White Hall (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 10) (27 page)

If Krevahs could destroy Jeraan in a fight, Falcon Eyrk looked dangerous enough to kill the cadet without much thought.

Finally taking the hint, the older boy said, “This isn’t over. We’ll talk about this later.”

As Krevahs made sure to drag the stool back to his place making a screeching noise with each inch, Niklaus in turn reached over to Xara’s stool and pulled the girl closer to him.

“Yep, you definitely smell much nicer than that idiot,” the boy assured her getting Xara to blush with his attention.

She turned her head to make sure that the bully was back in his place before smiling at Niklaus.

With a little extra coaching from the boy, soon the other three had their lamps lit as well. By the time the class was over, the four cadets were all turning on their lamps and putting out their flames with ease.

Niklaus noticed Krevahs had barely managed to light the wick by the time the class was dismissed. With the two girls each taking an arm, he led the way out of the class back towards the mage dorms.

Piotr had watched his twin almost jealously as Niklaus created and extinguished his lamp’s flame with apparent ease. Noticing his looks to the mage table, Katya realized that not every spell would be such an easy fit for each wizard or mage. It was why most wizards specialized in a certain kind of magic until they mastered it. Only then did those wizards consider working on another element. There were exceptions, she was certain; but from what the girl had seen and been told that was the normal way to go.

Healers and diplomat wizards were different, however. They needed to learn elements to defend themselves, though Katya doubted healers ever achieved much in that way. Her brother’s girlfriend was a healer and seemed against any violence.

“What’s the matter, Piotr?” the younger girl asked of the novice.

Making a bit of a face at the question, he admitted with a frown, “Magic has always come easy to me. I figured out some spells of my own, but it’s like I can’t quite feel this kind of magic.

“Niklaus has it down already.”

“He did have a hint from Magnus days ago. It isn’t like he just walked in here and lit the lamp without the other practice. You haven’t tried fire yet. I am guessing,” Katya replied trying to make him feel better.

The boy nodded with a sigh and tried again. After three more tries, he leaned back a little looking at the ceiling as if for inspiration.

Cheleya stood up. She was so petite that her height on and off the stool was nearly the same. Pulling her hair back, the dragoness bound it back in a tail with a red cord produced from her shorts’ pocket.

“In Mar’kal, sometimes when wizards try to learn another element, they find that they are blocked on that element. While everyone has their personal preferences in magic, sometimes a wizard fluent in another element can help with a breakthrough of sorts.”

Katya glanced to her mentor sitting only a table away with the two others watching Lyssa and Piotr. They remained quiet though their eyes followed Cheleya as she moved to the other side of the table to stand beside the boy. She took his hand palm to palm lacing her fingers through his in a hold that looked more intimate to Katya. It was what she had seen young lovers do while walking together.

Cheleya’s fingers of her other hand reached up to rest on his upper arm just below the shoulder.

“Concentrate on the wick in the lamp and imagine a flame lighting it.”

Piotr shook his head at the suggestion. “I’ve been trying that for an hour already.”

The hand on his arm moved to push his head away as the girl complained, “Just do it.”

Sighing again, Piotr imagined a flame in the lamp. He noted Cheleya’s off hand didn’t return to his shoulder and instead mimicked the movements of Gregor earlier. The gestures of a Southwall wizard for making flame was followed by the feeling of magic as the girl created the fire. Brow wrinkling at the strange sensation while their hands and arms touched, Piotr wanted to ask Cheleya what had happened.

She didn't bother to explain and made the gesture and used the words of power to quench the flame making it like it had never been save for a little black smoke which wafted above the wick and out of the glass cover. Dissipating in moments, even that trace was quickly gone.

“Now concentrate on the magic used as I make another flame,” the little blonde ordered and his eyes fell to their interlocked hands. She shook her head forcing his chin up with her other hand before pointing to the lamp. “Don’t look at our hands. There is nothing to see unless you have trained your senses to a high level, which you have not.

“Think of how the magic feels while I light the lamp again.”

