“You are you,” Kester said simply, taking the mirror back. His eyes were bright. “You are alive. You are you. I do not care what you look like.”
She stared at him for a moment, absorbing that, not sure what was on her changed face. His eyes widened, sparks of amber flaring for a moment.
“I mean I do care. But I do not. I mean-” he stumbled into speech, colour washing across his face, the first time she had seen him so flustered.
It struck her as the funniest thing she had seen and heard in weeks.
She choked a laugh behind her hand and then dropped her hand. Laughed. Kept laughing until her freshly-healed ribs hurt, and her eyes streamed.
Kester’s worried expression melted and he grinned, laughed slightly in what looked like sheer relief.
Until a shadow fell over them and they looked up, Arrow wiping her eyes, to find Zachary standing there, smile pulling his mouth.
“I’m glad to see you whole, Arrow. But if you’ve got a minute, we could use your help.”
“Of course,” she said automatically. Kester rose to his feet and offered her a hand up, lifting her with no apparent effort. She left her hand in his, welcoming the simple contact, and only then looked around the room, eyes widening.
Something had blasted out every window, every door, and destroyed part of the walls. The delegates, all three races, were tossed and scattered here and there around the room, even the conspirators, smothered with bits of ceiling plaster and other debris.
“What happened?” she asked.
“You did,” Zachary answered, face splitting into a grin as she stared at him. “Whatever you did with the demon thing, there was a hell of a backlash.”
“She said his Name,” Kester told the Prime, fingers tightening around Arrow’s hand. “You should have died.”
“I think I did,” she told him, returning the clasp of his hand. Her heart thudded to a stop a fraction later and she turned, looking for the portal.
“It’s gone. Whatever you did,” Zachary said, waving a hand to indicate the room, “took the portal with it.”
“So, Saul is gone. The portal is closed. Everyone is shaken but alright. What do you need my help with?” She was genuinely curious.
“The Magister is gone,” Dorian answered, coming to stand in front of them, eyes widening slightly as he took in Arrow’s changed appearance. “A few others as well.” His face was pale, fury or exhaustion she was not sure.
“None of us can track him,” Zachary continued, nose wrinkling in disgust.
“He has hidden his scent?” Arrow asked, mind turning to the new problem.
“Yes, damn him,” Matthias put in. He and Tamara were covered in dust, Matthias’ face tight with fury, Tamara looking determined and lethal.
“Alright.” Arrow took a breath. Tracking the Magister. She could do that. She had just sent the demon lord back to his own realm. Tracking one human should be no difficulty at all.
There was just one problem.
“Does anyone have some boots I could use?”
CHAPTER 22
Supplied with a pair of boots in approximately her size, Arrow did not even try to leave Kester behind. It was no surprise to find Kallish and her cadre with them as they left the building, simply exiting through one of the shattered windows, ignoring the protests from some of the humans. From the expression on Miach’s face, he wanted to be with them. But the Erith’s first guard knew his duty, remaining with the Taellan.
Zachary came with her, Rose and Paul his shadows. Matthias had protested at being left behind but the Prime had claimed this hunt as his own. Dorian and Juniper simply attached themselves to the group. The human’s most senior combat magician looked almost dead on his feet, hollows around his eyes, carried forward only by determination. Juniper looked little better, the magicians struggling to keep up with the White Guard as they flowed out of the building.
“Where to?” Kallish asked.
Arrow drew a long, deep breath of clean air for the first time in what felt like weeks, sending her senses out. It was nearly full dark outside, the day gone. The chill of evening brushed across her cheek, the breeze carrying the scent of rain, overwhelming for a moment. Simple things she had taken for granted and had not even known she had missed in the surjusi realm, too busy trying to stay alive. The world was vibrant and real around her, full of life from the grass growing under their feet to a night-hunting bird soaring overhead.
