Battle Mage: Winter's Edge (49 page)

“I’m so sorry, father! I didn’t mean to, really,” this time the girl’s sobbing and tears were real. Sebastian felt Yara’s hand on his arm as she looked on the two sadly. Their fears were already realized. Katya, if left untrained for much longer, would become a wilder. If wizards and mages worried the common folk, wilders terrified them.

Wilders were untrained wizards that tapped into their powers unregulated. For many, that meant unfortunate accidents such as this, though for most there were often deaths before trained wizards could come restrain their powers before taking them to a school to try and teach them control. The earlier a future wizard could be trained, the better they usually became. Without bad habits that a wilder would develop such as Ashleen’s inability to restrain her lightning magic, most wizards and mages could blend into any situation without risk of harming anyone with a miscast spell.

Sebastian walked out to kneel beside the two in the snow. “Father, she needs to come with us. If we don’t start teaching her to use her powers properly, it will get worse. Katya is like a child swinging a blade in a kitchen. Someone will get hurt eventually. It may be Katya who gets hurt or someone in the family.

“Can you tell me that you can be sure that she won’t lose control again?”

Brushing Katya’s hands from him, Marcel walked into the house without a word. His little sister clung to Sebastian as they walked back inside, as suddenly the rest of the family was giving them extra room as if by bumping them the girl would harm them. Before they could think to sit down, his father returned with a small coin purse and tossed it in front of Sebastian.

“I don’t need any money to care for her, father. As mages and wizards we can call on the city keeps for help if we must, but I think I have enough to last even with her along.”

“Take it. It’s your money anyway. We’ve had two good years and I only used the money when we needed it,” Marcel refused his son’s attempt to give him the money back.

“Well take half of it. You should keep some in case the weather doesn’t cooperate this year. I wouldn’t want anyone to starve when I truly don’t need it,” the mage said again. The purse was quite
heavy. He guessed that not only could it for pay Katya’s trip to Hala and back to White Hall, but for his entire team.

Looking angry, the older man declared, “That is half! Besides there will be more this year and once they begin sending us money for Katya’s service, it will be twice as much. That is how Southwall buys your service and takes our children from us!”

So much money, Sebastian thought to himself. He hadn’t known that Southwall paid so much. It was only until a mage or wizard turned twenty- one, but the wage was supposed to help a family like the Trillon’s in case they needed to hire an extra hand. After twenty-one, the money went to the wizard in full and they could choose to help their family from then onward.

After a moment, Sebastian nodded to his father as he pulled the bag to him and tied it to his waist. “We will be leaving in the morning. That should leave time for her to pack and for everyone to say their goodbyes.”

Looking very sober, his family tried to act the same with Katya, but until Sebastian and his wizards returned to Mera for the evening meal, he could tell that it was no longer a family that felt safe. They wanted to mourn the loss of a child and feared the same girl at the same time. With a wish to keep their youngest daughter, their fear now made them cast her out.

Chapter 27- The Blacksmith of Hala

Hala. If the histories of North Continent were correct, the original city was over fifteen hundred years old. With its black stone keep protected by a shining white outer wall, the city had only fallen once
and that was from a coup thrown from within. That was when the immortal, Gerid Aramathea, took the city and overthrew an evil king, or so the story went.

Sebastian looked up at the white wall and black keep from the stories of legend feeling transported to a time before the north wall. It was before the Dark Emperor had thrown the world into chaos with the cataclysm that had reshaped the world. Wondering just how many of the stories could be true, the mage led his team into a city that had expanded well beyond its white walls.

Despite the proximity to the wall of only a few miles, Hala was a thriving metropolis that hosted dignitaries from around the world in its castle and was one of the largest centers of trade on the continent. People and horses were everywhere crowding streets before they ever reached the inner city. Trying to navigate the traffic made Sebastian want to turn around and go back to Windmeer or White Hall. He had never seen so many people in one place and the amazing thing was the city was still trying to shake off winter’s hold.

The Winter’s Edge tournament was so named for the transition from winter to spring and the city was probably even more crowded from all those coming to either participate or watch the event. If the rumor was to be believed, invitations had gone out beyond Southwall and its neighboring allies. To Taltan and Ch’Thal with their varied nations, to Kadross and perhaps even the far off Calmon and Malev, though he had heard of no northern sailor to ever sail to the bottom of the world as the men of the north called it.

Sebastian was curious to see what countries would bother to show for a wizards’ tournament. If the turn out brought foreign travelers from the other continents, it would prove that Hala was truly a world trading power. It would also bring magic users from the entire world to test him against. He had to assume not everyone used magic the way the wizards of Southwall did. The fact that battle mages and wilders accessed their spells in a different way from their wizards proved that.

“Ah, wizards of Southwall would you care to sample my wares?” a portly merchant brazenly stepped in front of Brenner’s horse blocking his way. “And so many beautiful ladies perhaps one is a girlfriend and you would like to get her a necklace or maybe the ladies would like to see for themselves?”

Brenner frowned and asked, “Do many wizards bother to buy your wares when you get in their way?”

The man gave the sarcastically rhetorical question a moment’s pondering and replied, “Well, not every one, but I have a few for clients. At least I think they are wizards. They wore those colored robes your lot likes to wear. Maybe as leader you wish to get your company matching pins to let the others know of your team. Strike fear into your opponents with say a wolf pin or a tiger from Ch’Thal?”

Sniffing in disdain, the air wizard used a magic styled spell to send a strong gust of air into the man pushing him aside. “Who said I was the leader? Bother the mage if that’s who you think you can convince to buy from you.”

