Battle Mage: Winds of Change (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 11) (6 page)

"If our wizards are taught how to flip the gate to open into the main courtyard, we will know that they are part of Southwall making it easier to figure out who is using the gates as well."

"So knowing how to use the lock, or whatever, means only friends can enter the main area, while the enemy is in a trap?" the wilder asked trying to confirm if she understood him now. At his nod, Ashleen asked another question, "I thought you barely understood the runes. You copy them and know what they do, but can you make an original one with those properties?"

Sebastian grinned and shrugged replying, "That's what I intend to find out.

"Like the words of power that wizards use, I don't really know the language. Wizard's spells I see I can convert to our common language, so I am hoping that maybe they will work in my head to do what I want them to anyway."

Ashleen's brow furrowed as she walked towards him and countered, "Shouldn't you maybe call on your research wizards in Hala to see if anyone might have a clue if these runes exist?"

Shaking his head, the mage answered, "I've checked with Maura about the runes in the past and even placed a few on her to play around with to try and figure them out. As far as I know, no one has ever found much about runes in the histories. None of their books have revealed a thing about the specifics at least, so they've been no help.

"I've figured out more about them since returning to Hala than any of them have in the past couple of months."

Maura was a research wizard who had gone along with his team on their quest to find the Grimnal. While they had been on the same mission and on the same ship, to say that she was a friend would have been stretching the truth. The woman had argued with him many times along the way contesting if the younger mage should be in charge, but eventually they had come to an understanding at least.

Now she was his best contact with the research wizards in Hala. Still that only meant he knew her and could ask, but Sebastian wondered how often she was hiding what she knew from him even now. Having trust in her was certainly a difficult proposition and most people might ask why she would fight him now that their mission was complete; but the mage could read people to a point and that made him have that feeling.

The girl approached his impromptu worktable and pointed at the square of iron rod. "So what do we have here?"

Picking up the square, Sebastian placed it onto a piece of wood that could act as a stand. He raised a finger telling her to wait without words before placing his hands on either side of the square. Closing his eyes, the mage concentrated pulling his magic into the metal. His mind felt the texture and make up of the metal and began to try exerting his will to create an expanded version of the lodestones.

His magic intertwined lacing the iron with power that tied it to him in a way that was similar to the stones. Lodestones were really no more than items imbued with the magic of a wizard that he or she could lock onto to form a portal point. With one stone, he could find a place, but the portal could end up facing any which way depending on what way he was facing or maybe just from his thoughts while casting.

Two stones or a longer item like a staff would focus the portal between the points and let him come and go in a more fixed way.

Sebastian reached for a staff that fairly glowed with magic to the wilder's eyes. Bairh'loore, a wizard's staff according to ancient descriptions, had been made by the battle mage before he knew about runes at all. When the mage used his magic on it, the length glowed with runes which could easily be seen along its surface. They reached into the shaft bound in the iron which ran through the wood making it a compound staff made of both materials. A gem sat in a cage of iron on top. The mage had somehow drawn the stone from the earth during that experiment and it was like no stone he had ever seen before.

"Door," he said after stepping back to face towards the stable. The table and the square now glowing with runes of magic sat off to his side.

As a glowing portal formed, Sebastian was facing a door as large as that which Ashleen had exited into the rear courtyard. The opposite 'door' was focused within the confines of the square. More a window than a door, as Sebastian put his hand into the door before him; his fingers were able to reappear within the square. No compression occurred or other adjustments to what was passing through in spite of the two sizes of portals.

"Can you hold this one open for me a moment?" he asked gesturing to the gateway before him.

Ashleen finished her last bite of the bread before hurrying over to Sebastian. While she understood little of portal magic, the wilder had helped him before. Feeling more like a battery for magic for the mage with his smaller reservoir of power at times, Ashleen had tried to get the feel of the magic before and it simply escaped her. The girl wasn't the only one who could help holding a portal open with her magic without being able to make a gate of her own. Few wizards had been able to grasp the magic making it appear that, like healing, it would seem to be a rare type of casting. Unlike healing, teams could make the gateways together letting those who understood the magic team with others that didn't.

While the girl held the door open for him, Sebastian moved over to the square and tested a theory. He could see the exit, and like the portal in the fire wizard's courtyard, the back of the gateway looked cloudy and solid.

Taking the square, he tried to turn the metal frame and found that it was rooted in place. The magic of the portal was locked while Ashleen held the doorway open apparently.

Sebastian put his magic into the metal again and felt the conflict of magic within the square. Closing his eyes, the mage felt the portal and noticed the way it flowed inside of the iron square. He could feel the runes that held his magic inside the metal as well. Like place holders for his magic, he could feel them channeling the power of the doorway.

Ashleen's magic was starting to cross over as the one holding the gate now. The familiarity between the two made it feel like he was touching her in a way. They had crossed magic used in healing. It was a technique he had first experienced with the wizard who had first taught him how to heal. She had been his first girlfriend and they had discovered that crossing paths while healing was an intimate act.

Ignoring the feel of the girl as much as he could, Sebastian felt along the metal square until he thought that he felt a weakness in the magic. It was in the upper left corner as the owl faced the square and the mage placed his finger tips of his left hand on the point. An idea for a rune formed in his head. It was hardly that original as it was more or less an arrowhead. The fat end was rounded and the point followed the flow of magic pointing to the exit of the portal.

Keeping his eyes closed, he envisioned flipping the arrow reversing the flow of the gate. It fought him a bit, but as the rune moved, the feel of the gate changed with it. Once flipped, Sebastian opened his eyes looking for the golden glow of the opening.

