The Unexpected Heir: A Tale of Alus (52 page)

"With Brother Varon dead, there will be some extra food left in our packs," the younger brother suggested. Xerese was slightly surprised to hear a member of the brotherhood seemingly agreeing with their plan, since his people were the ones chasing Oywen and Nico.

Xerese asked, "You would give us supplies to run from the men in your army?"

Taking a deep breath before releasing it as a sigh, Brother Melere nodded. "Our faith was never meant to be forced on others. Though you may have given an oath to join our cause, I think that you still had the right to refuse without risking death. The people of the city swung so quickly to violence and murder. I was taken aback, but I don't regret following the brotherhood.

"For some of you, this isn't even your land. If you hadn't left when you did, I am not sure what would have happened. Toman is obviously a warrior and would have been wanted by the army." He paused shaking his head before saying, "Well none of that really matters. Go to Malaiy or head to the capitol and King Tylus. Our order is supposed to help people and that is how I see it."

"I am sorry about Brother Varon," Xerese added quickly in commiseration. Unlike Quela who was quite upset with her companion's death, the younger brother didn't seem very sad at all.

He nodded his head and considered the man's death. "The fire wasn't intended to hit him, but fighting risks the innocent along with one's enemy."

Their conversation ended a little while later and, knowing that they needed to get started early, the group soon broke up to use their bedding. Xerese noted under the light of the first moon, that Quela had moved close to Toman. The guard wasn't too far from his charge, but his newly bonded wizard looked to want to be even closer.

Shaking her head at the sight, Xerese turned away from them closing her eyes. Sleep came quickly in spite of the worries that threatened to keep her awake. Hoping that no more soldiers would surprise them, the girl wouldn't wake up again until dawn.

Chapter 28- Unexpected Magic

Xerese stood on the back of the carriage which sat on a hill more than a mile from the city of Daria. The extra height afforded by the rise let the girl see the chaos happening outside of the city.

For a week and a half, the carriage and its passengers had been on the lookout for trouble. With a handful of soldiers known to have escaped, they all feared their return and perhaps with a larger force than before.

Xerese had also watched as Toman dealt with Quela. The wizard followed him incessantly. When the guardsman rode out ahead of the carriage on one of the new horses, the wizard refused to stay in the carriage. She joined him on her horse along with Nico. The three would ride out of sight while the team of horses pulled the weight of the carriage at a slower pace.

When they returned, Toman would ride near the drivers when giving them the news. Xerese had a feeling that her guard also rode in sight of her window as a reassurance that he had not chosen to leave her behind. With so many chances in the past to be rid of her, the lady knew that he wouldn't desert her; but it was still nice to see her powerful guardian riding nearby.

Quela never looked at her in jealousy. It was something that Xerese had kind of expected. The wizard had chosen to join with Toman without warning. Believing that she had done so out of grief for her dead bondsman and the need for an immediate new bond, it wouldn't be unexpected to see Quela try to hold onto him too tight.

With little more to occupy their attentions, Xerese and Oywen had discussed the matter often and into minute detail. Whatever the woman's true motivation, she did treat both Toman and his employer as her masters instead of trying to master them with the power of a wizard.

The scouting had come in useful as well. While there were no major cities between Marta and Daria, the smaller ones had become hornets' nests of activity. Black uniformed soldiers with their red sashes seemed to be everywhere. Units rode along the road or across it. Toman and the others were always able to warn the others early enough to be able to move the carriage off the main road.

Tree cover, both large and small was used. Able to mask the large coach in time, Xerese watched the riders or marching units move past without ever noticing it or the passengers hiding from them.

One of the other benefits of having the new wizard join them was that Quela's magic included wind. Like Annalicia on the ship, the wizard could ride the winds looking beyond their vision to find enemy soldiers. Watching Toman hold the wizard's reins while her mind rode the air currents, Xerese noted that the two were becoming closer even though she could tell that the guard wanted to resist her attention.

One of her questions for Oywen had been about the bond the wizards had created. "Do wizards find strong emotions caused by this bond?"

Giving the girl a look that said she knew that the question had been phrased politely, the wizard replied, "It is different depending on those bonded, of course, but I would say that it makes the two very close. I had Nico who I could bond with, so my relationship is different than most wizards. He is my brother and I love him, but being bonded together just makes us a little closer than normal siblings.

"Tseult's candidates for bonding tend to be men. That means male wizards often have a male bondsman. Female wizards will usually also have men that they are tied together with also." Her cheeks reddened a bit as Quela tried to steer around the more awkward part of the bond. "I think the men tend to have a brotherly bond. They are usually best friends, though there are those who have bonded only to find that they are a bad match. That can happen with any combination."

"Can you dissolve the bond then?" Xerese asked managing to not look out towards Toman riding with Quela.

"It is difficult and I hear that it isn't so much an end to the bond as a lesser connection. A permanent bond is just that, but lessening the bond means that a wizard can find a new bondsman to join."

"Do female wizards think of their bondsmen like brothers too?" the girl asked already sounding like she believed that the answer would be negative to her best hopes.

"Some do," Oywen answered slowly and hesitantly.

"How many wind up marrying their bondsmen or whatever?"

Again the wizard looked flushed by the question and this one hit harder than the first.

"It happens, of course, though it is generally frowned upon; but it is one danger of the bond, I suppose," the blond haired girl replied dropping her eyes in embarrassment. "What is it that you want me to say, Xerie? I can't predict if they will become close in that way. This kind of bond is rare. A wizard isn't supposed to form the permanent bond with someone that they don't even know, but I have to say that it feels surprisingly strong between them."

