Palose thought to use the break to get behind the battle mage again. Forming a portal, the man leaped through the gate as Sebastian grabbed hold of his hand.
Ashleen had hoped to help Olan against Dorgred. She had sailed with him and seen the fire wizard fight. He loved to use powerful fire spells with little restraint. She had also seen Olan in battle, but his power was dwarfed by the powerful wizard.
The dark haired girl who had stood just behind Palose entered the fray targeting her to the wilder’s surprise. No novice to wizard’s battles Sylvaine could use spells from the four main elements. Wind, water, earth and fire spells shifted as Ashleen was forced to leave Olan to his opponent.
Lightning poured from Sebastian leaving lines in her vision. The dark mage and owl were a powerful set of opponents. She had witnessed some of what Sebastian was capable of and knew that Palose was going to have a tough time defeating him. During the dark mage’s attempt to lull them into giving up the fight, she had felt his strength and knew that Palose was powerful as well. It would come down to skill and she prayed that Sebastian was better.
Grunting with effort, the wilder relied on wind and earth as well as her lightning to counter the curly haired girl’s elemental magic. A night shield helped when Ashleen finally remembered that she knew that spell as well thanks to Sebastian.
“Who are you anyway?” she managed to gasp as the two young women fought. The girl looked too young to be so good.
“Sylvaine,” the girl answered simply. “I fight for Palose.”
“He forces you?” Ashleen asked even as her hands continued to form the signs for a new spell.
“I do it because I love him,” Sylvaine replied and actually blushed at her admission despite their personal battle.
A question had been in the wilder’s mind from the moment she had seen the other wizards following Palose. “Why does your magic feel so tainted? You feel like Dorgred and Wendle that way.”
Sylvaine countered with another spell pushing Ashleen back with a water spell countered by the wilder’s wind. Lightning released without a spell making the younger girl duck behind a hastily erected defense of earth.
“I was dead and he brought me back, just like he saved your friends,” Sylvaine replied without worrying over concealing the truth. “I couldn’t even do this before I died. Shadow snare!”
The spell was a clone of Palose’s battle mage spell and would have caught Ashleen by complete surprise with its speed if she hadn’t been a wilder. Barely able to hold her lightning in check when she was calm, Ashleen’s power countered the tendrils instinctively as she called powerful lightning to shatter the shadows with her light.
Ashleen spotted the first doorway erected during the fight and realized that their enemies might have one trick that none of them could match.
Earth battered the wilder in her distraction forcing her towards Sebastian. Maybe the girl hoped to line them up for Palose to catch her unawares or maybe Sylvaine hoped to catch Bas while he was distracted by the dark mage?
When the second gateway formed, Ashleen watched with wide eyes as the two men fell through the shimmering door. “No!” she cried and used her magic to try and hold the gate open. If Sebastian couldn’t maintain his hold inside the portal, would he be able to return again?
Throwing a last blast of lightning with her off hand to distract Sylvaine, Ashleen leaped into the doorway hoping she was right to try.
The two men felt land under their feet unexpectedly causing them to stumble and fall.
Palose glanced around in surprise. It was one of the islands which he had only seen from afar. He was rarely inside of the silver world long enough to look as he moved from gate to gate.
That was the trick of the gateways that would prevent most from learning how to create a portal. It wasn’t just one spell creating a doorway from one place to another; it was really a series of gates formed at once. The obvious ones were the entry and exit, but crossing space in a blink of time in Alus required moving nearly as far within the silver world at the same time.
Distance was hard to measure inside of Silver World with only the islands to see, but it was as large as his world or larger. Within the void, secondary gates bridged the distance between entrance and exit seamlessly shortening the trip to moments.
His gate had been disrupted somehow and now he was on one of the islands.
Sebastian stood to continue the fight and Palose raised his hands with a boyish grin. “Well, that isn’t supposed to happen.”
