White Hall (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 10) (18 page)

“Anyway, when I realized that what I was doing was similar to healing, I was able to do some of that as well. It is only a short step from making clothing mend to mending flesh.”

Iris looked uncomprehendingly at the girl and asked, “So you want to be able to learn how to be a battle mage and how to be a wizard?”

Cheleya shook her head in surprise at the question and replied, “I am already a wizard, well at least an apprentice in several practices. I can call all the elements, heal a bit now, and use dragon magic to fly and the like.”

The three looked at her in complete shock, and asked as one, “You can fly?!”

Nodding, the girl answered, “Ambassador Theress left it to my discretion whether your people were ready to learn our special magic. Our people were afraid that if your citizens learned that wizards could learn to fly, they would be afraid of the Dark One’s warlocks getting a hold of the magic to use against you.

“I fought new creatures of the Dark One. Giant shrikes with magical powers that we think are warlocks using amulets to change like we do to human. If that is true, I think maybe it would be wise to teach your people how to use dragon magic as well. Your wizards and maybe battle mages can learn to fly and fight the creatures in the sky.

Iris’s eyes were wide and she asked, “Could you demonstrate for us and let us see how you fly?”

Cheleya giggled and nodded, “Of course, if I can trust you with my other secrets, then I might as well show you this as well.”

Slipping out the back of the building, Cheleya hurried to the edge of Mera, which wasn’t that far since it was a small town.

“The commands are as simple as those used by your battle mages, but actually mastering how to use the magic, especially flying, takes time,” the little blonde said as she turned to face them.

With the red light of Turas shining on them from the eastern horizon, and the silver light of the first moon shining from just past its zenith as Gelinas led the way across the sky, the girl’s face looked pink and her light blonde hair as well. Even pink, Iris couldn’t help being jealous of the pretty girl. The dragoness didn’t seem to understand just how beautiful she was and as Katya had said, the girl seemed to have no qualms about her body image which was slim and graceful.

“Dragon wings,” she called and large pink wings, not affected by the moon but color of her choice, appeared spreading from the center of her back.

“Pink?” Katya asked with a grin and looked like she wished that she could create the same.

Cheleya giggled and replied, “Well, they can be any color, but I tend to like red and pink. A lot of the time it changes with my mood, but I like them.”

“They’re so cute!” The youngest girl nearly sang before asking, “Let’s see you fly then, if you’re allowed.”

“Why wouldn’t I be allowed?” Cheleya asked with a shake of her head. “I trained for a year with a master to be able to fly. Since I was nearly done with my studies, I can fly any time that I want. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to since I joined Magnus’s wizards. It was part of my secret after all.”

With a slight bend of her knees, her wings swept down stirring up the old snow still dusting the field. Lifting into the sky; Cheleya seemed to go through a dance as she maneuvered, twisting and twirling, diving and lifting as she pleased. By the time, she had landed the girls were beginning to feel cold and Iris wondered how the slim little blond could fly through the sky in just her blouse and skirt. The slippers and light cloth would do little to keep her warm, she thought.

Returning to land by her friends with a big smile, the dragoness looked very happy. They didn’t realize that she loved to fly and had missed it greatly being grounded as they rode the horses west.

“Can you fly with me?” Katya asked completely undaunted by the idea of flying without any protection should she fall.

“Um, I can’t lift a lot, but I could probably take you. Much more and I would be afraid of dropping one of you. I won’t be able to fly fast or do aerial maneuvers for the same reason.”

“I don’t care,” Katya said with a grin. “Whatever you feel safe doing, I would love to try it.”

Iris was an air wizard and watching the two take off, she had a mixture of fear and a wish to fly as they were. Cheleya didn’t go far or very high. They could see that holding onto Katya was a struggle, since the two looked about the same size. The dragon’s wing had no trouble at all, however, as it was just the petite girl’s arm strength that was put to the test.

By the time they landed, Katya was grinning from ear to ear and shouted, “That was so much fun! If you decide to train White Hall on dragon magic, I am signing up!”

