The table did have a few familiar faces for the girl at least. Elzen’s friends Rodgren and Fielther were seated together with another female mage who she didn’t know but who was quickly introduced as Ayrienne. With light brown hair flowing loosely framing her face, her blue eyes caught Rilena with a shy smile.
“Ayrienne missed out on the campaign while riding north of the wall on maneuvers,” Fielther said putting an arm around her shoulders as if to comfort her after failing to have such a chance. “We missed her like a sister riding through that blizzard and all the battling along the way to the mountain.”
Rilena replied, “We could have used more competent mages along for the fight, but I’d hardly say she missed out on the long, cold nights while the blizzard trapped us there. She missed out on the ambush by wolves and lions also. If her trip north was uneventful, I think I would rather have been there.”
Her words weren’t meant to be negative, but the men both frowned a little. Ayrienne, however, managed a smile and a nod before saying, “Rodgren and Fielther seem to think fighting for your lives to gain glory is something that everyone wants. We didn’t miss out on the poor weather though. That blizzard probably delivered us a lesser blow to the north, but we had to go into our tents for a couple days as well.
“I might have missed tugging on Fielther’s beard, but it doesn’t sound like it was very pleasant on the trail. You spent three weeks in the deep snow fighting for your lives. I’ll take the two weeks north of the wall where we only spotted a few wolves and deer for our efforts,” she finished giving Fielther a playful tug on his bearded chin making Rilena wonder just how close the relationship was between the falcons.
Elzen spoke up, “Well it wasn’t pretty and we lost quite a few good men and women along the way, but we’re home and we won. At least we have that.”
The men raised their mugs joined slower by the two women before taking a drink to those lost.
Rilena could smell the food cooking in the kitchen with its doors swinging open as servers moved in and out carrying the smells with them as they started serving the closest tables. Her stomach rumbled embarrassingly. At Elzen’s questioning look, the girl answered, “I haven’t eaten since breakfast at camp this morning. With trying to get my clothes clean and visiting the bath house, I forgot to eat lunch.”
“You must be starving then,” Ayrienne said sympathetically. The men nodded.
“If you had smelled my clothes after three weeks of wearing the few I had with me, I think you would be happier that I bathed or you might not be able to eat,” Rilena laughed as her eyes wandered to the servers hoping that they would hurry.
Rodgren mused thoughtfully at her remark and said, “You know, I don’t think I saw even a rabbit or squirrel the last few days of the journey. I bet they smelled us coming and hid.”
They all had to nod and laugh at that, even Ayrienne who had spent a shorter time afield. When the mage suddenly looked up past Rilena’s shoulders just before a swirl of blue robes moved to sit beside her, the new girl’s face sobered and her eyes widened.
“Good evening everyone,” the chipper voice of Wizard Teven greeted them. Sitting beside Rilena, she hugged the mage with her right arm as she sat. “I hope you don’t mind me joining my new friend, Rilena, do you?”
The wizard’s hand moved to stroke the side of mage’s left cheek and nodded, “Your skin is young enough to recover from the rough wind and snow already. It is good to be young and the special scrub did help, didn’t it?”
Rilena fought rolling her eyes as the wizard went straight into the superficial talk of beauty care. “I guess so,” was all the commitment the mage could give.
“And who’s your friend?” Elzen asked leaning backward then forward to try and see the blond water wizard on the other side of Rilena.
“Wizard Teven, this is Elzen, Rodgren, Fielther and Ayrienne,” she quickly named the group off counterclockwise.
“You can just call me Teven,” the wizard said with a genuine smile. “After all, if a girl that shares a bath with you can’t call you by your first name, who can?” Teven added leaning her shoulder affectionately against Rilena in what the mage hoped was a sisterly way.
“You shared a bath did you?” Elzen said with entirely too much enthusiasm.
