Battle Mage Visions (A Tale of Alus Book 12) (18 page)

"But that doesn't explain you running around in bare feet. It is cold even inside this mountain. Doesn't it bother you?"

Shrugging, Evie replied, "Not really. I do try to dress up a little more when I join Lord Garosh and the other warlocks, but it just gets in the way when I am out scouting."

Rilena's eyes went to Garosh almost scolding him for letting the girl return to her feral ways. The giant shrugged giving her an apologetic smile.

"We're going to Hala," he said drawing Evie's attention. "Do you want to come?"

Eyes widening with surprise and joy, the red head nodded swiftly sending her unkempt tresses into a frenzy creating a billowing cloud of red hair. "Of course, sir, how soon are you leaving?"

"In an hour or so, get some clothes so you don't embarrass Rilena," he chuckled knowing that the changeling was a handful and that getting her to conform to civilized standards had been a chore for her friends in Southwall. The girl had snuck away to follow Rilena and been like a little sister following her or Sebastian for a couple months.

"Ok, I'll be right back. Don't leave without me!" Evie cried out running for the door before she had even finished what she was saying.

Garosh shook his head at the vacated door and stated, "You did your best, but when she's here with the other shape changers, nature seems to take her over making Evie into a little animal."

"You could make her dress properly, you know 'Lord Garosh'," the mage stated with a frown for the giant.

His eyes looked at her with amusement. She had never bothered to call him lord while she had known the man. Their start hadn't been one to garner any love for the leader of his people, and once Rilena realized that he was someone she did like, titles made little sense.

"Yes, Falcon Rilena, I probably could, but at least she usually tries when Evie joins us for dinner or a night's entertainment," the man replied.

"The goblins and orcs still try to play their instruments and sing?" Rilena asked giving an exaggerated shiver of disgust. There were few women currently inside the fortress and few areas large enough inside for parties like most castles had. Even White Hall had a large dining area that was converted each night for dancing.

Living under the emperor's thumb made it harder for communities to join together in celebration, but the monsters of his cities seemed to have their ways. Unfortunately human ears didn't really appreciate the croaking orc songs or shrill singing of a goblin. She had yet to hear one of either of their races with a voice that the woman would pay to hear.

"They try," the giant answered with a weaker smile that said he apologized for the nights forced to sit through a dozen bawdy songs when the falcon had been stuck in his fortress.

Elias interrupted and noted the warlocks being standoffish behind the giant. "I had heard that many of your warlocks had been killed. Even when grandfather was here, you seemed a bit short on staff. Has that changed?"

Rilena's eyes looked at the men letting her ability to see auras cause her eyes to glow. There was a similarity among their magic that was strange. Garosh and the other men all seemed to share a familiarity in the color of their auras.

"We have managed to find a few more to join us," Garosh said suddenly looking a bit elusive. It was a quick change from his earlier joking greeting and his charming attempts to make her laugh from a moment ago. "Not everyone in the emperor's camp has been happy to continue following him. His strange actions over the last few years have made it easier to find people unhappy with the direction of his empire."

Rilena thought that she knew all these men and didn't remember this odd familiarity or blending of auras from when she had been here. Maybe she just hadn't noticed, but the mage was almost certain of it.

Looking closer at Garosh, the woman remembered feeling his aura when she had returned through Darius's portal. The giant had felt thin and just a shell of his self from before the assassination attempt. She had been told by Garosh that the Dark One had taken back the power given him at birth. It was borrowed power then and the magic had never felt right. When she had returned, his aura had felt almost as weak as a battle mage in comparison.

Now Rilena thought that the giant felt stronger. Like the other warlocks in the room, Garosh felt as powerful as the other men. It was like they had been linked to share their power, but the battle mage knew too little of wizard or warlock magic to know if such a thing could be done.

They would be no match for the emperor's power individually, but as a group maybe they could stand against him for a time.

She didn't want to grill Garosh for the answer, especially in front of Elias; but the question lingered even after they left the fortress. After almost an hour, the lord had settled Verian on the tasks for the next few days and the small group returned to the store room. Cutting his fingers, Garosh used blood magic to increase his strength enough to reopen the gate to White Hall. The wizards there would send them to Hala without requiring a blood sacrifice.

After another long day dealing with the Red Hall wizards, Sebastian was ready for a little relaxation, but before dinner time came he was interrupted as he sat in the inn's dining area. Ashleen noticed the newest visitors first and called out, "Rilena, over here."

The wilder waved over her friend before noticing those following the battle mage. In the shadow of the woman, she noticed a flash of red hair before the young changeling popped into view. Evie came around her friend grinning at Sebastian and Ashleen. She considered them like family since the girl had no known relatives, even north of the wall.

Standing up at the sight, Sebastian's eyes went wide as the doorway darkened with a massive shadow. Garosh ducked as he entered though the mage estimated that the giant had a couple inches of clearance. It was probably a force of habit for the man who was close to seven foot tall.

"Garosh?" the man questioned his eyes in such shock that he nearly sat back down again.

Nodding towards the mage, Garosh greeted him. "Hello again, Sebastian, I hope the world has been good to you since last we met."

It had been months since he had seen the giant and back then they had been enemies. While he had heard from Rilena and Elzen that the man had surrendered to join with Southwall turning against his master, it was another thing to see the man walk into the inn as if nothing had happened so long ago.

While Garosh had threatened and even hurt Rilena and a pair of wizards after they were captured, Sebastian guessed that he had been sincere in his apologies since then. He had made up for what had occurred as best he could and those he had wronged seemed to have forgiven him. Still it was the mage's first time actually seeing the giant since that trip through the mountains.

