White Hall (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 10) (10 page)

“I see you,” his mouth said even as the bird’s beak moved in time to his lips. It made only three calm squawks as it couldn’t speak as a human, since it was just a bird after all.

Lifting a way with a rapid thrust of wings, the bird moved clear of the trees as Piotr released the creature completely. It had held most of its consciousness in the shared link, so as the boy’s mind returned to his body; it wasn’t confused and simply flew back to its hiding place on its branch. Knowing that it was there, the others could see the bird though its coloring did well to hide it even on the dormant tree.

As his head lifted to look over at the others, Piotr smiled. His eyes went to Job asking the boy without words.

“Nothing as cool as that,” he said with a shake of his head. Placing his hand over the ground while the other held the remains of his sandwich, Job closed his eyes and lifted mirrored by the ground beneath his hand. Like a shadow to his hand, the area beneath his palm echoed the lifting for five inches before it stopped. The boy’s forehead wrinkled as he tried to pull it further into the air, but that was all his untrained power could accomplish for now.

Piotr judged the other two could become as strong as Iris and most of the other wizards. He didn’t know his own strength, but knew that Katya was more powerful yet. That girl seemed nice enough, but her magic threatened to break away from her as it had on Falther, he thought. Even unskilled in seeing auras, Piotr was pretty sure of his assessments of the others.

“I can fly on the winds,” Iris stated as she moved to sit beside Piotr once more still looking impressed by his display. For someone untrained to have such skill without becoming a wilder type was very remarkable, the girl thought. “You can see from the bird’s eyes, correct?”

He nodded.

“Then you can scout as well as an air wizard on their winds. The only problem with your magic as a scout is if someone guesses that you are using a bird, it isn’t invisible to an enemy’s sight. Of course, there are other creatures that you might use also, so maybe others could be used to be more secretive."

“You mean like that snake behind you?” he asked pointing directly behind the girl making her jump up with a scream.

Raising his hands before him as the girl looked at him angrily seeing no snake, he laughed, “I’m just kidding. It’s still too cold to even use one of them anyway, even if there was one that I could find to control.”

Slapping his shoulder and still looking red at being tricked by the boy, she complained, “That wasn’t very nice. I hope that you aren’t one of those prankster types. You better not be like the boy they said let lose a plague of frogs in the ladies bathhouse.”

Iris suddenly closed her eyes and shook her head ordering, “I am the worst mentor ever. Forget that I said such a thing, especially if you are that good of a nature wizard.”

Job on the other hand had a wicked look in his eyes as he asked, “Can you teach me that trick? Can you imagine sneaking into there as a mouse or something equally small? It would be quite the view, wouldn’t it?” the boy finished with a laugh as both girls looked mortified.

“Don’t you dare!” Iris warned in shock.

Surprised by Job’s sudden burst of humor and coming out of his shell, Piotr couldn’t help laughing with him. He had a feeling getting away with such a piece of magic in a school for wizards and battle mages was less likely than the boy hoped, but it was good to see him exiting his cocoon of silence. Now if only he could soften his brother’s demeanor, maybe the day would end fulfilled.

Niklaus still couldn’t believe his bad luck. His brother was supposed to be the one being taken to White Hall, not him, at least not both of them. Barely sleeping the night before, he had been glad when his father put off returning to Delanne to take care of Cheese and her calf first. If they waited long enough, maybe the wizards would get tired of waiting and leave without him.

Such a wish was not to be, however, as he saw Piotr and the others simply waiting for him on the main street of Delanne. Seeing them still waiting for him, had been a disappointment. He hadn’t wanted to talk to his brother after that. He hadn’t wanted to speak to any of them as Niklaus was forced to leave his life and home.

Working the farm, playing in the fields and forests with his brother, and spending time with the other kids in town had been his life. He had always planned to see the world, but not as some soldier owned by Southwall. His future might have been as a farmer with his brother, Owden; but everyone had known that Piotr would be called away by the state as a wizard. Even when they were younger, he had felt a strange difference to his twin. No one else seemed to notice, but they were twins and seemed to know the other’s mind.

Watching Piotr show off at lunch, just made him feel more like they had to be wrong about him. He wasn’t like the other three or any of the wizards leading them either. When one of the wizards in red walked over to him where he stood with his horse watching the others from a distance, Niklaus was surprised.

“Feeling left out?” the blond haired young man asked. He was definitely older than Nik or his brother, but maybe not so old that the young teen would think he was ancient like the much older air wizard, Qeyr.

“I’m still not even sure why I am here. My brother has the power, not me,” he complained wanting to be angry, but not sure where it should be aimed. It was his body that had betrayed him to the point that he had magic to be harvested, but to be just a battle mage was almost humiliating.

“I am Magnus by the way and you are?”

