Battle Mage: Winter's Edge (46 page)

Struggling to pull Conn
er from their attentions, Sebastian was forced to split his attention to the new problem. “Sleep,” he ordered touching his father’s arm. The spell worked instantly and the mage had to hold him with one arm to prevent him from falling backward and possibly interrupting Yara’s magic in his sleep.

Footsteps rushed over as Ardost and Vord took charge of the unconscious elder Trillon letting Sebastian return his full attention on his ailing brother. The veteran falcons were well trained to be calm in situations even as dire as this, which was a blessing.

“Ready?” Yara asked. In the moments of Marcel’s thrashing, the healer never lost momentum with her spells. Flesh was molded and held in a state of renewal to ready Conner for the removal of the steel tines.

He nodded, though the mage knew that Yara would never notice the movement. Not needing to see it to know her partner was ready, the healer said, “Now. Pull it free, Bas.”

With a sickening wet release, the hayfork was swiftly removed with his free hand. Cast aside, Sebastian could feel as Yara worked with her magic to heal the injured organs and sealed the skin preventing anymore loss of blood. Even the tiniest hole inside and out, was found and healed by the wizard. Her magic then worked on the broken bones as the main concern was fully mended. Sebastian could feel each deft working of her spell. Like a surgeon, the girl straightened and reattached bones and muscle separating them into working components once more. Magic strengthened bone as if it had never broken. Muscles were like new and probably stronger than before the accident.

“All right, you can release your spell,” Yara finally let Sebastian know that she was finished. The mage had felt it all and
knew as she told him that Conner would live.

Releasing his own magic, Sebastian sat back feeling exhausted. Just holding back the pain had been a major undertaking. For all her healing, Yara’s spells would hurt as they fixed what was broken without his own in place.

His eyes returned to the world around him and he gazed on the beautiful blond wizard across from him. The girl looked as drained as he felt. She had given nearly her all fixing so much at once. Sebastian doubted that he could have done it all in one try without having to eat some food. He wasn’t as strong in magic as Yara. The difference between wizard and mage was there for them, but it was nothing new and mattered little to either of them.

Footsteps running back into the barn signaled his foggy mind that food and drink were probably near to hand. Darkness threatened to overwhelm the mage. He had been dueling before news of the accident and the extra healing put him dangerously low on magical strength. If they had gone much longer, Sebastian feared that he would have passed out himself.

A sandwich with cheese and butter was pressed into one hand while a glass of milk went to the other. Drinking and eating like the young man hadn’t eaten in days, Sebastian tried to catch up to the magic he had used. Yara was a foggy sight in front of him eating and drinking nearly as desperately.

“Is he…?” Edgar tried to ask the question that had an answer he both feared and longed to hear.

Smiling tiredly, Yara answered his brother, “He’s still sleeping from your brother’s spells, but Conner will live. If we hadn’t been here, no one could have helped him in time. We got lucky.”

Rena’s voice sobbed her husband’s name after Yara’s good news. Sebastian felt the rush of his sister-in-law as she hugged him to her breast. With the fear of his loss over, Rena could hold him in relief and treasure their moments together even more desperately.

Once more Sebastian thought of the lives that only magic could save. So many soldiers had died last year, but so many more would have joined them without the magic he had learned from Yara and her mentor Deyla. There were so many lives, including his, saved by the healers of Windmeer, and he would never forget how little he had done compared to those wizards dedicated to healing.

With such thoughts of healing and war, the mage wondered about Rilena and the forces sent back to the mountain. He wasn’t there to protect his friend anymore. Sebastian only hoped that she was safe as well as the others sent to confront the creatures of the emperor.

For the small army winding its way through the foothills of the northern Dimple Mountains, the cold and snow nearly up to the bellies of their horses threatened to end their campaign before it had even started. Winds from the north made the trip even colder than the first time Rilena had come through the mountains’ chill grip. New snow had hit since the caravan’s passing and as they attempted to climb the hills and mountains a new blizzard dropped even more.

For Rilena, it was not only the wind and snow leaving her cold. Without Sebastian, the falcon felt truly alone. She knew none of the mages from Windmeer and though Markun and the wizards from Falcon’s Keep were still with her; Rilena couldn’t say that she was close friends with any of them. Unfortunately when the seekers had come for her, they had never mentioned that the girl would rarely be able to keep any of the friends she might make along the line.

Being a mage was lonely work at times and these were among those times, she thought as the falcon sunk her head as deep into her collar as she could manage. Too bad for her that Bas’s air shield
spell had always been beyond her grasp. At least a little break from the wind and snow would help the girl’s mood as her poor horse struggled to follow the line of riders before her.

“A-a-air, sh-sh-shield,” the mage tried to call for the spell once again desperately. He had told her time and again how to organize the spell in her mind and at the best of times it had eluded her. Shaking with the cold and her teeth chattering, Rilena could barely even get the words out let alone order her mind to create the effect.

Looking out at the grey and white world around her, the falcon worried that even if they managed to find their way back to the mountain, the army would be unable to fight in this blizzard anyway. Pulling at her hood to try and cover more of her face to limit the amount of skin the wind could touch, the girl was still able to see those closest to her looking virtually the same. Whether wizard, mage or soldier, they all looked miserable.

Markun moved closer to her and had to speak up to be heard over the wind, “We’re going to try to build a camp here.”

Looking to the grey sky hiding the sun somewhere beyond her sight, the falcon had no idea what time it was. Knowing that it was day only because they wandered in the grey and not complete darkness, Rilena thought that it might still be closer to midday, but the snow made her lose all track of time. The weather had already beaten them and it was only the third day. It had already taken twice the time of the first trip with a carriage that had its own problems with snow.

