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

by Donald Wigboldy

  After eating and drinking his fill, Sebastian closed his eyes running his hand over the amulet once more to fix the markings in his mind. When he was certain that the pattern was fixed, the owl took Cheleya's hands with both of his hands. Used more as a gesture of support for the che'ther girl, only contact with Cheleya was really needed. Sebastian said, "I will try to pull the rune magic free of the different points and assemble them at the center of your chest. If they move the way I hope, I should be able to move them to your skin like the rune tattoos.

  "If everything goes to plan, I think I can even remove them entirely; but let's see if the first part works before I start something else."

  "Let's," Kel'lor grumped with his arms folded defensively. Sebastian looked to the mar'goyn'lya warily thinking that he would hate to have to try and fight off a disgruntled monster like him. He had defeated larger creatures like armored viles, but somehow he had a feeling Kel'lor would be more difficult than most of those if he were angry.

  Nodding to the gargoyle and again to Cheleya, Sebastian uttered his single word to heal. The spell wasn't always used for what he said. It was just a word of power designed to send his mind into the body of another being. Unlike wizards, who had a set of words and gestures specifying nearly every exact detail of individual types of healing, the mage worked closer to the instinctual casting of a wilder.

  He closed his eyes and entered the girl returning to the point on her forehead first. Pushing his magic into it like he had to copy runes, Sebastian worked to lift it free enough to make it move. Though the dragoness couldn't feel the change of the position of the rune, Sebastian could have placed his finger on it as it moved towards her chest.

  Repositioning the marks and turning them to face the proper direction, Sebastian moved to the rune on the left side of her collarbone to repeat the process. Like assembling a puzzle consisting of just nine pieces, the mage made each of the nine runes leave their current places to reassemble them on the upper part of Cheleya's chest.

  Once the owl had them all aligned, he slid them together and felt a new kind of magic as they drew together. He lifted the magical form from the girl's bones raising it to be seen like a glowing tattoo in the upper part of her chest. Between her smallish breasts where the breast bone joined the ribs, the circle resembling Kel'lor's amulet could be seen by those watching.

  Cheleya looked down to see what everyone else had already noticed. Kel'lor stepped forward looking at the glowing skin with wide eyes, but looked unsure of what to do with his hands. The others moved slightly closer unable to stop their feet. Sebastian had pulled off another miracle and they could all feel it.

  Sebastian released the girl's hands and stated, "This should work the same as your amulet did before it was broken and rearranged. We should probably try the next part outside in an area where Cheleya can have room to change into a che'ther."

  They all noted the limited space and thought that a dragon, even a small one, might wind up crushing all the humans inside the closed room.

  Tossing the amulet back to Kel'lor, Sebastian rolled up the sheets with the drawings of the runes of the amulet. If this was one of Mar'kal's secrets, having it in his mind would be the only copy once he used fire to burn the drawings. Until they were certain that everything had worked, however, the owl didn't want to destroy them before they were sure. He only had one chance at seeing the runes in their original positions and angles, but that was gone now.

  Serrena replaced the other sheets of paper and the group began walking to the Tower of War once again.

  Ashleen walked beside him and noted, "You used your magic to draw runes on paper with just your finger. You moved Cheleya's runes and made them come to the surface of her skin to look just like the amulet besides.

  "How did you know to do either of those things? I've never seen you do them before. Obviously we just met Cheleya, but still, did you just create new magic while trying to figure out how to help her?"

  He shrugged noting the girl's hand in his. Ashleen could be possessive when he would let her. It wasn't that Sebastian didn't want the warmth of her touch, but the mage couldn't focus on other tasks if he had to be distracted by the beautiful wilder all the time. Besides that, her inability to stop the flow of the earth into her completely meant that there was always a tingle of electricity when he touched Ashleen. The tingle wasn't bad, but it was certainly another distraction of the pretty girl.

