Battle Mage: The Lost King (Tales of Alus) (40 page)

“It is probably from the sleeping powder they hit you with to stop you. Those warlocks seemed prepared for any kind of wizard, even a wilder like you.”

Feeling the constriction around her neck, Ashleen found a metal collar or what felt like metal anyway. In the dark, it could be made of almost anything if magic was involved, but she still thought that it was metal. There was no chain attached, but the girl still felt like it was there to make her a prisoner.

“How long have I been asleep?” she asked as her mind tried to catch up to what had happened to her.

“I’m not sure. Quite awhile I’d say. They carried Themenor, Fedwin and you down the stairs to the shore. After they put you in the longboat with me and Themenor, I lost sight of the others.”

“They separated us?”

“Yes, we three here, then Fedwin, Zenfar and Wendle in another, with Deiclonus and Dorgred sent to the last ship. I think they didn’t want to risk any of us breaking the others free, at least in larger numbers. I’m not even sure why they worried. They took us down easily enough,” she could hear the bitterness in the man’s voice. For a Southwall wizard to give in to the enemy was a humiliation. Kardorians were almost as prideful or perhaps it was just a wizard thing. Ashleen was still an apprentice trying to tame her wilder abilities and sometimes they still got away from her. For that reason, the girl might have less pride to worry over in a defeat and, of course, she didn’t have a man’s pride to add to the ignominy.

“Is Themenor here? I don’t hear him or anyone sleeping.”

“They took him away earlier. He awoke before you. I don’t know how long ago it was, but it was awhile ago,” he stated sounding worried.

The two lapsed into silence only speaking occasionally as they were wrapped in their own thoughts and worries. Ashleen had a few extra worries being a young girl. In the darkness, she felt with her hands and found that they had removed her wizard robes. A mere shift, light like a night dress, had been left to her. Her legs were bared to above the knee and it had no sleeves. The cold of the dark room
began to make her shiver slightly or perhaps it was simply shock and fear that made her quake in the darkness.

When the door was finally thrown open spilling light into the store room, she was able to see the many shelves filled with supplies amidst which they had been deposited. That moment ended quickly as a pair of orcs entered pulling both wizards roughly to their feet. The girl managed to keep her protests limited to a simple squeak of fear as her creature’s powerful, hands picked her up by the shoulders before pushing her through the doorway.

The next room was a communal room probably used for eating with a pair of tables bolted to the floor. Barrels and boxes were roped off with netting. Most likely these were supplies sent with the black ships since they were unsure of the length of their voyage. Having little time to take the room in before she was shoved up a wood staircase leading to the deck, Ashleen noted a bar and place to cook the food as well as chairs bound in stacks in a couple places along the wall.

Sunlight nearly blinded her even after her eyes had the chance to see torchlight in the eating room. Blinking at the light, it took Ashleen a moment before she could take in the sight of the black sails billowing above and a crew of mostly orcs and goblins moving around keeping the ship moving. Men roamed the deck as well. Many wore black uniforms as did several of the orcs that seemed to be killing time waiting for the next fight. Unlike them, the sailors mostly wore brown pants and sometimes shirts. Their green and brown torsos were often bared in the heat of working on the deck.

Sighting Themenor sitting on the ground before the forward mast of the ship, she also noted more men and these bore the scent of magic. Wizard hunters. The men noted the arrival of the new wizards looking defeated. Ashleen was in the white, underlying frock she had worn beneath her robes and Hyren was reduced to undershorts and a shirt. The man was also sporting a cheek and eye blackened and swollen from a blow that he had taken. Ashleen knew that they were definitely defeated if not completely broken in spirit. Hoping that she would survive and not become a slave, Ashleen felt the breeze coming over the deck and shivered though it wasn’t with the cold.

Pushed to sit on either side of Themenor, the warlocks looked down on the three wizards appraisingly. The appraisal must have found them wanting as more than a few snickered at their humbled forms.

