Battle Mage: The Dark Mage (Tales of Alus) (25 page)

It was late enough in the day that pedestrian traffic thinned towards the east and the lightly tended shipyard. Five well maintained black ships sat beside their docks and Palose still wondered how they could leave the lake and return. The stone gate near the far wall made him think it had something to do with the touchstones which he had been using in the foothills.

The girl had maintained her silence as they walked so the two of them held quiet while Sylvaine hugged his arm. When they appeared suitably away from prying eyes and ears, he confided, “I’ve been using a touchstone thrown by the altar that the fortress
uses for moving troops and supplies so that I can practice my portal magic.”

While practice was one part of his reason, it was far from the only reason. One day his walk would reach Windmeer and he would work to reach other cities from there. He still hadn’t worked out every part of his plan, but should Atrouseon turn on him or some other threat came to pass Palose wanted to be ready to leave Ensolus and be far away.

Sylvaine looked at him as if studying his face to see if he was telling her the truth. Being an astute young woman, her brief frown made him think that she suspected there were other motives which he still hid from her, but it was still a big secret. A slightly tighter grip on his arm preceded her asking, “You have visited there often?”

“Often enough,” he replied being vague.

“Have you seen the mountain fortress?” the question made him worry over his answers.

How guarded he should be with a girl that he considered a good friend and potentially more, was his biggest problem. The wrong confidant had brought down greater men than he when their trust was betrayed. Taking a breath, he finally confessed, “No, I usually just walk through the foothills and nowhere near where I believe it is. If I were spotted there, my practicing would over. They would either capture me thinking I was spying or send me back to Atrouseon for discipline or death.”

“Walking through the foothills explains why you look so red in the face lately. You went today, didn’t you?” she added looking at the windburn still fading from his skin that had been exposed on his walk.

He nodded not bothering to lie. Lying had never been his strength. Just being quiet had been enough of a mask.

“Where do you go to cast that kind of magic? Don’t you need a prepared place to return to each time?”

Now the question had come and Palose had to decide whether to lie or let the girl in on his secret. His extended silence led Sylvaine to add, “I didn’t mean to pry. If you can’t tell me then I guess that I shouldn’t ask more.”

“Can you keep the secret?” the mage asked without looking at the girl beside him.

Looking a little hurt and surprised that he would have to ask, Sylvaine nodded even so as she replied, “Of course. Whatever you tell me, including the training, has never left my mouth. I still haven’t told Eloria that we have been training in battle mage magic and sword skills. It would probably be considered inappropriate for an apprentice wizard to bother learning such things, so I have never told her anything other than I go to study.

“This would be one of those things that I would never tell anyone unless you told me to. If you never want it revealed, I can keep the secret.”

Pulling out a small towel from his pack that hadn’t been used for their training days yet, Palose tied it as a blindfold. The girl stood with a bemused smile while he finished securing the device. “I’ll take a circuitous route, so if anyone does decide to ask you won’t be sure where it is,” he decided.

Shaking her head in amusement, Sylvaine found his arm again to be led by him trusting the mage to keep her safe. “You really want to keep this a secret, don’t you?”

As they walked, Palose let the question lie a moment as he talked of another secret, “You let the truth of Lanquer and Acheri lie unspoken. They remained hidden until the emperor announced his change of body and the addition of two more vessels holding his power.”

The word had been leaked to the rest of Ensolus, at least those in the military. Acheri and Lanquer’s part in the change of power was known to a lesser degree, but Acheri was already being referred to as the emperor’s sister or the princess. Few knew them well enough to know them on the street, so a certain anonymity remained, but he was now allowed to tell the truth.

Sylvaine tensed slightly straightening her back at the mention of the emperor and his vessels. Nodding as she tried to maintain her footing without tripping thanks to the blindfold, the girl replied, “Eloria told me that the emperor had found a way to become younger and stronger again. That Acheri and Lanquer are those vessels, I had not known, so thank you for telling me.” She
paused the conversation even as their feet continued to turn this way and that in the human part of town. “Does this mean I need to bow next time I see them?”

“You already used to call Acheri ‘lady’ half the time anyway. Lanquer is considered a lesser vessel and holds a fraction of what she does. Still the emperor’s power was immense and seems to have renewed much of what he has given to the other two. If they demand you to bow, then I think you’d better, but somehow I think they care less about that than you might think.”

When they arrived at his hideout, Palose helped the girl up the outer steps leading to the front door rather than entering through the garage. Even with the twisting route, he had the feeling that Sylvaine could find the place back, but it was his best option for maintaining secrecy other than not bringing her at all.

Still wondering if not bringing the girl to the house was the better decision; Palose untied the blindfold revealing the main room. Without seeing the front of the house, he felt that it would be at least a bit of a challenge to find the place back again.

Sylvaine took in the room at a glance. Table, chairs, stove and the rest were easily dismissed as the taste of a young man as she wrinkled up her nose at the bare wood floors and walls. No paint or stain had been used inside in decades most likely and it looked a bit run down. Palose had never bothered to do anything to update a place he considered temporary at best.

“Not much to see. Is it?” the girl asked turning to look at the mage. He knew her eyes strayed to the window frosted by the cold. “If you ever decide to live here, you might want to paint.”

Pulling out a chair from under the table, Palose sat for the first time in hours. His legs were sore from the miles of walking in the snow and even the bare, wood seat felt good to his weary feet. “I didn’t rent it to have a place to live. Atrouseon’s apartment is far nicer than anything I could ever afford.”

“Speaking of which, how did you afford this? Unless your master is giving you a significant allowance, I can’t see you being able to rent anything,” she stated moving to sit in one of his padded chairs away from the table. “Even furniture is expensive.”

