The Scofflaw Magician (The Artifactor Book 3) (3 page)

Sevana
activated the clock portal that would connect with the Sa Kaon palace’s main
foyer, running through a mental checklist as she did. She’d instructed Big to
take care of the soldiers, sent a note off to Morgan, packed a bag of clothes
and such for herself, and another bag of every searching and diagnostic tool
she could cram in. Baby was already watching the soldiers, happy to have things
to stalk and look after while she was gone. The cat was easily amused.

Grydon escorted
Farah and her bodyguard directly to the clock room, tail swishing in
self-satisfaction of a job well done. That didn’t stop him from pushing his
nose into her hand, looking for acknowledgement. She gave him a good scratch
behind the ears.

“Princess,” she
greeted, glad to see the girl only had a single bag on her shoulders, and the
bodyguard was carrying two. The girl was proving to be sensible, or at least,
good at following directions. “Bodyguard, what is your name?”

“Xald,” he
responded, voice deeper than she’d suspected it would be. “A pleasure,
Artifactor.”

“Xald, I’m
assuming that you’ll want to go through the clock first?”

The man gave
her a dry smile. “Yes.”

Bodyguards were
picky about that sort of thing. They wanted to scope out the area first for
dangers, even if they were on their way home. “That’s fine. Since neither of
you have done this before, I’ll explain. You want to step straight through, as
if you were going through a doorway. Do NOT jostle the clock pendulum as you do
so. I have it encased for a reason. And don’t dawdle.”

Neither of them
asked any questions or looked confused. Satisfied, she set the pendulum in
motion, turning the clock to the correct time for Zuriat. When it was ready,
she opened the glass door and waved Xald through. He stepped in with all of the
caution of a man that was experiencing something for the first time. But he
didn’t dawdle.

Sevana sent
Farah in next, as she had to close the door properly behind her. Grydon
followed at the princess’s heels, without waiting for any directions, leaving
Sevana to toss her own packs through before maneuvering around and closing the
door on her side. With it securely shut, she stepped all the way out and into
the Sa Kaon palace foyer.

Sa Kaons had an
intense love of all things gold and white. The white she could understand, as
most of the country was of a desert sort of climate, but the gold was blinding
under all of the sunlight. She had to blink several times and put her back to
the floor-to-ceiling windows before her eyes could adjust.

She’d seen the
place once, years ago, and it hadn’t changed. Impressive marble columns
standing like silent sentinels lined the hallways, the white tile floor
stretching in every direction, windows open to let light and air through. It
was immaculate and beautiful, if one overlooked all of the gold edging. Right
now, the place was also thronging with soldiers, magicians of every type, and
information tradesman. The arrival of the princess and an Artifactor wasn’t
even noticed in the crowd until one of the soldiers recognized her and stopped
dead, dropping instantly to a knee.

“Princess
Farah! We did not expect your return.”

“I didn’t
either, an hour ago,” the princess confessed, attempting to reassure him. “I’m
afraid that I hurried off in the wrong direction. My sister is not there. But
I’ve brought back an Artifactor that has agreed to help.”

The soldier’s
eyes darted to Sevana with open curiosity and the beginnings of hope. “I will
escort you to your father.”

“No need, tell
me where he is.”

“The small
court.”

Farah’s mouth
tightened in dismay. “I understand. Good work.”

“Ha!” Bouncing
back to his feet, he gave her a bow before hurrying on.

Sevana shrugged
both packs on, gesturing Grydon to stay at heel. “I take it that his presence
in the small court is a bad sign.”

“He only goes
there when he’s about to do something drastic and wants to talk it over with
his advisors first.”

Sevana didn’t
bother to hide a groan. “Let’s stop him before he does it.”

Farah stalked
forward, quickly cutting through the traffic of people, and headed further into
the palace interior. Once people realized she was there, they quickly melted to
either side to make way, and Sevana just did her best to keep up. Grydon helped
with that, a little, because once people saw him they gave the group a wider
berth. They still had to force their way through some pockets of people as they
went from one hallway to the next, crossing two flowery courtyards, and up a
small flight of stairs. Sevana’s sense of direction went badly askew trying to
keep track of where she was. It would take a guide to get her back out of this
place.

After another
turn, Farah stopped abruptly at a set of double doors. She addressed the two
guards standing on either side. “Announce that Farah Adalah Adnan, Fourth
Princess of Sa Kao is here to speak with the king.”

Sevana’s eyes
cut sideways to stare at the girl. Even with her own father she had to announce
herself and ask permission to speak with him? What kind of lunacy was that?!

The guards bowed
to her, then one of them opened the door and announced in a very professional
way, “Farah Adalah Adnan, Fourth Princess of Sa Kao, to speak with the king.”

“She’s back
already?!” a familiar voice responded, nearly spluttering with surprise. “Let
her enter!”

The guard
shoved the door all the way open, letting the party inside. Sevana took a quick
scan of her surroundings as she stepped through. When she’d heard ‘small court’
she’d expected a small throne room, but this didn’t fit that mental image. It
had a long, thin table that sat low to the ground, with chairs that were
nothing more than back and armrests. Cushions were everywhere, of every
possible color, all of them brightly hued. Men of all ages were arrayed around
the table, most of them grey-haired, dressed in the loose silk robes that were
fashionable in this country. Sevana took them to be advisors, or the king’s
council, something of that ilk.

At the head of
the table sat Firuz Adnan. He looked tired, dark circles under his eyes, with
new age lines around his eyes and mouth. Sevana doubted he’d slept more than an
hour since his youngest child had gone missing.

When he saw
her, he shot to his feet and rounded the table. “Artifactor Warran. You have
come to help us?”

