Masters of Deception

by J C Kang

  “Very well,” Gitika said. “Let’s go.”

  Jie held up a hand. “No, you must rest. Probably for a few days.”

  Anish nodded. “Come, Master. Let’s go back to the Seafarer.”

  “Please Master,” Sameer said. “Let me go with…with….”

  “Jie.” She started to curtsey in the local fashion, but then imitated the Paladins’ greeting, pressing her palms together and bowing her head.

  “The half-elf. Let me go with her.” If Sameer’s expression looked any more pleading, he’d be almost as cute as the Black Lotus temple dogs.

  Gitika’s gaze on Sameer was as evaluating as a certain clueless spy back home, calculating the blast volume for a firepowder keg. “Why?”

  “To atone.” Sameer pinned down his middle finger with his thumb, leaving the other fingers splayed. Since he probably wasn’t practicing for a shadow-puppet show, it must be their peoples’ mudra hand signal. “For justice, for all the girls taken into servitude.”

  “Very well. You must not engage in hostilities, except in self-defense. Anish, go with him. I can get back to the Seafarer myself.”

  Jie chewed on her lower lip. Wherever Bovyans went, hostilities seemed to follow close behind.

  Chapter 5:

  Duel of Wits

  Brehane stood at the entrance to Cassius Larusso’s megalith circle, her ribs aching from where Teacher Dawit had dug his elbow into her. Trying to get her attention. At first, she’d been so busy sensing the strong Resonance in this city, then thinking she’d seen the missing Melas in the crowds. When she’d looked back to confirm, she caught sight of the Cathayi half-elf sidling up to them. With all the distractions, she was just now noticing that this famous Diviner was a man.

  A man.

  Could that be possible? No. He was likely nothing more than the dozen charlatans they’d passed along the way, deceiving the unwary and the gullible. It had been easy to tell from the way their so-called Divining didn’t so much as create a ripple in the Resonance, which was as strong here as near the pyramid back home. All hope of experiencing true Divining and perhaps merging it into her own magic dwindled.

  At least this particular rogue was quite handsome. Unlike the other locals, who wore the most delightfully bright colors, he’d selected neutral greens and blacks for his longcoat, shirt, and hosiery. At first glance, his dull clothes seemed like a mark of poor taste, or perhaps poverty; but on further consideration, it was clear that the subdued palette must have been a conscious choice to bring out his good looks. He might very well be worth the conquest, even if he didn’t have any real magic to absorb through coupling.

  Now that the half-elf stalker had taken off after the treacherous Ayuri Paladins, most likely to pickpocket them, Brehane clasped the crystal about her neck and studied this Cassius Larusso.

  Though the fair skin made him look sickly, his high, thin nose accented strong cheeks and full lips. His thin mustaches curled up, and a beard jabbed out from his chin, ending in the cutest point. Yet most striking were his eyes: one dark brown like coffee, the other like the Blue Moon. A dragon eye, like the Last Dragon Avarax and the evil sorcerer Rumiya, according to old legends.

  Perhaps he did have magic. He did seem to know their purpose in being there; though maybe the tall fellow at the docks, the one with the scar on his forehead, worked for Larusso. He’d approached Teacher Dawit outside an antique shop and recommended this place. Maybe he’d sent a runner back to the megalith circle with advance information.

  The way Makeda was eyeing him, like a sand devil stalking a rodent, she must’ve also been thinking of bedding him. If she managed to absorb any magic he might have, she’d no doubt use it to continue the oppression of the Biomancers. Brehane’s chest tightened as if squeezed by a dragon’s talons. She’d beaten Makeda into bed with Adept Melas and absorbed his younger, purer essence. She wouldn’t lose to her here, either.

  “Come in, come in to my circle.” Cassius dipped in to a sweeping bow. “It is not every day that foreigners come looking for a lost friend, even rarer still that two groups would face the same conundrum.”

  Brehane snorted. No doubt the Ayuri were involved in some kind of treachery or backstabbing.

  “A coincidence,” Makeda said.

  Cassius stroked his beard in a decidedly sensuous manner. “Destiny.”

  His words came out smoldering like a fireball. It was all Brehane could do to not fan herself. It took a second before she found her own voice. “We make our destiny.”

