Battle Mage: Winter's Edge

by Donald Wigboldy

  With so many dead just from raids, the mage feared for the mission. Their only hope was to join with those from Falcon’s Keep, who their air wizards had confirmed were closing in on the mountain hiding the fortress. Unfortunately the snow hampered them as well and what would have been just a few hours travel to meet was more likely a full day. Still, hope was rising as the air wizards confirmed that the Keep’s army looked even larger than theirs. Between their forces of close to four hundred, Rilena hoped, as did they all, that their numbers would be enough to meet the Dark One’s forces and deal with the rogue fortress.

  “So we’re getting close?” a male voice questioned from the rear.

  Turning to face Elzen, Rilena nodded before pointing ahead at the next mountain that seemed so close, but thanks to the snow would still take about a day to take the base. “That one right there. The first crest was where Bas saw the sacrifice, and the second was where they set the ambush,” the falcon stated adjusting the angle of her hand as she pointed out the two places along the lower half of the mountain. “The fortress gates should be just behind the turn of the face to the right.”

  “Should be?” the boy asked sounding a little surprised. “Don’t you know for sure?”

  Frowning, Rilena retorted, “We were being dragged away in nets and I was a little out of it from being hit in the head at that point. I’m sorry, if that isn’t good enough for you.”

  Raising his hands in protest, Elzen shook his head and replied, “No, no, I am sure anyone would have trouble being exact in these mountains, especially in that situation.”

  The girl turned her head back to the path they traveled feeling annoyed. Another glance back let her know that he was still looking at her from behind. “Maybe you should be paying attention to the woods around us a little more, Elzen.”

  The boy shrugged. “The view’s good from here too. Especially from what I remember.”

  Getting her to blush fiercely, as was his goal, Elzen chuckled at the girl’s embarrassment. “Besides,” he continued with a shrug, “I’m not particularly good at keeping watch. If I’m not hunting them, I’m just not that great at waiting for trouble to come looking for me.”

  Gesturing to the woods around them, Rilena ignored her warm face and told him, “Go ahead. Hunt away.”

  “Nah, I’m good right here,” he grinned making the falcon blush again. She could tell that he was enjoying teasing her. Ever since they had met during the ambush and realized that they had a friend in common, the boy had been popping up near her.

  In truth, she didn’t completely mind. Elzen was a new friend and despite her embarrassment, the complements were kind of ego building in a way that Rilena hadn’t known that she’d actually appreciate. Maybe there was something more to it. He was kind of cute and only a year or so younger than her.

  Shaking her head to quickly dispel any girlish notions, the falcon tried to keep her focus back on the forest looking for the enemy that could be ready to attack at any time.

  The line for registration for the tournament had lead to an administrative building standing across the street from the castle’s inner wall. Made from the same black stone as the keep its wall was a mere twenty feet high. Guessing that it was designed as a buffer for minor security for the nobility within the capitol’s castle, Sebastian thought it was still a fair defense should the outer wall ever fall. There were probably courtyards inside and maybe gardens during the warmer weather, but he knew that he would never see them since the tournament would be over well before then.

  After nearly an hour’s wait, his group signed up individually for their enrollment. Two weeks of traveling and training left them at Hala with the possibility of having to fight one another again. Dueling for so many days led them to know each other pretty well, but Sebastian guessed that they had all chosen to hide a few tricks from their training partners along the line. The mage knew that he had several things that he had kept hidden just in case of running into his friends.

  Collin, Nara, Liam and Serrena had all joined him at the admissions tables while only Brenner and the other mages opted out. The air wizard had always said that he was going strictly to train him and joining the duels had never been an option for him. Brenner had seemed to give him his all in training and Sebastian had managed well enough giving him some encouragement for the things to come.

  His team of mages had also decided to leave the hopes of the falcons on just his shoulders. Though they had improved and learned a lot in just a couple weeks, they were not up to a wizard’s level yet. With the whole point being to show that battle mages could stand with wizards in their own arena, this was not the time for the others to stand with him. It meant even more for Sebastian to do well and he thought that he could actually beat some of the champion wizards coming from other keeps and cities.

  Did he expect to win the whole tournament? The mage supposed that he should try and be positive, but he doubted it in truth. Looking at the other wizards in the line, Sebastian could feel the power assembled just with those standing there and knew that it would not be an easy challenge to overcome. Such was his feeling when he looked at the initial brackets after they were posted.

  On ten different sheets for each battle zone, he would later learn there had been placed two hundred and thirty names. The sheer size of the turn out boggled the mind. Hala had called on the world of Alus and the world had responded. While Southwall accounted for almost half the number, wizards from as far a distance as Calmon on the other side of the world had come to take the challenge. Each sheet listed the name of the wizard and the place they represented, whether it was a city of Southwall or their country depending on how the applicant originally signed their application.

  Finding his name on the duel field called “The Heights”, Sebastian then double checked the others in his bracket. It was a group made up of predominantly air and fire users, since that was one of the pieces of information that they had to list on their application. Field of expertise was a difficult piece for Sebastian to classify, since he had found uses for most of the general elemental schools. He had placed fire and air since he determined that they were the most used spells in his arsenal, so apparently the heights was supposed to take advantage of that.

