Battle Mage: Dragon Mage (Tales of Alus) (17 page)

Forehead crinkling sadly at such a thought, Cheleya supposed that anyone willing to kill for artifacts and power could certainly be such a man. She had believed him a good teacher and friend once upon a time, but Malaketh’s use of dark magic and revelation of his dark spirit had destroyed that image forever. Such greed and malevolence lurking in her school and city made for even greater worry. He had used his magic on a grand master and might get away with his plans if no one found out to stop him, but she was just an apprentice and trapped in a body not her own. The dragoness couldn’t fight him on his terms and his deception was likely to turn the rest of the city on her as well.

“Perhaps someone can help at the tournament,” the girl sighed and felt tired from all her uncharacteristic walking and use of alteration magic. Not wanting to talk about such things anymore, the dragoness excused herself before rolling up into a blanket.

Evantus looked at the others and asked, “Did I say something wrong?”

Shaking his head shifting the dark mane of hair, Kel’lor replied, “Malaketh has been her teacher for over a year and was one of the ones who went to her home to talk her parents into letting her into the academy. She trusted him. We all did, but not only did he betray the academy and city of Mar’kal, Malaketh tried to kill her to cover up his misdeeds.

“It would be similar to a parent trying to kill their child, at least to her.”

Evan’s face sobered at the thought. He thought how he would feel if a teacher had tried to kill him to cover his trail. His eyes flicked to Orlerin thinking it would be like his leader turning on him with the intent to kill just to cover his greed. Such thoughts for his leader and trusted comrade would certainly make the mage turn quiet, he decided.

“Maybe I should apologize?” Evantus asked aloud letting the others weigh in on the difficult decision. He wasn’t good with expressing his feelings and apologizing for something he had done wrong through ignorance was almost harder yet.

Kel’lor shook his head saying, “Let her sleep. Che’ther don’t harbor such feelings the way you humans do. She’s just tired from all this walking. Tomorrow I am sure that she will be her usual cheerful self.”

It was Colbie who stated something that the gargoyle had forgotten, “She may be a che’ther inside, but Cheleya’s trapped as a human now and all that entails. I’ve seen her emotions and from what you say, she shouldn’t be an emotional young girl, but she is. Cheleya may not understand all of what she feels, but I think she certainly feels strongly.”

“So I should apologize?” Evantus asked in confusion.

Tilana smiled and patted the young mage’s arm. “Tomorrow. Let her sleep like Kel’lor said. She needs her sleep since tomorrow will be another tiring day. We should all get some sleep in fact.”

Following Tilana’s advice, most of the remaining group moved to their bedrolls, though Kel’lor simply sat by Cheleya leaning against a large rock. Evantus lingered in thought and Colbie watched him.

“What are you thinking with that little brain of yours, Evan?” the young woman teasingly asked.

His eyes moved to the dark haired girl. Her green eyes sparkled with the light of the campfire and he wondered at her words. “So you think that she feels like a real human girl?”

A quirky smile at his wording made the female mage respond, “Well, I can’t say that I’ve made a habit of touching her, but she certainly looks real enough.”

Seeing Evan’s slight smile at the thought of what he had seen after Cheleya took off her dress, Colbie gave a warning point of her finger. “You are a dirty boy. Get your mind out of the gutter.”

“Since you brought it up,” Evan shrugged, “she certainly looks and acts human enough, doesn’t she? You can tell Kel’lor is a mar’goyn’lya from his speech and guarded face, but Cheleya is just so... sweet.”

Colbie nodded, “She’s certainly a bit naive, but if I taught her a little about being a girl no one would ever guess that she was a dragon.”

Evan chuckled and teased, “You teaching her how to be a real girl? Now that is funny. Who’s going to teach you first?”

Leaning over to punch him in the arm, Colbie’s eyes showed restrained laughter while her lips cracked a smile despite his aggravating joke. “I can be as girly as anyone, you jerk. Just because I have to be as tough as you in a fight doesn’t mean that I don’t like being a girl. Unfortunately, I get to work with idiots like you who couldn’t handle a pretty girl showing any interest in those things without you thinking more of it.”

Considering Colbie as a woman, the young man thought her face pretty enough. It was her tomboy persona that made it hard to think of her as more than just another mage. “So back to our friend, you think she’s as human as say... you?” he gestured with an open hand to his friend. “How is that possible?”

Looking him in the eye, Colbie shook her head. “I don’t know. I guess anything is possible with magic. We’re just battle mages not wizards. This kind of thing isn’t our field.” As she stood, the woman gave a last piece of advice, “Whatever you do, don’t start to fall in love with her.”

