The last was an echo of her thoughts. As cautious as she was, Shaylene also had to admit that they couldn't slip off and do what she had heard others talk about. She might be a virgin and had spent much of her life more or less sequestered in the school, but she didn't live in a bubble so she knew at least part of what she was missing. There was talk and had been even when she had been too young to want to know about such things.
Sighing, the girl replied, "We can kiss at least."
His nod stopped as she lifted on her toes to kiss him again.
Finally letting her go, Xander led her towards a copse of trees. Little vegetation grew higher on the mountains, but the valleys could often be full of trees. This one, however, was light on trees perhaps because there was no stream or other water source to be seen.
Placing a blanket on the ground that he had slipped into his pack, Xander then produced a bottle of juice. Red like wine, he paired it with crackers and cheese. A small loaf of bread was pulled from it last and she wondered how he had snuck so much from the commissary inside the small fort for this little excursion she had believed to be a spontaneous trip at first.
The couple ate and talked quietly. Sitting in the trees among the mountains, they felt a need for an almost reverent tone; yet Shaylene thought that it was like slipping away from class as well. A trip meant for fun, still the world made them feel quiet.
Once the food was gone, Shaylene couldn't help moving closer. Xander matched her movement closing the little space between them to kiss her. Their breath was tainted by the juice and cheese, but they had eaten the same thing so they matched noticing nothing beyond their partner's lips.
The world seemed to vibrate. The ground trembled and, what they first naively believed was their love moving the world, they soon realized that there was something amiss nearby. Thrumming beat the air and the couple realized that it wasn't the ground that they had felt so much as the air around them vibrating with power.
Moving closer to the edge of the tree line, Xander called on his vision spell. He didn't need it as the two could see a swirl of white and gray clouds. They shifted around trying to solidify, but as they watched the clouds broke disappearing with a pop as the last of it dissipated into nothingness.
Before they could breathe a sigh of relief, the clouds began to grow again two hundred feet away. Again the air thrummed making their teeth shake, but this roiling movement apparently lost its hold even faster than the last disappearing with that pop once more.
"What is that?" Shaylene asked him breathily. He could sense her fear and realized that it echoed his own.
"It might be what we've been waiting for," Xander said worriedly.
For a third time the air shuddered. This time the clouds grew denser and didn't diminish again. They continued to build and expanded roughly creating a rectangle above the ground. The clouds turned and spun counterclockwise, the cadet noted wondering if here was a reason for that. Looking like angry storm clouds, they watched as this time the portal firmed up releasing several figures from it.
Massive battle axes in one hand and large shields masking the opposite arm, six creatures with the heads of oxen moved onto the stone ground making up the upper slope of the pass. A seventh creature just as large exited with them but other than its size it looked nothing like the others.
Shaking a scaled head, the monster walked like a man but had all the appearance of a lizard or maybe a small dragon to Xander's mind. He knew of the monstrous che'ther that men called dragons, but they insisted that they weren't the legendary creatures. This monster wasn't close to their size, but he guessed that it was roughly seven foot tall though there was little to gauge its height by since Xander didn't know how tall the ox men were either.
All of them shook their heads and stopped. Only waiting for their vision to clear from the trip through the portal, the large creatures stepped forward in a semicircle. The dragon man had dark metallic looking scales and wore armor unlike the others. It wore no helmet and the cadet could see that it also had strange fan like ears on the sides of its head. The dragon man carried a spear that was both long and thick, which Xander judged to be in the halberd family of pole arms. He had no shield and after scanning around him, the dragon man started barking orders to the others.
The oxen spread out. Two turned from the outer edge of the semicircle to search behind the strange cloud still twisting behind them. The other four moved into the valley. One pointed towards the small grouping of trees.
"We need to go warn the others," Xander stated pulling Shaylene deeper into the thicket.
Her hand met his linking her power with the mage's. "Door," the cadet ordered quietly produced the glowing golden portal. The couple disappeared into the light quickly hoping to avoid any notice.
When one of the ox men moved into the trees with a second backing him up from just a few feet behind it, it didn't take long before it lifted up a blanket left behind in the couple's haste. It grunted out something in a language that the other knew but had rarely been heard on Alus.
They pulled back waving the blanket at the dragon man. He nodded and slipped back through the cloud portal.
Ylena stood before Otra and the other vahnin as they used their magic searching for the changes made to the woman. Two derashti most adept in healing magic, though novices compared to most wizards in Southwall, laid hands on the diplomacy wizard letting their magical senses search through her body as they had originally been shown by Elzen and Sebastian.
Sighing as she let out a breath patiently waiting for the attention to be over, the dark haired beauty looked over at the battle mage and Ashleen watching the examination take place. Katya looked on as well and her normally calm demeanor revealed the impatience of a young teenage girl.
"Aren't they finished with her yet?" his sister asked rhetorically. They could all see that the derashti were not through with Ylena at all.
"Talip and Relas will be pretty soon, if I know them well enough by now," he replied, "but who knows with the vahnin?"
