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

by Donald Wigboldy

  “Che’ther and mar’goyn’lya are built of stronger stuff than humans. They don’t get colds or flu. Their bones are very hard to break and che’ther have hard scales to physically harm them. Mar’goyn’lya’s skin is nearly as strong as stone and thick, so again they rarely need such attention.

  “I think both have more trouble relating to outside stimuli because of it. They don’t feel the cold or heat unless it is extreme for example.”

  Magnus glanced to his pretty physician and wondered aloud, “You seem to understand a lot about them. How is it that a little human girl could live with dragons and gargoyles? I suppose there is a human contingent up there now.”

  A feeling within his shoulder made the wizard look at Cheleya’s eyes. They glowed and he knew that change of pressure and pain was caused by the girl. Tendons and bone shifted before he heard a pop. There was no new pain, but more that of relief from the injury as everything seemed to line up again.

  “Try to move it,” she suggested making sure that everything had been shifted correctly to try and heal him.

  Magnus tried to lift it and the arm responded weakly, but in small movements the wizard could tell that everything seemed to line up properly.

  “I don’t feel any pain, but I can barely move it,” the wizard stated with slight concern. They were in a school which taught magic to heal. A temporary fix that maybe couldn’t heal him completely by Cheleya could be followed up by masters. It shouldn’t be a problem once they were back into the school.

  He noted sweat on the girl’s forehead and she nodded, “I am not as good with strengthening wounded muscles yet. I can knit them together fine as well as bone, but I am still learning.

  “You will need a sling,” Cheleya finished and the girl surprised him as she took her finger cutting the cloth of her top. Exposing more of her abdomen, Magnus couldn’t help looking appreciatively at the toned flesh of her remarkable torso. There didn’t seem to be any fat left there to help insulate the girl for the winter they had just had. Most northerners didn’t mind packing on a little weight for insulation during the winter as long as they could work it off during warmer weather.

  “You didn’t have to ruin your blouse. We could have used my shirt sleeve or something,” he protested, though didn’t exactly try very hard while enjoying the view.

  Additionally, Cheleya cut several inches from the bottom of the tied skirt. Somehow she bound the two pieces together before his eyes. The beauty of her body was ignored as the wizard had to ask, “What are you doing? Is this magic?”

  The girl didn’t answer at first, but eventually sighed and said, “It is a rare bit of magic that is mine alone, I think. They called it alteration. Some jokingly call it tailor magic, because cloth can be knit and changed with it; but with a little imagination it can make many things and some are pretty grand, I suppose.”

  Alteration magic, it was a term that the wizard wasn’t familiar with at all. Was there yet another branch of magic being taught beyond the borders of Southwall? Darkness magic, light spells to destroy them, dragon magic, there seemed too many things which were not written in the scrolls and text books of Southwall’s libraries. The Cataclysm had shaken the land creating mountains, sinking old islands and created new ones. Southwall had remained attached to North Continent, but Sileoth and Marianis had broken free to become major islands at the tip.

  During the changes to the world, not only were hundreds of thousands killed, but knowledge was lost as cities were leveled or burned. Libraries were gone and those with rare knowledge had also died. Those with knowledge only passed on from one mind to another but never written down could never be recovered, and new magic found one day might simply be a new wizard discovering the old anew.

  Cheleya pulled him up by his good arm before helping him put on the new sling. It was a little snug, but before Magnus could say a thing, her magic caused the cloth to shift and loosen. As if tailored to fit him, his arm quickly rested comfortably.

  “That is an impressive skill, even if it isn’t battle magic,” he remarked.

  “I have used it in battle before. Well, in combat anyway, not a full scale war, of course,” the girl assured him.

  He wondered how such magic could be used to fight, but didn’t push the matter.

  “If it is as surprising as dragon magic tearing through a darkness shield, then maybe I am better off letting you keep it to yourself,” the wizard replied with a smile meant to win one from the girl in return.

  Rewarded with a shy smile from Cheleya, Magnus wondered if he was softening her towards him. He had tried to get to know the girl several times over the last couple months. Cheleya was beautiful and, even outside of the apprentice circles, men talked about the blond haired girl from the north. There was a maddening mix of mystery and naiveté to her that he had never seen among the girls of White Hall.

  Maybe since most ranged from thirteen to less than twenty and had spent most of their lives studying within the same walls, there was simply less to the mystique of wizard and mage girls. Cheleya was from a land of dragons and gargoyles somewhere in the Dragon Spine Mountains. So little was known of Mar’kal and the girl rarely seemed to be seen with other apprentices or novices aside from those she had arrived with to spread any real stories.

  Maybe he needed to chat with Katya or one of the others sometime to see what he could learn? He still wished to talk to that novice too, if only to learn more of his rival, Sebastian.

  “You never told me about why you came to be here from Mar’kal. Are there many humans there?”

  Cheleya went silent a moment as they started to walk back towards the outer wall of the school. There were a couple doors set in the outer walls. Though it looked like a castle’s defenses, the walls were more designed to contain the noise of wizards using magic than to keep others out. Should an enemy ever make it to White Hall, the city had a much larger wall to the west and the river to the east to protect it. Stone watch towers along the river would add more defense and the school walls were a final resistance to intruders.

