Battle Mage: The Lost King (Tales of Alus) (2 page)

“Oh, sure I’m champion, but the amazing Mizard Sebastian pulls off the most powerful spell of the whole tournament better than most wizards could ever hope. Nice timing, Bas,” sarcastically the wizard half laughed at the comment and slapped the mage on his shoulder. Though there was a smile to soften the words, Sebastian had a feeling that at least some of what he said revealed his true feelings.

“If you hadn’t created those mage tubes, I doubt that it would have mattered,” the mage said of the wizard’s own hand in saving the girl. Like they were of one mind, Magnus had reacted to the flood of water lifting into the sky by creating several glowing tubes using the blue magic of a mage spell. With the aid of the tubes, the flood put out the intense flames trapped inside that were killing the fire wizard’s opponent and instead saved Anna’s life. It had been a close thing, but the two had managed to defeat the death trap in time.

Waving off the compliment, Magnus replied, “I just modified your battle mage shields to create the tubes, though I guess that you’re right. You couldn’t have done it without me. I guess that’s why I am the champion,” he finished with a grin.

Sebastian just wanted to sigh. He was still trying to decide if he liked Magnus better as his antagonist or his new friend.

“But seriously, Bas, I felt your power surge higher than any wizard I can think of that I have met. That’s how I knew something was about to happen and I reacted when I saw the water coming. Any mage could pull off my spell, but how did you do yours?”

Once again a fire wizard was pushing for him to reveal his secrets. Was it just something about fire practitioners that made them unable to wait for answers when he was ready? At least in this case, Sebastian could be relatively honest as he confessed, “I am not truly sure. When I realized that Lady Annalicia was trapped with your fire and probably unable to dispel her own magic, something desperate made me cast the spell. I managed to draw in the power from around me somehow and that’s where it came from, but I still have no idea why it didn’t kill me trying.”

Eyes narrowed slightly as Magnus judged his words before his charming, happy smile returned as he clapped the mage on the shoulder again. “Well, if you ever figure it out, just let me know, Bas. As you’ve already proven, it’s better for us to share and learn from each other. Right?”

It was an interesting twist of words that sounded much like his own, the mage thought though he managed to maintain a lesser smile of his own. “Of course, anything for Southwall.”

“That’s the spirit,” the fire wizard quickly replied even as Sebastian noticed the man’s attention starting to wander to the crowd beyond the mage and his table. “Well, as much as I would like to continue chatting about this all night, I do have some responsibilities tonight. The head table calls and I hear the king might even present the award himself.”

As the fire wizard moved away, Collin regained his seat watching the man in red with a frown. “Winner by default maybe,” the earth wizard said sarcastically, “I think that you could have beaten him if you could have fought him.”

“Winning was only the secondary goal of this tournament for me,” Sebastian replied casually even as most of the eyes of his team looked to him in surprise. “I’m not saying that I didn’t like the idea of winning, but simply proving that a battle mage can hold his own and even win a few rounds can be considered a victory here. Maybe after this, wizards and mages can start seeing each other as equals rather than the falcons being cast offs for the military.”

Four wizards looked ready to defend themselves against the statement. The twelve had grown pretty close over the last few weeks between training, riding and cheering their friends on in the tournament. Despite his remark, they all knew that present company was excluded by the generalization.

It was Brenner, calmly aloof as usual, who responded, “Perhaps they will look at you as an equal and with such respect but, until a few more falcons step up to prove their equality, I suspect that will be the extent of it for now. The good news is that your name will be on the lips of those who have seen you duel. If one mage can give some of the most talented wizards a run for their money, it should put the question in their minds about whether there are more like you at least.”

Again the other wizards looked like they wished to argue, but unfortunately they could see the man’s point. Collin added, “If only we had a little more time to train the rest, maybe one or more could have challenged the wizards as well. It’s kind of a shame that we didn’t start sooner.”

When Mecklin, the eldest of the mages to join Sebastian for the trip, jumped in; his reply surprised them all, “Perhaps it wasn’t the amount of time, but the ones chosen. We five were picked because we were able to learn Sebastian’s new magic faster than most, but maybe they should have sent others with more power? If we were the wrong five to send, then it is on us.”

Eyes among the falcons started to drop considering his point, but it was Liam, their water wizard, that exclaimed with a short, bark of a laugh, “Ha! You forget that we trained with you too. With a little more practice and perhaps a little creative advice from your owl,” he said gesturing towards Sebastian using his latest nickname, “I think most of you might have made it through the first round or two easily.”

“It’s not like any of us won the whole tournament either,” the words came from the only outsider among them. Wizard Sharamar was an old friend and current crush of Liam’s despite his protests to the second part. Knowing only what she did from Winter’s Edge, the young woman also had the most clarity by being further from the discussion. She had even lost to Sebastian before he had to withdraw from the tournament. “No wizard who witnessed Sebastian’s duels can argue that he got lucky every time. Some idiot of a noble might still call it that, but I wasn’t giving you a pass anymore than Szurken did. In that match, you shocked a lot of Southwall wizards when you learned and turned the outsider’s spells against him. I’m not even sure how many full wizards could do as much. No one else did during the tournament at least and these were Southwall’s best and brightest in theory.”

Noting the last part of her words, Sebastian tried to encourage the others, “We all fought well and have nothing to be ashamed of, so let’s stop being down and start enjoying this celebration already.”

With the food being served, much of the dance floor cleared as they moved to the dozens of tables around the room.

“Bas!” the sound of a female voice called as he and Yara moved to the outer ring after the last brisk dance. His exhaustion from the tournament was apparent after only three songs among the crowd of revelers.

