Battle Mage Broken Empire (Tales of Alus Book 14) Read online

  Frowning at him, Megan countered, "They say that behind the strongest men, there is a woman. Would it be so wrong for them to know that I am behind you?"

  "Behind, no, but at the moment you aren't exactly behind me or dressed in such a way to be seen at all," he laughed.

  Again she looked at him coyly and said, "Oh, I don't know. I've had a lot of offers from other men to see me like this. Maybe one of them would be more appreciative than you?"

  Giving a scoffing laugh, Torva responded, "Go ahead and walk around like that in the school. I am sure that you would get many offers, but then you'd freeze to death."

  Slapping the tops of his shoulders in annoyance, Megan complained, "Do you think that I am some whore who would just offer myself to anyone? You are lucky that I chose you Torva De'Rasia! I am pretty enough and powerful enough to find a man more powerful than you, if that is all that you think I am after in you."

  His hands held her bottom and squeezed the cheeks as he smiled at her. Megan tried to contain a squeak but her eyes went a little wider than normal at his playful attention.

  "I wouldn't stay with a whore, but there is a time for fun and work. Right now, I have to go to work."

  Walking forward carrying her weight easily, the man gave her one more powerful kiss before settling her onto the bed once again.

  "Well, I have to go. Catch some more sleep or begin the day, if you are more inclined. I'll be in the cafeteria before I head to the training field, if you want to join me."

  "I think that I will continue my beauty sleep then," she said with a pout.

  He shrugged and replied, "You are already the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, but if that is what it takes..."

  Her eyes lit up at the teasing compliment as the warlock opened the door without worrying if there might be someone walking in the hall. She had never seemed that worried either. Megan knew how she looked and, if that was part of where her power came from, being seen wasn't something she feared.

  There was little more to be said before Torva closed the door and was gone.

  "About time you arrived," a slightly older, female wizard stated seeing Megan enter the training yard through the door set in the side of the school. She was a little taller than Megan also; but with only about seven years' seniority on the younger wizard, one would still think that Fordenna was her mother's age instead. "I have enough trouble herding these apprentices through their schooling without having to make certain that you are here on time as well."

  Her brown hair swung with each shake of the older wizard's head drawing Megan's eyes before she questioned if that meant Fordenna had just made her point.

  "Torva more or less accused me of sleeping too late this morning also," the younger woman said with an amused smile. She had a good working relationship with Fordenna normally, so Megan knew that this was just her friend having her version of fun at the younger girl's expense.

  A little smile as the taller wizard's eyes fogged a moment in thought preceded her judgment, "Hmm, Torva, now that is a warlock with a good head on his shoulders. He's as good looking as you are, if you'd ever let him put a baby in you maybe his good sense would rub off on the child. Certainly any progeny would likely be good looking and have magic as well, I'd think."

  Glancing towards the younger students starting to ready their project of the day, Megan didn't think any of them noticed even as the younger wizard reddened with embarrassment at her friend's postulation. "Fordenna, please, I am way too young to be thinking of children. Teaching these teenagers is enough of a challenge for now, in my opinion, and I am hardly in a position to be throwing away whatever chance at power I might achieve on my own by getting pregnant."

  She had lowered her voice as Megan moved closer to her elder.

  Smiling like a cat with a mouse, Fordenna replied, "Well, then maybe send him my way until you decide. I can think of a few things I could do with a man like that."

  Getting the desired redness of jealousy and anger out of the younger girl, her fellow wizard added, "I don't know why you are worried over gaining power alone anyway. Isn't Torva the son of an elven lord? Even a wizard married to someone like him would have plenty of influence and power inside Ensolus and out."

  Fordenna waited a moment for the annoyed woman to answer. When Megannah didn't, she replied, "Oh, don't look at me like that. Torva's not really my type anyway. I just wanted to get back at you for being late."

  Nearly growling, Megan returned, "I am not late. I am simply not early like you always are. It isn't like I am a flighty thing like your apprentice," she added nodding in the general direction of a few girls talking together while they waited for the mentors to grab their attention.

  "Maya isn't that bad," the elder wizard said of the curly haired blonde as she talked with two other girls. "Maybe she isn't as dedicated as Defrienne," she added speaking of a taller girl with a pixie style haircut, "but I'm not sure if there are many apprentices more dedicated than that girl anyway."

  Shaking her head in turn, Megan replied, "Don't mistake being quiet for being dedicated, Fordenna."

  "Is that any way to speak of your apprentice?" the other woman chided her with an amused smile.

  "She's one of my students, not my specific apprentice," was the retort accompanied by her frown.

  Darkness swept over Fordenna's face as she reminded the younger woman, "With Gestiya gone now, she's as much yours as anyone's."

  The frown remained as Megan's attention centered on the dark haired apprentice. "That was an unfortunate mission," she replied. "Didn't the girls lose a close friend too?"

  "Defrienne lost her mentor Gestiya. Warwitch Eloria and her apprentice, Sylvaine, died in that one also. Defrienne was left behind or she might have died also since the entire squad was found torn up near one of the nomad camps.

