Battle Mage: Dragon Mage (Tales of Alus) (7 page)

Ignoring him as she rolled her eyes at the goofy gargoyle, Cheleya turned towards the rise in the valley. “I’ve never been out of the mountains. Do you have any idea how we get there without my wings, smart guy?”

Rubbing his chin, the giant winged creature mused. “I could fly with you short distances, but adding the weight of the two packs as well would be difficult. I suppose we start by following the path out of the valley like your little friends.”

Cheleya thought of the crag dogs. Each easily outweighed her little human body and could stand taller if they were on their hind legs. Calling them little could only be done by something as large as Kel’lor or a che’ther. “Then we should go soon. Standing here just makes me feel colder by the second.”

His large finger poked her arm with his left hand after picking up the two sacks in the other. “How will you survive in such soft skin? Have you already lost your che’ther immunity to cold?”

Sighing and rubbing the offended shoulder with her opposite hand, she retorted, “I will survive much better if you stop poking this body. Thank you.”

“Yes, little sister,” the gargoyle chuckled again letting her barefoot human body lead the way. He tended to laugh each time the poor girl injured her toes, but Cheleya did her best to ignore his amusement at her expense.

It was going to be a long walk.

“Toban,” Malaketh called to the warlock sitting on a stool in the darkness of the classroom.

Standing up to stride over to the balcony where he followed the dragon master’s pointing finger, the dark haired, bearded warlock looked down the hundreds of feet to see the stragglers of the creatures he had called through his portal. Noting the missing big black wolf, the warlock frowned. More than a third of the pack was missing. “I thought that you said the girl had no power. There is no way a human should be able to drive away a team of hunters.”

“They’re your beasts. Why don’t you use your magic to go find out? Besides I warned you she had enough magic to save herself from the fall, didn’t I?” Malaketh retorted angrily. It was supposed to be a simple task. They only had to kill a girl that should have died from plummeting to her death hours ago. Now it looked like she had survived against the odds once more.

“I am not your servant, Malaketh. Remember that I was sent by our masters to ensure that you fulfilled your duties here.”

“Fine, but they are still your beasts. I can’t communicate with the damnable things. You are the beasts’ master, not I,” the dragon mage stated with a wave of his hand. The two men had been butting heads for years and unfortunately Toban was his main contact with Ensolus. The home of the emperor only heard what Toban conveyed to them, so Malaketh had to treat the man well enough or be stranded amongst the dragons and gargoyles for the rest of his life. That is if they didn’t decide to reveal the truth about the spy and get him killed instead.

Cutting the palm of his hand, the warlock known as Toban used the strength in his blood to draw a rectangle in the air. His magic left the trail of red visibly floating to create the doorway which lit as he finished drawing the shape before him. Toban stepped through the doorway disappearing from the tower.

Malaketh turned to look over the rail and watched as the glowing portal created a duplicate less than a hundred feet from the beasts below. The warlock cast another spell and the mage could see even from the heights that one of the werecats changed shape lifting from all fours to stand like a man or orc.

The two had words and Malaketh wished that he could be there to here this excuse for himself, but portal magic was rarely within a solo warlock’s ability. Toban was strong and that wasn’t the only magic he could use because of his massive power. A new portal opened while the first remained in effect, a feat that required strength beyond what Malaketh could hope to attain.

Moments later, the werebeasts were gone through the second gate, while Toban stepped through the first and returned to the spire balcony.

“Well?” the mage asked curiously.

“By the description, I would say the dragoness was saved by a pack of crag dogs and a mar’goyn’lya. The last of who saved the girl from the pack leader. They were outnumbered and outmatched with the gargoyle joining the fray.”

“Did they describe the gargoyle as male or female?” Malaketh asked having an idea of the interloper.

“A large male, though aren’t they all pretty much the same?”

“If he used magic to save her, then not all. That must have been Kel’lor; though what he was doing out there this late I have no idea. So her brother protector helped save her too? He might get her to return before we are ready.”

A third man standing in the doorway stated quietly, “They won’t believe her. The old dragon won’t back up her story and you are her teacher. Her word will mean nothing.”

“I am still the outsider here, Delever. Master of their magic or not, the girl might convince a few of her dragon friends to believe her. I have worked too long, and lived with these creatures beyond human tolerance, to have a baby dragon in human skin ruin the plan,” Malaketh replied angrily. “Can you bring something more useful than a mangy bunch of dogs and cats to make sure that she can’t give us away?”

“In time,” the warlock replied. “I need to replenish my energy for the spells required. Tomorrow night I will call them and bring better hunters than the pack. She won’t escape again.”

“But tomorrow might be too late,” the dragon mage replied worriedly.

“They ran away from the city. She is unsure that she can sway anyone to believe her or she would have tried to run back to Mar’kal. For all your worrying that the che’ther might believe her, I think she doubts that they will. Tomorrow will still be soon enough to kill her. Do not worry about her beyond that.”

Frowning, Malaketh replied, “She is strong enough that if we wait too long, her magic will return and make it that much harder to kill her. My spell won’t disrupt her forever.”

Toban pointed to the third moon cresting the horizon in the east as Turas held the sky for his youngest brother. “I can’t keep using my power and the third moon is already upon us. Wrap up what you can here and we will return to finish her tomorrow.”

Gritting his teeth knowing that he couldn’t influence Toban anymore than he had, the mage turned to lead the other two men back into the academy building to finish taking the artifacts that they needed. Malaketh would have trouble sleeping, but then again two of his three students were already gone so class could be ignored for the day. Shrugging, the dragon mage master would do as Toban said. He would try to not worry over the loose ends too much for now.

