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

by Donald Wigboldy

  Cheleya didn’t correct him, so the wizard went on with his musings, “Do any of the schools of magic in Southwall allow for transformations or shape changing?”

  “There are limited changes to the body like stone skin and the like, but I don’t know of any offhand. If there are spells on the book, it would sound most like a nature wizard. They can communicate with animals with their spells, I think.”

  “One of the boys I came with can already do that,” Cheleya nodded. “He sent his mind into animals and even a bird to look through our window when we were changing clothes.”

  Looking appalled, Saenic started, “He did what? The hooligan should be punished for the disreputable act!”

  “Katya and Iris already punished them, so we are even. I think it offended them more than me anyway. Since I was a che’ther most of my life, I am only now being taught the human ways of decorum and... modesty,” the dragoness finished trying to think of the words. “My friend Colbie was most emphatic about not being naked in front of boys in particular, though we took baths together in the large tub in the Inn.”

  Looking like she wanted to say something, but didn’t know where to start; Saenic found herself wordless as Darius spoke up ignoring the conversation between the two. “The magic used is impossible to read. While I can see the results, the magic itself has faded so I can not try to reverse it by feel.

  “There are a couple types of magic that might remove the pieces, but I do not know if they could reverse the curse of the spell. If I used alteration magic on them to turn the stone to bone, it might undue the magic of the amulet and the curse. It might also end the possibility of ever changing you back if I am wrong.”

  “You can use alteration magic too?” Cheleya suddenly asked brightening at his words.

  The man nodded. “It isn’t a widely popular type of magic since it isn’t really used in combat, but it can be handy.”

  Grinning at the idea, Cheleya nodded vigorously and added, “It is how I change the color of my clothing and hair or change rough cloth into light weight silk. I have used it in combat a few times also.

  “I turned stone bonds to dust and changed a silver amulet to mud. That ended the spell and changed the user back to her original form. Do you think if we did that to the shards that I would turn back?”

  “Like I said, without trying it I can only guess. The problem is the use of the dark magic which was meant to create a counter spell to the amulet.”

  Cheleya looked determined and asked, “Would you try it?”

  His surprise made the high wizard warn, “But you might remain trapped this way forever. Even the other magic which lets you change in an emergency is likely to be destroyed.”

  “I would advise against such drastic measures as well,” Saenic added. “You don’t know if you will turn back into a che’ther or remain trapped as you are. While the shards remain, there is the possibility that someone might figure out how to reassemble the amulet to turn you back to normal.”

  The woman couldn’t believe that she was suggesting that normalcy would be a massive che’ther.

  Cheleya looked apprehensive and asked, “Could we meet outside the walls of the school? In case I should change into a che’ther, I might become stuck in one of the courtyards or break something inside a room and become trapped besides.”

  Both wizards looked like they were unsure of the idea, but Darius sighed saying, “If that is what you want. You may not be able to fly again if it does not break the curse in a way that leaves you human or with the possibility to use an amulet to reverse the change.”

  “Well, then doing this outside of the school would be most wise,” the little blonde haired girl stated with an emphatic nod of acceptance.

  Realizing that they could not dissuade the dragoness from her decision, Darius decided, “We can meet to the west of the school walls between the outer and inner walls of the city. Do you need any time to prepare or should we just go there now?”

  “I would like to get Kel’lor and the amulet my friend gave me in case the spell should be overturned.”

  The man nodded, but Saenic said, “We could have the other teachers see if they have another idea.”

  Cheleya slid from the high table and shook her head. “This curse has gone on long enough. I want to take the chance. It will either change me back into a che’ther and I may be stuck that way or I could be stuck as a human as I am now. If all goes well, then I will be able to use an amulet to change back and forth if it works at all.”

  Seeing the dragoness set on it Darius agreed, and the man left to ready himself for the spell.

  “Cheleya this is a great risk you are taking,” Saenic stated as the two women moved towards the door.

  Shrugging, the girl replied, “Life has risk no matter what you do. I was once peacefully living in Mar’kal enjoying studying magic, and then I was betrayed by someone I trusted and cursed to be a human. While I like being human, I am not truly one. It seems wrong to be confined to this body, even if I do like so much about it. It isn’t truly who I am.”

  The healer fell on her training and tried to buoy Cheleya’s hope. “This is just the shell of what you are, Cheleya. If I am right, you are this way no matter what you look like.”

  Turning on the healer, the girl hugged her surprising Saenic. While healing meant feeling what someone else felt in relation to pain, the woman had always needed to remain outside of that pain as well. A healer could get swept away by a body’s pain, and emotions led to even more pain when magic could not save everyone.

  Still this girl, who wasn’t really a girl, seemed to cut straight to her heart and Saenic could only hope that what Cheleya was doing would not harm her irreparably.

  Katya had been in their room when the dragoness returned to loot through her pack. It sat in a wardrobe along with a longer wrapped bundle. She had been shone the handful of black swords kept within and knew that Cheleya had made them with her magic. The abilities of the dragoness amazed her and the younger girl thought that Cheleya should become a teacher, even if she was only seventeen years old.

