Battle Mage: Forging New Steel (Tales of Alus Book 9) (6 page)

Frowning slightly, Bharen replied, “The girl said that she had made it, but looked to be younger than you and as small as your friend here. No offense intended miss, but you don’t look like someone who spends time at a forge working metal with a hammer. This girl looked as small and maybe even lighter weight. How she could even try to tell me that she had made it is beyond me. There was no way such a little girl could have made such a thing in a forge.”

“Heal,” Sebastian ordered his spell once again. He frowned feeling the strangeness of the sword and noted that it felt like no steel he had ever touched. While the mage had never used his senses on a sword before making the Hollow Sword, he knew how the other weapons in Bharen’s store felt and this did not feel like any of them. Magic laced the weapon, but it didn’t seem to have been added to the sword like his blade.

“She was a wizard,” he surmised. “I don’t think she made it in a forge at all. She used her magic to form the blade, hilt and sheath. The latter looks like wood and my senses tell me that it once was. The steel you think you see isn’t actually metal at all. It was made from something else entirely.”

Frowning at Sebastian’s appraisal, Bharen complained, “I gave her nearly the price I would pay for the ones you chose. She looked so sweet and smelled nice as well. I would never have thought that she was a crook.”

“How much did you buy the sword for?”

“Eighty gold and I would have sold it for one hundred twenty,” the man muttered before looking up in surprise at his candid revelation to the mage.

Sebastian nodded and said, “I’ll give you ninety and take it off of your hands.”

Greed returned to the merchant’s eyes as he said, “Well, it has been here since this spring and I was hoping to get a better return since I have made space for it and spent time trying to sell it.”

“Ninety gold and I won’t tell anyone that you were fooled into buying a sword not made of steel.”

Cringing, Bharen tried to digest the younger man’s words and wondered if the previously civil mage was threatening him. “Fine, but I won’t compromise on the other two like that.”

Sebastian gave a brief laugh and nodded to the merchant.

Standing in the blacksmith’s workshop, Sebastian listened to Ivol and his apprentice Aric hammering on heated iron. It appeared to be a larger project, perhaps a piece of a cart; but the mage didn’t ask while their attention remained on their work.

Ashleen watched as he placed two of the three new swords on a workbench. While there were several heavy tables serving as workbenches, this one had been cleared for the mage and was about the only space not covered in pieces of iron and steel in the workshop. The girl wiped her forehead removing perspiration beginning to build in the heat of the forge and warm summer air. It was a very warm day for Hala, though they had contended with similar temperatures on Grimnal Island far to the south; but there they could easily swim in the ocean when it became too hot.

Mumbling a spell, the air wizard pulled an air shield into place. It would serve to keep her cooler and Sebastian was surprised that she had waited so long. His air shield had been put in place on the walk from the sword shop to the forge. It was one of the spells he had learned from another air wizard the summer before that he had perfected to use little of his magic once it was in place.

“So what are you going to do now?” the wilder asked as she stood beside the mage.

Giving the girl a smile, Sebastian stated, “Now I see if I can implant magic like I did with my Hollow Sword. If I can discover the way to make more of them, then other mages can use them to increase their attacks in battle.”

With a disappointed look, Ashleen said, “It seems like a waste to spend so much on them just to experiment with them. If you break them that is a lot of gold wasted.”

She glanced to the last sword leaning against the table and pointed, “What about that one?”

As Sebastian drew out the first candidate he had chosen to try, the mage glanced to her and admitted, “I’m not sure. It seemed too unique not to buy and someone used magic to create it. I’ve never seen anything like this black steel and I am not even sure that I should call it metal really.”

Ashleen picked up the magically created blade and scabbard questioning, “How could someone make something like this? Is the magic new or is this an ancient creation?”

“As far as I can tell, the magic is relatively fresh. Bharen said that it was sold to him after the tournament, and I don’t think that it is much older than that if I had to guess. It certainly isn’t magic like I have ever seen before though.”

“It is very light,” the girl noted holding it with two hands, though it was light enough for one. “Do you think that it is actually strong?”

Removing her left hand, Ashleen touched the edge of the blade finding it nearly as thin as a razor and perhaps as sharp. Most swords didn’t require such precision and those who used them knew that a blade needed to be thick enough to resist pitting the weapon with repeated attacks.

His attention pulled away to the mysterious blade, Sebastian placed the sword he had been holding on the table before taking the black sword from the girl’s hands. Placing the point against the clay floor, the mage placed both hands on the hilt before pushing with his foot against the metal enough to begin to bend the sword. It was typically a reckless thing to do, but he had faith in the magic used on the blade.

As it bent, Ashleen gasped in surprise at the rough treatment of the expensive weapon. Sebastian released pressure and the sword sprung back into shape. If he had done such a thing to a normal blade like the generic pieces used in the main army or among the battle mages, the sword’s blade would most likely have broken by the time it had flexed so far. Certainly, some harder steel could return to shape without setting a bend as long as he didn’t hold the pressure for too long, though some of that was speculation since the mage didn’t abuse the equipment he was given. Still he had seen such demonstrations and broken enough swords in battle to know that it was true.

Finding some discarded canvas used to hold feed for the horses sheltered at the Black Smith Inn by their customers, Sebastian folded and then rolled the strong canvas around the core of an old handle most likely discarded by the stable boys after breaking a pitchfork. Securing it with a vise in the forge, the mage took the weapon in both hands to swing at the improvised target.

By this point, Ivol and his son were watching curiously as was Ashleen. He aimed high and let the blade swing with force. Stopping his swing after the cut, Sebastian and the others watched as a three foot tall piece of the target flew to his left following the impetus of the swing though slowly as the friction of the smooth blade barely gave it any speed. The blade had passed through so smoothly, that the mage had barely felt the impact.

