White Hall (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 10) by Donald Wigboldy Read Free Book Online Page A

lock on the dog’s mind, which looked at the two humans before it in confusion for just a moment.
    The boy noticed his hand had helped stop her fall, but his aim hadn’t been where he intended. Palm against the girl’s rear end, both looked at each other in surprise. Blushing, as Iris managed to finish sitting beside Piotr as he moved his hand; the two looked away from each other a moment before Iris asked, “Was that you?”
    Understanding her half asked question, Piotr shrugged and said, “I don’t know how useful it is, but I can ride in an animal’s mind and see from its eyes. So far I haven’t found an animal that I can’t control, though I usually just let them go wherever they want.”
    The dog moved to sit before Piotr without coaxing to receive a rub of its head. While he played with its ears, the boy added, “Sometimes with the lazy ones like this guy, I need to do more urging; but you’re still a good boy, huh?”
    Wagging its tail as if in reply; Iris looked on in surprise.
    “That’s remarkable. I know of some nature wizards that try to work with animals. I’ve rarely seen someone with this much control, especially for an untrained wizard. You are a natural and you would be surprised with just how useful that power can be.”
    Glad that she wasn’t mad about being pulled by the dog, or by his errant placement of his hand; Piotr asked, “How useful can it be? I can make a rabbit stay away from the garden, or a dog make you sit; which I suppose is a little ironic, but useful?”
    The girl laughed thinking of a dog making a human sit, but she quickly answered, “No, it can be great. You say that you can see through their eyes and even control their movements?” At his nod, she continued, “You could use a bird to scout the air or a dog to attack for you while you are safely in a different place. Maybe you can even infiltrate a building with say a mouse?
    “Air wizards use the wind to send their minds out to scout for an enemy, but you can do the same thing with animals!”
    As they talked, more wizards walked towards the inn. Scooting over to avoid being in the way. Piotr and Iris watched as two very pretty blonde haired girls followed by two men, one of which was a giant compared to the rest of them, glanced to them and walked through the doorway into the dining area beyond it.
    The auras were mixed for three out of the four of them including another battle mage like the one inside. One of the girls had an aura of magic that felt similar to the other two wizards working the search team he thought. It wasn’t a certainty with the girl, but it was definitely the least muddled of the four.
    “Were those the other team members you’re working with here?” the boy asked as they disappeared inside.
    “The tournament ended not too long ago. Maybe they are wizards returning home, but they aren’t from my team.”
    Standing up from the step, Piotr offered the apprentice a hand up and missed her blush as his eyes looked to the closer door. “I guess that everyone is returning for dinner then. Maybe we should see if Qeyr has saved a table for us.”
    “Pfft,” the girl responded before catching herself. She wasn’t supposed to put down her mentor after all, though doing something like that was a rarity for Qeyr. He preferred drinking and remaining apart from the others. His aloof attitude made it easy for the other wizards to ignore him, but the girl had to deal with him more as his apprentice. “We’ll most likely need to save a table for the others. I don’t think Qeyr will have left the bar yet.”
    Grabbing the boy’s hand spontaneously, the red head managed to not blush as she reached for the door handle as well to go inside.
 
    Like most large inns of the towns of Southwall, the Traveler’s Rest was a center of the community. Though there were a few other taverns and smaller inns in town, it was where much of the nearby townsfolk went for music and dancing. Such a community helped