The Unexpected Heir: A Tale of Alus (22 page)

The news that Sebastian had been forced to withdraw from the tournament both came as a relief and a disappointment to Annalicia. For the rest of Southwall and those who had come to love the spunky battle mage's dueling prowess, it was strictly a disappointment. No one had expected him to get past the first round, but he had made the final four.

There had been some talk of postponing the finals to give him a chance to compete, but Darius had been strongly against it as had his healer. Her second to last opponent was the Tolmonan, however, and Annalicia was all business for her match. This was the known quantity, while what would happen on the other side of the bracket was left in the air.

Like the previous earth wizard she had faced for the top sixteen, Drovan from Tolmona had no answers for her air and water attacks. The last matches had returned to the Heights and people lined the walls surrounding the last battle field. Earth wizards had used magic to add balcony space on the side of the king's castle making it look dotted with people.

Annalicia had managed to ignore the thousands of eyes watching her match and came out on top. The Heights limited Drovan more than it did her, but it was the chosen battle field. All of the wizards could use enough spells from other elements that it was supposed to be fair, but the air wizard had the advantage and drove the man from the circle eventually.

Though it was a victory, Drovan had proved why he was in the final four. It had been a draining match and Annalicia knew that her ability to return to full strength was no longer available to her during this tournament. At least the tournament committee had come up with a way to be fair.

Magnus, a fire wizard from Southwall who had gained a strong reputation during the tournament, was forced to fight a duel with an air wizard. They had fought in the same group of four in the third round. Some had believed that the fire wizard had gotten lucky in the way that it had played out, so the naysayers had their chance to see a grudge match of sorts.

The two men had fought hard, but Magnus used many quick spells like a battle mage and eventually his speed was just too much for the air wizard. Dissident beliefs quelled, Annalicia waited for the final afternoon match between her and the fire wizard.

Xerese paced back and forth in the shared common area of their rooms. While Annalicia ate and drank occasionally to regain what strength she could get, her cousin seemed a ball of nervous energy. Reynolvan and Ivanor had already been over the game plan for this last match over and over again. She had finally had to throw the two wizards out. She could only deal with Xerese at this point and even her favorite cousin was beginning to get on her nerves.

"Why don't you just sit down, Xerese?" Anna asked calmly. She didn't want to force the girl to sit, but her pacing was likely to wear a path in that stone floor at the rate she was going.

"You aren't nervous? I'd be nervous. That fire wizard is from Southwall. I've heard that he's been taught by the same teachers as that mage has. This could be trouble!" the dark haired girl said hurriedly to her cousin. She moved quickly to sit beside her on the sofa, but bounced right back to her feet.

Annalicia sighed and Xerese didn't even notice.

"It is the final match. I am just glad that it is just about over now," the petite blonde replied tiredly. Though the tournament had been fun for awhile, it was so exhausting that Annalicia just wanted to be able to relax for a bit before sailing home for Malaiy once more. She did like the idea of winning, but wished that someone else could do it for her while she just took a nap.

The dark eyes of her cousin locked on hers of green before asking, "Can you beat him? You do want to win, don't you?"

"I would love to return home the champion, but I think I can hold my head high no matter the outcome, don't you?" the wizard returned Xerese's question. "I mean, you saw the competition. To make it this far, no one should think me weak whether I win or lose."

Xerese frowned at her cousin and returned to sit beside her. Grabbing at Annalicia's hands, the wizard noted the difference in their skin tone. Even time in the sun training in Malaiy never made her quite as dark as her cousin. Her father's lighter complexion was hers as well. Now after nearly a month covered up for the north's winter, Anna thought she was losing what tan she had.

"You have to try, Anna. You can't come all this way and work so hard just to quit at the last minute. No matter how tired you might be, you have to find the strength to win!"

Laughing in the face of her intensity, Annalicia retorted, "I didn't know that you were so competitive. You know that I don't plan to lose, but I am definitely ready for this tournament to be finished.

"You don't know what it is like to fight these duels back to back to back. Magic doesn't come back as quickly as a body's normal energy and, when it comes from both stamina and magic, it makes it that much harder to recoup."

Xerese's eyes renewed their worry, but her words expressed a different concern. "I know that battle mage had to retire. He looked so ill after his last match. Can that happen to you, a wizard?"

Nodding, her cousin tried to gloss over the true danger as she replied, "Every wizard and magic user has to be careful not to use herself up completely. You can actually push yourself so hard that your need for magic will start eating away at your body without food. The human body does that for anyone without enough nourishment though.

"Few wizards ever have that problem, however, since we know how far we can push. Most give a little leeway, unless it might be a need during war to save someone or something."

Though not looking completely convinced Xerese didn't argue. She didn't know enough about magic use to say anything contradictory to her cousin.

It wasn't long before Anna got up and went to the bathroom where she looked in the mirror. She did look a little tired, but resting and eating had kept the worst of it away. Using the mirror, the wizard applied makeup to hide the dark circles that were just beginning to form. Her youth would help her as well, Annalicia thought. She was only twenty-two. Her body could recuperate faster than some of the older wizards; but she was up against a fire wizard about her age as well.

Could her air magic deal with his fire? It remained to be seen.

Annalicia coughed trying to suck in any air. Her wind defense had not only been compromised, but it had fully betrayed her. Fire fed off the wind and joined in the swirling defense creating a fire vortex giving off such heat that it sucked her breath away.

