“All around, actually.” Her eyes lit up, hands moving to add emphasis to her words. “I had a thought last night. With your and Kaya’s skills, I think you can do more than just firefighting. I think you can do a lot of jobs in this area, perhaps even act as a support to the search and rescue teams up here. But I don’t want to talk you into any of this until you see the terrain you’d be working in.”
Working with search and rescue? Now there was a thought I hadn’t entertained. It had appeal, though. “I’m certainly interested.” I waggled both eyebrows in a mischievous manner. “So, this isn’t a ploy to get a free ride from Kaya, is it?”
Her expression went perfectly blank. “I can ride her?”
“Hmm. I take that as a no. Yes, Mari, you can ride her. Don’t look surprised—she adores people.”
“Well.” She cleared her throat lightly. “I thought I’d drag you to the top of the watchtower and try to show you that way…I admit, this sounds more fun. Er, I should probably change out of this skirt, though.”
A thought that had not occurred to me, but now that she mentioned it… “Yes, probably. I’ll catch Kaya and saddle her. How long do you expect this tour to take?”
“I’ve never flown before, so I have no idea.” She leaned out to look up at the sun. “It’s getting close to mid-day. Why don’t I pack a lunch for us as well?”
An afternoon of flying with a pretty woman and home cooked food? This day was just getting better and better. “Please do. Don’t worry about Kaya—she’s having fun fishing for herself out of the lake.”
Mari let out a breath of relief. “I’m glad you said that—I had no idea how to pack enough food to feed her. All right, then I’ll be back here in a half hour or so.”
“Meet you at the docks?” That being one of the few places that Kaya could take a clean takeoff from.
“That’s fine.”
I waved her out and went to find Maese. I needed to tell him I wouldn’t be around for the rest of the day before I ran home and cleaned up a little. There was no way that I was going to stink of sweat around Mari.
~*~
When Hortin and I had designed the saddle, I’d had a vague notion that I should make it large enough to fit at least one more person, just in case I ever had a passenger in the future. With Mari being so slender, she fit in easily behind me, her arms wrapped around my waist for balance. She actually didn’t need to hang on to me—the wide leather strap was enough to secure her in place.
I was not about to tell her that.
Without a sky of black ash to obscure my vision, I could finally get a good look at the lay of the land. The area around Mellor actually resembled the Chahiran border in an uncanny way. Flat grassland made up most of it, albeit a tougher, greener grass than Chahir had. There were stands of small groves of trees here and there, nothing large enough to call a forest. With all of the flat land, a great many ranches and farms were spread out from the city’s limits.
Once we flew past the Solian border, we saw more craggy hills and less trees, the land becoming drier and more desert-like. The hills lost their soft, rolling quality and became sharper.
“We lose caravans and travelers up here all of the time,” Mari yelled near my ear, a hand extended to point out a narrow, switch-backed road winding between the hills. “There are certain seasons where we have flash-floods through here, which washes the area out. People either get stuck, or they don’t pack enough water along and get sick from dehydration, or they get attacked by bandits.”
Trying to make sure she could hear me, too, I turned my head and yelled back, “So you’ll need Kaya and I not just for rescues, but also for border patrol?”
“That would help. I mean, with Kaya being so fast, you could just do three trips a day up here, take a quick sweep of the area, and tell us if there are problems. Just having a dragon regularly patrolling the area would scare off the bandits.”
I chuckled. Yeah, no bandit in the world really wanted to tangle with a two-ton, fire-breathing dragon.
Really, Mari had several points. We’d barely been up in the air any time at all and had already crossed half the distance of the lake. A full sweep of the area wouldn’t take more than an hour or so at a time. Just three hours a day and we’d have a nice side job and another source of income. Of course, that side job would sometimes take up whole days at a time, but I could live with that.
“I think we’ve seen enough. Let’s land and have lunch,” I suggested over my shoulder, giving an illustrative finger pointing at the ground. Mari gave a thumbs up in reply.
