Battle Mage: Dragon Mage (Tales of Alus) (34 page)

It was news to Cheleya as well, but she voiced another concern, “What about Kel’lor? He’s stuck in the hospital and my trail could lead to him or even his original trail might be found.”

“I’ve been using the spell since we entered the city and walked over the trails that you two left all night. That should keep them from finding him easily and then they’d have to sneak past the guards to get to him. He’s as safe as I can make him without getting him special guards of his own.” Lystheir’s eyes wandered to Dargan wondering if the former master had enough clout to arrange such a thing. At her glance, he sadly shook his head.

Her father took over saying, “Without getting Southwall involved, we can do little more, but he is in a safe place. Malaketh has papers allowing him to be here to search for you two and the right to capture you as well. If we tried to go to any of the officials of the city with your story, it is just as likely that you would be arrested and held for Malaketh instead.

“No, we will just do what we can to keep you safe and hope that we can pull them from his trail.”

With that, the group headed into the outer city. It came with a bit of worry that Malaketh and his trackers might get lucky and just run into them as they wandered through Hala, but it was their hope that Elenek would be able to get word to them in time. Cheleya also wondered how the third che’ther would find them as they worked to obscure her trail.

“Father, if we are moving throughout the city with Lystheir masking me from the trackers, how will Elenek find us?”

The two mages from Staron noted the question looking curiously to the elder che’ther. “I used my magic to enchant a stone. It will work like a compass to bring him to me even with Lystheir’s magic.”

Her question answered, they continued to move through outer Hala during the morning until it was time to find the wizards from Mar’kal at their inn.

It was near midday with the sun shining down on the city and yet the late winter day felt little warmth as Malaketh led his team through the northwest gate. It was the closest one to the great wall’s passage, but that didn’t make it the most direct path. In fact, the gates were set either to the west or the south with no gate in the northern face. The outer city’s wall had been created after the arrival of the Dark Emperor’s armies and as the giant wall was erected a mile to the north, the city worked to protect the population that had grown over a thousand years. Following the Cataclysm, the populace had swelled even more as more people thronged to the capitol hoping for help in the wake of the disaster and newly arrived dark armies.

Malaketh cared little for the history of Southwall as he walked with the mar’goyn’lya who had all adopted their human forms to blend in with the residents of Hala. After flying for over a week during the day, his legs and feet soon began to annoy him with their aches. At the Academy of Magic he taught classes and stood for much of the time, but there weren’t miles of walking in large doses to do during his day. The wizard had grown a bit soft, he thought morosely.

The crowds they found inside the city added to his gloom. He hated crowds, which was one of the nice things about being in Mar’kal for a decade. The streets were so wide and the city so large that he had never felt crowded even when dozens of che’ther or mar’goyn’lya dwarfed him travelling their paths.

Hala was an old city, though the outer part was only a couple hundred years old, it had streets that felt tight and cramped to contain so many people within the protective walls. Moving off to the side as they watched farmers, merchants, soldiers and the occasional mage; Malaketh awaited his trackers use of their magic. These mar’goyn’lya had been assigned to him for their skills after all, as had the two che’ther that had deserted him for Cor’Dargan, a dragon who apparently had an impressive past to draw them to him so easily.

He watched as the two mages, Stas’kel and Ev’erelias, went through several vision and other sense enhancement spells until they finally turned to Alk’leyal, their elder and most powerful of the three in confusion. Unlike the two burly looking mar’goyn’lya, Alk’leyal looked older and was of a size with Malaketh. Bald with a black goatee, the gargoyle’s human form looked to be in his late forties and slightly soft around the middle. The fact that he was a powerful mar’goyn’lya was well hidden and rare for those who used amulets. He was also an expert with tracking and stealth magic ranking just below a true master.

Working his own version of the spells and a few more besides, his brown eyes closed with his hands held together pointing to the sky like he was meditating. Only an occasional change in spells broke the pose until after several minutes, the gargoyle frowned and shook his head. “Her scent and magic are well masked.”

Malaketh returned the frown as he mused to the gargoyles, “The che’ther must have joined the other two. This is disconcerting, though perhaps it explains why young Cheleya would turn to thievery.”

Mor’treya continued to look unconvinced that the girl she had trained with over the last year could betray her people so drastically, but as Malaketh watched the mar’goyn’lya around him, the master manipulator noticed a change to their attitude. “Perhaps it wasn’t Kel’lor who talked her into stealing from the archive, but Cor’Dargan that has manipulated the two young mages into such treachery. It would make sense that a former master might know of such treasures and perhaps he has begun to covet their power with his time away from the academy.

“No one would suspect the young Cheleya until it was too late. Kel’lor looks on her as a sister and must have become wrapped around her finger becoming embroiled in this scandal.”

While their reaction proved that they thought it made sense it wasn’t until Alk’leyal added, “It would also make his involvement in this pursuit until it behooved him to disappear, a good mask for leaving the city. Though I am surprised Fa’Lystheir and Fa’Elenek would join him so easily.”

Shaking his head as if saddened by the betrayals, Malaketh concluded, “He was a master long ago, I have heard, and a che’ther. Even though the evidence should have swayed them to bring the thieves back for trial, Dargan must have used his former influence and his race to sway them. Who would believe that there are such lines drawn after so long, but obviously the che’ther would rather help thieves than let mar’goyn’lya and a human bring them to justice.”

The idea that it was a slight against their race caused the three men to look a little angrier. Malaketh hoped pitting the two sides against one another would help him keep the gargoyles in check. If they wouldn’t listen to the che’ther and become swayed by Cheleya’s side of the story, then perhaps he could get them to either kill each other or stay preoccupied long enough for him to kill the girl himself. She was too much of a liability to the master to leave her alive to expose him. Being both a thief and attempted murderer was bad enough, but if they suspected any involvement with Ensolus and the emperor, Malaketh’s life would diminish to torture, debriefings and most likely a small stone prison for whatever length of life he might keep.

