Battle Mage: Winter's Edge (47 page)

“Thanks, Bas!” his sister exclaimed before wrapping her arms around his neck and shoulders for a quick and enthusiastic hug. Rushing inside, he could hear her voice as the girl searched for their mother.

Shaking his head, Brenner replied, “Will you be her teacher of mage magic or will you have one of us tutor her?”

“The wizards would claim her in a seeking, so maybe one of you or all of you can see what you can teach along the way. Yara is a good teacher, if no one else is willing.”

With a nod, the air wizard added more of his thoughts, “With as much of the mage training that you have shared with us, perhaps it would be good for her brother to show her that as well. If things go the way I believe they will, the schools will be looking to bring more of a mage style to their wizards. Already Magnus at White Hall trains with falcons to bring new strength and speed to his skills. It is just a matter of time.”

Sighing and returning a more defeated version of the man’s nod, Sebastian answered, “You’ve heard about that?”

“Your skill with both type of magic still gives you an edge against the wizard, but eventually only your quick mind will keep you from being overwhelmed by the power of a full wizard like Magnus. How many tricks you have left up your sleeve will determine how well you do in the tournament and we both know that. You are getting more comfortable dueling, but even here there are times where you look to be over your head with this team. When the others learn to predict your moves, you might be in trouble.”

With a grim smile, the mizard took the advice with the added reply, “Then I guess I need to remain unpredictable with them as well.”

“Easier said than done for most people, but I get the feeling that there is more that you haven’t shown us. Riding the winds with an untrained apprentice should require the mastery of a full wizard with years of training behind them. Now you take the girl and return as if you had been doing it for years. Impressive if a bit foolish. I guess you do have more surprises to show us, don’t you?” the wizard bowed his head slightly before entering the house to warm up.

After the man had left, Sebastian considered his words once more. He had held back and as they trained the mage was learning more as the ravens had hoped, but Sebastian knew that his hopes of winning a wizards’ tournament was highly unlikely. Knowing what his limitations were, the mage could only hope that the strength of the earth could be used to try and even the playing field. The rest would be up to his skill and ability to adjust to each situation.

Chapter 26- Winter’s Bite

It was dark and very cold. The sounds of breathing nearly masked the distant sounds of wind. They had been trapped inside the tents for two days and still the blizzard raged outside. Rilena couldn’t help feeling claustrophobic.

She had been in her tent with Falcon Zerra and a water wizard named Dolfeen with only bodily needs driving them into the horrible weather to try and relieve themselves. Even a quick trip was dangerous in a blizzard. To go too far into the blinding snow, might mean getting lost and if one were to lose her direction completely the mage feared someone could wander far enough to never be found again.

On the bright side, Rilena had made some new friends. It was a thought that brought a sigh when thought about for more than a second. Thinking that she had felt alone because everyone was a stranger from Windmeer was like cursing them to have to get to know each other in a very extreme set of circumstances.

“I’m going out,” the falcon announced to the others. It wasn’t because she wanted them to know, but to ask for Dolfeen’s expertise in leaving the snow sealed sanctuary. As she released the securing ties, the wizard’s magic built up with a series of words of power that Rilena couldn’t understand. That was yet another difference between mage and wizard magic. Why couldn’t they just use the common tongue like a battle mage, she wondered?

As a cold gust swept in past the opened flap of the tent, Rilena watched while the snow seemed to melt and part to either side of the entry for several feet until she could see the tent across from theirs. The falcon began to lunge through the opening making a quick escape while casting a thank you back to Dolfeen. Receiving the wizard’s welcome was much easier than winter’s biting greeting to the falcon.

Taking a moment to look across the encampment as the girl hugged herself and shivered with the cold, all she could see were dozens of white covered mounds with just a few darker scraps of canvas where the wind had swept the tents clean. On either end, two men paced trying to keep warm as they watched for animals that might have smelled the horses. If a pack of wolves grew desperate enough, they might try for the horsemeat or even the men inside their enclosures. While most creatures would would hunker down for the storm and ride it out, if they grew hungry enough there was always that possibility.

Moving forward past the tents across from her own, Rilena hurried to the edge and the snow banks there. With the swirling movement of the wind, she could find snow from a mere foot high to four feet in places. This section was towards the higher number and more suitable to a girl having to answer the call of nature.

“Fire,” she directed a stream of fire to melt the snow before her and create an angle. Making a near L, Rilena stepped into the impromptu stall. Her head and shoulders still cleared the top of the drifts to either side, but as she pulled down her pants they provided some shelter from the wind as well as privacy from anyone who might think to come out and do the same.

Even with the drift offering some cover, the girl could feel her cheeks pimpling with the cold and wished for this once that she had the abilities of a man. One drawback of a woman meant that a body had to be more exposed to simply pee, she thought with a shiver.

Pulling her pants back up, Rilena squinted out at the snow and the tree line a few hundred feet beyond the camp. Her ears thought that they had heard something beyond the sound of the wind. The swirling snow seemed to move down low, but not with the movement of the wind.

A quick look towards the sentries revealed a new worry. One pair continued to pace bundled into their cloaks and looking beyond the camp at the woodlands at the edge of the clearing. The other pair was nowhere to be seen.

“Hound,” the mage ordered the spell as she moved in the direction of the missing soldiers to investigate. With her hearing and sense of smell enhanced well beyond human, Rilena could hear all of the camp at once. Muffled sounds of talking, snoring, and movements joined that of the horses corralled in the middle of the camp. Trying to concentrate on the far side of the camp was hard as it wasn’t a spell she often used. It was a spell for a sentry, spy or tracker, but Rilena had rarely been given any of those roles.

