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

by Donald Wigboldy

  Whether it came from her grandfather or the elves, Annalicia also seemed nearly immune to the cold. Her light blue and silver swimmers left little skin uncovered and yet, even without a wind spell screening her, the girl looked as warm as the burliest of the men in spite of the cool ocean water.

  The lady smiled as the two moved closer and she commented, “You two looked like you were enjoying your swim.”

  “Until Yara started to get too cold,” he agreed with his own smile for the young woman.

  Eyes appearing slightly surprised by the admission, Anna replied, “I thought the water was quite nice today. The further south we have sailed has found warmer currents and, of course, the sun shines brightly here.”

  Yara nodded even as she leaned against Sebastian for warmth. Her teeth were beginning to chatter even as she answered, “It is still the ocean and the sun is beginning to fade too close to the horizon to help now. For a northerner, I guess I am a little more affected than some people.”

  The healer’s eyes strayed between the two beside her knowing Sebastian and Annalicia were from the other extreme though Sebastian often cheated by using a wind shielding spell.

  Anna followed the couple out of the water even as she shrugged, “Hot and cold have never seemed to bother me much. Perhaps because I am a weather wizard, such things are just a part of me.”

  “I always assumed that you were classified as an air wizard,” Sebastian said in slight surprise.

  Again the silver haired girl shrugged. Her almond shaped green eyes sparkled with amusement as she remarked, “Perhaps in Southwall that is what I would be called. Most of my spells rely on air, but I have a connection to the water in the air also. My winds can chill or heat depending on my direction and I know how to call rain and lightning, though I think Sebastian is more talented with the last.”

  They had brought no towels to dry themselves, since they had been in the boat all afternoon and hadn’t returned to the village to find some for their swim. Annalicia picked up a large towel and offered it to Yara.

  “Air shield,” the battle mage called his version of the air wizard spell to life encompassing not just him but the two women within easy range of his magical power. It was an extended shield meant more for Yara than Annalicia, though he noted a little gooseflesh on the weather wizard despite her professed resistance to the cool air.

  Both girls noted the change to the air around them as the breeze no longer carried even its noise to their ears. The waves and closest of voices could still be heard, but the wind had been filtered out along with the touch of it on their skin.

  Picking up his shirt, Sebastian rubbed his skin with it instead of a towel, of which he still had none. Yara gratefully used the large towel offered to her.

  “Your control of air and wind is remarkable for someone with limited magical resources,” Anna commented seeing his apparent strength as many wizards could. Among their kind, strength of magic helped build a hierarchy between those holding greater power and those, like Sebastian and the battle mages, with much less. “While I have seen you use your magic often over the last month, it still surprises me.”

  Her eyes seemed to glow as she appraised him. It was a bit odd looking at the half naked lady of Malaiy as she looked beyond what normal eyes could see. “You know, if I am not mistaken, I could swear that your aura has grown stronger since we first met in the tournament. You held amazing power and went beyond yourself tapping the earth with your staves, of course, which made you appear even more powerful; but your basic strength seems greater too. Don’t you think so, Yara?”

  Pausing as the blond was wiping at her tanned legs, an unusual bronze skin for those used to the cold of the north; the healer looked at Sebastian a little closer. Her eyes glowed with the magical vision as she considered her partner. He had become so proficient in magic, both that of battle mages and his modified spells taken from the wizards he’d met over the last year; that Yara had never really thought to examine if his aura had strengthened. It was like trying to see someone gain or lose weight in a moment when you had been with them every day for a month or more.

  “It’s strange, but I hadn’t noticed it before. His aura doesn’t seem to have grown as strong as a wizard’s. It’s more like...” The healer found that she couldn’t put the change quite into words.

  Annalicia tried as she said, “I have read of how a smith makes swords. A good sword smith heats and cools a lump of metal beating it to shape in between. As it flattens and spreads, they fold the sheet over and over using the folds to gather more strengthen in the same piece of metal.

  “My best comparison is that Sebastian’s aura doesn’t seem to have grown more like a wizard would. Unlike a battle mage, however, his aura seems to have doubled without increasing in my senses; if that makes any sense.”

  Frowning as he listened to the women, the man was actually beginning to feel a little self conscious. Like being ogled for his body, something the girls sometimes tried to do to get a rise out of the typically calm battle mage; Sebastian felt like a piece of meat, or perhaps magic in this case.

  “So I am getting stronger without getting stronger?” he asked somewhat confused by Anna’s analogy. Having worked metal with his magic, like with the Hollow Sword, the mage understood metal in a way that the two women did not; but he still didn’t understand if his power was supposed to be the same strength or greater from her explanation.

  Yara shook her head and tried a different tact. “When you strengthen your muscles because you use your sword, you gain strength and more likely stamina.

  “Your reserves of magic don’t seem to have really increased, but you feel stronger; so maybe you can use more magic because your strength is in efficiency?”

  Their talk of using fire and water to quench a blade started to spark a thought in the owl inside him. If they were right that his strength was from some forging of the extreme use of his power and then relaxing it again to strengthen before it broke or was exhausted; then perhaps there was a method he could use to increase the folded strength of his magic.

