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

by Donald Wigboldy

  Smiling at the man, Cheleya replied, “That is very flattering. It is also nice to dance with someone I already know and like. Magnus and his friend Embrell have been particularly insistent about getting a dance in during our travel together. Luckily, I have Kel’lor around also if they get to be too much.”

  The man frowned at her words. “Too much in what way? Have they been insisting on going to your room or something? That would not be very gentlemanly of them. I would help Kel’lor in putting them in their place, if you need me to do so.”

  Cheleya knew little of the concept of being a gentleman from her lessons, but she knew men that qualified if the definition were given to her. The friends who she had met along the way had two men who were definitely gentlemen and she missed them as well as the two women who were like sisters to the younger che’ther.

  “Nothing like that, though I am not completely sure what seeing my room would have to do with being a gentleman as you say. No, Magnus in particular just seemed to act like he was owed a dance. He likes to say how he was the champion of the tournament and brags about his accomplishments.

  “I do not find such a lack of modesty very flattering, but I can’t say that they are horrible men either. Perhaps I don’t have the best groundwork to base such judgments on, but compared to some they aren’t that bad.”

  He wasn’t completely sure what she meant by her lack of judgment based on a limited groundwork, but it was obvious that Cheleya meant that she could put up with whatever attention she was getting from the men. Ardost had often wondered at how sheltered the girl must have been in her former school to know so little about the world and the people in it.

  Still, Cheleya was a sweet, young woman and charmingly beautiful. She was smart, but also quite naive.

  Not wanting to get stuck on such unhealthy talk, Ardost said, “So you are an untrained healer as well?”

  Holding Katya’s hand and using her magic to relieve saddle sores had worked. It was one of a few spells she had tried relating to healing, but it was during the flight from Mar’kal that she had discovered that she could heal. The magic was similar to another that few others understood. Alteration magic had been mere words in a book with just a few comments on how the spells were cast. More like thinking her way through them, Cheleya had created clothes, mended them as well, and turned stone to water amongst other things. Healing had a similar feeling, but she was still a novice at that kind of magic.

  That she had been able to alleviate her new friend’s soreness had been a happy event. Cheleya liked helping others and caring for them felt right, though perhaps it wasn’t very che’ther like.

  “I used my first healing spells only a few weeks ago. Since then I have had a need to heal a few more times, though my true skill comes from being able to change things. Altering cloth to make clothing has been my favorite spell, even if it is kind of useless for battle.”

  She stopped her dismissal of the magic thinking of how her alteration spells had been used in a few fights and realized that perhaps it wasn’t so useless. The dragon mage had escaped being trapped by changing rope and stone or even destroying amulets forcing their owners to change back to their original forms. Unlike Malaketh, no one she had needed to perform that magic on was left stuck in some other body other than their original one.

  The mage looked at her questioningly. “You can alter clothing? That does seem like an odd area of study for most wizards. They always seem to want more power and knowledge.

  “I’m sure battle mages have that weakness to a point, but not like some wizards I know.”

  The girl shrugged and said, “I could show you, if you want; but not in a crowd like this.”

  Taking the hint, Ardost led her from the floor. Cheleya led him in turn to a table occupied by just Kel’lor. The big man had been approached by a few daring women, but he had informed them politely that he couldn’t dance and didn’t wish to step on them. Beneath his human guise, the big man was actually a mar’goyn’lya or gargoyle, one of two races which had come to Alus from a burning world long ago brought here by sorcerers of an old kingdom.

  The two races had once been enemies, but as their world died in flame, they had become allies and remained so even after the last of their people arrived in this new world. Being outnumbered and surrounded by the humans of Alus, it was mostly self preservation at work, since they were stronger together than apart.

  Cheleya and Kel’lor had a stronger bond than just allies; but as the girl sat down with Ardost and asked the mage to tear the sleeve on her shirt, he didn’t look like he approved of her revealing her powers.

  “Are you sure that you want me to tear this? It looks very expensive,” he noted the yellow fabric of her blouse tentatively. Not wanting to ruin something so nice, the mage was hesitant. After all, they had been talking about him protecting her earlier and that wouldn’t be his idea of taking care of her properly.

  The girl giggled and it sounded prettier than the music of the small band playing on the far side of the room. “It was made from a wizard’s cast off shirt. Trust me. I know what I am doing.”

  Taking an unused knife from the table left over from dinner earlier, Ardost managed to create a cut before tearing it further with both hands. Exposing her slender arm beneath the cloth, the man noticed the smooth soft skin and thought even that was incredibly beautiful about her.

  “Is that enough to show me what you meant?” the man asked looking at her emerald green eyes as they seemed to glisten in the light of the lanterns around the room.

  She nodded and placed her hand over the rip. Seeing her eyes appear to glow slightly, the mage knew that the girl was using magic. Unfortunately, Ardost wasn’t strong enough at seeing magical strength to know more than that.

  In seconds, Cheleya removed her hand and the cloth was mended without even a stitch looking out of place on the sleeve.

  “There’s not even a mark on it,” he stated.

  “I can also do things like changing color. This was once an ugly brown research wizard’s shirt.

