Battle Mage: The Dark Mage (Tales of Alus) (19 page)

Palose wanted to sigh as she managed to make the magic better for her. She wasn’t wrong, but it was typical of Ensolus.

“She’s new,” Holdy stated and they noticed that the apprentice was looking down at the entry revealing that his attention hadn’t been as enrapt in his studies as he had made them believe.

Palose turned to look down at the main lobby and nearly started out of his seat at the sight of Acheri trailed by Lanquer. The latter wore a sword at his hip in his role of guardian. Avoiding a full frown to prevent the others from realizing that he knew the two newcomers, Palose quickly returned to his book.

Sylvaine, who never seemed to miss his reactions, casually commented, “She is quite pretty. That dress looks like it was made for a princess, but she wears boots instead of slippers. I wonder who the boy is behind her. He looks like he is a guardsman, but I can feel a lot of magical energy radiating from him.”

Defrienne nodded, “I think the girl has magic, but I can’t feel a thing with him so close to her.”

Palose could feel Lanquer’s aura without even looking at the boy and knew that he was suppressing his magical strength by about half. At this strength he was above the average power of a
wizard, but not as noticeably powerful as Garosh tended to radiate. Even so, the two roaming around in public felt like they were testing their fate.

“Palose?”
Sylvaine questioned with a gesture of her head towards the two walking below. He could feel Lanquer coming closer, but refused to turn and acknowledge the two. Since he was supposed to be concealing both the truth of their birth and the transfer of the emperor to a new body, the mage could only try to be as calm as he normally would. Normal would be for him to ignore them in spite of the others calling attention to the pair.

“She’s a child and he has magic. What more is there to see?” he asked trying to focus on the words on the page with little success. Lanquer’s aura was palpable to him and he could feel the boy climbing the stairs. Over time, Palose had become more sensitive to auras anyway, though he wasn’t sure if that was just because he was now more powerful or a side effect of his resurrection. As the two closed in on them, the mage could even sense Acheri through Lanquer’s clouding aura. They were getting very close.

Sylvaine and Defrienne’s eyes tracked the two as they finished climbing steps that Palose could hear even without a spell.

“Hello, is this the area with the books of rebirth and necromancy?” Acheri’s voice asked sounding cheery despite her topic. Palose resisted rolling his eyes.

Nodding, Sylvaine pointed over her shoulder, “They are over there. You are pretty young to be getting into such deep subjects, aren’t you?”

A scent of flowers suddenly wafted towards him as the girl in her navy blue dress slid behind Palose before taking a seat next to him. Her hand brushed his shoulder gently sliding along it to his upper arm before sliding out the chair next to him. Her cloak was in Lanquer’s hand, while he remained standing uncomfortably near the top of the stairs.

Acheri’s long, dark hair was pulled back revealing gold hoop earrings matching her gold necklace and bracelets which stood out from her dark, blue dress. Crossing her legs revealed creamy smooth skin from above the knee to her black boots as the girl angled towards the man beside her.

“Portal magic?
I would think that someone like you would prefer elemental spells like fireballs or perhaps powerful air attacks,” she said while her fingers pressed the near page gently to see what he was reading.

Sylvaine frowned turning a little red with jealous anger.

Ignoring his friend, Palose continued to look at the page while he answered, “I read many things. Portal magic is just one of the books in my pack.”

“Hmmm, then you probably know where many of the books are in the library. Perhaps you could put your book down and show me where the necromancy books about resurrection men are, since you seem to be an expert,” Acheri made the question more of a command as she pointed behind the page to place the book on the table.

The princess or empress or whatever he was to call her was making it known that she had come for a reason. Despite Sylvaine’s angry looks, Palose nodded as he placed the book on the table. He said nothing, not even one word as he stood with the young lady, who he knew had the power to destroy them all with a single spell. Her power dwarfed Lanquer’s and his friends didn’t even know it.

Walking to the last row, Palose turned towards the section where he had first met Sylvaine. It almost felt like a betrayal as he led Acheri to the same secluded area. Her right hand caught his left turning him to face her. Lanquer stood just behind looking uncomfortable as if she were his sister propositioning a boy.

“This is far enough, Palose. I obviously don’t need an apprentice to teach me how to use magic that the emperor learned a thousand years ago,” her mouth played a smile on her lips while her dark, blue eyes picked up a sparkle like stars in the night sky.

“I thought the idea was to remain inconspicuous until the day the emperor felt ready to reveal himself to Ensolus. You two roaming the streets alone and showing yourselves off to a library full of wizards is hardly keeping out of sight.

“How did you find me anyway?” the mage finished fighting the urge to let his frustration show.

Tilting her head as if she were trying to decide if he was daft for asking, Acheri waved off the question with a hand as she answered, “It is Kolban who will decide when to reveal himself. We are just byproducts of his rebirth. We don’t count, so I can go where I want, when I want. As to that, my bodyguard isn’t coming along as my brother had hoped.”

Lanquer ground his teeth angrily and leaned against the wall hard with his shoulders.

Acheri ignored her half brother saying, “Lanquer is still a boy, thin and building strength. As a swordsman, he is clumsy and slow. We need someone to teach him how to use his talents properly. He can hardly be a guardian in his present state, so we have come to you since you are currently the only one with your particular skills in both the sword and magic.”

“There are better teachers than me here, I am sure. I was training two warlocks this fall and they never became better than novices with their weapons. You might want to reconsider.”

Giving a sniff of disapproval, Acheri looked every bit the princess talking to a servant. “My brother, the emperor, has decided that it will be you. If you continue to protest, I can have you dragged off to a prison or worse, and I wouldn’t like to do that at all. We like you too much and you have such promise.”

