“We do not know, but we believe that if a man may use more than one magic, none of the three are closed to him. The men who form practical ability with all three magics are known as mages, that is, as masters of magic, and they are greatly to be feared. Many of them have devoted a lifetime to their craft and are as protective of their secrets as we Makkai are of ours. These men and women, though, also tend to show a great thirst for secrets belonging to others, and they are greatly powerful.
“The first mage that the Makkai met was a man named Yet. He kept a small city of casters around him, a defense, a wall, a working class, and a pool into which he poured experiment after experiment, wishing to see what the results would be as he tried many unheard of magics. And the city around him suffered. Despite this, the city was always thronged with men and women who hoped that Yet would teach them the secrets of his magic, and they lived deeply in his thrall.
“The Makkai heard of this and found it troubling, that there was a man who tortured his people with magic for his own learning, and a tribe of them came to see the truth of it. And they found that it was as the stories had said; Yet brought misery on his people with complete disregard for them, and his people stayed.
“’Why?’ the Makkai asked person after person. ‘Why stay for this abuse, when you could go home to your own people and live happily?’
“And to a man, the people replied, ‘Because he is great and powerful, and I wish to learn the secret.’
“And the Makkai were even more troubled.
“The queen announced herself in Yet’s inner court, and one of his closer advisers came to him and said, ‘There is a woman out there who claims to be a caster of great importance. She would have a word with you.’
“’Why do you bother me with this?’ Yet asked. ‘I am in the middle of an experiment, and I have never yet met a man or woman who would not come here with the same claims. Send her away, to stay in the town if she would, but do not let her bother me again.’
“’As you say,’ the adviser told him, and relayed his message to the queen, a woman by the name of Ruth.
“Now, Ruth could have taken this rejection and gone, or she could have forced her way into Yet’s home to see him, but wisdom was with her, and she did not know Yet’s power. She returned to his inner court the next day and set a pattern of crystals around her to create a wall of flame, and she sat behind it despite everyone’s best attempts to roust her. No magic they could create would put out the flames, and while in touching them, no one was injured, any man who tried to cross them found the very sensation of his skin burning away from his flesh, and one man went so far as to burn the shirt off his back before he turned back and fled.
“And so the adviser returned to Yet and said, ‘The woman is back, and she demonstrates a type of magic I have never seen before, at least that I have never seen you do before.’
“And this pricked Yet, and he came down from his tower to see this new magic, for he was a lusty, jealous mage who desired all magics belong to him.
“And Ruth saw him come and let the flames around her die out.
“’Who are you, woman, and what is this magic you bring into my home?’ Yet demanded.
“’I am Ruth, a queen among the Makkai, and I am here because we have heard troubling news of the way you treat your people.’
“’These?’ Yet scoffed. ‘These are not my people. These are mere parasites, worms beneath my feet. If I had people, they would be much more important.’
“’They call themselves your people,’ Ruth persisted. ‘And you abuse them in every way imaginable.’
“’Imaginable?’ Yet asked. ‘No. I may abuse them, but I assure you I can imagine many more ways.’
“’I cannot permit it,’ Ruth said. ‘You must stop.’
“’Permit it?’ Yet said. ‘You have shown some skill with magic, but you are nothing to me. You cannot tell me what you will and will not do. Be gone.’
“So Ruth brought up the wall of flame again and could not be moved.
“Yet sent many men against her, and many were injured in the attempt to make her move, but none could. Other Makkai brought her food and drink to survive and they walked through the flame unharmed, but no one else could approach her without mortal fear.
“A week went by, and then two, and Yet grew greatly annoyed, and he returned to Ruth.
“’What is this magic?’ he asked again. ‘Why can my men not displace you?’
“’It is Makkai magic,” she said. ‘And you will not displace me. I will stay until I see that your people are treated better.’
“’You waste your time,’ Yet said. ‘They are not my people.’
“But Ruth’s magic worked at him. As he woke, he could no longer focus on his work, and as he slept, he dreamed of the multi-colored flames as they stirred around her. And he could find no rest. He ordered that no Makkai be allowed into the courts, in hopes that she would starve and leave, but he discovered that his people could no more stop the Makkai from coming than they could force Ruth to leave.
“More time passed, and Yet became more and more preoccupied with the strange magic of the Makkai tribe, and he finally snuck out to their camp to try to steal their magic.
“The tribe had a powerful protector, a man who loved the tribe more than himself and who was even more capable with crystals than the queen, and he had set a defense around the camp in case of just such an event.
“Just as Yet crossed into the camp, a great flame came up all around it, and all of the Makkai awoke to find their tents surrounded by Makkai magic flame. And the protector shouted out to them to stay where they were. With their queen in the city and their protector as powerful as he was, they did as they were told, though many of them sat, poised and armed to come to his aid, should he need it.
“’You have made a mistake,’ Yet said. ‘Your queen had the wisdom to keep me out, but you will never keep me in.’
