Conjured Defense (Terra Chronicles Book 4)

by J. C. Jackson

Silver stood up with me in his arms. I moved to get out of his hold, but it was firm. Quickly he set me down on my bed. “Get some more rest and let me plan today, okay? Besides, I doubt many places are open at this hour. Dwarves tend to not like early mornings.”

  My answer was pulling the blanket over my head.

  ~*~

  Of all the places Silver could have picked, he choose a geology museum. I glanced at the rain outside. At least we were indoors, but why this?

  It was interesting enough, though I knew little about geology. I turned to the giant geode I stood next to. The purple crystals contained within were pretty. I had no idea what I should be examining about it. This one seemed more for decoration since there was no sign in front of it explaining the rock.

  I sighed and looked at the large room I currently stood in with its bright, pristine displays. Perhaps I would find it more entertaining as we explored the museum.

  “You don’t have to look so bored already,” Silver said with a teasing tone. He came up beside me, wrapping an arm around my waist.

  I forced myself to stay still, reminding myself of the agreement. “You took a while.”

  “The bathrooms are made for Dwarves.”

  “We are in Dwarven Territory,” I pointed out.

  The gentle push from him prodded me along. I let him lead, completely at a loss of where to start in here. Slowly we made our way through the exhibits in this room. Silver never rushed me as I read and studied what was before me.

  This trip had become more enlightening than I expected. At least from an arcane perspective given how spells and information could be stored. I needed to remember to delve further into crystal systems to see if there was a difference in how each worked.

  The next room contained exhibits regarding mining. After that was information on erosion. Another on fossils. Some were interactive, allowing us to touch or in one case, dig. Silver seemed to enjoy that one and I sat, watching him. Ever the child.

  If this was how our agreement was going to play out, I saw no harm in it, though we spent time like this before now. Just without him being quite as tactile.

  I shifted in my seat as I watched him. How had we grown to needing each other? Would we be in this position if I had not gotten hurt?

  Biting my lower lip, I considered this new perspective. Silver had always been protective. It was simply in his nature. His strange behavior remained unexplained.

  Thinking back to the case we first met on, Rathal exhibited similar swings in behavior. Savanas mentioned he was always immature due to his age. He was younger than Silver, but they were both considered children by Elven standards.

  But Rathal’s extremes were due to being influenced by a necromancer’s spell. I was fairly certain it was not currently the case with Silver.

  This was getting me no where, but I was afraid to ask. His desperation last night still worried me.

  “Come try this.” Silver beckoned to me.

  I shook my head. “I’m fine watching.” I smiled softly. It actually was amusing to watch him play with the exhibit.

  He moved the sand back over what he managed to uncover and stood up, coming to sit next to me. “Everything okay?” His arm was around my waist again.

  “Yeah,” I lied. I needed to figure this out on my own.

  “You’ve got to be getting hungry. I know I am.” Silver grinned broadly.

  The moment we left the museum, I felt eyes on me. Forcing myself not to look around desperately for the source, I slowly scanned the area as not to look obvious.

  Silver leaned down speak in my ear. “You’re sensing it, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Inside?”

  “No.”

  Silver kissed my cheek and straightened back up. “At least the rain let up. In the mood for anything in particular to eat?”

  I shook my head, struggling to keep up with the change of topic. There was little we could do here. With any luck, we could lose whoever it was in the vehicle. Or I was simply imagining things. I truly did not know.

  As Silver drove, the rain came down again.

  I stared in the side-view mirror, not really seeing, when I thought I noticed a pattern with a particular vehicle. I sat up straighter and paid more attention. “Silver, is there a car following us? The white one about two cars back.”

  “I’m not sure. We’ve been on major roads since I first saw it. We’ve made the same turns as others in front of us.”

  I bit my lower lip. Being inside a vehicle, I could not tell if I was being watched.

  “Pull up Watered Down on the navigation system,” Silver ordered.

  “Why?” I swear I would never keep up with his changing topics.

  “It’s probably the safest place we can go right now and I don’t know how to get there from here.”

  I quickly pulled it up for him and sat back to watch the car in the side-view mirror again. We had a while to get to the restaurant.

  ~*~

  The white car followed us through most of the trip. It continued straight when we turned down the street to get to Watered Down. I wanted to breath a sigh of relief, but in truth, I had no idea if they were following us or not.

  When we got into the restaurant, the hostess immediately showed us to a room past the main dining area. It looked to be a private party room. All of the window blinds were closed.

  Vince sat at one of the tables, eying us as we were escorted in. “Got to say your instincts are good. Give me your loaner keys and have a seat.”

  I hesitantly took a seat at a table over from Vince while Silver handed him the keys to our vehicle. He handed a different set to my partner. The Director unnerved me with his stare.

  “I won’t lie - there’s been more than a passing interest in the two of you. Your gear bags have been moved back to the jet. You and I need to talk about the book you held.” Vince kept his attention on me.

  I bit my lower lip when he mentioned the book. I opened my mouth to give a reason and closed it again. There was no excuse for me to have taken it in the first place.