“Niklaus, and that is my brother Piotr.”

“I haven’t heard of many twins coming to the school. Admittedly I am not one from the search teams, so I don’t see much of this side of being called. I can only go by what I remember.

“From what I can see, your twin has the lion’s share of the magic. Still, don’t be too disappointed. You have magical strength enough to be something yourself.”

Not knowing what a lion was, the boy still understood the point. “But I will only be a battle mage. They’re more like soldiers than wizards. What good is that?”

“No good with that attitude,” the wizard laughed almost mocking him. “I once thought the same and only recently came to understand how powerful a battle mage can be.”

Lowering his voice, he asked, “Did you know that I won the Winter’s Edge wizards’ dueling tournament?”

Niklaus wasn’t quite as impressed as Magnus had hoped having never seen such a thing.

“Well, I had to go through a tournament involving over two hundred wizards and a single battle mage. As good as I am, would you believe that I won because I went to learn how to cast like a battle mage?”

Shaking his head, the boy asked, “Why would you do that?”

“Times are changing. The battle mage who entered the tournament is someone I know quite well. I really hoped to fight him in the tournament, but if I had I might not be a champion.”

“But you are a wizard,” Niklaus replied shaking his head unable to comprehend the idea.

Sighing as if he was releasing a major weight from his back, the fire wizard straightened and kept his voice low as he said, “I won that tournament because I could cast as fast as a battle mage and do you have any idea why I learned to be more like a battle mage?”

The boy shook his head.

“Watch,” Magnus said and began to wiggle his fingers muttering something unintelligible to Nik’s ears. In a moment a fireball erupted above the fire wizard’s hand causing the boy to back off a step.

“Now watch this. Fireball!” he said the single word and a second fireball lifted over his left hand in an instant.

Closing his right hand, Magnus asked, “Which way would you rather be able to call a fireball in a fight?”

Forehead wrinkling at the obvious answer to the question, the boy still replied like it was a question, “The second one?”

Nodding, Magnus stated, “Fire wizards still use the first kind of spell for the most part. The second way is a battle mage spell. It is simple, direct and a powerful spell is it not?”

At the boy’s nod, Magnus pointed with his right hand to the fireball and ordered, “Focus on the fire and concentrate making one of your own.”

“I can’t. I don’t know anything about magic. I can’t make that."

Sighing and looking a bit angry with the boy’s inability to follow his instructions, Magnus ordered, “Do as I say. You don’t need to know anything about magic. Look at your brother and that other boy who made the ground move.

“They have no training, but like you they don’t need to. You don’t need to know magic. You are magic. Your mind and will make it happen.

“Wizards think all the words and gestures make magic happen, but it is just your will to make things happen that is truly needed. Now focus on the fire and think of it above your hand, and then just will it to happen, Niklaus. Now say it, fireball!”

Feeling the heat of the wizard’s fire in front of him, Niklaus tried to imagine the same above his hand. “Fireball!”

Wanting it to happen, Niklaus nearly leapt out of his boots as a weaker version of the wizard’s flame suddenly appeared like a wick catching fire. He was so surprised to see it, that he lost his concentration letting it wink out of existence before ever strengthening like the wizard’s spell.

“Next time don’t lose your focus. Next time, you might even try throwing it at a target, but make sure to only work on it near one of the wizards. If you start a fire in these brown grasses, the flame might not stop until it hits snow,” he chuckled.

“I did it?” Nik questioned almost trying to decide if it wasn’t just a trick of the wizard’s.

Looking at him as if the boy’s question was idiotic, Magnus asked, “Did you hear me make it? You’re going to be a battle mage, Niklaus. Few mages probably get that the first time, so like your brother; I expect to see great things from you.”

Magnus walked away to rejoin his wizards leaving Niklaus to try and digest what he had just done.

He concentrated a moment and tried to recreate the fireball over his hand again. As it was called to life even easier than the first try, the boy realized that it had been no mistake that he had been called.

The afternoon’s ride left him quiet again, but not because he was angry to be giving up his life. Instead, he was just beginning to see what his life might truly become. Wielding magic like the fireball was intoxicating and he still knew virtually nothing of this new world.

Magnus said that he expected greatness from him. His brother was a natural wizard, but the magic had come to him easily after the wizard’s demonstration. He wondered what other magic he could learn. Perhaps one day he could be as powerful as his brother even.

His thoughts finally made the boy drop back to visit Piotr. The redheaded apprentice was beside him and Nik wondered why an older girl would be so interested in his little brother. She was fairly attractive, though not his type, and wondered if Piotr thought she was pretty. Having never talked about girls in that way, he had no idea; but that wasn’t the point of talking with his twin anyway.

