Battle Mage: Winds of Change (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 11) (34 page)

He didn't believe that was where her intentions truly lay, but Sebastian fought his instinct to say something so bluntly. While Evie was a sweet girl, he had enough women in his life and Ashleen was certainly the main contender for his heart. Evie was just a girl, a child really, though it was strange to think like that as he neared just his twenty first year of life, still she was closer to Katya's age and his sister was barely a teenager.

"I think Rilena would be a better sibling for you," he stated placing a smile on his face to take the edge off of his words. "I don't think Katya would think that I am so great at being a big brother besides, so you would be better off, I am sure."

The girl's eyes went to the stairway making Sebastian look as well. Olan and Yaroma led Naoromi, who still looked tired with her hair a bit of a mess. Her older sister looked like she had spent time in the bathroom working on her hair and outfit, but being on Olan's arm, she may have had a little more motivation to look nice this morning.

That couple smiled at the notice and were probably smiling before he had looked, Sebastian guessed. Young love tended to put stupid grins on faces. He just hoped that other people hadn't thought the same of him with Yara or now with Ashleen.

The three moved to the table. Olan held Yaroma's chair, but was too slow to assist Naoromi, who looked ready to sit.

"Didn't you sleep well?" he asked the younger sister. "Or didn't Elzen give you any time to sleep?"

His words held meaning and were just a small step from being accusing. The mermaids hadn't been put in charge of Evie after all. That look could possibly be aimed at Rilena when she arrived, though he could hardly fault her for sleeping too deeply to notice everyone else disappearing from her room.

Blushing at the charge, Naoromi tried to put off the accusations by putting a question to him. "You dressed Evie in Ashleen's dress, is that where she slipped off to? She went to your room?"

"Only after you two snuck out," he stated. "I think the three of us need to have a talk. Elzen could be a part of it too, of course. It isn't like I don't know that you four have paired up. If you're to that point, either we need to find a way for you all to be together or send the girls home."

Looking frightened by the idea, Olan started to speak up; but Sebastian held up his hand. "I think maybe it is time to send the girls back anyway. I haven't had the chance to check with the king or Raven Leros, but with the portal spells maybe it makes sense to see if we can join Southwall with their tribe.

"An expedition could be sent to see if there are any valuable resources on the islands besides the people. The tribe might even wish to come here. They've also been left alone for several months. We can check up on them in just an instant and make sure that things are going well for them."

Olan still looked ready to fight to keep Yaroma in particular nearby, but to his surprise the elder sister nodded saying, "We have been away for a lot longer than we ever thought and have probably overstayed our welcome. If you can open and set up a portal to our island, I would like to see my people again.

"If Olan could be sent with one of the expeditions, so I can see him as well, that would be my wish," she added placing her hand gently beneath his jaw. The mage had already shaved, so her hand swept across his smooth skin without interference from any whiskers.

"I was thinking that I could get Raven Leros to approve an extended leave or maybe create a post there for our people to begin a relationship."

Naoromi looked less willing to part with Elzen, but she said, "I don't think Elzen would like being away from his country that long."

Understanding that his friend preferred being where he could fight for his people and that Elzen wished to be at his side as much as he could, since Sebastian was beginning to find himself in the thick of Southwall's actions against the Dark One's forces; he thought that the mermaid understood the other mage pretty well considering their short relationship. Elzen preferred action. Spending his days on a tropical island would only be nice for a little while before the younger mage's boredom overwhelmed him.

"Elzen is one of the few to learn how to heal. It is possible that he might learn this magic as well. Then it really is just a matter of thinking of where you are to visit," Sebastian replied softening a bit in his resolve. Though he hated splitting up people that might be in love, keeping the mermaids here for no reason as he spent money on an extra room wasn't wise either.

Olan looked unusually thoughtful as the others talked and as they paused to eat the food laid out before them, the mage suddenly said, "I could marry Yaroma. They would have to let me go to be with her then, right?"

Though they were all surprised, the largest eyes looking at him were those of Yaroma. She asked, "You would want to marry me?"

Swallowing hard as the realization of his words settled on him, Olan finally nodded. "I love you, Yaroma. I don't want to ever see you go."

Sebastian wanted to escape the change in the conversation, but knew that once let out of the bottle, there was no putting those words back. "You'll need to talk to the falconi at the garrison or maybe go over their heads to Raven Leros, though he might find a falcon doing so a little impudent, which might hurt your case. Either way, I would recommend you two figure out where you will stay and how you will get a home.

"You're a falcon of Southwall, Olan, so you still have a commitment here."

The bigger man frowned at Sebastian. "Then that's what we'll do. I have some money saved up and they don't own us, Bas. We can start our families when we are young. Rilena and the female mages might have more difficulty getting away with it, but I know of other mages who have wives and children that aren't much older than I am."

Naoromi looked at her older sister enviously knowing that Elzen was unlikely to propose to her. The younger mage was less committed in general and had less of a relationship with her. Sebastian wondered what Elzen would do, but couldn't worry over it. His friend had been through relationships before and never seemed to truly tie himself too strongly to any one woman, though Elzen had spoken of Rilena in a way that he had never heard from his friend before when they had talked.

Surprisingly, Ashleen arrived before they had finished breakfast and looked ready to go despite the early hour.

"What are you all talking about?" she asked and soon was inundated by everything he had said up to Olan's proposal to Yaroma. Ashleen cried out happily hugging the mermaid, a friend of several months now.

Her eyes strayed to Sebastian and the young man became worried.

