It was assumed that the empire had few ships to use. The main cities were far from the sea, so it made sense that they wouldn't waste resources on such things; but having any black ships for a land locked nation was already a surprise.
Cheers rose from the ships of Sileoth and Southwall. Congratulations went around as the dragon mages returned to their home vessels.
Katya noticed her brother looking at her and knew that he was both relieved and unhappy with her reckless attack of the black ship. Once the crowd of sailors and soldiers began to thin, Sebastian moved to stand beside the young girl without looking at her for a moment. His eyes rested on the sea. The waves remained energetic and tall, but the warships still handled them well.
"That was too dangerous a stunt that you pulled," he reprimanded his sister as he continued to watch the sea and avoided looking at her.
Frowning at Sebastian, the girl retorted, "A diplomacy wizard's magic requires that the enemy can hear them. I made those two ships crash into each other. I nearly destroyed two ships. Who else can say that, Bas?
"How many did you sink?"
He looked at his sister returning the frown angrily. "You ALMOST destroyed two ships. The warlocks stopped the crash from happening. You disrupted their pattern, but it nearly cost you your life doing it!"
"You're over exaggerating, Bas!" the little blond snapped feeling unappreciated by her brother. "My magic made them fight each other. No one came close to catching me let alone to harming me.
"Besides it worked. Why aren't you congratulating me instead, huh?
"We won and they lost. Was anyone hurt? Then stop complaining and treating me like a little girl. I am a wizard and can take care of myself."
"You are a little girl and just a novice. You've been at this for a matter of months, so don't pretend that you can take care of yourself. You're only here because we have so few dragon mages. If I could, I would have left you in White Hall to keep studying!"
Ashleen moved between the two touching both siblings on an arm. "You might want to keep your arguing to yourselves. Everyone can hear you here," she warned.
Sebastian looked around seeing dozens of eyes on them. Soldiers and sailors paused to see the two of them fighting beside the rail. He also noted Magnus watching them with a smile that served to annoy the mage further. It was as if the wizard was enjoying their fighting.
Walking away from his sister and Ashleen as well, the mage moved to find the captain of the ship. It should be safe enough to leave the fleet to the other wizards. The enemy was unlikely to try them again so soon. They would need to figure out how to fight back against an enemy who could fly circles around their ships and that would take more time than the Dark One had most likely before they would reach Helsen.
Meanwhile, Sebastian had other missions which required his attention. Arguing with Katya wasn't necessary when he had so much to do to help turn the war for Litsarin.
"He treats me like a child!" Katya complained trying to avoid yelling at Ashleen. A diplomacy wizard had to learn how to not only control their emotions, but do their best to control the environment around them. Losing her temper with Sebastian just served to remind the girl that she still needed to work to refine her talents.
Smiling apologetically at the younger girl, Ashleen replied calmly, "That's probably because he sees you that way. You are his little sister. No matter how old you become, Sebastian will think of you as his little sister.
"You should see what it was like the last time I returned home. My parents and older brothers treat me the same way, even if I have been away for a few years as a wizard."
"But I'm not a child!" Katya nearly repeated herself. Ashleen fought laughing at the girl's protest. Like a child throwing a fit, Katya wasn't exactly winning the argument with her complaining.
Magnus spoke up as he walked up from behind the novice, "He fails to see that you have more talent than he does. You are more powerful and more mature as well. Girls are said to mature faster after all.
"Convincing Bas that you are grown up will be hard to do like the Kardorian says," the wizard finished depersonalizing Ashleen in the process. He hadn't bothered to get to know the wilder. She wasn't a dragon mage or a citizen of Southwall. He viewed her as temporary. Even if he wished the best for Sebastian, Magnus couldn't see the relationship lasting.
"My name is Ashleen. If you can't remember it, I can always burn it onto your arm with my lightning," the wilder retorted being annoyed at the interruption.
Waving off Ashleen, the fire wizard continued, "Bas has always been someone turned in on himself, at least since I have known him. He trained alone and likes to go on missions by himself.
"How often does he leave you behind, Ashleen? Surely you can see that it is the truth.
"People like that don't always see that other people have moved on with their lives."
Ashleen looked ready to defend Sebastian again, but Katya nodded at the much taller wizard stating, "He wasn't like that as much when we were younger, but maybe battle mage training made him like that."
Magnus shrugged, but continued, "Still, he cares about you. If you were my little sister, I'd probably be just as bad. I didn't want you here risking your life either and yet we are only friends. Surely you can see that your brother only wants to protect you from harm?"
Surprising Ashleen by his suddenly siding with Sebastian, the wilder was unsure what to say this time. Once more Katya replied, but with a sigh, "He needs to remember to treat me more like a fellow wizard and not his baby sister, especially with everyone else around. How can people trust me if they think my big brother is going to treat me like some kid?"
"He'll probably be leaving pretty soon," Magnus said with near complete confidence even if he didn't know the other draws on Sebastian's time and attention. "The ravens and high wizards will probably want him somewhere else that they consider more important. Just babysitting the fleet once we've won will probably not be where they want him anymore."
