“You have free reign,” Xiaolang assured her. “Whatever you think will work.”
I found it odd that Xiaolang would encourage violence. He was usually the last to do so. “Is this informant stupid or…?”
“His aura is as dark as a Star Order Priest,” Xiaolang answered with a dark frown. “There’s no need to show mercy to the likes of him.”
Ahhh. I was beginning to see. I exchanged a thoughtful glance with Chatta. I could think of a few things off the top of my head that would make someone talk without actually causing them lasting damage. “Any ideas?”
“A few,” she admitted, a slow smile taking over her face. “So where is this informant?”
“Hazard is sitting on him,” Xiaolang answered dryly.
I hope he didn’t mean that literally, otherwise the weasel informant probably couldn’t breathe by now. Hazard was a large man. “Let’s go,” I urged.
~~~
Xiaolang and Shad led us to a very shabby inn on the poorer side of town. I could tell just from the looks of the place that it was a regular spot for shady dealings. Normally, I wouldn’t have let Chatta take one step near it. Since we had to go in there, I definitely wasn’t going to let her out of my sight. My fingers started twitching towards my bon’a’lon as we crossed the threshold of the building.
I had to blink a few times to adjust my eyes to the dimmer lighting. Even then I couldn’t see much because of all the smoke. My guess was that the chimney was blocked somewhere…or more likely, hadn’t been cleaned properly in a while. It might be a blessing that my vision was obscured. I was pretty sure that I didn’t want to see the occupants of this place, and I especially didn’t want to see what they were doing.
Xiaolang led us straight up a set of rickety stairs that creaked alarmingly with every step. I didn’t breathe easy until we reached the second landing. He ducked into the first room to our right.
I was the last to enter the room, and so shut the door behind me. The whole team was in the narrow confines of the room. Aletha, Shield, and Eagle were sitting on the only bed. A man I didn’t recognize was in the only chair, Hazard looming over him. This must be the informant, then. Shad’s description of a weasel wasn’t far off, really. He had a long, thin face, narrow eyes, and messy colorless hair that obscured most of his eyes. I could smell him from five feet away. Judging from the ragged and tattered state of his clothes, this wasn’t a very prosperous informant.
“Now, Mr. Slate,” Xiaolang said in a deceptively mild voice, “it turns out that I don’t believe what you told me.”
Slate’s eyes were darting around the room in panic. “I can’t help it if what I told you isn’t what you wanted to hear—”
“You were lying to me,” Xiaolang corrected, voice almost gentle.
Slate gulped; obviously he heard the menace in those words as clearly as the rest of us did.
“We’re going to give you one more chance to be truthful.” Xiaolang dropped all pretense of cordiality and let a dark frown sweep over his face. “I suggest you use it. Facing you are a Witch and an Earth Mage. I’ve given them free reign to do whatever is necessary to get the truth out of you.”
I figured this was my cue. I took a step forward, capturing Slate’s attention. His eyes snapped to me, a little wide with fear. His hands, clenched in his pants, were shaking.
“Earth Mage,” he started babbling, the words tumbling over each other so fast I was barely able to catch them all, “Earth Mage he says but there’s only one Earth Mage and that’s the Advent Mage and there’s no way he can be here in front of me—”
“Why not?” I cut him off. Maybe, just maybe, we could use my overblown reputation to scare him into talking without actually doing anything. “You’re an informant, Slate. What’s the information going around about the Advent Mage?”
Slate paused and really looked at me. “H-he’s from southern Chahir…”
“I’m from Tobadorage,” I responded blandly.
Slate’s hands started trembling even more. “He’s a man of n-normal height with long white hair…”
I pulled my hair over one shoulder and waved the end of it in the air.
All of the blood in Slate’s face started draining away. In a reed thin voice he finished, “…and his magic glows green…”
Just for the finishing touch, I created a small, globe-shaped barrier in my palm. It naturally glowed green, as all of my barriers do. I cocked an eyebrow at him and waited.
