Battle Mage: Winds of Change (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 11) (67 page)

As the three men stood or knelt on the ground, Sebastian approached carrying the blonde haired wilder. She was awake, but nestled her head against the man carrying her. Looking as exhausted as Magnus felt, the fire wizard had to admire the strength she had shown as well. How long Ashleen had fought with the Hollow Sword, he wasn't sure; but even charging the weapon was taxing. Ashleen had likely been fighting for over twenty minutes Magnus guessed.

Placing the girl gently on the ground to lean against the wall of one of the hastily erected defenses, Sebastian looked at the fire wizard nearby. Standing up to face his rival, Magnus leaned on the sword like it was a cane. He took another drink from his canteen. More than water would be needed to restore his strength, but Magnus didn't want to show any weakness in front of this man.

"This is a good weapon," the taller wizard stated with a nod of his head to the battle mage. There was no directed admiration towards Sebastian exactly, just the Hollow Sword. "Though I think I've figured out how you did so well at the tournament."

Sebastian faced the fire wizard and walked closer to the man. There were other soldiers and a few wizards nearby, so the owl didn't want what he was about to say to spread beyond the three men before him.

Magnus smirked at the mage as he continued to speak. "You figured out how to draw on the power of the earth without killing yourself. Telling me that the sword could be charged with more power than I could give it by myself made me realize how. Just using it as a buffer to fill the blade, I could feel all that untapped power.

"That you didn't kill yourself during the tournament means you figured out how to use the power safely. There have always been warnings to avoid tapping the earth. Now I see that those wizards were being selfish. So much power, I could have gone through the Winter's Edge blowing people away with a single spell. Even the night shields can't stop this kind of power."

Shaking his head, Sebastian stated, "I knew that I shouldn't have told you even as much as I did. You are smart enough to figure it out, so I'm not surprised that you did.

"Now that you know, I'd suggest that you never do it again. There is a reason that the knowledge of using a staff or sword to harness the power was covered up by the old wizards."

Magnus frowned and laughed with a single barked, "Ha!

"Why would I not use this power? If I use a staff instead of a sword, will it be more efficient? Come on, Bas; tell me what you have learned of this technique. With this power we can push the emperor's armies back to their caves. He can be destroyed once and for all," Magnus questioned the mage straightening with the energy of his words.

"It's too dangerous, especially for fire wizards like you," Sebastian retorted without raising his voice. He was calm and didn't sound like he cared as much as the young man truly did. While Magnus had never been his favorite person, letting the fire wizard die because of this knowledge wasn't his intention either.

"For a fire wizard like me? Didn't you see what I did? Only Wellas and Embrell added their power to mine and we harnessed the power we needed to destroy their warlocks. We destroyed the night fog and blew the rest away with an inferno that even their black shields couldn't stop!"

Sebastian had closed the distance and said quietly to the three men, "Continually using the power to destroy will age and kill you. High Wizard Darius has lived through a time where wizards used this power killing themselves in the process. He said young wizards aged to old men in a year or two by abusing the power."

Eyes narrowing in distrust, Magnus replied, "That sounds like a convenient notion, but you've been using the power since at least before the tournament and you don't look any worse for wear. You destroyed the wizards in the tournament and you are fine."

Leveling his finger at the wizard's chest, Sebastian's voice heated slightly but never became louder as he tried to keep the matter between the two of them. "I didn't abuse the power and I still nearly killed myself in that tournament. You're a fire wizard. All you know is how to destroy. That kind of magic needs a counter to balance the power being used in your body.

"I can heal and I rarely fight to kill with my magic. The tournament was a fight, but not a battle. Where I could restrain my use of the power, you will use it until you burn out."

Grunting in suspicion, it was easy to see that Magnus didn't believe the mage's warnings. When Sebastian raised his hand to the side of the wizard's face, Magus started to recoil; but it was too late. Pulling a hair from his head, Sebastian held it before the other man's face. It was white, though one might confuse it for very light blond in the sun's light.

Magnus was a blonde, but his hair was darker than bleached out blonde that would be required to have such a hair color.

"Your first gray hair," Sebastian stated before placing it in the wizard's hand. "Don't go down this path unless you want to have a lot more."

The fire wizard frowned at the mage first, but contemplated the hair in his hand. He wanted to rail at Sebastian for showing him something and then telling him that the magic wasn't for him. Like the battle mage, Magnus wanted to learn all that he could and use the power as he saw fit. Being told what to do, especially by a battle mage, was against what he had foreseen for his life.

"Why is it alright for you to use the power then?" he asked Sebastian who was only a year younger than the wizard. He had turned away to attend to Ashleen once more.

Sebastian stopped and Magnus thought he could see tension in the other man's shoulders. Looking over his shoulder, the mage replied briefly, "I already told you. I can balance out destruction with healing or creation. Unless you can learn a way to achieve that balance, this will only kill you according to Darius.

"And I don't use this power the way I once did anyway. I only use it for emergencies."

The last sounded like a lie to Magnus, but he chose to look at the remainder of Sebastian's comments. The mage's aura was more powerful than it had been. Every time he seemed to see the owl the man appeared to grow in strength, though looking at his aura was misleading. If he didn't know Sebastian so well, Magnus probably wouldn't have noticed; but the fire wizard knew his rival very well.

"You've grown stronger. I don't think you would be confused for a wizard by any means, but maybe when our duties with this war end, I will have to challenge you again to see?"

Sebastian smiled coolly at the man and replied, "You lost the right to challenge me after the last loss. Are you planning to renege on our deal?"

