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

  Holdy chuckled and replied, "Then maybe you're right. If I want to help up the stairs when I get old, I guess I shouldn't accidentally insult you, Lady Talithia." He inclined his head slightly and noticed her cheeks redden at his sudden assumption of her title.

  "You said that I can call you Holdy. I let my friends just call me Talithia," the elf replied with a new shyer smile.

  Her look was even more beautiful, he thought. Maya's face came to mind and Holdy wondered if the other girl even cared for him. It wasn't likely that this beautiful elven lady would care for him that way though, so he knew that his thoughts were just simple childish nonsense. It would be easy to have a crush on this beautiful creature though, the apprentice realized.

  Swallowing, Holdy continued, "So you wanted to know something of Palose's battle mage magic? I might know someone who can at least answer some of that."

  Chapter 3- Breeching the Gate

  Holdy hated to lose time in the library, but still he led the four elves back along his previous path. Retracing his steps to the wizard hunters' eastern facility, the young wizard noted the attractive blonde haired girl matching his stride though she was a few inches shorter than he was now. A year earlier and Holdy thought that he would have needed to look up to meet her eyes, but the boy had grown nearly four inches in just over half a year. He was still shorter than his father, so there was the possibility that the apprentice would squeeze out a few more inches since he was still on the short side for a human male in the north.

  "So this friend of yours studied with the battle mage for awhile, but now he trains with the wizard hunters?" the girl questioned him to interrupt the silence lingering between the five walking among the stone buildings and walls lining the street leading to the training grounds.

  He knew that he had said as much before leading Talithia on this walk once more. It had been reasonably warm inside the library, another reason Holdy didn't mind spending as much time as he did there. In the summer, if it grew warm outside, the magic monitoring the library to help keep the tomes in as good of a condition as possible could also cool the spire to maintain that same temperature year round.

  "Turless trained with our friend Sylvaine. Then someone called Lanquer worked with them, or maybe it was more that they came to work with him. I'm not entirely certain. It was still winter of last year and cold when I remember Palose asking them to come train with them in the soldiers' training grounds west of the spires."

  He heard a murmur between the two full wizards behind him at the mention of Lanquer's name. Talithia didn't even bother to disguise why they were excited by the name he dropped so casually. "Do you mean that he trained the emperor's... do they call him brother now? I can't remember though I know he has a sister with almost as much power as the emperor from what I am told."

  "You are told a lot of things apparently," Holdy mumbled as he rolled his eyes while looking at the path ahead to mask the gesture.

  "My family is well informed and, in case you didn't know, I also have exceptional hearing... even for an elf," the girl smirked at him as she cut through a possible come back since Talithia had pointed elven ears. They might be slightly large compared to a human girl's, but somehow Holdy thought that they looked perfect for her face. Elves were known to be typically good looking and he thought that Talithia was exceptional even for one of her race.

  "As far as I know ...from what I was told by Turless and Sylvaine," he retorted by modifying her favorite phrase, "Princess Acheri made Palose teach Lanquer so that he could guard the emperor from any threat."

  "That would line up with the rumors that he killed a wraith and guarded the emperor when they killed Garosh in his fortress," Adalyen remarked from behind the two leading their small group.

  "Shh," Talithia hushed the wizard turning her head for just a second as they walked. Her feet didn't even stumble as the girl managed to continue walking gracefully along the street. Holdy noted how the elf seemed almost to glide along in her long blue dress. A long warm coat covered the woman's dress as well, but Talithia only wore simple slipper like shoes instead of the warmer boots many wore at this time of year. She was a wizard, but he didn't sense any spells being used to keep her warm either. "Adalyen is horrible at keeping secrets," she told Holdy with a tight smile.

  "Even I have heard those rumors, so I doubt that it is really much of a secret," Holdy replied though he didn't really care if the girl preferred to shame the other wizard in particular. He didn't know these people from before the last hour, so he wasn't overly bonded to any of them anyway. Well, maybe he would stick up for Talithia, but that was simply because she was a very pretty girl and he probably wouldn't be able to stop himself. It was the same for Maya, though Holdy knew the other girl much better.

