Battle Mage: Winds of Change (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 11) (20 page)

"What exactly is this dragon mage magic then? If it so easy, how many people are learning it?" the mage asked trying to find his answers succinctly as much from curiosity as a need for something to talk about with his sister.

Katya noted his questions thoughtfully and he wondered if it was a diplomacy wizard's eyes that looked at him now. She was just a novice, but the magic had been innate in her. Nearly a wilder type in magic, the girl had always been good at getting her way as a child; so she had the personality for it also.

"I think it'll be more fun to let you see it in person. Actually, I think it is something you would like to learn, since you like riding the winds with your mind. We've had some air wizards join, a few fire as well, but we lost a couple students a few weeks ago in a tragedy that I am not allowed to talk about at the moment."

She had her secrets too apparently, the mage noted as they passed the doorways of the second and third floor. At the roof level, Katya pushed open the door letting the bright light of a sunny day cascade through the doorway. Blinking at the light as he followed his sister, Sebastian quickly spotted a group of wizards and an apprentice standing before a gargoyle, or mar'goyn'lya as the race called themselves.

Sebastian had never run across them outside of the tournament, but he had fought a pair of fallen ones, gargoyles that had lost their wings. They had been just as large and the creatures were powerful. Seeing one standing comfortably talking to the group of humans was strange, but he was getting used to strange.

A pretty little blonde haired girl spotted them. She was as tan as his sister and in some ways they looked alike. Both had blond hair, though Katya's was more golden and darker, while the other girl's hair nearly reflected white in the sunlight. Both had green eyes and were about the same height, though Katya was slightly fuller in the chest and hips.

The girl waved to Katya and hurried towards her. He realized that Iris, the red haired apprentice friend of his sister was included in the greeting as well. Such a familiarity made him wonder if the apprentice was one of the dragon mage apprentices.

"Katya, Iris, you're early... and bringing such a large group of people?" she added questioningly as the girl hurried over to intercept them. He noted her tan, bare feet. The stone of the roof was fairly smooth, but the mage would have thought that it would be easier on her skin to wear shoes or boots.

"This is my brother. Don't you recognize him, Cheleya?" Katya asked in surprise. The stories of Cheleya watching the lone mage in the wizards' tournament had made her think that her friend would know him by sight easily.

Cheleya's emerald eyes widened and her quick steps stalled more than a dozen feet short as shock made her look to the falcon beside her friend. "I only saw him from a distance in Hala."

Her eyes looked past him a moment and showed more confusion as she pointed past him, "Frell and Mecklin? You are here too and Serrena as well!"

It was Sebastian's turn for surprise as he found himself looking over his shoulder. The ones named looked at her and spoke her name.

"You know each other?" he asked.

Frell hurried forward to greet the girl by name and said, "She and some falcons from Staron came to the inn when you were going to bed early because of the tournament. Cheleya really caught the eyes of the men. Ardost in particular was taken with her."

Cheleya smiled at the name of the falcon and nodded, "I met up with Ardost and Vord on the way here along with Katya. That is when I became friends with her."

The way the dragoness declared her friendship made it sound like it was very important to her having Katya as a friend. Sebastian was no diplomat wizard, but he could see that. He was about to ask another question when the mage heard a familiar voice that made him cringe.

"Sebastian Trillon, finally I will get my chance to challenge you to a duel once again!"

A wizard dressed in a red shirt and brown pants hurried towards the mage interrupting their conversation. 

"Hello, Magnus," he greeted with less than a joyous tone. Magnus Trekanus was an old acquaintance. A fire wizard, who had felt like he owned the school even as an apprentice, he had often picked on Sebastian, who had tried to ignore the young wizard. The battle mage cadet had been trained to just ignore what the apprentices might say since as a battle mage he was supposed to support them, but there came a point when he had stood up for himself against Magnus.

He had shown the cocky apprentice that, at least in a battle ring with weapons, a battle mage was more than equal to a fire wizard. Fire wizards referred to themselves as the greatest battle wizards, but they needed soldiers and mages between them and an enemy. Sebastian had easily defeated the wizard in the confines of a traditional battle circle.

"Oh don't sound like it is the end of the world!" Magnus said laughing at the cool greeting. "I told you while we were still in Hala that I would not be satisfied with my championship until I beat you as well. If you have no excuses for your health, let's settle this once and for all, Sebastian."

"I've beaten you in the battle circle and the duel field already, Magnus, apparently for you this won't be over unless you actually beat me," Sebastian complained with a sigh. His words nearly came out sounding exasperated with the wizard and the mage realized that he didn't want to back down from the man again. "I'll be here for a few days. We can always duel later."

Magnus grinned and stated, "Well, that sounds like you accept my challenge after all. Let's go then!

"Dragon wings!"

The words called up magical wings of fiery red. The wizard leaped into the air and added, "Let me help you then. Dragon claw!"

A projection like a red claw reached from the hovering wizard and grabbed Sebastian around his torso. Like a giant's hand, or a dragon's, it encircled the mage from waist to chest. The strength of the wizard's magic spell lifted Sebastian from the ground with ease.

Flying towards the back of the building, Sebastian looked down as they lifted higher. Unafraid of the feeling of flight, the mage watched for his opportunity to escape or otherwise turn the tables on Magnus. He hadn't come for a fight after all.

As they passed by the easternmost tower on the main building, Sebastian saw his chance to surprise the wizard. His right arm pointed towards the upper part of the large stone tower standing about twenty five feet higher than the roof of the school. The rune activated sending a harpoon like projection firing at the stone with a trailing wire attached to his arm. Pushing his power into the defense runes on his left arm, the rune shield expanded forcing the wizard's magic claw to open.

