Battle Mage: Dragon Mage (Tales of Alus) (48 page)

The tracker pushed away from the wall after the mage was through the gate and pressed his thumb against a clear crystal channeling a light amount of magic into it. He was calling in back up to help him corner Cheleya and trusted his magical senses would bring him to the girl even if his sight had been fooled.

Following the bending road until he had to cut around a corner formed by the buildings’ shifting grids that were designed to delay and annoy invaders, Evan soon found the market in question. He looked around wondering how he should rid himself of the marbles. A clue to that end presented itself in the sight of several children playing near the stands. It was still early and few were shopping around the bored looking hawkers and their wares.

Evantus noted the children playing were less interested in each other and the game they played as they were the people walking by the stands. Guessing that they were most likely street urchins looking to snag coin from the unwary, the man began to play with the two marbles in his hand. He paused beside a stand with gold necklaces, most likely fake, but he wasn’t there to judge or buy.

“Good morning, young man. Aren’t you going to see the tournament matches today? You look like a man who would enjoy the wizards playing at combat,” an older woman greeted the man trying to see if he was interested in anything on her table.

Giving the woman a smile, Evan nodded, “I was just whiling away the morning until my friend’s match time. So you have quite a few simple chains, do you have anything with say a gem stone attached to a strand?”

“Oh, you must have a sweetheart. Well, that is no surprise, since you are a handsome devil. I do have some medallions and jewelry settings that you can add to any of the strands on the back table. Unfortunately they are in a case to keep little hands from taking them too easily,” the woman glanced at the children with a bit of disgust. “The constables can’t seem to catch them and when they actually do they can’t keep hold of them because they are just children. Make sure you keep a hand on your coin purse or wallet if they come near,” she warned directing Evan to a table glassed over and secured with a lock.

Setting the marbles on the edge of the table, as if he was distracted by the merchandise the vendor was showing him, Evan set the bait and moved towards the jewelry. The children ran forward as a group being chased by the littlest one pretending to play tag.

“Hey, you kids keep away from my stand!” the woman scolded the kids that scattered from the little one and bumped into the tables and people on the street as they ran. She looked at Evan worriedly as the children disappeared along with his shining marbles. “Make sure that you still have your wallet. Those children have sticky fingers and you might be lighter now.”

Evan checked for the pouch he had tied to his belt. It was a small pouch meant to hold coin and all that remained were the cut strings. Looking annoyed, the man cursed, “I am sorry, madam. It looks like they stole my coin pouch. Perhaps after I replace my coin I can return after I have these children arrested!” He raised his voice and looked out into the street searching for the street rats.

Sighing sadly, the merchant shook her head and commiserated as she said, “I hope that you can get the guards to help. They aren’t that good at it at the best of times and with the tournament running I
hazard a guess that they will be even less inclined to truly help. Besides that those kids will probably spend your money faster than they can be caught.

“Well, thank you for looking and I hope that you can come back.”

Turning back the way he had come, Evan spotted the man with the dirty blond hair searching carefully for the trace of Cheleya and more importantly the girl in particular. He never even glanced at the mage and even passed by as he followed the magic of the imbued marbles.

Elenek, on the other hand, seemed to magically appear after he had walked nearly a block back towards the inner city.

“You found a way to ditch the bait?” he asked quietly and directed Evantus toward an alleyway that would lead them back by a more discreet path. If the trick had worked, then more of the trackers would be on their way and the che’ther might be noticed by the others looking for Cheleya.

Nodding in answer as he followed the wizard’s back, Evantus made sure to pass on his news proudly, “He’s following some street urchins. I let the kids steal from me, so they’ll probably be some distance before he finds them. If they think that he is trying to catch them, they might even keep running for awhile.”

“Good, that should buy us some time then,” was all Fa’Elenek would say on the matter. “We’ll meet the others near the temporary north gate and see if it is clear then.”

Wishing to get a little more credit, the mage added, “I even let them think they had stolen coin from me to add to their willingness to run. All they got was a small bag of stones that I found in the street, but if the little thieves don’t look too soon they’ll think that I want to catch them.”

The che’ther didn’t even bother to acknowledge his devious maneuver.

