The guard caught up to us within seconds. I focused on the one with the lieutenant’s insignia on his right chest pocket. The green and gold uniform didn’t register with me, so I assumed he was part of some sort of local militia or city guard, as I knew all the major uniforms in Sol. He looked a bit young, probably around my age, and I cursed my luck. An older man would be slower to jump to conclusions.
“Lieutenant, I am Haikrysen, a Fire Mage from Chahir. I am answering a call for help by the City Counsel of Mellor.”
That stopped him. “Fire Mage? Our request was for three witches or wizards.”
“Yes, I know,” I responded dryly. “Perhaps you can explain to me why you wanted three magicians? My control over fire is much better than theirs; wouldn’t I be the more logical choice?”
“Er, well, yes,” he agreed, his eyes still darting nervously to Kaya, “but you’re much more expensive.”
I blinked at him, expression blank. “I am?”
He finally focused on me. “Aren’t you?”
“Guardians, no!” I responded in exasperation. “Who gave you that idea? We charge by the scale of the job, not by how much power we have. Actually, I’ll be cheaper in the long run, as it will take me less time to put out the fires and you only have to pay one person instead of three.”
“Oh.” His eyes went nervously to Kaya. “And the dragon is…?”
“My familiar,” I explained as if it were perfectly obvious. “She’s perfectly harmless to humans; you don’t have to worry about her.”
“Well, be that as it—eek!” he scrambled back a step, spear held out at the ready.
I turned slightly to find that Kaya had shifted closer, her eyes glued to the lieutenant. “Kaya, back up a bit, you’re scaring the man.”
“Stick,” she told me, as if that explained everything.
Stick? Why would the stick be important—I smacked my head. Of course. “Kaya, that’s not for playing with. Lieutenant, would you mind putting the spear down?”
“I-is she feeling threatened?” he asked nervously.
“No,” I drawled, “she thinks you’re going to play fetch with her.”
“Not play fetch?” Kaya said in tones of great disappointment.
“No fetch. Lieutenant, seriously, put the spear away. She likes playing keep-away too.”
He reluctantly did, although I wasn’t sure if he really believed me. “We would have appreciated a bit of warning about your dragon, Magus.”
“My superior sent a letter last night,” I responded as patiently as I could. “Don’t tell me no one got it?”
“Last night,” he repeated with a wince. “Our postal relay stations went up in flames this morning.”
And no doubt my letter had gone up in flames with one of those stations. Figured. I shook my head and moved on. “All right, I think the pleasantries can wait. Where do you need me?”
“Come with me,” he directed with an uncertain look at Kaya. “Mari Wangsgard is the coordinator of all the firefighting units. She’ll know where you need to be deployed.”
I followed him through the town, keeping a careful eye on the citizens as we weaved our way to the main street. Most people were too distracted to really pay attention to Kaya, but the people that did notice usually shrieked and stumbled back. When they saw the gear on her back, they would stop and stare incredulously. Kaya, for her part, stared at everything equally in unabashed curiosity.
Fortunately for my nerves, we didn’t go far into the town. We stopped in front of a small office set just on the main street, door wide open. I would have mistaken it for a postal office of some sort if not for the soot-covered men coming and going rapidly. The lieutenant stepped confidently inside and called out, “Mari! The Chahiran Mage is here.”
For some reason, I expected an older woman with a gruff demeanor. But a young woman stepped outside, probably a few years my senior as she looked to be in her early twenties, with close-cropped dark red hair and a lithe build. She took one look at me, then her grey eyes snapped to Kaya.
“What by the guardians…” she breathed.
“My familiar, Kaya. I am Haikrysen. Ainlie, Mari Wangsgard.” I held out a hand in greeting, the palm flat out in Solian tradition.
She visibly brought her attention back to me, reflexively putting her palm against mine. “Ainlie, Haikrysen. You’re not what we were expecting.”
“I know.” I flashed her a quick smile as I dropped my hand. “But I’m faster and cheaper, I promise you. For now, tell me where you need us.”