Ashleen looked at him curiously and asked, "Why do you think that the new healers will finish with her so soon?"
"Because physically there is nothing wrong with her. You forget that I've examined her also. Other than her control which is more of a matter of her mind than her physical inability to harness her magic, only the fact that her body is closer to fourteen instead of thirty-seven remains different. Even then, it isn't something that feels physically wrong or broken."
"You've examined her so you've seen her bare," Ashleen teased and at his perplexed look she smiled. Clarifying for him, the girl added, "Well, you've seen beneath her skin so technically you've looked beneath her clothing. Shameful," she chuckled.
Shaking himself at the thought, Sebastian pretended to be ill as he revealed, "Then I've seen a lot of bare people, including a lot of men that I would never wish to see that way."
Making a face, Ashleen nodded before adding, "You healed orcs and armored viles even. If we were being serious, that would be rather disgusting."
Katya sighed in annoyance at the two joking around and complained, "Would you two be serious? Poor Ylena is sitting through yet another round of tests. Hasn't she been poked and prodded enough since this happened?"
"Has this made her a closer friend to you since her change? She's effectively your age now physically."
Katya's green eyes looked at him. Her annoyance faded after a moment as she considered the idea. Shaking her head, his sister replied, "I think that we're just as close. She still acts like she did before the change... well mostly anyway.
"I think she's more frustrated with people treating her like a child than anything else, but she's always been like a sister to me. Now instead of looking like an older sister, she looks my age; but she still acts more like Beatrice would."
"Oh, you poor thing," he chuckled at the thought.
Frowning at him, Katya retorted, "I get along with Beatrice fine. Keep your opinions to yourself since you've
barely been home in over six years. You hardly know her anymore."
Though he felt her rebuke, Sebastian shrugged. "She hasn't changed that much from what I've seen, but I take it back anyway."
The two new derashti healers stepped back from the diplomacy wizard letting Ylena drop her hands to her sides. They had each held one and now they looked at each other a moment longer before walking over to Sebastian and the others.
One of the healers had light brown skin and brown hair. Her eyes were nearly the same color as her hair, called Talip, the woman was about Ylena's real age and held the kind of demeanor that those who had lived awhile seemed to have. At least someone barely into his twenties felt that air of wisdom from her that one could gain with age.
While the woman was about Ashleen and Katya's size, the other healer was a man about Sebastian's height. Lighter in build and less muscular, Relas could have been born in Southwall with his light skin, light brown hair and blue eyes.
Talip bowed her head to him like an apprentice to a master talking to him without looking up. "I can find nothing wrong with her. I must have failed you, owl."
Relas was a little younger and more stubborn in some ways. While Talip had been a little timid and less sure of herself learning the new magic, the man was almost too confident. He did bow his head slightly and questioned with his head cocked to the side, "I wonder if there is anything to see though, Talip. The girl was with the wallers first after all. If there was something to see, wouldn't they have fixed her before sending her here?"
The woman turned her head noticing the taller man was barely affecting a nod towards their teacher. "Show some respect, Relas."
Sebastian shook his head. "Not to worry, Talip, he's right. Your vahnin suggested that they might wish to look to see the source of her change. I didn't think anything would come of it aside from it being good practice for you two maybe."
Looking smugly at the older woman, Relas nodded first at her and then Sebastian before stating, "Well then I think that there are better things for me to do. There are actual sick people here after all."
He walked out of the tent leaving Talip to frown at his back. Again she bowed to Sebastian. "I apologize for Relas' behavior, owl. If there is nothing more that I can do for you...?"
"You can go, Talip," he stated with a nod without bothering to clarify that he wasn't insulted at all. This wasn't the first time the two had been in conflict with each other since he had arrived to help teach the druids how to heal.
After the woman was out of earshot, Ashleen leaned towards him and chuckled, "Those two are like oil and water, but I will say that Talip is a little too stuck in her opinions for my taste."
"They're from different tribes also, so that might account for some of the contention," he reminded the wilder.
Their conversation might have continued if not for a pair of men running towards the tent.
"Vahnin, vahnin!" they called out excitedly.
The older of the two men said, "A messenger from the Zelesh just arrived looking like he ran all the way from the mountains without bothering to rest. His face alone makes me worried."
"What are you on about, Danagan?" Vahnin Sirot asked even as the other two appeared to release whatever magic the elders had been focusing on Ylena.
"A messenger from the Zelesh, vahnin, he just arrived demanding an audience with the arkein. They sent us to find the vahnin to bring you to the tent. You from Southwall are asked to come as well," the warrior acting as a messenger added looking at Sebastian and the others.
"Alright we're done here for now, I guess," Otra said with a nod to the others and then Ylena. "Let us find out what has them so pressed to call on us."
The vahnin took the lead even as Ylena joined the others following the druids through the camp that they were all familiar with enough to navigate alone. Sebastian felt worry in the pit of his stomach for some reason that he couldn't identify and wondered what it could be.
