Battle Mage: The Lost King (Tales of Alus) (17 page)

Serrena must have finally caught some of what he was feeling as she inquired, “Don’t you like the idea that you are becoming famous. You’ve blazed new trails and built bridges between wizards and mages for the first time. It’s a pretty big thing.”

“It’s also a lot of pressure and a big hassle,” he replied circling the stone. It wasn’t worth casting the next scythe until he could follow the compass’s direction, so they had to kick through the clinging brush as they circled the obstruction.

Noting her sudden silence, Bas looked at his companion a moment to judge her change. Green eyes met his beneath auburn hair glinting red from the sun’s light. “It may be a hassle, but it is important. Don’t you think?”

Sighing louder, he turned to fire the next scythe. “I know, but it always stems back to why am I the only one discovering anything? I feel like I am doing everyone’s work, which becomes that much more frustrating. Is there no one else that can look at what you wizards can do and figure out a way to configure it into a mage spell? A lot is simple observation and then sorting it out in my mind. Is that really so hard?”

Laughing a quick, derisive bark, Serrena retorted, “If it was so easy don’t you think somebody else would have done it in the past one hundred fifty years? You make it sound easy, but I’m sure that there have been spells that either took you longer or have still remained a mystery to you. Take that to people that just aren’t as creative as you and multiply that thought. Wizard magic is older than yours by a thousand years, but after the Cataclysm it was reduced by hundreds of spells I am sure and many have never been discovered again.

“Wasn’t High Wizard Darius saying something about you discovering something from his time that he allowed to disappear because it was dangerous?”

Bes started at her words. He hadn’t known that anyone aside from Yara had heard about the use of a rod or staff to increase a wizard’s power. The hazards of overusing the technique had killed or significantly shortened the lives of the wizards Darius had worked with hundreds of years ago, so the high wizard eventually helped to ban the technique among his guild. It disappeared until he happened upon it by working with a wilder. He had tapped the power of the earth and eventually paid a price as well. There was no way that he would expand that knowledge to others if it had such a cost.

At his silence, the woman continued, “Well, be that as it may. I can assume that what you learned isn’t in a textbook. If only Darius is the only other wizard to know of this spell or whatever, then you just proved how rare your talent of discovery is, Bas. You may not want to teach, but you need to make sure what you know is passed on even so. Your spells can save lives and improve Southwall. That’s all I am saying.”

He took in her words silently. They had been on his mind before she expressed them and the mage had tried to pass on his knowledge as best he could. That said, it didn’t mean that he wanted to become a teacher just yet. He was too young to sit in White Hall teaching new battle mages. There was too much to see and do before he retired to the relative quiet of a school.

A sudden thought came to mind as he considered his relationship with Yara. Could a position in one of the three schools be extended to her as well? They could be together indefinitely and live a long, safe life. Perhaps the cost of his freedom as mage was worth the opportunity to settle down with the girl he believed that he was destined to be with if he could just figure out the way. Maybe this was the way.

Refocusing on the task at hand, the mage pushed such thoughts from his mind. He had just decided he was too young to become a teacher and now he was considering what? Becoming a husband, a parent, and a teacher that he had originally thought was something too soon to worry over. He was only twenty years old and a falcon. It was time to do what he was supposed to be doing or hand over the task to someone like Maura.

Thinking of giving in to Maura brought his mind back to the search. When a last scythe broke through to a stone wall broken down in places and green with grass and brush trying to reclaim the piece, the mage looked at the sudden break in the plant life in stunned silence. The two looked closer and noted four walls with openings for windows. He had little idea of the age of the ruin, but it looked old and he wondered if it predated the Cataclysm. Could it be broken from the mainland and shoved this far away? Maybe it was an island that had shrunk to its current size after the earthquakes and sea had finished changing the world so rapidly only a couple hundred years before.

“Should we signal the others?” Serrena asked thinking of his orders to the two teams.

“Just a moment. Let’s look and make sure that we actually have a reason for them to come see this.”

“It’s a former home, Bas. Do you think that it isn’t important?”

He heard some sarcasm in her words as he consulted the compass and checked by moving to the side of the wall. Left or right, it took only a few steps for the arrow to change direction. They had found a point of interest.

“Yeah, this appears to be what the compass brought us here to see. Now we just have to figure out what we are seeing. Signal the others for me, Serrena, if you please. I will see if I can find anything that was left behind in here.”

