Advent (Advent Mage Cycle)

by Honor Raconteur

  That must have matched her assessment because she only said, “Right.”

  “Seal?” Krys repeated in confusion.

  “Until we can get you trained, we’ll seal your power to prevent any sort of accident,” Chatta explained. “The seals don’t last long—about a week is as far as I can stretch them—but it should be long enough to get you to Del’Hain.” Chatta gave him that smile that could melt any male within fifty miles. Krys predictably softened, smiling back in helpless reflex. “I know this is all very confusing right now. I promise to explain everything as we travel back into Hain.”

  “Thank you.” Krys didn’t seem to regain his senses until he looked away from Chatta. “Um, Captain Xiaolang, where are you staying tonight?”

  “I have no idea,” Xiaolang admitted. “None of us know the city that well. Do you have any recommendations?”

  “My sister and her husband run an inn not far from here. It’s a good place. Tell her I sent you and she’ll give you a decent price. It’s called Harmony House.”

  The name meant nothing to me. It did to Xiaolang, though. He perked up, nodding in recognition. “We passed the place coming in. All right, we’ll go there. I expect to leave early tomorrow morning, Haikrysen. Do you want to meet us at the inn?”

  “I actually live there, in a back room,” Krys confessed.

  “Better and better.” Xiaolang was clearly relieved to know where the kid would be. I was too. With that glamour on, I wouldn’t be able to hunt him down again, not until it wore off. “We’ll go to the inn, then. If your parents want to meet with us or ask us any questions, we’ll be happy to talk to them.”

  “Oh, they’ll want to talk to you,” Aldin assured us. He still looked distinctly unhappy about the situation. “Krys, go talk to them now. I’ll shut the place down.”

  “Yes sir.” Krys stripped off the gloves and leather apron he was wearing, hanging them on a peg near the door out of sheer force of habit, it looked like.

  Well, we might as well follow Krys out and go to that inn. I was looking forward to a good, hot meal.

  “Magus?”

  I turned back at Aldin’s hail. “Yes?”

  “Judging from your name and appearance…are you from Chahir?”

  “I am. Tobadorage, to be precise.”

  “He’s never been out of this city. Living in Hain will…be a leap for him. You’ll help him, won’t you?”

  I felt a pang of sympathy for this good man. He was clearly worried for his nephew’s future.

  “I can’t. I won’t be in Hain for long, you see. There are other magicians out there, like Krys, who need my help. But you don’t need to worry about him. My parents and siblings live in Del’Hain, not far from the Academy. And all of the Mages are Chahiran. There are also a lot of Jaunten who serve the King. I’ll introduce him to every one of them, and see him safely settled in before I leave again. They’ll all look out for him and teach him what he needs to know to live in Hain. He won’t want for friends or family, I promise you that.”

  A little relieved, the smith nodded. “Good. That’s…good. Thank you.”

  I smiled back in reassurance before turning to leave. As soon as we were clear of the shop, Chatta blew out a breath. “That went rather well, I think.”

  “Yes, you two approached the situation quite well,” Xiaolang complimented us. “Now. Let’s go find that inn. I want to be warm for a while.”

  Chapter Six: Haikrysen

  It took quite some time to convince Krys’s parents that we did not have any devious intentions towards their son. If the danger in Chahir had been any less intense, I honestly doubt we could have talked them into letting him go at all. It’s not easy to see a child leave, even under the best of circumstances. As it stood, we were simply the lesser of two evils.

  Finally, late in the morning of what promised to be another very cold day, we hit the road. Krys’s brother-in-law had given him a horse from the hotel’s stables, mounting him on a gentle gelding that seemed half-asleep on his feet. Krys seemed about as nervous on horseback as I had once been, so the gelding’s gentle disposition seemed a wise choice.

  Xiaolang chose to take us on a slightly different route, as he didn’t want anyone to get a second look at us. He didn’t want people to really remember us. Another, equally important part of the decision was that I had already searched the area coming in. He didn’t want to cover the same ground if he could help it.

