Dao Divinity Book 1

by Bruce Sentar

  “Good at their jobs. Better than the city guards,” Sasha rephrased it.

  She led them into the manor and to a richly furnished dining room. They left the cart outside with Cherry’s tree, but they’d had a thorough discussion about its safety, and she’d made sure to firmly eye anybody within a hundred yards.

  “Oh, Sasha! You’re back.” A blonde woman a smidge past her prime waved at them as they entered. “This must be Darius, your wizard.”

  The way her eyes roved over Dar reminded him of cougars he’d met at bars. The plunging neckline showed off her assets cradling a large ruby necklace.

  That wouldn’t normally bother him, except the woman’s husband was right there… drooling onto his bib. The man’s eyes were crossed and unfocused, as spittle eased its way out of the corner of his lips and down to the cloth stuffed in his shirt.

  “Don’t mind Mark. He’s been ill for some time.” She batted her eyes.

  Nope. Dar felt his face steel into a firm mask of ‘nothing but business’. “Not a problem, ma’am.” There was no better way to cool down a cougar than call them ma’am and remind them of the age gap, at least on Earth. “Sasha here told me you could help with us finding a house in the city.”

  “Yes, I definitely can, but it will take a few days,” she answered, turning back to her husband and cleaning up his face with a cloth from the table.

  “I thought you said—” Sasha started.

  “I said that I had a place for you. You are welcome to stay at our manor; we have plenty of rooms. You can stay here until I can help you find a home.” Her eyes wandered over Dar again. “We would be so delighted to have a wizard here.”

  He tried not to sigh. He held his breath to keep it inside until he could calmly reply. “Then we’ll take you up on that. I do hope we’ll be able to find a home in the next few days.”

  “Of course. It shouldn’t be more than until the week’s end. But tell me, wizard, are you going to fight the devils next time they come?”

  Her question caught Dar off guard. He didn’t know that the situation was at the point that it was expected here in the city. He wasn’t against the idea of gathering more devil corpses to feed his dao tree, but he’d been hoping for better security.

  “I’d savor the chance. Cherry here is quite the natural disaster if she puts her mind to it.”

  She nodded. “Good, good. If you happen to fight while still living here, I hope you don’t mind doing so on account of the Shaw household. It would do much to bolster our house in the duke’s eyes.”

  It wasn’t a question.

  Things suddenly made more sense to Dar; she just made a gamble. While they stayed with her, he would be part of her contribution. If he had to guess, she wasn’t as well off as the manor might make it appear, but she was crafty and knew how to manage deals to her advantage.

  “That sounds amendable, but we’d need to talk about compensation.” He figured there was no way a self-respecting wizard would do it for free, even if he was okay with it.

  “Twenty-five gold towards the home of your choosing. That sound agreeable?” she asked. The sharp tone of it told him she was not in the mood for negotiating, and he didn’t much care anyway.

  Dar nodded. “Fair enough deal for a friend of Sasha’s.”

  Margret cracked a smile. “She is a pretty little thing, isn’t she?”

  Before he could answer, she continued on. “Have your servants bring in your luggage. I’ll have someone show them around and help them get more familiar with the house so they can better serve you.”

  She beckoned, and a man appeared from the shadows to take away Amber and Marcie, who seemed fine leaving with him to attend to their things.

  What got to Dar most was that he hadn’t even realized that man was there. He had blended in with the surroundings, without a presence at all. It was creepy to him, but it seemed to be expected here.

  Dar wanted to follow after them, to get his own things and help the girls. He was far stronger than them; it made sense. But he knew that, to keep up appearances, he needed to listen to Sasha. Based on the light hand she’d placed on his arm, she knew where his mind was going and wanted him to stay put.

  Putting on his most jovial smile, he turned back to Margret, who he found was watching him closely.

  “So, what are your plans?” Margret asked, her tone deep like a prowling cougar.

