Battle Mage: Winds of Change (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 11) (54 page)

King Alain frowned and voiced his worry, "But how can you open a portal to Litsarin? The other ideas are flimsy without confirmation of the others' help, but that one remains most hazy to me."

Sebastian shook his head replying, "That is probably the one I can best promise you. If I put off protecting the gates of the other guardian cities for awhile, there might be a way.

"You have been pushed from the northern towns towards Helsen?" he asked King Qeyless.

The king nodded, "Our largest towns were hit in succession. While our armies have been meeting them in the field to prevent their moving on easily, the war has moved steadily closer towards Helsen. We have virtually no resistance left in the north. News has been spotty, but that much I can say with surety." Qeyless finished wincing at his own admission of weakness, but he had already begged for help from his allies. Marianis had yet to assist them, but Alain had been there from the start.

Sileoth owed what preparation they had from Sebastian's warnings only a few months ago after discovering the presence of the empire in the eastern towns of Litsarin and the movements he had witnessed that seemed aimed at the west. Like Alain, Qeyless hated admitting weakness, but these were friends and allies. They needed to work together and know what was happening with the war, even if it was admitting defeat after defeat.

"Then there may be abandoned gates that I can use to bring us to Litsarin," Sebastian stated even as the falcon thought about how he might fulfill this part of his plans.

King Alain said, "You are supposed to set up Windmeer today, if I am informed correctly. If everything is ready, then certainly finish it.

"How long will it take you to create these points in Litsarin after that?"

"Not long your highness, but if there are lingering troops, I will have to make a new gate that is more secure. Also, if the enemy is too far to the south, then to defeat them, we'll want a point close enough to bring the fight to them with minimal waste of energy for our troops.

"If I need to fly to a point closer, that will take time."

"Fly?" King Qeyless exclaimed shocked beyond everything he had heard so far.

Sebastian looked to his king realizing that he had let slip the ability to fly thanks to Cheleya and Kel'lor's willingness to share with Southwall. Alain nodded permission and the mage continued, "Mar'kal has what they call dragon mages. One of the unique parts of their magic is that they create wings to fly.

"I crossed from New Harbor to just outside Tarmand in an afternoon yesterday. Using a portal to Hala as I jumped from your city and a return in the morning brought me back in seconds each trip since the flight."

"And you discovered this dragon magic as well?" the Sileoth king questioned trying to fathom Sebastian's ability to learn.

"I wasn't the first battle mage to learn this magic, but I picked it up quickly," he stated without trying to brag. "The magic is very similar to battle mage magic. The only thing which will prevent more wizards and mages from flying is a fear of heights."

Alain waved the matter off and said, "I think that we had better think about returning to Hala. My men will probably begin to worry about me. No one completely trusts this portal magic yet. It was divined from the Dark One's warlocks after all, but so far it seems to work well for us also."

The kings stood and Qeyless shook his hand in a more familiar way than most men. Few would dare, but these two knew each other well enough and friendship was what held the two allies together. In a time of war, it was good to have friends.

A quick use of the mage's portal spell returned the king to the fire wizards' courtyard with his guards. Sebastian turned towards the Black Smith Inn to prepare for his trip to Windmeer and the work he still had to do there.

"You look tired," a man's voice stated from behind the mage as he stood watching the others doing the initial construction of Windmeer's security gate.

Sebastian turned along with some of the less occupied members of his team. The mage noted Darius looking at him with some amusement.

"You couldn't even see my face to tell," the target of the man's remark replied with a weary smile.

Darius shook his head gesturing towards the mage with an open hand and said, "I could tell by your posture alone. Now that I can see your face it is even more apparent. Are you spreading yourself too thin, Sebastian? You aren't an immortal able to recover with our stamina."

The wizard chuckled adding, "The older I get, the more that I find that I don't require as much sleep as I did when I was young."

Looking at a face that showed no lines of age, though his hair was silver, Sebastian thought that only knowledge of the man's unusual life span let him know that he was truly old. From a distance, one might think Darius was old because of his hair color alone, but not from his face or the way he carried himself.

"Is that another blessing of your condition or a curse?" the battle mage asked before a yawn forced itself upon him covered by the back of his hand.

Shrugging in response, the wizard looked past the younger man to the metal bars of the portal gate. "Your team can put these together rather quickly it appears. I am surprised that you aren't further along in securing the other portals."

Ashleen stood up from the final patching of her side of the frame and complained, "That is because Raven Leros and his King Alain seem determined to wear Sebastian into the ground with every other problem they have right now."

"It isn't that bad or just them," Sebastian replied putting his arm around the girl as she stood at his side to speak with the immortal wizard. "I can't help myself sometimes and I don't mind taking on tasks that no one else can do."

"No one can do what task exactly, or am I prying too much?" Darius questioned curiously.

Ashleen answered before the mage could formulate a reply, "Sebastian was ordered to New Harbor to bridge the distance and bring King Qeyless a message from Alain. Instead he took it upon himself to try out his new dragon magic to fly from New Harbor to Tarmand in an afternoon."

The girl's scorn for his dangerous attempt wasn't even slightly masked by the wilder's words. She had sent Evie along to help protect him, though no one knew if the changeling's transformation would have worked if things went poorly. Ashleen seemed to be shadowing him as much as he would allow just to keep the owl mage from hurting himself.

"As you can tell, Ashleen was against the attempt; but I managed the crossing in a few hours. I even managed to make it to the king's audience chamber in time to turn in the message before the castle was closed to petitioners."

Evie moved to join them with a big smile and said to Darius, "I had to dress prettily to see the king."