The presence of the others around her swept over her senses, vivid in second sight. She drew another breath, catching the scent of green from the grass, weapons oil from the White Guard and the dry, chalky texture of ruined plaster from the damaged walls. She set all that aside, years of practice coming to her aid, settling her mind enough that she could search.
Even as she paused, there was the far-off sound of vehicle engines.
Arrow came back to the first world as Kallish ordered the two junior thirds of her cadre ahead. The warriors set off at a flat run, almost too fast for Arrow’s eyes to follow as they moved out of the light cast from the building and into the dark. Her eyes strained, trying to follow them. Along with her damaged fingers, it seemed that the heartland had left her inferior senses as they were.
“We will need vehicles,” Kallish told the remaining warriors, her face grim. They left at once, at a pace to match the others’ run.
“You know where he is going?” Arrow asked, curious.
“No. But you and the humans will not get far on foot,” Kallish told her bluntly. She was speaking Erith, and had perhaps forgotten that she still had a trace of the translation spell on her shoulders.
“That’s true,” Dorian agreed. Arrow blinked in surprise. His mouth twisted in what might have been a smile. “I know when I’m done. But I need to see this through.”
“We need supplies,” Kallish decided. She turned and called some instructions through the shattered window, in the rapid short hand commands that the White Guard used, too quickly for Arrow to follow.
The chasing warriors arrived back at about the same time as four large vehicles returned, bouncing across what had been a smooth, beautifully manicured lawn outside the Abbey building. The vehicles shimmered with Erith wards.
Arrow realised she had been distracted by the vehicles as Kallish touched her arm.
“Inside. The Magister is in the other vehicles. Heading to Lix.”
“Collegia,” Dorian guessed, face paling. “He has a workroom there.”
“It’s warded,” Juniper warned.
“In,” Kallish said again, even as a junior third of warriors came out of the building, arms laden with boxes. The welcome scent of food drifted to Arrow. Almost her entire attention focused on those boxes. “Divide between the vehicles,” she told the junior third.
“Let’s go,” Zachary said.
The vehicles were designed to sit six in comfort, in three rows of two, including the driver. A whole cadre, four of them designated as drivers, three ‘kin, two magicians, Arrow and Kester fit easily into them, even with the large boxes of food and drink provided by the Abbey.
Arrow ended up in the middle row of the front vehicle, Zachary beside her, Kester behind with Dorian and Juniper, Kallish next to the driver.
The driver, one of the junior third, took full advantage of the vehicle’s increased power and the good roads to Lix. Arrow did not think she had ever been driven so fast.
There was little conversation as they drove, Kallish alternating between low-voiced conversations on a sleek mobile phone, conversations that drew sharp glances from Zachary and Kester but which Arrow could not hear, and insisting that everyone eat and drink something from the supplies provided so that they arrived in Lix with a vehicle of full stomachs and empty boxes.
The sky outside lit with red and blue neon and Arrow realised that at least part of the conversations Kallish had been having was to arrange for human law enforcement to get an escort for them. Far from slowing down as they entered the city, the brightl
y lit vehicles provided a rapid escort for them. Arrow wondered just what Kallish, or more likely Xeveran as he was more fluent in common tongue, had told the law enforcement officials, and decided she did not really want to know.
“Weapons?” Kallish asked. It took Arrow a moment to realise she was talking to those in the vehicle.
“Adequate,” Zachary replied, eyes glinting in the reflected light from outside.
“We have guns and knives,” Dorian confirmed.
“Are there spares?” Kester asked, voice calm. Arrow turned slightly. There had been no time to change since they had come back through the portal, so he carried only the sword and long knife he habitually wore. For a White Guard, that was nearly naked.
“Blades in the false floor under your feet,” Kallish told him. “Guns in the rear storage.”
“Excellent.”
Kester leant forward, sliding open the false floor. Arrow could not see the weapons store revealed, judging by the wide-eyed expressions Dorian and Juniper wore that the White Guard had half an armoury under the floor. Kester seemed content, straightening with at least one more sword and knife.