I urged Kaya to turn and fly down to the sandy beach. In this area, there were only a few stunted trees lurking near the edge of the lake. It left plenty of room for Kaya to land and take off, and the view of the lake made a pretty spot for a picnic.
Kaya landed gently, careful of her passengers. We unloaded everything and I even unsaddled her so that she could dive in and out of the water without soaking the leather. She launched back into the air as soon as she had been freed, scanning from the air like a predator bird for any movement in the water.
I left her to her fishing and spread out the lunch Mari had packed on a well-used tarp.
“The tarp was all I could find,” Mari apologized as we sat down on it.
“It’s actually better than a blanket,” I assured her with a smile. “I mean, this beach is a little rocky. I think a blanket would be torn up here.”
Mari blinked. “Good point.”
I didn’t care what I sat on. The food took first priority. Mari turned out to be a good cook. She had fish sandwiches, a berry cobbler of some sort, and crisps with a hint of barbecue sauce. I loaded up my plate with a smile of anticipation.
“Krys, do you think you’re willing to do both search and rescue as well as border patrol?” she asked as she loaded up her own plate. “It’s a lot of work.”
“Sure, but—” I didn’t have to see it. I could feel the heat, hear it when she drew in a deep breath as she always did. I had a fireball heading toward the back of my head.
All right, well, the panicked expression on Mari’s face was a pretty good clue too.
In sheer instinct I caught it, letting it spin off harmlessly into the sand. Carefully, I put down my lunch, slowly standing and fixing a suspicious stare on Kaya.
“Are you starting something, young lady?”
Far from being abashed, she crouched, her whole back end wagging in anticipation. Then, with practically no warning, she shot another fireball at me.
I caught it in one hand. “Oh, so that’s how it is? You’re on.”
“Wait, Krys, what’re you—” Mari started to protest, half rising from her seat.
I didn’t bother to stop and explain. For one thing, when Kaya was in this mood, she didn’t have a lot of patience. I doubt she’d give me the chance to explain anyway. It took two seconds to erect a barrier around Mari so we didn’t accidentally fry her and then I started chucking fireballs back at Kaya as quickly as I could form them. Kaya either dodged them or ate them, spitting fireballs back at me as she could.
Kaya let loose a particularly big fireball, catching me by surprise, and I had to drop quickly to the ground to avoid being scorched. In retaliation, I let two flames off in quick succession before dumping a larger one on top of her head.
Quick as you could blink, she twisted her head and snapped it up in her mouth. Her tongue lolled out of the side of her mouth. “Too slow!”
Oh, so she was laughing at me, was she? All right then how about this? I rolled back up to my feet, hitting her with fireballs in every possible direction. She dodged them all, of course, like an aerial ballerina.
After several minutes of exchanging some pretty intensive fire, it came down to a matter of stamina. I got a bit winded, and paused for breath when I shouldn’t have, and in that moment she pounced.
I hit the sand with a thud, this two-ton grinning creature pinning me with one paw. “I win.”
“I’ll get you l
ater,” I promised her direly, letting my head thump back onto the sand.
“Ha!” Clearly, she didn’t believe that. Happy with her win, she bounced up and off toward the water, where she splashed around in the water like an overgrown puppy.
With a groan, I rolled back to my feet, brushing off sand as I went back to the picnic. Mari was apparently over her surprise and grinned from ear to ear.
“That,” she observed in amusement, “has to be the most intense version of dodge-ball I’ve ever seen. Do you two play that often?”
“Whenever we’re in an area that’s not flammable,” I answered, dropping back into my seat and picking up my cold lunch. “It’s one of Kaya’s favorite games.”
“I can see why. It looks like a lot of fun.”
“You can join in next time, if you like,” I offered ingeniously.
“I think I’ll stay on the sidelines,” she drawled back archly, “thank you very much.”