The fire wizard sent up the first fireball and released its power in a loud thump that managed to shake his body as the mage pushed through grass and, to a lesser extent, ragged, little bushes that had managed to push through a stone floor. Sebastian could tell from the seamless stone, even in the state of disrepair, that magic had created this small place. That it was someone’s home was nearly certain. Why else would one build such a structure on a distant island?

“Gust,” he sent a few winds into the space between the walls driving away some of the dirt and plant material littering the ruin. To his shock a table and a stone block that seemed to act as perhaps a safe revealed themselves amid the wreckage of the former inhabitants.

“Do you think there might be something inside?” Serrena queried from the open frame of what had once been a door. The upper stone above the door had long since broken and lay at her feet.

The desk only held a piece of steel that had probably once been the blade of a long sword. Any other remains were dust or destroyed by mold. Putting the sword on the table to the left and the stone safe remaining on the right, the compass was placed between the two as he conducted an experiment. To his surprise, four lights now lit up the green emerald circle. The dull orange to the north remained Hala, a dull red represented southeast and apparently a distant goal to find. The remaining two bright red lights proved that both the sword and the safe were viable candidates as instruments involving the Grimnal.

With that confirmed, Sebastian looked more closely at the stone safe. Clearing away plants and debris, the mage was trying to figure out how it was sealed when Maura and Idenlare arrived followed shortly by Mecklin and Captain Drayden.

The researcher looked at the ruin in disappointment from the doorway. “This is it?”

Sebastian pointed to the broken sword and said, “This may have been one of his weapons and this safe apparently holds something more.”

Moving closer by brushing past Idenlare, who frowned at the woman’s back, Maura began to lay her hands on the stone safe. “You’re sure this stone holds something?”

“I can’t imagine the stone itself has importance alone. If we can figure out to break the seal on it, perhaps there will be something more useful inside. At least we know that he or someone with close contact to the Grimnal came this way.”

The woman nodded. “He was said to have a relationship with some of the island nations from a time of pirating, I believe, though that blade in your hand looks newer than a thousand year old piece of steel under this kind of conditions. Give me a moment to look at this stone. Perhaps magic not only formed this safe, but secured it also.”

Captain Drayden entered the ruin and acknowledged both Idenlare and Sebastian with nods. “It may have been formed from magic, but the lock is more ordinary, Wizard Maura.”

Standing up to confront the man with a frown, Maura countered, “And how would you know such a thing?”

Laughing easily, the captain moved forward towards the stone. “Covering that would be a long dull story I assure you, but I do have knowledge of other safes of this sort. Magic creates not only the outer stone, but makes the means to unlock it seem invisible. If I may?” he queried with a gesture to the square block.

Grudgingly, Maura stepped aside and let the captain pass to kneel beside the smooth stone. As the man said, Sebastian saw no lock or handle to open the safe. If the compass had not pointed directly to it, the mage would have assumed it to be just a block of stone no matter how odd its placement.

Sliding his fingers from front to back and then across the top and front, Drayden seemed to touch every square inch of the exposed block. With a nod, the man placed seven fingers against the block in different positions along the sides. Four from the right and three from the left hand pushed gently a
moment before he had to exert more pressure. It wasn’t much more though his finger tips changed color from the pressure of the extra push.

They heard a click and the seamless stone suddenly exposed a square all around the front face. Popping open nearly an inch, the captain was able to pull the door away to expose the interior of the stone safe. A hilt holding the remainder of the broken blade, a few books and some loose sheets of paper were revealed. Sebastian wondered if the hilt was the only true value as the party prepared to take these relics in hand to study.

The mage had found the first pieces of the puzzle that he hoped would reveal the whereabouts of the immortal known as the Grimnal for the ageless stone of Hala’s main keep. It still stood and Sebastian hoped that his search would reveal the same for the man.

First, he needed to sort through these clues.

Chapter 12- The Diary

Day 1

High Lord Gerid gathered crews for three ships. Ten wizards among whom I am included were all that he could find to take with him on this chase into the sea. So many were lost to the giant wave and earthquakes that those who remain need to help the survivors, or so the high lord said. He worries not just for those in Staron, Marshalla or Cadmene, but for his allies among the island nations where he believes the quakes originated.

How much the quakes have changed our maps has yet to be seen. The high lord seems to believe that what we have seen is just the tip of iceberg. If his belief is correct, a dark lord from a war fought in another world is the blame. I have a hard time believing such a thing, but when the high lord orders only fools refuse to obey.

At least, I can get away from all the pain and suffering of Staron for awhile. I don’t envy those who remain behind to try and help all those who have suffered loss.

Day 5

Things have changed even in the sea. A great massive island appeared on the horizon early in the day. If the earthquakes could warp the land beneath the sea so much as to create such a large mass, I think that Marshalla and Staron were very lucky.

