Battle Mage Visions (A Tale of Alus Book 12) (19 page)

"The emperor might be extremely long lived, but he isn't immortal like they say you are."

Grunting with a little satisfaction, Gerid replied, "I don't know that anyone is truly immortal, but I have lived long enough to wonder when it might all end. At least, we have one edge over that bastard warlock.

"If you were some test for finding a way to cheat death, then why did he give you life and not use you?"

"I witnessed several test subjects that came after me," the younger man said skirting the answer as he sought to give more insight into the matter. "The others he tested held less power than he imbued into me and most burned out often before they could leave the chamber. Kolban knew what he was seeking and usually destroyed the bodies that he found inferior. His warlocks continued on and kept working off what they had tried before to make bodies worthy of the emperor."

Gerid frowned as he noticed the avoidance of the answer to his question. "But why did he let you out of the chamber? I am guessing that you were flawed or you wouldn't be here... or would be him, I suppose?"

Nodding to the silver haired man next to him, he replied, "Some of the paths chosen were to take specimens from subjects of strength or magical power. While I never went to your island prison, I do know of it. You weren't just left on the island without seeing any of the emperor's men."

Another grunt, one of disgust, made the hairs of the Grimnal's mustache shift angrily. "Over two hundred years, I only saw a few black ships. They had threatened the remnants of my crew to secure me, but I think that his warlocks and soldiers were still afraid that I would decide to fight back. A couple of his most powerful warlocks bound me and anyone close enough to me by blood to that island using barriers. No one could break through to destroy them, so I sat until Sebastian came with his magic."

Gerid noted Sebastian's former girlfriend, a healer, was not with him and chose to avoid speaking of her involvement in breaking the magic holding him on the island. "The few that did come would have their men hold my people at spear point to keep me from choosing to fight back, the cowards. If I couldn't break free and my family was stuck there, I had little reason to fight. I was trapped, so when they came with needles or used their knives to cut away at my flesh, I did nothing.

"I think many of the emperor's men chose the most painful ways that they could think of to get their samples, but once they were done I healed. They only came a couple times to do that though, but you were talking about a chamber and what they made there?" he finished suggesting Garosh continue.

Giving him another nod, the giant went on. "From what I have been able to learn of the experiments, some warlocks thought that the answer wasn't necessarily using a subject who could use magic; but someone who could resist it equally. You are known for your resistance to spells not just your ability to heal and long life.

"Added together, they hoped that maybe making a clone of you and imbuing that with the magic of the emperor would be the solution. It was a failure, but I am pretty sure that I am the result of all those trials."

Gerid's face remained a blank slate as Garosh finished. The brown eyes of the younger man probed his elder with both questions and a degree of hope, Sebastian thought as he watched the exchange.

"So now what?" the immortal asked with a face as still as stone, "Am I supposed to welcome you like you're my lost son?"

Darkness dropped across Garosh at the man's words and he said, "I didn't come looking for you as a father. You asked if I thought that I was related to you. That is my belief, but I also haven't known you my whole life. The closest family I have tried to kill me because I wasn't good enough for him. Of course, being good enough, I still would have been killed.

"Whether you welcome me as family or not, it seems like we are that in some sort of way."

The immortal pointed to a pair of girls sitting with his guards. "Those are my granddaughters. They are family, but I am not so certain that something given life by the dark bastard makes you one of mine. Even King Alain can trace his ancestry to mine making him more family than something made in a jar."

Sebastian expected Garosh to grow angry, yet he sighed. "I don't expect you to feel any tie to me. I don't know you as anything more than a name. Kolban hated you for a time for helping imprison him. He used to believe that you and your people had no business interfering with his old world. He brought down the Cataclysm and then killed thousands more with his armies.

"You are bound to hate something with part of him inside as well. If it makes you feel better, Kolban came for me and took all his magic from me. What memories I have aren't of a life as someone I am not, but I am not going to fight to make you believe anything more than you want, sir."

Gerid listened to the man and didn't appear to register anything. He didn't reveal hatred or love or anything in between as far as the mage could tell. Sebastian believed that he was good at reading people, but the immortal had even him stumped.

When the man looked at him, it was another question that he wished answered, "Elzen said that you could send me home and retrieve me any time you wish using magic now. Is that offer still open?"

The mage nodded. "I have an anchor there. It wouldn't be hard to open a gate to send you back. I can open one any time you wish to return just as simply."

"Good, my granddaughters miss their parents and I would like to see Sherari again. I don't know how many years I will have left with her, but I do know from my life that they are always too few."

"When do you wish to go?"

"I was going to ask to leave tonight." The immortal looked at Garosh and asked, "When is your business here going to be resolved?"