“Wimp,” I responded and then ducked when she threw a waded napkin at my head. Trying to regain some dignity, I took a sip of water from a canteen before saying, “To answer your question, I think we can take on both. Neither job is full-time, or even part-time. The search and rescue you’ll only need once in a while. The border patrol is only three hours a day. I’ve committed a half-day with Maese, which leaves me time to do the rest of it easily. Even then, he doesn’t even need me that much. If you call me, he won’t be upset.”
She watched me with unfathomable eyes for a long moment, head cocked. “Are all Chahirans such workaholics? Or is it mages?”
“Combination of both,” I answered dryly. “My parents certainly taught me how to work. Being a mage just took it to a whole new level.”
“That attitude will serve you well here.” She took a bite of her sandwich, swallowed, and added, “I’ll introduce you to the right men when we get back so you can start.”
Chapter Seven: Jobs
We settled into life pretty well in Mellor. Kaya and I now had three jobs between the two us—firefighter, border patrol, and smithing. Between all three incomes, we were sitting rather pretty. In between juggling my various jobs, I took the time to properly establish the shipping building as “home.” I drafted Mari’s help in this process more than I actually needed to. She had a good eye for interior decorating, don’t get me wrong. I just capitalized on any excuse I could think of to spend time with her.
I thanked the guardians my siblings weren’t around to tease me ruthlessly about my crush.
I had a comfortable apartment now, fully furnished. The kitchen had everything I needed to cook and clean with, the bedroom had a rather large feather bed with a stout chest of drawers, and the living area had a comfortable collection of chairs for relaxing. I even had one room turned into a guest room with a spare bed just in case anyone decided to visit me.
Kaya took care of decorating her half of the building. She picked up bits of cloth and worn-out pillows from all around the city and stacked them up like some magpie’s nest along one wall. She had me build her shelves along another wall, deep ones that could hold all of her “pretties.” I had an uneasy feeling about those shelves. She didn’t expect me to fill them for her…did she?
While I worked at Maese’s, Kaya played with the children. It’d taken several days for the parents to get used to the idea of a two-ton playmate, but once they’d seen how very careful Kaya handled their children, they’d relaxed their guard. Actually, Kaya became the town babysitter—nothing would happen to a child on her watch, she wouldn’t allow it. I snuck down to watch one day for a few minutes, and had to bite back a laugh at the sight. Kaya was playing some Solian version of keep-away. She had four children wrapped up in her forearms, holding them captive, and the rest of the children were enthusiastically trying to free them. She’d snatch any of them that were too daring and got too close, but sometimes a child would squirm free and dart away.
I couldn’t figure out how they kept score (unless the object of the game was to have the most children?) and it seemed they were perfectly willing to go ‘round and ‘round until sheer exhaustion dragged them to a stop.
One of the things I built in Maese’s shop was a large bell that hung just outside of Mari’s office. Because I didn’t live in the city, but outside of it, there was no quick way to alert me of a fire. The bell solved that problem: three rings, and there was a fire. Two rings, and it was some other problem they needed my help with. Aside from being an efficient way of calling for me, it also allowed me to sleep like the dead. I didn’t need to worry about sleeping through a call for help, not with how loud that bell rang.
Even with these measures in place, it was still a surprise when the bell rang out and jerked me out of a sound sleep.
I startled awake so badly I half fell out of bed. Only catching the edge of my nightstand in reflex saved me from crashing to the floor. I hadn’t yet gotten my feet under me when Kaya stuck her nose through my bedroom door, nostrils flaring.
“Krys! Bell! Fire!”
“I hear it.” I threw on the first shirt at hand, stuffed my feet into a pair of boots, and sprinted for the door.
Kaya didn’t have the patience to wait for me to saddle her. She just grabbed me up with one arm, nosed the doors open, and launched herself straight from there. I grabbed onto her collar to steady myself. The cool night air hit me like a sledgehammer, making a shiver dance along my skin. Busted buckets, I wish I’d paused just two seconds to grab a jacket… Not to mention I hadn’t had time to tie my hair up, so it now whipped around my face and nearly blinded me. Swearing, I caught it all up in one hand, as best I could, and tried to clamp it down. Even as I wrestled with my unruly hair, my head pivoted about to see if I could spot the fire. Nothing on the outskirts, where there were usually breakouts, wait…there! In town? A house fire?
