Justav gritted his teeth. “I understand if you have some … allegiance … to the children.” He gripped the blond man’s arm. “But I must insist that this one comes with me.”
Justav was willing to give up Xan after all those weeks of pursuit in order to take just the death mage? Why?
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible,” Asher said.
A thin, black glowing line stretched from Justav to Asher. The blond death mage’s eyes widened, and one of the guardsmen punched him. He doubled over.
Asher’s breathing grew labored. Justav was draining his lifeforce!
“Stop that!” Xan shouted.
“Stop what?” Justav sneered as he calmly increased the flow.
No one else even knew what was happening. Hadn’t even noticed Asher was in distress. Color drained from his face. He wobbled on his feet.
Xan had to do something, but if he lashed out with fire, the soldiers would see him as the threat. He couldn’t fight Justav and Asher’s soldiers.
If he did nothing, though, Asher would die, and that death would be clear evidence of an attack. Whoever was left in charge—Ashley?—would be forced to believe Xan. Spare him and his friends.
Definitely the smart thing to do. Let Ashley’s father die.
Xan sighed and concentrated on a chair next to Justav. A fireball burst from the wood. Justav flew backward, landing hard on his butt. His magic flow stopped. About half the soldiers turned toward Xan.
He really wished he didn’t have a conscience.
Justav stared at him. “That’s it. You die. Now.”
Xan only had one choice to salvage the situation, as much as he didn’t want to go that route. “Maybe you can overcome me and the duke and the duke’s soldiers and the death mage, but what about my friends?” He paused. “Dylan.”
He flushed, probably angry about being dragged into the fight, but Xan floated into the air above the dais. Good old Dylan.
“Brant.” Xan said.
Nothing happened. Great.
“Brant!”
Still nothing. Justav grinned.
“Brant?”
A second later, a sconce holding a lamp crashed to the ground, breaking a chunk from the stone floor.
“How about your odds now?” Xan said.
Flames burst from Lainey’s hands. “And don’t forget about me.”
Xan gritted his teeth. Why couldn’t she have remained still? There was no reason to risk her life as well.
Justav’s eyes darted between each of them. “There’s no need to be hasty. Obviously, my men and I will take our leave.”
“You attacked the duke!” Xan yelled.
“Whatever do you mean?” Justav said. “I’ve not moved. You’re the one who attacked me.”
Blasted invisible death magic! “You threatened him. Your words were, ‘I shall be forced to pursue every option to acquire them,’ I believe.”
“I meant, of course, penning a most pointed letter to the queen detailing the lord duke’s actions.” Justav smiled. “With my lord’s permission, my men and I will take our leave.”
Asher’s color returned, but he still wobbled. He nodded.
Justav turned and walked away with his seven men in tow.
Xan stared hard at the retreating figure. It would be a really bad thing to burn a hole in that ugly purple cloak. Especially since, with Justav leaving, all the soldiers’ attention was focused on Xan and his friends.
“What just happened here?” Flynn said.
“My friends and I saved your life.”
“That’s to the good because you’re in dire need of my favor,” Asher said. “All of you are mages?”
Xan shrugged.
“How in the blast did seven mages, four of whom have demonstrated quite an advanced degree of control over their abilities, come to be assembled before me?”
“Three of those have nothing to do with me. I only found Ashley because she’s a mage.” Crap. He’d forgotten to use her title again, but she didn’t seem to notice. “I sensed Tasia when I got into Asherton, and I have no idea who this guy is.”
Asher eyed the blond man.
“Lucan, my lord.”
His accent reminded Xan of Morav’s from back at the manor.
“And?” Asher said. “What’s your story?”
“No story, my lord. If I could just get on my way?”
“But,” Asher said, “by all accounts you’ve been waiting to see me.”
“Where are you from?” Xan said.
Lucan didn’t respond.
“Southwest Dastanar, if my judgment of dialects is of any account,” Flynn said.