The vehicle abruptly slowed, the driver making some comment to Kallish which had her immediate attention.
“We are almost at the Collegia. It is covered in active wards.”
“They are attack wards,” Arrow warned, leaning forward, “make sure no one approaches.”
“What do you mean?” Dorian was also leaning forward, almost over the back of Arrow’s seat. “That’s forbidden.”
“You do not check your building’s wards?” Arrow was astonished.
“No. The housekeeping team does that.”
Arrow blinked, trying, and failing, to imagine a circumstance where any Erith mage would simply trust another to maintain their building’s wards.
“The Collegia has active attack wards all around it,” she told the magicians.
“We have warned the others. Can you disable them?” Kallish asked Arrow.
“Not quickly or quietly,” Arrow answered. The wards might not be powerful but there were multiple layers of them, complicating the matter.
“We can,” Juniper said, voice soft. “I mean. If we need to. I can’t believe we’re chasing Reg. I mean …”
“Get us close enough,” Dorian said, voice tight, “and we can bring you in. As long as he’s not done anything stupid.”
“More stupid than trying to bargain with surjusi?” Kallish asked, lifting an eyebrow. “This, I would see.”
“We need him contained,” Arrow told the magicians. “You know how dangerous Saul is.”
“Yes.” Juniper’s voice was still small, but she straightened in her seat and lifted her chin. “Yes,” she said again, determination clear.
The vehicle drew to a halt and Zachary was out of the door, Kester a fraction behind him, almost before the wheels had stopped moving. Kester went to the back of the vehicle, Kallish joining him, and opened the rear door. Arrow caught a glimpse of a well-stocked armoury of guns before she turned away, looking at the building ahead of them.
Their arrival had not been quiet or discreet, the streets around them full of the brilliant flashing lights from law enforcement vehicles, the human officers standing outside their vehicles in high-visibility clothing, seeming not sure what to do next, watching as four armoured vehicles produced an entire cadre of White Guard, the warriors collecting an army’s worth of weapons from the vehicles.
The Collegia appeared serene in the night, despite the red and blue lights flickering on its surface. One of the largest and oldest building complexes in the city, it took up at a space equal to two city blocks, the main building rising four stories above the ground, a collection of smaller buildings and an extensive herb garden hidden behind its bulk. The pale stone front of the main building looked plain, large windows evenly spaced on each floor, large, wooden double doors firmly shut. The building looked unoccupied at this hour, although Arrow knew that could not be true, and it made her uneasy. There were always lights on at the Collegia. No matter the day, no matter the hour. There was always some student or magician working.
“Something’s wrong,” Dorian voiced her thoughts.
“Too quiet,” Kallish agreed.
Kallish’s cadre gathered around them, armed and prepared for war. Rose and Paul moved to stand closer to the Prime.
The sword at Arrow’s back stirred. Not awake, but uneasy. As it had been at the presence of the ward-disabling devices.
“Time to go,” she said, and moved, rested and full of energy after the short rest on the drive and the vast quantities of food Kallish had supplied.
“Surjusi?” Kester asked, keeping pace with her.
“A trace. Yes.” She overlaid first and second sight, almost blind for a moment at the mass of wards crawling over the Collegia.
“Inside the building?” Juniper sounded sick.
“Even so. Get us inside,” Arrow told the magicians.
They did not hesitate, moving forwards together. The building’s wards woke, flare of pale white light cutting through the blue and red from the vehicles, a crackle of white lightning pouring over each magician.
“Damnit. Attack magic,” Dorian hissed, standing still next to Juniper. He had not really believed her, Arrow realised, but had no choice now, faced with the rain of combat magic.
“Battle wards,” Kallish instructed. A moment later the whole group was covered with the brilliant amber of Erith magic.
“Wards are down,” Juniper said. “The door should open.”