  Krys had, by far, the easiest transition out of Chahir that I had ever seen. He wasn’t running scared and directionless, like most other magicians had been. He wasn’t being hunted—no one near him had any idea of what he was. Far from travelling through the country alone, he had a whole team of professionals with him. Better still, he had a chance to a say a proper goodbye to his family. He was still nervous, still uneasy. Yet, he was far more at peace with what he was, and where he was going, than any other Chahiran magician I had met so far.

  We’d barely cleared the city’s gates when he started peppering Chatta with all sorts of questions, largely about magic. His tenor voice soon filled the air, asking one thoughtful question after the next. It amused me that he talked as much with his hands. If someone tied his hands behind his back, I’d bet he couldn’t say one word.

  I let her answer him, focused on searching the area. It wasn’t until she called me that I started paying attention to their conversation.

  “Garth, is it possible for a young Mage to use their power without realizing it?” There was a strange intensity about Chatta, as if this question were vitally important.

  I almost said no until I stopped to really think about it. “Perhaps it is…” I answered slowly.

  “Why?” Chatta pushed. “You obviously have a reason for saying that.”

  “I’d almost forgotten about this…” I said slowly, a memory from three summers teasing the edges of my consciousness. “At the time, it didn’t seem that significant.”

  “Garth!” Chatta whined. “You’re being cryptic!”

  “Um. Sorry.” I blinked back into the present, realizing everyone’s attention focused on me.

  “It was early summer, when I was about fourteen. I was helping my father build a low stone wall out back of the house. We’d had a recent bout of weather, so the air was pretty chilly and humid—none of the mortar wanted to set right. I was frustrated because I couldn’t get any of the stones to stay in the right position. I remember adding more sand to the mortar, thinking that would help. My father said it was a good idea and did the same…” My eyes, unbidden, traveled to Krys’s face. “My side set properly after that. Within an hour my part of the wall was completely set and hardened. My father’s side took another day to set properly.”

  Krys’s blue eyes widened slightly. “You’re saying that was magic?”

  “It very well could be. As an Earth Mage, stone is one of my elements. Like I said, though, we thought it just odd at the time. I thought perhaps I’d put in more sand than my father had—and my part of the wall saw more sun than his. But really, the mortar shouldn’t have hardened so quickly like that.” Had that been my first Mage accident? Perhaps.

  Chatta hummed thoughtfully, absently twirling a lock of dark hair between her fingers. “It fits with the theory I’m developing. I think that if a Mage is near one of their elements, their magic will respond, and subconsciously help. For you, it was building that wall.”

  I saw where she was going with this and finished the thought. “And with Krys it was forging swords?”

  She nodded. “It could be. Everything we’ve observed so far fits with the idea.”

  “It does,” I agreed thoughtfully. “It also explains why his magic is remaining at a fairly stable level. He uses it every day.” Or he had, anyway. It would probably start building up now that he was out of the smithy.

  “All of this is interesting,” Xiaolang interjected, “but what does it boil down to?”

  Chatta and I shared a look. I was pretty sure we were thinking
the same thing, so I gestured for her to answer.

  “It’s just the answer to a riddle,” she admitted with a one shoulder shrug. “Garth and I were puzzled why Krys is seventeen, with active magic, and yet had not been discovered. Why hadn’t his magic already exploded out of control? But of course it wouldn’t if he used it on a regular basis. I doubt this information will lead us to the discovery of any new magicians, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

  “It was,” Xiaolang said easily. “Following that line of thought…if he’s not using his magic on a regular basis like normal, I assume that we now have to worry about his magic building up to dangerous levels?”

  “Unfortunately, yes,” Chatta sighed with a wry smile. “I’m keeping an eye on it now. We might be able to make it to Del’Hain before a seal becomes necessary, assuming that nothing delays us.”

  Xiaolang didn’t look worried about it. “Either way, let me know if the situation changes. Garth, go back to looking for people.”

