Battle Mage: Winter's Edge (43 page)

Late in the afternoon of the third day, the party could see the small town of Mera resting on a rise of the road. It looked much the same as it always had, especially from a distance. A side road branched from the path to Mera just before the town leading them away from the view and off towards several farms, one of which was run by his family.

Despite the ravens’ insistence that it was a good thing to go see his family, Sebastian felt only tension as they rode through the first open gate on the path leading to his family farm. A second gate more than a quarter mile beyond was closed to their approach. It was also so close that by the time the mage was near enough to get down to open the gate, a handful of people had assembled on the porch of the house while two men walked the cart path to greet them.

The elder of the two men was graying almost to white and if his head and shoulders weren’t slightly bent with age, he would have been close to the height of the mage standing beside the gate. Of the younger man, it was easy to tell the resemblance between all three. His father didn’t notice the mage at the gate, however, as his gaze went to the colorful cloaks of the wizards on their horses.

“Great wizards, have you come looking for more to join you at this time of year? The winter still holds the land, but I suppose that means my entire family is together for your inspection,” the elder Trillon greeted looking unsure of the situation.

It was Brenner, the eldest of the wizards, but often the quietest that pointed towards Sebastian and stated, “We don’t lead this party. He does.”

“Sebastian!” the younger man, his elder brother Conner exclaimed in surprise noticing his near clone. The single word brought his father’s eyes quickly to his second son, though his face looked nowhere near as happy as his son. If Sebastian had to classify the look, he had a feeling that it was similar to that of his own tension and worry.

“Hey, Conner,” the mage greeted extending a hand over the gate, “I’m sorry to just thrust our visit on you like this.”

“Don’t apologize, little brother,” he said with a shake of his head and a grin splitting his face. “It’s great to see you again. You haven’t been back in years. We hardly hear from you.”

His eyes glanced from his brother to his father, who seemed to shrink even more under his gaze. Trying to hold a smile of his own, Sebastian replied, “I was always busy training, but since last year I’ve been even further away along the wall. First, I was at Windmeer and then Falcon’s Keep. I had business that brought me back east, so I decided to stop by.”

A couple of chuckles from those still behind him on horseback who knew that he had basically been ordered to see his family, threatened to lessen the sincerity of his visit. The laughter was muffled enough not to draw more attention than his and the arrival of two more young men, little more than boys in fact, caused even more of a distraction. They both called his name as they closed the gap.

“Hello, Edgar, Everet,” he said of the twin brothers. The only major difference between them had always been the color of their eyes, but the mage noted that Everet was slightly taller and thinner at the moment. He guessed that Edgar was due for a growth spurt to catch up to his twin soon.

“Why are you here?” the deeper voice of his father finally asked breaking up the reunion of the boys. “We’ve barely heard from you in two years. What business brings you this way after all that time?”

Fighting an urge to grimace at the blunt questions, Sebastian replied, “I was on a diplomatic escort and was asked by the ravens at Windmeer to join the Winter’s Edge tournament. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it?”

“Just some wizardy thing from what I’ve heard in town, but why are you going? You’re just a battle mage. Aren’t you too weak in magic to be in that sort of thing?” the older man asked waving off the importance of such matters. It was to be expected, the mage thought. Like most commoners, his father frowned upon magic and if his son had to have it, then he wished that he would at least be a full wizard. Many treated the falcons like broken or defective wizards.

Yara’s voice spoke up from atop her horse in his defense, “He’s actually an usually talented mage. Sebastian knows how to use wizard magic as well.”

“Then why does he have a bunch of wizards leading him?” the man countered gruffly.

This time as most of his team laughed gently at the confusion, Yara replied with a smile, which masked her tolerating anyone putting down Sebastian, “We don’t lead him. He leads us. Like I said, your son’s a very talented battle mage. He uses magic that no other mage could and teaches them new magic.”

“Yes, I lead them, father. Now perhaps you could open the gate and maybe we can catch up a little bit,” Sebastian interrupted as he hated having such compliments thrust on him, even if it was from Yara. He understood that she was defending him from ignorance, but it was his father. The man had never seemed supportive of him and certainly not after he joined the battle mage corps.

Though he looked reluctant, it was no longer up to the older man as Conner quickly released the latch. His brothers clapped him warmly on the shoulder and pulled him along leaving Mecklin to lead his horse into the yard. Sebastian tried to take in what his brothers were saying, but they were all talking to him at once and much of their words began to jumble in his ears. His attention also shifted to the others standing on the porch awaiting their arrival.

“Hello, mother, and you also, Beatrice” the young man said as he approached the landing. The two women were near mirrors of one another save for the differences caused by age. His elder sister was a little thinner with blue eyes instead of green following his father, but it was obvious that she took after his mother otherwise.

“Sebastian,” his mother said quietly making it hard to tell the emotion she held, but she did pull him close for an embrace. His sister followed suit with a smile.

There was a third woman on the on the porch standing back from the family reunion. Sebastian didn’t recognize her, but she was probably only a little older than he. Sticking out from the lighter hair coloring of his family, the young woman had tight curls running through her brunette hair.

Conner moved around to stand next to her and gesture with his open hand, “And this, Sebastian, is my wife, Rena.”

Surprised by the revelation, Sebastian replied revealing his ignorance, “Really? I hadn’t heard. When did you marry?”

“Last summer,” his brother replied beaming, “but you should know Rena. She lived in Mera and went to school with Beatrice?”