“You look a little happier,” Piotr said first. He had seen the fire wizard speak with Niklaus and had watched as his brother created a fireball, even if it was only momentarily.

“Well, talking to Magnus made me feel better. At least now I can see why they would draft me for the school.”

Holding his hand like the fire wizard had shown him, he ordered, “Fireball.”

The flame held above his hand for several seconds. It wasn’t large, but then again Niklaus hadn’t meant it to be.

“Very impressive,” Piotr said with a smile for his effort.

“You two are twins,” Iris interrupted with an obvious statement. Continuing, the apprentice elaborated, “I don’t know any twins in White Hall. It is possible that you both have the gift because you came from the same birth.”

Wondering aloud at her statement, Piotr asked, “I wonder if he would be able to do nature magic like me?”

The girl shrugged. “It is possible, though he could be as different from you as your personalities are from each other. Are you two very similar, do you think?”

Thinking on it only a moment, it was Niklaus who said, “We are a bit different. Piotr usually hangs back, especially when we go into town. I’ve tried to get him to join me with my friends there, but he tends to like being alone.”

“I don’t like being alone,” his twin said shaking his head, “but it was easier that way, I guess. I just never really fit in, unlike you.”

Turning to look at Iris, Piotr added, “Nik practically enters the room and draws attention to himself. He has a lot of friends and gets along with everyone, but I’ve always felt too different from the others.”

With a sigh, Niklaus countered, “You just prefer running around the forest and fields. I didn’t mind coming with you, but I like Delanne also. You never really did.”

Piotr didn’t even argue that point and simply nodded.

“Well, then I guess you can expect to be different in your magic too, but you never know. Many wizards learn other magic from other schools when they are novices. By the time you make apprentice, you will probably just choose one school to become an expert; but some wizards like more than just one. Those tend to become high wizards using anywhere from two to sometimes all eight schools.

“Or is it just seven? I still don’t know if researchers count as a school, since they tend to research other magic from the seven others. Anyway,” she said with a shrug, “unlike wizards, battle mages don’t really get stuck in a certain elemental school. They train to become swordsmen or other kinds of weapons’ experts and then use their magic to make them more powerful.”

Niklaus looked at Iris on the other side of his brother and said, “Magnus seems to think battle mages are pretty powerful as well.”

The girl looked thoughtful a moment. “I was still at White Hall this winter when they began preparing for Winter’s Edge. Every wizard seemed to be trying out for it at White Hall and Magnus was unbeaten by the wizards there.

“Someone told me that a team from Windmeer stopped by on the way to the tournament and Magnus challenged a battle mage to a duel. They went to the battle mage grounds so that they wouldn’t be seen by the other wizards, supposedly because both Magnus and the battle mage didn’t want anyone else to see their skills in use.”

“And Magnus probably beat him,” Niklaus said looking a little deflated with the thought. Magnus had said that he learned to cast like a battle mage to increase his casting speed. Even if the mage was an expert at casting magic, if Magnus was just as fast it was obvious that the wizard should win.

To his surprise, Iris shook her head leaning closer to Piotr and Niklaus. “That’s the thing. Everyone who saw the match said that the battle mage overwhelmed Magnus in that duel and nearly destroyed the yard with a tornado of fire that Magnus couldn’t stop. They say he ran from the tornado since the battle mage could barely control it, but the mage won.”

Niklaus frowned and looked at the fire wizard. As if he felt those eyes, Magnus turned to look back and gave him a nod with a smile.

“But he’s the champion of the Winter’s Edge tournament, right? And the battle mage was in it, so he must have lost.”

“I've read the tournament results,” Iris said still keeping her voice lowered to avoid being noticed by the full wizards ahead of them. “Officially, the battle mage did finish in fourth place, which is amazing in itself. He had to beat seven or eight wizards to get to that point. On the tournament record, he even won a four way match against three other wizards at once.”

“Magnus did too,” Niklaus replied. The fourth place win in such a big tournament was certainly impressive, but he must have lost.

Iris continued as she nodded at his assessment, “He did, but the battle mage pulled out of the tournament after getting sick. He never lost a match and the only person who could say that is Magnus.”

The information was shocking to the boys. A wizard was supposed to be far above a battle mage in strength and yet someone, who was just a battle mage, had gone undefeated in a wizards’ tournament.

The girl added, “That battle mage has been creating new spells for your kind of caster by the way. Some of his new magic is already being taught in the school and not just to battle mages but to some of the wizards as well.”

Niklaus didn’t know what to say about that, but perhaps it was a good time to be learning how to become a battle mage after all.

Chapter 6- The Girl's Secret

“Now they are pretty,” Niklaus said looking at the two pretty blond haired girls sitting with a giant and a battle mage that was more their size.

Job nodded with a content looking smile as the three boys sat at a table by themselves for a moment.

