The masters of the academy had given him a place of honor despite his absence and many of his newer spells had become teachings within the school. Elenek and Lystheir knew of his reputation and legend. They would probably not have questioned his beliefs anymore than any other che’ther, about finding his daughter and the truth he could sense was missing from those pursuing the runaways, but his legend made it easier.
He had never told them any lie either. His kind weren’t good at that kind of thing and as bad as they were at lying, they were even better at seeing through them. There was something that Malaketh was hiding from them, but the masters had sent the dragon mage master on the pursuit even so. Cor’Dargan knew that the human had been sent as he was their master, but something still bothered him about it all.
“Can you sense her, Fa’Dargan’zer, or will we have to search the entire city?” Fa’Elenek asked from the shadows of the alley. The moon had not risen high enough to illuminate much of the dark alley and the che’ther’s brown features seemed to join the night.
The female, Fa’Lystheir’s blue eyes appeared to glow beside him as their leader began to use his sense and tracking spells. With such a large city and so many scents lingering in the air, he knew that it was going to be more difficult than in Televal. Hala was even more engorged with travelers swelling their numbers for the tournament.
Sniffing the air, the dragon man tried to find his daughter’s unique scent. Her natural perfume that acted as a defense for the tiny human had drawn him along the prairie from Televal, but the city was too large and the breezes roaming Hala twisted too much for Dargan to catch the scent. He knew that she was in the city, but even his magically enhanced senses could do only so much.
With a shake of his head, he admitted, “I can’t catch her scent here.”
Lystheir’s blue eyes twinkled as she suggested, “Perhaps we need to move back out towards the west gate into the city. They had horses. We can assume that they stabled them before going too far. A city like this is too challenging to ride or lead horses, I would think. Of course, I am no expert with the creatures, but like a che’ther, these streets seem too small for such an animal.”
He nodded and led the three from the alleyway. Cor’Dargan continued to search for Cheleya’s scent, but had to assume that Lystheir was correct. The city was too large to just happen upon her trail, but there were only two major gates into the city. If she were inside the inner ring, the che’ther could have started there, but they had no idea where she would hide with her human allies.
Trudging through the streets heading to the northwest gate, the che’ther continued to search.
It was late when Cheleya awoke. Worry over Kel’lor had been weighing heavily on her mind for days after finding out that he and his magic had been poisoned. The whole concept of killing a wizard slowly from use of their very magic seemed like a nightmare to the che’ther. Magic was like life to a mage or wizard. Cutting them off from it was like trying to stop breathing. The inevitable end would be death either way.
Dinner in the Two Circles Inn restaurant had been strange and the whole experience much shorter than their time in the fun filled White Mare of Televal. Waiters and waitresses took their orders in stodgy uniforms with little humor. She wondered if their clothes made them unhappy. If that would be all it took, then they should leave and find something else to do.
While the atmosphere was quieter and somber, the food was excellent though the portions were smaller while it cost more. The dragoness was glad that she was small as well and could eat a light meal without longing for more. She had noted Evan’s eyes on the other plates while the slower eaters finished. His food was gone and the young man still looked hungry.
Musicians did play in the restaurant throughout the entire meal, but they didn’t play anything fast enough to dance to with any energy. A few of the richly dressed patrons started a slow dance, but interest never took hold and the floor never filled. Soon everyone disappeared to their rooms and the mages with Cheleya had decided to retire as well. The trip had been tiring anyway and the five decided that if they went to bed early, they could get back to the wizard hospital first thing in the morning.
Cheleya wore her soft new clothing as Colbie had hoped and the mage had shared the same bed. Tilana was left to warm her own bed, but the dragoness soon found that Colbie wasn’t the easiest person to sleep next to as the young woman threw an arm and leg onto the nearest warm body. Being that body, Cheleya awoke after awhile to find her friend breathing into her face while the mage lay across her with two limbs.
Slipping free of Colbie in the dark, the dragoness found herself wide awake and in need of air. She triggered her night vision spell and drew out the blue dress before removing her top. Barefoot and wearing her dress, the girl slipped out of the room after grabbing the room key sitting on the dresser to her right.
The hall was still lit, though by less than half of the lanterns. Apparently the inn maintained them throughout the night to enable late night returns without wasting all their oil on every lamp. Even so, the rich flooring and wall treatments still managed to impress.
Cheleya reached the stairway unsure of where she should go, but seeing only two options, the girl chose to head upward. Two flights took her to the highest floor, but she noted another set of stairs leading to the roof. Continuing her climb, Cheleya pushed open a door secured against the cold night air. It wasn’t locked, so the dragoness found the moonlit roof easily enough.
She needed no magic to see with Turas’s light shining down from slightly to the west. The last brother moon was already beginning to peek over the horizon to the east, but the red light held sway over the world for now. With the war god watching over the city, the che’ther strode out onto the open roof. Covered in grey, square cut stone, the flat roof appeared strong enough to resist hard weather and even war should an enemy breech the outer wall. It certainly had no problem holding the weight of the petite dragoness in girl form.
