Echoes

by Honor Raconteur

  “I’m not generally a fan of trials, but I’m completely behind this one. Sleeping on a train for two or three days straight also sounds blissful.”

  “Doesn’t it?” Chi agreed, coming up to stand next to me. He yawned, stretching both arms over his head. “Oh man, do I need sleep. What about you, secret love child, you coming with us?”

  Dag gave him quite the glare for calling him that. “Yes. I have to do paperwork, Rena said.”

  “More like she’ll do paperwork for you,” I corrected in amusement. “She likes paperwork.”

  From somewhere near the church, my wife yelled, “I HEARD THAT BANNEN HACH, AND BITE YOUR TONGUE!”

  “Or at least, she prefers doing it over you making a hash of it and her being forced to re-do it,” Maksohm translated dryly.

  I shrugged, as it was the same difference to me. It ended up with me not doing paperwork, which was a favor to mankind in general, really.

  Maksohm shook his head, setting the argument aside, and ordered his team in a loud voice that reached everyone between both buildings, “Take your luggage to the train station. We all need to be there within an hour.”

  I assumed he’d need that hour to get us tickets, double check with the agent in charge on sight, and other Responsible Agent Adult Things. Leaving him to it, I collected suitcases and boy, and went in search of breakfast.

  Because I was a good husband (read that as because I wanted to live), I bought breakfast for my wife as well. I found her at the train station, sitting outside on one of the wooden benches, a mirror held in Vee’s hands so that she could speak with Mary. At least, I heard Mary’s voice even from the stairs, so I assumed that’s what they were doing. Rena’s back blocked most of my view.

  “—don’t doubt your eyes; if he has this ability, then we’d certainly need to train him as a Void Mage. At least in the beginning,” Mary said slowly, clearly thinking aloud. “But he’ll need more traditional training as well. I think he should start off with me and then train under a different master.”

  “That’s more or less what I think, too. Can you take him, or do I need to?”

  “Rena, I doubt you have the time this early on in your career. And the house is too quiet since you two left me. I don’t mind taking the boy on. You said his name is Dagwood?”

  “Goes by Dag,” I pitched in, coming to sit behind Rena. I handed her a basket of biscuits smothered in gravy and got a sweet kiss for my thoughtfulness. See? Being a good husband paid off. With my wife’s mouth now occupied, I tugged Dag around and into view of the mirror. Vee helpfully changed the angle so that master and apprentice could get a good look at each other. “Dag, this is Mary, Rena’s former master in Turransky. Mary, Dag.”

  Dag took in the very wrinkled, white-haired old woman and his face screwed up in a doubtful expression. “You’re a Void Mage?”

  “I am,” she answered in amusement. “Don’t worry, age doesn’t stop us any. Dag, I can see even from here the resemblance of your eyes to a Void Mage’s. You might be the first case of a mage having some similarity to a Void Mage. I’ll have to check the history on that one.”

  I had no doubt she was right. Since I had her, though, I thought it might behoove me to drop some hints. “Mary, is Gill about?”

  “He is. He was in the garden—oh, no, here he comes. Gill! We’ve got a young one heading our direction.”

  Gill’s heavy tread announced him as he entered the living room and ducked down to put his head at his wife’s level. His clear blue eyes looked out, saw Dag, and widened perceptibly. “Well, now. Haven’t seen eyes like that before on a boy.”

  “He’s not a Void Mage,” his wife informed him quickly. “He just sees the world the way we do.”

  “Dag, this is Gill,” I introduced them. “You know how I’m Rena’s familiar? Good, well, Gill is Mary’s. It’s normal for a Void Mage to call a human familiar, you see. Now, despite appearances, you absolutely cannot assume that Gill is past his prime.” I winked at the man as I said it, getting a guffaw from him in return. “The man can still kick my butt. He’s slower than he used to be, but he knows more tricks. Gill, I’ve taught him the basic stances and some knife work, but I leave training him up to you. He’s got a good fighter’s sense, so it shouldn’t be too much effort.”