  With magic, smaller doors could be replaced with stone before the enemy could find their way across the river or break the wall, but an enemy so determined would find the hub of magic more dangerous because of those trained within than the stone surrounding them.

  “There are some humans there,” Cheleya finally said without looking at the wizard. Her eyes watched her path as if suddenly worried she would hurt her bare feet on a stone. “I would guess roughly a thousand or so have homes and businesses in Mar’kal, but the che’ther own most of the homes in the lower city. It sits in the valley between mountain peaks.

  “The mar’goyn’lya live there too, though most prefer using the eyries in the cliffs. It is almost like two cities, but they work together and run the city as if they weren’t two different races.”

  Magnus hadn’t even thought of the differences between the two. Certainly the creatures were different, but they lived together in one place making Mar’kal more about the city and less about the two separate races living in it. “And you lived with the humans or did you go to this Academy of Magic I have heard about to learn magic there?”

  “I never lived with humans until I left the city,” Cheleya stated surprising the wizard.

  “You are an orphan?”

  Realizing that he was getting further from the truth, the dragoness debated on telling the young man the reality. She was to the point that she couldn’t see how the truth could be used against her anymore. They had tried everything to return her to her original form, but Cheleya remained trapped as a human.

  It didn’t make her despair. The girl had enjoyed turning into a human while training to be a dragon mage; but she still wished to have the choice.

  “My mother is still there and I should have a little brother soon, if we are correct in our guess. My father followed me to Hala and has returned as well,” Cheleya replied still trying to decide if she trusted him with the secret few knew about in the school
.

  Katya and the others had never spread the word or used it against her. That was one thing Cheleya seemed to have a knack for, finding people to trust.

  While Magnus was certainly full of himself, she thought, the young wizard also felt trustworthy. Willing to try, and wondering if she was being naive enough to do so, Cheleya finally revealed, “I wasn’t always human.”

  His steps faltered and the girl thought he might trip and fall again.

  Magnus looked at Cheleya seeing what definitely appeared to be a lovely, very human girl. His mind reeling at her statement, he asked, “If you aren’t human, what are you?”

  “I was a che’ther, but I am now trapped like this, so I guess that I will probably always be human now.” She wasn’t looking at him as Cheleya glanced up towards the sky. “I used an amulet to become human to learn how to become a dragon mage.”

  She looked at him with an amused smile and stated, “It is much harder to learn to fly when you are a massive che’ther, though mar’goyn’lya must use them as well. Their ability to use their wings is said to actually make them refuse to learn certain skills associated with using the magical wings otherwise.

  “A mar’goyn’lya can’t use their real wings to create a dragon gale for example or for special defense.”

  Magnus couldn’t understand how the girl could talk about such a thing so calmly. Perhaps it wasn’t so unusual to her, but the wizard tried to follow her choice and maintained his composure as he asked, “How did you become trapped?”

  Letting out a sigh that sounded annoyed, the girl answered, “That is a long story. Put simply, a master wizard destroyed my amulet and used the magic to bind me in this form. It was the one I always used in class and they say it is the echo of our true selves... as humans anyway.”

  “Why did he trap you then?”

  “Oh, he wasn’t the man I thought he was. He was stealing from the Academy and when I walked in on him he decided to try to kill me.

  “He disrupted my magic and threw me from the academy spire figuring I would hit the ground and die. Then he planned to say that I was stealing instead, but I managed to call my wings long enough to land and eventually escape.

  “Again it is a long story, but anyway, no one has solved how to remove the curse; so this is what I am,” Cheleya finished holding out her hands hopelessly.

  Magnus’ mind spun and one thing came to mind for the wizard, “So you are a dragon in a girl’s body, so you wouldn’t like a human boy, because you are a dragon really.”

  It was as much a question to soothe his ego as to put what she was in perspective for his mind. He had seen the people that were supposed to be che’ther wearing their amulets and even heard of one losing her amulet which made her change into a dragon during a match. Magic was a strange and wondrous thing. For those who could ease their minds through the impossible, the world became easier to comprehend, even if it remained hard to understand.

  Cheleya shrugged before giving him a quick smile making him nearly forget what she had just told him. There was also a strange sweet scent in the air he had noticed a few times being near the girl... or whatever she was, he added belatedly.

  “I can understand beauty as much as you. Perhaps since by my race’s standards I am considered more of a toddler than I am as a human; it is simply something that I will grow to understand.”

  “So you are a child?” Magnus asked again trying to wrap his mind around what this girl, who wasn’t a girl, truly was.

  “We are all children compared to the mar’goyn’lya and che’ther,” she giggled sounding like an ordinary girl to Magnus. “They can live for a thousand years. What human compares to that? But as to maturity; like humans in some ways we grow up as you do.

  “I don’t see myself as a baby barely able to toddle around, but I am also nowhere near an age to take a mate either.”

  The blunt assessment made the wizard blink in surprise, but he let it go. “You are human now then. Does that mean you will continue to change to be even more like a human girl?”

