"A dragaoin doesn't give in easily, but when we do, we honor our allegiances. The dark elves, as he called them, haven't treated us badly. We have good lives or as good as we should expect if we put in the work anyway. The Ciemnosci haven't acted like overlords and treat the Zmaj like an equal partner for the most part.
"Do the genasi see it the same?" Helios added curiously as he aimed his vision towards the girl. Alec could still see the war going on inside the dragaoin concerning this. Whether he felt the call of his racial commitments to this red wizard or to the rest of his people under the Ciemnosci, Alec could tell each had a valid place in Helios' mind.
Unable to see the girl's face behind him, Alec could only listen when Shae replied after a moment's thought. "We don't... We don't love having to follow their decisions and certainly we dislike what they are doing to Gamrahna, but they left us the moons. Our people don't need more, I suppose. Some of us are more free spirited than the dark elves appreciate, but I don't know of anyone being oppressed exactly."
"Are the Ciemnosci trying to conquer more worlds?" Alec asked worriedly.
Neither answered right away, but Helios answered, "The Ciemnosci continued to search for new worlds. Not everyone that they have found is rich with magic like Atropos or Gamrahna."
"If they find a world with intelligent people there, but it isn't rich with magic; do they try to conquer it?" the boy asked again.
Shaelamee answered quietly enough from behind him that he wondered if Helios could hear her. "The koze and minos aren't from Cenestraya. I don't know if their worlds had enough magic to fight over, but there are books that talk of the initial enslavement of their races. They were made to serve as soldiers. Even now, they are considered lesser races by the Ciemnosci. They don't have a position in politics or really any leadership, but they serve because the Ciemnosci's magic is too strong to resist."
"You think no one can beat them?" Alec questioned curiously. His people had beaten the enemy force in battle, but he wondered what would happen if the Ciemnosci decided to bring this black sand that he kept hearing about.
Shrugging, the girl replied, "No one has and they keep getting stronger."
It wasn't an answer that Alec wanted to hear, the young wizard thought, and let out a held breath barely keeping it from an audible sigh.
Feeling helpless when it came to what might happen to his world; Alec thought again that maybe it was best that he never return home if it meant helping the Ciemnosci find his world. He knew that Alus was rich with magic. If these dark elves discovered as much, they would definitely attack his people to try and take it from them.
The history of Alus told that the inhabitants would fight for every inch of ground. Countries had fought over and over for millennia. Southwall had formed to fight the Dark One when he slipped into their world also, but at least he wasn't trying to steal Alus's life at the cost of all other things. He might be evil, but what did that make the Ciemnosci then?
Caught up in their own thoughts, the three rode mostly in silence. They looked for pursuit from the hollows, but nothing else had ever been noticed leaving the dead city.
Riding through the tangled jungle as quickly as they could navigate it, the three wondered again at why? Why weren't they chasing them? Was it because there would be more ready to stop them in the jungle?
It was a chief worry, but the jungle had other dangers to worry about as well.
Helios had to slow down and at times the dragaoin even needed to lead his mount on foot. Riding at great speeds invited death. The dangerous trees that the others had warned about were another problem.
Joining the silver sorcerer on foot at one point, Alec held the reins for their salamander while the smaller genasi made her way unhindered by directing an animal. Alec watched the blue girl as she slipped in and out of sight at times checking for pursuit or ambushes depending on whether she fell back or moved ahead of them.
"Wasn't the other path easier?" he asked Helios after another time of walking. "We seem to be taking longer this way."
Frowning at the human, the dragaoin replied, "It is a jungle. Finding any path through here is nearly impossible."
Confused, Alec asked an even stranger question to his mind, "Do you mean that we followed the hollows and they are the ones who could find a smooth path in this jungle?"
Helios opened his mouth ready to retort, but shut it again as the silver sorcerer considered the idea.
"Maybe they are smarter than we were led to believe," Shaelamee said as she walked with the others for the moment.
