Battle Mage: Dragon Mage (Tales of Alus) (16 page)

Her control of the alteration magic had made the dragoness a perfect tailor. All she needed was material to start out using and she could manipulate it to become anything.

Colbie shook her head and admitted, “I have no idea how you did that, but that was amazing.”

Orlerin was equally impressed, but he stood and said, “Well, I don’t know if she plans to make an entire wardrobe, but we shouldn’t just sit here all day. It’s time to go back to Televal and make our report.

“You two are welcome to travel with us if you wish.”

Smiling at the invitation, Cheleya looked at Kel’lor who shrugged. “If we go to this Televal, do you think that we can still make it to Hala in time for the tournament?”

Shrugging, Orlerin answered, “We can make Televal in two days if we hurry just a little. Once you’re there, we can see about getting horses and then it should take you a little less than a week to get to Hala.”

“Then we will travel with you,” the girl said giving a pretty smile.

Before they left, Cheleya had an idea. Borrowing a sword from Evantus, the dragoness had Kel’lor cut the wings from one of the dead shrikes. They hadn’t buried them and were unsure if the beasts deserved such treatment, but during the night no scavengers had come to pick at the dead creatures.

Laying the sword beside one of the wings, the magician concentrated her alteration spell on the black feathers and bone. Her mind shifted and coerced the parts of the wing towards a different shape. In minutes, the bones became the hilt of a sword while a blade formed from the razor sharp feathers of the shrike. It was black like the original wing and the handle was wrapped in her vision of leather.

Slightly longer than Evan’s sword, the black blade felt a bit lighter, but as the girl swung it, she thought that she had come close to a true weapon like the Staronen’s sword. Handing it to the battle mage, the girl asked, “I am not trained to the sword. How does this feel to you?”

His forehead frowned a little noting the weight. His steel weighed about five pounds and the black blade felt perhaps half of that. He tested the weapon for feel and found that it did have a good balance. Being lighter, the battle mage could swing the weapon faster than his heavier blade, but he wasn’t sure of the strength.

Finding a small tree about six inches thick at about four feet up, Evantus swung with maybe half his strength and was surprised that the blade cut into the bark easily. With the merest twist, the man pulled the weapon free and drew back for a death blow style strike. Angling from above making the cut even harder, they were all amazed as the black blade sliced through closer to eight inches of tree with a single clean stroke.

“Sharp,” Evantus stated, “and pretty strong as well.”

Nodding, the dragoness decided, “If we have time, I can make more of them. I figured if their wings could cut through rock, I could make them into good blades.”

Impressed by the weapon, Orlerin looked to the heavens noting the sun rising to nearly halfway up the sky. “If you want to make it to Hala in your time frame, then we will need to get a move on. That is a nice weapon, but it’s up to you.”

Kel’lor waved the worry away. “Cheleya has her dragon wing magic back and I can carry her if it fails. Why don’t you four go on ahead and we can catch up to you.”

Cheleya nodded as she was already working on the next sword.

Evan readied to place the sword back on the ground, but the girl waved the blade away with her left hand while the right maintained contact with the second wing. “Take it. I will make more anyway.”

Surprised by the gift, the battle mage thanked her before joining the other three already starting to walk south. He left his sword for her to use again and hurried away.

After the second blade had taken shape, Kel’lor asked the dragoness, “Are you sure that you want to continue with these humans? I could fly you to Hala without them.”

The girl gestured to the next shrike’s wings implying Kel’lor could cut them free for the next weapons. She answered as he used the newest blade and found that it cut easier than the steel blade of
Staron, “We are safer with them and I can learn more about being human. If I can offend so few with my actions here, how much more dangerous can that become in a city of thousands? Besides I kind of like getting to know these people. They seem trustworthy to me.”

He frowned as he stood back from the severed wings musing, “It is odd that they can change their opinions of us so quickly though. When we arrived they were unsure, but then you helped their sick girl.”

“Colbie,” the dragoness said with a smile for her new friend.

Ignoring her sentimentality, he continued, “Then they see me as a mar’goyn’lya and they begin to fear what you may be as well. Now they befriend us once more and offer to take us to their home.

“Is this just a human trait to change on a whim?”

Smiling at her friend, Cheleya replied with a giggle, “Not every race can be made from stone and set in their ways because of it.”

“We are not made of stone,” he said with another frown. “Mar’goyn’lya prefer to think things through and when we commit to a cause we stay with it. These humans and their emotions are just too chaotic. Can we trust them? Look how we trusted Malaketh and he betrayed us all and tried to kill you.”

The name darkened the girl’s mood and she replied before starting her next black blade, “Evil seeks to deceive in other races too. There have been evil mar’goyn’lya and che’ther in the past. Our ancestors dealt with them as they do all evil. Eventually Malaketh’s misdeeds will come to light and we will be exonerated. Until then, we need to get to Hala and find sympathetic wizards that can break whatever curse he put on me. If you find that you can’t continue with me, I would still understand. This was never your burden to bear.”

Sighing, Kel’lor looked at the little human girl and knew that he could never abandon his friend. She was like family to him and as they had already discussed, once a mar’goyn’lya committed to a cause, he continued on to the end. “I will come and protect you to my last breath, little sister, and you know that. I go where you go and I bear no burden other than that.”

Standing up, Cheleya was moved to hug the gargoyle, which was strange since she could never remember hugging anyone. Che’ther were hardly made for such embraces after all and, as a human, the girl had no one that had ever hugged her to show her how to do it. Surprising both of them, the little blond haired girl was a natural at that too.

Chapter 10- Hidden Stones

Morning was coming to an end and the sun stood high above the battle mages as they hurried along retracing their steps towards home, when two winged figures flew in from the north. Having walked for a few hours at a brisk pace, Orlerin called a halt to have lunch while Cheleya distributed her gifts.

