White Hall (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 10) (65 page)

The evening wound down and sentries were set by both leaders despite being side by side. Katya joined the others and fell asleep with ease.

Katya awoke with the sun. She had Jeraan wake her as she had made sure the sentries did on each of her days as leader. While her part of the camp was already starting to awake with the smell of a hot breakfast, Kel’lor and Cheleya came to find her. Ylena had awoken after her student, but had just arrived when the dragon mages came to take her away.

“We are taking the dragon mages deeper into the mountains to practice flying between the higher peaks,” Kel’lor stated to Katya casting a glance at Ylena as he seemed to just assume that the mentor would agree with the plan. “Since you are one of us as well, you will be coming with us.”

The dragon mages had been using the trip to fly for as long as they could each day. Sometimes they had remained out of sight flying beyond normal vision for hours before reappearing once again. Katya had wished that she could join them, but on the trip to the mountain it was her job to be a diplomacy wizard and lead instead.

Looking to Ylena for approval, Katya asked, “Is it all right? Will Berlis be alright as leader two days in a row?”

Her mentor stated, “Today I'll take your place. We won’t be doing too much, since this is actually more for the nature wizards than us. They’ll release the animals and use the others to search the area for new creatures that might be in trouble, though normally only pairs of wizards are used to monitor the mountain wildlife.

“Enjoy your time flying with the dragon mages, because when you get back you’ll be in for more grueling challenges than you think.”

Katya used a tent to change into her flying clothes. Shorts touching her knees and her altered novice shirt that was shorter in front than in back felt so liberating after being stuck in the novice dress for most of the last week.

She was the only novice in the dragon mages, so by the time Katya joined the others, some of them were beginning to look impatient.

“I’m ready,” the young girl stated as if it wasn’t apparent to them all.

Arrimus complained, “Leave it to a girl to make us wait so she can change her clothes into something ‘pretty’.”

Toying with the apprentice, Katya raised her eyebrows curiously and moved closer appearing flirtatious as she asked, “Oh, you think that I look pretty?”

“Well, um, I, um...” the older boy turned red trying make a come back even as Magnus and the others began to smile at the fix he was in due to the quick witted girl.

“Well, try not to run into a mountain while looking at my pretty clothes then Arrimus,” Katya said letting him off of one hook to put him on another. “I am ready, Master Kel’lor.”

The gargoyle grunted before ordering the mages into the air.

Katya looked back on the camp full of young wizards and mages for only a moment before her love for flying drew the girl’s attention back to Kel’lor and the others. She might be a diplomacy wizard innately, but having been shown the world of dragon magic, the novice could dispute what she was meant to be. Her love of flying made her understand why the air riding spell had felt so wonderful when her brother had used it to drawn her mind away from her body magically, but flying for real was better than that had been by far.

There were more risks though. As Kel’lor and Cheleya broke up the class of flyers to chase them through the canyons, Katya could easily see that to be great as a dragon mage, you needed to be fearless. You could fall from a great height and die, whether it was caused by an enemy or a mage’s loss of control. You could make an error in banking and crash into a cliff wall or tower inside of a city as well, but thinking of ways one could be injured or killed wasn’t the way of dragon mages.

It was for that reason that Kel’lor had tested each candidate in the way he had. Only those capable of believing in themselves that they could fly and not those who feared falling could truly excel at the magical art.

Cheleya led the shorter, lighter flyers, while Kel’lor took the larger. That meant all the women were together trying to follow the dragoness’ lead. Katya was the same size as Cheleya and Falconi Martina was only slightly taller, while Iris and the wizards Edwar and Wellar were the shortest of the men. Being a bit more compact, they could relate to the small girl and her agility in the air.

The larger men were all over six foot with enough bulk to make them move powerfully but they weren’t as agile in their movements. Katya had watched them all and only Magnus and perhaps the air wizard Wellas could have kept up at all.

Leading the two groups along a path that led through canyons, up the face of the mountains and back into valleys; the two leaders moved through them in differing ways. Katya enjoyed the tight maneuvers, but she had also flown with Cheleya quite often and worked to adapt a similar style. While she had certainly been getting better, the dragoness was something else entirely.

Katya was last in the line of flyers and watched as the others tried to bank and twist through tight turns avoiding cliff walls. She found stone spires sticking up with little space between them, but turning side ways the dragoness shot through the gap effortlessly. The next four flyers made their way through looking more or less comfortable, though the larger men had looked a bit unsure as had Iris the tallest girl.

Being petite, the youngest flyer followed Edwar through the gap effortlessly. While Cheleya continued to try and challenge them for the first hour, which tested the new flyers’ stamina; after a small break the two groups were told that they would spar against each other. Breaking the duels into games like tag, Kel’lor’s larger group would face off against the smaller flyers.

Magnus smiled at the young novice and gave her a nod as they were assigned to each other for the first round. They would change partners even to the point of having people from the same teams fighting later.

As a first match up, Katya was nervous. The tall, blonde haired wizard was quicker than most in Kel’lor’s squad despite his size. He was nearly a foot taller and had close to a hundred pounds on her. In a physical match, the winner would appear obvious. His smile and words as he greeted his training partner implied a similar thinking, “I can go easy on you. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt. You are just a novice after all.”

Looking quizzically at the wizard, she retorted, “Shouldn’t you be asking me to go easy on you? I am a harder target to hit than someone as large as you, besides as a dragon mage, aren’t we all novices?”

Magnus laughed and countered, “Do I look like Arrimus that you can use your minds tricks to put me off my game?”

