Shrugging as if she hadn’t a care, the dark haired, earth wizard replied, “I haven’t practiced in a duel in a long time, but after our troubles of late I think I can handle it. As long as I don’t lose the first match, I think the ambassador will be satisfied with my performance.”
With a dismissive grunt of displeasure, Orlerin added, “Maybe you need to try for a couple of rounds or we’ll lose our rooms. Since we’re staying in the Two Circles thanks to him, if you lose too quickly we might find ourselves without a room; which would be a shame to miss a few more nights of Evan’s snoring.”
“I snore?!” the younger mage protested turning from his lead position. His eyes touched his leader before looking past him to those wandering the street behind them. “I lose sleep every night to your snoring, old man. The snoring you are hearing is probably just your own waking you up in the night.”
Rolling her eyes, Colbie stated definitely, “We were in the same travel cabin. Trust me, you both snore!”
Tilana smiled an apologetic look at Orlerin as she nodded her agreement with the other woman.
“I wonder if there’s a magic spell for that?” Evan joked as he turned to watch out for other pedestrians in traffic that was a little heavier within the inner wall.
“All I need is a pillow and my own two hands to fix it,” Colbie threatened with a smile.
Waving her off, Evantus came to a halt in sight of the hospital. They all grouped up facing one another giving them the ability to see over each other’s shoulders or around them for Colbie who was the shortest. Though they stopped speaking about things of little consequence for over a minute, the group could see no one looking at them as more than an obstacle to be maneuvered around on the street.
Orlerin concluded, “I think that we are safe. If there is someone watching us, then he is better than we are at finding him. Now who do we send to try and check on our friend?”
Shrugging, Colbie replied, “I can go. You three can spread out and watch for trackers. Now I just need to convince them that I need to see him.”
Evan chuckled, “Just flirt and toss your hair.”
At her angry look, he added, “What? You’re a good looking woman and they’re men. It should work.”
Blushing at his offhand compliment, Colbie turned away to ignore him and avoid getting caught being embarrassed. The mage still couldn’t believe that the others would think her beautiful; Cheleya, yes, but not her, though admittedly seeing the changes the dragoness had made in her hair had boosted her confidence more than it had been in years.
The first two guards stopped her at the gate immediately.
Smiling what she hoped was a friendly smile; Colbie looked at the men with raised eyes and brows. “I’ve come to visit a sick friend. We brought him in yesterday.”
“Not with that,” the guard to her left stated gesturing to her sword belted at the woman’s hip. “All weapons get left in storage here,” he added pointing to a closet set behind the stone wall she hadn’t seen before approaching the gate. It hadn’t been a priority the day before when they had brought Kel’lor in, but the girl unbelted her weapon in its scabbard handing it over to the guard.
Spreading her feet apart to shoulder width, the girl brought her hands up behind her head after a flick of her long red hair. With a teasing smile, the mage asked, “And do you need to frisk me for more weapons now?”
The man holding her sword turned dark red, a color beyond the flush from the cold, while the second guard’s eyes bulged slightly as if he hoped his companion would say yes. Sweat starting to bead on the first man’s forehead, he shook it quickly saying, “No, miss, you can get a pass or escort from the guards at the door now.”
He swallowed noticeably and Colbie wondered if maybe Evan wasn’t just teasing her. The mage had never bothered to use whatever feminine wiles she might have, but that had been because she had needed to win the male mages’ respect and being a flirty, girl wasn’t likely to gain that for her. Still, Colbie had seen these guards’ reaction, so maybe she wasn’t as plain as she had once thought.
The next two men standing in the foyer entry behind a set of glass doors had seen the girl’s playfulness with the outer guards and were still smiling. Colbie tried to play it up though such playfulness wasn’t her normal style as she smiled brightly at the guards and asked for help, “I have a friend that came in last night and I was hoping to check on him.”
“Name?” the first man demanded dryly while the younger guard returned the smile similarly. He had his eyes on the pretty battle mage who tried to toss her hair back playfully from the right side of her face, the side he viewed.
