Magus (Advent Mage Cycle) (30 page)

Huh. Okay, he had a good point there.

“You’d be wise to marry your Chatta,” he advised with a wink.

I held up a hand, halting that line of thought right there. “We’re friends,” I said firmly. I was getting very tired of defending this point.

“Friends make the best spouses,” Aral agreed. I think he was deliberately missing my point.

I gave up. Anything else that I said would be misconstrued as well. Out of nowhere, a yawn appeared and nearly dislocated my jaw. “Um, sorry.”

“It’s been a long day, and we should have already been in bed.” Aral stretched his arms over his head, sighing. “I think my mind’s settled enough to sleep now. Yours?”

I nodded. “Yes. Good night, Aral.”

“Night, Garth.”

~*~

I’m sure I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. I really had so much on my mind the last few days, that I hadn’t realized just how completely exhausted I was. It was late morning when the edges of consciousness finally started to surface around my inert form. I could hear the birds singing outside the window, and farther away the pleasant sound of activity in the kitchen below. Mmm. It seemed like a nice day. Maybe I should get up?

The bed had a death grip on me, however, and stubbornly refused to release my uncomplaining body. Why, the blankets alone must have weighed more than Night, after eating a case of peanut butter and biscuits. The sheets were as soft as I can ever remember in my life, and the pillow was singing a siren song in my ear. Okay, so maybe I’d lie in bed a while longer.

Unfortunately—or fortunately, it depends on your view—part of me disagreed with this decision. My nose rushed to my rescue when it detected the tantalizing aroma of breakfast wafting up the stairs. My stomach tipped the scales of victory with a feral growl, seconding the opinion that breakfast was a good idea. Groaning, I capitulated and heaved the blankets off with great regret.

I stumbled to the wash stand, and poured some water from the pitcher into the basin. The cold water was a shock to my system, but it helped me to regain some control over my lethargic body. I stood there for a moment, trying to remember what it was I needed to do next. A cool breeze coming from the open window cued me that I should probably put on some clothes. I found something suitably clean in my bag, and was amazed that I remembered how to put them on. Feeling more confident in my ability to traverse the stairs without making a spectacular entrance, I followed my nose down to breakfast.

Sallah and Chatta were busy cooking and talking. It was amazing to watch the two of them together. It was almost like a dance, one anticipating the other’s needs and movements. I stood there several moments watching the two of them in deep conversation, like they had known each other all of their lives, before they even noticed me.

Chatta was the first to pick up on my less than chipper demeanor, and handed me a hot mug of something with a cheery, “Good morning, sleepy head. I can’t believe I beat you up!”

I mumbled something incoherent back, and gave myself over to the steaming contents of the mug. Whatever was in there was like an elixir, and the fog clouding my brain began to thin and dissipate. I finally found my tongue and gave the women a proper greeting. “So how is everyone this morning?” I asked, with a little cotton still stuck to the roof of my mouth.

Chatta eyed me with the look of a person with revenge on her mind, for the countless mornings that I had gotten up first. Sometimes, the only way to get her moving was to be ruthless. (She never saw it that way, though.) She decided to be merciful, this once, and just gave me a knowing pat on the shoulder. I would owe her big time in the future, when our roles were inevitably reversed again.

Sallah broke the silence with a solid, “Good morning, Cousin, I see you enjoyed the bed.”

I shrugged a bit sheepishly. “We have been traveling so much on our mission for King Guin that we spend a lot of time camping out. My aching body sure appreciated the comforts of a soft bed and a warm blanket.”

Night stuck his head through the open back door, and studied me with smug satisfaction.
“I thought I was going to have to come up those narrow stairs to save you from whatever evil force was holding you captive
,” he said with a gleam of mischief in his eye.

I eyed him back. “Not all of us are morning people.”

“There’s a wide margin between not being a morning person and sleeping
through
the morning
,” he retorted.
“I’ve already had a bath and a thorough brushing, and I came up to see if there was any more of those delicious apples and carrots left.”
Somehow he always finds his way to a bath and the goodies before I do! I am really going to have to look into that.

