White Hall (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 10) (3 page)

“Most of me is, Ardost,” the girl replied with a slight look of displeasure as her rear reminded Katya with each step that it was not pleased at all. “I hope that Darius plans to stop soon. If this town doesn’t have an inn, they’re going to need to make one or I’m just going to lie down on the first comfortable place I see.”

Laughing at the little blond haired girl on her horse, Ardost stated, “I think that you are in luck. This should be Delanne. We stayed here on the way to Hala.”

A bigger man riding before them turned to look at Katya and shook his head, saying, “Is she complaining about saddle soreness again? You’re the youngest one of us, Katya. Surely you can’t be the first one to wear out.”

Next to the second battle mage, a man in the light blue of an air wizard rode along trying to ignore their banter.

“Just ‘cus I’m younger than you old men, doesn’t mean sitting on this beast doesn’t hurt after a few hours. If Darius wasn’t such a slave driver, we could stop more often and maybe I wouldn’t be so sore.”

Hearing his name called, a silver haired wizard from the group of four men dressed in green and brown looked back to the girl and her protectors. High Wizard Darius led a group of wizards from a country across the ocean far to the south of North Continent where Southwall was located. When Southwall’s King Alain sent out invitations to most of the world’s wizards to join a competition of duels, Eirdhen had sent four wizards under the grand wizard’s supervision.

“The quicker we ride, the sooner the trip will be over. White Hall is still several days’ ride beyond this town according to the map. Which do you prefer, less days riding or more hours spent each day, Katya?”

Rubbing her rear just above the area affected, though the pain was beginning to work up her back a bit more each mile; Katya pouted and replied, “I wish my brother was here. At least he and Yara could relieve saddle sores at each stop.”

Ardost smiled apologetically even as Darius turned back to the road ahead with a little chuckle at the girl’s expense. “Unfortunately, Vord and I never were able to learn how to heal. That was your brother’s special skill. Almost no other mage has been able to do any of that magic so far.”

Again the young girl sighed and tried to deal with the next few miles on her horse before entering the town.

“More wizards?” the inn keeper of the Traveler’s Rest questioned with a surprised smile on his face as Darius stepped up to start the process of procuring rooms from the man.

Katya noticed a table full of people with colorful clothing, though each mainly wore a particular solid color, with red being the most common. She recognized one man in particular as the blond haired wizard who had won the Winter’s Edge tournament. He sat comfortably watching the procession of the newest travelers into the inn. Four others sat around their table barely paying them any mind as they sat drinking and eating what looked like a snack rather than a true meal. It was still early enough that dinner was likely meant to be served an hour or two later, if the girl judged the sun correctly.

“Well, the tournament is over,” Darius replied with a polite smile to the inn keeper. No one would know if the wizard was dissatisfied with being lumped with the other groups traveling through Delanne with such a look. “Since Hala is on the east coast, most wizards will have to travel this way to return to the west, I would assume.”

The inn keeper looked to muse on the idea, but quickly shook his head. “I don’t know about that. Delanne is far enough south that some will take the northern route past Norcrom to Blackwall and maybe even Windmeer. Red Hall and Cadmera, if that town bothered to send anyone, might turn south sooner; but I guess that you never know with wizards.”

Brenner, also a wizard, tried to cut the man’s idle chatting short adding, “It is still deep enough into winter that snow covers much of the northern route. You should see most of the guardian cities’ wizards returning through here, if you already haven’t. The celebrations ended several days ago after all.”

With a voice that held little positive emotion, Brenner hid little of the fact that he wasn’t overly happy with his role on this trip. A former sparring partner for the team from Windmeer led by her brother, the lone battle mage to join the wizards’ duels; Brenner had felt saddled with Katya and the leadership of their small group returning to Windmeer via White Hall, though it had been his decision to do that favor for Sebastian. The school was Katya’s final destination, since she was going to be a novice wizard training there; and he been asked to take her there, since the girl knew him as well as the two battle mages with them.

Luckily for the air wizard, Darius had been available to come along as well. In fact, his presence was actually quite necessary since the high wizard’s magic held Katya’s burgeoning powers in check. It was a good thing for everyone around her since the girl’s strength in coercion magic was quite powerful and beyond her control in the least. Her emotions were tied to her magic and losing any control of those could mean turning people into a nearly zombie like state that the girl couldn’t direct with any skill at all. She was on the brink of becoming what most people feared with magic, a wilder.

“We will need a room for the girl by herself and enough beds for seven men,” Darius stated.

Katya was the only female and had been feeling singled out from that as much as her age for the last two days, though the others tried to treat her warmly. Still they were all at least twice the girl’s age, and knew little of how to deal with teenage girls, she thought.

“No brother or father along this trip, young lady?” the man asked as his eyes strayed to a table with just two others sitting there. “Some people will say anything, even if they look completely different from each other.”

The second statement was muttered, but the man wasn’t quiet enough and everyone near the counter easily heard the man’s snide comment obviously intended for the two in his sights.

Katya looked at the two, who seemed to be earning the inn keeper’s judgment. Delanne, like the town of Mera nearest her home, held a tight moral code and inns didn’t rent rooms just so couples could sneak away to be together. Of course, they couldn’t exactly police every customer’s word and money spent was still money earned.

Examining the pretty, little, blonde haired girl, who seemed close to Katya’s age, and the hulking dark haired giant beside her, she could see why he wouldn’t believe that they were siblings. Of course, the early teen didn’t notice any of the chemistry that usually gave away more amorous intentions either. Her brother, Sebastian, gave away those intentions with his healer girlfriend during their trip to Hala, even though both had tried to deny it at first.