  “Well, I will simply continue in the estimation that I am strong for a battle mage and refrain from trying to perform a full wizard’s spell,” he concluded for the girls as Sebastian looked at the slowly clearing beach. It was getting late and close enough to dinner that many of those playing earlier had left for home.

  “Were you planning on having dinner at the Grimnal’s home, Anna? I mean Gerid’s,” he corrected as even after a couple weeks Bas still had trouble calling the legend by his real name. Legends called him, the Grimnal, like some god; but in spite of knowing he was over a thousand years old, he preferred the use of his name, Gerid. The immortal was too impressive in his way for it to feel natural, but Sebastian did his best to try and remind himself as he talked to or about the man to call him Gerid.

  Moving slightly closer as if in conspiracy to share a secret; the girl said, “Don’t tell my chef, but Sherari and his daughters may be better cooks than he is. At least, what they make is different enough to make me believe that.

  “If I am invited, I will come certainly.” She finished with a grin and, after their time on the island, they all knew that the lady was a guest with a permanent invite by Gerid and his wife.

  Yara passed Anna her towel after having dried herself and picked up her skirt and blouse. The lady wiped at her legs, but left her dress to be picked up by her guards as she walked comfortably with her friends towards the peaceful, island village.

  Chapter 4- Gathering around the Table

  The two story home of Gerid and his family was one of only a few houses as tall on the island, but no other was as large in size as its walls sprawled to more than double that of the other houses. While some might have believed it to be as large because of the man’s previous life as a king of kings, the truth was that it was large for two reasons. One was the size of his family continued to grow with each generation. Both grandchildren and those beyond that generation often lived
in his home, which meant the house needed many rooms.

  Second, the building served as a form of inn to the people visiting the village. The island was large enough that not everyone wanted to conduct whatever business they had there and try to return home in the same day. There were also visitors from the clan beneath the sea, though fewer merfolk chose to stay on land over night even if their magic allowed it. Still, Gerid’s home had the potential to be filled to bursting as it was now.

  The first room which one entered was huge. A combination of kitchen, dining area and general meeting room for those running the island; the common room was as large as many inns might hope to have. Sebastian and his team had become regular guests over the weeks since they had arrived ahead of the black ships of the emperor. They weren’t the only ones, however, as the mage looked to one of the other tables seeing a contingent from the Kardorian vessel.

  Before finding a seat, Sebastian wandered casually towards the table recognizing many of the faces after the last couple weeks as well as knowing some since before the tournament months ago. A dark haired girl sat beside Ashleen and the rest of the surviving wizards from the Carnivore.

  “Good evening,” he started politely as the eyes rose to see his coming with Yara at his side.

  A chorus of greetings returned with a few sounding more thrilled to see the mage than others.

  “Good evening, Falcon Sebastian,” the dark haired girl replied managing a charming smile. Helena Romonus was the daughter of the lord who had gathered a handful of Southwall’s wizards and was partially responsible for winning over a few of the men with her charm. She had plied her skills against Sebastian while he was still in Falcon’s Keep and along the trail towards Hala.

  It had been easy for the falcon to keep her at arms’ length with his heart charmed as much by the exciting wilder beside her as his thoughts of Yara. A dark haired beauty with mysterious brown eyes, Helena had indeed been charming, but he had always sensed something false about her attention. Ashleen, on the other hand, had been interested in him simply because she liked him and it was mutual.

  Now that her father was dead, as well as most of the wizards he had brought with him and those willing to join up in Southwall; the young lady was effectively in charge of the Carnivore by default. A middle aged man without the trappings of wizardry was at their table as well. With a weathered face that revealed his years at sea enduring whatever weather was thrown at him, both good and bad; Captain Drovan Telumnus was the one who managed the ship.

  “How is life aboard the Carnivore these days?” Sebastian asked trying to find a question that wouldn’t step on anyone’s toes. With Lord Romonus’ death, as well as many other Kardorians thanks to the black ships; there had been a lot of mourning aboard their allies’ vessel especially in the first week. As things settled and time began to try and dull some of the initial pain, he hoped that they would be able to look ahead to where they would go now.

  While Helena’s face seemed fresh and beautiful, he could still see a little redness in her eyes and even a shade of darkness from a lack of sleep that even her makeup couldn’t fully disguise. “With help from the Grimnal’s people, the Carnivore is basically ready to leave at any time. We’ve had our funerals and tried to rearrange the duties among the crew, though we’ve yet to truly worry over the crew changes since we haven’t set sail.

  “If you’re asking if I am over my father and friends dying, then I would have to say no,” the girl finished looking a little bitter, though Sebastian wasn’t sure that the feeling was meant for him. Lord Romonus had chased the Sea Dragon shadowing his path until Maldus Island where he and his people had been captured by the black ships as they appeared looking for him. As trespassers on the island, and as guilty of being every place that the Sea Dragon had been, they had been taken prisoner as the black ships began to chase him for much darker reasons than the Kardorians.