The champion wizard said it loud enough for all to hear and the apprentice in question gritted his teeth angrily at his former friend.

Katya, on the other hand, smiled coyly and asked, “If I was truly working a mind trick on you, do you think you could actually resist me?”

While she was attractive and looked a little older than she was, they both knew what Katya meant and Magnus smirked as he retorted, “By the time wizards are promoted to full, we have been taught many tricks to avoid being caught by a diplomacy wizard’s spell. You are just a novice, so I think I would be safe.”

Letting her magic play into her eyes and voice, Katya said with the same coy smile. “Be a dear and place your forefinger on your nose, Magnus.”

Without even thinking, the wizard placed the finger of his right hand on his nose. It took a moment for him to realize what he had done and Katya’s face looked amused as well as triumphant. “Still think you are immune?”

He tried to lower his arm, but the finger remained until she released him on command. Magnus frowned more in annoyance that the young girl had proved him wrong, than showing any anger at Katya for her demonstration.

“Perhaps I need to work on my resistance some more. Maybe I will have to ask for your help in training to become better. It wouldn’t do for our wizards to turn against our people because the enemy had a diplomacy wizard of any talent.

“Now I don’t want to test my theory, but I doubt that it will be as effective once we are flying in the air.”

Katya shrugged and replied, “We are only allowed basic elemental spells or what we know of dragon magic for these drills. You are safe from my coercion magic for now.”

Her words came off as flirtatious and even Katya had to blink in surprise. She didn’t retract the words or clarify. Sometimes it was just better to ignore a potential mistake and fix it later, than try to fight it at the time. That was another piece of the system of thinking that Ylena and her mentors had been working to instill in the novice.

Magnus didn’t respond, but they both called on the dragon armor spell before flying beyond easy casting range of a fireball. Once all the flyers were ready, Kel’lor lowered his arm as he flew just above them signaling the beginning of the drill.

Magnus flew towards her surging forward like he was shot forward by magic, which in theory he was, but just by the power of his magical wings. He was a powerful wizard and a strong man, especially among wizards that were often more intellectual than physical. While his speed was surprising, Katya’s reflexes had plenty of time to use her instinct to fly away from him.

It wasn’t a game where just one person was it and the others fled. They could both try to catch the other with their magic. Katya flew towards a steep rise along the mountain. No other flyers had chosen this direction making it even better for her purposes. The sky was huge, but trapped between mountains and cliffs, their space was now limited.

Magnus released a flurry of fireballs and the girl simply looped up and around coming back on track as the projectiles passed her. He wasn’t a champion wizard without reason, and the girl nearly fell for his ruse. As she returned to her line, the fireballs halted and reversed their direction right towards her.

“Dragon shield,” Katya called up the mage spell bringing red scales in front of her forming an overlapping shield. While she still could have dodged the fire, there was nothing saying that he couldn’t make them chase her in another direction. Snuffed by the dragon scales, his first attack was now nullified.

Letting him close as she approached the nearly vertical stone face at the head of the narrow valley, Katya let him believe that she would corner or bank upward. She didn’t have to see him at that moment to know how close he was and simply used her wings to halt her momentum. Pushing off with her legs, Katya sprung back using her wings to drive her body back towards Magnus.

His eyes revealed surprise. Even more of the emotion could be seen as she twisted out of his reach only to kick upward facing him. Back towards the ground, Katya kicked him in the stomach calling out, “Tag.” She passed just beyond him and Magnus used his wings to stop from running into the stone before him.

“Not bad,” he stated, “but a kick against dragon armor will only end up breaking your foot.”

“Would you rather that I cast a fireball as I passed by? The dragon armor doesn’t completely keep you invulnerable and our clothing might get holes from such things,” the girl offered as she hovered watching him lift away from the mountainside considering his foe.

“Well, admittedly it would probably be both improper and inconvenient if that happened. We are a long way from a tailor.”

Katya thought that Cheleya might have some magic to help, but she didn’t reveal her friend’s unique spells.

“Do you want a head start or do you want to chase me this time?” Magnus questioned giving the girl a little more regard.

“I have the room to flee,” the girl stated gesturing behind her and away from the mountainside. “Catch me if you can.”

With that, they continued their game until Kel’lor summoned them for a break and to switch partners. It was a practice that would push them all and see how much stamina they had built as dragon mages so far.

Chapter 33- Predator and Prey

The camp had broken up to test skills in a way that was virtually impossible while remaining in White Hall. Air novices paired with their mentors scouting the air and their main targets were the dragon mages. Since they were well south of Northwall and in the sparsely populated mountains besides, there was little need to scout for enemies. They were home after all.

Even the air wizard mentors found the task of keeping up with the dragon mages in flight a challenge. Many of the wizards held smiles that were as much the thrill of the hunt as those of determination not to be bested by the physical abilities of the mages.

While the air wizards were busy tracking the flyers in the air, the earth novices used their talents for searching throughout the mountains. Again they paired with their mentors as any time one set their minds free from their bodies there was a chance that wizard might not come back. There were warnings in the texts, but as far as anyone knew, there had been no instances of such things happening for generations. One of the reasons why was the use of trained mentors taking the lead to pull out their young minds and return them safely back to their bodies once their missions were finished.

Piotr watched as Job, paired with his mentor, Wizard Telamen, sat with his legs crossed opposite the older man who some had nicknamed “Big Dwarf” because of his unusually square build, bald head and ferocious beard. While Piotr had never seen one of the dwarves native to Taltan, everyone knew their description from stories. From those stories, the boy could agree with the nickname, though he would never say it in hearing range of the often gruff older wizard.