Captain Merton asked if we should name it and Wizard Asperias told him that it was folly to bring such a question to the high lord. Others joked that perhaps that should be its name.

Day 7

A second island to the southeast of the large one has been found. The first island everyone calls Folly held no evidence of the cause of the earthquakes and tsunami, but both Asperias and I believe that this little island may have been exposed to magic. We have been given an audience with the Grimnal on the flagship to express our beliefs.

I wonder if we will be given a chance to properly explore the possibility that this land was used to create the earthquakes.

Day 9

What is the saying? Be careful what you wish for. Asperias and I have been left under the Grimnal’s grandson’s charge. Our smallest, but quickest ship, a sloop I believe they call it, has been left to carry us after we have finished here. There is too much going on to wait for just one island holding no one on it, he said.

If we can find proof that magic was used to attack our countries, is that not enough reason to stay? Asperias and I were adamant that someone should stay and the Grimnal awarded us the opportunity at least.

Laran seems a bit young to be in charge over Captain Merton, but the captain doesn’t seem to mind. He’s a grandson, but does he bear a title? I don’t even know, but I must put this away until later. A mystery awaits!

Day 10

This Laran is so impatient! We crossed the island and climbed the rise on the west side of the cliffs. Asperias and I have just begun to test, but so far it has been inconclusive. Laran said that we will only get one more day unless we find more important information.

Science and magic take time. Does this whelp not understand?

The crew has been acting strangely also. There is something about the movement of the fish or something. The harbor has suddenly cleared of the fish that some of the sailors had been fishing. I admit they were very tasty, but as to the reason they have moved I can not say.

Fish may react to seismic actions. I pray that they haven’t left the area because of another earthquake!

Day 11

Alas Asperias and I have nothing more to show than that magic was in use here. If it was a point seeded with magic before the disasters happened, then we have concluded that it would have been placed while under the water. There seems to be no remnants of devices or the users involved, so Grandson Laran has informed us that we will leave in the morning to try and catch up to his grandfather.

Why the Grimnal took up with him as a second in command is beyond me. He is apparently not closely in line for any throne. Maybe the High King has simply taken pity on one of his lesser grandchildren? He must have many similar after a thousand years, but why this one?

The crew seems spooked by the disappearance of fish for two days. Schools shift all the time. I’m sure that it is nothing, but perhaps Laran has simply given in to the paranoia?

Day 13

Insanity! We were supposed to have left this accursed island yesterday morning and would that we had gone with the fish the day beforehand. Calamity has struck!

In the night, beasts from beneath the sea attacked the ship as well as the men camping on shore. They look like giant crabs, but I have not heard of such behavior from such creatures. Giant pincers helped them scale the ship and some of the demons must have been able to swim as well. The crew onboard were caught unawares as water began to flood the ship.

I could hear the screams from the shore and had little time to think as an army of the giant tanks came for us too! Crabs eat meat I have heard. Sailors bait traps with it to capture them for harvest, but when they are this large even a man can be cut to size for their large mouths.

I saw a man’s head cut from his shoulders in a single snip of one of their claws, diary!

In our desperation, those that survived gave way and ran for the cliffs. The damnable slope was on the far side of the island from the harbor and these crabs were nearly as fast as a man. If they didn’t walk sideways and have to realign themselves to follow, I don’t think any of us would have made it.

Asperias and I used earth magic to create a pair of walls over three feet high at the base of the slope and again halfway up where it narrowed. The crabs maneuvered past the first, but those that had followed began to lose interest by the second. The steepness of the slope and dry land probably helped slow them as well.

I climbed higher up the rise to look over on the harbor where I was in time to see the Trodder list and eventually tilt back end up before sinking beneath the water. Men were in the water as sharks found their way. Perhaps they smelled the blood in the sea.

I swear I could hear their screams, but the wind would have blown those away.

Our ship is gone. Laran and most of the rest of the soldiers died on the beach. I saw the young man fighting a crab single handedly as he bought us time. Perhaps I judged the young hero too harshly.

Hindsight brings a fondness for the dead, I fear.

Day 16

Food supplies are dwindling from near nothing to completely nothing. A few brave souls attempted to retrieve what little the demons left behind, but they never returned. How long our tormentors will remain to haunt this island? I do not know.

Asperias and I were able to create a well and small house of stone on the cliff. Water can prolong our lives, but with no food we eventually will perish.

