He looked at Elzen, who shrugged. The younger mage said, "I don't care. Maybe I would rather sleep in Hala, but it is a bit warmer here so that is nice."
"I'd rather freeze," Ashleen retorted crossing her arms in front of her. Sebastian noted the pout of her lips and would have probably laughed if not for the uncomfortable atmosphere around them.
"So I'll open up a gate for you three. I will stay at least for tonight. Turning down their hospitality would be kind of rude otherwise."
Ashleen tried to fight that logic saying, "But you are saving them from having to change your sheets or supply water for you. Stuff like that is work that you are saving whoever does those things here. A guest room obviously isn't maintained by someone like Gefflen. He'll have a servant or a poor apprentice do the work."
"It's already been set up," he waved off the girl's insistence. "Tomorrow I'll stay with you. You can survive one night without me, I'm sure," Sebastian added a bit of laughter that he didn't truly feel.
"You could sneak out from the room in the night and be back before they know it," Ashleen said leaning closer to whisper.
Unsure of what else he could say, the mage held her head to kiss her forehead before giving the wilder a hug. "One night," is all that he would add.
"I'll be the only one staying the night, I guess," Sebastian told the wizard who nodded. The man's eyes looked at his team and seemed glad for it.
Before finding his room, Gefflen assigned an apprentice as a guide for the man. Sebastian led the way to the new gate chamber, but cast the portal in the space between the doors and the exposed gate frame. The wizards hadn't finished creating their stone walkway above it, but the iron was set into the stone towers on either side.
Giving Ashleen a final kiss on the lips, the mage sent the three away to his room in the Black Smith Inn. It was one of the few unsecured gates in the city, and he often thought that he shouldn't take the risk; but Sebastian couldn't give up the freedom that it afforded him.
"I'll see you in the morning," he assured the pretty blond before watching her go through the gate.
Sebastian followed the young wizard in his white robes through one corridor after the next and climbed a couple flights of stairs along the way. A castle originally, it didn't have a layout that demanded precision. Some castles like the old cities were even designed to wander a bit to exhaust enemies trying to take the castle. Such designs seemed to give in to loss, but the mage figured that was just one way to look at it.
The room was simple. As a guest room, he was surprised at both the size and plain furnishings. This was a room for a teacher or visiting mage, but it wasn't much better than the cube he called his room in White Hall. A bit of a letdown, Sebastian let the apprentice go without appearing disappointed. It wasn't the boy's fault. He was merely the one to bring him there.
As the falcon readied for bed, he couldn't help feeling Ashleen's missing presence. She was right. It would be harder to fall asleep without her there, he thought, but as he lay his head down, the mage realized that he was more tired than he had thought. A few last lingering thoughts to what he needed to do tomorrow and of Ashleen held off the darkness for just a few moments before sleep overcame him.
Chapter 15- A Dark Place
Stepping through the portal, Palose had to shield his eyes. The sun shone very brightly and the air was warm. He hadn't brought a jacket since the mage had left directly from the house in Ensolus where a fireplace and stove had heated the living room area to remove the chill of winter.
"Where did you bring us, mage?" the gruff voice of Dorgred questioned the younger man as he stepped through the portal last.
Palose hadn't told the fire wizard where they were going. Truth be told, he hadn't decided until the last moment and cast the portal.
"Mariport, I think," was the casual reply as he glanced at the buildings surrounding them from the alley where he had hidden the stones infused with Sylvaine's magic.
"You think?" Dorgred asked sounding aghast that the mage didn't seem to have any idea of where they had landed from the gate. "How can you just guess at it?"
Shrugging at the wizard, he heard Sylvaine's stifled laughter off to the side. Apparently Dorgred heard her as well and noticed Wendle trying not to laugh at the answer also.
Palose had sent Nalack and Oween back to the battlefield in Litsarin first. The warlocks would be his eyes and ears there for the moment while the dark mage took care of other matters. While a war might be important, the stalemate formed there made it less important than setting the wizard free as well as trying to follow up on the mission Kolban had set for him.
Flags waved from poles on the closest buildings in view from the wide walkway. Stone was under foot. Tan and porous, the city's foundation was largely sandstone, the mage guessed. It had been bared to create streets where the narrow layer of earth was easily worn enough to reveal the stone. The founders of Mariport had worked the land between two rivers forming it into an island after the Cataclysm.
After things had settled down, Mariport had become one of the entry ports for Southwall. The original inhabitants had been a combination of Sileoth and a country called Maris. Both had existed for over a thousand years, but only the people of Sileoth held onto their history and kept their name as that country became the island nation to the south. Maris had once bordered Kardor far to the north, but the second major island to break from the mainland had been given the name Marianis at once honoring their past and setting the new country apart from the old.
Palose had made sure to set up a portal in all the major cities that he could reach. Mariport was down river from Fort Maridith far to the north where he had a cousin working in the mines there in the mountains. The fort had been one of his first portals made by sending out letters with small packages containing his charged stones. Once the stones made it to the fort, the dark mage had sent a new package down river saving himself the travel time.