Her dress brushed against her legs above the knee with no fear of catching the light snow covering the roof. “Dragon’s breath,” the girl summoned the heat of a dragon letting it flow about her warming the air and melting snow. She knew that the snow’s cold barely affected her, but it was safer to clear the frozen water from her skin. The heat swirled around Cheleya as she walked to the wall surrounding the roof.
Stone rose along the roof edge with small gaps for archers or wizards to safely fire on an enemy that might be able to get to the wall only dozens of feet away. A particularly brave and daring man might even try to use a rope to bridge the distance. Boards would bend and become useless even without defenders fighting back against them, but the questions of whether the building and the protective walls holding were of little consequence really. It was an extra feeling of comfort for those occupying the inner circle of the city, but it was a capital whose walls had never failed.
“Dragon wings,” she ordered quietly letting the magic become navy blue wings to lift her up with a single thrust onto the stone wall. Her view of the western part of Hala spread out clearly to the far white outer wall. Tinged red by the moon, the city’s roofs spread throughout the two protective rings and the dragoness surveyed buildings mostly dark in the night. There were a few buildings with those who couldn’t sleep using their lanterns, but the flame created lights were few.
Closing her eyes, Cheleya used other senses to feel the city. Something felt odd and still familiar, a presence of magic that should not be there. It moved as the mage felt for the source and she wondered at the deliberate movements.
Her wings thrust and the girl crossed two dozen feet in a single leap to stand on the inner wall. Guards were rare near the inner city, at least guards for the walls, so she remained unnoticed. Royal guards would protect the inner keep and their king, police would monitor the streets, but the inner walls required little watch without a war.
The feeling of familiar magic was weak. Whoever was using their spells so late at night
must have set them recently, but if they were still using magic it was the benign kind. Such lingering magic could be traced by a wizard tracker of some skill, but Cheleya had never tried to track another magic user. She was young and still learning basic skills and spells. Tracking was a skill reserved for those who were more senior compared to the hatchling as her parents sometimes still called her.
Though it wasn’t something she had trained for, it was based off of a basic spell and keen senses. She figured to try the spell wouldn’t hurt, so Cheleya remained still save for her hands as she began a short chant. As the girl ended the spell, she looked around her feeling magic coming from hundreds of wizards. The majority were within the keep and inner wall using the inns. Most of the wizards’ magic felt dormant as they slept, so Cheleya could omit anyone in that state. Like looking at a scale of color, magic feeling blue and green came from those of wizards sleeping. Looking back at her inn, she could sense those of her group along with more than a dozen more sleeping wizards.
Looking at the outer city, the mage noticed fewer magical lights. There were still some blues and greens lying still in places, but few were more active. To the northwest near the outer gate, she noticed three warmer glowing figures moving. Their power usage was low, but still showing active and they were moving. No one else seemed to be moving with any purpose and these drew Cheleya like a moth to a flame.
Another launch from the dragoness’s dark wings swept her from the wall and low over the roofs of the outer city. She would stop after a few blocks and make sure that they were still moving towards the inner city. Each stop, the girl watched and the three seemed to be slowly making their way deeper into the city following a path generally east as they adjusted their bearing with each turn of the city’s streets. Hala was an old city designed to hamper any enemies that might breech her walls, so the streets were staggered after a certain amount of blocks forcing traffic to turn around individual buildings and entire blocks at a time. For those who chose to walk, they would follow the streets in such a way.
Cheleya flew east ignoring the turns and veered slightly to the south. She didn’t want to stumble across the wrong kind of wizards. There were stories of those serving darker masters who would kidnap fledgling wizards. Cheleya had always judged the stories to be those meant to push children to be better, but in a foreign city and so far from home, the che’ther trapped in a frail human body suddenly remembered those stories with new worry.
Moving east of the trio’s position and to the south, Cheleya noted a sudden stop. The center figure flared yellow with a spell. The dragoness was only a few blocks away and hoped that these three weren’t using a similar spell to catch her watching them. She couldn’t make out facial features or general movements with a spell that could see through walls, but Cheleya held still waiting to see their next move.
To her surprise, the trio suddenly veered to the south moving quickly. The dragoness only waited a moment countering by flying northwest across the rooftops. If they suddenly turned down the street towards her, Cheleya would have a three block head start to fly away from those running in the streets.
She paused atop the backside of a roof along the same street the three were about to pass. They could not have seen her with their eyes, she knew, unless they could use a similar spell to hers. If they came towards the dragoness, Cheleya knew that would spell trouble.
Overshooting the street heading south, the girl let out a relieved breath, but her relief was short lived as they simply went one more block to turn back to the west once more. A flare of magic from the figure left of the first caster was the second warning, and worse it felt familiar.
Cheleya watched as the second caster suddenly seemed to leap back and forth from one side of the street to the other, but not only in giant leaps horizontally, but it seemed to be rising with each movement. Uttering a curse under her breath, the dragoness realized why the magic felt so familiar. Another dragon mage had just summoned his wings.