“You will be a novice and an apprentice for quite awhile, Katya,” Iris reminded the girl. A wizard’s training was long and few were elevated above apprentice in less than five years. Even Magnus, the tournament champion, had been training for five years before he was promoted.

She didn’t want to quell the girl’s exuberance, however, and held such things to herself. On the other hand, Iris had ridden the winds with her mind and wondered with almost giddy expectation of one day learning to fly like a dragon.

“Hmmph,” Katya waved off the idea and said, “If they require volunteers, then why can’t a novice or apprentice be allowed to learn this as well? Cheleya’s my friend, so maybe that is as good a reason as any.”

Iris smiled and tried to be gentle as she said, “Let’s get free of having a wizard keeping your power in check first. You’ll be powerful before you know it. Learning dragon magic will always be there, if that is what Cheleya and her people decide.”

“Dragon scale,” the dragoness called on another spell and lifted her hand towards the silver moon. Red scales looking like rubies on her skin reflected like polished gemstones. “This magic can keep us safe. We used to use illusions to make our clothes, but if that magic fails, this spell will make you look like you are still covered in armor.”

She lifted her blouse enough to see the red gem scales on her stomach.

“Well, I think I can remember to put on my clothes, Cheleya,” Katya laughed as the four began to walk back to the inn.

When they returned to the inn, the music continued to play and the dancers danced. While few noticed their disappearance, Kel’lor looked at Cheleya with a frown. Though he wasn’t her blood relative, the two were as close as siblings and the giant was very loyal to his little sister. When she disappeared, however, the mar’goyn’lya was also trusting that the little dragoness was trained well enough to protect herself as well.

Darius caught Katya's eye, who simply smiled and waved to the wizard as the little group entered together. The youngest girl wondered if Cheleya’s curse had ever been brought to the immortal wizard. Darius had almost seven hundred years of learning magic to draw from, so if anyone would know how to reverse her friend’s curse, it was likely to be him.

While Katya knew that it was Cheleya’s secret, she wondered if just asking if he knew of the transformation amulets would be enough to discover if he could help. Katya loved the pretty girl, who was so sweet and naive; but if the che’ther was unhappy having no choice in being a human, then she would try to help her if that was possible, while still doing her best to protect the girl’s secrets.

Iris kept Piotr’s hand and pulled him onto the dance floor. She was surprised as a slow song began and the two moved closer together.

“Katya is right though,” she said quietly in his ear as they danced comfortably despite the song.

“About what?”

“You got to see me naked and that isn’t fair.”

Feeling his back stiffen with remorse and dread, the girl rubbed his shoulder saying, “I’m not threatening you or demanding we get even, like Katya threatened. I mean, it just sucks. A girl is supposed to be with a boy and wanting to be that way with him, not finding out that he has snuck a peek.”

She sighed giving pause as the two swayed back and forth. Piotr didn’t know what to say, however, and waited to see what else Iris might have to say.

After a few moments, the boy felt her chin resting on his shoulder and she said, “Well, I hope I didn’t disappoint you at least. I know I’m not as pretty as Cheleya and all that.”

“I didn’t really try to pay attention to that really. In fact, Niklaus complained that we couldn’t really see very well from across the alley. Since you all were moving back and forth, the owl would accidentally move enough to block some of what he wanted to see.

“You have to remember that I was actually watching to see if Cheleya would tell you her secret, rather than being a real peeping Tom. Seeing the other two like that so early in the afternoon was more than any of us expected during the day after all.”

Sighing, the girl stated, “I’m not sure that I believe you.”

“Would it be better if I told you that I did see everything like the color of your underwear?” he chuckled as Iris froze a moment. “I’m kidding. Maybe we should just drop it. I’ll make sure to not be able to find any birds to help fan their perversion on the way to White Hall. I promise.”

“You better not. If you ever think you’re going to see me naked, it had better be in person,” she retorted and suddenly regretted her wording.

“Really?” he countered drawing back a little to try and look at her face, but Iris looked away as she rested her head on his shoulder.