“Your companion seems to know very little of those you follow. I brought you here to see if you could be a little more useful. He did take a dose of the sleeping powder, but I think our questions and magic have woken him sufficiently. Still he only tells us that you followed the others out of curiosity.

“Perhaps you two can fill us in more accurately before we find them,” the leader brought electricity to his fingers like the spell she had once taught to Sebastian. It would be painful for the others, but Ashleen lived with lightning trying to break from her body constantly as a wilder. It was her natural talent and defense. It had also made her lose control in the battle in front of the castle.

“We know as little as our friend,” Hyren stated trying to use his charm. Even with a damaged face, the man seemed friendly and as obliging as he could be. “I am afraid that we just served Lord Romonus. It was he who decided that our ship should follow them and see what they were up to.”

The lead warlock moved closer to Hyren still playing the electricity across his fingers. A small tendril flicked free catching the water wizard on the cheek eliciting a hiss of pain. It probably hurt a little, but the current was low unlike something Ashleen could throw in battle.

“Do tell. So you who are these people you follow? You obviously must know at least something about them,” the dark haired warlock inquired with his dark brown eyes that almost looked black. A tightly trimmed beard and mustache managed to make him look more like darkness despite its careful grooming. The warlocks still wore their enchanted armor despite having defeated and captured the wizards. Ashleen feared that they might believe Sebastian’s ship was close enough to need their armor ready.

“It’s just a Malaiy frigate,” Hyren answered quickly. “They brought their wizards here and seemed to have very good connections inside Hala. We found out that they were planning to explore the islands and hoped to find treasure or take it from them if we had to,” the water wizard managed to hide the truth quickly as he acted broken. Hyren’s talent to be convincing and a charmer were one thing, but his ability to act and hide the truth were on another level entirely, Ashleen thought lowering her head as if disappointed in the man for giving in so quickly.

“A Kardorian ship with Southwall wizards is chasing a Malaiy frigate, you say?” the warlock look less than convinced. “Why would your two countries that live in the North believe that the Malaiy could cross the ocean and find treasure in your own sea? That would seem a little far fetched, don’t you think?”

Another surge of electricity flicked out lashing the man’s nose. A little grunt of pain came from Hyren, but Ashleen had a feeling that it was just more dramatic for effect. The wizard was playing a weak willed man very well. If she didn’t know more of the truth and the wizard’s actual nature, the girl would have believed every word he said so far.

“The lord paid us to work for him. The gold promised to move to Kardor sounded worth it, but if working for him is going to cost my life please just drop me on some island. Kardor can be damned. Gold isn’t worth my life!”

Those dark eyes moved to Ashleen and he raised an eyebrow inquisitively, “And the girl serves Kardor and follows her master blindly as well?”

A taste of his power flicked several tendrils of electricity into her body. Ashleen cried out in surprise and pain. It actually hurt. Had they somehow bound her magic and walled it off to the point that such a weak spell could harm her? No protective lightning came to her aid as it always had when the girl had been frightened or needed protecting in the past. New fear of what they had done to her trickled into her mind like the flow of his magical torture.

“I’m just an apprentice serving my master. He works for the ambassador,” she quickly replied.

“Ambassador, that fat little fellow was an ambassador? How interesting. You wouldn’t think a man like him would be chasing treasure,” he retorted flicking the girl with another tendril.

“She’s speaking the truth,” Hyren hurried to try and draw the warlock’s attention away from the young woman. “He’s a lord in title, but he lives in Kardor. Personally I have come to believe that he isn’t as rich as he made us think. He could only afford five of us after all. Maybe he was just hoping to find some more gold to improve his position further?”

“Well, unfortunately for you,” the warlock said standing up and releasing his spell, “your little lord isn’t here to answer that and, now that we have you, it really doesn’t matter.

“Our hunters are on the trail of this Malaiy ship as well. If they are just hunting treasure then our sister ships may have gone on a wild goose chase, but we still use our magic to pursue them. Maybe when we take their ship and wizards, they will show us this treasure that you hunt.”