  Though he wasn’t placed against any of his team this round, he noted a Wendle from Kardor on the list. Apparently, the ambassador’s wizards had decided to participate after all. He wondered if that had been Lord Romonus’s idea or had the wizards actually decided on their own. With the way the ambassador had run the caravan, the mage assumed that it was most likely his decision.

  Some of the other names didn’t even look like names of people to him. With homes from Alcazar, Malaiy, Rhystia and Mar’kal, Sebastian didn’t even know where those were, though he supposed it didn’t truly matter. All men were essentially the same after all and their magic was the biggest worry for him now.

  “I have the North Sea,” Liam mused as he found his name shortly after Sebastian. The mage was in field two and the North Sea was the fifth zone.

  “Hmm, the Trench,” was Collin’s position on the seventh page. “That doesn’t sound like it’ll look nice, but apparently they’re placing wizards in places that may have more advantages to them.”

  With a snort, Serrena retorted, “Oh, yeah? I have the Two Houses. What advantage is there for a fire wizard?”

  Grinning Collin replied, “I guess you can burn them.”

  The girl punched the earth wizard in the arm as Nara was last to find her name. “Zone nine, the Hedges. That does sound like a nature element, while the North Sea has water I would assume just by the name.

  “What did you put down for yours, Sebastian?” the nature wizard asked as she rarely used his nickname though he thought that they were relatively good friends by now.

  “Fire and air, so I was given the Heights for my first area. With such a large turn out, maybe the officials decided to load as many wizards into beneficial areas to get the best fights for the audienc
e. I’ve heard that people have come from all over the world to watch this tournament to support so many countries participating.”

  The others shrugged and after reading that there would be a meeting in an hour to draw positions within each field, they were about to leave when a familiar voice cried out, “Bas! Falcon Sebastian!”

  Looking up in surprise to see Ashleen followed by Wendle rushing towards him, the mage could only think to greet his friends simply, “Hello, Ashleen, Wendle. I had noticed that Wendle’s name was in my division, so it looks like you all decided to join the tournament after all.”

  Making a face, Ashleen replied, “Lord Romonus kind of pushed us into it.”

  “Ordered more exactly,” the young wizard behind her added with a sigh. “So I am in your field, Bas? Where is that exactly?”

  “We start in the Heights.” They all double checked the large colorful map posted beside the field brackets. “Apparently, that is one of the fields behind the castle.”

  “I’m Cliffside,” Ashleen stated before checking the map to find that the duel arena literally was on the cliff side north of the castle. Liam’s North Sea field was shown at the base of the cliff where he would use a stone staircase built into the side to descend nearly two hundred feet to find it. The rest of the team’s fields were all scattered across the land north of the city. With the North Wall a few miles to the north of the city, the northern land was virtually abandoned and had been the obvious place to build six of the arenas.

  The two Kardorians had to quickly run off and tell Deiclonus that he was at the Pond, which was also in the city beside the Heights. Passing the hour as best they could buy walking around the nearby streets to kill time, when the hour was up and he went to the room holding his group, Sebastian entered the door and stopped in surprise. A pair of the giant, winged Mar’goyn’lya, which most called gargoyles, stood towering over the other awestruck wizards in the room. It was then that he realized that Mar’kal must be the name of their home and thus that was why their names seemed so strange.

  Realizing that his idea that all men were essentially the same was obviously a faulty assumption, the mage entered quietly and tried to gage the competition. A wizard by appearance might not tell a normal human the truth of his or her power, but to another magic user their magical aura expressed much. The gargoyles’ auras seemed surprisingly weak to his sense, but he was a mage that held his own with full wizards so who was he to judge by mere magical power? Whatever physical strength they might have, it was how they used their magic that made them strong here.

  A trio of men sat behind a table with a large bag and a chart with a place for twenty four names. The central man was a wizard in the diplomacy school. Apparently, though their magic wasn’t allowed in the tournament, their skills were an obvious match for the needs of running such a large competition.

  “Welcome wizards,” he began. “As you can see, this chart has room for twelve names on each side. They come together with just six lines. Tomorrow the names on the left will compete in the morning and the remainder in the afternoon every half hour until there are twelve winners. On the following morning, those twelve compete again with the winners that they are paired with in the same order every half hour until there are just six winners.

  “Is that clear to everyone? I know that we have some of you from other countries… and races, so if it is unclear please tell me now.”

  The room was silent and he went on assuming all was clear. “You will all come forward and draw numbers. Those numbers will line you up against your competition for the next two days. Where you stand now will decide your order to draw.” He pointed at the closest man, an air wizard and ordered him over to draw from the bag.

  Sebastian was one of the furthest from the table, so he waited and watched as each man and woman went forward to draw a number. When he finally drew number twelve, the mage noted that he had drawn a wizard from Alcazar, one of the countries he had never heard of before. Nodding to the man politely, the smaller, very tan wizard pulled at the left side of a grand mustache that extended down past his chin in a twisted rope. His dark hair and skin would have made him stand out from a crowd of northerners at any time of year, but certainly at the end of winter where skin had been covered up for months becoming pale, he must have come from someplace still warm.

