“Ah, when you say that you’ll bring me up, how do you…intend…” Kogan saw Kaya in that moment, gently gliding through the air until she landed in the street in front of us. Of course, landing meant she splashed us with water in the process too, but that was something else I had gotten used to. I watched Kogan’s reaction. Judging by his nervous gulp and bulging eyes, no one had told him whom I had as a familiar.
“Kogan, meet Kaya, my dragon.” I gave her a pat on the shoulder as she turned her head to see the Wizard. “Kaya, this is Wizard Kogan. He’s a new friend that’s come up to help.”
“Kogan-friend,” she greeted with a bob of head.
It took a few false tries, but Kogan found his tongue and managed, “Pleasure.”
“Kaya, Kogan’s a little afraid of heights, so we’re going to fly easy,” I warned her. To the wizard I said in a low voice, “Kaya’s never once dropped anyone on her back, so be assured.” Well, not with this saddle on her, anyway.
He gave me a look that made me seriously think he would faint right there. But after a deep breath he reached out with a shaking hand and grabbed hold of the saddle. Following my directions, he very carefully climbed on board before hastily strapping in. A little amused, but sympathetic, I didn’t try to speed him along but waited until he had settled before hopping aboard and strapping in myself. Kaya took my words to heart and waited until we were properly in place before very gently launching herself into the air.
Even then, I thought Kogan went about three shades paler as we gained altitude. Fortunately for him, it was a short flight before we landed on the roof of the first tower. Kaya grabbed hold of the roof edges and balanced herself as we climbed off. Kogan had his eyes shut almost the entire time, just peeking open enough so that he could maneuver without risking falling off. I kept one hand on his back in a steadying grip until he made it to the ladder that led down to the patio. He scurried down it, anxious to get this whole thing over with.
I expected him to take notes, but instead he pulled out his wand and spoke a short incantation before scanning the walls slowly. I assumed it would somehow record everything up here so he could study it later. Within a minute flat, he nodded to me and headed back up to Kaya.
As he climbed the ladder, his fingers slipped a bit and he steadied himself with a hand flat against the wall.
“Wait, don’t touch—” too late. From the ground, I heard a rumbling noise. My stomach knotted itself in an uneasy premonition. Not sure if I really wanted to know, I looked over the railing to see the ground below.
“K-krys,” Kogan looked sick, eyes focused on where his hand had been. “What did I just do?”
“You just activated a mechanical plowing system,” I answered grimly.
He closed his eyes briefly in despair. “Get me to the ground. Quickly.”
~*~
I took him to my house, as it offered privacy and quiet so that he could think. He set up everything on my dining room table, wand pointed at the wall and displaying the image he had taken of the patio wall. Instead of hovering and watching him work, I chose to make an early lunch instead and putter around the house, cleaning up after my younger guests. Kaya settled into her section of the house with a sigh, killing a little time by rearranging her ‘pretties.’
We ate, cleaned up, and did nothing of consequence for another hour before Kogan slammed his notebook shut with a disgusted sound. “Krys, I’m afraid I can’t help you.”
I’d been afraid of that. “You don’t recognize the language.”
“Not at all,” he agreed sourly. “And I’ve got a copy of every dictionary of the known world in this crystal,” he waved it in the air in illustration. “Nothing matches what I saw up there. I’m beginning to think it’s not a language at all, but a code of some sort that only made sense to some ancient engineer. Regardless, it would take me months to crack this and a team of experts.”
“We don’t have that kind of time,” I protested. Even two or three days would likely be too much time.
“I know.” He put the crystal back down and faced me squarely. “I have only one suggestion for you. Destroy the towers.”
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I’d known it would come down to this. But with it said, I didn’t feel any need to try and think of an alternative solution. So I just dug out a mirror from my pocket, lifted it to my face, and called for an emergency meeting at my house.