  “Can you read it?”

  I tilted my head at the Director. It was not the line of questioning I expected. “Only the notes, sir.”

  “Silver’s face says otherwise.”

  I looked over at my partner. He turned away from me. I narrowed my eyes at his silent admission.

  Returning my attention to the director, I took a deep breath before I explained, “I can’t read it, sir. I feel like I should, but I can’t. Likely an aftereffect from handling the system.”

  Vince folded his arms. “Sounds like a reasonable hypothesis.” He stood up and went to a door at the back of the room. “Stay alert and stay armed when you can.” Then he left.

  I glared at Silver as soon as Vince was gone.

  My partner raised his hands. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

  I sighed and sat back in my chair, folding my arms and crossing my legs at the ankles. I closed my eyes to focus on figuring out how to deal with the problem at hand.

  We were obviously swapped vehicles. They relocated our gear bags which meant likely the enemy knew where we were staying. Why not cut our downtime short and send us back? “We’re bait, aren’t we?”

  Silver stroked the small patch of hair on his chin. “Probably, but at least we get to have our downtime.”

  I shook my head at his optimism. This trip continued to get more complicated.

  The sound of things being placed on the table caused me to open my eyes. Caradoc smiled at me. “No need to worry, lass. This be a safe place. Your boss told me you were on your way here so thought I’d get a little ahead and get some food made. He left some other gifts for you as well.” The Dwarf nodded at the back door to the room.

  A couple of bags sat next to the door. I raised an eyebrow at Silver who shrugged back at me. He got up to go investigate.

  “Thank you. Sorry we’ve caused problems,” I said.

  “Bah! Been needin’ som
ethin’ to liven things up around here.” Caradoc waved me off. “Eat, relax. A couple of my people be takin’ your loaner for a long drive. See if we can’t confuse the blokes. It be a bit rainy for the beach today. Hope the geology museum was interestin’ enough.”

  I stopped and stared at Caradoc. “How did you know we were there?”

  “One of my regulars works there. We keep an eye out for each other. Now eat and relax. I ain’t be needin’ the function room today so feel free to stay here as long as you’d like.”

  Sighing, I sat up to see what Caradoc brought. I immediately grabbed one of the breaded cheese sticks and started munching. We spent quite a while at the museum and it had been a lengthy drive to get here so I was hungry.

  Silver came back over with the bags, setting them down on one of the chairs. “You’ll probably want to go through yours.”

  “Why?”

  “There’s a note.”

  I gave a soft huff and stayed where I was. The note could wait.

  “We’ll probably need to change also.”

  I raised an eyebrow at Silver. Wiping my hands, I got up to look. He held up one of the bags to me. I took it and sat back down peeking in. An envelope sat on top of fabric. Taking the note out, I set it on the table before carefully picked up the garment underneath. “A dress?”

  Shoving it back in the bag, I tore open the note. There were a few cards inside. The note contained information of where we would be staying and to use the enclosed card to get whatever we needed. I looked at the three cards in my hand. Two were key cards and the other was a generic funds card.

  Grumbling, I grabbed another breaded cheese stick from the basket. “I hate dresses.”

  Silver laughed lightly.

  Chapter 20

  I shifted uncomfortably, tugging the cream colored sun dress to see if I could get it to cover more of my legs. I wore the provided swimsuit to make it not quite so bad.

  Silver took the change of attire to mean we needed to change our normal appearance. He had redone my hair, braiding my bangs back into the rest of my hair and wrapped the small braids around to tie the rest off at the base of my neck.

  Glancing sideways at my partner as we walked toward the next museum he chose for the day, he looked about as comfortable as I did with the tank top, shorts, and sandals he received. He had pulled the top of his hair back, but otherwise left it down. At least his shorts were longer and he got a lightweight sweatshirt to hide the bracers and belt he wore for his weapons and part of his armor. He stretched and clenched his hands again probably from missing his fingerless leather gloves. It was strange seeing him like this.

  Silver glanced at me while I fidgeted again and smirked. “You can leave it alone, you look great.”

  “At least you’re better covered.” I went through the suitcases loaded in the new loaner vehicle - both were packed with similar items.

  “This is not what I prefer to wear, but we should be harder to spot.”

  I looked up at his hair. “We still kind of stand out with our hair color. I might blend in better if we were in the Northern Isles.”

  “Now that you mention it, there were a lot of redheads in Mystic Port. Well, unless you plan on dying your hair, there’s not much we can do. My height could also attract attention.”

  While I was short for an Elf, I still stood taller than the Dwarven population around us, though I could blend in with the tourists far easier. I bit my lip, considering the hair color problem. Plus both of us kept it extremely long.

  “Alright, what are you thinking?” Silver asked.

  “An illusion to at least change hair color, but it would take a lot of concentration to keep it going and I can’t create an illusion bracelet right now.”

  Silver looked down at me with a raised eyebrow. “Such a thing exists? Why wouldn’t they have supplied us with them?”

  “I make them. It takes a couple of weeks because I have to tailor it to the individual. Even with changing only hair color, it could take me a few days since I haven’t made any for a while so I’m out of practice.”

