Battle Mage: The Dark Mage (Tales of Alus) (42 page)

Feeling Acheri’s eyes questioning the side of his face at the alias he had taken in his dealings with the local villagers, Palose would have ignored her if not for Mistress Leyren’s gaze looking at the girl as the two walked up to the booth. “Call me Bratha, then Cristin,” the older woman said with a distracted smile as she added, “and who is this pretty girl you have with you today? I don’t think I have ever seen her before.”

Gesturing with his right hand to the girl beside him, he offered, “This is my cousin Acheri. Her father lives near my home and she decided to make a nuisance of herself by wanting to come with me today.” He laughed even as the princess’s jaw tightened slightly at the jab.

“That’s because I rarely get to leave home, Cristin,” she replied saying his name like it was the only one he had. “With winter snows keeping us all inside so much, I thought that I would die of boredom so when I saw my dear cousin readying to come to town, I made him take me along. You can’t blame a girl for wanting to get out of the house, can you?”

Laughing with the girl, the merchant woman shook her head agreeing with her, “Of course not, you dear girl, and you are coming of age and so pretty. Once that figure starts filling in, I am sure that you will have boys trying to knock down the doors to get to you.”

Frowning slightly at the idea of being told she was just a girl, Acheri shook her head, “I would rather my body remained as it is. Men like my cousin here like girls slim and their chests must not matter from the ones I have seen him associating with so far.”

The woman looked at Palose raising an eyebrow, “Oh, he likes the ones that are more girl than woman. You would think that he would be growing out of that by his age.”

“I’m not even nineteen for another month,” he protested. “Of course I like girls, because I am still a boy.”

As the two women began to laugh at his expense, he realized that Acheri had managed to pull him in again with Mistress Leyren’s help.

Acheri hugged his right arm to her smiling up at him and he shook his head. “You are definitely still a child and will probably become quite plump when you grow up,” he stated in annoyance.

Sticking her tongue out at him, she released him again to look at the trinkets on the table even as Bratha shook her head at him. Threatening a girl’s figure, even a cousin’s in jest, was close to receiving a verbal thrashing, but Palose refused to let her new glare affect him. Acheri had needed to be taken down a peg after teasing him, so it was only fair. Thinking of Sylvaine suddenly, the young man realized that he doubted he would have said such a thing to her. She was sixteen and already blossoming, though the girl was similar in size to Acheri. He had a feeling she was the one the princess had alluded to and wondered why she thought that.

While his mind had wandered, the girl picked up a brass pin with stones that looked like rubies, which was surprising as he looked at the general quality of the goods. An expensive pin with rubies would have certainly been placed in a more secure place.

Acheri looked at the pin closer and asked, “What kind of flower is this?”

“It is the crimson tremara,” Palose stated surprising the merchant who nodded at his accurate guess.

“The stone is just almandine, but this one is of good value and looks more like a ruby. Since it is set in brass, it is only eight silvers,” she added trying to influence a sale.

Without much knowledge of coin or money in her limited life span, Acheri apparently hadn’t received much in the transfer of knowledge from the emperor either, Palose thought as the girl told him, “Buy it for me, Cristin.”

Her voice had become tender as if she were a girlfriend or wife to be asking him to spend money on her. “But you don’t need it. Since you haven’t brought money with you, why do I have to buy it for you?”

Staring at him as if he was stupid, she replied, “If I have no money with me, then who else will buy it?”

Being tight with his money, Palose tried to bid the merchant down, “How about five silvers?”

Before the merchant could respond, Acheri interrupted his attempt by telling him, “Pay her price and my brother will pay you back with interest.” Feeling Mistress Leyren’s eyes on her for using her brother instead of her father as they had originally mentioned, the girl added, “My brother tends to the financial part of the family business. I can get him to buy me anything.”

