Battle Mage: Dragon Mage (Tales of Alus) (3 page)

A hair brush came out and Cheleya contemplated it for just a moment before the girl let the brush run through her new strawberry blond hair. The brush also had other colors besides blond between the bristles. Cheleya had played with other colors of hair before, even if she always kept her face and body the same.

As she brushed her long hair, a sigh came from deep within her chest. Contentment and a strange sensation of satisfaction came with each pull through her hair. She had no tangles. Cheleya never did, but the feel of the brush moving through her hair was intoxicating to the dragoness. The dullness of feeling through dragon scales made her wonder what other wondrous things she could feel as a human, but for now a relaxing brushing was enough of a change.

Her posterior was beginning to become sore with the hard stone ground beneath the young woman. The dragoness paused in her brushing and sighed again. Looking around the room, she noticed some of the wood ringing her bed. Putting the brush back into the pack, Cheleya stood and began to chant.

Pieces of wood began to slide around and pull together. In moments, the magician had pulled the wood into a semblance of a chair, but it was open where the seat needed to be. Straw and grass combined in a new spell as the girl wove them together strengthening the whole as the braiding added power and a flat surface came together. Binding it to the wood with several strands of her own hair, braided into twine with her magic, the dragoness soon finished her creation.

While it would be unlikely to receive high marks by a true artisan, the chair seemed solid and more than strong enough to hold her human body. Testing it as she sat, Cheleya went back to her pack and retrieved her brush.

Another sigh of satisfaction came as she sat in her new chair feeling the brush stroke her hair comfortingly. While she knew that she should study more of the magic Malaketh had taught them, the girl found that she didn’t care that much. It was just nice to sit in the peace and quiet of her own room. Being human was certainly a soothing change of pace for the dragoness, Cheleya decided.

“Again?!” the deep voice of the dragon Sorqesta growled as her footsteps drew her daughter’s attention from the doorway to her room.

Cheleya had been working with her spells, the ones that came from the books she had borrowed as the young che’ther’s mind continued to want to learn more that her teachers would not teach. Summoning, elemental casting, even some of the mind tricks were in these books, but they had distracted the young dragoness to the point of missing her mother’s heavy steps.

“I’m sorry. I’ll change back, mother,” the little human girl pleaded hurriedly. Her fingers began to fumble with her amulet as her mind searched for the spell in her panic.

The large che’ther noted the trinkets sitting near her bag and the chair that Cheleya had made. Charging into the room, the girl had to scamper out of her mother’s way. In human form, she was likely to get crushed to death by her own mother.

“What is this? It is bad enough that we let you go to this magic school, but then you come back as a human! Now you bring this human junk into my house! Get this... stuff out of here now! I will not have you disrespecting me by this continual flaunting of these human things in my house, Cheleya. Now change and throw them out before I decide to simply step on them myself!”

Cheleya looked up at her mother stunned. The girl liked magic and the transformation magic of the amulet was her favorite. On one hand she was a dutiful che’ther daughter, who only wished to have her mother support her, but on the other Sorqesta had just decided she hated everything that the girl loved.

“But this is my collection. I need this. It is mine,” the daughter said forgetting about her need to transform and letting the amulet rest back on her chest on its chain.

A che’ther had facial expressions though humans and mar’goyn’lya often seemed to miss or simply misunderstand them. For Cheleya, as her mother’s eyes squinted just an inch more, the girl new Sorqesta was turning furious. “And what of this? I have never seen this piece of wood before. Did you pay gold for it? Your father works hard to gain money and you waste it behind our backs. You probably stole that money from us too.”

Before Cheleya could explain, the giant che’ther swatted her new chair against the far wall. Breaking into dozens of pieces, the girl watched as her work was destroyed in an instant of fury. Getting angry as well, Cheleya screamed, “I made that, mother! How dare you break my chair?”

“How dare I?” the deep growl of her mother’s voice asked as her large head moved to face her daughter. Cheleya noticed for the first time that her small human body would probably fit between those jaws in a single bite with teeth longer than her forearm. Such teeth could tear her human form apart with little effort, she thought; and suddenly the girl felt fear. “This is my home and I rule it, Cheleya. You do as I say and I’ve warned you not to call me your mother when you look like that!”

Reaching quickly for her pack, Cheleya looked up at the dragoness once more and retorted, “Perhaps I should never bother to call you mother again then! If I bring so much shame to this family, then maybe it is time for me to leave!”

The blond haired magician turned and ran for the doorway. Dodging large clawed feet and a tail that could kill her with a single flick, the little human girl quickly fled.

Sorqesta turned carefully to avoid harming her daughter despite her words. “Where would you go, Cheleya?” the dragoness questioned in surprise. A che’ther didn’t know how to show pain from emotions like her daughter in this little human shape caused her. She didn’t know how to soften her voice to soothe a teenage girl and her temperament made her question even trying to do so.

“I will just go to the Academy. There are rooms there and then you don’t have to bother with your disappointment of a daughter. In fact, don’t call me your daughter anymore no matter what form I take. I am not your daughter anymore!” Cheleya screamed as her feet continued to run for the main doorway.

Heavy steps and a shadow crossing the threshold announced the return of her father, Cor’Dargan. Seeing his shadow, Cheleya cried out, “Dragon wings!”

Black wings formed echoing the girl’s bad mood and swept towards the floor propelling her into the air. Mere feet separated Cheleya from her father’s face as tears streamed down her cheeks. She barely spared the brown scaled che’ther a look as she passed him by and launched upward away from the house of her birth.

“Cheleya?” Cor’Dargan queried the fleeing form. Spying his wife hurrying towards him, he could feel confusion and worry on the dragoness’s mind. “Sorqesta, what happened to Cheleya?”

