Battle Mage: Winter's Edge

by Donald Wigboldy

  “Shut up, Elzen. Keep your jokes to yourself. Either of you know what happened here? The most I have found out is that a woman called out the warning, but our sentries were all men on this shift,” Falconi Ralto interrogated the two quickly.

  Rilena nodded and felt her head rush with the movement. Taking a quick drink from the flask, the young woman felt the bread in her hand and knew that she should eat it very soon or another faint was likely from the magic and blood loss. Her voice still a bit hoarse from her spell, the falcon tried to explain briefly. “When I went out to… relieve myself,” she nearly died from embarrassment having to confess those words to a falconi, “I noticed the two sentries here were missing. I wasn’t sure that they weren’t just out of my sight so I ran over just in case. With the hound spell, I heard something, but before I could reach the end of the tents a wolf and mountain lion were on me. All I could do was try using the battle cry spell and hope it could rouse the camp.”

  “Lucky timing and good instincts,” Ralto said gruffly despite the positive comment. “Some of the mizard must have rubbed off on you. He also seems to step into trouble before others realize that it’s there.

  “Have you found the sentries? The ones on the other side of the camp were killed before I could ask any questions of them.”

  Rilena went even whiter and leaned against Elzen finding their heights so even that he was a good match. The boy accepted her weight putting his right arm behind her back. Feeling the strangely comforting touch, she wondered if his spell lingered. “The other sentries were alive when I went to check this side. I’m sorry. Maybe if I had given a warning sooner…”

  Elzen interrupted as the girl’s voice trailed off sadly, “We came here to check on them, but other than a couple dead in the tents I haven’t seen anyone else, sir. Falcon Rilena was too injured to check any further and I just finished healing her. We were about to go look for them.”

  Shaking his head, Ralto ordered, “No, get her to her tent. If she doesn’t lie down, you’ll be carrying the girl soon anyway. We can take it from here.”

  With five other mages at his side, the falconi began his search for the missing men.

  Taking the time to eat the bread in her hand that was getting wet with the snow, Rilena followed the path back to her tent as she leaned against Elzen. They began passing others still looking out at the snow in worry. If the enemy would attack them in this kind of weather, what else could they expect; the soldiers of Southwall began to wonder?

  Zerra and Dolfeen greeted the mages as worry for the missing girl eased from their faces. Elzen released her, but before ducking to enter the tent, Rilena said apologetically, “I’m sorry that I called you a kid, Elzen. You’re a good falcon. I can tell.”

  With a big exaggerated sigh, the boy replied, “That’s what all the girls tell me after they eat all my food.”

  Laughing, the mage turned and walked away from the confused women.

  Once more, Rilena wished that she had gone with Sebastian to Hala, though Elzen was an interesting new friend, she thought before rolling into her blankets to sleep.

  “I won’t allow it!” Marcel Trillon argued loudly. He was the kind of man that assumed if he was the loudest one with an opinion, he would win the argument. Sebastian had never noticed that about his father before, but as the man complained about him taking Katya along with him, the mage realized that he barely knew his father except for old memories from his childhood. “Don’t think that I don’t appreciate you all being here to save Conner, but I won’t exchange one life for another either. If the seekers come and want to take her away, that is one thing, but letting you just take her now… she’s too young! No, she can’t go!”

  The rest of his family looked like they were mixed on the matter, even though the final say was probably not in any of their hands. His mother, however, was completely on his father’s side. She didn’t want see her youngest child, the baby of the family, being taken away by wizards, even if one of those hands taking her were Sebastian’s, her older brother.

  “But…,” Katya started with tears in her eyes. Sebastian remembered those eyes and figured them to be her way of getting leverage.

  Apparently under the circumstances, his parents weren’t going to fall for fake tears either. It was his turn to try, though in fact Sebastian wasn’t sure that he truly wanted to fight for this cause. Maybe letting her have however many months with the rest of the family was the right thing to do. She was only thirteen and he had been almost two years older when he had been called by the seekers. Two years was a lot of time to get used to the idea that would be more obvious as her talents continued to grow.

