Battle Mage Broken Empire (Tales of Alus Book 14)

by Donald Wigboldy

  There were quite a few more students in his class than there had been originally as well since the attack on the city over three weeks ago. Five had initially been placed with the two women, but four more had transferred four days ago leaving Fordenna looking distressed most of the days since then.

  Both he and she knew why, however. Holdy had brought eight wizards that were followers of Master Lesolas and his plan to build this sanctuary in the heart of their enemy's lands. They were the first wave and already working from the preconceived plans of the leaders. Whether their vision would remain unchanged as they worked to hew out a fortress from the mountain would remain to be seen, the boy thought.

  Master Lesolas had reviewed the land, but Holdy had a feeling much of how Sanctuary would be constructed had been in mind before that. They would need certain rooms and defenses. Since they would be in enemy lands, there would need to be proper fortifications making the school into a fort even if its chief purpose would be to house and teach the apprentices of this generation.

  When Fordenna appeared, she was not alone. Master Lesolas was there with two other wizards also.

  "Well, class it is time to put what you have learned to the test. It is time for your first missions. This will be a group exercise in the mountains. Each day we will work to master old spells and new in conditions that will be challenging yet safe," Fordenna stated. She gestured towards Lesolas and added, "You will be under the tutelage of a true master wizard. Master Lesolas taught me when I was an apprentice like you are now."

  One of the new boys said to another classmate, "Wow, he must be old to have taught her as a girl."

  Those closest to him chuckled, but the full wizards ignored their banter. Holdy had a feeling that Fordenna had heard as well since the boy hadn't exactly kept his voice down much either, but her face didn't reveal any annoyance from the fact.

  Master Lesolas smiled at them and told them, "Since it will be outside, you will need to go get your coats, gloves, hats and whatever else you think you will need to be in the cold outside the city. Food and drink will be provided, so everyone hurry up and meet back here in fifteen minutes."

  The master clapped and a tingle seemed to go through Holdy. He was ready to run to his room as much as the other students.

  "Just a minute, Holdy," Lesolas said placing a hand on the apprentice's shoulder.

  Stopping as he felt the energy dissipate with the man's touch, the apprentice looked at the master wizard expectantly. "I will need you to send the class over with six others. They will be both supervisors and among those working on the foundation for the site," Lesolas stated without using the popular term 'Sanctuary' as he spoke to the boy. "How many helpers will you need to bring that many along with several bags of supplies?"

  "Maya and Turless can assist me or Wizard Fordenna maybe," Holdy answered with little thought involved. He could have added Defrienne also since he considered the girl his friend, but didn't think that many would be needed to boost his energy. The three of them and his teacher were those he felt closest to in the class. Holdy had never been great at making friends. His passion was for reading and learning magic. With his face buried in the books of the library, he was more likely to be friends with the wizards in charge of the library than the students in his class.

  Fordenna didn't look exactly pleased with the idea of being a battery for one of her students, but Lesolas nodded with a fatherly smile before saying, "Excellent then hurry to get your outdoor clothing. We only have fifteen minutes before the others should be back after all."

  Puffing out a little air in annoyance, Holdy chose to create a gate in front of the master before disappearing through it only to reappear in his room. Like most apprentices' rooms, it was small. He supposed that he was lucky that he only had to share with Turless. Other apprentices shared the slightly larger cubicles with multiple students, but the war with Southwall had kept the school from keeping their students longer than needed, so there was more housing per resident. Missions under masters' care would begin while they were still students taking more away. Holdy had only been at the school for about a year, so it was a little soon for such things yet typically; though many teachers saw that he was a quick learner and his progress was further along than a normal first year apprentice.

  Holdy took his jacket from a hook before gathering a pack which contained his gloves, a hat and a few other things had been necessary when using his portals outside the school of late. Even his walks to the human quarter often required that he bring his pack along to have supplies for working in the tunnel.

  The glowing doorway was still up and barely a drain on his magic by the time he was standing once more in the classroom.

  "Ready," he stated making the older wizards raise eyebrows in surprise at the swiftness of his return.

  "Well, done," Lesolas answered with a smile. "Well, we'd better bring in the supplies before the class returns then."

  Fifteen minutes passed. Six other full wizards were waiting with the extra supplies not just for today's needs, but for a longer time if they wished to remain behind. Holdy knew magic could raise walls and create items quickly with a skilled user, but it had only been a few days since the first contingent of wizards had slipped away to the future sanctuary.

  Another minute passed for two stragglers to return to the glares of the others. The two girls reddened in embarrassment at being slightly late, but no one actually said anything to them directly.

  "Alright, Holdy, show the class how it is done," Master Lesolas ordered with a nod.

  Turless and Maya placed their hands on different shoulders as they stood to either side of the portal wizard. When Holdy created a gate large enough for four or five people to walk in at once, there were a few gasps from those students who had tried and failed at the magic so far. One of the rarer kinds of magic, Holdy felt a little extra pride as his classmates recognized his prowess even before they entered the glowing doorway.

