“So you won’t consider eloping?”
“Are you kidding? My mother will kill me.” I shuddered in true horror. “No, I’d rather live a long life, thanks.”
Aletha started laughing, shaking her head in mirth. “Knowing your mother, you’re right. But I’m curious, why haven’t you thought of using Guin to argue your point? You know he’d be delighted to step in and help.”
I actually hadn’t considered that. “I’m not sure if that’s entirely wise…” I finally stated, after considering it from every angle. “Mixing political connections with personal issues never works out well in the end. And I don’t want my future father-in-law feeling like I strong armed him into this. That’ll definitely put us off on the wrong foot.”
“Save it for a last resort,” she advised.
Our food arrived, and we heartily dug in. As I chewed, I ran what Aletha said over and over in my mind. The boys couldn’t be from the city otherwise everyone here would have an idea of who they are. So if not from here, where? The young Wizard would be darn near impossible to track. There were so many families with a rich magical heritage that it would be extremely difficult to trace any of them down. But the Mage…how many families boasted Elemental Mages?
“Garth? What’s wrong? You’ve stopped eating.”
I snapped my fingers. “That’s it. Aletha, we’re approaching this wrong. What we need to do is go back and check the Index and see which families produced Elemental Mages. There can’t be that many; I only remember seeing two or three references. And then from there, we’ll have an idea of who we’re looking for.”
“Now, that is a good idea,” she declared. “Call up Chatta and tell her to pass the word along.”
“Better, I’ll tell Night, and have him pass the message along.” He was the one that could reach everyone, after all. I closed my eyes and focused my thoughts. Night?
“Yes, Garth.”
Aletha just had an insight. I briefly explained what thoughts we had and what conclusion we came to, ending with, Contact the team, will you? Tell them what we think and see if they agree.
“I certainly do. Hold on a moment.”
Opening my eyes, I told Aletha, “He thinks we’re on the right track. He’s telling everyone now.”
“Ummm…”
I turned, looking behind me for the source of that uncertain noise. Our waitress was standing two feet away, her tray in both hands and held close to her chest in a nervous gesture. Now that I was properly looking at her, she was quite pretty in a way, despite the jug ears. I gave her my most friendly smile, the one that said I wouldn’t hit a fly unprovoked. “Yes?”
Her eyes darted uncertainly between Aletha and I. “Are you mages?”
I exchanged glances with Aletha. Apparently the waitress had picked up enough of our conversation to make an educated guess as to what we are. Was it entirely wise to admit to it? She shrugged, indicating the choice was mine. Since Xiaolang had already encouraged me to admit to my status with the gate guard, I hoped it would be safe to admit to it again. “My companion isn’t, but I am. I am Magus Rhebengarthen.”
“Magus…” she whispered almost breathlessly, eyes flying wide. She bobbed a nervous bow. “Thank you for the gift of your name. I am Doreliahan.”
It was obvious she was very nervous. I gentled my tone even more, trying not to scare her. “Thank you for the gift of your name, Doreliahan. Is there something you wish of me?”
“Um…” she bit at her bottom lip, took a deep breath, and blurted out, “Ancient tales held that you could request anything of a mage and they’d do it for a price, is that still true?”
I blinked. A Chahiran was asking a mage for help? And it wasn’t a life or death situation? Maybe the world was spinning counter clockwise today… “Yes, true if the mage believes the request is within reason. What specifically do you need me to do?”
“The kilns for the café are falling apart,” she admitted slowly. “We don’t have the money to replace them and it’s impossible for us to repair them. I can’t pay you much, but if you could just fix one…”
If it meant earning trust for magicians in Chahir, I’d do it for free. I bit my tongue before I said that and just stood. “Show me. If it takes little time on my part, I won’t charge you much.”
Doreliahan perked up a bit at this, looking more hopeful. “This way, please.”
Aletha stood and followed me closely as we were led toward the back of the café. In Hainish, I muttered to her, “Afraid of an ambush?”
