Battle Mage: Winds of Change (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 11) (25 page)

He felt Ashleen's hand touch his arm beneath the table. Glancing to the wilder, he noted her smiling behind her raised hand at the two. Later, she would claim that sometimes those who argued like that actually liked each other and simply couldn't communicate it properly. While Ashleen might be correct, Sebastian still didn't weigh in on such a theory. He had enough trouble trying to keep track of his own relationships to try working on others.

Dinner came and went followed by the usual dancing. A duo held the stage with a man both singing and playing a guitar, while his friend beat on a few varied size drums to keep the beat for the dancers. It was the typical fare and, as usual, he and Ashleen were pulled away from each other to join in other pairings. He wound up dancing with Serrena for a few songs, but only after Elzen had danced with the wizard first as he had said.

The mermaids didn't return until late in the evening. Sebastian had stepped out by then, however, and didn't hear about it until later. The mage had found Ivol on a break from the dance floor. Over a glass of prapple juice, Sebastian asked him, "Master Ivol, would it be all right if I used some of the better steel tonight?"

Frowning slightly, the blacksmith asked, "You are going to hammer a new sword tonight? I don't think the guests would appreciate the noise if you plan to do it too late."

With a shake of his head, Sebastian replied, "I think that I can keep quiet."

"Then you don't need my permission. Iron or steel, you've paid to use the forge. As long as it isn't an unusually large amount, which might make me have to go buy more, it shouldn't affect anything."

"It shouldn't be more than a pound, I should think," he assured the big man and shortly afterward, the mage found Ashleen sitting catching her breath by Serrena.

"I will be in the forge for a little while," the mage stated quickly.

"What do you plan to do at this time of night?" Ashleen questioned sounding a bit irritated. The girl had hoped to get a few more dances with him before they needed to retire to bed. Though it shouldn't be a real early morning, they planned on returning to Hala reasonably early to check on the progress of the portal courtyard.

He smiled and watched her blue eyes narrow slightly as she became angry with him. While Sebastian knew that the girl merely wanted to spend more time with him, he had something that the mage wanted to bring back to Hala and didn't think that there would be enough time in the morning.

"Do you need an apprentice to help you?" she asked after a moment's pause.

"I wouldn't mind the company, but I'm not sure how much of my attention it'll take. You'd probably want to change your clothes though."

Ashleen stood up and moved to join him excusing herself from her friend. Pushing him directly towards the rear door of the inn, the girl waited until they were outside to ask more directly, "What is it that can't wait for tomorrow? Is it something to do with Cheleya or the gate? I thought you had everything gathered for that though."

Walking across the stones between the inn and the stables, the couple moved across the paved yard towards the forge. It was near the stables, but not so near that they should ever have to worry about a fire spreading easily to where the animals were kept for the guests. When they entered Sebastian merely called, "Light", to make a handful of lamps catch so his eyes could look for the metal he needed.

Ashleen stopped just within the doorway to loosen the belt holding the folds of her dress closed. It was a common Kardorian way of dressing rarely seen in Southwall where button up dresses were generally a woman's choice. After removing her dress leaving the wizard in her underwear, the girl put on her leather apron tying it in back.

Noticing the man, who had stopped to watch the show, eyeing her rather inappropriate state of dress; Ashleen shrugged in reply questioning his look, "What? Ivol and Aric shouldn't be coming here until the morning. If you take that long, I am going back inside to go to bed and leave you to your newest obsession. But if I am going to be in this dirty building, I am not going to risk my dress, sir."

She had worn short leather boots, even after changing after dinner, but that was about the only thing reasonably practical for the forge. Her silk dress of light blue hung on the hooks set on the wall which had held her clothing before; but Ashleen usually wore a little more than this, though barely.

It wasn't teasing that made the girl dress so light usually. The summer heat added to the heat of the smithy was enough to make anyone sweat buckets. Sebastian and the other men didn't wear their shirts, but Ashleen had to draw the line somewhere, he thought in amusement.

"So what are we doing here, Bas?" she asked again making him turn away to find the bars of metal and scrap that he knew were in the room.

"As you guessed, this is something to help Cheleya. I want to make a disc roughly the size of Kel'lor's. If she wants the tattoo of her amulet removed, I think that I can place it on the metal making a new amulet for her."

Rummaging through the stock of metal bars, Sebastian listened to her question his idea from the sake of curiosity rather than disbelief that the owl could do as he said, "You've figured out the magic of the amulets also or is it something related to your rune spells? I will say that I was a little surprised that you were able to the help the dragon so easily."

Sebastian looked at Ashleen wrinkling his face as if in distaste as he replied, "I wouldn't say that it was exactly easy."

Rolling her eyes at him, the girl countered, "She's been trying to get this curse removed from her for months. The wizards of Mar'kal, the healers in Hala, and High Wizard Darius combined were unable to think of a way to fix this. Who knows how many more have tried to help her in White Hall besides, but you figured it out in an hour?"

Rubbing his neck self consciously with his left hand, Sebastian drew out the material he needed with the other. Answering her, the mage said, "Well, they were looking at it the wrong way. I've transferred and copied enough runes to know that the amulets were inscribed with them. It wasn't just a script with the words of a spell on the amulet. It also wasn't a true curse spell.

"You've seen real curse spells. Without help I couldn't have broken the magic, if it was actually a curse level spell."

The girl didn't argue the point. Ashleen had seen barriers made of curse magic that had withstood the powers of nine wizards, herself included. No matter what she and the others had thrown at the barrier, they couldn't knock down or weaken a spell set nearly two hundred years earlier. A true curse spell was just that powerful, so she understood the difference.

"It was still a curse to her that no one else could figure out," Ashleen informed him unwaveringly.

