Battle Mage Visions (A Tale of Alus Book 12) (41 page)

Occasionally a prisoner would escape his cell or attack a jailor. He had been there when it had happened. They would blame the one who tortured them and want to exact a blood price in exchange. Civan was too much of a coward to give him that chance and was lucky that the falcon was there to guard against Sebastian's pursuit.

"Reflex, fireball," the mage called out moving to attack the hindered owl.

His runes helped him immediately. Blue eyes easily read the movement of the fire. His reaction time wasn't what the battle mage had with reflex, but it was enough to swat the fireball with his left arm batting it away. Defensive runes protected that side completely even against fire.

Seirtan didn't worry over the minor inconvenience and moved towards the prisoner with his sword already drawn. Sebastian managed to block with his left arm. A scratch could be felt at the skin level, but the rune would guard against any real damage as it resided in his skin. He kicked at the larger man making him block. He heard a grunt from Seirtan at the unexpected power of the attack. His speed and power delivered greater damage from a man that appeared less powerful to the bigger falcon.

Disengaging, Seirtan called on another spell to compensate, "Stone skin."

It played to Sebastian's favor in that it slowed the man. Since stone skin added an amount of invulnerability at the cost of stiffening the skin with the power of stone, it would work against the mage's reflex spell. Unfortunately for the owl, it would also make taking Seirtan down much harder while the defense remained as well.

Fighting the reflex spell without one of his own; Sebastian could only play to the weakness of the spell. There was only one. Seirtan's mind could see his movements and begin reacting faster than he could actually make his body move. With his runes to help, the owl was quicker than normal as well making it a closer fight. He wasn't using a sword, but Sebastian drew the harpoon to his hand to thrust like a pointed dagger.

The metallic clang rang out in the dungeon room several times before Seirtan dropped back breathing through his mouth and looking frustrated.

"Impossible," the bigger man stated with a frown. "There is no way that you should be able to fend me off that way without your reflex spell. You shouldn't have any magic either, but you have something that I can't see."

Knowing that knowledge of his runes wasn't coupled with healers who could actually place them on others even in Red Hall, Sebastian kept his advantage to himself. It was a small one, but proved that runes could make a man without magic a threat even to a trained battle mage.

Before the two could test each other once more, a roar of rage escaped Lorgan as he lunged for Sebastian wielding a heavy metal rod used for burning a victim's skin. The mage had seen the massive jailor out of the corner of his eye waiting for him to flee or do something stupid. Luckily it was the second.

Ducking the poker, the owl released the harpoon as the man closed. It wrapped around the attacking arm giving Sebastian extra leverage. Using the power of the jailor's attack, he turned shifting his weight and sent the big man's body off of his hip and over his shoulder towards Seirtan. With the reflex spell in place, the big mage had thought to pair the jailor's attack with one of his own. Momentum worked against him as Lorgan crashed against the falcon.

Even with his reflexes enhanced, his body couldn't shift to avoid the mass of the man once he started to move. Sebastian had hoped for the man to get greedy and the two worked together for the owl to disable them both, if only for a moment.

"Idiot!" Seirtan cried out shoving the stunned jailor off of him.

The power of the battle mage was enough and coupled with his augmented speed, Seirtan was to his knees swinging his sword towards Sebastian's stomach before he could close the distance. Like the bigger mage, the owl couldn't alter the physics of his momentum quick enough to take more of an advantage, but the other weakness of the battle mage's spells was beginning to rear up in this fight.

Though quick to respond, Seirtan's movements were slower than before. Sebastian's left arm took the brunt of the sword strike with the defense runes, even as he fought to make his body jump back. He was barefoot and felt the slick stone covered in blood. His back foot slipped slightly making a slight opening for the other mage.

Again his left arm blocked. He felt the pain of the metal striking his skin, but the runes shrugged off the strike once more. Seirtan fought the slick floor as well and backed off to disengage and ready a new attack.

Throwing his only perceived weapon, the harpoon, at his opponent Sebastian baited the man into another ill advised movement. Instinct and bravado made Seirtan catch the line of the harpoon even as he pulled on it trying to draw the owl to his blade without crossing the slick floor in turn.

Noticing the wince of Seirtan's eyes at the biting wire in his hand, Sebastian released two more of his weapons as he let the man's strength drag him into range. Leaping forward adding his speed to the momentum, the owl struck with a knee, but there was a spike there now as well. One of the many runes that the merfolk liked for close combat, the knee spike scraped up the other man's leg before lodging in his side.

Time had worn down the stone skin and the resistance was less than half allowing the smaller mage to draw blood.

Sebastian made the sword miss again using his left arm. A dagger extended from his fist catching Seirtan in the shoulder where arm met chest. It dug in enough to make the bigger man cry out. A second strike caught the outer arm, but the stone skin was enough to deflect the blow this time. The surprise of the attack loosened the man's hold on the barbed line. As it pulled free, the wire raked the inside of Seirtan's hand.

Bloodied, the bigger man tried to regain space between them having taken the worst of the trade.

The younger mage stepped back in less of a hurry. He gauged that the wounds to Seirtan would slow him down even more. The reflex spell was likely ending and would be risky for the mage to try again so soon. A mind could only handle short bursts of that kind of magic. It was possible to chain it a couple times, but injury might make it impossible to sustain.

Stone skin had given out as well. The smaller attacks from Sebastian coupled with the large scale blow from Lorgan had worn the magic away along with the expenditure of his energy. There were other spells that he could try, but few made sense under the conditions inside the room.

"I'll give you one chance, Seirtan. Tell me how I remove this collar and I'll let you live."