The warlocks were apparently bored with the three wizards and moved away to talk. Life went on around them ignoring the battered prisoners and Ashleen wondered how long their captors would keep them alive. Fedwin had been sure that they would be kept alive and would be brought back to the Dark One’s capitol to be brainwashed into working for the enemy. Perhaps being dead was preferable.

“How are you holding up?” Hyren directed his question at Themenor with his eyes.

The air wizard shrugged. Ashleen had noted a couple bruises on his face when they had been brought to him, but Themenor said, “They haven’t done anything that I won’t recover from in a few days. I don’t even think these men care what we say to them. They’re just bored and itching for their next fight. If we can bring a little amusement while they wait, then it will just help pass the time for them.

“You did well telling them what you did. I held out and said little enough, but what you said is close enough to my words, I believe. We really do know little enough of what they are searching for after all. Laying blame on the Malaiy was a good touch and true enough in a way. Are you sure that you aren’t trained as a diplomat wizard? If so, maybe you can entrance the crew and gain us our freedom as well.”

Hyren grunted and replied, “I wish it were that easy. I am just hoping that we gave them enough to keep them from doing too much torture.” His blue eyes glanced to Ashleen worriedly and was noted by Themenor between them. “If ever I hoped that your friends are powerful enough to defeat these wizard hunters, this is the time for them to prove it.”

“If they destroy our captors, they will destroy us also,” Ashleen sighed wishing that she had a better answer. Knowing how vulnerable they were and she as a woman being another possible diversion for the dark men, Ashleen actually hoped that they found Sebastian and ended her capture sooner than later. It was a bitter piece of hope, but it was all she had.

Night came and another day while the three wizards remained on the deck receiving just some bread and water occasionally to keep them from dying, but that was all. Two more days passed before they adjusted course. The crew was becoming more excited and Ashleen had a feeling that for good or ill, the enemy had found Sebastian.

Less than a day had been spent in Trillian, but the Sea Dragon was fully provisioned once more and underway. They had hurried fearing that something had come looking for them from the Dark One. Sebastian and the others had no illusions that they could hide from whatever was coming for them forever, but they did hope that whatever came they could handle it.

Hurrying south in an attempt to make the passage between Talc and Baltu as quickly as possible, the Malaiy sailors were able to increase to full sails as the winds continued steadily from the northwest. Sebastian and his team began to practice and think of tactics to use for their magic in a sea battle, if it should happen. Early the following morning, Darterian came to Bas and asked to borrow the compass. It was his grandfather’s gift to them, so Sebastian could hardly say no.

After half an hour, the man returned drawing the mage aside, “I was checking the calibration of the compass and discovered something interesting.”

Looking askance for the man to continue, the wizard nodded saying, “These devices were originally set up to hold the position of opened gateways on the gem until a team of wizards could close them. If they closed on their own, there was a lingering light like these two,” he gestured at the two gray points that had replaced the bright yellow of four days before.

“Yellow lights mean they’re open and gray, as they are now, means they’ve been closed though we could use the compass to find those points if we tried.”

Pointing to two more white points east of the gray one, Darterian stated; “These two points are things that came through the closer portal and they are still moving.”

“Ships?” Bas questioned as he assumed that only a ship or possibly a sea creature could move from the island without another use of another portal. “We wondered if the black ships of legend had returned. I even warned Lord Sumpterhall of our worries.”

Nodding, the Eirdhen wizard added, “It is hard to tell if they are coming closer or moving away. If they have the ability to sense our vessel, then the one closest to our vessel might be looking for us.”

“Then I wonder where the other light might be heading, if they aren’t looking for us?”

Pointing to the dull red dot that they had planned to follow from Trillian, Darterian surmised, “If the Dark Emperor did capture and hide the Grimnal; and they believed that we could find him like we have the previous islands, then perhaps they’ve split their forces to head us off.”

