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

by Donald Wigboldy

  They arrived in their room at the inn in an instant making Ashleen shake her head in disbelief.

  “You figured out to set a point here? When did you do that?”

  “While you were in the bath.”

  The girl sighed and looked at the light coming through the windows. “Well, it is still early, now what?”

  Sebastian chuckled as he realized that portal magic could save him lots of time if he used it properly. It was no wonder that Palose and the emperor employed its use so often.

  His mind moved to the idea of seeing the High Wizard again. Darius had solved the same riddle. Now maybe they could compare notes and find more answers to the Dark One’s portal magic.

  Chapter 17- A Fire Wizard Welcome

  It was strange to be standing in the rear courtyard of the fire wizards’ guild. For a battle mage to receive an invite to a wizard function was rare enough, but it was more expected for someone of a raven or falconi’s rank than a lowly falcon. Being that Sebastian was unusual for any rank of battle mage, it hadn’t taken much to convince the high wizards of Hala to allow him to watch the momentous occasion.

  The mage glanced to the high walls separating the yard from the rest of the city. Almost a castle in size, this was one of three main wizard buildings built outside of the inner city. Only the healer wizards with their hospital had been allowed inside the inner city. What king or other officials had decided that it was best to keep them outside or even the origin of the buildings was not in battle mage history. They studied battles, combat and strategy that soldiers and those of lesser magic would be a part of, not the goings on of wizards.

  This guild castle was placed near the inner wall northwest of the inner city. From their courtyard walls with defensive towers in each corner, two stone walkways ran from the wizards’ castle to the inner wall. A path to reinforce the inner city, the walkways could be destroyed once the defenders had fallen back or removed to create a fortress for the wizards in their castle. He heard that both of the other wizards’ castles were created similarly to be able to defend the inner city or stand alone in their defense should an enemy ever break into outer Hala.

  Standing in the rear courtyard in the lee of the castle, Sebastian could see the idea behind the defenses and they were impressive.

  He could also see many disapproving eyes and faces in the crowd of wizards standing in a loose circle around a cleared space in the middle. Whispers between the wizards, the majority of whom wore fire wizard red, continued until a pair of wizards walked closer to Sebastian and Ashleen. While they could sense the wilder’s power, even if she wasn’t dressed like any wizard of Southwall, he was an obvious outsider.

  “Why is a mere falcon here, Roudger?” the blonde haired wizard in red questioned loud enough to draw the attention of most of those gathered in the courtyard.

  His companion also dressed in red had his hand on his sword. Both wizards were armed and Sebastian guessed that they were among several fire wizards charged with guarding against something else coming through the portal Darius had scheduled to appear. “I don’t know, Arlim. He is too young to be a falconi and I am not even sure that he is old enough to be a falcon.”

  “Are you a falcon, young man?” the first wizard asked starting to circle the mage. He stroked his fingers from mustache to goatee over and over as if trying to decide his intentions.

  “Of course,” Sebastian replied with a firm nod as he controlled his voice avoiding any sound of anger. “I am Falcon Sebastian Trillon, perhaps you’ve heard of me?”

  Arlim’s foot scuffed against the earth in his surprise and nearly looked to stumble. His upper body barely moved forward, before the wizard stepped quickly back to look at the mage from the side. “Surely, you are not saying that you are that mage from the tournament this winter.”

  “I am guessing that you missed the tournament then.”

  A brief frown flit across the man’s face before he replied, “I had other duties to attend instead of playing in the wizards’ duels. Some of us are in more demand to protect Southwall than others, I suppose.”

  “And what part of Southwall were you protecting?” Sebastian asked conversationally raising his eyebrows as if he was actually curious about the man’s supposed worth keeping him from the wizards’ tournament. He knew that if Arlim was truly so important and powerful of a wizard, one city or another would have sent him as their representative.

  “I was busy in Cadmera this winter,” the wizard replied and nearly cringed.

