Battle Mage Visions (A Tale of Alus Book 12) (15 page)

"Men lean on staves all the time to help them walk," Erethia added and the mage noted that she cast that knowledge as being a strictly masculine tool to lean on as a crutch.

Pointing towards the ceiling as if the idea had just struck him, Sebastian proposed, "While that may be; if the staff became too heavy to bear, a man might throw it away when the crutch turned into a burden or it might just become something to lean onto. When the staff was supposed to be something to increase your power, it would just become a very heavy rod.

"What I am thinking could be much easier to use. Why not shorten the length? A stick or wand just a foot or so in length, bonded with steel or made of it, would be much lighter. Adding a handle or grip would make it easy enough to pass through a loop when you weren't using it. Your body could support the wand almost without notice then."

It took a moment for the thought to sink in, but when it had the wizards began to exchange glances as if to see if the others agreed. As usual it was Gefflen who had to sign off on it for the others, even though Sebastian noted the looks he often received from the others behind his back.

"A wand, a wizard's wand, I believe that there has also been writings of such things in the past. Could you truly make one so that the wizards might benefit from one of your creations for once?"

Sebastian ignored the last bit. For once, as if the magic and swords he had shared with them already wasn't as useful to a wizard as anyone else? They had followed where he had led them, however, and the mage hoped that making the wands too short to tempt them into touching them to the ground would keep the danger he feared from occurring.

"I think the runes would be similar. I would just have to adjust to the size of a wand as opposed to the flat sides of a blade, but I think that it could be made almost as easily as the Hollow Swords."

The wizard leader nodded and added, "Perhaps you can work up a working model for one by the time you visit Red Hall? It won't leave you much time; but if you do it before your trip, it will save you time that can better be served teaching other students in the school."

"I am going to Red Hall? When is that supposed to happen?" the mage asked feeling his stomach curdle at the assumption that he would just go when the wizard snapped his fingers to do so.

"It is already cleared with the high wizards and your Raven Leros," Gefflen stated waving off the bulk of his question. "Unless there is a reason to delay, we expect you tomorrow."

Managing to avoid a frown, though Ashleen failed to conceal hers, Sebastian answered, "Then I guess that I will need to spend some time working out the problems that will inevitably arise making that wand. If you have at least worked out some of what I have tried to teach you, my visit shouldn't need to be too long at least."

Wizard Hassar raised an eyebrow and returned, "Well, you might change your mind. It is quite a bit warmer in Red Hall at this time of year. Our winters tend to be much milder than what you are seeing here.

"Perhaps we can make it so that you will wish to stay with us beyond a few days, once you feel the warmth on your skin once more."

The wizards joined him in a laugh, but Sebastian merely smiled. He doubted that Red Hall would be as inviting as returning to Gerid's island far to the southeast. While the mage had never been to Red Hall, especially during winter; he doubted that it was nearly as warm as that island.

"We will see," was all the more that he would commit.

On the walk home, Ashleen started to complain, "How can they just ask you to uproot at a moment's notice? That is insane. These wizards just show up, belittle you as a mage, then seeing that you're smarter than the lot of them combined, they get you transferred to their school?"

"It's not quite as bad as that," Sebastian answered. He noted his breath wafting before his face. It was late enough in the afternoon that what little increase in temperature they had experienced had already faded. Sebastian would have taken her hand in his to try and comfort his girlfriend, but they both were hiding within the warmth of their coats and cloaks. "It's more like when I went to White Hall to build the gate and had to stay on for a time to help train the teachers what I could to pass on to the students.

"If I can get a few people to understand what I am teaching, then we can get back to what we were doing. At least, if I can train others what I know, then it should free me up to return to being a battle mage."

Serrena snickered at the thought and shook her head at the younger mage. "You will never be that free, you know? Everyone expects more from you, myself included. I mean, I am not sitting here every day demanding that you make up some new magic or artifact; but after all that you've done over the last year and a half it is kind of hard to believe that you are done.

"The ravens and high wizards will probably seek to protect you until you're mind has run dry. Of course, the odds of that happening soon are pretty low."

Sighing at the idea, Sebastian shook his head in turn. "If they could tie me to a chair in one of the king's towers to keep me safe, they very well might try it. I keep telling them that most of my best ideas come to me while I am in the field or free to play around with thoughts that come into my head after a mission. Of course, I don't think the high wizards really care about that fact, but at least Leros seems to understand that I need a free rein to learn."

Ashleen's blue eyes looked at him from beneath the hood pulled up to contain her body's heat. The girl looked unhappy with the conversation and the whole issue of his leaving. "We'll be returning to the Black Smith each night?"

Looking up slightly in thought, the owl thought aloud saying, "Red Hall is slightly to the west gaining us an hour or so. We can stay through the afternoons and return using a portal, I would think."

Serrena broke into the thought and added, "That is the other reason that they will never try keeping you in a tower. You would just use your magic to make a portal and leave anyway."

It made them all smile, but the afternoon's news had drained them enough to prevent any laughter at the thought.

"I suppose having gate spells does prevent that," the mage replied.

"Unless they decide to tie you up so that you couldn't use your hands," Ashleen countered and held back on speaking of using the staff to attain the power he would need to cast a powerful spell like a gate. "A wizard or mage would be useless without their hands. A wilder like me might shock them, but certainly if another wizard used magic and the right bonds you'd be unable to leave."

Sebastian thought about the idea as he spoke. "Well, that might be true, but it would hardly make someone want to help. The only thing that would likely be on my mind would be escaping after awhile."

