Battle Mage Visions (A Tale of Alus Book 12) (39 page)

The wilder didn't look completely convinced, but she didn't complain any more.

Yenest took charge quickly and moved towards the door where Jeriah had opened the wood barrier to look out on a street with another building across the way. As the wizards funneled in from behind, the falcondi asked the big man what he had found.

"I can sense something of his aura, but it seems too faint to be his or maybe the scent of his magic has been scattered? The kidnappers could be doing their best to cover their tracks," Jeriah answered. "Maybe Quylan will see it differently."

"Can you follow the trail?" the falcondi asked being more specific to their needs.

"As long as they don't try harder the further we go or enter an area too crowded with other magic users, I should be able to follow his aura's scent. His personal smell has faded to the point that I doubt that I will be able to use it. He was probably carried, which will leave less of a trace besides."

Quylan knelt looking at the footprints. Both mages had walked beside the marks in the dust keeping the trail as obvious for the others coming behind them. Quylan was known as a great tracker like Jeriah, but Darius and his grandsons had many skills that they were only starting to touch on so far.

His finger pointed to one of the tracks and he said, "Someone large and strong was waiting here for them. He or she carried Sebastian from the opening, but the mage was dragged through the gate."

"It was done at night," Elzen mused, "so they might have been able to carry him if he was unconscious without anyone stopping to question them.

"He might look like a drunk being carried home by his friends," Ashleen said thinking of her first night after learning that Sebastian had been taken from her. If she hadn't gone to bed after the third drink, Elzen or one of Hilda's sons probably would have had to carry her up the stairs to her room. People drinking to the point of excess wasn't uncommon, though many times it was the city guards or constables forced to drag them off to a cell to sleep it off instead.

"Even a small group could move through the night if it was written off that way," Falcondi Yenest mused. "Unfortunately the trail has had more time to grow cold since then. If these roads are well traveled, we might have trouble continuing with just trackers; and if we do have to worry over men in high positions sanctioning this, then we can't just go to the local guilds or militia either."

Darius was listening to them discussing the probability of being unable to execute their mission and reminded them, "I think even if you have problems following the trail with your magic, I can provide you a way to find Sebastian."

The falcondi turned to the immortal wizard and asked, "Do you have a spell that can track Sebastian in a different way?"

His face darkened momentarily like a cloud passing before the sun and the look was gone once more. "In my time, I have had to close many gates which required the gear you have probably all seen. There have also been times that wizards have gone rogue and risked causing more trouble than we could allow to remain unsanctioned. By doing a few adjustments to the compass, it can be trained to follow a magical pattern, even that of specific wizards."

The fire wizard Imen had been listening along with the rest of the group and the man asked, "If he has less magic, like a battle mage, will the device still be able to follow him?"

Ashleen frowned at the wizard and adjusted his question to something less dismissive of the mage's strength. "Treya and Jeriah have said that his magic seems to have been dispersed or otherwise reduced from the usual. That will give you less to work with than normal."

Giving the wilder a grim smile, he replied, "This wouldn't be the first time a wizard tried to hide his or her aura. We don't know what is restricting Sebastian's power; but even a trace of it will lead us to him using a compass like this. I only need a moment to change the pattern it looks for to make it point towards him no matter how much they try to hide his magic."

"That's all well and good as long as we don't run into the stone wall of a guarded prison," Jeriah commented. "A regular stone wall might be enough to interfere with this mission."

Ashleen frowned at the mage and retorted, "The same will happen if you use your tracking magic as well. At least if we can track him to a point and omit any others, then we will know where he is. We can always send to Hala for reinforcements if we must."

"She's pretty free with Southwall resources for a Kardorian," Imen stated jokingly to the other wizards nearest him.

Turning on the man angrily, sparks began trickling along the wilder's skin. The men closest to the fire wizard found their feet stepping away from him warily. His eyes glanced to the lack of support and back to Ashleen who moved to stand in front of him with her arms crossed irritably.

"Are we going to have a problem, Imen? Last I looked Kardor and Southwall were allies. I also have a more personal interest in getting Sebastian back than you do, but I am pretty sure that King Alain, the high wizards and Raven Leros would be ready to commit more resources to save the owl mage."

"Uh, no ma'am," the wizard said with wide eyes. "It was just a joke, really."

Rolling his eyes, Darius nodded to Darterian, who then handed over the odd device Ashleen had seen used to find portal gates in the past. A little tinkering and the wizard ran the compass over a set of stones. She could sense Sebastian's magic in them.

"He gave you a set of his rune stones?" the girl asked moving closer to the wizard and lowering her voice.

Smiling at Ashleen, the man nodded. "I doubt that he had the foresight to think that they might be needed for something like this; but they will be useful for it."

Turning on the compass by passing his magic through the device, several marks appeared on the green, glassy stone set on the round, flat piece of the magical machine. "We need to filter out items he has enchanted first to narrow the search."

It was interesting to see how many points appeared pointing in nearly every direction. Most were faint in comparison to a few, so Ashleen asked, "Are the faint ones further away?"

Nodding to the girl even as Darius used his magic to adjust the compass, he replied, "Yes, it's from Hala and the various gates he has created for the most part. Since they are enchanted items and not living, it makes it possible to filter them out of the compass very quickly."

Soon a single mark pointed towards the southeast. It would lead past the doorway and lead them towards the right.

Outside the warehouse, Ashleen and the others had a chance to see the exterior of the building. Like the inside, the outer walls looked severely weathered and worn. It could use paint, but also some more drastic repairs, she thought.

