Battle Mage: Winter's Edge (29 page)

“Let them miss us. I’m tired of hiding that I want to be with you.”

His eyes sought hers knowing the frustration well, but he tried to settle the feelings by reminding the girl, “Well, we’re only doing it so you won’t get in trouble. I doubt that anything would happen to me, even if falcons haven’t been known to mingle with wizards in the past. Once you’re a full wizard, we can probably find a way to stay together. If one of us gets sent to a post, the other can come along or something along that line.”

With a sigh that was half enjoyment from the magical massage and half disappointment in having to wait, Yara nodded as she said, “I think I might be close to getting promoted. If I pressured Deyla, I think, she might tell the council that I am ready. I’ve been healing people without having them watch over my shoulder for quite awhile. Then there was all that combat magic last year, which I survived thanks to you more than once.”

The man chuckled. Everyone seemed to think all the trouble of the last season began and ended with him somehow it seemed. “Well, I can say the same after being healed a few times myself. Without your teaching me how to heal, I don’t know where I would be now.”

A little whimper as another knot in her foot eased and released under his attention led to Yara saying, “Man, I’m a good teacher. How ever did you get so good at this again?”

Standing up as he let the spell drop, Sebastian leaned toward her face with his own. “Lots of practice,” he kissed her lightly on the lips, “and I had a good teacher.”

With a big grin, Yara nodded, “Yes, you did.”

Replacing the slippers for Yara, Sebastian extended his hands to pull her back to her healed feet. “Ready for more?” he asked smiling at the beauty before him.

Releasing a content sigh, she inclined her head in agreement, “I guess as long as you promise, that if we get separated and someone breaks my foot again you’ll come to my room tonight and fix it.”

“Do we even need that excuse?” Sebastian chuckled.

Placing a finger thoughtfully against her lips, Yara quickly shook her head and began to grin. “Probably not,” was her quiet answer.

Chapter 16- Insight of Crows

As the night wore on, Sebastian and Yara both wound up practicing their healing. It had been a lively night made all the more so, by the girls in their kardorian robes. The men of Windmeer seemed willing to stay as late as they could keep the musicians playing, if only for the chance to dance with the girls in their exotic and beautiful clothes.

Yara had always been in demand at least among her peers, but if not for Sebastian interceding more than once or the healer having to break to use her own healing powers on Ashleen and several of the other women dancing, she would never have been let go. Sebastian noted that few among the men wound up similarly wounded. Their big boots protected their own feet, but even Rilena wearing her own boots, if somewhat more dainty in size, wound up asking Sebastian for help.

Though the Southwallers were in rare form on that winter night, eventually the musicians tired to the point that they could no longer be asked for more. Couples had begun to fade and recede from the dance floor to head off to sleep or perhaps continue their night with a partner, but eventually all good things had to come to an end.

Ashleen had said good night and even kissed him on the cheek. The two had danced together several times and he had healed her as well. It had been a truly rough night on the most popular girls and both Yara and Ashleen had needed healing more than once to continue. Her kiss had half surprised him and he wondered if the gesture was more for him or to show Yara that her interest in him wasn’t over. She left with Wendle to escort her safely back to her room in the suite that the rest of the Kardorians shared.

Rilena had exchanged a hug after a last minute’s heal before heading off to bed. The girl had garnered several admirers, but she didn’t let anyone walk her back, though several other falcons and cadets were headed that way at the same time. Several had been dance partners with the pretty brunette, but, though the girl could be a bit of a flirt when she felt like it, the girl had her walls up and Sebastian could tell that sleep and perhaps her next mission were foremost in her mind.

When the hall began to empty after the musicians packed up their gear, Sebastian walked back to his room alone. Yara and a few wizard friends went to their wing several minutes earlier. Compliments for her change of dress flowed around the girl and, while she acknowledged the comments, Yara had to remind them that the robes were only a loan from a friend. She never looked for Sebastian as she left and he knew that was only for show. There would be time for saying good night later.

He was halfway back to his room, when Sebastian noted a presence at almost the same time as he heard a throat clear before saying, “Falcon Trillon.”

The voice was familiar and the mage turned to look down a side passage, and he immediately noted the black of a raven’s uniform. Taller than Sebastian and heavier to the point of having a softer belly, Raven Stallis would still be a daunting form even without knowing his rank and age.

“Raven Stallis?” the mage quickly saluted as he struggled to contain his surprise. Had the man used a stealth spell to hide from him or had the younger man just been that preoccupied with his thoughts.

“No need for that, falcon,” he referenced the salute and half returned the gesture. “We don’t have to be so formal here.”

Nodding in reply, Sebastian was emboldened to ask. “What brings you down here, sir?”

“Oh, not much. I noticed that you had a fine night. Those are some pretty ladies that you spent time with tonight and using a healer’s touch to get even closer, I wish I had your talent for it. That and if I was half my age.”

“And unmarried, sir?”

With a grunt of disappointment, the raven nodded brusquely, “And that, but that’s not the point, of course. So which one are you attracted to the most, the falcon from Falcon’s Keep, the wilder from Kardor or maybe it’s that pretty healer who you’ve been so close to since last year?”

“Sir?” Sebastian questioned worriedly. Sweat was already beginning to add itself to that from dancing earlier. He was glad that it was close enough to the last dance that perhaps new nervous sweating wouldn’t be noticed. Was the question rhetorical, since he knew that he couldn’t answer it truthfully, even to his ranking officer?

“Mmmm, yes, I guess that we are not that close, are we? A few trainings hardly make us friends, eh?” The older man looked up slightly as if contemplating something. “Perhaps I should simply ask if you have given our request any new consideration then.”

