Battle Mage: Forging New Steel (Tales of Alus Book 9)

by Donald Wigboldy

  Sebastian couldn’t deny that the younger mage was somehow more like him than he would have believed back when they were in school together. Both could heal, so their magic ability seemed to mirror one another; even if their fighting styles were quite different.

  Shrugging, the owl capitulated and said, “Fine, you have heard the basics from those I tried to teach the spell to already?” At a nod, he continued, “It is mostly getting your mind right for the spell. I originally tried to use words that associated with wind and air or even riding the two, but for me the spell is about gaining freedom from your body. Watch,” the mage stated as he sat down. Without a staff or something to lean against, Sebastian’s body would topple over without his mind inside it.

  “Freedom,” the owl called on his magic and almost instantly he felt a release of weight. Solidity of a body and mass were left behind as Sebastian looked down on his body. Elzen and the others looked on at his still face while his mind lifted on an air current.

  Grabbing hold of a breeze, the mage twisted it and pulled the air against Elzen and the others making them react in surprise. It wasn’t a destructive use of wind like in a tournament, but it was strong enough to make Elzen ask, “Was that you?”

  Sebastian nodded his head. He could control his body to a point. If he wished, he could even speak, though the voice was distant even when his mind was close by. Other spells could be cast while his mind was on the winds as well, but this demonstration didn’t require showing off other things when the mages around him still didn’t know how to release their minds to the wind.

  Returning to his body with an air of regret like he always did when giving up the wind, Sebastian opened his eyes and stood up. The spell had been short enough that he didn’t require any food to restore the balance of strength. Perhaps part of that was the strength his magic now had also, like that of folded steel.

  “That is basically it.”

  Elzen looked thoughtful and said, “I’ve seen air wizards work with their apprentices by pulling their minds or something along that line. Would you be able to do that with me sometime? I couldn’t feel the magic clearly; but if I could try it with you, maybe I could get it.”

  The mage frowned slightly at the thought as he considered that he had originally been pulled on the winds by an air wizard, a friend named, Fala. While Sebastian hadn’t mentored anyone with the same method, he thought that it might be possible for him to lead someone else that way. On an early trip, the mage had pulled another wizard along; but she had released her mind to winds first so learning that part would be the first hurdle.

  “I’ve never tried it with someone else. With Ashleen or Petre’s guidance, I might be able to do it. I’ll have to talk with them first,” he replied musing on how his magic could help another mage release his mind from his body.

  Ashleen shook her head as the wilder returned to her body before reaching for a drink. Her eyes looked to Sebastian as she smiled at him. A shake of her head told that she hadn’t found the nomads yet.

  When Petre returned equally empty handed, they were surprised when Linus pointed to the northwest. “They’re pretty far away, but they’re in that direction,” he told Oltus the leader of their mission.

  “Then we ride that way,” the diplomat wizard nodded sending the others quickly to their mounts. It would be another long day of riding, Sebastian guessed from the report.

  Chapter 22- The Arkhein

  The earth wizard’s spell proved further reaching than Sebastian had thought as they rode into the second day before reaching the outer range of the tribes’ guards and scouts. While the air wizards had spotted the main encampment of the nomads in the afternoon the previous day, their range riding the winds was beyond the physical abilities of the horses.

  Making sure to remain beyond the nomads’ perceived scouting range, they made camp without worrying overly much about being discovered. Guards were set, but a quiet night’s sleep was had by all save those who had to get up to relieve the ones watching over the camp.

  Throughout the morning, Petre and Ashleen checked for the nomads and looked for their outlying scouts. They hadn’t moved their camp since the air wizards had spotted the tents arranged in a vaguely circular pattern around the largest housing. Sebastian gave in to his curiosity around midmorning when the wizards believed that they were less than an hour away from the closest scouts.

  Passing his reins to Olan, Sebastian released his mind to ride the winds in the direction of the nomad camp. He flew low at times knowing that there was no form to be seen by the plains folk. The currents of air brought him various sensations that he used to find the scouts. Scent was hard to find without the use of a nose or body, but warm bodies altered the air if only slightly.

  The mage spotted a handful of the natives walking through the tall grass, or to be more accurate, they were hunting small game. A rabbit was flushed from cover taking an arrow in its flank stopping the creature in its tracks. While they were hunting, he didn’t doubt that their eyes would catch any movement from approaching riders as well. Their eyes seemed to constantly be moving. The owl could tell as he swooped lower towards the hunters who continued on without any reaction to their unseen viewer.

  Sebastian thought back to the plainsmen he had come across last summer and thought that these looked little like them. Those men had lighter skin, almost as light as the people of Southwall and must have come from that stock. These had skin brown by both sun and race. They were darker than a Southwaller would be after a hundred days in the northern sun.

