Rise of the Mages (Rise of the Mages 2) (25 page)

Mari nodded eagerly.

“He’s stubborn. If he thinks you’re after him, he’ll plant his feet like a mule. He can also be indecisive, so don’t force him to decide. And he can be shy around girls. You have to get him talking to you.”

“About what?”

“Clothes.”

Mari’s eyes widened.

Lainey laughed. “His family trades in dye. He takes a professional interest.”

“Hard to imagine a conversation with a man about fashion.” Mari clapped her hands. “I guess it’s good, though. I can talk about dresses all day long.”

“The most important thing is to not let him know you’re interested. Play hard to get,” Lainey said.

“Should I avoid him?”

Lainey thought for a moment. “No time for that. Act super friendly one minute and aloof the next. That’ll confuse him.”

They talked strategy while they packed, and Lainey grew more and more enthusiastic about their plans. There was one big problem, though, if she were really going to teach him a lesson.

“Do you mind keeping your being noble secret for a while?”

Mari wrinkled her nose. “Would it offend him? We’re not like the nobles in the city.”

“I’m actually worried the information might encourage him.”

“Wouldn’t that be good?” Mari said.

Lainey exhaled sharply. “Look, Dylan is a great guy, and I don’t think he’d court you for the wrong reasons. But marrying into a family like yours is a huge benefit for a merchant. He’d be able to use his new status to secure all kinds of contracts. If you two end up together, don’t you want to know that he wanted you instead of just money?”

Mari chewed her lip. “You’re probably right.” She thumbed through the dresses in her wardrobe.

“Dylan likes blue best,” Lainey said.

Mari flashed a smile. “Pity I don’t have any of those divided for riding.”

After Mari finished packing and dressing, Lainey walked toward the door. “I’ll send him up to help with your things.”

Dylan dragged his feet up the staircase.

He should have known. It was an immutable law of life that more women equaled more work. How’d he get stuck with helping anyway? Wasn’t heavy lifting why they had Brant along?

Marisol waited inside a bedroom. Unlike the other two dresses she’d worn, the emerald one she had on, though still conservative, emphasized her figure and made her wide jade eyes sparkle. Cute.

No, pretty.

A smile lit her face. “You’re Dylan, right?”

His mouth dried as he sought words. What was wrong with him?

“Okay, then,” she said after an awkward pause. “Lainey sent you to help with the bags, right?”

Dylan forced his head to bob up and down. At least he’d managed a response.

“Thanks bunches!” Marisol gestured toward a pile of luggage on the floor.

He nodded again, and she left the room. Her slender hips swayed as she walked, and he had to break his gaze away. What was he doing? Brant and Xan went nuts over girls, not him.

Dylan had to say something. “You’re welcome, Marisol.”

She glanced back at him and smiled again. “Call me Mari, please.”

Grinning, he hoisted the stuffed saddlebags over his shoulder and followed her from the house to the barn where his friends loaded their horses. He stowed her gear on a spotted mare.

“You’re so much more of a gentleman than the boys around here.” Her lips grazed his cheeks.

Had she really just kissed him? Warmth shot to his face, and he didn’t understand why. It wasn’t like that was his first experience with a girl. He hid his face from the rest of the party as he loaded and mounted Cuppy.

She was nice and seemed fun. Polite, too. Probably would make a good hostess, a necessity for a merchant’s wife.

Dylan shook his head. Where the blast had that thought come from? A farmer’s daughter wouldn’t advance his business. He had to keep his eyes on the prize. Besides, nothing was going to stop him from leaving for Welloch.

They traveled, at Lady Ashley’s insistence, relatively slowly throughout the morning and halted early for lunch. A small brook gurgled just to the west of a clearing. As the girls chatted and Brant and Dylan gathered firewood, Xan approached the stream with the cookpot.

Mari scooted across the clearing with surprising speed. “No! You can’t.”

“Get fresh water? Why not?” Xan eyed her like she’d gone insane.

“It’s rads infested.”

Dylan started. Such language from a girl? He’d thought she had better manners. Lady Ashley frowned, and Mari’s cheeks turned crimson when she noticed.

“It wasn’t a curse, my lady. Truly, it is what I say.” Mari pointed to the west. “A blighted area lies just over those mountains, and this stream is fed from there. It’s not safe.”