  “So we will.” He winked.

  By the Makeda’s Eye! This man was brazen. Perhaps it was part of the act to bring in unsuspecting fortune seekers, like the shermuta back home who tried to lure women into paying for sex, using their pretty white teeth and all but their manhood exposed.

  This Cassius accomplished the same filthy tricks fully clothed, with only a wanton smile. Back home, women would exploit him and other men would ostracize him for his loose morals. While every instinct screamed to take advantage of easy prey, Brehane’s better senses warned to keep this shermuta at arm’s length.

  Until Makeda took his hands in her own. “I am Makeda, daughter of Kidist, and True Heir to the First Mystic. I trust your family is well?”

  Brehane frowned as she clasped her necklace. The worthless assama had bandied about the True Heir moniker for years, even if it had no logical basis. Their shared maternal grandmother may have worn the First Mystic’s pendant, but the heirloom had passed to Brehane’s mother and now to her. Once she restored the Biomancers’ honor, no one would question her legitimacy.

  Still, try as she might to prioritize the mission of finding Melas, her eyes could only dwell on Makeda’s hands, clasped with his. Whether he was a shermuta or not, she’d have to bed him before Makeda. The Pyromancer now squeezed her breasts between her arms, conjuring cleavage with a very different type of magic.

  A grin formed on Larusso’s face as his gaze dipped from Makeda’s chest to their intertwined hands. “Pleased to meet you, Makeda, daughter of Kidist, True Heir to the First Mystic. However, the heavens do not wait for pleasantries.” He looked up to Teacher Dawit. “I trust you have my fee of a hundred drakas.”

  As if a man would be trusted to carry money without spending it on something frivolous! Larusso apparently couldn’t even Divine up some common sense. Brehane stepped forward and produced a heavy pouch. “Here, a hundred drakas.”

  Forehead scrunching up for a split second, Larusso released Makeda’s hands and received the money. He hefted it in his palm. With a nod, he tossed it to one of the guards at the edge of megalith circle. “Now, you wish for me to find a missing person…” His eyes glazed over as he rocked back and forth. “Melas.”

  Makeda’s gasp mixed in with the excited chatter of the crowd.

  Still, the Resonance, so strong in this city, hadn’t shifted. Brehane narrowed her eyes. There was no magic involved, at least none that she could experiment with and merge with her own.

  Cassius’ swaying stopped. “This master—”

  “Not a master.” Brehane shook her head. This rogue was indeed a trickster. “An adept.”

  “A linguistic subtlety, between your beautiful tongue and mine.” He winked. “This adept does not wish to be found, for he has taken measures to protect himself from scrying.”

  Makeda pouted. “So you cannot help us?”

  “Only the most skilled Diviner could.” He paused, the effect quite dramatic, then grinned. “Luckily for you, I am the best.”

  Such arrogance! And there Makeda stood, batting eyelashes at him as if she were a pig in heat.

  “I need to know about his birth. The date, the time, and the location.”

  Brehane exchanged glances with her companions. Such details held little importance for Aksumi men, whose birthdates were never added to the songs of lineage.

  Looking from her to Makeda, Teacher Dawit sighed. “My friend Melas was born near Chenkar at midnight on the Full Moon Day of the seventh
month, in the eight hundred and seventy-second year after the War of Ancient Gods.”

  Brehane stared at Teacher Dawit. Why would he know such minutia about Melas?

  Larusso twisted and turned a spherical device of interlocking rings, set it over a map on the central altar, and spun it. Nothing he did used any actual magic; and as before, the Resonance didn’t shift as he worked. Yes, his talent was in book learning, not true Divining.

  He looked up. “Adept Melas was born under full White and Iridescent Moons, when Ayara’s Eye was fully open. This indicates potential for power. Furthermore, at the midnight hour, the constellation of Fortuna, Goddess of Fortune and Opportunity, would have just risen over Chenkar. Adept Melas is a man of ambition.”

  Brehane snorted. In Aksumi tribal lands, males were pampered and treasured. What more could a man ask for? What ambitions could one have, save for depositing his seed in an appropriate wife, or protecting his family and clan as a warrior? If he were blessed with magic, maybe he could aspire to being a teacher. And in any case… “This tells us nothing about where we can find him.”

