Magus (Advent Mage Cycle) (13 page)

“I was fixing the city. Well, what I could fix,” I amended.

Her brow furrowed in acute displeasure. “You overdid it. Didn’t it occur to you to
rest
and tackle some of it later?”

“I had a lot of anger to work off,” I answered quietly.

Those dark eyes went wide in understanding. “Oh. Um, you look calm now?”

Her reaction was amusing for some reason. “Nah, I’m just too tired to be angry right now. I’ll make a go of it again later.”

That had her rolling her eyes. “That is so typical of you. I would ask you more questions, but judging from the way you’re swaying, you desperately need sleep. We’ll talk about it later, alright?”

I nodded gratefully, not really in the mood to rehash everything now.

Xiaolang took this as his cue to draw me back out of the room, guiding me to the right room. I fell into the bed he pointed me to, not even bothering to take my boots off or attempt to clean up any. I don’t think my head even touched the pillow before darkness reached up and sucked me under.

~*~

The Arsonist Mage (as I was beginning to think of him) was called Remcarparoden.

Dom Overlyten filled me in a bit on his background. Apparently three months ago his powers had started to awaken, and when that happened, his family promptly abandoned him. Unfortunately, that wasn't an atypical reaction in Chahir. However, it was only about two weeks later that Jarrell received word about the change of policy dealing with magic. Overlyten himself sent out a proclamation saying that he intended to abide by the new rules. He also said that if anyone confessed to their new abilities, they would receive enough money to make the trip to Del'Hain.

Not a month passed after that generous offer before Remcarparoden started randomly torching buildings.

I gritted my teeth at the reminder. When I had discovered my magical talents, there had been no hint of mercy in my providence. Granted, my family was supportive, but I still had a
whole country
out for my life. Remcarparoden had it much better than I did, and he
still
went bonkers. That was the hardest part for me to forgive him for. A year and a half ago, I would have given my eye teeth to have switched places with him.

He was a noticeably different man this morning. With his power sealed, and a group of people keeping a close watch on him, he'd lost his arrogance. Now he was just a teenager, who was scared, worried, and abnormally quiet.

I think there was a general consensus in the group—I was never left alone with Remcarparoden. I wouldn't have murdered the kid, as I was past my protective rage of last night, but I was still pretty upset with him. Xiaolang sensed that. He kept as much of an eye on me as he did on the kid.

I was babysitting our new Mage as I finished breakfast. I didn't feel entirely comfortable letting the kid out of my sight, seals or no seals. The three of us—Remcarparoden, Xiaolang, and I—were seated around a table in the inn's taproom. Remcarparoden was too nervous to eat—he kept shooting me anxious looks out of the corner of his eye—and was playing with his food. Xiaolang was already finished, and was focused instead on his ever handy map of Chahir spread out in front on the table. I knew by watching the Captain what he was doing.

Unfortunately, Remcarparoden had changed our plans. Because Jarrell was on the Chahiran border, and near to Q'atal, the original idea was to deal with the situation here, and then continue up to Q'atal. Aletha and Shield were to take whoever it was we found over into Chahir while we continued north to Q'atal and I put a protective barrier up around it. But it was too dangerous to stick with that plan—if, by some miracle, Remcarparoden managed to break his way out of the seals, Aletha and Shield wouldn't be able to stop him. They wouldn't even realize something was going wrong until he hit them with a fireball.

For safety's sake, someone magical had to go with Remcarparoden, and deliver him to Del'Hain.

And it couldn't be me.

There were two reasons for this; one, if the shielding amulets started to fail, I couldn't fix them. My power can only augment or use such devices—it can't create or repair. If the amulets did stop working, the only thing I could do was to subdue Remcarparoden again. Two, I needed to go to Q'atal. The more time that I spent down here in Chahir, the more that country was left open for attack. It made no sense for me to go into Hain.

Problem was, I wasn't feeling sensible.

“I’m sending Chatta back to Hain with the young Fire Mage,” Xiaolang announced with a wary eye on me.

I stiffened, biting back on an instinctive protest.