Gesturing and using her commands, Piotr tried to feel her magic as the light lit once more. Once it was doused, Cheleya released his hand and gestured from the boy to the lamp. “You try. Just feel for the signature of the magic that I used.”

Piotr looked uncertain. He had felt something, but the novice wasn’t sure that he could recreate what he had been shown. Missing the feel of the girl’s hand in his helping to focus his mind, the boy swallowed as he gathered his thoughts.

He looked at the lamp and imagined flame glowing orange and yellow. The heat of the small fire and the feel of Cheleya’s magic all combined in his head as his right hand made the gestures. Using the short words of power, Piotr pointed at the light with his left and felt a brief rush of magic going between him and the lamp.

Flame puffed to life rising about halfway up the glass cover before resting back down on the wick.

“I did it!” the novice stated in surprise as the other two novices clapped for him and smiled.

Cheleya nodded and slid behind him to Lyssa. She looked at the boy as he turned to watch her gratefully with his eyes. “Now put it out and keep doing it like they asked.”

Piotr focused on the lamp and closed his hand using the quick finger movements to recreate the spell the girl had just walked him through.

Taking Lyssa’s hand, the pretty blonde looked at the girl with water tendencies and stated, “Water has the hardest time making fire, but we can try to do the same.”

Gratefully taking the dragoness’ hand like Piotr had a moment before, Lyssa appeared hopeful as Cheleya began to walk her through the spell once more.

Katya created and extinguished her lamp almost without thought now, but used a single word in common tongue as she could hear echoed from the mages' table. Her eyes would flick to the other girls curiously to see their progress with Lyssa's lamp even as she tried to concentrate on her work.

Though it took a few more tries than for Piotr, Lyssa soon recreated the spell as well. Making her rounds through the other novices, Cheleya helped those who needed it and soon the entire class had both spells working smoothly and often. They even worked on switching hands for casting their spells, since a wizard needed to be able to use either hand at times.

When the introductory class was over, Ylena collected Katya to take her to lunch and speak with her about her thoughts so far. Cheleya followed with nothing else in particular to do and followed the crowd in general as the other novices, cadets and mentors all headed towards the dining hall.

“You could be a teacher,” Ylena said to the dragoness.

Katya nodded with a smile for her friend. “Yeah, I’m not sure if Piotr and Lyssa would have figured it out this morning without you, Cheleya.”

Smiling at the compliments, the girl replied, “In Mar’kal, our apprentices and wizards tend to try out all the elemental schools. For some, it would be nearly impossible without a mentor to show them the way. Your school seems to want them to learn more on their own, so I hope that I didn’t interfere too much by helping my way.”

The wizard in black with silver bands shook her head. Ylena answered instead by saying, “We don’t always help as much during the introduction, but as they get further along we step in and share more. While you have helped accelerate a few novices by helping, it is more like opening a window than doing it for them; so Gregor and the others won’t complain.”

Katya saw something in her answer and asked, “Why would you let them struggle the first class instead of stepping in sooner?”

Shrugging, the brunette’s hair nearly mirrored her wizard’s robes in color while her gray eyes almost matched the bands marking her as a diplomat wizard, Katya thought. “I think that the teachers who began training this way want the novices to know that it won’t always be easy. Those who are given everything will never advance the art of magic. If the students have to work harder and push themselves, hopefully we will be creating wizards who can think outside of current conventions and help us grow further.”

“My brother is like that,” Katya interjected. “He started with battle mage magic and has been learning how to make wizard spells into battle mage spells. He’s been able to learn by seeing how a spell is done by a wizard, so does that mean he is being shown too much or is he still creating new things by thinking outside current conventions?”

Ylena frowned looking unsure of how to answer.

Luckily for the wizard Cheleya jumped in adding, “He learned a new spell during a duel. While you can say that he saw the spell, so did every other wizard in the tournament and only he developed the two spells that the Gray Hall wizards were using so effectively. Perhaps your brother isn’t the best example, since he seems to be so far outside of current spell casting, especially for battle mages.”