  "It isn't exactly new as much as it is another step along the line of understanding the runes. Once I saw Kel'lor's amulet, I sensed that the writing on the stone was very similar to the tattoos of the tribe," he said substituting the word tribe for the merfolk bound to the Grimnal and his people. They were another secret that Gerid had asked him to keep.

  Ashleen understood less of the runes than Sebastian. He had tried to show her a little of the magic, but he had been distracted by other things like working to make Hollow Swords and portal magic. Understanding her limitations and finding it would be hard for him to show her while walking through the halls of White Hall, Ashleen let the matter rest.

  Cheleya, on the other hand, was filled with energy. Having seen what the battle mage had done, and physically able to see the tattoo form of her amulet on her skin; the che'ther was certain that she was about to be free of her human body and the curse set upon her. Malaketh had been a mentor and teacher. He had been someone the girl had trusted, but the man had hidden his evil well. His attempt to kill her and destroy her magic had been a complete shock.

  Now the dragoness was sure that she was nearly free.

  The group went outside and Cheleya asked as she spotted all the mage cadets practicing in the courtyard, "Should we maybe try this outside the school? The land outside the courtyards should be safe, I would think."

  Sebastian shrugged and asked, "Just how big a che'ther are you?"

  Wincing slightly, Cheleya said, "I am small for a che'ther just like I am a little small as a human. Nose to tail, I was only about twenty feet long; but when the amulet was messed up I once turned into a true dragon. Then I was at least a hundred feet long with giant wings capable of letting me fly."

  The second form was certainly something to worry about for space, Sebastian thought. He replied, "Well, you should be just as you were. The magic should be exactly the same except that it isn't on an amulet, but is on you."

  There was a door in the north wall. Though the school could be fortified using magic to wall up the doors to make the outer wall a solid defense, it wasn't war time. The school was a school and not a guardian city. With a wall protecting the west side of the city and school, the inner walls helped keep the sound of explosions from wizards training inside as much as they could. The river protected the city to the north and east, so the school wasn't the primary defense when there was no reason to make it a fort.

  Passing through the door, which could be locked from the inside, the small group followed Cheleya beyond the school walls. The girl was like Evie in that she had never retrieved her shoes from the roof, but she wore a pair of brown shorts reaching to her knees and a blouse of light blue. The girl stripped off her shorts making the men start to look away, except for Elzen who began to grin.

  Rilena placed her hand against his jaw turning his face away with a growl of anger, "Elzen!"

  Sebastian's forehead wrinkled and he asked a question of the girl without turning away yet. She wore silk panties keeping her somewhat covered at least. Before Cheleya finished giving Kel'lor the piece of clothing, Sebastian asked, "Doesn't your magic alter both your body and the clothes you wear?"

  Giving him a shrug before pulling her top off without a thought, Cheleya replied, "We used magic to create clothing as humans. Kel'lor's amulet makes his clothing change with his size as well, but che'ther don't wear clothing. Also since we have no idea if this new amulet you created in me will work at all, let alone the way it originally did; I would rather not take the risk in destroying my clothes.

  "I have magic to repair t
hings, but even a small che'ther would destroy them utterly. To remain somewhat decent and to test out your theory, I can leave these on," the nearly naked blonde said gesturing to the single piece of cloth left on her.

  Sebastian had forgotten to look away more from the curiosity to see if the amulet would work as he thought it would. "Well, then we'll give you space to change then."

  The group stepped back. Kel'lor holding his 'little sister's' clothing looked worried. Wondering at the magic, Mecklin and Elzen looked towards the girl, who most men considered extremely beautiful. Sebastian had noticed a scent to her that was entrancing as well. While she appeared very human, his healing magic had noted the slight difference to her skin and hair which produced a scent similar to pheromones. Kel'lor had a scent as a human also, but it was different. As a mar'goyn'lya, the monster's scent was barely noticeable and completely different from his human one.

