Battle Mage: The Dark Mage (Tales of Alus) (31 page)

The feeling of a rushing wind swept over Sylvaine as the light of the portal swept her away from the frozen mountain and the pressing stone of the tunnels. Stepping into the arrival chamber, the girl looked to see if Palose were waiting with a portal team. Often a second set of warlocks would help hold the gate on the receiving side and this was no exception, but no one she hoped to see was there.

Eloria looked at the large clock set on the wall of the chamber. It was said that the time piece was there to help those sent to other worlds or parts of Alus acclimate to a return to Ensolus. Time governed the world even when magic was involved and helped settle the travelers into the flow of the city.

“Unpack and get back to your studies,” the taller woman ordered as if she were the girl’s mother. “Maybe it would be a good day to try the library. You seem to like studying there.”

Sylvaine nodded trying not to blush as she thought of who made going to the library so enjoyable. While she doubted that Eloria knew how she felt about the mage, a resurrection man she might even say, Sylvaine still wondered how closely her mentor kept track of her. Then again, she knew of the sword training without her apprentice saying much of her activities, so the girl remained unsure.

Politely excusing herself, the girl hurried to the dormitory of rooms that she had lived in for over three years while learning to become a wizard. It was a brief visit to the small, plain room. With a single bed, a wardrobe for her limited amount of clothing and small table for a lantern; there was little to distract the girl. There was a public dining area, but it wasn’t well tended as it was between breakfast and lunch time. Still, Sylvaine scrounged some bread, cheese and some form of meat they were serving to make a sandwich.

The girl sat at a table without rushing through her plain meal, though she wanted to run looking for Palose. Despite that feeling, he had confided that when he had time to travel outside of Ensolus it was often late in the morning until mid afternoon when he had almost always been found in the library. If he wasn’t out walking, he would be caught up in his duty to Atrouseon or Acheri and Lanquer. Running all the way to the training field seemed like a lot of work for the unlikely possibility of finding the mage there.

“Sylvaine!” a girl’s voice that she knew well called her name as Sylvaine heard light footfalls on the stone floor. She looked up as Maya swooped in a flutter of blond hair. Her smile was warm for her returned friend. “When did you come back?”

Smiling back at her friend, Sylvaine answered, “Less than an hour ago. I’ve only had the chance to drop off my clothes in my room and grab something to eat so far. How have you been? Have you kept studying in the library?”

A mischievous look came into the girl’s eyes as she replied, “Defrienne and I have been studying together and staying away from your spot until you came back.”

Confusion crossed Sylvaine’s face and she had to ask, “What do you mean you stayed away? The library is for everyone.”

Snorting in a brief laugh, Maya retorted with amusement, “The library might be, but you don’t want Palose to be, do you?”

Sometimes the blonde girl was so totally vapid, that Sylvaine couldn’t understand her friend. While Maya had her moments of brilliance, this was one of those times that her friend couldn’t understand her logic. “I don’t own him. If he decided that he wanted to be with one of you that would be his decision.”

“Yes, but it wouldn’t be yours, so we came to the decision that we would avoid him until you returned. Besides it wouldn’t have been the same without you there,” the girl said refuting Sylvaine’s logic with her own brand.

Waving off Maya’s decision, the curly haired apprentice changed tactics, “So you haven’t been keeping track of that Acheri and her... half brother or whatever he is?”

“I think Palose and Turless have met with them a couple times to continue weapons training,” shrugged the little blond. “Defrienne may know more, but I have been busy trying to iron out this stupid portal magic that Fordenna has been making me study. She says it’s easy, but Defrienne hasn’t been able to explain it to me so I can understand it.”

In a pout, the girl added, “I would rather just use my magic to create ice or throw fire. We use the large portal teams most of the time anyway, so why do I have to know how to do it?”

Shrugging in response, Sylvaine answered, “I can’t do it either. Palose can and is really good at it, if you want someone else to try helping you.”

“Are you tired of him already? That was a short lived romance,” Maya decided with a little smile for her friend.

Blushing slightly, Sylvaine stood having finished her lunch. “I’m not tired of him, but he’s your friend too, so I imagine that you can ask him for help too.”

Standing to walk with her friend, the blond haired girl continued their conversation saying, “I suppose if you are comfortable with it, I can ask. Will you be going to the library this afternoon like usual?”

Sylvaine nodded before replying, “I have a couple errands to do first, but I should be there by mid afternoon.”

“Great, I’ll let Defrienne know. We can catch up more
later and you can tell us how the battle went,” the girl said brightly turning to head the other way.

Left alone once more, the apprentice hurried off to do as she had said and wished that Palose had let her see the house front when he had taken her there. Knowing the route and steps to get there would have helped, but he had made sure to twist and turn to keep the girl from figuring it out. Now she wanted to find him and doubted that she could just happen across it by herself.

Sighing, the apprentice decided she would just see Palose at the library later and stopped worrying over the matter.

Two days of walking passed before Palose noticed a steady line of wood stakes working their way east. Following the sorry excuse for a road barely mattered to someone on foot until the first barbed wire fence materialized obstructing all but the road which was little more than two carts wide. Cattle could be seen in small groups here and there as he traveled making the view of rolling white a little more interesting. Trees were rare over the last few days, perhaps because logging of the forests for Windmeer had left little. One day wizards would probably come to help reseed some of the grassy plains to restart the forests that had once been close to the North Wall.

Of course another reason there were less forests this close to the wall was the security of guarding the open rather than letting an enemy sneak through into a dense mass of trees. He had hardly walked before he sensed a significant shift of one of his touchstones. As it winked out of his range and returned to the north, the mage was pretty sure that the necklace he had created for Sylvaine was back in Ensolus.

