God of Magic

by Logan Jacobs

  So we didn’t have much of a choice. Aerin’s anger made more sense to me now, but I knew that getting upset wasn’t going to help. “Okay, so let’s figure out what our next step is,” I said, careful to keep my tone neutral.

  Aerin leaned forward with a frown. “I think Lavinia owes the rest of us an apology first.”

  Lavinia glared into the empty air in an obvious effort to avoid eye contact with any of us, but after a few tense seconds, her red eyes cut to me, then Maruk, and finally Aerin, and she blew out a short sigh through her nose. “Alright, I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “I was angry at Ren, but I shouldn’t have made the bet without asking you.”

  “No, you shouldn’t have,” Aerin agreed as she swung out of her hammock and came to stand with the rest of us, “but we’re in this now, so we’d better get to work. For all we know, Ren and the Stewards are already preparing to leave the city.”

  “I’ll go to the office to pick up a copy of the bounty information,” Lavinia offered.

  “I’ll go with you,” Maruk said, and Lavinia nodded.

  “The cave network in the Shadow Delves is hundreds of miles long and infested with unholy things,” Aerin said with a shake of her head. “No doubt that’s why Ren picked that bounty. We’ll need to get some maps that show the safe passages.” She cast me a glance. “Gabriel and I can look for some while you two go to the office.”

  “Sounds good to me,” I agreed.

  “We can do this,” Lavinia said confidently. “We’re the better guild, and we’ll prove it.” She stuck out her hand in a fist, and Maruk put his fist on top of hers, and then Aerin and I followed suit.

  After Lavinia and Maruk had left, Aerin and I flipped through some of the books I had bought to see if any of them mentioned the Shadow Delves, but all we found was a brief mention of the caves in a chapter about salamanders in a book about magical creatures. According to the book, a rare species of salamander could be found in the northeastern part of the caverns, but the author strongly advised against venturing beyond the underground pools where the salamanders lived lest one fall prey to the more dangerous beasts that made their homes further down. There were some illustrations of wyrm-like creatures surrounded by bones and spiders as large as full-grown men, but little other information besides the warning.

  “I wouldn’t have expected much,” Aerin said when I closed the book. “Maps of the Shadow Delves are rare since they’re so dangerous to travel through.”

  I frowned. “Don’t people make copies?”

  “We did at first, but due to magical forces and cave-ins and that sort of thing, almost all the older maps are useless now. The routes have changed. It won’t be easy to get our hands on a recent copy, but I have an idea of where to look first. Let’s go.”

  I set the book on the edge of my bed and followed Aerin’s lively steps back downstairs and outside. I expected her to turn left on the way back toward the market, but instead, she went right past the locksmith’s shop and into a part of the city I hadn’t seen before.

  Mismatched buildings crowded in tight on either side of the narrow cobbled street, and their old frames leaned forward so much that the overhangs of their roofs almost touched in places and left only a thin strip of sky between them to provide any light. Tepid water swelled over the confines of the gutters, and I was careful to pick my way over the numerous puddles of it in the road as we passed, though Aerin maintained a quick pace.

  “Where are we going?” I asked after a few minutes when the view didn’t change. I trusted Aerin, but all of these places appeared to be abandoned. Cobwebs clustered in the eaves and there were no lights that I could see through any of the windows.

  The elf threw a mischievous sort of grin over her shoulder. “The black market,” she said. “Don’t mention it to Maruk, though, okay? He doesn’t think we should ‘befoul our good name by associating ourselves with criminals.’“ Her imitation of the orc’s accent was uncanny. “It’s not like I make a habit of it, but the Shadow Delves have been pretty much abandoned by the government and higher society. The only people who go down there now are the ones with nothing to lose, so we have a better chance of finding a good map here.”

  “Got it,” I promised, and I crossed my heart.

  Aerin’s grin faded slightly. “Just, uh, you know, keep one hand on your money,” she advised.

