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

by Donald Wigboldy

  “Anyway, once I figured out that I needed a familiar point to place the other end of the gate; I was able to use my staff or sword which I imbued with my magic. The obvious step was to use stones like those we found to create my own bind points.

  “What I don’t know is; how do I follow your gates or someone else’s if other wizards will be creating them around Southwall?”

  Chuckling at his mental acrobatics as Sebastian moved from one revelation to another, which made Rilena and Elzen both confused; Darius smiled and said, “We teach wizards to follow the links. My magic is unique to me, but I can create stones or other talismans that have my power. A wizard can use my magic to find the current points.

  “If other wizards who learn the skills want to leave their marks, that will be fine; but for now I will teach them how to open the portals and worry about the rest later.”

  Sebastian grew quiet a moment before asking, “How do you keep the multiple points distinct in your mind?”

  Darius looked more surprised by this question. “I can see the markers in my mind, though I can see your point. Eventually a wizard might have too many points to easily follow or maybe my markers won’t be as easy to distinguish in their minds.”

  “You will be in Hala for awhile?” the mage asked getting away from the topic for a reason.

  “With the portal available, I planned to sleep at Windmeer and travel back in the morning to teach the wizards here.”

  Darius frowned and confessed, “I am having trouble finding others who can actually figure out the magic though. So far I have gone to every city along the wall except, Raven Hurst and even White Hall, but there are only a little over a handful of wizards who can create the portals.”

  “My team worked with what we had learned for a couple weeks on the ship before I was separated from them in New Harbor. Ashleen and I struggled for weeks in Silver World as well before breaking through to Hala. It isn’t an easy magic. The warlocks from Ensolus we grilled for information on the spells said it was the same in Ensolus.

  “Joining for the spell was easier, but those directing them were rarer.”

  Nodding in agreement, Darius responded, “Well, that would make sense. If I can train at least one wizard to man each castle to direct others with less skill, then Southwall might have a successful means of moving its people between the castles at least. I was hoping for maybe building them for the towers along the wall as well. It would certainly be helpful to be able to man the entire wall with armies from anywhere in Southwall at a moment’s notice.”

  Rilena turned to Ashleen in the lull and asked the girl, “And you plan to learn from him? Being his apprentice can’t be easy.”

  The others laughed, but Ashleen smiled as she shook her head, “No, he isn’t too bad of a teacher, though I admit that I can’t always follow how quickly he moves through magic. Has word of the light and darkness spells passed along to you?”

  Elzen pointed towards Darius and said, “We learned of them about the time the high wizard arrived in the spring. Other mages and wizards came to pass along the knowledge.

  “Few of those teaching mentioned that you had created it.”

  Sebastian shook his head. “I didn’t exactly create it though I did manage to steal the magic from the Gray Hall wizards.”

  Ashleen jumped back in adding, “He fought black armored Wizard Hunters as they like to call themselves using that magic. With the magic he passed to the rest of his team and later onto my people, Sebastian defeated them over and over.

  “Now he has figured out portal magic, but before that he created the Hollow Sword and has been working to create the strongest swords to make more. He also took rune magic and has figured out how to copy that.”

  Darius looked interested in these other uses of magic. “You have figured out how to make more artifacts and what are these runes? I am curious where you learned of this as well.”

  Smiling at the wizard, his eyes glanced around the restaurant of the Black Smith inn. Darius had stayed there during the tournament as well, which was where they first became friends. The tables were still filled with people and the evening entertainment had yet to begin, so the sounds of talking were all that could mask what was said.

  “Tomorrow, when there will be less eyes and ears. I will show you better, but...” he held up his left arm releasing the magic which rendered the runes invisible to others’ eyes. “We were given rune magic by people on Gerid’s island. It was believed to be unique, but I have been told that nomads on the plains might be using it as well.”

  He pointed to his inked forearm and said, “This one is used as protection armor.”

  Pushing some of his magic into the runes, Sebastian caused them to rise off of his skin a couple inches. “If I push more magic into them, I can create a large shield. It’s stronger than a mage shield.”

  Elzen let out a low whistle and both mages looked to be on the edge of their seats. “If a brawler could use those, we wouldn’t even need to apply mage shields to our hands.”

  Reaching out with his left hand, Sebastian used his magic to create a copy of his runes. As they traveled to the other mage’s hand, every wizard and mage stared in amazement. Soon the ink had set on Elzen’s arm giving him the protection. The other mage looked at them in confusion and asked, “How did you make them move?”

  “As a healer, I can see how they are bonded to my arm and recreate them to transfer to you. To create a large rune shield that extends from you, you need to send your magic into them.”

  The younger mage nodded and closed his eyes. The runes glowed and started to move on his skin before he quickly released them. “I can see what you mean.”

  It was Sebastian’s turn to be surprised. “How did you do that so fast?”

  Rilena laughed at her friend’s confusion, “You don’t know, do you? Elzen can heal like you.”