  Silver pulled me to the side. “Only you can make them?”

  “Lockonis can also, but it takes her longer. Because of the time it takes and the cost of materials, it isn’t used very often.”

  My partner pursed his lips. “I guess that’s out of the question then,” he said staring off in the direction of the museum.

  This situation started to feel like what happened in Mystic Port except this time I had some idea of what was going on.

  I jumped when Silver stood directly in front of me and leaned down. I must have stopped paying attention for a minute.

  “Can you focus your invisibility spell on certain items?” he whispered.

  “I, um…” I tripped over my words as he wrapped an arm around my waist. “I’ve never tried it. On what?”

  “My jacket. I dislike not having it when we’re this vulnerable.”

  We left it in the back of the new loaner. “Maybe? I’d have to try it, but it would still show pressing on any clothes you’re wearing underneath.”

  “Might be enough. We’ll talk more later.” He kissed my cheek.

  Once Silver moved away I could breathe again. This man continued to throw me off.

  The entire time we spent in the armor and weapons museum, Silver would make similar gestures, though most not quite so intimate, but it certainly made it hard to concentrate. At least most of his attention was on the displays.

  As he studied an ornamental Elven suit of armor, I sighed and moved away, needing space. A much more flowing outfit caught my attention. It did not seem to provide much in the way of protection, though the craftsmanship was beautiful with curls accenting each piece. The high leather collar and small shoulder guards sat over a blue gown. A thick leather belt formed a large diamond at the front before coming down into the band. Intricate leather bracers finished the ensemble off.

  A Dwarven woman came up alongside me. “Not too many take interest in our Sorcerer’s Armor.” Her shirt told me she worked for the museum.

  “Sorcerer’s Armor?” I had yet to read the information attached to the display.

  She brightened up at my inquiry. “Aye. It’s such a rare piece to find as mages found this to inhibit their castin’ so this type of armor was only ever worn by sorcerers, though the later Elven warmages would wear heavier armor than this. We managed to get the robe recreated for appearance, but the leather is original.”

  I pursed my lips. “How was a sorcerer different from a mage?”

  “Well, lass, the stories about sorcerers were they had an innate ability to wield the arcane. Since being labeled as a sorcerer ended up havin’ a bad connotation, the current day term is Arcanist.”

  My eyes widened at the word Arcanist.

  “Perhaps yer already familiar with the term then. Sorcerers were highly sought after when war broke out. Children who showed to be sorcerers were taken from their families and trained to fight. Didn’t matter what race. They were the hugely destructive force in any military. Many went into hiding to avoid being conscripted.”

  Had my biological mother done just that? I tried to recall the rumors that circulated through the village. The information escaped me. It was too easy to focus on the insults they would throw about us when they thought my mother or I were not around.

  “Even if we had the original robes, the enchantments they used for further protection and to enhance their destructive abilities would be lost to most people. I’m hopin’ we can find some from the other races someday. Be a wonder to see how each developed armor for their casters, though as you can see, our full suits of armor tend to draw in the crowds better.” She gestured to the growing number of people in this room.

  I eyed the crowd warily before returning to the Sorcerer’s Armor. Silver had moved on from what he had been looking at, but had not gone far. “Do you know who this belonged to?”

  The curator shook her head and pointed at a display no
t far. “See that Warmage’s Armor over there? We got it as a donation at the same time. Said it had been left in her care, but the owner never returned after the Racial War ended. It would have been nice to track the history of the armor since an intricate piece like this would have been passed down through the generations of a sorcerer family and the robes would have held the family crest as well as the individual’s insignia. Though I doubt you would see somethin’ like this in use today given the lightweight armors which offer better protection.”

  I raised an eyebrow at my companion. “You said the military took the children. How were there sorcerer families?”

  “Aye, I did. And they did. There were exceptions though. They often left the sorcerer families alone in that regard, but they were required to train their children to fight ‘cause when the time came, you better believe the military would be callin’. For ones not from sorcerer families, issues came up where genetics could skip a generation or give it to one child in a family and not another. And it was easy to take a child from a strugglin’ family. Sorcerer families usually didn't suffer from the genetic issues and would often be required to mate with other sorcerers.” She paused and scratched the back of her head. “Sorry, lass, guess I tend to get a bit excited about this. Most people just want to know about the armor, but there’s so much more behind it. All of them, really. Sorcerer families disappeared after the Racial War for the most part. Can't right blame them after only being used as tools of war for generations.”

  “It’s okay. I think it’s interesting.” While educational, it was also a nice distraction from the chaos Silver and I seemed to have found ourselves in. “Would sorcerers wield weapons at all?”

  My companion’s face brightened. “Some, though most often they were merely tools for amplification. Most favored staves, though a few would carry a lightweight sword or dagger. Wands were rare as those were more preferred by mages.”

  Nowadays few casters carried anything. I itched to have my staff on me, but the dress was too short to cover the holster.

  “I'll be right up,” the curator said, holding down the button attached to her headset. “Sorry, lass, duty calls.”