Battle Mage: Winter's Edge (27 page)

“Whenever the Dark One’s forces choose to appear and wherever, Southwall meets the threat and ends it.”

“As has Kardor,” Ashleen replied with a frown defying Yara to dispute Kardor’s continued existence and the fight it had taken to maintain their survival against the Emperor. “His forces have tested our borders for over a century as well. When other countries north of your wall have fallen, Kardor has stood equally strong against him.”

Sebastian could tell that the girls were beginning to get worked up and he was still unsure of their innate dislike of one another. In his mind, the two were remarkably similar personalities and should in theory get along famously. Tentatively he put in, “Both countries have certainly fought their battles with the enemy, and I’m sure that they will continue to do so.”

Receiving dirty looks from both young women, he left the statement lie and added no more. He was feeling remarkably uncomfortable despite being among friends, Sebastian thought to himself. Wendle exchanged a small shake of his head in warning, though the other man also seemed a little bit amused by the situation as well.

Several minutes of eating filled in a silence between the four, where the two women intermittently stared at one another. The background noise of other conversations from dozens of other tables filled near to capacity lessened the silence only marginally as the two men would glance from one to the other unsure of what to say.

It was Yara who decided to bridge the gap as she tried a different tact, “That is a very pretty dress, Ashleen, though I can’t help but think it might be a little revealing for a cold winter’s day.”

“Thank you,” the other woman replied choosing only to accept the complimentary side of the comment. “Your dress seems to suit you as well.”

Sebastian and Wendle cringed even as Yara reddened more from anger than embarrassment. “Southwall’s wizards have to wear an apprentice’s white and I have chosen to be a healer so I also wear yellow. Until they decide to raise me to full wizard, I have little choice about what I can wear. Apparently, Kardor doesn’t have those same rules. That is a pretty fancy dress. I doubt any wizard of Southwall would actually wear something like it, however.”

Ashleen seemed ready to let much of what Yara inferred go as she returned, “Well, yellow does seem to be a good color on you, though perhaps green would go better with your eyes. Maybe when you finally prove yourself to your teachers, you’ll have to accessorize with green, though I am not sure that you could wear a dress such as mine.

“I admit that having rich, nobles for parents does have certain perks, but I’ve been able to wear whatever I want for quite awhile now. We let our wizards be themselves more than your guild appears to want for you. Like you’ve said, I rarely see one of your wizards wearing anything other than the same robes as another of their guild. I would think it a bit boring to wear the same thing as everyone else, but I am kardorian, I suppose, and not from Southwall.”

While frowning, Yara’s lower lip looked near to pouting, which actually nearly made Sebastian smile inappropriately. He found her face alternately beautiful and cute. When she looked cute like now, the mage could barely take her serious, but he knew that she was annoyed with Ashleen and bit his lip hard enough to remove the smile that had tried to creep onto his lips.

“I could certainly wear a dress like that, but I don’t have rich nobles to buy my wardrobe and I wouldn’t ask them to if I did,” stated Yara indignantly.

Ashleen surprised everyone by standing up from the table in a remarkably graceful way despite having Wendle on one side and another man on the other, who along with his group had begun to note the heated exchange between the ladies. She gestured for Yara to join her and added, “You think that you can wear this kind of dress? Fine, then follow me.”

With shock in her eyes, though Yara managed to contain most of the look to just those two windows of her emotion, the apprentice tapped Sebastian’s arm to make him slide off the bench to allow her to exit from its end. Unsure that she could have maintained the same grace as the wilder twisting over the bench, the girl had chosen the safer way to stand.

Glancing to Sebastian with a little worry showing only to him, Yara was suddenly pulled away by the hand by Ashleen. Wendle and the remaining mage were left wondering if they should follow the two to prevent anyone from getting hurt. Ashleen was a wilder who could cast lightning without even having to gesture and Yara was a healer. If things were to get heated, they feared what would happen to the second girl, who by her nature they assumed would be too gentle to put up a good fight.

The other eyes in the room that had noted the strange occurrence quickly went back to their conversations and eating, while the two men sat across from one another nervously.

“What do you think Ashleen is going to do to her?” Wendle asked worriedly.

Looking at the man as if he was crazy for asking, Sebastian retorted, “How should I know? You’ve known her longer than I have. Has she ever done anything like this before?”

Wendle gave the question a moment’s consideration before replying with a shake of his head, “Not that I have heard, though to be fair, she and I tend to be in different circles normally. The wilders usually seem to cling to each other and can be a bit standoffish from the rest of our wizards.”

“Really? Why is that?” the mage questioned being once more surprised by kardorian customs. He had just assumed, that wilder or practiced wizard, the two were just considered wizards among their peers and would follow much the same rules as one might in Southwall’s guilds. Perhaps because one followed a certain magic, they might study separately, but most of their wizards seemed to bond together despite which guild they gravitated toward.

“What’s going on?” a familiar female voice questioned before Rilena brushed past Sebastian to sit next to Yara’s plate.

“Ashleen’s going to kill Sebastian’s healer friend, I think,” Wendle smiled as he tried to joke about the women. His eyes looked a little too nervous to the mage to dismiss the man’s comment as just a joke, however.

A large clank as Rilena nearly knocked over her mug in her surprise, brought more eyes their direction, but the girl ignored the others as she asked, “You mean Yara, your apprentice wizard friend? Why would those two not get along? I would have thought they would actually get along pretty well.”

“I’m not sure,” Sebastian replied noticing that Rilena didn’t seem to think there was more to his relationship with Yara. “The two were acting odd almost from the moment they sat down to dinner.”

“Ah,” the woman looked confident that she had solved the mystery as she elaborated, “they’re jealous.”

“Jealous of what?” Wendle questioned her seeming not to comprehend a thing.

