Balancer (Advent Mage Cycle) (11 page)

He put the timeline down and reached for a map, which he handed directly to me. “I’ve marked down a few locations that you might not have searched yet. They’re older, and not as well-known because the Star Order hasn’t used them for the past several decades. I found them by researching property deeds. At first I spent the majority of my time just researching their history, but after two weeks I realized that no one really knew what this Order was up to. Not even in the very beginning of its formation. Every book or scroll I read only repeated the general information that any half-informed adult could recite. I had to think and research along different lines to find anything at all. As it stands, all I did was comb through the libraries and government record houses for any mention of the Star Order and managed to stumble across these locations. I make no guarantees that anyone is there, but it’s better to confirm that. Magus, I do not like this unorthodox silence. To have an organization this powerful be so invisible…it bodes ill.”

I took the map and carefully folded it up before putting it in my breast pocket. “I cannot agree more. Thank you.”

Overlyten waved my thanks aside. “I still owe you for dealing with that insane Mage and pulling Riicshaden out. How is he doing, anyway?”

“He’s having the time of his life,” I answered dryly. I spent a few minutes recapping some of the things that Shad had done since we took him out of Jarrell. His Dom laughed out loud hearing some of these escapades.

“So apparently the legend is true,” Overlyten chuckled, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes. “He really is a notorious prankster.”

“Prankster is too mild of a word,” I protested with a vehement shake of the head.

He didn’t disagree with me, just smiled. “I’m glad to hear he’s doing so well. Tell him for me that if he ever wishes to return home, we’ll accept him with open arms.”

I think that’s what Shad was afraid of. He didn’t want to be pampered and spoiled by anyone. He wanted challenges, to face life head on and come out on top. But I didn’t say so, just nodded. “I will. Thank you, Overlyten. I think you just saved us hours of work.”

“My pleasure,” he assured me. “I do have one final question. If we ever discover another Witch or Wizard here, what do we do? There’s no way to train them here, Chahir doesn’t have the resources. Can we still call upon you?”

He caught me flat footed for a moment as I hadn’t considered this possibility. With Vonlorisen’s change on magic, new magicians wouldn’t need to run for their lives anymore. They could, technically, stay at home. But they could not have the training they needed if they did so. Their best option was still to come to Hain. I had been released from the duty of finding new magicians, but…at the same time, I hadn’t. Didn’t I owe a duty to my countrymen to help them? I’d be hard pressed to explain my presence in Chahir now if that was not the reason.

“Of course you can. I will come and take them into Hain personally until Chahir has a school of some sort built.”

He gave me a relief bow of gratitude. “We appreciate it, Magus. Thank you.”

Chapter
Eight: Clues

When I arrived back in Ascalon, I reported my conversation with Overlyten that night over dinner. Saroya took the information I gave him, along with the map, and promised to make immediate inquiries.

So when he came early the next morning and joined us for breakfast, I think everyone in the room expected some sort of break-through. Saroya didn’t meet anyone’s eyes or say a word until he had filled a plate and joined us at the table. Then he looked up, meeting all of our eyes, before letting out a long sigh. “At this point, I’m sorry to say that we know nothing.”

Xiaolang paused with a fork halfway to his mouth. “Nothing.”

“Nothing,” Saroya confirmed bleakly, his fingers absently tearing apart a biscuit. “The Star Order was always very secretive about their movements and agendas. We don’t have the faintest idea what they’ve been doing over the past two hundred years. We have no idea what bolt holes they’ve created for themselves. Even Overlyton’s map came as a complete surprise to me. The amount of research that he must have done to simply find that much information is astonishing.”

That was not what we wanted to hear. I started rubbing my temples, trying to stave off a headache. “So where do we start?”

“Everywhere,” Shad answered. He looked toward Saroya as he spoke, eyes and voice unnaturally calm. “. We keep our eyes and ears open, listen to every rumor, every theory, and look at every building the Star Order had a lot of contact with. Then we pray that we find some clues.”

“And then we pray that we can figure out the clues before disaster falls on our heads,” Xiaolang added grimly. “Saroya, how many men do you have?”

