by Jasmine Walt
I shrugged. “I never cared much for apprentice robes anyway.” They were always so dull, made from that dun-colored fabric, and unflattering on almost everyone. Wearing them for ten whole years, the average length of an apprenticeship, was not at all enticing.
“You are not the first woman to say so,” Fenris said with a smile, his eyes twinkling as though he were laughing at some inside joke. “Let’s get some pen and paper and make a list. There is much to be done before we depart.”
5
Mina
After Fenris left to book the tickets for the first available flight, I tried to busy myself about the house, tidying things up and caring for my mare and the goat that was still recovering in my surgery. But after slapping some bandages on him, there was very little to do—I wasn’t going to bring any of my things on the trip, the house was fairly clean already, and there were no patients on the schedule this morning.
The goat’s owner broke up the monotony when he came to pick up the animal and thanked me profusely for his amazing recovery. He left three dozen eggs on my counter as payment. As I stared at the offering, I lamented that it wasn’t coin. I would be able to take coin on the trip, but these eggs might spoil if I was gone for too long. I would have to give them away, perhaps to Barrla. She, at least, could use them to bake more cookies.
Then I remembered it didn’t matter—for the first time in years, I had plenty of gold. My gaze went to the pouch Clostina had left for me, still sitting on the coffee table. I scooped it up, weighing the heavy purse in my hand. I could not leave a small fortune around the house while I was gone, even if break-ins were almost unheard of around Abbsville. A single gold coin would settle my account at the general store and prepay for the next quarter. I would also take some on my trip, but the rest needed to be hidden somewhere.
After roughly estimating my travel costs and doubling the sum to be on the safe side, I removed half the coins and put them in my old leather purse, which I packed in my duffel bag for the trip. The rest I left in Clostina’s pouch, which I hid in a sack of specialty dog food, one of several I kept in my surgery for dogs with dietary issues. I cut a slit in the back to insert the pouch, then carefully mended it using a spell Fenris had taught me to sew wounds. It worked just as seamlessly on burlap as it did on flesh, closing the bag so smoothly I couldn’t tell it had been sliced open in the first place.
Satisfied with my precautions, I put on my slicker and rain boots, then dropped the last gold coin in my pocket and walked over to the general store. The rain lightly pattered against my hood, and I smiled, pleased it was still coming down. I had done this with my magic, and I couldn’t help feeling incredibly proud of that fact.
“Hey, Mina,” Barrla said with a smile when I stepped into the store. She was ringing up a customer—there were quite a few around, probably all driven indoors by the rain. “Finished up with your morning patient?”
The saucy wink she gave me left no doubt in my mind as to which “morning patient” she was referring to. Holding back a grin, I leaned my hip against the counter. “Just about. Did you ever get around to making that ‘morning delivery?’”
Barrla’s cheeks turned the faintest shade of pink. “I was delayed by the rain,” she said, turning her blue eyes to the window.
“It’s quite fortuitous, this storm,” Mr. Tilin, Abbsville’s resident carpenter, commented. “I wasn’t certain my cabbages would survive.”
“Oh yes, it’s a lifesaver,” a woman perusing the baking goods agreed. “I prayed to the Ur-God for rain—I think it helped.”
Barrla finished with the customer. While the others continued talking about the weather, I approached her. “I’d like to put this on my account,” I said, handing her my coin.
Barrla’s eyebrows rose. “That’s a pretty piece of metal,” she said, holding it up and admiring its glint. I gave her a warning look, but before she could ask about it, the door opened, bringing in the wind and the rain. Barrla’s eyes narrowed with dislike, and I turned to see Roor standing in the entrance, a scowl on his face. My stomach dropped—my former suitor had a bandage wrapped around his head, and he looked extremely unhappy to see me. I held my breath, bracing for a confrontation.
But he simply walked right by, refusing to look at me.