Sebastian had wondered at the comment as well, though as she answered, his hunch was confirmed by the brunette, “They’re probably jealous of the attention each girl is giving Bas. At least, that would be my guess.”

“But I’m just friends with both of them,” he lied, though Sebastian doubted Rilena knew of their secret relationship, since he had never told her.

Giving a shrug before she replied, Rilena seemed unwilling to commit completely. “Even friends get jealous of people stealing time from them with someone they wish to be with more. Maybe Ashleen sees Yara spending time with you as stealing time from her and vice versa. Girls can be catty that way especially.

“They’re usually the worst when it comes to men they really like though.” She gave Sebastian a questioning look and inquired with a little smile playing at the edges of her lips, “Don’t tell me that you’ve been playing them from both sides, Bas? I didn’t that you were that kind of man.”

Looking alarmed by the accusation, the accused man replied, “I’m not! We’re just friends, so I don’t know why you would think that?”

A little sweat began to bead on his forehead from the line of questioning, but Wendle helped without realizing it as he asked in indignation, “Hey, why do you just assume that it’s about Sebastian? They could be fighting over me, Rilena.”

Puffing out her pursed lips and squinting her eyes at the wizard, she managed to make her nod very sarcastic as she replied, “Of course they would, Wendle. You’re quite the catch and I’m sure Yara figured that out about you in just a matter of minutes. I’m sure they’ll both be asking you to dance so you can step on their toes once they return.”

Dismissing the wizard as he feigned a wound to his chest, the pretty brunette slid closer to Sebastian, leaning towards him she rested her hand on his shoulder with her head conspiratorially close and continued, “So seriously, Bas, I know you’ve always said that you were close friends with Yara, and Ashleen would barely let anyone near you the other night in the cabin, so what are you not telling us about your friendships? I’ve been your friend awhile, but this seems more like girls fighting over a boyfriend to me.”

Wendle’s eyes widened in surprise as they flicked from Rilena to Sebastian multiple times. “No way,” he breathed quietly as the two mages ignored him as they stared at each other.

Swallowing hard and vainly trying to find that place of stone some men seemed to find to hide what they were feeling, Sebastian tried to dispute her by saying, “Come on, Rilena, Yara and I could never be more than friends. She’s a wizard’s apprentice and they’re strict about those kinds of relationships and I barely know Ashleen, so how could you think such things?”

He was speaking a little faster than usual and running sentences as the cornered, young man tried to lie at least in reference to Yara. His love of the pretty healer may be known to the girl and maybe a select few close friends, but they couldn’t let the nature of their relationship be common knowledge or there would be punishment ahead for Yara. Prattling on was unusual for Sebastian and Rilena knew him well enough to know that. He only wondered how long it would take the woman to figure things out about them.

If not for the return of the two girls mentioned at that time, perhaps Rilena would have had the time to defeat his ruse. She was the first to notice the pair’s return and her eyes widened in surprise, which caused the two men to turn and look at the doorway as well. The sight of both girls in beautiful gowns began to draw more than just their eyes, however. Ashleen still wore her stunning blue, layered dresses more like a robe as it was cinched by her silver belt. Sebastian had to correct his assumption as he noted one layer had been removed and apparently it was layered into the robes that Yara now wore as well.

Apparently the wilder had decided to make the apprentice try on one of her Kardorian dresses, but since she was traveling the number of garments brought along was too limited to make a full outfit without taking away from her own. Now with one of Ashleen’s light weight, mid tone, blue dresses as the base with a second layer of blue green held together by a heavier, robe of a similar color but made from a shiny material, Yara looked like royalty in the Kardorian clothes. Sebastian thought that green was a perfect color for the blond hair and green eyes of the apprentice as Ashleen had predicted earlier. He could also tell that Yara was uncomfortable with the attention that came from wearing such a dress.

With a bit of blush in her cheeks echoed by the pink of her upper chest that was revealed by the robes, Yara’s eyes tentatively met Sebastian’s and gave askance.

“Wow, you look beautiful, Yara,” the young man stated quietly as she neared. He had nearly forgotten himself in the surprise of her glorious reveal, but managed to control himself with the audience around them. It was annoying that they could not share their true feelings naturally, but there were wizards and mages throughout the room after all and their relationship was supposed to just be friendly.

Ashleen’s attention strayed between the two and she seemed to feel the connection even so, he thought. Her smile lessened only slightly as she waved her hand at Yara and her dress, “Well, I guess I
stand corrected. I said that she couldn’t wear a dress like this properly, but Yara has made me eat my words quite fully. Though I did say that green would look marvelous on her, didn’t I?”

Sneaking past Sebastian quickly as she sought to avoid the extra attention, Yara slid back into her position which she found even more difficult to do in the new layers. Her blush strengthened as the girl’s legs were revealed well above her knees until she figured out how to hold the robes closed with one hand as she moved. Rilena greeted her warmly and helped with setting the dress more appropriately as she settled to finish eating.

Sidling up to Sebastian, Ashleen commented, “It seems a shame to hide such a pretty dress behind a table like that and did you notice how lovely her legs are, Bas?”

Noting his blush in response to her words, as he had noticed Yara’s legs even before Ashleen’s comment, the wilder giggled, “You Southwall men are so easy. I would think you had never seen a woman’s legs before mine.”

With that laugh and a last parting touch to his arm, Ashleen rejoined Wendle in that graceful way she had, though Sebastian also noticed how she revealed her legs to the knee and the flash of her silver slippers.

Chapter 15- Over the Edge

The musicians played and the crowd inside the hall danced on the cleared part of the floor. Married couples and the temporary gathering of those single paraded around the hall while dozens more
sat or stood around the edges talking and watching the dancers. It was a similar night to the one in Falcon’s Keep, Sebastian thought, except that he had Yara close to him.