White Hall (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 10) (75 page)

The younger girl realized that Iris was probably right. Her brother had become very important in Southwall in a very short time. While she knew little of what he had done the previous year and knew nothing since he had left her with Darius, Katya had heard enough talk to know Sebastian wasn't just a young battle mage to be ignored any longer.

They rushed through the dining hall and nearly ran into a group leaving the courtyard of the portal site. Katya and Iris stopped dead in their tracks trying not to run into the unusual crowd within the walkway between the mage barracks and the dining hall. This wasn't a time for one of the meals held in the hall so the filled hallway surprised the girls.

Most of those in the walkway wore the summer uniforms of falcons, but one young man with light brown hair of just above average height caught the girl's eyes and Katya gasped, "Sebastian!"

Turning to see his younger sister, Sebastian turned with surprise and a smile. "Hello, Katya, it's been awhile."

***************

Other books by Donald L. Wigboldy Jr.

From the Tales of Alus series:

The High King: A Tale of Alus

The Emperor’s Shadow War

Battle Mage: A Tale of Alus

Battle Mage: Winter’s Edge

Battle Mage: The Lost King

Battle Mage: Dragon Mage

Battle Mage: Dark Mage

Battle Mage: A Hero’s Welcome

Battle Mage: Forging New Steel

Modern Tales:

Voran the Night Guardian

Standing Before Monsters

The Mermaid’s Chest

For Cheleya's story try:

Battle Mage: Dragon Mage

Chapter 1- Ruby Wings

The steep cliffs and slopes of the Dragon Spine Mountains echoed with the sound of thunder, yet there were no clouds in the sky. White still coated the upper peaks but, as winter waned and the days grew longer, heavy snow and glaciers remained untouched only in the high valleys between the shadowing peaks. It was a sight few men dared to see and yet there were others who called the lands their home.

Fire struck the cliff side as a ruby flyer twisted to avoid a hurling ball of flame. Long blond hair trailed in a pony tail between a pair of wide spread magic ruby wings. Covered in scaled armor that followed the curves of her body like a second skin, the flyer turned as she cried out in an ancient tongue sending lightning streaming towards her two attackers.

Large stone gargoyles known as the mar’goyn’lya narrowly dodged the bright, twisting light. Rocks and snow fell behind them as the strike knocked loose a new avalanche, but the three combatants ignored the sound of crashing rock as their sights remained on each other.

The small blond haired girl called out in that language of magic once more sending a flurry of fireballs back at her pursuers.

A shield like red glass was raised by one and blue energy formed a quick shield for the second catching the fireballs rather than dodging the flames. Retaliatory fire flew after the ruby flyer as they remained focused on the girl. Closing with a wall of stone, the young woman ducked into a crouch letting the flames narrowly miss her before uncoiling to spring back up and between the two gray, stone skinned creatures.

The maneuver surprised one more than the other. The larger male put out his massive hands to take the impact with the side of the mountain and his feet landed kicking into the stone making footholds. He looked upward at the ruby armored girl and watched as the second, smaller, gray gargoyle imitated the smaller flyer’s maneuver.

“You’re too clumsy, Kel’lor,” the gray female called admonishingly as she looked back at the gargoyle perched on the side of the mountain.

The tiny girl in red called another spell to life drawing the lighter gargoyle’s attention. Snow appeared just before her face and the female gray crashed through the light powder listening to the blond haired woman’s giggles of amusement.

Kel’lor’s deep laughter echoed through the stones walls around them.  “At least, Cheleya didn’t get me like that, Mor’treya,” the male mar’goyn’lya teased the smaller female as she shook her head to rid it of the cold snow. Dark hair trailed down Mor’treya’s neck in a tail similar to the petite blond and it whipped as she shook her head.

A horn sounded and the flyers eased their stances noticeably. “Malaketh calls,” the little blond haired girl said raising a finger from her right fist with a smile.

“We lose again,” Kel’lor stated with a shrug as Mor’treya growled in annoyance. “We’ll catch her one day. Don’t get upset over it.”

“How can you not get upset about it?” the female asked heatedly.

“Because we never catch her,” the male shrugged again before pushing off to follow the little flyer. Mor’treya turned to chase the other two.

A short distance later by air, the three spied the outer tower for Mar’kal’s school for magic. The flyers could see much of the city beyond the Academy as they hurried back. Mar’kal consisted of large towers and wide open streets running between homes forty feet tall on the small side and sprawling like the libraries of men. This was a city for the che’ther and their allies the mar’goyn’lya. Only wizards and mages could change appearance and size, so the main city looked like a human one except in scale since everything was five or six times larger to house the massive dragons. The flying race of gargoyles either lived in smaller dwellings generally on the outskirts of the city or lived in homes hewn from the cliffs nearby called eyries.

Landing on the outer tower with its walkway that led to the main hall of the magic academy, Cheleya and the two mar’goyn’lya spied a dark haired wizard closer to the building’s entry. He was one of the human men who had come to the ancient city to learn from the dragon masters, a name not for the land bound che’ther but the legendary race of true dragons. Middle aged in years by human standards, both gargoyles were of a similar age though considered more like young children by the longer living race. Malaketh with his full black beard and mustache seemed more beastlike compared to the smooth, gray skinned gargoyles. He was barely older than the mar’goyn’lya in years, yet he was the master of dragon magic.

The wizard shook his head at the two giant creatures. “Take your human forms. Maybe being smaller for awhile will help you figure out how to turn faster,” the wizard stated turning and gesturing for them to follow.