“Kel’lor, he was poisoned,” she stated smiling at the second guard, a man with darker blond hair. He wasn’t too hard to look at, though Evantus was probably better looking, Colbie thought before catching her comparison and nearly blushing that she had used him as a measure of a man’s appearance.
The man with his ledger paled slightly and he turned to the younger guard. “Find Wizard Rilenier. She will know more about his condition.”
Hurrying off, the guard was forced to wait with the mage and she asked, “Is there something wrong? He hasn’t gotten worse has he?”
“I’m just a guard, miss. The wizards only let me know who is helping them and what room they’ll be in to find them. If there is more, they give me the note to find the wizard in charge,” he admitted with a calm tone. While his voice managed to avoid giving much away, his eyes looked like he knew of bad news and was simply hoping that it could be put on another to tell her.
Realizing that the man was unlikely to say more and flirting was relatively useless on him, the young woman waited patiently for the other guard to return. Minutes later, a female apprentice arrived making the older guard start to frown. This was no wizard, which made Colbie wonder what had happened to keep the one in charge from coming to answer her questions.
Mousy brown hair was unkempt and strands were freely falling into her face to be brushed back in annoyance. The girl looked harried and tired, but she tried to smile a sympathetic smile. Thinking the look needed practice, Colbie waited for the bad news to come.
“Your friend had complications, but you may follow me to Wizard Rilenier. She was in charge of his condition,” the teenage wizard stated in such a way that it made the mage wonder at the past tense. Had Kel’lor died? Being poisoned with the strange magical poison, he had certainly been left with that possibility. Knowing how strong the gargoyle was in either form, it was hard to believe even so.
“So what kind of ‘complications’ did my friend have?” Colbie questioned the girl’s back noting the disheveled, wrinkled apprentice robe. Her hair was as rabid looking from behind as it had been from the front, even worse if that was possible.
Turning her head with a surprisingly brighter smile, the apprentice replied, “It is a little hard to explain. We had a secondary consultant jump in to help. With all the wizards from other countries visiting, we had an unusually well known man visiting when the complication began. My mistress can better explain when we find her.”
Colbie was forced to wait on her answers as they turned through a series of halls looking for the right room. She sighed hoping that “complications” didn’t mean death, so she wouldn’t have to bring Cheleya that kind of news.
Chapter 23- Broken
Following hurriedly after the healer’s apprentice, Colbie soon found herself in an unusual room. Filled with a dozen chairs set in two rows facing a wall half made of glass windows, the girl gestured to a seat even as the mage looked through the viewing windows to the room beyond. To her amazement nearly a dozen men and women in healer’s garb stood surrounding a large table with the massive body of a gargoyle lying across it.
“What’s going on?” she asked truly uncomprehending.
The apprentice looked at Colbie tilting her head as if to read whether the mage was truly unknowing of the situation before her. “That is your friend. The guard said you wanted
to see Kel’lor and apparently this is he.
“You didn’t know that he was a mar’goyn’lya?”
Starting at the question, Colbie quickly turned from the strange view beyond the windows and asked the girl, “He changed back into a gargoyle? I thought using his magic was helping to spread the poison, and that it would kill him.”
Shrugging the girl replied, “Well, he was already dead by that time apparently.”
The apprentice turned to leave pulling the door closed behind her leaving the mage to stand in the small, quiet viewing room. As she stood staring, Colbie noticed that not everyone in the room was dressed as a healer or apprentice. A silver haired, old man stood near the head of the table dressed in green and brown. Two more younger men stood by the wall near the door in similar clothing.
Feeling the magic being exerted in the healing chamber, Colbie wondered what could possibly be happening if, as the apprentice had said, Kel’lor had already died. So strong was her confusion, that it wasn’t until she questioned that thought that she felt tears welling up in her eyes. She hadn’t known the mar’goyn’lya long, but Colbie thought that it was more her sadness for Cheleya who called him a brother.