"Cursule called them, Haileni. If they are just hollow, he asked if they couldn't be filled up like any other vessel."
Shaelamee looked at him curiously and commented, "I am not familiar with the word, but I suppose calling them hollows might imply that they might have the potential to have more added inside."
"Haileni means reborn in one of the ancient tongues of my people. Some say that it is the dragon tongue and that means we are born of dragons." The silver scaled dragaoin paused in his answer, but the others sensed that there was a reason and that they shouldn't interrupt his thoughts.
"Cursule called me 'son of dragons' and he even knew my name, though I never gave it. Unless he could read my mind, and I doubt it, then someone told him about me. Anyone in Naermere would know my first name, but only Nadron knew me in my youth. He is a couple years younger, but Nadron grew up hearing the other children joking that I was a son of dragons.
"When I started to feel my magic, I told the others that I believed that I was a son of the dragons. Surely only having their bloodline could explain why I have magic like this."
"My people tap into magic. Some are stronger than others, but we believe that it comes from Alus, my world."
Shaelamee turned to face the young wizard with wide eyes. "Your world gives magic?"
"Some believe so... that is why I am not sure if I should let Ediyem try to send me back."
"For fear that her people will follow," Helios stated with a knowing nod.
Returning the gesture, Alec continued, "Whether wizards and wilders get their power from the world or not, there are definitely stories of wizards tapping into the power of Alus. Most end up dead because the power is too great for a single human to control in fact." He paused and tried to think of any survivors that had chosen such a path. "Anyway, I have never tried to draw power from the earth, but I would guess that would make it something that the Ciemnosci would really want. My people would certainly fight them for our world," he added realizing that he had just told them too much.
Shaelamee nodded. "Do you have a lot of wizards? Do you have many that train to control magic?"
"My country has hundreds. I'm not sure how many are in others. If the Ciemnosci try to take Alus, they will be in for a fight." He swallowed and added, "It would take the black sand to defeat us, I think."
Helios looked at Shaelamee who nodded at the much taller dragaoin. "We will keep your secret," he replied. "If you do not wish for Ediyem to know and can live without returning home, then I would not say it again. They don't need you alive to use you to search for your world."
"They can just use me to send me home? Ediyem made it sound more difficult."
"It would be hard for her, but other Ciemnosci wizards could use their magic to track your world from what I know of the magic."
Shaelamee added, "If I were a wizard like you, I could probably figure out the spell. Maybe on my own, I still might.
"Each of us born on a world, touched by its magic especially, can help them trace it back to there. Can you sense my magic and that of Helios?"
Alec could see auras of those who used magic. There were ways to mask the strength of a caster and perhaps there were ways to hide magic from other sensitive wizards also, but these two were like open books even for a novice like him.
The boy nodded.
Shae smiled as if proud of him, or some such feeling, Alec thought.
"Can you sense the f
lavor of the magic we hold?"
"Flavor?" the novice questioned having never had anyone put it that way.
"Surely our auras don't seem identical, do they?"
"You can read auras too?" he asked, but had also assumed that the other magic users might be able to read his strength like the wizards at home could.
Moving closer to Alec, the girl took his free hand and pulled it in front of her. Sniffing at his cloth covered arm, Shae smiled up at him. "I can smell it."
Thinking that she was just teasing him, Alec frowned and complained, "If you can't see an aura, how do you even know about them?"
The girl frowned at him in annoyance, but it was Helios that said, "She can smell magic, but can't see the color of an aura at all."
"Shush, Helios!" Shaelamee scolded the dragaoin. "You don't know what I do or do not see," looking up at Alec she added, "but I can smell magic. Other people call them auras. I call it scent or, for fun, a flavor of magic.
"You smell fresh like a breeze coming across a lake on Wataris. There is a hint of earthiness too, but just a hint."
The girl looked smugly at him seeing that the description felt right even to the young wizard.
