Magnus came walking over slowly with some of the other dragon mages averting their eyes until Evie had finished pulling her tunic into place. They heard Katya's words and there was laughter in their midst.
"Poor Arrimus, even the novices tend to put you in your place. Of course, picking on little girls should be beneath you by your age."
Frowning at the fire wizard, the apprentice stated, "You were still bullying her brother only a year ago, and you were older than I am now. Maybe we're just slow learners.
"Now that you're champion, I guess you'd rather forget about your past, huh, Magnus?"
Katya glanced between the two fire wizards and thought that perhaps that explained some of the bad blood she had felt between Magnus and her brother in Hala. While neither seemed to hate each other any longer, if Magnus was her brother's bully, it would explain the tension between them.
Frowning at the apprentice, Magnus stated simply, "Sebastian wasn't a little girl first of all and I've made up with Sebastian since then. You are right though, whether it's because we're fire wizards or just because we're boys or something like that, you and I haven't always lived the way we should, Arrimus. I've tried to change. Now maybe it would be a good time for you also. You should apologize to our guest.
"High Wizard Darius brought Evie here to help. You shouldn't be picking on her,... unless Katya is correct and you are just teasing a girl you like because you don't know how to speak to her properly? That was never one of my problems growing up, but maybe she is right about you."
Arrimus ground his teeth at his older rival's chiding of his flaws. Whether he did like Evie or not, Katya was unsure; but Arrimus mumbled an apology to the little redhead before walking away.
Magnus continued to move closer to the girls and seemed to give Katya an unusually long glance. Why he would continue to try to act like her savior, the girl also wasn't sure. Magnus had always tried to appear like a big brother to her in Sebastian's absence. The act was both comforting and strange at the same time. The diplomacy wizard in her made Katya wary of someone like Magnus, but as a girl she couldn't help liking being the attention of the handsome young wizard.
"I apologize for Arrimus, since he didn't do a very good job of it," the man in the red fire wizard's tunic said with a nod to Evie, but managed to include Katya in the gesture. "Perhaps I am to blame for some of his behavior though. As he said, I was a little too arrogant in my beliefs growing up here as a fire wizard. I always thought of fire wizards being the peak of what we could be.
"Fire wizards are the best combat wizards, or so I thought, and auras are supposed to tell the strength of our kind without question. I believe your brother has forgiven me for my nonsense. He has certainly proved me wrong.
"Aura isn't the only measure of a wizard or mage apparently. Strength of character might be more important, if you look at what your brother has managed to do in just over a year."
He started to turn, but halted to drop a last piece of information on the girl saying, "Did you know that I heard your brother has already figured out portal magic as well? I heard that he was an important piece of the defense of the Two Towers.
"Your brother continues to stay ahead of me no matter what I do, it seems." He laughed and added, "Not that this is exactly a competition between us. If you ask him when he comes here, I would bet that he doesn't even see me as a rival; but I look to him as I hope to better myself, at least magically. As I said to Arrimus, I still do better with the ladies than he or Sebastian ever did.
"Well, I had better return to my practicing. I at least have the edge on learning dragon magic on your brother," he finished with a wave and a chuckle as the wizard walked away.
Evie seemed to sniff the air and shook her head as Magnus returned to the others who were already moving back to their places with Arrimus' retreat from the girls.
"I don't know if his words are all true," the redhead said quietly, but Katya wasn't sure if the comment was for her or just Evie voicing her mind.
While she thought Magnus would protect her in battle, Katya had to agree that she wasn't always sure that he spoke his heart. She might trust him on the battle field, but not with her personal life.
The two girls decided to go inside leaving the other dragon mages to their practicing.
Iris hurried into the classroom looking for Katya among the other students. It was late morning and the combined class was nearing an end, but the air mentor didn't look happy to see the sudden disruption.
"They said that your brother is here! He used a portal to the courtyard," the taller girl said with an excited smile on her lips.
