I brought us up to the surface in the main courtyard. It was becoming something of a habit to come up here. People here didn’t react much anymore, so I assumed they were becoming accustomed to me popping up like this. I turned to look at my passengers.
“Cora? I need to take Trev’nor back to his parents and explain what we learned. If you wish, you can update Guin first.”
She nodded in agreement. “Sounds like a plan.” Dropping to one knee, she exchanged a hug with Trev’nor. “See you later, Trev.”
“Later, Cora,” he agreed while hugging her back.
It took longer than I expected to give Trev’nor back and explain everything discovered. I probably spent a good hour just talking with Alan and Liah. I finally managed to get back out the door by encouraging them to read the diary for themselves. It helped that Night distracted Trev’nor so that I could get a clean getaway. Well, that’s what he told me, at least. I think he chose to stay because playing with Trev’nor was bound to be more interesting than reporting to Guin.
Then when I was free I got the interesting task of hunting down Guin.
My King was not in his usual haunts—not his study, the kitchen, or the library. Not even the pages knew where the man was. That probably meant he had found some obscure corner to eat sweets in, well away from his wife’s eyes.
The man really was going to be four hundred pounds if he kept this up.
I finally gave up and went to Haben’s office. Reporting to the Head of the Jaunten was nearly as good as reporting to the King directly, in my mind. I gave a polite knock on the door before sticking my head in.
“Haben?”
Val Haben looked a little harried, as if he hadn’t gotten a decent amount of sleep in weeks. I’ve never seen the man less than immaculate—I wasn’t quite sure how to react to this slightly rumpled man. He lifted his head, revealing shadows under his eyes. The grey at his temples had expanded as well, taking over his thick dark hair. When he saw me, sheer relief exploded over his face.
“Garth! Finally! Where by the guardians have you been?”
“At the Del Camp,” I responded patiently as I fully entered the room, shutting the door behind me. “Like I said I would be.”
“It shouldn’t have taken you two weeks to get the information you wanted!” he protested, face sliding from delight into a dark scowl.
“No, it didn’t, but I had another problem I had to deal with while I was up there.” Granted, that hadn’t taken two weeks either… The office had so many stacks of reports, maps, and unfiled papers that the small room seemed in imminent danger of being buried in a paper avalanche. Val Haben clearly didn’t want anyone helping him clear up the clutter, either, as thick layers of dust had settled on top of some of the piles. I cleared off a chair and sank into it, sensing this was going to take a while. It was a good thing Night had chosen to stay with Trev’nor a bit longer. He’d be so bored in here he would have started picking at my hair again.
“Ah, yes. That.” Haben’s frown became as dark and forbidding as an approaching storm. “Do you realize that by not telling the Trasdee Evondit Orra, you’ve completely enraged EnNelle of Tain? We’ve been hearing her screeching complaints for weeks.”
“I told O’danne,” I answered calmly.
Haben drew in a deep breath like he was fighting to remain calm. His callused hands pressed against the surface of his desk, wood groaning in protest under his not inconsiderable weight. “Garth, when you borrow another Mage, you need to tell the whole council, all right?”
“I know that, Haben. I just didn’t have the time. When Small Rider found me, he told me that their horses were dying. All of them, Haben.” I waited for that to sink in a little.
Haben had his mouth open to protest but slowly closed it again. “Was the situation that desperate?”
“Yes. Cora told me that if I hadn’t gotten her there when I did, half the horses would have died before she could get to them. Time was of the essence. I couldn’t afford to wait for a full council to convene—that always takes at least a few hours, as you know.”
He slumped in his chair, rubbing at his temple with one hand. The poor man probably had a whopper of a headache if he’d had to deal with EnNelle of Tain for the past two weeks. “Yes, you’re right.”
“Well, I am sorry if it caused you trouble, though.” I did feel rather bad about that. I considered Haben as a friend of sorts as well as my superior.
He waved the apology away. “That wasn’t the real reason she was upset, anyway.”
Huh? I cocked my head slightly. “Then what was?”
Haben lowered his hand to regard me with narrowed eyes.
“You don’t even realize it, do you?”
Patient. I had to be patient. The man would get to the point, eventually.
“Realize what?”
“How much influence you have with the Mages.”
I wasn’t sure what he was driving at. In the past four months I had spent whatever free time I had—which wasn’t much, granted—helping to train the Mages. Sometimes that meant taking them out into the Hainian countryside and letting them work power there under my supervision. Sometimes it simply meant helping to explain things. During this process, I had become friends with all of them. Considering our common interests and backgrounds, this was rather to be expected.
“Haben, we’re all friends. All things considered, this shouldn’t be much of a surprise.”
Haben shook his head in despair. “You don’t even realize it. Garth.” He sat forward, palms spread flat on the desk. His gaze drilled into mine. “There is not one Mage—and quite a few Witches and Wizards, for that matter—that would not overthrow this kingdom and hand it to you on a silver platter if you asked them to.”
My jaw soundlessly dropped as I jerked upright in alarm. Was he kidding?!
“No, I’m not kidding. Stop gaping like a fish. How can you not realize what’s right there in front of your face?”