When the girl spotted a sudden twitch from a foot and then a wing, she wondered if the apprentice had been wrong. It was a cruel trick if she had, because Kel’lor clearly had at least some life left in him. A gargoyle’s body wouldn’t twitch after death, would it? She suddenly wondered what was truly known about the mar’goyn’lya, and questioned if she might be wrong. Teachings on gargoyles were hardly a major study in Staron.
As Colbie watched, the near arm rose from the awkward dangling of a dead man and replaced itself on his chest. When Kel’lor suddenly began to cough and turned to spew a black ichor on the ground, she nearly screamed but managed to sit down in a chair behind her as she turned white with the shock. He was alive after all.
The magic of the circle around him wrapped up moments later as the healers broke to renew themselves with provisions kept nearby. They looked drained and Colbie wondered once more what the spell was that she had just witnessed.
One of the healers in yellow looked to the windows noting her presence. She turned to speak with the silver haired man a moment longer before the two left the room together. Most of the wizards vacated the chamber while a pair of apprentices, the one who had led Colbie to the room being one, attended the gargoyle bringing him food and drink and assisting him in sitting up enough to eat. Kel’lor appeared dazed and never noted the mage sitting so close by before the door to the viewing room opened once more this time admitting the healer and the three men in green and brown.
Looking up in surprise, Colbie was slow to stand as shock still held her mind dealing with Kel’lor’s supposed death and subsequent return to life. The healer in the lead smiled, a practiced look more than truly sincere, the mage thought critically.
“I am Rilenier. My apprentice, Tavil, said that you are a friend of the patient?” the woman questioned. Wizard Rilenier had brown hair cut short well above the shoulders. Her hair was unusually short compared to most women, but Colbie guessed that having shorter hair was an advantage for a healer dealing with wounds and blood on a regular basis. She was also a few inches taller than the mage, though Colbie was used to that since she was on the small side anyway.
Nodding in reference to the question, the mage replied, “I was told that Kel’lor had died, but I see that he looks alive enough unless this is some sort of trick.”
While the question of trickery using magic was valid enough, Colbie doubted it and the healer confirmed, “While Tavil’s assessment was a little more final than you see, your friend did die for several minutes before we could put him in stasis to then revive him. In fact, only the combination of several wizards working to keep him in a coma kept him from continuing over the brink where we would not be able to save him. Also the assistance of High Wizard Darius led to a ground breaking solution to the poison that would surely have killed your friend soon enough.”
The silver haired man shook his head waving off the compliments as he stepped forward to add, “I wish that I could claim such glory, but you and your wizards are the ones to thank for that mar’goyn’lya’s salvation here.” He looked to Colbie and half bowed his head a moment as he continued, “Your friend had a strange reaction to the poison or maybe he simply couldn’t stand the pain any longer. Until he recovers enough to explain what happened, we are unsure really, all I can honestly say for sure is that Kel’lor released all his magic at once. As most know, doing such a thing is usually a death wish, since magic is life to our kind. Luckily, doing such a hazardous thing inside of a hospital means that he could be saved. He also inadvertently saved himself from this strange poison that I was told about.
“I didn’t have the time to examine the poison myself, but from what I was told it was a very insidious piece of magic designed to kill a wizard with their very own magic. When Kel’lor expended all of his power in that rush, he also managed to clear the poison along with it since it had nothing left to build from any longer.”
“But it was the high wizard’s teaching about restoring a drained wizard’s magic that actually saved him,” Rilenier assured the mage and probably was meant to keep Darius on the pedestal the healer seemed to have placed him on from his greater knowledge. “We have never tried to replace a wizard’s energy in such a way before.”
Being a little impatient, Colbie stepped into the mutual admiration and asked, “So he will be alright?”
The silver haired wizard nodded as he answered, “Of course, though he will need a little time to recuperate before he can just walk out of the hospital. He did just die after all and, unless you are an immortal, you don’t just get up and walk away from that.”
