White Hall (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 10) (39 page)

A cord of light blue bound her hair similarly before the two girls left the locker room to enter the baths. Despite the stone around them, the room felt very warm and even before they stepped into the warm pool that was unoccupied by the light crowd gathered there; Katya could feel the warmth entering her making her try to forget the cold of North Continent.

Chapter 20- The Drawback of Spells

Niklaus put his hand flat against the wires at the front of the cage and groaned. “Do we have to do this in here? It’s a nice day out last I looked. Of course that was over an hour ago since I was confined to this stone box you wizards call a zoo,” he complained.

A nose nuzzled against his skin and the boy thought that it would be nice to let the animals out as well. He knew that they were all walked or otherwise allowed to get exercise regularly, but winter made it difficult for some of the creatures. Now that spring had come to Southwall, warming the land enough to at least rid them of snow; the nature wizards and their trainees would use their skills with the animals in the courtyard or outside the walls of the school.

His friend in the cage was an older dog, who was often allowed to roam the zoo area and even in the courtyard outside.

“Stop complaining and learn the next animal,” Falcon Elijah replied with an amused smile. “You already copied that dog. Try something else.”

Piotr looked at his mentor, Zieran, and shrugged, “He’s kind of right though. It is pretty nice outside.”

The wizard rolled his eyes and said, “Fine, I want to see your control spell used on an animal of your choice. You can take it outside and exercise it.”

Piotr stood from the stool he had felt planted on as he had practiced some of the new spells. He had been reading ahead, not just for himself, but for Niklaus. Some of the other wizards had been wondering if what he learned could be passed on to his twin, as if his work would be passed on without Niklaus doing any work himself. It seemed ludicrous after the time it had taken him to learn each spell and there were so many more to learn not just from nature books but the other elements as well.

Surprising Zieran, who looked a bit alarmed by his choice, Piotr walked to Bo’s cage and linked minds with the bear. It wasn’t the full swap that left his body without control. The wizards had made sure to show him a more useful version of his spell, or more to the point, a bit of magic that wouldn’t leave him defenseless in the field.

His fingers flipped the lock and he used a hand signal to the bear to have her follow. While she was as close to tame as a wild animal was likely to become, most apprentices or novices wouldn’t have dared to take her for a walk. A four or five hundred pound bear had both more power and several times his weight to throw around if she got out of hand, but Piotr always figured that was why Zieran was supposed to be his mentor. In case the student should lose control, the wizard was supposed to be able to help him. Piotr had never needed to be saved, however.

Niklaus watched as his younger brother walked calmly towards the door leading out into the courtyard and chose his next animal. The spell barely changed in the wording. To the cadet’s mind, it was simply picking his subject and not a different kind of magic. Piotr had shown him the dozens of pages covering wizard versions of the spells and wondered why they had to work so hard to do the same thing he did as a mage.

“Mind to mind, cat,” he ordered his magic and quickly discovered a problem that had not come up before. With all the larger animals including a dog of around eighty pounds in weight, the mage’s body had shifted back and forth altering his body and clothing at will.

The cat chosen was closer to twenty pounds or less, unlike the larger lynx, Lyras.

With the smaller mass, Niklaus found his smaller body was now trapped inside of his shirt and pants. The latter were kicked free and the golden tabby squirmed free of the base of the shirt. His mind was no less sharp, however, and the boy knew that he had just found a drawback to shape shifting.

Zieran and Piotr turned as they heard Elijah laughing hysterically and the three watched the cat escape joining Nik's mentor in the laugh.

Annoyed by the laughter at his expense, Niklaus growled at them in his new cat voice. He wasn’t trying to talk so much as voice his displeasure.

“Ha!” Elijah laughed pointing at him. “He just disappeared into the clothes. I wasn’t sure if he’d ever find his way out.”

Addressing the cat, the falcon added, “You should have seen yourself just writhing away in there looking helpless.”

Tail lifting with his head, the cat looked away in disdain before darting towards the far door. He passed the bear, which looked enormous to his small form. Just strong enough to push through the flap at the base of the door, Niklaus disappeared outside bringing the other three and the bear after him.

The cat looked around seeing the world with different eyes. It wasn’t just his height that had changed, but his ability to see the world. Colors and details were different from his human eyes and the courtyard which he had been in dozens of times looked like a completely new world.

There were other novices and apprentices working in the courtyard. Working with the trees, grass and flowers that would normally be weeks from growing or blooming; the wizards could encourage the plants to come to life for them despite the weather and season. Nature wizards worked with earth and stone as well. Unlike earth wizards, they were less trapped within a certain element as those creating breezes or moving water with their magic proved as they nurtured their garden.

Niklaus moved towards a pair of girls, who stood helping to bring green health to a new hedge grown from the earth in minutes. As a cat, he was unnoticed until he rubbed up against a brown haired apprentice. With a start; the girl looked down in surprise but quickly smiled at the animal. Before she could reach down to pet him he strode over her foot still rubbing against her leg, his head ducked to lift the hem of her skirt sliding under to rub against her bare skin.

The girl wore only the simple slippers that many of them liked to wear. They were comfortable and protected their feet enough through a normal day. He looked up checking out the shape of her legs all the way up to where they joined provocatively above him. Niklaus would have laughed if Piotr had shown him something like this with his magic, but the cadet got to have the sensation of touching her as well as the view. 

Hands pulled the dress up enough to grab the cat and lifted him to her chest. As she petted him, Niklaus looked at what his view had to offer.

The collar of her dress dipped low enough that he figured a paw placed properly might give him an interesting view inside of her top. Looking up at the girl’s face leaning in above him, Niklaus thought that she was quite attractive in that way as well. Her dark brown hair was pulled back revealing ears pierced by simple metal studs and her dark blue eyes looked down on the cat in her arms in amusement.

