The Making of a Mage King: White Star (43 page)

“I wanted to talk to you,” was the first thing out of Besan’s mouth as soon as they were settled. “You say that bastard, Ludwyn, is done for. I want to know if you’re going to keep taking our kids.”

“Taking your kids? What did Ludwyn take your kids for?” asked Sean.

“Don’t know. Every kid what could light a candle, if their parents couldn’t get them out of the district first, were spirited away in the night. Even complained to the king, more ‘n once, but he didn’t do anything about it. Didn’t even answer the message.”

“How long has this been going on?” asked Sean.

“Neigh on ten years now,” said Besan.

“There were no children at the palace; it doesn’t even sound like him. Kids wouldn’t have been durable enough for him,” said Sean. He gazed across the camp to where Paddn strode on some business of his own. He had only eight of those kids left with him. The others had not expressed a desire to return; then again, he had never asked them. “How many are you missing?”

“Probably close to a hundred by now. One or two a month will go missing for a while, then nothing for a spell. I can’t see any pattern; it don’t even seem to follow the seasons much.”

“It sounds like they’re being taken by magic.”
If Ludwyn wasn’t doing it, then who, and where were they being taken
to
?
Sean wracked his brain for a plausible solution.
They were being taken because of their magic. If Ludwyn was protecting himself against mages, why did he pick only this district? Or has it happened in other places and I missed hearing about it? Have I been traveling too fast after all? What can I do to guard against an unknown someone or someones kidnapping kids in the dark, using magic? I can do that. It’s a simple matter of a viewing to see what I want and a teleport to take it, but how can I protect innocent people against that and how can I find those kids that have already been taken? I can do that too, and on some really thin threads, but nearly a hundred? It would take forever to go to each family, then find their missing child. And those who have been missing for upwards of ten years now…how different were they from the children their families knew?
“Do you know any of the missing kids?”

“No, I don’t. Oh, I could come up with a long list of names and I know some of those families well enough, but I can’t say that I know any of the kids that were taken.”

“Is there a specific age when they’re taken?” asked Sean.

“Young,” said Besan. “Five, six, maybe seven,” he looked at his son. “Have you heard of anyone older than that?” The boy shook his head.

That was about the age that magic really started to become noticed. That’s when someone with a stone like I have in my chest would notice whether someone had magic.
He stood up and strode away from the fire. He couldn’t hang around here and track down missing children, no matter how much he wanted to. That left protecting those who remained. If the kidnappers were using magic, an army wouldn’t be of much use.

The skeleton of a plan started to form, and Sean headed back to the fire. “Besan, do you have a lot of traffic from outside of the district?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” he replied. “I suppose we get our fair share of traders’ caravans through here. Women do like pretty cloth, perfumes, and such.”

“Do they use magic, any of them, for any reason?” asked Sean.

“I don’t know. If they do, they don’t advertise it, none that I know of anyway, why?”

Sean moved back away from the fire. Mindful of what General Frei had said about his dancing, he tried to form a new dance, a type of warding that would protect these people from further assault against their children. Deep in thought, Sean moved off into the complete dark,  away from the campfires. Then he had a thought, and the last piece fell into place. The ground would know who belonged and who didn’t, and a warding would be able to detect the use of magic of any power.

The dance evolved along with Sean’s thoughts, and he began to turn very slowly with his arms held wide; what he did scarcely qualified as a dance, as he wove and bent the magic to his will. Old magic of the earth to reach out and encompassed hundreds of miles all around him twined with old magic of air that touched that surface in its passing. Old magic to ward every surface where a foot might fall or stand – if a stranger to this valley tried to use any of the affecting magics, they would be teleported instantly to the palace. As soon as Sean had the spell assembled, he knelt and pushed it into the ground, feeling it travel to its far reaches and settle into place.

The spell was simple; it had its problems, but it might work. As he walked back to the fire, he called, “Dad, Clayton, can you both hear me?”

“Yes,”
and
“Yes,”
answered both Elias and Clayton, almost on top of each other.

“I am in the valley between Sanco and Castrum. Child mages have been turning up missing over the last ten years. I think someone using magic may be snatching them. I have warded the valley against that, and people may start showing up there because of it, so keep an eye out for new arrivals. The warding has its gaps and loopholes; just make sure they’re not the culprit before you send them back.”

“I can’t do that by myself,”
said Clayton.
“I had Elias to focus on last time.”

By now, Sean had reached the fire once again. “Okay, come here – now. Focus on me; I’ll introduce you to
Ruihano
Besan and his son.”

Besan looked up at the mention of his name and saw Sean coming into the light alone. “Who’re you talking to?”

“A trusted friend of mine,” answered Sean, and Clayton appeared beside him. Sean signaled to the watch commander. “I’ll be needing a horse.” The man nodded and disappeared.

Sean turned back to the gathering at the fire and explained to them what he wanted them to do. Clayton was to be the go-between. The warding was a wide net that could catch most anyone, and many of them could be innocent. It would be between Elias, Clayton, and Besan to decide. Sean would be brought in for anyone questionable.

Clayton would accompany Besan back to Sanco where he could familiarize himself with a point of focus so he could go back and forth. While there, he would find out about the missing kids and fill Sean in with the details.

Elias interrupted with another suggestion,
“Ferris used to be a detective, Sean. He might be able to help too.”

“I forgot.” He turned around. “Ferris, where are you?” he asked the darkness around him.

“I’m here,”
replied Ferris, sounding caught off-guard and feeling drowsy.

“Would you come to my fire, please?”

“Give me a moment.”