The dragoness had spent extra time working not only on the nine black blades, but also ten scabbards created from the fallen tree at the cabin. She had made more than she needed to outfit them all, but Cheleya had a feeling that such blades could be useful in other ways in the future. Such components to make them were unlikely to come along again, so the dragoness being both practical and frugal had used up every wing.

Tilana had waved off the weapon offered to her. The earth wizard had no weapons’ skills as such. Her magic was all that she needed and her friends the battle mages could protect her to use it. Cheleya was slightly disappointed that she couldn’t give her a gift as well, but the dark haired wizard had been very gracious making the dragoness like the quiet woman even more.

When the party started on their way once more, Cheleya and Kel’lor walked with them trying to strengthen their friendships with the casters from Staron. It was an act that was surprisingly hard the dragoness found. As a che’ther, she was bound to the land and had walked or stood much of the day, but that was also on four legs that were scaled and stronger than the thin limbs of her human form. She had seen the way Evantus had looked at her legs and the girl had a feeling that they were nicely shaped, but that didn’t mean they were on a par with che’ther legs and feet.

After a couple hours walking, the girl had to excuse herself and said that she and Kel’lor would scout ahead for awhile before taking to the air. Even in flight, the girl was tiring so Kel’lor let her ride on his back after a time to rest her body.

When the evening came and the four from Staron stopped to make dinner, Cheleya was so exhausted that she fell asleep against Kel’lor’s shoulder waiting for the meal to cook. Gently nudged back awake by her big brother still in gargoyle form, the girl gratefully accepted a bowl of stew. It wasn’t quite as good as Veras had made, but the dragoness was very hungry after her long day of travel and casting magic.

As they ate, she listened to the others talk of mundane things like people they would see when they returned. Cheleya was almost finished when Evan’s eyes turned to her and he asked, “By the way, Cheleya, I have been wondering. Are the amulets your people use to change into humans set to just one person?”

Shaking her head as she dipped a piece of bread into the remaining stew as she had seen the humans do at similar meals, the girl replied, “No actually amulets can be used by more than one person, even mar’goyn’lya can exchange them with che’ther.” Cheleya finished understanding where his question was going and she exchanged a glance with Kel’lor.

“Did you try using Kel’lor’s amulet to change back?” the young man asked trying not to sound rude by the potential slip.

Thinking it such a simple idea, Cheleya and Kel’lor realized that they had never even considered the option. The mar’goyn’lya removed his amulet passing it to the che’ther as she explained, “The amulets that we wear let us change back and forth between our original forms and human. Were you to try it, I doubt that it would seem to work since you are already human.

“Unfortunately in all the chaos of the last few days, it never occurred to me to try to reverse the curse with another amulet. Mine seemed to be destroyed or at least broken. I am not even sure where he sent the pieces when my master destroyed it.”

She looked at the amulet with both hope and dread. While she hoped that it would work even though they had traveled this far looking for a solution, the dragoness also dreaded finding out that this trial would fail. “
Neruter emis ot flesym sa et sawen,” she uttered the words of change. Moments passed and nothing happened, so the girl tried again and once more after that. Three times she tried and waited nearly five minutes to see a change that usually happened in seconds.

Knowing that the idea had failed, Cheleya passed the amulet back to its owner. Evantus and the others looked disappointed as well and the mage said sadly, “I’m sorry, Cheleya, I had hoped that it would work.”

Tilana looked at the amulet and put out her hand to Kel’lor and asked, “May I?”

The gargoyle handed the amulet over without fear of the wizard tampering with it. He was in his true form anyway and could live as he was for the rest of his life for all he wanted of humanity.

The earth wizard cast a spell as she held the amulet. It was made of stone and magic, so she reached out for the precise feel of the stone before using her senses to attempt to find more like it. It was an off chance that more would be nearby, but the wizard opened her eyes in surprise as she realized that there were fragments closer than she realized.

Tilana placed her hand in front of Cheleya’s chest and began to tap the dragoness. “There, there,” she continued and expanded beyond the area of the young woman’s chest. Turning to the side, the earth wizard nodded.

“Eight of nine fragments of stone with the same signature have been placed in the areas that I touched. When your master broke your amulet, I think that he sent the pieces into you. With his magic, they may have been bonded to you in some way. A healer might be able to find a way to remove them and then perhaps you would be able to change. Until then, I think they serve to prevent another amulet from changing you back.”

Cheleya’s fingers touched her collar bone where Tilana had first laid her fingers using her magic. Another at the center of her chest must be protected by her breast bone, four more radiated around places where she could feel ribs and the eighth had been centered in her stomach.

“You said eight of nine,” Evantus stated catching the strange way of phrasing her results.

Nodding, Tilana pointed to the lowest one in the girl’s stomach. “I think he attached them to bone. That one is actually in your back, maybe attached to the spine.” Moving her fingers to point at the girl’s forehead, she finished, “The ninth is there.”

Cheleya touched her head and felt nothing. While the che’ther couldn’t say that she had ever bothered to feel for her bones before, nothing felt out of place either. If there were stone fragments in her body, she couldn’t feel them and they didn’t seem to be harming her beyond possibly being what had locked her transformation.

Looking apologetic, the wizard expressed as much saying, “I’m sorry, Cheleya. I’m not a healer by any means, but I hope knowing this will help you.”

Orlerin spoke up as he considered the type of magic used. “This would seem to be dark magic. I wonder if your master was actually a spy for the Dark One?”

“It would make sense.” Evantus nodded his opinion and added, “I mean your dragon magic is unlike anything I have seen. Perhaps he infiltrated to learn your secrets planning on returning to Ensolus to teach the warlocks and sorcerers there.”