I think he saw from my face how I felt about this; or maybe he just felt the turmoil of emotions swirling in me, I don't know. Somehow, he knew. “You don’t like the idea.”

“No,” I choked the word out of a dry mouth. I didn’t like the idea.
At all.

“You don’t think she can handle him?”

That wasn’t the reason. He was wearing so many seals, that Mage power or not, Chatta could handle him. I slowly shook my head. “No. She can keep him under control.”

“You have to give me a valid reason, Garth,” Xiaolang stated gently, “or I can’t justify sending you instead. We’re too close to the Chahiran border.”

I couldn’t think of anything. The truth was Chatta was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. There was no good reason for me to be reacting like this. Actually, it was
me
that got into the scrapes—and her that usually had to pull my fat out of the fire. I looked away, rubbing in agitation at the back of my neck. “I can’t give you one, Xiaolang. I just don’t like having her out of my sight, not when she's so close to him.”

Xiaolang opened his mouth to respond, but paused. His eyes darted over to Remcarparoden—who was intensely watching this conversation—and he visibly changed whatever he was going to say to something else. "Your concern and love for her does you credit, Garth, but in this case your fears are not necessary."

I couldn't look at him. Burying my face in both hands, I spoke my words to the table instead. “I don’t want her out of my sight, Xiaolang. That’s no reflection on her abilities—she’s better at surviving on her own than I am. I just…"

"Feel protective of her," Xiaolang completed with complete understanding. "I know, Garth. What you're feeling is so strong it nearly bowls me over. I just wasn't sure if
you
realize what you are feeling."

I did know, all too well.

"I'm sending her over with Shield and Aletha. They are very strong fighters, so whatever happens, they'll be able to protect her."

I looked up at Remcarparoden, and I tried to look as menacing as possible. Judging from the expression on his face, I succeeded. He looked ready to bolt. "If you
dare
to give Chatta any trouble on the trip to Del'Hain," I informed him with a menacing growl, "you'll be dead before you know it. Mage or not, you'll still die if someone puts a foot of cold steel through your heart. I'll make sure that both Aletha and Shield realize this before you leave."

"You w-won't really k-kill me, will you?" he stammered out, looking truly alarmed.

"You've already proven to be dangerous and uncontrollable with your power," I answered quietly. You could see the blood drain from his face as my words sank in. "You're not the first Mage that we've found, Remcarparoden. We have no reason to keep you."

Let the kid chew on
that
for a while.

Xiaolang was giving me this look that suggested he wasn't entirely pleased with my scare tactics. I didn't really care if he approved or not; if this kept Chatta a little safer on the trip, then I considered myself well justified. Still, I knew better than to push it any further. I'd probably intimidated the kid enough anyway.

So I pushed away from the table, and strode outside into the bright sunshine.

For northern Chahir, it was a gorgeous day. There was hardly a cloud in the sky, and the breeze was so slight that it almost felt like summer. When I walked onto the inn's yard, I found Hayate curled up in a patch of sunlight, blissfully sunbathing. Poor Dragoo—this was probably the first time he'd been truly warm since entering Chahir.

Night and Didi were lazily stretched out near Hayate, also apparently dozing in the sun. Night opened one eye when I approached, but when I didn't say anything, he let if all closed again. My, he was feeling lazy, wasn't he?

As I had suspected, I found everyone else in the stables. Chatta, Aletha, and Shield were already packing for the trip to Del'Hain. They were supposed to leave in an hour. I caught Shield's eye and summoned him with a brief gesture. He cast a quick glance at the girls, to make sure they weren't paying attention to him, and then quietly came to me.

"Problem?" he asked softly.

"Not really," I responded. I kept my voice low, not wanting Chatta to hear. If she knew that I was taking precautions like this, she'd probably be a little miffed at me. My friend was a highly independent woman, after all. "Just a warning. If you see Remcarparoden acting strangely, or you think he might attack, don't hesitate to act. Magic or not, we're all vulnerable to weapons."

The light dawned, and he nodded in complete understanding. "Understood. I'll pass that onto Aletha. Anything else?"