"Strong? Toman keeps having to push her away and she still follows him everywhere. Is that what you call strong?" Xerese nearly laughed at the idea, but the problem was that she wondered about the compatibility of the two as well.

"He doesn't always push her away," Quela countered and both women knew that it was true.

Days later, there she was with the group looking down on a battle field. Daria's high stone walls held their enemy out, but the black uniformed army didn't appear willing to wait to see if they could survive a siege. They fought with greater numbers and, as she watched, Xerese feared that the brotherhood's army also had another advantage.

Magic lashed out killing the soldiers in blue. More magic sought to protect the men, but there appeared to be fewer wizards on the side of the Tseult army. If she had to guess there were at least twice as many wizards attacking from the walls or from behind the rows of men in black.

"Can you tell how many wizards the brotherhood's army has versus Tseult's wizards?"

"They outnumber Tseult's wizards worse than the numbers of soldiers," Quela answered standing as she held the reins of her horse as the wizard looked over the battlefield below them.

"How is that possible? Did so many join the brotherhood because of the attacks on the temples?"

No one could answer such a thing for her. No one knew the situation in the city. They had all come from other places to the east with enough miles between those cities that it would take magic to know what was happening over those distances.

"How did King Tylus manage to respond to the change in the cities so fast, is what I wonder," Toman muttered standing between the women.

Quela looked at the larger man and Xerese thought she saw a softening of her expression, but the wizard answered, "There is magic that can be used to contact distant cities. It is an uncommon skill; but if the wizards in Daria sent out a notice to Tristan before it fell to the brother's control, the king might know of it already."

"There is also a military fort west of Daria," Nico countered the woman from where he stood watching the battle. "It is likely that someone got a message to them about the rebellion."

The observers stood watching for awhile longer before Xerese stated, "Well, I guess this settles whether we should try going to Daria or just pushing past it."

Before she could urge the others to pack into the carriage or use the horses to leave the drivers to return to Marta, a loud rumble echoed from the city walls all the way out to the hill where they watched. Their eyes returned to the battle field where much of the Tseulty army fell to the ground even as it rippled and broke beneath them. Horses and men alike were affected on the western side of the fighting by the churning earth.

She heard Oywen gasp and Quela stiffened at the sight.

"What? What was that?" Xerese demanded trying to understand. While she knew that a powerful magic spell had been used, the girl didn't understand why the wizards reacted in such a way.

"That was the work of just one wizard, I believe," Quela said unable to turn away from the battle. "His or her power couldn't even be sensed one moment, but then it struck out of nowhere."

Oywen nodded, but before the woman could think to add her opinion something new happened. Even from the hill roughly a mile away, Xerese could feel fear. It wasn't natural. She couldn't be afraid of what was happening because she had yet to comprehend anything that could make her fearful; yet now the girl felt ready to run away in panic. Everyone seemed to take a step back as one.

"What was that? Why am I so afraid?" she asked and her voice seemed to snap most of them out of the strange panic in the air.

They still watched the battle field, but the fight was over on one side. Men in blue armor ran dropping weapons and throwing aside armor that slowed them too much. Some of the soldiers couldn't even run and dropped to the ground too frightened to move.

To her surprise, the men serving the brotherhood didn't rush in to finish their enemy off. Those who remained of the Tseult army that didn't run were left alone and the injured from both sides were soon tended to by healers walking out from the city.

A new emotion tugged at her. From fear Xerese felt like she was being drawn to something or someone down below. Most of her group actually took a step towards the city.

"What kind of magic are they using down there? One moment I am so afraid that I am ready to run away and now I want to...," the girl wasn't quite certain how to explain the new feeling.

"That powerful wizard is using coercion magic, the magic of the mind," Oywen stated with a frown. "Luckily only a small fraction of wizards get that power to use, but unfortunately if there is someone this strong in it there might not be any wizards strong enough to stop him from using that power also."

Xerese thought of the conversations with Annalicia about the wizards of Southwall. During the tournament certain factions among the Southwall wizards didn't participate. They had healers who were no good at duels, but they served as either shielding wizards to protect the individuals fighting or as medical teams if someone did get hurt.

Another group wore black robes with silver trimming. Several of those were in charge of running the tournament. The wizards they met called them diplomat wizards, because they used magic that could affect people's minds. Their spells were too hard to gauge in a duel and too devious to be countered by most, so they could only join the tournament if they set aside their most natural of skills.

"Southwall had specialist wizards who only used magic like that," she stated sounding informed, but realized that the information didn't really matter at all. They could feel this wizard's power and understood what it could do. At a mile away, the magic was enough to affect them. At close range, she would be joining the soldiers of Tseult who had begun to turn to face a man dressed in red robes as he walked through the center of the brotherhood's army.

Men who had been trying to kill the brotherhood one moment began to bow to this man and Xerese was suddenly afraid for a different reason.

Some of those who had given in to fear and run started straggling back unable to stop their feet from bringing them back to the wizard. His power would make men serve him, she thought.

"Is something like this permanent?" she worried and hoped the women could answer her question.

The two wizards looked at each other uncertainly a moment before shrugging. Quela answered for the two of them, "Normally the spell will wear off eventually from what I have heard, but I have never heard of a wizard this powerful using this magic. Maybe if he remains near them, he can keep renewing the effect of the spell."