Battle Mage: The Dark Mage (Tales of Alus) (27 page)

“Why does an apprentice wizard wear a sword on her hip?”

The deep voice made the girl jump where she stood in the mouth of the cave sheltering the heavy doors of the fortress. Turning to see the originator of the words, Sylvaine’s eyes widened at the sight of the giant known as Garosh. Bowing her head, the girl replied meekly, “My Lord Garosh, I didn’t hear you approach.”

Oil fueled lanterns shifted as the winds outside the cave sent their breezes inside to disturb the lights hanging from iron hooks. A twenty foot high ceiling towered above even the giant and behind him stood a man made stone wall with slits for arrows and small gaps near the ceiling for more defenders to rain arrows or oil onto any possible attackers. The defensibility of the mountain fort was substantial even without those stationed outside readying for war.

She noticed a pair of rough looking men stood several paces behind Garosh and in the open doors two of the undead wraiths bound to the sorcerer could leap to his aid should he need it. Whoever would dare to try to harm the man, both powerful in physical strength and magical power, would have to be nearly insane, she thought.

His hand gestured towards the scabbard on her hip, and he replied, “You didn’t answer my question either. Perhaps your hearing is faulty?”

“No, no, I am sorry, my lord,” the girl sputtered fearfully. “I have been training to use the sword since last summer in case I should ever have to fight off someone so close that I can’t use my spells. This isn’t a full sword, just a short sword, since I am not strong enough to wield a long sword.”

Pulling the weapon from its sheath without the girl’s permission, the giant examined the short sword, which was little longer than most daggers and in Garosh’s hand it looked more like a knife for buttering bread for use at the table. “It has a good edge and weighted well, though that would be more noticeable to someone with a weaker arm. Did you choose the weapon or did someone pick it for you?”

Unsure of where she stood with the giant, Sylvaine answered a bit cryptically, “My teacher found it for me when he heard that I was being sent to war here.”

Sniffing dismissively, Garosh threw her word back at her, “War, it will probably be little more than a minor battle that won’t even make it into the history books. They have no chance against us.”

Sylvaine said nothing in reply. She didn’t know anything of war or combat and her magic was still incomplete. What could she say to someone like him?

Flipping her sword to hold it towards her with the handle pointed at the girl to take, Garosh asked another question, “Who is your teacher? Surely no wizard of Ensolus would be likely to bother. Some of the elemental warlocks train in weapons to join the Wizard Hunters. Is that your goal? I doubt it would suit you, but I am not judging.”

Both questions made the girl hesitant, but she had already annoyed him with her inability to answer. How many times she could disappoint him before punishment came, Sylvaine didn’t want to find out. “My teacher is Palose Rosaren, a former battle mage from Southwall; and I had never considered becoming a Wizard Hunter, my lord.”

To her surprise, Garosh pulled a long knife from his belt. A dagger in size, it was only a foot shorter than Sylvaine’s sword. “Let’s see what he taught you,” he gestured with his open bare hand and holding his blade ready.

Hands starting to shake, the girl backed up a step holding her weapon in suddenly weak arms.
“My lord?”

Relaxing his posture, Garosh sighed as he clarified, “I know of your teacher, but I have never fought him. There were battle mages here a month ago and I was unable to test their strength and skill. I hear that they use a different type of magic. Has your teacher bothered to show you that as well or just the sword?”

Sylvaine swallowed though her mouth had gone dry and she nearly choked, but he had asked her a question again and the girl knew that she must answer. “He wouldn’t teach me any spells until we mastered control of the weapons or at least grew competent enough with them. Palose said that teaching mage spells without understanding the rest would be meaningless, but he started teaching me a few this winter.”

Nodding, the giant ordered, “Attack me then and show what you have learned.”

