Proven

by H. M. Clarke

  Dagan nodded. “Ashe may not be strong enough to stop a spell outright, but he should be able to throw off its effects quick smart. I would have to test him myself to be sure though.”

  “I would like to see you do that!” Ryn said with a grin. And then she realized that she now felt better. What was left of the terror and fear was swept away from her body and Ryn looked up with startled amazement at Dagan. He had distracted her with that Jdari stuff on purpose. She opened herself up to the Link but still found it shut off. His anger was still there, though not as strong as it was. Ryn gave him a thin-lipped smile.

  “Now that you are here, what should we do now?”

  “What should we do now? First, I want to hear what that bastard has to say from his own lips. Then he will be placed in custody by the Blackwatch and then held under close watch until he can be taken to the Tribunal in Kaldor. If this man really is capable of mind control and he is unregistered…”

  Dagan then reached out and placed a warm hand firmly on her shoulder. “I am glad you’re alright. Now, let’s clean this mess up, get this mage to show us on a map exactly where Lily has been taken and then we go get her and the others.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Damn the woman. I leave her alone for five minutes and she nearly goes and gets herself killed. If Vannik hadn’t been here…

  This one thought kept circling around in Dagan’s shut off mind. This thought was one he did not want Kathryn feeling. He watched Kathryn as she turned and walked back into the room, watched as she disappeared from view. He then felt eyes upon him.

  Vannik’s ice blue eyes were staring at him. Hard.

  “Are you alright Dagan?”

  The question surprised him and it must have shown on his face as Vannik continued though in a more offhand fashion.

  “She’s fine. I think it would take more than a Menfau mage to take her down. You need to give her some credit. I heard her ask the blonde one for help, and when he and the dispel acted, she was on the Menfau and questioning him quicker than any skilled Magister.”

  “I’m not training her to be a Magister, Vannik.” Dagan scowled back at the doorway again.

  “I didn’t say you were.”

  “What is Bron doing?” Dagan asked to pull the conversation away from Kathryn. That was not a subject he wanted to discuss with Vannik or anyone.

  “He’s downstairs paying the establishment to look the other way and to cover the cost of a new door. He’s going to want you to pay him back. Just warning you.”

  Dagan grinned. “I’ll put in a req to the Tribunal to reimburse him. He might get his money in a year or so.”

  “Yeah. I gathered as much.”

  “Would you both mind giving me a hand getting him back to the keep for questioning?” Dagan asked nodding his head in the direction of the room. “I want to have someone with experience to help back up these new Constables.”

  “Sure, though Bron will want your word that this work will go towards his sentence remission.”

  “That’s a given Vannik. What about you? Don’t you want the same assurance?”

  The big man shrugged. “It’s no skin off my nose if you do or don’t. A rogue Menfau is a bad thing to have, it’s my duty as a citizen to help.”

  Dagan nodded. It was the response he had expected. Even with his background, the man always had a good code of ethics. His eyes then slipped again to the doorway and his thoughts were drawn back to Kathryn.

  The Link. His experience with it was not what he expected. Sure, he had read about it, seen it firsthand among the Blackwatch he knew, but knowing about it is not the same as experiencing it yourself. The raw unguarded emotion, the sheer crippling agony as his gut clenched as the first wave of fear and terror hit him… his stomach still hurt. And Kathryn just seemed to shake off the feeling like it was rain, even as he watched. Maybe it was her years of recruit training that helped her get over it that quickly. Maybe. Either way, he could not let Kathryn know about his overreaction to her emotions over the Link. He did not want to be diminished in her eyes.

  With that final thought, Dagan walked into the room.

  ∞∞∞

  By Bellus this man is young.

  But age is no excuse for what this Menfau did. Dagan thought he had a handle on his anger, but he found upon seeing the source of Kathryn’s fear, his simmering rage boiled up and threatened to explode. He stopped just inside the doorway and it was only his intense will that kept the anger in check and stopped it from outwardly showing. He felt rather than saw Kathryn glance his way.