Qeyr and Iris had talked to Katya to discuss sharing a room with the girls. The other girl’s name was unknown to Piotr yet, but the girl had declined at first. With a little begging from her new friend, Cheleya had given in while her brother chose to keep his own room still.

“I know the younger one is Katya,” Piotr stated looking at the two girls. While he agreed they were pretty, they weren’t the most interesting of the girls traveling to White Hall. He didn’t bother to tell his brother and new friend about liking Iris, but did warn them, “You need to be careful with Katya though. I watched her use her magic to stun a diplomat apprentice last night. They say her guardian is Darius and he is a powerful wizard using a spell to keep her magic from slipping out.”

Frowning at his brother in confusion, Niklaus asked, “What do you mean she stunned him?”

“I guess he tried to use his magic on her and she shrugged off the apprentice’s spell. Then she told him to stop and her words magically made him stop. He was stunned and unresponsive for about an hour afterwards.

“Then Darius came over and apparently reset the control on her magic.

“She’s nice, but powerful; so be careful around her.”

While Job looked fearful and ready to stay away from the girl, Niklaus stood answering his brother, “Well, if the worst she is going to do is stun me, then I think I can take that chance. If she leaves me a vegetable, be a good brother and put me to bed?” he finished chuckling at Piotr.

It wasn’t unusual for Niklaus to be recklessly brave. He was the kind of boy that would take a dare without much urging.

“Don’t say that I didn’t warn you if it goes badly,” the other twin said with a nod.

Walking over to the table holding the four, Niklaus felt the glare of the giant as he neared their table. Thinking the big brother overly protective of his sister, who didn’t look anything like him; the boy spoke to Katya as he walked up.

“Hello, there, my brother said that you all are going to White Hall too? I’m Niklaus and I guess that I am going to be a battle mage soon.”

Surprisingly Katya smiled at him and said, “My brother’s a battle mage too.”

Thinking his brother had forgotten to tell him that piece of information, he was glad to have found a soft spot in the girl for battle mages. “Really? Is he a trainee or something?”

As the girls and battle mage all found something funny in his question and laughed, Niklaus looked confused until Katya replied, “He is a falcon, though maybe it is an owl now. Ardost, have they decided what to call my brother yet?”

The mage shrugged and replied as he looked at the boy trying to understand their humor, “They called him mizard at first since he’s learning the wizards’ magic and making it into battle mage spells; but then someone thought to call him an owl. That seems to be the one to stick, but it isn’t really official, so for now he is actually a falcon.”

Katya tried to clarify for Niklaus, “My brother, Sebastian, is the battle mage who fought in the wizards’ tournament.”

The other blond girl spoke to him drawing his attention away from Katya and nearly his breath as well. As pretty as the first girl was, the second seemed even more attractive. A scent was in the air and it was remarkable as well, since it seemed to be coming from her. “Her brother is an amazing caster and not just as a battle mage. He learned powerful magic from other wizards in the duels and even turned those spells against their creators defeating them at their own game.

“He was very impressive and I just wish I had been able to meet him.”

“Magnus said that I shouldn’t feel bad to be a battle mage, even though my brother is going to be a wizard,” he replied amazed that Katya was the sister of the one Magnus had told him about.

Cheleya replied, “Why would you? I have met several battle mages and they are some of my favorite people. They fight the same things as wizards do and they’re the ones who put themselves in front of wizards to protect them from harm.”

Katya started all of a sudden and said to the girl, “Oh, Cheleya, if we are going to get changed for dancing tonight, we should probably go upstairs and move your bags to my room.”

Standing to go, Katya smiled at the boy apologetically and said, “I’m sorry. The girls in your group asked to share a large room with us and I didn’t want to say no. We’ll be back in a little while though, if you’re worried about missing us.”

The last was certainly a tease as the younger girl pulled on Cheleya’s hand to hurry. They were both petite, pretty young women, Niklaus thought as he enjoyed watching them hurry towards the stairs.

Ardost smiled at the boy and said, “I personally don’t mind being a battle mage. Sebastian has been discovering more spells for us to use. At the rate he is going, we will be able to do everything wizards can do. We just cast our magic more efficiently.”

“That is good to know,” Niklaus replied with nothing better coming to mind. The giant still looked grumpy, so the boy retreated to his brother and new friend.

Returning to the table, he sat down with a smile. “I’m still alive, though that big brother looks ready to kill me for some reason.”

“He always looks that way,” Piotr stated glancing at the other table and seeing pretty much the same expression as normal on the big man.

“They’re going up to their room, and going to move Cheleya’s stuff to a room all the girls are going to share,” Nik stated looking thoughtfully at his brother. “You know it would be nice if I knew someone who could figure out which is their room without getting caught.”