A second thing he noticed was the loss of the giant's power. He was still physically large and powerful, but the oppressive aura the mage had felt in the mountain was gone. It had been replaced by something more like a wizard on the weaker side. His aura also seemed... cloudy. The feeling seemed somehow familiar to Sebastian, though he couldn't quite place where he had seen something similar.

"It's had its up and downs, but it goes well enough," the mage answered looking up at the face of the man who also looked a lot like the Grimnal.

Again the man nodded and Sebastian noted a small group of men with the auras of warlocks.

"We've come to speak with your leaders. I guess they have need of something I know about," Garosh said without speaking of the true message they hoped he would bring.

"I know," Sebastian answered. "It was my idea, though I hadn't expected to see you here even so."

"Though we were invited, I guess that those who wish to speak found themselves too busy today. It will be an early morning meeting, but that gives us a little time to see the city, I suppose."

Ashleen's forehead wrinkled as she countered, "You want to see the city, yet you've come to a tavern in an inn."

Rolling his eyes, Garosh replied, "It's cold. We've been inside so much that I forgot just how cold the north gets."

Evie nearly danced on her tiptoes as she moved to Sebastian and Ashleen giving them hugs. Her state of dress was much more civilized, though Rilena had made the girl change once before they went through the portal. The red head grinned at Garosh and his complaint.

"It's just as cold in the mountains. You just hide in your rooms. If you joined me outside to run in the snow, you wouldn't have that problem."

The group moved to a pair of tables off to the side. Sebastian and the girls took their mugs of warmed cider that were already cooling. Garosh's warlocks took one table while Rilena, Evie and Garosh joined the three who had already been there.

Sebastian felt for the giant's chair as he sat. If the man had been fat, the mage doubted that it would have held his weight. Creaking and moaning, the wood told of the torture.

"Do you need a set of rooms for the night?" Sebastian asked remaining on the more mundane. The mage tried to set aside the feelings of dislike remaining from last winter as he realized that he had been the least harmed and should have the least to put aside. If Rilena could forgive him, then he should as well.

"I suppose we will," the giant answered. "I wonder if the gold we carry will spend properly without finding a way to convert it?"

"I can cover the cost for a night," Sebastian offered. "The castle will probably pay for it anyway. You are essentially a foreign ambassador and here on business for the king, so it shouldn't be a problem for them."

Garosh looked slightly relieved. The idea of hunting down a coin changer in the cold wasn't something to look forward to and having to change currency brought from Ensolus would have been hard to explain.

With the thought put into his head, the giant soon moved to the inn keeper's counter deeper within the room. Madame Hilda looked up at the man somewhat in shock, but took his order while the others waited.

"It is strange seeing him again," Sebastian had to say aloud after keeping the thought locked away the whole time.

Rilena nodded and added, "It was harder for me the first time. We were bringing him back from the fortress in the column of soldiers when he showed up at the campfire I was at with Elzen..."

The woman looked around briefly and asked, "Where is Elzen? I would have thought his day would have been the easiest and shortest. He only had to run a message to the castle."

"I thought he would have been back by now also. Maybe he ran to the city garrison to check in with our superiors?"

Before Garosh finished at the desk, the door to the inn opened again revealing the very man they were speaking about, but Sebastian felt something else. Once more the light through the door was blocked by a massive figure. Gerid was almost as tall as the other giant, but his new beard and mustache made the immortal look much older. His silver-white hair was that of an old man, but Sebastian knew that after more than a millennium of life, there still were no wrinkles on his face.

The voices in the room settled into a hush as Garosh turned to see the man. Their eyes locked across the room sending the two men towards each other slowly. They moved at a normal pace, Sebastian thought, but he felt the tension had nearly stopped time.

Gray eyes met brown, but more than just their size rang familiar. Meeting on Garosh's side of the room, the giant greeted the immortal saying, "You must be the one called Grimnal."

"My name is Gerid Aramathea, or it was before I became so old that my name became synonymous with that castle. I didn't build the thing. It's actually older than I am," he added with words that should have sounded good natured, but both men couldn't help frowning at the other.

"I am Garosh," the taller man replied with a nod. "I believe that we have someone in common."

"Hmmph," Gerid grunted at the thought. "The Dark One might be someone everyone in the north has in common. He stole almost two hundred years from me on that island, but that wasn't the only thing taken from me.

"Everyone who knows you thinks that part of what he stole went into you. Is that possible?"

Noting the eyes on them, Garosh gestured towards the table held by Sebastian and the others. "If that is true, then perhaps we can speak about it while we drink, grandfather."

The last was a common enough greeting for one's elders, but Gerid frowned and retorted, "I think that I'll wait to see if we're that close."

His comment elicited a short laugh from the other man who led the way back to the table.

Sebastian heard both of the giants' chairs complain, but the men ignored them looking at each other with stern looks. With new tension in the air, the mage thought that his long day wasn't going to end.

Chapter 10- Bonds

No one dared interrupt the two men staring at each other. Even Evie seemed to understand that they needed to air out what was unsaid between them. The stillness in the large room remained as men and women ate and drank quietly.

It was Garosh who broke the silence and said, "I was born a young man birthed from a large glass chamber. The emperor's magic was sent into me and some of his knowledge. While I can't say that I was given specific knowledge of how I was created, I do know that his warlocks had tried many things to create a body for him to transfer into.