Looking at the bar of steel made previously, the owl considered the most direct way to make what he needed.

"Do you need me to share power with you?" his girlfriend and apprentice smith asked stepping closer.

"If you'd like," he replied glancing down at the shorter girl with a warm smile. While the owl probably wouldn't need extra magic to get him through what should be a simple use of his power, sharing magic was also a way of bonding between the two. Both could use their senses within a body to heal, though Ashleen had only managed to use the skill on him with enough motivation to exceed the mental block of a wizard better at destroying than putting things back together.

He stood a bar on end that had been cut down by Ivol. The steel was somewhat flexible and strong. The mage guessed that Ivol had found the mixture of metal discovered by Sebastian's experiments to be excellent for some of his repair work as well, though the smith had achieved his work with just the strength of his arm and fire.

Closing his eyes, even as Ashleen placed her hands on his left arm gently, Sebastian called on a word of power he used for various things, "Heal."

It was the spell he used to place his mind inside of things like the bar as well as other beings to actually heal them. This time the magic blacksmith reached into the steel and felt for the base of the bar. His mind made the metal respond like it had been raised to a heat higher than Ivol's forge was likely capable of reaching without magical help. Melting in a controlled way, Sebastian made the bar expand along the worktable. In a few minutes, the owl mage had made the first few inches of the bar create a disc from the steel.

When he felt that it was thick enough for what he had planned, Sebastian lifted the bar free of the disc where it remained a circle. After tossing the remaining bar onto the pile of metal he had taken it from, the mage returned to the disc. It was thicker than he might like and probably a little heavier than might be comfortable, but it could be changed in a similar way once the mage had made sure the size matched the circular rune on Cheleya's chest.

He had shown the dragoness how to make the color of the tattoo disappear like his own, but wasn't sure if it wouldn't be better to remove the markings entirely. Using a metal version of Kel'lor's amulet would be possible, if the mage made the markings move from the girl to the metal.

"So you're thinking to make the runes move to this. Will the magic in them remain and work properly?"

Bas shrugged and said, "If not, she can use the second amulet that they said she was given. Once the markings are off of her, Cheleya can use the other amulet like they had never been imprinted on her in the first place."

Shaking her head, the girl said, "Again, you make it sound so simple."

"It should be no harder than moving any other rune now, so it is simple for me," the mage retorted with a smile.

With a sigh Ashleen turned away from him to start for the door where her dress still hung. Sebastian grinned and swatted her on the rear lightly making the girl's head turn with a startled cry, but her eyes looked mischievous as well.

"Well, that was rather forward of you. Does this mean I might get you interested in taking me to bed finally?"

He laughed, though his face heated as he became a little shaken by Ashleen's words. They still hadn't gone beyond kissing, though they often shared a bed. Ashleen had even lain with him without her clothes, but they hadn't truly gone beyond the point where a healer wizard would have found evidence of sex.

In Southwall, they could get in big trouble. A female wizard wasn't supposed to have sex until they were much older for fear of pregnancy. While Sebastian didn't know everything about Kardor, he couldn't imagine that they would be any freer with their wizards at a young age.

Unable to answer her question, even jokingly, Ashleen was left to sigh and shake her head. "You know I love you and don't plan on leaving you. If you want to remain in Southwall, I can stay. I can write my family to let them know of my change in plans.

"Maybe someday I can convince you to visit Kardor to see my family, but there is no rush. Besides I enjoy having you to myself as much as I can anyway, but I can see that you are still stuck on this, aren't you?"

"I don't want to rush into something that we might both regret. Kardor can't possibly be that different from Southwall that they would condone such a thing."

"Such a thing?" the girl laughed. She took off her apron to hang it on the hook, but stood in her underwear unafraid of being seen. "I keep telling you that I will give myself to you anytime that you say you are ready. I know you are still getting over Yara, but I'm not going anywhere; so figure out when you will be ready."

Sebastian didn't even blink at the forward approach of the wilder. Ashleen was fearless, but like she often reproached him for, the mage couldn't help thinking. The girl could see the same look in his eyes that she chided him for jokingly and growled in annoyance turning to take her dress down from the hook to put it on once more. With the belt holding the robe in place, the girl held out her hand to him asking, "That didn't take long. Do you want to go back and dance or take me to bed?"

It wasn't asked the same way as she had just offered, Sebastian thought, but answered, "I think we have time for a little more dancing."

With that decided the couple returned to the dining hall after Sebastian placed the disk in the storage rune for safe keeping.

Fighting, when men got too drunk or wished to dance with the same woman, occurred too often in the pubs of Southwall and to a lesser degree in inns like the Black Smith where alcohol was served though with a bit more of a discerning eye. The Alamores preferred running a clean establishment and had its guests to worry about as well, of course.

When Sebastian and Ashleen stepped into the inn through the back door, they heard voices raised and a lot of commotion. Hurrying forward, the mage spotted the source of the problem quickly and was surprised to see Olan and Elzen looking ready to fight. Yaroma and Naoromi were trying to push between the two men and with good reason. Olan was a much larger man, who towered over the other mage. With about fifty pounds on the smaller man, and a few years of maturity on him, most would assume the veteran falcon would mop the floor with the younger mage.

Unfortunately for Olan, Elzen was a bare hand specialist rated as elite by his teachers. On the other hand, fortune was on the bigger man's size by the way the smaller mage was holding himself. Sebastian noted Olan's red face and knew that he was at least a little drunk. He had been out with the two girls and apparently had been to a bar. Elzen on the other hand was technically too young to imbibe. Most bars would serve any falcon or soldier as long as they had attained the higher rank. If they could serve in the army, the citizens thought that they deserved the benefit of that maturity.