Battle Mage: Winter's Edge (37 page)

“A shield spell combines speed with a steady pace. I rarely need to keep casting shields, but if I do they can be locked and set quickly. Then they remain long enough to pace ourselves and not use up our energy.

“Now try it. See the shield. Set the magic before you call for it, and then let it form as you say the word.”

Closing her eyes to visualize the shield in her mind, a common way for beginning mages to see their spell, Serrena called for it, “Shield.”

He felt no rising of her power. She had not tapped into her magic even for a moment. “Again. See the spell in your mind and let your magic form the shield.”

Frowning in concentration, as well as a little of frustration and annoyance at the mage pushing her, the wizard tried again, “Shield.”

The word lacked command, but the girl’s power was trying to build.

“Demand that it appear, Serrena. Don’t beg for it. A battle mage is a warrior and when he needs his shield it must be there without question. Know that it will be there when you call for it.”

With a frustrated growl, she opened her eyes and snapped angrily, “I’m trying!”

“Don’t tell me,” the mage held out his hands warding off her words. “Tell your magic and the shield to bring it out.”

After closing her eyes once more, Serrena barked angrily, “Shield.” Her hand grasped the air before her and the blue glimmer of her spell winked into life.

“I did it!” she cried seeing the shield in front of her hand. In her excitement, the spell wavered and melted away. “What? Where did it go?”

While looking demandingly at Sebastian, the mage stated gently, “The spell has no beginning or end. You must make it a circle and within the circle the shield exists until you either tell it to leave or it is destroyed.”

Giving another growl as she shook her hands in a quick snap as if clearing them for another try. The wizard began to move her body forward and back as she tried to psych herself up for another attempt at the spell. Her hand snapped up before her as she called for the shield again. The blue construct formed perfectly. Her hand twisted as if turning a key in a lock. Sebastian almost laughed as her physical action helped link her mental process like a novice mage might, but it worked for her.

Eyes open, Serrena waited a moment before getting too excited, a change from the impetuous nature of the girl, he thought. “I think I got it that time,” she observed.

He nodded. “And that is the first step to bridging the gap between the two types of magic. Not every spell works the same, but that is the gist of it.”

Looking very pleased with herself, Serrena held the shield against the palm of her hand and began to swing it from side to side willing it to move with her hand. A shield needed to be mobile and the girl was figuring that out quickly.

With the genie let out of the bottle, most of the wizards began playing with the shield spell as well. Yara was included and he watched as the pretty blonde’s face concentrated with closed eyes before trying to call on the spell. Several tries passed and she was beginning to get frustrated. After twice as many attempts, the wizard was still having problems getting the magic to come.

“I don’t understand,” she said quietly to the mage as he rode by her side. “Serrena had it in just a few tries. Why can’t I get it?”

Collin and Liam had managed to call their shields as well, though he noted that neither seemed as keen on using it as Serrena had. Their love of their own spells probably had a bit to do with it. That was the mind set Sebastian had alluded to with the fire wizard.

A certain mind set also separated each wizard’s school from one another. With a slight smile on his face, Sebastian quietly walked Yara through a variation of the exercise. “Think of someone you would hope to protect, a child, someone wounded in the middle of battle, family maybe.”

Looking unsure, Yara nodded, “All right.”

“An arrow comes flying towards them. Now shield them and keep them safe, Yara.”

“Shield!” the healer snapped extending a hand before her. The blue construct formed on angle as if to cover someone laying down in front of her.

Opening her eyes, Yara grinned and stated gleefully, “I did it!”

He nodded and said, “Every type of wizard school needs to remember their motivation for a spell. You heal people, Yara, so you can’t think of the shield as a weapon or protection for yourself, at least the first time. Your motivation is helping others first, so then you just needed to find that part of the spell and use it.”

With a wry smile, the young woman said, “You think you’re pretty smart aren’t you?”

Chuckling, Sebastian replied jokingly, “Well, they don’t call me mizard for nothing.”

Yara rolled her eyes at him, but quickly added good naturedly, “Well, I guess there must be some reason, yes.

“So now you are teaching wizards to become battle mages?”

With a big shrug, the mage replied, “I don’t see why we can’t both learn from each other. If a battle mage spell can save one of our wizard’s lives, shouldn’t we try and get over our differences to learn the spell?  I mean look how much I’ve learned from you and Deyla. Mages are learning to be able to heal. How many people have I saved because I know what I do of your magic?”

Giving a contented sigh, Yara let her shield wink out. “I may not know how many people that you have saved, but you’re right. We really need to learn to work together better. The emperor’s forces are still beyond the wall and you’ve seen as much as anyone that they still want to destroy Southwall.”

He nodded. As much as he wanted Southwall to be safe, they all knew that there was someone who wanted to harm them. Sebastian wondered how a being could live so long and still want to hurt people that were many generations removed from the ones that originally fought and defeated the emperor in his old world. The stories said that Gerid Aramathea and a few other immortals, along with their many allies, went to stop his armies from entering Alus. They imprisoned him, but he escaped and tried to destroy much of the world just to get revenge. By then, it was already hundreds of years removed
from his defeat. The dark legions killed only descendants of warriors that had fought him, since their ancestors were long dead.

Sighing, Sebastian realized that once again it was all about someone’s mind set. He wasn’t the Dark Emperor, so he had no idea how a man or creature could be as evil as to want revenge on people that had been dead for more than six hundred years. The mage decided that he didn’t want to learn the demon’s mind set. There were some things best left undiscovered and he would simply fight to end the threat as best he could.