  "They say that Lanquer killed the wraith with just a sword," Talithia stated looking towards Holdy as she walked. "He is powerful in magic, yet he just used a sword. Could your friend have been that good of a teacher?"

  He shrugged. "Palose is smart, but I never sat in on their training sessions. I only know what I saw of him in the library really. Palose didn't really socialize with us outside of the library, except for Sylvaine and Turless. Everyone thought she and Palose were getting rather romantic with each other, so it wouldn't be surprising if those two were close, I guess."

  This comment made the girl frown. "The resurrection man could fall in love?"

  Again the younger boy shrugged. "It wouldn't surprise me. People make a big deal about resurrection men and Palose in particular, but he didn't seem any different from most people to me. If you didn't know that he had been brought back from the dead, I doubt you would ever figure it out on your own.

  "If he was just like someone brought back from the brink of death by a healer, no one would make a big thing of it; aside from initially congratulating him on surviving and cheating death. Since he was brought back by a necromantic, blood spell everyone makes a big deal about him."

  "There is a history of resurrection men going mad," was her refusal of his logic. "They either killed their masters or their masters seemingly killed them. If this Palose hasn't gone mad, then why is Atrouseon dead?"

  He scoffingly laughed at her summation of the facts. "No one knows that Palose had anything to do with that. In fact, I had heard that Atrouseon had placed a controlling spell on his new apprentice that prevented him from doing any harm to the warlock. Palose never slipped letting anyone think that he was planning to kill Atrouseon at least. Did they ever figure out what happened to him by the way?

  "I mean, if you heard something anyway."

  The girl rolled her eyes at him realizing that he was making fun of her again. "They found his body at the crematorium. An orc was about to dispose of him, but his supervisor caught it before that could happen. Warlocks investigated his body, but couldn't tell where the attack had happened. There was lingering magic on the body and of course it looked like he was stabbed with a knife. His magic had dispersed, though I suppose a necromancer could have revived him as a resurrection man to fix that also," she mused. "Without discovering the actual place he had been killed, there was little more to go on as far as I heard. Palose was exonerated and declared Atrouseon's heir, since the necromancer had no children or close family. He was the last of his family line, which had a history from the first days of the emperor's arrival. Before it too I suppose, but his ancestors joined the empire in its early days on this world anyway."

  They stopped the conversation as the group stopped in front of the door set in the stone wall surrounding the wizard hunters' base. There were two, one on either side of the warlocks' school; but this was where Turless had gone as Holdy had walked with him here.

  Knocking on the door, a guard in the black armor of the hunters opened it in response. An orc, he had no magic, but his special armor was made to absorb most spells. In a fight with one of these soldiers, a wizard would have to figure out a way around the armor's protection if he hoped to survive.

  "We've come to
see Turless at the training ground," Holdy said as the orc questioned their presence.

  "I don' know a turtles," the orc replied mangling the apprentice's words.

  "Not a turtle, you idiot," Talithia said with a shake of her head. "A wizard's apprentice named Turless is here. I need to speak with him."

  "And who're you?" the guard asked without giving any ground to the petite wizard.

  "I am Lady Talithia De'Lytero of the house Lytero. Now open up," the girl finished with an exasperated wave at the door.

  Shaking his head, the orc retorted, "Never heard o' ya."

  Stomping her foot, Talithia wagged a finger under the larger creature's nose and complained, "You're an orc. You probably don't know any of the elven royal houses, so what does it matter? It is important that I speak with this apprentice, so open the door now or I'll have you dealt with severely!"

  Giving the girl a grunt, the orc ignored her order and closed the door in her face. Talithia gave out an aggravated growl of anger and looked ready to attack the door to get to the orc. Whether she would have risked casting a spell or not, Holdy wasn't certain; but after less than a minute the door reopened.