Her finger pointed up as if she had discovered something. “As to that...,” the girl looked high on the shelves as if there was a book she had in mind. “Lanquer, I need a hand, or perhaps your back more precisely.”

The guardsman passed the lady’s cloak to Palose before joining the dark, haired girl near the end of the shelving. Getting onto all fours as she pointed to the ground before her, Acheri then stepped onto his back to reach the top shelf that neither of the men could have reached without a stool.

After double checking the front of the book, the girl returned to the floor and walked up to Palose handing him the volume. The title read ‘True Power’ by Kolban. His eyes widened as he assumed the Kolban on the cover was that of the emperor.

“My brother wrote this and has never found anyone who needed it until now. Most resurrection men either lose control or fall out of favor with their masters to the point of being destroyed. Kolban thinks that you may have the skills to use this to increase your power. While you will never be as strong as the Dark One,” she rolled her eyes at the emperor’s other title, “you may become more powerful than most warlocks with his help. I think he means to groom you to be one of his generals. You would like that, I think.”

Her dark eyes echoed the faint smile Acheri held for him. He had a feeling that she hadn’t lied that throwing him in prison or having him killed would have hurt her heart. Why she was attached to him was another question he had no answer for though.

“If his majesty wishes it, I will comply,” Palose stated with a bow of his head.

Sighing, the girl placed her hand against his cheek lifting it up to see his eyes. “Oh, don’t be such a boor, Palose. You may have other goals, but trust me this is a good path to follow as well. I am sure you can take time out of your busy mornings to teach Lanquer how to be a battle mage. Bring your little friends if you want. It might help encourage him if an apprentice shows him up a few times.

“Where should we meet?”

“Ceran Company Practice Field should do. It is one of the western fields and should be fairly quiet for training since it is winter and cold. Meet at ten o’clock, if this is what you want.”

“It is,” she nodded before slapping his cheek hard enough to leave a red mark for several minutes. “Come, Lanquer, you have a teacher, so let’s return to the citadel. It is growing close to dinner time and I am famished.”

The boy followed looking angry both at her words and possibly having to train with Palose, a mere battle mage.

After they left, the apprentice wizard looked at his new book and wondered how he had never seen this title before after months of scouring the shelving for information. While he hadn’t had time to read every book, he thought that he had seen every interesting title. ‘True Power’ sounded very interesting.

Chapter 10- Building Blocks

“Why are we doing this again?” Sylvaine questioned voicing a barely veiled refusal of wanting to help train Lanquer just because of Acheri. Perhaps there was also the problem of the winter cold, but the apprentice was using an air shield like the one Sebastian had learned from the air wizards. Unfortunately for Palose, it was a spell that had always eluded him.

“They are from a royal line, so I can’t exactly turn them down now can I?”

“What royal?” the girl asked again as she cinched her chest pad. Knowing how warm her body would get from the training, Sylvaine had stripped off her coat and blouse to the white cloth before strapping into the thick padding. Her arms remained exposed, but she did wear the protective glove guards. The girl wore loose hanging breaches that resembled a blouse in its movement. Boots prevented much air from touching her skin in the gap between the extended shorts and the leather. Pads strapped over the breeches created more protection and warmth.

“A high enough house that I am not even allowed to mention it to you,” he finished looking towards the roads to the east and the citadel of the emperor rising beyond the smaller military buildings between them.

“For a royal line they aren’t very prompt,” Turless added from where he sat on a bench in his pads.

There were few pedestrians on the road between them and the east, so when he finally spotted someone in a dress, Palose used a vision spell to make sure it was the emperor’s kin. Only slightly to his surprise, he noticed that they were alone once again. No guards gave them away or drew attention, but the pretty girl in her fine clothing could still garner unwanted attention.

When the two late arrivals walked up, Palose stated simply, “You’re late.”

Lanquer bristled looking ready to put the mage in his place, but Acheri answered first with a shrug. “It took longer than I thought, since we are so far from the center of the city. We will do better tomorrow.”

Turless groaned, “We’re going to do this tomorrow too?”

“If you really want to get better, then we should drill every day, Turless,” Palose stated as he threw some protective pads to the future guard.

Frowning, Lanquer shook his head, “Pads won’t stop a sword.”

“Excellent point,” Palose agreed putting out his hand. “Surrender your sword. You won’t need it for now.”

The boy looked unwilling to part with his weapon as if wearing it made him actually skilled enough to use it properly.

Acheri sighed and prodded the obstinate boy in the ribs. “He is your teacher, Lanquer. Stop being bull headed and give him your sword. It isn’t like he couldn’t take it from you if he wanted. You don’t really know how to fight with your fists let alone that sword.”

Removing the belt holding the scabbard and blade, Acheri took it from her half brother and went to sit down on the bench beside Turless. She wore a leather coat this morning, but a red skirt slid back to reveal her legs from above the knees to the tops of her short leather boots also dyed red. Palose was surprised that the slim girl wasn’t cold. Every girl he had known in his life had usually been cold unless a spell like Sylvaine’s worked to keep them warm.

Lanquer looked ready to resist putting on his pads, but when Sylvaine and Turless began to spar it became apparent why they needed them as the male apprentice took a hard shot across his left arm. He shook the hand while Sylvaine gave her partner a chance to recover.

“Well I guess Lanquer could start facing off against Sylvaine for the time until Turless recovers,” their teacher stated as the apprentice looked like he was going to be in pain for awhile.

Screwing up his face in disgust, the newest student shook his head. “I will not fight a girl. There is no challenge in that.”

Sylvaine bristled looking ready to complain, but Palose stepped in quickly. “I’ll tell you what. You and I can spar. If you are better than I think, then I will remain your partner for now.”