Battle Mage: A Hero's Welcome (A Tale of Alus Book 8)

by Donald Wigboldy

  Liam spotted the battle mage using his shields and spared a smile even as his spell prepared to act on the ship. It was all ready and simply awaited the wizard’s final triggering of the power. As the hull moved to horizontal beneath his feet, Liam stepped onto the aft deck to look down at the water behind the hull. Waves still moved beyond the raised water from the other two men, but as he pointed with both hands held together the gentle, ocean changed.

  Water swirled and surged towards the man standing on the black ship. His spell had been designed to basically attack the lower hull as it swirled and twisted into a horizontal water spout. Hundreds of gallons of salt water struck the hull from behind trying to push the black structure forward.

  The sound of wood creaking came even over the forced deluge as spray foamed over the rail at Liam or cascaded off the ship. It moved slowly until the front bottomed out on a sandbar. Vewen and Hyren tried to adjust for the push without stalling Liam’s momentum, but creating a rise meant the force of the spout was fighting more mass. The men on the ropes tried to finesse the ship with the lines as they pulled using the pulley system, but their efforts to tighten the ropes were slow and they seemed unable to clear the sandbar with the front end of the ship.

  Three men were moving tons of wood with magic, but Bas questioned whether this system of spells was going to work after all. If there were sails ready to propel it forward, he could believe it; but just the power of water appeared to be coming up short.

  “Spear,” the mage called the blue energy of his shield into a shaft in his hands. Striding further from the shore, Sebastian felt the power of the sea, the strength of the earth was more distant, though he could have tried to tap the wind as well. He had only called the power from elements other than the earth once, and that was by accident and without a staff to guide the energy it could provide. The world was a source of power and magic, but for a human it could easily prove too much for their frail bodies.

  He had never tried using a magical staff, but tapping the ocean below him, Sebastian coaxed the power he needed through it. The power was as great as the earth and came to him easily.

  “Wave.” The single word came focusing a surge of water from his side of Liam’s swirling spout. It wasn’t meant to be huge and the mage didn’t want the rise to get out of hand since it would disrupt the other wizards’ efforts.

  Rolling beneath the black hull, the wave lifted the vessel as it passed. As the forward end lifted, the ship surged forward picking up speed through the channel as it cleared the sandbar. Liam stumbled to one knee, but managed to maintain the thrust of the water pushing the wounded vessel through the cleared path. As it moved smoothly and the ship gathered some momentum, the hull struck the beach and the braces with just enough speed to make it through the first two thirds of the brackets.

  Collin chipped in by causing the sand to roil beneath the black stained wood, while Nara used her magic on the wood to help pull the hulk into place. The men on the lines worked quickly to tighten up the loosened lines thanks to the final surge adding their backs into the wizards’ work. Liam’s spout faded as did the other wizards’ guiding trough as the teamwork finished settling the hull onto the wood braces with loud creaking and squeaks from the wood pieces rubbing together.

  With some satisfaction at his team’s precise guidance of the ship onto its temporary mounts, the mage looked away towards a small island to the northwest. The ship was one piece of magic intended to help the Grimnal leave the island in the near future, but Sebastian could just make out the glimmer of purple glass standing up from the small island that would make it useless. It was one of four protective barriers holding four enchanted stones designed to hold Gerid and any of his kin.

  Set to stop the immortal by using his resistance to magic and most likely centered on the makeup of his body and blood, the emperor had imprisoned the man and all those of his line that were too close to his lineage. There were merfolk and villagers with no blood ties for example who could pass through as if the barrier didn’t exist; while those who had the resistance to magic of Gerid and his family would feel an impenetrable wall. They couldn’t use the shaman’s relics to escape the prison so he had his people make the island their home for almost two centuries waiting for freedom or perhaps simply enjoying hiding away from the rest of the world.

  They could call it home, but it was also a prison thanks to the impenetrable barriers.

  His name suddenly penetrated his thoughts coming from the shore. Mecklin, one of his mages, had been conscripted by Yara to use battle magic to enhance the sound of his voice to call Sebastian back from his reverie. Turning back to see the blond in her yellow outfit, he could guess that she was angry with him. Using the power of the earth had nearly killed him during the tournament. Yara had asked him to avoid using it; since High Wizard Darius had warned that overuse of the magic had killed some of the wizards of his time well before their natural life span’s end. It was why the immortal wizard had let the practice fade into history, but Sebastian had discovered the use of a staff could help channel more power than he could hope to have within his limited mage body.

  Letting the staff fade into nothingness, the mage felt the release of the power from the water less noticeably than sometimes. It had been a minor use of power and he hadn’t tried to take in a massive amount of energy to augment his ability. When he had used the extra strength too long in the tournament, he had felt empty to the point where Sebastian had finally passed out from being completely drained beyond what his reserves could restore. Only Darius had known of a remedy to save him.

  He knew that playing with the forgotten ways of magic was dangerous, but it was still knowledge that he felt could be used though in moderation.

  Stepping back onto the sand of the beach, Yara looked at him with enhanced senses checking him for possible injury.