  Looking at the mussed brown hair over a youthful looking face, Elzen didn’t look all that dangerous; but Sebastian knew that the younger mage was a close combat specialist. His ability to use martial arts centered on his hands, feet, elbows and knees verged on elite. As good as Bas was with a sword, Elzen was at least as good with his fists and feet.

  “Well, despite his pranks, I guess I can see that. Elzen does care about people even if he hides it most of the time.”

  “Shut up, Bas, you’re going to make them think that I like them too or something,” Elzen joked.

  Rilena blushed for some reason making Sebastian wonder what the girl actually thought of the younger mage. They had told him of her return to Windmeer and landing in the men’s communal bath, but managed to skirt exactly why the girl had ended up there. She must have a strong attachment to Elzen, even if they tried to act like they didn’t care for each other as more than friends.

  Moving away from whether the boy liked Rilena, Sebastian added, “Good, then you might be able to copy the runes as well. I have three total so far, but I realized that the Grimnal’s guards have more and hope to be able to copy them as well.

  “Since I haven’t figured out the script used to make the runes, the more I have the more I can copy to our soldiers and hopefully pass on to mages like you. We can help our soldiers by making them more powerful. Shielded from harm and having magical weapons, even those without magic can be almost as powerful as battle mages.”

  Darius listened to the talk and added, “I wish to speak to Gerid as well. Perhaps I can get us both passage to meet with him and his warriors.”

  “I should be able to get an audience with him as well. After all, I did bring him back from his island prison.”

  Realizing the truth of the mage’s words, the high wizard chuckled, “Maybe I’ll let you get me the audience instead then.”

  The music started soon afterward. Rilena managed to join him for a few songs, but somehow she seemed drawn to dance with Elzen as well. Ashleen held onto Sebastian as often as she could and said after awhile, “They might be fighting it, but I think they might be
right for each other.”

  Chuckling he replied, “I try to stay out of others’ love lives. If they decide to stop fighting it, I could see it though.

  “Of course, Elzen would have to stop being such a prankster. Rilena is a little too straight laced for someone that can’t take anything seriously.”

  “That is what you think of Elzen?” her blue eyes asked of him with her words.

  “That’s the way he was in school, but he’s a falcon now; so maybe he’s grown out of it.”

  Ashleen nodded and as the night lengthened, they wished their friends good night and returned to their room.

  Chapter 18- Mapping it Out

  Sebastian went out early in the morning before Ashleen was awake and before he was supposed to meet with Darius to compare notes. By the time he met with the high wizard, accompanied by his friends, the mage had procured a detailed map of the north. It marked each city of Southwall, the islands to the south and their cities like Tarmand of Sileoth and the towns of Litsarin.

  When he produced the map rolling it out onto a table usually used for the equipment brought by the wizards during their training, Darius looked at him curiously before looking at the map.

  “What is this for?”

  Sebastian smiled with tight lips before he conveyed his idea to the wizard. “You say that you can keep your multiple markers in your head, but I don’t think that my mind works the same way as yours. I can feel one or two maybe, but once my eyes are off of them it might become much harder; so I thought maybe using a map to visualize them might help.”

  Looking unconvinced, Darius placed a stone on top of the map and said, “Well, this is one of my marker stones. Each of my gates should feel the same, since they are my magic. To me, I can see how far they are from me and know which cities are set and can even feel other stones moving towards the southern cities.”

  He left the point unspoken that if the map was going to work, this was all the information that he could give Sebastian. It was the mage’s idea after all, not his; so the success or failure of such a tool was on the younger man.

  Sebastian took the stone in hand and closed his eyes. Letting his magic touch and memorize the feel of Darius’s lodestone, the mage soon let his mind expand to feel for the other markers. While his left hand held the stone, his right passed over the map starting with Hala. A small mark seemed to burn into the paper or perhaps it was more like new ink similar to the runes on his skin.

  His hand passed over Norcrom duplicating the mark as Sebastian felt the distant essence of Darius’ magic. Each of the castle fortresses guarding the wall received a mark as did White Hall the magic school between Windmeer and Blackwall where it lay further to the south. His hand touched the other two schools, which hadn’t even been mentioned by Darius, and the cities south of the mountains.

  Other stones were still moving south as the wizard had stated, so he released the search for other cities. For now it would be a waste of time to mark them on the map and opening his eyes, Sebastian was half surprised to see the accuracy of his magic. Each city cemented with a marker was tagged on the point marking them on the map.

  “Amazing,” Darius stated impressed with the result. “I didn’t even tell you some of these and you marked them where I knew they were now.”

  Sebastian looked at the map noting the barren points beyond the range of the riders sent out by the wizard. He asked, “If we knew someone’s signature magic, do you think that this could work for any portal they touched or created?”

  The other mages and wizards, friends or family of Darius, surrounding him looked perplexed by the question, though the high wizard hesitated only a moment before answering, “If your spell to find my magic worked this well, if you had another wizard’s marker or knew him or her well enough to find them; I would think that you could do so.”