Evantus gave up and simply hurried after the tracker letting his senses read the area looking for anyone else that might notice.

Trying to wait patiently with Colbie and her father behind the last building on the street before the inner gate, Cheleya wanted to sigh as she wondered once more at all that these people were doing to protect her. Malaketh was in the city and breathing down her neck. Though no one had said it aloud, Kel’lor had nearly died and she doubted that it was an accident that he had suddenly lost control of his magic. While the wizards of Hala might believe he had lost the will to live and attempted suicide from draining away his magic, she knew him too well to believe that.

In the moments of silence left to her rarely by the others, her mind often came back to that. Kel’lor’s life had been in the balance all because of her, or more to the point, what Malaketh had done to her. The fact that her former master had already proved that he could control the minds of masters with his amulet left her questioning if he had found her spiritual brother and made him use up his power.

No one had said anything to Colbie about the incident beyond the strangeness of his act. Kel’lor hadn’t been in danger of dying and hadn’t seemed to be in anymore pain than he had been when he arrived. If there was no sudden pain increase or perhaps madness from the poison, then that left outside forces creating the impetus for the mar’goyn’lya to nearly kill himself. If not for the wizard from another land visiting the hospital, she wondered if the wizards of Southwall would have been able to save him at all.

Noting the girl’s unusual solemnity, Colbie touched her arm in an attempt to comfort Cheleya. The dragoness had been studying humans long enough to know the meaning behind the touch and half smiled in reply. No one felt like talking as the three waited.

Fa’Lystheir had moved to the far end of the building using stealth and invisibility spells. While she was no longer close to Cheleya to mask the girl’s magic aura, her father held the spell over her in the tracker’s absence. Though the mar’goyn’lya were actively searching for the girl’s presence, Lystheir was known to them and had to continue masking herself, including hiding her face from the tracker standing near the northern, inner gate.

When the time came that the che’ther tracker returned releasing her invisibility as she came around the corner, the girls both jumped in surprise. Colbie went so far as to have her shrike sword nearly out of her scabbard in a blink before the mage realized who it was before them.

Unblinking and unapologetic, Lystheir casually stated, “Stas’kel has moved off towards the southern gate. It looks like they have fallen for the bait Evantus has given them.”

With a brisk nod, Dargan gestured towards the gate hidden by the building they had hidden beside and urged, “Then we might as well head towards the north exit. We don’t know how long they will remain deceived and we need to keep an eye out as we walk there in case someone was at the third station as well. If they all follow the first tracker, then we will be able to leave the city easily enough.”

Following her father and Lystheir, Cheleya leaned towards Colbie and quietly said, “This might work for today, but I can’t imagine that they will allow it more than once. These are trained trackers. I heard stories of enemies captured from half a continent way and in major cities like Hala. Expecting such tricks to work on them would make us naive at best.”

Colbie gave her a smile and shook her head, “You forget that you are fighting a tracker with a tracker. With Lystheir and Elenek helping you, and your father of course, it is a different kind of chase than they might have with a normal wizard or common thief.

“While you might be right, let’s at least try and enjoy the day since it seems to have worked.”

Giving her a reluctant nod, the blond adjusted her cloak and pulled the hood into place over her brightly colored hair. They didn’t expect to be able to hide the dragon mage from the trackers using magic, but they might get lucky if they saw her and there were still Mor’treya and Malaketh that could spot her wandering the city.

The second gateway was handled similarly to the first. While they waited for Lystheir to search the area for any of the search party, Evantus and Fa’Elenek caught up to them using the lodestone given to him by Cor’Dargan.

Searching their faces curiously, Evan asked the girls, “How did it go?”

“It worked perfectly, of course,” Colbie retorted with a roll of her eyes. The answer seemed obvious to her, but Evantus often asked questions like that. “Our gate guard disappeared headed your way in a hurry. He obviously believed your tracker when he signaled him that Cheleya was in the other direction.”

Looking happy with himself, the mage replied, “Well, I think I did a pretty good job of passing on the marbles too. You see, I noticed these street urchins...”

A raised hand from Colbie silenced the man in midsentence as she noted the return of the tracker from the gate.

“All clear,” the dragoness tracker confirmed and the remaining group hurried towards the open passage.

