Not good.
Mei Li strained her eyes, but even with the talisman she couldn’t seem to pinpoint the source. The branches overlapped each other too much, and it was quite possible the blood mage had a glamour over the site to keep it camouflaged. Nothing even looked suspicious when it was, in fact, quite suspicious.
“Anything?”
Mei didn’t lower the talisman as she answered grimly, “No. I think he’s got a glamour up. Have you flown most of the distance?”
“Yes. I’m going to bank and circle around to the left, see if I can spot a good place to make camp. I have a feeling we’ll need it.”
“Do that. I’ll look as you go, just in case.”
Shunlei banked a gentle curve and circled wide. Strain as she might, Mei Li still didn’t see anything suspicious or even vaguely questionable. She frowned, vexed. The idea of blindly tromping through the woods sat ill with her. Well, maybe they could try a good seeking spell that could go through a blood mage’s glamour. With all four mages working together, odds were they could overpower it.
Maybe.
“There, I think.”
Mei Li turned her attention from the decrepit forest. “Where?”
“The spot near the river.”
She almost asked for more clarification before she spotted it. Ah, there. It did look grassy and flat, a good place to make camp. Also, it was just far enough away to avoid getting them entangled with the Woods, but still close enough they could make forays into it. “Can you find that again on the ground?”
“I should be able to.”
He sounded confident enough in the answer that Mei Li took his word for it. “Alright, bring us back down, then.”
Shunlei slowed their descent in gradual degrees. Mei Li knew very well that he could and did routinely bank harder than this and set down with more of a thump. The care he exhibited with her now made her smile. Shunlei had apparently always been a gentleman.
They landed on the road with a jolt. Mei Li slid out of Shunlei’s arm with a pat of thanks against his shoulder. “Thank you. Hawes!”
Hawes jogged toward them, expression hopeful. “Anything?”
“Nothing I could see,” she answered, still frustrated. “I think he’s got a glamour up. There’s such little indication of anything wrong that I’m sure I overlooked the spot, but I couldn’t pinpoint the area where he’s set up. I did smell burning flesh, acrid magic, and a few other things that make me believe he’s got a ritual altar set up in there.”
Hawes let his head flop backward in a dramatic fashion. “This will be an absolute bear. Alright, Shunlei, you see anything?”
Shunlei transitioned smoothly into human shape and only answered once he was settled, shaking his sleeves out before folding his hands together. “No, I’m afraid not. But I did spot a good place near the river to make camp.”
Grunting, Hawes agreed sourly, “Probably the best use of our time at the moment. We might as well settle in. This will likely take a few days. I hate to spend the time on this when we’ve got two other leads to follow, but…”
“We can’t bypass this,” Mei Li agreed. A sour, yawning pit opened up in her stomach at just the thought. “Blood mages are ruthless, and if he’s doing ritual sacrifices in there, he’s building his power up for something truly awful. We can’t give him the time or freedom to unleash his plans.”
“My thought exactly. Alright, let’s set up camp and then come up with a plan.”
Kiyo joined them, her pace unhurried. But then, the woman seemed intent to never seem unsettled by anything. “If your aerial reconnaissance failed, perhaps a seeking spell?”
She seemed smug that Mei Li had not succeeded. Biting back her temper, Mei Li said, “I think if all four of us combined forces, we might be able to break through whatever glamour is in place.”
“Quite. Nord and I will make the necessary preparations.”
It was hard, but Mei Li didn’t smack her for that smugness. “I’ll help with setting up camp, then.”
Shunlei led them to the spot, and she was grateful he’d seen it. They’d never have guessed it existed from the road. It wasn’t as wide a clearing as last night’s camp—Shunlei would likely have to stay in human form here—but it had all the necessary components to make a good campsite. The trees lining the clearing gave shelter from the wind, the ground was mostly flat, and the water ran clear nearby.
Mei Li helped set up the tents, off-loading the horses of their burdens. Since it was more or less time for lunch, she started a fire as well. They could eat while Kiyo and Nord made the necessary talismans and artifacts for the seeking spell.
