Battle Mage Visions (A Tale of Alus Book 12) (30 page)

Realizing that their escort would no longer interact with them, the ten followed the wizards even as most of their eyes also searched their path. Eyes went to the walls and mock towers surrounding them before looking beyond the two wizards at the far doors. Every shadow and curtain gave them reason to worry, but after following a few hallways and climbing a couple flights of stairs they arrived in front of a pair of regal looking doors. It wasn't hard to remember that the school was created inside of a former lord's castle. Such a place had rooms and doors reminiscent of the king's castle in Hala.

Before they could think to ask the guards at the doors to admit them inside, the doors opened quickly releasing a pair of brown shirted falcons who hurried past the ten with barely a glance. Their faces looked serious and that did little to assuage Ashleen's nervous energy. A little pop of electricity zapped Elzen, who managed to stifle his yelp but rubbed his arm.

Giving the girl an irritated look, the boy said quietly but from a respectable distance, "What was that for, Ashleen?"

"Sorry, Elzen, I have trouble holding it inside when I am nervous or worked up," she replied leaning towards him as the wilder focused to restrain her magic. "Since I am both at the moment, my focus is a little off."

"Well, focus harder, that hurt," Elzen demanded as the falcon's eyes wandered to the scene beyond the doors. It looked like a war room being led by an old, white haired man in wizard robes of white. "Do you do that to Sebastian often?"

The thought elicited a little giggle that Ashleen barely felt before replying, "Often enough that I think he is becoming immune to it."

Ignoring her answer beyond a nod, the falcon mused, "I wonder what is going on? That is a lot of activity for a school where very little should demand this kind of running around. There were wizards and mages alike in there."

"Falcondi Yenest, to see High Wizard Wyman," the falcondi stated to the guards. Guards were a rarity in a school also making the atmosphere outside the high wizard's chamber even stranger.

  The men looked unimpressed until the diplomacy wizard added, "The high wizard is expecting the group from Hala."

With the wizard's confirmation, the men reluctantly went to pull the handles. One of the men said, "Some of you might be better off waiting outside. There is a lot of traffic today. You might get in the way."

Yenest waved off the escort, but Ashleen, Serrena and Elzen didn't stop while Deremas accompanied them like a shadow at the wilder's opposite shoulder from the mage. They entered a large chamber that might have once been a smaller audience chamber for the lords, but it had multiple desks and walls of shelving loaded with scrolls and books now.

The white haired man didn't even seem to notice them as he was still giving orders to a pair of wizards. No one below the full rank of wizard or falcon could be seen. In a school where apprentices often trained under the man to learn the more mundane work of a wizard's office, it was a little surprising for all but Ashleen. She hadn't been trained in a large school. Her training had come under a single wizard for the most part in a less formal setting.

"High Wizard, a group from Hala has arrived. The ones who were with the mage yesterday are included," the wizard pronounced. Orlen had slunk to the side looking almost guilty in his attempt to remain away from their focus. When Ashleen's eyes fell upon him, the man seemed to cringe.

Looking away from the wizards he had been speaking to, the old man merely nodded. He had a couple more things to say to the wizards who rushed out of the room taking two more with them. That left the white wizard, a falconi, a falcondi, and two other wizards to look at the new arrivals.

"Yes, we expected someone would come," Wyman stated without much reaction to those in front of him.

Ashleen wanted to yell at the man, who appeared too calm for her agitated state. She felt Deremas' hand on her shoulder and barely heard the whisper of unknown words before his magic flowed into the woman. Calming a bit, or more accurately her mind felt like it dulled slightly, the wilder held her tongue and was unsure if she could still even speak as the man controlled her at least to some point.

Yenest spoke up for the group as leader saying, "We were sent to assist with the training, but we expected to see Falcon Sebastian upon our arrival. He had actually made us believe that he would come to Hala to bring us via a portal."

Said without actually inquiring, the high wizard had been around too long to be fooled or baited into continuing the attempt to skirt the issue they were thinking about.

"We expected that as well and for him to be here to continue the classes for our wizards and mages, but for some reason he isn't here," the old man frowned and his white goatee contracted around his mouth with the act. "It was a worry for us as well as you, I am sure. We sent an apprentice to check on him. His room was empty, though his pack, boots and jacket remained behind.

"Since we noticed that he was missing, our people have been combing the castle and we've even sent others into town to see if they could pick up any more clues to his whereabouts."

Looking perplexed, Falcondi Yenest asked, "Was there a struggle or signs of magic left behind as well?"

Wyman nodded towards the diplomacy wizard who had brought them into the room. "Diomar, tell them what you found."

Returning the nod to the school's leader, Diomar brushed his fingers through his brown hair. For a diplomacy wizard to show a sign of nervous energy meant one of two things, he was worried enough to let the motion slip or he meant to reveal it to them. Ashleen knew enough of his kind to know that they rarely did anything not designed to be noticed even if it was quite subtle.

"A collection of wizards have already used every bit of magic we have to try and discover what might have happened to the mage. There was no sign of any kind of magic that we could find, except one that we couldn't identify at first."

Ashleen wanted to shout at him to tell them immediately, but her emotions were dulled by the man holding her shoulder. She wanted to rage or lash out at Deremas as well for controlling her like some dog on a leash. Luckily, for the man, his control was enough to prevent that also.

"What were your findings then?" Deremas questioned his local counterpart.

"We are fairly certain that there was a portal formed in the room. Since we only have a few novices at the art, we can't be sure where it led. Our people have been searching the castle and local city, but so far no one has found anything. If there is a second portal, we might not ever find it with only a few that can search for the magic."

