I trusted her judgment on this. “Let’s do that, then.”
She leaned forward, putting her face inches from mine, and dropped her voice to a conspiratorial tone. “Just between me and you, how powerful are you?”
I met her eyes without flinching as I answered quietly, “Between me and you…I can level this city without breaking a sweat.”
Her eyes flared wide. “That’s….”
“Unimaginable?” I finished for her with a humorless smile. “That’s the power of a mage. Why do you think they’re so nervous about me? If I ever lose control, or go power-mad like that other Fire Mage, I could do an insane amount of destruction before they could stop me.”
She had a wry expression on her face, mouth quirked up in a half-smile. “Somehow, I can’t picture that happening. Not with you.”
“Neither could my teachers, which was why I was allowed to leave and make my own way in the world. Still…now you have a better idea of what I’m capable of.”
“Better, perhaps, than even you do,” she agreed. She clapped me on the shoulder in a comforting manner. “Stop worrying. You’re never going to be forced to do something horrendous, not with me on your side.”
From her lips to the gods’ ears.
~*~
It took a few days, but Mari managed to write in the amended clauses in my contract, and after reviewing it, I signed it. As far as I could tell, I was the first Chahiran magician to become an employee in the Empire of Sol. In its own way, my employment here was groundbreaking.
While I had been focused on getting all of my i’s dotted and t’s crossed, Kaya had been more or less left to her own devices. She usually spent most of her time near the city park, as part of her job (at least in her mind) was to keep track of the kids. After I dropped off the signed contract, I swung by the park to pick her up.
Since the main post lay along my route, I stopped in long enough to get my mail. I looked at the bundle of mail in my hands, absently sorting through it as I walked toward the park. A letter from my parents, one from my sister, a newspaper from Alvacon (I liked to stay abreast of events in the home country), and a letter from a sender I didn’t recognize. No, wait. I did recognize that messy handwriting. Him again.
With a fatalistic sort of feeling, I broke the wax seal on the cheap parchment and unfolded the letter.
To Solian Fire Magus,
I have completed first task. Come see my work.
Huuuuh? Hadn’t Mari said that they typically didn’t expect any sort of response? I folded the letter up again, blowing out an irritated breath. I’d bring it by later and consult with her about it. Right now, it had been a long day, and I just wanted to pick up my dragon and go get dinner somewhere.
Kaya, to my complete lack of surprise, had kids hanging off of her on every limb. Her tail kept twitching, too, which I used to gauge how happy she felt. The tail was an accurate happiness meter. Just twitching meant a general contentment with the world. Outright thumps—known to destroy furniture and knock down innocent bystanders—meant she felt ecstasy. I judged her to be at the safe level of “general happiness” at the moment. Fortunately for the nearby buildings.
“Krys!” she greeted me, tail smacking the ground in a harder thump, her eyes lighting up. “I hot stuff!”
I blinked. Now where had she picked up that? “Are you now?”
“Magus!” one of the boys greeted, running to me. Conner, I think his name was. “Did you know Kaya can learn words?” he asked me with unbridled enthusiasm.
Ohhh. I think I knew now where she learned that phrase. But this worried me a bit. What else had the kids taught her while I wasn’t looking? The possibilities were endless. “Actually, I did. What did you teach her?”
“War words!” he instantly responded, nearly bouncing on his toes.
War words…oh joy. I resisted the urge to rub my aching temples. “Anything else?”
“Our names,” he added thoughtfully, starting to count things off on his fingers. “And all the names of the food at the market.”
Well, at least he had included some of the more useful words. “That’s amazing. All in one day?”
“Naw, ever since you started doing paperwork,” he answered.
That made more sense. Kaya’s smart, but that’s a lot of words to learn. “I’ll let you get back at it tomorrow,” I promised him dryly. “Just try not to teach her anything weird, all right?”
“Krys! We blow hot air!”
“…like that,” I pointed an accusatory finger at my familiar, which set all of the kids laughing. The laughter was mischievous, so they knew good and well they shouldn’t have taught her that to begin with. I just shook my head in resignation. No matter what I said, they were going to teach her anything that popped into their heads. Fortunately, the oldest was somewhere around ten, so they didn’t know anything too weird to teach.
“Magus,” one of the girls approached, tugging on both of her braided pigtails in a nervous fashion, “are you really going to stay?”
The question held a weight, as if she needed more assurance than just the obvious. I knelt on one knee so I could put myself at eye level. “We are. We’ll probably be here a long time, as this place has become home for us.”
A bright smile, like a second sun, took over her face. “Then, if bad men like the ones that attacked An and Jarri’s house attack mine, will you come?”
Ahhh. Some version of the house fire must have gotten around, and had obviously scared some of the kids. After all, if it happened to one of them, it could happen to any of them.
“We’ll come flying to the rescue,” I promised her gently.
Obviously relieved and reassured, she giggled and darted back to swing on the tip of Kaya’s nose. My dragon had obviously done this before, and she gently shook her head, sending the girl’s legs swinging, which elicited more giggles. Really, what did the kids think of Kaya as? Some sort of breathing play-set?