  Chapter 19

  Dar sighed when they finally made it back to the suite of rooms they’d been given; Margret had given them a wing of the manor for their use. “I feel like a piece of meat.”

  Sasha glared at him. “She isn’t unattractive. You could just have taken any of her dozen less than subtle offers.”

  “Her husband was right there,” Dar almost shouted.

  “And clearly incapable of fulfilling her needs.” Sasha didn’t back down, hands on her hips.

  Cherry sighed, breaking the two from their conversation. “Both of you stop it. I’m pretty sure the ‘Lug’ isn’t going to bend on this one. I for one am fine with the line in the sand that he won’t do someone else’s woman. At least we know we can hire married women without too much worry.”

  “See.” Dar opened his palm towards Cherry.

  “Don’t go bringing me into this argument. You still have some hang-ups that we need to work out.”

  “Still haven’t touched the maids,” Sasha muttered.

  “Hold up,” Dar stopped them both. “Not wanting to be intimate with somebody’s wife is reasonable. Besides, I’m not going to be interested in just any person who is attracted to me. There’s more to it than that.”

  Sasha went to interrupt, but he held up a hand to stop her. “I already told you that if the girls approached me, I wouldn’t push them off. You need to cut me some slack.”

  Sasha looked bashful. “I know. I actually told them to hold off because I want you to myself for a while.”

  He stopped. “Thank you for being considerate. Still the cougar is out of the question.”

  Her face had grown confused at the term ‘cougar’, but she seemed to ignore it. “I knew it made you uncomfortable, so I helped out. You’ll have to do it eventually though.” Sasha leveled a glare at me.

  What sort of tangled relationship have I found myself in?

  For some reason, it was the possessive but casual nature of Margret’s approach that really bothered him. It was like she saw him as a plaything to do

  with as she pleased. Something about her and the whole situation was just sending alarm bells off for Dar, and he was one to trust his instincts.

  The rest of the conversation was lost as someone knocked on the door.

  “Think the lady has come for you after all?” Sasha teased, some bristle still in her voice.

  Instead, they were met by a deep baritone voice that came from the other side of the door. “Open up. We are here on behalf of the magistrate.”

  “Listen here—” Margret’s clear voice shouted from further down the hall but stopped suddenly.

  “I’m coming,” Dar yelled and stomped to the door.

  Opening it up, he found himself looking down at a man in red livery and a studded club. The man looked up, clearly not enjoying having to peer up at him. Based on the man’s size, he probably didn’t have to look up very often.

  “Wizard?” he asked; clearly, what he was seeing wasn’t what he expected.

  “Yep, I’m the Wizard Darius.” Dar crossed his arms and looked down the hall, where two men dressed similarly held back Margret and two of her staff.

  Seeing him look her way, she shouted. “I apologize, they wouldn’t wait.”

  Then she turned to one of the men next to her. “I’ll make sure the duke hears about this.”

  “So, what’s the issue? It must be good for you to push past my host to meet with me.” Dar punctuated his statement with a snort. He could already tell what kind of people these two were, and he had no doubt what they were here for.

  “We work f
or the magistrate, and you are going to come before him to explain your actions this morning.” He seemed to summon up the courage to poke Dar in the chest.

  “I’d like to know why I’m being brought to the magistrate. This was settled this morning.” Dar didn’t move.

  “I just bring in whom I’m told.” The man glanced around Dar, like he was getting ready for a fight.

  Knowing he wasn’t going to get answers, Dar sighed, annoyed he wasn’t going to get the rest he was looking for. “Fine, let me gather my things and meet you downstairs in a few minutes.”

  “I can’t leave your si—” But Dar had slammed the door in his face, feeling the urge to lash out again.

  Taking a deep breath, Dar worked to control himself and release the stress. He breathed in and tried to focus on something else. The sense of mana in his body called to him, and he focused on it, letting it flow through his channels.

  He wasn’t planning on using it, but something about the act was re-energizing and relaxing.

  He let out another deep breath, focusing on drawing in more mana for the time being.

