Battle Mage: The Dark Mage (Tales of Alus) (40 page)

Druick moved in on the conversation and asked a little less intensely than the mage, “You may not be able to perform the night shield, but surely you know how to conjure one in theory. Like Rilena said, teaching that spell to make things more even would do a lot to prove that you aren’t here for another reason.”

Chuckling at the continued belief that he was a prisoner for ulterior motives, Garosh answered, “I can write down the spell as best I remember it for any of your wizards to try. As to other reasons, I am here for two: to end that needless bloodshed on the mountain and to begin a dialogue with your leaders that may lead to a peaceful coexistence with my people in the mountain.

“I thought that was obvious already, but if knowing the shield spell will help to build a better relationship with Southwall I am more than willing to help as best I can.”

Rilena heard his words and they seemed to sway some of the others to at least give him a chance, but the mage still felt that there was a dishonesty to the giant. Perhaps if the wizards could use his spell, she might feel less suspicious, but the mage doubted that a single good act could remove that wary feeling so easily.

During the morning duels, Garosh suddenly seemed to have arrived at Rilena’s side as if he had crossed the distance between them without a single step. “You are guarded about me and that is understandable, but you will come to see that I am not the enemy. We are at war, but my battle against your people is over save to fight to win them over to build a new alliance.”

“Why are you trying to create this alliance all of a sudden? Your creatures ambushed and harried our progress all the way to the mountain. If you truly wanted peace, you could have simply waited until we reached the fortress and sued for peace,” Rilena argued as he loomed over her. As a guard, she felt insignificant beside this man. He had said he couldn’t decipher a spell, but his power was so great that she could barely believe that. Admittedly not every wizard could comprehend every spell, or so the wizards she had known had always alleged.

Taking a moment as if he watched the latest duel and was preoccupied, Garosh finally said without looking at the woman, “Not everyone could be convinced that it would be better to avoid the fight to try and join you. Even at the end, there were many who were unsure of what I was going to do. I just pray that my subordinates who understood what I was doing and wanted done actually performed the tasks as I had asked before leaving for Windmeer.

“The creatures created by the emperor are often willful without a strong presence guiding them closely. The werelions and werewolves are especially dangerous if left unsupervised. More feral than a simple orc or goblin, which were bred to follow, like the wolves and mountain lions they share a bloodline with, the beasts are like wild animals barely able to be held in check. Unfortunately releasing those to harass an invading army turned more bloody than hoped, but what is done is done,” he said spreading his hands. “We can only act on the present and our future.”

“That’s easier for you to say, when you are the one who did the evil that needs forgiving,” complained the mage unconsciously pushing out her lower lip in a pout before catching herself. Frowning both against his words and her own slip, Rilena avoided looking up at the towering giant to give him any satisfaction.

“It is easier for me to ask forgiveness, but at least when I tried to coerce your wizard into telling me information I had a spell that hurt without doing any damage. I would have hated ruining such beautiful women needlessly. You know that the pain was mostly in your head? The healers say this spell affects the nerves telling your mind that you are in pain, but the flesh actually remains virtually unharmed.”

Glancing at the man from the corner of her eye, she asked, “Does that mean you can use a healer’s spell or was it a trick on the mind?”

“They say that the emperor has great powers over the mind. He used his magic to dominate his followers in the old world and bound them to him. Perhaps there are traces of that ability in me, but I was his experiment. He placed a portion of his power in me as I was born giving me magical strength and skill, but I am his reject, a broken toy. What I have is a fraction of the emperor’s power and ability. Like I said before, my strength lies in the straightforward magic like fire, water, air and earth. The mind and healing are as hard for me as most.”

Sniffing as if disappointed, Elzen stated, “A big man like you with all that power and you can’t even heal. I have a fraction of your magic, but at least I can heal my friends of their wounds. Of course, that begs the question do you have any friends, Garosh?”

With a big sigh, he answered surprisingly quickly, “None that are alive, I think.”

The two mages exchanged a glance in confusion at such a reply, but the giant didn’t elaborate and soon the detail moved back inside Windmeer for lunch.
 

Chapter 21- Twins and Pins

After the morning training session for Lanquer and his other students, Palose took the southern route heading east with Sylvaine at his side. Turless had looked unsure of which way to go until reminded of his need to visit the training courtyard for the magic users. The boy had noticed Lanquer and Acheri taking the route which would lead them into the emperor’s citadel without changing their path, while the other two walked south leaving Turless feeling like a fifth wheel.

Palose would have let his student join him on his walk, but it was an important day today as he was less than a mile from the Cadhalla River doing his daily walks to the east in Southwall. The weather been decent for a couple days and some of the snow had even melted in places making his walks easier so he had been covering more miles each day.

“So the Cadhalla River is today?” Sylvaine asked rhetorically trying to break up the silence as they walked. It was a long walk to his hideout on the east wall from the training fields. Sometimes the girl walked with him, but most days the mage began his day of walking just going to the hideout across the majority of the city.

He knew the name of the river meant little to the girl who had only been out of the city once to go to the mountain fortress. Lines and names on maps meant little to those who had never visited the land. “I should be in sight of it almost as soon as I get there, yes.”

“Will you avoid the next fortress city? What was that one called...” the girl asked trying to remember a dot on the map. They hadn’t really spoken of his route often, so apparently the apprentice had forgotten again.

“Blackwall, then Norcrom before I would reach the opposite end of Southwall and Hala.”

