Dragon's Mage (An Advent Mage Novel), The - Raconteur, Honor (17 page)

Kaya slowed her pace, doing that almost-hovering speed that she sometimes used, and turned her head to look back at me. “Krys?”

Without looking away from the city, I responded half-absently, “Yes, Kaya.”

“Lake water low.”

Lake water? My head snapped around and I really looked at the water level of Paswater Lake. Great good magic, she was right! The water level had taken an obvious dip from yesterday, leaving the shore’s edge looking scraggly.

I knew almost instantly why.

If the towers were producing
this
insane amount of water in a continual stream, the water source had to come from one of two places: either the underground source that fed the lake, or the lake itself. Either way, it meant a dangerous situation for the fishermen and every other lake-oriented business near the lake. Not to mention the damage it would do to all of the creatures that depended on that water.

Didn’t those ancient, idiot engineers think to put in some sort of safety valve to prevent the landscape from turning into a muddy quagmire?!

I rubbed at one temple, feeling the headache from yesterday doubling in force. Of all the turn of events to happen, the lake slowly draining wasn’t the one I wanted.

Those mages needed to get here soon.

Almost as if my thoughts had summoned them, I suddenly sensed three mages heading my direction. I couldn’t tell which types they were from here, as they were not within my sight. Maybe they had taken the earth path? I didn’t actually expect Garth to respond—he’d given every indication last night that he would send some other Earth Mage—but we did have two other Earth Mages that could have come. Truly, earth path would be the quickest way to get here. It was even faster than flying.

“Kaya, help’s arrived.” I turned her toward the city, not quite sure where they would choose to surface. Maybe if I landed, and they could sense me, they’d choose to come up where I am? “Let’s land and greet them.”

“Park?” Kaya suggested.

“That’s a good place,” I agreed. I didn’t bother to direct her as she changed her bearing for the open area of the park.

Kaya set down carefully, avoiding the sandbox area, the trees, and the flowerbeds all around. By the time she had settled, I could feel the mages only a mile away. Before I could get fully out of the saddle, they surfaced in front of Kaya.

I came around my dragon to find a familiar face. Cora stood there, dressed in the red and white travelling robes of a Life Mage, and obviously geared to work as her blond hair had been secured in a tight braid around her head. Traveling robes were meant to be ankle length, nothing more than a formal coat, but Cora had such a petite form that even tailored, the robes nearly dragged the ground. Her blue eyes found me quickly, a hard look in them.

Funny, I felt three mages so why didn’t I see—

“What did you do?” Cora demanded.

“Wait,
that’s
how you greet me?” I responded acerbically. “And why are you assuming that it’s somehow my fault?!”

“Oh come on, Krys, don’t be more of an idiot than you are. The only thing that can activate a magical device is a
magician’s magic
. You somehow triggered this, even if it wasn’t on purpose.”

“But the only thing I do is burn the roads up here—” my defense choked and died a premature death. Oh great magic. The fire. My magical fire very well could have triggered the spell for those towers. And again up at the top of the tower. Me touching things had definitely turned everything on up there. Uh-oh.

Cora rolled her eyes heavenward. “I can tell from the look on your face. You just figured out how you did it, didn’t you?”

Shoulders slumping, I whimpered, “I didn’t mean to.”

From behind Cora, a very familiar voice laughed. “And I thought Garth had bad days at work! At least he doesn’t accidentally destroy whole cities.”

Trev’nor? I half-leaned to the side so that I could see around Cora and found not only Trev’nor behind her, but Nolan as well. I blinked at seeing them, surprised to find our two seven-year-old mages here. I hadn’t seen either of them in several months, and of course they’d grown while I had my back turned. Trev’nor had gained a good two inches, putting him somewhere around waist level with me. His irrepressible smile and bright blue eyes hadn’t changed, but I saw other differences. Instead of a single, complex braid in his blond hair telling which Tonkowacon tribe he belonged to, he now had
two
braids. Now, I didn’t know much about the traditions of the nomadic tribes of Hain, but I’d bet that second Tonkowacon braid meant he was now either a mage-in-training or a mage in his own right. Knowing his eagerness to be a mage, probably the latter.