Ashleen looked for Sebastian with a little bit of worry. Unfortunately Magnus' words had hit a soft spot for the young woman. She could try and defend how the mage acted, but the fact that she had been left behind so often didn't leave her much room to argue. In fact, Ashleen could only hope that he wasn't preparing a portal already to leave her behind. It was a growing frustration to the wilder who had proved herself capable enough, she thought.
"Are you jealous that he is more important than you, Magnus?" Katya asked surprising the wilder enough to make her turn her head to look for his reaction.
Waving off the comment nonchalantly, the wizard replied, "That is hardly the truth. Sebastian just seems that way because no one else among the battle mages is as capable. Among wizards I am special enough, but we have many talented wizards. Until I can prove that I am on track for the white, I might be overlooked. It is a point that I will disprove sooner or later.
"My natural affinity for fire makes it easy to miss that I have already started learning other magic. What other wizard was smart enough to learn how to cast like a battle mage for the tournament?"
"Those who trained with Sebastian," Katya quipped with a shrug and grin.
Again the man waved his dismissal saying, "They trained because they were with him as training partners. I was already far along with my skills by that time."
Ashleen frowned and tried to keep the fire wizard's ego in check adding, "But Sebastian still beat you in White Hall... twice."
"I didn't say that he was without skill, but give me time. I'll beat him soon enough."
"Didn't you promise him that you were going to give up challenging my brother?" Katya asked with a shake of her head.
A last shrug as Magnus turned from the girls was designed to give the appearance that the wizard didn't care as he countered, "Eventually he will want to challenge me then. We're rivals whether he wants to admit it or not."
As the fire wizard walked away towards the wizards who had followed him to become dragon mages,
Ashleen added, "It's strange that a wizard would consider a battle mage his rival."
Magnus didn't even acknowledge her comment and began a new conversation with his fellow wizards.
Chapter 31- Land and Air
Sebastian stood near the rear of the ship. He hadn't tried making a gateway on a moving vessel before and worried that, like his attempts to move an opened portal; it might remain rooted in the air even as the battleship continued to move. The owl had told his commanders that he was pretty sure that he could lock the gate to the deck getting around the issue. If Sebastian was wrong, a portal could cause damage to the ship and potentially sweep away someone in its path; so setting it on the aft deck would limit the danger of an open gateway at least.
"Were you planning on leaving me behind again?" Ashleen questioned with folded arms and a frown on her lips. The wilder had managed to surprise him as the sound of moving air dragged any warning of her approach from him.
Rolling a pair of lodestones in the palm of his hand, Sebastian turned to look at the pretty blonde haired wizard. He smiled and shrugged. "I was considering it," the owl admitted candidly.
Her eyes widened appearing slightly impressed by the truth admitted so freely. Sebastian knew that the girl hated being left to worry over him as he used his portal magic to move around the world. Too often the wilder had been stuck in the Blacksmith Inn, but Ashleen tried not to complain. Still it was annoying that he didn't trust her abilities enough to take her along.
"I don't want to sound like Katya, but I can take care of myself. If you are going somewhere so unsafe that you can't take me along, then maybe you shouldn't go either."
Grunting at the comment, he asked, "Was I so wrong to tell her she was reckless?"
Ashleen considered his words and the actions of the thirteen year old girl. Katya's belief in her magical skills was commendable, but she shook her head agreeing with his viewpoint that the younger girl had risked her life needlessly. The woman also saw the hypocritical point of his comments about his sister though.
"She did something very dangerous and it was likely not very necessary, but it is hard to see you discipline her when you do so many risky things yourself. Look at you now. Where are you planning to go this time? All alone, I might add," Ashleen queried hoping his sudden usage of candor would ease her mind rather than add to her worry over him.
Sebastian looked away for a moment contemplating his answer, but when he looked her in the eyes once more, the mage stated simply, "I am going to try to open an old gate to Litsarin. Our information is a little outdated and probably incomplete since so few of our ships have been making it through the Dark One's blockade, but choosing a point far enough to the north should be safe though.
"The battlefield has moved well to the south of my choice, but there is a chance that there will be more of the Dark One's creatures around the portal guarding against such an attempt."
"I'll go with you then," Ashleen stated daring him to argue. "If it is safe, then it won't matter if I go. If it isn't safe, then I can watch your back."
Smiling at the young woman, Sebastian reminded her, "My shield can surround me and hasn't failed to stop a blow so far. Even those shrike wings couldn't reach me through it," he said of a recent battle where they had first discovered the giant shrikes that seemed half man and half bird in the way that they could fight.
"I can surround myself in a lightning shield equally powerful."
"And risk disrupting the gate to leave you somewhere in that silver world?" he reminded her. Ashleen had once used her magic to stop Palose's gate from closing only to strand them all on an island in the middle of Silver World. Aside from the floating islands believed to have been made from the Dark One's old world, the dimension used to join points in Alus was just a void consisting of silver light.