Looking around him both curiously and cautiously, Bas asked, “Is this how you move between one place in our world and the next? I thought that you were supposed to just move through a void to the next place.”
Wagging a finger at the battle mage, Palose chided, “You made them talk, didn’t you? You caught those two warlocks in Parik and got the main idea out of them; but you still haven’t figured out how this magic works.
“Interesting, even the owl has his blind spots apparently.”
Frowning back at the man, who once was a friend, Sebastian turned the conversation. “You look confused. This wasn’t part of the plan was it?”
Palose laughed and replied, “Even if you grabbed hold of me, we should have simply passed through the void and reappeared in the plaza. My exit isn’t here and I don’t feel the entry either. Something has gone awry.”
Again the dark mage laughed.
New worry entered Sebastian’s chest. “What do you mean you can’t feel them? You made them. Don’t you know how portal magic works?”
Snorting in disgust as he rolled his eyes, Palose retorted, “Of course, I know how it works. Something disrupted the spell. All I need to do is create a new exit and I will be free again. It’s pretty simple really.”
“Then let’s go back already,” Sebastian demanded.
Looking at his enemy and former friend, Palose took a moment before he shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. Maybe this is for the best. I strand you here and the emperor has a better chance of accomplishing his goals. You are too much of a thorn in the side to leave free.”
Closing the distance in a blink, the battle mage made a fist in the top of Palose’s shirt and demanded, “Get us out of here, Palose. If I can’t go home, then neither can you.”
The dark mage slapped the hand away freeing his shirt. “That was rude. I definitely don’t want to send you back this way. You know a little politeness, maybe some begging even, would get you more than manhandling me.”
“Please, send us back,” Sebastian said through clenched teeth.
A strange tingling could be felt on the invisible silver air. Both men turned feeling that it came from behind the battle mage who had held his ground. Pulsing flashes preceded a brief glowing doorway before Ashleen crashed into Sebastian knocking him to the ground again.
“Oh, lightning must have disrupted the spell,” Palose realized with a nod to the couple tangled up together on the ground. “Well, that explains it.”
He turned throwing up a new portal in the blink of an eye. Sebastian looked up and saw the new doorway and cried out, “No, Palose, don’t you do it!”
With a casual wave, the dark mage smiled as he bade them farewell, “Have a nice time in limbo, Sebastian. At least you’ll have a friend to keep you company.”
Trying to get a disoriented Ashleen up to run for the doorway out of Silver World, Sebastian watched as Palose stepped through the gate and disappeared. His portal shrunk to nothingness leaving the battle mage with the sick feeling that they were stranded potentially forever.
“Sebastian!” Yara screamed in shock as he disappeared from sight through the portal. The healer watched as Ashleen lunged for the doorway reaching with her hand. In the wilder’s agitation, she had lightning surrounding her body and a bolt struck the doorway trying to hold it open.
A moment later and Ashleen had disappeared along with the others, but the portal was gone as well.
She had held back as usual. A healer w
as of little real help in a fight, but at least Yara had been able to learn how to use the power of light. Her time with Sebastian had brought that out of her; but she couldn’t use the darkness and, without Ashleen, Liam and Olan were outnumbered.
The curly haired elementalist had lost her dance partner and Olan was still just a mage fighting a fire wizard strong enough to have been in the Winter’s Edge tournament. Liam was evenly matched with Wendle leaving Sylvaine looking at the healer questioningly. She had seen the strange flicker of the gateway and knew that something was wrong; but Palose was the one who knew how to cast portals best.
Yara glared at the girl and asked, “Where did he take him? Make him bring Sebastian back.”
Frowning back at the healer, Sylvaine replied, “And how am I supposed to do that? Palose is the one who created the portal, not me.
“Your air wizard is the one who disrupted the spell. They should have returned by now, if he was doing what I think he did. It’s your friend’s lightning that must have broken the gate. Why aren’t you asking about her by the way?”
