Battle Mage Visions (A Tale of Alus Book 12) (29 page)

Waiting a moment, Leros replied, "He seems to be pretty attached to you, so I am inclined to believe that Sebastian would have returned this morning. He was teaching in Red Hall, I believe."

Elzen spoke up again after being the one to explain their worries to the raven when they first arrived. Like Ashleen, Serrena had little pull among the battle mages; though many knew the fire wizard from seeing her with Sebastian quite often over the last months as she helped him when the mage did choose to teach his magic. In this office, they felt like they should hold their tongues as outsiders; but Raven Leros wasn't as strict on such things. The man had been a friend to the owl mage, though Ashleen wasn't sure that they were close even after all the time spent working together.

"Sebastian was supposed to return for us a little after sunrise. Red Hall is further west than Hala so their first bell is later than ours. It would be a little harder on Bas, but he's had worse working at some of the gates along the wall or in the guardian cities."

"I hate to get everyone worked up over the possibility of him sleeping in because he was simply tired or because the sun rose later than in Hala," the raven said as his eyes wandered to his window. Frost shrunk his vision through the glass, but there wasn't much to see on yet another gray morning in Hala. He would have to walk to the window to look down to see much beyond the pattern less, gray sky.

Ashleen considered the idea and suggested, "Then don't panic everyone. Can't we be sent to the gate in Red Hall by one of the portal wizards? I mean, we are supposed to be there to help him teach the magic we know alongside Sebastian. It would mean that they should be expecting us anyway."

The old man's right hand lifted to stroke a bearded chin in thought. "Perhaps a few extra wizards and mages could come along, you know, to share information faster with more teachers. Maybe a portal wizard could be spared from the fire wizards' gate as well. If he isn't there, then maybe they could try searching for him using his magic."

Adding a larger team for support made sense and the idea made the friends feel better. Three would have been a small number to use to search and easier to tie up if there was something fishy going on in the other school.

Ashleen frowned at that, however. If Red Hall had done something to Sebastian, did that mean Southwallers were to blame when they were all supposed to be on the same side?

"Whatever we're going to do, we should do it quickly," Serrena prompted no longer willing to be silent. "If Sebastian is in trouble, then every moment we wait could wind up with a worse result. If he is just sleeping in, waking him before Gefflen and his annoying wizards become irritable would be a good plan as well. Elzen will just have to go wake him up or whatever."

"And do I make his bed for him too, if he's just running late?" the boy quipped, but received no smiles or laughter. Ashleen and Serrena were too nervous to appreciate any attempt at levity and Leros was a raven, so no one expected the white haired man to crack a smile.

"I'll send a runner to Culmore and Neferen to have them free up a couple wizards to help," Leros spoke of his wizard contemporaries the high wizards. To many wizards thinking, Leros was a subordinate in rank to the white wizards, but he had made a strong name in Southwall and had gained very strong support from the king and his generals. Even high wizards gave him respect. "Elzen wait a moment to bring a message to Falconi Neven or Falcondi Westlin for me. We'll pick a few mages to add to your group also for security."

"They'll need to know Bas's magic, if it winds up being just a lot of worry for nothing," Elzen added, though both women fired angry looks his way for doubting their women's intuition or whatever could be chocked up to their worry. Serrena's anxiousness had made them take her with while leaving Hilda to watch out for Sebastian at the inn instead. Even the young mage worried, but it wasn't impossible that Sebastian might have simply over slept or run into a more mundane delay in his return. He had been one of the owl's closest friends before he had risen to new heights with his magic, and still considered himself one; but there was that lingering doubt.

Leros nodded as he moved to the wizards. "As for you two, return to the inn to make sure that he doesn't show up. Everything should be ready and the team assembled in under an hour at the portal courtyard. If Sebastian has just been delayed, it is probably best to have you there just in case."

Still not believing her worry was unfounded, Ashleen couldn't find a complaint. If Sebastian was in trouble as she feared, they would need help. Gathering wizards and mages for a trip to Red Hall would simply take time.

That is how, almost an hour later on the dot, seven more wizards and mages joined up with Ashleen, Serrena and Elzen. Another falcondi, a newer assistant to Falconi Brelan, one of Leros' assistants, led the small group; though holding rank against the three wizards might be hard to maintain. His only saving grace was that he appeared nearly as old as the wizards joining them.

Falcondi Yenest led three falcons and the wilder noted that all were male. Perhaps the oldest was a man named Perin, he was one who might fall under the radar. Brown hair, slightly above average in height; Ashleen thought he was like Sebastian in some ways, though the girl felt the younger mage was more handsome.

The second mage was shorter than the rest with darker skin originally from the west side of Southwall. She wondered at his lineage being unusually dark for a North man and hoped that he wouldn't stand out too much if they needed to search for Sebastian; but he was of less concern than the largest of the men.

"Jeriah, you're coming with us?" Ashleen asked somewhat surprised by the choice. "I thought that you didn't like Sebastian and yet they couldn't find someone else to send along?"

The man was still young, but had perhaps a decade on the young wizard. He managed to avoid a scowl at the accusation, but the slight frown as he answered meant that the question had taken a swipe at his pride as a mage apparently. "Just because I had an issue with him before I truly got to know more about Sebastian doesn't mean that I couldn't get over it. I did get assigned to the detail accompanying him to the nomads a couple months back as well, you'll recall. He is a good mage and if something foul has happened to him, I'll do my best to help out."

"A good mage?" Elzen snickered at the underplaying of the owl's importance, not to mention Sebastian's skills. "He put you down without breaking a sweat, I heard."

Scowling at the smaller, much younger mage, Jeriah complained, "He cheated using that sword and those runes. Everyone knows it."

