Table of Contents
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Epilogue
About the Author
Published by Raconteur House
Murfreesboro, TN
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
ECHOES
Book Four of Familiar and the Mage
A Raconteur House book/ published by arrangement with the author
PRINTING HISTORY
Raconteur House mass-market edition/ Dec 2018
Copyright © 2018 by Honor Raconteur
Cover © 2018 by Katie Griffin
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.
Purchase only authorized editions.
www.raconteurhouse.com
Gargan fitted our needs perfectly. It gave us the distance I needed from my family, a safe place for Rena to relax, and of course it was beautiful up here. I couldn’t imagine a more perfect place to live. I felt a little like a child at times, but rubbing elbows with giants would do that to anyone. Rena didn’t seem to mind it at all. The giants regarded her with a healthy amount of respect, though, because of the destructive power she harnessed. I’d always suspected my wife had the mentality of a giant, and fate had just chosen to put her in a petite human body for laughs.
With Toh’sellor safely housed and watched around the clock, much of Rena’s stress disappeared completely. We were given a month and a half’s leave to go settle in Gargan, and we used it, hauling all of our luggage up with us. Vee’s builder met us the day after we arrived, listened carefully to our needs, and designed a house for us in the same week. He created something we thought very smart in its layout, including an extra bedroom for guests, and then an outer room large enough for giants in case we had new friends stay over. Every part of the house worked well for humans, but had vaulted ceilings and furniture that we could turn and manipulate to accommodate people with much longer legs. Clearly the man knew his business, and we signed a contract with him immediately to start building.
To help cut costs down, Rena actually dug the foundation site, which so impressed our contractor that he hired her to do three other sites for him for a deal. It saved on construction costs for us, helped him, and we were all happy.
I currently stood on the outskirts of the construction site with a cup of green tea in my hand, watching as the last of the foundation was put in. Supposedly, our new house would be finished in three months. At the rate they were going, it might actually be sooner. Which, really, would be best. We were staying in Chi and Vee’s guestroom up here and it felt very…temporary. After moving about so much in the past three years, I wouldn’t mind actually having my own space to call home.
Our new house was not in the middle of the city. In fact, it backed up against the side of a mountain, giving us trees and a small babbling brook in the backyard that made everything serene and peaceful. We’d chosen the lot because it was cheaper, not necessarily because it had the best location, but I did like the idea of not being surrounded by loud city sounds at night. The giants were not a quiet race. Not by any stretch of the definition.
Chi beckoned to me from the road, an irrepressible smile on his face that spoke of trouble. My adrenaline perked its head up, interested, as we hadn’t gotten into trouble in quite a while. “Yessss?” I drawled at him.
“Wade, Hugo, and Quincy want to train with us,” Chi informed me, nearly bouncing on his toes.
The three giants in question were Vee’s cousins through some sort of tangled family line that I didn’t even try to follow. I’d met them the first time Rena and I had come up for the wedding and they were great fun. Already turning toward him, I asked, “Training how?”
“You know how we did that running and leaping thing in Heaberlin?”
“That thing that got us in trouble?”
“Yeah, that,” he agreed, as if the memory of being in trouble with both of our wives was not worth mentioning. Then again, he’d been severely sleep deprived; he might not remember it all that clearly. “I mentioned it to them, and they said leaping from a building is fine and all, but what if something happens here? What if they need to throw us to the right area?”
I saw where he was going with this. “Are we playing hot potato with giants?”
Chi’s grin came out more demented than a sagging jack o’ lantern. “And we’re the potato.”
“That’s a terrible idea,” I responded, returning the grin. “What time?”
“Now?”
“Now’s good.” I headed toward their house, switching out the mug of hot tea in my hand for weapons, then followed Chi toward the lake.
Gargan was mostly farmland, mountains, and lakes—a stretch of green and blue as wide as the eye could see. A frankly beautiful country with copses of woodland here and there to break up the scenery and offer wind breaks. Our own house was being built near the training area for the giants, which was really nothing more than a cleared stretch of land at the base of the mountain. Giants, after all, used earth magic to train with. As long as they had dirt on hand, and water to cushion a fall, they were happy.
Wade, Hugo, and Quincy waited for us. Hugo and Quincy were the largest giants I’d ever met, somewhere above ten feet, their shoulders nearly wide enough for me to stretch out and sleep on. They were bodybuilders who specialized in giant’s magic, and frankly? I would not want to piss them off in a dark alley. I don’t think the alley or I would survive the experience. Wade looked a little small in comparison, but in truth he wasn’t, topping at over nine feet tall, his build leaner and solid. Wade was the darkest of them, with his chocolate colored skin, also the jokester of the group and the one that usually had the best ideas.
“There you are,” Hugo greeted, throwing his arms out expansively. “We put in a post for you to aim at.”
“I see that.” I eyed the post in the center of the area, nothing more than a ten-foot pole, perhaps a foot in diameter. It looked roughly jammed into the ground, like a discarded giant’s plaything. “So, who’s throwing me first?”