All he could see was her rich, red hair as the girl slapped his shoulder lightly and complained, “I didn’t mean it like that. No more sneaking peeks at girls like that.”

“Yes, Apprentice Iris,” he nodded holding back his laughter as the girl sighed again.

The following day they rode out as planned. Without fan faire or demonstrations of wizardly powers, the combined groups rode towards White Hall.

Piotr soon found himself caught between the two factions. There was his brother and Job on one side, who continued to pester him about trying to use his animal spell to spy on the girls again, and the girls, the intended victims of their spying. With the girls already aware of what they had done, Piotr was left to tell the others, no.

While the nagging persisted, Katya and Iris were worth having his brother annoyed at him. Job didn’t truly care, since he was already happy just getting to know Briahnna from dancing and riding beside her. Guessing that the boy only joined Niklaus in asking because he wanted the older twin to be his friend, Piotr remained as friendly as he could while turning them down.

“I can’t believe that we’ve stayed three more nights and you can’t find any birds to use to look at the girls,” Nik complained quietly.

“The wizards have been keeping too close a watch now. I think that they might know what we did, so we can’t push it, Niki,” Piotr said without telling him which wizards now knew about it. Only Briahnna was in the dark as far as he knew, though they might have told her as well. He doubted the other girls had, however, since she had never gotten angry at Job for his part in the peeping.

Emitting a low growl in complaint, Niklaus finally asked, “Do you think any of the girls caught on to you?”

Piotr nearly wanted to laugh as the prank had apparently been put on his shoulders.

“I couldn’t tell you,” he said honestly.

They had stopped for lunch when the girls decided to get back at Niklaus for his part in putting Piotr up to it. Taking a moment to relieve himself behind a tree, the three girls pulled the other twin away making him look like a bit like he was their prisoner. While some of the wizards noticed the strange antics, when Iris called a powerful wind to knock Niklaus over causing him to moon the others, everyone turned to look as the boy cried out in surprise.

“And that’s what you get for pulling pranks on girls!” Katya hollered at the boy as he pulled up his pants looking embarrassed.

Some of the other wizards had questions as to what prank had been pulled, but the girls simply said that what they had done made them even.

Later when they were riding, Niklaus looked at his twin and said, “So you couldn’t tell if they knew about what we had done or because they would kill you if you did?”

Nik had a grin on his face looking very good natured about getting caught and humiliated.

“The latter,” his brother admitted.

“So that’s why those two dragged you off and they told Iris as well. I wonder why they didn’t tell Briahnna about Job?” Niklaus questioned his brother, who could only shrug.

“That one I really can’t tell. I am surprised that they didn’t but maybe they didn’t want to hurt Briahnna over a prank?” he questioned.

“So what did they do to you to make you talk anyway? Was it properly humiliating or did they give you something so good that you had to give me up?”

“Mostly humiliating,” Piotr said, though he blushed thinking of Cheleya taking off her clothes while he was trapped in his. “They trapped me in my clothes and Katya interrogated me until she figured it out. She’s smarter than you might think she is. Even without magic, that girl is like a wizard; but I held out as long as I could.”

They noticed the girls edging closer and stopped their conversation hoping not to get caught discussing it, but they weren’t clever enough to escape Katya’s calling them out.

“You can blame him if you want, Niklaus, he only gave in when I figured the whole thing out anyway,” Katya bragged with a mean spirited smile on her face. “Once I broke him down, he was putty in my hands though.”

Piotr looked appalled as he looked at the girl and complained, “I was not. You guessed and I finally gave up trying to hide it. It’s not like you couldn’t have gone to Qeyr and gotten us in bigger trouble than we have with Iris.

“I didn’t have anything left to hide by that time anyway.”

“Except you didn’t tell me that they were on to us,” Nik complained, but couldn’t hide a little smile. Half the fun of a good prank was getting the credit for it in the boy’s opinion. Piotr on the other hand continued to look humiliated.