His horse pushed past leaving Sebastian looking at the disheveled merchant, who despite the surprise of a magical push, still looked game to try and sell. “A mage is in charge of a team for the wizard’s duel? My, that is a different approach. You must be an excellent coach. Your air wizard cast that spell so fast; it must be your training.

“Now if you’ll notice my tables over here,” the merchant brushed his flashy robes before gesturing to his set of tables with a large awning spread over top of them to keep off the snow during the winter weather. It was wooden with a heavy red cloth running along its edge and appeared bolted to the building behind it. Sebastian would have thought a shop would have been enough to not have to resort to a sidewalk sale.

“We don’t have the time right now,” the mage stated simply. “If we don’t find the Blacksmith’s Inn, we might not get our rooms during the tournament. Perhaps we’ll come back later and shop around.”

Looking uncertain of whether he should be sad or happy with Sebastian’s explanation, the merchant decided to spread a little more honey with his words in an attempt to win more favor with him. “If the Blacksmith doesn’t work out, go to the Emerald Inn. It’s the second street inside the white wall and right of west Entry Street, if you enter from that gate. Tell them Rijoun sent you and he’ll give you a discount I am sure.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” the mage replied with a nod of his head as he signaled his horse deeper into the city. With a piece of paper with the directions that the ravens had given him in hand, the group caught up to Brenner and continued to push towards the white wall of the central city.

Katya’s voice came from just behind her brother. She had edged past Yara who had given Sebastian her reins to lead her horse through the tightly crowded streets. The healer still wasn’t comfortable trying to guide the animal, especially in the heavy crowds of Hala. “Brother, couldn’t we have stopped to look for a moment? It would have given us a chance to stretch our legs after the long ride.”

“Like I told the merchant, we need to get to the inn and I would like to get there before dark. There will be plenty of time to go shopping in the city, Katya. Once we set up our rooms and get the horses stabled, we’ll have at least a week longer to wander around Hala,” the mage replied trying to keep an eye on the traffic in front of him while still trying to direct his voice towards his sister to be heard over the noise of the crowd.

With a pouty lip, the girl eased back a little leaving Yara to giggle on the leader’s opposite side.

“What?” he asked genuinely perplexed.

“Someone seems to be playing the little sister card. It looks like she’s trying to wrap you around her finger like she has the rest of your family,” the pretty blond replied smugly. “I was the youngest girl in my family so I know the look well.”

“Hmmph,” was his grunted reply. “Five years away from her charms should help steel me against her, but it explains how you’ve managed to wrap me around your little finger, doesn’t it?”

“Oh I do, do I?” the girl asked the question looking calculating. “I’ll have to remember that when I need something from you then.”

After taking quite a bit of time to make their way through the traffic of the outer city, his team passed through the west gate, but following his own set of instructions from his leaders Sebastian led them four blocks up the street and made a left. As impressive as the white wall was, Sebastian found his eyes straying to the black castle standing impressively just east of center. It had been built that way to take advantage of the cliff that dropped more than a hundred feet into the North Sea. With the natural defense behind it, the inner city was a buffer for any invading force, so the black castle sat back with two white walls extending to the eastern outer wall.

There were no homes behind the castle. It had been separated from the rest of the city and housed a smaller school for wizards. Three of the ten duel centers hosting the tournament were behind those walls and the castle. Looking at the towering fortress, Sebastian imagined that it would be an impressive presence as they fought and he assumed the royals would have places to watch from the parapets above for convenience.

Finding the inn, the mage noted the interesting play of color on the building. The first floor was black stone until at ten feet, and then eight inches of stained wood separated the next two wooden floors washed white. It was like the view of the city from without, but in reverse. Aside from the sign out front with its image of an anvil and hammer, the other answer to the name came from the sounds of metal being hammered nearby.

Following direction to the rear of the building by the inn’s keeper, they found a large stable walled in behind the inn and another smaller building attached to the main building where the sounds were coming from as someone hammered away. Passing his reins to a stable man and assisting Yara and Katya down from their mounts, Sebastian asked, “You have a smithy here?”

The older man nodded with a smile. “The master’s family has owned the inn for multiple generations, but he fell in love with smithing. After he was trained by an old master smith, Master Ivol built the smithy behind the inn and changed the name of the place when he took it over for his father.”

Taking his staff and travel bag in hand, Sebastian thanked the man and led his party into the inn through the back door. A large hall appeared able to hold at least a hundred people with more than a dozen tables ready for meals. A desk with a lovely middle aged woman with dark hair standing behind it was across the room from the front door, but the stable yard door came in from the right. The woman looked up summoning a bright smile, while a pair of younger women either swept or wiped down the tables.

“Hello, wizards and falcons, welcome to the Blacksmith’s Inn. I am Hilda. My husband Ivol owns this inn, but I run it. How can I help you?”

While Sebastian stepping forward as leader surprised the woman who had looked to Brenner or at least one of the older falcons originally, she recovered with little hint of the mistake. “The ravens of Windmeer should have sent word to arrange for rooms for me and my party.”

Opening the book on her desk to a different page, the woman looked up and asked, “I assume you are Falcon Trillon. Windmeer only sent word of one falcon’s group to us at least, but the message we received said there would be twelve, not thirteen,” she finished with a little frown as the woman took in the problem.

With a warm smile, Sebastian kept his voice a little low as he answered, “My sister decided to join us for the trip, so we need an extra bed I suppose. Can one of the rooms for the women hold three?”

“All your rooms consist of two single beds, but I can have a cot brought in,” Hilda responded with an equally warm smile.