Another sound found it’s way to her sensitive ears from the direction the girl was heading. She couldn’t place it as more than the sound of maybe a foot dragging briefly in the snow, but that didn’t seem quite right. Wishing that she had trained more with the spell when the mage had been encouraged to, Rilena moved as quietly as she could, but the snow rose a foot and the occasional crunch under foot couldn’t be helped.

There. The scuff and a groan from the same place.

“Fireball!” the falcon summoned and cast the glowing ball illuminating the tents as it passed through to the far side of the row she began hurrying through. A shape, large, perhaps that of a wolf appeared shadowed as it moved quickly to avoid discovery. Hurrying forward the mage reached for her sword, but realized that it still lay in the tent. The girl didn’t sleep with the scabbard at her hip and it simply got in her way in small places like the tent.

“Lance,” was the next command to summon the air lance taught to her by the mizard himself. Sebastian had even sparred with her using the solid air weapon so the mage could feel comfortable in using it as a defense and offense a like.

As she sprinted through the last few tents and the thick snow, Rilena wondered if she should raise the alarm now. If they had just moved out from the camp beyond her vision for a similar reason to her being outside, the girl would have panicked the camp for nothing. Another shape whipped past the end of the tents.

“To arms!” the woman cried running past the last of the tents. No one stirred at her voice. She called two more times and began to hear the sounds of people beginning to move slowly inside their tents.

A dark shape moved into the gap between the tents at the far end of the row less than ten feet from Rilena causing the mage to pull up into a defensive stance. With a low growl, the wolf stalked forward cautiously. Its eyes glowed red from the closest of covered lanterns hanging from a pole in front of the last tent.

“Battle cry,” Rilena ordered a rarely used spell. Increasing her volume well beyond a normal shout, the mage cried out, “To arms, to arms, Southwall, to arms!”

Her own shout nearly masked sudden movement from her right. From between the last two tents; another creature, but not a wolf, leaped out at the mage. Ducking down and swinging the lance between her and the new attacker, Rilena managed to deflect the claws of one of the white mountain cats. With the distraction the wolf moved in quickly, but the cat rolled to the mage’s side getting between her and the wolf.

Fending off both attacks, the mage tried to scream for more help, but even her gasps were magnified by her spell. The closest tents were responding now. With the magnification of her cries penetrating the thick snow covering, the nearest soldiers of Southwall were grabbing their weapons and tearing open the flaps of their tents already.

The claws of the cat tore through her coat catching the skin of her side and she screamed in pain. Her mother had once complained how shrill her scream could be as a child, in a near copy of that sound her voice broke through the air in a high pitch making the animals wince in pain. Unfortunately, these beasts were more determined than a mere dog or true wolf would be. Undeterred, the wolf lunged for the mage with its teeth. Like a well rehearsed dance, the three fought and Rilena was barely able to watch as the first soldiers moved into the path only to fend off more of the beasts as they appeared.

“Look out!” she cried out feeling the pain of the spell’s negative effects. While Rilena knew that she could end the spell, the woman hoped the extra noise would help arouse the camp.

As cries rose up behind the battling mage and soldiers of the first few tents, Rilena released her spell. Without the pain from her cries in her throat, the mage concentrated on battling the two beasts. More of the vicious creatures fought the soldiers and mages behind her; in fact, based off the level of noise coming from throughout the camp, the girl bet the entire enclosure had been attacked at once. With only her last moment cries as warning, the camp was being assaulted with such precision she knew that these could not just be natural beasts from the mountain. These animals would be more likely to fight themselves than attempt to attack so many humans even with the horses tempting them.

Spells were causing a racket along the entire perimeter of the camp. Wizards and mages were in the fray with their comrade soldiers working together to defend man and horse alike. A new form launched in from her left and Rilena knew that she couldn’t react in time. Luckily, a battle mage covered in stone skin had leaped into her fight crashing into the big cat.

Roaring and scratching at his attacker, the mountain lion fought desperately to break the falcon’s grasp. The man wrestled like a demon taking no damage with his protective skin and nearly as strong with his tactical advantage, he pressed the beast down as she heard his command, “Knife!”

Hand a glow with blue light, the falcon stabbed the lion in the chest with his glowing fingers held together. Blood spewed from the hand size wound as his attack pierced flesh and bone until striking spine. The creature’s heart and lungs ruptured before he drew his hand out of the fresh carcass.

A yelp, as the wolf was caught a hard strike with her lance, surprised Rilena as well when the creature quickly limped away. She had hurt it, but it was the withdrawal of an intelligent creature. The wolf had been alert enough to know that his fighting companion was dead and he was now outnumbered.

“Thanks,” the girl gasped hoarsely. Her spell had left her throat scratched and raw. It hurt, but not as much as her wounded side.

“Don’t mention it,” the mage stood and she quickly realized that he wasn’t some giant of a man, but a boy no taller than she. “Name’s Elzen, and you are, pretty lady?”

“Rilena,” she replied absently as the girl looked around quickly. The noise was beginning to disappear. Apparently, the initial battle was winding down. “Wait… Elzen Rattemen?”

Looking surprised to have her know his name, the boy brushed back his hair with a grin and asked, “You’ve heard of me, Rilena?”

Waving for him to follow her, Rilena went back to the last row of tents to see if those at the outer line were still alive. “You’re Sebastian’s friend. He used to talk about his friends from White Hall, Sylvie and Elzen, who was something of a hand to hand expert. I took a shot.”

“Wow, small world, huh?”

“Not as small as it used to be. Sebastian must have trained four hundred falcons on his new magic since last fall, and I never heard of him training you while I was at Falcon’s Keep. In fact, the last I think he had seen you was back in your days at White Hall.”

A soldier lay on his back with his stomach ripped out. He hadn’t worn his armor while sleeping and one of the lions had probably used its claws on his unprotected abdomen. It was too late for even a healer to save him this time.