“Can she go to the lake tomorrow?” a child sitting on the base of her neck called down to me. “We want to teach her to flip us into the water.”
What, like some kind of gigantic slide? She’d probably have a ball doing it. “Just make sure an adult goes with you,” I cautioned. I thought the warning prudent, as children tended to forget minor details like if they can swim or not when they see fun to be had.
“All right!” he pumped a fist of victory in the air.
Well, I probably didn’t need to worry about it much. Kaya wouldn’t let any of the kids drown anyway.
“All right, Kaya, time to go.”
She shook herself like a wet dog would, shedding children in every direction, which made them laugh as they tumbled gently to the ground. Then she sauntered over to me with a bounce in her stride. “Krys go play in water too?”
I looked at the bright excitement in her eyes and heaved a sigh of resignation. I just knew that I’d be roped into going somehow.
Chapter Ten: A Bad Day
Border patrol could, at moments, be boringly predictable. Most of the time, I didn’t mind. Predictable days meant not getting rained on, riding through a thunderstorm, or dealing with cranky travelers. Boring was good. But I did wish, from time to time, that something interesting would happen that would liven things up without causing too much trouble.
But on a day like this, with no clouds in sight and a mild breeze that kept the heat at bay, a man couldn’t complain. I swayed slightly in the saddle as Kaya banked on a turn, coming around the bend of the main highway, making sure that the path still remained clear. In this season, bramble tended to grow overnight, so it took constant work on our part to keep the roads bramble-free.
As I half-expected, bramble had already started to encroach on the sides of the road. With a smile of anticipation, I raised a hand and cast out a spurt of fire to burn it clean.
Kaya turned her head just enough to pin me with a significant look, reminding me that she got a turn next.
I waved a hand at her, giving her
the go-ahead. Impatient, wasn’t she? The only way to get any peace with her on these patrolling trips was to take turns burning things clean. Never mind the fact that doing it was technically my job.
This time, I caught sight of a significant growth of that tanglevine that no one can seem to get rid of. It appeared to be growing straight for the road, too. Man, if that got loose, I’d never get rid of it completely. Determined to nip a problem in the bud, I increased the heat of my fire and focused on it for a few seconds, burning the area completely clean, scorching the bedrock around it to a sooty black. Even from this height, I could smell the distinct scent of burning vegetation.
All right, this section of the road was cleared. Urging Kaya to the right, I brushed her skin on the side of her neck, indicating she could take a turn now.
From my left and up ahead, the ground shook and rumbled slightly. I instinctively pulled Kaya up, away from the trail, and came back around for another look. Kaya slowed as well, reducing her speed so that she almost hovered in place. What? An earthquake? I didn’t think Sol got any of those. I’d never heard of them happening up here, anyway. So what…?
Not a stone’s throw from me, the ground slowly rotated in a circular shape before loose dirt started pouring off in small waves. As I stared in astonishment, a perfect circular roof rose out of the ground, making the dirt around it crack apart, pushing its way skyward relentlessly.
It wasn’t just the one, either. Appearing in almost a straight line rose nine towers, all rising from the ground in a steady upwards motion. At first they looked small, about the size of a small room, but the more they went up, the wider at the base they got, until it took up the same amount of space as an average home. Unlike the pale tan sandstone this area of the country had, the towers were made of grey limestone.
“What are they?” I breathed to myself, shocked to the core. I’d never seen or heard of anything like this, and I’d been around some pretty ancient magic. But these things—the workmanship looked solid, as if it had only been built yesterday. The tower next to me clearly had no chinks in between the building stones. And it towered over the landscape, standing at least seven stories tall. I could look directly into the upper part of it from Kaya’s back.
It didn’t appear to have any sinister purpose, per se, although I didn’t like the look of those narrow windows on every side. They were spaced just right for archers. In fact, if you put a dozen men on each tower, they could effectively suppress anyone from marching an army through here. Were these some ancient battlements, left over from a long forgotten civilization? If so, why were they activated now?
“Kaya, let’s go back to the city,” I yelled grimly. “Now.”
~*~
We made the flight back to Mellor in record time. We landed outside of Mari’s office, a crowd almost instantly gathering around us, all of them shouting up questions at me. In the din, I could barely make out more than a word here and there. I barely had the buckles undone on the saddle when Mari climbed up Kaya’s leg and grabbed my arm with an iron grip.
“Krys, what are those things?”
“I don’t know. I don’t understand why they appeared when they did, either. I can tell you this—they’re solidly built. There’s no one around them at this point, so whoever constructed them is either long gone or hasn’t arrived yet.”
The mayor elbowed his way through the people enough to reach Kaya’s head. “What do they look like? Are they battlements?”
“Could be,” I admitted uneasily, glancing in that direction. Even from here, the towers looked formidable. “There’s these narrow windows at the top, pointing in every direction. If you put archers up there, they’d have a very good command of the area.”
The people around me started muttering to themselves about that.
“I didn’t see any sign of life up there, though,” I hastily added. “And aside from the windows, nothing about it looked war-like to me. The towers might have a different purpose altogether.” Although I had no idea what it could be.
