Battle Mage Visions (A Tale of Alus Book 12) (50 page)

Gray skies greeted him letting the mage know that the world would go on with or without him. Winter was in full bloom and held Hala in its icy grip making the man almost long for the warmth in New Harbor's dungeon. He had been gone too long to feel insulated against the cold.

"Air shield," he said calling up his version of the wizard spell. In its construction, Sebastian tied off the magic letting the main shield feed off of itself rather than tapping into his full strength. It was a trick that few had mastered and most of those were wizards.

With his shield in place trapping the heat of his body, Sebastian noticed the cold a little less. Snowflakes, pushed by the breeze coming through the streets, were swept away by his barrier and the trip to the castle was made more bearable by using the spell. Only his feet were abused by the snow trampled underfoot, but his socks were warm and the boots water resistant.

He was let through all the checkpoints easily and most of the guards who knew him welcomed him back as well. It was an unusual amount of attention, but it didn't slow him by much. The final guards opened the raven's door without any explanation and closed it behind him without being ordered by Leros.

"Sebastian, I am glad to see you back and well. You are well enough to at least see some light duty, correct?" the old man asked the last with a bit of concern, though Sebastian wondered if it was for him directly or the hope that no illness would prevent him from serving.

"I am well enough. Ashleen and I worked through the cracked and broken bones. I feel almost as good as I did before I... disappeared."

"Kidnapped, you were kidnapped and it angers me to say that it was by our fellow countrymen," Leros stated with an angry look at his desk. "Ashleen came to me worried that something had happened to you and my gut told me to follow her lead on that. This is why I wish you would stay where I can make sure that you are protected more.

"Perhaps a permanent position in White Hall..."

"You think that in one of our schools I am any safer than here?" he replied reminding the raven that he was abducted from Red Hall of all places.

"I would have thought that Red Hall would be far enough from the shenanigans happening in the southern cities to have something like that happen to you."

"It just goes to prove that danger can be anywhere, sir. There's no point to avoiding danger, if it will just come looking for me anyway.

"Now why am I here so early?"

"It's not that early," Leros replied before adding, "but I guess it would have been assumed that I could give you at least a day to rest before throwing you into more work."

"Assumed, but am I truly surprised? No," he half laughed at the idea.

Nodding, Leros explained, "When we were unsure when you would be back, or if, we sent a portal wizard to Ensolus to meet up with the team Captain Drayden is leading up there. We've heard nothing from him since he opened his gate."

"When was this?" Sebastian asked wondering if the wizard had stepped into an ambush exiting a gate or found one while looking for Drayden. The people of Ensolus weren't easy to deal with even overlooking the dangers of soldiers, warlocks and wizard hunters.

"Early yesterday, maybe we should have waited, but there was no certainty about getting you back and the wizards wanted to push for contact. He was considered as expert at portals as we can expect from such a short time of using the magic. Wizard Istrias is also an air wizard and supposed to be pretty capable of taking care of himself."

"Not to be condescending about wizards' abilities, but they can't do a lot in a close range fight. It's why we protect them in battle after all. I can handle myself better than any wizard that I've met, which is why I tend to take on so much dangerous work. I am afraid to let others do it."

The raven nodded. "But you need to let go and let others do what needs to be done. You can't be everywhere and there is just one of you. You can't be in the war on Litsarin and in Ensolus working with our spies at the same time or doing any one of the many things that you do.

"Still, I wish that we had waited a day or two. Drayden can handle things without us, even up there alone."

"Do you know which portal he used, sir?" Sebastian asked pulling one of his duplicated maps of Ensolus towards him on the raven's desk.

"The one farthest east," the raven stated pointing towards one of the marks on the maps.

Frowning at the map, Sebastian said, "That one is closest to where I found Wendle and the girl who had been with Palose. Even I don't usually use that one. There's always the possibility that he would notice extra activity from opening the portals in the city. I don't know how sensitive he is to that kind of magic, but he is an expert with portals and months ahead of me at least."

"Are you saying that you think that they are going to be trapped there? This was supposed to be the chance to strike back at the Dark One without being blind to his defenses."

Shaking his head, the mage replied, "Not necessarily, but I can't be certain of what is going on with Palose and the others. If I had to guess, some of what he is doing has been hidden from the warlocks in the city; but I can't be certain.

"I will prepare to go there and find Drayden as long as he and the rest of them aren't compromised."

"If you aren't up to it yet..." Raven Leros started showing his concern for the owl.

"I can do it. Just give me a little time to get ready and I will go to Ensolus."

"Do you want me to get a team together?"

Sebastian shook his head as he started to back out of the room and said, "No, risking just one person is best. I can get in and out better than anyone else we have. If I have a team, they might get separated and I could be forced to leave without them making it even worse."

The old raven nodded as he watched the young man leave his office once more.

"If anyone but me comes through right away, be ready to strike," Sebastian commanded the three waiting with him inside his room.

Ashleen, Elzen and Serrena would guard his personal gate just in case someone could make use of his next portal into Ensolus. Opening up the city to the Dark One just to save one wizard or even a small network of spies, wasn't worth going in without a plan.

"I can't believe that you are going on a rescue mission after just returning home," Ashleen sighed in complaint.

Shrugging in response and echoing her sigh, Sebastian replied, "If Wizard Istrias was supposed to be the most competent of the wizards capable of opening a gate; then it's best to not risk anymore of our people. I'll get in and out quickly plus I know where I need to go."

"What if Palose has the wizard?" Elzen asked quickly. "He has more than just one wizard there and some were friends of yours besides."