  Aerin led me another few blocks down, then we turned into a narrow alleyway crowded with broken barrels that spit us out into the black market. The whole space was set up in what had been an empty lot but was now covered in tarps and carts laden with merchandise. It was easily as crowded as the shops this morning had been, but by the look of it, there were no permanent fixtures here. I suspected that the entire black market could vanish into the surrounding streets in a matter of seconds if an alarm were to be sounded.

  For the most part, there didn’t seem to be much of a difference between the items that were sold here and elsewhere, at least to my eye, and I wondered what constituted contraband in this world. One vendor measured out pouches of bone powder on a scale, another displayed lengths of colorful fabric which he claimed were imbued with various enchantments. There were animals here, too, dragons the size of Chihuahuas with little muzzles over their noses, plump toads covered in warty, mustard-yellow skin that called out in reedy croaks, and in one large, gilded cage, a striking red bird with a long, peacock-like tail that I guessed was a phoenix.

  Aerin wove through the throng to a small cart tucked into a corner that was attended to by a small man with large, pointed ears that sprouted from either side of his head and a small, pug-like nose. Unlike many of the vendors who appeared to more or less sell one type of thing, be those alchemical ingredients or enchanted housewares, his cart was full of a seemingly random collection of objects, and he hadn’t even bothered to put up a sign to advertise his wares.

  “Skinner, you’re looking well,” Aerin greeted brightly.

  The vendor flashed a toothy grin. “If isn’t my favorite elf,” he said. “Got anything for me today, Aerin?”

  “Actually, my friend and I are looking to buy,” Aerin replied with a nod to me. “We need a map to the Shadow Delves.”

  Skinner’s patchy eyebrows went up. “Oh, you too?”

  Aerin frowned. “What do you mean, ‘us too?’“

  I could guess, however, and I was sure Aerin could as well. We knew who else might be looking for a map.

  “A mage came by earlier asking around for maps to the Shadow Delves. Real prick, nose all turned up the whole time he was here. I didn’t have any, but I think he got one from Travers.”

  Aerin pursed her lips.

  “I do have some documents on Ender Caverns if you’re interested,” Skinner offered, but Aerin shook her head.

  “Not now, but thanks,” she said. She sounded dejected.

  “Maybe this Travers person has more copies,” I suggested. “We could at least ask.” I knew Aerin wasn’t just worried about actually getting ahold of the maps though. The race had begun, and it looked like Ren was already in the lead.

  The elf nodded and waved farewell to Skinner as we picked our way over to another vendor, a tall, dark-haired man with an eyepatch over his left eye. He didn’t seem as excited to see us as Skinner had, and in fact, he met us with a silent glare when we approached.

  In an attempt to mitigate his foul mood, Aerin put on one of her friendly smiles. “I heard you had maps to the Shadow Delves,” she said.

  The man’s eye flicked from Aerin to me warily. “Might,” he replied gruffly, “but not for you.”

  “Why not for us?” I asked, confused.

  “We can pay a fair price,” Aerin insisted by my side.

  The man crossed his arms. “Was warned about you. Heard you pay well and then the money disappears the next day.”

  “Who told you that?” Aerin demanded.

  “Mage who came through here,” Travers replied. “Said to expect you and said you’d try to double-cross me.”r />
  “And you’re just going to believe him?” Aerin asked. “Come on, you don’t even know him. I have a reputation--”

  “Yeah, I know you,” Travers interrupted. “You’re that fast-talking elf, and you don’t have any business with me so you’d best be moving along.”

  Aerin opened her mouth to protest, but the vendor held up a hand before she could get a word out. “Go on,” he growled, “before I make you leave.”

  I could feel Travers’ glare against our backs even as we turned away and moved off into the crowd.

  “That bastard!” Aerin kicked a rock, and it hit one of the dragon-seller’s cages. The tiny dragon inside began to shriek and writhe around, which excited the others around it until all the dragons were hissing and rattling their cages. The vendor shot us a dirty look, so I guided Aerin quickly back toward the alley.

  “You don’t think anyone else here might have a map?” I asked when we had some relative privacy.

  Aerin shook her head. “Skinner would know, and he’d have told me,” she said helplessly.