“Niklaus, cut it out!” his feline ears heard Piotr call angrily.

The apprentice looked at the approaching novice questioningly. Though it was not a large community within the school walls, only a month in White Hall was hardly enough time for every student to know each other and wizards would be unlikely to learn many of the battle mages’ names since they were separated for most of the time.

Looking down at the cat, the girl suddenly appeared wary. While she probably didn’t know his name, he wasn’t the only one capable of using a cat like Piotr might with his magic. Fewer still could use magic to change their shape, but there were apprentices who certainly knew of the spells among the nature novices.

Her eyes looked back to Piotr and suddenly widened seeing the big bear loping lazily after the boy. Releasing the cat in her surprise, the apprentice pointed behind him and cried out, “Bear!”

Stopping in his tracks, the male novice turned and put out his hand to Bo. The bear responded just as quickly and even sat down cocking her head to the side to look at him curiously.

“Good girl, Bo,” Piotr said with a nod as if he was merely walking one of the dogs on the farm.

The novice looked down at the cat who eyed him back from the side of the girl. “Niklaus, get back inside before you get in trouble,” he ordered his brother.

Standing up from his seated position, the cat stretched a moment letting his tail flick to the back of the girl’s leg. With a subtle flick of his head, Niklaus managed to get his question across to his twin.

With a sigh, Piotr asked, “By the way, what’s your name?”

“Eva,” she replied looking from the boy to the cat and back glancing at the perfectly behaved bear behind him. “You can control Bo even though you are just a novice?”

“Big or small, I haven’t found an animal that is too hard to work with so far. I’m sorry the... cat bothered you while you were working,” he added gesturing for Niklaus to return to the zoo area. Since Piotr had seen the transformation, he knew it was best for his twin to get back inside to change back before he wound up bare ass in front of all the students and teachers in the courtyard. This was the nature wizards’ study and practice area, so there were quite a few who would become spectators should his spell end early.

“Oh, he’s no bother. Did he escape one of the cages? I think I’ve seen this one before, though I could have sworn we only have female cats in the zoo right now,” the girl replied with a friendly smile.

“He did escape out here, that is true,” Piotr stated managing to avoid lying without telling the exact truth of the matter. He pointed for Niklaus to return to the zoo area again and the cat responded by slowly walking towards his brother.

As he neared, the novice squatted to say in a quiet voice, “Get back inside before I decide to have Bo eat you, you little jerk.”

Eyeing the bear, Niklaus began to move more quickly though he refused to run at full speed. His brother was preoccupied with guiding the bear back towards the zoo. Zieran and Elijah were also outside and watching as he scampered past and through the flap set at the base of the door.

As he entered, Niklaus released the cat body returning to himself and quickly thought to try a second shape.

“Mind to mind, mouse,” he ordered swiftly taking the shape of a brown mouse.

The world felt even larger, but the spell was just as easy as the rest. Quickly releasing the smaller form, Niklaus began to pull on his clothes as the door opened admitting Elijah, his mentor. The falcon shook his head admonishingly, but couldn’t hide a slight smile.

“You looked up that poor girl’s skirt without her even realizing it, didn’t you?” the falcon questioned rhetorically. He had gotten to know Niklaus enough to realize that he did like girls and pranks nearly as much. Being able to escape notice as the boy he was might work well in the future as a spy, but in the school it was just giving him the power to get into even more mischief.

“Now why would I do such a thing? The cat might have peeked, but that is hardly my fault... Eva is kind of cute though, huh?” the cadet replied with a chuckle. She would definitely be one to keep an eye out for after supper. Maybe he could get a dance with her, if Xara and Uliya weren’t too possessive tonight. The two young women were friends, but he could tell that they were interested in him as more than just that status. There were times where he could tell that they had run off other potential dancing partners, yet Niklaus also didn’t necessarily mind the attention or devotion from the pair of attractive girls either.

“You had better be careful what you do with this power, Niklaus, or you could get into trouble or worse,” the falcon stated more seriously. “Around the school there are wizards with enough power to burn you away with their magic. Not everyone has an easy going temperament here, you know? Some of these wizards get pretty touchy especially.

“Then there’s the fact that you are dealing with teenage girls which is a whole other kind of mine field in itself. You hurt the wrong girl’s feelings or humiliate her; you could very well wind up dead around here.”

Niklaus finished pulling on his shirt leaving just his boots to replace and asked, “This from experience, sir?”

Frowning back at the boy’s flippant attitude, the falcon replied, “Indirectly maybe, but I’ve certainly skirted a few with issues. A few of the pranks from boys here over the past few years also put new precautions in place like guards at the bath houses. When they found out who pulled the prank he got into serious trouble, though I believe he did live through it; but I wouldn’t push it, Nik.”

“Duly warned, sir,” the boy made a mock salute like he had seen from the cadets among the soldiers training to become officers. Though he did hear the warning, Niklaus thought that he still might be willing to try a few pranks. What good was having magic if you couldn’t have fun with it?

Katya stood with the other novices in the courtyard known as the Courtyard of Wind. It wasn’t a very original title, the girl thought, but accurate enough as it was reserved for those who studied air spells. While it was the only official court, the closest two towers on the outer wall were also reserved for them as well. In fact, some of the teachers actually had their offices there along with two classrooms at the top of the tower for the more advanced apprentices.

Though she wasn’t likely to ever specialize in the magic, the girl had no problem using it. From what Ylena told her, and from what other wizards from the diplomatic school had said, her guild was one that preached diversification of skills. Like Cheleya’s training in Mar’kal, she was expected to learn what she could of the other schools of magic as she continued to learn more about her own.