Turning back to the road ahead, Palose continued to travel east and soon spied a farm set back from the road in the distance. A farmer and a couple boys were outside pulling hay from a stack midway between their barn and the road. The traveler drew their eyes a moment as the sight, especially during the winter, was unusual to see and a single stranger walking the long road between castles was rare enough even during the summer.

One of the boys ran back towards the barn causing Palose to look in that direction as well. A huge form ducked back into the barn. Stopping in his tracks, the mage called on his spell, “Hawk vision.”

It had been no ox or horse that he had spied. Whatever had peeked out of the barn was large and intelligent enough to understand when the child cried out waving the creature back inside. Unable to see through walls, Palose was forced to frown in defeat as no sign of what he had seen reappeared.

Dropping a touchstone surreptitiously onto the path as he started walking forward once more, ever under the attention of the farmer and the second boy until the next rise, Palose continued onward as if the matter was settled. While he hadn’t been sure of what he had seen, the mage was almost certain that it was something that should not be south of North Wall. Agitating the farmer and his boys would only potentially alert them to his curiosity, and he wanted to come back to find out what he had seen.

Out of sight of any farm or workers in the frozen fields, Palose removed another touchstone from his pocket. Rubbing the token with his thumb thoughtfully, the young man used his arm’s strength to throw the stone as far as he could. As the touchstone hidden inside its large corrinut touched the ground coming to a halt in the snow, Palose stopped to intone a portal spell. Stepping through, the mage traveled a couple hundred feet in a blink to reach the touchstone.

Picking up his charm, the mage tried the same again over and over traveling a mile in several throws. Gauging his strength after casting the small version of the spell, Palose took up the touchstone replacing it in his pocket once more. He took his canteen to take a drink and tore off the end of a loaf of bread that he had taken along just in case he needed it.

The energy used for the spells wasn’t much more than that of a mile long walk. With his time maybe halved, the mage debated on using the spell to improve his speed and only considered against it as he wished to maintain a low profile. While a single small portal spell was unlikely to trip the senses of one of the group of gate guardians, wizards using specialized gear to look for large portals, several repeated uses of the magic could potentially build enough to look like a portal and draw unwanted attention.

Passing two more farm houses along the way and some herdsmen raising the cattle the cities would use for beef, Palose checked the sun above and knew that his time in Southwall was over for the afternoon. Casting a last portal spell, the mage was back inside of his hideout in an instant.

When Palose entered the library and looked up to the table he always used and spotted Sylvaine along with the other girls, he knew that his instinct with the touchstone was accurate. She looked none the worse for wear even from close up, so he doubted she had needed his training for this fight.

Taking a seat beside the girl, he nodded to her and said, “Welcome back. I assume that all went well?”

“You would assume wrong,” Sylvaine answered tossing her curls as she shook her head. In the hopes of not having to repeat herself over and over, Sylvaine had been making the others wait on his arrival to tell them of what happened. Holdy and Turless were there as well. Her comment made even the youngest boy put down his book in curiosity.

“What happened?” Maya asked first for the table of apprentices.

Frowning as she gathered her words, Sylvaine could think of nothing save, “We looked to have the upper hand and were about to bring the battle to a close, when Garosh walked up to the enemy and surrendered himself to them. From what I heard from others who were closer, he supposedly surrendered to avoid bloodshed, but that doesn’t really make sense to me. Up until that day, Garosh had bloodied Southwall every step of the way and everyone had been told how we would crush them. Suddenly Lord Garosh gave up the fortress to our enemies without a fight.”

“So you never had to use the close combat training then,” Palose said as if missing the point of the girl’s words.

“The only time I had to use it was when Garosh noticed me waiting the day before near the entrance. He wanted to know why I had a sword and tested what I knew,” she rebutted angrily. Why was he ignoring what she had just said? What did it matter if she used his battle mage training? Was Palose so lost in himself that he had missed the point that they had lost without a fight? It was humiliating and the army was slowly slinking back in the face of the betrayal.

This answer brought the mage’s eyes to hers and he asked carefully, “I assume that you sparred until he beat you or knocked you down. Did he say anything as well?”

Searching her mind as best she could for the details that had seemed rather minor compared to her news, the girl did the best she could to remember. Her time as his student almost made her forget the things that were beginning to annoy her about Palose. Holding them in, Sylvaine recalled as best she could, “He asked why I had the sword and who gave it to me. I told him my teacher gave it to me for the war. When I said that, he said it wasn’t even a battle anyone would remember and that the enemy had no chance.” Pausing to try and remember more as the sparring had addled her mind at the time, Sylvaine continued, “He asked who my teacher was and he knew you. Then Garosh asked me to spar using just a long knife from his belt. I was able to use the shield and flame sword, but only told him the others since a
fireball wouldn’t be very useful there. Once he decided that was all he broke my shield like it was nothing and told me that I would probably never be any good at it since I lack the heart.”

Palose nodded renewing her frown seeing that the mage must think the same thing.

“Was that all?” he asked.

Thinking of how the man believed she might be in love with Palose started to redden the girl’s cheeks and she jumped to a stranger piece of information. “He told me that he was created in a tank from other people’s parts or something like that. He also thinks that you are as alive as he, by the way.” Looking towards the ceiling, she added, “There was something about being able to defeat the Southwall armies easily, but needing to completely destroy them. I said if the fight was so inconsequential, then what would it settle?”

Surveying the table, the girl shrugged and repeated her opinion, “If killing a small army will only bring more of them until they find a way to kill you or die trying, then maybe making them understand Lord Garosh somehow would be the only way he would gain peace or at least make them understand that they can’t beat him.