  "They said that most of the damage to their bodies probably happened after they died," Fordenna reminded the younger woman.

  "No one in that squad could use necromancy though. Unless one of the nomads' shamans cast a spell that turned back on his people, it is still a mystery about what happened," Megan nodded before shaking her head as if to remove the gloomy thoughts. "We need to forget about that and not remind the children of their lost friend and mentors. It is bad enough that the war in Litsarin keeps drawing away more and more of our trainers."

  A nod came from the elder wizard as she added, "If it continues, even some of these will need to go to the front soon. I've heard that a few mistakes have cost us not only troops but warlocks recently."

  The younger woman echoed her gesture before putting a smile on her face.

  "Alright everyone, we're going to start with trying the portal spell and lodestone creation first," Megannah stated much louder to capture the students' attentions.

  A boy raised his hand, yet asked his question simultaneously, "But that is one of the earliest types of magic that we are tested on. If a warlock hasn't been able to do it by now, it isn't like they will suddenly be any better at it."

  Frowning at the boy, though he was more or less correct, the teacher snapped, "Holdy, there is certainly some cause to believe that, but warlocks have been known to persevere with incompatible kinds of magic. Even a water user can learn to make fire or a wind user can move the earth, if you simply file it away as a lost cause, you will never know if you might have succeeded.

  "Now bring out the frames and try again. If you've already mastered the spell, help the others. I know that you can cast it, Holdy. Don't think that your question has made me forget that fact."

  The boy was the youngest in her class. A prodigy of sorts, Holdy had taken to most kinds of magic presented to him as quickly as anyone and across more branches of spells as well. He could cross into opposing styles of magic more often than most of the other students, but his ease of learning made him a tough one to keep challenged. It was why he was in a class of older apprentices and even so he was easily on par with the others.

  He had grown a lot over t
he last year physically too. With a few inches added to his height, the formerly pudgy boy had slimmed down as well as aging his looks beyond the child that had started in her class. Holdy had always acted a little more mature than his age, however, and part of that maturity was shown by the obvious crush he had on Fordenna's apprentice, Maya.

  Watching Holdy move towards Maya and Defrienne wasn't surprising. Another boy joined him and had a slight resemblance to Holdy, especially since he had grown. This was his friend Turless. Taller and older, the other boy had a bit of a baby face, but something had begun to change in him as well over the last year. One thing that was certainly different was that he was the only apprentice that carried a sheathed sword.

  "Turless, how many times do I have to remind you to leave that thing in your room? It will just get in your way here," Fordenna scolded the boy as she also noticed the weapon.

  "Sorry, Wizard Fordenna, I was told that I could go to the wizard hunter's training area to study more after class is over. My former weapon's teacher hasn't had time to train me in awhile, so I guess that I got a little overexcited about it and brought it along. I can take it off, if you want."

  Her glare told him that her desire was more than a want.

  Megan waited for him to draw closer before she asked, "Who taught you how to use a sword, if this will be your first time joining the wizard hunters, Turless?"

  Looking uncomfortable with the question, the apprentice nevertheless answered, "Palose."

  The name brought a frown to both women's lips.

  "The resurrection man?" Fordenna asked first. Her disgust was hardly masked in just those three words. At his nod, she shook her head again.

  Megan wondered a different thing from his answer. "He is often away in Litsarin. How long has it been since you worked with him?"

  "Almost half a year," the boy replied with a sigh. "I've gone to the soldiers' training fields and practiced what he taught me of sword play, but it isn't the same. Palose taught me how to use magic at the same time and to cast it with a single word or two.

  "The soldiers are better than I am, but using a couple mage spells I could probably beat any of them," he added looking disappointed with the fact.

  Letting his explanations go, Megan and Fordenna let the apprentice leave his sword on the table before he joined the others.

  She didn't expect much of this exercise. Holdy had been correct. Unless determination helped defeat a lack of affinity with a spell, it would seem impossible; but this request had come from the elders of their order. The army needed to be mobile and supplies needed to continually be transferred to the front making a need for more portal wizards. Anyone had the potential to create a gate, but it wasn't the kind of spell everyone could do easily either.

  Megan and Fordenna were the mentors for this class and after a few hours, they took a break having seen no breakthroughs in the magic. After eating, they switched to their originally planned studies until early afternoon. Turless escaped as soon as they were through, hurrying away to the wizard hunters' facilities making Megan wonder if Torva would be one of his new teachers.

  It mattered little and the woman could ask him at dinner anyway, she supposed.

  Holdy followed Turless as he hurried to the east.

  "Come on, Turless, why are you wasting your time with this? We could go to the library instead. Maybe I can even help you figure out the portal spells."

  Noting his friend close on his heels, the taller boy slowed as he replied, "I am good with a sword... maybe not great, but good. With a little more training, maybe I can even be as good as Palose."

  Shaking his head, the younger boy replied, "Palose knows portal magic too, you know. He probably knows a lot of spells that you don't, even though he started on warlock magic after you.

  "If you can't cast as many spells as you can get your hands on, are you going to just be a lame swordsman? Even Selvor and Malfaes decided to give that up and studied harder."