Nolan, almost as if in competition, had grown an inch more than his friend. His unruly blond hair had been tamed into a ponytail, but errant curls escaped here and there. He gave me a charming smile, and a half-wave in greeting, light blue eyes almost sparkling in excitement. He, like Trev’nor, displayed his own sign of being a magus and wore the red and white travelling robes like Cora’s.

“Trev’nor, Nolan, what are you two doing here?”

“We came to help,” Nolan answered with an amiable smile. “Garth said it was our class project for the year.”

Class project? Who was he kidding? Most full-fledged mages would find this difficult!

“They are, technically, mages in their own right,” Cora pointed out to me in a whisper. “They’ve finished all the training. They just need some more experience before we can turn them loose on the world.”

Not to mention age and height. Well, All right, she had a valid point. And I could hardly refuse any helping hand right now.

“Oh, and Helen’s coming,” Trev’nor assured me. “She was just in Del’Hain when the call came, so it’s going to take her a little longer to get here.”

Phew. We definitely needed a Water Mage and I had been worried when I didn’t see her. “Good. And our language expert?”

“On his way from Coven Ordan,” Cora answered with a shrug. “I have no idea when he’ll get here, but Garth said he’ll go get the man himself if he needs to.”

Could I hope for his arrival sometime tonight, then? I shook the thought away and focused on what could be done now. “All right, follow me. I don’t have time to let you settle, so I hope you don’t mind diving right in.”

Trev’nor’s chest puffed up in a gesture of pride. “It’s what mages do.”

Cocky little brat, wasn’t he just? But I didn’t mind. Shaking my head, with a rueful smile on my face, I waved them forward. “Follow me.”

~*~

I took them directly to Mari’s office, mostly out of habit. I reported to her so often that it didn’t even occur to me to go anywhere else until I had already rapped on her door.

“Enter!” she called.

Well, if I needed to introduce them to someone else, I suppose Mari will tell me. Shrugging, I shoved the door open and stepped inside. “Mari, help has arrived.”

She looked up from the map on her desk and took in the three in my wake with raised eyebrows. “Oh?”

“Mari, be you known to Life Mage Hevencoraan,” Cora gave her a proper bow, which Mari returned after a hesitant moment, “Life Mage Vonnolanen,” Nolan also gave her a polite bow, which Mari returned in some bemusement,  “and Earth Mage Trev’nor.”

Trev’nor greeted her with the Tonkowacon bow, both of his hands put over his heart in a gesture of high respect. Of course, with Mari in uniform like this, he probably thought of her as a high ranking officer. He wasn’t wrong although it confused Mari a little. I could see it on her face.

“Everyone, this is Mari Wangsgard. She’s the Firefighting and Border Patrol Coordinator for the city of Mellor. It’s she that we’ll be reporting to and getting orders from.” Mostly. I expected the mayor and Captain Lang to step in as well.

Trev’nor, with his usual direct honesty, smiled up at Mari. “It’s all right, we’re mages too, we’re just really young.”

“Ah, no, I’ve heard about you two,” Mari corrected although she shot me a confused look. “It’s just that Krys told me that all of the mages were Chahiran, but you have Tonkowacon braids and manners.”

“I was raised by them till I was five,” Trev’nor explained with a shrug. “But I’m Chahiran. Garth is my cousin.”

Mari looked like she had to really struggle to keep her jaw from hitting the ground. “The Advent Mage is your…cousin.”

“Yup. Second cousin…?” Trev’nor twisted to look at Nolan. “I have that right, right?”

“Yes, you do,” Nolan assured him. “But I think we can talk about it later. Coordinator Wangsgard, do you have a direction or plan for us?” he asked with all of the sobriety and focus of an adult.

I think being asked that question by a seven year old threw Mari for a mental loop, as she didn’t snap out an immediate answer like she normally would have. But she gathered herself with admirable speed and waved us closer to the map.

“I do, actually. Magus Trev’nor, I’m told that water is gathering in spots that it should not. Can you create mounds in the earth and some small reservoirs so that the water has a place to be temporarily stored until we can stop the water?”

“Yes ma’am,” Trev’nor assured her without a blink. “Where do you want them?”

She looked to me. “Krys, where do we need them most, do you think?”

I walked to the map and looked at it for a moment. “Here, north of the lake, and here and here, along the border, and I think another one there. Trev, if you could build a mound here, along the lake’s edge, that will stop the water from spilling over and help the flooding of the city.”

