Battle Mage Visions (A Tale of Alus Book 12) (26 page)

Everyone could tell that the young mage's question was hinting at something else, but the older wizard merely frowned at him before answering, "When Hala and a few cities to the north remained in the fight, it was the south that had to pick themselves up from the earthquakes and tsunami to gather our troops to drive them back. Without the wizards of Red Hall joining the fight I am pretty sure that we could never have built North Wall. Just because the enemy didn't manage to cross the river, which split during the Cataclysm, doesn't mean that we were just cowering inside of the castle, falcon," the man managed to use Elzen's title though it sounded like he was calling him a boy even so.

Trying to be a peacemaker, Sebastian added, "It took all of those who survived the changes and disasters to build Southwall into what it is now.

"Since the wall went up, your school has been the one in charge of the harvests in the southeast," he alluded to the nickname for the yearly visits from the wizards in the villages, towns and cities of Southwall where they searched for burgeoning new wizards. To avoid wilders causing damage to their families and their selves, it had to be done. "So many were killed, have the numbers increased over the last century to keep up with the war?"

Gefflen understood his question and replied, "Studies have shown that during wars when men were typically the ones fighting that more boys were born than girls to resupply their forces as if nature works to try and keep things equal. Our records date back further than the Cataclysm and there are a few of our researchers that actually have looked into the trends. Magic users seem to have continued to become more common, that was true even before the Cataclysm and wars.

"It is possible that the bloodlines of the early wizards have spread out creating more aberrations within each new generation, even if there hadn't been a wizard within a family line immediately bred from that union. Maybe there are more created because of the Cataclysm as well. So much magic was used by the Dark One that it may have infected others to an extent. That might explain the number of battle mages as well."

"What do you mean by that?" Elzen asked suspiciously.

Gefflen looked at him smugly and replied, "Before the Cataclysm someone with little magic would likely be ignored. Many people probably had lesser magical abilities that remained untapped because we simply didn't need to groom them to help us defeat such a great enemy.

"Then the harvests began and we took in anyone with magic, even if they could barely create any spells at all. Most still wound up just fighting as soldiers, but the numbers of mage level talent continues to grow to replace those who die.

"Again that number could just be from our looking for them so diligently over the last hundred and fifty years and their breeding onward."

"So mages might be both those from old wizard bloodlines and those who were affected by the magic of the Cataclysm?" Ashleen queried apparently finding the conversation interesting. "Then I wonder if magic has grown faster on North Continent and maybe northern Taltan because of that? Kardor doesn't seem to have the same supply of wizards as Southwall, but maybe that is simply because we are farther away from the epicenter?"

Gefflen's feet stopped a moment as he led them through the halls of the castle to look at the wilder a little closer. "I am not sure anyone has thought to try looking into that side of the equation. It would likely be a hard thing to measure since I doubt most other countries outside of Southwall would be looking so closely, but I may have to suggest it to those who have researched the matter.

"If using strong magic can create more wizards, there may be a way to do so with more exacting practices also. We could literally infuse magic into our people creating more wizards."

Sebastian frowned at the line of thought. He didn't worry over having more wizards and mages because of competition or thinking along that line. It just seemed like doing so would be crossing the same lines as necromancy. Forcing magic onto people, especially with so many already fearful of what wizards could do, would seem to be just as unnatural as raising the dead.

The conversation fell into a lull and they finally went through a pair of heavy doors into a strange room. A high ceiling lifted about thirty feet high, but directly before them stood two fifteen foot high stone walls with four towers and a wide break between two of them. It was like the wizards had built an outer wall inside the castle.

His forehead furrowed as the owl took in the odd set up and asked his questions as they came to mind. "How thick are the walls around it?"

"Four feet of stone reinforced with metal rods. It is similar to North Wall where it straddles the river, so we know that it is strong," Gefflen stated smugly.

"They breached the wall there a few months ago," the owl mumbled in distraction.

His statement brought a frown to the wizard's face, but he reminded the mage, "That was with using dozens of wizards and the river as a source of destruction. The enemy won't be able to bring those kinds of numbers here and besides, this is supposed to be a trap where we slow them down on entry before destroying any force dumb enough to create a portal. That is what you are professing to create, is it not?

"You never believed that leaving the entry with little support would keep the Dark One's forces trapped here. We let them in and kill them in the confusion making whatever is left run for home with the warning."

It was one way of looking at his rune gate, Sebastian thought to himself. "I suppose that is true. The walls are thick, what supports the floor then? These walls must be heavier than whatever had been here before."

"There had been a room below it, but our earth wizards created even thicker walls there. It was an unused space for the most part, now it is closed off by a thick stone footing beneath these walls. We put oil inside, added venting, of course; and figure that if some vile decides to burrow down we can burn them to death by lighting the oil. There won't be time for them to break out of there before the flames consume them. We can always add more oil if it gets used."

The look on Gefflen's face as he spoke of the proposed death made Sebastian sick to his stomach. Burning living creatures alive like that was inhumane, though they were at war. Burning oil defenses had been used in castles and North Wall for centuries. It wasn't a pleasant experience for those being burned and the scent of the dying carried to the defenders on the wall as well making them realize what death smelled like.

Stepping into the space between the new tower line and the far wall, Sebastian noted the inner towers and the crosswalk surrounding the entry floor. Part of the reinforcement of the inner wall came from the three feet of stone making up the wall beneath the walkway. Men could move above any enemy to try the portal and rain death down from above. The battle mage's stomach was in knots. His other defended gates had never really brought to light the intention of the deadly trap. Here it was all about killing.

