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

by Donald Wigboldy

  Sebastian landed in front of the two wizards. The black sword held in his right hand and Bairh'loore in his left, the battle mage scattered the closest soldiers with the power of his wings' gale attack.

  "Go!" he ordered the two girls. "I'll get Martina, but you two need to get to safety."

  Katya looked exhausted but a defiant frown was aimed at her brother. Unfortunately the disapproving looked was lost as he called his reflex spell.

  The owl had never tried using the staff in battle, but using two weapons in practice had been somewhat common. Most mages stuck with a sword and shield, but most tried other techniques as well, if only to rule them out for the future. Sebastian had been one of those capable of using both hands to a point.

  Like he was performing a dance, Sebastian cut at the soldiers between him and the falconi. Planting the staff as he turned, the mage used the earth to shake and explode casting more aside before cutting through a soldier's black armor with the surprisingly sharp, strong sword.

  He was a whirlwind. Nature and steel entered the fray confusing the enemy with his mix of elemental spells designed less to kill than to push them away. The movements of the dangerous battle mage were nearly a blur to their eyes and quickly scattered those caught in his path.

  The harpoons separated from his right arm striking like a swarm of snakes. Orcs were tossed aside or bound up long enough to cut off their air to the point of unconsciousness. They operated like they were alive, but Sebastian's mind was working overtime as his reflex spell kept him in a bubble of time which slowed his enemies to his eye as well as his body and spells.

  Planting Bairh'loore, Sebastian used the energy rising through it to make his rune shield expand crushing more soldiers while the harpoons followed the black sword giving him reach beyond the blade which the soldiers couldn't match. These weren't elemental attacks either and the striking snakes found gaps in their armor eliciting screams from those he wounded.

  The owl didn't slow, even though the mage knew his energy was growing more and more finite. Only the power of the earth through his staff managed to keep him going.

  Then the mage was at Martina's side. She was struggling to stand let alone fight anymore. White knuckles gripped the Hollow Sword as she hoped to keep the weapon from her foes even as it struck their armor.

  "Go!" he cried almost in her ear. The woman didn't even acknowledge him. Her eyes looked almost as empty as the dead soldiers fighting her now. This group moved as well as trained battle mages, Sebastian thought as he stepped in front of Martina.

  Planting Bairh'loore, Sebastian summoned the power into the rune shield. Like an explosion of light, the orange glow leaped out like a bubble from his arm. The magic engulfed both of them as it scattered even the largest foe like the undead armored viles.

  His harpoons wrapped around the falconi, but the barbs disappeared becoming smooth black rope. The falconi felt the comforting grasp of the magic and her legs gave beneath her. Her hand relaxed letting the Hollow Sword go. One of the ropes caught the blade as Sebastian launched the two of them into the air like a hawk leaping into the air with its prey.

  Sebastian's vision caught the other two girls flying in the air before him. As he passed them, Iris and Katya let loose with dragon breath spells and dragon claws knocking the dead men and monsters back to the ground before they could begin to pursue them or their troops.

  Joining those fleeing from the battlefield, the owl watched as the other dragon mages took flight. Like Sebastian they used their dragon spells to create a separation between them and their enemies. The dragon mages worked to give time to the defenders and quickly they were the only ones moving between the dark army and the village walls.

  Spinning his arm in the air as a gesture to gather, the owl led the seven active dragon mages over the wall to find no one left in the village at all. The portals had closed by now as well and Sebastian led the others to the edge of the cliff on the far side of Stone Bay. There were ships in the bay. All with black sails, the enemy had the village surrounded and with no defenders left it would be only minutes before the enemy would enter Stone Bay.

  Sebastian landed and planted the staff. He checked to see if they had all managed to follow him and noticed Katya missing.

  "Where's Katya?" he asked in alarm. His eyes looked directly at Iris who turned in surprise.

  A moment later, he spotted the blonde haired girl winging towards them. Planting Bairh'loore, the mage fought his exhaustion to open one last gate. The girl landed as the others leaped through the doorway into the golden light rippling like living stained glass.

  He didn't even question where she had been. Katya gave him a quick glance as she passed, but said nothing. Still holding Martina in the tentacles of his harpoons, Sebastian followed the girl taking his mentor with him.

  It took only a moment for him to recognize the walls and towers of White Hall's entry point. Sebastian crushed the gate forcing even the remnants of the far gate to implode. No one would follow him through that portal easily. Even were they to try, White Hall's defenses awaited anyone foolish enough to follow.

  As he turned, the man's knees buckled. Only Bairh'loore kept him from falling onto his face. The harpoons faded from the air returning to his arm. Magnus caught Martina giving Sebastian a shake of his head.

  "Well, you look like a mess, Bas," the fire wizard stated. His red clothing was tattered and covered in black marks that looked like charcoal had been tossed onto the cloth. Burn marks had even worn a few holes through the sleeves and a couple places on his pants. "If you want to play the hero, at least make sure that you don't drop the woman."

  "I got her this far," Sebastian sighed wanting to close his eyes, but the healing mage knew from experience that he needed to eat and drink before he fell asleep. His body would eat him up from within and the mage would awake in agony if there wasn't something for the magic to process as he slept.

