It was one of the things that she had discovered being a human for the last few months.
“Well, I guess I misjudged you,” Magnus stated as the magic drew him into easy hearing range. “I wonder how you would do against me in a proper duel though. You certainly have talent in dragon magic. What other skills do you have?”
He was trying to be charming as the young man smiled at her disarmingly. While Cheleya knew the look for what it was, she hadn’t been born human, so the gesture remained mostly lost on the dragoness. Still she chose to answer him civilly; the girl enjoyed people and enjoyed talking with humans after all. “I have never tried to duel in your limited way. Most of my training as a dragon mage involved testing myself against one or more opponents flying through the spires near Mar’kal.
“As to my other talents, if you mean do I know magic beyond dragon magic; it was not my first school of study, though it was always my goal from an egg.”
The reference to an egg slipped out and made the wizard frown briefly at the saying which was common enough among her people. She hoped that humans might not find it too odd and overlook her occasional slips.
“I had always known I would be a fire wizard,” Magnus started slowly searching the girl whose eyes remained on the goal of returning to the school roof.
She wasn’t flying quickly, however, finding herself less motivated to return to standing around waiting for Kel’lor to test the students from the tower. It gave them time to talk and for Cheleya to think as well.
“And now you have seen other magic and seek to go beyond just one element?” the girl questioned without looking at the wizard.
Magnus’ smile slipped as he realized that his looks would not earn him any points with this girl... the teacher he clarified for himself. The young man had written her off as just Kel’lor’s assistant. She was also beautiful, but there had always been something which seemed off about Cheleya. There was also an air of magic around her that felt beyond that of being a wizard or mage.
“Sebastian opened my eyes to that while I was still an apprentice. A battle mage in a combat ring could easily defeat a fire wizard, though I had always believed we were the ultimate war wizards. It wasn’t even close. He toyed with me in the ring and he was just a cadet then. The magic he learned happened after that, but I have learned a lot since then as well.”
“You didn’t like him then. Did you?” The girl’s green eyes looked at him as her pace seemed to slow even more.
Magnus wondered if she was tiring from carrying him with her magic. He only wished that Cheleya had allowed him to practice more. Her question had struck close and the wizard wanted to learn more to become more versatile so that one day he could defeat Sebastian in a duel. It wasn’t hatred for the mage though. Magnus wanted to be the best and the mage appeared to be as good as anyone despite being less powerful in magic.
“I didn’t respect him until shortly after that. Even being beaten so easily; I initially wrote him off as getting lucky. I told myself that I had simply been too cocky and he caught me off guard.
“I had always bullied him thinking that he was just a battle mage cadet of little worth. It wasn’t that I disliked him or had any caring towards who he was back then. I overlooked what battle mages have become and Sebastian had let me get away with it until I was dumb enough to join him in a battle circle.
“Even that revealed how intelligent he was. He goaded me into it before any of the teachers could stop us from entering the circle.
“I don’t know if Mar’kal observes the same rules as Southwall, but a man can kill another in an official battle circle without fear of imprisonment or other punishment. It is a choice of two men to settle things with swords and sometimes magic. As long as there are witnesses, they will be held blameless in the sight of the law.
“So I thought I would just push the cadet around once more and didn’t even care whether he lived or died after the fight. If he retreated from the circle, Sebastian would be safe. Outside the circle, the law returns and the loser is safe from harm leaving the winner in the ring.
“Like I said, he proved me wrong and continued showing me more throughout the summer until I realized that mage magic wasn’t inferior. It has limitations, but even those can be expanded. With more magic, I can do greater things than a mage, but their magic lets me be faster and it is simple to use.”
“Dragon magic is similar from what I have seen,” Cheleya responded interrupting his rambling thoughts of the previous summer. “I came here hoping to learn more of it. I thought the teachers who had helped make that amazing battle mage could help me learn more, but they kept telling me that most of Sebastian’s talent came from within and not from them.
“So now I learn more from the healers than learn of those skills for which I thought I had come. I sit in with the cadets to see what the instructors teach them and it isn’t that different from my studies in the Academy of Magic.”
Magnus noted the girl turn from the school lowering them towards the green grass outside the walls. The land between the school and the river was used for training among the wizards. It was where they practiced their more dangerous magic that was hard to contain within the school courtyards.
Placing him on the ground only a moment before the girl landed a few steps away, Cheleya was quiet a moment as she looked towards the ground a little beyond her bare feet. Magnus held his tongue wondering why the girl had stopped. She had been telling him to return and that had been her goal, he thought.
“If the teachers were part of how the mage grew, perhaps the others around him had as much to do with it as well,” she mused aloud.
Magnus gave that some thought. “There is that which is within us, but our environment and the people in it affect some of how we turn out, I would assume.”
He had never been through any of the training given to diplomat wizards, but he had heard that beyond magic they learned about the psychology of people as well. Perhaps one of the wizards in that field might have a better answer for her, but Magnus hoped that he wasn’t looking foolish by giving her his answer. The young man wasn’t sure why he felt so comfortable talking to Cheleya, though she was certainly a pretty girl so that was likely part of it.