"When the Dark One's wizard hunters had me tied up on that ship, all I thought about was trying to escape. Until they were about to make us use our magic against your ship, I couldn't do anything at all. My hands were tied and I was lashed to a mast with two more wizards. The three of us together could do nothing, but they had magic that could make us do what they wanted. It was frightening."

"So you jumped into the ocean just to avoid being used," Sebastian nodded thinking of the event. Liam, his water wizard, had been able to use his magic to pull Ashleen from the sea during the battle between the two ships. It had ended up all right and they had freed all the prisoners aboard the black ship; but it had apparently stuck with the wilder all this time.

He wondered what kind of magic they had used that could have contained a wilder's magic. Did they treat her shackles like they did their armor? That could absorb her excess magic most likely.

While Sebastian considered the question, he could tell that Ashleen wasn't in the mood to think about such things.

Her hand left the warmth of the folds of her cloak to reach for his arm. Sebastian met her hand with his giving it a reassuring squeeze. They walked without really speaking until after they had returned to the inn.

Palose walked into the final chamber on his walk through the emperor's fortress. He had to leave his circle to their own devices as usual. Oween and Nalack were new to this part of his life, but it was too soon to send the newly resurrected wizards back to the front. Litsarin was a waste of his efforts at the moment anyway. Unless Kolban decided to commit more of his forces to breaking the enemy's hold on the last miles of the island that they held, it was going to end in a prolonged stalemate.

Such a wait was likely better for Sileoth and Southwall than for Ensolus. They could continue to call on their allies while the emperor only had so many soldiers and monsters that he could field. What had seemed like an inexhaustible enemy while the mage had served Southwall; was notably finite from what he had seen.

It wasn't a note of weakness by any means. The emperor's mountain cities not only trained men and monsters for battle, the massive pits, as they were called, bred the monsters in chambers like those used to grow the replacement bodies for the emperor. He had no idea how many orcs, trolls, armored viles and the rest could be grown that way in addition to the fact that they could breed naturally as well.

From the smallest of his beasts, the goblins, to the largest like his armored viles; they lived in their own communities living lives very similar to those of the men and elves in his service. They had families and sent sons and daughters to the emperor to serve in his armies also.

It was a war machine unlike anything else Alus had known, but there were many nations and allies for Sileoth and Southwall that could be called upon. Soldiers, mages and wizards could multiply beyond what even the emperor's pits could keep up with. Still, that relied on men getting along and joining the rallying cry of their allies. Alliances could be tentative at best and such strains would test their loyalty to one another.

Ensolus wasn't perfect in its service either, of course. Warlocks and soldiers worked to elevate their rank many times over the backs of their fellows. That left men with ideas of revenge in their minds. Only the strength of the emperor and his magic forced those wills to bend to his. Kolban had even used his magic to bind his servants' wills once upon a time, but Palose was pretty sure that the child like vessel that had been used to hold him no longer held as many to him as he once did.

Kolban had chosen not just one vessel to hold his power as his old body continued to deteriorate, but three. His sister Acheri could have held his power as well as the male body. She was perfect in that way. The final vessel, Lanquer, was flawed. He was weaker and held the least of the old emperor's magic, but all of them derived from the original emperor. Kolban's siblings had the information and some of the memories from the original, but the old man held back some of what made him what he was. That was saved for Kolban as his true self.

Acheri and Lanquer had been evolving and becoming personalities that were nothing like the original emperor or the youth holding all of his memories. Palose knew all three and had met the aging emperor to know that these were not him, and yet they were.

While Kolban had given away some of his magical might, the Dark One had kept most for himself. Lanquer was flawed yet was likely only weaker than his siblings. There were powerful warlocks in Ensolus, but few rivaled the brother. Lanquer had been groomed to be the emperor's protector, a body guard; but Kolban had sent his brother to war on Litsarin.

Palose wasn't sure if it was a position of trust or if he had just wished to send him away.

If he was disappointed in Lanquer, the dark mage had never noticed. Kolban had attacked and drained his power from another flawed vessel, Garosh. He had left the giant to die in his fortress far to the south in the Dimple Mountains. Lanquer had stepped up letting Kolban distance himself from the man's death by killing him for his brother.

Garosh was like Lanquer's half brother, another vessel of the emperor's power; but he had failed not just from his inability to hold the emperor's consciousness and power. That flaw had been erased, but Palose often wondered if he hadn't somehow been drawn close by the siblings to replace that void.

Pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind, the dark mage steeled his face to a confident look that hid his insecurities. Strength was the best thing to show, especially when dealing with someone with the power of a god.

"Palose!" the young man's voice called him over to a set of plump chairs. Kolban looked relaxed as he set a book to the side. Whether the boy had actually been reading or simply wished to pretend that he had been, Palose was unlikely to ever know. Perhaps the emperor put the look on his face that best fit this situation as the dark mage had as well.

"Your majesty," he replied with a nod of his head. The dark mage hadn't been raised to the dramatic gestures used in court and luckily the emperor didn't seem to care. "You sent for me?"

"I did," Kolban nodded, but added, "but you took your time. You are usually more prompt in coming to visit when I send a message to your apartment... or should I still refer to it as Atrouseon's apartment?"

"It was left to me with his death, your majesty," Palose answered trying to be as polite as he could be while answering the emperor. The boy had been almost as loving towards him as for a brother, which hadn't been the greatest news for Garosh. That odd connection between them also extended to Acheri, who he feared was in love with him.