  “I would be happy to take her with me. Maybe it’s better that she can leave with me. With the others’ help, we can help Katya get used to her powers so that no accidents happen.”

  “No!” Marcel screamed slamming his hand palm down onto the large table making it creak from the blow. The rest of the family all recoiled from the man, but Sebastian was immune to a farmer’s rage, even if the farmer was his father. The man had given up all rights to him five years ago and been paid a stipend from the guild every month of his service. Sebastian didn’t begrudge the money they received. He didn’t need it for himself and it had helped them during tough times. His brothers, especially Conner who was older, had confessed as much to him.

  Before the falcon could bother with anymore reasons, Katya lost her temper as well. “No, yourself! It is not right father! Sebastian and his friends all knew I would be called when they saw me on the porch. You’ve known for months that something is different about me. Like Bas said, I can sit here and wait for strangers to come take me or I can go with my older brother. I’d rather go with him.”

  Yara added, “This is also a last chance at a safe adventure for her. We can take her to see Hala and the Winter’s Edge tournament duels, before she has to go to White Hall. Once she’s in the school Katya will only be able to return home once in awhile and the rest of the time she’ll spend studying and training at the school.”

  Shaking his head, Marcel started to open his mouth to protest once more.

  “No, not one more word, Daddy!” Katya ordered and all those with magic felt her power lash out with the words. The older man’s mouth slammed shut as his eyes opened in shock. “If you can’t accept that I am going to go with Sebastian, you… you… can go jump in a snow drift!”

  Sebastian and Yara tried to stop the girl’s words as her powers continued to rise unchecked. Her brother’s hand clamped over her mouth too slowly as the words escaped her lips; Marcel’s eyes widened as he leaped up and ran out of the house. Rushing to the doorway, everyone watched as the elder of the home literally jumped into a snow drift. It wasn’t very high thanks to warmer weather in the east, but he had found snow nearby at least. Without the bit of snow they had, Sebastian worried just how far he would have run to find a drift under her spell.

  The rest of Trillons looked at the girl in sudden fear. With wide eyes of her own, Katya ran out of the house to grip him in a tight, fear filled hug as her father remained stunned.

  “I’m so sorry, father! I didn’t mean to, really,” this time the girl’s sobbing and tears were real. Sebastian felt Yara’s hand on his arm as she looked on the two sadly. Their fears were already realized. Katya, if left untrained for much longer, would become a wilder. If wizards and mages worried the common folk, wilders terrified them.

  Wilders were untrained wizards that tapped into their powers unregulated. For many, that meant unfortunate accidents such as this, though for most there were often deaths before trained wizards could come restrain their powers before taking them to a school to try and teach them control. The earlier a future wizard could be trained, the better they usually became. Without bad habits that a wilder would develop such as Ashleen’s inability to restrain her lightning magic, most wizards and mages could blend into any situation without risk of harming anyone with a miscast spell.

  Sebastian walked ou
t to kneel beside the two in the snow. “Father, she needs to come with us. If we don’t start teaching her to use her powers properly, it will get worse. Katya is like a child swinging a blade in a kitchen. Someone will get hurt eventually. It may be Katya who gets hurt or someone in the family.

  “Can you tell me that you can be sure that she won’t lose control again?”

  Brushing Katya’s hands from him, Marcel walked into the house without a word. His little sister clung to Sebastian as they walked back inside, as suddenly the rest of the family was giving them extra room as if by bumping them the girl would harm them. Before they could think to sit down, his father returned with a small coin purse and tossed it in front of Sebastian.

  “I don’t need any money to care for her, father. As mages and wizards we can call on the city keeps for help if we must, but I think I have enough to last even with her along.”

  “Take it. It’s your money anyway. We’ve had two good years and I only used the money when we needed it,” Marcel refused his son’s attempt to give him the money back.