The girl wasn’t in the right clothes and had no protective pads, so she was unsure how well she could have done against Turless let alone against this monster. Her skirt restricted her legs and her face revealed the discomfort she was feeling, but Sylvaine held the sword ready. “Shield,” she ordered her magic bringing up the blue energy defense that Palose had taught her. It was one of the first spells from his battle mage school that had been ingrained into her mind. Turless and she had been forced to first learn the spell and then repeat it over and over for hours over a week of days. Palose had stated that the mage shield was at the core of being a battle mage and must be the first thing they learned to trust.

Thrusting her sword at Garosh tentatively, the apprentice attempted to use what Palose had taught her. The dagger tapped away each attempt to touch him with the blade so she tried a tight sweep horizontally. Thrusting his hips back to avoid the tentative attack, the giant blocked the counter swing with the dagger.

“Any more spells?” he asked breathing easily. Sylvaine’s hours of sparring each week kept her breathing steady as well.

“Fire sword,” enchanted her short sword with flames as the girl tried to give him what he asked.

Nodding at the fire, Garosh continued, “Any more?”

“I can call a fireball and put a stone skin defensive spell on my skin. There is a spell to increase my speed, but Palose said I needed more control over the weapon first before I try and use it. It is just for emergencies at this point,” she admitted unable to force the giant to give ground with her current skill level. While some parts of wielding a sword just meant holding a weapon and swinging the blade, true skill took practice and time. She hadn’t had enough of either to be any sort of challenge to Garosh even when he used a mere long knife to defend.

His magic flared to his off hand as he closed the distance enough to place his palm flat against her shield. “Shatter,” he stated as if he was using a battle mage spell.

Sylvaine’s shield broke instantly knocking the girl back with the force of his spell. Her sword slipped from her hand as she tripped and fell onto the hard ground.

“You are definitely still a novice, but I doubt that you have the heart for ever mastering the skill,” Garosh declared as he offered a hand to the much smaller girl. Sylvaine was slightly above average in height compared to most of the women she knew, though her mistress, Eloria was much taller; but next to the giant she was a child.

His assessment caused the apprentice to clench her jaw in annoyance. She had talked Palose into training her and Turless by proxy, and Sylvaine had tried hard to get better; but Garosh had seen through to her heart quickly. Unfortunately she was a wizard at heart, though the apprentice wanted to continue on in her studies of the art. Knowing how to use a sword and the quick spells of a battle mage made her feel more secure. If something should happen that would let a soldier near her, Sylvaine knew that she had at least some skill to fight to save her life.

Taking his hand to help her up, the girl could say nothing. She felt like she had let Palose down as her teacher.

“Don’t look so sad,” Garosh urged her gently. “You know more than most people, just remember that Southwall trains its soldiers to fight better than say a nomad or even countries like Kardor. While that is a good thing, be careful to try and keep your distance to use your magic since you can’t rely on your blade yet.”

“Yes, my lord,” she answered looking at the ground in disappointment.

“So you obviously know this Palose well, what do you think of him?”

The question brought her eyes up in surprise. Her hands crossed in front of her and her thumbs twirled around each other. She wanted to say many things about the young man who she had come to know since the end of last summer. On the other hand, telling Garosh of her crush on Palose was hardly appropriate.

“Ah,” he said bringing her eyes back to his in surprise. “You like him that way, so I guess asking to get an accurate assessment is out of the question.”

His face held a slight smile as Sylvaine looked at him. The man had seen through her easily enough and the girl understood that she had hid nothing from him in her silence. “Palose is quiet, competent and intelligent. He is also patient trying to teach wizards how to be swordsmen, since that is like trying to change water into a rock. I think he hides himself from others because he is fearful that the warlocks will kill him for being a resurrection man.”

The girl had said more than she would have before he had seen through to her heart.

“And you are starting to fall in love with him, a former dead man?” the giant questioned bluntly and it struck like a slap to the face.

“He doesn’t seem dead. Unlike them,” Sylvaine pointed towards the two wraiths standing behind him looking like something dug from the ground. They were formed from a necromancer’s spell and held no love for the half life they had been given. “Palose seems as human as you or I,” she finished quietly.