  “Perhaps you protected against possible flooding?” was the reply. Cadmera was far to the south of the wall where the Cadhalla River split creating a second river called the Cadmene. Everyone knew that the city was about as far away from trouble as a wizard could be placed.

  His friend came to the man’s rescue and stated, “Not every position comes with the extra fame of the wall fortresses. Someone still needs to go there and do what is needed, even if it doesn’t come with the accolades.”

  Arlim recovered thanks to the larger Roudger’s calm assessment. “My work aside; you still haven’t answered why you would be here to witness the first portal magic in Hala. I am sure that a battle mage has little need to see it, since the magic will undoubtedly fall to wizards to reproduce.

  “We will have to ferry you mages from one point to another and pick up the magical workload as usual,” the blonde haired wizard said with a little smirk.

  “I am just here to meet my friend, Darius, and discuss other principals of portal magic to see if we are working along the same line.”

  “You want to discuss... like you could understand such magic,” Arlim snorted haughtily.

  Sebastian shrugged and replied, “Your assessment that this is the first portal magic in Hala is off by several uses actually. I don’t need to see what he is about to do, since I have already done it several times.”

  Murmurs of surprise echoed through the gathered wizards and he could see Raven Leros shake his head at the younger man. He wasn’t telling Sebastian to avoid using the magic so much as wondering how he had walked into yet another dispute between mages and wizards.

  “I didn’t come to lessen Darius’s impact on using the magic. I haven’t been able to set up a way to travel between cities yet; which is one reason why I need to talk to the high wizard,” Sebastian said trying to brush the matter under the rug after letting it out into the public.

  As they spoke, a wizard in white approached and addressed the mage, “You have discovered how to reproduce the portal spell after all?” High Wizard Neferen asked with less disbelief than the lesser wizards around them.

  Sebastian should have known that it would be Neferen, a former red wizard before reaching into the other elements to master them as well, who would challenge him on the matter. It was always Neferen, who had been disapproving of his part in searching for the Grimnal and other intrusions into the wizards’ ideal.

  “My team and I have been trying to create portals for over two months. It was just a matter of time,” Sebastian said with a nod.

  “Can you show us while we wait for the wizard from Eirdhen?” the wizard asked frowning slightly at the acknowledgement of Darius’s homeland. Sebastian thought that perhaps having a battle mage discovering portal magic could be swallowed with less remorse than believing Southwall had to depend on a wizard from a far off country, even if he was the immortal Darius.

  He glanced to Ashleen, who merely shrugged. She knew that Sebastian needed her to form a portal without using a staff and revealing his secret to greater power.

  The mage stepped forward followed by the girl and placed a pair of stones, laced with his magic, on the ground in the open space. Moving only a dozen feet from the stones, Sebastian spoke to the crowd saying, “So far I haven’t found a way that doesn’t require more power than resides in a battle mage to cast a portal; but with a wizard’s help, I can create one.”

  Ashleen took his hand lending her magic power to the battle mage. “Door,” he o
rdered and the crowd gasped as two glowing doorways appeared in the air. It was doubtful that anyone else had seen such a thing in person. To catch a warlock in the act would be miracle in itself, since the emperor’s men had only just recently discovered a way behind North Wall.

  The couple walked through the near portal exiting in an instant from the other drawing gasps from the assembled wizards. He released the magic holding the doorways open and they blinked out of sight.

  “Amazing,” Neferen stated looking as shocked as the other wizards to see Sebastian walk through the newly formed doorways.

  Arlim looked stunned, while Roudger added to the high wizard’s comment calmly, “Apparently the rumors of your abilities weren’t exaggerated. How a battle mage could hold his own in duels with wizards and learn magic of foreign wizards is still a matter for disbelief, but you obviously understand this.”

  “I had planned on sharing the magic with the wizards’ guilds, but apparently Darius beat me to it. Raven Leros told me he was coming after I was certain that I understood the spell to safely recreate it every time,” Sebastian stated with a shrug of his shoulders.

