Sitting down, the couple leaned against the low wall beneath the rail as he finished eating. “I’m sure that we’ll find it in time and who knows maybe there will be food and water there that we can use anyway.”
After their last experience with the islands that the Grimnal had explored, he was beginning to wonder if any of them would be hospitable let alone have supplies. It seemed that the ancient king had chased after danger and there would be little enjoyment on the islands that they found.
A small smile touched his lips thinking that he and Yara had enjoyed their time on the last island at least for a time. The beauty of the ruin pool and the even more beautiful woman beside him had been truly enjoyable. Despite that, the cursed island had proven dangerous to them all as had Crab Island before it.
“Nara and I have been talking,” the blond healer stated without looking at Sebastian. Her eyes looked over the far rail to the clouds dotting a mostly blue sky to the northeast.
His attention was pulled to the girl by her words, because he could tell that they were leading to more important things. “About what?” he asked fearing that perhaps the women had speaking of things best left unsaid.
Looking around to make sure that no one was close enough to hear even if their words were drawn away by the breeze coming over the rail, Yara continued, “I think Nara wants to be with Collin in the same way we were.”
The words remained somewhat secretive, even thought there was no one in easy earshot. Her words also revealed that his worries were justified. Sebastian had faith in their friends. While it had been a team pulled together in a short time, the mage had felt good about his choices. The battle mage selection hadn’t been completely of his making, but they were good men and women that he knew he could trust with his life. Trusting one’s life and one’s secrets weren’t always mutually compatible however.
“So Nara knows,” he mused with a slight nod. Unsure of whether to be worried by this news mixed with what Yara had actually said, Sebastian waited for her to go on.
Eyes flicking to the side of his face as the man stared towards the deck in thought, Yara nodded, “She guessed. I’m not a very good liar or masker of the truth as a diplomat wizard might say. Nara knows me too well and guessed that something had happened in the jungle.
“She has also been having thoughts about Collin. I don’t know if she’s even shared them with him. It’s a big step, but they’re both older. Wizards do marry and have children like anyone else. It would be foolish for someone known to have magic to not try to have a child, if only because the odds are greater that their children will have magic.”
Sebastian queried, “So she wants to have a child also? The timing might be a little off for that.”
Again the blond moved with her nod of agreement and she replied, “I know that a mission isn’t the best time to take a risk, but I am a healer and know a spell that can keep her from getting pregnant if they decide they want to be together. You can’t fault them from wanting to, Sebastian. They are in love like us.”
His gaze shifted to the sky as if asking guidance from the gods or the air. “They have the right to do as they please, but rules are around us also. Maura could never find out or there would be trouble for all of us. This ship isn’t large enough to think that people wouldn’t talk.”
Sighing loud enough to be heard despite the breeze, the girl stated, “So if they wanted to have us trade places in such a way that they could be together in one room and we could together in another...?”
He ran his hands through his hair. A battle mage was trained as a cadet and later as a falcon to be able to lead, but no one had prepped him for something like this. “I’ll have to think about it, Yara,” Sebastian finally responded as he stood up. Offering a hand to the pretty blond in her light yellow dress, a new one bought for the trip knowing that it would be warmer as the journey continued, Sebastian helped her to stand beside him. His hands went to both sides of her waist holding her with elbows only half bent. “I want to, you know,” the man confessed, “but we need to make sure that we try and do it right. If someone like Maura let the wizards’ councils know about anything like that happening, I’m not sure what would happen to us. We’re still young enough that we might be separated to avoid having us be together. Collin and Nara could have penalties as well.”
The girl nodded letting a sad frown hold her lips and eyes. “I know, but we’re also away from the councils and schools. We aren’t children anymore. I’m a full wizard and you’re a falcon.”
With a chiding smile, Sebastian replied quietly, “I’m not worried about the battle mages. There won’t be any punishment from my side. It’s you and the others I am worried about.”
Looking incredulously at him, Yara questioned, “You don’t think they would punish you if you got me pregnant or something like that?”
A laugh snuck past his lips before he joked, “I’d probably get an award for finding the prettiest wizard and having a child with her.”
She punched him the stomach and demanded, “Stop that! You’re making a joke and I am trying to be serious.”
With a shrug, Sebastian added, “Well, it’s kind of true. If I keep giving them new magic, having an affair with a wizard probably won’t even come up except to congratulate me on finding such a good one. Like I said, battle mages aren’t under quite the same rules as you are. Even the women aren’t held to the same code once they’ve graduated from cadet.”
Separating from the mage, Yara started to move towards the back of the ship. “I am going to check on Anna. She’s been pushing the ship for almost two hours now. I want to make sure that she has enough to eat and drink. We can’t be letting our host hurt herself by doing too much.”
Sebastian watched as the healer moved away. She had become used to the movement of the boat and didn’t even need the rail to walk the deck. Admiring her as she moved, Sebastian wondered if they could actually get away with being together. Southwall and its guilds had many rules. There were also a lot of problems with how wizards and battle mages generally got along with one another. His team may have become close, but there were still a lot of walls to break down in their world.