Rilena turned her head to the boy and he wriggled his eyebrows suggestively eliciting a sigh of disgust from the girl who reached across with her left hand to push his face away. “Seriously, Elzen,” she sighed.
“Well, admittedly we started in separate baths,” the little blond continued oblivious to the mage’s torment, “but there was plenty of room and we had such a good talk. Zerra was there as well, of course. She is a good friend of mine as well.”
Leaning onto the table with his right elbow to look at the blond wizard, his blue eyes met hers as he said, “Well, I guess everyone is pretty much the same when they’re naked in a bath house, huh?”
Like it was a revelation to the wizard, Teven nodded with a bright smile, “Well, we’re all just women, though even there you find a lot of differences. Not everyone is as pretty as Rilena.”
“You know,” Elzen continued to work on embarrassing the mage beside him even more, “we were just talking about whether Rilena or Zerra had larger breasts the other night.”
Gasping in complete shock, Rilena turned and shoved the mage right off the end of the bench.
“Ouch!” the boy complained hitting the ground hard.
The other men both shook their heads laughing at their friend. Ayrienne looked as aghast as Rilena, but Teven seemed to not mind as she leaned back to look at Elzen on the floor before saying, “They are both very impressive girls. The training for battle mages seems to really help their figures.”
Rilena, eyes wide at the candidness of the woman, covered the wizard’s mouth warning, “You don’t have to answer Elzen’s stupid questions. That isn’t any of his business to know.”
Ayrienne added, “What happens in the bath house should remain in the bath house, Teven.”
Picking himself up, Elzen laughed, “I like your new friend, Rilena.”
Burying her face in her hands, the mage was more than glad when the platters of food began to arrive. Zerra arrived to sit next to Teven bringing a second blue robed wizard with her. Dolfeen greeted the others in turn having met them all and had even known Teven as a fellow water wizard.
Every piece of meat, vegetables and fruits tasted like heaven to the starving girl. The hardest part of the meal was trying to avoid looking like an animal by eating as fast as she wanted to consume it all. That and paying attention to what the others were talking about while the girl rarely spoke preferring to eat.
When at last she knew that she was full, there was still a bit of time before the servers cleared the tables and began to move them aside. The usual evening spent in the main hall started with dinner and continued late into the night with dancing. Rilena felt a little weighed down by her dinner and began to regret her overindulgence, but by the time she let Elzen pull her onto the floor for the first dance she was feeling better.
The boy was actually a pretty good dancer, though she thought maybe that came from his incredible footwork from fighting. Much to her surprise, Elzen let her be pulled away by Rodgren by the next song. Her new partner was very tall, nearly a foot taller than Rilena who was above average height for a girl, and she found that either she had to crane her head back or be pulled in close to his chest. Having barely known the man, or having any personal feelings for the large mage, Rilena tried to keep a little space between them and chose to look up. Unfortunately, unlike Elzen, Rodgren’s big feet were apparently too distant from his head and stepped on her toes several times before the end of just the one song. If not for wearing boots, the mage thought he might have crippled her for the night.
“Sorry,” he repeated for the fourth time as the song finished. Red with embarrassment and the need to apologize, Rodgren stepped back letting another man pull her in with a s
mile.
Trying to keep a smile on her face, Rilena found her enthusiasm waning unusually early. Perhaps it was the long, draining trip or maybe just wishing that she didn’t feel like such a stranger; but the mage found her eyes straying towards the door more than once. She also looked for Elzen not wanting to consider why, other than that he was a familiar face and a better dancer than the next four men following Rodgren. At least they didn’t step on her feet like the tall mage, but nothing felt right.
Her eyes found Elzen during that time and he seemed preoccupied as he alternated dancing with Teven, Zerra and Dolfeen, but her biggest fears came from his time with Teven. They were very chatty while in hold, unlike Rilena as she found an unusually dark mood holding her this night. Elzen never seemed to look her way or even consider coming to steal her for another dance, she thought in disappointment before wondering why.