  “It is almost time,” another wizard holding a time piece stated clearing those who had wandered closer to the mage. Sebastian picked up the two stones from the ground replacing them in his pocket and joined the ring of spectators.

  There was less of a surprise as the gate formed in the air in the center of the ring; but as two battle mages emerged from the glowing doorway first, the wizards began to grumble in annoyance. If mages had been the source of this discovery as well, the egos of the wizards of Southwall would take yet another blow.

  Sebastian recognized both mages and the wizards from Eirdhen who followed them before Darius made his entrance letting the portal go.

  Lifting his hand in a brief wave brought a dark haired beauty and a male mage no taller than she. Both were taller than Ashleen, but were no more than middle height of a typical battle mage, he thought.

  “Bas? What are you doing here?” the young, brunette female mage asked closing quickly on her friend with the young man at her heels.

  “Hello, Rilena and you too Elzen, I didn’t expect you to be with High Wizard Darius,” Sebastian answered trying to keep his voice a bit low as Darius played to the surrounding wizards.

  The three waited as the center of attention spoke to the gathered Southwall wizards. “Good afternoon, gentlemen and ladies, I have come bringing a few pieces of good news. The first is obvious. Portal magic has been deciphered and can be taught to the wizards of Southwall.

  “Second, even as we speak, riders have ridden from Windmeer to all of the major cities of Southwall. By early winter, if all goes well, there will be gates which will make your country seem much smaller. Armies, wizards, battle mages, leaders and rulers will all soon be able to go anywhere in virtually an instant even during the winter snows. You will be able to counter the Dark One’s armies as quickly as they can move.”

  A general applause rose at the statements echoed even by Sebastian and Ashleen as they encouraged his friend’s audacious plan to unite the country using portal magic. If Darius’s plan worked quickly enough, King Alain could send others to quell the spies or even join with the rulers of his cities to bring stability back to the people of the south who questioned being a part of one country.

  High Wizard Neferen moved towards the immortal and his wizards bowing his head slightly. The men were in theory of a similar rank and neither beholden to the same country, but it was meant as a means of respect none the less. “Welcome, High Wizard Darius, your news of a united Southwall is very good news, though you are not the only one bringing us knowledge of portal magic.”

  Darius found his assistants standing beside Sebastian and he questioned with a laugh, “Has the mizard of Southwall bested me in learning how to cast portals?”

  Bowing his head and stepping forward, the mage shook his head. “I beat you to Hala with the magic, but it sounds like you have gone beyond me in creating other portals in other cities, sir.”

  The wizard walked over. He looked like an average man in his early twenties, too young to be a high wizard certainly; but looks were deceiving. Darius had the silver hair of the immortals and was closer to seven centuries old as best Sebastian could guess from the tales of the wizard that even battle mages knew.

  “I managed my first gate about three months ago, though getting it to go where I intended was accomplished by Rilena,” the wizard said placing a friendly hand on the woman’s shoulder. “With Elzen and Rilena to help me discover more about them, we reopened the gate to Garosh’s fortress and opened it up after much of it was destroyed by the Emperor.”

  Sebastian had no idea what the wizard was talking about. Little information about what had transpired since he had left Windmeer to go to Hala in the winter had been made known to him. The enemy fortress had been found during the edge of winter, though the snow bound mountains had shown no signs of winter ending soon.

  “I have only heard that Garosh wasn’t the enemy we originally thought he was and that he surrendered to Windmeer. Beyond that, this is news to me,” the mage stated and noticed the other eyes on them. Darius had nearly forgotten his audience.

  Rilena said, “If Darius doesn’t mind, maybe we can stay for dinner tonight and catch up with you. There has been a lot that has happened, though I assume the same can be said for you.”

  “Knowing the mizard, he has probably gotten into lots of trouble without me,” Elzen quipped from her side as Darius turned to speak with Neferen and the other wizards.