“I doubt it will happen, but I’d rather not take chances,” she murmured back. “Besides, if anything happened to you, Chatta would skin me.”
Yes, she probably would. I yanked a smile off my lips and focused on Doreliahan’s back.
All movement stopped in the kitchen as we walked through it. Several people watched us warily as we weaved our way around tables and crates of food toward the back door. Judging from their resemblance to Doreliahan, I took this to be a family operated restaurant. It was a relief when we stepped out into the back yard of the café, escaping all of those wary eyes.
The yard wasn’t big, meant more for storing firewood and doing minor butchering than anything. Off to the side were two brick kilns, and I could instantly see what the problem was. They were badly cracked all over, crumbling in places, and obviously older than the hills. No wonder she said repair wasn’t possible. There were patches on top of patches.
Doreliahan hovered nearby, wringing her hands, as I knelt and did a better inspection. A normal stone mason couldn’t do anything with these kilns, but I was hardly normal. For me, this wouldn’t take much effort. I twisted about and gave her a reassuring nod. “I can fix this. Is there anything in these kilns now?”
She shook her head, smiling in relief. “No, my Lord Magus, not a thing. We had to stop using them last week.”
“Good.” I turned back toward the kilns and focused. From bottom to top, I renewed the stone and mortar, making it over again until it was practically brand new. I heard Doreliahan gasp behind me and I nearly shook my head. Really, if this amazed her, I wonder what her reaction would be to the stories I was famous for? Kilns were a piece of cake compared to creating islands.
It took perhaps a minute to fix both kilns and then I stood up again. “Done. As this didn’t take much time or energy on my part, Doreliahan, why don’t we just say that lunch was free?”
“B-but that’s not enough for payment!” she protested.
“Yes, it is,” I corrected firmly. “Doreliahan, compared to the tasks I’m normally assigned, this was very easy.”
She reluctantly subsided, although I had the feeling she would have continued to argue the point if she could only figure out how.
I smiled at her and gave a half-bow. “And thank you, for having the courage to approach me. I wish more people had the same courage.”
She smiled back, timidly. “Thank you, for your help.”
“Anytime, Doreliahan. And I mean that. At any time, if anyone needs help, all they have to do is ask. I’ll respond.”
She nodded. “I’ll remember.”
“Good.” I was nearly back in the kitchen before I thought to add, “Thank you for lunch, it was quite delicious.”
She didn’t seem to know quite how to respond to that.
Aletha started chuckling once we gained the street again. “That poor girl is so star struck she was completely tongue tied.”
Star stuck? I frowned at Aletha, puzzled. “What do you mean?”
“Great guardians, do you not realize how charming you can be? No, I can tell by that look on your face, you really don’t. Oh dear. Chatta will definitely have to keep an eye on you.” Aletha chuckled, completely entertained.
I turned the last five minutes over in my head, trying to figure out what she meant. Doreliahan had looked pleasantly surprised, certainly, but star struck? “I was just trying not to scare her.”
“Well, you succeeded in that, at least.”
Night’s voice in my head was a pleasant distraction. “Garth, Xiaolang told me to tell you that you’re both brilliant. He wishes he had thought of that earlier. Meet back at the inn now, he wants to go over the Index and see where we should go next.”
Understood, we’ll be there soon. “Xiaolang thinks we’re right,” I repeated for Aletha’s benefit. “He wants us to meet back at the inn now.”
Aletha waggled her eyebrows teasingly. “Lead on, my Lord Magus.”
“Oh, stop that,” I ordered in exasperation.
~~~
We all crowded into Xiaolang’s room at the inn, taking any available surface to sit on. Since there wasn’t much room to begin with, Shad generously offered a knee to both girls. Aletha laughed and took the offer. I was relieved when Chatta refused, choosing to cast a levitating spell on herself instead. Seeing her perfectly at ease, sitting on thin air, was a sight all by itself. Besides, judging from the disappointment on Shad’s face, he would have used her close proximity to torment me.
