Battle Mage: Winter's Edge (44 page)

“The guilds frown on dating between the two guilds,” Sebastian said instantly and more bluntly than he meant. After so many months of hiding their relationship, the mage was used to quickly dismissing such questions. Yara’s recent promotion and new freedom had yet to truly sink in for either of them, but the wizard seemed to be adapting easier.

“He’s right,” Yara replied with almost a sad smile on her lips. She guessed that he was still unsure of who to let in on their secret, but managed to soften the blow as the girl added, “They are especially hard on apprentices and cadets. My school of healing is especially firm on the girls. They believe that, if we don’t stay virgins, our powers diminish, so being more than friends between wizards or mages is definitely frowned upon.

“I’ve been close friends with your brother since he helped lead my horse to Windmeer last year though. I’m not a very good rider,” the girl finished looking sheepish, though Sebastian knew her well enough to know that it was a bit of an exaggerated appearance. She was playing to the humor of the girl’s inability to get used to riding horses. At least Yara no longer truly needed help to guide her horse now. With a lot of hours put in on horseback the previous summer, the healer had improved beyond a complete novice. He even thought that she was starting to like riding horses now.

Leading the conversation away without appearing to do so, Yara asked, “Did he ride very often as a child? Sebastian has always seemed comfortable with the horses.”

It was his mother who chose to answer the question before any of them. She had been a bit quiet and he wondered if it was him or the magic that they brought into her home that made her that way. “Bas was always good with the animals, though he didn’t ride horses very often.”

“He rode a goat once or twice,” his older brother laughed seeming to see Sebastian as the little brother he used to tease. He seemed the least affected by his brother’s position as a mage. The twins were similarly laughing and joking with him. Being just a part of the family had become foreign to him, but it was nice.

“I was five!” the brunt of the laughter tried to defend himself, but even he couldn’t help laughing.

Yara leaned into him and grabbed his arm in amusement. The familiar touch hadn’t been a whim, but it was not unnoticed by the women.

“I knew it!” Katya declared pointing at the couple. “You too are so dating or want to be.”

The other women in his family nodded certainly at the pair as Yara blushed realizing that she had forgotten herself.

It was Yara who responded to the accusation, but this time more forthrightly as she admitted, “We weren’t lying that the rules for female wizards are strict especially as novices and apprentices. With Sebastian’s help, I was promoted to full wizard last week.”

Those of his family paying close attention to the conversation looked surprised by the confession. Beatrice asked the question on all their minds, “How does a battle mage help you become a wizard? I thought wizards wanted little to do with mages normally, so I wouldn’t think he could do anything for you.”

“Well, he helped prove that I was not only a good healer, but a good teacher,” she giggled at the thought. “And you’d be surprised how much influence your son actually has in our community. He’s a…” Yara trailed off knowing that Sebastian wasn’t overly happy being considered a hero, when much of what had happened centered on Palose. At least, that was how the mage had tried to put off anyone who tried. The fact that he had helped save countless lives with his acts and that he had acted selflessly in her eyes wasn’t enough for the falcon.

“He’s a what?” Katya couldn’t help asking.

Trying to be more tactful, Yara gave a quick glance to Sebastian whose face had gone cool with the way the conversation was going, before answering, “He’s done a lot of good for both mages and wizards. I think more people respect him than he realizes.”

“But he’s still just a mage,” the dispassionate voice of his father stated from beside the cook stove. A lit pipe in his hand, the man used the stove’s piping to send much of his smoke out of the house since none of the women in the house liked the smell of merlac, the particular plant used by most smokers among the commoners of Southwall.

Yara turned to look at the man sitting slightly in shadow as the lanterns had migrated to the table for dinner. His father had moved to the kitchen area after quickly eating his fill and began to smoke. “He’s actually something pretty special, Master Trillon. They’ve begun calling him a mizard, since he’s able to learn our magic as well. No one’s been able to do that before and Sebastian can hold his own with most wizards in a battle too.”

“Oh, I am sure,” the man sounded unconvinced.

Having heard enough and wanting to try keeping the foreign concepts of magic out of the conversation, Sebastian inserted, “You’re right. It’s really not that big a deal.”

With a dark frown of disappointment for him, Yara turned back to defend him once more as she said, “He needs to train for the Winter’s Edge tournament. Perhaps they can train in one of your abandoned fields so that you can watch. Sebastian will surprise you I am sure.”

“I know little of magic, young lady, so it will be likely to all be surprising. If Sebastian wants to train or whatever in a field dead until Spring, he may since this is still his home despite the boy not returning home in years. Just don’t destroy the land so that I have to clean it up when the ground is softer.”

The sounds of eating sat in the otherwise silent air. His siblings would glance between his father and their estranged brother, but the mage was unsure of their thoughts. Were they worried over the possibility of magic being used so close to their home or was it something else? No matter, the mage assumed that it still related to his sudden appearance and thus it was his fault. He didn’t want to argue with his father over his worth and Sebastian didn’t want to see Yara having to fight for him either. His life as a mage had been separated from that of his family for years and he was fine with that.

Once the meal was over, they began to break from the table doing different tasks. The women chose to move the dishes to the sink in the hopes of washing them, but quickly found that the pipes leading down from the large water barrel outside were too frozen to work. Yara moved quickly to bring Sebastian over. “It’s frozen, Bas. Can you fix it?”

Knowing the girl was trying to show his worth to his family once more, the mage still could not refuse. He put on his coat to go see the water supply and the tubing used to bring it into the house. It was his home so he knew how the barrel was supposed to save them the effort of going to the well as often, but exposed water in the North would freeze. Only a fire or a person with magic could keep such things running under the circumstances.

