Battle Mage: Forging New Steel (Tales of Alus Book 9)

by Donald Wigboldy

  Her legs began to shake and Ashleen was unsure how much longer she could let the mage scavenge her power for the task.

  “Hurry, Bas, or I’m going to have to let go,” the girl whispered. She had heard of the energy needed to make the first Hollow Sword while on the island, but even knowing that Ashleen was surprised by how much power it truly took to make just one blade.

  He heard her voice, but the task was nearly done. They would be exhausted, but he was pretty sure that it would be a success.

  Chapter 8- Revelations

  Ivol let out a low whistle of appreciation as he laid his eyes on the newly formed sword as Ashleen nearly stumbled backwards to get to her stool. Sebastian looked away from the new Hollow Sword to make sure the girl was alright. Her eyes met his and she smiled tiredly even as she reached for the covered food in arm’s reach on the table.

  Looking at the blade a moment, the mage extended his arm to the side along the table testing the balance of the sword. He had meant it to be able to be usable with either one hand or two and thought that the weight was about right. As he moved the blade, the light from the doorway caught the metal making it gleam with the shine of a polished blade though it had come from unfinished steel only half an hour ago. Though it reflected the light from outside, Sebastian could also notice the faint glimmer of his magic thanks to the runes running along the blade.

  “I would ask how you did that, if I didn’t already realize that you used magic,” the older man said with a chuckle and shake of his head. “You worked forged steel after it had cooled and it moved like it was alive. It was raw in form and now it looks like a master sword smith had been working to have it formed and polished.”

  A crunch as Ashleen bit into a fresh prapple drew his attention back to the young woman sitting behind him now. Catching his glance, she tossed him a near clone of the one held in her opposite hand.

  Sebastian bit into the prapple enjoying the juice as the bite released the nourishing liquid as he crunched down with his molars. He could tell how much energy he had used up in that relatively short time of work, but they had accomplished dozens of hours of work in roughly half an hour’s time. His eyes told him he had created something of great beauty with his magic, but if it worked properly the sword would also be an object of incredible power.

  He looked at Ashleen again and could tell that she was used up for now. While he felt less worn out than the poor wilder looked, Sebastian had to admit that he needed to replenish his energy and rest for awhile as well. It was a shorter day than planned, but it wasn’t wise to overdo it when it came to magic. Magic was one’s life energy and draining it beyond their reserves of strength could actually kill a wizard or mage.

  After letting Ivol and Aric look at the newly formed sword, Sebastian stood to remove his apron and said, “I think we may as well head inside and eat in the tavern.”

  Ashleen looked up from some crackers holding cheese that she was currently eating and appeared confused. “I thought you would want to start something new. Isn’t that why we have this food?”

  Chuckling at the girl, Sebastian was impressed that she made her words sound true. They both knew that the magic they had just performed was too draining to risk doing more, still he answered as if he didn’t think she was kidding, “The food was here in case we couldn’t drag ourselves out of the forge. We can take all this with us; but if you’d like something a bit more substantial, or even a warm meal, then we need to get off our stools and head inside.”

  The girl finished her cracker in a big bite before fumbling with the ties behind her back. “The idea of anything else warm at the moment does not sound good at all thank you. I could probably eat an orchard of prapples though after all the work you just put me through for that sword.”

  While Aric exchanged looks with his father wondering how they could be so exhausted when the two magic users had barely moved from their places for half an hour, Sebastian wiped off his chest and back with a towel kept there for that purpose. He looked at Ashleen who glistened in the light of the door and forge. The girl had removed her apron and her bare skin had a sheen of perspiration almost as bad as his.

  He threw a second towel to Ashleen and said, “You might need this before going inside.”

  Ashleen sat back onto the stool looking tired, but rubbed her chest and shoulders before wiping the moisture from her stomach. Seeing how exhausted she looked as the wilder unenthusiastically worked with the towel, Bas took the towel from her hands causing her blue eyes to look at him questioningly. He wiped down her back and shoulders working around the cloth of her top before the mage ran the cloth along each arm.