“Duel me,” Cheleya said without lifting her eyes from the ground as her thoughts continued to buffet around inside her mind. “If you are part of how he became a talented wizard, then perhaps dueling you will give me more insight.”
Magnus’ brow wrinkled in surprise. His harassing Sebastian might have been a part of his growth. It was an interesting thought.
“We don’t have any wizards to place shielding over us. Do you want to use a stand in dummy to be safe?”
The girl looked up curiously and shook her head. “How will that help us learn? There is no fear to inspire growth without any risk.
“You've used the dragon scale armor spell.”
He nodded.
“That should be enough,” Cheleya stated gesturing towards the ruby scales still under the cloth of her skirt and loose blouse.
Noticing her body as much as the scale armor, Magnus realized that he would have to focus and forget how beautiful she was or the girl would wind up destroying him with her magic. In the air, she had proved that she wasn't to be trifled with already.
Magnus called on the dragon armor and stepped back separating from the girl. Both created circles of raised dirt to simulate the usual battle rings used in wizard duels. Only about seventy five feet separated the two circles as the two readied for a battle.
“How do you want to do this? You know how to duel correct?” the wizard asked curiously of the girl. She had been in Hala during the tournament and even recalled the final fight for him, so certainly Cheleya had some knowledge of wizard duels.
“We can build our defenses a moment and call out to start,” the girl replied with a shrug of her shoulders.
Magnus created two massive firewalls which followed the edge of ring. Though made of heat and fire,
the walls were solid creations which could stop spears and men. Those foolish enough to charge a fire wizards’ walls would find intense heat that could burn them alive, but Magnus knew that in a duel of magic it would rarely be enough of a defense against a well trained wizard. Two more blue shields, the type made by battle mages though made more robust by the full wizard, joined the defenses and a third was placed immediately in front of him. The defenses were stronger than those he had used against Arrimus and he wasn’t sure why he worried so much facing the little blond haired girl.
She was barefoot though the earth and stone under foot was still cold. The earth was harder than it would be moving into summer. White Hall was still considered cold during spring, especially by the southern folk coming from distant Taltan, but the girl looked like she was dressed for summer. The light blue blouse was airy and sleeveless. Her stomach was bared and not because she was stretching beyond its protection. At rest, her skin remained exposed to the cool breezes swirling around the city and river.
Magnus looked at the equally frail protection of Cheleya’s skirt. Her left leg was bare below the knee, but the right was nearly exposed all the way up her thigh. A daring outfit for a summer outing by Southwall standards, it was nearly insane for this type of weather, though his eyes did appreciate what was being shown. He wondered if the girl wore anything more beneath the two pieces of cloth.
Her shout made him start. He had become lost in her beauty and the strangeness of the girl that Magnus just couldn’t figure out. Cheleya was unique among the girls in White Hall. Perhaps there was no one like her south of the great wall to the north. She was from Mar’kal and that was a city made up mostly of dragons and gargoyles. How had a little human girl managed to live among the great beasts, the wizard wondered as he called back to her?
“Start in five, four, three, two...” He dropped his hand instead of finishing and summoned a probing assault of fire.
Fireballs struck strange barriers erected by Cheleya. The dragoness had used her time to create two rounded shields of crimson scales to either side of the ring. The center had at least one green shield of energy most likely made of solid magic like the mage shields, Magnus thought.
From Cheleya’s view, the girl knew her defenses were stronger than he could see. She had noticed the other wizard seem to lose focus after creating his basic defenses. The girl had watched dozens of wizard duels in Hala during the tournament even though there had been a lot of other things going on to distract her at the time. Few wizards ever revealed their true power with their defenses. Some baited their enemies into attacking only to raise new shields in a trap to discourage their opponents. Others planned to adjust with the flow of battle choosing to create new defenses or pushing their offense to overwhelm their opponents.
The dragoness was young and had rarely fought in such a restrictive way. Flying through the mountain playing a game akin to tag with Kel’lor and their other classmate, Mor’treya, was completely different from the duel rings.
Dozens of fireballs striking her defenses didn’t even make Cheleya blink. She countered with a pair of swirling vortexes of wind. The fireballs shredded or were cast away. Few made it to her shields, but they were weak enough to do little to them.
Magnus had seen such counters to the fire enough to know how to deal with wind spells, but rather than using typical Southwall fire magic the wizard pulled out the night shields. A pair caught each spinning tornado of air drawing the elemental magic into them without harm. The black defenses had come from one of the participants to the north said to have had a past associated with the Dark One’s armies.
Whether they had or not, the magic had been deciphered by Sebastian, and was passed on to dozens of wizards and mages in Hala. It was one of the skills Magnus was here to teach, but it wasn’t new to Cheleya either. The girl had watched the spells first used by the wizards of Gray Hall and then by Katya’s brother in the tournament. He had figured out the spell during a match turning the power back on the wizard of Gray Hall who he had been forced to duel.