Chapter 19- Forest and Field
On the fourth day, clouds came again and with it a strong wind. Annalicia looked tired and, though Sebastian had used his own limited wind magic to give the woman a break, the Malaiy wind wizard had spent much of the third pushing the ship with the wind. Taking a well deserved rest, Anna disappeared into her bedroom chamber on the evening of the third day and didn’t bother to return to the deck until almost noon the next day.
Sebastian watched as the ship’s crew moved about keeping busy adjusting lines or just cleaning to make sure that the Sea Dragon was up to the captain’s standards. It was another way to keep their minds off the sometimes dull life at sea. After the initial beauty of the blue sea extending off to the horizon with the equally limitless sky above, only an occasional sighting of a whale or shark might break up the monotony.
Wizards and mages had to be careful where the walked to stay out of the way of the crew on deck but, as they grew more bored waiting to find the next island, they amused themselves with practicing with their magic. For Serrena and the battle mages, such amusement was easily made with fire spells and shields. Even Liam could exercise his magic using the water to assist in the speed of the vessel or bringing water spouts up to manipulate the magic around his element.
Collin was an earth wizard and still affected by the movement of the sea. Distracting his mind with the magic of his element was unlikely unless he wanted to reach to the sea bed deep below them. Nara, a nature wizard, was slightly less indisposed, but she made do with working with the occasional sea creatures or birds in the air.
Walking up to his friends, where Collin was looking on the verge of misery from his seasick stomach and no way to distract it, Sebastian tried to help by talking with him. Offering to help him adapt to some battle mage spells was received with near in
difference, but the earth wizard stood and worked with him on several spells that most mages could do. The distraction helped until a light rain began to fall and drove them back inside.
Sebastian used his wind shield to keep the water from his clothes and settled in to check the sea ahead of them. He had used the time to teach Collin to keep busy as well. The urge to search on the winds was no less disheartening than sitting around doing nothing, but wasted his energy and dipped into their food reserves needlessly.
Dusk was falling and the already gray light began to darken as Sebastian decided to try again. He had held out all afternoon, but with the strong winds pushing them now the mage was hopeful. Holding onto the railing, the battle mage released his mind from his body lifting with the winds quickly. The freedom of the spell had become his key word to trigger the air magic and he rode the winds with the same pleasure every time.
Flowing with the wind, Sebastian rose into the sky catching stronger gusts and letting his mind be pulled along the rivers of air. To his surprise, a dark shape appeared not long into his flight. He could no longer see the Sea Dragon, but he guessed that they would arrive in a matter of hours during the night.
Letting his mind settle towards the water and the waves, the battle mage moved towards the island and noticed that it was even larger than Temple Island. There was plant life over much of the land that looked more like a forest than a jungle ranging from one end to the other with a few, large, pasture-like fields breaking up the trees here and there. A stone hill rose near the far side of the island reminding him of the mountain with the waterfall, but much lower. He thought that he spied a dark castle sitting on the mound and feared that they were about to deal with another cursed island.
Riding closer, he noticed movement beneath the trees and in the leaves. Birds and animals seemed to live on this island for once. Maybe this time things would go easier and safer for them.
After returning and spreading the news from his initial sweep, Captain Delfren brought the Sea Dragon to the west side of the island during the night. Setting anchor, they had Liam search the water around them for hidden monsters. If creatures like the crabs from Crab Island were nearby, they wanted to know about it immediately.
The water wizard wasn’t very excited about being woken in the dark of night to search, but he did the necessary work quickly and efficiently before going back to his bed. Light from the third moon, Gelinas, had competition on the eastern sky before he had finished as the sun was only about an hour from rising.
Unable to sleep with the expectations for the new day, Sebastian waited as the Sea Dragon gently rose and fell with the waves. The anchor would hold them fast on the west side to avoid detection from the hillside castle, if there were still inhabitants watching over the island. No one had ever heard of this place or anyone coming from it over the last hundred and fifty years, so there was also the chance that only the animals ruled this land.
Soft footsteps on the wooden deck were noticed by the mage, but he didn’t look up until she was almost on top of him. Looking up at Yara, her blond hair was nearly turned silver in the waning moonlight. She wore a short night dress cut above the knee that peeked out from under a yellow robe made of a light weight material. It was another sign that they had both moved to warmer weather in the south and that spring was taking over the north. Kneeling to sit beside him, the pretty girl leaned against him as she asked, “Couldn’t sleep?”
Giving a brief smile, he turned catching the twinkle of moonlight in her green eyes. “I’m not the only one,” he replied. “Collin and Liam weren’t having any trouble with sleeping though. Collin was snoring when I left.”
The girl gave a sympathetic look. “Nara was restless, but I think that she’s still asleep.”
He nodded and said, “We should probably all try to sleep before the sun comes up, but it won’t be long now. I’m a little anxious about this island.”
“Anxious because of the castle, or because you still aren’t sure that we shouldn’t have gone to Trillian first?”
Giving a shrug, Sebastian tried to find the answer as he spoke, “Probably both. This is the first island with animals and birds on it. I’m not sure if that is good or bad though.”