"Tell him what color it is," Helios said with a smirk.
The comment made Shaelamee frown at him again. "I would guess that his is light blue." Pointing at the dragaoin, she told Alec, "He smells like a cold wind or maybe just ice on a pond."
Grunting before giving a shrug, Helios turned away as he navigated through another dense part of the brush.
"How do you sense auras, Alec?" the blue girl asked eying him with her big green eyes curiously. A slight smile touched the edges of her mouth as if she had a secret or maybe it was just that Shae liked him, Alec considered, wondering why they were spending time talking when they could be attacked at any point.
"I was trained to see them with my magic. It's as much actual sight as my magic reaching out to touch another wizard's, I guess you could say."
"Hmm, touch mine then," Shaelamee smiled teasingly.
Sighing, Helios ignored the girl flirting with Alec.
"Yours is dark blue mixed with green. It's strong. Normally I would say that you have water magic, but that almost seems more a part of your nature than your magic really. Green could be for nature, but the color is the wrong kind of green. I've seen nature wizards' auras at home."
Her smile slipped slightly and Shae replied, "I have water magic because I am a water genasi. We can affect water. You've seen me use the power."
Her skirt tied beneath her battle skirt slid free controlled by the girl. He could see water in the material. While Shaelamee's skin had looked drier to him since finding her after the poisoning from the Cyffuriau tree, it was apparent that the genasi was redirecting some of it to the scarves to avoid getting him wet while they rode together.
"Water magic," the blue girl said pointing to the cloth hovering in front of him. "I can draw moisture from trees and... people too if I have too," she added. "That is water magic. My other magic is... complicated."
Looking at Helios, he could see a mixture of lighter blues wound together. There were also a couple small glimmers of red in the aura and something brown, though he doubted that it was earthy in nature. Not every color was tied to a natural element, the boy knew from his training.
"Helios is mostly light blue colors. I would say his ice and perhaps some air is woven in there. There is also a hint of fire magic fighting to be noticed in it as well."
The last made Helios glance to the boy with a frown. "If I am an ice dragon, how could I use fire as well? You must be mistaken, Alec."
"Maybe you're a dragon with more than one nature or you are a son of different kinds of dragons?" Shae answered acting as if she wanted to add an 'A ha!' to the end of her guess.
Again Helios grunted dismissively at her.
"Did you happen to read Ediyem before we left?" Shaelamee asked. "Oh and Nadron too," the girl added thinking of the other magic users in Naermere.
Alec shook his head and Shae looked a bit disappointed.
"Where I come from, wizards often measure auras to figure out who is more powerful. Some schools used to use that to establish their leaders as if power meant that a wizard would also be a good leader."
Her green eyes examined him thoughtfully and she agreed, "Strength doesn't necessarily mean intelligence or wisdom in the same warlock or sorcerer either."
Noting the difference in her words from his, Alec wondered again at these two magic users. Helios might translate into a wilder, but Shaelamee felt different. He had been told that her power was supposedly granted to her by another. While Alec had never heard of such a thing before, with magic he supposed anything was possible.
A ray of cold drove back a tangle of vines as Helios finally had to draw on his magic to break through the next clump barring their way.
"Couldn't he just use his magic to find the hollows' trail and simply follow it the other way?" the boy asked the girl in a whisper.
Shaelamee smiled at the thought before glancing at the dragaoin. "Helios knows what he is doing usually. He believes that we need to get back as quickly possible, so I doubt that he is just doing this to be obstinate. Most likely he had considered doing that already."
"Then why not do it?"
Helios looked at them with a frown and said, "If we follow the same trail, it would make it easier for the enemy to both follow us and try to set up an ambush. Now will you two hush so we don't have to worry about being overheard by the entire jungle?"
Surprised by the dragaoin's excellent hearing, the other two exchanged chagrined looks with each other and followed Helios in silence for a long time.
