Battle Mage: The Lost King (Tales of Alus) (44 page)

Rubbing his chin, Sebastian quickly figured out what would be so important to the enemy. “They went ahead to check on the Grimnal and probably to lay a trap.”

All three sets of eyes opened wider in surprise. Hyren asked first, “You are looking for the Grimnal? How is that possible?”

“He’s an immortal and has left a trace behind. Things that he used or gifted to others are scattered in places, but there is no certain surety that he still lives. I do believe it and this need to stop us from finding him leads me to believe even stronger,” Sebastian stated almost forgetting the others.

“Well, if you’re done interrogating them for now, I think that we should work on finding them something more respectable to wear,” Annalicia remarked pulling Ashleen with her. “An air wizard about my size,” she gushed with a grin, “I think I may have some dresses that will look marvelous on you.”

With her new friend in tow, the girls left the deck leaving the wizards to look chagrined before him. Themenor bowed his head before the mage saying, “I am ashamed that we couldn’t have been of more help, falcon. We really did think that we served Southwall better by going with him.”

Frowning slightly, Sebastian searched for the answer to another question in his mind. “I understand Ashleen’s being there, since she is Kardorian her master serves Lord Romonus, but why are Southwall wizards in service to a Kardorian lord?”

Themenor answered meekly, “My pride led me to take an offer to visit their country. If all went well, I was to have a chance to help head a school of wizards. My hubris made me believe that I deserved better than the place I lost in the tournament, but I was able to see what your team of wizards and mages did in the battle even if I couldn’t act on my own. I know now that I wasn’t as deserving as I once thought.”

Shrugging, Hyren added, “My story is similar and I thought that it might be fun to go see how our allies lived. It was never a permanent offer with me. I wanted to see a little more of the world and maybe make some money doing it, but I never foresaw anything like this.

“Well, what’s done is done,” the handsome wizard decided with a self deprecating smile. “Feel free to use me as you can, falcon. You are a worthy leader for someone so young. I can respect what you’ve done. Now if you’ll excuse me, the wind is getting a little chill and I believe new clothes were in the offering.”

Sebastian let the men go and, after recovering a little more, the healing mage began to help out those he could.

Palose pushed Stasia off of him as he heard the clanging of large bells from the harbor. Talia minded her side much better than the pretty little blond. Both girls could be very affectionate, but he could tell which one had once been a nobleman’s daughter from her neediness.

“Palose?” the pretty girl asked as she knelt on the mattress of the bed they shared.

The dim light of day still came through the second floor window of the house he rented with the gold he stole from Atrouseon. Whether the warlock had ever noticed Palose siphoning gold from his plentiful stash or not, the man had never confronted him about it. The man almost seemed to want to be a father figure to Palose and perhaps ignored some of what his ‘son’ sought to get away with, but that didn’t mean that the fledgling warlock could ignore warning bells.

A new light came from the harbor. The light shone on the nude girls through his window as Palose began to pull on his clothes. Seeing the arch glowing from the magic used to bring something back through the gate, Palose knew there was something wrong. If he didn’t show up, Atrouseon might decide to find out what his wayward son had been doing when he went out. As long as he attended his duties, trips to the library of magic and to his girls were considered his own business.

“You girls stay here. If I don’t return by tomorrow, you know what you are supposed to do during the day,” the young warlock stated to the girls. They had duties both menial and more significant. They were his eyes and ears in places where a warlock would be noticed in the city.

Both rose before he could escape and delivered kisses to either cheek. “Be safe, my lord,” Stasia said breathily.

“We will do as you ask, master,” Talia added. She was the more reliable of the two, though both girls served him well in many ways. When they were apart, the larger, older girl probably bossed little Stasia around he thought slightly amused, though the smaller girl probably hid more from him than he
knew. They were sister like in his presence, so Palose ignored any other trivialities as long as things continued to go well.

Running out into the street, he spotted people gaping from windows and doors. He was forced to dodge more bodies as he raced to the dock where he knew Atrouseon and the others would be gathered for the unexpected interruption.

While not a part of the upper echelon of warlocks, Palose often heard through Atrouseon about things that were beyond his station. The wizard hunters had sent word through a scrying globe of their first capture. A Kardorian ship had been where it shouldn’t have been apparently. Their leader had given his plan to split the fleet. One ship pursued another, while the remaining two moved to head off the potential goal of their quarry if they escaped the first. They had been confident that no ship could contend with the power of the black warships with a score of wizard hunter warlocks aboard.

As his feet thumped onto the wood pier, Palose came to a startled halt. The sight of a broken black ship limping through the gate was a surprise to everyone gathered and not just for the young warlock.

The once proud black ship was physically broken and battered. Two of the three masts were gone but for ten feet in the center of the ship. The third, rear mast had sails with holes and broken cross members. That the vessel could even move was a wonder. Aside from the broken masts, the hull looked like it had been through a terrible battle. Broken timbers in the hull, rail dismantled into twigs, even one of the two cabins on the deck was damaged beyond use.

Palose wasn’t sure how long it would take to repair such a complete wreck.

It had been less than a week since the trio had left and hunter three was now here and defeated.

“Palose!” Atrouseon snapped seeing the young man slowly walking towards the congregation of magi and military officials. “Get over here, boy!”

Palose did not like the man’s tone, but it was nothing new. For all the fatherly thoughts, the man looked on him also as his apprentice and he was the master. The thought and the man’s disposition chafed, but it wasn’t the time to end matters between them. Palose still needed a few things from Atrouseon, but when the man’s usefulness was over so would be their relationship.