I let out a quiet sigh of relief as he lumbered past, no doubt moving carefully because of his healing ribs. But the moment was short-lived.
“Mr. Roor, if you’re going to come into my store, I expect you to show some manners,” Barrla said sharply. “How dare you walk right past this counter and act as if we don’t exist!”
Roor turned slowly, an ugly expression on his face. “This isn’t your store,” he sneered. “And I don’t talk to witches.” His mud-brown eyes raked over me briefly before he made to turn away again.
“Witches?” I echoed. “What in Recca are you talking about?” Goose bumps broke out across my skin—had he figured out the truth about me? Was he going to tell the rest of the town?
Roor snorted. “Playing coy, just like always, Mina. Weren’t you just visited this morning by a couple of mages?”
“So that’s where you got the gold coin,” the woman in the baking section said. I gritted my teeth, fighting an uncharacteristic urge to strangle her.
“Accepting gold from mages?” Roor sneered. “Are you working as a spy for the Mages Guild, then?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Barrla snapped. “Mina would never stoop to that kind of work. And she’s far too good for you, Ilain Roor.” Roor’s expression turned thunderous, but Barrla ignored his anger. “Besides, if Mina were a spy, the mages wouldn’t visit her so openly, wearing robes and all. They would be more discreet.”
“That’s true,” Mr. Tilin said, and the others murmured their agreement. Roor didn’t look convinced, but he seemed to realize there was no point in pushing the argument further. With a scowl, he went about his business. I selected a jug of milk, some cheese, and bread, then hurriedly had Barrla ring up my purchases before Roor changed his mind and decided to harass me again.
As I walked home in the rain with my groceries, I felt dejected. I couldn’t truly trust anyone in Abbsville aside from Fenris, and even he kept secrets from me. I wished I could confide my own secret to Barrla and my other local friends, but as things stood, the truth about my identity would always stand like an invisible barrier between us. Whenever Barrla defended me, as she had just done, I cringed with guilt inside.
Would Barrla even want to remain friends with me if she knew I was a mage? And was telling her the truth worth risking our friendship? I wasn’t sure I wanted to find out.
6
Fenris
“Thanks for coming out with us on such short notice,” Marris called over his shoulder as we navigated the narrow forest path on horseback. “I know you’re about to leave on a trip, but after all you’ve done for us, we wanted to show you this place before you left.”
“It’s not a problem.” I’d already finished with most of my urgent errands for today—after my visit with Mina, I’d made a few calls on the local inn’s telephone to arrange transport to Innarta and accommodation at the Black Horse in Haralis, then returned home to work on my burgeoning garden once the rainstorm let up.
But only a few minutes after the clouds had parted, Marris, Roth, and Cobil had shown up at my doorstep. Now I found myself riding through the woods with them, heading, I suspected, toward the secret mine I’d discovered some weeks back.
Yes, I thought as we passed through the glade where I’d spotted Marris and his friends as they’d snuck into town under the cover of darkness. I’d come back to this place in the light of day, then backtracked their scent to discover what they’d been up to.
We passed through a thicket of bushes onto a deer trail, which led to a side valley well hidden from the main path. This hidden vale was no doubt the reason why the mine had remained mostly untouched, especially since gold mining had been outlawed by the Federal government some two hundred ye
ars ago.
“My word,” I said, injecting a note of surprise into my voice as we guided our horses into the valley toward some rocky cliffs. The cliffs were tucked into the grassy knolls that rolled into the base of the mountain range. “What is this place?”
“There’s an old mine down here,” Roth said, grinning. “It’s where we’ve been getting the gold.”
“Best-kept secret in the Abbsville area,” Cobil said as we approached one of the cliffs, his voice filled with pride. “We discovered it by accident when we were just schoolboys, years ago. You’re the first person we’ve shown this to.”