  Sighing at the feel of the cloth and the attention she was getting, Ashleen said, “That does feel better, but what makes it even better is that I didn’t have to do it.”

  Her giggle ended as she took another cracker with cheese and put it in her mouth.

  She stood and took the towel back and wiped her legs a moment. Already the girl looked stronger thanks to the food and slight rest from using magic. Tossing the towel onto the table, Ashleen started out the door heading towards the inn.

  “Don’t you want to get into your dress?” Sebastian asked already wearing his shirt and noting the sweat trying to build beneath the cloth.

  “I would just get it wet,” the wilder replied continuing to walk even as Sebastian quickly gathered the tray of food and covered it to bring it back into the Black Smith Inn. Appearing unconcerned, she added, “Besides it isn’t like we are walking back to the Two Circles. This can barely be considered walking in public. I think I can risk being dressed for a forge for the length of a meal or we can stay here and eat if you would rather?”

  Turning to look at him already following, Sebastian shrugged sending her on her way to the nearest door for the inn.

  Ashleen’s entrance was noted by Ivol’s wife, the innkeeper, with wide eyes. Her other two boys and daughter were sitting at a table nearest the kitchen eating their lunch, but only two other small groups were occupying any tables. Everyone’s eyes noted the pretty blonde’s entry and stared even as Hilda Alamore stood up to rush over to the girl.

  “Dear girl, have you no suitable clothes? You are too pretty to go around showing off so much flesh. You will get a reputation,” Hilda replied worriedly. Her two sons looked more appreciative than worried over their mother’s concern, though their sister who was likely close to the wilder’s age appeared equally disapproving.

  “I have been in that forge all morning,” Ashleen replied unconcerned navigating around the middle aged inn keeper. “I am so hot that I am unsure if there is any moisture left inside of me.”

  The wilder’s nose wrinkled and she complained aiming a thumb at the men following her, “And I was sweating like a boy.”

  Despite herself, Hilda had to laugh at the girl’s displeasure. “Still, this top shouldn’t be seen by a man not your husband. Even those shorts verge on scandalous.”

  Ashleen sat on a wood chair and said, “When I was younger and the weather got like this, we would go down to the local lake and all go skinny dipping. Perhaps Kardor has a different view of what is scandalous?”

  Hilda shook her head as the other men took places around the table. Aric’s eyes couldn’t help straying to the beautiful girl’s exposed skin that was normally concealed by most women in Hala verifying his mother’s concerns; but Ashleen appeared oblivious or simply uncaring about being seen.

  “When you are a child, that might be overlooked, but you are a beautiful, young woman now. You need to present yourself as a woman remembering that men will see you unfavorably if you do not,” Hilda continued to try and force her view on the girl with the shake of her finger.

  Sebastian had placed the tray of food on the table between them staying out of the discussion. While he agreed with Hilda that Ashleen was revealing more than normally seen in Southwall, at least the wilder was covering up the places judged inappropriate to see in public. Still the tavern wasn’t ver
y busy at least or a public street where more people would see her.

  Ashleen took another prapple in hand and replied without mercy, “I am too tired and hungry to argue. The quicker I get to eat, the faster that I can get the energy to go change.”

  Receiving a frown, Hilda immediately took their orders for food while her husband looked at her apologetically. Aric never seemed to notice until Ashleen caught his eyes with hers causing him to blush and look away.

  “You could go a little easy on her. She is running the inn and it could be considered a public place,” Sebastian encouraged quietly.

  Ivol crossed his arms watching the two magic users continuing to put food in their mouths as they waited for even more food to be brought from the kitchen. In response to both, he stated, “Don’t worry about Hilda. As long as you are mostly covered, she won’t get too upset; but I don’t think that you should risk walking the streets like that when you return to your inn. Some of the guards might haul you in for indecent exposure.”