When Sean returned his attention to Besan, he could see the man was confused, and he was reminded of talking to Mattie in the dungeon while Guire had tried to understand. “Others attend our meeting,
ruihano
, though they do so only in my head,” he said in explanation. Ferris came then and he filled him in. “You’ve investigated some kidnappings, haven’t you?” asked Sean.

“Yeah, a couple,” replied Ferris.

“Good, then you have some experience. I’m leaving you here to poke around and see what you can find out. Don’t use any magic, though; I’ve warded the valley.”

Before Besan took his new men, six altogether; Ferris and Clayton were important men, and Cordan had assigned them bodyguards, Sean took a knee in front of him and vowed on his new-made sword to do everything in his power to find the missing children and bring justice to those who had taken them.

Besan was a simple rancher, and regardless of his title and district-wide responsibilities, he had never in his life imagined that a king would be kneeling in front of him.

Sean paced the camp long after Besan’s party was out of sight and longer still after they were beyond hearing.
What could I have done that would have worked better?
He shoved his fingers through his hair as if he’d be able to rake the dilemma out of his brain by force.
There’s nothing I can change now
.
If I try anything other than break the spell, I’d find myself caught in my own trap, so it’ll have to do for now. If it doesn’t produce anyone by the time I get home, I can make changes then
.

It ate at him that he was unable to solve this problem here and now. “Find them, Ferris,” he whispered into the dark. “Find something, please.”

Ferris heard and shook his head; the boy had a temper as violent as a maelstrom, but a heart as big as an ocean. He’d make a very good king if he didn’t tear himself to pieces first.

Sean halted his pacing with his back to the light from the campfires. With sleep a faraway concept, he didn’t even bother with his tent. He looked ahead, first picking out his trail to the river, then on to the city of Castrum. Still agonizing over the missing kids, he looked for them as well.

Larry had never had the opportunity to watch him do this, and was highly unsettled to find his friend standing stock-still at dawn, staring at horizon. The most unsettling part wasn’t his unusually still posture; it was the fact that his eyes, normally near black and so full of expression, were now utterly white. He would have thought they were rolled around and looking into the back of his head, but he could clearly see the iris and pupil through the white shroud.

He reached out and gave Sean a gentle shake. When that didn’t work, he shook him again and called his name. “Sean?” He tapped him on the cheek, then again a little harder. “Sean, come out of it, man, you’re scaring me.” With relief, he watched his friend’s eyes slowly focus on him, then fade to black again.

“Larry?” He looked around at the camp now breaking in preparation to leave. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing, now. Did you know that your eyes go all white when you do…whatever you were doing?”

Sean reached up and touched his eyes as if he might be able to feel the difference. “No, I didn’t. Nobody ever told me.” Then he saw his tent coming down. “Well, I hope someone got some use out of it.”

Mattie brought them each a bowl of boiled oats for breakfast. “Cordan says you warded the entire valley,” she said, as she scrutinized Sean’s face to judge his strength or to see how much he had drained himself. “Will you be able to gate us to the next stop?”

“No, I don’t…” Sean turned and gazed across the valley, searching, “…think…so. We’re being watched. Laon,” he called to the man breaking apart the fire. “You’ll be leading my horse. I’ll muzzle him.” He searched the landscape. “Ach, never mind. It’s gone.” He started eating. “Maybe our trap’s already sprung, or will, as soon as whoever that was does more than just look.”

Once they were mounted up, Sean kept them at a pounding pace. They found the main river that cut through the middle of the valley just as it was getting dark. Feeling pressed for time, as always, he wouldn’t have bothered setting up his tent; warm nights, however, were a thing of the past.

He distracted himself for another chunk of the evening by caring for Punír. The horse seemed to be coming around with care and the occasional bribe. He brushed him down with a coarse brush until he was rolling his lip up, then contained him on a patch of sweet grass. Seth’s life was a lot easier when Punír wasn’t among the other horses, causing whatever trouble he could think of.

Sean was going to spend part of the evening looking for the missing children or scouting out their path for tomorrow, but he found himself falling asleep instead, shortly after he stretched out by the fire and long before his tent was unpacked.

He was lounging against his saddle watching Laon light a fire without using magic, and the next thing he knew, the man was waking him up telling him that Mattie would have breakfast ready in a few minutes. No dreams, no memories, no
nothing
, all night long.

When he took his bowl from Mattie he asked, “Did you try to wake me last night?”

She smiled shyly.
She has such a nice smile.
“You were snoring,” she said.

“I don’t snore,” protested Sean.

She smiled just a little wider and her cheeks turned pink. “You do too…I should know. How do you think I could tell when you were asleep so I could sneak under your covers?”

“I wasn’t asleep once. You cried, remember?”

“You were snoring then, too,” then at his look, “You were!”

Men coming up for their breakfast interrupted their little disagreement.

“But there were things I wanted to do last night.”

Her smile faded. “If I had woken you last night, you wouldn’t have slept for the rest of the night. You needed to sleep. You were tired.”

He had to concede, he
had
been tired. His body had known it even if the rest of him hadn’t. No tent, no blankets – he’d just dropped his saddle and stretched out, he’d been so tired.
I wonder who covered me? Probably Mattie
.

Done with his breakfast, he scratched at his stubbly cheeks and tried to think back to the last time he’d stayed in one place long enough to shave. It had been clear back in Lorraine before he went to the palace for the feast. He looked around; everyone was eating by now, so while he waited for them he dug out his shaving things and scraped away the scratchy growth on his face. He didn’t really care for a beard; it made him feel unwashed. The absence of his crown while he washed his face felt odd. He wore the thing nearly twenty-four/seven these days, and his forehead felt naked without it.