  A human with markings on his armored chest opened the door followed by the orc and three other wizard hunters. "Can I help you, wizards?"

  The man had a weak aura, but Holdy guessed that he could cast spells if he was in the wizard hunters. He could have been just a soldier, but the man had enough power to likely be able to do something more than just use a sword.

  "As I told this orc, I have important business with an apprentice that is training in your facility today. I need to meet with him and this idiot just closed the door in my face!" Talithia complained.

  Holdy questioned the girl's choice of venting her frustration at the orc so blatantly, but the man replied, "It isn't his job to let just anyone inside."

  "I told him that I am a lady in the house of Lytero. That should open any door in the city, thank you very much," Talithia stated emphatically as her hands were placed on her hips. Her lead foot was tapping impatiently as well now.

  "Your family might be important in Ensolus, my lady, but they don't have any power over the wizard hunters. Lord Devolus outranks any of your houses, so throwing your name around doesn't give you any extra privileges here. Now, I can have one of the men go check for this apprentice for you and call him to the gate. Is this apprentice training in magic or the sword?"

  Holdy spoke for the girl saying, "Apprentice Turless was training with Lanquer and Palose, the resurrection man. He was given a chance to train with the hunters to see if he had enough promise to make it into their ranks, I think."

  The boy hated name dropping in such a way, but the hunter, who was likely an officer of some sort he thought, suddenly seemed more interested in the conversation. "He was trained with Lord Lanquer?"

  Holdy had never heard anyone refer to Lanquer as a lord, though few seemed sure if he was a prince or something else since he was a bodyguard to the emperor. He, like the emperor's sister, seemed to come out of nowhere to be claimed by the emperor as his sibling, yet only Princess Acheri had ever been declared a royal person.

  "He trained with Palose before Lanquer and was one of his training partners," Holdy stated hoping that meant this officer was impressed enough to let them inside. He was already beginning to regret having taken the time to come with them. The time he was losing in the library might not be worth the time he was spending with the pretty elf.

  There it was the boy thought. He was being more helpful than he might have been for someone else just because Talithia was very, very pretty, the boy realized.

  The officer was quiet a moment before answering. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to let you in. You might be wizards, but it isn't like we couldn't take you down quick enough even so. It is our mission to destroy Southwall's wizards after all. Ensolus' wizards could be dealt with similarly, so remember that while you are here.

  "I'll do this for you only because I remember him coming through about an hour ago. He's in the east courtyard. I'll have a few men show you the way."

  Holdy was about to turn away when Talithia grabbed his arm snaking hers around his making it look more like a pair of lovers on a walk than a wizard dragging an apprentice. "Not so fast, Holdy. I still need you to help me find him. It isn't like I know Turless personally."

  "You couldn't pick him out from what people have told you?" he teased her again, but her touch was very pleasant even with their jackets separating them.

  "Very funny," the girl replied without appearing particularly amused.

  They walked to a wall with a door in it. After it was opened, Holdy could hear the sounds of swords clashing. There were quite a few men in the next courtyard and he realized that without knowing Turless it might have been harder to spot his friend than he had thought; but a loud yell of the boy's name would have taken care of any problems even so.

  Spotting his friend, Holdy skirted the various fighters who were mostly dueling each other with swords. One man was taking on four nearby in an impressive display, but that was still among the more common things going on here.

  "Turless!" he called out when he thought that moving any closer might be dangerous as the other apprentice and another man were fighting while wearing helmets and some protective padding. They were using metal swords, however, and the apprentice wasn't sure what would happen with a proper cut of the sword.

  The two men stepped back from each other at the call of the boy's name. Removing his helmet, Turless looked at Holdy and asked, "What are you doing here?"

  "Lady Talithia said that she needed to speak to you, so I was asked to bring her to you," the younger apprentice answered uncomfortably. He still wondered how she had convinced him really, though perhaps the answer simply rested on her beautiful face.