Helios stopped to look up at a tree with red leaves and yellow bark. Shaelamee looked at the dragaoin in confusion. The ground around the tree was covered with brown, burned looking grass and vegetation. No trees grew too close or within the burned circle.
"Helios?" the girl questioned the sudden stop. She knew that they shouldn't continue forward, but they could certainly veer around the dangerous plant easily enough.
"What is that?" Alec whispered.
The dragaoin pointed up towards some reddish orange fruit mingling with the red leaves.
"That is an oparzenia tree," Shae said watching as several of the fruits turned to ice and dropped to the ground. They didn't shatter or break open and Alec wondered why Helios would waste time freezing part of a tree.
Gathering half a dozen frozen fruits into a saddle bag that looked close to empty after all the days of travel, the dragaoin said, "We might need to conserve some of our magic in the near future. A few of these thrown at a hollow or other enemy can save us a spell. They'll burn a hollow as good as a thrown fireball."
Shae just shrugged at Alec. After they circled around the danger zone under the tree, Helios seemed to find an easier path. Their pace increased and the young wizard began to think that they would escape the jungle without any real disruption. Time had been spent navigating parts of the jungle that he would have considered more trouble than they were worth, but he couldn't argue that none of the hollows chasing them had actually followed to track them down either.
"What was that sound?" the girl in front of him asked tilting her head towards the left. She was riding with Alec again now that the jungle was a little more open once again.
Listening carefully, Alec started to say, "I don't hear anything." When suddenly he heard another branch snap to their left. The brush rustled slightly ahead and to the right at about the same time.
A moment later, several hollows burst into sight. These held spears and Alec thought that he could see more intelligence in their eyes than most he had faced so far. More rustling from above surprised them as three Zmaj dressed in wizard robes flew into view between the trees.
"You'll go no further, traitor!" a blue dragaoin pronounced as lightning began to crackle on his fingertips.
"Shield," Alec called out like a battle mage to m
ake a large blue magic barrier in the air between them. As lightning arced from the Zmaj wizard's hands his shield both caught and deflected much of the blast. A tree to his left and in front of several hollows exploded from the residual lighting. Fire caught as well, but the remaining hollows burst through ignoring the surprise.
He felt Shaelamee stand up using his shoulder to brace herself. The sound of her strange sword appearing in her hand could be heard from the other side.
"Protect yourself and stay alive," the girl ordered before leaping to the ground. He barely had time to notice her weapon's blade glowing with green fire before the novice wizard had to try and figure out where best to focus his attention.
More hollows had joined the first. Three were still picking themselves up from the deflected lightning bolt, but five more pushed through the fire towards him from the left. To the right, Shae faced off against half a dozen more while about as many approached from their front where Helios debated on his action as well. Lastly, there were three Zmaj of differing primary colors floating above them. He assumed that all three must have magic if they could also fly.
Using his left hand to guide his shield above his head in case the wizards should try more magic, Alec called on another spell with his right. Flicking that hand towards the hollows on the left, swirling blades of wind sliced through the air and the undead creatures as well. These hollows were fast and agile in their movements. Two still took the full impact. Heads were nearly removed as gouts of dark blood sprayed their fellows before dropping to the ground. Two of the three suffered minor cuts as they dodged or ducked his attack. The last was slippery and slid under the attack to reach out for the boy.
"Gust!" the young wizard called out summoning wind to defend him like a battle mage. He had watched Katya use her wizard magic like this and in secret the boy had followed suit. A rival to him, Alec knew that knowing both ways of summoning spells would prove useful. The speed of magic made even limited difficulty spells have impact.
Green flames caught the edge of his eye where Shaelamee's sword cut at another hollow. The magic struck her opponent, but simultaneously another burst of green flame caught the one to her right as well. A flicker of green flashed from her off hand sending a ray of damaging magic into another pushing the creature back into the hollow behind it.
Smart Alec in the Dark Lands Page 21