“What is it, Darterian?”
“The old gate appears to have been used again,” the wizard stated holding the compass with a bright yellow light pointing towards Litsarin. While Sardon was still beyond their vision, the mountains inland appeared as a slight rise of purple in the distance.
Sebastian looked from the green gem set on the metal part of the compass and turned towards the distance where it pointed. “Only two days to respond, the emperor keeps track of his gates apparently.”
Pointing at the compass, Gerid added, “What is that small yellow point for? It appears to be the way we came.”
Cracking a smile, Darterian responded happily, “I think it is a lesser gate to those strange stones. Someone probably found a big surprise when they came through that portal.”
While most of those listening chuckled at the idea of a warlock discovering himself somewhere on the bottom of the sea thanks to an errant portal, Sebastian wasn’t so sure. If the emperor monitored his old gates so well, perhaps he knew of the submerged stones and chose to send someone or something that could handle such a place.
“Stop frowning like that or your face might stick that way,” Yara cautioned with a smile as the girl touched his arm. She had spoken quietly enough that most had missed it, and her follow up question was hushed for his ears only as well, “So what is wrong this time?”
Shaking his head, Sebastian put on a smile and leaned a bit closer to say, “There isn’t anything wrong exactly. I am just not so sure my attempt to derail the owner of the stones has worked. The stories from the merfolk spoke of creatures like orcs and trolls that could swim and breathe underwater before the Cataclysm. If the emperor still has any of those around, he might send them to retrieve the stones if they can direct a gate as we believe.”
He shrugged his shoulders pointing towards the island and its distant mountains. “My guess is the more immediate threat will be the new gate, but we do have an advantage. If we make sure to avoid dressing like falcons and wizards of Southwall, we can probably make it to the second gate without much notice by the locals. We sail with Malaiy and Kardor, so our ships won’t give us away. Only a wizard or warlock will notice magic and I am hoping that will let us get there without getting into another fight.”
Her forehead crinkled with worry and the healer asked, “You don’t think that they will send more of those wizard hunters, do you? Those were elite troops and their leaders are quiet powerful.”
Gerid overheard the conversation between the two as they forgot to lower their voices for long. “We destroyed their most powerful sorcerer when he exploded trying to kill me. At least that is one less wizard hunter you will have to worry over.”
Sebastian’s face brightened with the giant’s words even if some of the cheer never entered his eyes. “I suppose that is true. Little did he know that even that wouldn’t be able to kill an immortal.”
Looking a bit embarrassed by the compliment, Gerid waved his hand before him saying, “I can’t believe they still use that term for us. We can be killed. I’ve seen it happen in my day, but it happens rarely. Still it does happen.”
Yara stared at the giant a bit intently before she murmured, “I never thought to study you with my magic. I had heard the stories that magic doesn’t work on you easily. If I were to try, I wonder if I would find anything to tell me how this rare power works. Darius was never ill or injured, so I never thought to ask him. I’m not sure that the high wizard would have let me look, though magic does work on him.”
Blinking at the healer in surprise, Gerid offered, “I have no problem with being probed by magic. A pretty healer is much more pleasant than some of the experiments the emperor’s warlocks conducted on me in the past. My ability to heal doesn’t mean that I don’t feel pain, but they didn’t care when they cut flesh and bone away for their study.”
Startling from his descent into the darkness of the emperor’s experiments the giant amended, “If you wish to try while we return to Hala, let me know, Yara. I would gladly let you give it a try. I’ve had other wizards, sorcerers and warlocks inspect what makes me tick. Some created tools like the ring from their study, though most usually came away with inconclusive ideas about it.”
The girl smiled and nodded her head at his willingness. “Perhaps after dinner tonight would be good for you?”
Gesturing at the deck around them as the ship rose and fell with each rolling wave even so close to Litsarin, the man replied with a chuckle, “Whenever you like, it isn’t like there is anywhere else I will be going for awhile.”
“Well, I’m glad you two have plans,” Serrena stated somewhat irritably, “but do you have one, Bas, for when we get to this Sardon place? If this is another of the emperor’s towns, then don’t we have to assume that at least someone must be on guard against wizards closing his portals?”
While Serrena was certainly as brazen a woman as any her fire guild had turned out, Sebastian understood that she was quite intelligent as well. They had been reacting to each situation along their path to finding Gerid, but maybe now they could be on the offensive setting the plans to make his people react. “We will need to gather information like in Banosh. If the gate is near the town, we will close it and move on our way. If we stumble across new wizard hunters or warlocks in charge of this new portal, maybe we can capture them alive to try and learn more about this magic.
“The emperor has been using his portals to disrupt this world for too long. It is time to turn his magic back upon him if we can. We know the darkness shields and light to counter that spell and their armor now. If we can master portals to open them into the heart of his empire, as opposed to just closing them to contain his evil; this war could finally be brought to his doorstep and be ended.”