  Once Dagan felt confident enough that he had regained control of himself he came into the room to stand next to Kathryn. The other three Blackwatch ringed the kneeling man, daggers drawn and not letting him move an inch.

  “Dagan… he knows where Lily is.” Banar’s voice broke the silence of this strange tableau.

  “So Kathryn told me.” Dagan stepped forward and dropped to one knee in front of the prisoner so that he could see him eye to eye. The man, Janin, looked at him and Dagan watched his eyes slide over him, noting the staff and the lack of a Blackwatch uniform.

  “Do you know who I am?” He finally asked.

  The man shook his head.

  “He is your worst nightmare Mage,” Banar sneered.

  “That’s not strictly true. Being taken by the Aequitas Tribunal to go before the Seat of Judgment would a magi’s worst nightmare.” Dagan kept his voice soft and even. “I am Magister Dagan Drake and what do I find hiding out in a city brothel but an unregistered mage, and a Menfau at that. There is a reason that mind control magic is a strictly regulated magic. It can cause a bit of a mess when it gets mixed with politics and profit. The Tribunal knows the location of all registered practitioners and there is not one recorded as being in Brookhaven.”

  “You’re a Magister?” Janin’s voice came out as a croak.

  Dagan nodded. “Yes. You are going to be taken into custody by the Blackwatch. You will have an Inhibitor placed on you and then you will be taken to the Tribunal in Kaldor to face Judgment. You are an unregistered Menfau mage who has used their Talent to try to kill members of the Blackwatch; they are not going to be all that gentle with you. Now, the severity of that Judgment can be mitigated if you can help me with a few answers to some questions I have.”

  The man’s now terrified eyes darted around the room, searching for any means of help. “Questions?”

  Dagan tried not to smile.

  Magisters have a fearsome reputation, mainly because most rogue mages do not want to come in quietly and end up coming before the tribunal in a body cart. And a Magister always gets their Mark, as the common saying goes. In reality, this is not always the case, but Dagan is not going to let that slip. This boy was willing to take the life of innocent people, of Kathryn, and had no qualms about doing so.

  The thought of Kathryn and her terror caused the anger to begin to build up again and Dagan clenched his hands into tight fists in an effort to control it. The boy saw this and flinched, obviously expecting Dagan to hit him. Good, the boy needs to feel and understand what fear really is for himself.

  “You answer my questions truthfully and you need have no worry about me. Answer me with lies and that will be a different matter. Now, tell me where Lily and the others were taken.”

  “I told her,” Janin pointed a shaking finger at Kathryn.

  “Yes, but you haven’t told me,” Dagan replied, his voice deep and low. Janin’s eyes jerked back to his and Dagan’s golden stare drilled into them, holding them.

  Janin swallowed. Dagan could see his throat working to try to push the gulp down. “They were taken last night to a farmhouse just off of the Kaldor road.” The words sounded like they had been choked out of him, but once the stream started, the words began to flood out of him. “When they came last night, they said that there was a Magister up at the keep and they were worried that the Tribunal may have heard rumors and sent someone to investigate. So they decided to take th
e three recruits and try to cover their evidence.”

  “What do you mean by ‘cover their evidence’?” Banar snapped from behind the man, making him jump but his eyes did not move from Dagan’s.

  “I don’t know. I assumed a memory wipe.” Janin’s voice sounded weak, even he seemed not to believe his words.

  Dagan had heard these weak excuses many a time before. The lies people tell themselves to make them feel better. The lies that over time they may end up believing.

  “It would take more than a memory wipe to allay my suspicions boy. You knew in your heart what was planned for them and yet you still let them go. Now you’d better hope that we are not too late to save them.”

  Dagan rose to his feet just as the sounds of boot heels on the stair echoed in from the corridor.

  “It’s Bron and some Blackwatch,” Vannik said from his position in the hallway.