I ran a tremulous hand over my forehead, feeling like my world was being tilted under me.
“Haben, I helped most of those Mages, Witches and Wizards to safety. I expected for them to look up to me a little. But what you’re describing…are you sure?”
“Very sure. That’s why EnNelle of Tain is so irritated about this whole incident. She knows very well that if she had made the same request of Hevencoraan, it would not have been as easily accepted.”
I wasn’t as sure of that. Cora was a Life Mage through and through—if she knew that a horse was dying, and needed her help, I was sure she would respond instantly. Granted, I didn’t see anyone happily obeying EnNelle’s orders—but then, the woman wasn’t known to be easy to get along with.
“Hmmm.”
“Forget it,” Haben sighed. “You’ll see what I mean eventually for yourself. For now, what did you find out?”
I ran through all of the discoveries made in the past two weeks, as well as some of my conjectures. Haben listened attentively, taking notes on occasion, but never saying a word. When I was finished, he gave a thoughtful hum.
“So Trev’nor is a Rheben in truth, eh? I always wondered if that were the case. So? Will you leave him with Alan and Liah?”
I hadn’t even questioned that until he asked it. “I think so, yes. It would be cruel to take him away from them, especially considering what good care they’ve already shown him. Besides,” I added practically, “my parents have their hands full already. I can’t imagine that they want another person to keep track of. They already have seven children in that house to manage.”
“Very true. I hoped that would be your answer. I just felt like I had to make sure.” Haben gave a satisfied nod and sank back into his chair again. “Well. While you were gone, we received a letter from Captain De Xiaolang addressed to you.”
Opening a door in his desk, he rummaged around for a moment, finally bringing up a slightly crinkled envelope.
I accepted the letter with some concern. He wasn’t going to tell m
e that something went wrong up there during the winter, was he? I cracked open the seal, drew out the letter, and started quickly reading it.
Garth,
The snow up here is rapidly melting—so much so that I think we’ll be ready to travel in a week or so. By the time this letter reaches you, I think we’ll be ready to resume our mission in Chahir. Come get us, won’t you? I don’t want to wade in mud all the way to Del’Hain.
There’s a huge open courtyard in front of Headquarters in Ascalon. Come up there. I’ve left word to be expecting you.
De Xiaolang
I smiled with relief when I realized nothing was wrong. He just wanted a ride.
“Xiaolang is ready to resume the mission in Chahir,” I reported to Haben.
“I expected that to happen soon.” He nodded without any surprise. “I’ll update Guin when I find him. Go, Garth.”
I was half out of my chair when I realized there was one thing I needed to know. “Do you know where Chatta is, by any chance?”
“No idea, why?”
“I was hoping you’d be able to save me the time of tracking her down,” I admitted with a wry shrug. “But that’s all right. I’ll see you later, Haben.”
Haben just waved me out, his mind already switching to other matters.
As I walked down the Palace hallway, I considered the best way of finding my friend. Chatta and I hadn’t been able to see much of each other over the past four months, considering that I was out and about most of the time. We’d tried to keep track of each other by mirror communication, though.
Wait, that was a good idea…where was that mirror broach? I paused in my tracks, searching my pockets until I finally located it. Very softly—I was always paranoid about cracking the thing—I touched the surface with a bit of power.
“Chatta?”
“Garth! I haven’t heard from you in a few days. Are you back in Del’Hain finally?”
What was with the “finally?” You’d think I’d been gone for months instead of weeks. “Yes, I’m back. Where are you?”
From the other end, there was a frustrated growl. “Stuck doing something for the Trasdee Evondit Orra.”
I wasn’t sure if it was safe to ask for details. “Ah. Well, I just got a letter from Xiaolang. He wants me to come and pick up the team.”
“Now, I suppose. All right. Come get me after you’ve gotten them. I should be done by tonight.”
“Understood. I’ll fill you in on everything when I come back to get you. Do me one favor while I’m gone?”
“Certainly, what?”
“Make a copy of the Index for me. I think we’re going to find it very handy when we go back into Chahir.”
There was a digestive pause. “You’ve figured something out, haven’t you? I can hear it in that smug tone of yours.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “I’ve figured something out. I promise to tell you later.”
“You’d better. All right, I’ll make a copy. Anything else?”
“No, not now. I’ll see you tonight.”
“Right. Have a safe trip up.”
I put the broach back into my pocket as I headed for Trev’nor’s apartment again. I needed to pick up a certain nreesce before we could go up to Ascalon.
Chapter Four: Preparation
I had never been as far north as the Empire of Sol before. Even when I dropped Xiaolang and the Red Hand off last fall, he had me deliver them to Q’atal. He claimed that having a Mage suddenly pop out of the ground without any warning would give Ascalon Security a heart attack. This time, however, I was expected. I went the straight and easy route—not to mention the fastest.
In his letter to me he had directed me to come up in the main courtyard of Headquarters, supposedly a mostly deserted place that would give me room to arrive in. Despite all of the precautions, there were still people who jumped, screamed, and scrambled over each other when I popped out of the ground, the earth melting away from me, sloughing off in all directions. I stared around me, heaving a resigned sigh. Really, was it that strange? Did I look like some sort of ghoul?