The dark haired girl grinned sweetly making the merchant laugh even as Palose fought to not scowl. Paying full price in most markets of Southwall was like giving in to highway robbery, but with Kolban’s treasury to back her promise, the mage figured he didn’t need to fight her over it.

While Acheri ignored him as he paid Bratha, the mage said quietly, “The way she spends money, you would think the girl was only a baby a month ago, wouldn’t you?”

Chuckling at his predicament, the woman replied, “If she can manipulate her father and brother as well as you, I would say that she is older than she looks actually. I do, however, enjoy receiving my price without a fight for once.”

“I’m sure,” he agreed grumpily placing the silver on the table for the merchant to collect. “Well, good day, Bratha. I think I need to collect my cousin to try and herd her along before we spend all day here.”

“If she would get you to open your wallet a few more times, I wouldn’t mind,” Bratha said with a greedy smile.

Moving through the booths and tables extended into the cold from stores closed to the winter air, Palose began to follow the girl who was nearly skipping at times as she enjoyed her first trip to Windmeer. They found a vendor selling warm cider and bought a pair of cups. He didn’t even fight the idea after so many hours out in the cold.

“What is this again?” Acheri asked as they started away. The cups were cheaply made reinforced wax paper. Only vendors seemed able to find the things, but they allowed them to include the cups as part of the price so people could continue shopping and they didn’t have to continually clean permanent containers.

“Prapple cider,” he replied taking another sip. The refreshing drink was something he hadn’t noticed was missing in Ensolus. Prapples were a hardy plant, but North Continent had proven harsher than the tree brought from Taltan could handle well. Outside of the southern areas of Southwall, few of the trees could be found. Winter often destroyed any orchards that were attempted closer to the wall, so the southern cities were needed to grow them and had a steady business supplying the north.

“I have never had this before,” the girl declared looking happy as she warmed her fingers around the steaming cup. “I wonder why brother never had such a sweet drink brought to the
table?”

Palose shrugged. “I doubt there are any of the trees north of the wall to get the fruit from, Acheri. Most of the orchards which produce Windmeer’s supply are down by Siltrene or New Harbor. We transport it here.”

Sighing, the princess looked at the crowd which was beginning to thin as the sun continued to drop through the sky towards sunset. “It is getting late and we need to go home, don’t we?”

He nodded and found her surprisingly pliant as they disappeared into an alley and then through another glowing portal.

Chapter 22- Know Thy Enemy

Pushing at her food, Rilena yawned wondering what made her mind unwilling to deal with the day. It was the breakfast for those following the second bell and once upon a time, the falcon had always eaten at first bell. Rung while it was still dark outside from fall to spring, only summer let those breakfast diners see the sun as they began their early day.

The dining hall was filled to maybe half of what the nightly dinner gathering would bring into the room, but the noise of people talking created a hum that seemed energy draining as she wanted to fall into that monotonous noise. Her eyelids closed in a blink that lasted long enough for Elzen to appear in front of her carrying a tray. A young woman in a falcon uniform with red hair moved to sit beside him and Rilena woke up slightly more wondering who his new friend might be.

Casting her eyes back to the boy in front of her, Elzen suddenly smiled and said, “You look exhausted. I would say terrible, but I’m told that girls don’t like to hear that... at all.” He grimaced as if the mage was thinking of some girl he might have tormented until she heard such a thing from his mouth.

“I have barely slept in days,” Rilena agreed leaning on her left hand as her elbow braced against the table top. Table manners had been instilled into the mages during their schooling, but a solid surface to keep one’s head from hitting the table came before manners sometimes.

Shaking his head, the younger mage asked, “Is he getting to you that much? Garosh has been a model prisoner for all the details guarding him so far. Why are you losing sleep over him?”

Pointing over her plate with her free hand at the new girl, Rilena asked, “Aren’t you going to explain this first?”

Elzen turned to the red head whose sparkling blue eyes suddenly looked amused at his discomfort. “Oh yeah, Rilena, this is Siobeth. She was promoted to falcon at the same time as me and we manned the Gale Tower on our last trip here.”