Sucking in air between his teeth as he thought about the possibility, it wasn’t long before the mage said, “Then we are going to need to be as careful as we can. No one has given a report on the emperor’s ships, so we have no idea what they are capable of now. If magic can bring them here, then I have to assume that his dark wizards will be there in some number. We will keep practicing and thinking of new strategies to use in a sea battle. If you come up with anything more, let me know.”

Not ready to be dismissed, the man shook his head, “We might be able to avoid a fight. We have the compass. If we make sure to read it regularly, we might be able to dodge them. Right now, this light reads exactly between us and Maldus Island,” he finished using the common name they had given the island.

Not liking the sound of that Sebastian stated with a frown, “I think that the northern one is following us somehow. If they were just a day or so behind us originally, then our stay in Trillian followed by essentially doubling back on our trail is putting us very close. Unless you have anything else for me, Darterian, I think that I had better scout from the winds for our pursuer.”

The wizard had nothing more, but simply held out the device pointing the direction of the signal between them and the island.

“Freedom,” the mage used his word of power to loose his mind from his body. The word truly embodied how he felt riding the winds. A mind free of his body to ride the winds and fly like a bird, it was exhilarating.

Unable to just enjoy the moment, however, the mage began to bend winds where he must turning against the blow from the northeast that propelled the Sea Dragon. While he was not as strong as a
wizard, what he lacked in strength he overcame with finesse. He didn’t fight nature and her winds, the mage simply adjusted and influenced a portion of the current to move to the next chain of air.

Working like some squirrel in a tree, the mage went from one branch of air to the next. It was more work than just flowing with the wind, but the challenge was almost as much fun for Bas. Riding the wind, he felt more like the owl or falcon people had taken to nicknaming him.

Continuing the process for over an hour, Sebastian was beginning to wonder if he would have the strength and luck to find a ship in the middle of all this water. It was about that point, dozens of miles away from the Sea Dragon, that the mage caught sight of a ship. Black sails and hull that appeared black as well made sure to let him know that he had found the enemy.

He moved closer hoping that there was no air wizard aboard sensitive enough to sense his mind. Few had been able to do so other than the mage; even Fala, who had taught him most of his air spells, seemed unable to sense him if she hadn’t initiated the spell. Still caution was best when dealing with the unknown, he knew.

Men, orcs and trolls in strange black armor were the first to be noticed by Sebastian. The armor that some wore drew his interest and not in a good way. He felt a similarity to the dark spells of the wizards of Gray Hall and had a feeling that, if they stuck with basic elemental spells, they would lose the fight quickly. Wanting a closer look warred with caution, as he held his mind form above the water thirty feet from the vessel.

Holding off on his investigation of the armor, the mage tried to glean as much information about their enemies as he could. The power of more than a dozen wizards radiated from the vessel. Men in black laughing with each other or idly watching the waves wandered the deck. There were probably even more below napping or eating, he thought. On numbers, the Sea Dragon was an near equal match for them, but the mage feared what magic and powers they might bring. He had seen the curse spell in
Maldus’s castle and knew if they could use magic of that scale, then even the might of his team and the Malaiy wizards wouldn’t be enough to defeat them in a head to head battle.

He lingered long enough to feel a familiar aura and spotted the three captives sitting tied to a mast by magic. A small variation of the curse spell almost made him miss the platinum blond hair of Ashleen. His friend and a girl close to his heart had somehow wound up a prisoner of the Dark One’s warlocks. Questions of how and why could not be answered without being there to speak with Ashleen directly, so he tried to make sure of the nature of the magic holding them before he moved to the last bit of business that the owl wished to accomplish now that he knew the enemy was near.

Summoning a spell from his body still on the Sea Dragon, Sebastian used magic in a way that had once helped save hundreds of lives of Southwall wizards, soldiers and mages. His body mumbled the word, arrow, as his arms held the form of an invisible bow. Releasing a wind arrow, it took nearly a minute to reach the ship. The arrow struck an orc from the far side of the ship throwing off any who might wish to discover the presence of the mage and the Sea Dragon.