A light spell lanced out from the girl turning the night shields to wisps of darkness which disappeared like smoke from a snuffed torch.
Magnus was surprised. He hadn’t realized the younger girl had any knowledge of the counter spell to the darkness. It didn’t slow him from creating a tidal wave of fire as he continued to attack.
Forgetting himself in their fight, the fire wizard realized that such a spell could kill the girl and prepared to end it before Cheleya could be harmed. He had worried needlessly as the little dragoness called out a new spell Magnus had never seen before.
“Ice dragon!” the words rang out as the vapor in the air turned to ice coalescing into a giant ice serpent. Moisture was pulled from the air and grass drying them before the fire could burn the fragile growth away.
The ice spell met the fire releasing moisture back into the air, but the dragon was stronger and seemed to put out the fire as it surged forward towards Magnus’ defenses. Superheated flame surged from the wizard’s hands moving like lightning straight into the heart of the monster. A hole formed, but it wasn’t a living creature and continued to move towards him. The first mage shield grew brittle and shattered while the fire shield to his right began to shrink before the brutal cold.
Night shields lashed out cutting at the torso and neck. Ice shattered dropping onto his second shield, but it held. His defenses were battered now, but he doubted that the girl could repeat the spell again. Water wizards were dependant on having water nearby and the river was several hundred feet away. The energy and time needed to draw from there would leave her open to his attack, which meant the girl was unlikely to be so reckless.
“Lightning breath,” Cheleya called and breathed out as if she were in che’ther form. A lightning breath spell of the legendary dragons, the magic was powerful and quickly struck his mage shield tearing through the first and hammering the second which held just long enough for Magnus to erect a new night shield. The darkness absorbed the lightning, as it did most elements, but the dragoness had him on the ropes.
He, the champion of Winter’s Edge, was being pushed closer and closer to defeat by a girl who was supposed to be just a young apprentice. Magnus had faced others from Mar’kal and seen them in the tournament as well to research his opponents, but Cheleya was using magic in a way he hadn’t seen before.
“Dragon claw,” the girl said as the lightning faded into darkness.
Lashing across the distance, Magnus pushed his night shield forward to counter the magic without further drawing on his power. He had seen the shields falter before light, but against everything else they were never less than a battle mage shield.
To his surprise the crimson claw tore through the night like it wasn’t even there. The shield remained, but the dragon magic drove through it striking him on the chest before pushing the wizard from the ring.
Magnus fell as Cheleya released her spell. He was stunned less from the hard fall than from the shock of losing in such a way.
By the time the little blond had hurried over to check on him, the remaining defensive spells had been released leaving just the two of them in the grass between the white walls of White Hall and the river. Magnus shook his head to remove the cobwebs from his mind.
He had lost and it didn’t even feel like it had been close. Had he not taken her seriously enough or was the girl just that good? Dragon magic wasn’t an official magic allowed in the tournament, or if it was, perhaps Mar’kal hadn’t submitted any dragon mages as contenders in an effort to keep their secrets to themselves.
While Magnus didn’t know those answers, he did know that he was now that much more interested in learning all he could of this dragon magic. It was powerful and surprising. The speed of the spells was comparable to their battle mage magic and, with a wizard’s power behind the spells, the Dark One’s army might finally be at a disadvantage of a new kind.
“Are you all right?” Cheleya asked as she moved to kneel
before him.
The wizard noted her already tan legs. Their well sculpted shapes, even kneeling, looked remarkable and her upper body had long lines, though she was relatively short. Small breasted, they seemed appropriate and more graceful as she was. Her emerald eyes shone with concern and Magnus wondered if he looked so fragile to her eyes that she should show such worry.
“I am fine,” the young man started to say as he moved to push himself from the ground. A groan of pain slipped free as his left shoulder and arm sent lancing pain to his brain telling him that he wasn’t unscathed after all.
Cheleya moved to his side and ordered, “Hold still. I am still learning from your wizards, but I can heal some injuries already. It is one of the reasons I came here to White Hall.
“Mar’kal doesn’t stress much of a concern for learning healing magic, but maybe once I learn more I can bring it back to my people. I am sure there are others who will see the usefulness of healing others.”
Magnus realized that the girl was trying to distract him from the pain even as her fingers held his shoulder and upper arm with her two hands. If he had to guess the worst case scenario, the wizard might have a separated shoulder. The initial shock was wearing off and with it the numbness to the injury. He wasn’t a healer by any means, but he had seen soldiers and mages fight through a major injury in the heat of battle like berserkers, only to wind up curled up in pain once the adrenaline and distractions were over with.
“I am surprised that your wizards don’t have healing magic. Everyone gets sick and injured at some point it seems,” the wizard stated trying to block out the pain which seemed to be growing rather than fading at her touch. He realized that Cheleya wasn’t physically doing anything more than touching him, so he doubted it had anything to do with the apprentice healer’s abilities at all.
White Hall (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 10) Page 39
