“I am in the valley between Sanco and Castrum. Child mages have been turning up missing over the last ten years. I think someone using magic may be snatching them. I have warded the valley against that, and people may start showing up there because of it, so keep an eye out for new arrivals. The warding has its gaps and loopholes; just make sure they’re not the culprit before you send them back.”
“I can’t do that by myself,” said Clayton. “I had Elias to focus on last time.”
By now, Sean had reached the fire once again. “Okay, come here – now. Focus on me; I’ll introduce you to Ruihano Besan and his son.”
Besan looked up at the mention of his name and saw Sean coming into the light alone. “Who’re you talking to?”
“A trusted friend of mine,” answered Sean, and Clayton appeared beside him. Sean signaled to the watch commander. “I’ll be needing a horse.” The man nodded and disappeared.
Sean turned back to the gathering at the fire and explained to them what he wanted them to do. Clayton was to be the go-between. The warding was a wide net that could catch most anyone, and many of them could be innocent. It would be between Elias, Clayton, and Besan to decide. Sean would be brought in for anyone questionable.
Clayton would accompany Besan back to Sanco where he could familiarize himself with a point of focus so he could go back and forth. While there, he would find out about the missing kids and fill Sean in with the details.
Elias interrupted with another suggestion, “Ferris used to be a detective, Sean. He might be able to help too.”
“I forgot.” He turned around. “Ferris, where are you?” he asked the darkness around him.
“I’m here,” replied Ferris, sounding caught off-guard and feeling drowsy.
“Would you come to my fire, please?”
“Give me a moment.”
When Sean returned his attention to Besan, he could see the man was confused, and he was reminded of talking to Mattie in the dungeon while Guire had tried to understand. “Others attend our meeting, ruihano, though they do so only in my head,” he said in explanation. Ferris came then and he filled him in. “You’ve investigated some kidnappings, haven’t you?” asked Sean.
“Yeah, a couple,” replied Ferris.
“Good, then you have some experience. I’m leaving you here to poke around and see what you can find out. Don’t use any magic, though; I’ve warded the valley.”
Before Besan took his new men, six altogether; Ferris and Clayton were important men, and Cordan had assigned them bodyguards, Sean took a knee in front of him and vowed on his new-made sword to do everything in his power to find the missing children and bring justice to those who had taken them.
Besan was a simple rancher, and regardless of his title and district-wide responsibilities, he had never in his life imagined that a king would be kneeling in front of him.
Sean paced the camp long after Besan’s party was out of sight and longer still after they were beyond hearing. What could I have done that would have worked better? He shoved his fingers through his hair as if he’d be able to rake the dilemma out of his brain by force. There’s nothing I can change now. If I try anything other than break the spell, I’d find myself caught in my own trap, so it’ll have to do for now. If it doesn’t produce anyone by the time I get home, I can make changes then.
It ate at him that he was unable to solve this problem here and now. “Find them, Ferris,” he whispered into the dark. “Find something, please.”
Ferris heard and shook his head; the boy had a temper as violent as a maelstrom, but a heart as big as an ocean. He’d make a very good king if he didn’t tear himself to pieces first.
A Meeting of Mages
Sean halted his pacing with his back to the light from the campfires. With sleep a faraway concept, he didn’t even bother with his tent. He looked ahead, first picking out his trail to the river, then on to the city of Castrum. Still agonizing over the missing kids, he looked for them as well.
Larry had never had the opportunity to watch him do this, and was highly unsettled to find his friend standing stock-still at dawn, staring at horizon. The most unsettling part wasn’t his unusually still posture; it was the fact that his eyes, normally near black and so full of expression, were now utterly white. He would have thought they were rolled around and looking into the back of his head, but he could clearly see the iris and pupil through the white shroud.
He reached out and gave Sean a gentle shake. When that didn’t work, he shook him again and called his name. “Sean?” He tapped him on the cheek, then again a little harder. “Sean, come out of it, man, you’re scaring me.” With relief, he watched his friend’s eyes slowly focus on him, then fade to black again.
“Larry?” He looked around at the camp now breaking in preparation to leave. “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing, now. Did you know that your eyes go all white when you do…whatever you were doing?”
Sean reached up and touched his eyes as if he might be able to feel the difference. “No, I didn’t. Nobody ever told me.” Then he saw his tent coming down. “Well, I hope someone got some use out of it.”
Mattie brought them each a bowl of boiled oats for breakfast. “Cordan says you warded the entire valley,” she said, as she scrutinized Sean’s face to judge his strength or to see how much he had drained himself. “Will you be able to gate us to the next stop?”
“No, I don’t…” Sean turned and gazed across the valley, searching, “…think…so. We’re being watched. Laon,” he called to the man breaking apart the fire. “You’ll be leading my horse. I’ll muzzle him.” He searched the landscape. “Ach, never mind. It’s gone.” He started eating. “Maybe our trap’s already sprung, or will, as soon as whoever that was does more than just look.”
Once they were mounted up, Sean kept them at a pounding pace. They found the main river that cut through the middle of the valley just as it was getting dark. Feeling pressed for time, as always, he wouldn’t have bothered setting up his tent; warm nights, however, were a thing of the past.
