Battle Mage: Dragon Mage (Tales of Alus) (37 page)

“As a dragon mage, you may find that your true power comes from this little human you have chosen. I know that I am a che’ther and old, but I am sure that you know that your spirit chose a beautiful shell to hide inside. It doesn’t happen this way by chance, so I can only assume that you are as beautiful on the inside as you are on the outside. Remember that, if you ever feel lost in the future, Cheleya.

“By the way, did you know that one of the side affects of the change is that you put out a perfume?”

Questioning the old man with a look as she attempted to take in so many things at once, the girl tried to latch onto the last question. “What perfume?”

“Surely someone has commented on how sweet you smell? Our forms tend to give off whatever scent that best reflects the emotion we require from those around us. A warrior might give off a scent of hatred, anger or instill fear in others. A politician might smell friendly and help smooth bridges between others because of an agreeable scent. Some give off a scent that helps make everyone love them and want to protect them like you.”

Cheleya had heard the humans say similar words that seemed to corroborate his information, but the girl didn’t like what that implied, “Does that mean my friends are only my friends because of my perfume?”

Laughing at the worry in her voice, Theress shook his head and answered, “Hardly. It simply makes it easier for you to meet people and make them like you. If you were mean to them or had the personality of a fish, you would most likely find yourself alone, but I doubt that you will have problems like that. You are a sweet girl, whether che’ther or human. People will like you.”

With a sigh at the old dragon’s words, Cheleya noted that he hadn’t bothered to stand and asked, “Did your spells drain you too much, Kev’Theress?” She used the honorific her people sometimes gave to their elders.

“Kev’Theress, am I? You, I could let call me grandfather like Isstmira does. I can tell your father raised you to respect your elders as well.

“No, I am fine. I will get something from their kitchen before I leave to replenish myself but, no, this is just old age telling me that I can’t hide in either body anymore. That and I haven’t used my magic that much of late. I find less use for it here in Hala.”

Kneeling before the old che’ther, she took his hands in hers as Cheleya’s emerald green eyes looked up at the man. She smiled thankfully. “I appreciate all that you have done for me, Kev’Theress. Do you think that anyone can remove these pieces from me to make it whole again?”

“To remove the spell holding you, I assume you mean,” Theress held both of her hands leaning closer. Their eyes locked and she could see her sadness echoed by the ambassador. “I am afraid that I can’t know that for certain. This spell is a work of dark magic of a kind that I have never come across before and maybe only Malaketh knows the answer to making it whole again. Whether removing the pieces will make you return you to what you were is another question I wish I could answer for you, little one.

“I know this has been an ordeal for you, but stay strong and we can hope that it will all work out in the end.”

Rising once more and assisting Theress to stand, the girl smiled once more bringing warmth to his eyes. “Well, grandfather, I guess now that only time will tell. In the meanwhile, let’s get that food for you.”

Cheleya held his left arm escorting the old dragon back to the restaurant considering what to do as they returned.

Stas’kel paused for the second time on their walk. While Alk’leyal was the most powerful of the three trackers, Stas’kel seemed to have the keenest observation while augmented by his sense enhancing spells. As he looked up, the five tracking Cheleya paused as his green eyes looked up at the inner wall.

“What is it?” Malaketh questioned growing aggravated with the slow procession of the trackers. They had decided to follow the main path towards the inner city hoping to catch stronger traces of the dragoness along the way, but whoever was concealing her scent had done so with near perfect precision.

Point his hand up towards the top of the wall in a broad sweeping motion, the gargoyle turned to Alk’leyal. “Do you smell the scent on the wall?”

Lifting his head towards the heights that the other tracker suggested, the gargoyle looked more like a hound sniffing at the air. A few looks from casual passersby were met with nods and tight smiles from the others that had instinctively begun to surround the wizard. Alk’leyal frowned before lowering his head to chant a new spell and as he looked up once more, Malaketh could see the magic in his eyes causing the brown to turn golden.

After a moment he shook his head and admitted, “I can’t tell from down here. Those che’ther have dispersed too much of her aura and scent for me to read through the haze. I don’t suppose the humans would take well to us flying up to the top of the wall.”

Malaketh frowned and shook his head in response to the rhetorical question, “No, and I don’t want news to spread of gargoyles flying around the city either. We know that Cor’Dargan and the others have beaten us here. We can only hope that they don’t know that we are here now. I would like to have at least a slight advantage in catching the two thieves before they can escape again.”

“They can’t hide her forever and we know that they are still here or they wouldn’t be trying so hard to conceal her,” Alk’leyal stated. The bald man stroked his goatee thoughtfully as he continued, “Perhaps if we spread out through the inner city we will catch wind of them. It is a smaller area and will make it harder to hide if they remain in there. They have taken a lot of time to obscure the outer city, so we can only hope that it was to throw us off or we may never catch them.”

Malaketh nodded agreement sticking with Stas’kel as his tracker and Mor’treya followed her master though she was mostly useless at tracking. While Alk’leyal led the largest of the gargoyle trackers, Ev’erelias, to the north, the other three started towards the south. There were only a handful or so streets to cover though they were long and curved following the outer wall more than the inner keep. The bend and staggering of the streets running east and west to allow passage would do little to prevent the trackers from finding their quarry if they were there. They only needed a scent and no amount of bending streets could conceal that inside the confines of the original inner city walls.