“’You came here to steal our magic,’ the protector said. ‘I caught you and I will exact my price if you expect to leave again.’
“Yet launched a spell at the protector, a powerful one, but it went right through him, doing no damage.
“Yet tried again, choosing a spell he had used many times in his city, and this one failed as well.
“’What kind of magic is this?’ he cried. ‘What is a Makkai and why does he have such magic that I cannot fathom?’
“’We are descended from an angel, and your magic will not harm us,’ the protector said. ‘Our queen has come to you and been kind and gentle, merely staying in sight and asking that you meet our demands, but I will show you no such mercy.’
“This angered Yet, and he attempted to destroy the ground he stood on with fire and explosions, but nothing happened. The protector laughed.
“’You have many spells and magics to choose from, but you have come into the center of a Makkai camp. You will not escape with your life and your dignity, both.’
“Everything Yet could think of to do failed. The protector laughed and mocked him mercilessly, and Yet exhausted himself. Finally, he fell to his knees.
“’I cannot beat you. Your magic is greater than mine. Please tell me the secret to it.’
“’Cunning,’ the protector said. ‘Your magic is much greater than mine, but only if you can match it against mine. And now you are exhausted and at my mercy.’
“And Yet blinked and found himself in the middle of one of his own fields. The ground was broken and torn with a thousand curses, and nothing would ever repair the damage that he had done to it, but the protector was right. He was exhausted and he could not so much as rise from his knees as the Makkai surrounded him.
“The queen left that morning, and when the city came to look for the Makkai - since Yet was missing - they found that they couldn’t even find the camp site. What they did find was a charred and broken field with one black corpse laid out in the middle of it.
“Some of them recovered from their madness and returne
d to their homes, but a great many more stayed, practicing and teaching each other their magics and building skill upon skill. And so has been the pattern of the great magic users ever since, across great distances and great times. Sometimes there is a mage at the center of it, but the magic users congregate out of a lust of power and knowledge, and they feed on each other without ceasing in a kind of madness that stays with them until death.”
They parked the trailers at a campsite outside of New Orleans. It wasn’t the first time they’d been here, and it wasn’t the second. But it was the most optimistic that Becca had been that they were actually going to get to see Peter in well over a year.
“You ready?” Jackson asked as she finished helping Billy set up.
“Yeah,” she answered, giving Billy a quick wave and following Jackson to his truck.
“I know she said that she couldn’t be sure when we’re going to get our window, but I figure we should be as close as we can be, so that we don’t miss it,” Jackson said. It was the third time he’d said it. He was as full of nervous energy as Becca, and for a moment she considered the suspense he’d been living under for the last months.
“We’re going to find him and we’re going to make him tell us something useful,” Becca said. He nodded.
“Damned straight.”
She smiled and hopped up into the truck.
“Where’s Bella?” she asked.
“She said that she didn’t think that she’s helping. Peter may be avoiding us specifically because of her, if she’s got some kind of aura going on that’s part of the curse. It may be actual self-preservation.”
Becca blew air through her lips, and she could tell from Jackson’s expression that he felt the same way, but he shrugged and started the engine. They were on the road.
They drove toward the center of the city and parked, walking to a park they had visited multiple times before and sitting on a bench.
“We’re going to find him,” Becca said. “Or I’m going back to New York and telling Carter that it’s time for him to turn up a new lead.”
“None of them care about us,” Jackson said softly. “It’s been even more apparent to me recently, as I’ve been thinking about how they’ve left us on our own to deal with it. A mage is targeting Makkai queens and I’d thought that they would want to maintain the relationship that we have with them, but…” He shook his head.
“They don’t care about anything,” Becca said, and he nodded at this.
“Hard lesson to learn,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve told you recently how much you’ve done to help us.”
“It’s my job,” she said with a frown. “What else would I do? You know everyone else is itching to be here, right now, to be looking for Peter with us. They would crawl this city, every one of them, if they thought that it would help keep Bella safe.”
“You believe that?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“You don’t?” she asked. He shrugged.
“We’ve just been so careful for so long. Sometimes I feel the tribe slipping away from us, like they think that we have divided interests and we chose against them.”
“They think that you suspect one of them of trying to kill Bella for no reason other than her being the queen,” Becca said.
He laughed.
“Not to put too fine a point on it,” he said, and she shrugged.
“That’s why you brought me here,” she said, and he shook his head.
“No, we brought you here because you have a knack for being in the right place at the right time with the right information. That’s something you can’t teach.”
She frowned, then shrugged.
“Just nosy, I think.”
He laughed again.
“Do you ever think about retirement?” Becca asked.
“You think I should?” he responded, crossing a leg and shifting to look at her. She waited until a woman with a pair of poodles went by, then shook her head.
“No. It’s just that you guys have been doing this a long time. It has to be hard, being responsible for all of us like that, for all that time.”
He mimed a dagger to the chest.
“Oh,” he groaned. “Now I’m old, too.”
She rolled her eyes and he laughed.