“Kaya!”
“See it,” she assured me, already banking left.
The house in question belonged to one of the more affluent members of Mellor, standing three stories tall. I remembered it vaguely, as I had passed by it once to deliver something for Maese. It was a well-kept place, belonging to a young entrepreneur with three children, I believed. As we got closer, I realized that the wife and two of the children were in the front of the house, near the center of the drive, clinging to each other and crying. I frowned in growing alarm. The husband? I might’ve been wrong about the number of children, maybe that was all of them, but where was the husband?
Then out of my peripheral vision I saw something that made my blood boil. Two men dressed in black with masks tied over the lower half of their faces were dragging heavy bags away from the house. I didn’t need anyone to explain the situation to me—I now recognized the situation for what it was. Two sneak thieves had set the house on fire to set a diversion and used the chaos to steal anything they could lay hands on.
“Kaya, do you see those men?” I asked her while pointing in the direction of the fleeing criminals.
“See them,” she assured me.
“They’re bad men. They set the house on fire.”
Her eyes narrowed to dangerous slits and steam started streaming out of the corners of her mouth.
“You catch them while I deal with the fire.”
“Will,” she purred with dark promise. “Down?”
“Yes, put me down first.” I braced myself as she came in at a fast and breath-taking speed. To avoid falling face first, I landed in a half-run, my legs jarring a bit at the impact. Kaya kept flying, the speed of her rapid ascent causing my loose hair to fly about my head.
I put the criminals out of my head and focused on the fire. It had been fairly contained to just the east side of the house, on the ground level, but in this dry air it had quickly spread upwards. I sucked the heat of the area out, cooling it until the flames snuffed out.
The young mother rushed to me, catching my arm with hands that trembled. In the twilight, I could barely see her features. Only the flowing nightdress she wore and her wi
spy hair really made an impression on me.
“Magus, my husband! My husband went back in there!”
“I’ll find him,” I assured her even as I started running for the open front door.
The house was a mess. Smoke seemed to be everywhere, and even though the fire was out, the heat of it still lingered. I dragged my shirt up and over my nose, preventing some of the smoke from entering my lungs. Some furniture still stood where it should be, but other pieces were knocked over or scorched black. I couldn’t see anyone as I dashed from room to room.
“Hello? Is anyone in here? Hello!”
“Here,” a voice answered, half-choked around a cough. “Here!”
I followed the sound around another bend in the hallway. Coming slowly my direction were two men, one supporting the other. The tall, younger man with the black hair I took to be the master of the house. The middle-aged man with the receding hairline he supported I had no knowledge of. A servant or visiting relative, perhaps?
“The fire is out,” I assured them both as I walked towards them. “Here, let me give you a hand.”
“Thank you,” the older man responded, lifting his right arm to put around my shoulders.
I couldn’t immediately see anything wrong with the man so looked up at the master, expression questioning.
“My uncle,” he answered. “He’s been down with a nasty illness these past few weeks and has no strength. I didn’t think he could make it outside on his own.”
Judging by the way the man leaned on me that was a good call. “Sir, I can carry him outside.” The man didn’t weigh hardly anything. “If you would go ahead and reassure your wife and children that you’re fine?”
“I’ll do so, thank you. Uncle Jes, is that all right?”
Uncle Jes waved him on. “Go, go.”
With a final nod of thanks to me, the man jogged ahead and out of sight.
While supporting a man this way would eventually get us out of the house, there are much faster methods. “Sir, if you don’t mind, why don’t you just ride on my back? It will be less taxing on you that way.”
Dragon's Mage (An Advent Mage Novel), The - Raconteur, Honor Page 9