Slate looked about ready to pass out and hit the floor. Then his eyes hardened and he shook his head, expression becoming distrusting. “You could be tricking me. What I said is commonly known.”
Busted brass buckets, I should of have known this would be too easy. Alright, I guess we were back to plan A. I looked at Chatta, letting the barrier dissolve. “So? How shall we do this?”
“Well…” she drew out the word, clearly thinking. “You could open a nice, deep hole in the earth while I dangle him over it. Maybe if he faces being dropped a mile into the earth, he’ll feel like talking.”
Slate froze and stared at her as if he wasn’t quite sure if he believed her or not.
Shad heaved an aggravated sigh. “Now beautiful, where is your creativity? You can do better than that.”
“Then what do you suggest?” she challenged.
“Turn him into a toad,” he encouraged with all of the enthusiasm of a child.
“Do you know how difficult that is?” she responded in exasperation, apparently oblivious that Slate was watching her as if she had just sprouted flowers out of her ears. “There’s weight and body size to factor in, you know. Condensing a human of Slate’s size into the body of a toad is very difficult. Can’t I do a goat instead?”
“A goat could butt us,” Shad pointed out with forced patience. “I want an animal that can’t do us a lick of harm.”
“Will you two be serious?” Shield demanded, idly weaving a loose thread from his shirt in between his fingers. “How is an animal supposed to be able to talk? The whole point of this is to get him to tell the truth.”
“He’s got a point,” Aletha drawled. “What if you make his body repellant to water, like you did with my cloak?”
“He’d dehydrate that way,” Shad acknowledged, “and probably die from it, but wouldn’t that take a while?”
“About five days,” Chatta stated dryly, “and that won’t work as the charm will repel all water, including what’s in his body.”
“Is that bad?” Hazard inquired in interest. “It won’t kill him, right?”
“Hazard, seventy percent of the body is made out of water, what do you think will happen?”
Hazard gave a slow nod. “A messy death, probably. Okay, it was a bad idea.”
“What about dyeing his skin funny colors?” Aletha suggested, an impish smile on her face. “The embarrassment alone should get him.”
“That works better on women than men,” Eagle objected. “That wouldn’t make me talk, at least.”
“So what do men fear?” Chatta queried archly. “Hair loss?”
All of the men looked at each other. I was the only one that was brave enough to nod and admit, “That is rather an issue…or it would be, if I weren’t marrying a talented Witch.”
Chatta grinned up at me smugly.
“It’s still not scary enough,” Shad objected with a vehement shake of the head. “Come on, people, be more devious than this.”
“Talking like a girl?” Hazard ventured uncertainly.
“That’s sick and just wrong,” I objected.
“I like it!” Shad protested. “Come on, beautiful, give it a try?”
“At least this one’s viable…” Chatta muttered under her breath. She drew her wand from one sleeve and pointed it at Slate. He stared back at her, half ready to bolt, I think, if only he could figure out which direction to bolt to.
When she cast the spell, she did it so low under her breath I couldn’t hear more than the words “feminine” and “li
e.” As she lowered her wand again she told Slate, “From this point on, if you lie, your voice will sound extremely girlish.”
He nervously cleared his throat. “I don’t believe—” abruptly he cut himself off, one hand flying to clasp his throat. The voice had indeed changed, not sounding like his own rough rasp but rather like an eight year old girl’s.
Shad hooted with laughter, slapping a hand against his leg. “Now that’s funny! Go on, Slate, lie some more!”
Xiaolang rolled his eyes. “As entertaining as this is, that won’t get him to talk. All it will do is make him clamp his mouth tighter. Chatta, kindly remove the spell. And this time, I want more sensible suggestions.”
Chatta reluctantly removed the spell. Judging from her expression, she’d found it pretty funny too.
A brief pause fell as we started seriously considering better options. Slate watched us all with bug eyes, like a rabbit would facing a hungry den of wolves. His nerve hadn’t broke yet, but there was a fine sheet of sweat beading on his skin, and I was silently betting with myself that he wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer.