Chapter 26- News of Battle
"Our scouts entered the lower mountains after the derashti felt some strange signs of magic. It was very powerful they said, but they couldn't explain what it might be. They said that this was strange magic, foreign perhaps, but again it was nothing that they had felt before," the messenger dressed in his hunter's leathers said after waiting for the druids to arrive. Sebastian had a feeling that this was something already relayed to the three arkons making up the arkhein and was mostly being repeated for the derashti. Smrajni still nodded occasionally as he spoke, but didn't appear surprised by anything being said.
"Anax couldn't help himself," the woman sighed just loud enough for Sebastian to catch her words, though he doubted that everyone in the tent could hear her clearly. Lifting her eyes to look at the messenger, she spoke louder, "And what did they find?"
To the mage, it again sounded like she was asking the man to repeat himself for the others.
"Our men were cautious and used stealth to work their way deep into the mountains. We've known of the city of Ponfies for generations, but few of our men have ever dared to go there. It's just never seemed worth trespassing on his land." By 'his', Sebastian and the others listening knew that the hunter meant the Dark One. Even the nomads considered allies of the empire rarely dared to use his name when speaking of the creature formerly at the head of it.
"They found many of the beasts of the city fleeing outward. Our scouts were forced to hide often, but his creatures seemed more intent on fleeing than dealing with a handful of Zelesh. They continued until they could see the mountain city and came back telling of burning buildings, broken walls and even a fallen tower."
"The city took damage from a battle?" Arkon Jurtrub questioned with a furrowed brow.
Nodding the messenger added, "From a battle that they must have lost based on the types of creatures seen inside the walls."
"What did these creatures look like?" Wizard Oltus asked. The man had been in the arkhein tent when the hunter had arrived with the message. By now the wizard had managed to build a strong enough relationship that the leaders of the tribes had let him remain. It was also information that could potentially affect all of them, not just the nomads of the plains.
The man's forehead wrinkled similarly to the arkon's as he pulled out a sheet of paper. Seeing the material so rare among the nomads who had no machines to create the sheets, Sebastian guessed that it had been important enough for Arkon Anax to write the information down so that nothing of the description would be lost. "Large creatures with the heads of oxen, others had the heads of rams, flying beasts large enough to carry away a man, a number of blue skinned men that looked a lot like elves and several massive, armored men that resembled dragons walking on two legs is what the scouts returned with for a description."
Katya gasped and looked to Ylena whose jaw clenched hard enough for the mage to notice. Her face went a little white as well. His sister's surprised sound brought attention to her as well.
Arkoness Smrajni turned her gaze on the apprentice and flicked that look to see Ylena's stunned appearance briefly before asking, "Do these descriptions sound familiar to you, young ladies?"
Starting at being caught in the exchange of looks, Katya moved her attention to the arkhein in front of them and took a breath before speaking. "Some of them, yes, we..." she paused glancing at her mentor. The invasive attack in the mountains less than a year ago was a secret for the most part. Outside of those affected, the school of White Hall, and a small number of officials nearly as high ranked as the king in Hala; few knew of the attack that had been repulsed by a training unit of apprentices and cadets near the caves already being dubbed the Caves of Time by those dealing with the foreign magic there.
"There was an incursion into the mountains using magic similar to the Dark One's portal magic used by his warlocks," Ylena said trying to be tactful with a subject that could only hit like a stone to the face no matter how it was said. "They were led by a few of these dark elves. Our people have referred to the oxen
as minos after an old legend. The rams some have called koze. I guess that it comes from one of the old languages of Taltan's people. Because they are dark, some of our trainees came up with the name grayven for the flying creatures since they seem like the storied griffons. There was also a force of blue goblins, or hobgoblins alternatively.
"These dragon types weren't with them, however," she added wondering about the sighting of yet another race of creatures foreign to their world finding its way here.
"You've fought them?" the observant arkoness questioned the dark haired wizard.
Grimacing at something not exactly tied to the enemies she had fought that day, Ylena replied, "When I was still my original age, Katya and I were there and fought these creatures, yes."
"So you know how to fight them, if we should see them coming our way?" Arkon Eratoi questioned apparently feeling left out of the conversation.
At this question, Ylena simply shrugged. "It is similar to anything. You point your weapon at them and strike them down before they can do the same to you.
"Only the blue skinned elves appeared to have magic, but they are powerful especially working together as a fighting force."
The leaders of the arkhein spent a moment speaking between them before questioning the messenger one last time. Eratoi, the elder of the three leaders, asked, "Does Arkon Anax and the Zelesh request the help of the arkhein?"
Looking up from the ground that the warrior had been looking at while the elders discussed what had been said, the man replied, "The arkon has called upon the Erta as well, but requests that the Khagan, Turbuis and Drays be wary and join your cousins near the Dragon's Spine."
An alternative name for the Dragon Spine Mountains, Sebastian was surprised that the messenger didn't specify a place since the mountain range ran for thousands of miles east to west breaking up North continent. Smrajni and the other members of the arkhein didn't bother to ask. Apparently they knew where both Ponfies and the tribe of Zelesh had spent the winter.
Battle Mage, The Caves of Time Page 34