Kogan went about putting all of his gear and books back in his satchel. I watched him while waiting for the others to arrive, and strangely felt better about the situation, despite everything. Maybe it was because I felt slightly less guilty about the whole state of affairs. I might have accidentally activated the towers and the sprinklers, but it was Kogan that turned on the plows.
It took a few minutes, but all of the magicians arrived with Mari on their heels. I gave them five seconds to settle before saying, “We’ve got bad news.”
“Have anything to do with those big, deep furrows appearing in the ground?” Mari asked with a tic in her jaw.
“I’m sorry,” Kogan apologized, nearly slumped in on himself. “I’m not of much use here.”
Everyone looked to me for a translation, as that really had been too cryptic. I expounded, “He doesn’t recognize the language and he doesn’t know how to turn it off. It would take a couple of weeks before he could figure it out, at least.” I charitably left out that he was the reason for the plows turning on.
“We don’t have a couple of weeks,” Mari pointed out. “I doubt we have more than a day or two before the whole countryside is completely destroyed.”
“Right,” I agreed grimly. “Which is why we’re going to Plan C.”
“We have a Plan C?” Cora looked blank. “I thought we were just playing this by ear.”
“Well, we were,” I admitted. Only in front of this crowd would I actually admit to that. “But Kogan and I talked, and here’s our plan: destroy the towers.”
Nolan and Trev’nor raised a victorious fist in the air. “Awesome!” they cheered in near perfect sync.
Cora, Mari, and Helen exchanged a speaking look, silently asking what was it about boys that they so enjoyed destroying things. I decided not to try and explain it. (Mostly because I was a little excited about this too, despite my age.)
“So, that said.” I clapped my hands together and rubbed them briskly. “Let’s divvy up the towers and get to it. I think it’ll go faster if we work in pairs, so who wants to work with who?”
Helen raised both hands in the air in a halting gesture. “Wait, we need a little more planning than that. Just destroying the towers isn’t going to stop the water flow. Now, with a little help, I’ve been able to chart where the water is being diverted and where it originally went. What I need everyone to do is destroy the top of the tower, capping off the water flow. Then Trev and I can redirect the water back to its normal channels.”
Trying to look innocent, Trev chimed in, “And then we destroy the towers completely, right? Cause we can’t leave them there.”
Helen didn’t quite roll her eyes. “Yes, Trev, and then we destroy them completely. But we can’t have opposite elements working together, so let’s be smart about this,” Helen suggested. “Krys, I think you and I should start on opposite ends.”
Oh. Good point. “Then why don’t you and Nolan pair up, Cora and Trev, and then Kogan and I?” I looked around for objections, but no one seemed dissatisfied with this. “With three pairs, we have three towers each to destroy. Go!”
The boys actually ran for the door, just as excited as if I had told them an all you can eat sweets buffet stood outside. Helen and Cora went out just as quickly, calling for the boys to slow down. Mari caught my arm as I moved to follow, asking me in a low voice, “I have to ask….”
“Yes?”
“What can two Life Mages do about a tower?”
I grinned at her. “Why don’t you come watch?”
“You know?” she asked me suspiciously.
“Well, no. But I can guess. We’ve all been through school and trained together, remember. I more or less know how they think.” I whistled for Kaya, who hovered near the doors, and quickly saddled her before climbing on board. Almost before I could get the last strap in place, she took off in a flurry of wind that made my hair whip around my face.
I knew she had to be excited about the idea of turning herself loose and just beating the heck out of the tower. In truth, I shared the excitement. When you control fire, usually you had to be very, very careful how you used it. One slip on your part would cause a great deal of destruction after all. This would be the first time when I could just go wild.
By the time we got up in the air, Nolan had already transformed into some sort of a large flying creature and targeted the nearest tower, heading for it at ramming speed. I noticed that Cora had chosen the form of a dragon, which would also be a good form for destruction. I’d seen how powerful a dragon was and no building really stood a chance against them.
