01 battle mage tale of a.., p.12
01 Battle Mage, Tale of Alus, page 12
too long with the likes of Sylvie.
"Are you all right?," Reiyan asked worriedly.
"You don't look too well."
Feeling flush and wiping his sweating brow
with his hand, Bas bowed and stepped back, "I'm
sorry, m' lady, but I think that I'd better go to my
room now."
"I'll walk you," the girl said with concern. Knowing that he needed to get away from
her, Bas shook his head. "No, that's not necessary.
Really."
"I insist. I'm afraid that I may have gotten you
sick from all this dancing. It's my fault and I can't
leave you to try and find your way alone."
The girl threw his arm over her shoulder and
placed one around his waist. Pulling him away from the dance floor, Reiyan led him outside. The fresh air caught at him and refreshed Bas a bit. He stopped causing the woman to start. "I'm feeling better. Thanks. It must have just been the heat and
closeness in there."
Reiyan pulled him over to a bench. They had
wound up in a small park, one of three if he recalled.
Windmeer tried to keep a few comforts despite being
a castle used to war.
Sitting down, Reiyan hiked up her skirt a
little more exposing much of her shapely thighs. Bas
looked away even as the sweat began to bead his
forehead again. The girl noted the movement and
smiled. Taking his hand in hers, she lay it on her
thigh and held it there.
"It's all right. I don't mind you looking. Is that
what makes you so jumpy? You've never had a girl
before have you?," she asked searching his face. Sebastian looked into her dark eyes shaded
by a deepening night sky. Epsilon had yet to make his
presence known in the sky. He found himself drawn
into those eyes like a man drowning. He couldn't
make himself pull away anymore than he could
remove his hand from her soft thigh.
"This isn't right," he whispered fearfully, but
still he couldn't move.
The girl smiled and the effect seemed to
strengthen. "It could be right, if you let it," she
replied.
"I... don't... think I can," he finished tiredly.
"I've got to go. You're so beautiful, but... it can't
happen. Not now."
"Not ever?," Reiyan looked sad as she
released his hand. "Please don't say that. I tell you
what. You go back to your room and sleep. I'll find
you tomorrow. We can dance again tomorrow night.
Then maybe we'll talk about this again."
The girl rose and the hem floated slowly down to cover her thighs. She turned her head to look back over her shoulder and added, "Goodnight,
Sebastian. Sweet dreams."
Then she was gone. Bas stared after her until
she disappeared through a door into the castle. The
mage shook his head in confusion. How could he feel
this way? Less than a week ago, he liked Trina. Then
he met Yara, and felt equally in love (if that was the
word really). Now Reiyan comes along, a total
stranger, and he was left sweating to contemplate
what kind of man he was.
He had believed that most men were
honorable when it came to their dealings with
women and here he was left sweating and looking
foolish. Reiyan could have made him do almost
anything. His pitiful attempts at resistance wouldn't
have held up long, he thought.
Looking at the hand that had touched her
thigh, Bas swallowed. He could still feel her there.
Did he really want to see her tomorrow night? Could
he afford to?
Rising shakily to his feet, the battle mage
walked unsteadily in the direction of his room. Chapter 16-Battlemage Tactics
The night was spent tossing and turning for Sebastian. Haunted by visions of the women he had known recently all shouting at him and trying to tear him to pieces in their efforts to claim him. At first it was all three, later Trina was noticeably absent. Yara soon let go, but wouldn't seem to leave despite Reiyana's best attempts to pull him to only her.
He slept so poorly, that early in the morning before the sun had even rose, Bas was outside in one of the practice yards trying to empty his mind of all but the movement of his sword. The third moon, Gelinas, faded as the light of the sun began to brighten the eastern sky. Bas only half noted the change as he continued the rhythms and moderated his breathing to remain in his near trance-like state. It was a feeling so neutral of thought that it would have been bliss after the night's unrest, if he weren't in a void of emotion and thought.
The first ring of the morning bell pulled his attention back to the world around him. He was hungry and sweaty. Washing in a bucket of water drawn from the nearest well, Bas toweled off before going back to the dining hall. There he had a quick breakfast that was interrupted when Mirez came in and spied him there. The falcon took his tray of food and joined the younger man with a small smile on his face.
"Quite the girl you found last night, cadet. She was quite the knock out. Somebody told me that her father's a noble living at the castle." He smiled wider, "I am also told that young Reiyan is rather famous here as well. Would you like to know why?"
Sebastian sighed before reluctantly nodding. "It seems that she's quite the flirt. She's the type that has a different man on her arm every night. No one says that she does anymore than flirt, but
they say that she's very good at it. What do you think, Sebastian?"
"She's a very good flirt, I suppose. We separated after a few songs and I went back to my room."
Mirez nodded. "She dropped you already, eh?"
Bas shook his head. "She said that she wanted to dance again tonight. I don't know that she will want to for real or not, but that was what she said."
Eyes widened slightly, before Mirez frowned. "That's interesting, but I have bad news for you. You won't be back here tonight. Your first patrol happens at noon. I've been assigned with you. Should I have them saddle the same horse you rode in on?"