“I found a way,” he stated evenly. There were some secrets that he refused to acknowledge even to his friend.

Again she smiled that knowing smile. “I think Atrouseon is much richer than Eloria. She is an elemental warlock and they are common enough. She’s no leader either, so she just follows or teaches. Your master is a necromancer and researcher. Did he help with Acheri and Lanquer too?”

He nodded. The emperor had awarded Atrouseon and those on the team a fair reward in gold. Atrouseon seemed even more entrenched in the upper echelon of the warlocks now. He was nearly a lord in status and had apparently been well regarded before Palose’s rebirth.

Rising from the couch, the dark haired girl brushed back her curls as she wandered to the doorways leading from the room. “You have a bed. Have you used it?”

“No,” he responded briefly. The response brought the girl’s eyes back from the room that was bare save for the bed.

“Were you planning on leaving Atrouseon soon?”

Standing, the mage moved to the stove. It was cold in the house as it often was, since he didn’t live there. There was still half burned wood inside so he tossed a fireball into the mix before closing the metal gate which contained the fire. “I haven’t made any plans one way or another, but all things come to an end sometime. For now, it is simply a safe haven to practice my magic. When I create a return gate, I know that I won’t walk into someone or have it split someone in two because of a crowd where my magic could arbitrarily send it.”

Her polite smile as she answered proved her sarcastic view, “We wouldn’t want that, would we? If the council would come down on you for
portaling without your master, I can believe that killing Ensolus’s citizens with errant gates might create a larger fuss.

“All this for a little portal casting practice,” she added with a laugh. “Still I guess that it isn’t a bad idea, especially if you needed a quick escape. Have you tried
portaling within the city to here?”

Shaking his head, Palose confided, “I didn’t want to give an extra opportunity to be noticed using my magic.”

He walked over to the cabinets for the kitchen built on the wall near the stove. Opening one of the drawers, Palose grasped a necklace chain. It was relatively inexpensive and simple in design. He had bought it for a possible experiment that he had read about and decided that it was time to test the theory in the book. His first spell enchanted the stone set in the brass setting. It was an easy spell and one that he used on the touchstones he had been using regularly.

The second spell was untested by him, but was supposed to tie the creator to the person he gave it to in order to let them know how that person was doing. More to the point, if the wearer were injured or dying, the signal should alert the necromancer no matter the miles between them. As long as the one gifted wore the chain, he would know they were safe or in danger. If it was removed by the wearer, the magic would become inert while waiting to return to the user.

Satisfied that the spells were set, Palose walked over to the girl who had decided to try the largest piece of furniture in the room, a padded couch of a cream color that made Sylvaine look like she was sitting on a cloud. He sat next to her offering the piece of jewelry causing the girl’s eyes to look at him questioningly. While she could almost believe that it was a mere gift, the spells placed on the trinket made it unlikely.

“What is this?” she asked placing the stone and setting against the palm of her hand as the chain looped over her fingers. Looking at the simple piece, Sylvaine looked slightly disappointed in the simplicity of design.

“One of the texts said that a warlock could charm a locket or necklace to tell the caster that the wearer is safe. If something should ever happen to you, I will know. The stone holds the power of a touchstone, so I will also know where you are if you come to harm,” the mage laid out the spells as plainly as he could. Sylvaine would understand most spells he could learn, since she was years ahead of him in research being on the path to a wizard as she entered puberty gaining her magical powers.

Her face looked to question his purpose and the girl tried to ascertain his motives by asking, “You want to keep track of where I am? If you can already portal to the altar near the fortress, why would you need this? You weren’t planning on gating into my room in the night for mischief were you?”

The last was asked in jest, but Palose still answered, “It doesn’t have to be just the fortress where you can wear it. You said that you were worried about the upcoming battle. If anything should happen to you, I can be there as quickly as I can cast the spell. When you aren’t wearing it, I will only know where the necklace is resting because of the touchstone, so feel free to only wear it when you are afraid or worried that you are all alone. That way you will always know that I will be there when you need it.”

Tears formed in her eyes. The mage hadn’t meant to make her cry, and began to rub his neck self consciously as he wondered if he had said something wrong. While he had tried to resist becoming attached to the people of Ensolus, Palose felt more for Sylvaine than he had thought he would for anyone in the city that had once just held enemies.

To his surprise, the girl surged towards him hugging the young man around the neck. She could voice no words as he felt her breath shuddering in her chest. Muffled sounds of crying could be heard as Sylvaine rested her head on his shoulder. Palose put his arms around her trying his best to comfort the girl as she fought to control her tears. Ensolus was merciless against those who were weak and even children were taught to be hardened to pain and feelings, but people couldn’t completely shut off their emotions. Even the hardest hearts could only try to hide what they felt when something truly touched them.

Pulling back a little bit, Sylvaine placed her hands on his cheeks before leaning back in to kiss him hard on the lips. She lingered and he felt her breath touching him before settling back.

“Thank you, Palose,” the dark haired girl said gratefully. Her violet eyes still glistened with tears, and wet trails remained on her cheeks. Despite the tears, she looked happy to him. “I think knowing that you will be there for me will make this first battle easier. I don’t have to be as fearful when I know that you can be there.”

He nodded thinking how beautiful she looked even as the girl cried tears of happiness.

Chapter 13- The Merchant’s Son

Usually two specific, massive buildings were designated for the large gates used by the dark armies of the emperor. As Palose stood waiting to help activate the portal in one chamber, he looked at the hundreds of troops amassing within the large room and had heard that there were still more outside.