Mor’treya said nothing. Usually a calm thinker who internalized what she was thinking, unless she was provoked to frustration and anger, the gargoyle woman watched Malaketh looking like she wanted to prove him false. She had yet to see anything that would clear her former classmates. Following her master to capture her friends, the woman probably wished to get a true answer from Kel’lor and Cheleya, which was another reason for him to finish them off before they could tell Mor’treya the truth.

Alk’leyal led the discussion back to their quarry looking more ready to confront the runaways, “Lystheir and Elenek are experts at stealth and tracking as well as being able to hide from pursuit, but even their magical abilities have limits. We will have to canvas the city and wait until we come close enough to find them. They might make it more difficult, but it is inevitable if they stay within Hala.”

“It is a big city though,” Stas’kel said looking at the crowds of people roaming the street nearest them despite the cold weather. “This tournament will make it harder as well.”

Malaketh rubbed his black beard thoughtfully wondering if there were any positives to the situation. What had made the girl run to Hala instead of Estaria with her new Staronen benefactors? There
had to be something here, but it eluded him still. From that thought, however, he did pick up a clue that might narrow their search.

“They came on horseback and are likely to have entered the city through this gate,” Malaketh said working through his logic and gesturing to the large gate a few hundred feet to their left. “They couldn’t have wanted to try working through these crowds with the animals for long. We can start by searching for the local stables. We also know that she came with mages from Staron. Cheleya is also a pretty, blond, human girl and Kel’lor is an intimidating man. Men remember beautiful women especially, so between those identifiers we should be able to at least find where to start.”

Continuing on their path down the street, they found the first stable and enquired within. To Malaketh’s amazement, he had been correct. Talking to the stable boys, the master smiled trying to look sincere and friendly.

“Young man,” he waved to an older teen and the boy came to him curiously since they had no horses to board.

“May I help you, sir?” he asked glancing to the men and single young woman flanking the master. His eyes lingered on Mor’treya, a good looking brunette, a few inches shorter than Malaketh though still a bit tall for a woman, the gargoyle would be considered attractive by many. The teenager’s extra attention supported the master’s idea of Cheleya being memorable.

“Yes, have you recently stabled horses for a handful of mages from Staron? They would have a pretty, little, blond haired girl close to your age with them and a very large, dark haired man as well; if you had seen them.”

The boy’s eyes looked wary, but Malaketh’s description of Cheleya struck a chord that the master could see in his face. Just a young lad, the stable boy wasn’t a good liar and he started off with an attempt at deception. “I am sorry, sir, but we aren’t supposed to give out that kind of information. Horse thieves might target someone’s horses and we don’t want to help thieves.”

Seeing that the stable boy was simply reciting rhetoric most likely from his master or someone else in charge of the stables, Malaketh’s hand fumbled with the leather pouch at his waist. A pickpocket would find it desirable, but the wizard had a spell binding it too him and keeping the pouch sealed against casual thieves. “Well, that is a shame. We are seeking our friends before the tournament and were hoping to meet up with them to discuss tactics before the matches began.”

Malaketh had seen the posters at the gate and heard of the event even at the Academy of Magic in Mar’kal. He also knew that several wizards had been sent to represent Mar’kal from both races. Though the outside world viewed the two as separate, they both governed the city and surrounding lands together. Whether dragon or gargoyle, they would be fighting for Mar’kal’s pride. The boy wouldn’t know whether they were wizard trackers or there for the event, so it was an easy lie.

“You’re a wizard?” the teen asked and by now a handful of other boys had begun to draw towards the group in front of the stable.

Conjuring a ball of fire with ease, the commoners’ choice of spells normally, Malaketh raised an eyebrow daring the lad to defy his expertise. “As you can see, I am a master. Now as to my friends, have you seen them? I have no wish to harm them, just a wish to see them. If we knew where they went, then we could go find them.”

A second boy, a little younger, thin and with narrow eyes, stared at the wizards intently. He drew a stare from the first boy, as he spoke up, since the first stable boy was obviously a stickler for the rules more than the younger teen. “Is there a reward for any news?”

“Any news that is helpful, yes,” Malaketh replied with his smile plastered to his lips. He had someone that might take the bite. Now it was just a matter of what he knew.

“What kind of reward?” the boy asked shrewdly. He wouldn’t give up any information without a bribe, the master realized nearly frowning but managing to keep his smile. Two silvers were plucked from the pouch and held between the index and middle finger for one and on the other side of the middle for the second. They shown brightly in the winter sun and he knew that it was a reward beyond their means.

“If the information is good enough, two silvers,” he stated holding the pieces at his shoulder making sure they could see them. “It goes to the first one with the information on our friends.”

He repeated his description of the mages from Staron, Kel’lor and the pretty dragoness. A couple of the boys perked up at the description of Cheleya and he knew that this was likely the place unless it was too full when they arrived. The second boy didn’t give his fellows a chance to steal his reward, so he quickly stated, “They came in yesterday morning.”

Eyeing the reward, the boy stepped forward ready to claim the silvers. “Did you hear where they were going? I do not seek their horses after all.”

The boy’s face darkened to a frown for a moment before he remembered, “I heard them ask for directions to the embassy for Staron. I guess they were planning to go there for a room or something.”

“And where did you tell them the embassy was, that I might find where you sent them?” Malaketh continued to bait the boy into giving the information he hoped would narrow their search.