A look of surprise crossed the younger man's face and he answered after a moment's hesitation, "I am not certain, but I have a meeting tomorrow morning. Depending on what all they need of me, I might be done tomorrow some time."

"Good, then send a messenger to find me when you are done. If you can't do it yourself, have one of these kids do it for you. They always seem capable of finding me, even when I am living on an uncharted island," he added glancing at Sebastian to reveal a glint of humor. "You will join me as my guest. If you ever expect me to think of you as family, then I guess I will need to get to know you."

Garosh's nod was very slow in its movement and he replied simply, "Yes, sir."

It wasn't the result that Sebastian had foreseen, but he had to add, "I can put off heading to Red Hall until I send you home, but I can't wait too long. I am supposed to go there in the morning."

"You can stall?" Gerid questioned without any worry over the possibility.

"Sure," the mage replied thinking that he would prefer putting off the trip for awhile anyway. He had finally found a little break in his schedule to rest, but now he was being ordered to leave for the other school. It wasn't that it was more work, but the mage had gotten spoiled with being able to do his projects as he wanted rather than having to follow someone else's schedule. Still, Gefflen couldn't do much about it if he made them wait and what was another day if it came to that.

The discussions degenerated into the normal talk as the afternoon lengthened into dinner time. Elzen returned from his time at the battle mage headquarters in the city with little to speak of concerning what he had done. The boyish falcon made light of it calling it the 'usual boring stuff', but as he talked Sebastian noticed his eyes on Rilena and Garosh beside her.

Though Sebastian had heard a few things concerning the relationship of the three of them, he still had an unclear idea of whether Elzen wanted to be with Rilena or whether the woman would want to be with him. If he had to guess, Elzen liked her a lot, but had been pushed away after a short period that might be considered romantic by battle mage standards.

Rilena, on the other hand, was harder to read. She still had feelings for Elzen, but put them off as friends or a sibling type relationship; while the woman also appeared to have feelings for the newest arrival. Garosh should have been her enemy, and he had been for a time until they got to know each other better and patched things up. Doubting he could have forgiven so easily, Sebastian decided to stay out of things that he knew little about and was too clueless at his own relationships to give others advice.

Food was eaten and the evening's entertainers found their place on one side of the large room. Tables were cleared and moved to the side as more revelers began to show from the surrounding neighborhoods to dance. It was typical for the Black Smith Inn that tried to keep good musicians on hand to enhance the income from their bar.

Watching Garosh draw Rilena onto the dance floor, Sebastian caught Elzen's disappointed look. It changed quickly as the young mage looked over to see Gerid's granddaughters. Sisters, the two looked similar. While Elien was older by just a few years, her hair remained blonde though it had darkened as the winter lengthened. She was pretty, like her younger sister Melura, who looked very much like her older sister save that her hair had a touch of red mixed into the blonde. The other major difference was their eyes. Elien had blue eyes like her grandfather's tending towards gray, while Melura's green eyes must have come from her mother's side.

Elzen moved to speak with the girls drawing away Melura first. The young falcon was brazen in his ability to talk with girls and, Sebastian had heard, was also good at dancing. Elien wasn't ignored long. New blood rarely was at the Black Smith and she was a pretty girl besides.

If the other guests had known that the ladies were granddaughters of Gerid, the father to most of the royal lines making up Southwall, Sileoth and Marianis; they would likely have been less daring. The girls didn't act like they were royalty after being born and raised on the distant island on the far side of the North Sea either. They had been more like granddaughters of a village mayor, still desirable to those looking to seek favor with the immortal; but there was less of a distance between Gerid and the rest of those on the island. They were all like family there.

Of course, the giant also gave the girls a little distance to socialize. If he hadn't, it wouldn't have mattered what royal lineage they had. Few men would wish to make a move on the giant's kin, since there were few men that would believe that they could stand against him if he disapproved. Sebastian almost laughed at the thought, however. No normal man could face the immortal giant, whose strength was even greater than one might suspect just from his size.

"What are you thinking about now?" Ashleen asked catching the amusement in the mage's eyes as they readied to get up and dance.

The wilder was a vision as usual in one of her dresses that looked likely made for a lesser noblewoman. Her family had money and an account in the city's bank even this far away from Kardor. Ashleen had always skirted talk about her family, but Sebastian wasn't stupid. The son of a farmer and now a battle mage, if they were in Kardor he probably wouldn't be considered good enough for the girl. Most fathers thought that anyway, just thinking of his father's protective nature for his daughters.

In a blue dress that was more Southwall in design, Ashleen's blue eyes were questioning still.

"Oh, I was just thinking that Elien and Melura would have a hard time finding men to dance with if the men knew who their grandfather was."

