Battle Mage Visions (A Tale of Alus Book 12) (36 page)

"Then if you could release the collar, it isn't like I could escape using my magic," he stated trying to guide the wizard towards the goal that would make things much easier. "Xaren could make sure that the collar wasn't what really blocked his spells."

"The collar wouldn't do that," Zeria replied sounding a little winded. Her cheeks were red and her hands rested against his chest.

"How do you know?"

"I know," she replied with a shrug before pushing back from the mage.

As the woman moved back from Sebastian her hands were hidden by her body as she walked to the far side of the cell. When she slipped free of her robe, Sebastian noted a bizarre costume beneath. Made of red leather, it consisted of a top that covered her breasts lifting them slightly as well, he guessed. The second piece was a pair of red leather shorts that ended just above her knees. The outfit revealed the attractive curves of a woman in her prime.

Zeria was slim, but surprising in her dimensions even so.

"Do you know why I had this made of red?" the wizard asked with the casual tilt of her head that Zeria seemed to like to do when being coy.

When Sebastian didn't answer, she answered the question for him. "Red like this doesn't show blood very easily."

"I've already been cut up and wounded. Do you think more of the same will make me give up?"

She laughed again, but there was something a little more sinister to the woman's sense of humor this time. "Well, I don't plan to hurt you, but there is the possibility."

Mumbling something under her breath, Zeria's hands suddenly played electricity across her fingers. Sebastian nearly wanted to laugh. If the woman thought lightning could break him, she would be surprised what he put up with quite easily from Ashleen. Compared to a wilder out of control or in a temper, he doubted that the research wizard would hold a candle to the lightning wizard.

Zeria placed her hands near him letting the lightning play against his chest. It wasn't that painful and he realized quickly that it wasn't meant to be exactly. At first, the wizard was more playful. She would sting him and kiss him alternately. When she spoke to him it was like she was giving him bed talk to arouse him before she would strike him with increasingly stronger surges of electricity. His skin burned when Zeria failed to control the spell accurately making her eyes widen in surprise. She would slip and apologize before catching herself making Sebastian realize very quickly that the woman wasn't very good at being an interrogator or perhaps she meant to be a dominatrix, he wasn't quite sure. Though he also wondered if some of that wasn't part of what she wanted him to think also.

When he grew bored of the wizard trying to seduce him or torture him in her strange way, Sebastian surprised her by pulling upward on the locked shackles lifting his legs to grab the woman's torso. Pushing up off of the wizard, Sebastian broke the cuffs free of the hook on the wall. Her magic wasn't enough to keep them attached against his strength.

Runes added to his power to free himself and his weight came down on Zeria forcing the woman to drop to her knees with only a complaint for her scratched knees.

"What did you do that for?" she asked without truly getting angry.

"You are the worst torturer ever," he said with a shake of his head. Moving behind the woman before she could react, the mage placed his arm tightly around her neck. Even with the shackles restricting his wrists, Sebastian knew that he could put enough pressure on the wizard's neck to break it quite easily.

"Now tell me, can you remove this collar?"

She held out for a moment, but as he squeezed enough to make the sound of her blood drum in her ears and her vision darken, Zeria pulled at his arm crying out. "No, not without the key!"

Releasing the pressure, Sebastian asked a new question, "Who has the key?

"I want it off. I've put up with enough torture for a lifetime, now I am ready to go home."

"They won't let you go, not alive in any case," the woman breathed sounding a little labored. He loosened his grip, but could tighten it before the wizard could get off a spell.

"I won't give them a chance. Who are you serving anyway?"

"You don't care about the key anymore?" she replied sounding almost amused.

"Try answering both questions before I decide to break your neck instead."

"You wouldn't do that. You're a nice guy, a healer too. If you wanted me dead, I'd be dead already," Zeria stated almost laughing, but she also sounded like it meant more to her than as an insult.

"I'm a battle mage. I've killed dozens in battle already. Why wouldn't I snap your neck?"

Zeria didn't bother to answer the last question. Instead she answered his first, "Xaren is one of the keepers of the key. It is really more his guild that keeps it. Even if I wanted to help you escape, I couldn't get to the key. Only his school of magic would be allowed where they keep it, which is also a secret for anyone not part of the diplomacy wizards."

"Is there another way to break it?" the owl asked already having ideas in mind for breaking the collar if necessary.

"Not that I know of," she replied shifting in his grip. Her hands had been holding his forearm, but as the wizard turned she sat onto legs as he knelt behind her. Her right hand touched his leg moving upward in a suggestive way.

Calling his bluff, which was less a bluff than Zeria realized; Sebastian let her win this time. He slid his arms from around her neck and shoulders standing despite her posterior trying to block him. Zeria slipped to the floor.

"Ow, stop doing that. This floor is stone, you know?" she complained again appearing not to see the potential danger that she was in with the battle mage. As the woman moved to stand, the mage could see it in her eyes that she truly didn't believe that he would harm her.

"Where are we?"

"New Harbor, as if you hadn't actually guessed," Zeria stated brushing off some straw from her knees. Marks from the straw were left behind from being pressed between the woman and the floor.

"Have the people rebelled and taken over the city?"

That question made the wizard laugh even harder. "The people rebelling against who? Count Terris has pulled everyone who likes the idea of separating from Southwall together. Lords, wizards, mages, generals, whoever and begun to push back already.

"If you don't agree with him or his people, they either find a way for you to be transferred out of the city or make you just disappear."