  Being distracted again by other thoughts as his mind remained curious, Sebastian watched as Cheleya placed her hand over the tattoo which no longer glowed. He worried that the magic might have worn off, but it might just have been his spell creating the initial glow.

  "Neruter emis ot flesym sa et sawen!" the human girl cried out with her musical sounding voice. The strange words sounded like a song from her mouth, unlike the sound of the mar'goyn'lya's harsh voice.

  The amulet glowed again and the light encompassed Cheleya's petite body quickly. When the light continued to grow and masked the girl's form, it lengthened and shifted swiftly. In just over a second, a light blue dragon appeared out of the glow of the light.

  "It worked!" a deeper voice came from the che'ther. Her words were as articulate as that of a human and only the depth of the tone really seemed different.

  The mage tested the air for the scent and noticed it had faded with the glow. Whatever it was, it was part of Cheleya only as a human.

  "Does it feel right?" he asked almost positive that everything was the way it should be.

  The little dragon lifted her front claw lifting it as her long neck curled to bring her che'ther face and eyes close enough to see the scales running along her arm. Short claws, that looked capable of cutting through a man's flesh with ease, opened and closed before her emerald green eyes. The eyes were the same color as her human ones had been, though the black of the iris look more like a vertical slit now.

  Trying to walk around using several tentative steps, the dragoness seemed to find everything satisfactory and tried to sit back enough to bring her front legs up in front of her. Cheleya's head lifted to nearly twice Kel'lor's height and the che'ther stated, "I think everything is correct, but it has been so long that this body feels bulky and almost clumsy."

  The mar'goyn'lya replied, "You always said so in Mar'kal. That was one of the reasons you liked to be human when we were home."

  Nodding, the che'ther's eyes began to look even glossier than before and Kel'lor quickly put Cheleya's clothing on the ground. He pulled a glass vial from a small pouch at his waist and said to the dragon, "I never thought that I would see a che'ther cry. You had tears as a human girl, but I've never seen a dragon's tears."

  The che'ther dropped back down to place her face before her friend and said, "I've never been so happy as a che'ther either Kel'lor."

  Large tears formed pooling over her lids and the mar'goyn'lya did his best to catch them in his vial. Enough came to fill not only the first glass container but a second very quickly.

  Cheleya leaned back and touched the center of her scaly breast and uttered the magic words, "Ekam emet tahway et ma desopus ot ebem."

  The light took over the dragon body contracting it in an instant. Cheleya stood as the tan human girl with her long blonde hair covering her breasts. Her underwear remained intact; the girl noted looking down to verify it for herself. Color and texture formed over her upper body. What appeared to be a thick, pink ribbon wrapped around her chest lifting the blond hair as it continued around her stomach and again around her waist. Forming a skirt that hid her human clothing, the ribbon stopped and Cheleya nodded.

  "The illusion magic works again too," she noted drawing her hair back over her shoulders. Kel'lor handed her a ribbon the girl sometimes used to tie her long hair back and did so with a practiced hand. She took her blouse and pulled it over her head letting the illusion of the ribbon disappear even before she pulled her shorts on once more.

  Cheleya's eyes still looked ready to cry, but the girl moved to Sebastian with a grin. "It works just like an amulet of stone. You've freed me, Sebastian!"

  He was about to agree when the little girl moved forward to quickly throw her arms around his neck despite the height difference as she pulled him down enough to hug the mage. Kel'lor frowned as did Ashleen and Serrena behind him.

  "I don't know how I can repay you; but if there is anything I can do, please let me know," the grateful che'ther offered beside his ear.

  She released him quickly. Cheleya could be demonstrative at times, but she was more often reserved at least with men.

  His mind already moving to other mysteries, Sebastian thought of something else his sister had said and placed his hand over the oval on his arm drawing out the black sword. "Well, there is one thing I can think of at the moment. Did you make this?"

  Cheleya's eyes widened and she nodded her head, "You bought this in Hala?"

