Battle Mage: Winds of Change (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 11) (2 page)

"Last," Trillon answered matter-of-factly. Though the others were tense, the younger man appeared as relaxed as if he were among friends in truth.

"You have an... air about you," Wiler stated as he continued to size up Trillon before him. His look turned towards confusion and he revealed why, "I can't read you. You seem to have magic about you, but I can't seem to focus on it. You aren't dulling your aura, but your magic is low."

Looking at Tylen quickly, the master asked, "He was checked for weapons by the guards?"

"Yup, and they were pretty thorough about it too," Tylen replied backing to the side to stay out of the stare of the master and his men. The tension had begun to draw others in the warehouse towards the group. Men with weapons found their hands on the hilt of swords or bared long knives that could slit a throat very easily in the dark. "He was clean they said. I mean look at him. You couldn't hide more than a small knife in a boot maybe."

"You could if you knew how," the younger man replied calmly, yet in such a way that he seemed ready to bait the other men. "So can I ask my questions now?"

Master Wiler frowned and shook his head, "You are the visitor and supplicant here. You will answer my questions first. Why do I sense magic on you?"

Trillon shrugged prolonging the stalemate as more noise came from the doorway they had entered. Eyes looked past him and even turned, save for Wiler who couldn't seem to understand what he was seeing.

"Master Ileden!" Tylen called out with a wave. "I brought a new recruit that Master Wiler seems unable to approve of, sir."

The second master hurried his steps until he too stopped in caution. The younger man's back was to him, but Ileden's eyes swept to the other master questioningly as he also sensed something about the young man.

"Did you notice him in the square?" Wiler asked the man newly entered into the situation.

"No, I think I would have noticed him too, unless he was intentionally hiding from me."

Trillon looked over his shoulder and his eyes seemed to glow a moment as he looked at the master. Ileden could see the use of magic as most with trained sight could. Users of magic who looked for auras could see each other's use of such magic.

"He's a wizard?" Ileden questioned without surety.

"I am not, but even if I were, this is hardly the way to try and recruit me to your cause," Trillon stated simply as he returned his look to Wiler. "Does this mean you aren't going to answer my questions and let me join?"

Sensing his sarcasm easily, Wiler frowned at the slight and said to the others, "Restrain him. We'll see if Count Terris has grown bold enough to send a spy into our midst. Maybe those guards were meant to distract you long enough for him to find our safe house."

Smirking at the warlocks before him, Trillon replied, "How about I take you all prisoner instead? Reflex!"

The final word sped up the man as he moved into motion. A black rune appeared lifting from his right arm expanding into the air. His hand reached into the darkness only to return with a black sword in an instant. With his left hand, the man called out, "Sleep."

His hand caught Tylen on the forehead dropping the man into a lump even as he moved forward.

The warlocks had been prepared and Wiler cast a shield of fire in front him. It reached forward unlike most shield wall spells. Attacking like a wave of fire, the flame attempted to engulf the battle mage now that the warlock understood what Trillon must be.

"Darkness shield," the mage countered letting a shield of night catch the flames. Like the oxygen had been taken from the fire, the darkness swallowed the warlock's spell and seemed to strengthen as well.

The other men centered on the warlock attacked with more flame, but the sword followed the darkness. Like night trapped in steel, the blade looked sharp. It was lightweight as well and moved like lightning in the battle mage's enhanced hands. His speed was great, but these soldiers weren't ordinary either. Nearly countering his speed, the mage knew that they had been enhanced by magic as well.

Some of the fire had touched the men, but their leather clothing was dyed black and appeared to absorb the flames similarly to his spell. Wizard hunters, these were trained to fight and subdue normal wizards and warlocks. With armor created to absorb elemental spells, they were dangerous fighters who could even fight battle mages at speed as they moved to attack him with their blades.

The black blade began to sweep in an arc as if to ward off their attacks. A desperate measure for a swordsman to reveal so soon; they grew confident, but a second repetition of the word sleep sent what looked like reddish dust along the blade. The dust sprayed the line of men. Where it touched the leather armor it lingered, but was not absorbed. When it touched skin or was inhaled by the shorter men, it caused the soldiers to draw back looking stunned. Those who caught enough of the dust joined Tylen collapsing to the ground.

Half of those men were taken out with one spell leaving Wiler and just two guards in front of him able to counter the mage.

Reaching to the left, the mage didn't follow up his attack as planned, instead he placed his hand against a wood crate calling out, "Door."

A glowing portal formed behind the warlock trapping him and his two men. With no knowledge of the portal's destination, the men were wary of stepping through the golden doorway. With an indestructible stain glass window behind them, the three prepared to defend themselves from the surprising attacker. The spells were unheard of, especially for a battle mage, but Ileden unleashed a barrage of fireballs meant to drive him back.

He wasn't the only warlock capable of harming the mage, however, and Trillon felt an attack charging up behind him. As the night shield remained before him to absorb the flames, runes suddenly glowed on his left arm lifting away from the appendage. Creating a glowing orange shield of runes, the cutting wind attack mixed with ice was repelled without the mage even turning to face Ileden.

"What are you?!" Wiler screamed before trying a new spell.

The portal collapsed behind the three giving them room to fall back as reinforcements leaped past the fallen barrier.

His sword met and countered the attackers. His shields protected his back and left side making the attackers unsure of what to do to counter his abilities. He moved forward and they fell back though they outnumbered him ten to one in the front with even more trying to find a way past his barriers from behind.

More noise came from the front door.

The battle mage smiled and warned, "Reinforcements. You should give up now."