“At the request
of your daughter,” she confirmed, holding out a hand.

The king
clasped it in a warrior’s grip and beamed at her. “The heavens smile on us.
Surely, with your help, we can find my daughter soon.”

“Don’t get your
hopes up,” she warned. “Farah’s description makes me think this will not be an
easy puzzle to unravel. But I will do my best.”

“
You
can
do the impossible,” Firuz responded, his grip on her tightening. “I trust your
expertise more than any other.” Dropping the arm, he turned to Farah. “But you
did not find her with the Fae.”

“The Fae only
take in orphans, Father,” she responded quietly. “Amas wasn’t there.”

“But,” Sevana
interjected, “it was her coming to the Fae that alerted me to the situation, so
her trip up there wasn’t wasted. Now. Tell me everything you know about this
situation, and I’ll start searching after that.”

A man of middle
age cleared his throat and ventured, “My King, this woman is…?”

“Artifactor
Sevana Warran,” the king answered, half-turning to look back at the table. When
only some of the men looked enlightened, he expounded, “This is the woman that
restored King Aren and Prince Bel from their curses and reinstated them on
their throne.”

She’d actually
had very little to do with that last part, but whatever.

The men let out
a wave of wordless astonishment and delight. They might not have known her
name, but they certainly knew that story, and were increasingly happy to see
her. Sevana smirked under their attention. Recognition was always nice.

But it didn’t
help her with the current puzzle. She snapped her fingers to draw Firuz’s
attention back to her. “I need details. And a place to work while I’m here.”

Firuz was all
for her going immediately to work and was quick to respond. “What do you need?”

“An empty,
quiet space that has tables so I can spread things out on. If it’s close to one
of my clock portals, that would help.” She’d undoubtedly need to pop in and out
of the cave to fetch things at need.

The king
thought only for a moment before he snapped his fingers. “I have just the
place. Follow me.”

Oh, a royal
guide, eh? If this was any person other than his own daughter missing, Sevana
would have likely gotten a high-ranking flunky showing her about at this point.
But she wasn’t complaining. For one thing, this way she could ask questions as
they walked. “When exactly did your daughter go missing?”

“It’s been two
weeks to the day.” Firuz waited until she cleared the doorway, regaining the
hallway, before continuing. Farah and Xald silently trailed after them,
Grydon’s nails clicking on the tile as he padded at her side. “As we’ve sent
out searchers, other people have been reported mysteriously missing as well. At
first I put it down as the usual criminal activity, or perhaps the work of some
mystical creature, but you say that the Fae only take in orphans?”

“They do, and
only younger than ten years old,” she confirmed, shifting her pack on her back.
One of the straps had become twisted as she put it on, and it was pinching her
skin a little.

“Then I cannot
dismiss these disappearances as a simple spiriting away on the part of the Fae.
The ages of the people were quite far ranging, everything from my five year old
daughter to a tottering old man.”

Some of those
disappearances were still likely part of the usual crime rate of a large city.
They’d find a few people eventually in shallow graves somewhere. But if it was
strange enough to be marked upon by Firuz, then she should definitely pay
attention to it as well. “How far back do the disappearances go?”

“Three months,
or so we believe.” Firuz turned a corner, pointing ahead. “That is one of your
clocks.”

So it was, one
of her earlier makings. She went to it and did a swift check, but it was
running perfectly. “Good. A room?”

“Here is
something that should suit.” He gestured for her to follow him, although he
only went another four doors down before opening one of those gilt inlaid doors
and striding through. “It’s normally used for a reserve room, to hold supplies
for our garden parties, but at the moment it’s empty.”

So it was.
Tables were shoved against all four walls, there were two bright windows
overlooking a magnificent garden, and there were two benches in the center of
the room. For an impromptu space to work in, this was perfect. “Excellent.”
Nodding her approval, she slung both packs off, taking things out and laying
them in order with efficient speed. “Continue.”

“I’m afraid
Farah likely told you everything we know. Amas went out to play after lunch,
just to the front courtyard of the palace, and was there for several hours.
When the evening bell rang, and she didn’t return, we sent people to fetch her.
It turned into a harrying search that turned up nothing. I’ve had every
possible branch of magic used to search for her, or even summon her, to no
avail.”

Sevana hadn’t
planned on using any of the usual tools or spells as those had likely been
tried and exhausted already. Her usual method was to start off with a Point-Me
spell and go from there, but there were ways of blocking that, so she’d have to
do something more intensive instead.

Turning to
Farah, she dictated, “Fetch me something that Amas used a lot. Something that
would have a strong scent.”

Farah was quick
on the uptake. She glanced at Grydon, put two and two together, then sprinted
out the door without even nodding in acknowledgement.

“Scent?” Firuz
objected.

“I don’t expect
much from that,” Sevana admitted, her hand hovering over her tools. Hmm, what
best to start with? “I’m doing it for two reasons. One, Grydon has limited
experience searching out missing people that have been kidnapped magically, and
he’s itching to try at this.”

Grydon gave a
happy wag of the tail, front paws dancing in place.

“See? It
doesn’t hurt to let him try, either. If he does manage to pick up something, we
might get an indication of which way the perpetrator fled, and right now we can
use all the information we can get.”

Not entirely
sold on this, Firuz still didn’t argue, letting her do things her way.

Sevana settled
on her most powerful scrying crystal and lifted it into her hand.
Concentrating, she said, “
ZIIK P O VANE 
FO LE
.”

The crystal
went blinding white as the spell activated, sparking a kaleidoscope of colors
in the room as it hit the glass windows and the gold fixtures. Sevana had to
blink, brow scrunching, to avoid being distracted by the light show.