Giving him a little nod to the side as the thought sunk in, Ashleen replied, "Yes, I could see that being a problem. More importantly, if anyone doesn't treat them right; I wouldn't give their chances of walking in the future a lot of credibility either. The Grimnal is supposed to be incredibly strong and was a fierce warrior before he landed in the nobility of... whatever that country was that Hala once led."

"Marshalla," Sebastian said with a nod and extended his hand pulling his beautiful girlfriend onto the dance floor. A slower song let them hold each other closer. His eyes looked to Gerid, who looked a bit scarier as he sat with his men watching his granddaughters dancing a little closer than he approved of apparently. "He's stronger than he should be," Sebastian said thinking back to the battle for the island where he stood at the Grimnal's side to drive back the greater numbers of the Dark One. "Maybe it has something to do with whatever makes him immortal?"

"Darius isn't unusually big and strong," Ashleen countered using the only other immortal that they had ever met. Meeting one was virtually unheard of, but they knew two of the greatest names in the history of Alus.

"He's one of the greatest wizards in history," he replied implying that might be his unique gift.

"He's that great because he is hundreds of years old and has had that time to learn more magic than anyone, except maybe the Dark One. His magical strength is above average, but he isn't the most powerful wizard that I've ever seen.

"Gerid's strength might just be a special gift from the gods."

It was a rare mention of the gods. Most men of the north could rattle off the names of several from the histories brought from Taltan, but it seemed like less and less believed in the old gods. Their names remained on the moons and Alus was named for an elder god as well. Some of the stars and constellations took other godly names, but beyond that there were few places in Southwall which were set aside to worship them. A newer belief in gods without names had become more popular. The peasants believed that they were the ones who had gifted the wizards with magic and the wizards never bothered to say otherwise since no one truly knew where their words of power had come from originally.

"You believe in the old gods?" he questioned with a bit of surprise.

The girl shrugged in his hold without disrupting their movements. "There must be something or someone that has made everything and kept it running for all this time. It is obvious that men can't seem to be behind it all, since they can't get along long enough to accomplish anything as great as the nature around us."

"You know that the popular belief is that most of the gods were actually like the immortals we still know now."

"Maybe we should ask Darius and Gerid if they have ever met one of these gods?" she asked with a grin. "I mean they are old enough to be given god status as well. The Grimnal legend almost is. If you hadn't found him, who knows whether our descendants would have given him godhood?"

"I'm the son of a farmer. Talk of gods came second to taking care of the farm to make sure that there would be food for the table and things to sell in the market," Sebastian replied hoping to end the subject. He was too practical to believe easily. There would have to be stronger signs for him to believe in true gods or a single god even. Though he did have to admit that Ashleen was likely correct that there must have been something to keep this world moving forward since the wars of man would be more likely to destroy it instead.

Feeling his discomfort, Ashleen looked around his shoulder and said, "Elzen might need to call on a god at the rate he is going. I can't believe that he asked Melura to the dance floor knowing who her grandfather is."

"He's always been brave to the point of foolhardy. Some probably would stop at the word fool, but he's been a good friend to me so I always like to look on the bright side. Still his stunts at White Hall and teasing girls have nearly ended his life a few times," he finished with a laugh.

When three songs had ended, the couple noticed Elzen switch from Melura to Elien. The younger girl actually sat beside her grandfather looking to need a break from dancing more than the boy based on how her eyes followed him with her sister.

Other men wanted to try and break in for Ashleen's attention too, but most of the crowd knew that the two would rarely let that happen. There were women around his age that might have wished to dance with the owl also, since he was considered a good dancer. As the night progressed, they took a break and Sebastian was surprised when Rilena grabbed his hand to draw him back onto the floor.

"What's wrong?" he asked feeling the tension in the young woman. They were close friends. He had known her for a little over a year and might have chosen to date her while at Falcon's Keep had he not still been in love with Yara at the time. Friendship suited them well, however, and since he had moved on to Ashleen after a time, Rilena still looked at him as a safe ear to bend.

"Garosh always makes me... unsure of myself, I guess," the dark haired mage admitted tucking her head onto his shoulder. It was one of the slower dances again, one that would have been better to spend with Ashleen instead.

He looked across the dance floor to see Ashleen sitting with Melura talking in the shadow of Gerid and most of his men. A few had dared to try dancing, but he had a feeling that most of them were unsure since they hadn't been raised in Southwall. Their dancing had looked quite different to Sebastian. He had seen other differences between his people and theirs as well, but that one was easy to make out.

"Why is that?" the man asked knowing it was his job to help her work through whatever was bugging his friend.

"I know that I should probably hate him for what happened last winter and he is probably too old to think that he would have feelings for me anyway, but sometimes I wonder," she confided before lifting her head off of his shoulder. "Then there's Elzen. I know that he still likes me, but I just can't see being with him that way."