  Sebastian leaned back eating his third prapple and mused on part of Ivol’s point, “The king put us up in that place. Perhaps we need to reserve a room here for Ashleen, if not for both of us.”

  His words made those at the table look up in surprise. Mangling his intent, the mage clarified, “I mean a room for each of us, if I am not required to check in with the mage corps building. Since I can assume that the Two Circles Inn costs more than here, though I am not the one paying that bill; I can see no reason to put up with their prices when the Black Smith Inn served us very well during the tournament.”

  “You pay for the atmosphere and the extra gimmicks that the Two Circles can provide thanks to their backing by certain wizards’ guilds,” Ivol nodded taking one of a dark red fruit called the chered. They hadn’t been charged for the food per say as it was rolled into the fee they had worked out for working in the workshop. It was also a fruit that was a little tarter than his taste preferred. Ashleen did like them and had eaten a couple already, but the girl didn’t complain over the loss as Ivol continued, “Admittedly I have seen the Two Circles and it is impressive, but I think Hilda has made the Black Smith Inn something that can rival it in our own way.”

  Ashleen sighed and said, “I will miss having my own personal tub with hot and cold running water.”

  Sitting up straighter, Aric proclaimed, “We have hot and cold running water also. The entire inner city does thanks to the wizards of Hala from before the Cataclysm. The current wizards merely maintain the pipes, pumps and filters of the original system.

  “We don’t have bathrooms in every room, but you can lock them for privacy,” the boy finished as if he hoped that the pretty girl wouldn’t look for a different inn to use.

  While the blonde shrugged drawing Aric’s eyes to her tanned shoulders with the movement, it was Sebastian who answered, “A room at the Black Smith will be fine, even for her majesty’s sudden picky taste.”

  Her eyes narrowed slightly in annoyance, but the return of Hilda and her daughter with the first tray of their food distracted the girl.

  True to their word, Ashleen and Sebastian finished their food quickly. In fact, their hosts looked rather surprised at the speed and amount that the two consumed to replace their used up magic; but with his hand on the base of her back to lead his apprentice, the mage directed her back to the workshop before Ivol and his son were half finished with less food.

  “Are you going to start another sword today?” Ashleen asked curiously. She knew that even if he did, the girl would have relatively little to do during the making of it. Her hands and arms weren’t strong enough to do the hammering for sure, though she figured that the work on the bellows might be easy enough.

  Still the wizard wasn’t surprised when Sebastian shook his head and replied, “I think that it needs to be tested before I waste time trying the same process. Maybe talking to Bharen or one of the sword smiths he trades with will give me more options in making the perfect sword to hold the magic?”

  Looking confused as they entered the warm workshop, Ashleen asked, “Didn’t this sword hold the magic? I see runes, just like the first sword has; so I thought you said only the right metal would be able to take the stress of magic being introduced or it would break.”

  He nodded. “That is what I said, but I also have only tried the magic used once before. It might be good enough steel thanks to fixing it with the healing magic to hold the runes, but until I test it I won’t know for sure that introducing other spells won’t overload and destroy it.”

  Ashleen fanned herself with her hands as they stood in the warm room and said, “Then I guess I need to put on the dress for our walk to the inn.”

  She patted her clothes and the girl noted with a grimace, “I’m still wet with sweat. Being a mage smith’s apprentice is a little annoying when I have to sweat like a boy in this furnace.”

  As she walked to where her dress was placed, Ashleen began to fumble with the clasps cinching her top. Realizing that the girl was ignoring the fact that he was still in the room, though she kept her back to him, Sebastian complained, “Ashleen, Ivol and Aric could return any minute!”

  “Then watch the door,” the girl responded tossing him her top and revealing her breasts as she twisted. Once again Ashleen was toying with him, but Sebastian caught the cloth and moved to stand in the doorway.

  “You don’t have to keep showing off for me. I already said that I would give us a chance while we wait for Yara to return,” he said without looking to see what Ashleen might be doing now.