Coughing stopped the wizard from getting off a counter spell. If she just had air to exhale, the girl could speak and make the air push away. The fire wizard had been so fast and powerful. He was also intelligent enough to lull her into complacency before using her element against her.

She sank to her knees and then Anna's hands were on the stone. No more coughs would come as the heat burned her skin and lungs.

The feel of the stone against her face wasn't even noticed as the roar of the tornado of flames broke the wizard. Annalicia's world turned dark, which would have been a funny contradiction if she wasn't being suffocated into unconsciousness.

She coughed again and noticed that she was wet. In this winter air; that might wind up being her death instead, but Annalicia opened her eyes to see an unfamiliar looking face above her. In fact, several wizards in the yellow robes of the healing order surrounded the girl giving her attention.

"What...?" the fallen wizard started unsure of what she even wanted to ask. The one word pretty much covered everything, the girl thought.

She had a headache and her lungs hurt a bit as well, but otherwise Anna felt like she was waking from one of those naps one might have in the afternoon, a nap where you awoke unsure what time or day it was. The confusion was compounded by the strange feeling that more people were watching her.

"The fire wizard Magnus' fire spells slipped into your air defense and rendered you unconscious. You are lucky that they were able to disrupt your defensive spell and his fire quickly enough for us to get to you. Everyone thought you were fine, until the battle mage called out to end the match."

The healer's face suddenly looked as confused as Annalicia felt and he added, "Someone managed to pull the water from all of the ponds below the wall to put out the fire. I'm not sure who, but you probably owe them and Magnus your life, my lady."

Trying to sit up against the many hands that seemed inclined to keep her lying down, Annalicia questioned, "Why do I owe Magnus for saving my life?"

"When the water rose up, he put those mage tubes into the tornadoes letting the water get inside to snuff out the flames."

Her memory of the fight slowly returned. She had thought the strange blue tubes getting in her tornado defense had been a mistake. Magnus had encircled her wind tornado with a powerful flame vortex which was sucked through those tubes into the center of the ring. The heat had snuffed all the air inside preventing her from using anymore spells.

She was lucky that she hadn't been killed indeed.

"You should probably remain lying down, Lady Annalicia," another healer cautioned. "You were unconscious for awhile we think and your breathing stopped. Without a group of healers nearby waiting to help you duelers, you might not have made it."

"I'm fine," the girl answered as she not only moved to sit, but drew her legs under her readying to stand. As bad as it sounded like the duel had turned; Annalicia thought that the after effects were already gone or very nearly.

"Anna!" she heard Xerese's voice and suddenly her cousin was there kneeling to hug her tightly. The wizard thought the hug was going to stop her breathing once more at the rate she was going.

"I'm fine," Annalicia gasped, "but you're squeezing me too tight."

The pressure released slightly and the wizard noticed other familiar faces trying to get close enough to check on the fallen wizard.

Standing up after getting Xerese off of her, Anna used a quick air spell to pull the water from her clothes. Her teeth were chattering as her body finally gave in to the feeling of winter. Dried in an instant, the girl felt warmer moments later and also noticed that she didn't feel as tired as she thought she would after yet another duel. It had knocked her unconscious. Maybe the short nap had actually refreshed her in spite of the danger, Annalicia thought in amusement.

Feeling a familiar aura, the girl waved off those worrying over her and she looked at her grandfather.

The immortal looked at her looking almost sad, though it was probably just concern or relief, the girl thought.

"Are you all right?" he asked gently.

"I think so surprisingly," Annalicia replied as her hands unconsciously felt along her sides to her waist as if looking for holes perhaps. "It sounds like I was pretty lucky. The healer said that I was lucky that someone used a powerful spell to draw the water from the courtyards up to the fire to put it out quickly.

"Was that you, grandfather?"

Looking uncomfortable from the question, he shook his head. "No, Sebastian instinctively called to end the match. He sensed that you were in trouble, then as he ran to try and help you he... Somehow the mage managed to find the strength to pull all of that water up by himself. Magnus acted just as quickly to help deliver the water inside to you where it could disrupt both the fire and wind."

Annalicia looked at him skeptically and replied, "Sebastian managed to do that? I know that he kept surprising everyone in the tournament, but that doesn't sound like something very many wizards could accomplish. How did he manage that?"

Shrugging, Darius answered, "It is a mystery. There are times where a man or woman can gain almost superhuman strength to save a child by lifting weights that they shouldn't be able to, and those with magic can have similar surges at times. Just be glad that he was able to summon that much strength, since it was all that he could do before collapsing as well."

"Is he all right?" she asked in concern looking over her grandfather's shoulder to look for her apparent savior.

"He will recover. The lad is rather good at overextending himself and managing to survive. Who knows? He might even become stronger from it," the silver haired wizard said with a smile for his granddaughter.

"Well, I guess I owe him my life," she said with a shake of her head. "I don't know how you can repay something like that."

Again her grandfather held a smile that said he knew something that she did not. It was becoming annoying, the girl thought to herself.

"There might be something you can do, but for now let's just make sure that you are all right. The king has a banquet arranged for the wizards in the tournament as well as many of the royal visitors. We should get you some rest so that you can attend."

Giving him a slight frown; Annalicia thought a banquet was the least of her concerns, but she was used to royal banquets having attended them all of her life. "Well, whatever you think is best, grandfather."

Chapter 13- The Kings' Halls

Walking the streets quickly in the morning, the man would at first glance look like almost anyone in a bit of a hurry. He had purpose, but wasn't rushing. His clothes were slightly above average in quality, but not so much that he would appear to be someone of more than average means.