Since Xiaolang struggles with reading Chahirese, I leaned over his shoulder, making sure he didn’t miss anything. We were both familiar enough with the book that it didn’t take us long to find it.
As it turns out, there was a family nearby that was famous for producing Elemental Mages. The Lon family were well documented in the Index, and were from Findor, a city not an hour away.
Xiaolang tapped a thoughtful finger against the entry in the Index. “Findor.”
“Findor,” I agreed, straightening from where I had been reading over his shoulder. “At least, that’s our surest bet at the moment. He could be from the Rhei family, like Jenna.”
“She’s from much further north, though,” Xiaolang pointed out. “I find it hard to imagine that a Mage, no matter how gifted, could travel this far without being caught and executed already.”
I found it rather hard to imagine as well.
“Alright, people, pack up,” Xiaolang ordered. “I want to be in Findor by mid-afternoon.”
We obediently scrambled, going to our own rooms and repacking our gear.
~~~
We made it to Findor at about two o’clock that afternoon. It wasn’t a terribly large town, about the size of Jward I think, but it was nestled into the crook of three mountains and seemed larger because of it. The size was convenient, as it wasn’t so large that searching for people with magical talents was impossible. I was grateful for this, as it spared me a headache. We were nearly to the front gate of the town when I had managed to finish my search.
“Xiaolang,” I called ahead of me and waited until he turned around before continuing, “no magicians here.”
He nodded, not particularly surprised. “All right. In that case, let’s find an inn to settle in for tonight. We’ll spend the rest of today asking around to see if there really was an Elemental Mage here.”
We followed Xiaolang down the main street, moving at a casual walk. I was not oblivious to the fact that we were gathering attention, but considering our team, that wasn’t unusual. What was rather unusual was the pointing, and the people conferring with each other in low voices.
“I think they’ve already heard about the new laws,” Hazard noted idly to me.
“I rather think you’re right.” I looked around me thoughtfully, gauging the situation. “So what’s the normal procedure for finding information about a person? We’ve always just stumbled across witches, wizards and mages before this.”
“Normally there’s an informant of some sort in a city of this size. Shield and I go to one of the seedier bars and start asking around until we find the right person to talk to.” Hazard shrugged. “The Cap’n will probably do something like that this time around.”
I certainly couldn’t think of a different way to approach the problem.
Have you ever known instinctively that something was off, even though you couldn’t quite put your finger on it? I frowned slightly, unable to pinpoint what was bothering me. With more care for detail, I turned in every direction, intently scanning my surroundings.
“Garth?” Hazard was looking around us too, alert because of my reaction.
“There’s something…huh?!” I instinctively pulled Night to a stop so that I could really look. There was a typical Star Order building on the main road—no surprise—but instead of the iron bars I normally saw on their windows, these were brass. Brass. What kind of an idiot puts brass bars on prison windows? Considering how malleable brass is, even a weak woman could kick her way out!
“What?” Hazard demanded, staring in the same direction I was, obviously trying to figure out why I was reacting the way I was.
“The bars,” I pointed a finger at them. “They’re brass…wait a minute, there’s a trace of Elemental magic on those bars!”
Our actions had not gone unnoticed. Chatta and Eagle turned back and came around to join us in time to hear my last statement. Eagle stared at the bars in question with a sort of piqued interest. “A Mage created them?”
“Transformed them,” Chatta corrected. She was staring at the bars with narrowed eyes. “And the magic here is older than that sapphire building. Which means he’s been heading south…”
“So we traveled in the wrong direction,” I completed the thought with a groan.
“That’s the size of it,” she admitted darkly.
I swallowed the urge to start cursing my luck. Out loud.
Xiaolang trotted over. “What’s the hold up?”
I succinctly filled him in about the bars, ending with, “We went in the wrong direction.”
