Battle Mage: The Lost King (Tales of Alus) (16 page)

Shaking his head, Collin added, “Take your time looking, Bas. I’m in no rush to return to the torture device.” Glancing across the water to the ship turned quickly into a glare for the wizard.

“Well, not everyone needs to go up top,” Sebastian noted as he began looking at the cliff wall hoping to find some sort of path. “You and Liam can search the lower part of the island to see if there is anything beyond what the compass tells me. It still points at the cliff, so I need to head up there, but perhaps there are more clues down below that might give us a hint as to what brought them here.”

The two wizards, standing now after Collin’s jesting, both nodded. Liam asked, “How do you want to split up the tasks?”

Frowning, the mage looked at Maura and her wizards. “If she can make the climb or I can find a path to the top, I assume that Maura will make me take her to see what the source of the compass point is. Until the long boats bring more of the crew here, we’re a bit limited in numbers. Collin, why don’t you take Nara and Frell to the south? Maybe Maura will allow Vewen to join you while Liam, Serrena and Olan can take Sergeant Kulvayr to the north. The others can join me climbing the cliff to search there.”

When offered the plan Maura looked unhappy with the idea of sending one of her personal guards away. “Vewen should join us as well,” the woman nearly pouted as she lifted her nose in disdain for the mage’s attempt to control the situation.

“We shouldn’t have anything to worry about for dangers,” Sebastian answered and countered, “but if we do, Vewen is primarily a water wizard and his main component is down here, not on top of a cliff. He can always join us after the groups make a circuit around the island ruling out any potential down here.”

“I want to go up there too,” Serrena complained as well. The redhead seemed to always wish to be joined at the mage’s hip, even though she knew that he and Yara were together. Where Yara wanted him for love, Serrena mostly seemed to want to learn more of his magic.

With a sympathetic smile, Yara replied, “I can go with Liam. That looks like a climb that I would rather avoid anyway.”

Looking triumphant, Serrena grinned and moved to the mage’s side before facing the cliff which made her smile falter with the obvious work that would entail to scale the face. Maura’s frown remained unabated as Sebastian stood strong on having the other water wizard remaining near the waves. With the teams arranged, Sebastian and his group spread out looking for the best way to scale the cliff.

“We could have simply split into two teams,” Maura complained in his ear again as the woman looked morosely at the stone wall before them. “One of the two will probably find a path up and save us the trouble of climbing this rock.”

Grimly, facing the wizard, Sebastian stated, “I didn’t ask you to come at all, Wizard Maura, but this is my expedition. You are here and can either be helpful or return to the Sea Dragon.”

Blinking at the man only half her age attempting to dress her down, the wizard in brown and black robes slowly recovered her composure and replied tightly, “I was sent by the council...”

“Who approved my mission and sending me as leader of it. Now quiet. Unless you see somewhere better to start, this should do.”

He faced the stone and could make out hand and footholds that he thought could work. To add to his chance of success, the mage added a spell, “Reflex.” Normally used for speed, the young man thought that the spell could add to his overall skill for climbing.

Leaping up to the first holds, Sebastian felt the stress on his back and arms as secondary feelings to the stone abrading his hands. He wished that he could wear gloves, but feared the loss of grip and feeling having the second skin covering his digits could be detrimental.

Eyes searched for the next hold and the next. The battle mage now fought stone and gravity as he tried to set each hand while he shifted left and right looking for his next hold. He tried the same for his feet, but only halfway up the man found the best holds left his feet in the air as he leaned back to pull himself up on the uneven bowing stone. With the weight of his backpack adding to the weight, Sebastian swung out and pulled one arm from the wall at a time walking up the stone. Topping the raised portion, the mage was able to return to using his feet to take the pressure off his fingers and hands. He wondered if using his stone armor spell would have helped, but the man was already committed to his choices as another ten feet passed leaving him a little more than two body lengths from the top.

Grunting with the effort, another leap to a handhold just beyond his reach put him one step closer. A push with his feet propelled him to the next and Sebastian caught hold with his fingers bringing a hiss of pain as he scratched the skin against the rock. Another surge brought him even closer to the top. His foot slipped sending small stones down the wall bringing a small curse from the wizard below who was apparently caught in part of the flow. Not worrying over Maura, Sebastian recovered and shot upward to another hand hold.

A few minutes later, the mage finished pulling his body over the edge of the cliff onto ground covered lightly with grass and further back bushes and even small trees began to grow thickly. Turning to the view below, the ship looked tiny and Sebastian thought perhaps he had misjudged the true height of the climb. Even so, as he found a solid tree trunk to wrap his rope around, the mage figured the line would still be able to reach to ground below saving the others the risky free climb. Securing the knot and giving the rope several hard pulls to make sure that it would hold, he threw the line out and over the edge. Making a short arc, the rope unraveled cleanly and slowly fell through the air towards the beach below him.

Sunlight sparkled off the waves below and into the distance. His eyes followed the sparkling carpet of waves off towards the dark clouds to the east. The remnants of the storm kept the waves stronger than they would otherwise be, but the mage figured in a few more hours the sea would settle to its more peaceful state. Looking down on the beach below, the sun, which had pushed through the wispy clouds above, lit the sand and stones making up the beach that he could see from his vantage. Tan and brown stones contrasted with the green of the grasses and the deep blue of the harbor water which was still cloudy after the storm had finished stirring up the silt of its bed.

The rope went taut as someone began to climb from the beach. Until she passed the jutting piece of stone halfway up the face, Sebastian couldn’t see that it was Serrena braving the first attempt. The fire wizard was tenacious as she fought her way slowly up the rope. Wondering what drove the young woman so hard, the mage knew that some of it was pride in being the best, but he still wondered if it was her desire to be more integral to him. There was no true second in command among his team and whether wizard or mage, Sebastian respected them all. For some, leading by committee wasn’t enough, but he led and made sure that he worked with all their ideas and demands as much as possible.

