Sebastian asked, "Did this blizzard begin before or after they arrived, lieutenant?"
The soldier looked a little resistant to answer an outsider at first, but relented in his resistance replying, "The gates were spotted about the same time as the storm moved in from the northeast."
Looking at Daerdan, the owl asked a follow up question, "Do storms normally come in from the east here?"
In eastern Southwall, nearly every storm moved in from the west or north. The south might bring rain in the spring and occasionally the North Sea might counter the western winds enough to create weather along the coast as well. While nothing was completely constant in its patterns, the weather did have tendencies that would help rule out his worries.
Daerdan frowned as he replied, "The mountains cause the winds to reverse sometimes, but most storms move in from the west because of the ocean."
After a little over a year learning and using wind riding, the mage knew both how the currents worked and how they felt. He had only just arrived, but something felt wrong about this blizzard. Glancing to Ashleen, the wilder nodded to him.
"Someone is using magic to do this," the wilder assured him that her senses agreed with his instincts.
Daerdan asked, "Why would they use so much power to create this storm? Won't they be slowed down by the snow as much as we are? At least we already have defenses set up behind these walls."
"If they felt using this much magic was worth it, the enemy is probably using it to mask their position and movements as much as possible," Sebastian stated confidently, though his face revealed worry. This required coordination and a lot of magical power. That meant there were likely a lot of warlocks involved. He hadn't seen this kind of coordination and resources thrown at them since the Twins had been attacked last fall. That attack had only been thwarted by throwing reinforcements from several guardian cities using portal magic at them.
Daerdan looked at the lieutenant and asked, "Are the wind wizards still scouting the enemy?"
Pointing towards a tower built high on the central keep, the officer replied, "Most likely the wizards are still up there. Chelcelor interrupted his search long enough to send warning to Interus. He and the others were still up there last I heard."
With little more information to gather from the soldiers guarding his portal point, Sebastian let Daerdan lead their group into Tenalin's central castle. The fort looked like nothing the owl mage had seen in Southwall. Even the guardian cities were just that, cities with farming communities and general populations of those working as merchants or supplying staff to the castles. They felt a lot like the cities much farther south of Northwall. Those cities weren't just military buildings filled with soldiers and wizards. Tenalin, on the other hand, was nothing more than a fortress defense standing always ready to fend off the Dark One's creatures when the river failed to deter them.
After climbing the many flights of stairs to reach the top of the tower, Sebastian noticed a handful of wizards sitting on wood chairs. Two more hovered around them apparently making sure that their bodies weren't freezing to death, though he wasn't sure what they could do if they were. These didn't feel like healers.
Daerdan pointed at one of the two free wizards. Sebastian noticed that both looked a bit young. Perhaps this was one of their first tours. He wasn't sure if Kardor put their apprentices through training sessions on the battle front like Southwall did with the guardian cities and Northwall details.
"What have they discovered about the enemy force?"
Quickly looking to one of the wizards still lost on the winds, the young man replied, "They were having trouble getting through the blizzard winds last report. Chelcelor pushed the others to try again, but all of them have been pushed back since the initial sighting of their army, my lord."
The other wizard said worriedly, "No one has returned for twenty minutes since he ordered them back onto the winds."
Sebastian turned to Ashleen and said, "Don't follow me on these winds. The Dark One's warlocks trapped a group of air wizards' minds on one of my missions north of the wall. They couldn't see the darkness that chased them down and pulled them inside. I was the only one capable of seeing it.
"If something like that has happened to these wizards, I am most likely the one who can save them and return. Plus I have the new technique I've been using to move my mind around Kardor that I can use."
"Sebastian, be careful," the girl said with worry.
He nodded and remained standing where he was as the mage closed his eyes and said, "Freedom."
Released from his body, the owl flew from the tower almost instantly. He could sense the lines tethering the wizards to their bodies, but they felt weaker than they should. Remembering the dark cloud that had captured the air wizards of Southwall, Sebastian followed the lines warily watching out for something like it again.
Chapter 27- Inside the Storm
Elzen watched as his friend stood like a statue while his mind flew free on the winds. Knowing Sebastian, he might not even use the currents to move like most air wizards would. Sebastian had explained how he had forced his way like a spear piercing the winds with his mind to move faster than he ever had before to move deeper into Kardor as well as when he seeded the other forts with his lodestone based gates.
Moving to the edge of the parapet, the mage looked east over the outer walls to the river and beyond.
"Vision," he ordered trying to pierce the swirling snow.
Frowning as his vision failed him, Elzen released the magic that could see no further than the river though he should have been able to see for miles. He turned to look at Ashleen and Serrena before saying, "I think I can use portal magic to scout on the ground safely enough. If Bas and the air wizards can't pierce that magic blizzard, it might take someone scouting the other side of the river to better understand what they are doing."
Serrena shook her head. "Don't go getting into trouble again, Elzen," she ordered the young mage. They were in a relationship, but sometimes the difference in age came out making the young woman sound more like his mother than his girlfriend.