It didn’t change for the next hour as the girl found herself being passed from partner to partner knowing only about half the faces from the trip to the fortress. Trying to get out of her funk, Rilena made an effort to smile and even chatted with the men trying to ignore her friend that no longer seemed curious about how she felt.
Rodgren moved closer to Elzen as he stood talking with Zerra and Teven near the tables by the walls.
“I’m surprised that you haven’t asked Rilena for another dance. You two seemed very compatible out there,” the large mage said moving to sit on the table beside the three with his feet resting on a bench.
Elzen gave his friend a confident look as he replied, “If I made a nuisance of myself trying to dance with her all night, Rilena would get sick of me anyway. At least this way, maybe she will miss me a little bit.”
The two women shook their heads mirroring one another. Zerra reprimanded him without any real zeal, saying, “That’s kind of mean isn’t it? I mean, she is kind of a stranger here and we’re about the only people she knows. Rilena might want a friend to get used to Windmeer, a friend who can actually dance,” she added glancing to Rodgren who she had tried dancing with for a single song and paid for it with two sore feet. Elzen had used a quick healing spell to make the pain go away, so the woman considered the fact as she didn’t push her healer too hard.
“Why is that mean? She thinks of me as a boy and I keep annoying her,” he shrugged. “I think that she made her opinion clear enough, besides Teven has been telling me great things about the girls she’s seen in the bath house today. That is much more interesting than just dancing. She has had great things to say about you and Rilena by the way,” he finished with a grin as Zerra blushed.
Shaking her brown hair, the woman replied, “You know if you teased the girls less, you might actually be popular with some girls. I guess this is why you said that you annoy her.”
Shrugging, the boy looked at Teven saying, “I can’t help it. Sometimes I just can’t stop myself.”
“Little boys pull little girls’ braids or push them down. Sometimes they are meanest to the ones that they like,” the wizard stated before giving askance of the mage, who uncomfortably rubbed his neck unable to respond. “Are you a boy or a man tonight?” she asked without heat, but simple curiosity in Elzen’s opinion.
The others looked like they wanted to laugh, but weren’t sure if it was actually funny to see the teenager so unsure of himself.
Looking apologetically at Zerra, he shrugged and said in lieu of an apology, “I think I am better on the battle field than cooped up in a castle.”
Zerra nodded thinking that she liked the strong leader and healer, who had made a difference on the way to the fortress.
As the music died off between songs, Elzen pushed his shoulders back taking a deep breath before soldiering into the crowd. Finding the pretty brunette mage looking a bit worn down, he asked, “Want to go get a drink? I was going to ask you for a dance, but you look like you could use a break instead.”
Her partner appeared to suddenly notice the woman’s state and bowed out for Elzen to take her by the hand. He spoke the word, “Heal”, as they walked. Sending energy into Rilena as well as taking a moment to make sure she had no injuries from dancing with some heavy footed partners, the healer could feel her perking up from the attention.
“Was that a healing spell?” the girl asked leaning close enough to be heard without yelling in his ear.
Nodding, he replied, “You looked like you could use it.”
The table near the kitchen he led her to had various refreshments sitting ready for the dancers. Mead, punch, juice and a variety of food that could sit out for a few hours without spoiling were there for the taking. Such were the benefits of serving the country. While the pay wasn’t great, they were fed, clothed and housed throughout their career as well as having dancing and music almost every night.
They each took a mug of ale, while Elzen took some bread and cheese to replace his energy from casting his most recent healing spell as well as from dancing. The two friends said very little as they took a break in each other’s company.
Finally Rilena confessed, “I actually thought maybe you were mad at me or something. I was beginning to think you wouldn’t come back to save me despite some terrible dancers including Rodgren.”