The others felt the change in the air and pulled back holding their attacks listening to the two girls questioning what happened.
Dorgred kept his eyes on the battle mage who looked nearly exhausted, but had held his own despite the difference in strength. The fire wizard could tell that Olan had learned much of Sebastian’s teachings and was almost as expert as the mizard. Wendle on the other hand looked grateful to take a break as he moved closer to Sylvaine. The remaining two girls nervously waited to see if it was safe to move.
“Do we wait for him here?” the fire wizard asked moving closer to Sylvaine. Dorgred look ready to continue the fight. The wizard’s magic had been used at full, but his reservoirs of strength were great.
The young girl with the dark curly hair glanced to the big man and seemed curious why he would ask her. Looking to be the youngest of the wizards, Yara wondered the same thing.
“Give him a minute. If these three want to wait civilly, I don’t see why we can’t wait to see if Palose will return,” Sylvaine said coolly, though Yara could see worry in her eyes. She had noticed the girl had been physically close to the dark mage and wondered if they were close in other ways. After her relationship with Sebastian and seeing others in love around her, the healer thought she knew the look by now.
Olan moved to stand just before Yara. He knew that the girl could barely defend herself in a fight. Fighting wasn’t part of her nature as a healer. Liam sidled over as well and, like Dorgred, the Southwall water wizard had been getting the better of his rival from Kardor.
“Where did they go?” Yara asked again with less temper, though she was still angry and worried.
“The spell uses a void where the emperor was once prisoner. As long as Palose isn’t trapped there because of your friend’s lightning, he should return soon,” Sylvaine replied trying to sound strong. Each minute they waited seemed to create more worry on her face however.
“If it was the emperor’s prison, then how can you use it without becoming trapped?” questioned the healer. She knew that Sebastian would want to know anything that she could find out about the portals and travel between the two worlds. If this girl was more knowledgeable than the two wizards they had grilled about it, then she had to try and learn what she could.
“I am not some expert at the magic. Before my death, I couldn’t even assist on the portal teams because I was useless at it,” Sylvaine replied starting to look around her. The crowd of people seemed to be growing bolder. Using her sense for magic, she could feel others with significant power converging on the plaza. The guardians of New Harbor included wizards and battle mages. If they didn’t see Palose soon, they would have to leave or risk being captured by the local law enforcement.
“Before your death...?” Yara repeated in surprise. Her senses told the healer that the girl was alive, but there was something muddled about her magic. It wasn’t just a mixed feel of the various elemental magic she could use. There was something darker.
Before she could figure out a way to delve into the questions raised by the girl’s words, a new gateway opened in a flash of light. Palose stepped through the portal and glanced around at the others standing unsure of what to do. He waved to the girls who had just a meager bit of magic in them towards him.
Palose had returned close to Sylvaine and the dark mage took the girl’s hand as he shut the first gateway and looked at the remaining three from Sebastian’s group. “Time to go home or maybe we can just go to Siltrene. I’ve heard that there are restaurants which serve some amazingly delicious seafood with seasonings found few other places.”
“Where is Sebastian?!” Yara yelled at the Betrayer. She had known him as well. Along with Sebastian, Palose had been one of those who had travelled with them to Windmeer last year. He had been a friend, but now he was an enemy. “Palose, where is he?!”
Smiling smugly at the healer, Palose replied, “He is standing on an island in the silver world. I am surprised that you didn’t ask about the girl. Let me guess. He likes her instead of you now?
“Well, healers and battle mages only get along while the latter are being healed, I guess. It was inevitable that you two wouldn’t make it.”
“Bring him back! Light!” Yara stomped forward casting her spell at the dark mage.
“Shield, shield, shield,” the man called up three enormous shields effortlessly in succession halfway between him and the caster. One of the shields disappeared, but her strength wasn’t enough to do more.