"I think I've scared the kid enough to where he'll be docile the entire trip, but keep an eye on him anyway? Those amulets weren't really meant to work on a Mage." Especially a Mage that would be fighting against them.

"Ah, I was wondering why you were still a little nervous…" Shield's eyes were far too knowing, which made me wonder if he'd already spoken to Xiaolang about this.

"If they start failing, Chatta will see it," I assured him. For the most part, I believed my own words. There was only a small part of me that worried. "I'm just being overly cautious."

"The kid's already proven to be a loose screw, I think caution is a good thing in this case." Shield clapped me on the shoulder, his smile confident. "Don't worry, all right?"

That was harder to do than he realized, but I nodded anyway.

~*~

It was difficult to see them go, but I trusted that they would make it there and back safely. I had Chatta swear before she left that if they had any problems, she would contact me. With the earth path open to me, I could reach her side within minutes of her calling me. She dutifully promised, hugged me, and then they left for Del'Hain.

The rest of the group was leaving as well, only we were heading toward Q'atal. There was no reason for us to stay, after all. I had done all that I could to help rebuild the city. Chatta had done some work as well before leaving, making any repairs that I hadn't been able to do. The citizens of the city had been very thankful, and had repaid our efforts by paying for food and board while we stayed. We didn't wish to overtax our hosts’ hospitality, and so we too were making preparations for departure.

I had just strapped the last saddlebag onto Night's back when a man stumbled around the stable door, a little flushed. I didn't recognize him, but he was dressed in the black and silver livery of the Dom House.

"Magus!" the man panted out, a little flushed and breathless from running. "Dom Overlyten requests to speak with you before you leave."

He wanted to talk to me? Why? Puzzled, but willing to be delayed, I shrugged. "That's fine. Where is he?"

"He's waiting inside the inn, Magus."

I turned to look at Xiaolang. He looked confused as well, but amiably gestured me to follow the servant.

Well, it looked like we would be delayed a bit. I followed the (still breathless) servant back inside the inn. Overlyten was seated at one of the tables, but at my entrance he stood to greet me. He looked more like a Dom now, with his clothes clean and pressed, and without any streaks of sweat and soot on his skin. He was genuinely pleased when I walked into the room. "Magus! Good, you're still here. I was afraid I might have missed you."

"You almost did," I replied. For some reason, Overlyten was reminding me of King Guin. He had the same expression on his face that Guin did when he was thinking up new projects for me to do. That look made me just
a little
nervous. "Did you need something, my lord?"

"Actually…I'm not quite sure how to put this…" he rubbed a hand against his chin, studying me carefully. "Magus, how are you at unraveling old legends?"

Chapter Seven: Living Legends

Overlyten had a talent for spinning a tale. He called Xiaolang, Eagle and Hazard inside and then arranged us so that we were sitting in a half-circle around him. Satisfied with his captive audience, he started in a low, almost hypnotic voice.

"The Magic War began slowly, at first. It wasn't even considered a war in the beginning, just a disagreement. People began to argue heatedly, and the arguments became duels. And then the duels began to be battles…

"Certain magicians retreated to places that could be better defended. Jarrell Castle is one such place."

Xiaolang shot me a sharp, enquiring look, silently asking if I had known this. I shrugged helplessly in response. The Jaunten had appeared twenty-five years
after
the Magic War. I had practically no knowledge about the Magic War itself.

Overlyten's eyes narrowed slightly, taking note of our silent exchange, but he didn't stop his narration. "For the most part, magicians fought magicians, and the civilians did their best to stay out of the way. However, there was one man in this Province that dared to fight against the magicians, even though he had no magical abilities of his own. His name is Riicshaden."

I blinked, sure that I hadn't heard him right. "He had no magical abilities, but he fought against them?"

"You said yourself that magicians are only mortal," Xiaolang pointed out to me. "You're just as fallible to weapons as the rest of us."

"Yes, I know, but do you know how
hard
that would be?" I objected, still genuinely surprised. "Those fancy shields of ours aren't just for magic, Xiaolang. We shield against weapons, too."