Battle Mage: The Dark Mage (Tales of Alus) (41 page)

“Air spear,” the mage ordered summoning a glimmering spear around the touchstone in his hand. “Strike,” he added throwing it forward intending to hit the top of the third hill away and the last peak that he could see easily.

Still walking he felt Acheri look at him wondering at the spectacle, but the girl was a wizard with skills well beyond his and knowledge somehow transferred from the mind of a being over a millennium old. When Palose began his portal spell, she paused, waiting for the portal to open in front of the mage.
As the glowing doorway formed, he felt the girl’s magic gather. After he passed through the portal stepping out onto the third hill, Palose picked up his touchstone waiting for Acheri to join him seeing his door remain open well beyond the normal time.

“So that is the way you travel Southwall?” the girl in red asked brushing back her hair with her fingers after using the portal.

Nodding, the mage looked back to the path before them, and the shine of sunlight on ice and water was unmistakable. They had crossed half the distance to the river in one spear throw. Calling up a second spear, he flung the weapon to the edge of the water he could see and formed a second portal to stand behind the stone mere feet from the once distant river.

With the spring waiting in the wings mere weeks from insinuating itself onto North Continent, the Cadhalla was a mixture of running water and ice sheets extending into the river from both banks. Icicles hung in a few spots from the bridge to his left, but the heaviest ones were long gone as they fell and washed away with the river water.

Further to the north, the river ran until it bent behind the hills on the west side becoming lost to sight. “Hawk vision,” the mage called forth a modified vision spell to look for a landmark of a different type. Unfortunately, the hills and distance served to defeat his magic spell. He knew that it could only be a few miles to the north, but from the river bank the man was too low to see past nature’s obstacles.

“What now?” the girl asked watching him trying to get his bearings.

Leaving the touchstone closer to the bridge uphill from the bank to avoid it possibly washing away with a basic rise of the river, Palose cast another air spear with a second stone throwing it upriver with one mighty cast. Repeating the process twice more, the mage walked up the rise of a hill to look northward and see the great wall barring his sight of the northern plains. Built across the river with a small arch crossing from one side to the other meeting at large towers manned to defend the weak spot in the wall, the North Wall was a great feat of design.

In the past, the emperor’s armies had tested it twice. Iron rods six inches thick, surrounded by two inch thick stone were set in a crossing grid work pattern reaching from stone wall to deep below the river bed. Under a wall over twenty feet thick at its base, the grids repeated every couple feet making for a challenging obstacle for creatures larger than a fish or turtle. While it might not hold off a determined foe by itself, the two towers guarding the entry into Southwall meant there would be a defense that would make sure to prevent that determination from paying off. During both attempts, only the northernmost bars had ever taken damage.

“It is a surprisingly effective defense,” Acheri stated as she stood beside him on a hill to see more of the wall.

The mage nodded. “It is reinforced from both Windmeer and Blackwall. Even White Hall to the south will send cadets directly to the Twin Towers. They use the wall to move soldiers for the most part avoiding using the road we just left as much as they can. Apparently the powers that be believe having soldiers riding from tower to tower daily adds to the security of the wall. Since the unit details change to avoid predictability, there are rarely an easily estimable number in each tower or roaming the wall.”

“They saw the weakness and made it a strength,” the girl nodded before looking away to the mage beside her again. “Is there a reason you took me here?”

Shaking his head, Palose replied, “I have never seen it for myself. My duties took me between Windmeer and White Hall, but never here. I just wanted to see what made up the legendary defense.

“If the emperor still wishes to defeat Southwall, this still might be the best point of attack. There are other points between the towers and cities that may be possibilities due to the remote locations, but only the twins have an opening in the wall.”

Acheri gave him an appraising look, “Why did you say ‘if’ he wants to defeat Southwall? What would make you think that he doesn’t want an end of his enemy?”

Unsure if he should be debating such things with the emperor’s sister, Palose finally shrugged. If he truly was either the emperor’s experiment or perhaps a favored oddity being a resurrection man, maybe he had a longer leash before he would be beaten. “I have lived on both sides of the wall. Southwall fights with a lot of heart and they have managed to build their strength, but I have also seen what Ensolus among the empire’s five cities can bring as an army. If the emperor,... Kolban, wanted to destroy them he could have by now; but I also wonder if he has come to realize that the enemies who imprisoned him have been dead for centuries. Even the Grimnal has been missing since the Cataclysm, so who is he truly making pay?”

The mysterious smile that Acheri tended to hold when she knew something others did not crossed the young girl’s face. Her dark blue eyes seemed to deepen as if she were able to make her eyes hide what she knew. Despite the look, Palose refused to ask anything more of the girl. Her smile slipped slightly realizing that he wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of asking what amused her, so flipping a lock of brunette hair from her face, Acheri spoke trying to be mysterious as she teased, “The emperor made this Grimnal disappear. He found one of those enemies that had been there to seal him in the silver world and made him pay in a creative way.”

When he remained silent simply looking at the girl as he realized that Acheri would surrender what she knew quicker if he refused to play her games, she puffed out a breath of air exasperatedly and continued, “I would ask if you thought that he killed him, but I can see that you are toying with me, so I will simply tell you that he was imprisoned far from his home. He was even used in experiments to create a perfect vessel for Kolban to transfer into, though I am not sure any of that work resulted in our current forms.”

The man remained quiet making her sigh and look at the wall with its two towers on either side of the river. “So what now?” the dark haired girl asked placing her arms on her hips just staring towards the obstruction to the north. Her game wasn’t turning out as well as she had hoped, Palose could tell, and barely suppressed a smug smile as he cast a new portal.

