Battle Mage: Winds of Change (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 11)

by Donald Wigboldy

  Half of those men were taken out with one spell leaving Wiler and just two guards in front of him able to counter the mage.

  Reaching to the left, the mage didn't follow up his attack as planned, instead he placed his hand against a wood crate calling out, "Door."

  A glowing portal formed behind the warlock trapping him and his two men. With no knowledge of the portal's destination, the men were wary of stepping through the golden doorway. With an indestructible stain glass window behind them, the three prepared to defend themselves from the surprising attacker. The spells were unheard of, especially for a battle mage, but Ileden unleashed a barrage of fireballs meant to drive him back.

  He wasn't the only warlock capable of harming the mage, however, and Trillon felt an attack charging up behind him. As the night shield remained before him to absorb the flames, runes suddenly glowed on his left arm lifting away from the appendage. Creating a glowing orange shield of runes, the cutting wind attack mixed with ice was repelled without the mage even turning to face Ileden.

  "What are you?!" Wiler screamed before trying a new spell.

  The portal collapsed behind the three giving them room to fall back as reinforcements leaped past the fallen barrier.

  His sword met and countered the attackers. His shields protected his back and left side making the attackers unsure of what to do to counter his abilities. He moved forward and they fell back though they outnumbered him ten to one in the front with even more trying to find a way past his barriers from behind.

  More noise came from the front door.

  The battle mage smiled and warned, "Reinforcements. You should give up now."

  A sword caught the black steel and lost. The regular blade was shortened two feet as the mage's lighter sword cut through the weapon as it moved to strike a second blade with almost as much force as if it had never touched the other sword. The clatter of metal on the floor was nearly drowned out as the noise in the warehouse rose into a cacophony of fighting.

  More mages, soldiers and wizards swept in from the front and back of the warehouse. His signal had been given and the rest of his forces had arrived.

  Many of those in the warehouse weren't as well trained as the wizard hunters and were restrained quickly. Battle mages swept in using reflex spells while wizards covered them with their magic. Soon all but those nearest Sebastian remained.

  Ileden and his men were taken down behind the battle mage, while he continued to whittle away at Wiler's numbers. A sleep spell knocked out two more men leaving just two wizard hunters and three others standing. With the reinforcements coming in from behind them two separatists turned with Wiler to see a dozen Southwall soldiers bearing down on them.

  Black shields were set to stop the warlock by the other mages making it a lost cause for the warlock. Like their wizard hunters, Southwall's battle mages had become skilled at taking away a warlock's power as well.

  The two wizard hunters seemed unwilling to be bested by a mage. While the other men gave up, they made a last charge at Trillon. He dropped his shields and fended off the men with his black sword. One of the blades lanced in from his exposed side, but he caught the weapon with his left forearm. The glow of orange runes protected him as he knocked the sword away from the hunter on his right.

  Expanding the orange shield as he punched forward, the second hunter was knocked from his feet. His sword clattered across the ground to be stopped by another mage's foot who had been watching the other man finish his fight.

  "Really, Bas, you just had to tease them, didn't you?" the shorter battle mage questioned him with a laugh. He was slightly younger and smiled easily making those who didn't know him believe that he didn't take his duties seriously.

  The spy shrugged as he replied, "I needed the practice. I've been too busy to train very much lately, so I appreciated the exercise."

  "If you two children are done?" a blond haired woman wearing the black uniform of a falcondi questioned the two falcons. Falcondi Westlin looked almost amused despite her words. She was Sebastian's shadow these days. Since he was able to use portals, the mage had become even more valuable to his corps. That he had been able to convince his superiors to let him lead this attack on the Dark One's spies in New Harbor, was only because of those same skills.

  He had dropped a pair of charged lodestones just within the doorway to the warehouse first. They had been out of sight of either of the exterior guards or those who might be watching inside. A second set had been dropped outside away from the guards letting a second portal be used to send the forces around the back while he distracted them.

  Sebastian used his magic to force open the tattooed portal rune on his right arm returning the black sword to the space within the magic ink. It faded into nothingness as he released both the weapon and magic holding it open.

  "I think we got most of them, falcondi," Sebastian stated returning back to a more businesslike manner. His friend Elzen tended to bring out more of his joking side; but he was also good in a fight, so Sebastian had asked for the younger mage to join his raid.

  The older woman nodded. Westlin was far from old and considered to still be in her prime, but the falcondi was nearly a decade older than Sebastian. She looked around them and replied, "Using your portal as a warning to attack was a little unusual."

  Nodding, Sebastian answered, "It worked to stall them from running or attacking though. They didn't know where it led and couldn't risk jumping through it."

  Master Wiler was still close enough to hear the comment and the warlock asked, "How could you call a portal by yourself? Your people aren't even supposed to know the spell, but your aura is too weak to do something like that by yourself.

  "I felt your power surge for a moment as you called that spell. How did you hide your power so well?"

  Sebastian smirked at the man and retorted, "Unlike your portal spell; that is my secret."