We dismounted, and I let the men lead me to the padlocked door in the rock face. Marris fished a key from his pocket and unlocked the solid wooden door, then dragged it open. Beyond, a tunnel led further into the blackness of the cliff, and I nearly conjured a ball of flame to light the way before I remembered that Marris and his friends thought me a mere shifter.
Your magic lessons with Mina are making you sloppy. I had resolved to use magic as little as possible when I’d moved to Abbsville, but meeting Mina had changed things significantly. I could hardly abstain from using my powers while I was trying to teach her to use her own, and I had grown a little too comfortable reaching for my spells these past weeks. Now I waited with what patience I could muster while Cobil passed around torches, then lit them with matches from a tin in his pocket.
“This is quite a find,” I told Marris as he showed me around the mine. They seemed proud of their discovery, along with the fact they had figured out how to mine the ore despite having no experience. I sniffed the air, stale but breathable, and lifted my torch to illuminate a sagging beam at the side of the tunnel.
“This place must be over two centuries old—look at these support beams.” I touched one, and the wood gave slightly beneath my fingers. “Rotting. If this beam collapses, it could bring the entire ceiling down.”
Cobil paled. “Is there any way to fix them? It would be a shame to leave all this gold down here.” He gestured to the walls, where bits of ore gleamed all around us.
I shook my head. “Not easily, and certainly none of us have the experience to do so.” I could do it with my magic, but I couldn’t tell them that. Besides, I was trying to discourage them from further illegal activity. “Unless you are willing to risk bringing an outside mining specialist into your operation, which is highly inadvisable, I would not mine here again. What you have been doing to help your neighbors is admirable, but it is not worth your lives.”
Marris and the others grumbled a bit, but in the end, they agreed safety was paramount. Having worked up an appetite, we left the mine and made a fire in a small clearing in the cliff’s shadow. Cobil and Roth had brought down two pheasants on our way, so we roasted the birds for an impromptu lunch—or at least a snack that would hold me over until I returned home.
“So,” Roth said as he polished off a pheasant leg, “looks like you and Mina are going steady now.”
I swallowed the mouthful I was chewing. “We have been seeing each other, yes,” I admitted. There was little point in denying it when the whole town kept abreast of everyone’s comings and goings.
“You’re one lucky bastard,” Marris said, admiration glinting in his eyes. “I never thought Mina would let any man get close to her. Figures it would take a shifter to crack that nut.” He winked.
“I am very lucky,” I agreed, thinking about how good Mina had felt last night in my arms. I loved the way she’d looked at me—as if I were the only man in the world. And when she’d turned the tables and taken me into her hands…
“I hope you are not just taking advantage of her,” Roth said, interrupting my train of thought. “Mina is a respectable woman.”
I could have retorted that it was none of his business, but I could tell from his earnest expression that the question arose from genuine concern. “I would marry her in a heartbeat,” I said, doing my best to push my heated thoughts away as my body began to react. I was only torturing myself by fantasizing about Mina when I wouldn’t see her again until tomorrow at the earliest. “But it is up to the lady how far things go.”
Cobil raised an eyebrow. “If I were in your shoes, I’d be carting her off to the nearest courthouse. That’s the kind of woman you want to pin down tight before she gets away.”
Part of me agreed with Cobil’s sentiment wholeheartedly—but the larger part recognized that Mina might yet change her mind about me once she reentered society and instead choose to marry a more suitable partner. Sunaya and Iannis had a difficult enough relationship—Mina and I would face even more challenges, since she did not have the same clout as a Chief Mage, and unlike Sunaya, I was forced to pretend that I did not have magic.
“When I was last in Willowdale, I heard a jeweler who was creating counterfeit coins had been arrested,” I said, deliberately changing the subject.
Marris’s face darkened. “Yeah. He’s already been sentenced—ironically, to work in the government’s mines. I suppose it could have been worse, since counterfeiting is usually punished by hanging.” There was a guilty look in his eyes. I was glad he knew, at least, just what risk they were all running. “He helped us convert the gold to coins. But I never used my name or told him where I lived, so we should still be safe.”
