Battle Mage: Winter's Edge (51 page)

The men had strange headdresses and their clothing had feathers and other adornments that made them different from any clothes of a north man. When they spoke with Hilda, the leader spoke with a thick accent, but he knew the common tongue well enough. Their auras of power weren’t unusual, but he had a feeling there would be a strangeness to their magic that separated them from north magic just as much.

Already Sebastian could see that this tournament was going to have a lot of mysteries to reveal.  

Chapter 28- Going to New Heights

The road had narrowed to little more than a trail for the army of Windmeer. With trees hemming in their formation on either side, the troops were all nervous. Even riding with as few as four abreast, the riders were only several strides from the brush at the base of the trees.

Mages took turns using their sense heightening spells. The two air wizards tried their best to spot troop movements to give them early warning of danger, but for all their efforts they could find no sign of the beasts that had hit them during the night.

While the snow was still deep and travel slow going, Falconi Ralto and Wizard Delfar had decided that they could wait no longer. The enemy must have known they were coming and sent the beasts to thin their ranks. Despite tripling the sentries and many others unable to sleep casting warning spells, the creatures had tested the men twice more during the night even after the winds had died down and the snow had ended.

Twelve were already dead with others wounded, but quickly healed by their four healers. Those wore winter camouflage like the others hoping to conceal their roles. If an enemy could take out their healers, the surety of casualties would increase many fold. Like Rilena’s own wound that would have festered without magical aid, many soldiers died within a week of disease out in the field and trapped in the deep snow of the mountains blood loss could lead to hypothermia as well.

With so many dead just from raids, the mage feared for the mission. Their only hope was to join with those from Falcon’s Keep, who their air wizards had confirmed were closing in on the mountain hiding the fortress. Unfortunately the snow hampered them as well and what would have been just a few hours travel to meet was more likely a full day. Still, hope was rising as the air wizards confirmed that the Keep’s army looked even larger than theirs. Between their forces of close to four hundred, Rilena hoped, as did they all, that their numbers would be enough to meet the Dark One’s forces and deal with the rogue fortress.

“So we’re getting close?” a male voice questioned from the rear.

Turning to face Elzen, Rilena nodded before pointing ahead at the next mountain that seemed so close, but thanks to the snow would still take about a day to take the base. “That one right there. The first crest was where Bas saw the sacrifice, and the second was where they set the ambush,” the falcon stated
adjusting the angle of her hand as she pointed out the two places along the lower half of the mountain. “The fortress gates should be just behind the turn of the face to the right.”

“Should be?” the boy asked sounding a little surprised. “Don’t you know for sure?”

Frowning, Rilena retorted, “We were being dragged away in nets and I was a little out of it from being hit in the head at that point. I’m sorry, if that isn’t good enough for you.”

Raising his hands in protest, Elzen shook his head and replied, “No, no, I am sure anyone would have trouble being exact in these mountains, especially in that situation.”

The girl turned her head back to the path they traveled feeling annoyed. Another glance back let her know that he was still looking at her from behind. “Maybe you should be paying attention to the woods around us a little more, Elzen.”

The boy shrugged. “The view’s good from here too. Especially from what I remember.”

Getting her to blush fiercely, as was his goal, Elzen chuckled at the girl’s embarrassment. “Besides,” he continued with a shrug, “I’m not particularly good at keeping watch. If I’m not hunting them, I’m just not that great at waiting for trouble to come looking for me.”

Gesturing to the woods around them, Rilena ignored her warm face and told him, “Go ahead. Hunt away.”

“Nah, I’m good right here,” he grinned making the falcon blush again. She could tell that he was enjoying teasing her. Ever since they had met during the ambush and realized that they had a friend in common, the boy had been popping up near her.

In truth, she didn’t completely mind. Elzen was a new friend and despite her embarrassment, the complements were kind of ego building in a way that Rilena hadn’t known that she’d actually appreciate. Maybe there was something more to it. He was kind of cute and only a year or so younger than her.

Shaking her head to quickly dispel any girlish notions, the falcon tried to keep her focus back on the forest looking for the enemy that could be ready to attack at any time.

The line for registration for the tournament had lead to an administrative building standing across the street from the castle’s inner wall. Made from the same black stone as the keep its wall was a mere twenty feet high. Guessing that it was designed as a buffer for minor security for the nobility within the capitol’s castle, Sebastian thought it was still a fair defense should the outer wall ever fall. There were probably courtyards inside and maybe gardens during the warmer weather, but he knew that he would never see them since the tournament would be over well before then.

After nearly an hour’s wait, his group signed up individually for their enrollment. Two weeks of traveling and training left them at Hala with the possibility of having to fight one another again. Dueling for so many days led them to know each other pretty well, but Sebastian guessed that they had all chosen to hide a few tricks from their training partners along the line. The mage knew that he had several things that he had kept hidden just in case of running into his friends.

Collin, Nara, Liam and Serrena had all joined him at the admissions tables while only Brenner and the other mages opted out. The air wizard had always said that he was going strictly to train him and joining the duels had never been an option for him. Brenner had seemed to give him his all in training and Sebastian had managed well enough giving him some encouragement for the things to come.

His team of mages had also decided to leave the hopes of the falcons on just his shoulders. Though they had improved and learned a lot in just a couple weeks, they were not up to a wizard’s level yet. With the whole point being to show that battle mages could stand with wizards in their own arena, this was not the time for the others to stand with him. It meant even more for Sebastian to do well and he thought that he could actually beat some of the champion wizards coming from other keeps and cities.