  Slave driver. “Yes, Captain.”

  ~*~

  Fortunately, Krys had his own equipment with him for camping out that night. And he was far more used to the cold than we were. After seeing to the horses, it was unanimously decided that he got to cook dinner, while we huddled in charmed blankets to ward off the cold.

  Eagle wasn’t quite fast enough in touching his nose, so he got the lovely job of cleaning dishes that night. In ice-cold water—oh fun.

  Night and I were curled up together, sharing heat. I gave it another half an hour before it was warm enough that I could fall asleep. The thick silence of the night was already encouraging me in that direction.

  It surprised me when Krys came over and sat down next to me.

  “Mind if I join you two?”

  “Not at all,” I assured him. I hadn’t had a lot of interaction with Krys during the day, so this friendly overture toward me was not expected.

  He leaned his back against Night, a thick cloak wrapped tight around him. “Chatta’s been telling me a lot about you. About how you were the first Mage discovered.”

  I wasn’t sure where he was going with this, so I made a noise of interest and kept my ears open.

  Krys’s eyes were on the flickering campfire a foot away, voice barely loud enough for me to hear. “She tells me that there are other types of Mages out there too, and what the capabilities of those Mages are. But when it comes to Fire Mages…she doesn’t tell me much at all. And everyone’s been keeping a really close eye on me.” He took a deep breath before turning his head to face me directly. “What are you not telling me, Magus?”

  “Garth,” I corrected him quietly. “I’m not a formal person. And the answer to that question…well, there’s a story behind it.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “About nine months ago, we found a Fire Mage,” I admitted. Krys sucked in a sharp breath, eyes wide. “It wasn’t…pretty. We were actually called in by the Dom of Jarrell because the Mage was out of control. He was burning anything and everything in his path. They couldn’t stop him.”

  Even by the faint light of the flickering fire, Krys looked deathly pale.

  “He was insane,” I continued the story, as calmly as possible, although there was a roughness in my voice that I couldn’t suppress. “Even though I told him I am fully trained, he didn’t even hesitate. He just launched into a full out attack. We destroyed a whole courtyard, battling with each other.” My throat constricted, but I clenched my fists in my lap and forced my emotions under control.

  Nightgave me a sideways look before continuing the story for me. “During the course of the fight, Chatta had been going around the city and putting out the fires the Mage had started. She joined Garth before he and Remcarparoden could really start fighting each other. He recognized her as a magician and decided to take her out before she could team up with Garth. Garth screamed out a warning to her, and she put up shields, but…”

  “A Mage has incredible power,” I added emotionlessly. “No Witch or Wizard can compete in terms of brute force. Even with her shields at full strength, she was slammed backwards.”

  “Fortunately, she was only knocked unconscious with some light burns,” Night continued with a wary eye on me. “Garth subdued the Mage in the next minute, dropping him into a deep crevice in the earth. The problem was that for a few seconds, he honestly believed he might have lost her—that she hadn’t been able to shield herself in time.”

  It was a nightmare that still haunted me from time to time.

  “So that’s why they’re watching me so closely.” Krys curled in on himself, so that his head rested on his knees. “They’re afraid I might be insane too.”

  “They’re wrong, though.” That got his attention and he looked back up at me. “Fire Mages, historically speaking, were the most disciplined of all the Mages. They always had the best control. I don’t think it was power that drove Remcarparoden mad—he was mad to begin with. His power just made the situation worse.”

  He pulled his hands from the depths of his cloak and looked at them. “I don’t want to destroy anything. But fire…fire is inherently destructive. Aside from using it to forge metal, I can’t think of any other good use for it.”

  “You can never predict what power can do,” I corrected. “For instance, I was recently up visiting a Tonkawacon tribe that had an epidemic with their horses. Cora and I—she’s a Life Mage—found that a particular parasite had invaded a thatch of grass in a cave. It was that parasite that made the horses so sick. In order to prevent the problem from occurring again, we had to burn the cave clean. Only we had to be careful doing it, as the only water source in the area was also in that cave.” He was following my story carefully, nodding slowly as I finished.