With the shields remaining in place, Olan and Liam looked ready to help Yara; but Palose was already summoning another portal. Stasia and Talia went first followed by Wendle and Sylvaine. Dorgred stood at his side like a bodyguard in case one of the others should attack.
Patting the big man on the shoulder urging him to use the gate, Palose spoke to Yara. “If the owl has seen enough, maybe one day he’ll figure out how to escape the void. The emperor weakened the barrier between Silver World and Alus so it should be easier for him than it was when the emperor was imprisoned.
“Still, he will need to figure out how to cast the spell and how to find the way home. If he guesses wrong, who knows where he could end up, perhaps even in another world?”
“Palose!” Yara screamed again running forward as the dark mage stepped through a quickly sealing doorway.
Falling to her knees, the healer sobbed into her hands as she covered her face. Olan and Liam moved to gather Yara up and started walking her back towards the Sea Dragon.
Chapter 31- The Pull of Home
Rilena stood waiting with dozens of men, orcs and goblins in the long hallway looking towards the last barrier between them and the exit from the mountain. Garosh was in front of her with Darius. The two men had apparently become closer over the weeks since the high wizard had opened the portal between Windmeer and the fortress. Now just over three weeks later, they were about to see the reopening of the tunnel to the outside.
Riders had been sent long ago to try and help those guarding the mountain dig towards those stuck inside. Many had been killed inside of the fortress, but there were survivors and others that went beyond that definition.
Glancing at the wraiths gathered, now numbering seven, among a few dozen warlocks and other leaders standing with Garosh; Rilena wondered how many waiting with her had faced death only to be brought back by Garosh and his warlocks. Death magic was forbidden in Southwall, if it had ever been conceived of in the past in the first place.
Evie stood next to her and Rilena felt the girl’s hand find hers to hold on like a child. The smaller redhead was old enough to be more mature, but there was something about the girl which just felt childlike. She was a changeling and a wizard who preferred running in the forest and out in the open to the cramped tunnels beneath the mountain. Running with the werewolves and lions probably didn’t help. The animals didn’t have the same kind of human mannerisms or even emotions that Rilena was used t
o in the civilized world she had been raised in for most of her life.
As the earth beneath their feet trembled, she watched as seven wizards worked their magic to form the last supports created from the fallen stone in the tunnel. The rock shifted and moved like water under their attention. Earth wizards, they were one set of three groups of wizards from Windmeer who had been working to rebuild the outer tunnel to the surface.
Goblins and orcs had worked from a cave sunk into the mountain to start the fortress, but many of them had been killed in the raid. Those who lived could work normal stone, but working with the shifting, loose boulders brought down by the emperor’s warlocks was much more dangerous. Natural formations the creatures could work with and, though they respected the danger of working beneath the earth, it was much safer for the diggers.
Stuck inside the mountain with less ability to move the stone or otherwise remove it from the area, the wizards were able to do what they were not, work the fallen stone into strengthening beams and create a solid ceiling from reforming the fallen pieces back where they came from before the attack. The goblins and orcs had tried to delve into the clean up for a couple weeks, before Darius was able to bring help through the portals, with little success and a few more deaths. Earth wizard magic could do what they could not and was much safer.
The final spells revealed a wall with a door already cast open from the outside. Rilena could see a couple doorways leading to barracks for the guards that had once manned the fortress gate. Most of those serving that night had been killed and blood could be seen as dark stains on the stone even after the rock had been cleared.
“Air, clean air, can you feel it?” Evie whispered as she closed her eyes feeling a breeze just becoming noticeable to the battle mage.
“Yup, it’s open finally.”
Releasing her hand, Evie hurried forward with most of the others as Rilena dragged her feet a bit. She didn’t need to feel the air outside of the fortress. All she needed was to return to Windmeer and the young woman could find a courtyard or walk in the village. A mountain walk didn’t really interest her.
Battle Mage: A Hero's Welcome (A Tale of Alus Book 8) Page 44