Sebastian looked at the pretty red head and ignored her antics. When speaking of the changes, he could see it in her eyes that she was also afraid.

"Would you help me escape?"

The blunt question made the wizard's eyes widen before she shook her head strongly. "No way, if I did something like that I'd be in a cell too or dead."

"If I can get this collar off, I can get us both out of here easily," the mage stated thinking of his portal magic. It was often on his mind, since he had been cut off from the source of his power.

Puffing out her cheeks in thought before releasing the breath, Zeria shook her head once more. "I have family here. If I disappear, then they will too, Sebastian."

"I will find a way to escape, Zeria," he declared with certainty that made the woman cringe. His confidence led her to doubt only her safety should it happen on her watch.

He thought beyond such things and asked, "If your attempt to convert me fails, what will they do then?"

Zeria's eyes lifted to him curiously and the wizard replied, "He has picked up a few advisors that aren't even from Southwall. Most likely he will let one of them work on you using their magic."

"Their magic isn't like yours, you know the wizards of Southwall?"

Shaking her head in answer, she added, "I think they might be from Litsarin or... you know."

He did know and had a feeling that he even might know some of these new advisors to the count.

"Fine, then you can let them know that you failed. I want to see who they send next," the mage said as he set his jaw. If it was who he believed it was, killing them wouldn't bother him the way hurting or killing Zeria would. The woman was right that he wouldn't kill someone like her easily, but if it came down to it, in war the mage would do what was necessary.

Pursing her lips, Zeria considered his words before a slightly wicked smile crossed her face. "I don't have to do that right away, do I? We could still play a little more."

His eyes rolled at the woman, who smiled again.

Two weeks had passed and no new clues were found. Darius had been called in to help them. Though no one felt confident in going to Red Hall, or the security provided by the school, Ashleen joined the high wizard as an assembled group of wizards, mages and guards met at the portal gate in Hala.

Darius saw the girl who looked to have lost some of the light that once was easily seen in her face.

"Don't fret. We will find him, Ashleen. Sebastian is strong and intelligent enough that I fear we will probably find him just in time to see him back here safe from doing whatever he needed to do," the man said trying to be of comfort.

She looked tired. After suffering through a drunken hangover from that first night, the girl refused to try that again. Unfortunately that meant many restless nights trying to fall asleep. Her friends seemed to have found a different way to get through the night.

When Ashleen went for dinner at the inn, Serrena and Elzen would join her. When she would go to bed, they continued to remain behind every night after the first. They had begun giving each other strange looks and once Ashleen asked Hilda if she knew what was going on. The wilder was pretty sure that the other two had been drunk enough to wind up in bed together that first night.

It had made her angry at first. With their friend gone who knew where and probably in trouble, two of his best friends were busy drinking, dancing and sleeping together. Ashleen had gone to Serrena's door ready to berate them, but realized that she couldn't fault the two of them for finding solace where they could. She had returned to her room and never bothered to complain to her friends.

Sebastian had always talked about the problems of having long lasting relationships as a battle mage or wizard in Southwall with the probability of being transferred regularly. Relationships formed quickly and broke as swiftly whether they wished it or not.

Their happiness, however, only added to her misery. Ashleen wished someone were there to lie beside her and help her sleep. She missed Evie, who the wilder had viewed as part pest and partly like a child to care for. Though she didn't want the girl in her bed while lying with Sebastian, right now Ashleen wished for a friend to hold her if he couldn't be there instead.

"It's been two weeks," Ashleen reminded the wizard. "A lot can happen in two weeks. If he hasn't come home by now, I am afraid of what he is going through."

"Don't give up on him. You need to remain strong too. You wouldn't want to find him and have Sebastian worrying over you because you let yourself get sick from not sleeping," he chided her with a fatherly smile.

"That is easier said than done, Darius," she replied and turned her head to yawn.

"We will find him. I am sure of it."

"I wish we could have found you sooner though. If we had followed through that portal when we found it, maybe he'd be safe already."

Sighing as the man realized that this fight was never going to be over until they found Sebastian, Darius answered, "Perhaps, but dashing through unknown portals is a good way to get yourself killed just as easily. I'll do my best to make sure that it is safe enough to follow first. If not, I think that I can trace the gate to the other side and form a new one nearby where they won't be expecting us."

"You can do that?" she asked in surprise.

"I haven't just been sitting back letting Sebastian do all the work," chuckled the high wizard. "With my background in closing gates, it has helped me figure out several things related to them; but come on, young lady. Let's check out this gate and find him already."

Not needing to be encouraged further, Ashleen watched the portal wizards open their gate to Red Hall.

Diomar was there to meet with them, but the wilder didn't need him to show her Sebastian's guest room or where the closed portal was inside. The girl nearly ran over the wizard dragging Darius behind her to show him the offending room.

Setting up some equipment that she didn't understand, Ashleen stood to the side as the high wizard and his grandsons worked to first expose the gate with strange dust and a cast of a spell. Treya had come to watch and stood near the wilder as they worked. A device was produced with a smooth green gem set in the disc attached to a handle.

As Darterian pushed his magic into the device, his grandfather created a small hole in the air. The size of a small coin, the new portal only opened for a moment before Darius closed it again.

A map was laid on the desk in the room and after the wizards had done their calculations, the high wizard nodded to Ashleen. "It is New Harbor. Treya was correct."

The named wizard blushed at the attention of the immortal, but Ashleen ignored her fan worship. "Then we can follow?"