She was wearing another of the dresses that Ashleen had helped the girl buy. Darius looked on the redhead appreciatively seeing Sebastian's influence on the girl had at least some of a domesticating influence on her. She was no longer wearing frocks that made her look like an impoverished waif barely able to find cloth to cover her developing body.

"This is a pretty dress as well," the wizard commented with a smile to the young girl. "Did Sebastian buy that for you?"

Ashleen frowned and replied, "I took her shopping with the other girls to dress her like a young woman, unlike a certain high wizard; but don't think that I don't see you trying to change the subject. Sebastian is acting like he did in that tournament. He keeps pushing himself too far!"

Darius laughed and retorted in amusement, "Now you sound like his healer. I thought you were just a lightning wilder. One would think that you had changed to a healer as well."

After pulling back in surprise, Ashleen folded her arms angrily complaining, "He would drive any girl to complain with all of his dangerous stunts. I can barely heal a wound and he throws himself into the air where a fall would kill him even if a healer was there to catch him after his first bounce.

"He won't tell me everything he does, but Sebastian went against his commander's orders and has used his portals to go where he was told not to go besides."

Darius raised an eyebrow in surprise and asked, "Really and where did you go that you weren't supposed to go?"

Wincing as he was called out not only by Darius, but Ashleen in the first place; Sebastian answered, "I've been afraid that if I waited too long to test the portal used by Palose that its strength would fade too much to use it. There was an individualized gate, so I assumed that it wouldn't be protected well if at all. While I've known about it from the first time I tested using the map magic to find his portals, I didn't want to alert Palose to my knowledge of his magic signature.

"He figured out enough to erase his marks with another person's magic, but he never erased the echo of his magic lingering at each point. Leaping to the cave city right away would have put them on alert; but when I went there, I discovered that it was centered on a simple home.

"From what has been said in the history books about the emperor's need to control his people, I would guess that it was an illegal portal kept for Palose's personal use. He might not be able to report a break in there. Even if he does, I placed a handful of lodestones around the city while I scouted it. If King Alain and his generals choose to try to attack the Dark One, we can use them to hit the city from the inside and out."

"So someone has finally entered Ensolus," Darius mused.

"Ensolus?" Ashleen queried at the name.

"Southwall isn't the only country keeping an eye on the Dark One's empire. The name, Ensolus, has been heard from various merchants dealing with the cave city. It isn't surprising though, he called his home in his old world Ensolus as well among other names."

A moment of silence as each of them was left with their thoughts passed and it was Darius who counseled, "You need to tell your raven of this new resource. With the battle over Litsarin taking place as a distraction, it could be a good time for Southwall to strike back. Maybe with use of portals, your other allies can help join you."

"That is another reason why he is so tired," Ashleen continued to complain making Sebastian frown. It was unlike the girl, but Ashleen wasn't one to just sit back when she felt there was something wrong either. "It isn't enough that he bridged the distance to Tarmand, now Sebastian is trying to influence the kings to let him figure out a plan to help defeat the black ships too."

He hadn't told Ashleen his plan to involve the dragon mages of Mar'kal and the merfolk of Gerid's tribe, but she knew enough to guess whatever the owl planned centered around him doing a lot of the work. That usually meant the battle mage would insert himself into danger to her mind.

"What is your plan then?" the wizard questioned the mage. With Ashleen telling the high wizard so much, Sebastian realized that he must truly be testing her last nerve with all his brushes with danger.

"I need to talk to Cheleya and Kel'lor, but perhaps they can talk with their rulers to bring some of their dragon mages to Sileoth to assist in attacking the black ships. Even if the Dark One brings his shrikes, a few units of dragon mages can dissuade both the ships and the birds from attacking our forces.

"Second, I need to talk to Gerid to see if his people would be willing to help attack from the water."

Darius likely didn't know of the merfolk and it wasn't Sebastian's place to speak of them, though the mage knew such information in the high wizard's hands would be safe enough. The fear of the merfolk being hunted or otherwise abused was a worry, however, and there were still other ears nearby.

"So you don't have a true plan placing you in direct danger for once," the immortal finished jokingly.

"Just the start of a plan really," Sebastian acknowledged.

Darius looked at Ashleen and said with a comforting smile on his lips, "Well you can relax a little at least. This plan sounds safer than some of his ideas but keep an eye on him.

"For now, show me again how you are making these gates. Perhaps I will be have to pick up some of the slack to help you out by making more, since my magic is the basis for the current lodestones making them."

Glad to get away from what he was doing that others didn't agree with, Sebastian began to show Darius how he made the gates once more.

Chapter 28- Requests for Help

Eventually with allies as with life, you had to learn how to trust. For Sebastian as well as Southwall, the time to trust had come and the mage had been given permission to approach Cheleya and Kel'lor to eventually try to speak with Mar'kal. It led the mage back to White Hall once more. This time the mage's team wasn't alone.

Raven Leros with a trio of high level assistants from Hala stood at the front of the large classroom. Falconi Neven, his lieutenant, Falcondi Westlin and Falconi Brelan, a woman who was closer in age to the falcondi, varied in the intensity of their presence. Neven was the elder falconi and only male aside from Raven Leros. The man looked put out that he had to leave Hala, a position of prestige among any of the corps serving the king from his capitol and even inside of the king's castle.

Westlin was a reasonably young woman, with blonde hair and a slim though muscular body. If not for the echo of her falconi's attitude making the woman appear so serious most of the time, Sebastian thought that she would look pretty. A warrior of the falcondi's skill level wasn't the smartest to dismiss as just another pretty face, however.