  "That was after Palose beat them at their own game," Turless countered once more.

  Letting out a sigh, Holdy tried once more. "You really want to be like Palose?"

  Chuckling at his friend, the bigger boy answered, "Well, not in every way. I would prefer not to die and be brought back again. I know he seems like the rest of us, but sometimes I can't help thinking that he is a resurrection man.

  "I mean what has that got to be like? He died and necromancy brought him back. Most people won't even attempt to learn those spells. The whole idea of it always felt wrong to me too, but then again..." Turless faded off considering his former sword fighting teacher.

  Holdy let the words settle and before long, they were close to the walled off barracks. "Well, unlike you, I think I will head back to the library."

  Turless turned to say goodbye, but noticed a strange look on his friend's face. "What?" he asked bluntly.

  "Did I tell you that I thought I saw Sylvaine the other day?"

  "Where?" his friend asked without truly believing or appreciating the fact. Everyone knew that Sylvaine had died with her mentor's squad visiting nomads. He wasn't sure if the search team had found her body, but certainly no one had ever said that she had managed to wander back to Ensolus alive. If she never returned to the city, certainly one could assume that she was dead. At best, she might be a slave of one of the nomad tribes.

  "I saw her with another girl, who looked familiar. The other girl looked kind of like Warwitch Oween, but with hair the same color as Wizard Megannah, and she was our age instead."

  "Wasn't she like thirty or something? I mean, she was kind of pretty for an older woman, but she's in Litsarin too."

  Oween had been a teacher at the school until the war had drawn her away as well, Holdy knew. While he didn't know the warwitch well enough to know if she had a younger sister that might be an apprentice, Holdy knew both girls that he had seen had magical power. Neither felt like someone he had met before, though strangely their auras felt very similar to each other. There was still a base difference, but there was something that was familiar in their auras also.

  Shaking his head, Holdy said, "Well, go on and try to learn something. Maybe you'll become a wizard hunter. Palose would probably make a good one also, but he seems to be focused on other things right now."

  "Have you seen him lately?" Turless wondered showing some worry for his friend and former teacher.

  Again the smaller boy shook his head. "Ever since word came back that Sylvaine's squad had died, he's been distant. He only became friends with us because of her anyway, I think.

  "Without her around, he disappears and rarely goes to the library. He takes the books out and goes off to learn on his own instead."

  "Didn't his master die?" Turless questioned again, though both knew the answer.

  "He inherited everything that Warlock Atrouseon had. Maybe he studies in his new spire apartment instead of slumming it with us," Holdy said with a bitter laugh before heading south towards the large column used to house the city's library.

  Chapter 2- Lady Talithia

  Holdy climbed a few stairs passing between two pairs of columns before pushing through the library doorway. The library looked like it always did. Wizards and warlocks of varying ages could be found sitting at the various tables on the first floor, though the open center also let him see a few others on the upper floors as well. It was late afternoon now and many wizards would be studying in their rooms or the practice yards, if they could put up with the cold.

  Even being born in the Dark Mountains, the young wizard disliked the cold. The cave protected the city from storms and snow, but winter temperatures swept in permeating the stone making it uncomfortable to touch. The chill seeped into a person's legs from the ground while the air barely stirred making the cold linger unless you were capable of using magic to create heat or block off the cold in some other way.

  Most of the rooms in the wizards' school were the exception in Ensolus. Magic heated the fortress making the stone constructio
n of the school remain warm all season long, while windows kept that heat inside making the air comfortable also. There were a few other buildings bound with such spells; but as a boy growing up in the human quarter, Holdy had known the cold intimately. His parents weren't rich or in the military, but had managed enough of a living to keep logs in the fireplaces. Even with the hearth fires, their house made of stone still felt cold during the long winters.

  Holdy's eyes wandered seeing many of the usual customers, so to speak. Older men doing research, or who were simply adding to their knowledge, were quite common on the first floor. He saw them less often sitting at one of the tables above the second floor, and the boy considered that maybe they were just too old and tired to want to climb so many stairs.

  Many of the younger faces he could see dotted the tables on the first floor as well; but as he looked up, the higher floors would only be occupied by the younger wizards lingering there if any remained up there at all. Holdy walked up to the counter placing two leather bound tomes on the front desk drawing the attention of an older warlock.

  "You finished another set of books?" the librarian questioned with little surprise. Holdy was a regular visitor. He might only have been recruited for his magic about a year ago, but almost immediately the boy had begun to haunt the stacks on the rings above the first floor.

  He nodded which only prompted the older man to continue his questioning of the apprentice, "You're here all the time and continually exchanging books. You couldn't have actually learned all the spells in them in such a short time, could you?"

  "I can't perform every spell yet, Wizard Geerloc, but the forms and rituals are all locked up in here," the young mage stated pointing to the side of his head. "Once I've read the words in a book, it is like I can see every page and word. I simply turn the pages in my mind when I want to try to finish working out the ones that I can't do while I have the physical book. I keep adding pages so someday I will get around to achieving the spells or at least I can worry about them later anyway."