While many of them looked hopeful that the mizard would turn his eyes on the emperor’s magic and turn it into a new battle mage spell, Darterian shook his head, “Knowing the gate spells has never been the true problem. The Lord Grimnal can tell you that killing the emperor just isn’t as simple as entering his stronghold to stab him with your blade. He survived my grandfather’s attacks as well as men and dwarves using relics of immense power against him. He will be surrounded by his armies and guards, I am sure.”
Gerid grimaced before giving a reluctant nod as he replied, “Darius and Dante were there and told me how he fought to the end. Even with their combined power and that of the dwarf king, he took all of the world that he possessed holding on until everything was torn away from that plane. He destroyed a world and didn’t die. All we could do was contain him for a short time.
“Maybe he is the one who is truly immortal?”
Serrena scoffed at the idea as she said, “There are many who think that this isn’t the emperor you fought so long ago. He doesn’t wage war the same way. A Cataclysm shook the world and his armies tried to destroy what remained until the wall was built. Now they test the defenses but can’t defeat a simple wall? The same creature that broke the world and escaped his prison, can’t destroy a wall?
“Does that sound like the same emperor?”
Wanting to chastise Serrena for berating the immortal and genesis of so many kings, Sebastian was surprised when Gerid shook his head and answered, “I am not the same man I was a thousand years ago. Why would we expect him not to evolve with time? The mystic elven knights thought that they had killed him a millennia ago, but he returned using a new body. There was no question if it was still the same creature they had fought and killed, yet somehow he defeated his death and returned.
“The bigger question isn’t whether this is the same emperor who created the Cataclysm, but what his new plan is to conquer Alus. He can change bodies and tactics, but I am pretty sure that this is the same being I have been fighting for centuries.”
“You lost to him,” Serrena retorted with little malice in her words. “You’ve been hidden away on your little island for centuries. What do you know of the fighting we have been doing since you disappeared?”<
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Like a grandfather looking at the young daughter of his child, Gerid brushed at his lengthening hair letting his blue eyes nearly speak for him before saying, “I didn’t lose to him or his men. I surrendered to help save my crew. The people of my ‘little island’ are mostly descendants of those men who married the sea folk.
“As to the fight that has continued since I have been away, no, I can’t know of your fight or the suffering of the people I left behind. No normal man would be left alive to ask that question of normally either.
“I have lived over a millennia and seen countless deaths, some were during war, most just came as I lived and they no longer did. I have done what I can to settle wars to end suffering and needless death, but in the end everyone dies, young lady. I know fighting and I know that the emperor can be cruel, even hidden on my ‘little island’, trust me on that.
“It seems like I have spent too many of my centuries fighting,” he finished with a sigh.
Looking chastened, the fire wizard turned away to the scenery of the island passing by as the ship continued towards Sardon.
“Vision,” Sebastian ordered his mage spell and the night brightened to feel nearly like the day.
The outer breakwater surrounding Sardon’s harbor gave proof to the acts of wizards. Like a perfect ring of stone with only three breaks designed to allow ships to enter or leave, the breakwater of the town protected the ships harbored within and helped prevent bad weather from harming the buildings closest to the water. Two light towers guarded the outer edges of the stone ring turning their lights during the night to give warning to the danger while lesser lights sat atop buoys beside each opening.
Bells rang lazily from each marker to further caution any vessels arriving in the darkness.
“Reflex,” he ordered before jumping up onto the railing of the Sea Dragon as it rose and fell with the waves. The world slowed and the rail moved like it was in slow motion. No longer moving as a steady rise and fall that would endanger a normal man trying to maintain his balance on the eight inch wide rail, the battle mage now occupied a world where each dip of the ship seemed to last minutes.
Walking forward along the rail, Sebastian was able to see the town in the distance. Glowing red and orange in places where men and women were sleeping in their homes, the mage’s night vision looked at the hills with their woods beyond seeing them clearly in shades of purple and blue. The world was a strange grouping of colors compared to his true vision, but his eyes couldn’t see in the night without the spell. The spell also revealed things he would never see even by the light of day.
The warmth of the magic used in the buoys and light towers was obvious to his vision as well; but that of the distant gate was not. If it was an active spell, he could not see it. There was the chance that it was simply too far away or too old a casting to be seen, but Sebastian looked even so.
“On the rail? Seriously, Sebastian, you are insane. Do you know that?” the words came sounding slowed to a long drawl.
Hopping down from the rail the battle mage smiled at Yara dressed for bed in a light weight sleeping dress that ended above her knees. After so many months of living on the ship, the girl wasn’t even worried over the impropriety of walking around in so little without a robe. It was too warm this far south for such things and the people aboard ship had seen far more of each other swimming on the islands than a nightdress revealed.
Releasing his reflex spell, Sebastian had noted that Yara wasn’t the only one of his team on the deck. Even those most affected by the sea were out to take in the late night air, like Collin and Liam who were often completely useless while sailing thanks to seasickness that had never completely abated with time. Most had watched as the mage seemed to move at a run along the rail thanks to his reflex spell’s adjustment of time and perception. No one else commented as they watched Yara dressing him down.
“I was using the reflex spell. It is surprisingly safe and even boring doing it that way,” he replied with a slight smile caressing his lips as the young man approached the pretty blonde. Her hair seemed to glow like magic to his night vision. “We’re less than half a mile from the first opening in the breakwater now.”