Katya started to open her mouth to ask for permission to leave, but Master Turwin waved the girl away.
"Just go, Katya, and take Iris with you, so the rest of us might try and learn something today," the older man replied with a grumble.
Iris took her hand tugging her out into the hall. "If we hurry, maybe you can catch him before he gets tied up with whatever business brought him here."
"Business?"
Giving a quick laugh, Iris glanced to her younger friend and asked, "You don't think that he is just here to visit you? I don't think they let people use portal magic just for fun and visiting family, Katya."
The younger girl realized that Iris was probably right. Her brother had become very important in Southwall in a very short time. While she knew little of what he had done the previous year and knew nothing since he had left her with Darius, Katya had heard enough talk to know Sebastian wasn't just a young battle mage to be ignored any longer.
They rushed through the dining hall and nearly ran into a group leaving the courtyard of the portal site. Katya and Iris stopped dead in their tracks trying not to run into the unusual crowd within the walkway between the mage barracks and the dining hall. This wasn't a time for one of the meals held in the hall so the filled hallway surprised the girls.
Most of those in the walkway wore the summer uniforms of falcons, but one young man with light brown hair of just above average height caught the girl's eyes and Katya gasped, "Sebastian!"
Turning to see his younger sister, Sebastian turned with surprise and a smile. "Hello, Katya, it's been awhile."
***************
Other books by Donald L. Wigboldy Jr.
From the Tales of Alus series:
The High King: A Tale of Alus
The Emperor’s Shadow War
Battle Mage: A Tale of Alus
Battle Mage: Winter’s Edge
Battle Mage: The Lost King
Battle Mage: Dragon Mage
Battle Mage: Dark Mage
Battle Mage: A Hero’s Welcome
Battle Mage: Forging New Steel
Modern Tales:
Voran the Night Guardian
Standing Before Monsters
The Mermaid’s Chest
For Cheleya's story try:
Battle Mage: Dragon Mage
Chapter 1- Ruby Wings
The steep cliffs and slopes of the Dragon Spine Mountains echoed with the sound of thunder, yet there were no clouds in the sky. White still coated the upper peaks but, as winter waned and the days grew longer, heavy snow and glaciers remained untouched only in the high valleys between the shadowing peaks. It was a sight few men dared to see and yet there were others who called the lands their home.
Fire struck the cliff side as a ruby flyer twisted to avoid a hurling ball of flame. Long blond hair trailed in a pony tail between a pair of wide spread magic ruby wings. Covered in scaled armor that followed the curves of her body like a second skin, the flyer turned as she cried out in an ancient tongue sending lightning streaming towards her two attackers.
Large stone gargoyles known as the mar’goyn’lya narrowly dodged the bright, twisting light. Rocks and snow fell behind them as the strike knocked loose a new avalanche, but the three combatants ignored the sound of crashing rock as their sights remained on each other.
The small blond haired girl called out in that
language of magic once more sending a flurry of fireballs back at her pursuers.
A shield like red glass was raised by one and blue energy formed a quick shield for the second catching the fireballs rather than dodging the flames. Retaliatory fire flew after the ruby flyer as they remained focused on the girl. Closing with a wall of stone, the young woman ducked into a crouch letting the flames narrowly miss her before uncoiling to spring back up and between the two gray, stone skinned creatures.
The maneuver surprised one more than the other. The larger male put out his massive hands to take the impact with the side of the mountain and his feet landed kicking into the stone making footholds. He looked upward at the ruby armored girl and watched as the second, smaller, gray gargoyle imitated the smaller flyer’s maneuver.
“You’re too clumsy, Kel’lor,” the gray female called admonishingly as she looked back at the gargoyle perched on the side of the mountain.
The tiny girl in red called another spell to life drawing the lighter gargoyle’s attention. Snow appeared just before her face and the female gray crashed through the light powder listening to the blond haired woman’s giggles of amusement.