Buildings ranged in heights within the inner city. Some were all stone and looked capable of repelling significant size armed forces. They were usually the oldest and had been built during a time where only the white wall protected the population from assault. Built to compliment the single wall with its towers many tall stone buildings had roofs higher than the defense around them. Crenellated stones surrounded the roof facing the wall where their height would let a greater number of archers assist the garrisons manning the wall and towers.

Malaketh looked at the defenses thinking them powerful against a normal army waging war from the ground, but after a decade living within Mar’kal, the wizard had seen that few walls could stop a large
force capable of flight. A dragon mage brought the concept of war into a different dimension. He knew that the emperor had begun his own creations with the shrikes and those who could assume their forms. If Ensolus continued to breed the creatures, soon an entire army could fly down to destroy Southwall and any other country the Dark One desired.

Stas’kel paused before a large building near the south end of the second street as they turned finding the first street end facing a building in front of the white wall. Reading the yellow sign of the healers of Southwall, Malaketh wondered if Kel’lor had succumbed to the poison that the shrike mage had informed him of almost a week earlier.

“The mar’goyn’lya is inside. I sense traces of the girl’s presence from this morning as well. They remain in the city, but not together.” Confusion ruled the gargoyle’s face as he questioned, “I wonder what could have put him into their care?”

Assuming that he knew, the master still nodded along appearing curious as well. Mor’treya looked at her master and asked, “If he is inside there, how will we gain access to him? There are guards at the gates and I see more at the building’s entry.”

“I still have the warrant for their arrest,” Malaketh stated though he had other ideas in mind. Those following him still believed that he planned on taking Cheleya and Kel’lor back to Mar’kal, but the man had little doubt that such an action would ruin all that he had built over the years. Malaketh had too much invested to allow that to happen. Still he continued the farce playing to their beliefs as he questioned Stas’kel, “Can you smell Cheleya or whatever it is you are doing?”

Running through two other spells and turning in a circle scanning the area besides, the gargoyle finally shrugged admitting, “There are only old traces of her on the air and most of that is in the hospital. Apparently whoever is masking her never went past the guards or I would probably not even have that much by now. The spell to disperse her presence extends into the yard and even onto the walls, but my magic is still strong enough to smell and see it inside the building.”

After giving a nod, and pretending to have come to a decision, though it had been made from the start, he said, “I will stay here. You two continue on scanning the remainder of the inner city and try to find the girl. Having all of us here will only draw more attention; perhaps by myself I can gain entry and take Kel’lor into possession. If he is ill, the healers may not want to give him up.

“Go on while I give this more consideration.”

Being dismissed didn’t go over easily with Mor’treya. The woman was strong headed and only capitulated thanks to his power over her as teacher. Students didn’t dispute their masters, so even though she looked ready to argue the right to stay, Mor’treya followed the tracker onto the next street in an attempt to find their other quarry.

Chapter 22- Tending to Business

The light of an early afternoon sun shone brightly on the stone building of the Southwall hospital making Malaketh frown. Despite being late winter, it was a nearly cloudless day though still cold. Wishing that he had at least a few clouds to obscure him from the guards, who hadn’t quite noticed the wizard hovering around the side of the building on the second street corner; Malaketh wondered if he would have to wait until night. Waiting and having to find another excuse were not what he wanted, however, the master contemplated his next move.

While there were people walking the streets on various business, this area wasn’t as crowded at the moment. Anything Malaketh did had to be subtle and hidden from the guards, but few others would be likely to notice so long as he made his moves quickly. Even standing too long in one place alone, as he was, would be likely to start to draw attention soon.

Eyeing the two sets of guards standing in front of the hospital screening those entering, Malaketh readied his first spell. Few knew the extent of the master’s true knowledge of magic and this one would have surprised those who had known him in Mar’kal. The cast of the spell was subtle and the effect even more so. With no patrons lined up to enter the hospital, it was Malaketh’s turn to use his second spell.

A casual gust of air was drawn to strike the four men across the eyes. It wasn’t a harmful wind, but it made them blink. As Malaketh donned his third spell, that of invisibility, around him; the first spell’s charm was made manifest as the men seemed to blink in slow motion. Slowly their lids came down to block the wind and once shut they lingered. Into that opening, the wizard stealthily walked past the outer guards first. The second, still with their eyes closed, couldn’t react to the sound of the door opening quietly behind them as their reactions were caught in a lull in time created within their minds.

It was a temptation to extend the spell beyond those few seconds on the guards, but Malaketh released the men. They would never miss the minute it took for the wizard to pass by and they still appeared attentively awake. Had he put them to sleep, someone would have realized that magic was at work immediately. Another temptation was to affect more of those inside the hospital, but these were wizards and apprentices. Playing with magic of any kind risked warning those around him. He needed to play at stealth like a hunter and his prey could not know of his movements.

A man in yellow robes was followed by a pair of younger apprentices in their white uniforms ringed with yellow declaring their school of training. Holding close to the side of the hallway, the master let the three pass by his hidden form. True invisibility and spells of stealth hid a wizard from anyone including those with magical ability, but having a clumsy apprentice run into you would still give away the hunter.

Having locked in on Kel’lor’s magic, the wizard moved purposefully through the hospital halls. While still outside the gargoyle’s room, the wizard grasped his black amulet calling upon its power over the one worn by the mar’goyn’lya to hold his human form. The patient’s true nature was known, but his
need to avoid using any magic made it necessary to keep it on his chest for fear of a single change worsening his condition. It also made him vulnerable to the black amulet.

The door to the room closed behind Malaketh drawing the gargoyle’s attention. He attempted to sit up and wanted to reach for the black sword beside his bed, but the black amulet’s power had already taken hold of the man in his bed.