  “Good, it looks like those constables from the Keep have finally caught up to me.” Dagan turned back to Janin. “Now boy, I am going to cast an inhibitor on you and then you will be taken to the keep to be held by the Blackwatch until my return.”

  At the mention of the inhibitor, Janin jerked away from him and tried to get to his feet. Banar was on him in an instant and pushed him back down to his knees.

  “Donal, you and Vannik may want to wait for us at the head of the stairs. You may not like the feel of this spell while I’m casting it. Send those Blackwatch in when I call for you. Once this is done and they have him safely in custody, then we will all go take a look at this farmhouse.”

  ∞∞∞

  Ryn opted to wait outside with Donal and Vannik, not wanting to witness Dagan’s ‘talk’ with Janin about the farms whereabouts or see the fresh reaction of a mage when an inhibitor is cast upon them. The way Dagan talked, it did not seem pleasant.

  She still could feel the memory of Dagan’s anger, and fear, in the back of her mind. It sat there like a fresh scar across their Link. Now his end was shut down, he learnt how to do that rather quickly for someone who hadn’t been trained.

  “Are you both all right?” Vannik asked them after a moment of uncomfortable silence. The door to Janin’s room had been closed behind them blocking out the only source of sound on this upper level.

  Ryn nodded, but Donal answered.

  “Yes, though I’m still a little shaky. I still can’t believe how easily he did that. Snuck into our minds and was able to…” Donal’s voice trailed away as the weight of his thoughts overwhelmed him.

  Ryn then remembered something that Vannik had said earlier. “Vannik, how did you know what was going on in that room? You were playing cards downstairs, you couldn’t see anything.”

  Even under the thick silver moustache, she could see his grim smile. “In my line of business, it pays to set wards and alarms about you wherever you go. You’re just lucky that Bron had come up this way to visit his…. friend, otherwise you might all be dead.”

  “Thank you, Vannik,” Ryn said quietly. She hated owing her life to someone else because of her own foolhardiness. She would ensure that it would not happen again.

  “Thank you Vannik,” Donal repeated Ryn’s words and, giving Vannik a small smile he reached up and clasped the big man’s arm. Vannik returned Donal’s smile before abruptly turning red and turning quickly away.

  “Come, let us wait downstairs in some of those comfy armchairs instead of standing around at the head of the stairs. I’ll get you a drink to help settle you.” Vannik barely waited for their nod of consent before heading down the stairs.

  Ryn lifted a querying eyebrow at Donal who gave a shrug in response and followed the big man quickly down the stairs. She glanced back once more at the closed door before following the others to wait downstairs.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Ryn lay flat on her stomach against the crest of the ridge, staring down at the farmhouse and a barn, beside her Ashe was doing the same. The rest of the group was down in the valley behind them hidden within a small copse of trees securing their horses.

  “Can you see anything down there Ashe?”

  “No, nothing. Not even a chicken.”

  “A little odd for a farm house don’t you think? To not have chickens and at least one dog roaming around the barnyard?”

  “I guess that means we have found the right farmhouse then.”

  Ashe nodded, but did not take his eyes from the buildings below. “We’ll have to keep an eye on Banar. The longer he goes without his Link with Lily, the more erratic he gets.”

  “Can you blame him Ashe? What would you do if something happened to Donal? If Banar were me, I would be down by that house right now kicking the door in.”

  That comment caught Ashe’s attention, and he turned to look at her. “You would be that frantic for Dagan?”

  “Look at how quickly he rushed to The Wicked Woman when he thought I was in danger when three days beforehand he probably wouldn’t have bat an eyelid at it. The Pairing creates a bond, our instructors warned us about it, but it’s not the same as feeling it. And Dagan didn’t have the training we had.”

  “I would rush into that building for you Ryn.”

  Ryn jerked around to stare at him. Ashe’s voice was quiet and heartfelt and she was caught off guard by the comment. Luckily the sounds of movement behind them stalled any further conversation.

