more food to eat. Bas wasn't as hungry as he might have been owing to the fact that the mage could fly and eat at the same time. His hands were free to raid his bag and continue the supply of energy; but by the time he had reached Sileoth, it was his body's need for a beak that affected him more than his need for magic.

The mouse became the naked girl again. Evie examined the sand and stone around them curiously after the long time spent in the stuffy pack. The shore was a mix of dark sand and stone. Made from the Cataclysm, the stone of the channel and shore had once been a part of the mainland where the earth had a different consistency from the true shores of the past.

He had heard that Sileoth's southern beaches were completely different from the darker sand and stone of the north.

Watching the waves lapping at the shore below them, he thought that the breeze was surprisingly cool considering that they were further south still. The wind came from the northwest propelled down the channel from the Glacian Ocean, a colder sea than the so named North Sea to the east.

Sebastian had felt the cold air while flying but hadn't realized that much of the cold would remain from the wind after landing. Once away from the beach, the mage hoped that it would warm up again. He hadn't brought a jacket and Evie only had a dress to change into.

Folding her arms as she kept her back to him looking at the dark blue water in front of the girl, Evie began running her hands up and down her arms trying to rub warmth into them. The girl had been a mouse inside the relative warmth of the bag where the wind barely reached. Now as a human girl, still walking around in her bared skin, it was a bit of a shock. He could see her skin begin to pimple with the cold air.

When she turned to look at him, Evie had a smile on her face and she said happily, "You made it all this way! I don't know if I could have made it this far as a bird. Maybe I could, but still it is impressive for someone new to flying."

"Did you want to put on your dress? You look cold," he asked trying to not look down at her bare body. At least with folded arms, her breasts were mostly covered. The mage still wished Ashleen hadn't saddled him with the changeling, if only because of the awkwardness of dealing with the girl.

"Are we going to fly soon? I can handle the cool wind for awhile, though summer has certainly made my body used to the heat," the girl said starting to look at the ground. "Maybe we could walk away from the shore though. That might help."

Walking for a time sounded better than flying, at least until his back had a chance to settle. Rubbing his lower back, the mage replied, "I think I would prefer to walk for awhile. Why don't you put on your clothes and we'll try to figure out how much further the city is from here?"

The girl looked disappointed that she was being pushed to wear her clothes again reminding him that Evie was more than just a wilder because of her less trained magic. She was a product of the wild in many ways as well. The girl had roamed the land with various packs of werewolves and werecats since her magic had begun to appear. A natural with shape changing magic, Evie almost seemed half animal in her approach to the world.

She looked and acted like a sweet enough girl; but Evie certainly had a special affinity with nature.

Slipping on her dress, the girl waved off her leather boots. Short like Ashleen's favorite pair, they took up less room in his pack than a pair reaching to her knees at least. The girls had wasted a lot of space for food because of it. The thought made him pass his pack to Evie and say, "I will start walking. You're going back to get some more food, since there wasn't as much in there as expected."

The request made her face look a bit sad. "But you will be alone then," she started and realized a more important question as the girl asked, "How will you know that I am ready to return?"

"I will give you half an hour to refill the bag before I make a new gate in my room. Ashleen should be around to help you, so it shouldn't take that long."

Giving her no more ability to dispute his wish, the mage formed a doorway and urged her through.

After the golden light of the gate disappeared, Sebastian walked uphill feeling each step painfully in his worn body. He hadn't felt this tired since his old days training as a cadet or perhaps on that fateful ride with Palose where he had lost a friend and gained a new enemy. The two hadn't been real close perhaps, but they were still friends and allies. Battle mages stuck together. The strength of the corps was that most mages got along well enough and protected each other as well as those that they were charged to protect.

In a world standing between the powerful wizards, as well as their magic, and the common man, who had no magic, battle mages were that amalgamation of soldier and magic but to a lesser degree. They had learned to use their magic to help them in battle. They didn't rely on magic to save them like a wizard, but a mage could become as powerful as an entire platoon of soldiers due to their spells.

Reaching the green grass and brush uphill from the sea, Sebastian noted the cold wind reached him less as he crested the hill following it down the depression behind it. Cliffs and hills lined the northern parts of Sileoth reminding the people that they had once been part of the mainland. It also formed a natural defense both to invasions from man and the wind apparently, he thought finding a place to sit down in the grass.

The mage took another bite of the remaining sandwich before crossing his legs. Settling his canteen beside him, Sebastian took a deep breath knowing that he had more work to do. He had told Evie that he would set up another gate to retrieve her and the supplies that the tired mage had sent the girl to get. Before he did that, however, the mage needed to see how close he had come to finding Tarmand.

Knowing from reading the maps that the capitol city of Sileoth was slightly to the west of New Harbor and that it wasn't that distant from the sister harbor and trade center of the north; the owl knew that he had to be relatively close. If he had flown too far to the west, Sebastian would have to back track; but if he was still to the east the mage would need to finish his trek to the west.

"Freedom," the special mage called the word of power he had chosen to release his mind for the air riding spell. While his lower body and torso were sore from flying, sending his mind on the wind would have none of the negative effects on his body. His body could rest while his magic worked to discover where he was now.

Lifting high on the air, the owl mage looked to the west. It was a strange notion to say that he could see without having his body along, but that was how the magic worked. His mind told him that it was like his spirit was also physical. It mimicked his body and what it could do.