  “Oh, but it does.” Larusso’s grin, so roguish and compelling at first, was now clearly part of his act. “It tells us that he acted of his own accord, and wasn’t taken against his will. As to where he is now…” He looked up at the late afternoon skies, where only the sun and the Iridescent Moon shone at this hour.

  Again, there was no sign that he’d used the Resonance, only star charts and book learning. Brehane held up a hand. “What can you tell, when the stars have yet to come out?”

  “Just because you cannot see them doesn’t mean they are not there.” He pointed to several spots in the heavens. “There, Nadea lounges on the shore of the silver sea, waiting for her love to return. Mortasi, God of Death, stalks the unsuspecting. And Kor the Hunter wanes, making this a hard time to search. They all govern our destinies.”

  Such gibberish, invoking gods and heroes. Brehane held his gaze. “Is that all you can tell us? That Adept Melas is ambitious enough to find his own fortune?”

  “I can tell you where, just not exactly. The wards he used are powerful, so too much is uncertain. The gods have only revealed he is north of here. That could be as close as the marketplace over there, or as far flung as the Glacier. It will take time. Five, maybe six days. I offer you the hospitality of my home in the meantime.”

  The throng erupted into murmurs.

  “Foreigners, in Signore Larusso’s home!”

  “What an honor!”

  While Makeda was not exactly salivating, her eyes betrayed her thoughts: she was yearning for Larusso to explore her filthy cave with his pale snake.

  Brehane’s lips pursed. Handsome or not, the shermuta had yet to demonstrate any real magic. As such, this entire misadventure could be a waste of time which delayed her dreams of restoring the Biomancer clan’s honor.

  It was time to make this Signore Larusso squirm, to get him to prove he was more than a fraud wrapped in a pretty package. She turned to the others and spoke in the local language so he’d understand. “This swindler is not worth our time. I have yet to feel him manipulate the Resonance. Let us go and find someone who can really help us.”

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Cassius forced himself to maintain a smile. Fortuna seemed to have turned her naked back on him today. Never in his life had he encountered such hard-to-impress people. Still drained from gleaning the gods’ secrets four times the day before, he hadn’t wanted to use real Divining with the Paladins or these Mystics. However, if he didn’t act soon, the opportunity to fulfill his end of the bargain with the Teleri would take flight like the Golden Flock and disappear. And with it, the chance to eradicate the Mafia and protect the pyramid. To prevent the orc gods from returning on their flaming chariots.

  Not to mention, his end of the bargain was looking much better than he initially thought. Here was a chance to take one of these chocolate-skinned beauties to bed. Maybe both. Maybe at the same time. They looked so similar, they had to be related, and he had always dreamt of a threesome with twins. The three of them would be like the magnificent sandwiches Misha’s tavern sometimes served: savory white chicken pressed between rich, moist pumpernickel.

  “And since you are clearly not in want of wealth, return our money,” the male was saying.

  Talk of money shook Cassius out of thoughts of his other two loves, food and sex. It was now or never. Fortuna may have turned her back on him, but she still presented the opportunity of her perfectly rounded ass.

  He sucked in a deep draught of the Gods’ Whispers and took up the right hand of the second woman—the naysayer who had yet to introduce herself. The patterns on her palm lit up for him, and only him, revealing secrets of her past that even the best palm reader couldn’t glean without the power of Divining. The vitality drained from his limbs, and it was all he could do to maintain a straight posture.

  After an initial gasp of wonderment, the crowd settled into silence.

  “Brehane, daughter of Dahnay of Bahir, First-born Descendant of the First Mystic. You are a spring child, born at noon on the new White Moon of the first month, twenty years ago. At the time, Ayara’s Eye was closed and the Iridescent Moon was new. Such an auspicious birthdate represents a new beginning.”

  Clasping the curious crystal around her neck in one hand, Brehane’s grip tightened on him. She gasped. “I felt it, the Resonance. You are a true Diviner.”

  He eased her fingers open. “At the time of your birth, Konkistor and Solaris faced one another over Bahir. You will be forced to make choices, many times over, between Good and Evil. If you choose Good, you will suffer, and beget a son of great power.”