  “Even something like changing the color of my hair,” the girl said by starting to take a lock of her hair and sliding her fingers along the strand toward the tip. Suddenly the lock was pink setting it apart easily from the rest of her blond hair.

  “I like it better blond,” he replied with a slight frown. Pink wasn’t the color of any normal hair though he supposed Cheleya might still find a way to look beautiful with the oddly colored hair.

  Taking the hair in hand, the girl ran her fingers along the pink coloring returning it to blond once more. Though it wasn’t because Ardost had disliked the color, Cheleya had to agree that she didn’t want to have pink hair other than for the demonstration.

  “No one in Mar'kal really uses this kind of magic, but it can still be used in entertaining ways,” she said with a smile. “For the record, I also like blond the best, but I have changed the color of my hair numerous times over the last year to see which I liked the most.”

  Katya enjoyed dancing normally, but there were almost no boys here around her age. There was the young boy she had seen sitting on the porch with the tall wizard’s apprentice. Though she never noticed him move to dance. His girlfriend was swept away by another wizard’s apprentice with silver stripes on his uniform. He had come in a group of four after she and Cheleya had finished their walk as well as the healing of her saddle pains.

  An older bearded wizard in green sat with his apparent apprentice. The younger man was larger than his master and more muscular, but they had sat near the farm boy and seemed to be answering his questions. She wondered what could keep them so busy rather than dancing with the music.

  Her guards also seemed busy dancing. Ardost had broken from the dance floor to sit with Cheleya and Kel’lor for a little while, but Katya had been drawn to the floor by some gray haired man. She tried to be polite and he wasn’t the only older man that had asked her to dance.

  After a little while, the girl was missing M
era and the dances with her friends there.

  Retreating to the table with the nature wizards, Katya asked, “Is it all right if I hide here with you?”

  She smiled and received warm smiles from the men.

  The apprentice asked, “Are you too popular that you need to hide with us?”

  Wrinkling her nose in mock distaste the girl replied, “For some reason, every old man thinks dancing with me is reliving his youth or something. Since there are few boys my age here, it is kind of hard to find a partner from my generation.”

  Noting the quiet boy who looked like a farmer, Katya inclined her head towards him and asked, “Are you going to White Hall too?”

  He merely nodded as if a cat had his tongue, but the nature apprentice said, “Did one of the teams find you this year?”

  Shrugging noncommittally, Katya replied, “Sort of. My brother is a battle mage and visited home on the way to the Winter’s Edge tournament. He and the wizards with him discovered that my magic was getting dangerous. Bas didn’t think waiting for a search team to find me was safe, so he took me with him to Hala. Now I have been passed off to his friends to bring me there, since he had to go on a mission.”

  Before the men could comment on her brief story, one of the apprentices with a silver band on his collar sat and picked up a mug of prapple juice. For those under age, it was often a refreshing drink favored while dancing.

  “You missed the girl’s story of how her battle mage brother and some wizards discovered her for us, Falther,” the wizard commented to the new boy.

  “A battle mage?” the apprentice questioned in amazement. “I didn’t even think most of those could sense an aura let alone be able to decide when to pull a wizard for the schools, Master Caldeyr. She certainly seems pretty strong though, so at least he got that right.”

  The other two men nodded at his assessment, but Katya frowned at the boy. “My brother senses aura’s as good as any wizard from what I gather. He’s also skilled enough to beat wizards in their duels, thank you very much!”

  Exchanging glances, the newest arrival looked at the other apprentice and asked, “A battle mage who can fight in wizard duels, you don’t think she means that guy from Windmeer, do you, Alver?”

  The larger apprentice with the green stripe shrugged his shoulders, but his mentor answered, “If she isn’t misleading us for some unknown reason, the girl might be the sister of that unusual mage.”

  “What was his name again?” Falther asked curiously of the others.

  “My brother is Sebastian Trillon and I am his sister, Katya. You are kind of misguided if you think battle mages are so weak in their skills,” the girl aimed the final point at the apprentice. He looked younger than the two nature wizards, but Katya doubted he was as young as the farm boy sitting with the wizards when she sat down.

  She caught the boy’s fingers wiggling on his right hand and noticed the glow of his eyes. “I’m sorry if I offended you, pretty little Katya. Maybe we should dance together to get to know each other better? The girls say that I am a fair dancer. How about you? Would you like to dance?”

  Raising her chin to sniff the air in disdain, the girl thought that she felt a strange touch of magic trying to play with her. Unsure of what the boy could do, she was doubly against the idea as Katya retorted, “I don’t think so. Whatever you think you are doing with your hand, you had better stop or one of my guardians will take exception to a trained wizard trying to take advantage of me.”

  As if on cue, Darius stood from the table looking to the girl. He said something and Vord stood with a scowl on his face as his eyes pierced the distance looking straight at her table.

  The other apprentice chuckled and said, “Don’t tell me you are trying to use your magic to make her like you, Falther!”

  “Worse for him, the girl appears completely resistant to his charms,” Wizard Caldeyr added with a little surprise.

  Falther frowned and didn’t stop trying. His forehead began to bead with sweat as he replied, “She isn’t trained at all, so how can she resist a suggestion spell?”