Chapter 5- Tandem Flight

The deep sound of snoring awoke Cheleya as the early light of dawn tried to peek around the mountains to the east. She had slept in her blue blanket. The color was a sad reminder of the che’ther trapped inside, but warm to her all too human body.

Looking over at Kel’lor leaning against the wall of the shallow depression just deep enough to keep them from being struck by the cold, night time winds; the girl saw the cause for her early awakening. As a student at the academy she had to rise somewhat early, but never after a night as harrowing as the last. She felt like she could sleep for a week, but the second reason to awaken came from within as her stomach began to grumble.

Going out into the stone field of the upper valley, the girl went to relieve herself. Things were so different about being human as opposed to being a che’ther. One thing that was very different, Cheleya thought hiking up the dress to avoid soiling it, was that she never had to squat to pee as a dragon. It was a random thought, but the girl sighed as the thought was just one of dozens bugging her about being trapped in this form. It was strange to hate being something that had once been so fun to her. When she had the choice and could return to her true self, being human was fun and maybe more enjoyable than being a che’ther, but now she was trapped as a human. Her choices and freedom to be what she wanted had been taken away from her. Now the girl only had the freedom to flee from the home she had known all her life.

The rumble of Kel’lor’s snoring stopped and he came out of the depression seeing the little human with her skirt up above her waist. Unsure of where to look with such an uncommon sight, the gargoyle just found his eyes looking up at the far stone wall. Their races were normally less worried over such things, but for some reason this felt very awkward to both of them. “You are all right then?” his deep voice asked sounding as uncomfortable as he looked.

“I am fine,” the girl stated standing once more and moving back towards the depression. Looking at the state of her dress, Cheleya noted several tears from the rough night in the valley. It wasn’t made from material designed to take much abuse and it was a lighter weight cloth than a human would need in the mountains.

Stripping off the red dress, the naked girl began to rummage through her pack for her other dress hoping that it would be warmer. Her strawberry blond hair slid into her vision getting in the way. She would have to try and find something to tie it back if it continued to annoy her, Cheleya thought as her hands found the blue dress she knew was in the pack. Glass and some of the gold had found their way onto her only fresh dress, so the girl walked out into the light and began to shake the garment. Cheleya knew glass could cut humans. She had seen a man cut from broken glass in the alchemy area before and didn’t want to hurt her body. The healing bar would need more magic to charge it and the dragoness was pretty sure that it was low on power. Maybe if she asked Kel’lor to use his magic he could charge it for her.

“I thought humans were hairy,” Kel’lor remarked watching the girl shake out her dress.

“Huh?” Cheleya asked in confusion as she stopped shaking the cloth.

“You have hair on top of your head like the humans I see in the city, but your body seems very smooth and hairless. Is that what a human girl looks like? It appears very fragile to me,” the gargoyle stated from the rock that he had decided to sit on while he waited.

Looking down on her nude form a moment, her emerald green eyes returned to his gaze and remarked, “I don’t know. I’ve never seen a woman without her clothing. Humans seem to never be without their clothing, but I can see why. You are right their bodies are very fragile. Without my magic to form the dragon scale spell, I feel very soft and defenseless.”

Her blunt assessment brought a nod from Kel’lor. “Even my bigger body feels so weak compared to a mar’goyn’lya. All the teachers always seem to want us to change and look like them, not just Malaketh. I don’t know why humans don’t want to try changing into us. We always have to be more like them. It’s kind of insulting in a way.”

Cheleya understood what he meant. A cold breeze suddenly brushed against her skin and the girl felt the flesh pimple from nearly her feet to her head. Looking at her arms, the dragoness just shook her head. It was so fragile and worse she was feeling like she was losing more and more of her che’ther advantages in this form.

Thinking the dress safe enough now, Cheleya ended the thought and discussion by pulling the blue dress over her head and into position. She looked down at her scratched feet lifting the right straight out before her as she adjusted her balance. “I wish that I had bought some shoes or a pair of their boots, but I never saw the reason to before.”

“Why did you buy the dresses? You could always use your illusion magic to make something similar appear,” the mar’goyn’lya asked as the two moved back into the depression to cut some bread and spread a jam common to Mar’kal. They would have to make what the gargoyle had brought with him last for an indefinite time. Neither of them were hunters and without Cheleya’s magic the girl felt even more useless. At least with her dragon magic she might catch something using her speed. They at least knew some of the edible plants that they might find along the way as well.

“I bought them because they were pretty and I don’t always feel like maintaining the illusion spell. That kind of magic always felt harder than it was worth to me,” she confessed before biting into the bread.

He let the words rest and looked out at the valley and asked, “Should I try to fly you as far as I can before trying to walk? It will save your feet a bit that way.”

Shrugging without committing to either decision, Cheleya said, “If you think it would be faster and can maintain flight long enough to make it worth it, perhaps we could try. You’ll have me and the weight of the two packs though.”

Kel’lor lifted first one pack and then the other. He looked at the girl knowing that she would weigh more than either pack, but his kind had been known once upon a time to catch their meals and fly them back to their eyries. “Maybe if you were on my back it would be easier,” he decided.

After drinking some water, Cheleya used the stone that Kel’lor had been sitting on earlier to get onto the mar’goyn’lya’s back. Holding onto his neck with both arms and wrapping her legs around him as far as they would go, the girl nervously awaited take off. It wasn’t like flying with her magic. She had never feared falling since it was up to her to avoid falling. For some reason, it had never occurred to the dragoness that she could fall and die. That was before Malaketh threw her off a spire expecting her to die, of course.

“Ready?” the gargoyle asked.