Strangely calm despite the news, Cor’Dargan simply nodded as he replied, “They were bound to think of that sometime. I am actually surprised that Malaketh didn’t try it sooner.”
“Does that mean I have to stay here, father?” the little blond haired dragoness looked the epitome of a human girl being told that she was grounded. Colbie noted the disappointment on Cheleya’s face and wondered if her father was going to make her miss supporting Tilana, who was only competing because they had come here for Cheleya. “I would hate to disappoint my friend by not showing up to cheer for her.”
Knowing that such things as competitions were of little importance compared to her safety, everyone expected Dargan to tell her she couldn’t leave for now. Instead the dragon gestured to Lystheir, who drew out a small pouch. Pulling the draw string to open the little bag, the wizard emptied a dozen rounded stones. Glossy and smooth as marbles, the stones were all a pale pink.
“What are those? Are you going to summon a golem army?” Evantus asked sarcastically, but somehow Colbie thought he might be serious.
Cor’Dargan shook his head at the notion and stated, “We need to distract the trackers to sneak out of this part of the city. Cheleya will cast a charge of her magic into each one. Then we find women similar to her shape and age to plant them on so, as they move through the arches, they will draw the mar’goyn’lya away. None of them know what you look like, but will be chasing your magical aura.
“Give them something to find and they will desert their posts long enough to slip their trap.”
The plan seemed worthwhile to try but, as Cheleya worked to imbue the stones with her energy, Colbie suggested a revision to his plan, “You don’t actually have to just give them to women. If men or children were to be carrying the stones, they might believe Cheleya was trying to slip by using a stealth spell.
“You do learn invisibility and stealth magic. Don’t you?” the mage added realizing that one of the standard spells a battle mage would learn wouldn’t necessarily be something that the school in Mar’kal would teach as basic magic.
Nodding in her distraction over the marbles, Cheleya mumbled as she finished the fifth stone, “Most beginner classes teach those spells, yes. Using people they wouldn’t expect might very well confuse them more than young women, especially if Malaketh and Mor’treya are watching. They would know my face, since I have always looked like this as a human.”
Dargan nodded to Lystheir. The tracker appeared intrigued by the idea as well. Her magical skills were normally used for hunting animals, but hunting people with magic was proving to be the ultimate challenge. She was on the defensive, but the creativity of Dargan and the mages of Staron was making an intriguing game of cat and mouse.
“Done,” Cheleya announced placing the last marble on the soft leather of the pouch to prevent them from rolling off of the table.
Colbie thought of another part of the equation and asked, “Do your trackers use anything to communicate with each other over long distances? Like do they have something similar to the lodestone Cor’Dargan gave to Fa’Elenek to find him in the city?”
Lystheir considered the question and replied, “Hunters often use devices similar to those used for locating gates or clear crystals like magic lodestones. They stroke them with a flow of their magic and the others will see the one activated to follow the signal. We brought them along, just in case, so it is likely that they might use them to alert the others when they find you.”
“So they would know if someone thought they had spotted her and come running. Should we load our distractions towards the far side of city or do we risk having someone we bug lead them to us by accident?”
Evantus sat looking unhappy with the whole situation. “If they are separated, we could just capture them individually and turn this whole thing around,” he grumbled. “I mean, they are separated to cover these gates. At most, two will be together in any location.”
“And how will you explain that to the local police and wizards?” Colbie retorted in disbelief.
In a calmer voice, Cor’Dargan added, “Your friend is most likely correct. They have papers to enter the city and track down their quarry. The council said that Malaketh was chasing thieves to bring back for trial. I doubt that anyone will dispute their validity and we would be the ones in trouble for attacking them.”
Sighing irritably, Evan cast his hands out in exasperation, but Colbie knew that he would follow the plan. While the younger mage could be disagreeable to those in authority, once on his mission he never deviated from accomplishing what he set out to do.
“So will we find people to carry these or just plant them on someone without them suspecting?” Colbie asked wondering at whether planting a magic marble on someone could be construed as a crime.
Cheleya answered first, “Perhaps a little of both.” At their looks, she expounded on her idea.
Taking a deep breath, Evantus released it again as a big sigh. As a battle mage, he could be stealthy or fight, but playing these spy games was a true bother. The man often wondered why he let Cheleya and Colbie talk him into these things. Well, he had to confess, maybe there were a few obvious reasons.
“There by that farm stand,” Fa’Elenek stated pointing at a large man leaning against the side of a building half obscured by the inclined tables covered in vegetables and their canopied roofs above. His dusty brown hair covered his eyes with haphazardly hanging bangs as he chewed on a stick waiting for his quarry to show. “That is Ev’erelias. He isn’t their smartest or strongest in magic though he is physically powerful. If you have to use his name, you’ll probably have more to worry about than remembering his name.”
A pair of marbles was placed in the mage’s hand.
“So I just walk past him?”
With a nod, Elenek replied without taking his eyes from the other tracker, “Once you are clear of my masking field, they will become noticeable to his senses. They only know Cheleya by her magic and scent. If this works, head down to the next market area and plant the marbles. I’ll catch up to you if he falls for it.”