“Sure,” he assured me artlessly, as if this would be child’s play. Maybe to him, it would be. With a suspicious twinkle in his eye, he suggested, “If I’m up on Kaya, I can see more and do it faster.”

Coping a ride out of me already, huh? Why wasn’t I surprised. “Fine, fine.”

He grinned at me in victory.

Nolan, who looked almost green with envy, started grumbling under his breath. Cora rolled her eyes at me before asking, “And what can we do?”

“I’ve been thinking about that.” I rubbed at my jaw, eyeing her and Nolan thoughtfully. “The lake’s water is dropping quickly.”

“Whaaaaat?” Mari demanded plaintively.

I gave her a sour nod before continuing. “Those towers are drawing water from the lake somehow, but I’m not sure if it’s a direct connection or if it’s coming from an underground source. Can you and Nolan go into the lake and somehow trace where it connects? I think if Helen knows, she’d be able to cut off the water source.”

“It’s certainly an idea worth exploring. That lake…is it freshwater?”

“Yes.”

“Hmmm…” Cora looked at Nolan. “Dolphins?”

“They’ll be fastest,” he agreed, perking up slightly.

Mari held up both hands in a pleading gesture. “Wait, what? Dolphins?”

“A Life Mage can mimic any life form,” Cora explained. “We can transform into dolphins and explore the water pathways here.”

Mari opened her mouth to respond, apparently thought better of it, and visibly changed what she would say. “You do that. I’ll report all of this while you work.” The you was obviously plural in this case as her eyes swept over all of us. “Uh, Krys, I don’t think you have enough space to put everyone up.”

A problem I hadn’t thought of until she mentioned it. “I don’t.”

“I’ll book rooms for them,” she promised. “Until then, Mages, do what you can.”

“Yes ma’am.” Nolan came around the desk to pat her reassuringly on the arm. Like every other woman on earth, she softened under his smile. “Don’t worry,” he assured her gently. “To us, this is just an annoyance. The problem isn’t so big that we can’t handle it.”

She inclined her head to him, I think a touch bemused at being reassured by a child. But she smiled at him, obviously thankful that he would take the time to reassure her. “Thank you, Magus.”

He beamed at her, bright enough to put the sun to shame, then turned on his heel, snagging Cora’s arm as he went. I heard him asking technical questions as he walked, most of which only a Life Mage would be able to understand.

I turned to the other child prodigy and asked, “Shall we start, then?”

With an air of innocence, Trev’nor assured me, “You don’t need to go up with me. I know where she wants everything.”

“Nice try, kid. Not happening.” I put both hands on his shoulders and started frog marching him out. “If you think you can just ‘borrow’ my familiar, you’re crazy.”

“Awwww….”

Chapter Twelve: Sculpting Landscapes

I’d supervised Trev before as he worked magic, at the very beginning of his training, and of course I’d seen Garth work magic on multiple occasions. But being up in the air like this, watching it from a dragon’s back with Trev in front of me, was a different experience.

Trev’nor had his hands raised in front of him, drawing the lines in the air as a mental command to the earth below. Where his hands moved, the earth followed, as if he were a conductor of a grand symphony. He made the trenches and the mounds of earth that Mari wanted with a simple sweep of his hand, the magic within the core of his body blazing with steady heat. I sat behind him and held him steady, as the harness hadn’t been designed for a body as small as his. He didn’t seem nervous up here at all, as he wiggled about in every direction, sometimes almost standing in the saddle to get a better view of his work. Most people would be a little concerned about the three hundred foot drop to solid earth. Trev’nor acted like him falling wasn’t even a possibility.

Of course, we got soaking wet in the process of flying about, as the water towers still spewed out at full force. I kept a worried eye on the lake, and as huge as that body of water was, I could actually see it steadily drain. How long would it take to empty completely? A month? Two?

When our expert arrived, how long would it take for him to figure out how to turn these things off?

Trev’nor sat back in the saddle and turned his head enough to shout, “I think that’s all I can do here.”

He’d certainly done everything that Mari and I had pointed out. “Then let’s go back.”

His forehead crinkled up slightly, not exactly in disagreement, but in thought. “Krys, I think I see a way to help the city from flooding.”