“I could make him reverse in age a year every time he told a lie,” Chatta suggested suddenly.
“That’s not a punishment,” Xiaolang objected. “People want to get younger, usually.”
“Fine, then I can make him age a year when he tells a lie,” she parried immediately. After a pause she added thoughtfully, “Although I’m not sure I remember the spell to reverse it…”
Slate whimpered softly and cringed further into his chair, trying to sink into the wood.
“That’s not fun, either,” Shad objected. “I mean sure, it’s doable and all, but isn’t there something else we can do that’s better? Something’s that more obvious?”
Eagle perked up, staring at his hand with a thoughtful expression. “What about making his limbs grow into disproportionate sizes?”
Quite a few of the team nodded, me included. That was a good threat. I wasn’t sure how practical that would be, though… I looked at Chatta. “Can you do it?”
“Well, I could…” she answered doubtfully. “But it’s really complicated. I’m not sure if I remember the incantation right…”
Slate started to slide out of his seat. With one hand, Hazard caught him by the scruff of his neck and jerked him back upright.
Glancing at Eagle she added, “A better option is for him to simply gain weight instead. Say, he gains ten pounds whenever he tells a lie. Best yet, I don’t have to worry about reversing it because he’ll be able to lose the weight himself.” With an evil smirk she drawled, “Eventually, that is.”
Shad threw a hand up in the air. “I vote for that one! Who’s with me?”
Everyone but Xiaolang and Chatta immediately added in their approving votes. Xiaolang just nodded, fighting a smile, while Chatta drew her wand again.
With a brief incantation—again spoken too softly for me to really catch—and a wave of the wand, she put the spell into place. “Alright, Xiaolang, the basic spell is in place. Tell me when he lies, and I’ll activate it.”
Xiaolang nodded at her before turning his full attention to Slate. “Now,” he said genially, “let’s try this again, shall we? Was there an amateur Mage here not long ago?”
Slate licked dry lips, wide eyes on Chatta. “No.”
“Lie,” Xiaolang pronounced calmly.
Chatta flicked her wand slightly. The result was almost instantaneous. Within a minute, Slate’s right hand grew to about five times its original size. I stared in a sort of repulsed fascination. She had made him gain all ten pounds just on one hand?!
I’m so glad I’m on this woman’s good side.
Slate screeched like a wet, stepped on cat, cradling his suddenly fat hand to his chest. He was staring at Chatta like she was some sort of devil that just appeared to torment him.
Shad and Aletha started cackling behind their hands, thoroughly entertained.
Xiaolang clapped his hands loudly, grabbing Slate’s attention again. “Focus, Slate, or the rest of you will quickly becoming alarmingly obese. Was the Mage here?”
“Yes!” Slate nearly yelled, hunching over his hand.
“Good, we’re going in a better direction,” Xiaolang approved. His tone and expression wouldn’t have been out of place at some formal dinner instead of interrogating a man. “Now, do you know who the Mage was?”
“No.”
“Lie,” Xiaolang observed to Chatta idly.
Shad quickly requested, “Do something beside his other hand.”
Chatta paused, assessing Slate for a moment before shrugging in assent. “Alright. Here, then.”
Slate’s chin quickly developed into four chins, the bottom of which rested against his collarbone. Seeing this rickety thin man with four chins was ridiculously funny. I choked back laughter, hiding a smile behind one hand. Practically everyone else in the room was doing the same thing.
“Who is the Mage, Slate?” Xiaolang patiently repeated. His expression was still bland, supposedly unaffected by the sight in front of him. Really, the man has excellent facial control.
“Tall fellow, about seventeen,” Slate suddenly babbled out, twitching like a cornered animal. “Sandy blond hair, big as a mountain.”
Now we were getting somewhere. We had a physical description, at least.
“What was his name?” Xiaolang asked.
Slate hesitated, face stark with terror. “I-I—”
“Name,” Xiaolang demanded, voice growing colder.
“I don’t know!” the informant blurted.
“Lie.”