The building wasn't the only one in such a dilapidated state. Several other buildings nearby appeared mostly abandoned for awhile. It was a surprise for a city that was considered quite wealthy that businesses could still fail.

"This looks like an older part of town," Elzen said walking beside Serrena and Ashleen.

Jeriah continued to use his magic beside Quylan at the front of the group. The mages followed the trail, while Darius covered the compass with the sleeves of his robes. Ashleen thought the high wizard was hardly hiding what he was, so the compass could have been held out in the open and drawn little extra attention.

While the mages could follow the trail, the compass wasn't required. It was simply there as a redundancy should the tracking magic fail. Since it was already calibrated to the signal that they believed was Sebastian, he wouldn't have to make use of his magic as obviously at least.

"Maybe the owners found it less expensive to move to new warehouses or they went out of business. It is such a busy city that you would think that no piece of land would be ignored for long though, even if they needed to tear a building down and rebuild over it," Serrena noted her thoughts which mirrored Ashleen's.

Another thought came to her mind as they walked and the wilder pushed her magic to her eyes. Like searching for a wizard's aura, Ashleen looked at the nearby buildings and noted a lingering cast of magic to the buildings closest to the warehouse.

"They may have been pushed out," she said with a frown.

The others closest to her noted her confusion and Serrena asked, "What do you mean?"

"There is magic lingering over most of these buildings. They might have been closed because the wizards required it."

Elzen shook his head as he looked at the state of the area and reminded her, "These all look to have been abandoned for quite awhile. If there is magic here, then it is most likely more recent. Maybe whoever used the magic did it here because they were already deserted?"

When the front of their group stalled in front of them, Ashleen thought maybe someone had stopped because they had a difference of opinion. Instead as she looked ahead, the girl found a crowded open air market less than a block from them.

Jeriah glanced back to Darius and said, "The path leads through here."

"Have you lost the trail?"

"Not yet, but you might want to check if the compass points through it, sir," he replied very respectful of the high wizard.

Darius slid the compass out enough to look again and he pointed slightly to the left as they continued in a southerly direction. Ashleen's eyes noticed something in the direction the high wizard directed. A large castle loomed beyond the open market and past the buildings opposite them. It was a worry that had been lingering over all of them since Sebastian's disappearance was linked to New Harbor.

Elzen mumbled, "If he's in there, we're going to need an army."

Chapter 21- Desperation

Sebastian had lost track of the time, but guessed that another two days of the combined warlocks' attacks had passed. They had worn him down to the point that the mage could barely think by the time they tired from trying to break him. The mage would be deposited in his cell and left until the next session alone; but he could barely remember to work on the shackles anymore.

Luckily, he knew that they were nearly broken. With the continued pressure of the warlocks, Sebastian knew that he was going to need to try something to get free, even if he had to try doing it without his magic. At least he had his runes and the mage was getting pretty good at manipulating the barbwire harpoon. He could also adjust the thickness and shape of the line to a point. Unlike the ability gained by using his magic, the barbwire harpoon was less responsive to just the power of his mind and the strength of his body; but it was more than he had seen among the soldiers that the mage had given full sets of runes.

Practices with the rune soldiers looked like a beginning training session for new mages. They had almost no command of those runes that required controlling them with their minds. With time he hoped that would change, but for now the defensive runes along with those for speed and power would already give the soldiers an edge in battle.

The sound of someone approaching carried along the dungeon hallway to his ears even without pushing the enhancement of his runes. Sebastian took the remaining water in his cup and the remnants of the bread he had been given. Quickly eating and drinking his supplies, the mage expected to be taken to the torture room again. Masters Wiler and Ileden seemed to enjoy working him over though their elder seldom showed that much emotion. Their fun would become unbearable if the mage didn't keep up at least some of his strength.

"You don't look well," a familiar female voice spoke to him.

"He looks better than he should," Civan's negativity shoved through the friendlier tone of the woman.

"Shut up, Civan," Zeria ordered dismissively as the jailor unlocked his cell.

The red haired wizard wasn't dressed for torture and she hadn't been to visit him since the day before the warlocks had appeared. In her simple research wizard robes, Zeria looked better to him than in her odd red leather gear. She was pretty as she was, but Sebastian only appreciated her looks. His heart wasn't even slightly swayed as his mind often returned to Ashleen. He spent his time wondering what she was doing without him. Surely his friends would have noticed that he hadn't returned as planned, but how could they find him?

Hassar had taken him by portal to the far away city of New Harbor, he had discovered and finally confirmed with Zeria. They would likely believe that he was still somewhere near the school, not hundreds of miles away. He could only hope that they would call in someone like Darius to back track through the portal. Since Darius had once done it using Garosh's old gate, Sebastian knew that the high wizard could do it.

Waving the jailor away, the research wizard moved quickly towards him saying, "Sit down. You really do look awful. You actually look worse than when Civan beat you."

"I feel about the same. Those warlocks mix up the damage from their spells. Some attack the mind and others the body," the mage said sitting back down. Sebastian didn't think that he had to hide the fact that he was tired from Zeria, though the mage wasn't completely convinced that she wasn't just using kindness to try and turn him still.

His torturers seemed to have tried everything, but looking at the woman as his only friend, could be just what they wanted. Forming a strong bond with one of his captors had the possibility of getting past defenses that torture could not. Sebastian looked for the best in people, but he wasn't so naive as to trust her completely.