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

by Donald Wigboldy

  Kolban frowned. “You are a princess and second only to me in power. Don’t make me regret creating you by shaming me in my home.”

  Her hands settled onto her waist in a huff and Acheri turned his words on him like most girls seemed capable of doing, “Well, do you think we should be arguing in front of our guest then, Kolban? Surely this is not appropriate behavior according to your new rules.”

  Like a teenaged boy, the emperor looked perplexed by her logic. “Now he is a guest, but a moment ago you claimed he wasn’t someone to act differently in front of.”

  Moving to Palose’s side, the girl placed her hands on his shoulders before running them down his arms familiarly. She hid partially behind the mage saying, “Let’s not confuse the situation, brother. Now what were you two talking about that was so important to call Palose away from his other duties? He was probably hoping to study in the library again. He is so studious.”

  “We were working out our next move against Southwall. Once again Palose’s portals come in useful. You may remember the one near the Twin Towers,” the emperor replied casually. Managing to ignore Acheri’s girlish nature, the boy ran his fingers through his light brown hair as if they could straighten his slightly mussed hair.

  Wrinkling her forehead as her dark blue eyes looked to the ceiling as if she needed to see the answer there, Acheri tapped her lips with her forefinger a few times as she replied, “Hmm, I seem to remember something like that. It was winter and the river was covered in ice except near the center and there was a bridge.”

  Kolban could tell that she was toying with him and ignored her teasing ways. “Our enemy is slowly being pulled in several directions. This action should make their winter a rough one as they worry about our exploiting a broken defense.”

  Waving off his plans, Acheri complained, “And I suppose that I can’t go along again. It will be too dangerous for your sister.”

  “Palose, I think that we are done here. I will reach you when I need to go over the plans. You just make sure that your gate can be used. Since it is south of the towers; an army will have to march there from the north first.

  “We have been seeing strange movement from the nomads this year. It is as if something has stirred them up in an unusual way. We will have to travel through their land, but they shouldn’t present any problem for this mission.”

  Curious about the release of information, Palose asked, “What are they doing that is so strange?”

  “We have sent some patrols out, but the nomads we usually work with haven’t been seen in their normal areas. A few patrols haven’t returned even, but we are working on finding out what they are up to, so don’t worry over it.”

  Having been dismissed, Palose made his weak attempt at a bow and turned to exit the chamber the way he had entered. Acheri clung to his arm as the mage tried to leave and, as they walked into the hallway, the girl tried to make small talk with him. “I don’t recall everything as well as my brother, but he has managed to control the barbarians on the plains for most of the time his empire has been on this continent. I am sure whatever they have been doing will be mean little.

  “Speaking of nomads, whatever happened to your friends? You had those two apprentices you were training to fight with swords. Whatever happened to them?” she asked innocently.

  Her innocence was doubtful in Palose’s mind, however. Still he answered as if he didn’t question whether she could be as duplicitous as he feared, “I still see Turless in the library quite often, but Sylvaine left with a squad months ago and I have never heard what happened to her. No one has seen her squad return either from those that I have asked.

  “You haven’t heard anything about that have you?”

  His question sounded sincere to his ears, but Acheri was very perceptive as one would expect from a being created from the Dark One’s mind. Apparently he was a good enough actor that the princess didn’t react in an unusual way. She answered, “No, I am afraid that I haven’t. I can make inquiries. You never told me that the girl hasn’t returned.”

  “If you could find out what happened to them it would certainly ease my mind,” Palose stated looking ahead of him at the hallway with its crossing pathways.

  They were getting too close to the more public parts of the castle, so Acheri gave up walking with him leaving Palose to find the exit. A dark cavernous roof felt threatening far above his head as he left the castle grounds. Built into a massive cave, the emperor’s creatures had added to the city within and hollowed out even more of the mountain increasing the cave’s size over the centuries.

  Making sure that the princess had indeed given up following him, Palose made a few twists and turns before using a portal to take him to the spire apartment he owned. It had been his former master’s, but like Atrouseon’s wealth, everything had gone to him as the heir of the warlock who had no family.

  He didn’t waste time there for long. Making sure that he wasn’t followed through the magical doorway, Palose created a second portal to the house set against the east wall of the cave.

  “Good morning, Palose,” several voices greeted him.

  The beautiful face of a girl slightly younger than him with curly brunette hair came to greet him with a kiss.

  “Hello, Sylvaine,” he said warmly to the girl before greeting the others with a nod. “Acheri still pretends to not know what happened with your patrol.”

  Startled eyes looked up at his blunt report and she shook her head, “I thought that you gave up trying to discover if she had anything to do with the attack on our patrol by the nomads.”

  A sharp nod, as he placed his hand on the small of her back directing her towards the couch, preceded the dark mage’s answer, “Kolban mentioned that the plains folk have been acting strange and Acheri asked about what happened to my friends. It was odd how she asked. She even volunteered to have someone look into what happened to your patrol.”