  Though Lord Romonus’ true intentions and hopes had never been fully revealed to his people, maybe to Helena but never the rest, Sebastian assumed they had meant him no harm. With both Southwall wizards and friends among the Kardorians like Ashleen and Wendle, a lord with no magical powers would have likely been held in check from more duplicitous motives.

  Sebastian nodded at the girl’s complaint, but before he could reply Helena added with a sad smile, “I am afraid my father’s plans of trying to rebuild Kardor’s wizards backfired due to his curiosity about your quest. They say curiosity kills cats, apparently it isn’t too healthy for lords and their followers either.”

  “I wish he had been more forthright with me. Though it was a mission commissioned by King Alain, it would certainly have been something I would willingly share. The Grimnal was less of a figure in Kardor’s history most likely, but if Lord Romonus had asked we could have shared the glory of finding him.”

  Wrinkling her nose as if in distaste, the girl replied, “I think if he had been forthright and asked; your answer would have made him sail for home in disappointment. Finding the immortal king may be of help in finally pushing the emperor back into his hole, but I doubt he would have found enough value in freeing Southwall’s champion. It isn’t the treasure he hoped for anyway.”

  Hyren leaped into the conversation as the others listened, “Now if I had known of that quest, I might have jumped ship to join you. A chance to find the Grimnal would be hard to pass up for sure.”

  “And you would have handed back the lord’s money?” Themenor, the only other remaining Southwall wizard to join Lord Romonus, asked doubtfully.

  With a self deprecating smile, the blond haired wizard stroked the beard on his chin and shrugged, “Hmm, perhaps I got ahead of myself after all, my friend. The money is certainly good as well.”

  The water wizard’s eyes looked to the curly haired daughter of the lord and asked, “With your father’s passing, we really haven’t spoken much of what you plan to do, my dear. As Lord Romonus’ daughter, will you choose to honor the contract now that we are only two or have you given up your father’s mission?”

  While her eyes proved that Helena didn’t appreciate his slightly demeaning addressal of the successor to the Romonus’ line, the girl replied, “If you are still willing to come, then the money will be there for you, wizard.” Her words were colder than they had been while sailing on the Carnivore. Until the black ships had come, Helena had seemed to enjoy Hyren’s flirting ways. Since they had reunited, she had noticed the wizard’s eyes on Ashleen much too often for her taste making her jealous and irritable.

  Sebastian reentered the conversation and offered, “We can sail back together to Sileoth or even Southpoint depending on the winds. The Carnivore is still well armed, but a convoy of two or three ships is better than sailing alone. There are fewer pirates these days, but if the emperor sends more black ships, you have few wizards to defend against them.”

  Not wanting to look weak in front of the others she was supposed to be able to lead, the teenage girl took a moment to decide, “We need to go the same way for part of our journey. I suppose that if you don’t plan to wait too long, we could join you. Will the black ship be restored soon?”

  It was a point that had been under discussion by almost everyone even before the hull had been pulled from the water. Sebastian had convinced Gerid to ask the merfolk to assist in preparing the ship for the beach. There were holes that Nara, a nature wizard, was able to repair while the mermen, who were able to work beneath the water without air, tried to patch more. Once patched, Liam, Hyren and Vewen used their magic to remove as much of the water from inside the ship as they could.

  Since Hyren was technically working for Helena and the Kardorians had suffered many of their casualties on that vessel, and defeating the ship had been spread between the merfolk and the Sea Dragon; everyone had questions of who it should go to in the end. They had also found treasure onboard as well. That was an easier decision since it could be split.

  Answering the girl’s question as other thoughts spun inside o
f his mind trying to decide what would keep the most people happy with his decision, Sebastian said, “Nara hasn’t had enough time to check out the ship adequately to be sure that it is sea worthy. With a nature wizard able to manipulate the wood and water wizards able to dry out the inside faster than workmen with towels, I would hazard that it will be ready soon. The masts didn’t take too much damage and their repair shouldn’t take long. We’ll want to repair the sails, but I also asked the local women if they could dye them any other color than black.

  “We don’t want it sailing into allied harbors looking like the emperor’s vessel just to raise an alarm and have it destroyed again by accident.”

  Chuckles at the irony of being attacked because they looked like the one they had defeated rippled through those listening.

  Helena smiled and replied, “Will you sail it in our convoy then?”

  Wrinkles formed on his brow before he answered, “I’ve been considering leaving it here for the islanders. They can be trained on the rigging and other things that differ from the fishing boats by Captain Delfren and his sailors or any others willing to teach them, I suppose. That way if the island is attacked again, they will have a way for the villagers to escape.

  “Gerid has said that there are other contingencies for escaping thanks to the merfolk, but an extra option might be worth exploring. They might even want to send some emissaries to the Siren Isles to meet Yaroma’s people there. With five islands, there are also more resources than they might have found here, so exploring that option might be in their best interest now that everyone can leave when they want.”

  “You might be hard pressed to get any of my people to leave the island,” Gerid stated as he walked up from behind the battle mage catching the last part of the conversation. “It isn’t just the barrier that has kept them from joining the outside world.”