She frowned and remarked, “Wouldn’t you be risking a lot of danger going to the cities? There will be more wizards and battle mages that might recognize you. You have no idea how far some of those you betrayed might have spread since last year.”

Shrugging, the mage replied, “I’ve been to Windmeer, the very city I brought the enemy into, and no one recognized me in the village outside the walls. The odds of running into someone somewhere else can’t be greater than that, but I’ll worry about that in a week or so.”

“You’ve been making very good time then, if you can figure out being there so soon.”

He nodded. The trick of throwing a touchstone had spawned a second idea that, in addition to better weather, had increased his ability to cross great distances as quickly as someone on horse. “I’ve been using air spears to drive touchstones sometimes beyond my sight if a hill gets in the way. Even Sebastian never threw one that far,” he stated remembering a competition when the mizard had first revealed the spell. While most had been striking a large boulder making chips, Sebastian had shown up even wizards by driving an air spear clean through the boulder in a single throw. Even so, Palose didn’t think his rival could throw a spear nearly a mile as he had been doing of late.

Encapsulating a touchstone and throwing it a mile before using a quick portal spell to cross the distance let him travel solo faster than anyone short of covering a point between touchstones already delivered. He had been wondering how long to wait to discover whether his messages had reached the towns and cities that the messengers had been sent to deliver them.

Sylvaine hadn’t commented save to nod her head. Pointing at a cross street, the girl added, “This is my turn. Safe travels, mage.” Her formal treatment of the dismissal was followed by a grin before she set her feet to the north and waved goodbye.

“I’ll see you this afternoon then,” he added waving to her back. It was still almost a mile to the far off house, but Palose noticed that there were few eyes to see him and he grew bold. Casting the quick portal spell, the mage stepped through the gateway onto a road lightly covered in the shrinking snow.

Palose was about to start his walk when he realized that the portal was not closing. His magic had been released which should have allowed the doorway to collapse, but it continued to remain open until a shadow darkened the entry before crashing into the man. In a tumble of dark hair and a red dress, he realized that he had been followed again.

“What are you doing here, Acheri?” the mage asked propping himself up in the snow with his elbows. The dark haired princess, or whatever title they had chosen for the emperor’s sister, remained on top of him recovering from the crash.

Her head rose from where it had rested on his stomach for longer than he would have thought to recover from her tumble. Looking at his face, her left hand brushed back some of her brunette tresses and the girl smiled up at him. “Lying on you at the moment,” Acheri stated quite literally.

Growling in annoyance, Palose shook his head angrily retorting, “I know that, but why are you here?”

As she rolled off of him, the girl in red stood before pulling her richly worked cloak tighter about her. Gold thread embroidered the dark brown outer velvet while Palose caught a warmer brown satin liner peaking from within. She looked cold and the mage reminded her with a sigh, “You might want to recast your air shield, if you plan to stay here for any time.”

Quickly casting her spell after looking surprised that he had noticed, Acheri took a moment to look around her. The part of the road they stood on was hemmed in by low hills revealing only snow with some taller, brown grass sticking up to break up the white. Finding the view less than impressive, the princess straightened trying to bring her regal comportment to bear against him as if he was some peasant who the girl could hope to impress.

“Kolban has been commenting that he had felt someone using portal magic quite commonly. There has been no communication with the fortress since the day Sylvaine returned, so we knew it was unlikely to be from there. No one from the other cities has visited without coming to the palace or through the portal chambers either.

“His words about the matter had me curious and I noticed that you have had windburn on your face off and on over the last few weeks plus you keep heading to the south after Lanquer’s training, so I decided to cast some magic to keep track of you. Then I simply doubled back to find you while using an invisibility spell.

“I had hoped to find that you were going somewhere interesting, but this is quite boring. Where are we anyway?”

The girl looked a bit disappointed as she waited for an answer. There was no concern that he had been leaving the capitol without permission, but simply that expectant look that said she was hoping more for an adventure than finding out he took long walks in Southwall each day. Palose shook his head in wonder at the strange girl and felt none of the wonder and awe she hoped he would feel for the sister of the emperor.

“We’re about a mile from the Cadhalla River,” he stated before turning east and ignoring the girl. She could follow or return home for all he cared. Assuming her harmless, at least in the regard to having Acheri report him to get him in trouble, Palose was ready to finish this part of his travel.

He could hear her boots crunching in the snow behind him. Not only continuing to pursue him physically, the girl doggedly continued with her questions. “And why are we here?”

Glancing behind him to see Acheri alternately watching her step in the snow and his back, Palose replied, “I have been trying to create portal points in Southwall. Each day I try to walk as far as I can in a few hours seeding touchstones to extend where I can go.

“As to why ‘we’ are here, you have stated your own reason. Now that you know, you can go home. You obviously know how to extend a portal, so that means you can create one home as well.”

Shaking her head defiantly, Acheri sped up her steps to walk beside him. “You can’t tell me to return. You serve the emperor and through him, me. I should be the one telling you to return home.”

He wanted to tell her that he served because he chose to serve the emperor and that he would serve how he wished, but choosing his battles wisely was best. Besides, listening to her actual words and the actions following them, Palose realized that the girl was not trying to order him around at all. She was merely trying to tell him that he couldn’t order her around as she followed.

Whether Acheri had planned on having some kind of adventure, she seemed intent upon having whatever kind she could now. The mage held his tongue and they crested the hill. While more hills surrounded them and even stood before his path, Palose could make out a reflection of sunlight on water peeking around the hills in places. The Cadhalla River wasn’t far now.