Stone cracked with the impact of his harpoon and, as he began to fall, Sebastian also began to swing towards the stone wall of the tower.

Magnus cried out with a curse of surprise. Whether it was because he had been thwarted or was afraid the mage would die from the fall, Sebastian wasn't certain. In the past, he would have been sure that the wizard's pride would have pushed for the former, but Magnus had said that he had changed in the past. It mattered little as he fell. The swing on the magic line made him crash into the tower thirty feet below his harpoon.

With his glowing runes formed into a ball, the mage felt little of the impact as his body eased to a stop inside his protective shell. The wire of the harpoon began to glow as he released the runes of protection to let his feet touch the stone wall. He looked down with most of another thirty feet below him to go and the wire magically began to lengthen. Using his feet to rappel down the side of the building, Sebastian heard the gasps and cries of the air wizards in their courtyard.

Touching down, the mage looked up at the wizard lazily circling above him. Over the cries of surprise and murmurs of confusion at the weird combination of spells, he heard the laughter of Magnus. The wizard called down to him, "You are ever surprising me, owl! You have discovered new magic again. Follow me to the fire wizard courtyard. I think we will need a bigger venue than the air court."

Sebastian waved to him with a little salute and started walking towards the doorway in the wall to the north as he ignored the apprentices and air wizards. He also missed the faces looking down from above over the crenellated defenses of the roof. Those with the power to fly leaped into the air following quickly after the duo. Several asked if his team would like a ride down as well, but they all declined hurrying after Serrena and the mages familiar with the school's layout as they ran for the east tower and the closest staircase to the fire wizard courtyard.

Chapter 11- Rematch

Like a town crier, the fire apprentice Arrimus flew over the nearby courtyards shouting, "Magnus and Sebastian are going to duel in the fire court!"

Over and over the wizard who had once been one of Magnus' friends, shouted at the students and teachers outside doing their training. Arrimus had followed Magnus around when he was an apprentice bullying Sebastian and the other mages. Sebastian hadn't seen him since, and had no idea that there had been a falling out between the two wizards. Without that knowledge, the mage heard the fire apprentice calling attention to his former friend and one who was definitely not his friend.

Sebastian found a crowd at his back, not because of the one calling out the duel but because of his stunt descending the tower.

He couldn't believe that he had let Magnus dictate the time of their rematch. While passing through White Hall during the winter on the way to the tournament, the two had dueled like wizards. It had been with few spectators watching, but by the time he entered the northeast court used by the fire wizards, dozens were already there with more streaming in from the side doors.

Looking up as he entered the large courtyard, Sebastian noted more coming from the towers to line the walls above the courtyard. The towers were used by the air wizards during peace time to study and train. Because they had use of the two eastern towers, the air courtyard was much smaller than their rivals from fire. The two schools of magic were said to be the best at combat, though earth and water would dispute such claims. Only nature wizards and the relatively small schools of diplomacy and healing would let the others puff up their chests to try and lay claim to such a title.

Magnus was already at work within the courtyard directing the fire wizard apprentices to create the two circles used in dueling. During training, the safe way was to use wooden dummies as stand-ins; destroying the dummies meant a win for the wizard who did so first. Apparently Magnus wanted to fight the way they had in the Winter's Edge tournament. There were enough wizards to set barriers to keep the spectators safe as well as the two participating in the duel, the mage supposed.

"Will you need wood, water or iron?" Magnus called out seeing the mage at the head of a crowd of air wizards.

"Are we sticking to the Winter's Edge rules and using just elemental magic or are we going to skip that rule to use our new spells?" Sebastian asked calmly.

Magnus grinned at the idea and said, "I wouldn't mind showing you some dragon magic if it there should come the right time. Why don't we lift the restraints and fight the way real wizards... or equals at the least given your title, should fight?"

Nodding at the fire wizard, Sebastian looked around for materials. "I'll take three iron rods and five wood staves."

Magnus returned the nod before sending a group of apprentices scurrying off to retrieve the items for the mage.

As they waited, Sebastian said, "I thought maybe you had outgrown some of this behavior by now, Magnus."

Looking surprised, the wizard replied, "What do you mean? I see you as a true rival and as such I want to be able to say that I have beat the best. Even your little sister has thrown it in my face that my championship wasn't complete because I couldn't fight you."

Sebastian looked over at Katya standing with most of the dragon mage wizards. Her face reddened and the mage wondered what would have come up between the two which would have made her say something like that.

"She's thirteen. You let a little girl tell you that you aren't a real champion because you didn't get to face me?" he called over to the wizard half jokingly and half serious. Sebastian thought that even with her diplomacy magic, the older man should be able to move on with his life. Why Magnus couldn't take his win and leave him out of his need to be the best, the mage would never understand. He lived his life worrying over bettering himself not trying to beat others to be able to proclaim that he was the best. Such an ego as Magnus had seemed to need to be fed such things, but that wasn't where the mage's mind led him.

While Katya's face looked indignant being called a little girl, Magnus laughed and said, "Well, she is right. Without your illness preventing you from finishing the tournament, we can never be sure if I could have beaten you. Even in my final match, it was you who pulled off the greatest spell of the tournament to save that air wizard."

Frowning slightly, Sebastian stated the woman's name, "Lady Annalicia would have died if someone hadn't stepped in. You were too busy trying to win to realize that you were about to kill her.

"That is part of why I would rather not fight you."

"You fear that I will kill you?" Magnus asked in confusion.