  The other man in padding moved closer drawing off his helmet as well and he asked, "Talithia, what are you doing here?"

  "Uncle Thielius, I didn't expect to see you here," the girl remarked with complete surprise. Her wizards were less disrupted by another elf's presence, but the men bowed their heads in respect even so.

  "I have been coming here off and on since last spring. Hearing what Palose and Lord Lanquer were able to do made me rethink how I use my magic. Though I rarely have needed to fight in a battle, it seemed wise to learn more."

  His face glanced to the men behind her and Thielius frowned, "I see that you are still letting Seleyus follow you around."

  Ignoring the last part, though the apprentice mentioned seemed to shrink slightly at the older man's dismissal of his worth without stating it obviously; Talithia replied, "You are studying here? Have you trained with the resurrection man as well? The family has sent me to find out more about this Palose, so I came here to talk to this boy about him."

  Thielius grunted at the idea and said, "I had hoped to train with him as well. Palose has come occasionally to demonstrate his battle mage combat magic, but he has been so busy helping with the war in Litsarin that he comes rarely enough now.

  "If your father wanted to know about the mage, I could have answered at least some of his questions. The boy worked with Atrouseon and my team for awhile. I didn't know him too well, but I knew him enough to at least answer some of his and your questions, Talithia," the elder warlock answered her. "I drafted Turless when I discovered he was coming here. In fact, I helped get him clearance to train here when I heard of his request. He might not be as trained as Palose, but the boy actually knows quite a few things relating to their combat style already."

  "So I did all of this for nothing?" was her sighing complaint.

  Thielius pointed towards Holdy and asked, "Is this your consolation piece?"

  Still holding the boy's hand while ensnaring his arm; Talithia's eyes dropped to their hands before giggling. "I forgot that I still held onto him. I suppose that Holdy might be at least some comfort after traveling from Soleste. It wasn't easy with all the snow outside the cave. I bet that yo
u have forgotten what it is like to be outside after all this time, uncle."

  Thielius looked up at the shadowed ceiling above them. Specially treated paint had begun to glow already creating stars overhead, though the sky outside still had enough light to prevent night's celestial entities from showing in the outer world. It was late afternoon and the eastern side of the cave still received the sun's rays, but the light had already passed to the east of the wizard hunters' barracks.

  "Well, it has been a little while since I have been home. I would like to say that I have gotten used to all of this stone around me, but there are certainly days where I find it oppressive. Even seeing a gray sky masking the sun would feel better, but most of the time I am able to ignore those feelings."

  "A cave city isn't right for elves," Effenore stated without being addressed. "Our people were made for the forests and plains."

  Thielius nodded and replied, "But we serve the emperor where he needs us. Ensolus might not be ideal for me, but I am near my lord and do what I can to serve him."

  A pause preceded Talithia's question following her uncle's proclamation, "And how do you serve him these days, uncle? You say that you worked with Atrouseon and Palose as well, surely that must have been something important to keep you here."

  Laughing off her questions, the warlock replied, "My service has changed as it has been needed. Nothing remains completely stagnant, especially when dealing with human and orc lifetimes as often as we do.

  "As to my time spent now, I have been researching this combat magic while working with our wizard hunters. It is a very interesting study. I can perhaps teach you or your men what I can. Sending you with notes might be pretty useless I am afraid. It is something best experienced truly."

  Talithia wasn't so easily put off and started to ask a new question, "Rumor has it that someone broke out of the emperor's dungeon recently..."

  Waving her off, Thielius interrupted her before she could propose her worries. "I am sure that the rumors must be mistaken. Who could break out of the emperor's spire or break in to free someone if that is the more absurd version of that rumor? Ensolus has been impenetrable from the day that the double wall and towers were raised. Our guards watch over all comings and goings as you must know, and our armies push our enemies back behind their walls and rivers. The empire's power is unmatched in the Dark Mountains for sure and the nomads bow to us in the south."