Battle Mage: Dragon Mage (Tales of Alus) (31 page)

Cheleya flew east ignoring the turns and veered slightly to the south. She didn’t want to stumble across the wrong kind of wizards. There were stories of those serving darker masters who would kidnap fledgling wizards. Cheleya had always judged the stories to be those meant to push children to be better, but in a foreign city and so far from home, the che’ther trapped in a frail human body suddenly remembered those stories with new worry.

Moving east of the trio’s position and to the south, Cheleya noted a sudden stop. The center figure flared yellow with a spell. The dragoness was only a few blocks away and hoped that these three weren’t using a similar spell to catch her watching them. She couldn’t make out facial features or general movements with a spell that could see through walls, but Cheleya  held still waiting to see their next move.

To her surprise, the trio suddenly veered to the south moving quickly. The dragoness only waited a moment countering by flying northwest across the rooftops. If they suddenly turned down the street towards her, Cheleya would have a three block head start to fly away from those running in the streets.

She paused atop the backside of a roof along the same street the three were about to pass. They could not have seen her with their eyes, she knew, unless they could use a similar spell to hers. If they came towards the dragoness, Cheleya knew that would spell trouble.

Overshooting the street heading south, the girl let out a relieved breath, but her relief was short lived as they simply went one more block to turn back to the west once more. A flare of magic from the figure left of the first caster was the second warning, and worse it felt familiar.

Cheleya watched as the second caster suddenly seemed to leap back and forth from one side of the street to the other, but not only in giant leaps horizontally, but it seemed to be rising with each movement. Uttering a curse under her breath, the dragoness realized why the magic felt so familiar. Another dragon mage had just summoned his wings.

The dragoness turned and fled towards the outer wall while flying low. Her wings felt like they would hit the buildings on either side of the street and, as she cornered to bank north, the dragon mage swung her feet to catch the wall across from her as her wings aligned vertically with the ground. Pushing off, Cheleya returned to horizontal staying low between the buildings to avoid being seen if at all possible. Magic was at work, so the mage doubted her efforts could throw them off, but it was still her best shot.

Twisting to stall her progress, her eyes caught sight of a second flyer. The first had lifted higher searching for his quarry as the second lifted as well taking west. She looked for the first caster and watched as he moved with unbelievable swiftness along the ground. Doubting her ability to fly was much faster, the dragoness couldn’t even use elevation to put more buildings between them.

Knowing these three pursued her, but not why, Cheleya fled for the wall to the north. If she could get clear of the city, perhaps the mage could put enough distance between her and them to either hide or exhaust their curiosity.

The tall white wall reflected the silver light of the third moon, Gelinas, the god of life and death, the girl reflected. It was a human myth, but as the dragoness used her wings to scale the height needed to clear the wall, she felt as if the moon watched her. Unfortunately, Cheleya didn’t know if his judgment would be life or death.

Clearing the rear of the wall, the dragoness turned to look for pursuit. The first flyer had risen pursuing her course, though from his slower speed she doubted that he knew her exact position. Unfortunately, a fireball cast from the second indicated that Cheleya had been spotted. The fire was extinguished well before the dragoness as it had only been meant to catch the first dragon mage’s attention.

Toppling backward over the outer wall, the dragoness turned in midair as she fell letting her wings use the extra speed to sweep her clear. Hurrying along the wall only ten feet from the ground, the flyer cast a spell taught to most apprentices when they were young, “Stealth.”

The world was quiet as darkness seemed to form around the girl as she flew. Shadows were cast by the wall to the north where she fled. Fire suddenly flew along the wall as the two flyers cast blindly searching for their quarry and Cheleya knew they had meant to find her. Dragon mages sent from Mar’kal couldn’t be a coincidence.

Cheleya moved close to the wall landing at its base. She hoped to blend in as the mage doubted she could out fly them now. Looking up, the two circled in a pattern just below the wall casting fire streams brightening the night and eliminating shadows. Her magic couldn’t be dispersed as easily, especially when the mage held still.

A rumble in the earth from the east warned the dragon mage to move just before the ground erupted. The third seeker had cut off any escape to the east and seemed to know exactly where she had been standing. Only the speed of her wings had helped Cheleya avoid being thrown by the erupting ground. Her movement was still bound in stealth, but her shadow beneath her flying wings brought the others’ attention.

“Dragon scale,” the dragoness ordered armoring up for a fight.

“Dragon breath!” a female voice ordered above the girl as blue flame swept towards the flyer. So wide was the wave of fire cast, that Cheleya couldn’t avoid it.

“Dragon wind!” the little blond used her wings to create a great gust of wind piercing the flames and casting them aside.

“Dragon claw!” a male voice ordered as he dove from above.

The red magic of a dragon claw reached for Cheleya, but she countered once more. “Dragon shield,” she erected a powerful black shield created from dozens of overlapping magic scales. The claw struck the shield only to be brushed aside.

In the distraction, Cheleya nearly missed as half a dozen spires rose from the ground trying to catch the flyer being pushed lower by the dragon mages. It was a larger spell than most mages would cast, she thought as the dragoness twisted to avoid striking the first two. Twisting to put her feet against another, the little blond turned on the two above her.

“Dragon breath!” the little dragoness released bright flames of red and pink. She had been told such colors were like a little girl by Kel’lor, but they burned hot just the same and drove the two flyers away momentarily.

She looked for the earth wizard and watched as a brown dragon stood on his back legs casting with his front claws. Thinking the creature had a coloring and look much like her farmer father, Cheleya paused in stunned silence forgetting the fight in surprise if only for a moment. It was an opening the dragon mages couldn’t resist.

A rope struck her back and quickly wrapped her arms and chest as two heavy stones came together striking her chest. Her wings were magic and unhindered as she remained aloft. Cheleya knew without her dragon armor the two stones would have knocked the breath from her frail human body, but she was a dragon mage and ready.