  “You okay, Dar?” Sasha’s worried voice broke him away from his meditation.

  “Just upset. Hard not to punch him in the face.”

  Cherry shrugged. “He was kind of a dick, but it is really the magistrate’s fault.”

  “I know. That’s why I really didn’t want to punch him.” He looked at the half-state of dress Sasha was in and his mind started wandering away from the guard waiting outside the door.

  He stepped closer, pulling her to him, but Sasha smacked his chest, laughing. “We don’t have time for that, Dar, and you know it.”

  He leaned down, giving her a deep kiss before straightening up and heading for the door. Sasha and Cherry both followed behind him.

  As they walked into the front room, Margret intercepted them, looking distraught. “Again, I apologize for their interruption. I’ll have a word with the duke, but the magistrates tend to do as they see fit.”

  “It’s fine, ma’am. We’ll deal with this and be back for dinner.”

  The lady nodded fractionally. “Then do so. The city has been on a rolling boil recently. Tread carefully.”

  The conversation stopped when the sheriffs came into view; no one wanted to talk in front of them.

  “Took you long enough,” the sheriff from earlier grumbled as he turned, expecting them to follow.

  But when they stepped out of the manor and Dar grabbed the cart with Cherry’s tree, they were stopped.

  “You can’t take that.”

  “Excuse me? This is the tree that my spirit is bound to.” Dar narrowed his eyes.

  “You should have had her bind to something more convenient. You can’t come to the courthouse with that.”

  Cherry was looking between him and the tree, complete panic on her face.

  “I’ll stay with your tree. You’ll be able to make it to the courthouse?” Sasha offered.

  The dryad swallowed around a lump in her throat, looking at the tree and plucking a few cherries off the limbs before turning back to the sheriffs. “Cherries?”

  They scowled. “No, we don’t want your damn cherries. Is she always this stupid?” The sheriff directed the question to Dar.

  “She’s a young spirit,” Dar said, playing into Cherry’s act. He didn’t know why she had started it up again, but if that’s how she wanted to play it, that’s how they would.

  “I’d like some of your cherries, and we can go share them with the magistrate.” Dar bent down and spoke gently.

  Cherry nodded her head emphatically, grabbing a few more cherries and holding them in her hand like an offering as they started out to the magistrate. Dar wondered just how far away she could be from her tree, but she was a very old spirit. He suspected she had quite the range.

  “So, what is there to do around here, besides see the magistrate?” Dar tried to spark conversation, but he wasn’t met with much luck. The sheriffs stayed silent as they walked, like he’d said nothing at all.

  “I just came in with one of the towns fleeing devils; I’m new around town,” he tried to pick it up again.

  All he got in response was a scoffed, “Already causing trouble.”

  Realizing that he wasn’t going to be able to endear himself to them with conversation, he started looking around.

  This part of the city seemed far nicer than the inn they had stopped at. The streets were wider and less busy. Bigger streets usually meant a busier part of town, but here it seemed more just based on wealth.

  Cherry walked at his side, not caring for the passing city. Instead, she kept looking back over her shoulder in the direction of her tree from time to time. He wanted to comfort her, but they both needed to keep up her act of a young spirit.

  The courthouse was painfully obvious when he saw it. The building had large doors, and he could see large, open public spaces inside where both the poor and rich mingled, although there was still a clear separation between them.

  “You’ll go straight to Magistrate Swarth’s room,” the sheriff said, pivoting them to a side building next to the courthouse when they were in a hundred feet of the buildings. “Don’t make us come get you again.”

  “They didn’t say where his room was,” grumbled Dar.

  “I think that was the point,” Cherry chuckled, breaking her act to comfort him.

  He found it without too much trouble and entered it to find a grumpy, balding man sitting behind an overly large desk. The desk was on a raised platform that seemed overkill to Dar.

  “You’re late,” the magistrate barked out as Dar started to survey the room.