"Yes, ma'am," he agreed with a mock salute and a smile. "Door," he added disappearing from the tower only to reappear in the snow on the near side of the river.
Left alone, the two girls looked at each other shaking their heads as each knew what the other was going through.
Elzen sank into the snow stepping through the portal. A line about four feet long remained as his doorway disappeared. There was almost no delay in his senses returning from this short a distance either. That was one thing that he and Sebastian had both noticed about the spell. Crossing greater distances meant their minds were confused longer making sight, hearing and smell slow to recalibrate. Without his senses, Elzen would have cast other spells to prepare for a possible fight.
Even without the handicap of the portal, the mage found little to see. Standing at the edge of the river, he could see that ice extended from one side to the other; but even trying to see the far shore was a strain. Snow swirled and fell blinding the defenders as they tried to see what was coming. Wizards had told them an enemy was near, but other than a severe winter storm nothing was immediately visible as a danger.
"Wave," Elzen ordered an earth based spell. The ice rippled breaking in a line from his foot as he stomped down sending his magic forward to check the strength of the ice. It had been cold so long that the river was iced over, but the water beneath continued to move wearing at the covering above. If it was strong enough to support the army about to attack them, then the river which was normally a defense became little more than a slippery road.
The sound of cracking ice stopped before the wave could reach the far shore. Despite the noise, Elzen could tell that the Aderan's icy covering was thick. If they brought some fire wizards to the shore, perhaps they could change that, but how much of the river could they alter and for how long? If the dark army had decided to use the cold to their advantage, the blizzard would likely conti
nue to strengthen the ice as cold winds seemed to lower the temperature here even more than at the fort.
"Door," he called crossing the river in a blink of an eye. Stepping out onto the ice would have made him an easy target, so the mage had used his newest piece of magic to reduce the danger as much as he could.
"Stealth," Elzen said quietly making himself seem to disappear from sight. His vision changed with the spell as well. A sort of radar sense changed the world around him. He couldn't see through his spell in a normal way, so this was how a mage wrapped in invisibility could make his way in the world without fumbling around blindly.
Trudging through the snow avoiding banks already piling high around him on this side of the river, Elzen thought how little the stealth spell drew on his new reserves of magic. It was like being a wizard no matter what Sebastian had said, he thought. While he didn't want to find someone wounded to heal, the mage had a feeling that it wouldn't tire him or require a wizard to keep him charged. Sebastian had also told him of his trick with the staff or sword. He could resupply his reserves or simply draw from the land without fear of running low on energy even after several wounds now, though he had yet to test that supposition.
The sound of a cracking branch made him stop as he looked for the culprit. While the weight of the snow could have weighted down a branch, this sound seemed to come from ground level. The crunch of snow came to his ears, but from more than one source ahead of him and to either side.
He increased his sense of the earth as he reached down to touch the ground. His new spell was a light whisper and he hoped that it wouldn't alert anyone nearby, but even the slightest tremors in the ground could be felt. His eyes opened again in surprise, but Elzen managed to remember to hold onto his stealth spell as his magic told him of hundreds of footfalls both before him and extending outward.
He had found the enemy. Their use of the blizzard had managed to blind even his stealth sense with their magic. It was obvious to him now that the storm was mixed with magic in a spell that could mask their movement.
Moving close to the side of a tree, Elzen shifted the snow clean with another spell to mask his tracks just in time to see a massive creature push through the brush crushing a young tree. It rested on massive fists. The creature's forearms were as thick as the mage and covered in thick metal armor. Where there were gaps between metal bands, thick gray fur stuck out as the beast's pelt probably served as a lesser defense to the point that whoever had armored this monster didn't feel the use of chain mail was necessary.
A large head sat above its huge armored chest. Tusks protruded from its mouth looking capable of biting a man in half or at least stabbing through one deeply. A metal skullcap would add to the defense of its head. Only the surprisingly short looking legs appeared at all weak. They were short making it easy for the monster to walk on all fours, but as he watched it stopped rising up on those legs to stand even taller to look around searching for something.
Worry set in as Elzen feared that what it was searching for might be him!
Sebastian held back feeling the hidden power of the storm. The magical tethers of the wizards' minds all went beyond the outer edge of a magical line, but the strength of their ties was what worried him most. All five lines felt like they were weakening making the owl wonder if they had been trapped by something beyond the wind and snow.
Controlling his body as it stood on the stone of the tower; Sebastian mumbled a single spell, "Light."
A beam of white light lanced from the tower passing his bodiless form into the heart of the storm. Just beyond the far shore, the light seemed to hit a wall. It wasn't the magic of darkness, however, since he felt it neither weaken nor break.
He wasn't completely surprised. The Dark One's warlocks obviously knew magic that had never been passed on to Southwall. While he had figured out the light and darkness spells, much of that had come from witnessing the wizards of Gray Hall in the tournament. Portal magic had come from a pair of captured warlocks and encountering Palose multiple times as well.
With no warlocks to see or copy, the mage could only feel the magic vaguely. There was no source to find either, since the magic was being performed inside of the barrier created within the heart of the storm.
