Battle Mage: Forging New Steel (Tales of Alus Book 9) (10 page)

Sebastian noticed both the look and the beauty of the blond wilder as well. While he was hardly an expert on beautiful women, he thought that they were so used to the looks given them that they probably didn’t notice half of the interest thrown their way by men.

Looking down at the metal which had been beaten and folded twice more, the battle mage looked down on a piece already close to the length of a battle mage’s sword and about the right width. Tomorrow he would test it with his magic and using his best guess he would add a mix of nickel and vanadium. One was supposed to add strength while the other increased the hardness and was supposed to prevent metal fatigue. They were metals he had either never heard of or known little about before speaking with Bharen and Ivol.

The hammered metal was placed in a safe spot where it could cool for now. In the morning he would bring it back to a higher heat and try the next step in making a sword naturally.

Ashleen took her dress from the hook after washing off her hands quickly. She stepped out into the stable yard and out of the heat of the forge. Sebastian joined her after splashing some water on his face and grabbing his shirt.

“It’s too hot,” the girl complained as he joined her. Eyes straying to his bare chest glistening from the water and sweat, she looked back to the pink dress debating on whether she really wished to put it back on again.

Chuckling at the girl as he pulled his shirt over his head knowing that it would have to be cleaned if only because of his sweat on the cloth, Bas replied, “Unless you plan to be a modern version of the mad king’s wife, Alyanna the first; you probably need to put your dress on before we walk back to the Two Circles to wash for the parade.”

The parade wasn’t scheduled until after lunch, but if they were to get cleaned up and into position to join the parade, they needed to get moving.

Ashleen looked a little uncertain of his reference and asked, “What did she do again?”

“Well, admittedly she was the one who worked with the Grimnal and King Simon the wise to defeat High King Merrick, but one of the things many people still remember her for was that she undermined the king by walking the halls of the castle and city naked. Supposedly she had a handful of handmaidens working with her and all of them had to do the same as the queen.

“If you wish to protest the heat like Queen Alyanna, you aren’t far from being dressed the same,” he finished with a laugh.

Turning red at the idea, the wilder took her dress and wrapped it around her before beginning to button the side. Once finished, the pretty blond lifted the hem enough for her fingers to reach the blue skirt underneath and pulled. Stepping over the smaller cloth, Sebastian wondered curiously if there was anything left underneath the lower dress. She picked up and folded the skirt as if nothing had happened before saying, “Well, I don’t need that on, but I can’t do the same with my top. Now stop ogling and let’s hurry back to the Two Circles. I want to lay in a bath as long as I can before we have to dress for this parade of yours.”

Sebastian frowned at the idea as well, the two hurried through the streets between the inns. It was nearly lunch time and he debated stopping for more food before returning to their rooms. Unlike Ashleen, his stomach was more of his concern than the heat.

“Air shield,” he ordered creating a swirl of air around his body. Ashleen was close enough to feel the shift of a breeze. Stepping a little closer, the wilder shared the air as it moved and cooled her skin.

“If only your magic was more powerful, you would have made an excellent air wizard,” stated the pretty girl as her hair stirred in the shield’s breeze.

“I do all right,” he countered.

“Why weren’t you using a shield in the forge?”

“I had hoped suffering through the sword smith’s process without too many magical helps would give me better insight into making a sword the way I need it to be.”

Ashleen shook her head and didn’t bother to look at him as she said, “I can sense the differences and some of the metals used to make the steel alloy, but the best sword smiths work on their craft for decades before making their best creations, if they even attain true mastery. What makes you think that you can bypass decades in a matter of days?”

Sebastian had Bairh’loore hidden in his inn room and the Hollow Sword on his hip. Patting the weapon, he replied, “Well, I created the Hollow Sword on my first try and Bairh’loore was a creation by instinct. Using magic I made both, so I guess that I figured creating a sword from scratch would be the same thing.”

“You started with an actual sword, even if it was broken. You didn’t start from the basic metal. Did you create your staff from nothing?”

“I just had a stick from the smith’s firewood and a lump of iron before creating the staff. I don’t even know how I pulled the gem into the thing. It came from deep in the ground with magic somehow. I was simply lost in the process and actually used a variation of the spell I learned from you,” he confessed.

Looking at him curiously, Ashleen asked, “What spell did I teach you, oh wise owl of the battle mages? Certainly no mere wilder could teach someone as wise as you,” the girl teased in mock deference to his skills.

“Dance,” he called lightning to his finger tips. As it crackled in small controlled tendrils between his fingers in arcs like a dance of light, Sebastian held the hand between them letting the lightning play. “I took the idea of flow and currents from your lightning and made the iron respond likewise. The iron became like liquid and the wood drank the iron through each vein before turning solid again.”