Kel’lor’s deep laughter echoed through the stones walls around them. “At least, Cheleya didn’t get me like that, Mor’treya,” the male mar’goyn’lya teased the smaller female as she shook her head to rid it of the cold snow. Dark hair trailed down Mor’treya’s neck in a tail similar to the petite blond and it whipped as she shook her head.
A horn sounded and the flyers eased their stances noticeably. “Malaketh calls,” the little blond haired girl said raising a finger from her right fist with a smile.
“We lose again,” Kel’lor stated with a shrug as Mor’treya growled in annoyance. “We’ll catch her one day. Don’t get upset over it.”
“How can you not get upset about it?” the female asked heatedly.
“Because we never catch her,” the male shrugged again before pushing off to follow the little flyer. Mor’treya turned to chase the other two.
A short distance later by air, the three spied the outer tower for Mar’kal’s school for magic. The flyers could see much of the city beyond the Academy as they hurried back. Mar’kal consisted of large towers and wide open streets running between homes forty feet tall on the small side and sprawling like the libraries of men. This was a city for the che’ther and their allies the mar’goyn’lya. Only wizards and mages could change appearance and size, so the main city looked like a human one except in scale since everything was five or six times larger to house the massive dragons. The flying race of gargoyles either lived in smaller dwellings generally on the outskirts of the city or lived in homes hewn from the cliffs nearby called eyries.
Landing on the outer tower with its walkway that led to the main hall of the magic academy, Cheleya and the two mar’goyn’lya spied a dark haired wizard closer to the building’s entry. He was one of the human men who had come to the ancient city to learn from the dragon masters, a name not for the land bound che’ther but the legendary race of true dragons. Middle aged in years by human standards, both gargoyles were of a similar age though considered more like young children by the longer living race. Malaketh with his full black beard and mustache seemed more beastlike compared to the smooth, gray skinned gargoyles. He was barely older than the mar’goyn’lya in years, yet he was the master of dragon magic.
The wizard shook his head at the two giant creatures. “Take your human forms. Maybe being smaller for awhile will help you figure out how to turn faster,” the wizard stated turning and gesturing for them to follow.
Both took similar looking amulets and used the ancient language of magic before their shapes and size changed in a bright flash of light. Kel’lor still towered over the little blond girl, but Mor’treya managed to come closer in size as a lithe looking woman with jet black hair and brown eyes. Though slightly tall for a woman, the gargoyle’s new appearance with her blue, gray tunic and brown leather pants cinched by a black leather belt along with matching black boots, still looked very human if aggressively formidable with her annoyed scowl lingering on her lips.
Cheleya’s scale armor disappeared leaving a red skirt cut above the knees and a light weight blouse revealing her shoulders but with sleeves playing down her arms loosely. The girl had bare feet that seemed to barely touch the stone as she walked so gracefully she appeared to almost dance beside the others. “You’re still huge, Kel’lor,” the little blond giggled and patted his stomach in passing. “You know I start as a che’ther and am much larger than you. Can’t you at least try to shrink that bulky mar’goyn’lya body into something less conspicuous?”
“Meh,” the tall, muscular looking man with brown hair and matching shirt, but wearing dark gray pants and brown leather boots, responded with a shrug. “Who am I trying to fool here, Cheleya? Everyone knows me in either form.”
Sighing, the little blond girl danced around him looking at his large human body. “Well, that is the point, my large friend. The transformation spell lets you be whatever you want to be. I am a blue, scaled che’ther twenty feet long from nose to the tip of my tail, but would anyone think that of this little human? No, because it is an illusion,” she waved her hands as she exaggerated the word illusion as if putting on a show.
“And I want to look big and strong, not tiny and cute like some human version of a kitten, little che’ther,” the pretend human male stated grabbing the girl around the waist and carrying her across the remaining stone bridge interrupting her dancing and teasing. “Come, kitten, the master wants us inside,” Kel’lor stated with a chuckle playing with her like the tiny blond haired che’ther was a little sister.