  I stared at the grimy cobbles beneath our feet and considered our options. “Maybe we can get someone else to buy the maps for us,” I suggested.

  Aerin leaned against the wall and tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear. I’d thought it was a good idea, but she didn’t seem to agree. “No one here would do it as a favor, and they can smell desperation a mile away, they’ll just try to take advantage. We’ll still need to buy food and other supplies for the Shadow Delves, so we can’t afford to pay anyone off to get the map for us on top of Travers’ price for it.”

  “There has to be a way,” I said, as I stared into her eyes. Neither of us said anything for a few moments, but then she opened her mouth.

  “Well…” she started, and then her eyes lit up. “We might be able to trade up to the map. I have a pair of enchanted gloves that this elf, Tobias, has been trying to buy from me forever. Now, he wouldn’t trade them for the map directly, but I know his guild just took a bounty for this old warlock who had a bunch of books about dragons. If he gives us a few of those, I could trade them to a merchant I know in exchange for one of her potion recipes--”

  Just then, someone behind us cleared their throat, and Aerin and I turned at once to face a bright-eyed young woman. She looked quite out of place against the dull gray backdrop of the alley. Her hair was pure white and tied up in a colorful scarf, and she wore a fringed turquoise shawl over her shoulders and a long, patterned skirt that brushed over the stones. Beaded bracelets ran almost halfway up her tan forearms, and her pointed ears were pierced in multiple places.

  “I couldn’t help but overhear, you need a map?” Her accent didn’t sound like anything I had heard so far in this world, but her voice had a pleasant, musical quality to it.

  Aerin looked her over warily. “To the Shadow Delves,” she confirmed. “Do you have one?”

  The stranger frowned sympathetically, but there was still a cheerful sort of light in her eyes, which I noticed were violet. “I’m afraid not, but I would be willing to buy the map for you in return for a small favor.”

  Aerin and I exchanged a look.

  “What kind of favor?” I asked.

  The stranger smiled at me. “Well, you’re obviously adventurers. What I would ask is not unlike the usual sort of bounties you’d collect, I’m sure. There’s a creature that resides in the Diru Wilds called the Dovar-cu, and its blood is a highly potent alchemical ingredient. If you bring me back a vial of the blood, I’ll trade the map for it.”

  I raised my eyebrows at Aerin in silent question. I didn’t know if this was the sort of thing we should run by Lavinia and Maruk before we agreed to it or not, or if we could even trust this stranger.

  I guessed Aerin was considering that as well because she regarded the other woman with an appraising frown for a few seconds.

  “I haven’t seen you around here before,” Aerin said. “Who are you?”

  “My name is Magdalena,” the stranger replied. If she was offended at all by our wariness of her, she didn’t show it, and her smile remained friendly. “I’m an alchemist from Morelia, I’ve only just moved here.”

  I was surprised when Aerin turned to me. “What do you think, Gabriel?”

  If these maps were as important as Aerin said they were to our success, possibly even necessary to our survival, it seemed like a fair trade, and it was simpler than Aerin’s other plan. My only concern was how much time we could afford to spend on this mission.

  “How far is the Diru Wilds from here?” I asked.

  Aerin ran a hand through her hair. “Just over a day’s walk.”

  So assuming we left first thing in the morning and found the Dovar-cu right away, that would put us about two days behind Ren, at best. That was a pretty substantial head start, but it didn’t seem as though we had any other way of getting our hands on a map.

  I glanced to Magdalena, who awaited our decision patiently. I didn’t get the sense that she was trying to cheat us, more that she needed our help as much as we needed hers.

  “I think we should do it,” I said finally.

  Aerin nodded in solemn agreement. “We’ll get you the blood,” she said.

  Magdalena clapped her hands. “Wonderful! Bring it here to the market, and you’ll have your map.” She shook Aerin’s hand and then mine, and without further farewell, she slipped into the crowd and disappeared.

  Aerin watched her go with a frown and turned to me. “Did she seem sort of strange to you?” she asked hesitantly.