The dragoness turned and fled towards the outer wall while flying low. Her wings felt like they would hit the buildings on either side of the street and, as she cornered to bank north, the dragon mage swung her feet to catch the wall across from her as her wings aligned vertically with the ground. Pushing off, Cheleya returned to horizontal staying low between the buildings to avoid being seen if at all possible. Magic was at work, so the mage doubted her efforts could throw them off, but it was still her best shot.
Twisting to stall her progress, her eyes caught sight of a second flyer. The first had lifted higher searching for his quarry as the second lifted as well taking west. She looked for the first caster and watched as he moved with unbelievable swiftness along the ground. Doubting her ability to fly was much faster, the dragoness couldn’t even use elevation to put more buildings between them.
Knowing these three pursued her, but not why, Cheleya fled for the wall to the north. If she could get clear of the city, perhaps the mage could put enough distance between her and them to either hide or exhaust their curiosity.
The tall white wall reflected the silver light of the third moon, Gelinas, the god of life and death, the girl reflected. It was a human myth, but as the dragoness used her wings to scale the height needed to clear the wall, she felt as if the moon watched her. Unfortunately, Cheleya didn’t know if his judgment would be life or death.
Clearing the rear of the wall, the dragoness turned to look for pursuit. The first flyer had risen pursuing her course, though from his slower speed she doubted that he knew her exact position. Unfortunately, a fireball cast from the second indicated that Cheleya had been spotted. The fire was extinguished well before the dragoness as it had only been meant to catch the first dragon mage’s attention.
Toppling backward over the outer wall, the dragoness turned in midair as she fell letting her wings use the extra speed to sweep her clear. Hurrying along the wall only ten feet from the ground, the flyer cast a spell taught to most apprentices when they were young, “Stealth.”
The world was quiet as darkness seemed to form around the girl as she flew. Shadows were cast by the wall to the north where she fled. Fire suddenly flew along the wall as the two flyers cast blindly searching for their quarry and Cheleya knew they had meant to find her. Dragon mages sent from Mar’kal couldn’t be a coincidence.
Cheleya moved close to the wall landing at its base. She hoped to blend in as the mage doubted she could out fly them now. Looking up, the two circled in a pattern just below the wall casting fire streams brightening the night and eliminating shadows. Her magic couldn’t be dispersed as easily, especially when the mage held still.
A rumble in the earth from the east warned the dragon mage to move just before the ground erupted. The third seeker had cut off any escape to the east and seemed to know exactly where she had been standing. Only the speed of her wings had helped Cheleya avoid being thrown by the erupting ground. Her movement was still bound in stealth, but her shadow beneath her flying wings brought the others’ attention.
“Dragon scale,” the dragoness ordered armoring up for a fight.
“Dragon breath!” a female voice ordered above the girl as blue flame swept towards the flyer. So wide was the wave of fire cast, that Cheleya couldn’t avoid it.
“Dragon wind!” the little blond used her wings to create a great gust of wind piercing the flames and casting them aside.
“Dragon claw!” a male voice ordered as he dove from above.
The red magic of a dragon claw reached for Cheleya, but she countered once more. “Dragon shield,” she erected a powerful black shield created from dozens of overlapping magic scales. The claw struck the shield only to be brushed aside.
In the distraction, Cheleya nearly missed as half a dozen spires rose from the ground trying to catch the flyer being pushed lower by the dragon mages. It was a larger spell than most mages would cast, she thought as the dragoness twisted to avoid striking the first two. Twisting to put her feet against another, the little blond t
urned on the two above her.
“Dragon breath!” the little dragoness released bright flames of red and pink. She had been told such colors were like a little girl by Kel’lor, but they burned hot just the same and drove the two flyers away momentarily.
She looked for the earth wizard and watched as a brown dragon stood on his back legs casting with his front claws. Thinking the creature had a coloring and look much like her farmer father, Cheleya paused in stunned silence forgetting the fight in surprise if only for a moment. It was an opening the dragon mages couldn’t resist.
A rope struck her back and quickly wrapped her arms and chest as two heavy stones came together striking her chest. Her wings were magic and unhindered as she remained aloft. Cheleya knew without her dragon armor the two stones would have knocked the breath from her frail human body, but she was a dragon mage and ready.
Expecting the dragoness to give in with her arms trapped at her sides, Cheleya surprised the che’ther using her alteration magic. Ropes became soft and stretched as the girl shrugged free looking for the next attack. It was one on three. The two flyers could move their direction of attack swiftly and would help the dragon below to keep her off balance.
Swooping towards the stone spires as the three were momentarily a step behind the young dragon mage, Cheleya used a tactic gathered from the shrikes. “Wing strike!” the girl ordered giving power to her magic wings. Breaking the tops of two spires, the mage added dragon wind to drive the chunks of stone into the flyers.
Blinded by dust and stinging from the bullets of stone, Cheleya rose quickly attacking the woman who was closest to her. “Dragon claw!” the red claw struck the che’ther from the sky sending her plummeting to the ground. A second claw reached for the male, but he countered with a shield similar to her earlier spell.
Battle Mage: Dragon Mage (Tales of Alus) Page 24