Quincy let out a booming laugh. “I knew I liked you. Come here, little man, I’ll toss you.”
Coming up to live with the giants? Best. Decision. Ever.
As Chi headed for Hugo, he called over his shoulder, “Everything has to hit the top two feet of the post or you lose.”
“Like I’m going to miss something that big.” I was totally going to throw something wrong, though, I knew it. People didn’t realize how much of knife throwing depended not on your arm, but on your back, your sense of balance. Being tossed into the air lost you half of that balance and made it so much more challenging. I thought about this as Quincy seated me on his forearm, his right hand against my chest to steady me, ready to launch. My feet dangled several feet above the ground, which likely looked ridiculous. I just had a buzz of anticipation and didn’t care if it did. The three giants stood in a rough circle around the pole, about twenty feet away from it on all sides, which meant Chi and I would be more or less aiming in their dire
ction, trying to hit the pole. Should I warn them that they’d be in the line of fire?
Naw, they were big boys, they could duck.
Wade, the only one not with an armful of human, stomped out a rhythm against the dirt, and I could feel the vibrations as he threw a little earth magic into it. On the third stomp, Quincy chucked me toward Wade at the same time Hugo threw Chi. The wind rushed around me as I flew through the air and I had so much fun riding that adrenaline spike that I almost forgot to throw something.
The dagger hit the pole, barely in the right spot, but stayed there. I couldn’t spare it more than a glance before I landed against Wade’s broad chest. In fact, I had two seconds to rest there before he shifted me about and threw me again. It felt rather like a tilt-a-whirl and a rollercoaster at the same time.
Then Quincy upped the game by throwing a pillar of dirt at Hugo’s feet, making him skip backwards. Hugo ripped out a curse, chortling in glee. “You play dirty, Quincy!”
“No other way to play!” Quincy retorted, mouth stretched from ear to ear. His foot came up even as he caught me, slamming it into the ground, this time directing an attack at Hugo. Hugo laughed, dodged, then swore when that put him out of range to properly catch Chi. He had to lunge for the archer, catching him by an arm and a leg, like a toddler that had dived off something. Chi spluttered indignantly at the position.
“What is this, Battle Hot Potato?” I demanded of Quincy.
The giant blinked dark brown eyes in the most innocent expression possible. “Isn’t that the only way to play?”
“Absolutely,” I agreed with a straight face. “Pray continue.”
“You’re a fun human,” Quincy informed me, laughing.
“But not as fun as my wife, right?” I shifted in his arms, getting ready to be thrown again, my hand reaching for the knives strapped at my thigh.
“Your wife is so little, so cute, but she carries so much destructive power. She’s a giant at heart. Of course we like her. If she hadn’t married you, I’d make a play for her.” Quincy threw me forward like he hadn’t just tilted reality on me.
I threw the dagger, swore when it clipped the pole instead of landed, then focused on catching Hugo before shaking a fist at Quincy. “You said that on purpose!”
“It’s good for a husband to be rattled now and again.” Quincy gave me a wink, his expression pure evil. “Makes him appreciate his wife.”
“You’re just trying to make sure Chi wins!” I accused him, even as Hugo threw me toward Wade.
Quincy let out a laugh that came from his belly. “Of course. Chi’s family.”
“Aww, Quin,” Chi crooned, letting out three arrows at once and of course hitting the top of the pole without trouble, “I love you too.”
I was going to accidentally-on-purpose put a dagger in both of them next throw. Just see if I didn’t.
“What is going on here?”
We all stopped as Vee came onto the scene, Seton in her hands. Eyeing the setup, the arrows and daggers in the top of the pole, and the way we dangled from a giant’s arm, she didn’t even wait for an answer. “You’re playing Battle Hot Potato aren’t you? Chi, really.”
“It’s good practice,” Chi defended himself, free hand coming up in a warding gesture.
I opened my mouth to back him up, not that I had any idea of what to say.
“Yes, it is,” Vee acknowledged, still exasperated. “So why didn’t you invite me in? I’m the one who throws you two the most.”
Oh. We weren’t in trouble? Oh good. I sometimes forgot that Vee’s sense of ‘dangerous training’ didn’t always match with my wife’s. “Ah, want to join us, Vee?”
“Sure. Let me put Seton down.” Vee looked as if she’d been out running errands, in her more casual clothes, dark brown hair done up in a loose twist that gave her feminine charm. Before coming up and staying with her, I’d rarely seen her out of uniform. It was easy to see, when she was casual like this, how Chi had fallen for her.
The other three giants shifted to include her into the ring and with a gamine smile, Vee demanded of Hugo, “Throw me a husband.”
Snickering, Hugo did just that, and it wasn’t my imagination that Chi looked more relaxed during that throw than any other. Then again, he was used to his wife catching him from ridiculous heights.
The game continued, and while Vee didn’t throw out giant attacks like the others, she did have to dodge them while catching us. I let the giants worry about that, as I barely had the room to think about angles and force to get my daggers into poles. I was down to my last one, and tempted to have them pause so we could count and mark the score before continuing, when I heard the thing I dreaded.