The blue che’ther halted in front of her husband unsure of how to answer. Cheleya loved her father more and they had a strong connection that she had never been able to build with the girl. She didn’t want to anger her husband by revealing the strong words she had for their daughter. She didn’t want to take responsibility for driving their first child away.

Tears streamed down Cheleya’s cheeks and she was forced to scrub them away from her eyes to see. In her flight towards the school, the girl nearly missed the large dark form of a mar’goyn’lya approaching her.

“Cheleya, what’s wrong?” Kel’lor’s voice questioned as the male mar’goyn’lya approached her in flight. In the open he was much faster than the human with her wings. He noted the odd color from the che’ther that usually preferred red or even pink wings. Black must have some meaning behind them and he knew that it must be as dark as the color she used.

“My... my... mother,” Cheleya stammered and noted the strange, stuttering breaths as she quickly gasped. The tears and the strange tightness in her chest were new. Was this one of the emotions that the masters had warned Cheleya about when she was first given her amulet? The amulets were more than a surface illusion. Using an amulet, a che’ther truly became a human in all ways.

Cheleya had been using her human form more and more lately. She supposed these new emotions were simply a side affect of the spell.

“What about your mother?” the male gargoyle asked as he flew effortlessly beside her as his large leathery wings propelled him through the air.

Kel’lor was a close friend, but the girl wondered whether she should tell him all that had happened. A che’ther rarely expressed conflict between them and certainly not to outsiders. They didn’t feel emotions like a human, though pride and secrecy were part of their nature.

“I left my home. I am going to stay at the Academy,” Cheleya said wiping at a nose suddenly dripping, though she knew not how it formed so much water.

“Why would you do that?” again he asked calmly and Cheleya found his calm tone was beginning to aggravate her instead.

“What does it matter? I am not going back there. My mother doesn’t understand me or my magic and I can’t live with her any longer,” the girl complained as the two climbed higher and higher. The school actually consisted of several mountain top buildings. They were on high to keep those that were
not part of them away from the secrets of che’ther and mar’goyn’lya magic. There were both secrets and dangers to those born without the powers the magicians and wizards held.

Managing to shrug despite flying, Kel’lor replied simply, “Those without magic always seem unable to understand wizards. I left my nest decades ago. My family can fly, but they all lack any magic.”

“Do you live in the school?” the girl asked suddenly realizing that she really knew very little of her classmate outside of the school. He was older than her and she knew that he had trained in other styles of magic before trying to learn the dragon magic. Beyond his basic personality, Cheleya didn’t know things like his true age or where he lived.

He shook his head. “My clan has eyries on the northern mountain. I live there.”

The che’ther had never thought about where the mar’goyn’lya actually lived. Her people occupied the valley between the spires and few of the gargoyles actually lived among them. Many shops held both mar’goyn’lya and humans in the market areas, but she guessed that wasn’t where they also lived.

Occupying her mind with the trivial thoughts, the girl arrived at the building where most of her classes were taught. Malaketh might be around or maybe one of the other masters, she thought. Not sure what to do about Kel’lor’s presence, Cheleya said, “I think I will look for someone that can tell me where I can stay. You do not need to wait on me, Kel’lor, since I will be here when you return in the morning.

Perched on the rail before the doorway leading into their classroom, the gargoyle smiled grimly and nodded. While the che’ther weren’t always sure of meanings behind other races’ words in their dealings, a mar’goyn’lya was able to understand the others much easier. They had more human like emotions and looked like them in some ways.

  “Well, if you think that you will be all right for tonight, then I will leave you. Have you eaten yet?” the gargoyle asked the question as he postured to turn away from the girl.

A rumble from Cheleya’s stomach reminded the dragoness that she had run out before dinner. A warmth came to her cheeks and she replied in embarrassment, “I forgot to eat.”

Cracking a smile, Kel’lor replied graciously, “Go look for someone and I will go get some food for you, Cheleya.”

The mar’goyn’lya tumbled from the rail letting his wings catch the wind and flew off towards the north where both the main city and his mountain home lay. Whether he meant to fly all the way home or had somewhere closer that he could get some food, Cheleya didn’t know; but since he was gone the girl moved to find someone as she had said she would.

Chapter 3- The Night’s Curse

Darkness ruled much of the school making new shapes from old, familiar ones and creating a peculiar sense on unease as Cheleya moved into the first room. Depositing her backpack in the doorway where the first moon’s light could still illuminate it for her simple, human eyes; the girl stepped into the first room that served as a classroom and training area. A place that felt so comfortable to her by day now caused Cheleya to reach out with her hand feeling for the furniture that she knew was hidden there.

Her foot caught the leg of a stool and she felt the pain on her toes. She was barefoot and covered simply by the ribbon of material that she had summoned in her room. The pain made her realize why most che’ther refused to try shape changing. Creatures born with scales out of protective eggs were used to being shielded from the world in one way or another. Those who quested for magic and the changes it could create were the oddities amongst her race.

Bookcases lined the walls of the large room. It was a che’ther created space though the furniture was sized for humans and thus was immense in scale to her current little body. Malaketh, her teacher and master of dragon magic, was human and had asked that they all learn to change form while inside the classroom to meet more on his level, she supposed. Long tables with stools littered the dark room like a mine field for her exposed toes, the dragoness realized and almost considered changing into her real form. A dragon size body was more likely to break things, however, and Cheleya was trying to be accepted so considered breaking furniture a bad start.

Glass holding various fluids caught the light on several tables. The classes taught more than just dragon magic and sometimes alchemists needed such things. It was a form of magic or something called science that she had yet to be shown, but Cheleya had always marveled at all the glass and the colorful liquids they contained. In the dark, the girl simply tried to avoid such things in fear of knocking them over and creating more damage.