Battle Mage: The Dark Mage (Tales of Alus) (11 page)

Remaining largely unnoticed as the apprentices concentrated on targets or the individual manipulation of their spells, the mage closed the door and began to walk along the wall before following the school where a number of benches and tables were arranged. Bags and clothing were placed on the horizontal surfaces while their owners trained. He was surprised by how many of the students were lightly dressed. Cloaks and even clothing like tunics had been discarded as the heat of fire and exertion of channeling magic caused many to sweat like they were in the blaze of high summer.

“Have you come to train or to teach?” a girl’s voice questioned drawing his eyes away from the variety of spells and casters in the courtyard.

His surprise at knowing the owner of the voice must have shown on his face as he drew laughter from Sylvaine. The girl wore a red skirt split up the left side revealing her leg as she stepped and it was light and flowing to just below her knees. A skirt for summer or maybe a warm spring day, it was more modest than the white cloth wrapped around her breasts in a single twisted line around her back revealing her mid drift and shoulders. The girl was even barefoot on the springy moss that coated the stone beneath her feet near the walls.

Managing to comport himself quickly despite the girl’s exposed skin, Palose answered with a polite smile as he replied, “I could hardly teach anyone in Ensolus. I am learning the magic myself as you know.”

Appraising him with a look, the girl placed her right hand beneath her cheek tracing her jaw with the forefinger of that hand. Her left arm crossed beneath the white cloth nearly drawing his eyes inquisitively away from her face. “I don’t know,” sounding amused Sylvaine revealed that she knew more about him than she had officially let on before as she said, “I heard that you put Selvor and Malfaes in their place with your quick magic. Perhaps you could show me a little of what you showed them here on the practice field.”

“That was just battle magic. The spells that I’ve been reading in the books from the library make what I knew inconsequential really.”

Putting a pout on her lips, the dark haired girl shook her head slightly as she rebuked him jokingly, “Well, if it was inconsequential, then Selvor and Malfaes wouldn’t have gone running home with their tails between their legs. Of course, Turless tattling to everyone about the swift resurrection man who called spears of air to hand in a single word probably blew it out of proportion.

“Of course I am only a girl and an apprentice, so even inconsequential spells might seem incredible to me. You are sure that you won’t practice with me? I would love to learn something new, even if it does seem unimportant to such a skilled wizard as you.”

Raising his open hands before him, Palose capitulated as he replied, “Fine, fine, if you think that battle mage spells are that interesting I can try, but I’ve never sparred with a wizard. I usually just used a sword and shield.”

“Palose?” another familiar voice questioned the air. Turless appeared from the far side of the courtyard with a big smile on his face. “Did you decide to train me on that magic you used?”

The boy was sweating and had removed his tunic. His gray pants were tucked into boots unlike the barefoot girl. Despite being a northerner, Palose thought that the air was still fairly cool and assumed the stone beneath the moss must be colder still. He was wearing a short sleeve shirt of black and brown pants like any falcon though there was no emblem of his former order. When Sylvaine grabbed his left arm pulling it against her mostly bare upper body he felt her warmth and nearly smiled at the touch of her. “He was going to teach me, Turless. Get your own partner.”

Turless rubbed at the sweaty brown hair on his head and pleaded, “Come on, Sylvaine, I’ve been trying to get him to show me some of that magic for weeks.”

“You asked two weeks ago and I said that I’d think about it,” Palose clarified.

“But I wanted to ask before that,” the baby faced Turless responded blushing a bit with embarrassment.

Sylvaine stepped forward trying to drag the larger mage towards an open area between practicing wizards. “Too late, Turless, I claimed his time first. Besides we’re friends. Wasn’t your cousin Selvor trying to pick a fight with him the first time you introduced yourself to Palose?”

Her words stymied the apprentice a moment and the girl got her way. As the two found places to stand across from one another, Palose noted Turless grab his shirt and sit behind Sylvaine on the ground as if he hoped to get a turn when she tired.

“What exactly do you think I can show you?” the mage asked her cautiously.

His question made her think a moment and she asked, “What did you do in the fight? Maybe I can try casting some of my spells and you can show me how you would counter them.”

Preparing a spell, the girl released a fireball as she flung her hands at the mage. Surprised by the sudden attack Palose spoke quickly as he raised his left hand, “Shield, reflex, air spear.” Three spells in quick succession brought him to full readiness, even though his heart wasn’t in this fight.

The blue shield caught her fireball easily before the mage crossed the distance between them in a blink. With the shimmering air spear held horizontally beneath her chin, he was there holding her right hand with his left before she could blink.

Her eyes widened at the quick movements and Sylvaine asked, “If Southwall’s mages have such spells, why do they use their slower magic in battle?”

“Have you fought anyone from Southwall before?” he asked in retort. A smile softened his words and he stepped away from the apprentice. “Most wizards use stronger magic like you. It takes longer but can do more damage given the caster has time. A battle mage uses quick magic and fights closer like a soldier. If the wizards ever got over their disgust for mages and learned our magic, Ensolus might have more to fear.”

“So not everyone learns to do this? That is a good thing for us, I think,” she agreed with his position. “All right, this time no cheating by running at me. Let’s see what you can do if you fought like a warlock instead of a battle mage.”

Retreating to his original position, Palose awaited the girl’s attack. If she truly wanted to know his kind of magic, then this exercise was futile to his thinking. A duel set up with a wizard’s rules was hardly a true fight, though looking at the pretty girl in front of him, he realized that he didn’t really want to fight with her anyway, though he did enjoy being close enough to touch her soft, smooth skin.

He sniffed at his left hand and noticed a scent of flowers mixed with her personal scent. The smell was intriguing as was her personality and looks, but he had to shake off the distraction of the girl as he readied for her next test.