  Dag, of course, looked all sorts of excited about this. “Can we do swords next?”

  “Have to find one the right size to fit first,” Gill ruminated, his eyes sizing Dag up. “I think I’ve still got a practice sword about the right length. I’ll look. But sure, lad, when you get here, we’ll start on swords. Never too early to start on swords.”

  This was music to Dag’s ears. He openly beamed at the man, glowing under that promise.

  Mary, of course, eyed him with a sort of resigned amusement. I think she knew in that moment just what she had signed herself up for.

  “It’ll be a good month before we can get him to you,” I tacked on, then grimaced as the logistics of traveling down to Foxboro then across the continent flashed through my head. “Or more. We’ve had some trouble here, and we have to report in and do Dag’s paperwork with the MISD before we can head to you. Did Rena tell you the MISD are picking up the tab for his apprenticeship fees?”

  “She did,” Mary allowed.

  “Okay, good. Anyway, you’ve got time to prepare for him.”

  Rena stopped eating long enough to tack on, “I’ll have him do all the basic drills while we’re traveling. He’ll have some fundamentals in him that way.”

  Nodding, Mary agreed to this, her eyes going back to studying Dag carefully. The boy squirmed a little under her intense regard, not that I blamed him. I didn’t think Void Mages realized just how penetrating their gaze could be. It felt as if you literally could not keep any secrets from them. It was alarming. “Dag. You’ll be a long way from home. I’ll arrange it so that someone installs a mirror in your parents’ home, so you can call and speak to them once a month.”

  Dag lit up at this offer. Me, I kicked myself. We had not one, but two mages go through his hometown, and neither of us had thought to do this. What was wrong with us? Surely we shouldn’t have missed the obvious. I could tell from Rena’s face she kicked herself as well.

  “Thanks, Master Mary,” he answered shyly, ducking his head.

  “You’re very welcome. Rena, get him to me when you can, but don’t stress about it. I know a lot is going on over there.”

  “Understood, Master Mary. I’ll let you know when we have a firm idea of our arrival.”

  I waved goodbye as the connection was cut.

  “Was that Mary?” Maksohm asked, ascending the stairs with a tired tread. The man had panda eyes impressive enough for an actual panda. I was frankly amazed he still thought straight, much less moved. “Sards, I wanted to talk to her.”

  “It can wait,” Vee counseled with a head to toe sweep of him. From that expression, she shared my concern regarding our illustrious leader. “Maksohm, are we set to go?”

  “We are. We’ll take the train down to Estok, cross the channel, then take a sleeper car down Sira until we reach Alyadar.”

  That sounded like a lot of sitting to me, which would likely include an antsy eight-year-old and a bored Chi. I definitely needed to pick up some sort of distractions at our first stop; otherwise this trip would result in murders. Preferably not mine.

  As if on cue, the rest of our team and Vaughn arrived almost in the same moment that an incoming train blew its whistle. Talk about mad timing. I knew that in three days, I’d be heartily sick of being on a train, and going slowly stir crazy, but right now all I saw was the offer of sleeping coming toward me.

  Sleep. Sleep was good.

  It took seven full days to make it back down to Foxboro, and I was so very relieved to get off the train. For once, Bannen wasn’t half of the problem. Chi and Dag combined were a terrible, terrible mixture and I vowed to never let them be cooped up in the same place ever again. Dag wasn’t old enough to have good judgme
nt on what might be a bad idea, and Chi had no compunction about getting his youngest counterpart to pull pranks.

  The only thing that kept a murder from happening was Maksohm.

  When we finally did get to Foxboro, it was too late in the day to do anything, so we checked into our favorite bed and breakfast for the night. The next morning we basically stumbled into uniforms and went through the motions of getting breakfast into us and washing the sleep from our faces before splitting off into different directions. Bannen, Chi, and Dag went for the training yard to burn off energy. Emily went with them because we didn’t really trust Bannen and Chi alone with an eight-year-old. Shenanigans would ensue. Vee, Maksohm, Vaughn, and I headed toward the administrative part of the building in order to report in.