Iris saved him by saying, “That was part of the deal for letting him go. If you knew that we knew what you had done, then you could have tried to protect yourself.” Pausing for a moment as she thought of how her magic had gotten him back, and that he was nearly clueless about magic; she shook her head, “Well, maybe not, but you could have tried.”

Briahnna and Job were close enough to hear and the girl asked, “What did they do?” her eyes went to Job questioning.

“It doesn’t matter,” Katya stated giving Job a knowing look that was hidden from the other girl.

Job for his part simply shrugged and avoided saying anything that could incriminate him.

Two days later, the wizards led their new recruits over a bridge across a massive river.

For those who had never been this far west, it was an amazing sight. Nearly half a mile across in places, the Cadhalla River was a major waterway supplying water to nearly half of Southwall. Its origin was from the mountains well to the north of the massive wall known as North Wall. The need for water had the builders leave a space for the river to pass under the wall where a defense known as the Twin Towers guarded it.

Only Cheleya and Kel’lor had seen a large set of bridges over the rivers of Staron on their travels to Hala that was similar, but that river was a mere stream in comparison, the girl thought.

Another day brought them to the white walls surrounding a city created beside the wizard’s school known as White Hall.

Chapter 10- The Crystal Necklace

Thirty foot high walls, with towers reaching fifty feet studding its length, seemed to bend and bow as if mirroring the Cadhalla River; if Katya had to guess. Roughly two miles long, the white wall appeared to begin and end meeting the river to use it for defensive purposes. She wondered how well the city would hold up if an army arrived to attack it. The river was wide and deep enough for large ships to be anchored at their docks, so she could assume that it would be difficult to take White Hall from the river side.

Entering through the heavy gate near the center of the outer defense, the girl was surprised to see only about half of the inner area was built up with houses and other buildings. If she had to guess, the area was close to the size of Hala’s outer city, but looked to have half of the population or less.

The girl had been impressed by the size of the capitol having come from a farm outside of the small town of Mera. If she had come to White Hall first, Katya thought that she would have been more impressed. Hala had ruined her, she thought humorously to herself.

While the city proper occupied several blocks mirroring the river’s bends near the center of a turn; it was the shorter walls of what looked to be a good size castle from her vantage point which drew her attention. The other youths appeared impressed aside from Cheleya who had come from the massive che’ther built Mar’kal and Katya. Even the younger girl could see that the walls lifting over twenty feet high made of the same white stone, would be a decent defense if an enemy could make it into the city.

More towers ringed the castle walls, and inside of that defense rose what looked like a single three story castle with more towers.

“That is the real White Hall,” Iris said for her new friends.

“It’s a castle?” Briahnna asked apparently thinking the same as Katya. It was nearly a mile from the south gate to the nerve center of White Hall, the fortified school, and it truly appeared to look like a castle on a scale with the king’s castle in Hala, but it was much shorter.

Shaking her head, Iris answered, “White Hall, the school, is actually surrounded by that wall, but is broken up into six main buildings. As we enter, we’ll pass between the soldiers’ barracks and that of the battle mages. After that, the mage dorms are attached to the dining hall, while the blacksmith and armory are across from it. Both of those connect to the school, where most of you will also be housed in the dorms on the third floor.”

Niklaus noted a missing building and asked what most of the others were wondering, “That is only five buildings.”

“The sixth is the stables. It is in the right hand corner behind the soldiers’ barracks,” the girl said with a nod before gesturing to her mount. “We need to keep these somewhere, don’t we?”

Most of the others smiled at her teasing of the young man. Iris had been true to her word about determining that the two were even, though Katya thought she had let him off pretty easy with just the slight humiliation of knocking him over while going to the bathroom; but that had been her decision. Since Cheleya didn’t care about it and Briahnna still didn’t know what the boys had done, it left just Katya and Iris to meet out the punishment.

Still, she noted that Iris hadn’t fully stopped as the apprentice would tease the boy from time to time.

“You said most of us, will stay in school on the third floor...” Piotr said though inferring his question as he ended his sentence.