Evantus looked ready to continue the conversation, but the two young women were already talking to each other about other things. With a big sigh, he fell in behind the girls keeping his eyes open for anyone looking suspicious. Unlike the che’ther, the mages from Staron didn’t know what the trackers looked like, though Evan did know one that he had seen at the gate now. Once again he thought of how the che’ther looked like any other man thanks to his amulet. The ability of their magic to look like a
human and yet knowing they were much larger, and in the case of the dragons not even vaguely human in shape, was mind blowing even for someone who could use magic.

“Come on, Evan. Don’t pout. You can tell us how you lured the tracker away and fooled him so well once we get to the dueling field,” Colbie said reaching for his arm and pulling the distracted man after her.

Cheleya smiled at him and he felt warm forgetting for a moment that she was in truth a dragon in disguise.  

Chapter 29- A Touch of Warning

Scrambling to take their seats, the mages of Staron and Cheleya found Tilana and Orlerin holding a bench between two walkways near the center of the stands overlooking the Colonnades from the east. They were cutting the time close, but they had made it before their friend was due to take her place on the field.

Colbie gave her long time friend a hug as she rose.

“Good luck, Tilana,” the mage encouraged her as Cheleya and the others echoed the sentiment.

Evantus gave a wave as the wizard proceeded down the stairs to the base of the stands to receive the final instructions from the officials. The match was to be run the same as the previous day, though the field of duelists was cut in half. Still it only made sense to make sure everyone was playing fair and expecting the same rules to be applied. In Tilana’s case, the rules were common throughout much of North Continent as the magic in most of the southwestern continent had been established by the same ancestors. The ancient rules were almost word for word the same even after the Cataclysm had turned the world on its head.

The only change to the program had been sent the previous night to their inn. A squat, wide shouldered man wearing clothing of an odd style stood across from Tilana instead of the Hala favorite,
Deris Halliman. Apparently, there had been a need to move the young man to a later match and the Tolmonan winner of the third match had switched places with him. The tournament officials had been vague in the request, though some of the team had conjectured that maybe they were sheltering the favorite after seeing Tilana’s duel. As powerful as the Staronen wizard was, the Tolmonan was said to be an equal.

He was a wizard from the old continent called Alus, where most of the North continent’s ancestors had originated. A Tolmonan, his people were said to have mingled with dwarves who had come from the same world as the elves. Whether his slightly below average height and strong build originated from that ancestry was only conjecture for any watchers however.

“Tilana will have a bigger challenge this time,” Evantus stated as he watched the two receiving final instructions before they separated to go to their individual circles.

Colbie never removed her eyes from the field as she asked, “Did you hear something about him last night?”

“Nothing that we hadn’t figured from seeing his match yesterday. The man was there to watch Tilana to study her also, since his match followed hers. They’re no longer coming into this blind, so I doubt her trick with the water will work the same here.”

“He fights differently from your wizards,” Cheleya interjected as she stood to watch the start of the match. Being slim and on the short side, her height still brought frowns from those directly behind the girl.

The two mages sitting on either side reached for her hands drawing her back down as she continued, “He has a rawness to his use of the earth that I have only seen from my father. If Tilana tries to use too much finesse, his speed of casting and strength might overwhelm her defenses.”

Noting his name mentioned, Cor’Dargan who was sitting on the other side of Colbie remained quiet as he listened to his daughter’s assessment. The woman in between did not as she countered, “Her use of quicksand, or I suppose I should call it quick stone, is fast as well.”

Cheleya looked ready to argue, but Evantus interrupted the two pointing towards the field, “I guess we’ll find out soon enough. Here comes the announcer.”

“In our first match, returning to the arena we have Tilana Romeran from Staron and, from the distant country of Tolmona, we have Mirode Darcelphin. Duelists you have just fifteen seconds to set your defenses starting... now!” the wizard in the black robe with the silver piping declared. He had remained near the edge of the duel field where no stray shrapnel or wayward spells could break the barrier set around them. As Tilana and Mirode worked quickly to set their basic defenses, the announcer and crowd waited expectantly for the short timeline to expire.

“Begin!” the word rang out all across the northern fields and the three arenas behind the castle. With that one word, the sounds of battle could be heard everywhere as the morning duels began.