Chapter 18- A Healer's Request

The next few days had gone by in a flurry of activity. Sebastian had promised his time to White Hall for training both battle mages and those wizards willing to learn from a mere mage. Luckily, or perhaps unluckily for Sebastian who would have preferred to move on quickly to the next castle, his reputation had not only preceded him but cemented him as someone to watch. Not only battle mages but wizards as well, flocked to the training sessions forcing him to split the days between both and he had to use one of the larger courtyards for the many students coming to see him.

Sebastian had traveled lightly the first day. Ashleen, along with the mermaids, took Evie shopping in Hala picking out clothing the wilder felt more appropriate to living in civilized cities while trying to tailor the options to the younger girl's wilder nature. They were quite the pair and the mage had worried over what he might return to find. Both young women were wilders and Ashleen's Kardorian style was a bit forward thinking for most women in Southwall, but he had been pleasantly surprised when he returned home that first evening to see Evie looking dressed more like a young woman of Southwall.

He had also returned to a surprising amount of messages at the Black Smith Inn's desk.

After his talk with the others that first morning, Sebastian had sent Olan off as his messenger. Word needed to be sent to Blackwall and Norcrom; the next two guardian cities on his list of portals needing to be reinforced with his locked gates since new orders had told the owl to work on the problem from east to west. Olan knew enough of what would be done to inform the leaders of the cities to begin setting the defenses properly. The older mage also brought letters of intent to the garrison commander and Raven Leros on plans to send representatives to the Siren Isles, as they had been christened.

Other letters on his research had been sent to the high wizards of Hala to pass along to those best considered to learn from his experiments, both the failures and his many successes. Keeping the wizards in the loop meant Sebastian had to continue his balancing act as a go between with the battle mages and wizards. The mage found that he didn't really mind. As he continued to evolve in his magic, Sebastian felt caught between the two worlds and comfortable with each as well.

The returned letters he expected were there. Raven Leros and the high wizards needed to set up meetings with him while they knew his current schedule was quite busy with the gates and White Hall's training. Even some lords' correspondence wanting to know more of his plans to create a foothold in the islands to their east was kind of expected, but one particular message perplexed him.

Word from the healer's guild to report to them at his earliest convenience was something he hadn't expected at all. Little was said aside from his need to visit the hospital in Hala, which was also their guild center. It was also the only wizard's guild to have a location within the inner city of the capitol. Aside from being the city's center of healing, Sebastian wasn't sure what would create a need for him to visit the guild. He wasn't ill and hadn't reported any need for a healer since his obvious brush with death during his dubious trial with his first Hollow Sword attempt.

With the time difference between Hala and White Hall, Sebastian knew that he would have time early in the morning after breakfast but before training started with the battle mages, so the owl sent word that he would meet with the healers on the third day of his run of four. Ashleen had heard his concern and joined him on the trip. It was a short walk from the inn to the hospital, since inner Hala was more the size of a large fort compared to the outer ring of the city. Only a few blocks separated the inner castle from the wall separating the two parts of Hala, so he and Ashleen walked there after breakfast even as the young woman continued to yawn repeatedly.

"You could have slept in," he said after her third yawn as they walked. Her body was waking up with the movement, but she had been a bit lazy since returning to Hala a couple months ago. Even as his black smith's apprentice, Ashleen had often slept in letting him get his early start on the day without her. In truth, she could learn from what he was doing, but didn't have the strength of arm to do the harder physical work of hammering metal. Her magic could make up for much, but as a wizard she hadn't even used a sword.

Trying to stifle another yawn behind her hand, the girl shook her head. "You had the others stay behind or run errands for you. If these healers wind up trying to disrupt your work with follow up exams or something, you'll need someone to zap them into line, won't you?"

Shaking his head with a smile on his lips, he thought of the girl releasing chastising bits of lighting to make the healing wizards let him go. The image was a bit amusing, though Sebastian thought his own skills could easily break him free of a guild made up of just healers. A powerful and rare kind of wizard; healing wizards were hardly the threat that a hall full of fire wizards would be, since healers were mostly trained in nonviolent techniques. That came from the belief that violent combat magic used by healers could lead to complications with their healing magic and was generally believed to be truth.

The battle mage had learned and used combat magic before ever learning to heal. While he and Yara believed that part of the reason he could do both was the way the man used his combat magic. Often Sebastian went with the least deadly way to help reduce the harm when he could, though the mage had been forced to kill since learning to heal. Even so, the owl mage had yet to experience anything that would lead him to stop doing one or the other. Secretly, the mage wondered if part of the reason he remained able to use both sides of the magic spectrum, was that he maintained a healthy balance between the two as well. He healed and he fought. Many of those Sebastian injured, or his companions who were injured by his enemies, required healing. He did both often within minutes of the battle.

"I doubt that I will need rescuing, but I am always glad that I can depend on you to cover my back," he replied in amusement, though the sentiment was true enough as well.

"I will lull them into believing that I am no threat by yawning so much that they will believe that I can't possibly use my magic. That will be the trap if these healers get out of hand," Ashleen replied with a grin. She probably wasn't as tired as the girl let on since they had been going to bed a little earlier as his work began to tire him out earlier in the evening. Training all day for two days straight, even with other instructors splitting up the work where he could, was beginning to wear him down.

The amount of magic he used during a day, if measured, would probably have most wizards wondering how a battle mage continued to do as much as he did. It was a question that Sebastian wished he knew the answer to as well.