As he walked through the doorway, he heard her hurried casting to piggy back on his spell. She wasn’t through with him apparently he thought as he passed through the silver light to reappear on the road beside the bridge. An air spear was in his hand by the time Acheri caught up to the mage. Throwing it out ahead of him, Palose felt like he had a lot of time to make up with the detour. He hadn’t lied that he had wanted to see the legendary Twin Towers. Taking Acheri along had no bearing on the trip despite her earlier query.

With that thought in his mind, Palose had seen what he wanted and left a new touchstone on the hill where they had looked at the powerful towers. If the right kind of wizards manned the defenses with archers and battle mages to hold the wall, the towers could indeed hold off almost any assault from the north, he thought, but with a little trickery they could fall if the emperor still desired the south.

He hadn’t been toying with her when the mage had said what he had about the emperor’s desire to make Southwall pay for an ancient crime. Hadn’t the Cataclysm killed millions and rearranged the world to allow his armies to hollow out a modest empire? If he was out for revenge, he had even taken out his pain on the Grimnal, Gerid Aramathea, an immortal who had led armies to stop him. The immortal was imprisoned as the emperor and his armies had once been. With a sentence nearly as long, had Kolban sated his revenge?

If the emperor no longer wanted revenge, did he desire conquest like in his old world where he had beaten elves, dwarves and gnomes into their holes and forced many to escape their world to flee the wave of his armies. The young man who was emperor didn’t seem to be overly worried and even the
shadowed figure, which had merely waited to find a healthy body, was in no hurry even as death had approached. Both versions of the emperor led Palose to question what the emperor truly wanted now.

Stopping a little more than an hour later, the girl stepped next to the mage as he took a canteen of water from his pack. After a couple quick swallows, Palose offered it to the pretty, dark haired princess. Her eyes looked at his offering dubiously a moment before taking the canteen. Drinking a few swallows as he watched her graceful neck taking each swallow, Acheri lowered it once more eyeing the man who watched her. Without a word, she handed the canteen back to him. After sealing the container once more, he replaced it in the bag before looking to the east. There was nothing to be seen other than some trees and hills. The area of the Twin Towers had always been considered treacherous from the history fought at the wall, so few farmers or ranchers had dared to set up a home nearby.

Even after an hour of continuously churning up the miles, Palose realized that he may have to wait until Blackwall before seeing any form of civilization again. Judging the sun above to be far enough to the west that he should think of returning to Ensolus, Palose turned to the princess and stated, “Time to head home.”

Shaking her head, Acheri retorted, “I am not ready yet. Surely there is something more interesting to see than wilderness. I have seen nothing but trees and hills the whole time since we left the river. I want to see something new.”

“Fine,” he grunted as the mage cast a new portal intending a destination other than wilderness. This time he did have motivation behind his choice.

The noise of a village still trying to break out of winter came to his ears as Palose stepped behind the barn waiting for Acheri to pull herself to him through his gateway. A moment later, the girl exited only to open her mouth slightly in surprise.

“Where?” she started.

“You wanted to see something new. This is Windmeer or the outer village more accurately,” he answered crossing his arms curiously waiting to hear either praise or complaint. There could be no other result where Acheri was concerned the man thought.

Grabbing at his left arm and pulling it from his chest, he noted excitement on her face and the energy of a child. “You must show me this place!” she practically ordered, though her excitement led him to believe she was merely talking to him more like an excited friend suddenly led to a new place and wanting to see all that he knew of that world.

“Remember to try and not stand out, princess,” Palose warned shaking his head thinking that risking the emperor’s sister in a city of Southwall was probably not the best idea for his future. He just hoped that, like when the mage had visited, they would blend in enough to avoid notice. Noting her red dress and expensive cloak, he paused a moment longer before she dragged him after her.

The girl was surprisingly strong, though he thought that if he had held his ground she would have been unable to move him.

“If you don’t want me to stand out, then don’t call me princess unless you can make it sound like a term of endearment. Should we play a part like, I am a lady and you are my guardsman or do you prefer to be my step brother like Lanquer or maybe you want to be my lover?”

The last made his feet stop jerking her back before he caught himself. She had teased him drawing out a reaction making the girl grin at him once more. “I already have some people believing that I am the son of a merchant outside the village. I think maybe being a cousin would do for you.”

At her frown, Palose knew that he had made the right choice. She was a child and, though intelligent, he could beat her at such childish games.

“Fine, cousin, then show me something interesting,” Acheri decided.

Taking her by the market figuring a girl would like the chance to shop and take in the sights of another land; Palose soon realized that laying low would be nearly impossible with the girl wearing such a markedly brilliant red dress. The gold thread of her cloak stood out equally and he warned the girl under his breath, “I think these clothes may be too obviously rich to avoid the eyes of these people.”

With a nod, the girl started a brief spell and before his eyes, the red muted to nearly brown and her cloak appeared to be a muddled leather thing slightly aged and worn. “There, an illusion spell, is that better, cousin?” she asked rolling her eyes at him.

Only being a pretty girl would make her noteworthy, but Windmeer had other pretty girls around so he assumed she would be reduced to a mere comment about a girl in passing. One of the first stalls he had visited, before pretending to be a merchant’s son when asked what his business was, had been in this part of the village.

“Master... Renrosen?” the stout woman standing in the center of three tables of brass and steel knickknacks tried to recall his name. He had been there a few times gathering information, but apparently he had made enough of an impression himself, Palose thought morosely even as he summoned a warm smile in return.

“Mistress Leyren, I have told you before, just call me Cristin,” the mage half waved as the two drew near to look at everything from brass candleholders to time pieces from the southern cities Siltrene and Mariport. Pocket watches had become the rage in the port cities where the mines of Fort Maridith sent the metals from the mountains. Tinkers made them with gears in such a way that many thought the moving pieces had been given magic.