"What way? You kiss him and think that he's like your brother?"

She shook her head with an amused smile and her eyes seemed to fog with the thought. "No, I have to admit that he was a good kisser."

Making a face at the idea of his friends kissing, Sebastian ammended, "Forget that I said anything then."

Her laughter was genuine as his joking shook her out of her brooding. Rilena's brown eyes met his looking happy again and she continued, "Fine, you can forget about it; but seriously Elzen is just too frustrating. He's a tease, but can be nice and tender too. He can be serious one minute and then turn around acting like everything is a joke.

"How can a girl take him seriously as something more than a friend or little brother?"

"Did you see him that way before you kissed him?"

"I thought that you wanted to forget about that," she joked in his ear as Rilena placed her chin on his shoulder again. With the sound of music and the crowd around them, the woman could speak at a normal level without everyone listening to their conversation.

"You knew him before you started to feel something for him, correct?" Sebastian said directing their conversation past that point.

"You know that we met on the way to the fortress. We fought together and he helped save me more than once. It was almost like having you there, Bas. He can heal and knew most of your spells. Elzen can really fight too.

"He's a bit young, but I saw him take charge of wizards and mages older than him a few times to help hold the line. Without some of Elzen's leading during that fight, we might have lost a lot more soldiers including mages and wizards."

"Then he'll do something juvenile like throwing frogs into the women's bathhouse just to see how many will run out into the hall naked in their fright," Sebastian said thinking of at least one circumstance where the boy had gotten himself into trouble.

"Exactly," Rilena answered with a nod. "Then there's Garosh. He's a bit older, and he was cruel when we were captured. I don't know that he was any worse than we would have been if we had caught spies on this side of the wall; but it was hard to get over seeing him as that cruel torturer. If you hadn't saved us so quickly, I could probably never look on him as anything but a monster.

"He tortured Nereith and I just to try to get Druick to give up any secrets that he thought the wizard had. That would have lasted days, if you hadn't shown up. I still can't believe that you managed to get us out of that fortress."

"I can't take all the credit. Druick's magic was able to make our escape. I only managed to distract them long enough to free you all to fight."

"Anyway," Rilena continued ignoring the mage's modesty, "you can see my problem."

"Sort of," was the reply, though he wasn't exactly certain. "Are you saying that you are more interested in him than Elzen or are you trying to figure out if you are interested in either of them? We battle mages tend to be a bit guarded about falling in love, if that's even close to what you are thinking. Maybe that's the problem?"

Pulling back slightly, Rilena looked at him as if he was incompetent. "You can't really see it at all can you? Maybe I should have talked to Ashleen about this? You might be like a brother to me, but I suppose he wouldn't understand either.

"I miss Teven and Zerra. They were better at talking about boys," she finished with a smile that said she couldn't fault him for trying.

"Yeah, well I have enough trouble figuring out girls or women or whatever they decide to call themselves at any point during the day or night," he said ruefully.

Rilena was in position to see Ashleen, who wasn't even looking over at the pair as they danced. The mage was pretty certain that the wilder wasn't threatened by her at all. She had heard from Sebastian about how hard the wizard had pressed to win him over. It hadn't even been because he wasn't interested as much as he had been conflicted.

"Ashleen's a better choice for you, I think," she admitted. "She makes more sense than a healer. I think this one would fight by your side any time that you'd let her."

"Well, Yara was strong enough for a healer. She was in quite a few fights as well, though usually to back me up. We did have a lot in common too, but maybe you're right. Ashleen was hard to resist from the moment I met her."

A small laugh preceded her retort, "You're too loyal to just give up on someone. Though I doubt we would have been right for each other as more than friends, you didn't even try to see me or any of the other women at Falcon's Keep in a romantic way. Of course, that made it easier for me to like you. Sometimes it's just better to have a friend than a boyfriend.

"Which leads us back to my problem, I guess."

It was Sebastian's turn to laugh at her distress. "I would try to give you advice, but we already covered that I am useless. As much as I would like to solve this for you, I can only listen. Ultimately, it will always come down to what your heart says to you."

"Yeah, you are useless, Bas," the woman replied with a bright, little laugh.

Chapter 11- Sentries

Standing in the cold air waiting for the others to join him, Sebastian waited with Ashleen, Serrena, Elzen and Rilena. They had received word from Garosh that he was through giving King Alain's committee as much information as he could remember about Ensolus and the emperor's castle. Much of it was redundant to the reports sent back from Captain Drayden, but once they had spoken of anything within the walls of the emperor's fortress they were covering new ground. It was information that could be given to the captain and his spies to perhaps use to find out more than they had before as well.