  In a low tone, as the girl took his hand pulling him from the closest of the onlookers; Yara reprimanded him saying, “Did you have to do that? You know what Darius said.”

  He nodded, but replied still considering the feeling of this latest use of the staff technique, “Even with his extra centuries of knowledge, I think that there is a way to do it safely. This was a small spell and I used the power for a very short time. Unlike the times in the tournament, I didn’t actually use more than I could have as a battle mage.

  “It was a safe enough way that shouldn’t cause any harm. I feel fine, Yara. You can see that too.”

  Sebastian didn’t mean she could see with her physical eyes. Their hands touching let her magic examine him and he knew that she was using her magic even as they walked.

  Frowning at him a moment, Yara finally sighed and said, “If you turn into an old man before your time, I am breaking up with you.”

  He chuckled at her attempt to punish him. “Duly noted. I will do my best to avoid that result.”

  Yara pointed towards the ship in its brackets and said, “Well, it’s on land so it can be worked on, but if it was that difficult to beach; how will you get it back into the water?”

  “Magic, of course,” he quipped easily drawing another sigh.

  “Seriously, Bas, you had to say that?”

  The man shrugged looking at the black hull towering over his head. It was just one step in bringing the Grimnal back to his people in Southwall. He would fulfill his quest then and see what the corps had for him next. Most likely they would try and keep him somewhere he could keep observing wizards to try and learn their spells, while passing on what he could to other battle mages.

  Taking a deep breath as he tried to put the thoughts of his return behind him, Sebastian decided he would try to enjoy his time away from Southwall and the concern about the corps. He had Yara and his friends, a little time on land and a long distance to travel before his leaders, the ravens, could tell him the next steps in his life. It was an unusual break that few falcons of his age got to experience, so it was best to enjoy it while he could.

  Chapter 2- The Curse B
arrier

  The sun was still high over head making Sebastian warm as he stood on the small, stone island. Little more than a solitary rock in the ocean, only its proximity to the larger island holding Gerid and his people made it easy to find. By easy, it simply meant that the previously uncharted island once found was in eyesight of several smaller stones surrounding it. Four of them held barrier stones protected by powerful magic to prevent them from being tampered with by lesser beings.

  Looking at a barrier surrounding a tall column worked with runes, Bas knew that it was one of four set by the emperor’s warlocks to hold the immortal man on his island. Made to appear like a shimmering piece of purple glass, it had been the target of men with magic before and never had anyone been able to break the spell holding Gerid and his family in place.

  The water lapped at the stone base protruding from the ocean. Only about a hundred feet in diameter, the island didn’t appear sculpted by man. It wasn’t flat or of a set level or shape. Whether made by the Cataclysm when many islands rose and fell, or if it was pulled from beneath the waves by warlocks, it rose in jagged spires to the south while a more protective rise to the north and west of the glass barrier followed the edge of the island.

  “We have tried to break the barrier many times over the last two centuries,” an older man stated as he watched Sebastian appraising his surroundings. He was one of five mermen to have joined him and Yara along with Gerid and a handful of his men who had come by longboat. Only Collin had come from his team of wizards. An earth wizard might be needed once he and Yara broke the outer barrier.

  A couple chains of gold and other material looped around the shaman’s neck. Gray hair and skin proved both his age and the long life lived mainly beneath the waves. He was a merman and though many visited the island regularly, his home was under water. His clothing was minimal, unlike a wizard in his robes. A simple cloth of dark green, shimmering material was tied across his hips covering him to the knees. A loose fitting shirt was sleeveless since a merman used his arms so much in swimming and the cold of the water meant little to the merfolk who were magically altered to live beneath the ocean.

  “Give them a chance, Kanook,” Gerid stated holding a smile, though Sebastian had never seen any look that made the mage think the Grimnal believed that the spell could be broken either.

  The other shamans looked similarly disbelieving. Ranging in ages from gray haired men like Kanook to men probably older than Sebastian by only a few years, the merfolk had sent just the handful to see the land folk give their magic a shot. The glass barriers had held against storms, magic and brute force for nearly two centuries. There were few descendants from the men trapped here who had managed to physically escape the unseen cage formed between the four columns, anyone related to the Grimnal and the men that had settled the island with their lord experienced pain that could kill or appeared to run into an invisible wall. It was a prison after all and letting them escape to find help for their lord was not permissible.

  Such designs of the emperor’s cage had kept him hidden for nearly two hundred years until Sebastian followed a device given to him by another immortal, Darius the High Wizard of Eirdhen. It had led him on a path to other islands that Gerid and his three ships had once traveled to check on the world affected by the Cataclysm. There were several island nations friendly to the countries that were now Southwall thanks to the Grimnal’s early life and dealings with those countries. He had hoped to check on them all before the emperor’s black ships had found and captured him.

