White Hall (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 10) (2 page)

Sighing, the man was silent only a moment before looking to his son. “Take a bath and gather your belongings, Piotr. I guess we might as well ride into town to see these wizards. We might be wrong, since you have shown odd talent for working with animals that might not be magic; but if we go to them we will know sooner. We might as well get it over with, son.”

“Is he really going to leave to become a wizard, papa?” Mila asked curiously as the younger girl appeared unsure whether to be happy or sad with the idea. While being the baby of the family and the only girl made her set apart from her three brothers, the youngest Amares still looked up to all her brothers not wanting to see any of them go.

Her father only shook his head as he replied, “We’ll go ask the wizards and find out, Mila. Are the wizards still in town or have they set out for the farms?”

Adamos answered, “Delanne is a fair size town. I would think that the wizards would spend at least one day there looking.”

Taking a deep breath, Rikard put a hand on his son’s shoulder urging him towards the house. “Hurry, Piotr, I don’t want to get there so late that we can’t find the wizards and not be able to get back for dinner. Go clean up and take time to say goodbye to your mother.”

The boy’s feet started slowly for the house, but as his mind began to comprehend what was likely to happen to him; Piotr began to hurry. He, like his little sister, was filled with mixed feelings about the possibility of being harvested by the wizards. When was the last time Delanne had any wizards or mages found there, he wondered?

To Piotr, Delanne was quite alien though it was only a couple miles from his home. The farm was close enough for trade and the sale of crops and livestock for his father, but the boy enjoyed that it was far enough away to be part of nature to an extent as well. While there were fields for farming; woods grew up between farms, a couple small streams ran through the area as well, and deer and rabbits could be found easily for hunters.

Though some might prefer to keep the wilderness further away to protect their crops, the boy loved being able to see the animals or climb a tree when he could get out of his chores.

Delanne was different from the farm where only a dusty, beaten path served as a road. It was a crossroads of a sort for northeastern Southwall. One road led east to Hala, the capitol of the country, where the king ruled and defended the kingdom from the Dark One and his armies. North was Norcrom, the second of the six guardian fortresses which served to garrison and maintain the great wall known as Northwall. To the west a single paved road exited the town, but it was only a mile west before it split sending one path to White Hall and the other veered to the south and Cadmera.

Cadmera’s road would continue on to Red Hall. Though it was nearly as close as White Hall, most wizards found northeast of the Cadhalla River would travel to the school near the center of the northern half of the country. Piotr couldn’t say that he knew much of those facts; but even a boy of fourteen, somewhat out of the loop on his farm, had heard some of the stories.

Now he faced the town with its wood and stone buildings centered on the paved road that was the heart of Delanne. Trade flowed through the town and servicing those travelers was a large part of the economy. Banks, inns and other services for men living on the road, which a boy of fourteen wasn’t supposed to know about, lined the streets or occupied others close to it. Barns, granary storage and pens helped increase the sales of the local farmers as well, so Delanne was a mix of buildings from smaller houses to large inns and warehouses.

“Now I wonder where we can find them,” Rikard mused loud enough for Piotr and Niklaus to hear. His twin had joined the other two for the trip. Having never been a night away from each other since the womb, the two boys could feel the strangeness of the future upon them. Though they had their differences, the twins still often seemed of one mind and separating them just seemed wrong.

“We could ask in the center of town?” Niklaus suggested. Unlike his twin, the elder boy felt as comfortable in town as at the farm. He was the one who often tried to get his other brothers to go to Delanne more frequently, though their father tended to keep them too busy to do it very often.

Urging the horses pulling their cart to keep moving, Rikard looked for the strange clothing which would single out wizards from the regular citizens. Wizard robes were well known to the eyes of the people of Southwall, since their harvest of children with magic occurred so regularly. Some saw them with dread. Taking away their children didn’t set well with parents; but wilders running around destroying their towns or worse was far less attractive to the people who would be harmed by children losing control of powers beyond most people’s imaginings.

A few men were relaxing in front of a barber’s store, another business which seemed odd to a child whose hair had been cut by his mother all his life. Rikard called out to them, “Have the wizards been through here?”

One of the men looked at the farmer with a slight frown. “From what I hear, they are still searching the north side of town, damn wizards!”

The man beside him shook his head, but answered with a different question, “You are looking for wizards? Do you have need of a wizard’s magic or have you come to give away your children, farmer? Most don’t come looking for wizards unless their children are out of control, but your boys look well mannered and calm.”

Unsure of how the men would view his son having magic, Rikard replied, “It is better to get their opinion sooner than later. I need my boys to help on the farm. If they are going to take one of them, it is better to know now.”

The second man looked more discerning and followed up the answer with another question, “Such worries usually mean that you believe one or both have magic about them.”

Rikard didn’t feel the need to answer the comment and chose to find a place to park his horses and cart. A stable wasn’t usually free, but the farmer was regular enough with his business that friends were willing to settle his animals for just the cost of some feed.

Leading his boys behind him, the man followed the rumors of the wizards’ movements to find them in surprisingly short order.

Four wizards in their strange robes over pants that matched moved through the street going from one house to the next checking for children meeting the criteria they were looking for, which in a word was magic. Southwall had come to use men and women of both great power, called wizards; and their lessers, called battle mages. Few parents would say that they wanted their children to be either, but if one had to lose a child to service, they all prayed that they would be the powerful wizards.

“Wizards!” Rikard called out with a wave seeing a man dressed in black robes with a younger man wearing a white robe with silver banding at the neck and on the sleeves.