Taking a deep breath, Sebastian asked Gefflen, "So you want it built across the split there?"

The wizard nodded and added, "Once it's put in place, we can finish making the stone crosswalk between the towers to finish it off."

Being pleased with himself for the ideas behind the inner gate, the wizard watched as Sebastian began pulling out the iron rods from his black rune to make the new gateway.

Making the gate went as it always did. Ashleen and Serrena used their magic to weld the separate iron rods together making the vertical and horizontal pieces. Sebastian and Elzen were just the assistants for that part. Without needing his full attention, the mage often looked around the large room. He never saw any apprentice wizards or a single battle mage whether cadet or falcon. In fact, the castle had been surprisingly free of mages along the route that they took to the inner room. Soldiers, which were also trained in the schools to become officers, could be seen here and there. A few already watched the work of the wizards and mages from the towers and wall, in fact along with several wizards.

It was typical that wizards and usually battle mages would want to watch the process in the hopes of learning the magic, but few could make out enough to replicate it without his actually helping them. The magic was harder to teach than some, since it was work done more by feel than most other mage spells.

Once the girls were finished, Sebastian stepped in making sure the main runes ran around the frame. His magic found the rough spots and defects blending them away as he infused magic into the metal. The magic stones went together with the metal and last he built in the locking rune.

After already making over a dozen of the gates there was little to figure out and the process had been cut down from almost two hours to under an hour. That meant they were led to a grand ball room for lunch. The kitchens of Red Hall fed hundreds of students and faculty a day, while they got to enjoy a room that was much more opulent than the dining hall of White Hall.

Noticing the mage's wandering eyes as he looked at the room while they ate, Gefflen smiled and said, "There certainly are benefits to working out of Red Hall. With a castle built for the lords of Cadmene, we have more to look at than White Hall. We have heard that you are the pride of that school, but you can tell that it was made for schooling only."

"You've been there?" Sebastian asked nursing a bowl of soup. Red Hall was much warmer than Hala at this time of year, but it was hardly as nice as the tropical island he had just visited.

"I was stationed there for a time. Most wizards and mages will wind up circulating through the three schools as well as the guardian cities by the end of their career," Gefflen replied. "While I taught for awhile and did what I could for research there, my heart was always on returning to Red Hall. I was a novice and apprentice here until I was twenty. It still feels more like home than any other place that I have visited."

"While I trained at White Hall, I am not sure that I could say that it ever felt like home to me," Sebastian said trying to decide where home was for him. "I went from Windmeer to Falcon's Keep before eventually spending a few months on a ship. If anything felt like home, maybe Hala is it for me; though even this stay has been with me leaving the city by portal almost every week since I returned it seems like."

Gefflen noted Ashleen beside him nodding her head slightly at the thought. "Perhaps it has as much to do with the company you keep as the place where you sleep?"

"Is that some words of wisdom from one of your research books?" Elzen asked with a bit of amusement at his rhyme.

"I believe that I did read it somewhere," the wizard replied with his eyes glancing at the younger mage seeing little humor at all. "As a wizard, not every book is read for research. We have the advantage of a library that carries books of many kinds. Sometimes I just read for fun. Maybe it is akin to you running outside to fight in the mages' yards?"

Elzen managed to not frown at the condescending tone of the wizard, but retorted in a surprisingly chipper voice, "Well, I don't mind a little light reading, but I enjoy fresh air more, I suppose. I mean, after awhile, don't you just smell of the dust of your libraries?"

"We don't keep them in a dungeon under the castle," the man replied drolly. "Red Hall has three main libraries and all of them have windows that let in light that can be opened to let in fresh air as well. Of course, I would probably rather smell like dust than dirt and sweat."

Before the unofficial insults could continue, Sebastian asked, "What do you have in mind for my itinerary here? I have shown you most of my new spells and runes. You could build a Hollow Sword yourselves if anyone has the feel for metal. What else do you require of me?"

"Ready to be off already?"

Ashleen shook her head and answered for him. "Sebastian isn't the type who likes standing before large groups to teach, but he also gets bored trying to do it over and over with one or two people even more. In other words, he dislikes teaching."

"And wouldn't you know that one of the greatest magical minds of our day would hate sharing all those spells," Gefflen chuckled.

The sound seemed a bit forced to Sebastian, who didn't see it as a joke. He did love learning new magic and deciphering it, but having to break it down over and over again was aggravating to him. It was strange that he could practice his swordsmanship over and over; yet teaching magic repeatedly was so distasteful since he loved using magic as well.

Shrugging at the wizard, he said, "I just don't have the patience for it day after day. I guess that I would rather be moving in the field or concentrating on learning new things for myself."

"That kind of wizard was more common before we needed them so much," Gefflen noted likely repeating something he had read in another book. "Who knows how many spells have disappeared from selfish men guarding their secrets from the rest of their kind? It's why Southwall's wizards encouraged the schools and guilds. More minds can solve greater problems usually, but then again they say genius is its own reward. Some men just see things differently than the rest of us."

"Well, I can share for a time at least," the mage offered knowing his limitation in patience.

Smiling at the notion of the offer, the wizard nodded and began to reveal what he had planned for the mage over the next few days.

The evening came on them and Sebastian had already spent several hours teaching dozens of wizards. Apprentices joined with their teachers to make sure that whoever could learn would have the chance to see the spells in action from their originator.