  Only about twenty men had lived to see the island, but the emperor hadn’t known of the merfolk who had survived so close to the new prison. The clan had been caught in the upheaval as much as the surface dwellers and finding the men, they had created bonds which led to mermaids coming ashore to marry and have children. Those children and those of the merfolk living beneath the waves had grown and had more children over the next centuries intermingling to the point that many who could use the amulets to change or use runes could still not pass through the barrier for long.

  Bas barely glanced to the older men as they talked about the impossibility of breaking the curse of the emperor. He held his special staff, Bairh’loore, and took Yara’s hand in the other. While the mage doubted that he would need to bolster his strength for their combined spell, this version of the glass barrier felt stronger than others that they had defeated.

  “Are you ready?” he asked the girl beside him. Whether it was their love or other physical bonds that joined the two in a strength that made their magic stronger than these curse spells, they didn’t know. What they did know was that, together using the right spell, they had broken the dark magic before and felt that they could do it again.

  She nodded and didn’t appear even slightly worried by doubt in their ability to bring the curse spell down. This was a simple enough use of their magic, but the power of the wizard and battle mage combined made it powerful indeed.

  “Light,” they spoke simultaneously. Like the sun had given birth in their grasped hands, a beam of light lashed out striking the purple glass. It held in the face of their combined strength longer than Bas would have thought based on their previous experience dealing with the curse barriers, but in the end they held on and eventually the sound of glass breaking came as the magical barrier cracked and fell apart before the light.

  Gasps from the merfolk shamans were ignored as the two held onto their spell long enough to see all of the purple glass like magic fall into ruin and disappear into the ether of the world’s energy.

  “That should be impossible,” one of the younger shamans said quietly.

  Kanook ignored the young man and asked, “Your wizards all know such powerful magic?”

  Sebastian blinked still seeing a purple line in his vision. Even closing his eyes as the light had struck the barrier, his vision had been unable to avoid the brief scarring of the brilliant light. “I doubt any others know this particular type of magic,” the mage replied to the shaman. “It combines a spell used by wizards from another country, possibly with roots in the emperor’s magic that I learned, and battle mage magic. Though many know how to call light, we recently stumbled across the ability to work together making the spell strong enough to break their curse spells.”

  It was a slight risk to admit the limited number of those who could use their magic, namely just Yara and him; but as allies of Gerid, Sebastian felt he could risk trusting the merfolk. He also hoped being candid with them might help loosening their lips about their rune magic. So far, the shamans had been standoffish and unwilling to discuss much of anything with the strangers. In fact, Sebastian had only been this close to them twice before and those were at funerals for some of the merfolk rune warriors. They had seemed to make sure that the battle mage never had a true chance to corner them at an appropriate time to share ideas.

  Kanook nodded his head, “And you can teach us this magic to defend our people against the emperor’s warlocks, if they should return, which is likely?”

  “I can certainly attempt to teach the light spell to your magic users, but we are still unsure if it is because we can both heal or if it is something else that lets us unite to become stronger than we are separately,” Sebastian answered easily offering what he could. He was sorely tempted to ask if they would be willing to show him something of the rune magic or even the spells behind the artifacts that let their people change between their forms, but Bas didn’t want to drive them away just when these men were starting to come to him.

  As they talked, Gerid walked towards where the barrier against him should be. An invisible line ran from one pillar to the next creating a nearly perfect square surrounding the island. His hand out, the giant suddenly came to a halt as his body and hand closed in an accordion maneuver.

  “The second barrier remains,” the ancient stated quietly sliding his hand against the unseen wall imprisoning him. Closing on the column, he tried to push against it but was repulsed. Never feeling the stone,
his strength was as nothing to the second curse. If he couldn’t touch the stone, then Gerid’s ability to destroy it was nullified. Luckily, he wasn’t alone.

  “Collin,” Sebastian questioned the wizard with his eyes. As an earth specialist, Collin had the best spells to deal with the runed column.

  Mumbling words of power, the earth wizard first examined the stone. Though the first barrier was destroyed, they had all decided that it would be best to examine the column before just haphazardly trying to destroy it. Some magic could make such a stone appear to be the root of the spell, but it could in fact just be a physical manifestation telling where the corners were. If it held the ability to hold the spell even when the columns were destroyed, they would have gained nothing and could even make it worse.

  “It is made of the same stone as the island,” the wizard mumbled. He placed his hands on the column closing his eyes. His magic touched the stone, but he frowned as he felt resistance to his probe. Searching to find out the true size of the column, since they knew the spell reached to the floor of the ocean here thanks to a pair of mermaids Sebastian had asked to probe using a ring tied to the Grimnal’s anti-magic; Collin found that it had been sunk as deep into the island as the stone protruded above. “It doesn’t reach through to the same depth as the ocean floor, though it is about as deep as we see here.”

  “Can you force it from the earth if we need it out?” Sebastian asked his friend while he felt the magic continue to work from the wizard.

  Nodding slowly, Collin also answered, “I think so, but I believe that it won’t require that much effort.”

  While this was a machination of the emperor and his warlocks, this was still stone, an element in Collin’s domain. It was because of his expertise that the mage had asked his friend and teammate to brave the longboat and waves to examine this magical stone.