  Her shorts struck him next and they were damp to his arm where she hit him. He wanted to look, but managed to keep his eyes averted and locked on the dirt yard between the buildings.

  “Not everything has to do with you, Sebastian, though teasing you is fun as well. I hate this heat. In fact, I think I would almost rather have the cold of winter over this muggy weather.”

  Her blonde hair ducked down beside him a moment later as her footsteps brought her beside him. Picking up the shorts, Ashleen’s nose wrinkled in distaste. “I will need to bring these to the maids in Two Circles to have them cleaned. They are certainly going to smell thanks to the heat and moisture.”

  Handing Ashleen her top, he noted the buttons partially concealed running up her side. The lowest buttons weren’t fastened allowing the wilder to show a little more leg as she walked, while the neckline dropped a bit low revealing the glistening skin almost to her cleavage. Sebastian’s eyes were too slow to avoid being noticed by the girl who smiled slightly in her devious way.

  After gathering the swords to bring them back to the Two Circles Inn, Sebastian walked beside the pretty girl wondering at her daring nature. She had always been a bit bold in the way she dressed. Her Kardorian robes had been the talk of the castles during the nights of parties and dancing. She had worn delicate slippers that could only be used inside of a castle and multiple layers of robes cinched by cords which often revealed a fair amount of her shapely legs. According to Ashleen, such dresses were common among the royal women of her nation and since she was the daughter of a wealthy lesser noble, they were what she preferred.

  “Falcon Trillon,” he heard his name entering through the double doors of the Two Circles Inn. The desk clerk held up a letter for him looking a little too pleased with something. If it was a notice that he was being evicted from the inn, the mage wouldn’t be surprised.

  Taking the envelope, Sebastian touched a finger to the secured flap and uttered the words, “Wind knife,” splitting the envelope across the ridge in a precise cut to let him draw the sheet of paper from inside. The display of such magic made the clerk pale as well. Most residents of Southwall couldn’t use magic and few received the displays of wizard abilities. It was part of why the king had conceived of the Winter’s Edge tournament. It had been meant to be a way of creating a bridge between those with magic and those without.

  “Raven Leros wants me to come to the tower as soon as possible,” he told Ashl
een.

  “I can spend the time getting cleaned up while you go to the castle, and maybe even take a nap. You wore me out today,” she said bringing the clerk’s eyes up alertly thinking the worst of her words. They were sharing a suite after all, so Sebastian could assume that most of the staff believed that they were sleeping together by now.

  Once back to his room, Sebastian placed the two swords purchased from Bharen in the wardrobe with the black sword. Since the black weapon wasn’t made of metal even if it was at least as strong as the one’s he had purchased, it wasn’t suitable for examining for the experiment of creating steel.

  He now had five swords in his possession and, with both Hollow Swords belted to each side; Sebastian had to figure out what he would do with all of them. Only the first Hollow Sword truly felt like his. The others were pale versions of that sword, though his latest might be its equal. Only tomorrow’s tests would decide that.

  Ashleen began to unbutton the light dress standing in the doorway to the bathroom and didn’t stop even as he turned to see her. “Do you think Raven Leros is going to assign you your next post? Will I be able to go with you... to keep learning?”

  He noticed the hastily added words, even as the last button was unfastened letting the cloth settle lower towards both sides. Ashleen stood looking worried as Sebastian shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t know the answer anymore than she did. Only by going to see the raven, would the mage find out more.

  “Try to stay out of trouble and I will go find out once I get there I am sure. Leros did say the first day that his plans included me teaching some of the battle mages and wizards in Hala the new spells I have learned. Apparently that is what Mecklin and Frell have been doing for nearly a week.”

  “And you are taking both swords with you?” she questioned with a little bit of surprise.

  “I have to show him that just teaching isn’t the best use of my time somehow. Maybe showing that I can make more will give me a little more time to work on the craft and talk to a few sword smiths as well,” the mage said glancing towards the door to the room. It was a look that suggested he needed to leave for the castle already.