I shook my head at his naivety. “I would not be so complacent,” I warned. “The jeweler may have given the authorities a close description of you in exchange for leniency, and the fact that everyone in Abbsville was able to pay their taxes while so many neighboring towns were less fortunate may yet draw the attention of the investigating mages. It might be prudent if you made yourself scarce for a little while.”
Marris stiffened. “I’m not going to run away with my tail between my legs like some coward. And besides, Barrla finally agreed to go on a date with me. I’ve been trying to get her attention for years.”
I held in a sigh. It had been stupid of me to encourage Barrla’s affections toward Marris when trouble loomed on the horizon. Perhaps my feelings for Mina had clouded my judgment.
“Barrla isn’t going anywhere,” Roth argued. “I’m sure she’d rather you stay safe, Marris, than go on a date with her and risk imprisonment.”
“I agree,” Cobil said. “I think we’d all do well to listen to Fenris. He’s got more experience with mages and their ways than the three of us combined.”
“You’d make the perfect leader for our little band,” Roth said, a speculative look in his eyes. “We’ve been thinking about forming something like the Resistance, but different and better.”
My eyebrows rose. “I have no intention of starting a rebellion—”
Marris waved my objection away, enthused again. “We’re not trying to change the entire Federation,” he argued. “We just want to protect our own. The Resistance was too big and easily corrupted, but this would just be something small and local. We’d remain independent, and we wouldn’t be influenced by greed and selfish agendas.”
“While I do consider the three of you friends, I think you’re being a bit presumptuous,” I said dryly. “There is much you don’t know about me—I am not the kind of man to lead a revolution, even on a small scale.” I’d already gotten myself into enough trouble with illegal activities. “While I have my own issues with the mage regime, not all of them are evil. This may be hard for you to believe, but there are mages in my own family tree, and I’ve even had a few as friends.”
Marris’s eyes about popped from his skull. “Are you serious? Mages as friends and relatives? I thought shifters hated mages!”
I nodded. “Many of us do…but as I said, there are a few mages in my lineage, and I do not share the hostile attitude of most shifters. It is true that mages as a class have been corrupted by their monopoly of power, and they tend to be oblivious to the interests of humans and shifters. But I am not willing to wage war on all mages simply for being who they are. They cannot help it any more than I can help being a shifter or you three being human.”<
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“Well, if you really are that intimately acquainted with mages, it makes sense you’ve got a more nuanced view of them,” Roth said reasonably. “I guess fighting against the mages is a losing proposition anyway.”
“What if we call our group the League of Justice?” Marris asked suddenly, his face brightening. “Instead of fighting against mages, we can dedicate ourselves to righting wrongs, or preventing them from happening in the first place. Regardless of race.”
“That sounds like a great idea to me,” Cobil said. “Now that we have more than just humans living here.” He winked at me. “Not that we have to stick to Abbsville—that would be boring. We can operate in the entire state of Watawis, just like the Enforcers Guild does.”
“Excellent idea.” Marris turned his eager gaze to me. “Well? What do you say, Fenris?”
I pressed my lips together, hesitant to agree. I was about to leave for Innarta—embroiling myself in this new scheme was hardly a good idea. But I also couldn’t leave these young men to blunder about by themselves—unless they had a guiding hand to steer them away from dangerous follies, their good intentions might soon come to grief. They had no idea what they were up against.
“I’ll be leaving soon for at least a couple of weeks, out of state, to help Mina deal with a legal issue,” I finally said, “but I will think about your suggestion in the meantime. Regardless of my answer,” I added when they looked disappointed, “I want you all to promise me that whenever I am in town, you will bring news of injustices or problems to me for consultation before deciding on a plan of action. And no more mining; it is just too dangerous.”
“But what if we need more gold coins next year, for tax day?” Roth asked. “We still have several pounds of raw ore hidden.”