  We’d actually spent most of the train ride writing our reports of what had happened. We’d even stopped in Estok long enough to just portal the reports ahead of us, as Salvatore needed them sooner rather than later. I wasn’t sure what outcome our reports would help dictate, but I had a vague suspicion that it would be used in the lawsuit.

  I followed Maksohm in through the side door of headquarters, noting that the place seemed busier than usual. There had to be a good dozen agents scurrying through the halls with vaguely harassed expressions. That…did not bode well. Now what had gone wrong?

  “I vote,” Vee looked around us suspiciously, “that we check in, get our paperwork, and skedaddle before someone can volunteer us. I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t want to—”

  Maksohm lifted a hand to his ear, the other staying her. “Yes, sir? Yes, we just walked in—oh. Already? Which room? Understood, sir.”

  In dark amusement, I noted to Vee, “Too late.”

  “That man has timing that’s positively occult,” Vee growled. Her shoulders slumped as she let out a sigh of resignation.

  “Conference Room A, second floor,” Maksohm instructed us, waving a hand in a general circle to signal us to follow. As he headed for the stairs, he filled us in over his shoulder, “We have apparently missed the first day of mediation. Greenway Railroad Company does not want to go to court—companies never do, it affects their public image—and they’ve requested mediation instead. Our reports have been helpful but not quite helpful enough, and the company is trying to use plausible deniability in this case. We are to back up the MISD’s side of the suit.”

  I thought briefly about bringing Bannen in from training, as he was amazing in court rooms and arguments. But honestly, I wasn’t sure we needed him for this. Maksohm was no slouch in arguing, neither was Vee, and I was mad enough to make my point heard. At the top of my lungs if need be.

  Conference Room A sat at the very top of the stairs and Maksohm didn’t even knock, just opened the door and went straight through. Vaughn cracked his knuckles, his head stretching to either side in an aggressive move. Was this a fight?

  Stepping inside, I paused at the head of the table and got a good look at the players. I didn’t recognize more than two faces, Director Salvatore and Agent Howell from our legal division. They sat on the right side, the left with men in very expensive suits, only two of whom had paperwork in front of them. Two lawyers and some executives would be my guess. I took in their cold, indifferent looks, the polished way the lawyers had settled their paperwork around them, and realized Vaughn had the right attitude.

  This was definitely a fight.

  Director Salvatore stood and gestured towards us. “I believe that we can get somewhere. These are our agents on site. Special Agent Dah’lil Maksohm, Agent Renata Hach, Agent Violet Franklocke, and Elder Vaughn Castlerock from Gargan. Please, be seated. This is Mr. Ballantine, CEO of Greenway Railroad Company, his VP, Mr. Weber, their attorney, Mr. Sazonov, and our mediator, Mrs. Arco.”

  That put faces to names, at least.

  “I’m afraid the only testimony that we really require at this time is that of the woman we hired to do the job, the Void Mage—” Sazonov inserted with a faint smile. That expression made my skin crawl.

  “I am the Void Mage,” I interrupted, more abruptly and with a harsher tone than I intended. Standing my ground, I put up with the surprised stares this got me and lifted my chin. “Void Mage Renata Rocci Hach. Mr. Sazonov, I believe that I exchanged several telegrams with you regarding the accommodations included with the job.”

  He flushed, as well he should. I’d used my maiden name in the beginning to avoid confusing him, but still. He should have made sure of the players before he stepped out on the field. I didn’t know what was in question here, what they were claiming, or why the director thought our eye witness testimony would resolve the problem. I did know that I didn’t like this atmosphere one iota. It reeked of trouble. “So, I’m here. What’s the question?”

  Mrs. Arco, the mediator, looked as if she had three kids and a nice husband somewhere, her figure portly encased in a nice suit. That impression lasted right up until she gave me a shark-like smile. Never mind the exterior, that was a formidable woman. “For the record, Agent, are you recently married?”