It felt very odd to be on the outside of magic. She’d grown up her entire life being in the middle of things. Even as an apprentice, she was there to watch and learn, assuming she wasn’t assigned some task to aid Abe. It grated along her nerves unpleasantly. Mei Li kept reminding herself that Kiyo didn’t trust her magic yet. She’d have to take this in steps.
Kiyo called her forward after the fire was started. “Light these two candles, then let’s begin.”
The four talismans were posted at the four corners of a large, shallow bowl. Various small knobs of wood floated along the top of the water, scattered around the bowl. Mei Li would not have chosen a basic seeking spell—they only told the general direction on where to go—but bit her tongue. It might be best to start out simple, anyway. Easier to power.
Kneeling to the right side, she put her hand over Kiyo’s outstretched palm. Nord’s came to settle on top. His long, pale fingers were uncomfortably cool. Did the man have no blood in him? Hawes finished the circle, lending his magical power to the proceedings.
“Begin,” Kiyo ordered coolly.
Mei Li lent her magic to the spell, a steady thread of power humming and building between the three of them. The ink on the talismans glowed with increasing brightness, turning gold under the force of their combined magic, and the wooden floats in the water started to move.
They whirled and whirled and for a sinking moment, Mei Li didn’t think even this basic spell would be able to bull through the glamour. The floats moved suddenly and with quick precision, heading directly to the north-eastern edge of the bowl and staying there, all bunched up together.
Mei Li pursed her lips as she studied them. Well, they had a direction, at least. No idea of distance, but at least a direction.
“Hawes,” Kiyo stated authoritatively. “We have a direction. Northeast.”
Hawes stared hard at the bowl. “So I see. Distance?”
“I can’t tell with this spell. I chose the simplest one, as it had the best chance of working around the mage’s glamour.”
“Hmm. Makes it tricky to plan, though.”
Mei Li bit her lip and thought about offering another tracking spell. Hers would take a bit more prep, though, and she wasn’t sure if they had all the right elements to create the spell. No, better not. She had a feeling that even offering would put Kiyo’s back even further out of joint.
“What if we bait it out?” Kiyo offered. “I can create a more elaborate talisman that will register as a human and carry a strong blood scent. If we send that in, the blood mage will react and come after it. It’ll be too rich a prize to pass up out here. Then we can lure him to us and choose our own ground to fight.”
Mei Li could think of several things to go wrong with this plan and protested instinctively. “Wait, you’re assuming we can enter the woods without alerting him that we’re there.”
Kiyo’s eyes snapped to her, and she ended the spell with an abrupt clap of her hands. “My method will work.”
Shunlei and Melchior came to join them, drawn in by the argument.
Mei Li could tell Kiyo had her own opinion on this. It was an odd feeling, realizing she was not the expert—or at least, not the acknowledged expert in this group. She was the newest to join, the most untried of all of them, so no one would naturally defer to her. How did she phrase her words so she could get her poin
t across without further putting Kiyo’s back up?
Sucking her bottom lip into her mouth, she thought on it for a moment, mentally phrasing the approach. “Lady Kiyo, my master faced a blood mage once—”
Kiyo immediately snapped, “So did my instructors.”
Keeping her tone patient, Mei Li soldiered on. “—I, of course, do not know how they subdued them. I can only tell you how my master successfully did so. Perhaps if we—”
“I assure you this method works. We’ll use it.” Kiyo sniffed, looked at her sideways, then left in a huff, her skirts lashing out behind her like a cat’s tail.
Mei Li stared after her in dismay. That…had not gone well. Mei Li didn’t know if she’d said something wrong, or if Kiyo really was that threatened by having another female mage in the group.
Nord gave her a long, silent look before standing and quietly following Kiyo. That left her with Hawes, who was rubbing at the bridge of his nose, and Shunlei, who seemed puzzled by the discord. Melchior was studiously staying out of it, not even facing her direction.
Trying to make the situation clear, Mei Li turned to Hawes. “I’m not trying to start an argument.”