  Chuckling even as the last boy sat looking confused by the change in conversation, Caldeyr replied, “You may be trained, but if her power is greater than yours; no mind spell of yours can compel her to listen to you, idiot. My guess is the only reason her power isn’t annihilating you is because one of the wizards is holding it in check.”

  Out of the corner of the girl’s eye, she noted Darius' hand move as if casting a spell. The congested feeling Katya had been feeling since the high wizard locked her magic seemed to lift slightly and her eyes narrowed as if to warn the apprentice to use caution.

  “I said, stop it!” she ordered and felt her magic in each slowly uttered word.

  Falther’s eyes glazed over and his hand stopped. The other two wizard’s looked shocked as they could see that the other boy was stunned by the power Katya had released. If they knew that, Darius had only let her use a portion of her power; they might have been afraid as well.

  As Darius began to move towards the girl followed closely by Vord, Wizard Caldeyr asked, “Are you all right, Falther?”

  The apprentice nodded his head, but still looked a bit shaken. Katya felt a little surprised as well. Had she just beaten a trained apprentice at his own game thanks to Darius lifting some of his spell?

  “Good evening, everyone,” Darius greeted the men at the table. His hands rested on her shoulders for a moment as if he was greeting her in a friendly way. While the other wizards looked at the new arrivals curiously, the high wizard moved his hands to touch her temples replacing the fuzziness once more.

  Katya frowned slightly. The freedom hadn’t been complete, but her head had felt better. How long would it take to be able to have her magic unfettered, so that she could get rid of the uncomfortable feeling, she wondered?

  “Good evening,” Wizard Caldeyr greeted in turn. “Is this your ward?”

  Nodding, Darius introduced himself, “I am Darius. Her brother entrusted me with taking her to White Hall since it is on my way to Windmeer, more or less.

  “Who is this boy’s master? He seems a little too free with his spells. Influencing young girls with magic is frowned upon in Southwall too, is it not?”

  The nature wizard frowned slightly and stated, “It is. Unfortunately, his mentor is apparently busy with her drinking at the moment.”

  A young woman in black wizard robes with silver gray striping at her neck could be seen joking with a small collection of men surrounding her by the bar. Katya didn’t think the woman was abusing her magic like her apprentice. She was simply an attractive, brown haired woman with enough personality to draw them in to her sphere of influence.

  “Perhaps you could inform her of his transgression unless, you believe that I should interfere with her evening?” Darius asked politely, though the other wizard could sense his power being held in check along with his anger.

  Stories of wizards abusing their powers had helped create a certain amount of distrust among the regular people of the world. It wasn’t just one country or time period. History was rife with wizards who desired to control or show off their power over others.

  Caldeyr nodded and replied, “I will tell her, though I think Falther may have already learned his lesson at least.

  “Was that the girl’s power or yours that shocked the boy?”

  “It was just a portion of her natural ability that I released. You wouldn’t want me to do what I usually do to those abusing their power,” Darius warned and Katya wondered how the nice man who had chosen to help her and her brother could sound so scary suddenly.

  Alver stood and moved closer to Katya and asked, “Maybe you would do me the favor of giving me a dance instead? I don’t use my powers on people like someone here.”

  The larger young man flicked his friend with a finger to the head and was barely rewarded with any notice. Falther still looked stunned even after Darius had replaced the seal on the girl’s magic. Katya looked f
rom one apprentice to the other and accepted his hand for a dance.

  Chapter 4- The Plan of Exodus

  Piotr had watched the strange exchange between the young, blond haired girl and apprentice Falther. She had seemed nice enough, though irritated when diplomat apprentice apparently managed to put down her brother.

  His eyes had noticed the similarity in their auras. Both seemed to use roughly the same magic, which was identical to the other known diplomats from the other group as well. They only differed in that Katya’s aura felt strangely strong and weakened at once. A surge had come from the girl's magic and shut down the apprentice with a simple command.

  Once the gray haired wizard arrived and touched the girl’s head, that weakness returned once more.

  For Piotr, the whole exchange was a bit frightening. After Alver had moved off to dance with the young girl, he asked Wizard Caldeyr, “What happened to Falther? The girl told him to stop and she left him stunned.”

  The boy mentioned still looked dazed as he stared at the center of the table.

  “I believe Darius is a very powerful wizard, who has been forced to place a spell on Katya to prevent her power from lashing out without her intention. You have heard of wilders like everyone else, correct?”

  At Piotr’s nod, he continued, “Without Darius chaining her magic, the girl would be a nasty sort of wilder. Diplomat wizards, they call them now a days. It’s a polite term for what they used to call coercers or mind wizards.

  “An elemental wizard has no defense against them. Once they sink their magic into you, you’ll do whatever they say. Some can erase all knowledge from your mind, while others’ magic wears off leaving the victim aware of what happened under their control.

  “It is dangerous magic in the wrong hands. Falther has that magic, but against a wilder of her power, he was nothing.”

  “Can you counter their magic, Master Caldeyr?” Piotr asked hoping to find a trick that could save him from such treatment should he ever face such a wizard.