“Why would I be mad at you? You’re the one who is probably sick of me, so I gave you a break from me as well,” he said with a laugh, but his eyes didn’t convey any of the mirth the young man attempted with his words. “Admittedly Rodgren may be the worst dancer I have ever seen, but I had never actually noticed him dance before to warn you,” he said spreading his hands helplessly and this time his laughter came from within as well.
Rilena shook her head laughing along with Elzen. “He tried so hard and apologized so much that it was actually pretty sad.”
Their eyes parted looking at the crowd, or the stained windows dimmed from the darkness outside, and even the floor uncomfortably wondering what else to say. Neither of them was ready to return to the dance floor just yet.
“Want to go for a walk or something?” he asked awkwardly trying to find a way to break the silence between them.
“So we can struggle to talk to each other in peace and quiet?” Rilena asked raising an eyebrow with another nervous laugh.
Sighing, the boy shook his head realizing that everything had become awkward and he realized why. They were both trying to figure out if they wanted to be more than friends and, though unsaid, it was being forced.
“Ready for another dance?” he asked as a new song began. It was too soon to know what the musicians were playing when the two stepped into the crowd. As they realized that it was a slow song, they both groaned loud enough that the other one heard and they laughed. “Bad timing,” Elzen stated.
Shaking her head, Rilena moved close enough that their hold became more of a hug. Even that close, the two moved in synch and never stepped on the other’s toes. Her body’s curves and warmth weren’t unnoticed by Elzen, but for once he simply let the matter remain unspoken. Rilena felt him against her also, but was content to dance not only through that song, but several more before they retired to their separate rooms.
A few days later Rilena was called by the ravens of Windmeer to come to a common office. Set about midway up the tower their corps held to run the business of all mages in the city and the wall towers of the North Wall that Windmeer garrisoned, the woman thought it a mixed blessing. If she had been called to the ravens’ individual offices, the falcon would have feared that she might have done something wrong. Their offices were also near the top of the castle tower making for a lot more stairs to climb.
Being called to the common offices often meant she was receiving a new set of orders or a mission. After being in the city for only three days, Rilena hoped that it didn’t require her leaving for an extended trip so soon since she still didn’t feel fully thawed from the previous trip. To her surprise, as the falcon entered the room, she found Elzen standing there waiting alongside Rodgren and three more battle mages she knew from their face
s as having been in the army sent to the fortress.
“You too?” Elzen asked noting the mage as she entered the room and looked a bit surprised at seeing two of her friends already there.
Shrugging, the girl asked quietly, “Any idea why we are here?”
Rodgren spoke up saying, “Rumor has it that we are going to be on a shared detail with a unit of soldiers and wizards.”
Elzen shook his head slowly and retorted in response, “Well, that is vague, since we usually work with them. A ‘shared detail’ could be anything.”
The big man shrugged apparently content to wait on the answer to come through the second door.
Their wait was brief as Falconi Ralto and a falcondi named Reide entered the room walking to a desk with a disarray of papers scattered across its surface. While she knew Ralto as a leader, Reide was only known to her by reputation. He had apparently been in Windmeer when the Betrayer had brought Ensolus into the castle. The man was yet another who knew Sebastian and had worked with the young battle mage also.
Everyone seemed to know her friend these days, she thought in passing as she waited for one of the men to speak.
“As you all know, since you were with me on the campaign to Garosh’s fortress, he surrendered to us spouting a sudden desire to end the bloodshed on both sides. During interviews with everyone from Lord Bryon and Duke Gelan to High Wizard Jeriah and the ravens here, it has been decided that Garosh seems to be speaking true. He genuinely wants to begin a dialogue between his people and Southwall as they look to set up a peaceful city to one day be able to even trade with us. That’s what he says anyway, and that’s what they want to attempt.
“Meanwhile, Lord Garosh is to be treated like a dignitary and can now move elsewhere in the castle. He isn’t a prisoner, but he will be guarded at all times to avoid having him possibly turn out duplicitous like the Betrayer.
Battle Mage: The Dark Mage (Tales of Alus) Page 29