“From the war, no doubt. A blaster or a big, bad wizard?” Xan rolled his eyes. “If every such story were true, there’d be nowhere for anyone to live.”

Dylan clenched his hands into fists. “Watch your tongue!”

“I’m just saying that—”

“I don’t know about other places,” Mari said, “but I’ve lived near here my entire life. The blight is real. Just before the war, a town sprung up around a gold mine, and it became a key source of funds for the nobles against the mages. So one morning, the Lion flies—”

“The Lion himself,” Xan said. “Wow!”

Dylan scowled at him. The two of them were going to have words in the near future.

“—into the town and gives everyone a day to clear out,” Mari said. “The following noon, he reappears and blasts the whole thing.”

She turned to Xan. “My grandfather’s banker knew a man who visited what was left of Goldstream. Sand had turned to glass, and nothing grew nearby. The man was young and healthy before the trip. Within a month, all his hair fell out, and he died.”

“Standard superstitious drivel about blighted cities. A friend of a friend of a friend died horribly after being near one. Blah. Blah. The part about the Lion doesn’t even make sense. How can he both fly and blast the town?”

Dylan had had about enough of Xan talking to her like that!

“I’ve not gotten a favorable impression of your intelligence,” Lady Ashley said in a matter-of-fact tone, “but what genuinely idiotic comments. If I tell you General Flynn defeated an enemy army, I don’t mean he did it personally. And patients at Asherton’s hospital have been treated for the effects of infestation, so clearly, blighted cities do exist and cause illness.”

Dylan grinned. Xan would try to argue, and the niskma would eviscerate him. Always fun to watch Xan get put in his place.

Instead, he turned and disappeared into the woods.

“And if it’s such nonsense,” Lady Ashley called, “are you willing to go there? Or drink that water?”

He didn’t return until the rest of the group had eaten and mounted.

“There’s a nice inn in West Bydale,” Mari said once they’d gotten underway. “That’s the furthest I’ve been from home, maybe six hours’ ride.”

Brant glanced at Xan, who looked away.

Dylan shook his head. What was up with them? They fought each other for control the entire way, but with the end in sight, neither wanted it?

“The garrison isn’t much farther,” Brant said. “We should ride as far as we can.”

Lady Ashley frowned. “Will we reach it before nightfall?”

Mari shrugged apologetically. “We’ve been traveling slowly.”

“That’s settled then,” Lady Ashley said. “We’ll stop in the town.”

Brant looked to Xan again. “Is that a good idea? The guardsmen are still tracking us.”

While Xan just stared at the ground as if the grass were somehow fascinating, Dylan’s heart raced. He’d have preferred that Mari never learn anything about the catcher. Would she run away screaming at that bit of news?

Not that her reaction mattered to him.

Her eyes widened, and she shot Lainey a questioning look. Lainey mouthed the word “later.”

Was the girl daft? Who hears, “Hey, the people you’re with are dabbling in magic,” and calmly puts off getting a full explanation?

Not that it was any of his business.

“Let me be clear,” Lady Ashley said. “I will not sleep on the ground. The rest I leave to you.”

When Xan didn’t react, Brant exhaled sharply. “If we’re going to stop early, we’ll set a lookout.”

All that was left was to choose a sentry. Brant volunteered, but the niskma vetoed the idea. Xan continued staring at the ground.

Without much of a choice, Dylan raised a hand. “I guess I’m it.”

Mari looked at him like he’d slayed a dragon or something. He couldn’t help but grin.

After another four hours of hard riding, Brant halted the party on the top of a large hill. “You’ll be able to see for miles from here.”

Dylan nodded.

As he dismounted, Lainey said, “Mari should stay with you.”

He argued of course. Why put the girl in danger, too? Somehow, Lainey turned it on him—he wasn’t trying to imply Mari couldn’t take care of herself. And she looked at him with those big eyes like he was some kind of hero out of a story.

With his friends offering no help at all, he’d eventually had no choice but to relent.

A tall pine stood apart from the other trees. Holding the spyglass case, Dylan faced the way they had come with his back against rough bark. Mari floated to the ground a few feet away and tucked her legs under her with no apparent concern for mussing her dress.

Silence stretched. He should say something. But what?

“Your tunic is a handsome color,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve seen the like.”

Dylan straightened. “I created the dye combination myself. Mainly indigo of course but with woad extract and just a pinch of turmeric mixed in. It’s become quite popular in Eagleton.”

