Battle Mage: The Dark Mage (Tales of Alus) (62 page)

Palose heard the story and while he could commiserate with the wizard on an unfair death caused by Ensolus’s warlocks, his focus went to the question of lost power. “Do you have your strength back now?”

Blinking uncomprehendingly a moment, the fire wizard worked a spell creating a fireball with ease that hovered above his hand. At the close of that hand into a fist, the flame went out once more.

“I seem the same,” he answered.

“If you feel well enough, then how about hopping off the table that I might extend the same favor to this wizard,” Palose suggested as he gestured to the dead man on the painter’s sheets that the mage had left there instead of trying to move him.

“Wendle,” the big man said shaking his head sadly, “they killed the Kardorian too.”

“And you are?” Stasia asked from where the girls had remained out of the man’s line of sight near the doorway.

The bearded wizard’s blue eyes softened at the sight of the pretty girls and nodded as he introduced himself, “I am Dorgred, a fire wizard of Southwall.”

Palose shook his head as he moved to the side of the dead Wendle, and warned, “You may be Dorgred, but while in Ensolus you must refrain from mentioning that you are from Southwall. I am from Southwall as well, but no one knows that I have worked to give you a second chance at life.”

Frowning in return, Dorgred stood testing his balance for only a moment before helping the mage pick up the dead man. “You were from Southwall and yet you serve them? How have you served them?” the big man suddenly asked looking suspicious. Palose had a feeling that his actions were already known to the fire wizard, but wasn’t sure if hatred for the Betrayer could override the runes he had set.

“Later,” Palose stated as the dark mage began to draw his symbols with the blood still on his hands.

As the fire wizard looked ready to try and argue for more information, Stasia’s voice interrupted Dorgred as he opened his mouth. Sounding both sweet and stern, the young blond haired beauty wagged her finger firmly before his whiskered face, “Be quiet, he has to concentrate to save your friend.”

“My friend,” the big man said shaking his head seeming unconvinced, but he crossed his arms and remained silently waiting.

Repeating the ritual, Wendle came awake with less of a start, but much of the confusion.

Giving a quick synopsis as he had for Dorgred, they quickly brought the young wizard up to speed. Still an apprentice by designation, the fire wizard assured Palose that Wendle had been as good in a fight as any water wizard of full rank.

“Kardor maintains a longer apprenticeship,” Wendle added looking slightly embarrassed. “We basically remain apprentices until they feel we can teach the next in line. I have trained for seven years and have specialized in water and ice. Most apprentices work to learn more elements before they leave their masters.”

After following the mage and the two girls, who drew Wendle’s eyes quickly after his mind began to adjust to his surroundings, Palose readied to see if his controls would hold. Sitting in the living room, the five began to discuss the new relationships the mage planned to create with them.

Finally getting to Dorgred’s question, the young man stated, “I was killed last summer and resurrected, as they call it, by a warlock named Atrouseon. He used runes that could compel me to do what he ordered. The first order was to return to Southwall to enter Windmeer and work to bring a force from the emperor into the castle.”

Leaping up to challenge the dark mage with a finger pointed at his chest, Dorgred roared, “I knew it!
Betrayer!”

“Sit, Dorgred, and listen,” Palose ordered gently. Like the fire had run from him, the wizard looked a little confused at the ease with which his intended tirade fizzled. “The controls of Atrouseon aren’t perfect, but such a demand on me from my master required me to do what I did whether I wished to
or not. Since then I have found a few ways around some of his commands by justifying avoiding only the letter of the commands, whether intent of more was wished, I can then escape his full control.

“I can not say that I cared one way or another about the fate of Windmeer, but I can’t tell you whether that is from what I was before or after my death.”

“So you are a betrayer, but not necessarily because of your own volition. That is convenient,” the large, bearded wizard complained gruffly. “And now what, we serve you in a similar way? You have controls set to make us do as you want?”

Palose understood the complaint, but shook his head, “The only true controls I set are ones to prevent your betrayal. For now, we are stuck here under the emperor’s influence and to leave would be our deaths. He has struck behind the wall at one who had thought to betray him and join Southwall. They struck in both Windmeer and the fortress you may have heard about in the mountains. If the emperor is willing to risk an attack inside of Windmeer for the second time in less than a year, I think I can safely say we can’t hide easily.

“On the other hand, I was made to bring them using gates that I created, so maybe the emperor wasn’t intelligent enough to leave a way back without my help. I just wouldn’t trust my life with that belief.”

Dorgred looked angry. “You have invaded and helped invade my country multiple times now, and I must serve you?”

“For now, you must assist me and essentially watch my back here. I was just a mage and have gained power both in influence and magical power, but there are those that watch such men and being alone makes me vulnerable. You two will be there to watch out for those men and help me not only secure my future but your own.”

Wendle sighed while the big man remained seated but angry. “So you will help us get back home, once you have figured out where you will go and how you will get there?”

“Essentially,” Palose nodded.

Stasia moved over to the fire wizard and sat in his lap. Scratching at his chin through his thick beard, the girl teased him like she would a cat or dog, “Come on, Fuzzy, it isn’t so bad. Palose has only helped to attack Ensolus’s traitors, even if they were on your soil since he managed to break free of his master’s direct control. He’s not making you attack Southwall or Kardor, if he can help it, so let’s just be friends, all right?”

Unable to resist the pretty girl’s flirting, Dorgred stated grumpily, “Just so he knows, I won’t be a part in harming the country I serve.”

Wendle raised an eyebrow, and officially sold the wizard out as he asked, “Which country is that? I thought that you were onboard the ship coming to Kardor to see if you wanted to come help us. Lord Romonus hired a handful of wizards from the tournament to come to Kardor and help rebuild our wizard school’s strength again.”