Did he expect to win the whole tournament? The mage supposed that he should try and be positive, but he doubted it in truth. Looking at the other wizards in the line, Sebastian could feel the power assembled just with those standing there and knew that it would not be an easy challenge to overcome. Such was his feeling when he looked at the initial brackets after they were posted.

On ten different sheets for each battle zone, he would later learn there had been placed two hundred and thirty names. The sheer size of the turn out boggled the mind. Hala had called on the world of Alus and the world had responded. While Southwall accounted for almost half the number, wizards from as far a distance as Calmon on the other side of the world had come to take the challenge. Each sheet listed the name of the wizard and the place they represented, whether it was a city of Southwall or their country depending on how the applicant originally signed their application.

Finding his name on the duel field called “The Heights”, Sebastian then double checked the others in his bracket. It was a group made up of predominantly air and fire users, since that was one of the pieces of information that they had to list on their application. Field of expertise was a difficult piece for Sebastian to classify, since he had found uses for most of the general elemental schools. He had placed fire and air since he determined that they were the most used spells in his arsenal, so apparently the heights was supposed to take advantage of that.

Though he wasn’t placed against any of his team this round, he noted a Wendle from Kardor on the list. Apparently, the ambassador’s wizards had decided to participate after all. He wondered if that had been Lord Romonus’s idea or had the wizards actually decided on their own. With the way the ambassador had run the caravan, the mage assumed that it was most likely his decision.

Some of the other names didn’t even look like names of people to him. With homes from Alcazar, Malaiy, Rhystia and Mar’kal, Sebastian didn’t even know where those were, though he supposed it didn’t truly matter. All men were essentially the same after all and their magic was the biggest worry for him now.

“I have the North Sea,” Liam mused as he found his name shortly after Sebastian. The mage was in field two and the North Sea was the fifth zone.

“Hmm, the Trench,” was Collin’s position on the seventh page. “That doesn’t sound like it’ll look nice, but apparently they’re placing wizards in places that may have more advantages to them.”

With a snort, Serrena retorted, “Oh, yeah? I have the Two Houses. What advantage is there for a fire wizard?”

Grinning Collin replied, “I guess you can burn them.”

The girl punched the earth wizard in the arm as Nara was last to find her name. “Zone nine, the Hedges. That does sound like a nature element, while the North Sea has water I would assume just by the name.

“What did you put down for yours, Sebastian?” the nature wizard asked as she rarely used his nickname though he thought that they were relatively good friends by now.

“Fire and air, so I was given the Heights for my first area. With such a large turn out, maybe the officials decided to load as many wizards into beneficial areas to get the best fights for the audience. I’ve heard that people have come from all over the world to watch this tournament to support so many countries participating.”

The others shrugged and after reading that there would be a meeting in an hour to draw positions within each field, they were about to leave when a familiar voice cried out, “Bas! Falcon Sebastian!”

Looking up in surprise to see Ashleen followed by Wendle rushing towards him, the mage could only think to greet his friends simply, “Hello, Ashleen, Wendle. I had noticed that Wendle’s name was in my division, so it looks like you all decided to join the tournament after all.”

Making a face, Ashleen replied, “Lord Romonus kind of pushed us into it.”

“Ordered more exactly,” the young wizard behind her added with a sigh. “So I am in your field, Bas? Where is that exactly?”

“We start in the Heights.” They all double checked the large colorful map posted beside the field brackets. “Apparently, that is one of the fields behind the castle.”

“I’m Cliffside,” Ashleen stated before checking the map to find that the duel arena literally was on the cliff side north of the castle. Liam’s North Sea field was shown at the base of the cliff where he would use a stone staircase built into the side to descend nearly two hundred feet to find it. The rest of the team’s fields were all scattered across the land north of the city. With the North Wall a few miles to the north of the city, the northern land was virtually abandoned and had been the obvious place to build six of the arenas.

The two Kardorians had to quickly run off and tell Deiclonus that he was at the Pond, which was also in the city beside the Heights. Passing the hour as best they could buy walking around the nearby streets to kill time, when the hour was up and he went to the room holding his group, Sebastian entered the door and stopped in surprise. A pair of the giant, winged Mar’goyn’lya, which most called gargoyles, stood towering over the other awestruck wizards in the room. It was then that he realized that Mar’kal must be the name of their home and thus that was why their names seemed so strange.

Realizing that his idea that all men were essentially the same was obviously a faulty assumption, the mage entered quietly and tried to gage the competition. A wizard by appearance might not tell a normal human the truth of his or her power, but to another magic user their magical aura expressed much. The gargoyles’ auras seemed surprisingly weak to his sense, but he was a mage that held his own with full wizards so who was he to judge by mere magical power? Whatever physical strength they might have, it was how they used their magic that made them strong here.

A trio of men sat behind a table with a large bag and a chart with a place for twenty four names. The central man was a wizard in the diplomacy school. Apparently, though their magic wasn’t allowed in the tournament, their skills were an obvious match for the needs of running such a large competition.

“Welcome wizards,” he began. “As you can see, this chart has room for twelve names on each side. They come together with just six lines. Tomorrow the names on the left will compete in the morning and the remainder in the afternoon every half hour until there are twelve winners. On the following morning, those twelve compete again with the winners that they are paired with in the same order every half hour until there are just six winners.

“Is that clear to everyone? I know that we have some of you from other countries… and races, so if it is unclear please tell me now.”