  “I am. Hach is my married name.”

  “I’ll update the records to reflect that. Everyone, please sit. Agent Hach, I would like to clarify a few matters with you. You were hired by Greenway Railroad Company approximately one month ago in order to tunnel through Cloudland Mountain near Mountain Point. At that point, what were the terms of the contract as you understood them?”

  “I have a copy of the contract if we need to go over it again,” I started, because I’m not about to get into a nitpicky battle of commas and punctuation with these jerks.

  “Not necessary, we’ve gone over it,” Arco assured me dryly. “What were the terms discussed with you?”

  “They wanted a bypass train line through the mountain to connect directly with the Gargan station. I was to tunnel through and was given a month to do the job.”

  “Was hazard pay included?”

  I blinked at her, as that hadn’t been brought up at any point. “No. Nor was it offered.”

  “Were you at any time advised that there were any dangers, either because of the job or because of the environment?”

  What in the world was she getting at? “No. Not until we arrived.”

  “Explain that,” Arco suggested, and when the lawyer at her side tried to speak, she cut him off with a sharp glare.

  Was this a mediation or an arbitration? She acted more like an arbitrator, as if she had the authority to judge on this case. I was slow to answer, more careful with my words. “When we arrived at Mountain Point, the foreman of the job came down to fetch us. Mack Summers is his name. He informed us that he hadn’t been able to get any workers hired on because there were rumors of legendary beasts living in the mountain and none of the locals wanted to disturb them. There were multiple petitions in process to stop construction in Mountain Point, and several not-so-peaceful protests such as robberies and vandalism to stop construction. He said that he’d been on site for weeks before finally convincing his bosses to hire me.”

  The lawyer cleared his throat and with an eye on the mediator, smoothly offered, “The company sometimes experiences difficulties hiring labor for projects. Hiring Agent Hach for this job was not unusual considering the complications. It doesn’t mean we understood that the rumors of a legendary monster living in the mountain were fact.”

  “Really?” Vaughn gave him a flat scowl. “So what about the negotiations you’ve been doing with us for, oh, about forty years now? And us telling you ‘no’ because the cenebre call that mountain home, and we’d prefer they leave us in peace? What do you say to that, young man?”

  “You were never able to offer proof that those legends were true,” Sazonov argued back. “An agent who lives in Gargan obviously didn’t give credit to them—”

  I threw up both hands. “Whoa! I have been living in Gargan a month. I do not know every legend or facet of the country. I do not claim to be an expert. Besides, you didn’t contact me through the Gargan Counci
l, you contacted me through the MISD with an outside job. That is worlds different.”

  “So it is,” Salvatore growled, glaring at every man on the opposite side of the table. “By doing so, you made the MISD culpable in this disaster and responsible for it. Which the MISD does not appreciate.”

  Neatly said.

  Sazonov flinched ever so slightly, just the faintest hint of a grimace around his eyes and mouth. He leaned in to whisper something in the CEO’s ear. The CEO’s expression turned grim. I took that to mean that the lawyer was telling his boss that we had them dead to rights on this. If nothing else, they needed to play nice, or risk making the MISD as a whole their enemy.

  Vaughn cleared his throat to get their attention, his bass voice deeper and rougher with anger. “Because you did not heed our warnings, we lost sixteen souls. We suffered damage to Mountain Point. I had to come to the aid of my cousin and my new countrymen, and fight something that we were poorly equipped to handle. The cenebre are not aggressive by nature, they must be provoked, and by sending ignorant people in there to invade their territory, you provoked them.”

  “She is the Void Mage,” Ballantine gritted out between clenched teeth, flinging a finger in my direction that quavered slightly in anger. “If there was anyone that should have been able to handle them, it would be her!”

  His lawyer elbowed him in the side, a little too late. The CEO subsided, still glaring at me, as if this whole thing was somehow my fault.