  Sebastian nodded and closed his eyes after giving Darius his stone back. He tried to remember the faint nuances of the magic of someone he had thought that he knew well once upon a time. They had been friends, if not the best of, certainly they had been good friends; until he had been betrayed along with the rest of Southwall.

  His hand moved to the south where he knew Palose’s portals now infiltrated Southwall’s border. New Harbor received a red mark. It was differentiated from the indigo dots given to Darius’s gates.

  Most of the southern cities of Southwall received similar marks. His finger touched the mountain cities, Cadmera, and Garosh’s fortress received a second mark though he actually felt three beyond the one Darius had created using the giant’s magic. Windmeer had one, though it felt wrong. His finger pointed just to the west of the city as well finding a clean point, but moving back towards Hala, three more marks brought a frown to his face.

  Letting his hand move to the south again, Banosh and Parik received the red mark before Sebastian’s hand felt a final mark far to the east where the map had no piece of land marked as an island.

  When he opened his eyes, Sebastian gritted his teeth in anger and frustration.

  “So many,” Ashleen breathed receiving nervous nods from those looking at his map.

  Elzen shook his head and asked, “You are trying to tell me that this is all from Palose? If these are all in Southwall and Litsarin, why is there a marker in the water south of the island nations?”

  “That is the Grimnal’s island,” Sebastian stated simply.

  He closed his eyes once more and tested beyond those he had found. Three points north of the wall were centered on the same general point. Two more faint markers could be felt elsewhere and opening his eyes, the mage saw the points marked places in the mountain chain known as the Dragon’s Spine Mountains or alternatively the Dark Mountains for the emperor who lived there.

  This time Elzen looked more enthusiastic. “Are those the emperor’s cities?”

  Sebastian could only shrug as he answered, “There are three here, so I think that it is his base. I get less of a feeling from the other two.”

  “If you are right, Bas, we can hit the emperor where he lives. No long march out in the open or warning him before we get there!”

  Shaking his head at the younger mage, the owl replied a little more cautiously than his friend, “The warlocks warned that if we tried to come through their portal chamber, it was well guarded. There is a moment’s adjustment needed for anyone using the doorways. By the time we could react, they could be on us and pick off our people one by one as they crossed to the mountains.”

  “Do you think those warlocks told you the truth?” the younger man asked with apparent disbelief. He had just been shown the end of all the fighting in his mind. Being able to ambush the emperor in his own city was too big a temptation to be put off as a bad idea so quickly.

  “Everything else they told us seemed the truth and their eyes didn’t appear to be lying. I think they feared if we followed, even if we were killed, they would be found at fault and receive a comparable punishment. While they might have reason to lie, if they believed it unsafe, the warlocks might add guards if only because they feared we would eventually use their magic against them.”

  “Grandfather!” a familiar male voice called out drawing their attention as one. A man with similar features to Elias, Darius’ grandson, who stood with them, but was more of a size to the high wizard; approached with several other men and a couple young women in tow. Towering over Darterian, Gerid approached with a smile looking ready to greet them as well.

  Darius met his older grandson with a clasp of hands before pulling him in for a quick hug with the opposite arm. Darterian had been busy in the castle speaking with the king and his advisers as well as Gerid the previous day. That was the excuse given anyway, but Sebastian wasn’t sure what could have kept the man from seeing his mentor and grandfather.

  Gerid ignored the family reunion as Elias joined his grandfather welcoming his cousin.

  “Sebastian,” the giant greeted clapping him on the shoulder causing him to take a step involuntarily. Seb
astian was like a rag doll before the power of the immortal giant.

  “Good morning, Gerid,” answered the mage with a wince at the enthusiastic greeting.

  “Darterian brought word that you and Darius would like to see me. There was something about my rune warriors in there as well, but it was lost on me,” Gerid chuckled, though Sebastian doubted anything had been missed at all. It was the giant’s kind of misleading humor, he knew from their months as friends. “Still I made sure to bring my clan along with me just in case you needed someone in particular.”

  Lifting his arms, Sebastian made the ink of the runes visible on both forearms. He now had three runes on his body, but had been unable to get in touch with Captain Drayden to procure the ones given to the soldier on the island. While that could have been a setback, the mage remembered that the guards of the giant likely had the same runes and more to copy.

  He hadn’t tried to pull copies from someone without magic, but the owl was fairly certain that it would be the same.

  Gerid noticed the additional runes on the mage and asked, “You have more runes? How did that happen?”

  “It gets better,” Sebastian said with a smile and stepped back letting his magic create the rune shield. As tall as the mage, the round orange shield stood between them as a tempting target. Gerid struck the shield a powerful blow.

  Pulling his hand back and shaking it out, the giant gave an approving nod, “That is very solid. You didn’t even budge from my strike, so it must not transfer any mass through to you.

  “That said; I have never seen the runes do this.”

  The guards had all moved to see the strange use of runes on the battle mage. As his magic pulled the shield back to his arm, they spoke to each other curiously.

  “Have you ever seen runes on someone capable of using magic before?”

  Gerid shook his head and answered, “The shamans might have other magic, but I have never seen any of them manipulate runes like that.”