“Yes, Lady Mei, I see that,” Hawes assured her patiently. “But she doesn’t take it well when someone questions her magic.”
“I’m not even doing that. I believe the method she just outlined will work.”
Hawes’ head canted to the side, a movement Shunlei weirdly echoed.
“Then what is your issue with it?” Shunlei inquired.
“Lady Kiyo’s method assumes we can all get into the correct position on time, that no one’s injured or distracted in the process, and that the blood mage falls for the trick.”
Shunlei’s face drew down into a frown. “That’s a lot of assumptions.”
Glad he saw her point, Mei Li nodded vigorously. “And that’s my issue. If everything goes perfectly to plan, then yes, her idea works. And will likely work well. But what if it doesn’t? If even one thing goes wrong, we won’t have the necessary magical force to overpower the mage. What then? He will break free and either turn on us or run.” Seeing that Hawes was half-persuaded, she pleaded with him, “I’m not trying to overturn her. I just want a backup plan.”
“Plans rarely survive the first contact with an enemy,” Hawes stated slowly, each word paving the road forward. “I agree it isn’t wise to bank everything on one move. But I don’t want discord in this team, either. Lady Mei, this other method of yours, is it something that can be adapted on the fly?”
“Yes. It doesn’t kill the mage, but it will entrap and hold him for forty-eight hours. More than long enough for us to find another method to destroy him utterly, if we need to.”
“Is this something we can use against something other than the blood mage? Such as demons?”
“In theory, yes.”
Hawes slapped a hand to his knee, satisfied. “Then create what Kiyo’s asked you to do first. Make what you like second. I will tell her honestly that we’ve discussed this method and that you’ve prepared it just in case we come across something we need to pursue.”
Relieved, Mei Li agreed without hesitation. “I will. Thank you.”
With a deep sigh, Hawes reluctantly stood. “I’ll go smooth some feathers.”
As Hawes departed to the far side of the camp, Shunlei scooted in a little closer and asked softly, “I do not entirely understand what just happened. From what I see, Lady Kiyo is not older than you are. Why is she senior?”
Knowing how important seniority was to dragons, Mei Li tried to explain it so it made sense to him. “Part of it is that she joined the team first. And it’s not so much that she’s senior, it’s more they’re used to working with her. They know her better, and they’re still feeling me out.”
“Ah. As they are with me.”
“Yes, in a way.”
“Is that why she battles for a higher position than you?”
Mei Li almost corrected this as being a misinterpretation, but actually, Shunlei had hit the nail rather squarely on the head. “It might be part of it? That she sees me as competition. Some women always view another female as a rival. It makes no sense to me—never has. But I think Kiyo’s the type.”
For a moment, Shunlei’s expression was that of Future Shunlei, the one wise and experienced, a little cynical. It was odd to see it on this younger face, odder still to hear what he said next. “Perhaps, perhaps not. But her rebuff of you is understandable. If the two of you were dragons, you would be the one chosen as an Elder. She would not.”
Blinking, Mei Li ran this through her head twice but couldn’t understand why he’d said that. “Why?”
“Confidence. You exude it in an open aura. She is constantly trying to prove herself even when it’s not necessary. The difference is obvious to anyone observing.”
“And Kiyo instinctively understands that, which is why she’s constantly trying to show me up?” Mei Li couldn’t offer a counter argument. He was quite likely right.
To Mei Li, Kiyo of Floating Isles was a mage of legend, one with incomparable skills and a lioness’s courage. Everyone in the academic world knew not only her name, but her achievements. Not once did Mei Li ever suspect that in the beginning, before Kiyo became known as the Archmage of Floating Isles, she was a regular woman in her early twenties. Straight out of school, freshly thrust into the world, struggling to properly manage the road she’d chosen to walk. She wasn’t the mage of legend yet. It would be wise for Mei Li to bear that in mind.
“Competition is good for people,” Shunlei opined, tugging his sleeves to cover his hands, looking quite snooty as he did so.