Falcondi Yenesti cleared his throat and tried to rein in the two mages before words turned into actions. Like many soldiers, often mages resolved their disputes with fists or even swords. He didn't need the problems associated with men who hated each other, though they weren't to that point yet. "Let the past remain in the past. We've all been briefed on the situation, if we can truly consider it to be one. Sebastian didn't show up this morning as planned, so we are taking immediate action to make sure that nothing is wrong. We are heading to Red Hall, who still we presume are friends. These are our people and some of us may have even been trained there in the past.

"Don't go in accusing anyone there of foul play, as you called it. We are there on the premise that we will help teach the owl's spells to the wizards and mages there. There are students that we need to be good examples to and not come off as ruffians, you two," he finished directing his thoughts at the two falcons.

"If there is a problem there," a wizard wearing black with silver trim on his clothing spoke up to add to the falcondi's words, "I can work with Imen among the wizards. He is capable of diplomatic magic though he wears the red."

He indicated a wizard that appeared to be a fire wizard. Imen was about average height and size for a Southwall male as was Deremas, the diplomacy wizard. In Kardor, they didn't use the very passive sounding description for such wizards' magic. There they were often referred to as coercers or enchanters. The latter made their powers over the mind sound almost pleasant, but Ashleen had heard rumors of what they could truly do. Sebastian's younger sister was an adept diplomacy wizard as well, though she was only thirteen and new to the magic. The young girl was perhaps as much a genius with magic as her brother, maybe more so considering she was quite capable after only a few months' study at White Hall.

The last wizard was the only female to join them. She wore water wizard blue robes and a cloak. Treya was the only one that Ashleen was familiar with thanks to the woman being a portal wizard also. Their paths had crossed many times at the fire wizards' courtyard where the protected portal was kept, but also a few other times when Sebastian had been studying things related to that magic.

Falcondi Yenest let the wizard's words stand and the man nodded to Treya. "You are our expert on portals. If he is missing, can you track to see if his magic can be found?"

Treya looked a bit uncomfortable at the question, but she replied, "I have studied Sebastian's trick with maps. I can't say that I am as good at it as he, but it shouldn't be too hard if he has been removed from Red Hall. Like the portal stones, I should be able to lock onto his magic to find him.

"If he is locked away somewhere closer inside of Red Hall, it might not work though."

The falcondi gestured at the falcons near her and said, "They can all track. That is the other reason we have these three falcons in particular. They can all use Sebastian's magic to teach other mages, but are well trained in using tracking magic. It would be hard to keep him hidden, again that is only if Sebastian is indeed missing."

Ashleen wanted to make the man retract the last statement. They were still playing it as going to Red Hall with the belief that Sebastian was all right. He was hours late now. She had never known Sebastian to be so tardy and he had never slept longer than her, except when he was injured or drained near to death from overuse of magic.

While the last could certainly make the girl say there was a slight possibility that she was over reacting; her mind was unconvinced and her gut told her something was wrong.

"Then we have covered the likely possibilities," Deremas spoke keeping his voice from sounding anxious, but Ashleen could feel it starting to build in those being sent to find the falcon. "We should hurry to Red Hall as soon as possible then."

The ten moved to the portal gate and waited for the two wizards waiting for them to charge the spell to open the glowing doorway. The mages led the way with only Yenest left to follow the wizards as the team's leader.

Arriving in Red Hall, Ashleen blinked away the lights caused by the silver light of the void. No matter how many times she used the magic doorways, the young woman always found herself a bit off balance as her mind tried to recalibrate to her new surroundings. The stone walls were similar to those of a courtyard, but the stone ceiling and floor quickly reminded her of Red Hall's decision to have Sebastian build the gate inside of their castle.

Arrows were aimed at the group as they exited the portal. Wizards and mages could be seen above them as well waiting to destroy an enemy force. It was one of the few times that Ashleen felt worry upon exiting one of the protected gates. Since they were unsure of Red Hall's true allegiance thanks to the unknown welfare of Sebastian, she didn't know if they would use the defenses to destroy their little group until the gate safely faded away and they remained unharmed.

A relieved breath from Elzen to her left meant that she wasn't the only one worrying that they might be walking back into a trap.

As a pair of wizards hurried through the currently empty space once occupied by the gate looking a bit flustered as well, Ashleen wondered what had happened to make them look much the way that she felt. One of them was the earth wizard, Orlen, and his eyes looked troubled.

"Y-you're h-h-here," he proclaimed with a nervous stutter. The man had never had the speech impediment during the days she had interacted with him and it made her nervous. Perhaps Sebastian had had an accident after all, the girl worried.

"Is something wrong, Orlen?" Ashleen spoke before anyone technically in charge could ask the same or perhaps a less loaded question instead.

The man had trouble looking her in the eyes or anyone there for that matter. Luckily the second wizard, a diplomacy one she noted, was there to assist him.

"High Wizard Wyman sent us to wait for you should you appear. We didn't send anyone to Hala since... well I am afraid that I don't know exactly what to say actually.

"If you would follow us, I am sure that the high wizard can better fill you in on whatever had him send us to greet you."

Ashleen spoke up even as she felt Wizard Deremas' hand rest on her shoulder in warning. They all knew that she was too worried to likely hold back and the wilder wondered if the diplomacy wizard had been sent to keep her in check as much as anything else. Even so, the girl asked, "Where is Sebastian? Will we find him with Wyman?"

She had dropped the honorific for the school's lead wizard and received frowns from both wizards as they acted like she had insulted them.

"High Wizard Wyman can best inform you on everything. It is probably best to save your questions for him. As the leader of Red Hall, he can tell you anything that you want to know or get the answers for you," the diplomacy wizard stated curtly and turned to make them follow without answering her question. The man subtly touched the earth wizard's elbow as he turned making Orlen follow at nearly the same point.