Darius was speaking with the man behind the counter and Katya’s attention returned to him as the inn keeper said, “We have a single room, but is she old enough to be trusted by herself?”

Frowning at the man, Katya really wanted to ask if she looked like someone who couldn’t take care of herself; but it wasn’t exactly surprising either. She was just thirteen and didn’t look particularly old for her age, though the older boys in Mera had been interested in her looks for at least a year now when she visited the small town.

“She will be fine,” Darius assured the man as the inn keeper placed three keys on the counter.

“If you men don’t mind sharing beds, I have two rooms with two double beds in each. I can rent a few more, if you can’t get along,” he added with a sarcastic smile.

“I’m sure we can survive,” Darius nodded taking two of the keys before passing the last to Brenner.

Katya was led to her room by Darius, while he let his grandson Elias open the shared room for the men to stow their bags. The girl had a couple bags, though her brother had told her that she wouldn’t need a lot of clothes for White Hall. Once she was accepted to the school, Katya would become a novice. Southwall clothed their wizards, soldiers and mages as well as offered a stipend to their families for the inconvenience of taking their children away to put them into service. Until she was twenty one, the girl would be given a nominal allowance to use for herself, but the rest would go to her family as her brother’s service had been paid to her father for the last several years.

Some of the clothes in her bag were paid for by that stipend after her father gave Sebastian half of the money back when he took her away to see the tournament. Her power had already gone out of control in a smaller way then and scared her parents into letting her brother take her away, but her father refused to make her a burden and had returned much of his son’s money back to him to pay her way.

The room was surprisingly small as she followed Darius inside. A full size bed that could hold two people occupied much of the space with just one side table and an armoire for the remaining furniture. Even those few pieces filled the room close to the point of feeling crowded.

“It isn’t large, but it is just for one night,” the silver haired wizard stated with a smile. To look at Darius, one might think he was old thanks to the color of his hair. Katya looked at his face seeing no lines of age; but the wizard wasn’t young, or using his magic to continue to look youthful. According to her brother and the others with him, Darius was in fact one of a rare group of men known as immortals.

While Darius had assured them that the word was an exaggeration, he was close to seven hundred years old.

“It’s bigger than my room back home,” Katya judged the space as she placed one pack on the bed and Darius dropped the other beside the armoire.

Darius looked at the girl and she felt like he was doing more than giving her a simple glance. She thought that his eyes seemed to glow a bit and the wizard closed the door.

“I had better check the seal on your magic again. It has been two days, and I need to make sure the spell is holding properly,” he informed the girl.

It wasn’t exactly news to her. Darius had been forced to shut down her magical abilities after an incident only a few days ago. She had lost control and her magic had made more than thirty men and women suddenly attack her brother and her, simply because she hadn’t wanted to be left behind and had become upset enough that her magic had lashed out. Even wizards and battle mages weren’t safe. Only her brother had managed to slip his mind free with a spell before she could affect him as well.

Then Darius had come to their rescue shutting off her power until only a little trickle was allowed to exist outside of the spell’s control.

His hands were placed on either of her temples as he felt for his magic. Darius was so skilled that he was still able to carry a conversation meant to ease the girl as he worked. “We want to make sure to leave your magic a little room to breathe, but not so much that we have a repeat of the other day. Once we get you to White Hall, I believe that they will assign a specific mentor to maintain the controls until you get the hang of it all.”

“So you all tell me,” the girl replied with a roll of her eyes towards the door. Katya hoped to be able to go downstairs. While she was enjoying standing which kept the pain of her rear a little at bay, the girl wanted to go speak to the fire wizard she had recognized. It wasn’t hard to believe that she would know him by sight, since Magnus was the wizard who had won the tournament and had been in parades and celebrations near her for several days.

Darius gave a sympathetic smile to the girl despite her sarcasm. “I’m sorry, but sometimes that is how it has to be.

“You are a remarkably powerful young wizard, but you have no control and if your particular abilities get out of hand...”

“...other people will suffer. I understand, Master Darius. I still wish you or one of the other wizards could have started training me so I could be free of this spell.” Scrunching up her face as the man released her from his touch, she added, “I feel kind of like I have a cold and it is annoying. You know how you get stuffed up in the nose and there is a pressure that seems to push back into your eyes when you are sick? It kind of feels like that.”

Chuckling at her comparison, the silver haired man shook his head and admitted, “Unfortunately, I really can’t say that I know that feeling. I can’t remember ever being sick, though I thought I was as a child. Being nearly seven hundred years old, that was so long ago that I can’t remember that very well either, of course.”

“Immortals never get sick either?” the girl asked in surprise.

Shrugging in return, he answered, “Since I officially discovered that I was immortal, as people call it; I can’t say that I remember any illnesses.”

Katya sighed as she shook her head, even though she felt the stifling magic holding hers in check. “Well, that must be nice.”

He laughed as the wizard reopened the door. His spell was strengthened and holding her power properly, so there was nothing more to worry over for now. Though dinner was likely to be a ways off, most of the team would return to the dining area. If the Traveler’s Rest was like most inns, there was likely to be entertainment in the evening, but until then they were on their own to keep themselves occupied.

“Based off of some of those who have complained about being sick, I think that it is. Now come on, are you hungry yet?”

Judging by the way her stomach felt, Katya thought that she could definitely eat something, even if it was a little bit early.

The two were barely returned to the inn’s dining hall when the blond haired, fire wizard stood and started walking towards Katya and Darius. Wagging a finger while wearing a jokester’s smile, Magnus cocked his head to the side as if he was finishing figuring the girl out. “Don’t I know you? You are too young to have been in the tournament and wear no wizard’s robes, but I think that I know you.”