Finishing with a chuckle of amusement that Colbie didn’t understand, the mage took from his words what she needed. Kel’lor would be fine, which meant Cheleya’s heart would be eased along with the rest of those who knew the gargoyle. “So would it be alright to see him?”
Wizard Rilenier shook her head and responded, “He has just come through a traumatic process. We will need to monitor him and make sure there won’t be any unforeseen complications. Perhaps tomorrow morning he will be ready to receive guests once more.”
Darius looked on her with more sympathy as he added, “He is strong and the poison seems to have been completely flushed from his system. The black ichor that he threw up as he awoke was the last of the poison that had gone dormant with his temporary death state. With the poison gone, he should be on the mend and back to his normal self within a day or two, I would think.”
Looking a bit more intense, the elder stared at the girl before him and asked looking for more information, “How did your friend come to be poisoned anyway? I have never seen the like of it before, so it would be good to know what to look for in the future.”
“We were attacked by man size shrikes. One seemed to understand some form of black magic. It was that one which infected Kel’lor’s magic armor as best we could figure out at the time. Since it only spread as he cast his magic, no one knew he was poisoned for a few days,” Colbie revealed the conclusion they had come to after initially discovering the poison affecting the gargoyle.
Rubbing his bearded chin in thought the high wizard didn’t look happy to hear of the news. “So the Dark One has created another weapon. He has been allowed free rein for far too long,” Darius stated as if some plan was forming within his head.
“Our battles have continued with him since he first took over the mountains to the north,” Wizard Rilenier replied to his voiced musings. “The emperor has never put himself in a place that we could find a way to get to him. His armies seem inexhaustible, so he has had ‘free rein’ as you put it, but only because he is simply too powerful for any one nation to destroy. Will Eirdhen send its army and wizards to help us defeat him?”
Smiling at the healer like she was a mere child, the high wizard replied, “There are
more ways to defeat him than head on, Rilenier. Do not worry about such things, healer, you have your matters to worry over and it is high time that I began to approach the matter myself. Southwall has braved the dark armies for centuries helping us all, but maybe it is time to do more than stand behind a powerful wall.
“Anyway, thank Wizard Hegrone for the tour of your facility. I still have other duties while I am in Hala that I must attend to now,” the silver haired man told the wizard with a nod to each woman in exchange.
As the three men left, Colbie noted the healer again as she moved to follow. “If Kel’lor is alright and we can’t visit him until the morning, I will go let my other friends know. Thank you, Wizard Rilenier, for your help.”
The healer merely nodded as the mage slipped away following the path of the high wizard. She had no new words for the man, but simply walked behind the three watching the men. For a gray haired old wizard, Darius seemed very spry as if he were a young man. His eyes hadn’t looked old to her either, though perhaps they appeared to hold an untold amount of knowledge beyond that of the meager mage following behind the three.
Once free of the hospital, they turned away towards the keep and the mage looked for her friends. No new faces intent on her, like a tracker’s would be, were noticeable either and soon Colbie walked beside Evantus and the others.
“Kel’lor survived the poison,” the young woman stated quietly, “though he basically did die according to the healers. They are keeping him for observation and we can’t see him until the morning, but they believe that he is through the worst of it. He should be fine in a day or two apparently.”
Orlerin nodded saying, “Well, that is a relief. We owe Kel’lor and Cheleya our lives. Those shrikes would have killed us for sure, especially with the wounds we had before Cheleya healed us.”
“We don’t know that they would have attacked us at all,” Tilana mused causing the three to look at her curiously. Her blue eyes flicked from the ground to those around her momentarily looking embarrassed by her statement. “I am not saying that saving Colbie from her wounds and fever wouldn’t make us beholden to them, but those black birds came from the north as if they trailed our two friends. With this Malaketh and her father showing up behind them as well, it just makes me question if it wasn’t more than coincidence that brought them to our cabin that day.”
Battle Mage: Dragon Mage (Tales of Alus) Page 31