Approaching what he felt was the outer edge of the barrier; Sebastian tried to get a feel for what he was facing. The wizards' tethers were getting weaker, he was sure of it as his magical senses could see the lines of magic getting thinner even in the short time he had been watching. He knew that he needed a way to open the barrier enough to either let them escape or find a way to forcibly bring them back as he had those captured on the mission almost two years ago.
This magic wasn't as obvious as a dark cloud containing the glow of their minds. It felt more like a wall and perhaps the wizards had simply entered into the barrier's domain at the wrong time.
"Rune shield," the mage mumbled the words closest to his thinking. Orange marks mirroring those that would form around his body when pushing magic into those runes appeared just before the weather barrier. Like a large glowing sphere suspended in air, the mage hurled it into the storm.
The two forms of magic met with a forceful crash, but the owl wasn't trying to shatter the entire barrier. He could tell that it would be useless for just one mage or wizard to break the spell. Likely the enemy was using several warlocks joined together to manipulate so much energy; so pushing where one of the tethers disappeared into the storm, Sebastian manipulated the runes to bore into the unseen wall like a drill. Creating a cylinder around the wizard's line, the runes worked their way deeper and deeper until they pierced the magic barrier.
Freed of the pinch of the barrier's magic, the wizard's mind seemed to snap back through the cylinder. The line shortened disappearing as it returned to the tower. He wasn't sure if the wizard had fled through the small opening or if his magic had reacted to the opening drawing him back, but Sebastian hoped that he had successfully returned and would awaken now that his mind was free.
The other four wizards' lines remained trapped and wishing that he could sigh without his body, Sebastian quickly withdrew the rune drill moving to work around the next trapped wizard. Each line snapped back as the mage now knew exactly how to free them from the trap of the barrier.
He wanted to check within the storm himself, but the owl retreated back to the tower. If the wizards had seen what they faced, risking his mind would be foolish. Their knowledge would be enough, but if he found them unable to answer the questions they had, Sebastian thought that he could breach the spell safely in the same way that he had freed the wizards.
Blinking as his mind and body realigned, the mage was glad to see the five wizards already conscious and starting to move about.
"Did they say what they found inside the storm?" he asked quickly looking to Ashleen.
The girl shook her head.
A couple of the wizards sat rubbing their heads as if they ached. Drinks and food were in reach of all of those who had spent their energy trying to scout the enemy.
Daerdan was just as worried and more demanding. "Chelcelor, what did you find out?"
"My lord?" the eldest looking of the wizards asked as he looked to still be clearing his head. Sebastian guessed that Daerdan must have been involved with checking at least some of the forts with his father over the last several years. He acted as one of the duke's representatives now that he was grown. Ferland would be his father's successor most likely, but the younger brother had been groomed to help lead and run the eastern fortifications at his side.
"You were scouting the enemy. At least that was what you told these wizards. What did you find on the other side of the river?"
Taking a quick drink of juice, the wizard stood a bit shakily and answered, "It is as we feared, my lord. The Dark One's forces have used portal magic to transport a large army using the storm as cover.
"When we went to search further, something trapped our minds. We were being strangled to death."
&
nbsp; Daerdan glanced at Sebastian and said, "I think Owl Sebastian had something to do with freeing you. What did you see mage?"
The young lord seemed to refuse acknowledging him as someone closer to him than any other wizard. Sebastian didn't let it bother him. There was an enemy at the gates and he had a job to do.
"The storm seems to be artificial. Magic created it and made a barrier to keep our magic from entering it while they work. I freed your wizards hoping that they could tell us more. If I need to, I am pretty certain that I can slip through the defense; but it will be dangerous."
Chelcelor spoke up before the lord could weigh into that decision. "I don't think that will be necessary. We already know that the enemy is here. They number in the thousands and have some beasts that we haven't seen before, but it doesn't change the fact that our defenders will be outnumbered. Their magic is also something we didn't expect, but our wizards will do what they have always done and defend the castle and the kingdom."
Looking around, Sebastian noticed someone missing. "Where's Elzen?"
Serrena looked worried and she answered quickly, "He decided to check out what was going on by using a portal to the river."
Nodding, Ashleen added, "I think he figured to push in closer since their magic is keeping us from seeing inside."
The mage frowned with worry. "If it can seal off magic, Elzen might wind up trapped in there as well."
Daerdan interrupted their conversation and said, "We don't have time to worry over one impulsive mage right now. You need to rally the forts and Interus. Maybe even Velius can send reinforcements. Their numbers are significant, but they won't be ready for us to fortify Tenalin with the help of other cities.
"Since you haven't made any gate wizards for us yet, we need you to do something, Owl Sebastian."
Ashleen looked ready to scold her brother, but Sebastian nodded. "You're right. I'll need to return to Southwall a moment, but I think I can get the guilds to loan a few wizards to help us." Looking at the two women from his team, he added, "You two remain here and work with the other wizards to figure out a way to counteract their magic. I'll return as soon as I can."
Battle Mage Bonds (Tales of Alus Book 13) Page 36