He distracted himself for another chunk of the evening by caring for Punír. The horse seemed to be coming around with care and the occasional bribe. He brushed him down with a coarse brush until he was rolling his lip up, then contained him on a patch of sweet grass. Seth’s life was a lot easier when Punír wasn’t among the other horses, causing whatever trouble he could think of.
Sean was going to spend part of the evening looking for the missing children or scouting out their path for tomorrow, but he found himself falling asleep instead, shortly after he stretched out by the fire and long before his tent was unpacked.
He was lounging against his saddle watching Laon light a fire without using magic, and the next thing he knew, the man was waking him up telling him that Mattie would have breakfast ready in a few minutes. No dreams, no memories, no nothing, all night long.
When he took his bowl from Mattie he asked, “Did you try to wake me last night?”
She smiled shyly. She has such a nice smile. “You were snoring,” she said.
“I don’t snore,” protested Sean.
She smiled just a little wider and her cheeks turned pink. “You do too…I should know. How do you think I could tell when you were asleep so I could sneak under your covers?”
“I wasn’t asleep once. You cried, remember?”
“You were snoring then, too,” then at his look, “You were!”
Men coming up for their breakfast interrupted their little disagreement.
“But there were things I wanted to do last night.”
Her smile faded. “If I had woken you last night, you wouldn’t have slept for the rest of the night. You needed to sleep. You were tired.”
He had to concede, he had been tired. His body had known it even if the rest of him hadn’t. No tent, no blankets – he’d just dropped his saddle and stretched out, he’d been so tired. I wonder who covered me? Probably Mattie.
Done w
ith his breakfast, he scratched at his stubbly cheeks and tried to think back to the last time he’d stayed in one place long enough to shave. It had been clear back in Lorraine before he went to the palace for the feast. He looked around; everyone was eating by now, so while he waited for them he dug out his shaving things and scraped away the scratchy growth on his face. He didn’t really care for a beard; it made him feel unwashed. The absence of his crown while he washed his face felt odd. He wore the thing nearly twenty-four/seven these days, and his forehead felt naked without it.
Unwilling to gate even to cross the river, it took them close to half the day to find a safe place to swim everyone across. As soon as they were on solid ground again, they rested long enough for rations to be passed out, then he led them on. They wouldn’t reach the city today or even the next, but they’d be able to make up some of the time lost crossing the river.
As soon as his feet touched the ground that evening, Mattie came up to him. “I don’t know what you did last night, but I want you to do it again tonight. A full night’s sleep did you good; I can only imagine what two in a row might do for you.”
“But Mattie…”
“You’re not going to find those kids the easy way, and we already know what’s up ahead. Give yourself a break.”
“I don’t snore, you know,” he said as she walked away.
“Yes you do,” Laon said as he passed by, leading his horse to the little trickle of a stream they had camped beside.
Sean sighed and smiled, and did as he was told. When he got back from seeing to his horse, he found his bedroll laid out and waiting for him. Alongside it was a sandwich of cold meat and cheese slices and a cup of tea. He held the cup up to Mattie.
“It’s just tea.” Her face went pink, but she wasn’t smiling; it had been a cruel reminder.
Sean ate his supper and stretched out on his bedroll to watch Laon light a fire. It’s what he had done the night before, and it worked the same too, though sleep didn’t creep up on him unawares. This time he made a conscious effort to sleep and succeeded, but this time his sleep wasn’t empty, this time he dreamed.
There was a boy of about ten, with olive skin and black, wavy hair down to his eyebrows. His eyebrows and lashes were coal black, but his eyes were blue. He was reaching out to Sean, but he couldn’t tell if the boy wanted his help or was warning him away. There was utterly no expression on his face, and he made no attempt to speak. It was almost as if there were no muscles under his smooth skin. A woman came up behind the boy. She was perhaps nineteen or twenty years old. She smiled and took the boy’s hand and led him away. There was something familiar about her that he couldn’t place. It bothered him, and even woke him, though he kept his eyes shut trying to puzzle the whole thing out. Who were they?
On the second morning this side of the river, they came across a one-track path that led out of the riverbed they had been forced to follow for lack of such an avenue. A short time later, it widened to something a draft horse or ox-drawn cart might be able to use. They’d only traveled about an hour on that before they reached something that could be called a real road. Unlike the district of Besan which was speckled all over by ranchers and their herds, and sported only one main road that stretched from one end of the district to the other and not across the river, the people of this district used carts more than packhorses, so there was a web of roads and trails leading nearly everywhere. There was also a roving patrol, and as soon as the patrol caught sight of an army approaching the city, they took off to sound the warning.
Sean let them go, uncontested. He turned to Cordan. “Double the guard tonight and station some scouts farther out. We might have visitors by morning…possibly even during the night.”
“How much farther do you want to go?” he asked.
“I’d like to go as far as I can, but I’ll take a good campsite early if we find one.”
Cordan nodded and turned back to pass out orders. One man pelted past to scout ahead.
