Battle Mage: Winds of Change (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 11) (7 page)

"Quite a crowd," Ashleen said quietly as she looked at the assembled guests continuing to fill in the large chamber. There were chairs which had been brought to parallel the two tables. Several feet had been left between them and the tables, but there were enough chairs for about fifty people Sebastian guessed with a quick glance.

The room seemed to fill in the same segregated way that always appeared to happen when the various branches of the military were involved. The commander of Hala's militia along with a handful of his officers stood before the seats they had chosen, but refused to sit until everyone else had arrived apparently. Whether that was politeness or strategy to avoid sitting with the wrong people, the mage didn't know.

Sebastian recognized General Idris and another general whose name he did not know surrounded by their aides and officers on the same side as Commander Quelan's people. The non-magical soldiers of both the city and armies in general occupied the right side, while wizards had begun to take over the left. Frowns at their placement from some of the wizards made him think that they would have preferred the other side, but where they sat should truly mean little for such a gathering.

The high wizards were joined by six wizards of regular rank who Sebastian knew to be from the small collection of wizards capable of using portal magic. Treya and Zeben were there as well, though they looked a bit tired. He assumed that they had been on night duty again. At least two more wizards were probably on duty in the courtyard watching the portal gate even now meaning that there were likely little more than eight wizards in the city capable of making the gateways. It wasn't surprising since Sebastian had a lot of difficulty conquering the spell and was the only one including those from his team of wizards who knew the basics of trying to cast the spell to ever have accomplished the feat. Given that he was the only one of about fifteen wizards and mages aboard that ship, it meant the odds were low among the rest of Southwall's wizards and mages as well and few battle mages had been shown the spell so far.

It was another spell that was likely to be put on him to teach to the battle mages in an attempt to find more capable of creating the portals, which could turn the war against the emperor significantly and already had in small ways.

Raven Leros and a few falconi and falcondi surprised Sebastian by taking one end of the rows that the wizards had claimed. The older mage was above the worries of segregation and had been pushing for Sebastian to help bridge the gap as well. A proponent of working together, the younger falcon thought maybe Leros looked to him as the bridge others claimed he could be to unite the wizards, mages and soldiers together.

The last to arrive were some of the lords involved in supporting the defense of the city and were also some of the financial support of the other groups including the wizards and battle mages. They sat in another set of rows on the far side of the door in front of a raised platform running across the back of the room. Three throne like chairs sat above them and many wondered if King Alain and his wife, Queen Alyanna, would be in attendance as well. The king was a known proponent of magic and had been instrumental in finding the immortal king, Gerid.

Sebastian stood with Ashleen at his side. The girl had worn a light blue wizard's robe. It was light weight and shorter than an official wizard's robe of Southwall exposing her lower legs from just below the knee, but the girl had complained that she was too warm to wear a full length dress or robe. A silver anklet studded with amethysts shone just above the matching shoes of light blue. It was a piece of jewelry that he had first seen in Falcon's Keep when Ashleen had first flirted with him long before his journey had truly begun. The sight brought back quite a few memories as he waited for the others to arrive to begin his demonstration.

As the crowd began to settle, they looked to the battle mage regularly wondering what the man known as the owl had thought of this time. A door near the rear of the room opened and several royal guards stepped out of the doorway securing the upper dais. When King Alain exited escorting his beautiful wife, those who had been sitting rose in surprise. Military salutes of hands to chest moved throughout soldiers, mages and wizards alike as many heads bowed to the royal family.

Before they had made it half way to their chairs, a tall, powerful looking man with gray hair stepped through the doorway as well. Surprisingly he didn't have to duck, but part of that came from the fact that he had once ruled from this castle. Doorways had been customized to let the king of the former country of Marshalla pass without having to duck his head more than a millennia ago, but Gerid didn't look as comfortable wearing his dress attire. The giant had been away from such society for nearly two hundred years before returning from his exile enforced by the emperor's warlocks and their curse spells.

There were no trumpets or special fanfare as the three royals entered the room to take their seats, but King Alain stood before his chair after giving his wife a hand. Gerid sat as well, knowing that he was more a figurehead than a true king anymore. Like day to his wife's night black hair, the king stood nearly shining in a room lit with lamps brighter than flaming torches. His blonde hair seemed to reflect the warm glow of the wizard lights and his blue eyes sparkled with intelligence as he addressed the mage who had brought them together first.

"Falcon Sebastian, how is it that we need to keep having meetings that somehow revolve around you? Aren't you supposed to be too young to be causing all this disruption?" the king asked with a smile playing at his lips. There were others, who knew the mage well enough, hiding similar smiles behind hands.

"I'm sorry, your majesty, but this time it may be less urgent, but just as important. I have been considering the potential threat of our portals being used against us by the enemy. While it was not something brought to me, I have looked at the problem and have come up with a possible solution to our security," Sebastian replied with a tilt of his head towards his king. A bow of the head was probably about due, the mage thought, though he knew little of the protocol of addressing a king. Mages were less regimented in saluting than soldiers, but were stricter than wizards with their recognition of their superiors.

Alain's eyes took in the mood of the room before asking, "While I am no wizard, I would not have thought that High Wizard Darius would place us in such danger. Would you mind explaining what you mean? Please remember that I am no wizard. Neither are you though, so maybe you can make sense of your accusation?"

