by Eric Vall
“Infinitely,” I agreed. “Thank you.”
Shoshanne’s warm brown eyes glinted up at me, and she sent me a sultry wink before she turned to join the other women.
Deya was finishing tying her hair in a long pink braid down her back, and she peeled her thigh-high boots from her slender legs next.
“Ruela is antsy after all this time travelling,” the elf explained. “She gets very anxious when she’s adjusting to new surroundings. I’m going to run with her for a little while before I bring her around more people, just in case.”
I eyed the darting green eyes of the beast and her gaping jaws. There was no mistaking the predatory energy radiating from the wolfish dog, so I nodded my agreement immediately.
“That’s probably a good idea,” I told Deya. “Will you be able to hear where we are when you return to Magehill?”
“I’m sure I will manage perfectly fine,” Deya said, and she narrowed her violet eyes toward Aurora. “I only have to listen for the sound of Aurora swimming in gold, yes?”
The half-elf giggled excitedly as she nodded, and I rolled my eyes at her while Deya hopped into my arms to leave a kiss on my cheek.
We watched the beautiful elf amble off through the trees with Ruela at her flank, and as soon as she flickered out of sight, we turned to climb the small hill that led up to the mine.
When we came to the top, Magehill Village rose up high above our heads, and the granite homes built to spiral around the small mountain were anything but deserted. Mages trotted up and down the stone steps everywhere I looked, and they weren’t just Terra and Ignis Mages anymore.
Several silver and blue trimmed mage robes joined the ranks, and instead of the village ending at the base of the hill, more structures had been added to dot the meadow and sprawl out into the surrounding forest. There were dusty lanes curling amongst the homes, and I eyed a series of trees beyond the hill with torches mounted directly to their trunks. They clearly designated the entrance of a marketplace that I didn’t recall ever seeing before, and my eyesight zeroed in on what looked like a carving of a mug of beer hanging from a sign that read “Flynt’s Pub.”
“This is different,” Aurora mumbled at my side.
“It’s a fucking town,” I said incredulously. “Is that a library over there?”
“Research quarters,” Haragh corrected, but when I stared over at him, he smirked. “Might as well be a library though, there’s about three hundred books in there. I heard they had to add a second level.”
“Gods,” I sighed. “We settled an entire town out here.”
“Just a little one,” Haragh chuckled. “Come on, I see Kurna now.”
The same brawny Ignis Mage who I’d once seen gather the forces of his element to form a supernova and destroy a shower of icy spears was grinning from the steps of Magehill.
Kurna raised a well-honed arm to wave, and as he jogged down the last few steps to come and meet us, Cayla suddenly grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop.
“Mason,” she said in a low voice, “that’s one of your revolvers.”
Chapter 7
Cayla wasn’t wrong.
Kurna’s deep and sinister chuckle drifted to me as he made his way over, and my eyes were glued to the revolver stowed in the holster on his hip. When the brawny mage reached out to take my hand, his perfect line of teeth flashed in the sunlight, and I did my best to keep my features composed.
“Defender Flynt,” Kurna chuckled, but the bassy sound made the hair on my arms stand up. “We received word not ten minutes ago that you had returned, so you’ll have to excuse the lack of fanfare.”
“I don’t need any more fanfare,” I assured him. “How have you been?”
“Fine, fine,” he said with a nod. “Defender Solana, it’s lovely to see you home again. Ladies, Haragh … ”
The man oozed calm assuredness, and I’d almost forgotten how intimidating he was. I’d only met him for the first time when we sent word to the south for more mages up in Orebane, but Kurna had fought against the ice giants with a fiendish energy that impressed me at the time.
Now that he wore one of my guns on his hip, though, it unnerved me more than anything.
Still, his amber eyes gleamed with warmth, and his deep timber was as friendly as I remembered it, so I greeted him openly and waited for the opportunity to ask him where the hell he had gotten the gun.
Cayla didn’t feel like stalling, though.
“Where did you get the gun?” the princess demanded. Her tone was velvety smooth, but her blue eyes were like ice.
