Battle Mage: Dragon Mage (Tales of Alus) (59 page)

A large wave was rising from the lake headed for the Gray Hall wizard. Gathering speed and strength, Szurken called up a powerful wind to try and stall the massive force of water while he hid under a black dome of magic hoping to avoid being driven from his ring.

Her eyes had been on the wave, but a flare of light as bright as the sun emblazoned itself on her eyes as it raced past the dying mass of water to strike the dome of night. Splintering like the black shield’s before the Gray Hall spell of light, Szurken was left exposed and looking frightened. His cocky, easygoing attitude had sheered away like his night shield in an instant.

Sebastian seemed to be daring the wizard to react as he waited a moment to see what he would do. Cheleya watched as the mage must have decided to act and risk the wizard’s magic reprisal. Six spears of air delivered wood and iron shafts through the fire wall, but the gray wizard had seen them coming as he used a wall of wind and fire to burn or knock them all back towards the lake.

The wizard wasn’t done as his winds drove two large blocks of stone towards the mage. A pair of blue mage shields split the stones breaking them up, but their mass still broke the front shield of his defenses. A wedge created from his remaining two mage shields were all that remained of his defenses that had been minimal to start.

It mattered little though as a second large wave raced towards Szurken. The wizard used a pair of night shields formed into a wedge to split the wave only to see Sebastian clap his hands as he controlled the wave to close behind the wedge aiming for the wizard. Another sphere of darkness barely saved the wizard as the water crashed onto the shore washing away the remains of his original defenses. A single bolt of sunlight shredded both the floating wedge and the sphere in a moment.

Szurken jumped up readying to continue the fight, but his opponent had set him up as he had so many opponents before him.

“Bind him!” the two words carried even to those in the balconies before a pair of iron rods, washed to Szurken’s feet by the second wave, leapt up like serpents to ensnare the man. His hands and arms were caught and pulled tight to his chest by the iron. Immobilized, the black robed moderator declared Sebastian’s victory as those watching cried out with whoops of joy.

“I can’t believe it! He actually beat him at his own game!” Evan cried out in delight. While the mage wasn’t from Staron, there was a brotherhood that made all the mages cheer for the man like no other competitor. He was one of them and he was victorious.

The afternoon matches had been staggered to allow all four matches to be seen by all those attending. Following Szurken’s defeat, the wind wizard from Malaiy, the beautiful, popular, blond haired girl named Annalicia defeated the last remaining gray wizard.

While Cheleya had been glad to see the last of the strange men go, she was a bit saddened when the fire wizard, Magnus, defeated the elf she had watched for the last two days. Kinship or not, he was done as was a wilder casting lightning from Kardor when the Tolmonan defeated her.

The final four were set to duel the next day, but before she could leave to return to her inn, Theress pulled her aside.

“What is it, Theress?” the girl questioned slightly confused. He had returned without saying where he had gone or offering any excuse for his absence.

The elder dragon smiled and asked quietly, “Do you still wish to train at the school that created the battle mage in the tournament?”

Her eyes widened slightly, “You have talked to the wizards of Southwall on my behalf, Kev’Theress?”

Bobbing his head in a nod as his smile grew, the old man replied, “I have been given permission for you to go to their school called White Hall. It is a little over a week’s ride to the west, but I made sure to discover that it was the school that both he and this fire wizard using mage magic are from.”

“I could probably fly there faster,” the girl stated thinking of the time she could save.

An emphatic shake of his head preceded the ambassador’s warning, “No, my dear, I think that it would be best that you ride out with one of the wizard groups returning to the school. I have already begun discussing those arrangements as well. You should probably try and avoid flying for a time.”

Now the girl was truly confused. Flight was one of her favorite things and had been the chief reason that the girl had become a dragon mage apprentice so early in her studies. “But why, Kev’Theress? I could be there a day or two sooner and begin my studies.”

Patting the air to slow the girl’s exuberance, he said, “You have to remember that these people believe that their wall protects them from the Dark One. To simply fly over these walls that the humans have constructed, would undermine all their efforts of the last two hundred years, Cheleya. Besides, it is probably best to keep our magic to ourselves, at least for now. Please just try and follow an old man’s advice. Do it for me. Would you?”

A smile of warmth for the dragon who had already done so much for her came easily to her eyes as Cheleya shrugged, “If that is your wish, Kev’Theress, then I shall try to restrain myself.”

Chuckling at her less than perfect sounding affirmation, the ambassador shook his head taking the girl’s hand to place it on his arm. Directing Cheleya towards the room that would lead them to a hall and onward through the castle, Theress patted her hand affectionately and said, “If I had a daughter, I think that I would like her to be like you, Cheleya. Now let us leave that we may return again tomorrow.”

Chapter 36- Parting

It was getting late when Cheleya heard a light knock on her door. Though the sounds of revelry continued in many inns around the city, the Two Circles Inn room could hear little of the noise of those enjoying their tournament stay. Whether it was because she was on a higher floor or because Two Circles had less entertainment than places like the Black Smith Inn where her friends had gone again tonight, the girl was unsure.

She was dressed for bed, since the dragoness had been too worried to stay out late this night. A small silk shirt and bottoms left a lot of bare skin, but Colbie had told her that it was respectable in private and for sleeping. While her friend had inferred that such garb was inappropriate for public wear, the dragoness wasn’t going to worry about her state of dress to open a door.

Opening the portal, Cheleya quickly smiled and greeted, “Father! You’re back!”

His eyes played to the girl’s bare arms and legs a moment as he appeared to contain a sigh. “Yes, Mor’treya and I just arrived.”