  Master Lesolas and most of the elder wizards stepped through as if to help the students who had rarely if ever used a portal gate before. A few balked at the light, but eventually all but those holding the gate and Fordenna remained.

  "Go through, I'll hold the door long enough for you," their teacher stated for the three. Fordenna couldn't make a gate anymore than most of the other students, unlike her other half Megannah; but the wizard knew how to hold the magical doorway open. That didn't require the specific skill of creating the portals, so Holdy was more than willing to release the gate to his teacher.

  The three disappeared through the light together.

  Holdy felt the cold before his vision and hearing cleared. Portal blindness as most called it was a short condition for the boy, but the distance made it last longer than going from the classroom to his cubicle and back. Those short trips hadn't even seemed to disrupt his senses at all.

  He glanced around the clearing and noticed a couple students being held steady by the full wizards. These were those who had yet to return to their full senses. One of the girls was whimpering with tears on her cheeks. The wizard tried to ease her with his words, but Holdy wasn't even certain that she could hear him yet.

  "Where are we?" Maya asked leaning into him almost as intimately as a girlfriend might hug herself to her boyfriend flirtatiously.

  "South," he replied cryptically. Not wanting her to startle and perhaps echo his words, Holdy had held back saying this was Southwall instead.

  Maya frowned and whispered towards his ear somehow finding a way to mold herself to his side even more, "But there aren't any mountains south of the city... unless you mean..."

  He turned to see her brown eyes looking up at him. Her wild blonde curls framed her face and seemed to make him only see her face. "We're in Southwall, but you mustn't tell the others or say it too loud."

  "Why would they have you take us here?" the girl questioned. He could feel Turless looking at him as he listened closely from the other side.

  Fordenna had let the gate
close and had apparently recovered from traveling through the portal in time to hear. "Shush, you two. You can't speak of this mission outside class. Is that clear, Maya?"

  The woman used the girl's name in particular but as they turned to look at her, Turless and Holdy fell under her warning gaze as well.

  "Of course not," Maya replied with a nod.

  "Go join the others," their teacher ordered pointing towards the rest of their class standing on stone that was cleared of snow and was perfectly flat as well.

  Holdy looked at the mountain overshadowing them behind where the gate had been. A cave had been hollowed out and stone walls had already been extended from the mountain onto the extended flat land they stood on now. It was a remarkable amount of excavating and even building for such a short time for so few. Only talented wizards and magic could do so much in so few days work.

  "We don't look like we're the only ones 'learning' here," Turless commented making Holdy turn around once more. There were more apprentices and wizards trying to acclimate about a hundred feet away. He spotted the wizards that had begun the project walking out of the cave. There had been a few tents pitched inside making use of the protective stone of the mountain even if the walls had yet to close around them.

  Looking up, Holdy squinted at the sky. It was mostly gray, but some of the golden sunlight peeked through in places lighting the snow below the wizard made plateau. Some of the others looked uncertain of the sky. For many, it was the first time that they had ever been outside the cave city. For those who had once lived outside, it was like finding home.

  There were elves mainly in the other class. Holdy had never connected the thought that his original classmates had almost all been fully human or hybrids formed with elves. The second group appeared mainly made up of elves, though there were still a few humans apparently also. Whether they had been segregated during their teaching by intent, the boy didn't know. He knew Megannah was part elf also, but the pretty teacher still could pass for a petite human woman.

  He let the thought go and watched as Master Lesolas and the other teachers began pulling the groups together long enough to assign them to their mentors. The work was mostly working with stone, but some went down the slope at the edge of the plateau to go down into the forest. Those would be wizards who could work with the land and nature. Their job was to clear parts of the forest to create the wood beams and braces that would be needed for the fortress school.

  "Why are we here really?" Maya asked quietly holding onto his arm again as they followed Fordenna and another warlock named, Ferglan.

  "The idea of making a tunnel to give the humans a chance if they need it was my plan, but this was the original," he replied.

  "They will bring humans here?"

  "Master Lesolas and the others decided to make a place called Sanctuary where they could take the apprentices if a war started inside the city. Now with Wizard Megannah's boyfriend, Torva giving him ideas; the master might bring at least some of our people along as well."

  Maya looked confused and asked, "Do we want to keep doing what we've been doing for over a week?"

  Nodding, the boy looked into her warm eyes again and felt his heart jump. She always made him think the word 'pretty' when he looked at this girl. Her hands holding onto his arm made him warm even in the cold of winter and the mountain breezes moving around them. Recovering his words in a slightly numb mind, Holdy answered, "Even if they choose to bring some of the human quarter, it will only be some of them."

  The girl looked out over the valley to the surrounding mountains. There were miles of valley between them. "There is enough room for all of Ensolus. Why would they choose to leave anyone behind?"

  "Because they aren't wizards," he reminded her and the girl looked at him looking ready to pout from the way her lower lip slid out slightly from under her upper lip for a moment.

  Sighing, Maya said, "That isn't fair."