"Stormy? Sure. She was a good mare. Do I pack the same as last time? I haven't had a chance to get anything cleaned, you know. Since I was with you all day looking around, I never got the chance to bring them to the laundry." Even as his mouth spoke, Bas felt relief. He wouldn't have to see what new surprises Reiyan would try to pull tonight. She was beautiful and enjoyable to speak with, but there was something very unsettling about her or at least about himself when he was near the girl.
"It'll only be two, three days tops. Bring pretty much the same, I guess, but less food," Falcon Mirez answered his question without noticing his preoccupation with the thought of Reiyan.
Bas nodded. "Meet at the stables at noon then?"
"Right."
"Anything that I need to do before hand?"
"I would say go practice, but by the sight of you I guess that I am too late. Have you studied that book of yours lately?"
"You knew about that?," Sebastian asked quite surprised to hear that even the falcon knew of the wizard tome.
"I'm your tutor. Of course, Garrett told me about it. I've seen you use some of it already. Keep studying it and you might become one of the best battle mages ever." The falcon got up. His tray was already empty. Bas picked at a piece of toast as the man turned to leave.
"Why does everyone think that I'm some strange mage capable of wizard magic? If I'm so good with magic, why wasn't I trained to be a wizard?"
"I couldn't tell ya," Mirez informed him. "Just be at the stables by noon, cadet."
Dropping the half eaten piece of toast back onto the tray, Bas rose and dumped the remains from his tray and picked four apples for the trip. Stormy would appreciate them and whatever he had left he would eat.
Wandering back out the door, Bas eventually realized that he had taken a wrong turn. Windmeer was still confusing for him. The castle was large enough and less structured than White Hall. Looking for a landmark of some sort, Bas thought that he knew where he was when a soft voice suddenly called his name.
"Sebastian? Is that you?"
Turning around, the mage spotted Yara. "Yara?"
"What are you doing here? This is the wizards wing. Don't you have a room in the next wing? I thought that was where the battle mages were staying."
"The next wing over?," he mused. "I knew that I had taken a wrong turn."
The girl chuckled. "Some mage you are, getting lost in a castle."
"I have a lot on my mind," he said and thought to himself that she was just one of the many thoughts. Telling her that would be foolish, he knew, since Bas hadn't figured out just what his thoughts about the girl really were.
"I hear so," the girl said smiling. "Magnus tells me that you danced with a pretty girl. Strange the way he brought it up. If you ask me, I almost wonder if he had something to do with it. Maybe he thought that your dancing with some girl would make me jealous? Anyway, the story seems to be getting around the castle as well. For the most part, they're saying some new mage and a lord's daughter were dancing."
"She asked me. I tried to decline, but she wore me down," he replied and realized just how strange that sounded. "Anyway, it was only a couple dances and then I went back to my room."
"She went out with you, Magnus said."
"I wasn't feeling that well and she insisted. We stopped in the park for a few minutes and that was where she left me."
The apprentice nodded. "And do you want to guess where she went?"
"Back inside, I would assume," Bas replied with a shrug.
Yara smiled without humor, "Magnus didn't tell me this, I heard it from some of the others. The girl went back to talk with him, Sebastian. They even danced. I worry that he's using her to play a trick of some sort on you. Magnus is well known for his pranks at White Hall. If he thought that there would be something to gain, he might just try something like this."
"Like what? A girl came and danced with me for a little bit and left. That's it," he shrugged.
The girl shrugged. "If you say so, it's not like you're not handsome enough to attract a girl or two. Maybe you're right, but you may want to watch your back. There aren't too many friends to help you here, like at White Hall."
"I have you, don't I?," he asked and tried not to make the question sound like it needed to confirm their friendship.
"Of course, I'm your friend, Sebastian. I'm sure most of the battle mages will stand by you as well, but their numbers are still small if Magnus manages to smear you well enough. Magnus is also smart enough to not get directly implicated in any of his schemes, unless he wants to be."
"So you think I'm handsome?," he asked targeting her earlier comment to try bringing a little humor back into the conversation.
A little color filled her cheeks. "Don't let it go to your head, mage. I'm not that easy," she added stabbing a finger at his chest.
Bas shrugged. "I am," he grinned.
"I'm sure that you are," she laughed. "Now don't you have somewhere to be?"
He cringed a bit and nodded, "It's time to pack already."
The girl frowned. "But you just got here."
Nodding, he replied, "Yeah, but my training here is basically all field work. I've got to leave at noon for a reconnaissance trip."
"Well, good luck and stay safe. It might be for the better anyway. With you gone, Magnus will have time to forget. Maybe."
"Or time to stew and make it worse," he reminded.
The girl shrugged. "Or that. See you later, Sebastian. I need to get to my next tutor also."
"See you when I get back?"
"Probably," she turned as she walked away.
Knowing where he was now, Bas headed off for his room. It didn't take too long. Windmeer castle was big, since it was essentially two castles joined together. The new built alongside the old with a great wall around it, that was Windmeer. The halls twisted a bit and wandered a long way in all directions. Luckily, his room wasn't that far.
The packing job was short once again. He looked around the little room and shook his head. It wasn't even close to being a home. All told, Bas had spent only about seven hours there. The shortened night's sleep accounted for most of it.