  Sitting cross legged before him on the couch as he turned to look at the pretty girl, Sylvaine replied, “Just don’t get your self in trouble for me. You saved me with your magic and I am here now with you. That is good enough and we travel to those beautiful cities in Southwall, of course.”

  “But she took your life away from you and killed all the others in the process,” Palose retorted calmly wishing that he knew the truth of what had truly led the patrol to be attacked by a tribe of nomads. He had used his magic to reach Sylvaine too late; and used his darkest level of magic to bring the patrol all back to a semblance of life along with any dead nomads to kill those who had taken their lives. Only Sylvaine received the resurrection magic to join the small family he had created with that magic.

  “It doesn’t really matter. If Acheri did arrange to have us run into that ambush, she is the princess and sister of the emperor. You can’t do anything to her without the emperor killing us all.

  “If she didn’t do anything to cause it, perhaps it would be good to know so you could drop the matter,” Sylvaine added and noticed his eyes drop to her legs bared to above her knees with the skirt she wore. There was no embarrassment between them. They had become lovers after all, so he had seen all that and more.

  His hand caressed her leg from knee to foot where she was more ticklish and fought pulling her foot away. There was a smile on her face when his eyes returned to her face.

  Sighing, the dark mage replied, “I suppose, but I guess that I just want to know if I can trust her in the least. It would help to know that she didn’t use her authority to get you killed out of jealousy or whatever could have made her do something like that.”

  He shook off the matter and the conversation moved on to other things that didn’t involve Acheri’s name.

  The sun was bright and shining as the wind across the prairie worked to drive any clouds away. Feeling the cool air driven from its source to the north where the upper mountains held snow for most of the year round, Sebastian looked towards Petre, the air wizard. The woman’s head leaned forward nearly resting
on her chest while their nature wizard, Nartreya, led her horse with the reins tied to her saddle.

  With the cooling breeze, Sebastian didn’t even bother using his wind shield around him as the remainder of the troop conversed as they rode.

  “You want to ride the winds too, don’t you?” Ashleen asked quietly from his side.

  While air wizards usually rode the winds to watch out for dangers to scouting groups, today Petre looked for the nomadic tribe said to be gathering numbers on the eastern plain. Their scouts had tried to make a peaceful connection with them, but the plains folk remained too suspicious of outsiders for a combat ready unit to have a chance of convincing them to talk.

  True diplomat wizards were somewhat rare, more likely because people were afraid of magic that could control others minds than because the talent was impossible to find. Sending one out as a scout was rarely done unless they were needed as a neutral party within a larger force. Since wizards, battle mages and soldiers couldn’t always get along; they made great leaders when the different factions could lead to division within the ranks.

  “I kind of got used to leading and searching for trouble on the air. Not doing either does leave me with less to occupy my attention. I suppose I could still ride the winds whether it is called for or not. Having more than one wizard searching the hills and plains couldn’t hurt,” he stated looking at the wilder.

  Her blonde hair was untied and flowed with the wind. She was also enjoying the fresh air blowing from the northwest without a shield after the humidity and heat of the day before.

  “Hey, Bas, when did you learn this new magic?” Elzen asked riding on his other side with Rilena between them. It felt good having his old friends around him again. While much of his team had moved on, the one benefit of post changes was that eventually you seemed to run into old friends once more.

  The younger mage gestured towards his legs though his pants and boots covered the runes. After they had returned in the evening, Rilena and Elzen had removed their boots. The girl’s raising of her pants leg to her knee had made the boy needle her to show more, of course. Sebastian thought that it was more than teasing, however, but hadn’t asked more of them.

  “We were given five runes spread over five of us, though two chose the same thing. During training I figured out that those of us with magic could make them do more than say, a soldier without magic. That link led me to figure out how to copy a rune from someone else or transfer my own,” he finished with a shrug.

  Rilena frowned and asked, “Why don’t I see any marks on you?”

  Realizing that not everyone wanted to be marked with a tattoo or rune, the owl replied, “I used my magic to change the color, so when I wish to conceal them I make them clear.”

  The owl pushed his magic to the defensive rune on his arm making the bluish black markings appear. Concentrating, he changed the color to blue, red and orange consecutively before making them disappear once more.

  “How do you always make things look so simple?” the girl complained.

  “Take off your pants and try it, Rilena,” Elzen laughed at the dark haired mage riding next to him.

  “Shut up, Elzen,” she replied with a sigh and never turned her head from speaking to Sebastian.

  Realizing that for all of his intentional teasing, Elzen had a point. Without being able to see a rune while they rode, they would need a place for the girl to sit and see if her use of magic worked to erase the visible markings.

  He reached out his hand and nodded to Rilena to do the same. His magic copied the oval spot, which could summon things from the ink; and transferred it to her right forearm. “Here, you can practice on this.”

  “It’s a big, black spot,” the young woman replied with a frown.

  Chuckling at her opinion of the rune, which he didn’t deny; Sebastian informed her, “It can hold items inside the ink. It might even access some other dimension or world like the portals.”