“Master Atrouseon,” he half bowed his head quickly before looking to the broken ship still pulling up towards the dock, “any word of what happened?”

The man frowned. “Would we be standing here if we knew what had happened?” he snapped. It was rare for the warlock to lose his temper with him this often for so little, but Palose took it in stride. He had been a cadet for several years in the battle mages and had harsh taskmasters before after all. He had dealt with such without complaint before and this was not the time to worry over it.

“It looks like the wizard hunters weren’t too successful,” he commented slightly amused.

He could almost hear his master’s teeth grind in anger. Strangely, Palose thought, they should have been use to loss. Southwall had bloodied the emperor’s nose for almost two centuries after all, but he supposed that this force was among their elite. To have them fail meant something more than a few hundred orcs being defeated in the field.

Ropes were tossed from the deck and workers below tied the ship to the pier. A plank was lowered and soon a trio of warlocks walked down in shame.

An older warlock, Cortrive grabbed the first man by the black shirt and shook him. “What is the meaning of this, Werinas? Where is Karfon and the others?”

The younger man’s eyes looked hollow. He was as beaten as the ship and probably had less fight in him, Palose thought to himself. Maybe his punishment would be death also. Then perhaps Wakaraq could get this one for him to begin building his collection of servants.

Greedily the mage hoped for the worst, even as the warlock finally answered, “All dead. We three are all that remain of the hunters. A handful of soldiers and we three.”

The crack of a slap across the face left the younger man staring in shock at the elder warlock. “What happened to them? Tell me.”

“After we captured a Kardorian ship, Lord Devolus, sent us to find another ship that had desecrated the island. It was they that set off the traps and defeated them. We should have been more wary of anyone capable of defeating the curse barrier, but we were so certain in our armor and magic.

“Then instead of us finding them, the ship found us. It was a simple frigate from the south. There was nothing strange about the ship, except before we even spotted them the enemy struck our ship from afar. They killed from miles away. I’ve never heard of such a thing before and then they used elemental magic with light and dark to defeat our best spells.

“We were supposed to be the only ones who knew those spells. How could they use them better than we could?” Werinas asked still fully in shock from the loss and death of his score of warlocks. The orcs and goblins were nothing to those men, but when other magi died there was a sympathy not given the other lesser races.

A low growl emanated from the elder. “Traitors have escaped before and now they’ve trained our most hated enemies apparently.

“Who did you face?” the man demanded and the warlocks knew what he meant.

“A handful of battle mages and about as many wizards from Southwall, they were working with a ship from the south, but I am unsure of its origin, Master Cortrive.”

For Palose, the story was beginning to make sense and he realized that his old friend had apparently survived the beating he had been given in Windmeer. He had believed Sebastian killed by orcs and goblins that he had left behind to kill the mage, but apparently someone had saved him after all. The man had as many lives as a cat it seemed.

The story of the arrows sent from afar and battle mages being sighted meant that the mizard was alive and learning their magic. He was both proud of his old friend’s achievement and annoyed that he hadn’t died as planned.

“Palose?” Atrouseon questioned seeing the man’s thoughtful look. “Do you know something?”

Other eyes turned to the young warlock. Their eyes looked on in disdain at the former mage, a resurrection man, and in most minds a mistake since Windmeer still stood against them.

“They ran into the mizard.”

The men mulled the word over in their mouths like an echo of Palose’s words.

“What is a mizard?” Atrouseon asked knowing the minds around them questioned the word.

“The battle mage who has the mind of a wizard. He has apparently learned even more tricks since I last saw him. His ability to learn new magic makes him a problem and the ability to master it in new ways makes him even more dangerous.”

He looked at Werinas, “He has brown hair and is similar to my height. We’re also about the same age. If you were actually brave enough to face him, which I doubt, then you would have seen that he has blue eyes. Does this sound like him?”

The warlock nodded looking pale. Palose had called his cowardice into the light. It was just another way to keep the warlock on the chopping block. The dark mage wanted someone with magic to join him. He couldn’t trust the living in Ensolus, but perhaps a resurrection man like him would make things more possible.

The crowd of warlocks and military began to argue and discuss his revelation. Palose’s eyes never left the cowardly warlock. He had plans for this one, if he could make it work.

Chapter 28- Paradise Beach

The sun was shining and the air was warm. With the gentle rise and fall of the ship as it moved through the waves, one could almost think they were on a pleasure trip as they crossed the line into what was considered the Glacian Ocean. To Sebastian, it was just more unbroken sea and waves as far as the eye could see.

After a brief lay over in Karas, the island of Talc’s main northern harbor, to check over the ship for damage; the Sea Dragon was once more at sea headed for the dangerous area they had been warned against entering by Lord Sumpterhall. They had found little damage to the ship thanks to the work of Nara and the water wizards protecting it during their battle. The nature wizard had used her magic to manipulate the wood in the hull to make it proof against the cannon fire and magic of the black ship. She had even knitted the few pieces harmed while they still sailed.

A cloud separated the mage from the sun and he glanced up thinking equally shadowed thoughts. While the vessel had faired well, a dozen men had died. Annalicia’s crew had taken the worst of the death toll, but they had also had to say goodbye to Sergeant Kulvayr. A blow to the head from a troll’s blackened club had crumpled his helmet breaking skull and neck from the terrible blow. Not even Yara could heal a death blow.

The rest of the injuries had been treatable thanks to the healer’s magic. Sebastian had helped many until he could barely move even with food and drink resupplying his energy. The point of exhaustion was beyond mere food when it came.