  Sniffing in disdain after reading the mage’s aura, the wizard said in a thick accent, “Ahn easay ween fo’ me. Ah well, sah mach da better fo’ me.”

  Giving a tight smile, Sebastian replied, “I will do my best. Perhaps you’ll be surprised?”

  “We’an see, yase,” the wizard admitted though less than convinced by the mage’s words.

  Wendle moved over to Sebastian and said quietly with a sigh, “I am ten. Even if I beat the fire wizard, then I would meet you in the second round. What a bad draw.”

  Chuckling, the falcon replied, “Well, my opponent doesn’t think much of me, so maybe it won’t make a difference?”

  With a nod, the Kardorian gestured towards the Mar’goyn’lya saying, “If he read your aura, then he’d think that you are only as strong as they appear to be, but I don’t think either of us believe those gargoyles will be pushovers either. I’ve seen you fight and I know better than to count you out before the fight begins.”

  “True, but then again I have no idea what kind of spells he might have also. I guess I’ll just have to think through my game plan after I see the duel field. Then we’ll see who is right.”

  They were told that they could check out the duel fields today until sundown, but there would be no use of spells before tomorrow’s matches. With directions on the proper way to get there since it was the king’s castle as well and many areas were tightly guarded, Wendle and Sebastian along with several other wizards decided to go immediately while there was still light out. The days were still short and there wouldn’t be much time before they would be locked out for the night.

  When they arrived, the duel field was a surprise, though the name had forewarned them. A ten foot wide wall ran from the outer white wall to the black keep. At a height of at least thirty feet, he judged, they would battle on twenty foot wide circles built on top of the wall. There was seating on the white wall for an audience on the three walls closest to the battle field. Looking down below, there were other wizards checking out two other fields set between the two outer walls with just the wall of the Heights separating them.

  “Whoever came up with this place is nuts,” one of the wizards stated in shock. “If someone falls from here, we’ll be dead for sure.”

  “There will be a team of wizards surrounding the field to ensure that no one dies from an accident,” another man stated, though he seemed less than convinced. There were no nets below and, unless there would be some other security device, their lives would be in the hands of the tournament wizards.

  Sebastian looked on the austere, yet frightening battle field. Simple stone from one end to another with no wood to burn or water to bend without drawing from the fields below, but that move was illegal and cut off by the wizards set for protection anyway. On the other hand, a wizard could bring certain limited items to any field where the style of magic would require components that were otherwise unavailable; and that led him towards his strategy.

  Nodding to himself, the mage began to return to his inn with his mind made up. Wendle quickly caught up to him following his stride.

  “This is a little disappointing really,” the wizard stated as they walked. “I was hoping that I could use both water and air in my fight. It would certainly throw off the fire wizards anyway. Now I guess that I am stuck with just air.

  “Have you figured out what you are going to do?”

  Sebastian nodded again. “I have a plan at any rate. My opponent from Alcazar might have a surprise for me, but I think mine will work. By the way, do you have any idea where Alcazar even is?”

  With a big laugh, Wendle shook his head. “I have no idea. All I know is that I could barely
figure out what he was saying. I guess wherever he is from the common tongue isn’t his first language.”

  Agreeing with his friend, the two retreated back to their inns separating at the castle entry as they were in two different directions. They wished each other a good night and both felt at least a little better that they wouldn’t have to face one another in the first round at least.

  The sun was shining brightly by the time Sebastian walked out onto the wall. He had drawn the outer wall circle and Cazwallan, the man from Alcazar, walked farther out across the wall to the circle nearest the keep. Like a black shadow, the castle seemed draw in the light and refused to give it back. Sebastian frowned hoping that such tricks of light wouldn’t throw him off. It would be sad to lose and have to try and blame a castle.

  His morning had already been filled with seeing other wizard duels and the mage was feeling excited to compete. He had watched Ashleen’s match from the cliff overlooking the North Sea. The view of the sea from the wood bleachers was awe inspiring in itself. The match had been nearly so.

  Ashleen’s use of lightning had over whelmed an air wizard from Ione, one of Southwall’s southern cities. The match had begun somewhat evenly as they felt each other out, but the wilder’s easy use of the complex magic was too much for the wizard.

  Liam’s match had been right after and was a more even competition. The bleachers were set at the base of the cliff on a beach that would most likely flood with a high tide, looked out over the water to a pair of simple twenty foot discs rising out of the water. A perfect site for a war with water magic, the two wizards sent water spouts, animal shaped water monsters and dozens of other spells into their opponent’s defenses. With an inexhaustible amount of water to bend to their wills, it was simply up to the wizards to find the strength to win.

  Using some of the quicker mage styled casting that he had worked on with Sebastian and the other mages for the last several days. Liam eventually took the upper hand to defeat the man, but he was wet and very tired by the end of the match. Luckily, the water wizard’s matches were set up the same as those of the Heights and he would have until the next day before his second match began.