“Us, eh?” she shot another look at Kaya. “Right now, I have two trouble spots. One part of the fire is spreading straight for the town. The other is going for the north docks. How fast are you, Magus?”
“If I can see it, I can stop it.”
“Then protect the town first. Give us a half-mile’s clearance at the least. Then go to the docks. We can’t afford to lose either.”
I nodded in understanding. “Kaya, let’s go!”
“Eat fire?” she asked me hopefully.
“All you can stomach, sweetheart,” I promised as I climbed into the saddle.
She gave a high-pitched squeal of delight. I’d barely managed to strap in when she shot upwards, gaining altitude so quickly I swore that I left my stomach behind. We’d practiced everything else I could think of, but I’d apparently forgotten quick takeoffs. If she’d been any faster, I wouldn’t have had the strap properly in place, and probably would have crashed straight to the ground.
Kaya went directly into the smoke burdened air. I had to quickly get out a kerchief from my packs and soak it with water, tying it over my nose and mouth to prevent smoke damage to my throat. She apparently had a natural filter for this, as it didn’t bother her one bit. Something else we had to cover in the future—avoid flying in smoke. The smell of wood smoke was so thick that I could taste it, cloying and sweet in my mouth. My skin was coated in soot in no time. In this thick blackness, I couldn’t see clearly either. I could just catch snatches here and there as the smoke whirled and eddied about. I directed her up a little more and toward the edge of town.
From this vantage, I could clearly see the advance of the fire toward the town. Wangsgard had said at least a half mile break, but I could see further than that from Kaya’s back. My magic welled inside of my chest, hot and filling, like I had embraced sunshine. I brought my magic to the fore, feeling pure power sing along my nerves, but I let it go carefully. Most mages directed their element to cooperate with their mental image—I do something slightly different, where I connect with my element and take the power it has and disperse it. I basically smother it with the force of my magical power, not allowing it enough energy to continue.
I stopped the fire for as far as I could see. Judging that the town would be safe enough for another hour or so, until I could come back and properly put it all out, I turned Kaya toward the lake I’d seen flying in.
She dove like an aerial dancer for the ports, giving me enough visibility that I could stop the fire there, too. With my power active, I reached out with magical fingertips and snuffed it all out, and in the nick of time, as the fire was just licking at the edges of the docks. My magic smothered the flames like a blanket, robbing the elemental force behind the fire to where it naturally snuffed out.
With that danger averted, I turned back to the fire near the town, urging Kaya around again so that I could go farther back. I lost all sense of time as I worked, snuffing whole miles of fire out, extinguishing everything that I could see. My eyes were dry and itching from all of the smoke, and I had a heavy taste of soot in my mouth despite the kerchief. After a certain point, I just couldn’t stand being up in the air any longer. Even with me directing Kaya away from the thickest pockets of smoke, the air up there had become so saturated with it that I couldn’t find any clean air to inhale. I’d promised Kaya that she could eat fire anyway, which she certainly couldn’t do up there, so it was past time to land.
Some five miles away
from the town I found a spot that had a good brush fire still going, far enough away from any habitation as to pose no danger. I left this fire alone and directed Kaya to land near it. She did so with considerable care. I unbuckled myself, dismounted, and turned her loose. She bounced over to the thick patch of fire and started gobbling it down as if it were some sort of rare delicacy.
Lowering the kerchief, I rasped, “Good fire?”
She nodded rapidly, a look of perfect contentment on her face.
Absolutely incorrigible. I shook my head and focused on our surroundings as she munched. This area of Osmar had some forest to it, but mostly it was grassland and farmland in this region. Worse, it had that tall grass that dried out easily in the summer months and so easily catches fire. I was surrounded on all sides by black ground, a few scorched trees here and there. If this was normal, I now understood why they wanted to contract for the season.