“You know how many years it’s been since I’ve been able to pull off that move? No, you’re right. We have been doing this a bit longer than is normal for a queen or a protector. But why would we quit? I mean, unless we’ve lost the faith of the tribe, we’re both still good at it and we find meaning in it.”
Becca nodded.
“I don’t want you to,” she said. “I just wanted to ask.”
“Nosy, I guess,” he said with half a smile and she grinned back, ducking her head.
“Do you want to call her?” he asked after a moment. “Just to be sure she knows we’re here?”
“She knows,” Becca said. “She’s really impressive. I mean, she can’t see us, but she knows so much about us, just by guessing and watching around us. She knew that I had the stuff in my pocket to knock a man out who tried to mug me in New York.”
“What now?” Jackson asked. “You didn’t tell me about that.”
“No,” she said. “It wasn’t a big deal. Just some guy who saw an easy target. And I wasn’t.”
Jackson grinned.
“No, Makkai don’t really make easy targets. Especially Makkai who go toe to toe with a demon-possessed man capable of creating a dark vortex in the ground.”
She didn’t get tired of hearing about it, either.
“She knows,” Becca said. “She’ll call if he slips up. You know he knows we’re here, too.”
Jackson nodded.
“Always does.”
They sat for a while longer, watching the park as it went dusky and then dim.
“You want to stake out somewhere else, or are you ready to head back?” Jackson asked.
“I think she’ll give us enough notice,” Becca said. “Not that being here is wrong, but I don’t think we need to just stay here all the time.”
Jackson nodded and slapped his palms down onto his knees.
“All right, then. Let’s go see what Colin made for dinner.”
“I don’t like you and Jackson going all on your own to go looking for him,” Grant said at dinner.
“Why not?” Becca asked. “We’re just here to talk to him.”
“Because, what if he’s dangerous?” Grant asked. “You said the plan is basically to ambush him. What if he attacks you? And it’s just the two of you?”
“If we have to sneak, it’s going to be a lot better if there are only two of us,” Becca said. “And besides, as messed up as they may be, they’re on our side. Since when have we started mistrusting our allies?”
“Since they started hiding from us,” Dawn said from Becca’s other side. Becca turned to look at her and Dawn held up a fork. “Sorry. Your fight, not mine.”
“We are not fighting,” Becca said. Dawn snorted, and Becca shook her head at her.
“He isn’t going to hurt us,” Becca said. “He knows we’re looking for him and he knows why. Even if we jump out and go ‘boo’ he’s a trained fighter. He isn’t just going to shoot fireballs out of his fingertips at us.”
“Can he do that?” Grant asked. Becca laughed.
“I wouldn’t say he can’t, but I certainly don’t know that he can.”
Grant glowered at her and ducked over his dinner.
“Still think they should let Robbie or Billy go.”
Becca shrugged and Grant turned to look at her.
“But they don’t trust Robbie and Billy, do they?” he asked. “Everyone thinks that I’m the one doing it, if it isn’t one of the old timers.”
“They do not,” Becca said.
“Kinda do,” Dawn murmured and Becca shot her another look. Dawn shrugged. “What? Just telling the truth.”
“Why would you do it?” Becca asked. “It makes no sense.”
“I came to this tribe with a chip on my shoulder about how much my dad invested into it,” Grant said. “How about that? I so much as told Robbie about it in my first week.”
“But you aren’t that dumb,” Becca said. “What kind of person shows up looking to kill someone and announces their motive the day they show up?”
“A very clever one,” Grant said, smiling despite himself. He shook his fork at her. “Are you really not suspicious of me at all?”
“No,” she said emphatically. “And… that’s just a dumb question. You know you aren’t doing it. So why would you want to talk me into it?”
“Because if you don’t suspect everyone, then you’re going to get yourself hurt or killed by the person who is really doing it,” Grant said.
“There,” Becca said, pointing at him. “Right there. Another reason it couldn’t be you. You care too much about what happens…” She choked. She had been about to say ‘to Bella’, but the truth was that he cared too much about what happened to Becca.
“What?” he asked. She shook her head.
“You care too much,” she said. “You couldn’t hurt a Makkai. It’s just not you.”
“Sometimes people aren’t what you think they are,” Grant said, and she threw up her hands.
“Will you two stop trying to convince me that everyone is out to get someone? Sometimes the bad guy really is just over there, and sometimes you just go and you get him. Sometimes life really is that simple.”
“Not very often,” Dawn said around a mouthful of meat.
“Nope,” Grant agreed, then leaned out to look around Becca. “You think it could be me?”
“I made the same argument as you,” Dawn said. “She should suspect everyone.”
“Should I suspect you?” Becca asked Dawn.
“No,” Dawn said, almost injured.
“She’s too young and she’s a talented little sister,” Grant said. “It’s not in her nature to hold a violent grudge, and she could never plot against the queen.”
“Okay, fine, it’s not her because she wasn’t born yet, but neither were you,” Becca said.
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