Battle Mage: Winter's Edge (22 page)

             
“Sorry, Bas, I didn’t realize. Are you alright?” Rathmor asked as he set Sebastian down much more gently than he had picked him up.

             
In a flurry, a pair of yellow robed figures rushed to the injured falcon’s side. Four green eyes took him in as both women laid hands on him before closing their eyes a moment. Sebastian knew the familiar feel of their magic entering him. These two he knew very well.

             
The older woman, only ten years his elder, was the wizard Deyla. Silver hair made her look slightly older at first glance, but her face didn’t appear that old at all. In fact, she was still quite pretty, he thought. Well, for her age anyway, but she was nothing compared to the younger woman beside her.

             
Mentored by Deyla, Yara had similar green eyes, but her hair was blond and nearly as yellow as the robes she wore. This was the girl he had lost his heart to last summer.

             
The women looked at each other and Yara reported, “One broken rib and one cracked. No internal damage beyond that at least. His cuts were cauterized and partially healed with magic, though it’s not a practice I’ve seen before.”

             
As Deyla nodded, Deiclonus moved closer to the healers with a polite bow of his head and answered, “I am afraid that is my sect’s version of field medicine. Perhaps it’s a little blunt but it tends to help more than it hurts.”

             
“A bit of kardorian patch work?” Deyla questioned with a raised eyebrow. “Interesting. I wouldn’t have thought a fire wizard would have even come up with such a spell.”

             
With a bit of surprise at the woman’s ability to call out his specialty of magic, Deiclonus received the words as a compliment giving another brief nod of acknowledgement.

             
Yara interrupted. “I will take Sebastian inside and tend to him, Deyla. In fact, standing out in this cold longer than we have to won’t make anyone feel better. Perhaps we should all head inside?”

             
Sebastian smiled at Yara’s taking charge. She was actually the youngest one of his friend’s to greet him. In fact, she was not even half of Rathmor’s age; though the older falcon could oft times show a youthful side to him. Deyla also smiled at her apprentice’s quick move to take possession of the mage. Sebastian always wondered if the wizard had realized just how close the two had become last summer.

             
The couple had been careful, since Yara was still an apprentice and had more rules against her than he did after his promotion. The most crucial rule involved how close a relationship a female apprentice could actually have with a man. They were to remain pure. It was a double standard within her order, he gathered, since males were not under such a rule. As a healer’s apprentice, Yara would be more easily found out if she had tried to get too intimate with a man, since their magic revealed so much physically.

             
It was even believed that female wizards would lose much of their strength during the act and, of course, an apprentice becoming pregnant would fully ruin them. They would consider it throwing away your career and wasting their magic. A woman’s powers could be compromised in such a way and of course having a child would draw away all of her attention from the wizard’s guild and their teaching.

             
The two of them had been very careful to keep their relationship appearing to be just good friends in public. That they had given each other their hearts, if not their bodies, was still hidden Sebastian was fairly sure. He had also been gone for awhile now, however, and perhaps Yara had said something to her mentor that he did not know about yet.

             
As Yara pulled him away, he heard some of his greeters voicing their complaints about losing him so soon after going out to meet him. Then Deyla’s voice raised up telling them that tending to his injuries was more important than a need for a greeting. Once he was healed they could talk to him all they wanted.

             
Sebastian smiled and said quietly, “I guess Deyla hasn’t lost her touch.”

             
Giggling, Yara replied, “All healer wizards learn to deal with people, those who are injured and those who aren’t. It’s easy for people to forget the person is in fact hurt. You would think it a simple concept, but when they are being inconvenienced by having to wait for you it’s often our job to remind them. Healing takes time, though with one of us around it does go a bit faster.”

             
Her brow wrinkled in concern as she asked, “Of course, the one group we can’t save you from is the ravens and lords of the castle. Do you need to report to them right away?”

             
Her right hand had entwined with his left almost instantly and her other held to his upper arm in half a hug. With his free hand he patted the one on his arm and said cheerfully, “Thankfully, no. I didn’t lead the group here. That was Falcon Markun’s job and Wizard Druick was with me in the enemy stronghold, so he can answer most of that part. I’ll probably get called in later though.”

             
“Enemy stronghold? What have you been up to without me to watch over you, Sebastian Trillon? It’s winter. What trouble could you get yourself into during winter? I assume it has something to do with how you hurt your ribs.”

             
He smiled. “Trouble finds me or I find it regardless of the weather, I guess. I wasn’t sure if you had heard. We stumbled across a new enemy fortress in the mountains that found its way south of the wall somehow.

             
“We sent word to Windmeer and Falcon’s Keep about it, but perhaps those in charge don’t want it made known to the general public so please don’t spread the news until they are ready. When we went to check out some suspicious activity, the enemy ambushed us. The others were captured and I fell over a cliff fighting off some new werelings that were more of a mountain cat rather than the wolf-like ones I’d seen before. They fought using their claws and teeth much more effectively than the wolves,” he added thinking of the many cuts on his body that the healers already found.

             
“Oh my,” Yara replied in half a whisper. “I can’t believe so many of the Dark One’s army managed to slip past the wall. I mean to make a fortress like that, there must be quite a few that snuck through.”

             
“After last year’s surprise inside of Windmeer, I don’t find it as strange anymore. I doubt that Southwall’s wizards have finished figuring out the portal magic that Palose must have used to bring so many enemies into the castle, even after all these months.”