“Are they magical?” Mari asked, chewing on her bottom lip.
“They’d have to be.” I turned to look at her as I answered. “Nothing mechanical could have made them rise from the ground that fast. And those towers are in perfect condition, almost as if there’s a long-lasting preservation spell on them.”
“But you don’t recognize them?” At some point, Captain Lang had arrived on the scene. He looked a little out of breath, as if he had sprinted straight here. Maybe he had.
“Mages are notoriously uneducated on most spells and magical constructs,” I explained with an apologetic shrug. “We don’t need to know about most of it because we’ll never be able to use any of it. Is it magical? Yes, I could see that with my magical senses. What does it do? I couldn’t begin to tell you. But if you wish, I can certainly call in some magical experts who can figure it out.”
“I think you should,” the Mayor agreed. “But first.” Uh-oh, I didn’t like that look on his face. “Magus, I want you to go back up there and make sure that they pose no threat.”
Yes, I knew I wouldn’t like this request. He had a point in sending me, though. If it truly was magical, the only person that could safely go investigate would be me. With Kaya’s quick reflexes, she could fly me up and away from any danger within seconds.
That didn’t mean I liked it.
Grudgingly, I nodded in consent. “All right. But if anything goes wrong, and I don’t return, immediately contact the Strae Academy and report to Magus Rhebengarthen. He’ll know what to do.” Hopefully.
Mari’s head turned between me and the mayor several times, an unhappy expression on her face. “But if it’s that dangerous—”
“Just a precaution,” I assured her, already praying it was just that.
She finally nodded in acquiescence and slid back down to the ground. Giving Kaya’s neck a pat, she ordered us both, “You be careful. Don’t poke at those things too hard.”
Didn’t have to tell me twice. “Yes, boss.” I flashed her a smile and salute.
“Will,” Kaya promised, already spreading her wings in preparation for takeoff.
People rapidly backed out of the way to get Kaya room. As soon as she had it, she launched herself into the air with practiced ease before flipping around and heading for the towers. As we flew, I really debated whether to call for help or not. Well, I’d be calling for help regardless but should I do that now? What would I even say? “There’s giant towers popping up out of the ground, help!” Suuure. That would be less than helpful.
No, the mayor was right. We needed to know more about the towers before I contacted anyone. Right now, Garth wouldn’t know who to send to help me. I didn’t think there was such a thing as a ‘tower expert’ in the magical community. Besides, trying to talk to anyone through a mirror while on dragon-back didn’t work. The sound of the wind rushing basically garbled anything said. It would cause more worry than good. Better wait until I had a good look at the place.
The first tower sat very near to Paswater’s shores. We reached it within minutes and Kaya circled around it as she climbed upwards, gaining altitude so that I could see it from all angles. Until we reached the top, there was nothing to see. Just tightly fitted stone, slowly slanting inward as we flew up. But at the very top, the conical shaped tower abruptly ended in a circular room. This close, I could almost see inside through the windows. It looked pitch dark in there, though.
We glided around to the northern end, finding a previously unnoticed patio. It sat right above the windows, actually carved into the roof itself. No one had meant for it to hold more than a person at a time, judging from the narrow construction. I couldn’t quite figure out the purpose of it, either. Aside from a narrow railing, and that half-circular floor, nothing was there.
“Kaya, land on the roof.”
My familiar let out a grumble of protest.
“No, I think it’s safe,” I assured her slowly. “There’s no one here, and I can’t se
e any weapons or anything. But that section of the roof was built for someone to stand on, and I want to know why. Staring at it from a distance isn’t telling me anything.”
She gave me a glare over her shoulder that said in no uncertain terms what she thought of this idea but obediently banked so that she could land on the roof. It had more than enough space for her to do so—in fact, the edges of the roof curved upwards in a perfect angle so that she could grip it and balance herself. Reassured at her solid landing, I unbuckled myself and slid downwards to the roof. On this flat, slick surface I expected to have to fight with my balance to maneuver to that patio, but as I landed, I saw little grooves cut into the surface, perfectly spaced for a man’s boots. As I fit my shoes into them, I walked easily to the patio, finding a ladder of sorts carved into the wall that aided my descent down.
Any doubts I had about this area being built for a man disappeared. Although I still couldn’t see why.
Frowning to myself, I eased over the edge of the roof and climbed slowly down to the patio. Kaya extended her neck so that she could peek over and keep me within her sight. If anything happened, she could grab me within a moment and take off. Reassured by her presence, I looked around.
The view from here was spectacular. Only a dragon rider had seen vistas like this. In fact, I think only a dragon rider would be able to climb up here and not get a bad case of vertigo. But aside from the amazing view, I still didn’t see the purpose of the tower.
Turning to the wall, I started looking for some writing, or niches carved into the stone. Hmm? Under a light coat of dust and dirt clumps, did I see lines? I used my hand to brush away the dust, trying to see beyond it. Yes, writing had been carved into the wall here. I kept brushing, faster now, revealing more and more words. Words I couldn’t read. Well, hardly surprising. These towers were ancient, after all. So old that no one even remembered them in legends. Of course that long ago civilization had used a different language.
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