  “Well take half of it. You should keep some in case the weather doesn’t cooperate this year. I wouldn’t want anyone to starve when I truly don’t need it,” the mage said again. The purse was quite heavy. He guessed that not only could it for pay Katya’s trip to Hala and back to White Hall, but for his entire team.

  Looking angry, the older man declared, “That is half! Besides there will be more this year and once they begin sending us money for Katya’s service, it will be twice as much. That is how Southwall buys your service and takes our children from us!”

  So much money, Sebastian thought to himself. He hadn’t known that Southwall paid so much. It was only until a mage or wizard turned twenty- one, but the wage was supposed to help a family like the Trillon’s in case they needed to hire an extra hand. After twenty-one, the money went to the wizard in full and they could choose to help their family from then onward.

  After a moment, Sebastian nodded to his father as he pulled the bag to him and tied it to his waist. “We will be leaving in the morning. That should leave time for her to pack and for everyone to say their goodbyes.”

  Looking very sober, his family tried to act the same with Katya, but until Sebastian and his wizards returned to Mera for the evening meal, he could tell that it was no longer a family that felt safe. They wanted to mourn the loss of a child and feared the same girl at the same time. With a wish to keep their youngest daughter, their fear now made them cast her out.

  Chapter 27- The Blacksmith of Hala

  Hala. If the histories of North Continent were correct, the original city was over fifteen hundred years old. With its black stone keep protected by a shining white outer wall, the city had only fallen once and that was from a coup thrown from within. That was when the immortal, Gerid Aramathea, took the city and overthrew an evil king, or so the story went.

  Sebastian looked up at the white wall and black keep from the stories of legend feeling transported to a time before the north wall. It was before the Dark Emperor had thrown the world into chaos with the cataclysm that had reshaped the world. Wondering just how many of the stories could be true, the mage led his team into a city that had expanded well beyond its white walls.

  Despite the proximity to the wall of only a few miles, Hala was a thriving metropolis that hosted dignitaries from around the world in its castle and was one of the largest centers of trade on the continent. People and horses were everywhere crowding streets before they ever reached the inner city. Trying to navigate the traffic made Sebastian want to turn around and go back to Windmeer or White Hall. He had never seen so many people in one place and the amazing thing was the city was still trying to shake off winter’s hold.

  The Winter’s Edge tournament was so named for the transition from winter to spring and the city was probably even more crowded from all those coming to either participate or watch the event. If the rumor was to be believed, invitations had gone out beyond Southwall and its neighboring allies. To Taltan and Ch’Thal with their varied nations, to Kadross and perhaps even the far off Calmon and Malev, though he had heard of no northern sailor to ever sail to the bottom of the world as the men of the north called it.

  Sebastian was curious to see what countries would bother to show for a wizards’ tournament. If the turn out brought foreign travelers from the other continents, it would prove that Hala was truly a world trading power. It would also bring magic users from the entire world to test him against. He had to assume not everyone used magic the way the wizards of Southwall did. The fact that battle mages and wilders accessed their spells in a different way from their wizards proved that.

  “Ah, wizards of Southwall would you care to sample my wares?” a portly merchant brazenly stepped in front of Brenner’s horse blocking his way. “And so many beautiful ladies perhaps one is a girlfriend and you would like to get her a necklace or maybe the ladies would like to see for themselves?”

  Brenner frowned and asked, “Do many wizards bother to buy your wares when you get in their way?”

  The man gave the sarcastically rhetorical question a moment’s pondering and replied, “Well, not every one, but I have a few for clients. At least I think they are wizards. They wore those colored robes your lot likes to wear. Maybe as leader you wish to get your company matching pins to let the others know of your team. Strike fear into your opponents with say a wolf pin or a tiger from Ch’Thal?”

  Sniffing in disdain, the air wizard used a magic styled spell to send a strong gust of air into the man pushing him aside. “Who said I was the leader? Bother the mage if that’s who you think you can convince to buy from you.”