“Alright, let’s get this over with quickly. I still need to run all the way over to the duel ground to see Tilana fight,” the mage stated moving into a brisk walk towards the inner city gate.
Trying not to look in the direction of the mar’goyn’lya in his human guise, Evantus simply acted like he was in a hurry and moved towards the open gate. Though it was a gate, this wasn’t one that required any actual guards and there were no check points to wade through. Simply walking through the open gate, the mage was quickly heading down the street towards the next set of vendors a couple blocks away from the wall.
His senses were heightened with a spell of his own and Evan knew when the tracker slowly took the bait. He had hesitated seeing no one like the description of the girl as told to him by Malaketh. The mage didn’t hesitate or slow. Knowing how a tracker would work what he felt into the rationale it would take to get him to follow the bait, Evan knew it would only take a moment before he would worry that his quarry had slipped past him and was moving quickly away.
The tracker pushed away from the wall after the mage was through the gate and pressed his thumb against a clear crystal channeling a light amount of magic into it. He was calling in back up to help him corner Cheleya and trusted his magical senses would bring him to the girl even if his sight had been fooled.
Following the bending road until he had to cut around a corner formed by the buildings’ shifting grids that were designed to delay and annoy invaders, Evan soon found the market in question. He looked around wondering how he should rid himself of the marbles. A clue to that end presented itself in the sight of several children playing near the stands. It was still early and few were shopping around the bored looking hawkers and their wares.
Evantus noted the children playing were less interested in each other and the game they played as they were the people walking by the stands. Guessing that they were most likely street urch
ins looking to snag coin from the unwary, the man began to play with the two marbles in his hand. He paused beside a stand with gold necklaces, most likely fake, but he wasn’t there to judge or buy.
“Good morning, young man. Aren’t you going to see the tournament matches today? You look like a man who would enjoy the wizards playing at combat,” an older woman greeted the man trying to see if he was interested in anything on her table.
Giving the woman a smile, Evan nodded, “I was just whiling away the morning until my friend’s match time. So you have quite a few simple chains, do you have anything with say a gem stone attached to a strand?”
“Oh, you must have a sweetheart. Well, that is no surprise, since you are a handsome devil. I do have some medallions and jewelry settings that you can add to any of the strands on the back table. Unfortunately they are in a case to keep little hands from taking them too easily,” the woman glanced at the children with a bit of disgust. “The constables can’t seem to catch them and when they actually do they can’t keep hold of them because they are just children. Make sure you keep a hand on your coin purse or wallet if they come near,” she warned directing Evan to a table glassed over and secured with a lock.
Setting the marbles on the edge of the table, as if he was distracted by the merchandise the vendor was showing him, Evan set the bait and moved towards the jewelry. The children ran forward as a group being chased by the littlest one pretending to play tag.
“Hey, you kids keep away from my stand!” the woman scolded the kids that scattered from the little one and bumped into the tables and people on the street as they ran. She looked at Evan worriedly as the children disappeared along with his shining marbles. “Make sure that you still have your wallet. Those children have sticky fingers and you might be lighter now.”
Evan checked for the pouch he had tied to his belt. It was a small pouch meant to hold coin and all that remained were the cut strings. Looking annoyed, the man cursed, “I am sorry, madam. It looks like they stole my coin pouch. Perhaps after I replace my coin I can return after I have these children arrested!” He raised his voice and looked out into the street searching for the street rats.
Sighing sadly, the merchant shook her head and commiserated as she said, “I hope that you can get the guards to help. They aren’t that good at it at the best of times and with the tournament running I hazard a guess that they will be even less inclined to truly help. Besides that those kids will probably spend your money faster than they can be caught.
“Well, thank you for looking and I hope that you can come back.”
Turning back the way he had come, Evan spotted the man with the dirty blond hair searching carefully for the trace of Cheleya and more importantly the girl in particular. He never even glanced at the mage and even passed by as he followed the magic of the imbued marbles.
Elenek, on the other hand, seemed to magically appear after he had walked nearly a block back towards the inner city.
“You found a way to ditch the bait?” he asked quietly and directed Evantus toward an alleyway that would lead them back by a more discreet path. If the trick had worked, then more of the trackers would be on their way and the che’ther might be noticed by the others looking for Cheleya.
Nodding in answer as he followed the wizard’s back, Evantus made sure to pass on his news proudly, “He’s following some street urchins. I let the kids steal from me, so they’ll probably be some distance before he finds them. If they think that he is trying to catch them, they might even keep running for awhile.”
“Good, that should buy us some time then,” was all Fa’Elenek would say on the matter. “We’ll meet the others near the temporary north gate and see if it is clear then.”
Wishing to get a little more credit, the mage added, “I even let them think they had stolen coin from me to add to their willingness to run. All they got was a small bag of stones that I found in the street, but if the little thieves don’t look too soon they’ll think that I want to catch them.”
The che’ther didn’t even bother to acknowledge his devious maneuver.
