Battle Mage Visions (A Tale of Alus Book 12) (24 page)

With the largest house, Gerid and his wife often acted like a tavern or inn. Travelers from outside the village or merfolk spending the night might even stay in one of the extra rooms in the large house. Sherari and her daughter, after their initial shock and time of reuniting with their family, began cooking a feast. Melura and Elien joined their mother and grandmother like they had before Sebastian had come to take the Grimnal back to see his descendants in the castle of the same name.

Only the strangeness of Garosh and his men joining them seemed to draw more than casual glances. Sebastian and Serrena had lived among them for over a month, while Ashleen had slept aboard the Kardorian ship but visited often. Rilena and Elzen were more afterthoughts and easily befriended as battle mages had been with him before as well.

The problem of Garosh was explaining why the man was there. They didn't want to cause trouble or alienation by telling Sherari that he was a lost son or a product of the Dark One's meddling either. In the end, Garosh simply said that he had been offered a chance to leave the cold and snow of the north by Gerid and had taken it.

Explaining snow had taken a bit of time until Ashleen had led them out with a grin. "I have a spell that I can use to help show you what snow is. I'm not a water wizard, but luckily I can use air to make it snow with a little water nearby."

Sherari smiled like an older woman humoring a girl. She was a grandmother and had probably heard more than a few foolish things from her children and grandchildren over the years.

"Well, we have plenty of water to work with around here, child. We are on an island after all. If you have the whole ocean at hand, then this spell of yours should be easy enough," the gray haired woman replied with merry, dark blue eyes.

It wasn't until dinner was over, but before any singing and dancing began that the air wizard led the way towards the shoreline.

Looking like she was already adapting to island life, Ashleen had shed her robes and looked like some peasant girl walking on the beach. Her bare feet and legs extended from the cloth shorts she had worn beneath her warm layers of dress. A simple white, sleeveless blouse let the light breeze stirring the air cool her exposed skin.

Sebastian looked at the pretty, young woman with a slight smile as he enjoyed watching her carefree way. He also wondered what spell she would use to create snow and whether it would last long enough for the islanders to get to experience it at all. It was warm like a late spring day just before summer heated the land the last bit to call the weather hot.

"You may want to stand behind me," Ashleen warned with a smile before turning to face the ocean. The sound of waves lapping the shore spread peace through those gathered to watch the wizard's demonstration. It sort of reminded him of the spring wizard's tournament where common men and women could sit beside lords and ladies to watch magic performed in the wizard duels. Few had seen such a demonstration of magic and, for those who were inclined to fear those who could use it; it had been an eye opening, but enjoyable experience. He thought King Alain might try to arrange another one in a few years just to help bridge that gap been wizards and those without magic.

Sebastian could feel a change in the air as Ashleen began chanting her spell quietly. The breeze carried words in a language that few knew. Only wizards knew the words of power. Even battle mages had little to do with it. They used common words to pull a spell from their bodies as they activated the magic within them.

On the water, the wind started swirling fast enough that the waves began to break as they struck the vortex of air as it circled on the surface of the ocean. In a few moments, the water began to lift creating the look of a water spout. It didn't change position for a long time unlike the natural, though rare phenomena. Ashleen controlled this wind even as Sebastian could feel a slight shift in the breeze as it came off the ocean.

Shifting his magic into his eyes, the mage's senses could make out the flow of power. Though few mages had the sensitivities of a wizard, Sebastian's talents had grown and his feel for magic had as well. Now he could see Ashleen's aura and the extension of it into the air. Her magic radiated from her and from the water spout. He could also feel as the wilder continued to draw strength from the ground. Most wizards would be unable to control the power without a staff, but even that could come with a price. Ashleen did naturally what most could not and somehow managed it without burning up like a match in the flame.

A cool breeze struck his skin as the wizard used the wind from high above to begin to chill the water held in the water spout. It took very little time before the spout changed color. A little subtle, especially in the dim light cast by the first moon, the water was beginning to turn to ice.

Sweeping her hands above her towards shore, Ashleen sent the spout over the watching crowd before dispersing it with a thrust of wind. As the spout shattered, it expanded breaking apart letting the water fall. She had made it cold enough to make the water into snow and Sherari with the other islanders stuck out their hands catching the flakes. Many felt the snow and recoiled with the cold. Few knew of this kind of chill on the island.

Gerid looked at his wife with a smile. Already a woman of more than six decades, Sherari was old enough to have seen many things; but it was the first time his rare stories of his youth finally made sense.

"So this is snow?" the woman said watching the snow land in her hands to melt quickly once again.

Ashleen released the magic flowing through her. It was a spell that would have exhausted a team of battle mages, but for a wizard of her strength it was still a minor thing after having just eaten. Her resources of magic added to her full stomach made it easy to maintain the spell that long and still be fresh enough that she wasn't completely starving for more food.

"Up north where it is much colder, the snow will stick to the ground building higher and can stay there for days, weeks, and it feels like sometimes even months. It is a little too warm on the island to do that, but it would also take more than one wizard to alter the air that much for long."

Sherari looked at the young woman with a bit more respect. She had seen what the wizards could do fighting the warlocks, but combat magic was different. Explosions and fire could be made in different ways, but creating snow was something unique that the woman had never seen.

"It is a wonder what you can do by yourself even so, young lady. I can't imagine this snow building up like you are trying to say, but I am not going to try and make you push yourself that hard," she finished with a light laugh. "I can tell from my granddaughters' faces that it is true. Such cold must be hard to endure. Maybe when I was a girl like Elien and Melura I could deal with it, but I think that I have gotten too old to dare to try now."