A silver blond dressed in fancy robes betraying a different country’s fashion, came hurrying up with a taller wizard looking uncomfortable trailing her. From Kardor, Ashleen was a wilder and another wizard who had joined the tournament and done well. The ambassador she served had been the reason for Sebastian’s original trip east of the Dimple Mountains and the girl had become a good friend as well. Despite his feelings for Yara, the distance had made him wonder what he felt and how he should feel about the electrifying beauty from Kardor.

“Evening Ashleen, Wendle,” Sebastian greeted the two wizards. Her layered gown of blue and teal was expensive and reminded him that the wilder was also the daughter of rich nobles as well.

The silver haired beauty looked slightly perplexed at the couple’s retreat from the dance floor and continued, “Don’t tell me that you two are done already. The night is young and I was really hoping to pull Sebastian away for a dance or two…, if Yara wouldn’t mind of course. You know I value walking too much to try doing too much with Wendle, but I don’t really know anyone else.”

Looking slightly wounded by the comment, the male wizard glanced away knowing that his two left feet had hobbled even the best dancers who had tried to teach him some grace on the dance floor. Sebastian could feel for the man, though luckily he could avoid his partners’ toes most of the time.

“Unfortunately the tournament has worn me down a bit. We were going to take a breather, but I planned to soldier on for as many dances as I can handle,” Sebastian replied even as the four continued to move away from the main floor of dancers.

“Oh, then maybe once you have recovered I can get you to myself for a dance or two?” Ashleen smiled fluttering her eyelashes and flirting more than he thought even she realized. As Yara’s hand tightened firmly over his, the mage knew the healer’s opinion even if, in theory, they were still supposed to remain somewhat detached thanks to the rules over wizards, especially female wizards.

Yara managed to make a reply that didn’t sound too forced thanks to the noise of the great hall, “I don’t own him, so I am sure that Sebastian would be a gentleman and take you out for a dance, Ashleen.”

If he hadn’t built strong hands from his years of working with a sword, Sebastian wondered if the healer might not be squeezing hard enough to break his hand. “We have a table over here with the rest of my team, if you two don’t have anywhere better. We’d be glad to have you.”

Perking up happily, Ashleen pulled Wendle after her as the four took their seats for a short time while the mage caught his breath.

“With the tournament over, what are your plans now?” Wendle asked though the question seemed almost scripted for him by the wilder.

With a sigh as he contemplated another long ride in his near future, Sebastian replied, “Well, we’ll probably return to Windmeer through White Hall and see where I am to be appointed next. I was in Falcon’s Keep before Lord Romonus disrupted my winter’s plans after all and that is even further west along the path.

“If there is still need to help with the orc fortress that we found south of the wall, I may be called on for that as well. I almost hope there is something left to do, since I wasn’t able to help with it despite being the one to find the hidden fort.”

He referred to the discovery of hundreds of the emperor’s dark soldiers and wizards south of the protective North Wall. A forty foot high wall, the North Wall was a solid obstacle to the armies of the north as it had been built across the entire northern border of Southwall from one side of the peninsula to the other covering over a thousand miles. It had been impenetrable for over one hundred years despite many attempts from the dark beasts, but now twice in less than a year there had been breeches.

The first had come from a battle mage apprentice turned evil in some way yet unknown. Palose had infiltrated Windmeer as he was believed to have barely survived a trip north of the wall. Welcomed as a returning hero, the man had used mirror magic to create a portal within the castle to bring a small army, not only behind the wall, but into the belly of Windmeer itself.

Whether the second event had anything to do with first was unknown, but Sebastian still felt responsible as he worried that some of those brought by Palose had escaped into Southwall to bring this new threat into the mountains. A full fortress hewn out of a mountain and filled with orcs, goblins, wraiths and more, the threat of an army of the emperor’s creation had been a surprise and was something requiring the full attention of Southwall’s forces. The worst part was that he had been sent away from the fight to join a wizard duel tournament, a frivolous thing by comparison.

Yara shook her head and voiced her opinion aloud, “You need to stop worrying, Bas. You’re just one man, even if you are unique, and you can’t expect to be everywhere solving every problem. Remember that you’re only a falcon yet. There are dozens of people above you that are there to tend to these matters.”

Surprisingly, Ashleen nodded and added, “I know being an outsider I have less of an idea of how the battle mages work in your country, but I do know that a falcon is basically the entry rank for your corps. If that’s true, then Yara’s right. You really need to take a step back and follow your orders while others take care of these things. They are trained just as much as you to deal with them. Aren’t they?”

He knew when he was being ganged up on and the mage threw up his hands in surrender as he began to chuckle, “Ok, ok, you two win. I’ll just behave and try to not worry over the enemy sneaking into Southwall, but…”

Like a rehearsed reaction, the two girls stopped him with a harmonized no. Catching them off guard, the girls both had to giggle.

Wendle shook his head as did the few men from his team still sitting at the table taking a break. “You know that you’re in trouble when they start saying the same thing,” the wizard informed him sadly.

Having no other way out of the conversation, Sebastian rose extending a hand to Ashleen. “You wanted a dance?”

He felt Yara’s frown at his back, but he knew this was merely a dance with a friend. As they moved into the throng, the mage wondered what he would be doing after he returned home, if he could call anywhere home. A mage went where he was ordered and did as he was told. The girls were probably correct about that. He needed to learn to worry less and just try to follow his orders, though had he always thought that way Sebastian would never have learned all the magic he had, so maybe there was also a line that had to be crossed now and then.

It was a matter to worry about later though as the man led the graceful wizard into the movements of the next dance.

Chapter 2- Gift of Kings

Though Sebastian had met the lords of both Windmeer and Falcon’s Keep, the mage had never been as thoroughly overwhelmed by meeting a noble as he was now. King Alain, the second, the king of Southwall and master of the city of Hala, was the highest noble one could ever meet and the mage looked at the man in awe.