When Kaya had eaten more than her fill, I mounted again and we returned to the air. In the time we had been on the ground, no new flames had started, nor any embers been rekindled. We flew over the entire area, twice, to make sure that everything was out. I wasn’t about to do a sloppy job on my very first day. There remained a large amount of residual heat in the ground that skewed my magical sight. It was all cooling, however, and none of it hot enough to generate flame. The worst of it was over.
Satisfied, we headed back into town. This time, our reception was very different. Instead of panic or unease, we were greeted with relief and smiles. Kaya touched down on the docks again, as that was still the only area clear enough to give her room, but we had a welcoming committee in the form of the lieutenant and Mari Wangsgard, as well as a smattering of townsfolk looking on.
Mari had her arms crossed over her chest and a smile stretched from ear to ear. “Well, Magus, you are certainly faster than our methods. From the watchtower, it looks like the flames are completely out.”
I nodded to her in acknowledgement of the compliment as I climbed off Kaya’s back. “We checked twice and didn’t see any hot spots. I think the ground is cool enough to where nothing can rekindle, but I’d like to check again in a few hours to make sure. Fire is too volatile to really predict.”
“We’ll keep an eye on it and call for you if we need to,” she promised. “You and your dragon have earned a rest.” Turning slightly, she gestured to the man on her left. “This is Marten Whitsett, City Counselor. Marten, be you known to Magus Haikrysen.”
I bowed to him politely. “Ainlie, Marten Whitsett.”
“Ainlie, Magus.” Whitsett was slightly portly, with insubstantial brown hair in wisps around his head and very dark skin. He looked like a businessman, and probably had been before becoming a city councilman. “We are quite surprised to see you, but very glad you came as quickly as you did,” he told me with transparent sincerity. “We underestimated how fast the fire was growing. I’m not sure what would have happened if you didn’t arrive so timely.”
“Fortunately for all, Kaya is very fast,” I responded with an affectionate pat on her neck. She preened under the praise, her head tilting to a cocky angle.
“Yes, we were very surprised by your familiar,” he responded with a curious stare at her. “Tell me, however did you catch and bond with her?”
“It’s a long, long story,” I answered with a shake of my head. “First, I’d like to get some water into the both of us. It was very hot work and I’m worried she might be dehydrated.”
Mari nodded to me in reassurance. “I’d a notion that might be an issue. Come, one of the inns has a large enough stable for her and I arranged boarding for the two of you.”
Already? I was impressed by her competence. She’d only known about me three or four hours, as it was just coming onto mid-afternoon, and she’d had enough time during all of this mayhem to think about our welfare?
“Thank you.”
“Follow me,” she gestured to us with a wave of her hand.
I’d taken three steps when I realized that Kaya wasn’t following me. Instead, she intently stared at Wangsgard, nostrils flaring. I looked back and forth between them in confusion.
“Kaya?”
“Friend?” Kaya asked me uncertainly.
Ah. I’d forgotten that Kaya didn’t trust anyone unless I introduced her first. “Yes, sweetheart, she’s a friend. Her name is Mari.” I wasn’t about to try to explain last names to her.
“Mari-friend,” Kaya repeated, head lowering so she could stare Mari right in the eye. “Mari-friend give drink?”
Mari looked a little taken aback that my dragon spoke directly to her, but rallied enough to answer, “That’s right. It’s cool water. You like water, don’t you?”
“Water nice,” Kaya assured her with a happy half-purr. “Play with small Kryses too?”
Mari’s expression went completely blank. Trying not to laugh in defense of my sore throat, I translated, “She calls children ‘small Kryses.’ We stayed at a border town in the north of Sol for several weeks, you see, and the children there all liked to play with her. She thinks now that it’s her job to play with the kids and keep them out of trouble.”
“It’s safe for her to play with children?” Whitsett asked, eyes wide with surprise.
“Perfectly,” I assured him.
“Play with small Kryses too?” Kaya asked again, insistent this time.
“Not tonight, Kaya.” I made my tone firm. “The parents don’t know you well enough. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”
She drooped, let out a heavy sigh, and her mouth formed a long pout. I just rolled my eyes. The big baby.