“Not that I am, but why?” he asked thinking the advice oddly timed.

“She looks human and that might make it easy for you to see her that way, but remember to her you are human and she isn’t. She’s a che’ther trapped in a human body. That doesn’t make her human.”

Letting Colbie go off to roll into her bedding, the battle mage added some logs as he thought about her words. If he could change into a che’ther or mar’goyn’lya, he doubted that he could be attracted to something that he wasn’t. For all the beauty of the girl, and she was very attractive, Evan realized that it was basically a trap.

Cheleya was pretty and petite, a little girl that needed protecting to the eye. The dragoness was anything but helpless as her magic the night before had proved. He wondered if that was another part of the spell. Shrugging, he realized that Colbie was right on another thing. They were battle mages and such magic was certainly beyond them.

The mage lay near the fire letting the heat strike him and woke to feed the fire from time to time as Evan slept restlessly.

Kel’lor and Cheleya remained behind letting the others move ahead of them. They could fly after all and until they were near Televal they wouldn’t alarm anyone doing so.

Cheleya had decided she needed time to be away from the humans, at least for a little while. The Staronen had offered to wait, but the dragoness had insisted while trying to not appear like she didn’t appreciate having them nearby. In fact, it was because of what the others were trying to teach her before they reached the town and societal constraints became more important to conceal who she was, that Cheleya had learned that certain things weren’t approved among the so called civilized people.

Taking one of the deceased wizard’s shirts from the small pile in her pack, the girl held it up trying to decide what to make from the cloth.

“Tailoring magic,” Kel’lor joked sitting on the stone that had helped keep him upright all night. “Our school would be so proud.”

The girl frowned at the gargoyle and pouted. “It isn’t tailoring magic, not really. It is alteration and there are many things that I can do with it. If not for learning to alter the clothing, I would never have found the trick to healing, though I am still not positive that I am doing it right.”

Returning her frown, a facial expression a little more difficult with the thick skin of a mar’goyn’lya, he retorted, “This playing with clothing and decorating that body are just symptoms of how you have begun to change. At the rate you are going, you will forget how to be a che’ther.”

With a shake of the shirt in one hand and stomp of her foot, the little blond haired girl looked exactly like a childish human to the gargoyle’s eyes. The girl said angrily, “Take that back! I know what I am, but I have always played with these things. As a che’ther, I couldn’t really wear clothing and didn’t need them, but I am stuck this way now and need to blend in with the people we will be meeting.

“Besides I have always like pretty things. Some che’ther like golden trinkets, I like the colorful cloths humans make.”

“It just seems like a waste of magic to me,” the giant stated leaning his head onto his fists as he propped his elbows on his knees.

Letting out an inarticulate growl, the girl ignored him and pulled off her skirt and blouse. The former needed her magic to release a seam like using a zipper to slide it over her hips. Standing naked save for her boots, Cheleya folded the clothes neatly and put them away before picking up the brown shirt. She slid it over her head drowning in a garment made for someone several inches taller than the girl.

“That suits you,” Kel’lor mused sarcastically.

“Be quiet,” demanded the little blond as she looked at the horrible brown tunic. She began to rub and pull making the dimensions pull in tighter to her figure. Cheleya had noted how the two women wore their clothing, but they were uniforms and apparently didn’t truly count as something that the two liked to wear as a choice.

The dragoness had seen very few dresses or human women to wear them, so she simply went with what felt right to her sensibilities. Cheleya lowered the neckline remembering where Tilana had pointed between her breasts. Dropping the base of the cut to see the faint ripple of the bone beneath her flesh, she played with wide flowing sleeves that seemed to billow playfully with each swing of her arms.

Her biggest question she voiced, “What color should this be?”

Kel’lor shrugged and replied, “Why not try green to match your eyes?”

Surprised at the comment, the girl flung a hand at the gargoyle, “Ha! I knew that you paid attention to such things more than you say. See being able to make clothing is a good spell, you grouch.”

“I never said that I was color blind, just that all this attention to clothing was a human trait. All I need are some breeches and a shirt or chain mail for battle and I can move on with my life.”

Waving the protest away, Cheleya decided to color the sleeves a light green and went a little darker with the rest. She had created a belt to pull her waist tighter as she noticed the support made her body feel stronger strangely. She made that brown matching her boots without letting Kel’lor catch on to that note. Dressed more comfortably, the dragoness wondered what Evan and the others would say.

Realizing that she even cared made the dragoness blush, which the gargoyle caught as he dropped his hands slightly worried, “Are you all right?”

Covering for her embarrassment, the girl replied, “I just need a little food and drink to replace the magic. That’s all.”