He closed his hand snuffing the magic and lightning in one move as they closed on their destination. Sebastian led Ashleen through the main room of Two Circles drawing attention and frowns as usual. Men and women staying at the inn were rich and getting dirty in a smith’s forge was against their general principles.

Ignoring the light crowd gathered for lunch, the two returned to their rooms. Ashleen began unbuttoning her dress before she was even to the bathroom door. It came less from flirting than the heat. Even after all their time in the south, the muggy warmth of Hala’s weather was affecting the girl quite a bit. The time on the island and at sea had felt warm, but there always seemed to be cooling breezes on the ocean and North Sea. While Hala stood on a cliff overlooking the sea, the weather generated from the west was overwhelming the sea breezes below.

Sebastian could understand the way the Kardorian felt. They hadn’t gone through the slower process of the seasonal changes. Moving on the ships to the south had accelerated the feeling of spring and summer, but passing through the silver world back to Hala had been as abrupt a change as they could imagine.

He heard the water running almost as soon as the door had closed and the battle mage moved to the wardrobe to find the dress clothes he would need for not only the parade but the banquet following the pageantry. Though the clothes he had purchased were the colors of the falcon uniform, these weren’t issued through the quartermaster. In fact, Sebastian realized that he had not even checked in with the local corps beyond speaking with Raven Leros. Since the raven ran the corps, the young man had simply gone to the inn since the king had purchased a room for him. There was no reason to rejoin the other mages until after all the king’s ceremonies were over and he could be free of those duties.

Pulling off his boots and shirt, the mage waited for the girl to finish. He walked to the window overlooking the street below and Castle Grimnal behind the protective wall surrounding the castle. Banners of the country’s colors waved in the air along the top of the wall and on the towers. He guessed that their number had been tripled since the tournament and the mage thought the castle had looked overly festive then as well.

It had been the edge of winter then and gray skies were common. Perhaps the sun and blue skies simply had him fooled, but Sebastian didn’t really care about the amount of festivities. He was a battle mage. A soldier of magic he had evolved into a researcher of magic as well, but neither his soldier side nor the researcher saw much substance to such things. While he might enjoy celebrating at night by dancing with pretty women and friends; banners, painting and gold statues among the various objects the royalty seemed to value meant little to the practical young man.

The door creaked open revealing Ashleen wrapped in a towel once again. He wanted to sigh. Her continual need to show off her beauty wasn’t lost on him, but sometimes he felt that, like the royals and their banners, the girl was trying too hard.

“I’m done with the tub. You should really think of taking a bath as well. You’re much too sweaty and dirty to go like that,” her nose wrinkled in distaste as if she could smell him from there before giving him a smile.

Ashleen surprised him and moved back to her room closing the door behind her.

With the room freed up, Sebastian hurried to follow her direction knowing that he could hardly see the king like he was now.

The castle courtyard was buzzing with activity. Open carriages, long wagons and horses were everywhere decorated colorfully with flowers and colored streamers. Normally a spacious area between the castle’s original inner wall and Grimnal Castle proper, the number of vehicles clogged the area making it hard for the humans to pass through to their starting places.

Sebastian and Ashleen were escorted to one of the decorated wagons where he found a number of familiar faces. Frell and Mecklin were there in their dress uniforms most likely procured from the quartermaster during the extra days they had to prepare. Liam and Serrena wore their standard wizard robes looking a bit warm thanks to the summer heat; but their guild colors were their uniform and expected of the wizards for the parade.

Extending a hand to help Ashleen up, Mecklin commented on the wilder’s unusual dress, “You look like a royal lady of the court.”

The girl smiled and received related compliments from the others. Her dress was essentially two garments. The inner dress was of light cotton colored light blue, which had no sleeves and exposed her back as it tied behind her neck. The front had a plunging neckline that reached to her cleavage, but the dress circled her waist with the skirt touching her ankles.

Using two silver clasps, a second wrap was clipped to the straps covering her chest. Creating gauzy, see through sleeves that billowed with the breeze, the second garment circled behind her covering her back with the nearly clear blue material. To deal with the heat further, the drapery left her shoulders bare of cloth. It was pretty, though perhaps too revealing, Sebastian thought. Even women dressed for the dances of the various castles he had been in had never worn such dresses that he had noticed.

“I had to buy new clothes here in Hala,” the girl replied taking the compliments in stride. Serrena and Frell looked a little jealous as she continued, “It is so hot today that I am glad that I bought a few airy dresses. My winter robes would have left me a puddle on the ground I think.”

She giggled and received some laughter in stride.

Another familiar voice came from behind Sebastian, “I see that you two made it.”

Turning to see Gerid looking like a lord in a richly tailored suit and his two granddaughters draped in silk dresses worthy of a queen, Sebastian could only think to nod.

Gerid’s eyes strayed to those already on the wagon. “Well, your people look properly dressed for a parade. Alain wants me to ride with him in an open carriage with my family. Personally I don’t really like these sorts of things, but I’ve lost count of how many parades and celebrations I’ve been forced to attend during my long life.”