"If our friends are working with Palose, then I will have to consider them hostile. I'll take them down, but I may be able to take them out without killing them at least."

"Just be safe," Ashleen ordered. "We just got you back, Sebastian."

He nodded and called up a door as Ashleen funneled her energy into him. Sebastian had been feeling stronger since his ordeal at least magically. Ashleen had commented that he felt a bit more powerful as well, but it was hard to be certain. It was also possibly a short term thing lingering from the control band.

Jumping through the doorway, Sebastian passed through the silver void into the dim light of the cave city. Looking to the south, the mage spotted the mouth of the cave partially clogged with towers and walls. A mountain fortress from the outside, those walls could also keep someone trapped inside if they didn't have access to a portal spell.

His choice of gates was further to the west letting him remain clear of Palose and his people, or so he hoped anyway. The mission wasn't about taking out the Betrayer, but just to retrieve Istrias before he gave away any secrets. Saving the wizard came as part of that also.

It was still relatively early in the cave city being that it was far to the west of Hala. Between the early hour and the cold, the streets were lightly populated as the mage pulled out a stone to examine. Holding Istrias' magic inside the lodestone, it was the best bet for Sebastian to find the missing wizard.

"Vision," he ordered altering the typical choice of expanded vision to include magic. Battle mage magic was simplistic in most ways compared to wizards, but unlike their more powerful kin a mage used their minds and wills to make a word do what he needed as much as anything. Sebastian often wondered if a spell would even require a word or gesture if the caster's focus was accurate enough to generate the right need.

It was a question for later thought perhaps, but as the owl scanned the city looking for the magic which matched the stones he found his vision picked up too much. Glowing colors were centralized to the north. The emperor's spire radiated light which eclipsed anything else nearby, though he could pick up some of the different colors and shades of light making up the other warlocks within his fortress.

Beyond that was another center of magic. The warlocks' school was a kaleidoscope of colors as the casters moved around the training center even at this early hour. More magic lights lit the spires to the south of the fortress. These were likely warlocks' in their apartments, graduates of the academy, with the money to live as they wanted within the confines of the city. Sebastian wondered if their freedom to live where they wanted was limited by the emperor to being inside the cave, but again it was a thought that mattered little at the moment.

Entering the outskirts of the district for less privileged humans, a young woman with long brown hair and intelligent looking brown eyes walked up putting her arm through his.

"If anyone asks, you are my husband," she stated quietly. He knew her face from the last time he had been to the city. Glancing to his face, she sighed and said, "You can call me Jana, if you have already forgotten my name."

Without apologizing, Sebastian replied, "I guess that it would be a good thing to know my wife's name."

There was a pause before Jana spoke again, "You have been noticeably absent, my husband. Where have you been hiding yourself? A messenger came for you, but was intercepted by a rival."

Knowing that she was speaking in code for him, the mage was still able to follow easily enough. "I was detained by someone who tried to take something that wasn't theirs to take, but where is this messenger now?"

Leaning her head against his arm like a loving wife who had missed her husband, the spy replied, "The last we saw he was taken by a girl and dark haired wizard... um, warlock. We haven't seen Istrias since he entered their house. It is the home you warned us about though."

The girl wasn't perfect in hiding her terms, but no one appeared close enough to overhear any of their conversation anyway.

"Perhaps I will pay him a visit. Is our mutual friend available as well?"

"He left early this morning. I don't know how he manages to drink away most of the night just to slip away when the sun rises."

"A pretty girl needs to get her sleep, I guess; but as an older man he can be spry enough."

"Spry?" Jana giggled at his use of the term. "Side stepping the truth of our friend's unusual stamina wouldn't lead me to call him spry, but I suppose that it is close enough."

Her hand slowed his step and turned him towards her. Pulling him close as if to kiss him, Jana spoke into his ear, "There have been moves that have taken out a few of our people over the last two weeks. We thought that maybe they had gotten to you as well before we could meet."

To sell, the close proximity, the young woman kissed him on the mouth for real. Sebastian's spine stiffened for just a moment before letting the gesture happen. Loosing him a bit in her grip, she replied, "You'd do well as a spy, I think. You didn't balk a bit, but maybe you really do think I am pretty."

Ignoring her taunt, Sebastian said, "I will check on the messenger first. If he is no longer there, maybe we will have a new opportunity to find our lost coworkers."

She nodded and gave him a last kiss on the cheek saying, "I will see you at home then, dear."

Knowing the hideout that Drayden had managed to find for the small group of spies, Sebastian assumed that was the location she meant. They could also have someone watching Palose's house and his people. If the wizard had been taken there, it was possible that he hadn't been moved; but with Palose's ability to use portal magic he could be moved without any outward sign for the spies to see.

Getting closer to the house, Sebastian looked for the tell tale magic of the wizard. It was minimal making him think that either Istrias was unconscious, had his magic stifled like with one of the collars, or he was no longer there.

He recognized the magic of the girl who seemed to follow the dark mage and another wizard he knew fairly well also. Wendle and the girl were the strongest presences there while Palose was absent. Nominal magical auras were there as well. The two women who barely felt strong enough to be mages were there, but at least one of them appeared to be sleeping since he was close enough to see the figure horizontal to the floor.

Taking Istrias' stones from his pouch, Sebastian tested for the man's magic again yet felt nothing more than residual magic. There certainly wasn't anything as strong as he should feel for someone sleeping he thought ruling that out with an extended look. He doubted that Palose would have a restraining collar like the one used on him as well. They were rare artifacts, though it was possible that the Dark One might use them in the hands of his wizard hunters.