Rolling his silver colored eyes, Magnus shrugged, "Fine, then you should challenge me. Maybe you can teach me something else."

That made the mage laugh and ask, "You're admitting that a battle mage can teach you something?"

Shrugging in response, the fire wizard replied, "Only if it's something good. I can tell that you're onto something. If it can make me stronger then I want to know what it is."

Magnus held out the sword looking at the runed weapon. He was ready to give up the Hollow Sword to its maker though he would miss its power. The sword had been a loan for the battle and he assumed that the owl would worry over him abusing its power again, if Bas truly considered what he had done abusive anyway.

"Keep it for now. This fight isn't over yet, though I don't think they'll bother us again today," Sebastian said looking from the wizard out across the ruined landscape. "They'll regroup and try again soon. If they use their portals, the enemy might bring others to deal with the situation."

Magnus followed the man's gaze and asked, "Are you expecting someone in particular?"

Unwilling to speculate, Sebastian shrugged and moved to kneel beside Ashleen. "I'm going to take Ashleen back home to rest. We'll be back early in the morning. If you don't mind, can you keep the first watch here in case I am wrong?"

Magnus watched as the mage spoke of the war and magic so casually. He remembered the quiet awkwardness of the cadet from just over a year ago and wondered where that boy had gone. It was such a short time, but Sebastian had changed even faster than the situation of the war. Magnus had evolved as well, he hoped, but Sebastian had become the owl mage and even that was a term the wizard felt no longer matched his changes.

"What about the fleet?" Magnus couldn't use portal magic and realized that was yet another bit of magic Sebastian had over him.

"They should be fine, but I'll take Katya and Martina back with Arrimus. Adding Edwar and Iris as well, they should be more than enough to help protect it. There are other wizards trained in light and darkness spells there even without the dragon mages," Sebastian replied before opening a gate. He would have to return for the others, but Ashleen needed food and rest. The Black Smith Inn and Hilda Alamore would be excellent for getting both, the mage thought before picking up the wilder even as she protested the act.

Refusing Ashleen's protests that she would be fine, the two disappeared through a new gate traveling back to Hala once more.

Chapter 35- Unwinding the Lie

Sebastian was beginning to feel spread thin. He returned his sister and the other dragon mages to the fleet as he had said, but only after taking them back to Hala for a meal. Feeling like he had too little time to spend with his sister, it was more of an excuse to take Katya with him than believing the others needed such pampering.

Falconi Martina used the opportunity to check in with Raven Leros, but the side trip didn't delay his intended return of the dragon mages by much. Unfortunately moving people between the fleet, the village and Hala weren't the only places Sebastian had been needed of late.

A handful of men, spies to be more accurate, had been taken to Ensolus, the capitol of the emperor. While Sebastian hadn't really worried over the danger of infiltrating the city by himself, the mage felt responsible for putting these men into danger. They were in the enemy city without any lifelines. He could put them there and set a time to meet with them again, but other than that the mage had no idea how they were faring.

Winter was nearly upon Hala, but at the foot of the mountains of the Dragon's Spine; it already felt like winter had begun to take root once more. The men had to deal with the weather, looking for places to stay without drawing attention, and avoiding being noticed while looking for more information on the emperor's city. While he understood the need to find out more, Sebastian often wished that he had kept the secret of these gates from his superiors. The young man didn't want to be responsible for the risk to their lives, but duty had made him tell of what he had found.

Looking at the rest: guarding the fleet, putting Ashleen and Katya in harm's way in Litsarin and so much more; Sebastian felt the pressure and wondered if he would have gray hairs soon enough himself. Hopefully, Magnus was smart enough to take his word of warning. The white thread of hair should have been enough to ensure that his admonition would be taken seriously by the wizard.

He had left the Hollow Sword with the fire wizard just in case the enemy surprised him by attacking sooner than the mage believed. Magnus would likely use it safely, but there was always the possibility that he would test out the power of the earth in spite of his warning. The wizard fancied himself a hero and was likely to sacrifice himself for the greater good, at least, that was how Sebastian saw the situation.

Magnus had changed a lot in the last year. Most of the young man's pettiness seemed to have been scoured away with the experiences he had been through in that time. Even his opinion of battle mages seemed to have improved tremendously since his days of bullying those with less magic in school.

Maybe it was just how he saw people, Sebastian pondered the idea; but he liked to see the best in people, even if Magnus hadn't shown much goodness to him while training as an apprentice. Giving the wizard the benefit of the doubt, Sebastian rested with Ashleen until she began to fall asleep in her chair.

Nearly carrying the wilder to bed, he helped her change into her sleep wear before climbing into bed with the pretty girl.

Palose had been slightly surprised to find a letter for him when he returned home to the former residence of his master, Atrouseon. Sylvaine had gone to his apartment in one of the spires between the emperor's tower and the cavern opening. Unlike his home tucked away in the human ghetto of Ensolus, the apartment was a place of prestige and the home he chose to make known to the emperor and his people.

While Sylvaine knew to keep a low profile since Princess Acheri was believed to have tried to take her life with a scheme to send her away from him, the girl acted in his stead often without the others of their little coven to protect her. Stasia and Talia might help her with keeping the tower apartment clean, but the other wizards were less inclined to join them. Perhaps they hated cleaning, but Palose thought Wendle and Dorgred were more afraid of being found out by other wizards that lived in the tower.

The dark haired girl was alone in the apartment when he returned from Litsarin. Palose had been sneaking away almost every night since being ordered to help with the taking of western Litsarin. With the power over portals that he had, no one could stop him and, as long as the mage didn't abuse his magic, the emperor wouldn't say anything about it either.