Don and Aral and Shad came in at that moment, so I didn’t have time to properly explore that thought, but I promised myself I would later. Aral hugged Sallah and asked, “Is breakfast almost ready, or am I going to have to go and steal some carrots from Trivoxor?”

He was rewarded with a swat of a spoon that would have landed squarely on his head if he hadn’t ducked. “You don’t look any the worse for wear,” Sallah observed. “I believe you are keeping pace with me, and I am eating for two.”

Aral held his hand over his heart, as if she had scored a killing shot, and Don and Shad collapsed onto the bench next to me, helpless with laughter. When he had recovered enough air to re-inflate his lungs, Don added, “Oh, she got you good Aral! I never noticed until now how similar you two are looking lately.”

“I think it is very touching that the two of you do everything together!” Shad added with innocent sincerity.

Aral projected a mock look of dejection on his face, but held out his plate with both hands. He didn’t mind the teasing when it came to securing great quantities of his wife’s amazing cooking. Mage or no Mage, few people could rival Sallah in the kitchen. My stomach reasserted itself at that moment, and I held out my plate too. Shad reached from behind me and put his plate over mine. “Have some respect for your elders, Garth,” he intoned in an aged voice.

I threw an elbow into his ribs, which he somehow managed to duck without moving his plate. The man’s far too limber.

Our banter was finally silenced by the sounds of people playing a symphony on their plates with their silverware. I was midway through another helping when there was a loud knock. Raile stuck his head in the backdoor and called out, “Is there enough for one more?”

Sallah ushered him to the table with one hand, and an impressive plate of food in the other hand.

“I’m an old man Sallah, you know I can’t eat as much as I used to,” Raile protested in a modest tone.

“Thank the gods for that small blessing,” Sallah chortled in reply. Raile gave a deep warble of a laugh, and set to the business of catching up with the rest of us.

The food and our appetites ran out about the same time. We all just sat there in quiet contentment, too full to move. Don was the first to break the silence. “That was a real masterpiece Sallah!” he said patting his stomach. “If I don’t watch it, I’m going to start looking like you too!”

Sallah blushed, and quickly added, “Chatta was a great help to me this morning. She gave me some of her family’s recipes that were wonderful!”

Chatta grinned back in appreciation of the accolades, and gave a low bow. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had such wonderful facilities to prepare a meal in. We always seem to be on the way to somewhere else, and a meal is anything that fits between two pieces of stale bread. By the way, Garth has a wonderful game he introduced us to. The last one touching their nose has to cook, or do the dishes.”

She stood there smiling at me, with her index finger planted squarely on her nose, followed immediately by Shad, Raile, Aral and Sallah.

Don held up his hand, “Don’t look at me, I have to go take care of some business.”

My reflexes weren’t awake enough to save me. It left just little old me to tackle a mountain of dishes. “I’m a victim of my own game,” I lamented sorrowfully. The rest of them had a good laugh at my expense, and then jumped in and helped me get the kitchen back into shape before the next onslaught.

Chatta was manning a dish towel, and exhibited a particular talent for spotting the minute particles of food that occasionally slipped by me.

“Am I supposed to wipe off the things you miss?” she asked in an arch voice, scraping at a speck too small to be seen with her fingernail.

“You know,” I observed to her seriously, “all of those people that believe me to be perfect have never seen me do dishes.”

“Obviously,” she drawled.

“My reputation would take a hit if they did.” That was a rather cheerful thought, although I wasn’t sure how to manage it.

“I can spread the word around if you want me to,” Chatta volunteered with a syrupy sweet tone. “The marvelous Advent Mage can’t get a dish clean to save his life.”

We all dissolved into gales of laughter at that, especially Shad, who got the hiccups. “Oh, no! Yet another unfounded rumor, circulating around about the Advent Mage! Well, you did point out yourself that fine control is not your strong suit.” Shad smiled sweetly. He needed all of his legendary speed to duck the dripping missile that narrowly missed his earnest expression.

With the kitchen dragon slain, we all headed into the living room, and sprawled out on the chairs and couches. My chair was a cousin to the bed—it grabbed me instantly and persuaded my body to not move.