Kurna put his hands up and chuckled once more as he eyed the lethal woman.
“You got me, Your Highness,” the man admitted with amusement. “I have stolen all of the weapons King Temin ordered.” Then he gestured to a mage making his way up the steps of Magehill. “He did, too. And those two girls over there? They’re in on it as well.”
The man was laughing when he turned back around, and I couldn’t help grinning either.
The two girls he’d pointed out were giggling as they failed horribly at reforming a windowpane with their Terra magic, and they both had my revolvers in holsters on their hips. They were admittedly less intimidating than the brawny mage was, and as I scanned the other mages in the village, I realized the majority either had revolvers on their hips, or rifles strapped to their backs.
My grin grew wider.
“Kurna,” I mused, “I could hug you, man.”
“Bring it in,” he said without pause, and before I could respond, the man locked me in a firm hug. He pounded a sturdy fist against my back with another throaty chuckle, and when he stepped back, he sent me a broad grin.
“It’s good to have you back!” Kurna said. “As the beautiful princess here has duly noted, we have all of your weapons. I hope you won’t consider this as trouble, but since the king left them sitting around like an idiot, and the mages are going missing, we needed a means of protecting ourselves when we travel between Falmount Rift and the Oculus.”
“What’s Falmount Rift?” Aurora asked.
“You’re standing in it!” Kurna announce.
“I thought this was Magehill,” I countered.
“That’s Magehill,” Kurna agreed, and he pointed to the mountain we’d all formed when the mine first began production. When he stretched his arms out wide to encompass the whole village that spilled over into the forest, he nodded his approval. “This is Falmount Rift. It’s the letters in your name rearranged.”
I furrowed my brow. “No, it isn’t.”
“No?” Kurna stared off at the trees for a second while he did some mental acrobatics. “Shit. Well, that’s what I get for letting the barkeep name the place. Sorry about that.”
“It’s cool,” I told him. “I don’t need a town named after me. I already have a pub, apparently.”
“Two pubs,” Kurna corrected. “That there’s Flynt’s Pub, and on the other side of those trees is the Other Flynt’s Pub. Come on, you’ll want to see the place I imagine.”
Haragh didn’t even wait as he beelined for the pub, and the rest of us followed the brawny mage into the dusty lanes of Falmount Rift. The layout reminded me a little of a college town, but with horses wandering down the streets instead of beat up Toyotas.
Then we entered the marketplace, and I got the strange sensation I’d just walked into a renaissance fair for the first time in years.
The torches I’d caught sight of from across the way were mounted to a circle of oak trees that formed the perimeter of the main square, and there were about ten shops lining the edges of the dirt clearing. The granite library was the tallest building among them, and from what I could see through the windows, it was teeming with mages at this hour.
“Three mages disappeared from the library at the Oculus,” Kurna explained. “It shook everyone up, so we arranged to have our own installed here. You won’t find the standard introductory books in there, but there’s plenty to get by on for now.”
&nb
sp; “Is Wyresus still training you guys?” I asked.
“Not anymore,” the brawny mage answered, and his timber deepened as he lowered his voice. “It’s a shame, if you ask me. He’s a weasel, but these young mages who moved in have a lot of potential. Now, they just drink and read when they feel like it. It’s disappointing.”
I snorted. “So, they all moved out here to party.”
“That’s half true,” Kurna admitted with a smirk, “but they’re mostly scared to stay in Serin, whereas none of the mages in Falmount have gone missing.”
Kurna paused and turned around to gesture toward the top of Magehill, and the lookout station we’d built on the plateau had two large mages posted against the columns.
“Perfect,” I said with a nod. “That’s what I wanna hear.”
“There is a weak spot now that the village has expanded, though,” Kurna admitted, “because the guards can’t see the western woods.”
I peered to the west of the marketplace where more houses dotted the forest, and beyond them, nothing but unguarded lands continued through the foothills.
“I’ll fix that,” I assured the man.