Xiaolang grimaced. “Well, we came up here more for information than anything else. At least we know he was here.”
That was a positive point.
With a sigh of frustration, our Captain gave a circular motion with his hand. “Let’s find an inn.”
We settled into a modest inn called the Silver Hammer. It was clean, although a little rough on the edges. I gathered from the innkeeper’s expression of delight that his usual patrons were locals who wanted nothing more than ale and food. He was too far off the main roads to attract many travelers. Seeing a party of our size was like hitting an unexpected jackpot.
With our gear in our rooms, and the horses stabled (which included a tired Night) we went back out again, searching for information. We separated in pairs, wanting to cover as much ground as possible. I was pleased when Chatta came with me. Cautiously hopeful about getting some answers, we went toward the west part of the city.
This is where the problems started cropping up.
People were strangely close-mouthed here. They either wouldn’t talk at all about the boys, or they were very vague in the recent events revolving around those brass bars. Even Chatta, with her considerable charm, wasn’t making much in the way of headway. This reaction was so different from all of the other places that we had been in, it just confused me. And then, after talking with several people in a row, a glimmer of an idea started to revolve in my mind.
As we walked away from yet another suspicious person I leaned in close to Chatta and murmured, “Is it just my imagination, or are they acting protective of this Mage?”
“I don’t think it’s just your imagination,” she refuted quietly. Her expression was rather thoughtful. “I’ve gathered the same impression. Do you suppose he’s a local?”
“Odds are good,” I admitted. He didn’t have to be, though. I’ve seen many a hometown that was harsh on their young people showing a magical ability. “I don’t think just talking to people randomly is going to get us anywhere.”
She sighed and gave a glum nod. “I agree. Suggestions?”
“Dinner?” I responded hopefully.
She rolled her eyes, a grin slowly appearing on her face. “Well, I admit it’s more productive than just wandering around aimlessly…”
That settled it, to my mind. Taking her hand, I tugged her back in the direction of the inn.
Laughing, she followed along without a word of p
rotest.
~~~
We were lingering over the remains of an excellent dinner when Shad and Xiaolang showed back up. Just going from their expressions, I would say that their search was just as fruitless as ours had been. They both looked rather irritated. The telling point was that Shad also looked as if he were contemplating mischief, as he had that gleam in his eye that spoke of trouble. Xiaolang, interestingly enough, had the same sort of gleam. It was normal for Shad to be looking for trouble. It wasn’t for Xiaolang. I mentally started bracing myself.
“No luck?” Chatta inquired as they joined us at the table.
“Yes and no,” Xiaolang sighed. He sat back with a groan, the wood in the chair creaking. “No luck from the townspeople, no. We did find an informant that gave us something to go off of, though.”
“That’s good,” I observed cautiously.
“Maybe. Thing is, we’re not convinced that he’s telling the truth.”
“In other words, C2 says the idiot’s lying through his teeth,” Shad translated as he snatched an uneaten roll from my plate, “we just can’t prove it.”
“My empathy,” Xiaolang explained briefly. “I can tell when someone is lying. About half of what I was told was plain lie. The other half…well, I’m not too sure about it either. But he was the only informant we found that was willing to talk to us.”
“Yeah, the rest wouldn’t even pipe up,” Shad admitted glumly. “So, here’s where our sneaky plan comes into play.”
Sneaky plan, was it? Oh boy. I nodded for him to continue.
“See, the informant is your typical weasely, greasy man no one particularly likes. He’d sell his own mother. The only way to get the truth out of him is to scare him.” Shad beamed at Chatta and I in a manner that could only be described as wolfish. “This is where you two come in.”
I had a feeling he was going to say something like that. “You want Chatta and me to scare him into line?”
“Yup.”
“Using magic?” Chatta inquired thoughtfully. She seemed intrigued by the idea.
Advent Mage Compendium (Advent Mage Cycle Book 5) Page 4