Xan nodded. “The duke’s not just going to let a mage go. Best to just be straight with us.”
Lucan still didn’t respond.
It didn’t really matter. His story was obvious to Xan. “Your country trained you to be a mage, but something they did made you mad. You showed up here to defect, thinking that surely Bermau’s dukes broke the treaty in the same way and that they’d surely welcome and shelter you. Now evidence counters your assumption, and you figure that, if we’re all that stands between Truna’s forces and Asherton falling, you need to get out of town quickly.”
Lucan glared at him. “I did not get ‘mad.’”
“See?” Xan said to Asher.
“You still haven’t told me how it is that all four of you are from the same town?”
Xan explained how the percentages made it likely for four their age with the potential to be born in Eagleton and related his theory about the plague.
Asher shook his head. “I don’t know whether I should throw you in the dungeon, execute you on the spot, or embrace you as an ally.”
Xan met his eyes. “When shall I have your decision?”
“You’ve got mettle; I’ll give you that.” Asher’s mouth twitched. “A truce then. For the moment, I’ll keep you safe, but you will not use your powers for any reason.” Sadness flickered across his face.
“I’m sorry,” Xan said. “I can’t agree to that.”
“It’s a reasonable restriction, son. Why ever not?”
“I strive to keep my word, even when it’s inconvenient, even unwise, to do so,” Xan said. “There are too many threats to my life, my friends’ lives, even Lady Ashley’s and your lives, at the moment for me to be hindered. It’s simply too dangerous. Uh, my lord.”
Asher stared at him a long while before speaking through gritted teeth. “You make a good point.” He paused. “In the future, should I just ask your opinion before issuing orders?”
“It’d sure make things easier.” Xan closed his eyes. He really shouldn’t have said that.
One of the soldiers gasped, and the entire group tensed. A moment passed as a stifling silence hung over the assemblage. Xan opened his eyes.
A grin split the duke’s face, and a great guffaw burst from his belly. He clapped Xan on the back so hard that Xan stumbled forward several steps. “You definitely have mettle, son.”
As everyone relaxed, a page burst in the door.
Asher looked to Flynn. “By the Holy One, what now?” He gestured for the page to approach.
“One of your militia captains, my lord,” the boy said. “Says he needs to speak to you urgent-like. His standard is a red eagle on a field of blue.”
“Dad!” Brant said.
Lainey’s eyes widened, and her hands shook.
“Let him in,” Asher said.
Moments later, Captain Reed and Master Rae entered.
Xan raised his hand in greeting, but his mentor ignored him. Instead, the two men walked somberly to the front of the room to face Asher without either so much as directing a wave at Brant or Xan.
Whatever was the matter with them? Had something happened? Was Eagleton okay?
Captain Reed gestured at the young people from Eagleton. “My lord, I request you arrest these four on the charge of murder.”
57.
Lainey stared at Captain Reed. Was
he real?
He couldn’t be, not straight from her nightmares. Only the black-liveried corpse returning from the grave would be more terrifying. But the stone floor beneath her feet felt real.
Brant marched to his father. “What the rads are you saying?”
Her eyes lost focus, and the scene played out with indistinct forms.
“You had no call to kill anyone,” Captain Reed said.
Lainey’s knees buckled, and she collapsed. Her elbows locked when her palms hit the stone.
Dylan’s voice rang, his high-pitched tone on the edge of panic. “Master Rae told us the darts were safe. We didn’t mean to … to …”
Lainey’s arms gave way, and her face fell, her forehead striking hard. A copper taste filled her mouth. Blood.
“No, lad,” Master Rae said. “We found the body in the stable.”
As she tried to gulp air, two sets of hands grabbed her like bands of iron. She struggled against them. Her feeble efforts accomplished nothing.
Someone embraced her tightly. Xan.
“It’ll be okay, Lainey. I swear.”
Her stomach heaved, and she ducked clear of his chest. Vomit burned her throat. Chunks bounced onto his pant legs.