“Just under a thousand. How many magicians do we have?”

“Twenty-seven, but Raile assured me that there’s quite a few more that wish to join us,” Chatta answered, pouring some more water into her glass. “If we call him, I think we can have more help within the day.”

Saroya’s forehead crinkled as he thought. “I can’t spare all of my men for this search. I have to keep a certain amount around the royal family and palace as protection. But I think we should be able to do five man teams. One magician, four soldiers. Roughly 130 teams.”

130 teams…I felt a migraine developing just thinking about coordinating that many people. And yet, even with that many teams, we still had a whole country to investigate.

Xiaolang nodded as Saroya spoke. “It might be enough. Saroya, I think we should designate Shield and Chatta to coordinate all of the teams. Those two are my best organizers.”

Abject relief passed over Saroya’s face. “That’s fine.”

Xiaolang looked between the two of them. “That alright with both of you? Good. Chatta, you might want to keep whoever the blood magic expert is here with you. You might need to consult with him as teams call in.”

“A good thought,” she agreed. “I think I will. What will the rest of you do?”

Xiaolang gestured with one hand in a circular motion. “Alvacon is Star Order headquarters, in a sense. I have a feeling that the answer is in this city somewhere. We’ll investigate here. I’ll divide you up into partnerships and assign you sections of the city. Chatta, Shield, still assign some teams here. This is, after all, a very large city. I think it will take all of us to comb through it.”

“We’re going to need a lot of detailed maps to be able to do this right,” Shield observed to Chatta. “Ones that we can mark on. Saroya, do you have any?”

Saroya had to swallow what was in his mouth before responding. The look he gave Shield was priceless. “Not ones you can mark on, no.”

Chatta’s eyes were sparkling with laughter but she managed to bite back a smile. “We’d better get some this morning before everyone arrives and start making some rough plans.”

Xiaolang nodded in approval. “I think we’ll walk around the city this morning. I don’t have a good feel for it yet. Hazard, Shad, you’ll take south side. Aletha, Eagle, take north side. Garth and I will take the east. When the magicians arrive and you get the teams divvied up, send someone to the west and another group for the inner section of the city.”

Night spoke up in the back of my head,
“I assume that I’m going with you?”

Apparently he was awake out in his stall. I hadn’t checked on him this morning, so I’d assumed he was still asleep since he’d been so quiet.
Well,
I answered dryly,
are you willing to let me wander around a city that I’m not very familiar with while renegade Priests are on the loose?

“Not when you put it that way, no.”

Didn’t think so.

The rest of the conversation over the meal revolved around how to divide up the teams, where to assign them, and how to track it all. I quickly lost track of everything and didn’t even bother to try to listen. I wouldn’t retain anything anyway.

We finished getting ready and headed out. Night joined me at the doors, falling in to walk at my side. Shield and Chatta opted to go with us, at least a part of the way, so that they could buy the maps they needed. Saroya went back to the palace to get his men moving.

Once we left the palace compound I was amazed at the amount of traffic on the streets. Only two hours past daybreak and the place bustled with pedestrian and cart traffic. If a man was not vigilant, he was likely to be run over. Odd, I didn’t remember it being this busy on my last visit. Was Alvacon more frequently visited in the spring than in the fall?

Night did garner a few strange looks, considering that he was following the group like an obedient hound even though he didn’t have a stitch of tack on him. But in a city of this size, the citizens were used to seeing just about everything, so no one said a word. Night, on his part, just seemed amused at their curiosity.

We had just about reached the crossroads where we would divide up into our separate partnerships when I heard a loud voice crying out over the din of city noise.

“—hundreds of years! How can any of you just believe the nonsense that these new magicians are saying? They’re just trying to save their own skin! The King has been bewitched by them! Open your eyes, and see them for what they really are! Don’t let them win and bring evil back into our country,
your
country!”

I couldn’t quite believe my ears. Some idiot was actually preaching
for
the Star Order? This close to the palace, no less. I turned to Hazard, the tallest of the group. “Do you see him?”