  Ignoring the warlock and the other men of the separatists, Sebastian spoke to Westlin. "There are more than these two 'speakers' using this warehouse. If we can set a trap for the others as they return, maybe we can catch the whole network by the end of the day."

  Westlin nodded. "We'll let the diplomacy wizards use their magic to control a few of the guards to make it look safe. The portal wizards can transport the rest of these prisoners to Hala's dungeon cells for us."

  Raising an eyebrow curiously at the woman, Sebastian said, "Well, that sounds like a bit of a dismissal to me, falcondi. Does this mean I get to leave now that my job is done?"

  Westlin waved him off as she rolled her eyes at the younger mage. "I guess that you have done enough for today, if you really want to go rest already. I would have thought a younger man like you would have more stamina than this."

  Giving her a large smile, Sebastian shook his head, "Well, I did just fight an entire warehouse full of warlocks and wizard hunters after all. Can you blame a mage for wanting to recover after that?"

  "Just go," the woman ordered waving him off once more.

  Sebastian looked at Elzen as if to question if he wanted a ride back to Hala. At Elzen's minimal shake of his head and glance to Westlin, his friend knew that the younger mage still had his duties in the detail assigned to taking out the separatists in New Harbor. He also hadn't had much of a chance to fight and Elzen enjoyed a good brawl as much as any battle mage.

  "Door," the spy called now that his job was done. He stepped through the new portal disappearing from view and moments later the golden doorway collapsed behind him.

  If one were to look, they would notice a charred line on the wooden crate he had rested his hand upon as he called up the spell. It was the same as on the box he had touched to call the previous portal, but few knew of the battle mage's trick to call on the earth's power he needed for a spell that no mage should be able to do on his own.

  Chapter 2- Backwards and Forwards

  Stepping through the light of the portal led Sebastian from the warehouse in New Harbor to an inn room lit by tw
o large windows with their drapes pulled back to allow the afternoon sunlight into the chamber. A full size bed sat beneath each window with a night stand between them and an unlit lamp sitting on the top. Dressers and wardrobes lined the other walls leaving a walkway for the mage to step onto at the base of one unoccupied bed.

  It was a safe spot set by the battle mage weeks ago after he had finally mastered the portal spell. His room in the Black Smith Inn wasn't large or overly fancy; but as an inn located within Hala's inner city walls, it was still considered a prestigious place to stay. Its prestige and placement so close to the king's castle had little to do with why Sebastian had taken residence there nearly two months ago, however.

  He had used the inn for the Winter's Edge tournament, a competition held by King Alain to bring wizards from around the world of Alus to Hala. Not just Southwall's cities had participated but wizards from far off countries like those of Taltan and Ch'thal. Even the che'ther and mar'goyn'lya, races of land dragons and gargoyles, had come down from their mountain city to join with them in a competition designed to bring their countries closer together in a very large world.

  Though he had used the inn before, it was the knowledge of the smithy behind the inn for which it had been named that had also drawn the battle mage to choose the Black Smith Inn for his stay once more. He had used the smithy to research new weapons that he thought might be useful for the mages and wizards of Southwall. After weeks of work, the mage had come up with a few new swords capable of holding magic inside intricate runes. The mage, jokingly referred to as an owl, had begun to understand the strange rune magic of the merfolk he had been shown because of this.

  Rune magic had been proved useful in his fight inside the warehouse as well, though the magic swords had been left behind this time.

  While Sebastian had chosen to stay in the Black Smith Inn rather than taking a room in the barracks used by the local mages, he hadn't been totally alone. He wasn't alone now either as the young man looked to the other bed as his gateway winked out of sight.

  "Hello, Ashleen," he greeted the pretty, blonde, wilder Sebastian had first met months ago before his journey to the wizards' tournament. She was Kardorian, but their paths had become intertwined and eventually so had their hearts. While Sebastian had been tentative with building his relationship with the foreign, female wizard, Ashleen had made it known since their return to Hala that she was definitely interested in him.

  The girl put down a leather bound book. It was likely expensive as most books were in the north. Cities like Hala had large libraries, but the cost made them less common outside of those institutions of learning or places like the wizards' schools. Whether Ashleen had decided to spend some of his money or had gone to the bank to call on the funds of her family from Kardor, the mage wasn't sure. He had come into money from performing a mission for the king, but Ashleen's family were wealthy nobles from the northern kingdom, one of Southwall's closest allies.

  Wearing a light blue skirt with a matching top, which had no sleeves and was cut low enough to reveal some of the curves of her chest; Ashleen had been dressing lightly both because of the weather and because she enjoyed tempting him with what he could have. She pulled her legs under her to kneel on the bed and tilted her head before coyly replying, "Hello? Is that all you're going to say?

  "You left me behind again for some mission and all I get to hear is 'hello'? I am a bit disappointed, but at least I don't see any apparent injuries this time."

  He knew that she was teasing. The mission to New Harbor wasn't classified and Sebastian had told her that he was going to help wipe out the separatist movement started by spies from the Dark One. Using their portal magic, the enemy had infiltrated cities throughout southern Southwall and even the kingdoms of Sileoth and Marianis as well. Trying to create insurrections to destabilize and distract the kings, the Dark One had renewed his war with the people of Southwall and its allies.