As she waved him inside, Cheleya spotted Mor’treya behind her father. Letting both of them into the room, which was large enough to hold four easily, the girl’s face darkened slightly as she closed the door. Her first question revealed her look as her voice lowered slightly, “Malaketh?”

Mor’treya’s face echoed hers as she looked to Dargan. Her father answered, “He’s dead.”

Brightening at the news momentarily, Cheleya quickly noticed that he wasn’t pleased and questioned, “Isn’t that good news?”

Curling her legs under her, the girl sat on the bed while Mor’treya sat in one of the chairs at the desk to the right of the door. In the guise of a human, her dark hair bound into a ponytail, the mar’goyn’lya appeared more comfortable sitting further away from Cheleya for some reason. Whether it stemmed from her following Malaketh against her friend or Mor’treya saw her as broken with her curse even less likely to be cured now that their master was dead, she didn’t know.

Her father still stood in the pathway between the desks and the foot of the bed pacing anxiously. Some of his restlessness came out as he answered, “His death would be better news if we had been the ones to execute him. I had still planned on bringing him to the court in Mar’kal, but someone chose to kill him out on the plain.”

Eyes crinkling in thought at the words, Cheleya asked, “Someone else killed him? Was it the tribesmen? I would think that a dragon master would be able to avoid their arrows.”

Shaking his head, Cor’Dargan replied letting his eyes stray in thought, “No, it wasn’t an arrow that killed him. Someone beheaded him from behind, someone that he may have known.

“The trackers think, and I agree, that more of those bird men you ran into may have been with a pair of men that met up with him on the way back to Mar’kal. In his arrogance, I think Malaketh believed that he could turn the council against all of us. He also must have believed himself safe with these men since he landed to face them.”

The news was both confusing and disheartening to hear, but the girl had a feeling that there was more.

Mor’treya filled in one of the worries as she said from her corner, “His black amulet was missing.”

Eyes widening slightly, the little blond moved to sit on the edge of the bed dangling her legs over the side as if ready to spring to the floor. “If that is missing, then do the ones who killed him know what it can do?”

“That is what worries me,” her father replied. “If these were the men that you saw him with at the academy, then they very well might have killed him to silence Malaketh. They took his head with them and left his body.”

“They beheaded him?” the girl asked in confusion.

Dargan’s pacing stopped as he looked at his daughter. “If they know spells from necromancy, it is possible that they don’t need him alive to learn what he knows. At best, he is dead and they may have taken his head for a reward.”

“What will we do now, father?”

“Has Ambassador Sselanus spoken to you of finding a place to stay?”

His question so far from the main topic threw Cheleya a moment. “We were talking about a battle mage, who has been defeating wizards in their very own tournament. I asked Theress if he could see whether I could maybe go to one of Southwall’s schools to learn from the teachers of this man.

“He talked to the wizards in Hala and has secured a place in White Hall to continue my training. I am still just learning, after all, and since returning home would be difficult...”

Her voice trailed off as Cheleya found the need to nearly beg for her father’s permission to go. Even by che’ther standards, she was old enough to start making decisions for her life, but she was still a young girl and he was her father.

Nodding at her words, Dargan said, “Though I would love to have you return home, perhaps with all that is going on and the present state your are in at the moment, this would be best. If you go to White Hall I will know that your are safe and you can learn some more. Though you seem to have learned a lot already, there is no such thing as too much knowledge for a wizard.”

His words left misgivings in her heart. She almost wondered if he was glad to be rid of his cursed daughter. No longer truly che’ther, Cheleya would also have trouble being a part of their world. A human could visit or live in the human homes in their part of the city, but she wasn’t really human either. A clean break from Mar’kal felt like the right way to go, but it also felt like she was running away from the problem.

“Perhaps one of their healers will find a way to remove the shards of amulet from my bones so that I can return to my true self. Then I could return and rejoin the family. After all this time as a human, I doubt that I would need to anger mother by becoming one again in front of her,” she said hearing the words and the sadness in them.

Cor’Dargan moved to stand beside his daughter and hugged her head to his chest where she sat. Most che’ther didn’t understand such human gestures, but he lived among them once long ago and knew much that his fellow wizards did not of human ways. Cheleya had never been hugged by her father and a dragon hardly needed such an expression of emotion; but to the che’ther, who was human now, it felt right.

“Your mother will miss you, Cheleya, as will I. She loves you even in this form. Trust me in that.”

His voice seemed to tremble with emotion and Cheleya wondered at this man, who was a dragon in disguise. Every day she was trapped as a human girl, Cheleya felt more and more of their human feelings. While they worried her, they didn’t frighten the dragoness. She had seen the good in her human friends and knew that their feelings were part of what made her like them.

Having shed her scaled form, the petite, blond, fragile, human girl seemed to enjoy creating the tight bonds that perhaps being a che’ther could never have tolerated or created. Whether that was good in a dragon’s mind or not, Cheleya thought that she liked that part of being human.

“Kel’lor wants to travel with me there to make sure that I arrive safely,” Cheleya announced slightly muffled as she continued to hold onto her father.

He pushed away from his daughter gently before sitting on the bed across from her. “Your brother, as you call him, isn’t ready to see you go either, I guess.”

Shrugging, she responded, “He’s willing to change into a human again despite what Malaketh did to him, so I know that he is serious. I don’t know what he would be protecting me from, but he wants to go. I don’t want to say goodbye to him either, I suppose.”

Dargan chuckled. “Well, when would you leave?”

“Kev’Theress said a few days after tournament’s end. There is a group returning to the school then and those in charge will be able to help me with the administrators when we get there.”

With a nod and content smile, Cor’Dargan finished, “Well, then we will stay until you leave. Alk’leyal and the others are already on their way to warn the council and inform them of Malaketh, so there is no reason I can’t stay here for a few more days.”