  Her knowledge of unknown magic to Southwall was impressive for someone studying for only a few years. Maybe Mar’kal knew more about teaching their students or perhaps Cheleya was simply such a prodigy that she excelled beyond most others, but the dragoness seemed much wiser in magic than she should be for one so young.

  “Where are you going?” Katya asked as the girl pulled out an amulet of stone attached to a dull steel chain. “Dinner is only an hour or so away.”

  It was the only protest to come to the younger girl’s mind as she felt something oddly desperate about her friend’s actions.

  “High Wizard Darius is going to try to break the curse on me,” the dragoness stated calmly.

  “He can do that?”

  “We will see. He plans to use alteration magic to remove or at least change the material of the shards inside my body.

  “After it is gone, we will see if I am free.”

  “So he doesn’t really know if this will work,” Katya stated standing up with worry as she ignored her open text book.

  Grabbing the younger girl by the shoulders, Cheleya said eagerly, “Come with me! I’ve already told Kel’lor, and Darius will meet us outside the school grounds between the two walls.

  “I could use your encouragement, because I am worried as well; but it is time to try something. Once the shards are gone, we will know if I am stuck or not. If I do turn into a che’ther, I would like for you to see me the way I used to be.”

  “We could get Briahnna, Iris, Piotr and the rest, if you are sure,” Katya offered weakly. The girl had a bad feeling about the idea, but didn’t truly know enough about it or magic in general to give her friend a reason to stop.

  “If we find them on the way, then surely; but we do not have much time left before I need to meet Darius. I don’t want to waste his time or have him leave if he thinks that I have changed my mind.”

  “Does that
mean Darius doesn’t think this will work either?”

  Cheleya smiled at her and said, “He is unsure, but had no better ideas. That he can use alteration magic like me makes me feel like this is the answer. It would be a big coincidence for him to come up with a type of magic which is so rare as a cure. I know this kind of magic and had thought to try it, but I was afraid to try the magic on my amulet myself. If things went wrong, it would be hard to use my own magic safely and try to change things as I went.

  "That would be if I could use the magic on something attached to my bones at all anyway. I can alter my hair color, but I can see it. I can’t see inside my body to use alteration on the amulet, I don't think.”

  Taking Katya by the hand, Cheleya pulled Katya after her once the younger girl had put her white novice jacket over her dress. The two hurried down the stairs and into the central courtyard. They hadn’t found anymore of their friends, so the two girls hurried to the front gate.

  Cadets halted them as security, but Cheleya merely told them they were going to the earth grounds west of the school to get approval. The boys at the doors didn’t really care so long as the two girls signed out for them, though Katya wondered if part of that was the charm of the dragoness and her magical scent that made people love her.

  After a bit of a walk, the girls found Darius and his grandson, Elias, standing with a small crowd of wizards. One of those was Saenic and Cheleya looked askance of her at the crowd. The white robes of the high wizard and several other heads of their school guilds stood looking at Darius with a mix of distrust and curiosity.

  “Why are they here?” the dragoness asked without anger. She was curious about the decision to bring so many other wizards to watch Darius try a form of magic that would be hard to see aside from a tremendous result like her changing into a che’ther.

  Saenic looked like a younger girl facing her teacher’s annoyance, even though she was the elder and the teacher. “I had to tell High Wizard Herrol and Wizard Alum. You are still a student here and your well being is also our concern. Since this is a highly untested bit of magic Darius is about to use, I thought that there should be witnesses at least.”

  “My parents won’t be coming all this way to complain, I don’t think,” the little blonde said thinking of two che’ther making such a long trek to White Hall. Of course, her future sibling was still gestating in his or her egg as well. Her mother wouldn’t leave the egg even if she found out her daughter had been killed. It would make the egg that much more important to her as the remains of their family.

  “Still...” Saenic tried again.

  Katya looked to Darius and said, “I think he is ready.”

  Before they could take a step, the sound of leathery wings flapping overhead brought all their eyes to the sky and the wall to the east of them. Kel’lor flew in, a majestic mar’goyn’lya, larger than a human man with the strength of a giant. He landed beside Cheleya and asked the same question most of the others had before him, “Are you sure about this, little sister? We don’t know much about this human.”

  “He is an immortal high wizard and a friend to the battle mage, Katya’s brother. If the king of Southwall trusts him, then why can’t I?”

  Growling as the gargoyle crossed his arms in annoyance, the creature Cheleya called ‘big brother’ had no other arguments for her. The girl had always been quicker witted when it came to arguing and could use her words better than he could as well. He also knew when she had committed to a course of action that Cheleya wouldn't be dissuaded no matter what he said.

  The pretty, little, blonde haired girl walked over to Darius without bothering to argue or wait for anyone to convince her of a different course of action, but even Darius said, “This is the last chance to back out before I start.”

  “I will not back out, as you put it. I have faith that this will work in one way or another. There is nothing that will happen to harm me from what you are about to do.”

  Darius looked less convinced and Katya wished that the girl would listen to reason. No one seemed as sure as she was though and Cheleya was a force as the dragoness nearly bullied her theory into being.