  His horse pushed past leaving Sebastian looking at the disheveled merchant, who despite the surprise of a magical push, still looked game to try and sell. “A mage is in charge of a team for the wizard’s duel? My, that is a different approach. You must be an excellent coach. Your air wizard cast that spell so fast; it must be your training.

  “Now if you’ll notice my tables over here,” the merchant brushed his flashy robes before gesturing to his set of tables with a large awning spread over top of them to keep off the snow during the winter weather. It was wooden with a heavy red cloth running along its edge and appeared bolted to the building behind it. Sebastian would have thought a shop would have been enough to not have to resort to a sidewalk sale.

  “We don’t have the time right now,” the mage stated simply. “If we don’t find the Blacksmith’s Inn, we might not get our rooms during the tournament. Perhaps we’ll come back later and shop around.”

  Looking uncertain of whether he should be sad or happy with Sebastian’s explanation, the merchant decided to spread a little more honey with his words in an attempt to win more favor with him. “If the Blacksmith doesn’t work out, go to the Emerald Inn. It’s the second street inside the white wall and right of west Entry Street, if you enter from that gate. Tell them Rijoun sent you and he’ll give you a discount I am sure.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” the mage replied with a nod of his head as he signaled his horse deeper into the city. With a piece of paper with the directions that the ravens had given him in hand, the group caught up to Brenner and continued to push towards the white wall of the central city.

  Katya’s voice came from just behind her brother. She had edged past Yara who had given Sebastian her reins to lead her horse through the tightly crowded streets. The healer still wasn’t comfortable trying to guide the animal, especially in the heavy crowds of Hala. “Brother, couldn’t we have stopped to look for a moment? It would have given us a chance to stretch our legs after the long ride.”

  “Like I told the merchant, we need to get to the inn and I would like to get there before dark. There will be plenty of time to go shopping in the city, Katya. Once we set up our rooms and get the horses stabled, we’ll have at least a week longer to wander around Hala,” the mage replied trying to keep an eye on the traffic in front of him while still
trying to direct his voice towards his sister to be heard over the noise of the crowd.

  With a pouty lip, the girl eased back a little leaving Yara to giggle on the leader’s opposite side.

  “What?” he asked genuinely perplexed.

  “Someone seems to be playing the little sister card. It looks like she’s trying to wrap you around her finger like she has the rest of your family,” the pretty blond replied smugly. “I was the youngest girl in my family so I know the look well.”

  “Hmmph,” was his grunted reply. “Five years away from her charms should help steel me against her, but it explains how you’ve managed to wrap me around your little finger, doesn’t it?”

  “Oh I do, do I?” the girl asked the question looking calculating. “I’ll have to remember that when I need something from you then.”

  After taking quite a bit of time to make their way through the traffic of the outer city, his team passed through the west gate, but following his own set of instructions from his leaders Sebastian led them four blocks up the street and made a left. As impressive as the white wall was, Sebastian found his eyes straying to the black castle standing impressively just east of center. It had been built that way to take advantage of the cliff that dropped more than a hundred feet into the North Sea. With the natural defense behind it, the inner city was a buffer for any invading force, so the black castle sat back with two white walls extending to the eastern outer wall.

  There were no homes behind the castle. It had been separated from the rest of the city and housed a smaller school for wizards. Three of the ten duel centers hosting the tournament were behind those walls and the castle. Looking at the towering fortress, Sebastian imagined that it would be an impressive presence as they fought and he assumed the royals would have places to watch from the parapets above for convenience.

  Finding the inn, the mage noted the interesting play of color on the building. The first floor was black stone until at ten feet, and then eight inches of stained wood separated the next two wooden floors washed white. It was like the view of the city from without, but in reverse. Aside from the sign out front with its image of an anvil and hammer, the other answer to the name came from the sounds of metal being hammered nearby.