"It's Mariport," he clarified with more certainty for the fire wizard. "They call it the flag city for a reason," the mage added gesturing towards the different colored flags that seemed to have no rhyme or reason to them.
The wizard still looked unhappy with the answer and complained, "Why Mariport? I was last at New Knaria and never worked this far to the west. Now if I wish to return to my last post I will have to travel by ship or horse to get back there."
Raising an eyebrow questioningly, Palose said, "You left to be in the employ of some Kardorian, didn't you? Am I supposed to drop you back in the city that you left behind? How would you go about explaining just dropping by after leaving?"
"I could have thought of something," the larger man replied continuing to act discontent. This was a large part of why Palose was releasing the man. His mood had continued to sour as fall lapsed into winter. Being trapped in Ensolus for too long after essentially assuring Palose's safety from Atrouseon, the fire wizard had begun to feel more like a prisoner and resented that.
The dark mage could let any of the wizards and warlocks leave. Their power shared with him didn't seem to know any limits to distance, though were one of his resurrection men to die too far away; Palose wasn't sure that the remainder of their magic would find him. When Atrouseon had died, his creation had inherited most of the remainder of the warlock's magic. He could kill Dorgred, of course, and just take the man's power; but their link was more like family. Palose didn't want to kill one of his family. It was best just to separate and let them live their lives. He still had a degree of hold over the ones he had saved, but the dark mage had made sure that his magic didn't make them slaves.
"Now you can take your time moving from city to city working your way back to New Knaria or wherever you wish," Palose stated and tossed a small pouch to the wizard. "You can make contact with any branch of wizards or use that gold to book passage of a ship. It will be a lot easier to make people believe that you are working your way home from Kardor. Tell them that the lord's offer hadn't proven to be as good for you as it h
ad been stated.
"After all, you only took a leave to check out the potential of Kardor's offer. With the lord dead, you could say that offer ended."
Dorgred and Wendle had seen their patron killed during the naval battle where the two wizards had been sacrificed to open a last magic gate large enough for one of the black ships to slip through. Between the wizards' reports and what he had discovered from the records of the loss kept in Ensolus, Palose knew about the debacle fighting Sebastian and the ship serving him.
Wendle looked a little disappointed in the cover story and Palose asked, "Don't tell me you have a problem with that also. I told you that it will be harder to send you home, Wendle, but I can use the gate in New Oapril if you want to catch a ship north from there."
Shaking his head, the younger wizard replied, "No, I just hate having the story sound like Kardor wasn't worth his time. It's better there than you might think."
Releasing a sigh, Palose looked to Dorgred and added, "If you can't find any trace of a seer or some kind of fortune teller with a real gift that isn't a charlatan in Mariport; that will give you a few more cities between here and New Knaria to look at on your way."
"Ah, you are still going to hold me to finding out something for the emperor?!" Dorgred complained again. His continual resistance and complaints had begun to get on the mage's nerves as well as many others in the house.
Eyes narrowing slightly in annoyance, Palose spoke succinctly, "Yes."
"I told you that I wouldn't do anything to harm Southwall and I've let you push me further along that line than I am comfortable with, Palose. You've been fighting our people, but haven't asked me to fight though I still feel like I am betraying them by not trying to stop you. None of that put a life in my hands directly, but this..."
"Does nothing to compromise any of what we agreed upon. I don't even ask you to get any information to use against Southwall at all. If you ask questions of a fortune teller that tells you that they can see anything about the future of Ensolus or the emperor, you don't need to relay any of what you find; but you might find out that something bad will happen to him as well."
The man grumbled something under his breath, but Palose didn't care about any further complaints from Dorgred. The mage continued, "The soft stone you were given can be broken between your fingers to summon me. Only use it once you've found someone qualified. If you never use it, then I will assume that your search was fruitless."
"Nothing more than that, if I don't use the thing?"
"Nothing, though I would appreciate it if you at least gave it a bit of effort."
Dorgred looked to contemplate the idea for a moment. "I guess that it won't truly hurt anything to look."
With the wizard on board at least half heartedly, Palose nodded and started to walk the length of the alleyway. Dorgred and the others fell in line as he walked. Sylvaine hurried forward to lace her fingers with his to hold his hand. The girl was dressed in something that they had bought months ago in another Southwall city. It wasn't as flashy as some of the outfits that the girl had received as gifts while the couple had wandered the cities opened by his portal magic.
"You're coming with?" Dorgred asked perplexed as the four moved into the main street.
"No, I just figured that we could look with you for awhile. If we split up, it will take less time to look through the city. It is one of the larger cities of Southwall since it sprawls across most of the island. If we try the major markets, maybe we can find someone that fits; but there are still several of those here as well."
"Does it still let me off the hook as done if you find the Visionaries first?" the wizard asked warily. It was always the fine print that one had to worry about.
Giving a laugh that was barely forced, Palose shook his head. "If we find one, then you don't have to as long as they can answer my questions."