Why had he said that? Lainey always told him how much it annoyed girls when men boasted. Mari didn’t seem put off, though. She stared at him with those doll-like eyes and asked for details about the ingredients.

Each answer led to more questions. They discussed colors and dyes for an hour before Dylan realized he’d dominated the conversation. “I must be boring you. Even Lainey won’t discuss dresses this long.”

Mari blinked her incredible eyes. “I find the subject fascinating. I never knew so much thought went into creating colors.”

Despite her denial, she looked like she wanted to say something.

“It’s okay,” he said. “Really.”

She chewed the inside of her cheek. “It’s like everybody’s in on some big secret except me. Who’s chasing us? Brant said something about guardsmen. Why would a catcher be after us?.”

Dylan hesitated. How much should he tell her? “I’m afraid that, if I tell you everything, you might run screaming back to your father’s house.”

She smiled. “You’d rather I stay?”

How’d she get that from what he said? He shook his head.

Her grin inverted. “You want me to leave?”

“I didn’t … I mean …”

She stared at him sternly until bursting into a fit of giggles. Dylan tried to resist joining her but couldn’t. And once he started, he couldn’t stop. His mirth fueled hers. Eventually, they laughed themselves breathless and collapsed to lie beside one another on the soft grass.

“I’m made of sterner stuff than you know, Dylan d’Adreci,” she said. “I’m not wont to run home at the first sign of trouble.”

But that was what she should do instead of hanging around mages or heading toward a city due to be sieged. He needed to scare her.

Dylan sighed. But the warmth of her body heated his arm so delightfully. “It’s not safe for you to be here.”

“I thought my hero was going to protect me?” She playfully batted her eyes.

“Don’t tease. I’m serious.”

“Tell me then. What’s going on?”

He should tell her everything. About Xan and Brant and Lainey … and himself. That would send her running. But from the story she told earlier, she held a dim view of magic use—as she should. Could he stand her loathing him?

Her safety should come before any other consideration.

Dylan took a deep breath. “Xan’s an alchemist. A catcher locked him up back in Eagleton, and we helped him escape.”

“You don’t seem the type to break the law.”

“I’m not. I thought … Well, that doesn’t matter, now. I had to stick by my friend. Right?”

“Loyalty is a fine trait?” She shrugged. “Forgive me. I don’t know you all that well.”

“No, you’re right.” He clutched the medallion under his tunic. “Should I have refused to help him? Each step seemed so reasonable at the time.”

“Is being here with me so bad?” She batted her eyelashes again.

He laughed. When was the last time he’d even chuckled before meeting her?

“Besides,” she said, “you’ll be telling your grandchildren …”

Was he crazy, or had she almost said “our?”

Looking sheepish, she cleared her throat. “… about how you broke your friend out of jail and rescued the niskma from kidnappers.”

Dylan couldn’t have cared less about stories. All he wanted was to expand his family’s business. They lapsed into silence. After a few minutes, he rose to pace the road.

Welloch was the key. Lay low there for a while. No one had to know he could use magic. Return to Eagleton or set up a shop in Asherton once things had blown over. The only complication was Mari. She was intent on going to court and would never agree to come with him.

Huh? What was he thinking? Dylan marched back to the tree, his mind full of all the things he was going to tell her. It wasn’t her fault. She was really quite nice. Attractive even. It just wouldn’t work.

Mari didn’t look up from her needlepoint as he approached, so he stomped leaves to draw her attention. She still didn’t look up. Standing over her, he cleared his throat.

“Would you mind terribly being quiet for a while?” she said. “This portion requires concentration.”

She couldn’t spare him a few minutes because of some blasted knitting? Had he imagined her interest? If so, that was good. Right?

He looked up. A plume of dust rose on the horizon. Dylan threw open the spyglass case. More than twenty black-liveried guardsmen rode toward him.

“Mount up. Now!” he yelled.

They galloped toward West Bydale until the catcher and his men topped the rise behind them. Dylan slowed to a trot to appear less suspicious.

Mari bounced in her saddle, her expression ecstatic. He shook his head. How could she possibly find the situation exciting?

With only a sliver of the sun hanging above the horizon, they passed a campsite with a stream and plenty of space from cut-back trees. Maybe the guardsmen would stop. Dylan prayed they’d stop.

A half mile ahead, the road curved and they pressed forward at a gallop. Dylan had to warn the others.