Wangsgard appeared amused by this but managed not to do more than give a small smile. “Well. I’ll show you to that inn, all right?”
~*~
The inn was a pleasant surprise all around.
The back of the inn sat smack against a warehouse district, and the back stables were large enough to hold Kaya without much of a pinch. They’d given me a room in the back that faced the stables, so that Kaya could look in anytime she wanted to and see me. (I really hoped that this feature would allow me to sleep indoors.)
I saw Kaya properly settled in the back, with a large sheep for dinner and a trough full of water before I started negotiations to allow me to have dinner and a bath. After many promises that I would stay within the building, she let me go.
In hindsight, leaving her to her own devices for more than fifteen minutes in a strange town was a very bad decision on my part.
After I had all of the soot off, coughed up half a lung of black phlegm, and eaten, I went back outside to check on her to find an empty stable yard. I swept the yard twice but it was very dragon-less. All right. Don’t panic. The town wasn’t big enough to lose a dragon in.
I hunted down the first stable hand I could find and croaked, “Where’s my dragon?”
He blinked at me from underneath a cap that had seen better days, scratching at a scraggly chin.
“Don’t know, Magus. She was up on the roof, last I seen her, her nose in the wind.”
Nose in the wind? Some scent had caught her attention? Please tell me she hadn’t gone where all the kids were. She was sure to give several parents heart failure if she had. “Thanks,” I said to him absently as I spun on my heel and started jogging for the main street.
I ran along several streets, dodging people, horses, and laden carts as I went. It all went by me in a flash of bright, brilliant colors and that unrelenting grey stone of the buildings themselves. I could smell different types of food cooking, the unappetizing smell of stables, and the strong scent of freshwater that came from Paswaters Lake. I did not, however, detect anything that told me a dragon was nearby. People gave me quizzical looks but no one stopped me and said anything about a dragon, so I assumed they hadn’t seen her. Really, where had she gone? I didn’t think she could go anywhere in this town’s vicinity without someone spotting her and reporting it directly to me!
I turned a corner, heading more toward
the center of town, when a rather delectable smell tantalized my nose. It was a mix of smoke, roasting meat, and tang of an unknown sauce. I started following it out of sheer instinct. Maybe this was the smell that had caught Kaya’s attention.
With my nose in the air, constantly sniffing, I must have looked like some sort of warped bloodhound. At least, the looks from the pedestrians I passed made me think so.
The smell abruptly grew stronger, wafting out from a narrow side street. As soon as I stepped into the street, I could hear Kaya’s voice ask hopefully, “More fire?”
More fire? What? A little worried, I broke out into a full run, reaching the end of the street in short order. The street dead-ended at an open courtyard, obviously meant as some sort of city park. It had cultivated trees, benches along the outer edges, and a sandy area in the middle to play in. Mostly adults occupied the area, all of them gathered around large outdoor grills setup over stony fire pits. I blinked at the sight of these circular grills, all with men standing nearby, and tables of raw or cooked meat off to the side.
Kaya crouched in the center of the grills, tongue lolling a little out of her mouth, eyes trained on a portly man standing in front of her. At my entrance, she looked over at me, and the tip of her tail thumped happily.
“Krys! Meat-fire! Meat-fire good.”
I blinked in puzzlement. Meat-fire? I scanned the area again. Wait, I’d heard about something like this. It was a Solian tradition or something. Men get together and do competitive grilling. Xiaolang told me about it once. I walked closer, asking the first person I reached, “Er, is this a cooking competition of some sort?”
“Barbecue Cook-off,” the man answered with a wide smile that revealed two missing teeth. His craggy face lit up with an almost childlike glee. “It’s a competition to see who can make the hottest sauce that still tastes like sweet ambrosia. We were a bit worried when your dragon showed up some minutes ago, but she sure has good taste.”
“In other words,” I responded dryly, “she liked your sauce.”
His chest puffed out. “Sure did.”
Dragon's Mage (An Advent Mage Novel), The - Raconteur, Honor Page 7