What he saw was the cloudy solid surface of the back of his portal. Quickly moving to check the other side, Sebastian found that he had indeed flipped the gateway. He tried to twist the iron in different directions; but it remained solidly set on the table unable to move.

"Yes!" he cried enthusiastically.

Looking over at the table, Ashleen could see the same thing and asked in surprise, "Did you change the portal?"

"I flipped it around," he said happily.

"Is it simply switched or is it upside down or twisted now too?"

Sebastian moved around to the golden side of the square portal and poked his hand through the gate. Gasping as the girl wanted to tell him to stop, her protest halted as his hand protruded through the larger doorway unchanged. Withdrawing it again, the mage nodded to the wizard.

Releasing the power holding the gates open with his gesture, Ashleen asked, "Did you figure it out the first try? Will this make the lock that you wanted to make?"

The mage considered her questions and answered, "I think so. If we make gates which limit the size of a door to prevent larger portals from letting the enemy into the area, we can make barriers using the back of the gates as well. The directional rune is enough to turn it, so I would just need to teach those using them how to turn them back and forth."

"How did you come up with that so quickly?" the girl questioned again as she watched him reach behind the table to pick up a canteen. The water was offered to Ashleen first, but the wilder wasn't winded by the use of power yet. Her reserves were greater than the mage's, though they had noticed he was changing as well. All his work had seemed to create new strength in his body for magic that exceeded his original power. Like he was worked steel folded over for strength, his body when looked at with healing magic was no longer like an average battle mage.

"I've been considering it for awhile, but I admit that I got lucky that it was close to what I was thinking. Maybe working with the flow of runes and the portal magic put me ahead on this one."

"Well, it's better than watching it blow up on you from an error this time," the girl chided him in relation to an earlier error in judgment.

Sebastian's first attempt to create a Hollow Sword from scratch had ended in it exploding with the draw of power from the earth putting him in the hospital. He would have died without Ashleen managing to heal him to a point. The wilder was unlikely to ever manage to be a true healer, but she had managed enough to save him that day.

Nodding at her joking admonition, the mage took the teasing in stride saying, "I definitely prefer this result to the broken sword, yes."

His eyes seemed to become distant a moment as he added, "I wonder if I can get this information to Darius? With all the portals he has set up, I'm not sure if he will be in Windmeer these days or not."

The high wizard had become a friend, collaborator on ideas and a mentor as well. Though they had only spent a little over a week's time together since he had met the immortal wizard, Sebastian felt surprisingly close to Darius already.

Ashleen brought him down to earth saying, "Perhaps you should finish working on it? Can you say that this will work every time? You managed it once. Who is to say that everything is worked out already?"

Laughing at her serious tone, he joked, "Well, I think I was saying it works, but you're right. I do have a few other tests that I should do. Are you ready for a morning of hard work?"

Rolling her eyes at him and giving an exasperated sigh, Ashleen replied, "This looks a lot more comfortable than working in the forge all day in that heat. The weather is pretty nice today. Do you think summer is finally coming to an end?"

"I can always open the portal to the Grimnal's island if you want a break from Hala. If the ocean breezes are moving, it would be cool and we could swim as well," he said of one of his portals stolen from Palose's list of magical sites.

"Well, maybe I'll take you up on that, but weren't you the one asking if I was ready to work hard this morning? Have you given up on that already?" she laughed at the mage. The island was a paradise, but they both knew that they should figure out all that was needed for Sebastian's security system.

"Fine, fine, I guess we should work," he replied throwing up his hands in defeated good humor.

As the morning lengthened, the two continued to work on the concepts Sebastian had come up with to help secure the portals they would use.

Chapter 4- Gathering for Change

Sebastian had been surprised when he had been asked to the king's castle, also called the Grimnal, overlooking the North Sea from the high cliff the city sat upon. He had sent word to Raven Leros, the head of the battle mage corps based in Hala, as well as to the high wizards Culmore and Neferen. The three were not only the magical leaders of Hala, but essentially heads of magic for the entire kingdom. Those who attained the positions of white wizards might become high wizards and those serving the king in Hala led them all as Raven Leros led the other ravens in Southwall.

That the information he hoped to present was important enough to include all three as well as the head of the city guard, Commander Quelan, and other generals in charge of the northeastern armies guarding the wall, was understood; but surprisingly Bas had heard that King Alain might attend the impromptu little conference addressing the security of the portals. Everyone had heard that he had an idea to help secure the gates in the various cities around the country and a certain amount of unvoiced worry had pushed the leaders to hear him out. It was new magic and Sebastian had already proven by usurping Palose's portals that they weren't a secure system. Placing a portal inside of a guardian city meant creating a vulnerability often within the heart of those fortresses which no one had been entirely comfortable with in the first place.

Sebastian carried the two metal squares on his shoulder while Ashleen followed him with a few items to help demonstrate his plan. The two had entered alone, but passed quickly through the castle with an escort meant to guide them more than truly worrying over the two as threats to the king. Since Sebastian had met with the king numerous times and often in small gatherings, his clearance was viewed as near that of a personal friend of King Alain.

The room they found their selves in was quite large and had a pair of tables that he had requested. Ashleen and Sebastian set up the two rune squares about four feet apart on the two tables. With that space available to walk between the tables and squares, the mage thought he could demonstrate what he wanted to get across well enough. A leather ball with a seal strong enough to hold air inside was one of his tools to display the ability of his portal technology. It had gathered stares from the guards seeing the perfect sphere. Most children's toys were stuffed or vaguely spherical though only roughly. Only wizards could create such perfection unlike the artisan's working with the materials they had available. Toys also weren't the biggest worry on the minds of those artisan's.