Shad moaned, “If I had to duck a fireball from an angry Wizard right now, I’d be toast! I used to dream of food while I was locked in that crystal. None of my dreams ever came close to that meal. Thank you my ladies!” Sallah and Chatta fairly glowed with the compliment. Shad always had a way with any woman in his vicinity.

As I sat there contemplating a midmorning power nap, I finally noticed that Raile was dressed in a gray robe, with red piping. “Are you going someplace special this morning, Raile?” I inquired, with a nod toward his robes.

“Not at all,” he assured me with a negligent wave. “I thought you might enjoy a brief tour of the city before you have to leave. No telling when you might make it back to see us again!” he added, with a knowing grin on his face.

”I’ll have to check with Xiaolang,” I replied. “He wants to get started back to Chahir as soon as possible to locate the new Mage.”

“I’m sure he won’t mind a short delay. I’ll send word that we won’t be too long. He and the team can join us if they wish.” I kept seeing a brief look pass over his aged face, but it was too quick for me to have any idea what it meant.

Chatta chimed in with a look of interest. “I’d love to see more of the city; what we have seen so far has been absolutely amazing. I can’t wait to tell Professor O’danne about the glamour concealing the pillar under a ‘floating city.’”

“I’m always up for a little exercise in the sun, especially with you, Beautiful,” Shad said, adding his support to the idea. Shad and I were going to have to have a discussion about his pet names for Chatta. Very soon. And I wouldn’t be playing fair, either.

“Well, I certainly would enjoy seeing more of the city,” I admitted. “We spent most of the day light yesterday scrying for possible Watchman Pools.”

Aral and Sallah said they had something else they had to take care of, but they would try to catch up to us later. With a heave of effort, I managed to get out of the chair, into my boots, and out the door.

As Chatta, Shad and I emerged from the house with Raile, Xiaolang was walking up to the steps. “I got word that you were going to be getting a better look at the city, so I thought I’d bring my map and tag along,” Xiaolang offered in answer to my unspoken question. “To my knowledge, no outside map currently exists of Coven Ordan; this will be the first.”

I nodded in agreement, but I had the oddest feeling that I was missing out on a part of the conversation. Raile broke my chain of thought with a well timed grin, and a hand extended in the direction of the street.

Night had finished the last of his apples, and fell into step with the rest of the tour group. Didi was sitting on a nearby fence post working to unravel the braid puzzle that Trev’nor had devised for him. He didn’t even pause in fingering the strands of the cords when Chatta scooped him up and put him on her shoulder.

“I’m going to have to get Trev’nor to do a few more of those puzzles for me,” she commented as she watched the engrossed Meuritta. “It could come in real handy when I don’t have time to keep a close eye on Didi.”

With that, Didi looked up from his treasure and gave an indignant ”Di!” before he went back to his labors. We all just laughed at his single minded devotion to the bright bobble in his tiny hands.

“Raile, how long after the Remnant Magicians arrived here in the valley did they start to build the city?” Chatta asked with obvious interest.

“Well, first we had to buy the rights to have this land from Bromany,” he recalled reminiscently. “That took a few months. But once we managed it, we began to build almost immediately. We had been in chaos for so long, first with the escalating fighting, and then with the exile orders to Strae. In order to ensure that our heritage and genetic lines survived, we were forced to leave our friends and associates behind. It was as important to us as eating, to finally have a safe place to call home again,” Raile concluded, with a sad faraway look in his eyes.

I was getting the feeling that this wasn’t second hand knowledge. Raile spoke as a person that had actually been there—he had witnessed all of this first hand. Shad and I exchanged startled looks.

Shad watched the elderly wizard with a knowing gaze. “So you were there during the evacuation and the exodus? How is that possible? I was there in Jerrell, but I was frozen in a crystal with healing charms hung all over it. How have you managed to live so long?”

Raile looked over at Shad and smiled. “I was just a boy when we arrived here in the BankNoren of Ordan. I was assigned the task of preserving our records and memory crystals, since I was too young to have my powers awaken yet. I was given special augmenting spells to extend my life, to await the time of the restoration of The Balance.”