As Xan held her hair and called for water, Tasia dabbed at Lainey’s face with a silk handkerchief. They sat her on the floor and made her rinse her mouth.
Not daring to meet anyone’s eyes, she stared downward. A huge shadow approached, fine boots announcing the duke’s presence.
“My lord?” Xan said.
“Attend the girl but don’t leave this room. You’ll have my decision in two hours.”
Lainey struggled to her unsteady feet, and Xan and Tasia supported her.
“No! Just let me be.” Lainey shrugged off the hands.
Tasia spoke to Xan in low tones, her mouth close to his ear and her body inches from his. She patted his hand and let her touch linger. “Let me help her. It will be easier since she doesn’t know me.”
Lainey buried her head in her hands and sobbed.
Everyone gave them a wide berth, creating a circle of isolation. No one spoke. Only the quiet creaking of soldiers’ armor filled the void of silence.
Tasia stroked Lainey’s hair. “Don’t you worry. Everything’s going to be fine.”
The accusation in the eyes watching her.
“I have to get out of here.” Lainey eyed no less than five soldiers standing by the closed exit door. She’d never make it.
Tasia guided her through the room into an alcove and pulled the curtain closed behind them. “Best I can do. Sorry.”
A tear formed in Lainey’s eye, and she let it run down her cheek. Would she be arrested? Executed? Whatever happened, she deserved it.
“The duke will take care of everything,” Tasia said. “It will all be okay.”
Did the girl not understand? Lainey had killed someone! What was with the whole sunshine and roses thing? “I saw your face.”
“What?”
“Earlier after you talked to Xan. You tried to play it off like you intended Lady Ashley to take an interest in him, but I saw your face. And the way you held his hand just now.” Lainey sneered. “Don’t you worry, though. Everything’s going to be fine.”
Okay, low blow.
Tasia shrugged. “It is what it is. I’ve never been able to compete with Ashley.”
How was it even possible that Xan—Lainey’s brother, Xan, oh he the serious geek with the ridiculous mop head—was suddenly attracting girls? And pretty girls at that. “I don’t get it. Why him?”
Tasia blushed. “I know a half dozen girls who would fall all over themselves for your friend Brant. The muscles. Those eyes. Other girls would be more interested in Dylan, a solid man from a good family. Much more security there. I can’t blame either set; all girls have their type.”
What was her type? Arrogant know-it-alls?
“That’s why I can’t really be mad at Ashley, either. She’s attracted to two things—power and, unfortunately and incomprehensibly, men I like.”
“And you?” Lainey said.
Tasia sighed. “My first kiss was with a boy who died of wasting sickness. My first boyfriend was a patient paralyzed by a cow falling on him.”
Lainey almost laughed. “And there’s absolutely no one more pathetic than my brother.”
“It’s more that he’s suffering but yes. You’ve got the right of it.” Tasia grinned. “Besides, he’s not ugly. Put a little meat on his bones and …”
Lainey scrunched up her face. “Ugh. Gross.” She paused. “Did you deliberately embarrass yourself to take my mind off my troubles?”
Tasia shrugged again.
“You’d make a better sister-in-law than Lady Ashley would.”
Tasia’s smile turned to a grimace. “No use worrying over could’ves and could-be’s.”
As they continued talking, Lainey found herself spilling the whole story about Xan’s arrest, about life on the run, and unbelievably, about what happened in the stable.
“I’ve known lots of soldiers,” Tasia said. “Killing comes easily to few of them, but, when the choice comes down to their opponent’s life or their own, it’s not like they truly have a choice. No one can blame you for defending yourself.”
“How do I know he was even my enemy?” Lainey said. “Xan is a mage. The man was sent to catch mages. He was just doing his job.”
Tasia sighed. “I can’t answer that. All I ask is—if you wouldn’t have killed that man, would Xan still be alive?”
Lainey shook her head.
“Which would you prefer?”
She just didn’t know.
58.
Ashley grinned as she hustled through empty corridors.