Letting the dragoness’ explanation stand for her as well, Ylena said, “Sometimes a wizard or mage comes along who is no longer capable of being classified thanks to his brilliance. Some of his new spells have already made it to White Hall. Battle mages in particular have been given new spells that will make the corps more powerful in combat.”

As they walked, the noise of the assembled students in the dining hall reached out into the hallway. Katya glanced towards the doors of the healer’s hospital and wondered how soon Cheleya would be going there to begin her real training. The girl was already so far beyond any of the novices that she would likely be classified as a full wizard by Southwall’s standards. She was only seventeen and considered a baby in her race’s terms, but with around four years of study she was merely playing at being a novice, Katya thought.

“Do we continue to learn together for awhile?” Katya asked her mentor. The class was so diverse. Half were battle mages. The wizards all seemed to have differing predispositions towards certain elements, though a couple remained undetermined so far as well.

“This afternoon the mages will take their students to the field behind their building and begin other skill training. Their kind has also been as much soldier as wizard. In fact, the earliest mages were trained as soldiers and then taught how to cast like wizards. It wasn’t a good marriage of skills, so most preferred to use their swords and shields.

“When the first true mage, Hurst, created battle magic, the battle mages finally had a direction that would form them into what they are now.”

Cheleya noted, “You seem impressed by battle mages.”

The older woman looked surprised. Since the general consensus of wizards was that power ruled, battle mages had always been considered second rate wizards. Thinking that their lesser cousins were impressive would seem to be a rare opinion indeed.

As the three took their places in line, the wizard seemed to notice all the extra ears around them at first and lowered her voice slightly. “The stories coming from Windmeer about how battle mages prevented its destruction should make wizards begin to take them seriously. Your brother’s performance in the tournament just adds to the fame he has begun to pick up especially with the other mages.

“Sebastian works with wizards and learns their spells. Those spells go to the battle mages, or so it went; but now Magnus says the spell he used last night was passed to him by a battle mage. I would be curious to see how a battle mage using such a spell would fare against any wizard using their elements.”

Piotr and his mentor were within listening range apparently and the wizard in green countered, “I would still put a wizard with the same spell as ahead of a mage. Their power just doesn’t lend towards believing any other way.”

Looking annoyed at the statement, Katya defended battle mages and her brother saying, “That thinking made a lot of wizards lose to my brother. He’s just a battle mage and finished fourth. While he pulled out because he was exhausted, that was probably the only way he could have been beaten by a wizard. Even Magnus wants to take him on because he didn't feel like he had truly won without beating Sebastian. He said so in Hala.

“Ask him if a battle mage can defeat a wizard.”

Piotr’s mentor looked fairly young, though to a thirteen year old girl he was still old. Perhaps his youth let him see the possibility of such things as he said, “I guess I will have to talk to him. Having the champion here is certainly a good asset to have. We can learn more from him at least.

“I’d have to see your brother to believe the hype though.”

Wanting to growl at the wizard for daring to dispute her, Katya managed to rein in her anger and even managed to smooth her face. Speaking evenly and without heat, the girl replied, “Believe what you wish then. Two of his mages from the tournament are here as well. They know the same spell as Magnus, if you wish to test out your theory.”

That seemed to come as a surprise to the young man. After a moment he nodded and stated, “Perhaps I will.”

As if Ylena thought the two would continue to argue, she led Katya and Cheleya to a different table on the pretense of needing to speak to the girl on what they would work on individually for the rest of the day.

Piotr had listened to the argument between Katya and his mentor, Zieran. The wizard was fairly young, certainly a few years younger than Katya’s mentor, Ylena. With a light frame, brown hair and blue eyes, the man wearing a green tunic and outer coat, even inside the dining hall, would look rather unassuming to an average person. He wasn’t tall, just a few inches taller than Piotr in fact, and was neither fat nor really thin. He was fairly plain, the boy thought but not in a disappointing way.