Dorgred opened his mouth looking for a way to refute the claim, but found that he could only sigh and admit, “Fine, so I won’t willingly harm Southwall or Kardor. Are you happy, Wendle?”

Rolling his eyes, the younger man replied, “Ecstatic.”

Receiving giggles from the women, though Talia quickly covered her mouth with her hands as she realized that she was behaving like Stasia; Wendle smiled at the girls and gestured for Palose to continue. The battle mage had little more to say, but added, “While we are here, I can help you find out the strengths and weaknesses of the warlocks’ magic. I think that would be a fair trade for your help. When you return to whichever country you desire, it might help them fight the emperor’s armies if they knew what Ensolus knows.”

The last piece of news made Dorgred thoughtful and he soon replied, “Now that I like. Their black armored warlocks and soldiers defeated us too easily. I would like to know how they resisted my best fire spells.”

Smiling as he realized that they had come to an agreement beyond his magic, Palose answered, “That I can show you.”

Chapter 33- Made

Atrouseon stepped out of the meeting room in the warlock’s caucus building. The warlock had been feeling a bit better about his situation of late. Ever since the altercation with Palose had led to their parting of ways, things had begun to improve. First, though he had at first felt weaker, Atrouseon had slowly recovered his magical strength until a few days ago he felt almost as strong as he had before it all had begun.

Being chosen to join a group tasked with determining how to deal with the threats beyond the empire’s borders had been another point of growth. He had been surprised when Talsker had come to him and been more at ease when he had found both Thielius and Etriak were part of the team being assembled. Talsker had a direct connection to the emperor and had been put in charge. If Atrouseon did well, the warlock was certain that this new position could lead to other greater things. Certainly his luck had turned around.

Another boon had been the day that the wizard hunters had returned with Lord Devolus and his brother licking their wounds. Such a thing had never happened during their illustrious careers with the corps dedicated to destroying the wizards of Alus. It was a new question that his team needed to answer
and it was full of curiosities including how their enemy had found a weakness in their light and darkness spells.

Lord Devolus had fought the Grimnal as well. Atrouseon had suspected the immortal of Southwall was still alive somewhere, but that he was freed by a ship of their enemy in a battle that had felled two black ships was bad news indeed for the empire. Concealing his glimmer of joy at the fall of the others, since it meant his own successes pushed the warlock back to greater levels with no new need for an achievement, Atrouseon worked in his congress looking into what had gone wrong.

“Warlock Atrouseon,” a girl’s voice greeted as the man made a turn in the hall as he headed out of the building.

The man’s eyes were pulled from his feet in his reverie at the call. Acheri’s smiling face was a surprise, since the princess had never been noticed around this area before by the warlock. While the girl was as powerful as any wizard, in fact far more powerful, she had never been trained by the academy and had only the knowledge imparted to her by the emperor in her birth. Atrouseon had heard of what the girl was rumored to have done both in the city and in Windmeer, but she was an outsider here.

“Good morning, Princess Acheri,” he greeted the girl he had helped to create. “This is a strange meeting place. I had not known that you were involving yourself with warlock matters.”

Shrugging as her smile turned bemused, Acheri replied without truly committing, “I concern myself with matters that concern my brother the emperor. Sometimes those bring me here and sometimes they bring me elsewhere.”

Atrouseon noted Lanquer standing several paces down the hall where he leaned against the wall looking very bored. He was her shadow. The guard that Emperor Kolban had decided him to be before his birth, Lanquer had proven himself in the raid on Garosh’s fortress from what rumor told. Now he was once more tasked with looking after his sister, or was it she who looked after him. No one could ever truly be sure.

“Be that as it may, I am pleasantly surprised to see you, princess,” the man stated trying to hold a smile to echo his sentiment.

“Why thank you, Atrouseon,” the girl answered looking genuinely pleased. Pausing for only a moment, she pointed in the direction he had come and asked, “You have joined the little group created by Warlock Talsker? Have you found it rewarding?”

“Yes, your majesty, I have found the opportunity to help advise the emperor through this committee to be very rewarding,” he replied feeling only a little curious at her phrasing of the question, but the man figured he was only being suspicious without warrant. A child only a few months old could hardly have picked up on all the cues of society so she was bound to have a few awkward discussions and phrasing.

Her smile continued as she released a sigh of relief and a brief nod, “I am glad to hear that. Some might feel being put on such a group as a reward of pity and beneath them. I can only imagine that some of what your little group figure out might be used by Kolban and Lord Devolus. You all seem bright enough, though what you could possibly understand about a threat you have never seen is beyond my feeble comprehension.

“Of course, after the incident with your last apprentice, this must feel like a good step in the right direction. He stole some of your power... and money too, I have heard; but surely such rumors must be false.”

She had turned the conversation to the dark days only weeks behind him or so he had thought of his time being humiliated by his apprentice. If the princess had heard of his humiliation in the palace, then how many others knew how Palose had turned on him and defeated the warlock. He was an apprentice and resurrection man of all things. Such a stigma would haunt him for the rest of his days.

Trying to keep a positive look on his face, the man attempted to appear like such a disgrace had not truly happened. “We parted ways, but it sounds like things have been exaggerated. Palose is so new to Ensolus; I merely made sure that he would have income to get started. That is all.”

Acheri nodded politely. Her dark blue eyes seemed unconvinced despite the light smile playing on her red lips. Atrouseon noted the young girl looked more like a woman with mostly subtle makeup making her look older than the fourteen years she should appear and certainly older than the short time she had been free from her birthing chamber.