“I was hoping you might,” Kurna chuckled. “Come. You should have a beer in that hand of yours.”
The brawny mage gestured to the pub with my name swinging from a wooden sign, but Cayla brushed her hand across my back to get my attention.
“I want to freshen up,” she said as she kissed my cheek. “If it’s alright with you, I’ll go to the house and meet you later.”
Shoshanne agreed this was more ideal after our journey home than a crowded pub would be, so the two women headed off to find our house amongst the others while Aurora and I continued through the marketplace.
I only made it two paces, though, before I heard a scuffling of hurried steps behind me.
“Hi Mason!”
I whipped around to find two sweet faces smiling up at me, and the young mages shuffled their toes nervously in the dirt like they weren’t sure I’d recognize them.
“Oh damn,” I chuckled and pulled them into a hug.
Mina and Deli giggled and blushed when I released them.
“We heard you were back and wanted to come and say hi,” Mina said with a dimpled smile. “Did you really kill sphinxes and battle an army of possessed elves?”
“Haragh said you saw a Wendigo,” Deli added with a look of awe. “Was it big? Did it try to eat you?”
“I bet you killed it,” Mina mused. “Did you kill it?”
I chuckled as Aurora came over and pecked a kiss on each of the girls’ cheeks.
“Defender Solana,” Deli squealed, and she wrapped the half-elf in a hug. “Did you help Mason kill a Wendigo?”
“I sure tried,” Aurora laughed. “Deya’s dog ended up eating it alive for us, though.”
Both girls gawked at us. “A dog ate the Wendigo?”
“Yeah, but it’s a pretty huge dog,” I told them. “I’ll introduce you to it later, she’s out running right now.”
“Okay!” they both chimed at once, and I noticed they kept glancing around to be sure everyone saw them talking to us.
“Hey, is Pindor around?” I asked with a grin, but both girls’ smiles were immediately replaced with sneers of disgust.
“Who cares?” Mina scoffed angrily.
“Pindor’s an asshole,” Deli informed me, “and if you do see him, tell him we’re going to burn him alive in his bed.”
I raised my brows.
“Yeah,” Mina agreed, “but let him know we’ll tie him down first, just like he likes.”
The two girls giggled mirthlessly before they sent us a pair of sweet waves, and then they headed back through the crowd while they began discussing how huge a dog could possibly get.
I exchanged a glance with Aurora.
“Were they talking about the same Pindor?” the half-elf asked in confusion.
“Probably,” I sighed. “This should be interesting.”
Several Ignis Mages called out to Aurora from beyond the oak trees, and the half-elf gasped in excitement. I nodded to her as she eyed them eagerly, and while she went to join them where they were having a picnic, I headed for the pub where Kurna had just ducked inside.
I honestly lost track of how many random people clapped my shoulder as I headed for the pub, and when I entered the dimly lit building, I didn’t recognize a single face aside from Haragh and Kurna.
Even this early in the day, there were about two dozen mages in there, with plates piled with steaming food and large mugs of ale to wash it down with.
Some of them also had books out as they quietly ate by themselves, but others were laughing loudly and playing what looked like a drinking game based on the elements.
There was a young Terra Mage with stark black hair who had his palm turned toward the wooden tabletop, and beside him, an Aer Mage with ruddy blonde curls sat in deep concentration. A single bottle of wine stood before them, and from what I could tell, nothing was happening.
I slowed my pace to a stop at their table while I waited, and without any warning, a fierce breeze suddenly kicked up, and the open bottle tipped. Before the contents could spill out, the Terra Mage bucked the stonework of the floor up, and when the bottle shot up and landed perfectly on its end, the seven other mages around them jumped to their feet like he’d scored a touchdown.
I chuckled to myself as the Aer Mage sighed in defeat, and while the others scruffed his moppish curls, he begrudgingly took the bottle.
Apparently, the loser had to drink the entire thing down himself.
I shook my head and wandered toward the bar to where Kurna and Haragh were talking to a wiry old man behind the counter, and when I joined them, the barkeep sent me a toothless grin.