"Ha!" the big man blurted with confidence. "You don't have your magic and I've seen all your tricks now. All I need to do is refresh my reflex spell to turn this around."

Placing his left hand over the right forearm, Sebastian created a dark hole before pulling a black sword from his flesh. A portal rune, he could pull larger objects from it when he had magic, but it had always been designed for pulling swords, daggers and other weapons out during battle. Whether it was some pocket dimension holding the gear, he had yet to figure out; but what he did know was that he held a sword making him even more dangerous for the other mage.

"I have dozens of runes on my body blended to match the coloring of my skin. You have no idea what else I can do. Now tell me how to remove this collar."

Sneering at the smaller man, Seirtan stated, "Find the wizard that put it on you and have him remove it. There's your answer. Now what, owl, is it?

"If you were smarter, you would have figured that out for yourself.

"Fireball," the mage ordered the flame aimed at Sebastian once more. "Reflex."

Sebastian deflected the fire with his left hand again and watched as the big man tried to rush him across the floor. There was something different to his attack. As Seirtan closed, Sebastian could see it in the mage's eyes, the reflex spell had failed. Watching those eyes, he watched them widen even as he heard the sickening sound of the black blade entering his flesh.

Staggering back, Seirtan looked down as the ebony sword slid free of his stomach. A clang as he dropped his sword preceded the mage dropping to his knees. His hands tried to hold back the blood, but his gasping breaths told the younger man that the point of the blade had ruptured the left lung.

"If you had a better answer to help me break out of this collar, I could have healed you, Seirtan," Sebastian said stepping back from the dying man.

"You... won't... make it... out of... here... alive," the fallen mage gasped in short breaths managing to sneer at the owl despite his wounds.

Cleaning the black blade on the shirt of Lorgan before inserting the weapon back into the oval void, Sebastian kept his eyes on the dying man. The warlocks weren't of any significance. One was dead already and another was bleeding and unable to speak.

He moved to the unconscious Master Ileden and pulled his tunic over the man's head. Unintelligible sounds came from his mouth as the warlock tried to speak around his tongue. His eyes were still glazed. Unsure how much longer the warlock would remain that way or how long it would take for Civan to find help, Sebastian needed to move.

Judging Wiler's boots would fit better than the shorter warlock's; the owl stole both his boots and his pants. He had managed to avoid getting blood onto the man's pants, but his tunic was a bloody mess.

Sebastian dressed quickly. Before he was finished, the mage heard a sigh from Seirtan before he tumbled onto the floor dead.

Feeling like some crypt robber, the mage stole the coins from their purses joining the money into one pouch. A last glance to the fallen men, both those unconscious and dead, sent Sebastian hurrying from the dungeon room to look for a way out of the mess he was in now.

Chapter 22- Dungeon Crawl

He had only seen the deeper part of the dungeon. Though Sebastian had likely been dragged through the upper portion during that first night, he had been unconscious. At least the benefit of this dungeon was that it was fairly straightforward. One hall led back the way he had come. Buried in the deepest cell, the hallway ended just past it; so Sebastian knew to go the other way.

There had been other barred rooms between his end of the dungeon and the chamber that they usually used to torture the mage. All had been empty save for his. He had never thought to ask Zeria why that was; but seeing that the warlocks had been helping to try and break his will, the owl surmised that anyone imprisoned here had probably been asked if they wanted to join Terris's army at some point. Some may have already been converted by diplomacy magic, but Sebastian doubted that number was high. He had heard from his little sister that most coercion magic could be remembered by the victims. Doing something to wrong them often returned on the caster in anger, which meant that it was a dangerous proposition to tamper with other men's minds.

Beyond the torture chamber Sebastian began to see cells that were occupied. Men with once fine clothes were among them. They were beaten down and barely noticed him as he passed, though Sebastian looked for familiar faces just in case.

There were other men and a few women wearing collars like the one binding his neck to stifle his magic as continued to search.

He moved close to the bars of one drawing the man's attention. "You're a wizard, right?" the mage questioned.

Gray eyes took a moment to focus and the man questioned in surprise, "What?"

"These collars, there must be a way to break them to restore our magic. Tell me what you know quickly and maybe I can get you free also," Sebastian practically begged the man.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts the wizard replied, "It can only be removed by the one who set it or the person with the key. A wizard can't even turn his own key, so if you find it you still can't remove the collar."

"Can they be broken then?"

The man appeared thoughtful before shaking his head. "I don't know for sure. It is a perfectly sealed band thanks to the magic used to bind it. I am not sure what would be needed to cut it free, but how would you break it without removing your head in the process?"

A question that he had been asking himself, the wizard was no help after all. Another possibility loomed in his thoughts, however, so Sebastian asked, "Is there a way to open the cages here? I haven't seen any keys so far and Civan seems to have disappeared with his set."

"Civan is the jailor. If you haven't seen his keys, since you haven't seen him, then it would take tools that you most likely haven't seen either," the man replied from his seat on the floor.

Knowing that his time was limited to escape, Sebastian asked, "Are you here because you wouldn't follow Count Terris?"

"Anyone who couldn't be transferred who didn't side with separating from the rest of Southwall is likely being rounded up to be placed here. Now we'll either die here or have one of those diplomacy wizards warp our minds until we think the way that they want us to," the wizard said with a nervous frown.

"Don't give up hope. I will return with help as soon as I can," Sebastian declared realizing that there was nothing more that he could do without equipment or magic. A simple ring of keys and the mage could set the others free.

The wizard didn't look hopeful, but offered, "Good luck. You will probably need it."