  “So in this case, even though fire was used to destroy, it was actually a necessity. You think I can do similar things.”

  “We have many forest fires and the like during the height of the summer in Hain. They normally called me in to suppress it—of course, that meant I had to destroy a whole forest because the only way I can stop fire is to bury it with dirt. You would be far more effective—you can just snuff that fire out with your magic.”

  He looked decidedly heartened by this news, the uneasy tension in his face fading away. “I hadn’t thought of that. There is quite a bit that we depend upon with fire, isn’t there?”

  “There is,” I agreed.

  “Speaking of which…” a voice drawled from behind me. “Can I get one of you lovely magicians to warm up the water from the stream for me? It’s so cold that everything freezes when it touches the pots.”

  I twisted about to see Eagle pointing to one of the pots in question. Far from washing away the remains of dinner, the water had apparently touched the metal and instantly froze, sealing the food to the pan. Hmm. Now there’s a problem.

  “Now that’s funny.” Night snorted in amusement. “I’ve never seen something like that happen before. That must be mountain water you’re using, Eagle.”

  “It’s certainly cold enough for it,” Eagle grumbled sourly. “My hands are numb. Seriously, somebody heat the water up. Please?”

  I considered that for a moment and nodded. “All right. Krys, come with me.”

  “Eh?” he stared up at me as I stood. “I have no control! Why are you asking me?”

  “Because you need to learn control,” I answered calmly. “Don’t worry; I’ll walk you through it. Come on.”

  “Garth, is this a good idea?” Xiaolang had obviously overheard our conversation and was now staring at me with a furrowed brow. “This is hardly the best place to experiment.”

  “On the contrary, it’s the perfect place to experiment, at least in Chahir,” I countered. “Farless has no Star Priests. I haven’t detected one within fifty miles of this Providence. There’s no one around to detect us. And from what I feel, Krys’s power is quite mature considering that he’s had no training. That means it will be harder to seal. I think it’s a better idea to gi
ve him a little training so he can manage his magic himself than to attempt to seal it.”

  Xiaolang’s frown deepened as he thought about this. “Chatta, what’s your opinion?”

  “As long as Garth puts up a barrier first, just in case of any accidents, I don’t see a problem with it.” She gave me a thoughtful look over the rim of her cup. I knew she was wondering why I had chosen to do this lesson now—it was out of character for me to attempt any sort of magic in Chahir unless absolutely necessary.

  There were several things that motivated me in this regard. I had no doubt that I would be talking to her about all of them tomorrow morning, too. For now, it was enough that she was going to let me do what I needed to without protest.

  I caught Krys’s hand and pulled him to his feet. “First lesson—no matter how powerful your magic, the basic laws of nature still apply. You cannot start fire underwater. That said, it’s a wise precaution to start practicing with lots of water handy. Just in case.”

  Krys gave a nervous nod. “Right.”

  We walked the short distance to the stream, which really was more ice than moving water at this point. No wonder Eagle was having a hard time. I raised a barrier around us to prevent any magical backlashes or explosions. Krys jumped a little when it dropped over his head, eyeing it warily.

  “It won’t hurt you,” I assured him.

  He nodded but I wasn’t entirely sure he believed me.

  “Okay, Krys, focus. There’s a part of you, deep in the depths of your core, that feels warm to the touch. Do you recognize what I’m talking about?”

  “Uh, yes.” He put his hand just below his heart. “Here.”

  Yes, that’s where I felt my magic the strongest, too.

  “The truth is, that’s just the largest concentration of our magic. In reality, all of our body is magical—it has to be, in order to cope with the power of a Mage. Every part of your body, from hair to skin, has the power to be a conduit for magic.”

  His jaw dropped for a moment before he yanked it back into place. “Even our hair? Surely you’re exaggerating.”