The two earth wizards struck quickly and loudly as the earth rumbled in reaction to their magic. Stone columns were flung in part or the whole depending on which wizard was casting. Mirode’s movements were vastly different as he seemed to attack the air with his hands. Stomps of his feet and turns of his body that positioned him to act like a fighter in the ring, set his magic apart from the less flashy Tilana.

Where the Tolmonan struck the air with chops or even cast using kicks to direct the magic, the woman from Staron kept herself more contained in her movements. He broke a standing column into five large pieces and struck the air channeling his magic to send the heavy stones flying at his opponent. Tilana countered raising her right hand and twisting it from her palm facing it to the edge of her hand as if she would chop the flying stone.

Exploding the five pieces of the column into a cloud of shrapnel, the woman wasn’t finished. The cloud moved as her two hands came together and split apart once more. Splitting into two separate swarms of needles, they wound through the remaining columns on the field to strike at the Tolmonan.

With a shout, the man flung his arms open squeezing the air in response to the needles and the crowd watched in awe as the clouds halted before his defenses compressing into a pair of large stone boulders. Like a game of tug of war, the wizards fought over the same pieces of earth.

“He’s strong,” Cheleya breathed out as the audience held their collective breath wondering who would win the battle of wills. She could see sweat beading on the contestants’ foreheads already and the match had just begun.

“She can do it,” Evantus said sounding confident despite the tension on his face. Standing up suddenly, the young man shouted encouragement to his friend, “Come on, Tilana! You can do it!”

Shaking her head, Colbie admonished her fellow mage, “That isn’t going to help her, Evan. If you distract her with your shouting, she’ll lose this fast. Now sit down.”

As he sat, the game of wills ended as Tilana released her hold on the two stones. Mumbling her words of power, the wizard followed with a quick set of hand gestures which set off a spell breaking the pool as the stone and water combined into a pair of snakelike constructs.

“She’s gone to her quick stone spell already,” Colbie said sounding worried, despite her earlier belief in the spell.

Evantus grinned and stated happily, “Then she’ll end this quickly. Tilana’s not messing around.”

“Your friend is desperate,” a new voice came from behind Cheleya causing her to start as the sound quickly brought a chill to her spine. Fingers held her shoulder as the dragoness started to stand in response to the fear driving her with those words. “Sit down, Cheleya,” the familiar voice ordered the girl.

The blond haired girl sat stiffly and turned her head to look at the woman touching her.

“Mor’treya,” the girl stated as the others sitting began to react to the mar’goyn’lya sitting right behind the dragoness.

Like night to her day, Mor’treya’s intense, dark brown eyes and black hair stood in stark contrast to the blond. The mar’goyn’lya’s human form was also larger and much stronger physically as Cheleya could tell from the strong grip on her shoulder.

“Your friends can rest easy for now. I am alone, though I can call them now if you wish to do this publicly,” the woman said appearing calm as her focus appeared centered on the girl before her.

“How did you find me? We were careful to watch for your trackers.”

“I wasn’t always learning to become a dragon mage, Cheleya. I have been studying various schools of magic since before you were born. You may have a knack for magic, but I have lived a lot longer than you,” Mor’treya declared in an even voice.

Shaking her head, Cheleya tried to get through to the woman as she started, “Mor’treya, I didn’t steal from the academy. Malaketh is the thief and he tried to kill me. You’re following the man behind the whole thing.”

Eyes narrowing slightly, the dark haired woman’s face appeared unmoved. With a quick shake of her head, she replied, “It doesn’t matter. We were sent by the council to take you back for trial. You can state your case when you return. I am just one of the ones here to take you back home.”

Frowning at the woman she had considered a friend, Cheleya countered angrily, “You don’t care that you are being deceived by a man who is an attempted murderer and the very thief you should be seeking.”

“I was sent by the council to bring you back. It isn’t for me to decide whether you are right or wrong. Your father forgot that as have his acolytes here,” Mor’treya replied frowning at the three che’ther who appeared ready to strike. “I will give you the chance to turn yourself in or fight. Either way, you should come here tonight to settle this.”

“I can hide from you.”

“You can try, but if you’re telling the truth, then why fight it. Come back with us and state your case for the council.”