Reversing his swing, Sebastian crossed the air three more times letting the black blade strike the target whittling it down to just a nub sticking out from the vise. While the last pieces hit the floor, the battle mage turned the striking edge of the blade upward to check the weapon for any damage. Looking like it had never been used; the blade appeared clean and smooth. The edge was free of any damage along the length, though he had hit the target with different points on the sword to see if every inch could do as well.

Ivol moved closer and stated, “It cuts well and there is no damage.”

Sebastian handed the smith the blade for the man to examine it and Ivol discovered what Ashleen had already said. “It is light and thin, well balanced and with a sharp edge that holds its shape surprisingly well. A wood handle might not slow down most swords, but the thick canvas should have made the blade work at least as hard as cleaving flesh.”

Nodding to the smith, the battle mage declared, “I wish that I knew where this sword smith had created this and what it was made out of. Even if the weapon doesn’t hold magic like the Hollow Sword, it is of a quality rarely found. Certainly, I haven’t noticed anyone with a similar blade in Southwall.”

“Will you try to imbue it with magic too?” Ashleen questioned curiously watching the blade being passed between the men for inspection.

Shaking his head, Sebastian said, “For now I am trying to find swords and the type of metal to use for making more hollow swords. I would need to study this weapon more before altering it in anyway. Magic was used in making it. I wouldn’t want to risk ruining it before I ever understood what materials were in the blade.”

As the smiths returned to their task by the fire, Ashleen asked, “I am supposed to be here to learn from you as well as making you figure out if you like me, can you teach me how to examine the metal?”

Sebastian looked at the girl trying to figure out how to explain such a process to a lightning wilder. While Ashleen had learned to use the spells of Kardor related to both the air and earth, the original concept he was using came from the school of healing. Examining the human body led to being able to extend his senses into other living organisms and finally he had discovered the ability to use the spells even on inorganic things like the metal within a sword.

Thinking of his friend Collin’s spells for feeling tremors within the earth, he thought maybe the idea of an earth wizard’s spell might bridge the gap in their understanding of each other’s skills. Sebastian had found that he could dabble to a point in most of the schools of magic in Southwall, but earth magic hadn’t been something he had researched much so far.

“Can you use your magic to sense the earth?”

The blond hair bounced with her quick nod, though her eyes looked at him questioningly.

“Try using a spell that might look for metal in the earth, but think of it as determining the individual metals and alloys within the blade. How was it folded or beaten into shape? If your mind can settle into the metal looking for these things, then you can do the same as me.”

“You use the same spell for healing as checking metal in a sword?” she asked curiously before taking the heavier metal sword from the table. To use the heavier weapon, Sebastian had no doubt the smaller girl would need both hands unlike the black sword.

“In a manner of speaking,” he nodded. “When I learned to heal, I also tried to heal a tree from the damage created when I learned how to use a wind spear. I had harmed a perfectly good tree and didn’t want it to die, so I tried picking up as much of the splinters created and tried to reassemble the bark and outer wood. It worked though I overdid it and collapsed, but when I use the word ‘heal’ I can also use it to simply examine things.

“When I examine an injured person, I can work to heal the body once I understand the flesh is trying to return to what it was before it was damaged. The hollow sword was created similarly. The blade was in two pieces and there was this feeling that I could tap into to mend the pieces bringing them together as one.

“Of course, I also managed to use my magic to feel out veins within the metal and implanted magic that eventually created the rune like channels in it that hold extra power and spells. That is beyond just healing, and goes towards adding a variation of the lightning spell. Just because I use the same word to tap into those spells doesn’t mean that I settle my mind to just the original purpose.”

“In other words, you find a word to tap into magic and then manipulate it to do what you want?” Ashleen tried to clarify his unusually long winded explanation.

“Well, in short, yes,” he chuckled. “Now you see why I am not a good teacher. I can’t always simplify my thoughts to explain, and yet using a spell I actually simplify it for myself.”

Finishing with a shrug, Sebastian could only smile sheepishly at his flaws.

Ashleen handed back the blade he had planned to examine.

“You were going to work with this one. Maybe I will train on the other until you need it... master,” she added the last with a grin.

As the wilder moved to the side and sat on a stool with the alternate sword on her lap, she began to cast a spell used for earth sensing, while Sebastian began to ignore her to begin his own spell. When he had worked on the Hollow Sword, the mage had been with Yara and his team onboard the Sea Dragon. Food and water had been ready for him, but it had been Yara who had fed him extra energy during the lengthy spell helping him finish.

The setting of his mind for the spell faltered a moment bringing the noise of the forge back into being and Sebastian shook his head. Yara had been instrumental in several spells he had used of late and the mage wondered if he had become a bit dependent on her. She had helped with the sword; but he had created Bairh’loore, his staff, without her. While he could channel light and darkness spells, only their combined strength of spirit had been able to break the strongest curse spells of the emperor’s warlocks.

Frowning, Sebastian tried to put his worries of his relationship with Yara aside for a moment. He couldn’t do anything about their relationship until she returned to Hala unless he could discover how to use a portal spell and direct it to the girl. The combination of his magic and Ashleen’s had broken them free of Silver World, a space used between an entry and exit to and from Alus.

His eyes glanced to his “apprentice” noting the beautiful wilder and wondered if he should let his heart go a bit to see if there was more to their relationship than just friendship. Jealousy over his friendship with Ashleen had placed a wedge between him and Yara, but maybe it should be explored. After all, exploring was part of what made him the owl, as his friends had come to call him. It was an interesting point and it wasn’t like he didn’t like Ashleen. She might have become the love of his life, if he hadn’t met Yara first.