Maybe Kel’lor’s assessment was truer than she wanted to let him know. Everyday she was stuck as a human, her time as a che’ther seemed a more distant memory. She wasn’t in danger of forgetting her true nature, but this body grew more and more familiar. It also frightened the girl more than she would admit.

After a small meal, the dragoness and gargoyle took to the air. Cheleya used her dragon mage wings to catch up to the humans, while Kel’lor carried most of their gear. She had her pack now laden with more clothing, while he carried the extra swords along with his bag.

They caught up to the four marching quickly towards a town far enough away to remain out of sight until early afternoon, but continued to fly overhead until they broke for a midday meal. Flying, even using magic, was way less tiring to the two than walking had been the previous day, so they chose to do less of it.

A small spring and surrounding thin grove of trees set the picnic. They didn’t bother with a fire, since the sun was above them giving a bit of warmth, though the air was still chilly to the humans. As they ate, Evan and Colbie seemed to be giving the dragoness an unusually interested set of eyes.

Finally Evan stated what they had talked about as they walked beneath the two flying above them. “I wish that I could fly like that.”

Cheleya smiled graciously and responded, “I enjoy it as well. My race can’t fly any more than a human can, but we found that some magi can use the powers of legendary dragons. If we use amulets to make our bodies small and light, then we can even fly using the dragon wing spell.”

“How long does it take to learn a spell like that?” Colbie asked curiously since the subject was already opened.

“I’ve been training in dragon mage magic for more than a year, but I trained in the basic elements before that,” the dragoness replied candidly. “Kel’lor came to it after several fields of study. I am sure that it is the same for humans; that we search until we find something suitable to our talents and abilities. For me, the basic elements weren’t that hard to figure out, but even once you figure out the dragon wing spell, it takes awhile to actually master flight.”

“How hard could it be?” Evantus half asked as he chuckled at the idea.

“Fireball,” the dragoness summoned the flaming magic to keep it hovering just beyond her face. “This is one of the simplest spells, but most wizards simply fling it at an enemy with no need for the nuances of control.”

She sent the ball towards the mar’goyn’lya and it paused before him. Closing her hand, it faded with a little poof of sound. Summoning a second fireball before her, the dragoness continued, “Mastering the control of what you can do with the fire is like learning to fly.”

The ball flew to the middle of the circle before it lifted high at the dragoness’s hand gestures. Swinging around them in a circle, Cheleya brought the fire back into the circle and using two hands pretended to stretch the ball which responded before their eyes. Making a long line out of the ball, the girl brought her hands back together flattening the stream into a ball again before snuffing it once more.

Looking at the pretty blond as she concluded, Cheleya could tell that the mages in particular were impressed. Tilana, a wizard was less so, but the dragoness finished, “Learning to create and throw a fireball took a small amount of time, but controlling it took much longer. Without control, it is hard to move onto other more difficult spells.”

Orlerin noted another point and asked, “Do you normally call your magic like a battle mage?”

With a little smile, Cheleya replied, “No, that one I picked up from you, but I have been able to create fire since I was a novice. Dragon mage spells use similar words to focus our power though, so it isn’t that different.”

“Can you show us your wing spell again?” Colbie asked hoping to figure out the spell if it was so similar to their casting.

Giggling at the idea, the dragoness called her power, “Dragon wings.”

Kel’lor frowned at the ease of which the girl let people outside of their school see their guarded spells. Dragon magic wasn’t for just anyone to learn, even if this group seemed to be trustworthy.

He understood Cheleya’s willingness to share when moment’s later, the battle mages, and even Tilana a wizard, were forced to concede that it was beyond them. Colbie shook her head and said, “It seems simple, but I don’t even know what to do to try calling out that kind of magic.”

The others nodded and Cheleya gracefully tried to ease their minds by saying, “No one gets it the first time and few stick with this kind of magic. It is all designed to mimic a dragon’s powers, which means that most of the spells do not use any of the elements. If you can only draw from them, then you can never use this line of spells.”

Moving from the quaint little spring with its grove of trees, the group walked for several more hours while Kel’lor and Cheleya flew scouting around the low hills. The mountains were officially behind them and Televal was only a few hours walking away from their lunch spot. A view of the Spinera River and the branch known as the Divera River could be seen soon as the ground slowly dipped towards the rivers.

Orlerin motioned the flyers to land and explained, “It would be best to avoid drawing too much attention to you two. Maybe you should join us for the last part of our walk.”

Kel’lor looked less enthused by being told that he should walk, and even less happy when Cheleya asked him to change form into a human. “But Cheleya, the mar’goyn’lya are hardly strangers to these people. Why should I change while I am here?”