“Here?” Rilena finally asked from within the hood. There appeared to be a clearing surrounding what she hoped was still the road. They had air and nature wizards that were supposedly keeping them on the path, but the mage would have been lost in the snow days ago. Thanks to the wind and snow any trace of the road was long gone.

The man’s shrug was nearly lost beneath his layers. Somewhere deep down, the jacket of a falcon was buried beneath a blanket and cloak that Markun had pulled from his pack. For a north man, he acted like someone from the south coast, Rilena thought, though in this weather maybe he was just smarter than she. The woman had never asked him where he was from, since once in the corps where your life began mattered little to the life lived after being called.

“Falconi Ralto and Wizard Delfar have given the order. Even those two have given up on finding our way in this weather,” the falcon replied as the command spread through the ranks and riders began to dismount into the huge drifts looking as miserable as she felt.

Noticing a contingent of wizards working together and forming a pattern of gestures, magic could be felt on the air. Spells of fire, earth and water all worked to clear the deep snow for hundreds of feet. Brown grass appeared in a roughly square area between walls of snow two to four feet deep. Like the walls of a city that simply extended beyond view, the snow rose around them as tents were quickly erected.

Even the speed of soldiers and mages weren’t enough to raise all the tents before the wizards had to work to remove more snow from the clearing already made. The blizzard worked to bury them alive before they could think to hide in their tents. Rilena just prayed that the snow’s weight wouldn’t build and crush them, smothering them all in their sleep.

Brenner stood still before the doorway to the Trillon home. The closest school to being a weather wizard was that of the air and Brenner was one of the best in his field. He read the winds and felt with his mind far beyond what he could see with his eyes.

“What are you doing?” Katya asked feeling the rise in the man’s magic though unable to describe how she knew such a thing. Perhaps she was a future wizard like her brother had said. Did that mean her senses could feel such things without training?

Brenner didn’t respond, but Sebastian who sat wearily beside Yara on the bench outside the front door answered for him, “He’s checking the winds to see what kind of weather is coming our way.”

The girl looked at her brother a moment before turning back to the air wizard. “Can he predict the weather?” she asked curiously.

“Sort of. He reads the winds and can tell which way the weather moves. It’s sort of how they can scout ahead by following the winds with their minds.” Standing up with a bit of effort as the mage was still recovering from the exertion of a long day of using his magic, Sebastian moved beside his sister. “I can show you if you’d like.”

With a look of surprise and fear, Katya shook her head sending blond hair into a frenzy as she fended off the idea. “I can’t…,” she began.

Taking her hand in his, Sebastian asked permission with his eyes as he asked once more, “It’s very safe and I think you’ll find that it’s really fun.”

At her reluctant nod, her brother had her close her eyes. “Just relax and think of the sky. You want to fly like a bird up in the air.” Feeling his sister relax, he ordered the spell in his mind. A brief bit of worry in the back of his mind with the remembrance that it was the first time taking someone with his spell, was shelved as he ordered, “Freedom.”

Their touch helped create the link he needed. He wasn’t an expert at forming the bond that helped an air wizard train their apprentices, but Sebastian had been on the other end and knew what the magic felt like. In his mind, he continued to hold his sister’s hand as his mind found his first air current. Lifting
away on the wind, the mage looked down on their bodies standing in front of the house and felt the freedom he expressed with the command.

Riding the wind was one of his favorite spells and being able to share it with his sister before she was trained made him feel even more joy. They swooped and rose again. With currents fighting their way from the north, the winds were more active than many of the times he had ridden the wind, but no worse than it had been in the mountains.

Though he could feel some of the emotions of Katya through their link and he could tell that she was enjoying the experience, the mage erred on the side of caution and returned to the house once more. After settling their minds back into their bodies, his sister looked up at him wide eyed and exclaimed, “That was so fun. Is all magic like that?”

Grinning in return, Sebastian replied simply, “Some more than others, but I wanted you to know some of what you might have to look forward to.”

Katya nodded still unable to stop smiling. Thinking back to his first trips on the wind with his friend Fala, Sebastian knew how she felt. Even now, the mage often felt great for hours after his flying through the air and the freedom it brought.

“I don’t think I am scared of going with the wizards anymore, Bas.” After a moment’s thought, the girl added, “Do you think that mom and dad would let me go with you to Hala? You could teach me some of the training to become a wizard on the way. When I finally go to the school, maybe I can move up to an advanced class right away.”

Chuckling at his younger sister’s almost child like exuberance, Sebastian had to slow her down by saying, “Well, I’m not sure it works that way. You could ask Yara or one of the other wizards, but as to the other I’m not sure they would want me to take you to Hala. Mom and dad might want to keep you home as long as they can. There’s no assurance that the seekers will come to Mera or the farms this year anyway.”

With a shake of her head and a look of disappointment leading the girl to start to pout, Katya said, “They weren’t here last year. You know the wizards come here almost every year since we’re so close to White Hall. If they don’t come this spring, I think we would all be surprised.

“Come on, big brother,” the girl nearly pleaded with big eyes and a puffed out lip in a look he remembered from her early years. Some girls grew out of such antics, but others were too good at the look to quit, he guessed. Sebastian also guessed that it worked quite often for Katya.

He felt Brenner’s attention on them. The wizard must have ended his own session with the winds while they were gone, though the trip had only been a few minutes. Looking amused by the girl’s attempt to sway her brother, the often stoic wizard shrugged at his leader.

In response, the mage acted similarly. “If you can convince, mom and dad, then I think it would be all right for you to come. We can shift the loads to free a horse if you can get father to part with a saddle. But that is only if they say yes.”