Serrena asked the question that Ashleen would probably have if she could, though in a surprisingly calm way. "Don't you have anyone from a gate team in Red Hall? Even if they can't open a portal, they could track one down for you, especially if they remained local."

"They?" Wyman queried with a crinkle of his brow. "We haven't confirmed that it wasn't the mage who left of his own volition. If you are saying they, then you believe that he was kidnapped? There was no sign of a struggle; perhaps he simply used the magic to go somewhere that he didn't tell anyone about?"

The man pushed a button that the fire wizard couldn't ignore and Ashleen wondered if Deremas wished that he was using his magic on the fiery woman instead. "We can very much assume that someone else did this. Sebastian wouldn't worry..." she started to gesture towards Ashleen but controlled herself enough to hide the relationship as she amended, "his team like that. He was supposed to meet us this morning in Hala and since he didn't appear there, we can assume that someone took him."

"Without using any other magic?" the high wizard countered with a raised eyebrow that called her into question. "Has the young man ever taken off without telling anyone before?"

Serrena opened her mouth wanting to say that he hadn't, but glanced to Elzen and Ashleen knowing that wasn't exactly true, not even close. "He wouldn't to the point of ignoring his duties. Sebastian has used portal magic for other missions the same day without telling us, but never failed to show up on time because of them."

"Ah, so this mage they are calling owl has a habit of doing what he wants? That could be a problem. Can we continue to assume that there was foul play, if he has done this before?" Wyman questioned and even through Deremas' spell, Ashleen's anger slipped through.

A sharp pain as a pulse of electricity shocked his hand made the wizard pull his hand away in surprise releasing the spell in the moment.

Ashleen looked very angry very quickly and spoke before the diplomacy wizard could recover. "If you play this off as anything other than someone kidnapping him from your school, you will be labeled a fool forever."

This statement made the white wizard surprisingly irate. "Young lady, we have suffered your presence here because the falcon requested it, but that doesn't give a Kardorian any rights here..."

Her temper made lightning bounce across her skin. Deremas became wary of trying to touch the wilder again as Ashleen interrupted Wyman, "Rights? I have more rights to him than you do! Sebastian wouldn't do something to make me worry about him without warning. Yes, he has done things that would make anyone's heart want to stop at times, but when he says that he will be somewhere, he is there.

"If you want to pretend that someone just took the most important asset your country has to placate your pride momentarily, fine; but when King Alain finds out that you were the fool who didn't take it seriously, where will you find yourself? I doubt that it will be as the head of something as important as a school!"

"F- fool...?" the man started turning red with rage. "You impudent little...!"

Deremas and Diomar responded even as the wilder began to lose control. Words were mumbled under the wizards' breath and a fog seemed to settle over the room trying to calm everyone's nerves. Ashleen glared at the wizard for only a moment before feeling the dulling fog like his touch spell. The high wizard was no more immune than the wilder and his retort stopped short as if he had forgotten what he had been about to say.

Nodding to his counterpart to continue, Deremas said calmly, "We will just have to continue to investigate as if this is indeed a kidnapping, until or unless Sebastian returns to change that assumption. If you don't mind, high wizard, my team can assist in the investigation. Wizard Treya has a few months more experience with portals than your wizards and has even studied with High Wizard Darius. Perhaps she can better tell us who created the portal in his room or at least tell us who has not."

He looked at Treya who looked a bit surprised to be named. The diplomacy wizards' spell fog made thinking a delayed process to help keep tempers from getting ahead of calmer heads.

Wyman nodded, the redness of his temper had faded with the anger dampened by the magic of the two men. "Fine, the sooner we have answers the better. I'll continue to have our people search. If she can discover where he went, we will all sleep better I am certain."

With the high wizard's blessing, even if it was slightly under duress, Deremas led his team from the chamber back into the hall. Diomar followed right behind as if he didn't want to wait to find out if Wyman would turn on him as soon as the spell wore off again.

Nodding to the Red Hall wizard, Deremas said, "My thanks to your quick thinking."

"You were on it as well. No thanks are necessary. It is just our job to keep others calm and on track. Even our use of the same spell shows how we were trained," the man said with a smile. His eyes moved to the others affected by their spell. "Will you be able to control her?" Diomar asked of the wilder already starting to blink away the affects of the tranquility spell.

Looking at Ashleen, Deremas replied, "She has more important things on her mind. Her focus will be on finding Sebastian, so we will be fine.

"Would you mind showing us to his room that we might begin?"

The Red Hall wizard nodded and began to walk away from the high wizard's hall. Even slightly dazed, Ashleen and the others were able to follow. By the time they found the guest room, their minds were fully restored. Slightly angry at the wizards and Wyman in particular, the wilder turned to the task at hand focusing on the real problem rather than those she would vent on just to try and ease her feelings of concern.

There wasn't time for unimportant things when Sebastian's safety was the girl's first concern.

Chapter 17- Looking for Signs

"Well?" Ashleen stood hovering over the blue robed water wizard as she appeared to test the air inside the guest room. Two windows remained closed to the outside air, which was warmer than Hala but didn't feel like summer the way Grimnal Island had. Heavy shutters were thrown to the side and rarely used except in case the castle should ever come under attack. It was far to the south of Northwall, so it was unlikely and had never experienced the battles Hala had.

The furnishings were only slightly above the quality of an apprentice's room, but for a school it was considered good enough for those who visited. Ashleen guessed that it was more that it was good enough for a battle mage than some diplomat or visiting wizard. It was just a guess based on the opinion that seemed universal among the powerful magic users, though Sebastian had done a lot to change that in the guardian cities and White Hall.