A sword caught the black steel and lost. The regular blade was shortened two feet as the mage's lighter sword cut through the weapon as it moved to strike a second blade with almost as much force as if it had never touched the other sword. The clatter of metal on the floor was nearly drowned out as the noise in the warehouse rose into a cacophony of fighting.

More mages, soldiers and wizards swept in from the front and back of the warehouse. His signal had been given and the rest of his forces had arrived.

Many of those in the warehouse weren't as well trained as the wizard hunters and were restrained quickly. Battle mages swept in using reflex spells while wizards covered them with their magic. Soon all but those nearest Sebastian remained.

Ileden and his men were taken down behind the battle mage, while he continued to whittle away at Wiler's numbers. A sleep spell knocked out two more men leaving just two wizard hunters and three others standing. With the reinforcements coming in from behind them two separatists turned with Wiler to see a dozen Southwall soldiers bearing down on them.

Black shields were set to stop the warlock by the other mages making it a lost cause for the warlock. Like their wizard hunters, Southwall's battle mages had become skilled at taking away a warlock's power as well.

The two wizard hunters seemed unwilling to be bested by a mage. While the other men gave up, they made a last charge at Trillon. He dropped his shields and fended off the men with his black sword. One of the blades lanced in from his exposed side, but he caught the weapon with his left forearm. The glow of orange runes protected him as he knocked the sword away from the hunter on his right.

Expanding the orange shield as he punched forward, the second hunter was knocked from his feet. His sword clattered across the ground to be stopped by another mage's foot who had been watching the other man finish his fight.

"Really, Bas, you just had to tease them, didn't you?" the shorter battle mage questioned him with a laugh. He was slightly younger and smiled easily making those who didn't know him believe that he didn't take his duties seriously.

The spy shrugged as he replied, "I needed the practice. I've been too busy to train very much lately, so I appreciated the exercise."

"If you two children are done?" a blond haired woman wearing the black uniform of a falcondi questioned the two falcons. Falcondi Westlin looked almost amused despite her words. She was Sebastian's shadow these days. Since he was able to use portals, the mage had become even more valuable to his corps. That he had been able to convince his superiors to let him lead this attack on the Dark One's spies in New Harbor, was only because of those same skills.

He had dropped a pair of charged lodestones just within the doorway to the warehouse first. They had been out of sight of either of the exterior guards or those who might be watching inside. A second set had been dropped outside away from the guards letting a second portal be used to send the forces around the back while he distracted them.

Sebastian used his magic to force open the tattooed portal rune on his right arm returning the black sword to the space within the magic ink. It faded into nothingness as he released both the weapon and magic holding it open.

"I think we got most of them, falcondi," Sebastian stated returning back to a more businesslike manner. His friend Elzen tended to bring out more of his joking side; but he was also good in a fight, so Sebastian had asked for the younger mage to join his raid.

The older woman nodded. Westlin was far from old and considered to still be in her prime, but the falcondi was nearly a decade older than Sebastian. She looked around them and replied, "Using your portal as a warning to attack was a little unusual."

Nodding, Sebastian answered, "It worked to stall them from running or attacking though. They didn't know where it led and couldn't risk jumping through it."

Master Wiler was still close enough to hear the comment and the warlock asked, "How could you call a portal by yourself? Your people aren't even supposed to know the spell, but your aura is too weak to do something like that by yourself.

"I felt your power surge for a moment as you called that spell. How did you hide your power so well?"

Sebastian smirked at the man and retorted, "Unlike your portal spell; that is my secret."

Ignoring the warlock and the other men of the separatists, Sebastian spoke to Westlin. "There are more than these two 'speakers' using this warehouse. If we can set a trap for the others as they return, maybe we can catch the whole network by the end of the day."

Westlin nodded. "We'll let the diplomacy wizards use their magic to control a few of the guards to make it look safe. The portal wizards can transport the rest of these prisoners to Hala's dungeon cells for us."

Raising an eyebrow curiously at the woman, Sebastian said, "Well, that sounds like a bit of a dismissal to me, falcondi. Does this mean I get to leave now that my job is done?"

Westlin waved him off as she rolled her eyes at the younger mage. "I guess that you have done enough for today, if you really want to go rest already. I would have thought a younger man like you would have more stamina than this."

Giving her a large smile, Sebastian shook his head, "Well, I did just fight an entire warehouse full of warlocks and wizard hunters after all. Can you blame a mage for wanting to recover after that?"

"Just go," the woman ordered waving him off once more.

Sebastian looked at Elzen as if to question if he wanted a ride back to Hala. At Elzen's minimal shake of his head and glance to Westlin, his friend knew that the younger mage still had his duties in the detail assigned to taking out the separatists in New Harbor. He also hadn't had much of a chance to fight and Elzen enjoyed a good brawl as much as any battle mage.

"Door," the spy called now that his job was done. He stepped through the new portal disappearing from view and moments later the golden doorway collapsed behind him.

If one were to look, they would notice a charred line on the wooden crate he had rested his hand upon as he called up the spell. It was the same as on the box he had touched to call the previous portal, but few knew of the battle mage's trick to call on the earth's power he needed for a spell that no mage should be able to do on his own.

Chapter 2- Backwards and Forwards

Stepping through the light of the portal led Sebastian from the warehouse in New Harbor to an inn room lit by two large windows with their drapes pulled back to allow the afternoon sunlight into the chamber. A full size bed sat beneath each window with a night stand between them and an unlit lamp sitting on the top. Dressers and wardrobes lined the other walls leaving a walkway for the mage to step onto at the base of one unoccupied bed.