  Katya stepped closer and the mage asked his sister, "What happened to you? Why did you fall behind?"

  The girl opened her hand and dropped a pair of lodestones onto the ground in front of her brother saying, "You didn't want them finding these, did you?"

  Knowing that he had forgotten them, Sebastian wondered if the enemy would have found them as he had in the past with Palose's gates. Surely he wasn't the only one who could chase after an enemy using the familiarity of the stones.

  "Thanks," the mage replied and would have been more generous with his words if he wasn't so exhausted.

  Putting the black sword on the ground in front of him, Sebastian reached for his pouch and noted how empty the small pack had become since the start of battle. He would have to rest before returning home to Ashleen, the owl thought in disappointment. There was no way that he had the strength to make the walk from the wizard's gate to the Black Smith Inn, and the wizards didn't know of his personal doorway into his room, so that meant the mage would likely be stranded until morning at the least.

  Katya stood to greet Falconi Garrett and the other leaders who had come to find out what happened after the deluge of refugees had appeared through the gate. Sebastian wished he had even that amount of energy remaining. Taking a seat, the mage placed the staff and sword in front of him and continued to eat until his supplies were gone before he let himself be led into the school.

  Chapter 40- Awakening

  Palose frowned. He had seen the return of the battle mage and understood immediately that, if nothing else, Sebastian knew portal magic.

  It explained the attack on his home. That intrusion had been truly gentle considering it had been an invasion of his house and his people could have been killed. They had been stunned and vulnerable; but his friends had merely been put to sleep. Sebastian was also likely the one who could find his magic, even though it had been changed for months to Sylvaine's lodestones. If the mizard knew the magic related to portals, then Palose wondered if he needed to wipe away the scent of her magic now as well.

  Sighing, the dark mage
realized that if Sebastian had figured out where his home marker was that long ago, changing them now was likely too late.

  "Resurrection man, what happened?" Lord Liev asked coming to complain. "Your dead things were supposed to defeat those wizards, yet you let them escape. How could this happen?"

  Lifting an eyebrow suspiciously, the dark mage dared risk the lord's ire seeing that Liev planned to try and blame the enemy's escape from the village on him. He was a resurrection man and therefore the perfect scapegoat to the lord's mind. As one of those who hated resurrection magic, it was the perfect time to try and end his life.

  "They were interrupted. Shouldn't your people have been able to surround the others to stop them? The falconi put up a good fight with that magic sword; but you weren't able to take down an apprentice and novice wizard while my men distracted the one with the sword? The strange mind magic stopped when it was rendered useless by my men."

  The warlock's eye's narrowed as his eyebrows sunk downward showing his anger. Fortunately, Palose's assessment made it hard for the lord to continue to disparage the lack of achievement from the dead men.

  "They might have worn the garments, but I doubt that they were girls of that rank," Lord Liev replied believing that the enemy must have used deception to mask the power of those wizards. Realization that Palose seemed to know the sword wielder also made Liev ask a different question, "You know that the other woman was a falconi? Did you know her?"

  "She was one of the teachers at White Hall. I believe that she is one of the next in line to become a raven, if one of those bastards would just die or at least retire.

  "I have also seen those swords before, well one of them anyway. What kind of talisman was that anyway?"

  The lord had no more idea than the resurrection man and chose to avoid revealing his lack of knowledge to this inferior creature. "So our enemy was exceptional and from the wizards' school? They could have borrowed the novice and apprentice uniforms, I suppose, to hide their true power."

  Palose had used his magic to bind his vision to his dead men and beasts. He had shared his skill and the power of the reflex spell to wear down Martina, but Sebastian had reappeared to show off new magic once more. Had he learned something new before leaving the void? Time wasn't so different from Alus, was it? That seemed impossible though. Palose realized that he had returned to the battle with little variation to time since the fight with the mizard started.

  Shaking his head minutely at the thought, the dark mage decided that his opponent had been holding back. Perhaps the spells were used like mage spells and Sebastian feared giving him insight into the spells to keep them from him. Well, at least the mizard was giving him that much respect and this time he had won, even if Sebastian had found a way back so quickly.

  "They were girls, even if they had talent," Palose commented on Liev's attempt to save face after the defeat. "What I want to know is how they learned to fly. If they can teach that spell to wizards and battle mages, we will be in trouble."

  Liev held a smirk on his lips a moment as if thinking of an answer which would surprise him, instead his attention returned to the dark mage as he replied, "You're right that such a spell could do much to ruin our plans, but only those following the swords seem to know this new magic, including your opponent."

  The last was said with significance. Continuing with that line of thought, the lord asked, "Who was that? You disappeared from the field through a portal fighting someone with less power than you, and yet he reappeared shortly after your return."

  "He is the mizard that even Kolban knows about," Palose said forgetting himself and using the boy emperor's real name. Lord Liev knew that the emperor had changed bodies as well. He had been there, but dropping the honorifics was a dangerous thing to do in front of the man. Pushing through, Palose continued, "Though he only has the power of a battle mage the mizard has learned an incredible amount of magic in a short time. He is using spells that I have never seen and they are certainly not something from Southwall."