  The three mages with Ashleen in tow, moved beyond the circle nearly ignored by the others, though a few eyes watched them as they stood beside the castle walls of the guild hall. While Rilena had met the wilder and traveled with them, Elzen began to eye the pretty blonde and said, “And who is this stunning young woman following you? I haven’t met her yet.”

  “This is Ashleen. She’s a wilder from Kardor and a close friend of mine,” Sebastian said introducing the girl. “Ashleen this is Elzen, an old friend who went through training at Whitehall with me.”

  As Elzen took the girl’s hand in his to shake it, he seemed unsure of whether he was supposed to just shake it or bow over it like some royal lordling. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” the boy said a little too formally to be taken seriously by those who knew him.

  Both Rilena and Sebastian chuckled as Elzen bowed his head awkwardly over the wilder’s hand. She appeared a bit confused by his antics as well growing nervous, which meant her electricity began to play along her skin making the mage let go of her hand with a start.

  “Ouch, that was weird,” Elzen stated shaking the hand. The others noticed his hairs standing up a bit in spite of the humidity in the air.

  Rilena laughed and stated, “Well, apparently Ashleen’s defenses go up when she perceives trouble. She has good taste, if she can figure you out in an instant.”

  He gave her an annoyed frown in return. “Thanks a lot, Rilena; you’re making me out to be some maniac to avoid.”

  “A boy known to have released animals into the girls’ baths to make them run out naked for a look, does tend to get a reputation,” the dark haired mage retorted.

  “Hey, you’re the one who landed on me when I was naked in the men’s baths, so let’s be fair. I never laid a finger on those girls, but you...”

  Rilena punched him and replied, “That is not how it sounds and you know it!”

  Sebastian shook his head and interrupted, “Apparently there is a lot that I missed since I left Windmeer.”

  At Ashleen’s staring at her, Rilena blushed stepping away from the short male mage. “He isn’t telling you that I returned because I was thinking of someone in Windmeer when Garosh threw me through a portal to save my life.”

  Raising his hands, Bas said, “Either you’re going to have to go to the beginning of this story or I will remain confused, I think.”

  “Garosh saved you?” Ashleen qu
estioned as well. “I thought he hurt you, but then he saved you?”

  “It’s a long, long story,” the dark haired girl replied as she noticed Darius still surrounded by the crowd. “Well, it doesn’t look like Darius is going to be free for awhile. I guess we have time to at least try and cover what you missed between Windmeer and the fortress.

  “Well, it all began with the return trip to the fortress after you left for Hala...” she began.

  It was nearly dinner time before Darius had been freed from the wizards. He had done his best to teach them the spell as he knew it, but as Sebastian already had guessed from his team’s attempt at learning portals, it wasn’t something most people learned in an instant.

  He had been told of Garosh’s surrender. Assassins had then driven him from Windmeer with Rilena to save her from a powerful sorcerer; but fleeing back to his fortress didn’t stop the emperor from pursuing him. Once again the giant had saved the girl’s life. Elzen had even insinuated that Garosh might have feelings for the dark haired beauty; but the way he said it, Sebastian wondered if there wasn’t something between these two as well.

  They had tested Darius’s first portal intended to reach the fortress duplicating Garosh’s spell, and found the man a shell of himself. Once bursting with magic, he was barely stronger than a battle mage now.

  In exchange, Sebastian told him of his journey to find the Grimnal and subsequent run ins with Palose, the Betrayer of Windmeer. The talk led him back to talking of what Darius had accomplished.

  “So you have figured out how to anchor the gates for your magic, Darius, but how do you make the points generic enough for any wizard to use?”

  The immortal looked at the mage with eyes like those of a proud parent. “You have figured out how to make anchor points as well?”

  Nodding, Bas replied, “We found a couple gates and your grandson, Darterian, closed them; but we found some charged stones. I think they were seeded with Palose’s magic actually. After facing him, I am pretty sure they were his at least.