  “Three days ago, I met a goddess who told me I had magical powers and transported me to another world, so my threshold of amazement is pretty high right now,” I admitted. Nothing about Magdalena had really stood out to me more than anything else I’d experienced lately.

  Aerin gave a surprised little laugh and shook her head. “Right, sorry, it’s just... I don’t know, I keep forgetting you’re not from here. I feel like--” She broke off and looked quickly out at the market, her cheeks tinged with a blush.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You’re probably going to think it’s ridiculous,” Aerin protested as she waved me away.

  “I promise I won’t,” I said. “What is it?”

  She met my eyes again, and her blush had reached her ears. “You being here with me, with all of us feels so natural, like it was meant to be.” Now that she had started talking, she didn’t seem able to stop, and her words came out in a nervous rush. “I don’t know what sort of gods you have in California or if you believe in destiny or anything like that, but I don’t think Theira chose you by chance. I think you were always meant to come here. Lavinia doesn’t believe in fate, and maybe you think it’s silly, too--”

  I sensed that she was beginning to spiral somewhat and stopped her. “I don’t think it’s silly,” I said honestly. “Actually, since I got here, I’ve been thinking the same thing.”

  Aerin looked startled. “Really?”

  I smiled at her. “Really.”

  Aerin smiled back and smoothed out her tunic, then gave her head an abrupt shake as she seemed to come back to herself. “Uh, we should go back and tell Lavinia and Maruk about the Dovar-cu and the blood and everything,” she said quickly.

  “Do you think they’ll object?” I asked. Now that we’d made the deal, I wondered how similar our arrangement with Magdalena was to Lavinia’s competition with Ren. Should we have waited to consult the others?

  Aerin seemed to have guessed at my reservations. “This is different,” she insisted. “We need the map, and this is the only way we can get it. They’ll understand that.”

  I hoped she was right as we slipped back out of the alley and made our way through the winding streets back to the Magpie. The early afternoon heat had passed away, and the air was cool beneath the long shadows of the old buildings. Although the sun had yet to set, I could see the rising moon through the narrow strip of sky above us.

  Aerin followed my gaze upward. “
That’s the moon,” she said. “It’s like the sun, but you can only see it at night.”

  “Uh, yeah, we have that where I’m from,” I said with a laugh.

  Aerin stopped and turned pink all the way to the tips of her ears. “Of course you do,” she groaned as she ran a hand over her face.

  Impulsively, I reached out and took her hand, and she blinked in surprise.

  “It’s okay, I appreciate that you’re trying to make me feel welcome here, Aerin,” I told her. “A lot of this is really strange to me.”

  Aerin laughed nervously. “Well, maybe I should just let you ask questions,” she said. “I’ll answer as best I can.”

  We began to walk again, still hand in hand. Now that I had the opportunity, I wasn’t really sure what to ask first. “How many gods do you have?”

  “Me, personally, or how many are there total?” she asked.

  “Both.”

  “I’m officially devoted to Evarun,” she answered, “but I pray to Theira and Yotria regularly, too. Yotria is the goddess of wealth and a patron to merchants. There are thirty-eight elven gods, but both humans and elves pray to them. The humans used to have a lot of gods, but lately, around Ovrista, they just worship two, Astria and Otrein. Ladonae don’t tend to be religious, but some of them convert. I’m not sure about orcs, you’ll have to ask Maruk. As for everyone else, it depends on where you go.”

  I remembered her skill in the market when she mentioned Yotria. “Were you a merchant before you joined the guild?”

  “My parents were,” she answered. “We were from a small village out east. They wanted me and my sisters to take over the family business, but I wanted to travel. Joining a guild seemed like a good way to do that, so I came to Ovrista.”

  “Do you miss them?”

  She thought about that for a moment. “Sometimes,” she admitted, her voice low. “I’d like to visit sometime, but I wouldn’t go back permanently. I’m happy here.”

  She turned to me suddenly with a concerned look. “I made a choice, but you got swept up in all of this. Are you... I mean, do you like it here?”