It struck the black armor true punching the orc into a stumble against another, who shoved the clumsy looking creature back. Arguing brewed into blows, but Sebastian ignored that part of the scene before him. The arrow had done almost nothing to the orc as the armor absorbed the power of the wind. It was elemental armor, or perhaps elemental proof armor would be the more accurate description. If a disembodied mind could frown, Bas would have craters on his forehead from the feeling inside him.

A last test came to mind and once more his mind sent the command to his body. “Light arrow,” was the new command. He had never tried this version of the light spell, but it felt as simple as the air spell. Slightly slower than the wind arrow, the light struck the second orc in the chest from the south instead of the west.

The fight came to a quick end as the arrow penetrated the black armor through to the creature’s heart. A final blow from the first orc struck the dying creature before either knew the arrow had hit its
heart. Looking like an accident, the first orc stood over the second looking vaguely triumphant at his victory until he realized his ally wasn’t moving at all. Blood began to seep from the armor onto the deck drawing more attention. The warlocks pushed orcs and goblins aside as if they were inconsequential in their eyes to see what had happened.

One of the men in their black armor used his foot to flip the creature over only to find a small hole near the center of its back. Angry shouts and accusations of knives in the back were hurled about causing even more of a disruption to the crew and leaders of the ship.

Sebastian had to use one last piece of magic before he left. A second wind arrow landed at the feet of the bound wizards lingering in its shape long enough for the three to see it before disappearing into the air it was made from. The mage hoped that the message was enough to give them hope. He had planned to try avoiding a fight, but people needed their help. Sebastian couldn’t stand running when he could do something about this injustice.

By the time the mage’s mind had returned to his body, the team as well as Annalicia’s wizards had assembled on deck to see what had prompted his magic use. A smile took his face immediately. He had seen the group before reuniting with his physical form. The out of body experience was always surreal when he looked down on his outer shell.

“I found the black ship,” he stated simply taking a flask of juice from Yara to sate his thirst. He had been gone for almost two hours and though the spell didn’t consume magic the way some did, it was still a necessity to restore his used up strength.

Several voices rose up at once to the point that the weary battle mage couldn’t understand any of their questions, though he knew enough that they were all probably asking the same thing. As their voices died down seeing that they were all fighting to be heard and getting no answers, Sebastian began to explain, “There is one ship that is definitely following us a couple hours sail away. We could run, but if
we are heading towards more then I would rather take this one on before they can get reinforcements. That said I will defer to the majority.”

“What do we face with the black ship?” Idenlare asked in true fire wizard style. They were the battle wizards and combat was as much their domain as any battle mage’s. While the mages were as much soldier as wizard, they trained in weapons much more. Fire wizards were longer range, but tactically trained for battle.

“At least a dozen wizards and their regular troops have black armor that acts like the darkness shields. They can absorb a direct elemental attack. There are three captives that I can see and all are bound by a form of the curse spell we saw on the castle. If they can use those spells in lesser form, we can assume that may be another form of magic that can be used in battle.”

While many began to discuss the detrimental magic, Serrena, another fire wizard, asked, “I assume you have a plan of attack if we are already halfway handicapped by their armor and magic?”

Maura spoke up first, “Wait, no one voted whether we should take on this enemy ship with its warlocks. Shouldn’t we decide that first? I think we should keep on as we are and hope to lose them.”

“We’ve sailed for a whole day south from Trillian,” Sebastian began to explain the other problem with her request. “No one could have followed us exactly after going to the island and then out to this point. They couldn’t know when we left or how quickly we were moving. The black ship isn’t just getting lucky in guessing our path, they are moving in an exact line to intercept us.

“If we don’t turn it around on our pursuers, they will catch us as night falls. I for one would rather try to disrupt their plans before they have their way,” the mage finished and received several nods of agreement.

Maura looked hesitant still, but Idenlare ignored the woman he was supposed to protect and follow and said, “I agree. We still need a plan to deal with their magic, but I think catching them by day and hopefully catching them off guard is the best way to deal with them.”