I doubt there will be any salvation. The cataclysm requires most to stay near the mainland and no one aside from our sister ships know that we are here. Without food, even if one were to give in to a base need for food that they would eat the dead, time will be limited. I will not bring myself to that. Better to die a man than a beast.

Day 20

What more is there to say? A few of the men went down to the beach the other day. All were starving as am I and they said they were going to try and find remnants from our camp. The crabs have been in the water more often the last few days, but I think they all went with the thought that they would not return.

I watched from the cliff as the demons returned. The men didn’t flee. Most didn’t even fight.

Asperias and I worked to create a stone safe. I hope that its locks aren’t too creative, but both our magic books should only fall into hands worthy enough to defeat them, I suppose.

I grow tired, but I am not ready to take the final sleep just yet. Soon diary I will have to make sure that you find your last resting place also.

Day 28

My talent for earth magic has made me the perfect grave digger. I buried my friend, Asperias yesterday. I would mourn him, but at least he has a grave. When I die, I fear that will not be my fate. Two soldiers remain and that barely. If they go before me, who then will mourn me, diary? Would that you could shed a tear, perhaps you could give me that final request, diary? But no, I must give you a burial of
sorts. Soon you must enter the stone tomb to join the books of magic and our notes on the island, this accursed island.

The sky was blue and the sun shone brightly today. It is a pretty place for so many to die. This inconsequential island has taken more than its share, diary.

Day 31

I am alone. Herlis could take no more and would not put me through the pain of burying my last friend. Hmm, a friend that I have only known through these trying times and now I mourn him more than even Asperias, my friend for decades.

Alas poor Herlis ended his life by throwing himself down on that accursed beach. The crabs will probably eat him as I would not. My poor friend, I would have buried you even if it took my last breath, but I haven’t the strength to make the climb to bury you there.

Maybe it is time to follow Herlis, diary. Will you mourn me?

It is time to place you in the tomb. I am getting more tired. Bones appear where flesh once covered my well fed body. Skin and bones. I leave little enough for any crabs to enjoy at least I have that satisfaction, diary.

Good bye, my friend.

Sebastian read the diary while Maura looked at the ancient wizards’ notes on the island. He only found the name of the man he figured wrote the diary when he skimmed through the wizard tomes. Caperium, was written in the first page of the wizard’s magic book. Asperias was written inside the other.

“There is nothing here that is particularly conclusive, though it is well thought out,” Maura proclaimed setting the sheets on the table before glancing at Asperias’s book.

“The leader of their exploration here was the Grimnal’s grandson. He had told them as much and if they had left a day earlier we wouldn’t have even this clue,” Sebastian replied waving the diary of a fallen wizard. “It has been a long time since this happened, but I think that it is time to leave. We can read through the rest on the Sea Dragon. We’re done here, but at least I know where the easier way down is now.” He added the last with a smile.

Overcoming the heavy growth on the southwest side in just a few uses of his scythe spell, which brought surprised looks to Maura and Idenlare, Sebastian led the five to the slope written about in the diary. The two low stone walls were weathered and crumbled in places, but for such an ancient formation created under those conditions it was still impressive.

They carried not only the wizards’ books, but the mage carried the broken blade as well. Someone had risked their life to bring both pieces to the refuge. If someone thought it that important, then perhaps he should see if he could reunite the blade with the Grimnal. Sebastian assumed that the resonance that the compass had picked up meant that the sword had been given to this Laran by his grandfather. Knowing what had happened to him might give closure that the legend had never had.

Perhaps it was just something he felt for the ghosts on the island, but he wanted their story to be heard.

The walk north was shorter than to the south, so they started to turn when he noticed the team that he had sent to the south coming their way. Collin led Nara, Frell and the water wizard Vewen at a quick trot after spotting the others descending the hill.

“Did you find something?” Collin asked first as the four people hurried to greet them.

“A couple things that tell me that we are on the right path,” he said holding out the broken sword. “We even found a diary, though it doesn’t give much information on Gerid Aramathea. It does tell that the people that were on this island were part of his expedition to find out what happened during the Cataclysm.”

“We were going to head north since the walk should be shorter.”

Collin’s brow furrowed as he asked, “If we took the longer way, where are the others?”

New worry gripped Sebastian’s stomach as he realized that Collin had a point. Liam had Yara with him and they were nowhere to be seen. “Hawk vision,” he brought on the spell that let him see more than twice as far as humanly possible. Looking to the north, the remaining team was nowhere to be seen. He felt for a change in magic. His senses seemed to have grown more acute at sensing magic and the power of those that could use it. A moment later, Bas thought that he could feel a strong use of power to the north.