Helen and Nolan had already claimed the tower near the city and were doing quite well in destroying it. Since they went for that one, I directed Kaya to the opposite end. Kogan had used some sort of quick transport spell, as he stood at the base of that far tower, already flinging spells at the stones in quick succession.
It took seconds for us to reach him. Only a dozen feet or so away, Kaya sucked in a lungful of air, sounding like a high pitched whistle, and then she let it out again in a billow of flame hot enough to melt stone—which it did. She destroyed the top of the tower completely in that one pass.
By doing that, the water spewing out of the top of the tower became instantly blocked. I patted her on the neck and called, “My turn next!”
She turned her head enough to shoot me a look over her shoulder. It had a certain wicked challenge to it, as if this time, we weren’t going to take turns.
“Why you little snot!” I spluttered. “All right, in that case, try and keep up!”
Kaya turned so quickly she almost bent herself in half, challenging the strength of the straps holding in my place. Then she dove for the neighboring tower. This time, I didn’t pause in releasing my own rigid control of my magic and aiming a burst of hot flame at the tower. We hit on opposite sides of the tower, making it crumble into itself, water spewing out of the cracks. But still, as much damage as we had done, a good two-thirds of the tower still stood. Just how had those ancient builders made something so solid? This thing was nigh indestructible!
As we came back up and around for another pass, I stole a glance at the others. They were having just as much difficulty. (Although I noticed that Nolan had changed from his flying creature to a dragon. He must have noticed we were doing more damage than he was and decided to give the dragon form a try.) Kogan had moved from the base of the tower, though. I looked around a bit more, twisting several times until I finally spotted him some distance away. Oh. He was destroying the plows. Probably safer than trying to cast spells anywhere near us.
All right, well, if I didn’t have to be conscious of him, then let could really turn up the heat.
I pulled the mirror broach out of my chest pocket and called Helen through it. “Tell me when I can destroy the towers completely.”
Her voice ebbed in volume as the wind rushed past my ears, but I still could hear her. “Then come to this far end where Trev’nor and I started. This tower is safe to demolish.”
“On my way.” I turned Kaya around and headed for the far tower, absently watching over her shoulder at my friends below as they moved from one tower to the next. Funny, how it looked like we’d orchestrated every step beforehand. Not one of us ever got in each other’s way. I guess when you worked as much magic as we had in a group, you got used to predicting what everyone else will do.
Kaya, not being distracted by the ground crew, got the first strike at the tower. As she came back up and around, I threw the strongest, hottest, most direct stream of fire at that tower that I could and felt Kaya doing the same. With every shot, we carved another chunk out of it, blackened stone crumbling and falling to the earth. I don’t know how long it took for us to do this, but the sun had risen so that it stood high in the sky, so at least a few hours had passed.
What had once been a tower had become a smoking ruin only two feet tall, crumbling and melted stone laying around it in an almost whirlwind pattern of destruction. Kaya hovered above the area for a few moments, flapping her wings to keep us in place. I looked at it clinically, doing the math in my head. If it takes two hours for me and Kaya to destroy one tower…that meant we’d be finished sometime tonight. Assuming we could keep the pace up. Sweat streamed from my temples and down my back, and I had a fine ache in my muscles from so much magical exertion. I had another tower left in me, but two?
Turning in the saddle, I took a look around to see the progress of the others. Trev and Cora’s team had leveled a tower. Helen and Nolan were of course focused on the underground water paths more than the towers. All the towers were capped at this point, though, which made their job easier. So we were all working at more or less the same pace. I twisted about some more, making the leather creak, and saw that Kogan had finished destroying the plows from this tower some time ago and had started on the set from the next tower over. In fact, he appeared to be almost done with those. It might be more efficient for him to deal with the plows while the rest of us dealt with the towers.
I’d bring that up tomorrow. I doubt we’d be able to handle all nine towers today anyway. We’d be too exhausted. As long as the plows were properly destroyed today, the rest of it could probably wait until tomorrow.