  On their skin, he noted these men had the dark ink markings that their scouts had mentioned. His vision wasn’t the same riding the winds, so he couldn’t make out the minutiae of detail making up the patterns on bared chests or backs. He wondered if their tattoos held magic in them. The savages he had fought in the night as they ambushed his squad so long ago hadn’t been covered in markings like these, but they had been far to the west. Perhaps each tribe had picked up different habits or consisted of men from different origins. Where a dark skinned race would have come from, he wasn’t sure. There were people on Ch’thal that had skin which was nearly black compared to the light pinkish flesh of most men on North Continent; but he knew even on Taltan, the birthplace of most of their ancestors, there were races with other colors of skin.

  The Winter’s Edge tournament had opened his eyes revealing just a few mysteries of his world by bringing men and women from all around Alus to compete. They looked different, wore different clothing and their magic was diverse.

  Where these people could have come from was beyond him, so he continued on to the camp even as the mage kept his sight looking for more scouts. He found the encampment, but the owl held back. There was a feeling that differed from the cities and towns he had checked from above in the past. While he couldn’t put his finger on what spooked him, the mage closeted his curiosity and remained content to circle the tents from afar getting the lay of the land without risking going closer. There was a stream just to the north of the nomads, one of many too minor to place on most maps. Those who lived on the plains might need such knowledge, but the people of Southwall rarely lingered beyond the wall for long.

  On his return to his body, the mage frowned. What had he felt around the camp? Was it guardian magic of some sort or was he just imagining things? Sebastian was definitely no expert in such things. A battle mage used his senses to find danger, however, so he had to believe that his instincts weren’t wrong about the feeling he had.

  “What is it?” Ashleen asked passing him a canteen while she held a sandwich that the girl had made while waiting for him, since he hadn’t seen it before he left.

  Giving her a thankful smile, Sebastian had to shake his head and say, “I don’t know. Did you feel anything strange when you looked at the nomad camp?”

  Wrinkling her brow in confusion, Ashleen replied, “No, I didn’t notice anything unusual. I mean, I haven’t seen these kinds of people before. There aren’t any nomads
in Kardor. While there are tribes that wander north of the mountains, I haven’t heard of any nomads which have come near the Derast River in my lifetime.”

  “Have you ever felt magic or something that made you worry while scouting from the winds?”

  “What do you think you felt?” the girl asked as she understood that something was bothering him and the mage might not be able to put it into words.

  “It just felt like there was a border or trap near the tents. I skirted the camp and just looked from a distance, but I couldn’t see anything that should be a warning.”

  Falconi Neven noticed the mage’s return and his distracted look. Moving back through the column with Westlin at his side, the falconi asked, “Is there something wrong? Did you see something the wizards might have missed?”

  “I’m not sure. There were scouts and hunters as expected, but I felt something near the tents of the camp. Maybe there is a protection spell. The hunters I spotted had tattoos, possibly runes like those given to us. If the tribe has someone capable of using magic to make runes, then it wouldn’t be much of a leap that they might have other magic to protect their camp.”

  Eyeing the younger mage carefully, Neven asked, “Are you saying that we shouldn’t enter the outer circle of their tents?”

  Sebastian could only shrug as he took another bite of the sandwich to think about what he had felt. The discussion drew the wizards’ attention and Oltus held up the column to move towards the battle mages. “What is going on? Has the owl discovered something?” he asked using the title that had been circulating throughout Hala and those in the platoon.

  “I think the nomads have created a barrier around their camp made from some form of magic I am unfamiliar with, but it is more a feeling I have than something I can concretely explain,” the mage replied feeling like his initial worry was becoming greater than it really should be. Doubt had settled in, though in the moment Sebastian had felt too nervous to approach the tents.

  Shaking off the mage’s worries, Oltus asked, “How far are we from them?”

  “There is about half a mile between us and the hunters I spotted. I would say more than a mile beyond them to the camp. Since they are hunting, the men probably needed to move away from so large an assembly of people to find the animals.”

  “If they’ve sat here for awhile,” Neven mused, “the hunters might need to move further away to find prey.”

  The fire wizard, Ahtreh, crossed his arms looking annoyed, “If the mage can’t tell us that there is a danger beyond the fact that we are going to be surrounded by dozens of the savages, then we might as well just keep moving.”

  “Hundreds,” Sebastian clarified the wizard’s guess of the nomad numbers.

  The man’s blue eyes revealed a bit of worry briefly before he regained his calm facade. Stroking his brown goatee to try and mask his momentary lack of confidence, Ahtreh replied, “Whatever their numbers, we know that they could turn on us at any moment. We have feared a connection between the emperor and most of these tribes for ages, so of course we need to be cautious.

  “When we get close, they’ll send someone to escort us into their camp and turn off whatever spell might attack us to do so. We can deal with what they might have prepared for an enemy once we are inside, otherwise we will simply need to do what we were ordered to do with the caution we already know to have.”

  Oltus frowned at the wizard, but nodded, “Ahtreh has a point. We are going in knowing that the plains folk have never been friends to us, but that doesn’t mean to stop watching out for danger.

  “We may want to split the platoon in case we are attacked then one group can flee.”