“Novice wizards usually are kept on the third floor. Upper classmen and some of the teaching staff stay on the second floor while the first floor is mostly for classrooms. Battle mage cadets like Niklaus will sleep in their dorm on the south side of the school grounds. If we had any soldiers with us coming for training, they would be kept in the building connected to the mage dorms,” the apprentice continued to try and educate them on what they could still not see.

Two large doors eventually appeared before the column of travelers. They were wide open as if inviting the newest students, even though guard towers loomed to either side looking on them from nearly forty feet high.

Entering the school grounds, Katya began to pick out what the apprentice had been trying to tell them. Two three story buildings rose to either side of the entry with about fifty feet between them and the outer walls. There was perhaps thirty feet of empty space between them to pass between, but the second story and third were connected to each other starting about ten feet above the ground.

“During the winter,” Iris said gesturing to the bridge between the buildings, “most of the men will walk across the enclosed walkways to the mage building. Since only the stables are separated completely, you could walk around the inner buildings from the soldiers’ barracks all the way to the armory and blacksmith without having to put on a jacket.

“It isn’t the most direct way around, but it is warmer,” the girl finished with a smile.

Piotr nodded to the building on the left, and said to his twin, “I guess that is where you will be.”

The older boy nodded looking from one building to the other wondering how many soldiers he would get to know by being in the way, if nothing else.

Passing between the two large buildings, they entered an expansive courtyard. They faced a massive three story building spread from one side of the courtyard to the other and looming over the two smaller buildings closest to it. A single story building was built as an attachment between the mage building and the dining hall, if she recalled Iris’s words earlier. There was a door in the smaller enclosed walkway’s side as well as a large central door facing them from the dining hall on their left.

“There is a door in the walkway?” Katya questioned curiously.

“The larger buildings have at least three or four exits to the outdoors, but even the walkways have more than one doorway. There are courtyards behind most for training. That door has an opposite to lead to a courtyard for the battle mages to use for practice. Only the courtyard behind the dining hall is kept for a garden. You can study there or simply rest,” Iris stated as they turned to the right following the soldiers’ building.

A stable was beyond the flattened ground that looked like it might serve as a place for the soldiers to train, since it was next to their building and showed signs of a lot of foot activity. Katya was no tracker, but the tracks were easily seen as the dirt was a bit damp from melting snow or frost. The horses’ hooves obscured only some of the booted footprints as they passed through the open ground.

Boys supervised by a gray haired man took their reins and helped the girls down from their mounts. A couple had to be reprimanded as they pushed and shoved each other trying to get to be the ones who helped the prettiest girls. While Katya thought the female wizards with Magnus were pretty enough, their wizard colors were cause for respect.

The younger girls were fair game apparently since the boys knew they would know little of the school and hoped to be among the first who might become their friends. From what Iris had told her, most nights had dancing in the hall where the recruits from the soldiers, mages and wizards could all mix.

Those who came to train at White Hall to become soldiers did so to become the best. Many of them were sons of nobility, though those in the stables were more likely the men of lesser means hoping to become trained to be officers and elevate their standing. Though those who got into trouble could find work in the stables for their punishment, even if their families were rich.

Since most soldiers were male, they threw off the ratio of men to women nearly two to one depending on how many were attending at the time. Apprentice wizards were also very picky and even guarded about the men that they let get close, so finding girls still used to the way things worked in the towns and farms of Southwall was the easiest way to find a date for the evening dances.

Katya had a nice looking young man help her down. He had managed to slide in front of the others to have a chance to meet her first. While she might be a favorite, it was Cheleya who had boys nearly fighting over her.

Noticing her eyes glancing to the dragoness, the young man said “She isn’t as pretty as you, but the other guys know that I would beat them if they didn’t let me have the pick of the prettiest.”

Not sure if it was confidence or him being the leader of the boys, Katya was unsure if she could like such a man. If he was a bully, she definitely wouldn’t want to know him. Saying nothing, but giving him a polite smile; the girl took her two packs for only a moment as Darius came to take one from her.