Nodding, Sebastian replied, “I’m just a simple battle mage. Parades are for royalty not me.”

“I take it that you feel more like a soldier than a lord. My upbringing was a soldier in a mercenary company at one point. Unfortunately I could only keep from becoming a king for a couple generations. When I kept outliving my family and the other royal lines, the people wanted the stability of someone immortal; which is rather stupid when you think about it. My staff had to change even if I didn’t.”

The giant shook his head and apologized, “Oh look at me going off on a tangent about things so old you all wouldn’t care about such history. I told you enough stories of my youth on the island to last your lifetimes, I am sure.”

He finished chuckling but Sebastian shook his head in turn. “You forget how much of our history is muddled thanks to the Cataclysm and the destruction of many of our libraries. While this may not be the time to hear them, hearing your stories is often like discovering history.”

Rubbing his hand through his hair, Gerid replied, “Ok, now I really feel like the ancient old man I am. I’ve become a history book for you all.”

There was laughter at the slight, but Sebastian had to admit that the immortal wasn’t exactly wrong. He had given answers to many of their questions in the weeks and months with his team. The mage hadn’t realized just how many things about the Grimnal had been masked by time.

Those in charge of wrangling the parade into order, called for Gerid and his family to follow them to their carriage. When the king and queen entered the courtyard with more than a dozen guards accompanying them, their arrival virtually started the parade.

As Sebastian sat with the others in the wagon with its several benches, he watched as the gates opened in the protective wall. Tall heavy doors, with more stone wall rising above them, let the vehicles out into the streets of Hala and the assembled crowds began to cheer.

“It sounds like most of the city turned out to see the Grimnal,” Ashleen said as she leaned against him. The sweet smell of flowers wafted from her hair and the feel of her against him both felt right and familiar.

“I guess that it isn’t every day that an immortal king reappears in Hala.”

She laughed and soon they saw the people lining the first street. Children screamed and waved along with their parents. Several rows deep, he watched as those further back craned their necks or stood on tip toe to try and see the spectacle rolling through the streets before them.

To his surprise, the crowds never lightened as they rolled from the castle and inner city streets out into the outer city nearly to the far off outer wall. They circled much of the outer city before looping back to the north gate of the inner wall once more returning to the castle.

After a couple hours of waving at people who probably had no idea why they were in the parade, Sebastian was relieved to return to the relative quiet of Castle Grimnal.

Chapter 6- A Sunset View

For Sebastian and his team, the grand ball room of Castle Grimnal wasn’t a new sight. Giant columns ran in multiple lines to hold up a vaulted ceiling roughly forty feet over their heads where massive chandeliers hung suspended casting their light over the colorful hall.

While they had been in the ball room after the Winter’s Edge tournament to celebrate the winners and join together the multiple nations who had come to compete, the massive room looked quite different from the end of winter. Blue and silver decorations had been everywhere then. The two colors had been meant to represent winter and had no ulterior motive like using Southwall’s colors to impress those gathered for the tournament.

That was then and this celebration was for Southwall. While a darker blue was used to a lesser degree, red and gold banners and other decorations took over this gathering. Red and deep blue were the country’s representative colors and gold implied the wealth of a large country dealing globally with other nations in spite of the Dark One’s threatening presence.

Lords and ladies moved around the room in groups this time and the colorful robes of wizards were much fewer than before. There were no lords arguing over who should have won the tournament this time or those who believed that Sebastian had been lucky to go as far as he had either. This gathering with those who looked on him and his falcons often wondered what they had done to merit being celebrated. Certainly they all knew that the Grimnal had been found by someone, but which mages and wizards had actually accomplished the feat was unknown.

Several tables were raised up in a line on one side of the room. Dozens of round tables littered the remaining floor and, as Sebastian and his team walked past the lords and ladies to walk up and take their places at the prominent tables, more wondered who these people were to sit at the table of the king and queen as well as the Grimnal.

He saw Maura and her former guards Idenlare and Vewen. They were wizards who were talented in more than one school of magic. Sebastian had known of their power from the start, but like Maura, the falcon had made sure that they knew that he had been chosen as leader. Other than Maura’s early attempts to push for leadership, the other two had seemed to respect him enough.

The three were seated on the far right, while he and Ashleen sat with the rest of his available team spreading down the line to the left. Gerid and his granddaughters, as well as the leader of his small contingent of warriors from the island, sat to the right as well putting themselves between Sebastian and Maura. Last to sit after a trumpeting fanfare, were King Alain and Queen Alyanna. Sebastian was surprised to be sitting next to the dark haired queen. Both were still youthful and the mage thought that aside from their royal lineage, they would have been very approachable. He had spoken with them and even had lunch on a smaller scale.