  Placing his fingers over his rune, Sebastian called out the black blade from the ink. He drew the blade halfway out before pushing it back into the rune.

  Rilena looked a little pale from the demonstration, but to practice she didn’t need to use the rune at all. She simply had it to focus her magic onto creating the change of color for the mark.

  “What else can you make these runes do with your magic?” Elzen asked showing some insight that was normally masked by his playful attitude. Since he had known the younger mage for several years at White Hall, Sebastian knew that Elzen was more than just the jokester he often appeared to be. There was a talented battle mage there, who had been raised in position from cadet to falcon in just a pair of trips to the wall. Few made the promotion in less than three trips, though Sebastian’s time at the wall had been full of actions which had promoted him while he was still on his first trip to Windmeer.

  Spacing himself from the others a little more, Sebastian pushed his magic into the defensive runes channeling the marks over his head as he raised his arm. The orange markings lifted from his arm creating an umbrella to avoid spooking his horse only a moment before he retracted the shield.

  “On the warriors we met, they used these runes all over their bodies as defensive armor. It could resist damage, but like armor it could be overwhelmed and destroyed along with the wearer. I never saw any of them create a shield with the runes, so I believe only magic users can take the runes to a different level.”

  Switching to the oval rune, Sebastian made it lift free over his head in a similar way to the first. “I can make this rune large enough to hold weapons or baggage.”

  Elzen smacked his forehead and said, “Now that you mention it, you and Ashleen have less gear on your horses than the rest of us. I wasn’t watching you last night, but you must be storing your packs inside of the rune.”

  Sebastian nodded, “It comes out safely enough, so why burden the horse?”

  Complaining to the owl mage once more, Rilena almost growled, “Again, you make it sound so easy.”

  He could only shrug at her complaint and watch as the pretty falcon focused on copying his use of magic on her rune. Elzen and the other mages were quick to ask to be given their own runes to use. Since it was an easy spell to use as long as they could make physical contact, they didn’t even have to stop the horses for Sebastian to transfer an oval to each mage.

  Coming to Jeriah, Sebastian gave the mage the rune with mixed feelings. He wouldn’t deny any of those in his corps, but the man wasn’t his favorite.

  “Could I get the rune that makes that shield too?” the larger man asked a little more demanding than Sebastian wanted to hear, but it wasn’t a surprise.

  Giving the man the defensive rune, he stated, “I wouldn’t do it on the horse or you might spook it and wind up being thrown.”

  Jeriah started to frown at being cautioned by the younger mage before he could control his face, “Whatever you say, Owl Sebastian.”

  The man’s voice stood on the line of sarcasm; but as the afternoon progressed, Jeriah refrained from practicing on the defense rune. It was, however, one of the first things the mage tried as soon as camp was made at night.

  Chapter 21- Gift of Runes

  After the camp had been set, Sebastian found himself at the center of everyone’s attention but the mages for once.

  Wizard Oltus and Lieutenant Aufrienne led the charge as the mage held his meal on his lap sitting on a raised mound of earth. The battle mage had used his magic to create the seat on the open plain as had many of the others who possessed magic. Instead of being allowed to eat in peace, the two men led a spearhead of both soldiers and wizards.

  Oltus wasn’t using his magic, but Sebastian could hear the negotiator he had trained to become as he said, “We noticed that you use a magic that I have not seen before and wondered if it was something that could help others beyond your corps?”

  Wanting to sigh as he could feel the warmth of his warmed beans and meat cooked together by the soldiers earlier through the plat
e, Sebastian nodded placing his fork into the mash of food. “We came across a group of people that we helped along with the Grimnal. As a reward, we were gifted with a handful of runes which their warriors used in battle. The powers are similar to those used by battle mages for the most part, but don’t require any verbal commands to control.”

  Lt. Aufrienne asked next, “They used them like you do, like a battle mage?”

  Shaking his head, Sebastian clarified, “I asked to learn about them because they were on warriors with no magic. It simulates magic once placed on the soldiers and that is why I hoped to discover the secret of the magic to give to our wizards and mages to place on soldiers who were willing.”

  Gesturing towards the men and women in the camp, the lieutenant stated, “I don’t think there are any who aren’t willing, if it would give them an edge in battle against the Dark One’s monsters.”

  Sebastian snuck a couple bites finding the chili like concoction still very hot. He swallowed his small amounts of food quickly and nodded. “I can try to pass on the runes to the others, but I think any runes that will be seen by the nomads will have to wait until after our meeting. If they were to see them, they might think that we were there to steal their magic since it is rumored that the warriors the scouts saw had markings like ours.”

  The soldier frowned thoughtfully, but with a little disappointment on his face. “What would that leave for us?”

  “I can create runes which shield you from harm, strength runes which can be added to the back and legs as well as speed runes. Unfortunately the sense spells, runes for holding weapons, and anything for the arms can’t be hidden with short sleeves by soldiers.”

  He looked at Oltus and said, “If you practice, your magic can make the runes seem to disappear. I can place runes on your arms, if your people can figure out how to do that first.”