“I thought Xiaolang warned them about this,” I complained to Night.
“Maybe they didn’t take him seriously,” Night suggested casually. He seemed to find grown adults shrieking like children to be somewhat entertaining. Snickers kept escaping from his serious expression.
“Garth!”
I knew that voice. Spinning about, I looked for a familiar head of untidy blond hair. In the sea of black and red uniforms, it took a second for me to spot him. “Eagle!”
The tall, blond soldier strode forward until he could clasp hands with me, a delighted smile on his sun-darkened face. “You look good, Garth. The Captain said you’d probably arrive soon, so we’ve been keeping an eye out. How was your winter vacation?”
“It wasn’t much of a vacation,” I groaned. “I’ll tell you about it later. Is everyone ready to go?”
“Pretty much, yeah. The Captain is having an in-depth argument right now with the Powers-That-Be.” He shook his head, half-resigned, half-amused.
I wasn’t sure how to take that statement.
“Is there a problem?” I asked cautiously.
“Well, you know how Shad came up here to train recruits, right?”
I didn’t like this beginning. Shad was good, very good, at what he did—but he also had the same sense of mischief and curiosity as a Meuritta. I gave a ginger nod. “Right. And?”
“He’s really good at teaching.” Eagle looked a little dumbfounded at this. “Hard to believe, I know, but he just knows how to break it down so even the greenest recruit can understand. When the Core Commanders did their end of term review, they discovered that Shad’s students were far more advanced than everyone else’s.”
“And now they want to keep him?” I guessed.
“Bingo. The Captain is having a devil of a time convincing them that he really needs Shad to go into Chahir with him—I think he’s half regretting bringing Shad up here in the first place.”
I could see how that would happen. I was kind of glad for Shad’s sake that he had obviously found a place that wanted him. If nothing else, after Chahir was settled once more, maybe the rascal could settle permanently here.
While I was glad for this development for my friend’s sake, it did leave us with the immediate problem of prying him out of Ascalon’s clutches.
“Would it help any if I stepped in and said a word? Or do you think Xiaolang has it in hand?”
“I’m not sure, really.” Eagle shrugged.
“But is it really necessary to argue about this?” Night cocked his head at both of us, looking a little puzzled. “Shad didn’t sign up to be part of the Ascalon military, did he? If he’s still a civilian, he can leave whenever he wishes. No one has the power to stop him.”
Eagle looked pole-axed, eyes nearly crossing, jaw in danger of becoming unhinged. “Night…you’re right! Great guardians, why didn’t we think of that?”
“Because you’re used to thinking of him as part of the military command structure,” Night said sarcastically. .
He had a valid point. It was so engrained for these men to just obey their superiors they probably never thought to question whether Shad had to obey or not. It was sheer force of habit.
“Well, in that case, we’ll be able to leave very soon.” Eagle obviously felt cheered by this new development. “Are either of you hungry?”
It had taken a large part of the morning to get up here. My stomach was letting me know it too. “Getting that way, yeah.”
“Let me show you to a good restaurant. The team will meet you there for lunch, okay?”
That sounded like a good plan to me, but anything that involved food was always a good plan.
I took a good look around me as I followed Eagle through the city gates and down the street. Most of the Empire of Sol had military city-states, and the architecture certainly reflected that. All of the buildings were very functional in style and rather
uniform in color. They all had a very utilitarian architecture to them, with no frills of any sort. It almost looked like a gigantic cookie cutter had been used to stamp out rows of identical square buildings, all of the same shad of unrelenting grey. They were all identically spaced apart, as well, nothing more than an alley between them. The only difference from one building to the next was the landscaping in the miniscule front yards. I imagined that with everything looking so similar, it would be terribly easy to get lost in this city. Mental note to me: Don’t wander around without a native playing tour guide.
It was very easy to tell civilians apart from military—the civilians were all in bright, bold fabric while the military was in stark black. An amazing amount of beadwork and embroidery livened up the clothing even more, with an interesting mix of a tight, form-fitting layer on the bottom with very loose, flowing shirts and skirts of gauzy material layered over the top. Whatever lack of beauty their city might have was well made up for in the way the civilians dressed. It was like watching a rainbow parade down the street.
“Hey, let go of my reins!”
Huh? I snapped around to see who Night was talking to. My nreesce had all four feet planted, leaning back onto his haunches. A dirty urchin had his hands wrapped around Night’s reins, determinedly tugging at them. Someone was actually trying to steal Night?!
I made my voice anvil hard, expression as black as a thundercloud, trying to be as scary and menacing as possible. “Kid. Let go of the reins.”
The boy—I think it was a boy under all of that dirt—froze and peeked up at me. “Hey mister, you mean this is your horse? Sorry, I thought he was just wandering around without an owner.”
“I don’t need to be led around by the nose like some idiot dog,” Night snapped, shaking his head angrily. “And let go, already!”
The boy’s eyes shot open wide. “…wait…did…that voice…”
“Yes, the ‘horse’ is talking to you,” I said dryly. “That is not a horse, you see, but a nreesce.”
Advent (Advent Mage Cycle) Page 5