More than willing to change the subject, Sebastian latched onto the life line but tried to be calm as he replied, “The request to join the tournament and represent the falcons? Yes, sir, I’ve given it much thought and I think that perhaps I should join. It will be a good chance to see if what I have learned so far will be useful and, of course, some of the best wizards in the country will be there to learn from as well.”

“From the world, actually,” Stallis informed the young man. “His majesty sent the invitation out to a few dozen wizard guilds from around the world I gather. How many will feel comfortable enough to send representatives remains to be seen, of course.

“Anyway, I am glad that you see it our way. This is a chance to represent the battle mages of Southwall and maybe help gain a little respect for our little corps. Of all the mages in the country, you are unique and there’s probably never been another like you, except perhaps the first mage, rest his soul.”

Raven Hurst, Sebastian let his mind think to the legend of the corps. The man had made such a name in Southwall that the westernmost castle guarding the wall had been named after him. Sebastian thought such a comparison was more than generous. He hadn’t accomplished anything like the man that had virtually formed the battle mage corps into what it was based on his original grasp of magic alone.

“Don’t look so surprised at the comparison, Sebastian. Such an association was bound to come when our magic has barely changed since Hurst taught our first generation how to maximize their magic. In less than a year, you’ve nearly doubled the original spells or found unique uses to expand on the old.

“I hate to say it, but even the ravens, despite achieving their ranks, have never been overly clever when it comes to such things. We’ve had others try to research, but until you there has been little advancement in over a hundred years. For many, it was a case of why change what already works, but now I suppose you see how much our people starve to learn more by simply looking to you.”

“Permission to speak freely,” Sebastian asked feeling surprisingly bold at the raven’s candidness. The easy nod and slight smile from Stallis leant more strength as he confessed, “It’s pretty frustrating actually. I have everyone looking to me to learn magic for them and when I see that I wonder why they can’t simply look at the wizards and figure these things out themselves. If they spent more time watching the different wizards’ guilds, we might find even more spells to use.”

The larger man began to chuckle and it grew to strong laughter. “You have no idea how special you are, Sebastian. If it was truly that easy, trust me that we wouldn’t rely on you so completely. As I’ve told you, we’ve put our brightest minds to work doing just as you say and no one has come up with more than one of two minor spells in a lifetime of work. For some reason, the logic you find so easy escapes the rest of us. You must simply see magic differently. We all use it, but only you and Hurst seem able to break it down in such a way that we can use it as our own.

“That’s another reason why we asked you to go to the tournament. You’re the only battle mage that can think like a wizard. Anyone else who joins will likely be laughed out of the arena.”

“That reminds me, sir,” Sebastian decided to ask some his earlier questions from the night of talking with Rilena, “What are the rules and how will the matches be set? I can’t imagine that they will make it like the battle ring. Distance is their ally and the speed of a battle mage in close range would never be allowed to give them an advantage, so how am I supposed to train without knowing what I will be up against?”

Stallis looked increasingly serious as he considered the questions, “Well, now that you have decided, we certainly need to address that, don’t we? Come to the office in the morning. Now that you are in we will have to set up a game plan and in order to do that we are going to need to ask for help from the source.”

Sebastian’s forehead wrinkled in confusion. “The source? You mean we will need to talk to the wizards to learn what happens in this kind of battle. I will also need to talk to them, because I will need a team to support and train me also, sir. I have thought of a couple that might be willing to talk and maybe even join me for the trip, but I don’t know of anyone who has actually trained for such an event.”

Waving off the worries, Raven Stallis replied, “All in due time, lad. Liom and I have already begun to look into this. When we heard that you would be with the group coming to Windmeer, we began to put that into play. Admittedly, we weren’t positive that you would say yes, but we were hoping.”

“Well, that makes me feel a little easier at least,” the younger man assured him in return.

Smiling calmly, Stallis pushed away from the wall that he was leaning against and cast a wave towards Sebastian, “I won’t keep you any longer, since you appear to be heading for bed and will need to be up early enough to meet us after the second bell. That is if you don’t decide to go visit one of those lovely ladies tonight. You are a master of the stealth spell from what I hear. If I had that many beautiful women around me, I might make use of that spell a few times to see them in the night, I think.”

“Is that how you met your wife, sir?” the mage questioned with a chuckle.

A finger waved in his direction as mock warning added import to the man’s parting words, “I don’t think we’re that close to talk about what I’ve done in my past yet either, Falcon Trillon.”

The surprises refused to end for Sebastian. When he came close to his door, the mage thought that he smelled perfume. It was an all male hall, and such a smell was rare unless another falcon or cadet had managed to sneak a girl up to his room. The night had been unusually lively and not just for the girls dressed in kardorian robes, so he supposed someone could have decided to make a longer night of it.

There were no true rules about bringing a woman to one’s room, but it was frowned upon strongly. If Raven Stallis were to be believed, then perhaps Sebastian was simply hiding his head in the sand in relation to his fellow mages. Even so, the scent seemed strongest near his door, which made the mage call on one of his more relied upon spells of late, “Hound.”

The quietly uttered word had the same affect no matter the volume of his voice as his power of smell and hearing amplified beyond a normal human. The scent of perfume increased a dozen times becoming almost overpowering and the sounds of people all around came to him from farther off, as easily as did the heartbeat coming from behind his door. There was someone already inside his room and he knew it wasn’t Yara.

Neither did the scent come from Ashleen, but it was still familiar. Releasing the spell as he assumed the intruder was relatively harmless, Sebastian cautiously eased the door open to find a lamp already lit on his dresser. The other presence lay in his bed until hearing the door open.