“You two are ridiculous,” Mor’treya complained as she followed them onto the high stone walkway. She looked over the edge and paled. Heights bothered her only when she wasn’t her gargoyle self. It was another reason that she hated pretending to be human.
Straggling after her fellow students, Mor’treya joined them in a large hall as she passed through a pair of multi-paned glass doors. Stained glass that threw a variety of colors into the hall when closed, they were ignored as mere obstructions to the apprentices that had already passed through these doors thousands of times during their training.
Malaketh moved to stand before one of several tables laden with magical paraphernalia within the first school room before turning to stare at his students. A human, he had come to Mar’kal as a young man and managed to beg his way into the school, a feat few humans had dared. Mar’kal was a melting pot of a city, however, where che’ther and mar’goyn’lya had been living side by side for a millennia. They had come from a dying world that they had shared and once fought each other to rule, but here in a world of man they had joined together if only out of necessity.
Mankind had opened the first windows into the dying world of the two races and offered hope to people who were destined to burn up with their world. Once the first of their kind had been brought to Alus, the two races had found a way to bring the remains of their people into this new, rich and living world. It had saved both of their races, but now mere thousands lived amongst a planet dominated by the population of man.
Time had let the two races build a city and fortress in the mountains where men could be ignored as they became accustomed to Alus. Time had also brought men to them once more and new ties were formed. Men came to Mar’kal to trade and even live. The three races worked and learned to understand each other making the city unique amongst any on Alus.
Men like Malaketh came bringing their take on magic to learn from the dragon masters. Magic differed between all the races as they had all come to learn of it in different ways. Now Malaketh was a master of the dragon style, a magic that Cheleya followed as a che’ther, the race that had created the magic. A human, he trained che’ther and mar’goyn’lya as if he were one of them, and in away he was.
“I can not believe that two mar’goyn’lya born with wings can not catch a che’ther. Sh
e is new to both the human form and her wing magic, yet it is you two who continually look like the fledglings leaving the nest for the first time. We run these drills and you two don’t seem to be getting any better at air combat,” the man complained as he pulled at his thick black beard. “Cheleya is still a child by my race’s standards and half your age. Do we need to have you two practice in human form from now on to learn how to turn faster?”
Mor’treya looked sick at the idea, while Kel’lor merely shrugged. The elder of the two mar’goyn’lya, Kel’lor was the more easy going and Mor’treya often wondered if that was what held him back. Things didn’t seem to phase the male and whatever came at them he went with it, even if it was something like a threat to leave them human for awhile. Mor’treya, on the other hand, made a better effort to change into a human as she tried to be the best at anything she did. The masters wanted a human look, she did her best to look human, but then there was Cheleya.
Cheleya was young for any race as Malaketh had said. A mere seventeen years since she had hatched from her egg and only two years of magic training, the che’ther was closer to attaining dragon master status than the two mar’goyn’lya who had been studying various schools of magic since before she was born.
Looking at the petite, little, blond haired human form, no one would think a twenty foot che’ther was a simple spell change away. She was a bit naive and certainly flighty by nature, at least in Mor’treya’s opinion, but when it came to the magic of her race, Cheleya was a natural.
Cheleya raised her hand to be acknowledged by the master before she tried to buy her friend’s a little grace, “I think they fly well with their wings. They just weigh too much to keep up with me when it comes to the quicker turns and maneuvers.”
Malaketh nodded and stated, “See? Even the che’ther sees that need to think lighter, maybe this change to smaller forms is exactly what you two need to make the next step in your training.”
Alarmed at his twist of her words, Cheleya shook her head adamantly pleading with her friends to know that wasn’t what she meant at all. Malaketh ignored the dragoness and added, “I suggest that you two practice the dragon wing spell while in human form tonight and I will consider whether you need to perform as human in the next training. Class is over for today. Go to your individual studies now, my students.”
White Hall (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 10) Page 58