  "Yes, from a sword merchant, but he thought that it was some form of steel. You used magic to create this, didn't you?"

  Cheleya grinned. "So now I get to see if I can teach you something to pay you for saving me?"

  Laughing at the notion, Sebastian shook his head, "Only if you really want to. I found this and it made me curious what you made it out of, because I can tell this is not metal."

  Ashleen rolled her eyes and waited for Cheleya to propose returning to the school. She had other swords that the girl could show him as well, she offered.

  The group returned to White Hall after their success. Sebastian had an idea to remove the tattoo of the amulet from Cheleya as well, but it could wait for now. He had a new bit of magic to discover first.

  Chapter 13- The Right Thing

  The wizards had finalized their plans and put both apprentices and full wizards to work on the tower and wall expansions they would need to anchor the portal for White Hall. Though they had begun the work, they would be unable to finish before the next day. Even working through the night and with magic, it was a major undertaking. Without magic, it would have taken weeks, if not months.

  Some earth wizards went to the grounds between the school walls and city wall to begin excavating the extra stone which would be needed. It was the quickest way to get what they needed, though other wizards went into town to see what they could find from local builders' supplies.

  Sebastian debated on returning to Hala with his team. Rooms were limited and certainly less comfortable than his place in the Black Smith Inn. His team was mixed in their reactions to the thought. Rilena wanted to remain to reacquaint herself with Evie, a friend she had met originally in the enemy fortress. Sebastian thought that the two girls seemed like sisters and Rilena was very protective of the younger, smaller girl.

  Mecklin and Frell had already arranged for accommodations in the mage barracks in White Hall. It would be less work to remain in the school than to walk the mile or so back and forth to the barracks in Hala from the inn. It also meant less arranging of time to be available when he needed them. They would just wait there, and the rooms were little different in either facility.

  Serrena and Ashleen would go where he went and Elzen asked to return with him. Figuring his friend had ulterior motives for returning to Hala, namely being able to see Naoromi again; Sebastian opened a gate in the portal courtyard where more earth wizards were already using their magic to tear down old defenses to begin work on new. He didn't need the lodestones still set on the ground, but if the enemy could trace his use of the magic, it was better to keep it all in one place.

  Before they
left, Elzen mentioned, "Maybe we should have stayed a little longer. Dinner here would be free."

  Serrena rolled her eyes and complained, "If Naoromi finds out that you are a cheapskate, I wonder if she would want anything to do with you?'

  Glaring at the young woman, Elzen retorted, "Well, we are here and it will be in just a few hours."

  "Dinner at the inn will be fine. The rush should just be beginning when we get there," Sebastian stated as he readied himself to cast the spell. "Door," he called and the magic answered with a portal roughly six feet square.

  Elzen rushed through despite his protests about a free meal followed by Serrena and Ashleen. The mage was last and gave the courtyard one last look wondering how much it would change before he returned in the morning to put up the gate.

  Arriving inside the room he rented in the inn, Elzen and Serrena looked surprised. They had assumed that the mage would use the main gate he had created in the fire wizards' court.

  "Where are we?" Elzen asked curiously as the owl arrived.

  "My room, the one Ashleen and I share at the inn. Now we only need to walk downstairs to get dinner."

  "Ah, very economical of you, Bas," the younger mage chuckled as he walked towards the door. When his friend stood still thinking, Elzen stopped to ask, "Are you coming?"

  He nodded and said, "Let's see what time it is here, but I need to find something that I am not sure Ivol will have stocked in the smithy."

  The four exited the room and Ashleen asked for them all, "Are you planning on making something tonight?"

  "Nothing too difficult, but, yes, I had something in mind if I get the time and the metal I need. For now, let's just see if we can eat. I've already built up an appetite with the magic I've used today."

  Elzen asked another question as they discovered a crowd beginning to build at the tables, "That dragon mage magic seemed very similar to battle mage spells. Are you going to take the time to learn how to use it too?"