  Falconi Neven and Lieutenant Aufrienne followed the wizard as the others started to move forward once more. The three men discussed a possible splitting of their forces, but the leaders were against weakening the platoon. This was a show of force meant to show strength without the numbers which would imply a threat.

  Talks faltered as the column continued towards the tribal encampment. When a handful of plains men appeared with spears leveled towards them, it was too late to reconsider their options.

  “Halt, Southwall,” a well muscled hunter ordered. His dark skin appeared only tan compared to his jet black hair.

  Wizard Oltus took the lead and spoke to the man, “We have come to speak with your leader, if he will allow it.”

  “The arkhein do not speak with the people behind the wall,” the man replied crossing his arms as he held his spear at his side. If he was intimidated by the forty member platoon, Sebastian couldn’t see any sign of fear.

  Oltus tried again and the mage wondered if it was just his words in use this time, “As you know, things are not the same as they were. We have tried to maintain peace behind our wall, but the Dark One seeks to disrupt both of our ways of living. Perhaps if we could speak to the arkhein, our two peoples could figure out a better way.”

  An older man with graying hair, moved beside the strong looking man before them. “You believe that you know more of what has been happening then?”

  Sebastian was unsure what new happenings either of them meant. He wasn’t the leader of this mission, so perhaps there was information that he hadn’t been privy to in the briefings.

  The wizard nodded.

  Speaking quietly between each other as they turned their heads from the column, the two hunters discussed the situation sometimes strongly. The younger man was definitely against the idea; but after a minute, the older man stated, “You will follow us and draw no weapons. When we are in sight of the camp, you will stay where we tell you to and move no further unless told.”

  With the conditions well within acceptable limits, the hunters walked in a more easterly way making the platoon question their purpose. They all knew which way the camp lay, but when the hunters returned to three younger men minding a number of horses it became clear. The youngsters eyed the lighter skinned riders warily; but after a quickly spoken explanation from the older man, all of the hunters took to their horses turning towards the northwest this time.

  Sebastian noted the feel of the breeze and understood why the horses had been kept to the east of the hunt. Horses and men dealt with wild prey with better than human senses. If their scents or sounds followed the wind to the antelope or other game they hunted, they would hide or run away well ahead of the hunters. While the mage had rarely hunted, even as a boy; he knew of the science behind stalking prey.

  Trees popped up in large numbers as they moved north. The dark green soon held the horizon from north of them towards the east as the greenery followed the turns of the stream. Life on the plains consisted of more woods and forests between the mountains and wall than many realized. It had a wealth of resources that the men of Southwall might covet enough to risk their lives if it had been made known. Lords of the six fortresses knew as much since those who rode north told them in their reports, but merchants didn’t need to know such things and it was for their own good that the king tried to keep their enterprises focused south of the wall.

  Their path wasn’t quite parallel to the trees as they moved northwest and eventually Sebastian could make out the bark of the closest trees even without a spell. When they reached the western edge of the forest, their guides made them wait. From his earlier scouting, the mage thought that they were less than half a mile from the encampment now. Only the trees blocked their view as the older man rode ahead leaving the other hunters to watch them closely.

  Looking like they hadn’t a care in the world that they were being detained, the column broke out canteens and even snacks speaking with each other conversationally. Though they tried to appear calm and uncaring about the situation; most tended to focus their eyes on the trees. If there was going to be an ambush, the forest was the likely way that a trap would spring.

  “Hound,” the owl spoke quietly as he sat on his horse beside Ashleen. Sound and smells were magnified, which meant horses and riders that hadn’t been able to fully wash for three d
ays were noticed quickly. Chirps and other calls from deeper inside the woods came to his ears as well. While the tribe’s camp was somewhat close to the trees to the north, it was still far enough away for the creatures to ignore the human element while out of sight.

  When the older man returned, he was accompanied by nearly two score riders. They weren’t all as dark skinned as those the platoon had seen in the hunting party and in fact nearly half could have passed for men of Southwall save for the runes noticeable on exposed arms and necks. Some even appeared to have the sense runes which Sebastian had yet to pass on to the others. They weren’t a necessary set of runes for soldiers, but hunters probably benefited greatly in the fields and forests of the plains.

  “The arkhein is willing to meet with you, but only a handful may enter the camp. The rest of your people will remain outside where we tell them to wait,” the older man stated as spokesman for the new group.

  Oltus merely nodded. It wasn’t outside of their assumptions to be told such a thing and the column rode forward as the hunters split to either side of the riders. If there was a problem, Sebastian supposed that they believed keeping their enemy between two sides was the best way to fight. It would certainly give an enemy more to think about, he agreed, though against battle mages and wizards it was unlikely to hold up long unless their runes could even the score.

  As they rounded the edge of the woods, they could see the camp and it appeared much larger from the ground than it had from above. Sprawling though it appeared, the camp was situated between forest to the south and the stream to the northeast. It gave the camp a view of all directions, except the south, should someone show up to threaten them. Why he would think such a thing so quickly, made Sebastian wonder what had made him so leery of the tribe before them.