  "Not everyone will want to come anyway. This is far from what they've always known as home. If I weren't a wizard, I'm not sure that I would be willing to leave so easily.

  "Only if the city falls into a civil war will people be ready to run, but even then I bet some will want to go back when it's over. That is why we need to finish the tunnel for them."

  The girl nodded before leaning her head against his shoulder. Holdy knew that she was a couple years older than he was, and doubted that she could think of him as more than a friend or little brother; but it was nice.

  "Come on you two lovebirds. We've got work to do," Ferglan reminded them as he turned to see if they were still followed. Both of them blushed, but neither denied or said anything more of it.

  Megan heard the bedroom door open letting Amelyer into his outer sitting room. The general looked to be considering the weight of the world, the girl thought.

  Niadene greeted him and moved towards the general. "Now why do you look like that before the day has even begun, general?" the maid asked him moving close enough to flirt with the man.

  Though Megan didn't see Amelyer every time, she had noticed Niadene would often brush up against him as if trying to entice him with her body. The other woman was pretty as well. Echolus had told her that the general was known for his love of pretty women, but that he seemed to prefer to look rather than partake. He was a general more focused on his work than the pleasures of the flesh, but when his arm encircled the girl's waist before sliding down to grip her rear; Megan wondered if that was only half true.

  A slight smile touched his lips, though the man's eyes still looked worried.

  "Corven's soldiers have been trying to force my men out of parts of the spire. It is only a matter of time before he will push this too far," the general replied and the frown returned.

  The other maid surprised her by hugging him even as he continued to caress her posterior absently. "My general, at least try and give me a smile until after you eat breakfast."

  Forcing a chuckle and a smile for her, the general nodded and said, "I'll try."

  His eyes strayed to his other maid and they didn't smile at Megan doing so. "Your face looks like it has recovered nicely," Amelyer stated.

  Touching her cheek, Megan had followed Echolus' advice and used an illusion spell to make a light bruise across her cheek and ear lessening the mark each day. It was a challenge for the wizard, but she had made sure to consult with her healer friend in the process of making it. She had looked at the damage in a mirror before getting healed and had recreated it for the next day. Keeping the magic up for seven or eight hours was surprisingly draining, but her power covered it well enough and she used a perpetuating style of spell that renewed off of the original spell as if trapping the magic in a circle. The idea was that a core of magical power maintained the spell without having to drain her magic directly. It still needed recharging from time to time, but Megan maintained it diligently while working in the spire without it faltering.

  Even though the mark was smaller and lighter each day, the magic used was about the same. Today was going to be the last, but Megan kept the shade of color just to ease away from the initial dark bruise.

  "Yes, general," she answered with a nod touching her cheek lightly with her fingers as if it was still a sensitive area. "I barely notice it now and the mark is finally fading."

  How dark it would have been if she hadn't been healed, Megan wasn't certain; but it had been believable enough she thought.

  "I know that you are only temporarily covering for Heline, but I hadn't planned on you getting caught up in the madness of Corven's attack. I truly appreciate your service, Megan," the general told her inclining his head politely.

  "It isn't your fault that the orcs couldn't restrain their instincts," the wizard said feeding off of the general feeling about orcs held by most humans and elves. "Your man saved me at least, though it is a shame that some died also."

  "You probably don't miss Velden though," the general suggested coolly. He had sat to eat. Niadene removed one covered platter
while Megan poured a glass of water and a goblet of wine. It was only breakfast, but a watered down wine had the taste he wanted without dulling his mind so long as the elf only drank one serving of the liquid. Megan had been told as much by Niadene one day after breakfast had been served and the general had left. Now she wondered if the maid was defending him because she liked him also.

  "I didn't wish for him to die," she replied immediately, but in a calm tone. There had to be nothing of her sentiment that said otherwise, though Megan had slept well enough even after using her magic to kill the man. It had been self defense after all, but the wizard doubted that Amelyer would be in agreement with her. Plus she would have to explain how she had killed the sergeant and that meant giving herself away as a wizard. "Lukash does check me in a much politer way though."

  Amelyer paused in his preparation to eat and looked at her face a moment before his eyes trailed down her neck to her cleavage until they were blocked by the table and its cloth. "Well, you are an exceptionally pretty woman," he stated coolly, but Megan thought she saw a glimmer of interest in his eyes. "Some men can't contain their base instincts, I am afraid. Human men are taught less control of their emotions apparently. I have worked with human, elf, orc and the more monstrous of the races. Though elves might not be completely emotionless, they are trained to be less vile in that way along with learning other kinds of restraint."

  Thinking of Torva and the passion she could bring out of him in bed, Megan smirked as her eyes wandered with her thoughts.

  "I've known some elven men that I could make have less control also," she admitted to the man. While Megan would hardly admit that she was in love with a man and considered herself committed to him since such knowledge might ruin her cover, the woman could admit that much.

  Amelyer held a slight smile and retorted, "I suppose that I can believe that. Like I said, you are a beautiful woman. You look vaguely elven as well, so I see it. Niadene and Heline have made living in the spire quite... attractive for me."