“Lady and gentlemen, what are you doing?”
My wife had this talent for saying things in a sweet tone that sounded like honey covering lava. We all stopped dead, which meant Wade did not catch me properly, and I had to scramble to catch his arm and elbow, leaving me hanging on him like a monkey. Not dignified. Then again, when was I ever?
The look on my wife’s face was studiously neutral. Fortunately for me, most of Rena’s attention seemed directed at Vee. “I expect this sort of shenanigans out of those two, but Vee? What part of this seemed like a good idea?”
“I throw Chi all the time,” Vee defended herself, putting a hand to her heart as if hurt by the accusation. “And we normally do it under battle conditions. Of course this is perfect practice.”
Rena swept a hand in my direction, face twitching for a moment before smoothing back out. “That’s not why I’m questioning. I’m asking why didn’t you put a cushioning spell down first? There’s no sense in taking risks during training.”
“We weren’t going to drop him,” Wade defended, looking outraged at the idea.
“Says the man that just failed to catch him,” Rena riposted with saccharine sweetness.
Wade looked down at me, still clinging to him like a monkey, with an ‘oh sards’ expression. I glared right back at him. Yeah, buddy, you ain’t doing us any favors here.
“I’m not saying it’s not a good idea. Just don’t be stupid about it.”
“What did you just say?” I blurted out. Wait, really?! She wasn’t going to stop us?
Rena let her forced seriousness go and laughed. “I agree with Vee. You’re going to get thrown in battle conditions, it’s better to practice it now. Anyway, I came up to tell you that Maksohm just bought tickets for all of us,” Rena informed the group generally. “We leave in two days for Foxboro. Try not to break each other before then.”
Turning on her heel, she left again, shaking her head and muttering something that sounded suspiciously like exasperated laughter. I kept my eyes on her as she trotted up the sloping road, not even breathing hard, and with a proud smile on my face. When we’d first met, the idea of her jogging anywhere would have scared the daylights out of me, much less uphill. Just walking had sometimes made her gasp for breath. Now she ran without thinking about it, without worry. She didn’t even look at all flushed by the exertion.
She was still recovering a little from that mad stunt she’d pulled in taking Toh’sellor down a second time. The healers had promised she was basically well, but the strain on her body from unleashing her magic sometimes showed itself. Usually in the form of fatigue. She tired more easily than she should these days. But with every day, she gained more strength, and seeing her moving now was a silent testament that she was basically well again.
If only I could convince her to stop pulling mad stunts like that. She has no appreciation for just how panic-inducing it was to see her go down like that.
Then again, maybe she did. I looked around at the group of hot potato enthusiasts with new eyes. “Maybe…Vee, maybe we should put that cushioning spell down?”
Her face lit up into one of relief. “Let’s. In fact, I’ll just put the cushioning spell around the two of you. That’ll do. Then we’ll go back to it.”
There, see? We can be responsible adults.
Despite Bannen’s wishes, we couldn’t stay up in Gargan forever. We spent eight days on various trains and ships traveling down to Foxboro to report in. We still had to pick up Emily, too, assuming she’d done the necessary paperwork to transfer onto our team. She might not have quite gotten her orientation training done yet. I knew she’d join us, though; she’d promised me she would. I was quite happy about it, as having another girl on the team to balance out the testosterone would be very welcome, and I missed working with Emily.
Not to mention we needed a healer. All of us got hurt far too often.
Three days into our trip, I finally found a window of opportunity to speak with Maksohm alone. Everyone made noises about finding lunch and wandered out of our train car, heading for the dining car in the back.
I caught Maksohm’s eye before he could follow them and lowered my voice. “Got a second?”
“More than one,” he encouraged, alert to my expression. “What?”
“Bannen is…not fine.” I sighed the words, feeling the weight of them press against my heart. “But he won’t speak to me about it. I think he doesn’t want to worry me. Or that, I don’t know, that it will pass in time.”
Maksohm’s dark eyes narrowed and he leaned a little further in, his entire attention focused on the conversation. “How bad is he?”
“Not bad,” I hastily assured him, then grimaced, “which is part of the problem. He doesn’t feel like it’s anything to complain about. But he’s been plagued by nightmares for months, and he’s not sleeping a full night. Sometimes he has mild anxiety, too. I think it’s mostly the familiar bond going spastic on him, but I’m not sure.”
“So it’s not just Chi who needs help, is what you’re telling me.” Maksohm ran a hand through his hair, looking away for a moment to stare blindly at the opposite wall. “I suspected he wasn’t completely fine, but I also thought he had a handle on things. He was functioning better than everyone else, at least.”
“He does better when he focuses on something. But with us being between missions like this, it’s more obvious. He doesn’t have anything to distract him.” Feeling like I shouldn’t stop there, I added a warning: “Z’gher’s culture doesn’t encourage people to seek outside therapy for problems. You find an older person you trust to speak to. But there’s no one here who really fits that.”
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