Returning his shrug with one of her one, Yara tried to reassure him, “We’ll just approach it carefully like we always do. You’ve placed the Sea Dragon as far away from the castle as you can letting the forest give some cover from it. You’ve taken precautions as much as you can.”
“After the problems with Temple Island, I’m not sure if we don’t need to be even more cautious. It’s like something or someone left traps to conceal the clues from anyone who might try to find him. Liam and the others might have been beyond saving if not for Annalicia’s quick thinking,” he finished with a frown as he wondered if someone shouldn’t take the lead after all. Maura had faltered and Liam had risen to the challenge as well as Anna, though she was technically a third party to their mission.
Yara leaned her head on his chest as she continued to make herself more comfortable while shifting her legs from under her to stretch them out before her. Pulling his left arm around her shoulders, the girl placed her bare legs over his before replying, “You can’t see every danger, Bas. Just do your best and we’ll make do, I’m sure.”
Her weight leaned into him and he marveled at the soft, strength of the healer. He was about to make a reply when Sebastian realized that her breathing had deepened. Cuddling into him, Yara had fallen asleep.
With a content smile, Sebastian waited for the sun to come up and the next part of their mission to begin.
Once more Sebastian found his team standing on a beach looking at the red indicator telling him that the next clue was through the heart of an island. The green before them looked more like the forests of the north than the lush, cursed jungle of Temple Island, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t have its dangers.
His team was beginning to look different in their ways as well. Jackets hadn’t been worn in days now. The warmth of the weather felt like late spring to the men and women of the north. Annalicia still wore her light weight dresses and seldom wore shoes, which had been a common sight almost since they had left. How she could still feel so warm had his whole team trying to figure it out for over a week now. The wind wizard and a large force from the ship would watch over the long boats awaiting the search team’s return. Reynolvan and her cousin, Darterian, were powerful wizards in their own right and a handful of Malaiy wizards would be able to back them up in a pinch.
Yara’s dress of white and yellow deviated from the more official robes the healer wore near her superiors. Nara’s brown pants and short sleeved green shirt were more common to field work than living in castles. Nature wizards tended to be more casual in their dress as they worked in the fields and forests anyway, so only the fact that she was dressed for spring and no longer the winter seemed different to his eyes.
Serrena was perhaps the greatest change. So used to the red robes and tough persona the fire wizard tended to put out, it was a strange change to see her dressed much like Yara. A dress cut above the knee made of mostly true red was broken up with pin striping of a lighter red verging on pink and a hem nearly orange. Brown boots hugged her lower legs almost to the knee. While a dress would survive similarly to a shirt or pants in thick brush, she wouldn’t risk her legs and the leather boots were stylish but sturdy.
As much as the girls seemed to be preparing for spring, the men simply went to short sleeve shirts and continued to wear their normal pants. Falcons wore their brown shirts and either black or brown pants, while wizards wore a shirt of their school’s color. Robes and long coats had been retired, though a breeze still brought cooler air from time to time.
Only Maura seemed determined to look like a researcher wizard studying in some library. Her robes were long, though made of lighter material than her winter clothes. Her short boots were hidden, but were the common footwear of those walking a city and not traipsing throu
gh a jungle.
Looking at his people, he considered splitting them into two groups as he had on Temple Island, but after the attacks from the jungle and moss men, Sebastian was beginning to think that staying together might be safer. The new island was so much larger that if anyone got into trouble it might take too long to help them. He also only had one point on the compass and it pointed in the approximate direction of the castle on its stone hilltop.
The sound of birds in the trees was comforting to the mage as he gathered his people around him and lay out his plan. “From here, the compass only shows one red light. I think we should skirt the forest and use the beach until the marker adjusts to our position.”
There was no argument from anyone. Even Maura quietly took the suggestion and simply followed when the mage led his team east along the beach. It was Nara and Collin whose actions seemed to counter him, but after checking the two wizards he quickly learned why.
“Is something wrong?” the mage asked the two as he felt the use of their magic.
Nara was the first to respond with a shake of her head. “I was just checking the plants here and I don’t sense anything strange like on Temple Island. The birds seemed normal enough, but I can’t read much from the animals here so far. They’re probably just further away from us.”
Collin’s eyes had lost focus and when the spark returned, the earth wizard reinforced Nara’s opinion, “The earth seems exactly the way it looks. There are no traces of magic here, from the Dark One or any other wizard in recent history at least. If someone worked a curse or laid a trap, I can’t sense anything from here. We can keep checking as we go. It is a big island.”
More secure in their surroundings, Sebastian and the other thirteen members of his team walked along the sandy beach just beyond the tree line. He led a brisk walk for a pace. There was no reason to run and no sense in winding their weaker members. Maura, with her bodyguards walking to either side at the rear of the column, could not have maintained the mile consuming runs that his mages or the soldiers could. The captain and sergeant had already proven fit, but even the younger wizards weren’t accustomed to military runs.
Battle Mage: The Lost King (Tales of Alus) Page 23