  Both warriors looked back over their shoulders to see Dagan and the others moving low to the ground up towards them. At the foot of the rise stood Vannik dressed only in his breeches. Ryn threw a horrified look at Dagan who just grinned back.

  “See anything?” Dagan asked as he took the position to her right.

  “Apart from a near naked Vannik? No, and as Ashe pointed out, they are not even making any pretense that this is a working farm.”

  “It does look pretty deserted doesn’t it,” Bron said with a smirk as he settled next to Dagan. Ryn noted that he had a leather bag tied to his back. He also had a protective cloth cover secured over his beard and held in place by loops around his ears.

  “So there is no excuse for us to ‘horse’ around,” Donal added as he took a position to Ashe’s left with Banar settling in beside him.

  “But there are no hors- oh!”

  Ryn turned her sharp gaze on Dagan who nodded at the realization he saw in her eyes.

  “Vannik is going down to see if he can draw anyone out. A stray horse won’t startle them and may even draw someone out to try to catch him,” Bron said.

  “Or some bored Mage will use him for target practice,” Banar said as he inched himself as close to the edge as he dared and looked down at the farmhouse.

  “And there is the Banar we all know and love,” Donal said as he shared his mirth with Ashe.

  “Let’s focus on the task at hand, shall we? Let’s not forget why we are here.” Dagan’s voice did not raise one octave higher, but it didn’t have to, to stop the two Blackwatch from playing around. “We need to watch Vannik’s back while he’s down there.”

  “Yes Dagan,” both Donal and Ashe responded sheepishly.

  After one stern look at them both, Dagan looked over his shoulder down the slope to Vannik and gave him the signal to begin.

  Ryn couldn’t help but watch as Vannik, now standing with his back to them, abruptly began to shimmer and blur and before she even realized what was going on, he was off and running as the gray plough horse. She turned her attention back to the farm and waited for Vannik to appear down below.

  “We need to all be careful when we go down there. There is no telling what unstable spells and charms this many unregistered mages will cast.”

  The group just nodded agreement to Dagan as Vannik came into view below. The horse walked through the open yard gate and stood a moment, flicking his gray ears back and forth. Snorting and shaking his head, Vannik seemingly satisfied that he was alone walked slowly towards the barn. Nothing else moved. Ryn watched as Vannik stopped to wuft at a tuft of grass and then his head shot up and he ga
ve a nervous whinny. An answering whinny came from inside the barn.

  “It looks like someone’s at home. But where?”

  Vannik trotted towards the barn where the whinny was heard. Beside her, Ryn felt Dagan tense up, and that was when they saw the first sign of movement. The door to the barn started to open as Vannik approached and was then just as quickly closed. Vannik slowed to a stop and stood staring at the door, ears pricked forward as if listening to something. Ryn risked a glance at Dagan and saw him intently watching the scene below.

  The door opened again, and this time a hand appeared, holding a wisp of hay. Vannik stood staring at it a moment before nickering and heading towards it.

  “He’s good,” Donal said appreciatively.

  “He’s had years of practice. After all, what better way to hide a mage?” Bron answered.

  Ryn felt rather than saw Dagan frown, but he said nothing in response to Bron’s dig at the Tribunal’s lack of skill.

  Vannik stopped just a head length away from the proffered hay and flicked his ears back and forth twice.

  “He sees only two in the barn. Which means that at the moment they are both occupied with looking at him. Let’s approach from the other side and see if we can take them by surprise.” Dagan said.

  The group crawled away from the top of the ridge and then quickly made their way around to the rear of the barn through an old field that had long gone to weed. Ryn could see that the field must once have held wheat from the sparse smatterings of it among the tall grasses. The fence separating the field from the barn had all but rotted away to hollow wood and a section of the wood was easily broken to let them move quietly to the rear of the barn.

  “Okay, what now?” Donal asked as they all sank to a crouch.

  “We wait,” was Dagan’s reply. Bron gave a low chuckle.