Giving the girl a hand to help pull her up onto the plateau, Sebastian felt a little vertigo as he looked straight down the deceptively high cliff. A worry of his balance and strength was something he wouldn’t have even thought pulling someone over a wall, but the height tried to overcome a person’s
senses creating doubt. Even so, the fire wizard was on top safely in mere moments breathing a bit hard from the exertion.

“That’s a quite a climb,” the girl breathed heavily. “It didn’t look that hard from the beach.”

He nodded and shook the rope out to let the others know that the line was clear. Seconds later it went tight as the next person took hold and started up the cliff. Blind to the climber, Sebastian awaited whoever was next.

One by one they came up the rope and soon his full search team was on the plateau looking at the trees and brush holding the center of the land. Second to last was Maura who tried to maintain her frowning disapproval of such a climb, but much of the effect was lost as she gasped through her open mouth and her hair was in complete disarray. Bas had to turn before he laughed and pretended to just be evaluating the next step through the vegetation.

“What now, Bas?” Serrena questioned as she ran her fingers through her hair trying to straighten it as well.

In the moment’s hesitation, Captain Drayden said holding a pleasant smile, “Perhaps we should split up to cover the area in a quicker fashion as we did below?”

Nodding agreement, Sebastian said, “Maura and Idenlare can head to the right circling that way, Mecklin and Drayden take the left and Serrena and I will head through the middle. The compass shows more or less dead ahead anyway. If anyone comes across anything, explode a fireball overhead and leave a second one hovering until the rest can find you.” With at least one fire user available in each pairing, the mage figured that was as good a way as any to signal each other. Any fighting would create noise to follow and the signals would be a waste of time, though Sebastian doubted that there was anything of concern on such a small island with the limited resources that he had estimated were available so far.

Maura frowned harder and rebutted the idea as she replied, “Idenlare and I could take the center.”

Showing the device in his hand, Sebastian refused her with his eyes before saying, “The compass says this way and I have the device, but I don’t wish to miss anything and one of you may find an easier way down as well, unless you prefer climbing down the rope again.”

Her eyes said that she did not and sending them on their way by ignoring any further complaints, Sebastian led Serrena into the brush. The auburn haired girl’s face had lit up when he had chosen her to join him, which was fine if it helped with morale. Of course, he also had his reason for choosing the fire wizard to join him. He knew Maura wouldn’t go without her bodyguard and Bas knew Mecklin could keep any eye on their unusual captain. A man that apparently was good with a role dealing with other countries left his real duties vaguely masked and Sebastian didn’t like being in the dark as to his real purpose on this mission. Whether the king had sent the captain or not, the mage just couldn’t put his distrust completely out of his mind.

As the brush and trees quickly thickened to tangled messes that threatened to trip them with every step, Sebastian quickly wished that he could taken his place following the right or left path. Serrena started to call up a fire spell, but he stopped her as he warned, “No fire. First, that will throw off the others who might believe we are in trouble and send them back to us. Second, a fire might spread and trap us with all this vegetation surrounding us.”

“But it will take forever to wade through this mess,” the girl complained irritably.

Pulling his right hand to his chest, Bas acted as if he was throwing a disc away from him and ordered a spell, “Scythe.” A wind spell that he had read about but never had a chance to use, the scythe was just a natural evolvement of several other wind spells that the mage had used before, but it left Serrena’s jaw dropped at the sight of a path extended beyond them for twenty feet. A tree had stopped the thin cutting wind blade or it might have continued across the entire plateau.

“When did you learn that?” the wizard asked looking on with incredulity.

“It was in one of the books I’ve read. Wind magic seems to be one of the schools that I am most comfortable with and I’ve used similar spells. This is just the first time I’ve really had a good use for it,” he finished the last with a chuckle. How many spells did wizards know that were never used since they were nearly useless outside of certain situations? Such spells must seem rare enough when they were utility spells that required only sparing use.

“I would have thought that you would favor fire, since battle mages are all taught a fireball spell,” Serrena replied sounding a little disappointed.

Perhaps the fire wizard still thought that he was more of a match to her personality, but it was true. As the mage continued working outside of the mage realm of spells, Bas had found that, like full wizards, a mage tended to favor certain schools of magic. He was a good healer, though Sebastian focused his abilities through mostly one word. Wind spells were his most abundant resource, though he tapped other elements at times. Like the two wizards with them, Sebastian supposed that he would wear the light blue with bands of yellow and maybe fire as well, but battle mages were jacks of all trades so at this point no mage needed to choose a school, of course.

“All battle mage spells stem from the first mage, Raven Hurst. What he discovered has been the basis for the entire school for over a century, so that is what battle mages know.”

“Until now,” she grinned as they continued to follow the mowed path to the tree. “You realize that what you are doing is going to not only change things today, but future mages will learn of the first owl, Sebastian Trillon. Your spells will spread through your corps and be the new base of training for perhaps centuries more.”

To cover the flush of embarrassment, the mage cast another scythe spell in a straight line beyond the tree until a large rock stopped the spell again. He had never thought beyond the men and women quizzing him over and over about his new spells. They all wished to learn more as he discovered new
magic or translated true wizard spells, but it took away from his learning more as well which led him to dislike teaching.

Breathing a quiet sigh, the mage realized yet again that he must try and pass on his knowledge. A more versatile corps of battle mages could change Southwall and the status of the war. Still, there were times that he wished that he could be left alone to discover more without the distraction.