When her power rose before casting, Palose readied his shield again. His reflex spell remained, but the other spear and shield he had released. Seven fireballs released in quick succession and the mage moved the blue rectangle held before his hand to deflect or stop each ball. By the sixth strike, the shield weakened and winked out of sight while the mage was forced to dodge the last letting it strike the far wall.

Tilting her head to the side to look at him, Palose wondered what she was thinking. Sylvaine quickly answered that question as the apprentice asked, “Can’t you project the shield away from yourself? Maybe you could summon more than one instead of moving your hands to protect yourself from multiple attacks.”

It was a plan that Palose had never thought of before and sounded more like something Sebastian would have tried before he died. He had seen shields extended to split things like tables, so he supposed that it wouldn’t be too hard to simply move them away from his hand.

“We can try,” he answered and readied for another barrage of fireballs. If he had been able to create the night shield Sylvaine had been working on, Palose wouldn’t even need multiple mage shields he realized and wondered if he could create the magic. Trying to cast like a wizard or warlock was still uncomfortable to the trained battle mage.

Her power rose as she chanted and the fireballs came again. She had added an eighth just to try and push him, he thought.

Repeating the word ‘shield’ eight times in rapid succession, Palose used his hand to guide where he wanted each shield spell, but the distance ranged from six to teen feet away as they intercepted each piece of flame.

Sylvaine grinned and clapped for him before casting again. The flames were joined by spears of air similar
to his own. Coming in quick waves, the basic spells of both elements were numerous enough to challenge him a little, but his reflex spell kept the shields moving into place well ahead of her casting.

“Your magic is quicker than I thought,” the girl stated taking a breath between projectile spells. “You can catch everything from the air easily enough, but I bet that you aren’t ready for this!”

The last words preceded a feeling of magic, but Palose saw no casting as Sylvaine stomped her bare foot ahead of her a step. Erupting in a straight, swift line towards the former falcon, the ground came in a wave very quickly and without the reflex spell it would have caught him completely off guard with its speed.

Seven shields dropped from the air without his recasting to form a line and all broke reducing the power of the ground spell, but it continued for his feet. Palose created a new air spear using it to vault over the remaining earth wave. Using his speed once again, the mage was quickly at her side watching as the wave settled back into the ground.

“Mage shields aren’t that useful against an earth attack. Good to know,” he quipped sarcastically.

Her head turned hurriedly to track the man who moved so swiftly beside her. “That speed spell is very impressive.”

“Technically it is just my reflexes, but I am able to use it to speed my legs to a point also. Much farther than this distance and you would see an attack coming. If you ever run across a team of battle mages without orcs and goblins between you, either gain distance or run. A wizard can’t fight us in close,” he cautioned and felt a bit of genuine worry. The young mage was beginning to like the girl more each time he saw her and didn’t want to see her hurt or killed by his former countrymen.

Noting her skin beginning to glisten as drops formed on her forehead, Palose realized that the girl had been using a lot more energy to fight him than he was. While he was still fairly fresh, Sylvaine looked
a little winded and certainly very warm considering the mild temperature within the cavern city. Humidity from the lake might add to someone feeling a little warmer, but it wasn’t enough for him to have broken a sweat yet.

The girl turned to step towards the tables and he followed her. Turless rose without a word and joined them.

“Did you discover anything?” Palose asked Sylvaine, though Turless could have answered as easily walking beside the mage.

Patting her forehead with a towel before starting to rub the moisture from her shoulders and upper chest, which managed to seductively draw Palose’s eyes with each movement, Sylvaine responded with a dubious shake of her head. “It is basic, but so fast that if I could learn at least some of them; I might be able to defend myself in a closer fight at least.”

The battle mage shook his head. “Just knowing spells wouldn’t keep you from being hurt or killed in that kind of fight. Have you had any sword or hand to hand training to defend yourself? Battle mage spells are used to add to our combat strength. We don’t rely on just a set of spells to win a fight.”

A moment’s pause as Sylvaine’s lip slid out in a pouty way, preceded a shake of the head stirring her long hair that had been pulled back in a tail from her face while she trained. Stray locks flipped with the movement and he noted her curls had tightened a bit with the humidity she was giving off from her body. “We’re training to be wizards. Our magic will defend us.”

With as much intelligence and wisdom as the girl had shown him the last few weeks he had known her, Palose thought that was the stupidest thing he had ever heard. Hadn’t he proved over and over to these apprentices that there were serious deficiencies in their skills?

Turless spoke up and surprised Palose by adding, “The wizard hunters are said to train like him, Sylvaine. They use combat magic like darkness shields to take down wizards who can’t fight with swords. It’s exactly what they use against them.”

Frowning at the interrupting boy as well the extra information, she asked, “How do you know what wizard hunters do?”

Shrugging he replied, “They’ve been at the school and discussed it with some of the apprentices who are older. They are closer to being finished with their basic magic skills and those who show proficiency with weapons are often drafted to become wizard hunters.

“I have heard that they have even developed armor in one of the armories that can absorb magic like the night shields. A wizard’s magic is useless against them, while orcs and trolls can wear the armor using weapons to close with magic users with no fear of spells harming them.”

“The armor will absorb the elements?” Palose questioned realizing such armor in great numbers could help turn the war to Ensolus’ favor easily. If Southwall’s most commonly used spells like fireballs couldn’t harm even a common soldier, they would become helpless in battle.

Turless nodded while Sylvaine looked thoughtful. She was the one to speak as the girl added, “Could you teach me how to fight, Palose?”

“Me too!” the other apprentice quickly echoed since he had been trying to get such help from the mage for weeks.