Sebastian put the questions caused by magic aside and looked at the land before him. He was several hundred feet up on a day that was clear enough to see for miles. Sensing a disturbance of the wind to the west, the mage rode the wind moving in that direction until he could make out a blur that stood out from the land below him. A few moments later, he could tell that it was a massive walled city.

Ships were in the port and the low mountains south of the city revealed the off color palaces and fortress homes of the royals and rich. Like the many towns along the northern coastline, people of means had chosen to escape the sprawling capitol city. The island was massive, but land was still a tightly guarded resource. Farmland was needed and one way to conserve the land needed to farm was to build in the mountains where it was nearly impossible to farm.

The position behind the capitol running up the mountains wasn't a bad thing for their owners either. With fears of pirates and black ships, the mountains helped keep them safe while remaining near their king and his city. South of the mountains, the former capitol of Sileoth, Entias, became New Entias run by one of the king's brothers. Like two countries lumped together on one giant island, the two sections of Sileoth were divided by a mountain range that hadn't existed before the Cataclysm.

Though being an island was new, Sileoth was one of the first nations created on the continent long ago in an age of exploration and expansion by their ancestors sailing north from Taltan. The country was said to have ruins and ancient buildings remaining from a time when Sileoth had been attached to the continent. They were mixed with the new settlements and buildings raised after the Cataclysm. The people had rebuilt like Southwall, but kept the name Sileoth unlike their ally to the north, which had once been multiple nations driven to become one with the coming of the Dark One and his marauding armies.

Sebastian moved closer seeing the towers and the castle of the king. He knew Tarmand from his one trip there and knew these landmarks enough to know that he had missed the capitol by roughly twenty-five miles. It wouldn't take long in flight, but the mage didn't relish having to return to the air so soon. His body wasn't used to the strange position that no human was meant to maintain.

After spotting his goal; the mage returned his mind to his body. He ate and drank from the remainder of his supplies before lying back on the grass to close his eyes. The feeling of lying on his back in the grass, no longer resisting gravity with flight, was a beautiful gift for the weary mage. Unfortunately, Sebastian knew that if he hoped to reach the king before the city gates closed and the castle guards would turn supplicants away, then he needed to keep pushing forward.

Without waiting for Evie, the man called up his dragonfly wings and took to the air. He crossed most of the twenty-five miles in flight, but felt his back hurting almost immediately. Controlling his wish to stop with the focus of his mind, the mage refused to land until he was just beyond the easy viewing of Tarmand's city guards. At this distance, a man looked small to anyone looking his way. He could walk the rest.

While Sileoth was a close ally of Southwall, his magic wasn't something to be given away so easily. Dragon magic and portal spells were to be hidden from other nations until the time the king declared it ready to unveil. It would keep spies of the Dark One from finding out about what they had learned.

His mission had brought him in contact with forces of the Dark One along the way. Some things like the darkness spells had been revealed in battle. The portal spells might still be a secret, though he had used them at the Twins to save the wall; but certainly the spells brought by Cheleya and Kel'lor needed to be hidden. Then there were the runes...

A lot had been found in a short time, but he had a feeling that every new spell was going to be needed. The Dark One had displayed some of his hand using the Wizard Hunters to try capturing him, and his new creatures which had battled the nomads and the soldiers of Southwall who had allied with them a little over a month ago too.

Things were changing on both sides. The enemy had attacked the wall, created a fortress behind the wall's defenses and was now trying to take all of Litsarin from Sileoth. Southwall had new magic and had brought back the legendary Grimnal from his prison island. With Sebastian's trip to the enemy's city, it meant both countries could bring the fight to each other like no other time in history.

His back was hurting the man by the time he crossed the relatively short distance to his view of the city. With about a mile of separation, Sebastian opened a new gate and soon afterward Evie came through, but she wasn't alone. Ashleen followed and he was forced to ask, "Are there any others who have decided to follow you here?"

Ashleen shook her head and replied, "Evie said that the flight had left you very sore. Hopefully between the two of us, we can help your back with our magic."

Sebastian didn't turn down the girls' offer. Evie and Ashleen worked together to ease the muscles that were hurting him from legs to back. While he couldn't take a long rest break, the mage did let them heal as much as they could for the short time remaining.

He sent Ashleen back through the portal and was about to tell Evie that her task was finished as well, but she surprised him as she handed her dress to him to place in his pack. Before the man could complain, she was a mouse again looking up at him to pick her up.

Sighing, Sebastian replaced her in his pack which he placed over his shoulders this time. He pushed his magic into his runes and used those of speed and strength to propel the mage at exceptional speed towards Tarmand.

Evicting the mouse in a quiet alley not far from the king's castle, he placed Evie on the ground and removed her dress by the time she could finish changing to her human form. While the girl dressed, he placed her boots beside her and took two of the lodestones from his pouch. He dropped them at the base of each wall created by the two story buildings creating a stone canyon for them to use for discretion.

The girl couldn't very well expose herself on one of the main streets after all. Sileoth had rules as much as Southwall. Hiding gates that could lead an invasion force into the city was also probably not a good thing to display in front of a crowd either, he supposed.

Sebastian could have done the same thing inside the castle, but at least here, there were a few blocks between the alleyway and the outer walls of the fortress within the city. The owl didn't want to leave an undefended gate at all. Unsure if he could get an audience with the king, however, the mage didn't want to waste time finding another place to set the gate either.