Both took similar looking amulets and used the ancient language of magic before their shapes and size changed in a bright flash of light. Kel’lor still towered over the little blond girl, but Mor’treya managed to come closer in size as a lithe looking woman with jet black hair and brown eyes. Though slightly tall for a woman, the gargoyle’s new appearance with her blue, gray tunic and brown leather pants cinched by a black leather belt along with matching black boots, still looked very human if aggressively formidable with her annoyed scowl lingering on her lips.

Cheleya’s scale armor disappeared leaving a red skirt cut above the knees and a light weight blouse revealing her shoulders but with sleeves playing down her arms loosely. The girl had bare feet that seemed to barely touch the stone as she walked so gracefully she appeared to almost dance beside the others. “You’re still huge, Kel’lor,” the little blond giggled and patted his stomach in passing. “You know I start as a che’ther and am much larger than you. Can’t you at least try to shrink that bulky mar’goyn’lya body into something less conspicuous?”

“Meh,” the tall, muscular looking man with brown hair and matching shirt, but wearing dark gray pants and brown leather boots, responded with a shrug. “Who am I trying to fool here, Cheleya? Everyone knows me in either form.”

Sighing, the little blond girl danced around him looking at his large human body. “Well, that is the point, my large friend. The transformation spell lets you be whatever you want to be. I am a blue, scaled che’ther twenty feet long from nose to the tip of my tail, but would anyone think that of this little human? No, because it is an illusion,” she waved her hands as she exaggerated the word illusion as if putting on a show.

“And I want to look big and strong, not tiny and cute like some human version of a kitten, little che’ther,” the pretend human male stated grabbing the girl around the waist and carrying her across the remaining stone bridge interrupting her dancing and teasing. “Come, kitten, the master wants us inside,” Kel’lor stated with a chuckle playing with her like the tiny blond haired che’ther was a little sister.

“You two are ridiculous,” Mor’treya complained as she followed them onto the high stone walkway. She looked over the edge and paled. Heights bothered her only when she wasn’t her gargoyle self. It was another reason that she hated pretending to be human.

Straggling after her fellow students, Mor’treya joined them in a large hall as she passed through a pair of multi-paned glass doors. Stained glass that threw a variety of colors into the hall when closed, they were ignored as mere obstructions to the apprentices that had already passed through these doors thousands of times during their training.

Malaketh moved to stand before one of several tables laden with magical paraphernalia within the first school room before turning to stare at his students. A human, he had come to Mar’kal as a young man and managed to beg his way into the school, a feat few humans had dared. Mar’kal was a melting pot of a city, however, where che’ther and mar’goyn’lya had been living side by side for a millennia. They had come from a dying world that they had shared and once fought each other to rule, but here in a world of man they had joined together if only out of necessity.

Mankind had opened the first windows into the dying world of the two races and offered hope to people who were destined to burn up with their world. Once the first of their kind had been brought to Alus, the two races had found a way to bring the remains of their people into this new, rich and living world. It had saved both of their races, but now mere thousands lived amongst a planet dominated by the population of man.

Time had let the two races build a city and fortress in the mountains where men could be ignored as they became accustomed to Alus. Time had also brought men to them once more and new ties were formed. Men came to Mar’kal to trade and even live. The three races worked and learned to understand each other making the city unique amongst any on Alus.

Men like Malaketh came bringing their take on magic to learn from the dragon masters. Magic differed between all the races as they had all come to learn of it in different ways. Now Malaketh was a master of the dragon style, a magic that Cheleya followed as a che’ther, the race that had created the magic. A human, he trained che’ther and mar’goyn’lya as if he were one of them, and in away he was.

“I can not believe that two mar’goyn’lya born with wings can not catch a che’ther. She is new to both the human form and her wing magic, yet it is you two who continually look like the fledglings leaving the nest for the first time. We run these drills and you two don’t seem to be getting any better at air combat,” the man complained as he pulled at his thick black beard. “Cheleya is still a child by my race’s standards and half your age. Do we need to have you two practice in human form from now on to learn how to turn faster?”

Mor’treya looked sick at the idea, while Kel’lor merely shrugged. The elder of the two mar’goyn’lya, Kel’lor was the more easy going and Mor’treya often wondered if that was what held him back. Things didn’t seem to phase the male and whatever came at them he went with it, even if it was something like a threat to leave them human for awhile. Mor’treya, on the other hand, made a better effort to change into a human as she tried to be the best at anything she did. The masters wanted a human look, she did her best to look human, but then there was Cheleya.

Cheleya was young for any race as Malaketh had said. A mere seventeen years since she had hatched from her egg and only two years of magic training, the che’ther was closer to attaining dragon master status than the two mar’goyn’lya who had been studying various schools of magic since before she was born.

Looking at the petite, little, blond haired human form, no one would think a twenty foot che’ther was a simple spell change away. She was a bit naive and certainly flighty by nature, at least in Mor’treya’s opinion, but when it came to the magic of her race, Cheleya was a natural.

Cheleya raised her hand to be acknowledged by the master before she tried to buy her friend’s a little grace, “I think they fly well with their wings. They just weigh too much to keep up with me when it comes to the quicker turns and maneuvers.”

Malaketh nodded and stated, “See? Even the che’ther sees that need to think lighter, maybe this change to smaller forms is exactly what you two need to make the next step in your training.”

Alarmed at his twist of her words, Cheleya shook her head adamantly pleading with her friends to know that wasn’t what she meant at all. Malaketh ignored the dragoness and added, “I suggest that you two practice the dragon wing spell while in human form tonight and I will consider whether you need to perform as human in the next training. Class is over for today. Go to your individual studies now, my students.”

He finished with a dismissive wave of his hand as the master turned away from the three as if he couldn’t stand looking at them anymore.