Chatta hit his foot this time, which bulged out of the leather of his shoe. Judging from Slate’s wince, the shoe was suddenly much too tight.
“Now, Slate,” Shad put a mock-friendly hand on the informant’s shoulder, making the man flinch. “I’d stop lying if I were you. For one thing, you’re going to have to go through a lot of trouble to get your hand, foot and chin back to the right size. Really, can you imagine what sort of ridiculous exercises you’re going to have to go through? I can’t even imagine what sort of motion you’ll have to do to get your chin right again. Why don’t you just tell us the truth, eh?”
“He’d said he’d put me in an eternal prison of quartz if I told anyone!” Slate was about on the verge of tears.
“Slate, he can’t come back and do that to you; he’s on the run from the Star Priests, remember?” I reminded the man tartly. “Use your brains, man. Now, what was his name?”
Slate stared down at his ten-pound-heavy hand for a long moment. Shakily he whispered, “Lonjaroden.”
I couldn’t help but hiss in triumph. A Lon Mage! I recognized it from the Index. If my memory served me right, then the Lons were originally from this area. Which meant that he had to be from this area.
Well, no wonder the locals didn’t want to talk about the kid. They were trying to protect one of their own.
“One last question, Slate, and you’re free to go,” Xiaolang encouraged with that scary gentle smile of his. “Where was he heading?”
“South, but I don’t know if he had a particular destination.” Slate stared up anxiously at Xiaolang. “Honest, I don’t know more than that!”
“That,” Xiaolang observed dryly, “was definitely the truth. Chatta?”
With a last wave of the wand, she released the spell, allowing all of the extra weight to disappear. Slate slumped with a whimper of relief.
“Well.” Xiaolang gave the informant a coolly courteous nod. “Slate, it was…interesting…doing business with you. Good day.” With a wave of the fingers, he motioned all of us out.
As we all thumped our way out of the room, Shad observed to no one in particular, “We’ve gotta torture people more often, it is almost as much fun as dodging magical fireballs.”
I leaned forward and murmured in Chatta’s ear, “I think we’ve created a monster.”
“No kidding,” she whispered back in despair.
&
nbsp; ~~~
It was all well and good to finally know who we were looking for, and have a description of them, but it still left us the problem of where to look first. Lonjaroden had been heading in a southerly direction when we stumbled across his trail, true enough, but that didn’t mean he stuck with it. We had no idea of what his goal was. He could have headed east or west on a whim and we wouldn’t know it.
The topic at dinner that night revolved around this problem. When dessert arrived we still hadn’t really thought of a solution.
“Garth, can’t you detect him at all?” Shad asked plaintively. “He’s an Elemental Mage, right? That’s close enough to your power that you should be sensitive to it.”
I cut him a sideways glare. “One of these days, Shad, we’re going to sit down and have a long talk about the differences between Mages. For now I’ll say no, that’s not true, and I’m not a bloodhound!”
“The real problem is he’s outside of our immediate range.” Chatta was staring absently up at the ceiling, her thoughts a million miles away. “We need to search a broader area so that we can find his location and then pick him up.”
“Like a Watchman Pool?” Shield suggested.
She nodded in resignation. “Something like that. If we had one nearby that would be very handy.”
From a breast pocket, Xiaolang drew out a very tattered paper. Clearing a space in front of him, he started unfolding it, revealing the map of Chahir he seemed to carry with him at all times. “According to Don, there was a Watchman Pool about a hundred miles from here.”
“We won’t save much time going a hundred miles out of our way just to use that pool,” Aletha observed doubtfully.
“Not riding there, no,” Xiaolang agreed with a pointed look at me.
I could pretty much guess from his expression what he was thinking. “Earth path?”
“Why not? Vonlorisen is advertising our presence in Chahir left and right. I fail to the see the point of restricting magic now.”
I agreed with him and nodded to show my willingness. “Alright.” Seeing Aletha grimace—she hated being down there—I added, “It won’t be much of a trip. A half an hour at most, I would think.”
Advent Mage Compendium (Advent Mage Cycle Book 5) Page 5