The vague memory of the girl that was one of three good friends of his sister tried making a larger imprint on his recollection to little avail, but some remained at least. “Well, I am glad for you, brother. Has someone sent for Beatrice too then?”

Answering for herself, the girl that had often acted like she was his mother as she ordered around her little brother, said, “Herron, from a few farms down proposed to me last fall. We are to wed in the spring, little brother. Should I extend an invitation or will you be away again this year?”

Her cool words and emotion seemed similar to his father’s in this respect. Unfortunately, the uncertainty of his life also led Sebastian to shake his head probably making a weaker impression on his family. “If you know the date, I can see if I can come, but I really have little idea of where I’ll be this year. This trip to Hala just came up spur of the moment a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, we go where they ask us to go.”

“Ask?” Collin chuckled at the notion as he walked his horse up to within earshot. The others of his team nearby nodded at the idea.

His answer brought a brief frown from Beatrice, but the girl managed to recover and say, “Well, I will write it down for you and perhaps you’ll be able to get free to see me marry. Is there anyone that you will be bringing along?”

Wanting to groan, Sebastian had forgotten Beatrice was the matchmaker in the family. Even as a girl, she had been trying to arrange matches between the young people on the farms and those in Mera. He wasn’t sure that they were ready to make any announcements about the relationship between Yara and him at this point. Once more dodging the answer, the mage replied, “Too soon to tell as well. Writing down the date will be enough though. I’ll see what I can do.”

There was still a face missing from his family and he asked, “Where’s Katya? Surely you haven’t managed to marry off my little sister too have you?”

Finally, there was laughter at the thought of his youngest sibling possibly being married. She was only twelve, no, thirteen, he had to remind himself of her birthday just a month ago. His mother turned and called the girl’s name.

A wary head peaked from inside the doorway before being followed by her petite body. Like a little smaller version of Beatrice, his little sister still looked nearly a woman to his eyes. The last time he had seen her, the girl had been running around with her pigtails flying in the breeze as she ran around playing childish games. This girl was on the verge of womanhood, but more importantly his sense of magic told him that she would follow in his footsteps more closely than his parents would ever want.

“Hello, little cat,” he greeted his little sister with the nickname he had called her as a child.

Rolling her eyes at him, Katya replied, “No one calls me that anymore, big brother. I’m a little too old and grown up to be a little cat.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” he began slowly and held up his hand to just over her head, “you still look pretty small to me. You’ve got at least a year or two before catching Beatrice, I think.”

He could hear the wizards behind him beginning to whisper to one another. They were as able to sense her magical power as easily as any battle mage, even as rare a talent as he might be. More importantly, Sebastian knew as well as they that his little sister was much stronger in power than he could ever hope to be.

Wanting the visit to remain as casual as possible, he said nothing of the matter and would remind the others to follow his lead. This wasn’t their family, but few wizards or mages truly wanted to bring such news to their own parents that another child would be called to serve the kingdom. To Sebastian, she also seemed too young though he had seen others her age in the dorms of White Hall. It had never struck home the way it did now.

Katya frowned and stamped her foot in annoyance at his comment. “I may never grow as big as Beatrice. She has bigger breasts than half the girls in Mera, and I hope I never grow that big. The boys all seem to only be able to talk to her chest. At least, I can get them to talk to my face!”

“Katya!” both his parents and Beatrice exclaimed in embarrassment. One moment the girl was shyly hiding and the next she was speaking as brazenly as a tavern wench, her older brother thought in amusement.

“Well, it’s true and I’ve heard you complain about it too,” the youngest of the Trillon clan pouted in protest.

Her brothers were all laughing quite hard at the embarrassment to their parents and many of the wizards and mages couldn’t help joining in on the joke. Sebastian could only smile as he hoped the ice was finally breaking with his family.

Chapter 24- Owl in the Nest

The main room of the Trillon home was crowded just from Sebastian’s family as they had sat to eat dinner. Only he and Yara remained to sit down for the evening meal, while the rest of his team went to Mera and secured rooms for them all at the inn. If his family hadn’t asked him to stay for the meal, the mage would have been happy enough going to the inn to avoid inconveniencing them. It was still winter and he knew from his childhood that their food stores would be getting low.

With a small cook stove and cabinets on one side of the room, a long table surrounded by mismatched chairs and benches in the middle, a few more comfortable looking wooden chairs with cushions sewn together by his mother for padding, and a pair of doors leading to bedrooms, the first floor of the home was mostly set up for utility and less for true comfort. Most farmers in the area were often poor, unless they had found a way to market their wares beyond Mera and a few nearby towns, so the niceties often found in the cities were rarely seen in the rural homes.

For Sebastian, used to mage dorms set in stone and spartanly furnished, it was comfortable enough, but he doubted most of his wizards would feel the same after their years in wizards’ wings with their padded chairs and nicer furniture. How much nicer the inn would be, the mage wasn’t sure. All he needed was a bed and a pillow to lay his head on and he would be fine.

Despite being winter and the variety of food lacking, the smell of a home cooked meal still made Sebastian’s mouth nearly water. He had forgotten that his mother had been a good cook, even compared to the chefs hired by the duke, and suddenly he was glad that they had stayed for a meal.

He was also glad that Yara had stayed. The healer was good with people and helped deflect a bit of the questions that might have made the visit more awkward for the mage, except for questions from his sisters that wanted to pry into their relationship.

His little sister, Katya was the worst as they sat at the table eating and she asked, “So you’re a wizard and my brother is a battle mage, why didn’t you go with the others instead? I would have thought maybe one of them would have stayed with Sebastian. Does this mean that you two are actually dating?”