Battle Mage: Winter's Edge (52 page)

The room was silent and he went on assuming all was clear. “You will all come forward and draw numbers. Those numbers will line you up against your competition for the next two days. Where you stand now will decide your order to draw.” He pointed at the closest man, an air wizard and ordered him over to draw from the bag.

Sebastian was one of the furthest from the table, so he waited and watched as each man and woman went forward to draw a number. When he finally drew number twelve, the mage noted that he had drawn a wizard from Alcazar, one of the countries he had never heard of before. Nodding to the man politely, the smaller, very tan wizard pulled at the left side of a grand mustache that extended down past his chin in a twisted rope. His dark hair and skin would have made him stand out from a crowd of northerners at any time of year, but certainly at the end of winter where skin had been covered up for months becoming pale, he must have come from someplace still warm.

Sniffing in disdain after reading the mage’s aura, the wizard said in a thick accent, “Ahn easay ween fo’ me. Ah well, sah mach da better fo’ me.”

Giving a tight smile, Sebastian replied, “I will do my best. Perhaps you’ll be surprised?”

“We’an see, yase,” the wizard admitted though less than convinced by the mage’s words.

Wendle moved over to Sebastian and said quietly with a sigh, “I am ten. Even if I beat the fire wizard, then I would meet you in the second round. What a bad draw.”

Chuckling, the falcon replied, “Well, my opponent doesn’t think much of me, so maybe it won’t make a difference?”

With a nod, the Kardorian gestured towards the Mar’goyn’lya saying, “If he read your aura, then he’d think that you are only as strong as they appear to be, but I don’t think either of us believe those gargoyles will be pushovers either. I’ve seen you fight and I know better than to count you out before the fight begins.”

“True, but then again I have no idea what kind of spells he might have also. I guess I’ll just have to think through my game plan after I see the duel field. Then we’ll see who is right.”

They were told that they could check out the duel fields today until sundown, but there would be no use of spells before tomorrow’s matches. With directions on the proper way to get there since it was the king’s castle as well and many areas were tightly guarded, Wendle and Sebastian along with several other wizards decided to go immediately while there was still light out. The days were still short and there wouldn’t be much time before they would be locked out for the night.

When they arrived, the duel field was a surprise, though the name had forewarned them. A ten foot wide wall ran from the outer white wall to the black keep. At a height of at least thirty feet, he judged, they would battle on twenty foot wide circles built on top of the wall. There was seating on the white wall for an audience on the three walls closest to the battle field. Looking down below, there were other wizards checking out two other fields set between the two outer walls with just the wall of the Heights separating them.

“Whoever came up with this place is nuts,” one of the wizards stated in shock. “If someone falls from here, we’ll be dead for sure.”

“There will be a team of wizards surrounding the field to ensure that no one dies from an accident,” another man stated, though he seemed less than convinced. There were no nets below and, unless there would be some other security device, their lives would be in the hands of the tournament wizards.

Sebastian looked on the austere, yet frightening battle field. Simple stone from one end to another with no wood to burn or water to bend without drawing from the fields below, but that move was illegal and cut off by the wizards set for protection anyway. On the other hand, a wizard could bring certain limited items to any field where the style of magic would require components that were otherwise unavailable; and that led him towards his strategy.

Nodding to himself, the mage began to return to his inn with his mind made up. Wendle quickly caught up to him following his stride.

“This is a little disappointing really,” the wizard stated as they walked. “I was hoping that I could use both water and air in my fight. It would certainly throw off the fire wizards anyway. Now I guess that I am stuck with just air.

“Have you figured out what you are going to do?”

Sebastian nodded again. “I have a plan at any rate. My opponent from Alcazar might have a surprise for me, but I think mine will work. By the way, do you have any idea where Alcazar even is?”

With a big laugh, Wendle shook his head. “I have no idea. All I know is that I could barely figure out what he was saying. I guess wherever he is from the common tongue isn’t his first language.”

Agreeing with his friend, the two retreated back to their inns separating at the castle entry as they were in two different directions. They wished each other a good night and both felt at least a little better that they wouldn’t have to face one another in the first round at least.

The sun was shining brightly by the time Sebastian walked out onto the wall. He had drawn the outer wall circle and Cazwallan, the man from Alcazar, walked farther out across the wall to the circle nearest the keep. Like a black shadow, the castle seemed draw in the light and refused to give it back. Sebastian frowned hoping that such tricks of light wouldn’t throw him off. It would be sad to lose and have to try and blame a castle.

His morning had already been filled with seeing other wizard duels and the mage was feeling excited to compete. He had watched Ashleen’s match from the cliff overlooking the North Sea. The view of the sea from the wood bleachers was awe inspiring in itself. The match had been nearly so.

Ashleen’s use of lightning had over whelmed an air wizard from Ione, one of Southwall’s southern cities. The match had begun somewhat evenly as they felt each other out, but the wilder’s easy use of the complex magic was too much for the wizard.

Liam’s match had been right after and was a more even competition. The bleachers were set at the base of the cliff on a beach that would most likely flood with a high tide, looked out over the water to a pair of simple twenty foot discs rising out of the water. A perfect site for a war with water magic, the two wizards sent water spouts, animal shaped water monsters and dozens of other spells into their opponent’s defenses. With an inexhaustible amount of water to bend to their wills, it was simply up to the wizards to find the strength to win.

Using some of the quicker mage styled casting that he had worked on with Sebastian and the other mages for the last several days. Liam eventually took the upper hand to defeat the man, but he was wet and very tired by the end of the match. Luckily, the water wizard’s matches were set up the same as those of the Heights and he would have until the next day before his second match began.