"Then block for me until I come through," she frowned seeing that Sebastian hoped to wear her down with his objections. "My magic can react even when I am not completely aware I am in danger anyway, so stop arguing and just resign yourself to taking me with you. This nonsense of dangerously wandering off on your own needs to stop. I can't imagine Raven Leros approves of you risking your life needlessly either."
Seeing that Ashleen was set on coming along, the owl shrugged knowing that fighting with her was likely only going to end in him giving in to her anyway. While the battle mage worried a bit over the idea, this should be a safe trip even so.
"I'll need to use a map to find the gate. Let's use the helmsman's room," he replied giving her the answer Ashleen had hoped to hear.
Magnus noted the two moving towards the central house built onto the deck for protection from sun, rain and waves. The fire wizard followed drawing Sebastian's attention. With his two fellow wizards in tow, the three were a bit obvious.
"What are you doing, Magnus?" the mage asked the taller man looking up slightly to exchange stares.
Pointing at the map in the mage's hand, the fire wizard ignored his question to ask one of his own. "What do you plan on doing with that? The captain and his men know the route well enough. You can't be going to direct them to different coordinates and besides that is a map of land. It won't be of much use to a boat."
The term chosen by Magnus would have angered the sailors of the battle ship. Calling it a boat was like calling a horse just a pony.
"I am going to try opening a portal on the ship to slip behind the Dark One's army. If it is safe enough, we can avoid crossing the sea and just bring our troops to land using gates."
Magnus nodded appearing to understand the idea, but asked, "May I watch? I have been trying to learn how to cast portals, but I admit that it isn't something easily done."
"I was practicing for almost two months before I managed my first one to escape Silver World," Bas replied being gracious to the man. He could have disparaged the fire wizard's failures, but the owl knew that few wizards were capable of making the gates so far in Southwall. They had begun trying to find wizards in Sileoth as well, but as far as he knew there had been no wizards able to make one yet.
The five continued to enter the room drawing looks from the sailor manning the large wooden wheel which was connected to the rudders at the rear of the ship. What mechanism was used to join the wheel to the pieces which guided the vessel, Sebastian was unsure. It wasn't the first ship he had been on with this sort of system, but he wasn't an engineer in need of such knowledge, so the mage had never bothered to ask.
Opening the map dominated by the three islands south of Southwall, Litsarin drew his gaze first as it was unfolded.
Magnus's brow lifted as his eyes looked to the mage curiously. "You need a map?"
"Darius and most of the wizards able to make portals seem capable of keeping track of the points in their heads. Maybe it is because I am just a battle mage or maybe it is simply the way my memory works, but I can only keep a few points in mind. The map also serves to focus my magic to find gates that I haven't even been to yet as well as those I have."
Again Magnus looked slightly confused and the fire wizard interrupted Sebastian's explanation. "You can find and use portals that you haven't been to before? How is that possible?"
"If I am familiar with the magic of a gate's creator, I can search for it with the map. Once found I can use the map to get there, even if it is the first time and I have never been to the city before.
"I know Palose's magic and even that of someone he has started using to mask his gates. There is also the generic magic of portals designed to allow warlocks to find and use them. My guess is that those are usually permanent gates made by the Dark One's warlocks. Darius lent his magic signature to those used in Southwall, but we could adjust them similarly. For now, using the high wizard's magic is probably safer than a gate of shared magic."
Though Magnus appeared to have more questions, as did his friends listening to the conversation; they waited quietly as the mage closed his eyes before running his hand above the paper. The map already had the marks he had found
in the past. Most of Palose's lodestones had disappeared, but new marks in pink marked those made from the dark haired girl's magic lodestones.
Whether Palose had ever taken the girl with him didn't matter, all he needed were the stones marked by her magic.
No new pinks dots were added, but he felt the generic magic in several places ranging from the east where they believed the first influence of the emperor beyond his empire in the Dragon Spine Mountains existed to a few towns along the north coast all the way to the west where they had begun driving out the people of Sileoth. The new marks in the north didn't matter since they were too far away to be very useful. It would take weeks to march their armies to the west coast and there were other portals ahead of those already. The danger of finding guarded portals aside; the western gates were the best possibility of harassing the emperor's forces sooner rather than much later.
He placed his forefinger on the one furthest north with an allied town listed on it and said, "Well, I guess that would be the most likely to be a safe place to start."
Magnus snorted derisively before replying, "It's so far to the north there's no way that will be of much help for supporting Helsen or whatever might be left of their defenses to the north even. I suppose you are right that I can't imagine such a useless gate would be guarded, however."
Nodding despite the tone, Bas confirmed, "It would be useless for the army to use; but for a dragon mage, even without testing a closer gate, it would be the perfect start for a flight towards Helsen. Once I make sure that it is safe, I can transport any of our dragon mages or carry lodestones southwest myself. We can create new gates that will be in easy reach of their rear forces."
The dark haired fire wizard, beside Magnus said, "With our power of flight, a few dragon mages could shift the lines of battle quickly. All we need are the stones used to create a gate, even if we can't make them ourselves."
Battle Mage: Winds of Change (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 11) Page 46