Ashleen laughed and shook her head, "We have men and women older than you there I am sure, but no matter what age you are; when it gets too cold we call it bitter for a reason. No matter how many winters we go through, there are just days where we huddle in front of our fires and hide inside our homes."

Elien and Melura nodded looking a bit unhappy at the idea of returning to Hala anytime soon. Summer and fall hadn't been too bad, but the girls along with the guards who had followed them were all pretty sick of the cold of winter. For Gerid, it seemed like nothing; but their grandfather had been born to it and lived multiple lifetimes through one cold winter after another.

With the show of magic over, the crowd began to head towards the house once more. Those with musical talents would be ready to sing and play the instruments that were like those in Southwall. The people who had first come with the Grimnal were those who had either brought them or created new ones later, so they were similar to the guitars and flutes one would see at the Black Smith inn.

Sherari pulled Gerid closer holding onto his arm and slowing the man's feet as if she were just trying to spend a little more time with her husband. Sebastian walked with Ashleen and noted the woman's eyes going to Garosh as he walked next to Rilena. The giant leaned to speak with the battle mage smiling at the woman in a way that Sebastian recognized and realized that he could be in love with her. Similarly, Rilena looked at Garosh, but seemed a bit frightened that she could like him as well.

His eyes and ears returned to Sherari as the woman's smiles slipped from her lips. He heard her ask, "Who is this man? I don't think that he is just some friend you invited out of the cold."

"It is a long story," Gerid said gently.

"I can walk slow enough for at least part of it," the older woman stated indeed slowing her feet even more. "There is something too familiar about him. The idea that there could be another man as big as you, with that silver hair despite his apparent youth; would begin to become a stretch in my mind. His eyes might be different from yours, but his features look like close kin to yours, my husband. Even his smell, reminds me of you."

Chuckling at the comments, Gerid said, "If you are asking if I cheated on you in Hala, I could hardly have a son that old after just a few months away. Besides, we had a son and you've seen my other ones from their other mothers here. I would have almost had to have split him off of myself to make one like him, wouldn't I?" he protested still trying to use humor to put her off.

"You may be more than a thousand years old, Gerid, but you have never been a good liar," the woman stated with a frown. "How is he related to you? Did one of your descendants finally have a child that recreated this many attributes that I see in you?"

"If you're asking if he is an immortal, I don't know. I doubt that he knows. He is still young and I am not sure that he has experienced death in that way," the immortal stated becoming very grim in his assessment. His frown mirrored his wife's.

"You do know more though," Sherari declared without any doubt. She had known Gerid all of her life. Even with more than a thousand years of life, more than six decades gave her insight that few others could have into his mind.

"He was an experiment of the Dark One," Gerid replied not holding back. "He broke away from him and was nearly killed, but I don't think that he was brought back from beyond death. I know that I find myself both not wanting to trust or like him, yet I also see good in him. He is actually a good man, I think."

"The way that girl looks at him," Sherari said noting Rilena speaking with Garosh. The mage's smile was genuine and Sebastian had seen her laugh at the man's jokes, even when they probably weren't that funny. She was behaving like many girls that he had known in school, which was very unusual for the level headed falcon. "That look can only be for someone with some worth to him. So he was made from you? That was what the warlocks who came and took blood and flesh from you were doing?"

The emperor's men had come only a few times, but each time they had taken samples from him. Gerid had always assumed that they were looking to figure out how to become immortal like him. He had no idea what set apart the few individuals he had known that were born with white or silver hair and couldn't die easily, if at all.

Darius had told him a story of another immortal that the wizard had been forced to hunt down and destroy. He hadn't told him how. Perhaps Darius feared that Gerid would use the knowledge against him some day. He didn't really know, but if the Dark One had been dying it made sense.

"Apparently so," he answered. "The Dark One isn't immortal. He cheated death according to the elves, but apparently it was coming for him. The way around it was to look for a vessel that he could use his magic to channel himself into to become a new man with the same mind and magic.

"Garosh said that he wasn't the first experiment. Creating the Cataclysm as those from Southwall call it, apparently took more out of him than he expected; so his warlocks had been looking for this vessel almost from the time they left the void."

Sherari understood some of what he said, but there were things that a woman from a small island couldn't comprehend. She nodded following as best she could and waited on her husband, since the woman could tell that there was something else.

"Garosh was close to being a fit, but he lacked the ability to hold all of the emperor's magic. He told me that they eventually made more than one body that would work. The Dark One has his new body and has found a way to become immortal because of it."

"So now you and these others work to figure out how to destroy him again. Do they need you like Sebastian told us when he came for you?" the woman asked looking at the mage walking close enough to hear. She had known that he and Ashleen were listening from the start, but had asked her questions anyway.

The question made him grunt a dismissive laugh. Looking over at Sebastian as well, he aimed a thumb at the mage and said, "I don't know that they need me as much as they thought. It is good for their people... our people to know that I am alive because it shows the Dark One couldn't finish me off. We might have failed in destroying him seven hundred years ago, but it shows weakness for him too.

"I didn't fight him to the death, but with people like this one I have a feeling we might finally be rid of him soon enough."

Sebastian cringed inside, but answered seeing that he was already drawn into their conversation, "Gerid might be more of a symbol at the moment, but it is also hope. Southwall and our allies can rally behind him now."

Sherari gave him a flat look and asked, "Does my husband need to fight again? His life before the island had too many battles. Then you brought the fighting here. When does it end?"