“Fire,” he commanded and a stream of flame played from his hand into the top of the barrel. “Flow,” the mage added moments later as the fire quickly worked to thaw the ice in the water. His senses knew that much of the barrel still held thawed water since the sun struck the blackened barrel during the day. If the sun was strong enough the water warmed to the point of easy use, but if not the pipes leading into the house would tend to freeze.

The combination of the two spells moved the heat to the source of the blockage and after several minutes he could hear the noise of running water inside. Rather than returning inside right away, Sebastian stood looking out over the white covered fields reflecting the first moon in the night sky, Epsilon. The faint red tinge in the eastern sky signaled the war god’s moon taking charge of the night
behind his brother. Gelinas, the third moon would still be in view as the morning began if he got up early enough.

Three brothers who had both stood together and been at odds much of their lives according to the legends. He was one of four, but maybe his brothers could understand what he had to do in life as well. The farmers couldn’t fathom the life of a battle mage anymore than he could truly understand the training of a wizard, but he still respected what they had achieved. Even someone like Magnus, who had been a bane in his side for so long, was respected for skill and knowledge as a wizard.

Shaking his head, Sebastian tried to move such thoughts back to the recesses of his mind. His father was the perfect example of the ignorance and intolerance shown to mages in particular. If it wasn’t his father’s disappointment that he was just a mage, then there was the stigma of magic itself for the man to be ashamed of in his son. There was little that he could truly do to change the man’s mind. The Winter’s Edge tournament was a chance to at least prove to witnesses there that a mage could still stand with wizards on their own ground.

“Sebastian?” Yara’s voice called around the corner of the house for the missing man. “The water is running fine. You can come back in now.”

Moving his feet reluctantly, the mage walked towards the pretty blond huddled into a blanket that she had quickly thrown around her shoulders to come get him. He just had to remember that they were going to sleep in town and would be leaving soon. Anyone could put up with an hour of nearly anything, or so his father had once argued during a particularly hard day in the fields.

It was strange to think of his father’s words when he was much of the source of Sebastian’s anxiety. The couple returned to the heat of the farmhouse to spend a little more time with everyone before heading back to Mera.

“No, no, Olan, you need to set your shields better than that or Collin will just roll over them in a duel. If they’re not set both strongly and strategically, they will shatter under any duelist’s attack,” Sebastian found himself scolding the young mage as a coach instead of training once more. With Yara to heal, there were six wizards and six mages counting himself, but that meant only five of the wizards could duel the other six when they were all working together.

Setting a strong trio of shields in front of him. Sebastian gestured at the defenses as he stared at Olan daring the mage to disagree, but the falcon simply nodded. These five were supposed to be some of the more gifted mages at Windmeer according to the ravens, so being able to take advice or direct teaching while holding their tongues and not arguing every point was to be expected.

Collin nodded as well and sent a wave of stone into Olan’s shields shattering three flat blue barriers with just the one attack. A second wave struck Sebastian’s wall managing to break the first, but the wedge split the remainder of its energy sending the magical attack safely to either side. Sebastian was getting slightly frustrated with the training between the wizards and the novice mages. If they were still getting the basics of defense wrong, then how long would it take for any of them to be ready for a duel where a wizard of Collin’s caliber was actually trying?

A sound of laughter from the earth wizard brought the mage’s attention back to the man. At Sebastian’s questioning look, seconded by Olan, Collin said what had amused his mind, “I was just thinking that maybe you will have to start wearing white. If your corps likes bird names, then perhaps you need to dress like a white owl as you keep sharing your wisdom.”

Olan began to chuckle nodding, “The owl. That kind of fits you too.”

Groaning, Sebastian turned on the pair ignoring them as he checked on the other pairings. Just what he needed, another nickname, he thought to himself.

Serrena and Frell were having a lively session. The two girls had decided to start together as they trained and gotten along very well on the trip to the farm. Sebastian didn’t mind if there were friends or groups that along between the two sides, in fact he encouraged it. One day maybe they could erase that line between them and learn from each other. Wizards seemed to be more guarded with what they knew wanting an edge even between schools, while mages shared their skills to the point that everyone knew everything save the new magic created by him.

Frowning, Sebastian realized that he was more and more like a wizard in that way. He had his secrets already as well. The ability to tap into the earth for more power and the creation of Bairh’loore being just two that he had tried to avoid sharing with anyone. Tapping into so much power held a lot of danger and the mage wanted to test it more before risking anyone’s life on his theories. The second was even more tricky. Sebastian wasn’t sure creating such an artifact was even possible for many wizards and the envy over such magic could turn dangerous for anyone who knew, especially the mage who had created it. High Wizard Krennel had proved that to him when the wizard had spied his creation.

Fireballs and blue shields winked in and out as defense intercepted projectiles on both sides. The girls weren’t holding back by much. Both had set low defensive shields in front of them just for the possibility of accidental fire. Frell’s defenses resembled his own choice, though he had never demanded anyone follow his exact set up. He didn’t care if Olan did exactly the same thing, but three flat barriers hadn’t worked for any wizard that he had watched at Windmeer either.

“Shield,” Serrena commanded using a mage battle spell as easily as any falcon in the corps. The blue shields had proven popular quick defenses with his wizards on the trip to Mera. He had a feeling that all five, if they chose to compete, would surprise their fellow wizards with their mixture of magic in the first rounds especially. In that way, the week of training had been a success. Now he just needed to find a way for the mages to learn from their cousins.

“Aren’t you supposed to be training as well?” Edgar asked with Everet and Katya standing on either side. The grin on his face as he tried to call his older brother out for being lazy made Sebastian roll his eyes.