Evantus gave up and simply hurried after the tracker letting his senses read the area looking for anyone else that might notice.
Trying to wait patiently with Colbie and her father behind the last building on the street before the inner gate, Cheleya wanted to sigh as she wondered once more at all that these people were doing to protect her. Malaketh was in the city and breathing down her neck. Though no one had said it aloud, Kel’lor had nearly died and she doubted that it was an accident that he had suddenly lost control of his magic. While the wizards of Hala might believe he had lost the will to live and attempted suicide from draining away his magic, she knew him too well to believe that.
In the moments of silence left to her rarely by the others, her mind often came back to that. Kel’lor’s life had been in the balance all because of her, or more to the point, what Malaketh had done to her. The fact that her former master had already proved that he could control the minds of masters with his amulet left her questioning if he had found her spiritual brother and made him use up his power.
No one had said anything to Colbie about the incident beyond the strangeness of his act. Kel’lor hadn’t been in danger of dying and hadn’t seemed to be in anymore pain than he had been when he arrived. If there was no sudden pain increase or perhaps madness from the poison, then that left outside forces creating the impetus for the mar’goyn’lya to nearly kill himself. If not for the wizard from another land visiting the hospital, she wondered if the wizards of Southwall would have been able to save him at all.
Noting the girl’s unusual solemnity, Colbie touched her arm in an attempt to comfort Cheleya. The dragoness had been studying humans long enough to know the meaning behind the touch and half smiled in reply. No one felt like talking as the three waited.
Fa’Lystheir had moved to the far end of the building using stealth and invisibility spells. While she was no longer close to Cheleya to mask the girl’s magic aura, her father held the spell over her in the tracker’s absence. Though the mar’goyn’lya were actively searching for the girl’s presence, Lystheir was known to them and had to continue masking herself, including hiding her face from the tracker standing near the northern, inner gate.
When the time came that the che’ther tracker returned releasing her invisibility as she came around the corner, the girls both jumped in surprise. Colbie went so far as to have her shrike sword nearly out of her scabbard in a blink before the mage realized who it was before them.
Unblinking and unapologetic, Lystheir casually stated, “Stas’kel has moved off towards the southern gate. It looks like they have fallen for the bait Evantus has given them.”
With a brisk nod, Dargan gestured towards the gate hidden by the building they had hidden beside and urged, “Then we might as well head towards the north exit. We don’t know how long they will remain deceived and we need to keep an eye out as we walk there in case someone was at the third station as well. If they all follow the first tracker, then we will be able to leave the city easily enough.”
Following her father and Lystheir, Cheleya leaned towards Colbie and quietly said, “This might work for today, but I can’t imagine that they will allow it more than once. These are trained trackers. I heard stories of enemies captured from half a continent way and in major cities like Hala. Expecting such tricks to work on them would make us naive at best.”
Colbie gave her a smile and shook her head, “You forget that you are fighting a tracker with a tracker. With Lystheir and Elenek helping you, and your father of course, it is a different kind of chase than they might have with a normal wizard or common thief.
“While you might be right, let’s at least try and enjoy the day since it seems to have worked.”
Giving her a reluctant nod, the blond adjusted her cloak and pulled the hood into place over her brightly colored hair. They didn’t expect to be able to hide the dragon mage from the trackers usi
ng magic, but they might get lucky if they saw her and there were still Mor’treya and Malaketh that could spot her wandering the city.
The second gateway was handled similarly to the first. While they waited for Lystheir to search the area for any of the search party, Evantus and Fa’Elenek caught up to them using the lodestone given to him by Cor’Dargan.
Searching their faces curiously, Evan asked the girls, “How did it go?”
“It worked perfectly, of course,” Colbie retorted with a roll of her eyes. The answer seemed obvious to her, but Evantus often asked questions like that. “Our gate guard disappeared headed your way in a hurry. He obviously believed your tracker when he signaled him that Cheleya was in the other direction.”
Looking happy with himself, the mage replied, “Well, I think I did a pretty good job of passing on the marbles too. You see, I noticed these street urchins...”
A raised hand from Colbie silenced the man in midsentence as she noted the return of the tracker from the gate.
“All clear,” the dragoness tracker confirmed and the remaining group hurried towards the open passage.
Evantus looked ready to continue the conversation, but the two young women were already talking to each other about other things. With a big sigh, he fell in behind the girls keeping his eyes open for anyone looking suspicious. Unlike the che’ther, the mages from Staron didn’t know what the trackers looked like, though Evan did know one that he had seen at the gate now. Once again he thought of how the che’ther looked like any other man thanks to his amulet. The ability of their magic to look like a human and yet knowing they were much larger, and in the case of the dragons not even vaguely human in shape, was mind blowing even for someone who could use magic.
“Come on, Evan. Don’t pout. You can tell us how you lured the tracker away and fooled him so well once we get to the dueling field,” Colbie said reaching for his arm and pulling the distracted man after her.
Battle Mage: Dragon Mage (Tales of Alus) Page 38