“This is Raynor,” Kurna hollered over the noise of the pub. “He’s the man who named the town.”
I took the aged man’s shaky hand, and his smile stretched dopily from one of his giant ears to the other. He was probably in his sixties, and he had the build of a man who’d spent his life working his ass off. His shoulders stooped forward with age while his knobby fingers twisted in different directions, and the few bits of scraggly hair on his head seemed to stand wildly in any direction they fell.
“I’ll get it, I’ll get it,” he said in a quiet and hoarse voice. “Just gotta get my letters right.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I called back. “I like the name.”
He shook his balding head and waved me off good-naturedly, and then he turned to pull three glass mugs from the shelf at his back. He filled them from a giant barrel I thought I recognized, and I nudged Kurna in the arm.
“Where’d you get the ale?”
“Thrungrig’s been sending it down with Bagneera,” he replied, “at no charge, too. Only dwarven ale and dwarven wine served here. And some fresh cooked meals, of course.”
I liked the sound of that.
Raynor slid a frothing pint across the bar to me, and Haragh swiftly downed the entire contents of his own mug. The Aldrin pollen had eased my tension fully by now, and between the amber glint of the ale and the comradery of the mages in the pub, I was suddenly feeling fully settled in Falmount Rift.
Kurna sloshed his beer across the counter as he clanked his mug with mine, and Raynor wiped the mess away with a dishrag while he smiled and shook his head.
He didn’t seem to stop smiling for a moment the whole time we sat there, and he was just the type of guy a person didn’t mind having around at all.
“What’s his element?” I asked Kurna once I’d watched the barkeep go about his work for a little while.
“Raynor was a healer,” the brawny mage said as he lowered his voice. “Aer Mage. He farmed for most of his life before he went to the Order of Pallax. Then he caught on he was a mage in his forties, so he came to study under Abrus for fifteen years, but he quit when everything came to a head with him. Said he didn’t want anything to do with the Oculus. I found him working in a pub in t
he tradesmen’s quarters and asked him if he wouldn’t mind getting our own pub up and running. He doesn’t say much, but he’s a good man. The mages respect him quite a lot, so it doesn’t get too rowdy in here.”
Raynor was smiling and nodding to a pair of pretty mages who ordered two glasses of dwarven wine, and when he gestured shakily to another pair of mages admiring them from a table, the two girls blushed and giggled.
“I like him,” I chuckled and finished my pint.
Something about a healer being a barkeep felt appropriate, and he was incredibly attentive to the state of my own mug. The moment the empty glass hit the counter, Raynor tossed his dishrag down and swiftly refilled it for me.
“So, my weapons,” I led as I raised my voice and leaned toward Kurna. “You made sure everyone knows how to use them properly, right?”
“I did,” Kurna assured me. “Took a bit of practice to figure it out myself, but we got it alright. So far, no one’s had to use them. For a while, we were being followed here when we left the Oculus in the evening, but since we raided the king’s stable and got these, there haven’t been any incidents.”
“He just left them in the stable?” I snorted. “Godsdamnit.”
“That’s what I was thinking at the time,” Kurna said with a nod. “I figured they would be stolen by someone eventually, so why not us?”
I grinned. “It’s honestly a relief, but someone must have gotten to them before you.”
“What makes you say that?”
When I filled Kurna in on what had been taking place in Nalnora over the last few weeks, the brawny mage’s jovial grin finally fell, and he kept his black brows knitted toward the bar top as he listened carefully. I told him about King Temin’s concerns as well, and then Haragh leaned around him as Raynor refilled our pints.
“Tell him the best part,” Haragh suggested sarcastically.
“King Temin wants me to recruit an army of mages,” I told Kurna, and I studied his reaction carefully.
Kurna raised his brows and nodded at the counter. “An army.”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “I don’t think that’s gonna go over well, honestly.”
“But we may need one.” Kurna thought this over for a moment. “How did the Master manage to raise such extensive numbers so quickly?”