A few days later the members of the caravan began to see single houses near the road to White Hall. The foot hills were behind them and the outlying farm houses and shacks of hunters that lived off the land began to take their place between the groves of trees dotting the lands east of the Dimple Mountains, the lone mountain range south of the wall. Soon the single homes turned into a few homes and shops that acted as a hub for the goods needed by those that preferred to live away from the crowds of the big cities or even villages of Southwall.

The first true village popped up, but thanks to the winter there were few people outside to see their approach. There was a small inn with an eating room so the ambassador demanded to stop and stretch his legs long enough to then sit at a small table to eat his fill of the local food. The remainder of the the travelers were left to fend for themselves to find their own tables, so most simply congregated around one of the two large tables with benches around them.

Sebastian was invited to sit with Lord Romonus and his daughter along with the wizards from Kardor. He felt awkward leaving the members of his team, but had to accommodate the ambassador. Helena made sure to sit next to him and flirted a bit, though it was much tamer compared to finding the girl in his room. Ashleen was sitting across from them and he noted her frowns at the other girl’s obvious
attention. While he still worried that Ashleen was more interested in him than was probably appropriate, her frowns meant that he was certainly not wrong about Helena either.

The strangest thing about the way she flirted was that the man didn’t really feel like Helena truly felt anything for him. It was like she flirted to try and get his attention as more of a game or maybe like a job. When his mind quantified it that way, the mage became more curious about the girl’s motivation. Was she one of those women that seemed to keep points on how many men she could make want her, a tease that simply enjoyed the hunt or did she have another reason?

For his own part, Romonus seemed to ignore her blatant flirting for the most part. Sebastian would catch an occasional flick of the man’s eyes to something she might say, but the mage had a feeling that it was more to see if any of it was working. The man would lead a story or make inquiries into his plans regarding the tournament and his training, but he let Helena go as far as she wanted. The more he remained with the ambassador and his daughter, the more Sebastian began to feel like they were up to something.

On the other hand, Ashleen had never flirted with him, though she did seem interested. Either the wilder had decided to wait and see if he would go to her or she didn’t want what would simply be a short term relationship. It wasn’t like he would ever leave Southwall to go to Kardor, after all.

He glanced at Helena and her father beside her at the thought. Perhaps that was actually what the two hoped. Maybe the ambassador hoped to recruit him and any of the others that Helena might try and draw away from Southwall. Lord Romonus had been seen talking with various wizards and men of position in both Windmeer and Falcon’s Keep on the pretense of diplomacy, of course, but what if the man was planting the seeds with those he met. Perhaps like one of Southwall’s wizards of diplomacy, the man was trying to work his magic with people that could add strength to Kardor or directly to the man himself if his ambitions were more personal.

Truly, the mizard needed to keep an eye on the two as much as possible and perhaps expand his watching to the wizards he had with him. Ashleen seemed genuine, but a truly good manipulator might be able to fool him. He liked Wendle, who didn’t seem the kind of person to manipulate others, but was that an act as well?

Then there was Deiclonus. The wizard had visited with some of the schools he had heard. Maybe the leader of the wizards was working with Romonus inside the guilds. Kardor’s wizards weren’t broken into the same types of schools as Southwall, so maybe he had access to mind control skills as well.

Sebastian hated to think ill of his allies and friends, but his distrust seemed to grow each encounter with the ambassador and his daughter. He continued to smile and carry his side of a conversation as much as he could, but for a naturally quiet man, the mage could keep his thoughts to himself and remain quiet as well. With such worries in his heart, the man was glad that he spent most of the day with his friends among the wizards and mages while the ambassador’s party remained in their carriage. The trip continued to bring new anxiety to Sebastian, but he tried to bury the thoughts as much as possible and continued to work on what training he could manage as they rode.

Small villages and towns began to crop up more often and soon the party could see the white walls of the town surrounding the school it was named after. Surrounded by a thirty foot tall white wall, the city spread south of White Hall’s school along almost three miles of the Cadhalla River. Piers lined the southwest side of the river with several protective towers that were more for the appearance of defense for the city’s people than anything since the school had never been attacked since its construction more than a hundred years ago. The river provided a natural defense as the water was between half a mile to nearly three quarters of a mile across in places and deep enough for most ocean going vessels to sail.

Wizards had worked the entire length of the Cadhalla and its branching sister the Caldene River. Maintaining a wide expanse and depth, the school’s city could receive a ship’s wares without having to transfer to a lighter river vessel, and on occasion the piers would host a large ocean going vessel with its
tall masts towering over the local fishing ships. The relative peace afforded the lands south of the wall had given way to incredible changes created by wizards and the backs of common men alike.

Behind the winding white protective wall of the city, the tallest towers of White Hall were all that could be seen of the school. It wasn’t the fortress that cities like Falcon’s Keep or Windmeer were built around after all but a center of learning for new wizards, battle mages and elite troops of the Southwall armies. It had its own smaller walls surrounding the school less for protection from without but for secrecy and separation for training courtyards.

Two large gates sat in the western wall near the center with less than half a mile between them. A road led south from one and the other west which would wind its way north to Windmeer from which the caravan came. It was an interesting enough sight that the ambassador’s party took turns looking out the coach’s windows as they approached the north gate.

Guards slowed the light traffic heading into the city, but with the cold of winter upon Southwall it was a brief pause as they reported their reason for entry before a guard jotted the note down on a sheet clipped to a board. Once inside, the party didn’t turn north towards the school, but headed into the city. After coming to a large inn and exiting his carriage, Lord Romonus frowned glancing in the direction of the school before confronting Sebastian.