  Dar wasn’t about to feel bad about that. “I was just notified and brought here.”

  “Good. Is this the spirit that assaulted two good men?”

  He had already guessed this was coming. Glaring at the magistrate, he answered simply, “No. This is the spirit that protected my belongings from two sticky-fingered men.”

  There were a few gasps, and Dar looked at the others who were in the room.

  The two men from earlier were sitting along the side, as was a guard that looked vaguely familiar. In the corner, there was a man huddled inside ratty, wrinkled robes that reminded Dar of a homeless man.

  “Cherries?” Cherry asked, completely ignoring the mood of the room as she stepped up to the magistrate and offered her handful of cherries.

  “What?” The man didn’t know what to do with that. Looking from the offering back to Dar, he clearly waited for an answer.

  “She has a greater dao of new growth, and she’s bound to a cherry tree. She gets pleasure from giving cherries to everyone she meets,” Dar lied.

  “Thank you?” the magistrate said, clearly looking uncomfortable but seeing no harm in the fruit.

  Cherry did a little bounce after that and proceeded to offer everyone else in the room a fruit. She also successfully shifted the entire mood of the room. Dar smiled; she was good at this. Even if they were angry and in cahoots with each other, it was hard to remain upset at a beautiful, young woman offering you food so innocently.

  The two men and the guard refused her outright, but the homeless man shifted and took several with a thank you.

  Dar got a good look at his gaunt, hollow face, but there was boundless intelligence in his eyes. The clothes and his unkempt manner felt more like a mad scientist than a homeless man. There was a second form that had blended in because they wore the same style of clothing. What looked like purple-haired teenage boy, Dar knew was a spirit.

  That was a wizard, or so Dar assumed.

  He had a spirit with him, so he must be one, but why did he look so frail? Is that what everyone expected of him when he said he was a wizard? No wonder they all were so confused.

  The magistrate knocked a mallet on his desk to bring everyone back to attention. “Please call your spirit back.”

  “Cherry, come here.” Dar beckoned her over, and she came obediently, acting for all
the world like a docile, young spirit.

  “Good. Now I’ve already heard the accounts of these two men and the guard. They’ve stated that they merely bumped into a cart and were attacked by your spirit.” The magistrate rolled his hand for Dar to proceed.

  Clearing his throat, he did his best to stand tall. “We had just traveled in from a town that had been destroyed by devils and stopped at an inn to eat. We picked a table by the window so we could watch our cart that held the tree Cherry was bound to.”

  The magistrate nodded along, scribbling something down as Dar spoke.

  “We looked out the window and both men had their hands on the cart, one appeared to be pulling it. In response, Cherry reacted to protect the tree she is bound to, as any spirit would.”

  Dar let that hang, assuming that Cherry’s obsession with her tree wasn’t unique. No one seemed to think elsewise as far as he’d noticed.

  “So you didn’t ask her to attack, nor did you clarify the intentions of the two men before taking action?” the magistrate asked.

  “No, sir, but I—”

  “No, you listen here. This is a city, a place for the civilized to gather. We only tolerate monsters that can behave like the civilized humans they pretend to be,” the magistrate growled, pointing his gavel at Dar.

  Breath.

  Focusing inward on the flow of his mana, Dar managed to stay calm. He tried to determine his best defense. “Would you say the same to a merchant who watched a man pick up their merchandise off the table? Would you accept that they just bumped into it and happened to pick up something that was not theirs or take time to request a civilized conversation to make sure you understand their intentions?”

  “That’s ridic—” The Magistrate’s mouth snapped closed as he realized what he was about to say. Instead, he changed tact. “Stopping a thief and your spirit attacking someone with her dao are completely different things. The magnitude of the actions should accompany the severity of the punishment.”

  One of the men spoke up. “We agree. She could have killed us!”

  “You two both walked away, and here you stand without bandages. It seems like she kept her composure and only did what was necessary to protect her tree.” Dar gave them icy stares, daring them to speak again.