“Not by
ourselves, of course,” the red head clarified with a warm smile for the tired girl across from them. “There was usually a score of men and women at Gale.” Her eyes turned curious as she took a pause before asking, “You served with Sebastian Trillon, the mizard, for awhile didn’t you? Is he as brilliant as they say?”

“I suppose you can call him brilliant. If you’re a friend of Elzen’s, why didn’t you ask him? He’s known him longer than I have,” the woman asked before covering her mouth as another yawn struck.

Nodding at her point, the redhead responded, “True, but that was only as a cadet before he started creating mage magic out of wizard spells. Now they say he’s gone to Hala to take his shot at Winter’s Edge dueling wizards.”

“Only Sebastian can possibly stand up to a wizard in their own competition,” Rilena agreed. She had known that he had been roped into the tournament by the ravens of Windmeer. In fact, Sebastian had assembled a team of wizards here and fought several duels. As far as she knew, the mizard had yet to lose a duel against any type of wizard. Whether it was luck or skill, Rilena didn’t truly know, but the girl had seen the wizard’s duels and knew that her friend was certainly wading in the deep end of the magic pool.

Elzen grinned at the new girl and added, “He’s leading a team of wizards of his own to Hala. They’re training together and I bet he’s even begun teaching them to fight like battle mages. Can you imagine wizards actually learning from a mage?”

Shaking her head slightly dubious despite her earlier enthusiasm, Siobeth looked from Elzen to the brunette falcon asking, “Do you think he has a chance?”

With a tired shrug and a moment taken to yawn again, Rilena finally answered, “I don’t think Bas would go into any competition to look foolish, but I think winning it all might be a bit much. There will be a lot of top notch wizards competing over an entire week. Thinking he won’t find someone better than him among wizards who having been dueling for years would be unlikely.”

“There is always someone bigger and stronger,” a deep voice came from behind Rilena sending a chill of displeasure running up her spine. Elzen frowned slightly at the interruption, but his disapproval came from the originator of that voice.

“May I?” Garosh asked taking a place beside Rilena. Tensing up and suddenly wide awake, the falcon looked ready to bolt, but managed to stay in her seat to avoid giving the giant the satisfaction of driving her away.

“Apparently you can help yourself,” Elzen replied testily. Only Siobeth appeared even remotely willing to be in the man’s presence.

Rilena felt the strong wood bench give beneath the weight of the large man. As he leaned over the table to take his first bite, the woman took note of his power and the silver gray hair of his beard and full head of hair. Regardless of the color, he was not an old man. The skin around his dark brown eyes hadn’t even begun to etch in the crow’s feet of even a middle aged man. As much as she hated to admit it, Garosh was actually a handsome man. Perhaps that was part of why she was having problems sleeping, since her heart’s hatred for the man had to look at a pleasant visage.

Elzen latched onto the giant’s comment as he had walked up and said sarcastically, “You probably don’t have that problem of finding someone bigger or stronger then.”

“Hardly,” Garosh replied almost with contempt at the idea. “In a world where trolls, kiriaks and armored viles make up an army or where the emperor’s magical might holds sway, I find that I am rather insignificant.”

That comment brought Rilena’s eyes to him with a questioning look. It wasn’t as if he asked them to be sorry for him, when the giant was complaining of being smaller than the monsters in the emperor’s army. Still, thinking of Garosh as an insignificant power felt rather disturbing.

Elzen wasn’t through pushing at the giant, “Sometimes things in smaller packages can surprise you. Not everything large is exactly impossible to defeat.”

Eyes narrowing slightly as he looked at the smaller falcon, Garosh stated darkly, “You actually wish to test me, don’t you, falcon?”

Replying first with a confident smile, then with a nod; Elzen declared with self-assured bravado, “I bet that I could beat you in a fair fight. People have been underestimating me for my whole life, but after a fight with me they learn better.”