  With a tight nod, the wizard turned the girl in case she should transform into a che’ther or dragon so that she wouldn’t crush someone behind her. Darius might be crushed as well, but he was immortal. Death was merely temporary for such a being.

  The high wizard began with his spell for seeing and his grandson joined him. Darius spoke quietly to Elias before a second spell began.

  With a curious smile on her lips, Cheleya said to the wizard, “Interesting, I don’t need to cast like I do for elements with that kind of magic. It is more like applying my mind to a problem.”

  Elias answered for his grandfather, “It may be an innate magic to you, but we need to call on the power. Now sit still and we will try to remove these shards he told me about.”

  The girl gave a nod and watched as Elias cast a different spell. She was unsure of what it was until she felt a pinch from her skin over her collarbone. Wincing in a bit of pain, the dragoness watched as a gray fluid was pulled from her skin through the pores. Like sweating liquid stone, the dragoness watched as the first shard was removed and placed in a metal bowl.

  She looked on wondering if the two wizards would manage to restore the shard to its original shape, but a simple round stone formed as it hardened. The pain was echoed from the right side of her collarbone as the second piece was changed to liquid and pulled out of her body by the two wizards. Unsure which was doing what; Cheleya tried to stay still to let them work. It was for her and at her request that they were doing this magic after all, the least she could do was try to be a good patient and let them work.

  The center of her chest was next and sweat formed on the girl’s forehead with the pain. It wasn’t terrible, but the discomfort of the foreign material leaving her body through openings which weren’t designed to pass it was still not pleasant.

  He worked each lower rib first and Cheleya wondered if her breasts would need to be accounted for with the next two. While they weren’t large, they were still fleshy enough to block the bone with a few extra inches. Through the cloth of her blouse, which was colored pink today since Cheleya wasn’t confined to the uniforms of a student of Southwall; the stones under her breasts followed the ribs to the side with less material in the way and lifted free from closer to her arms.

  Six of eight were removed and Cheleya felt no different aside from the minor pain.

  Darius pointed with his fingers towards her forehead where Cheleya felt the annoying pinch, but could watch as the liquid stone passed through the skin above her eyes. Going cross-eyed watching it for a moment, the dragoness looked at the container in Elias’ hand as his other hand seemed to summon the stones as they curled towards him over and over coaxing the pieces of amulet into the bowl.

  “Turn,” the high wizard commanded sounding distracted. While it was hardly the most pleasant of bedside manners, the girl understood. Using magic outside of one’s body often brought that distance from emotion.

  Lifting her blouse slightly to expose more of her spine, the raised cloth which bared her mid drift above her pants was no real distraction for the wizard, but the movement felt right as Darius worked on the last piece of amulet.

  Moment’s passed and Darius frowned. Waving to the gathered wizards, he called, “Saenic, I could use your skills here.”

  It was a risk to the woman’s health if Cheleya should change into a massive monster of legend, but Elias was no more immortal than the healer and he had remained throughout the operation.

  “What is it, Darius?” asked the woman brushing at her light brown hair nervously.

  “This piece seems attached in a different way from the rest. Can you see it?”

  Saenic called on her spell as she touched the dragoness on the bare skin of her lower back before letting her magic look beneath the skin. The stone seemed wrapped around the piece of bone in the spine. Liquids and fles
h surrounded the area, but the fact that the piece almost felt like it had taken the place of the bone was what worried both of them.

  “I can use my magic to bare the stone without harming anything else. Pull the shard through the opening, so we don’t risk paralyzing the girl.”

  ‘The girl’ The healer's need to push the feeling of familiarity away to protect herself more than the patient came out in her words. She liked Cheleya, but it was easier to think of her as just another girl being treated by the wizard.

  Though Darius nodded, Saenic waited only a moment until she was ready, not worrying about the man's state of preparedness since he had never lifted his magic from Cheleya. Working with the flesh of the girl's back, the woman created a channel that was about the length of her thumb and nearly as wide, but it reached to the stone covered bone upsetting nothing of a girl who could remain standing as they worked. She was not paralyzed as long as Cheleya remained standing. If her legs collapsed beneath her, the patient would have been harmed.

  It wasn’t a thing that anyone wanted to see.

  Taking a deep breath, Darius altered the stone bonded to her spine. It was the most dangerous piece of magic since the wizard wasn’t an expert healer. His job was to remove the material, not preserve the flesh like a healer. Saenic stepped in working to maintain the health of her patient as the man worked his magic.

  The last stream of gray stone flowed through the hole made by the healer and soon Darius was finished and wiping his forehead, while Saenic eased flesh and muscle back together as if it had never been apart.

  Cheleya didn’t change spontaneously or even in a slow manner as feared however. She looked to Kel’lor with disappointment, but it was Katya who tossed her spare amulet to her. Placing it around her neck, the dragoness tried her last hope.

  “Neruter emis ot flesym sa et sawen,” she called on the spell which should revert her to che’ther form. There was no change or glow. It was as if the amulet was defective and merely a piece of stone. Trying the words three times without result, the girl tried reversing the spell as she had done during the emergency of a battle almost a month ago. “Ekam emet tahway et ma desopus ot ebem.”