The only thing better than a weapon was a powerful weapon. And the only thing better than a powerful weapon was a powerful weapon completely under her control.
Besides, Xan amused her. His naïvety was most … endearing.
She breezed through an antechamber, where Brant’s father and the old man with the white beard waited with grim looks, and into the meeting room. Officers and civil advisors filled all seats around a table save the one to the right of her daddy. He faced the door with Uncle Benj, as his chief advisor and army general, to his left.
An old scribe whose name she couldn’t recall hunched over a writing table in the corner. Once she sat, he started reading Captain Reed’s testimony about a guardsman being killed during Xan’s escape from jail in whatever hick town it was.
The scribe didn’t get very far before her daddy waved his hand. “Is any of this relevant? If we excuse the magic use, we’re declaring the catcher to be an enemy of Bermau, making his life and the guardsmen’s lives forfeit. Otherwise, whichever of these mages killed the guardsman will already be under penalty of death.”
No one disagreed.
“The crux of the matter is—do we follow the law or endorse these mages?”
Uncle Benj sighed. “Who knows which choice is correct? And even if we manage to pick the right one, we’re still just as likely to end up in ruin.”
“Did you send the pigeons to Escon?” her daddy said.
“We released them,” Uncle Benj said. “All three died when they passed over the woods. Simply fell to the ground.”
“Yet more proof that Xan tells the truth,” Ashley said.
“They could have been felled by arrows,” Uncle Benj said.
She raised her eyebrows at him.
“Not likely, I admit.”
“It was a long shot they’d make it back with a directive from the queen in time anyway,” her daddy said, “but this means we’re completely on our own.”
“The safest course,” Uncle Benj said, “is to report this Justav as a rogue enemy and turn the young people over to a different catcher.”
“You think that’s the safest course? Some general.” Ashley snorted. “What happens when death mages kill off all our soldiers manning the wall? Will you protect them l
ike you protected the duke?” She paused. “Oh, wait. You did nothing while the duke was being attacked. Xan saved him.”
Uncle Benj rolled his eyes. “I’m not much of a gambling man—”
Ashley snorted again.
“—but I’ll see your hypothetical threat of enemy mages and raise you the very real fact that every duchy in the three kingdoms will turn against us were we to raise a force of magic users.”
Goose bumps rose on Ashley’s arm. To control such a force! Fire. Kinetics. Life itself.
“I agree with General Flynn,” her daddy said.
Uncle Benj stuck out his tongue at her. Real mature there.
“But I also agree with the niskma.”
Ashley smiled. “So where does that leave us?”
Uncle Benj nodded. “We hedge our bets. Use the mages to protect us against magical attack but keep their involvement secret.” He softened his voice. “Dispose of them quietly if need be.”
A sensible solution.
“I did not say that!” Her daddy pounded his fist on the table. “We don’t use people and throw them away.”
Uncle Benj shrugged. “We also don’t risk control of the duchy for the sake of a few village kids.”
“What about my promise to Alaina? This may finally be my chance to put things right.”
Ashley leaned forward. What promise to her mother?
“Auggie, you’ve got to let her go.”
She couldn’t remember ever hearing Uncle Benj call him by name in public, much less in an official meeting.
Her daddy clutched at two rings dangling from a gold chain around his neck. “Even with the control we exert over catchers, there are still abuses, and even when those accused are actually guilty, we’re executing children.”
Uncle Benj threw up his hands. “Children who could grow up to level cities with a thought!”
“It’s okay to murder kids for what they might do?” Ashley said. “Do you punish Miln because he might get a bad grade or Tod because he might forget to do his chores?”
“That’s not the same thing, and you know it.”
Ashley cocked her head and smirked, and he shot her an infuriated glare. She grinned.
“Speaking of children …” Her daddy sighed. “It’s only prudent to use the services of these mages, as it is to keep their participation under wraps. However, we will only consider elimination if we have no other option.”
Rise of the Mages (Rise of the Mages 2) Page 30