The scout found them a likely sight only another hour ahead where the road came up onto a new level above the river plane. Short bluffs crowded both sides of the road above where they stopped, as well as farther ahead where lookouts could be stationed among the trees and not be easily seen from the road.
Though it was still light, their camp was spare and quiet. Everyone concentrated on their gear, ensuring that there would be no surprises should events of the morning evolve into a battle. Sean did the same; after making sure there was an edge on each of his blades, he went over his armor, then checked over his riding gear. Feeling restless, but unwilling to test the limits of his warding, Sean was reluctant to work with his sword; if what Frei had said was true, even his workouts were magic of a sort and he couldn’t afford to be whisked away to the palace. He smiled. I wouldn’t mind seeing Armelle more often…but no; I have to keep going. Seeing my wife will have to wait.
Sean stretched out on his cot when he couldn’t find anything else to do. Like Mattie said, he wasn’t going to find those kids the easy way, so he resisted the urge to look. He couldn’t afford to be so completely distracted either, not tonight. Quite by accident, he found himself enjoying yet another peaceful night, though this one was a bit more edgy. So this is what it’s like to sleep light.
Cordan rested his hand on Sean’s shoulder. “We have company,” he said softly, and the contents of Sean’s dream vanished without a trace.
It was still dark, but dawn wasn’t too far away. Sean saddled his horse anyway. When Cordan finished quietly rousing the camp, he came back. “A scout was spotted about twenty minutes ago now. He’s keeping an eye on us, but not doing anything else yet.”
Sean looked around at their horizon and spotted the blue spark in the dark. “He’ll send word as soon as we move, so let’s make it look the best we can without appearing too threatening.”
“We’re an army, my lord. We’re supposed to be threatening,” Cordan pointed out, speaking softly.
“Yeah, well, try to make us look lazy,” said Sean.
Cordan smiled and moved off to make adjustments to the orders. Sean gazed up at the lookout again. “Come on down. You’re seen. You can ride into the city with us and we can talk.”
“Who are you? Why should I give myself over to you?”
“I am Seanad Éireann Barleduc-Ruhin. I am your king, and I come to speak with your commander and your district lord.”
“How do I know what you claim is true?”
“You cannot see any proof from there, not in the dark. I give you my word. Peace under white flag.”
The man broke the connection and Sean was surprised at his skill. After a short wait, he made his way down from his vantage point until he stood directly in front of Sean.
“You were ordered down here, weren’t you?” stated Sean when he saw the grim expression on the man’s face. He reminded him of Ferris in that regard.
“My name is Landaux. Your name says you’re from the royal family.”
“My bloodline is true as stated.”
“The Barleduc family was well known for their earth magic. Was that you who set that trap the other night?” asked Landaux.
“I can claim credit for that, though I could wish for something better,” admitted Sean. “I’m trying to catch a kidnapper; are you missing any children here?”
“I’ll not be discussing the happenings in this district. It’s my job to gather information, not give it out.”
Mattie and Jenny handed them flatbread and a sausage, and as soon as a hostler brought up a horse for Landaux, they were off toward the city. Landaux rode beside Sean, giving Punír as much clearance as he could without crowding into Laon’s horse on his other side.
They rode on like that in silence while Landaux did his best to look around without seeming to. Finally Sean said, “Come over here with me.” He guided them to the side of the road and waited until the end of his train was in sight, then he loped them forward to the head of the line again. “Did you get a goo
d enough look?”
“I’m surprised you would trust me with that information,” said Landaux.
“What secret information do you think I’ve trusted you with? Do you believe this is all that I have?”
“If you are who you claim you are, why are you traveling like this? I’ve heard rumors from the valley – from this summer. I felt…” His words trailed off behind another glower.
“Why didn’t I come up here too?” asked Sean for him. “I wanted to get to my uncle as quickly as I could and still spread word of my presence as far as possible. I was still learning then too.” Sean wasn’t too happy with those memories, or the lack of them. “I might have done things differently if I had known then what I know now, and this…” He waved a hand at his army. “This is fitting, don’t you think?”
“You was just learning…this spring? Then you really must be a Ruhin, to radiate such power. You must have had the fever then too. Did you run a fever?”
“I don’t remember a fever, but I was…hallucinating. I had really bad headaches right at first. How would you know about that?”
“I never heard of the headaches, but the fever happens sometimes,” said Landaux. “Most kids start twiddling with their magic when they’re little. Occasionally there’s a little fever then, but mostly not. I only know that because my little brother ran a slight fever after he made the well overflow and flooded Mom’s garden. I remember he was all funny for about a day. Dad took him to the escole when he was better.”
“Took him…where?” asked Sean.
“To the escole, where he could learn how to use his magic. I went there, too. The kids don’t have to go, but they’re better equipped to handle the accidents there, especially if the parents don’t have much magic.”
“That is a really good idea. I’d like to see the place.”
“Yeah, well, first you’ll have to get into the city, and Cabot will have something to say about that.”
“And who is Cabot?” asked Sean.
The Making of a Mage King: White Star Page 34