  "You knew that I couldn't take you with for more than one reason. First, you are from Kardor, so bringing you to fight our enemies could create problems for your country and ours since you technically have your own kingdom to serve.

  "Secondly, I was under cover. Going alone was the easiest way to track down their headquarters. They had worked to hide its exact position from the guards of New Harbor, or so Count Terris' people have continually told King Alain's operatives anyway.

  "Too many people involved with the mission would only complicate things."

  "And third it was too dangerous, so you wanted to keep me safely hidden away here in Hala," the girl pouted, but again he could tell that she didn't truly mean it.

  "It is certainly easier if I only have to protect myself in a fight," he stated neither confirming her opinion nor denying it. While Sebastian knew the girl was a powerful wizard with defenses which were instinctual due to her learning of lightning magic as a wilder before she was found by her wizard master, the girl was still a wizard and had little weapons training to protect herself beyond her spells. "They had warlocks who looked for auras besides. Yours as a wizard would be harder to mask than mine. My power is low enough that they missed it until it was too late."

  Ashleen looked at him and her eyes glowed. "You still have magic to your aura, but I will say that it reads as disrupted or broken now. If I could go back and look at you when I first met you versus now, I probably would wonder if you were the same person."

  "I think that the tattoos of rune magic might account for some of it," he answered with a nod.

  "But that still doesn't mean you get to return and just say 'hi'. I want details. How did it go?"

  Sebastian sat on the side of the bed and began to pull off his boots. With a little time before dinner, the mage hoped to relax for a bit. Ashleen was likely to want to meet up with their friends or find a place to dance with just the two of them, if they weren't available.

  He had taught her to use healing magic for wounds, but it was hard for the wilder and draining when she tried to use the spells; so he couldn't just have the girl ease the ache from fighting with a spell. They had come to believe that her magic was designed to attack and destroy. Lightning magic was a part of her and healing wizards often found that they had to specialize in healing while abandoning most attack spells. The conflict inside them seemed too much for most.

  A thud on the wood floor as the first boot fell was ignored as the young mage answered, "I had to listen to one of their speakers, a warlock, for over an hour spewing their ideas about breaking from Southwall to become their own kingdom or city state before I caught a recruiter's eye.

  "The city guards came to break it up about the same time, but I managed to get invited to an abandoned warehouse they were using. I was taken before one of their leaders, who was also a warlock, before things started getting interesting."

  "By that you mean, the warlock realized you were a battle mage and they tried to attack you," the girl summarized sitting back on her lower legs beside him. Her skirt only covered the upper half of her thighs revealing skin that had become tanner since they had returned to Hala. The summer had been unusually warm for a city in northern Southwall and Ashleen had taken to wearing clothing that was nearly scandalous during the day.

  She had become his assistant and apprentice as well, since coming to the Black Smith Inn. They worked in the smithy together. Between the heat of the forge and the summer air, Ashleen wore almost as little as the men working the fires. Such outfits had disturbed Ivol, the smith, and his son; but no more so than his wife Hilda, who ran the inn. At first the woman had tried to fight the younger girl on it, but after weeks of making apparent that she wouldn't change her ways; Hilda had apparently given up for the most part.

  "I was checked for weapons..."

  "Which you hid with the rune," she nodded.

  The second boot dropped with a thud and Sebastian lay back across the bed dangling his legs over the mattress edge. Her blue eyes followed his face, but the girl merely slid off of her legs sitting with
them curled against her as she rested against her arm.

  "So when the warlock, Wiler, began to question why I had magic and what I was, it was pretty much time to distract them until the others arrived. I pulled the black sword. It is definitely ridiculously sharp and strong," he added getting distracted from the main story.

  "You weren't getting very serious if you didn't pull out one of the Hollow Swords," Ashleen stated with a bit of a frown. She knew that he was always testing things out. The black sword had been an interesting discovery while looking for the best swords he could find in the city in an attempt to make the best blades he could to build more Hollow Swords out of them. While an impressive weapon, it wasn't the best for use with magic, though it was an excellent blade.

  "I didn't need the overkill of a Hollow Sword," he explained. "My mission was to capture as many of them as I could. The king and his advisors want to try and find out what the emperor hopes to achieve with these new tactics. If it is just to distract us while he wages war on Listarin with Sileoth, then it is as we figured; but why now?"

  "Of course, it is a distraction," Ashleen replied with a shake of her head. It seemed obvious, but his second point didn't have an answer. The dark armies of the emperor had tested the wall for over a century, but had become quieter over the last several decades. While his soldiers continued to fight Southwall beyond their wall, the war seemed to have become over land that didn't truly matter to the people living south of the great wall.

  "Anyway," he continued as the girl seemed willing to let him tell his story, "I caught them by surprise using a variety of spells that they wouldn't expect from a battle mage."

  Laying onto his shoulder beside him, Ashleen's breath touched his cheek as she said, "Like what?"