Trev’nor had marked a deep ‘x’ in the ground in the base of the nearby tower, indicating it was ready to be destroyed. I tapped Kaya’s side with a flat hand. “All right, let’s tackle that next tower.”
Kaya let out a sound that could very well be described as a whoop of joy and dove for it.
Chapter Fourteen: Emergency
I staggered into the kitchen, vague thoughts of cooking for my guests in my head, but I didn’t get more than two steps when I realized that someone had beaten me to it. A spread of fresh bread, fruit, boiled eggs and sweet tarts lay spread out on the table. Some angelic person had even made a fresh pot of tea. In the back of my mind, a heavenly chorus burst out into song.
Cora sat at the table with a cup of tea and a plate of food already half-consumed. Since everyone in the house still lay in bed, it must have been her that’d done all of this. I sank into a chair nearby and said in heartfelt tones, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she said and wisely didn’t say anything else until I had chugged a cup of tea down. “Your magic level is a little low, you know that, right?”
“Yes.” I shrugged, loading my plate with an assortment as I spoke. “But I’ve never used my magic at that level and for that long before. I think we’re all a little tired.” I made a face. “And we still have two towers left.”
“Those two are going to be rather challenging, as well,” Cora sighed with a grimace.
We’d destroyed six towers, as I’d expected, but something had occurred we hadn’t planned on. With each tower we’d destroyed, the water pressure had escalated and shifted to the surviving towers, which made it harder to reroute the underground water source. It had tasked Helen and Trev’nor considerably to make sure the capped towers were cut off from their water source and they weren’t entirely sure their work from the night before would hold. They might well have to reinforce what they had done yesterday to make sure it wouldn’t break.
Before leaving the towers alone last night, Helen and Trev had done one more change to the landscape, forming several basins and canals so that the water would drain back into the lake. It gave us a little grace so that we could sleep in this morning and properly rest before we had to get back to work.
If I didn’t have those two towers left, I probably would have climbed right back in bed.
Cora leaned back in her
chair, cradling her cup with both hands, a smile crinkling the corners of her eyes. “I had quite an interesting conversation with Mari Wangsgard this morning.”
I paused mid-motion, hand still reaching for the teapot. “You met Mari this morning?”
“When I went to pick up some fresh bread. We ran into each other at the market.” That smile hadn’t faded. “She was ever so carefully probing me for information.”
Did I want to know…? I retracted my hand, eyeing her cautiously. “Like?”
“Oh, how close we were, how long we’d known each other, things like that.” Cora’s subtle smile became downright wicked. “She also wanted to know if you, as a mage, were required to marry another mage.”
I choked. “W-what?!”
“Or if your partner has to be a magician,” she added gleefully. “Krys, I do believe that woman likes you.”
Mari? Like me? As in, likes me? I had a hard time swallowing around the hope rising in my throat. “Really?”
“Oh-ho!” Cora abruptly sat up, eyes shining like a child’s. “You like her too!”
Busted buckets, but she was sharp. “Um, well…”
“Your partner doesn’t have to be a magician, you know,” she told me with wicked amusement. “I told her that, too. I mean, the only reason why most mages have a magical partner is because we can’t do the other magicks. But your jobs are all fire-oriented. You don’t need help with that. All you need is a spotter, someone that can keep watch while Kaya flies you around.”
That was…a very good point. “And, ah, how did she take that bit of information?”
“With absolute relief. Especially when I followed it up with my plans on going back to the Isle as soon as this job is finished. Krys.” She set her cup down, raising a challenging eyebrow at me. “If you have any sense in your head, you’ll partner with her today.”
I gave her a lazy salute. “Consider it done.”
People started waking up that point and shuffling to the table. The boys were especially zombies, but we’d all expected that. They had done the work of an adult yesterday and had never once asked for a break. The fact that they had the stamina to keep up with us yesterday impressed me. If they were like this now, I couldn’t imagine what they would be like once they actually had an adult’s body.
Dragon's Mage (An Advent Mage Novel), The - Raconteur, Honor Page 15