He was easy to talk to and spoke more than Piotr, who had never been a particularly outspoken boy. Piotr preferred watching, whether it was nature or people going about their business.

“So is that girl your friend? She came in with your group from the east somewhere, didn’t she?” Zieran asked before biting into a carrot with a loud snapping noise. It was nearly spring and beyond the growing season by two seasons. Somehow the school had managed to keep the vegetables crisp and fresh looking even after all that time.

He chalked it up to magic and answered the question, “She is a friend, but I only met her when her people stopped in Delanne. From what Katya has said, her brother found her and took her with him to Hala for the tournament. I guess that he had planned to take her to White Hall himself, but got assigned a mission before he could.

“That wizard they call the high wizard did him a favor and brought Katya here for him.”

“She’s kind of pretty, huh?” the wizard asked searching the boy’s eyes for confirmation.

“Sure,” he replied with a shrug.

“Not good enough for you? Do you have a girlfriend already? You’re kind of young, but I can see your twin does pretty well with the girls,” he gestured to a table filled with the mage cadets from the morning class.

The two girls sat on either side of him and appeared infatuated with Niklaus, Piotr thought; and wondered if that should be a surprise. Like two sides of a coin, he and his twin seemed nearly opposites though they had always gotten along pretty much from birth. Seeing his brother starting his separate path through the schooling of White Hall, Piotr suddenly realized that there was a certain finality to coming to the school that he hadn’t realized at first.

“Katya and Cheleya are both pretty enough, but they are just friends,” he said.

“I hope you don’t have a girlfriend back in your hometown. The amount of time we get to return home to see family and friends is rather limited. Besides, a girl without magic probably won’t want to stay with you anyway. It is one of the curses to being a wizard,” Zieran stated as if from first hand knowledge.

“I don’t have a girlfriend in Delanne,” the boy stated with a sigh and looked at his brother’s table again. There was Iris, he thought, but did she count as a girlfriend or just a girl who was a friend like Katya and Cheleya?

It didn’t really matter and he wondered why the wizard would bother to ask. Unfortunately his choice of words made the older man lean in with a grin, and ask, “Oh, that sounds like you already have one here. Are you a quick one like your brother?”

“I’ve always been more alone. Bonds with animals are easier, especially now that my magic has come in,” he replied leaning on his left arm while using his fork to lift a bite of meat to his mouth. The other wizard’s plate had no meat and was simply filled with various kinds of vegetables.

The wizard nodded letting some of his goofiness slide away. “That isn’t surprising. You’re a nature wizard or you wouldn’t be in my charge.

“Depending on what kind of nature wizard you are, you either bond with nature as a whole or pick a side. Some love animals and other wizards prefer working with plants, though most nature wizards will learn to do both.

“So your magic has let you build bonds with animals, you say. How?”

Piotr still didn’t really have the trust needed to share secrets with the man, but figured that it was a question given him by a teacher of the school. Some things needed to be answered, though the new novice didn’t have to volunteer what he didn’t want to either, he supposed.

“One of the things I can do is send my thoughts into an animal’s mind. I can ride along and let it do what it wants or take over to make it move where I wish. I’ve calmed or eased their pain too,” Piotr explained the main bits of magic he had discovered on his own.

The older wizard nodded looking impressed, “That is pretty good for a wizard on his own. I can see a wilder picking up those skills because their magic leads them to do the connections, but from what I can tell you don’t really seem to fall into that category.”

A sudden smile crossed his face and Zieran asked, “Do you want to go see our zoo after lunch? Our activities are supposed to be more orientation specifically relating to the nature guild. It doesn’t get much more specific than that, I think.”

Piotr looked at the grinning wizard, who had seemed to be trying to convince himself of the idea as much as his student. A shrug was his answer, and shortly after lunch, the boy was led past the healing hall to a corridor running along the outer wall of the school.

A different smell from the predominant scent of stone or even food from the dining hall came to his nose as they moved deeper into the hallway. It was the scent of animals of a variety of kinds.