The two men had been standing in front of a gate leading to a house talking, so when they were addressed they appeared slightly surprised. The elder of the two raised an eyebrow curiously and looked ready to greet the farmer when his eyes caught something about the twins trailing him. “Yes, sir, how may we help you?”

His eyes lingered on Piotr for a long moment before they moved on to Niklaus. A frown caught the outer corners of his lips seeing the elder boy making his brother curious as to why.

“You have come looking for children with magic once more, or so we have heard. I do not know how you can judge them so easily, but I believe that one of my sons has the gift. We chose to come to town rather than wait to find out if you were going to take him from us,” Rikard replied trying to sound calm. When he had originally suggested meeting the wizards, it hadn’t fully dawned on him that he might be sentencing his child to a life away from his family in the service of the king’s army.

The elder wizard nodded. As they spoke, another pair of wizards left the porch of a home directly across from their counterparts. One sported a robe of light blue over pants of brown, but the last wizard dressed in white with light blue striping was the single female. She was also the youngest in appearance though Rikard had heard rumors that with magic such things could be altered. The rumors of the possibilities of magic ranged into ideas that seemed ridiculous, but he didn’t know what limits it truly had.

“I am Wizard Zenth and we have indeed come looking for candidates to be wizards or mages. I will say that it is a bit surprising to have someone come volunteering their children, unless they are out of control. These boys do not appear troubled so,” the man brushed his light brown hair back with his fingers making his blue eyes seem that much more penetrating. “You say that you believe that your son has magic. I would think that it was obvious, if you could just assume as much.

“The smaller boy certainly holds promise. His magical strength is certainly powerful enough to become a full wizard. How old is he?”

“Fourteen.”

“And when did he start manifesting powers?”

“Last summer, I think, though Piotr has always had an affinity for animals and the land. We just didn’t notice anything strange until closer to this Spring, but my son said that he could do things like looking through a rabbit’s eyes already last year.”

Piotr said nothing. He had admitted as much to his father after the man had first witnessed the boy’s strange habit of making Bandit leave without saying a word. The way he held his hands and seemed asleep, but always knew what was going on around him, had startled his family at first. Still his talent with quieting panicked creatures had been noticeable for much longer and had been almost superhuman in ability since he had been a much younger child.

“Is the other boy his brother?”

The question made all three look at the man in surprise. Niklaus looked enough like his twin that they would have thought the wizard couldn’t miss the fact. Rikard nodded, however, and answered, “Niklaus is his twin brother.”

The younger wizard with the silver stripes looked to the older man and stated, “One twin apparently inherited the lion’s share of the power.”

Zenth nodded and said, “True, Rial, but he has enough to be a battle mage. They can always use more soldiers with magic.”

Rikard looked to his other son in shock. They had never noticed anything unusual about the second twin. Piotr had been obvious, but Niklaus had seemed normal enough to them.

“I have magic?” Nik asked in surprise. “Then why haven’t I noticed?”

The younger wizard answered after noting his elder’s silence, “Battle mages rarely notice it. Wizards become wilders because the power inside them is too great, so it basically leaks out or changes them. Most mages are like undernourished wizards. The magic in them is rarely hard to suppress because their strength is minimal.”

The second set of wizards had joined the first and the girl shook her head as she reprimanded her counterpart, “No need to be mean about it, Rial. After all, you’ve heard about the battle mage in the Winter’s Edge tournament. If he hadn’t become ill, many say that he might have become champion.”

Her mentor chuckled and ruffled the girl’s red hair. “Don’t say that near Wizard Magnus while his group is staying at the inn. He will most likely take offense.”

“Magnus is a fire wizard too full of himself, Qeyr. Just because he became champion doesn’t mean that he was better than the battle mage. He won almost by default,” the girl complained to the larger wizard in blue.

The other wizard’s apprentice broke in saying, “All of that is moot. These two are the first we’ve found to hold any magic around here.”

Zenth nodded and applied his attention to the three who had flagged them down. “If your boys need to gather their things, we will be here through tomorrow night before moving on. Since other wizards are in Delanne, you are in luck. You can head to White Hall with the other candidates with them.”

Piotr found interest in his words. “I thought that you just said that you hadn’t found anyone else with magic so far.”

The girl met the questioning tone with a wizardly answer, “We haven’t. They are from Hala traveling with wizards heading back to White Hall.”

Qeyr added, “You came assuming that your smaller boy is a wizard. Can you have him back to the main road by tomorrow morning?”

Rikard’s mouth had gone dry and surprisingly it was Niklaus who audaciously answered, “We only live a couple miles outside of town. My brother is packed; but I can be back by tonight, if necessary.”

The eldest of the wizards, Zenth, replied, “That won’t be necessary. Just return early in the morning. You’re farmers, so I am sure that getting up early will be nothing new for you.”

With the decision made, the wizards practically seemed to forget about the farmers as they returned to scouring Delanne for any others with talent for magic.

Chapter 2- Intersection

Katya sighed as she saw the town on the horizon. After a long day of riding, the second in a row; the young girl’s posterior was telling her that horseback riding wasn’t something she wanted to do on a regular basis. Unfortunately the timing for that realization had come at a bad time, since they were still far from their destination. At least she could hope that Darius would stop at the next town so her body could rest from the hard leather saddle.

“Are you all right?” the man in the falcon’s uniform asked the girl beside him. He had brown hair and was quite a bit older than Katya who was only thirteen years old, but the battle mage wasn’t that much taller. Sitting on their horses, the two were virtually eye to eye as they spoke.