  The lord heard his words and followed the thoughts which the dark mage had revealed to him. "This flying magic and strange casting of spells might have been brought from Mar'kal, I guess. There have been stories of fighting flying men and women there before, but just from a few soldiers that we assumed were confused. The gargoyles can fly, so most believed that some illusion had been used to mask the truth."

  "What about these rune shields and weapons that appear to have life of their own that the mizard used?" Palose pursued the path further hoping to become enlightened and thus capable of defeating these new spells in the future. Sebastian was his foe and the benchmark the necromancer must surpass if he were to ever feel like his time had been worth spending in Ensolus to gain the power he had.

  Liev wasn't as good a liar as some warlocks. Having too much power meant the lord could achieve what he wanted with his magic and strength. Such men lied, but didn't worry over being caught, except in front of those more powerful than he was, which was a very small number.

  "It sounds like the magic of the merfolk perhaps, but it wasn't so advanced when we drove them from the sea before the Return."

  Palose wanted to laugh at the name the empire had given for the Cataclysm. Calling it a return implied that they had belonged on Alus in the first place. The empire was still in exile from the emperor's original home, but Alus was enough as long as the emperor could continue to expand his power and seek revenge on those he felt had wronged him in a war long before his escape from Silver World.

  If the warlock couldn't answer his question with any surety; then he was useless to the dark mage.

  "Well, we learned that Southwall has developed new powers and weapons. The next battle we need to compensate for these and find a way to kill or capture these new wizards. The emperor will probably wish to learn this magic for Ensolus," Palose stated and began to turn towards his undead platoon.

  Lord Liev started as he realized that the mage had already written him off. It had been the lord who had hoped to push his advantage after the resurrection man's lack of results. Kolban would want to know why the enemy was able to escape. Taking the village had been an insignificant victory and their foes had escaped mostly intact. With portal magic in the enemy's hands, they could reappear anywhere to continue the battle at another time and place.

  Watching the dark mage and his men disappear through a glowing doorway, Liev wondered if he should try to use the man as a scapegoat after all. They had won and removed the threat of course, so it was still a favorable battle; but the resurrection man had been right, they would need to be aware of the new weapons and magic that the enemy had discovered.

  His portal warlocks opened a gate to Ensolus so Liev might report the defeat of the enemy to the emperor directly. He would have to consider if it was worth attacking the resurrection man in front of Kolban, but Liev had time to think as he walked to the emperor's fortress to decide his plans.

  Sebastian awoke in an unfamiliar room, but he recalled being assisted to a guest room in the battle mage dorm of White Hall. The mage had attempted to walk there by himself, but his legs had turned to gelatin after eating a meal in the dining hall and sitting on the bench too long.

  Gentle breathing drew his attention to the young woman lying beside him.

  Ashleen's blonde hair covered her face as if that would screen out the early morning light peeping through the split in the draperies. He wondered when the wilder had arrived. She was dressed rather scandalously for one staying in the dorms, but then again school girls and boys weren't supposed to be in each other's rooms either making it even more of a scandal usually.

  A short night dress covered the beauty as did the sheet and blanket covering them both.

  "She caused quite a fuss and wouldn't let anyone talk her out of being with you once she got here," a familiar girl's voice spoke up after noticing the mage had awakened.

  Looking to a stuffed chair in the corner, Sebastian found Katya curled up with a blanke
t in the chair. She looked tired as well, but as he slid his legs out from under the blankets, her brother asked quietly, "How did she get here? I was too exhausted to use a portal to return to Hala, but I didn't send a messenger there either."

  "I asked them to do it for you," Katya replied still remaining wrapped up in her blanket like a caterpillar in a dark blue cocoon. The air was cool this morning as White Hall was in the middle of the fall season. "She seems attached to you, so I let her know that you were safe and staying in White Hall for the night.

  "Apparently that wasn't good enough, so Ashleen came here and pushed her way to you even when the other battle mages told her that it wasn't permitted." The girl seemed to see something with her mind's eye that she found amusing and added, "I think she gave a falcondi a black eye when he told her no."

  "He's lucky that she didn't use her lightning on him then," Sebastian nodded with a polite smile. Feeling tired still, the mage reached to the night stand to pour a glass from a pitcher resting there. He remembered asking for water before settling into the bed, but didn't recall hearing anyone bring it in. Then again, Sebastian didn't remember Katya being there before he went to sleep either.

  Shrugging, Katya replied, "I didn't say that a few people weren't shocked literally as well as physically, when Ashleen made it known that she was sleeping with you."

  Fighting off a blush, the older brother stated, "We sleep in the same bed, but we don't usually do much more than that."

  She was thirteen and probably knew enough of adult relationships to guess the 'more', but it wasn't his job to teach his little sister about such things. Her brother only hoped that his mother had made time to have a talk with her about that subject before she left with him for the tournament. That thought broke his ability to control his face and the mage did blush.

  Turning to look at the wilder a moment to mask the look, he continued, "We're very close and Ashleen doesn't care who knows it."