Expecting the dragoness to give in with her arms trapped at her sides, Cheleya surprised the che’ther using her alteration magic. Ropes became soft and stretched as the girl shrugged free looking for the next attack. It was one on three. The two flyers could move their direction of attack swiftly and would help the dragon below to keep her off balance.

Swooping towards the stone spires as the three were momentarily a step behind the young dragon mage, Cheleya used a tactic gathered from the shrikes. “Wing strike!” the girl ordered giving power to her magic wings. Breaking the tops of two spires, the mage added dragon wind to drive the chunks of stone into the flyers.

Blinded by dust and stinging from the bullets of stone, Cheleya rose quickly attacking the woman who was closest to her. “Dragon claw!” the red claw struck the che’ther from the sky sending her plummeting to the ground. A second claw reached for the male, but he countered with a shield similar to her earlier spell.

It was then that the dragoness realized she had made a mistake as the stone and dust in the air suddenly reformed around her pulling the little blond to the ground. Caught off guard, the girl was quick to alter the stone into water to free herself. The wizard could no longer use the element, but it was too
late. She was on the ground and the spires grew over the mage cutting off her escape above, while muddy earth gripped her bare feet.

“Cheleya, enough!” a deep voice growled in warning.

She knew that voice. The brown scaled che’ther loomed over her widening the girl’s eyes further as she asked in confusion, “Father? Why are you here?”

A heavy clearing of a long throat, preceded his words, “I came to find my daughter before she came to harm. Apparently, I needn’t have worried since you seem capable of protecting yourself.”

The ground released as Cheleya altered the mud back into dust and stepped free. Her father’s large eyes opened wide at the use of magic that he couldn’t immediately understand. “How?” the large dragon started in surprise. “You don’t use earth magic. How is this possible?”

Feeling a tremor in the ground, Cheleya looked behind her as two more che’ther moved to join their leader. The blue, female dragon shook her head still trying to shake cobwebs loose from the jarring impact with the ground. Luckily, Lystheir had only been a dozen feet above the ground and was protected by her dragon armor or it might have been worse. Elenek, a large red dragon, took position behind the little blond on her left, while the blue held the right.

In dragon form, Cheleya knew that she would have a speed advantage now, but her father didn’t seem to be trying to actually harm her. Whatever stories, Malaketh had told, Cheleya felt that he was here despite them. 

“Why are you here?” she repeated again ignoring his question of her magic, since she wondered at the powerful earth magic of a simple farmer. If the dragoness needed to fight again, having her special magic was an advantage she needed to keep.

“Malaketh and the elders say that you tried to steal from the academy and fled with Kel’lor. I’ve never know you to steal. You likely have little knowledge of the artifacts kept in the inner chambers anyway and less idea how to get to them, and yet they say my daughter is a thief and traitor.

“No matter how angry you might be at your mother, I know better than that, so what is your part of the story?” his deep voice seemed soothing to the girl.

“Why haven’t you changed into a che’ther?” Fa’Lystheir asked still trying to remove the confusion from her fuzzy mind. “You can’t prefer those little pink bodies to being a che’ther.”

Letting out a big sigh from her little frame, Cheleya replied, “That would be part of the story father has asked for.

“Malaketh broke my amulet and embedded the pieces into my bones locking me in this form. He disrupted my magic and threw me from the academy tower hoping I would be killed in the fall.”

Unable to contain his shock, Elenek disputed the claim, “But why would he do that? He is a master and trusted by the council. Malaketh wouldn’t do such a thing.”

Glancing at the red dragon, Cheleya fought the urge to roll her eyes and realized that she had been among humans way too long. “Malaketh has a black amulet that he used to control Fa’Kelman’zer. He made the master let him and a pair of human men, who I had never seen before, into the artifact chambers. When I heard voices in the academy that night, I had thought they would belong to someone who I could ask for a room. If mother couldn’t handle my magic, I was going to live there for a time. Or so I had hoped.

“When Malaketh caught me, he used his black amulet to control me returning us to the classroom, but I still believed there was nothing to truly fear. He was my teacher and master. I wasn’t supposed to think he would hurt me, so when he took my amulet using his black amulet to destroy mine, I was unable to defend myself.

“He used another spell to disrupt my magic and only my desperation managed to get my wings formed in time to save me after he pushed me off the balcony.

“Kel’lor happened on me after a pack of werewolves and werecats attacked me. A pack of crag dogs defended me before he found me and saved my life.” Tears formed as she remembered the loss of her friend, Kerliss, though she tried to force the feelings back down as she continued. “We’ve been running ever since. I was hoping to find someone to break my curse and maybe find a way back later. Kel’lor and I hadn’t even thought that far ahead and now he’s been poisoned by a black bird man. I don’t even know if he’ll survive.

“Everyone’s being hurt trying to protect me and I don’t even know why this really happened.” She finished unable to stop her tears and shaking with emotion. It wasn’t a very che’ther thing, but Cheleya had come to understand her human side was very strong.

The three che’ther were a little disconcerted both from her story and the girl’s unusual display of emotions. Dargan began a spell checking for the stones of the amulet and finding the nine pieces spread through the human body, he knew at least that much of her story was true. No che’ther, even one who enjoyed her human form used for dragon mage magic, would dare to break their own amulet let alone displace them in such an odd way.

“So does this mean that the masters sent Malaketh because he was her master or did he arrange it?” Lystheir mused aloud and glanced to the red dragon beside her.

Elenek shook his great head as he gave his interpretation of the situation, “If he didn’t manipulate the situation to be the one to chase her down, I would be surprised. With Cheleya and Kel’lor removed permanently, he could conceal any evidence of his involvement.”