Sylvaine rolled her eyes at him as they held hands. Hopefully without Dorgred the house's atmosphere would improve and he wondered if sending out more of his people wouldn't be a good idea. For some reason keeping everyone so close together wasn't as enjoyable as it was convenient. Perhaps it was the nature of the black magic used, but Palose wasn't sure. Still, it was good to be out of the cave city and the winter weather. He hadn't really been able to enjoy it while in Litsarin, but with little to do in particular, the mage hoped to have a nice day out with the girl he had found love with during his second chance at life.
The four split up as they began to look for information on the local markets and the fortune tellers that they hoped could be found there.
Sebastian awoke to darkness. His room had been plain, but it was on the outer wall with two windows. Unless it was still night, the mage would have expected sunlight to illuminate the room at least slightly through the wooden blinds.
His head felt foggy and his tongue seemed slightly swollen. It was as if he had been drinking all night to awake to the inevitable hangover most shared in the morning. He was also on his side, which was a rare position for him to use to sleep. One of those who tended to lie on his back, Sebastian noticed that his arms were bound up in front of him. His neck felt sore like there was something around it. He hated high neck collars, but it felt worse than one of those shirts.
Trying to sit up, the mage found that he couldn't pull his wrists apart from each other, though they weren't directly in contact either. Something separated his wrists, but prevented them from twisting also.
What had happened to him? Sebastian quickly reviewed the last few minutes before going to sleep in the room provided for him in Red Hall. There was nothing unusual. He had slept in his shirt, but pulled off his boots and pants. Warmer than Hala, the room was still slightly cool and Ashleen wasn't there to warm his side.
Something was wrong his instincts told him as he continued to try to wake up fully. He felt sluggish. Feeling for his magic, the battle mage worried even more when it felt blocked.
"Light," he called on one of the simplest of their spells. Rarely used for combat, it was one of the spells used in their first classes to learn to tap into a mage's magic. Unlike the spell which could bring light to destroy darkness spells, this should have managed to create a small fireless light to bob before him.
Nothing came and the darkness remained.
Shifting to his knees, the mage worked to stand up. His balance felt off as well. If it was magic used on him, he wasn't sure. Without being able to tap into his core, he couldn't look for lingering magic either.
"Fireball," he tried again lifting his hands together to form a flame just beyond them. It was even more natural to a battle mage than the simple light, but not only did it not appear, Sebastian couldn't seem to feel the elements at all.
"You can stop wasting your time," a voice called from a few feet away.
Sebastian moved towards the sound and he wished that he could summon his night vision. While it was dark, the mage found iron bars blocking his way before the light of a lamp came swaying towards him. A hall beyond the bars began to appear and the dull flame nearly blinded him as a figure came into view holding the contained flame.
"Who are you? Where am I?" he asked knowing that there had been no vertical bars in the room where he had gone to sleep.
Sebastian noted a red shirt and looked to the man's face. A blond with a receding widow's peak, his chin and upper lip seemed to be trying to make up for the lack with a well groomed goatee and mustache. Blue eyes looked at him somewhat amused as he replied, "We blocked your magic with spells and those chains. The liquid added to your drink must have been stronger than I thought though. It made you sleep a lot longer than we were told it would."
"Hassar? Who is this 'we' that you're talking about? Has Red Hall turned against the king?"
It was a significant leap, but after all the dissent in the southern cities, it wasn't quite as far as it would have been a year ago. Though why they had kidnapped him, he wasn't sure; Sebastian had shared his spells and magic enough that there shouldn't be anything mo
re he could give the school.
The man laughed. "I don't think all of Red Hall would, but it doesn't really matter. We aren't doing this for High Wizard Wyman or even Gefflen."
"Shut up, Hassar!" a familiar woman's voice demanded causing the wizard to look back the way he had come.
His eyes tightened at the rebuke, but Hassar kept his lips together even if it looked like he was grinding his teeth as he did so. A second wizard appeared after a moment to look in on Sebastian.
"Erethia," the mage said with a frown. Two of the wizards that had gone to Hala were there. Hassar had already stated that Gefflen wasn't involved, so was this some plan hatched by the two wizards and if so why?
She looked up at his face to see his eyes. Her red hair was pulled back into a tail with loose strands caressing the sides of her cheeks framing her face which still looked pinched to him. Erethia was almost pretty, and yet he felt like it was the face of a rodent or ferret. Her green eyes were piercing and the mage thought that he caught a glimmer in them that might have been magic. Devoid of his own apparently, Sebastian couldn't see their auras or use of passive magic.
"Why am I here?" he asked again. "I gave you all the runes and magic I've gathered. There isn't any reason for you to kidnap me like this."
Barking a laugh in his face, the woman replied, "Like I believe that! You've written down runes, but I doubt that they are all you know. Beyond those, you have already created your own. Given time, I wonder how many more runes and spells you will think of."
Frowning in return, the mage stood tall as he glared at the woman and retorted, "I can't very well do any of that bound and without my magic. What do you hope to gain here?"
"It doesn't matter," she stated as her face seemed to drop as if life and humor had left the wizard. An attempt at stone to fool him or keep him in the dark, Erethia wasn't the best he had seen, but he was still uncertain of what was transpiring.
"If it doesn't matter, then why are we here? What do you want from me?"
Battle Mage Visions (A Tale of Alus Book 12) Page 21