“I was formed from the tissue of the emperor and other men. The question of my being real followed me for years as I grew, but no one dared insinuate that I was anything but a living man when they learned to fear me. My size coupled with the touch of the emperor’s magic cowed most even when I was a child.”

Looking to his eyes, Sylvaine saw sadness hidden behind the strength. He wasn’t angry, but she saw the pain of trying to prove
himself real. She had seen similar pain in Palose as he tried to figure out where he belonged in this world. The mage seemed alive, but men with small minds called him a resurrection man and believed him a slave to the necromancer.

What kind of life had Garosh known being the result of an experiment for the emperor?

He picked up her sword that Sylvaine had forgotten already. Thinking that she wasn’t making much of a battle mage, the girl returned the blade to its sheath.

“Get some rest. The enemy will be at the base of the mountain tomorrow. We will deal with them harshly letting them know that Ensolus’s power is greater than theirs,” Garosh ordered half heartedly.

“We will destroy them so easily?” the girl asked starting forward towards the inner gate. She shared a room deep inside the mountain with Wizard Eloria. “Southwall has resisted Ensolus for centuries. How can you be so sure?”

“I don’t need to destroy them. I just need to make it clear that they can’t destroy us,” he stated firmly.

“Too bad you can’t teach them clearly,” the girl replied. “Even if you kill them, they never seem to quit. Kill a small army and find greater ones tomorrow. If you could figure out a way to make them see you differently, then they might leave you alone.”

There was no quick response and Sylvaine looked to the lord carefully. His mind looked preoccupied with something and the girl was unsure what she might have said to cause that. Surely he knew the same as she. A single battle never meant the result of the war and their countries had been at war since they stepped out of the light of the Silver World. Technically, the emperor had been fighting the ancestors of these people for many centuries before that from the Old World to the Silver World and now here on North Continent.

“I’m sorry, my lord. I didn’t mean to misspeak,” Sylvaine said timidly.

A gentle wave as his mind remained preoccupied pushed at her worries. “You have nothing to be sorry over,” he stopped and added, “I don’t even now your name.”

“I am Sylvaine apprentice to Wizard Eloria.”

“You have nothing to fear from me, Sylvaine. No, you have just given me an idea that might make these battles more important than just throwing the Southwallers off my mountain.

“Good night, Sylvaine, and thank you for speaking with me,” he finished surprising the girl with his sudden gentle disposition.

Not wanting to risk seeing a return to his more fierce nature, the apprentice hurried inside the mountain.

Flashes of fire in the darkness could be seen in two directions. Wolves howled between sounds of concussive fire and a variety of spells down below the mountain slope where two armies from Southwall struggled against the various soldiers serving under Garosh. Even the faint carrying of voices and clang of metal managed to echo through the hills and valleys to reach the apprentice’s ears.

“Make sure you stay near me, Sylvaine,” Eloria, a tall figure dressed in gray and black, said to her apprentice. The fact that the girl was nervous being in her first conflict with Southwall would have been known from the worry on her face, but the wizard knew the girl well understanding that she was a peaceful soul. Sylvaine loved elemental magic and had even confessed that she was learning to defend herself with the sword and specialized magic taught to her by a young battle mage, but that didn’t mean she had the heart for fighting.

“Yes, mistress,” the girl said meekly in a quiet voice as if she could hide from the other warlocks around them. The bulk of their magical forces had remained in position uphill of the enemy while orcs, goblins, trolls and the werebeasts harried the two columns making it difficult to join Southwall’s forces.

Southwall’s armies from Windmeer and Falcon’s Keep had been fighting their way through the blizzard, snow and continued harassing attacks from Garosh’s army for almost a week. While Sylvaine and the main army had awaited their eventual arrival, commando units picked off riders with arrows or wolves invaded camps to kill or wound anyone they could before being driven out by discovery. Despite all the pain Ensolus dealt their forces, the armies of Southwall remained tenacious driving the last miles towards each other to make a final push towards the fortress.