Checking his sword and equipment, Sebastian retreated back to the outside. Heading for the practice grounds, Bas was only marginally surprised to find almost twenty men sparring there already. All were soldiers. No battle mages were present at all.
Placing his bag down near a bench off to one side of the grounds, he took his shirt off and tossed it on top of the bag. It wouldn't help to have one of his few shirts dripping with sweat before he even left, he figured. Drawing his sword, Bas went to work and began performing his normal workout routine.
Several minutes into the maneuvers, he began to feel eyes watching him. Some of the soldiers stopped their sparring and moved a little closer to watch. Bas tried to ignore the men and continued to perform the routine. Voices began to talk about him and still he tried to go on.
Suddenly a man stepped before him and slapped at his sword. Bas fell back into a defensive posture and questioned the man with his eyes.
"We hear tell you mages think that you know how to use a sword. Most of them don't deign to visit here with us mortals. Personally I don't think that you're as good as they say. If you got the guts to stop playing with the air, maybe you'd like to spar for real?"
The crowd offered several challenging remarks and seemed to agree with the mage's challenger.
Looking up at the sky to gage his time, Bas looked the man straight in the eye and stated, "If you really want to, I've still got some time before I need to leave. Do you want shields also?"
Wrinkling his nose, the soldier replied near mockingly, "If you really think that you need to hide behind a shield...?" He left the challenge unfinished.
"Circle rules or do we spar until we get bored?"
"Nah, we'll go until one of us loses his sword or gets a point to his neck. It'll probably be you, kid, but that's all right. We don't expect much out of a mage. You magic types just don't have what it takes."
"And just how many of us `magic types' have you fought?"
"Counting you?," the man laughed. "You ready? Begin!"
The soldier attacked quickly. Sebastian was forced to back off a step and then two as the man sought to overwhelm his defenses. The mage watched his opponent for openings and learned the man's tricks as they moved.
"Ready?," he asked with a lift of his eyebrow once he felt that he knew the man's abilities. "My turn."
Sebastian stepped up the speed of his attack and forced the issue. High, low, side, side. In and out of the soldier's movements, Sebastian turned back the man and finally clipped the hilt and pulled the sword from the man's hand. The soldier looked incredulously at his hand.
"Think you can do that again?," the man asked as his sword was tossed back to him. "I know that I can do better."
Bas checked the sun. "If you really want to. You'll need to try something new though or we'll wind up back here again shortly."
"Cocky little bastard, begin!," he ordered and attacked again.
The soldier tried a few new attacks, but Sebastian had gaged his speed and the moves weren't different enough. The man was still good. Admitting that was easy enough, but Bas knew that he was better. Like his word, in only a few minutes, the sword flew free again.
"Damn!," the soldier cursed the situation. "You're better than I thought. I don't know about the rest of your type, but you're good."
"I can do better." He noted the sky and thought that he had time for a real demonstration if the soldier fell for the bait.
"What do you mean?," the man asked and there was a chorus asking much the same all around them.
"Do you really want to see what a battle mage can do, soldier?," lifting an eyebrow, he questioned the man again.
"What do you have in mind?"
"Grab your shields. All of you."
They all began to laugh. "You want to take us all on, kid. Come on now. You're good, but don't be suicidal."
"If you want a full demonstration, grab shields that don't matter to you. If your shields are all in good repair and you want them in one piece, then I'd recommend leaving them be." He ignored their mocking remarks and set the rules. "Do you all want to begin? Be careful of each other. Anyone who wants out, step away now."
"Are you serious, kid?," the spokesman asked again.
He nodded.
Most of the soldiers stood their ground. Bas nodded. "Begin! Reflex!," he said spelling himself. "Shield!," he added his defense. Relying on just speed without it was being too reckless. He never considered his own risk aside from that.
Four of the soldiers rushed him. In his sped up state, they seemed to crawl.
"Fire sword!," he added the spell for effect and went to work. Using shield and sword, Bas danced in between men and blades. "Shield!," he said as he struck one man's shield. It was wood and cracked with a loud snap. The man cursed and watched his sword fly from his hand in turn.
"Strike!," he blinded two with the gust attack and shouldered them onto their backs with his shield. One was almost trampled by another soldier. Bas leapt the man and knocked the would-betrampler away before disarming him as well.
"Ice!," he spelled the ground sending a trio slipping and then falling onto their backsides.
He stabbed his sword into the ground half way through the match and ordered, "Sword!" With the blue fire sword come to life, Bas wrought more confusion among the men.
It wasn't much longer before he had either disarmed or toppled a soldier to prove his point. Pulling up breathing hard and sweating, Bas turned to men who were getting back to their feet and looking a little confused. A few seemed angry at the slight.
"And last, but not least, stealth!," he added a spell very seldom used, since it was unfair in any honorable combat. To the men, he just seemed to disappear before their eyes. For Sebastian, his day became night. Bending light around him in such a way, left the wielder blinded as well. Concentrating his magical senses, Bas walked unseen through the soldiers as they milled about. He wished that he could see their faces, but the effect wouldn't be as fun.