  Once again the beauty shrugged and Magnus found himself looking at the tantalizingly body that should be entering her prime, if she were a human. She looked like a very attractive young woman, and Cheleya typically acted like most girls he knew. Still, there had always been a certain naiveté to her that others had mentioned as well.

  “I only know of one other che’ther that has remained in his human body for more than a few weeks or months; but he is a very old che’ther and I would think that whatever changes he may experience wouldn’t change that which formed him over a millennium. Whether I will see things more like a human in the future, I don’t know. As far as I know this has never happened.

  “Certainly no one has managed to reverse the affects of the curse. The shards of the amulet were even removed from my body, but I didn’t change back into a che’ther. I could use a new amulet, if that had worked, and return to the way I was.”

  Magnus knew little of transformation magic. It wasn’t a common practice among the wizards of Southwall, but he asked, “Did you try using your magic to change?”

  The girl stopped in her tracks looking thoughtful before she admitted, “I have seen Niklaus change and Katya told me that Piotr can as well. Perhaps if I looked over the spells I could use them to change. While che’ther aren’t considered animals because we are an intelligent species, perhaps magic doesn’t care about how smart they are.

  “It is certainly worth a thought.”

  As the girl lapsed into her thoughts, the two wizards finished their walk back to the school.

  Chapter 26- The Devious Student

  Katya sat on the bench with her textbook open beside her. While she had been given a couple hours to study independently, the girl had found her way to the roof once more to watch the dragon mage students practicing their new spells.

  For the most part, the spells were not overly difficult and easy enough to learn, but using them. That was another story.

  Iris moved to sit beside her friend dabbing at her face to dry off the perspiration forming from the ongoing practice session. Like any kind of magic, a student couldn’t just barrel through the day without breaks any more than a swordsman could swing a blade all morning. The human body had limits and even those trapped in bodies different from their own, like Cheleya, soon understood that there was only so much one could or even should do.

  It was practice so building endurance, physically, mentally and spiritually was important. War had never truly ended between Southwall and the Dark One’s armies after all, so being ready for a fight that might end your life was definitely important for those who would be called to battle.

  Niklaus and the other mages had stated over and over how hard the work was. They sparred as well as learning to cast magic. Their bodies needed to be fit and any bit of power they could pick up would add to the lesser reservoirs of magic they had also, or so they were told.

  Katya had watched her brother fight and knew that stamina was important. He hadn’t been able to finish the tournament because he had run out of power to the point that he had nearly died pushing himself. Without High Wizard Darius and his healer around, the girl wasn’t sure Sebastian would be alive today. He had trained hard for the tournament and still as a mage he just didn’t have enough stamina to make it through a week long tournament of magic duels.

  If the tournament were life and death, however, Katya had a feeling that her brother would have a found a way to protect those he loved at the cost of his life.

  “You look serious. Are you having a problem with one of your spells? Maybe I can help you?” the red haired apprentice offered sitting beside the younger girl.

  “Oh, just thinking about how important it is to try and build your strength, even if we are using magic. I wonder if anyone has researched to see if a stronger body affects endurance for spell casting?”

  Iris looked a little tired already and they were barely halfway through the afternoon. The apprentice no
dded before burying her face a moment in her towel.

  “I’m sure someone must have thought to look into it,” the redhead answered pulling her face out of the towel once more. “Battle mage magic certainly would make it likely that some wizard would have tried testing it out as a theory; but you’ll notice that they don’t push us to run or lift heavy things around here. They want to hone our minds, but I know some of the boys in particular will do some form of physical training.

  “If nothing else, being fit will help with walking and riding horses in the field. Being flabby and overweight doesn’t help much if you aren’t able to cast a spell because you are gasping too much to say the words.”

  “It makes you a bigger target too,” Katya giggled at the thought.

  Iris nodded with a grin. “Dragon magic makes you use a lot of energy in your body too and not just your magic.”

  Having watched the classes as often as she could the past week, the blond haired novice had noted the wizards always look most drained after their sessions. Falconi Martina and Falcon Milar appeared tired, but never exhausted as most of the wizards had been during the time she had been watching.

  “Falconi Martina never looks that tired and yet most of our wizards seemed to think that it would be easier for them to use the magic. Some had originally thought that battle mages wouldn’t even be able to cast the harder spells,” Katya noted for her friend.

  “It is the flying that I find hardest. Mentally you need to maintain the spell and make your wings keep their beat. Your stomach and back need to support your legs while you fly and since I can barely get any speed it seems even harder.

  “At least Cheleya said being cautious and slow weren’t unusual for new dragon mages.”

  The apprentice stopped thinking on her words and added jokingly, “Does that mean I am not really an apprentice, but a dragon mage?”

  Cheleya had noted the two girls talking while the remainder of the class worked on breath spells. A variety of spells could be called on like dragons breathing fire or variations of attack magic. It was strange to see, since most wizards were warned to avoiding breathing fire from one’s mouth. There were recollections of injury from those who had tried in her books to teach them to listen to the warnings.