Hazard’s head was turned to left, eyes narrowed slightly. “Yeah, I see him. Don’t think he’s a Priest—doesn’t have the right look to him. My guess, he’s a devout fanatic.”

Priest or not, what he was doing was pure suicide with Vonlorisen’s current mood.

Shad rose up on his toes to follow Hazard’s line of sight.

“Got him. Hey, C2.” He turned to Xiaolang, a scary mix of hope and mischief sparking in his wide eyes. If he’d had a tail it would’ve been wagging in anticipation. “Can I chase him down? Can I, can I, can I?”

Xiaolang gave a lazy flick of the hand. “Go.”

With a very evil laugh, Shad took off in a dead sprint. He carved a path through the pedestrian traffic, stopping many people in their tracks. Because of that I had a clear view of the devout idiot standing on a small box on the corner of the street. He didn’t look very bright—shaggy, unkept hair falling into his eyes, clothes that didn’t hang on him right, scruffy beard. When he spotted Shad running full out in his direction, he scrambled down from the box and took off fast enough to create his own breeze.

I heard Shad laughing even louder in pure enjoyment of the chase. Oh boy. I turned to Xiaolang resignedly. “You just had to turn him loose, didn’t you?”

Xiaolang shrugged, not particularly concerned.

“Should we chase after them?” Aletha asked idly.

“Nah. Chatta, you can do a scrying here, can’t you?”

“Of course.”

“Let’s do that. If Shad does get into trouble, Garth can get to him fast enough.”

Oh, so
I
was
the backup plan? Wonderful, wonderful.

We shuffled off to the side of the street in front of a closed bookstore to avoid blocking traffic. Chatta brought a polished brass mirror out of her bag that was about the size of her palm. Withdrawing her wand from a sleeve pocket, she hit it with a spell that enlarged the size to something closer to a large serving plate. Then she hit it with another spell that allowed her to scry with it. It took her a few moments to locate Shad in the crowded streets, and then we all leaned in closer, huddling to get a better view.

The fanatic was either a very fast runner by nature, or the fear of being caught added a new level of speed, because Shad still hadn’t caught up with him. Our illustrious prankster stayed within several feet of his prey but could never seem to quite catch up. I watched as the two weaved in and out of traffic, around street kiosks, lampposts, and shop displays. The fanatic tossed everything behind him that he could reach, crates of fruit, rolls of fabric,
people,
and in one amusing instance something that looked like jelly
,
trying to hinder Shad’s movements. Nothing worked. Shad just leapt over it, dodged it, or ducked behind someone for a moment and let
them
take the brunt of it.

Chatta changed angles slightly so that we had a clearer view of the runner. Terror and hysteria radiated from his eyes, hair flying about in every direction, muscles straining as he ran with every ounce of strength he had.

“Is he shouting something?” Aletha asked, leaning in a little more.

“Sure looks like it,” Shield agreed. “I can’t quite…tell…”

“
Murderer! Murderer! Help me!
Is what I think he’s saying,” Eagle offered. His lips quirked in a half-smile. “Oh boy. He’s likely to call in help from the guard if he keeps yelling like that. Do you think Vonlorisen’s told all of the Protectors here what we look like?”

“Sure, but how many men do you think fit the description of ‘normal height, blond hair?’ It’ll take time to straighten it out, and the man will have escaped by then.” Xiaolang didn’t sound particularly worried about this possibility. Probably because he thought, rightly, that I could catch the fanatic even if Shad were detained.

“So…shouldn’t someone go help him? You know, before the Protectors or someone steps in with a misguided attempt to help?” Chatta asked, her eyes never leaving the chase playing out over the mirror.

“Nah,” Xiaolang said again. “Shad can handle it.”

“Whoops, I’m going to lose him. He just went through a shop.” Chatta frowned, zooming out in a more aerial view. “Does anyone see him?”

“Give him a moment to exit,” Shield advised. “I’m sure he’s causing absolute havoc in that store trying to slow Shad down…wait, there he is!”

When Chatta changed angles again for a closer look, I saw obvious signs of fatigue on the runner. Sweat plastered his shirt to his torso, streamed from the temples, and he moved now in jerkier motions as if only willpower kept him going.