  Her eyes rounded.

  Beautiful as those dark eyes were, he focused on the fine glowing lines forming the constellation of Hunter Kor over her lifeline. “Your life will be one of pursuit. Of knowledge. Of fame. Of power.”

  A tentative smile formed on her full lips. “Will I succeed?”

  “In the near future, yes.” He looked at her left hand as the swirling colors on her palm began to fade, concealing her future. “That is all I can tell you for now.”

  Mouth twisted in clear jealousy, Makeda thrust her hands out. “Now me.”

  He had them. Fortuna danced in loops and whorls across his own palms. One pattern leaped out: Julia, his first and only love. His greatest mistake. Energy flickering, he banished the memories. The patterns twisted into gibberish. He shook his head. “I am sorry, Makeda, daughter of Kidist. Just like you tire when you call on your magic, the highest levels of Divining can tax me. The heavens do not divulge their secrets without a payment from my soul.”

  The two women nodded, though Dawit evaluated him through slitted eyes.

  One last push with a few half-truths, and he’d be a step closer to wiping out the Mafia and bedding two pretty girls as a bonus. “A faint outline of Baell, the Warlock, intersects with your lifeline. I surmise that represents Melas, using his ward to hide from the eyes of the gods. The closer we get, the clearer he will appear in the signs around us.”

  Brehane looked to the others before turning back. “We would be pleased to have you accompany us on our mission.”

  He motioned toward his guards. “I must retire for the afternoon. Close off the megalith circle.” He turned to Brehane and Makeda, and flashed the smile which had brought many a lady between the bedsheets. “You must be tired from your sea voyage. My manor is far superior to any inn you will find in Tokahia, and tonight I am hosting several of the city’s prominent leaders for dinner. You will be my guests of honor.”

  Makeda, who had already succumbed to his charm, nodded so enthusiastically it conjured delicious images of what might transpire in the bedroom. Brehane, who’d eyed him with such suspicion at first, now gazed at him with adoring eyes. Even the dour teacher smiled, probably at the prospect of free food and lodgings. If only there were a way to house him somewhere else. Well, there was the guest room at the far end of the mans
ion…

  Cassius kept his expression neutral to hide his excitement. He was one step closer to fulfilling his family’s duty of protecting the pyramid. Not to mention, the way the two women looked at him and chattered excitedly in their own language, the question would not be if one would warm his bed tonight, but rather, if he’d enjoy a meal for three.

  Now all he had to do was contact the Paladins, to tell them their lost friend was probably still in the city. Maybe she was, maybe she wasn’t; it hadn’t been worth expending real energy to confirm her whereabouts by listening to the Gods’ Whispers. He’d soon be sending out his network of street urchins to listen to very different types of whispers. Still, the Paladins didn’t have to know.

  After all, it would be worth having three good warriors in the event Phobos and his Teleri friends proved to be untrustworthy, and stood idle while the crime families tried to take over the city and the pyramid…and unwittingly invite the orc gods back to Tivara.

  Chapter 6:

  Bodies of Evidence

  Jie slipped behind Sameer and Anish as two of Prince Aryn’s sailors passed. It was the third group of Tarkothi they’d run into on the way to the docks, all inquiring about a missing half-Cathayi elf in a pink dress. She borrowed a bonnet from a tailor’s storefront display, and though flamboyant red, it didn’t stand out as much as her elf ears. Certainly not among all the garish colors worn by the locals. It almost matched the gold-embroidered purple shawl she’d commandeered from a high-end boutique, which covered the cute pink dress.

  Ah, the dress. A gift from Aryn, one which he’d stripped off her many times.

  Poor Aryn. He was undoubtedly running worst-case scenarios in his head, worried she’d been kidnapped by Mafia, sacrificed by orcs at the pyramid, or who knew what.

  Maybe falling in with Paladins was worse, since they looked to be on the crime families’ bad side. Still, with a Bovyan agent involved, it was undoubtedly tied to her real mission of tracking down the clan traitor. If only she could send word to the prince, to let him know she was all right; but the vanishing spy’s trail grew cold by the minute. Sadly, it looked like her time with Aryn had come to an end. Duty would keep her in Tokahia.