             
Shrugging, Yara replied, “I wouldn’t know. I’m still just an apprentice yet after all. The full wizards don’t tend to share that kind of information unless you’re called on to assist them with something. Healer wizards probably wouldn’t even qualify as needed for such an examination.

             
“No, the talk of the castle is actually the upcoming Winter’s Edge tournament in Hala.”

             
“Oh yeah, I’d forgotten about the king’s tournament. It has been mentioned at Falcon’s Keep a few times. I’m not sure if the keep is planning to send anyone or not, but I hear that it’s expected to draw challengers from outside of Southwall also.”

             
The girl nodded as she pointed at a door on their right. He knew the door to the medical wing well enough after his injuries last summer. “I’d heard that as well. I would assume they mean Marianis, Sileoth and Staron with perhaps Kardor entering also.” She looked somewhat thoughtful and asked, “Are the kardorian wizards planning to compete? Is that why they’re traveling at this time of year?”

             
“I don’t think these three were being sent to Hala for the tournament,” Sebastian said as he hopped up on a stool that Yara had gestured to as they entered. A handful of people were inside the large room. Two full wizards in their yellow robes and an apprentice were overseeing two other patients. A soldier sporting bandages around his abdomen, probably from some training accident and another man whose condition he could not judge as easily.

             
Only the apprentice glanced to them as they entered the room.

             
Yara stepped over to a door covering a large box and opened it revealing bottles of juice as well as some perishable foods. Sebastian remembered the box from his time in the medical wing last year. It was an amazing piece of wizardry conceived of by the water wizards. Four times daily, a wizard or more likely an apprentice would come through and use their magic to reduce the temperature and form ice that never seemed to truly melt. It kept the food and drinks inside very cool and prevented spoiling.

             
There were only three such containers in the entire city and all three were located inside the castle. The other two served the kitchens. It was winter now, and the city ice cutters would be cutting and storing ice in special chambers deep underground that would be used during the warm months. The rest of the city kept chilled coolers by using stored winter ice instead for most of the year.

             
If the richer people and most likely the more powerful officials had known of the wizard coolers, he had no doubt they would be begging for the school’s wizards to become a refrigeration business. White Hall had better things to do, of course, but the rich wanted what they wanted often despite the needs of the land.

             
While absorbed in his musings, Yara had settled a plate of food and a pitcher of juice on a table within arm’s reach. Some bread and three bell shaped fruits, known as prapples to the northerners, rested on the plate. They would renew her energy after using her healing magic.

             
“All set,” the girl declared and sat on a tall stool in front of him. She took a couple deep breaths, made a few hand gestures while quietly speaking some words to draw up her magic, and then Yara touched his legs with her hands. She didn’t need to see his wounds or even lay her hands near them. Her magic required a touch and that was all.

             
Sebastian felt the comforting, warm feel of her touch. They were gentle hands that he remembered from their nights of magical play and the weeks of healing treatments after the battle as well. There had been times where she had been teaching him her magic and then there were the times they had used the touch like magical embraces.

             
The comfort of this touch suddenly hurt a bit as she prodded his ribs with her magic. “This will smart a bit,” the wizard warned. “Your ribs need to be straightened and set.”

             
“Go ahead,” he answered trusting in her fully.

             
Sebastian still gasped at the quick shift of the ribs despite her warning. It was painful even with the magic designed to help numb the pain. This hurt was too deep and needed too much attention to be completely gentle.

             
“Sorry,” she said sounding far away. In essence, Yara was deep inside of him where the injuries were.

             
He felt his other wounds, previously sealed by Deiclonus, warm and the feeling seemed to spread and ease the skin where it had been scarred. The healing went deeper than his outward cauterizing of wounds.

             
After twenty minutes, the girl stood up from the stool with sweat on her forehead. “Better?” she asked. He breathed deeper than he had since the fall and nodded with a smile.

             
“Definitely. I wish you had been with us for the trip. This is the best I’ve felt in days.”

             
“Well, I’m glad I could help,” she grinned before swallowing several gulps of her juice. Yara’s eyes grew more serious and she leaned closer as she added. “I wish that I could’ve been with you too. I’ve missed you.”

             
Her eyes glanced to the other wizards in the room and noticed their attention was still focused on their patients. Feeling bold, Yara leaned over and kissed him on the lips. It was a quick and very surprising move. Sebastian felt the touch of her lips, brief as it was, and felt like he had indeed come home.

             
                           
Chapter 12-The Warmth of a Bed

              Wind whistled past the glass of the castle window. The sill was letting in a slight draft that Sebastian idly thought about repairing with his magic, but he couldn’t quite make himself spend the energy to do that just yet. The gray skies outside and the slight chill in the room left him wanting to stay under his blankets ignoring the rest of the world. If Yara were there with him, he didn’t think that he would ever want to leave.

             
After the long, cold trip to Windmeer, the mage felt drained to his core. Much of his body’s energy having been used in being healed by Yara’s spells didn’t help either, he supposed. That was the problem with magic, energy for it had to come from somewhere and usually that meant the people involved in it. The healer wasn’t the only one that expended their strength, though he was hardly going to complain about some minor tiredness, however. Sebastian was fully appreciative for the healing. He hadn’t exaggerated when he had told Yara that his chest had been hurting him since the fall. Though the mage had pushed himself throughout the days of entering the fortress and then the continued ride to Windmeer, the healing magic left him finally feeling comfortable in his own skin again.