Sebastian felt unsure of how to explain the information without coming off wrong, but tried his best as the mage picked his words in a way that he hoped wouldn't come off condescending. Since the owl had been looking at the problem as an obvious threat, speaking to the king and the others like they should see the problem as evident or they were living in denial was likely to earn only displeasure or worse.

"If we look at how both Darius and I came to understand portal magic, you'll see our problem. The high wizard learned to cast the spell after taking the remnants of a temporary portal and reconstructing the path to the fortress. It had been used once and let close, yet weeks later, Darius managed to pry it open again.

"Of course, I hear that Garosh and his people were welcoming of the aid, but the high wizard could have turned the other gates on the Dark One since they most likely went back to his capitol after finishing their attack. We can assume that they guard their portals as well, however, which leads me to the other way we have turned their magic against them."

The speaker was about to continue, even as he tried to read the faces looking at him for their reactions to his words, when the door most had entered opened behind him. A familiar face and the man he had just spoken of entered followed by a small contingent of men and a dark haired woman. All were well known to Sebastian including seeing that Elzen was among them.

"Have we missed anything important?" Darius asked brushing at his gray hair. He had shaved and looked more like Sebastian's age than an immortal of about seven hundred years in age. Only his gray hair, which was nearly white in shade, would make anyone think that the man was old. "We received the message and hurried over but the bells in Windmeer are later than they are here with the distance the sun needs to travel."

In a world where each city took days to reach, the individual towns and cities took care of their own time keeping in relation to the sun as it affected the region. Windmeer was weeks away by horse and the sun reached it a few hours later, if Sebastian had to guess. He supposed, if the world was about to become smaller where wizards and mages could cross thousands of miles in a blink, some of that may have to change or be organized into a more formal time keeping.

King Alain acknowledged the wizard from Eirdhen with a smile and slight bow of his head. He was a king and the other man a wizard, but before an immortal like Gerid or Darius, what was a king who could only look forward to living perhaps a hundred years before disappearing into time on the pages of a tome or scroll.

"Falcon Sebastian was just telling us that your placement of portals inside the city makes us vulnerable to attack. I believe so far, using your appropriation of the portal to our new ally's fortress proves that the enemy can use our gates against us; though that involved having a starting point inside of Windmeer to use."

The king's eyes returned to the battle mage and added, "I suppose he was about to explain how the Dark One could do the same without the previous use of an old gateway."

Darius smiled back at the king and drew Alain's attention back as he replied, "Well, I suppose the mage has a good point. Don't mind us, Sebastian. Why don't you continue, unless King Alain has more to say on the point?"

Raising his eyebrows in question to the king, who had continued to stand, as if he was determining if this was going to be worth sitting down, or if he would walk out again leaving it to his aids; Sebastian took his cue from King Alain even as four men wearing foreign green or brown clothing sat with Darius and the two falcons accompanying him. Elzen and their friend Rilena followed the man they had been working with since he had arrived in Windmeer months ago.

He nodded to those on the dais and in front of it again. Clearing his throat a moment, Sebastian continued, "While Darius used an existing point; I found that my mind has problems holding as many magical locations in my memory as the wizards can. It is probably a deficiency of memory because I am a battle mage."

This comment brought self satisfied smiles to the wizards' faces, while the battle mages tried to hide disappointment in the mage who seemed to defy the constraints of being a battle mage all the time. Admitting weakness for him seemed to push their progress back once more.

Sebastian picked up a map that had been folded and kept on the table. He didn't bother opening it up as the young man continued, "Using a simple map, I was able to use what I know of Darius to find all his new portals and even lodestones that were still moving. I also had fought Palose enough to know his magical signature.

"He is our enemy and a betrayer of Southwall. We also know that he went to the Dark One and joined him. Whatever might have made him turn against us, I do know his magic well enough and that led me to use his lodestones to transport myself to those gates. I hadn't been to some of the locations before and I certainly didn't have enough familiarity to just make the leap there.

"The map was all I needed to use the lodestones to find a few portal locations and destroy them. I changed the stones and made the gates mine keeping him from using them again, unless he is able to do the same thing. That is the problem. We don't know if the enemy can use a map in the same way, but the Dark One has used the magic for centuries while we have only just learned of it.

"I don't think we can assume that they have never discovered this or at least a similar way of finding portal points."

The importance of his matter wasn't lost on the others as talking broke out among all the sides. Wizards knew enough to see that magic like this wasn't safe for them. Mages and soldiers could see that if Sebastian could find an enemy portal, certainly the enemy was as likely to turn around and do the same thing to them.

Southwall had used portal magic in the defense of the Two Towers a little over a week prior, so the emperor most likely knew of their discovery already. That knowledge might have dreaded consequences in the future.

King Alain sat down looking a little pale.

Standing once more, High Wizard Darius stepped forward drawing the eyes of the room with various levels of distrust for the man who had brought this danger into their cities. For all the benefits of the magic, the threat was also there.

"Sebastian, we knew there was a possible threat and have set guards against such a thing happening already, but I assume that you have discovered a better way?"

Nodding to his friend, the battle mage stated, "I have been thinking of it since I discovered that I could find Palose's portals as well as the more generic points we have guessed must be gateways that any warlock might be able to use without knowing Palose's particular magic."

He pointed to the squares sitting on the table and said, "What I propose is forming portals that are set to face just one direction on entry. We will make those who use them enter a trap point between stone walls and the portal. At most an enemy can escape back through the gateway, but if they choose to try and stay to fight we will control the point and have deterrents ready for the enemy."