The girl looked to a near hill with the closer of the two light towers and nodded. Even without a mage’s vision, it was plain to see that they were close to the town and its harbor. “Annalicia has men in the crow’s nest and rigging to watch out for stones. You don’t have to go playing like some precocious child on the rail.”
He laughed. “It was the best view without climbing into the rigging.”
Turning to look towards the town being intermittently blocked from view by the rising prow of the ship, Sebastian added, “I can see that magic was used to create the breakwater, but I didn’t notice anyone using magic from this distance.”
Annalicia stepped closer as more of the men and women of the crew and his team moved forward to see the approaching town. “It is late enough that most will have retired to their homes and beds.”
He nodded, but reminded the silver haired wizard wearing a light top and short skirt that seemed to flow whether there was a breeze or not, “If Ensolus sent warlocks to hold the gate or to go to Banosh to replace the sealed gate, they might be in town. We need to be careful in Sardon even while we check for information about possible connections between the town and the emperor, as if that really needs to be said.
“His warlocks might be active and searching for a ship to take them to Banosh.”
“You still think that Banosh is that important to the emperor?” Yara asked though it had been a topic of discussion several times over the last few days.
“The stories of black ships attacking like pirates with orcs and goblins manning them have been around for centuries,” Sebastian replied. “If they are still on the oceans, and Ensolus has no connection to the sea, perhaps the emperor created these islands and hid part of his empire right in plain sight. Sileoth has towns on the far side of Litsarin, but the name of the island isn’t taken from common speech. Where could it come from but something the emperor or one of his men decided?
“Banosh and the eastern towns were settled by an unknown people, so it makes sense that it would be him.”
Yara countered, “Baltu and Talos or one of a number of island nations that existed before the Cataclysm could have settled it as well, Sebastian. It doesn’t have to be some conspiracy of the emperor.”
Gerid walked closer musing, “One question I’ve always had is, why did he choose the Dragon’s Spine Mountains to create his empire? Like you said, his people appeared from the sea with his black ships. Before the Cataclysm, I had received reports from other lands of these black ships and the creatures of the emperor roaming across other continents as well. I barely had the time to hear the message before the Cataclysm destroyed much of our world.
“From then on, we were trying to respond to the need for help from our friends and allies.”
Agreeing with the immortal, Sebastian was surprised to hear that other lands beyond North Continent had been attacked as well. News of Taltan and Ch’Thal, the nearest continents, was rare to hear for a simple battle mage. History of their own lands before the Cataclysm was often foggy and much had been lost to the passage of time, so news from Gerid that other lands had been affected even before the emperor destroyed much of the north was new to him and verified his assumption that the emperor had influence beyond his empire to the north.
“Until we find more of the black ships or capture a warlock from the portals, we’ll continue guessing,” Sebastian stated. “We need to keep our eyes open here and look for signs that he might have left behind.”
Nara had wandered closer with Collin and caught much of the conversation. Though she was a close friend, the nature wizard seldom weighed in on questions of the emperor. When she chose to venture a theory, it was a bit of a surprise. “After the Cataclysm, Litsarin was nearly barren thanks to the salt from the ocean. It would have sea plants and sediment
, but those plants can’t live in the air and the salt needed to be filtered away for anything new to grow.
“Sileoth sent wizards to work and create farm land in the west, but there would have been few wizards available from any nation that could have fixed the east side of the new island. The land is massive and as large as Sileoth or Maris. I could see farms and forests near Banosh. We’ve seen more growth and other towns as we sailed. Where did all this rich land come from?”
Yara asked, “It wouldn’t have washed away with the rains?”
“Maybe over two centuries, but some of those forests looked close to a century old. I would need to get a better look to be sure, but this land looks too settled for nature to have just reclaimed the earth from the sea.”
It was Gerid who settled the matter before Sebastian could think to as he remarked, “Well, once we’re in Sardon, perhaps the nature wizard will wish to check the nearby land for evidence. Until then, we need to focus on entering the harbor and closing this gate Darterian found.”
There were glances between those of his team at the immortal’s judgment. In spite of who he was, Sebastian could almost read their minds. They followed the mage not the giant, but he was a former king and a legend.
Easing their worry, Sebastian nodded to the big man and agreed, “Depending on how far we need to walk, there might be time to do some research, Nara. Like he said, closing the gate and watching out for new enemies is our priority. For now, we have to enter Sardon without drawing more attention than we need.”
His eyes moved to Annalicia and he smiled, “Unfortunately much of that falls on you, my lady.”
It was dark, but Sebastian noted her blush as the warmth was revealed to his enhanced vision. She was a lady of noble birth, but Anna was still a girl at heart and didn’t always like the position she was in because of her mother’s royal lineage. During the journey, Annalicia had always been in charge of the Sea Dragon. Her ability to lead had come up a few times along the way, but it didn’t mean that his praise couldn’t illicit a blush from his attention.
Battle Mage: A Hero's Welcome (A Tale of Alus Book 8) Page 19