Arriving in time to watch Wendle’s match with his fire wizard from Red Hall, Sebastian evaluated each wizard’s technique and spells. They were using nothing he hadn’t seen before and knew how to counter them as long as his timing was correct. It was a close match and he could tell that both were uneasy thanks to the unusually high field. Wendle’s air magic eventually won the day as the fire wizard was blown off the wall from a strong blast of air.

The crowd gasped as the man fell, but the six wizards in charge of the field were quick to catch him in their spells. Lifted back to the battle circle, the two men shook hands while the fire wizard tried to get a little color back into his fear whitened face.

“Good luck, Bas,” Wendle said patting him on the shoulder in passing. The wizard looked tired. He also noted the handful of wooden staves in the mage’s left hand and his staff Bairh’loore in his right.

Sebastian doubted that he would need the staff or the power of the earth for this match. Speed and surprise should win the day if Cazwallan was a typical caster.

Laying the half dozen four foot long shafts of wood on the ground before him, the mage prepared to use a set of his favorite tricks.

Six fresh wizards took their places on opposing sides of the wall and began to chant their incantations of protect for the players and surrounding venue during the match. Four wore the yellow of healers and Sebastian supposed that this was the role of their kind in the tournament. Glancing to the stand on his left, he looked for Yara in her yellow cloak. Along with her sat most of his team. Katya to the right waved to her brother and he raised his hand letting them all know that he had seen them.

Feeling encouraged by his friends to do well, Sebastian took a deep breath waiting for the match to begin and it didn’t take long. Dressed in the black and silver of the diplomats, the head judge of the
match stepped to the edge of the tower behind the mage and augmented his voice with magic. “The next match of the Heights between Cazwallan from Alcazar and Falcon Sebastian Trillon representing Windmeer will now begin!”

They had just fifteen seconds to prepare their defenses and he wished that he knew the wizard’s area of expertise. Assuming that the man had either put down air or fire with the potential to use both, Sebastian worried that his standard shields might not be enough to stop the wizard’s attacks. Unable to do anything about it until the match actually began, he simply set up his standard three shields at the front of his twenty foot circle. That only left about ten feet between his body and the glowing, blue shields, since one of the ways of winning was to drive your opponent from the circle. Standing too far back could make him an easier target for a slip or a push.

Touching each staff with his healing spell to attach a magic tether was allowed at this point and he had the time to do so. At that point, Sebastian looked across at the wizard from Alcazar’s defenses. With just a four foot wide area directly in front of the man in line with the wall and his opponent open, the remainder of the circle was sealed in a dome of rippling fire. Sebastian didn’t doubt that the flames masked a solid wall of magic beneath, while the apparent opening in the front seemed to shift the wizard’s image with the added movement of a heat haze.

Sebastian judged that he was using an air shield within the fire dome, so he was at least a duel element user. Nodding in confirmation to his opponent, who replied with a smug grin, Sebastian took one last deep breath before a horn sounded. It was a different start than his previous duels, but a horn or a voice mattered little as Cazwallan’s face took some unusual contortions during a quickly worded spell.

The amusing appearance aside, a spout of fire formed appearing like a dragon made solely of flame. Like it had risen from the very flame of the dome, the dragon rose up to breath fire over his shields. In response, Sebastian raised his left hand lifting his forward shield up to redirect the blast. The flames were hot, but not powerful enough to break his shield.

“Shield,” he summoned a fourth shield but directed it like a knife to slice the dragon in half. The lower stream of flame recoiled back towards the wizard as the upper portion of the dragon gave out in a puff of smoke.

Only slightly surprised by the mage’s easy responses, Cazwallan continued with his odd antics. Half dancing while his face continued to pull his strange looks, a pair of fire birds appeared to attack him from either side. These did not breathe flame as they sought to break his shield by striking them like fiery bombs.

With a chopping motion, Sebastian made his floating shield split sending them cutting through the birds. Cut in half from top to bottom, the fire birds struck his remaining shields with little force as the flame quickly burned out.

“Lance, lance, lance,” the mage ordered three of the wooden shafts into the air surrounded by the concentrated power of the wind. Cazwallan’s next spell paused as his eyes opened with slight worry. The shafts rose in an arc to rain down piercing the air shield and fire dome alike, but they were redirected by the angles to strike the ground in three spots in front and to the side of the wizard.

Relieved by his apparent safety, the wizard combined air and fire once more in a swirling tornado of power designed to shatter his shields. There was no change of direction, just overwhelming power.

“Shield, shield,” he quickly summoned two defenses in the middle of the bridge forming a quick wedge. The tornado split, but two smaller versions struck his remaining shields.

“Grow,” the mage ordered as the two blasts struck his closest shields. They continued to hold in the face of the lesser fire attacks. A cry of alarm from his opponent signaled a loss of concentration by Cazwallan letting the swirling fires die.

Through the air shield, Sebastian watched as his three spears rapidly grew to ensnare the wizard’s legs. A quick fireball burned away the center growth of vines, but the right caught the arm while the left twisted and swirled around his waist. In moments, the ensnaring vines had the wizard immobilized.

The crowd made a gasp as one seeing the wizard undone by a battle mage so quickly and easily. The fire dragon and birds had seemed so impressive and inspiring that they couldn’t believe such simple looking magic could have won the match.

“Eempahseeble!” the wizard cried out angrily. “Yoo ahr noht paherfool aynough een magic toh doo thees! Yoo chated!”

The flaming dome died away as did the air shield. Sebastian looked to the judges for confirmation without disputing the angry little man.

“Cazwallan of Alcazar is defeated by immobilization. Falcon Sebastian wins his match,” the judge proclaimed refuting Cazwallan’s claim.