It was so mock-serious that she snorted a laugh. “You say that, but I bet dragons deal with competition quite differently. Mr. Duelist.”
“You really should consider challenging her. It would settle the matter of who’s right.”
“Right by might? You know that’s rarely true. It’ll just prove who’s stronger.” Mei Li thought about it, lips pursed. “And I’m not convinced I could beat her on a magical level. Magically speaking, she’s probably stronger.”
Shunlei regarded her doubtfully. “Truly?”
“You’ll see,” Mei Li sighed, shoulders slumping. “In the meantime, I guess I’ll win her over by a battle of attrition.”
Trapping a human was both simple and complex. The bait had to be believable to draw them in, after all. The goal was to create a magical figure—a young person who could move and ‘flee’ from any pursuers. Blood mages were always in need of fresh meat, as it were, and giving him a teenager nearby would be too irresistible. Or so was the hope.
Kiyo cut out a simple paper doll and then painstakingly drew the talisman on both sides. Mei Li tried to casually glance over now and again to look at her progress and not make it seem like she was studying every line drawn over the woman’s shoulder.
What she was in charge of was the actual trap. Binding was the spell, and once engaged, it would lock the man in place. Mei Li made several trap talismans because, while these were very effective, they were also tricky to use. It was a matter of getting the right timing. Thrown in too quickly or too late, the spell didn’t have the time to properly activate before the prey escaped. They needed at least five seconds.
Frankly, Mei Li didn’t give this plan a high rate of success.
But she made ten of the traps just in case she was proven wrong. Since this was something that needed to be thrown, she used the heavier wood chips, shaped as narrow planks, for her talismans. Then she started in on her plan—the rope trap. This she had more faith in. Once targeted, the rope could be thrown, and it wouldn’t be stopped or blocked until it wrapped its way thoroughly around its prey. Or it was utterly destroyed. Mei Li made a six-foot section, with the talismans woven into the rope. Then, thinking better of it, she started a second. It was a blood mage, after all.
Shunlei came to sit next to her. The night had fallen as they made preparations, and it was
only by the round mage lights hanging overhead, and the nearby fire, that she had light to work by. Her hands flipped and twisted, pulling the fiber strands together—partially by will, partially by magic. It looked a little knotted and uneven, but she was hardly an expert at this.
Without a word, he extended a hand to her.
Eyeing him sideways, she carefully transferred all four strands over to him, and then watched in bemusement as he smoothly took over. He was much faster and more confident than she had been, catching the paper talismans in with the pattern without faltering.
“Now when did you learn how to do that?” she asked in curiosity.
“Oh, fairly early on,” he answered with a quick, boyish grin at her. “All dragons do, really. Because we have to transport things, and there’s no one willing to make harnesses for us. We have to make them ourselves.”
She smacked her palm against her forehead. “Of course, I should have realized. And no one’s really willing to sell you rope.”
“Not usually. And I don’t normally have human coin to use. Sometimes I’ll go hunting—for ore, or game—before coming into a town, and use that to trade with. But there’s not a universal coin, so trying to carry anything around with me is more aggravation than not.”
Melchior came and sank onto his haunches, also observing, his head canted to the side, arms dangling over his knees. “Huh. You’re quite good at that, Shunlei. We had that much twine?”
Lifting a hand, Mei Li pointed toward her nose. “I picked some more up when we went shopping yesterday. I always try to carry twine or rope on me. It comes in handy more often than not.”
“Like now,” Melchior observed, humor crinkling the corners of his eyes. “If you’re making two, then are you sending one up with Shunlei?”
She blinked several times. “I hadn’t thought to, but that’s a good idea. Shunlei, if we tweak the rope spell correctly, then we can send it up with you. That way, you can just release it while over the blood mage. It’s bound to catch him.”
“I am amiable to this, but…” Shunlei paused, his fingers still entwined with the rope, and regarded her steadily. “I thought to stay on the ground with you.”
First of Tomes (The Tomes of Kaleria Book 2) Page 6