Arrow had not seen what the magicians did to make that happen, trusting them enough to move forward on that reassurance. The building wards were frozen in second sight, Kester and Kallish’s cadre with her, Zachary and the ‘kin in their midst.
The wards remained down and dormant until they reached the door, the door itself giving Xeveran a powerful static shock as he shoved it open.
The wards of the building shifted in the first and second worlds, gathering force. No longer dormant. Recognising foreign magic. Seeking the intruder.
“Inside,” Arrow told the magicians. “Hurry.”
Something in her voice made them move. They ran inside with the rest of the group.
Not a moment too soon. As the door was closing, a sheet of mage fire cascaded down the front of the building, blinding brilliance cut off by the closing doors.
“Mage fire? In a public street?” Dorian sounded outraged. He looked angry enough to hit the Magister again. Arrow hoped he would get that chance.
~
“Where to?” Kallish asked.
They were in a large entrance hall that rose the entire height of the building, stone floor noisy under their boots.
Arrow focused, overlaying her sight. She had a sense of the Magister from his many public appearances and his presence at the summit. She hoped it would be enough.
In second sight, his presence saturated the building, the depth of it making Arrow wonder just how old he was. The attack wards were his doing.
Even with the Magister’s presence all around, there was a stronger trace, discoloured in a way that reminded her of the surjusi trace she had carried inside. Her stomach twisted at the memory.
“This way.” Arrow led them on, overtaken by warriors who handled their automatic weapons with the same skill and ease as their swords and knives.
The group went straight through the entrance way, out the back of the building to a large, well-maintained garden, damp from earlier rain. There were tall, mature trees here and there, in a pattern Arrow guessed would make sense from above, with large shrubs and patches of grass between the trees. The area was crossed by gravel paths. It would be beautiful in the day.
The garden seemed serene to first sight, a few candles lit here and there at ground level. In second sight, the spells for maintenance twisted through the plants were restless, the Magister’s trail bearing more corruption here.
Arrow’s sword stirred again a
s soon as they stepped outside. Ahead of them, in the centre of the garden, lit by more candles, was a group of people, among them the distinctive robes of the Magister. The people seemed unaware of the White Guard approaching, weapons ready.
“I smell magic,” Zachary murmured as they grew closer. “And blood. Lots of blood.”
“Kallish,” Arrow began, receiving a nod from the cadre leader to show she had understood Zachary’s words.
The group spread out at Kallish’s command, one of the thirds making their way around the perimeter of the garden, the rest moving forward at a slow, cautious pace.
They were close enough that Arrow could see that the Magister had changed clothes. His ornate robes were gone, replaced by a simpler outfit. A sleeveless robe with a wide leather belt. Very like the one Saul had worn. Arrow’s memory stirred, trying to place the outfit.
She did not have time to think further as the group had been spotted. A pair of combat magicians, with their full complement of vials across their chests, stepped forward. Rather than throwing magic, they fired automatic weapons into the oncoming group.
Erith battle wards flared, amber drowning every other sight for a moment.
More than one of the warriors hissed.
“Magic bullets,” Kallish said, voice tense.
“Bloody magicians,” Zachary answered, sounding very like Matthias.
Arrow raised her own wards, the more complex patterns that she had been working on for her personal protection, and extended them to cover the group, hissing in her turn as the magic-infused bullets cascaded off the bright silver.
“Rose. Paul.” Zachary sent his people out into the night.
Rose and Paul simply flowed forward, out of the protection of the wards, and overwhelmed the two magicians in moments. Arrow could not see everything through the sparks of silver from her wards, seeing enough to know that she was glad the pair were on her side.
Chaos followed. There were cries of alarm from the remaining magicians, guns and bladed weapons brought to bear, the cries drowned by the rapid crack of automatic weapons, bullets hissing against Arrow’s wards and the battle wards the cadre maintained.
Taellaneth Complete Series Box Set Page 111
