The Human Familiar (Familiar and the Mage Book 1)

by Honor Raconteur

  Rena didn’t seem to feel the chill, but then, working magic constantly like this likely kept her warm. I worried about her pushing past her magical limits. I’d seen it before, a few years ago while on a caravan job, when I’d been cornered by a band of rogue mages. The two good mages fighting with us had pulled out every stop imaginable to fight them and had magically exhausted themselves in the process. ‘Mind down’ was what they called it. It had scared ten years off me because they frankly looked dead. Aside from them breathing, their eyes were closed, bodies completely still the way only a corpse can pull off.

  Out here in the middle of deities-knew-where, I did not want Rena to push herself into a mind down. That would be bad on so many levels.

  Two or three small eternities later, something coarse brushed my arms. Cautiously, I felt them and realized I was touching roots. Tree roots? Rena’s incantations grew longer, too, indicating that she needed to vanish more than just mountain stone. Hope leapt in my throat. Maybe we were nearly free of this dank, cold place.

  It took two more levels, and then with the next incantation, we abruptly had a blue sky. I punched a fist into the air. “YES!” Owwww. Okay, no more lifting my arms above shoulder level, that had sarding hurt.

  Rena dragged herself up one more step, and in the light, I could see her shaking. Oh no. Ohnoohnoohno, “Rena—” I started, only to cut myself off when she pitched forward sharply.

  Swearing, I caught her before she could do a face plant on the grass, then swore again when my ribs screamed in protest. Gently, I let her down, then stood there and tried to breathe around the pain.

  Darkness swam around the edges of my vision and I fought it back, fought to stay conscious. I could not, absolutely not, afford to faint right now. I drew on my experience of fighting through injuries, informed my body sternly it couldn’t rest yet, and then carefully climbed my way out over Rena. I beat a palm against my chest. “Settle down, bond, she’s fine. Deities, but you pitch a fit over everything. If she’s not in perfect condition all I get from you is nag, nag, nag. You’re not helping, shut up.”

  Once completely free of the mountain, I sat for a moment and really looked around. All I saw were trees, pitches and rolls of the land, and a lot of green. Wet green, indicating that it had rained very recently. The ground felt more than damp under me. It was colder here, too, indicating that we were not anywhere near Corcoran, but other than that, the place didn’t look even remotely familiar.

  We were in a bad situation. I had no idea where exactly we were, although I had a gut churning feeling we were in Turransky. Mostly because with my luck, we would land in a country that didn’t particularly like us. Rena was completely in a mind down, so utterly drained that she was little better than a breathing doll. In this cold weather, her body temperature cooled fast and it honestly scared me. I didn’t have any good way of warming her up. Every single piece of wood I could find was either too green or wet. I couldn’t get a fire started.

  I’d like to say that I’d been in a worse fix than this and survived it, but honestly nothing compared to this. Not even that time when I was fourteen and tried cliff diving at night with Stu.

  The one thing I was absolutely sure of was that just sitting here would get us both killed eventually. We were near an open road, I could see a glimpse of it through the trees. Even if we were in unfriendly territory, I had to get Rena to a magician. She needed expert help that I couldn’t give her.

  I tore the bottom of my shirt off and wrapped my ribs as best I could. Then I cut a strong stick from a sapling nearby to use as a walking stick. We basically had no supplies on us, unfortunately, but I bundled up Rena as best I could and used my belt and sword belt to strap her onto my back. Sword in one hand, walking stick in another, I hobbled my way forward.

  Let me tell you, carrying dead weight on a bad leg with two (possibly) broken ribs was not something to dream about. Especially not with a familiar bond jabbering unhappily to you. If the thing could talk, it would be swearing viciously at me right now. I felt it pull and poke at me like a hot rod in an open wound. Either that or my cracked ribs made it feel that way.

  “Rena,” I gritted through my teeth as I moved, “if it wasn’t for the fact that you got this way saving my hide, I’d be very mad at you right now. As it is, we’re still going to have a loooong talk about you pushing yourself past your limits. Communication, remember?” Hefting her a little, I groaned to myself, “This is not according to the plan. Seriously. So far outside the plan we might as well be on a different planet.”

  Reaching the road, I had one of two choices: east or west. Since I had no idea where the roads led, I went with the most logical course. I chose the side that went downhill instead of uphill. Downhill was so, so much better when carrying a person.

  I had my ears trained for trouble, as the visibility on the road wasn’t all that great. The road itself was wide enough, so much so that two wagons could pass each other comfortably, but there were a lot of trees. I was dead certain we were in the middle of a forest because I didn’t see anything else but trees. Drops of water fell randomly on me from said trees as I trudged along. It didn’t feel like it actively rained anymore and that at least was a blessing.

  There came the rattle of wheels, harnesses jangling, hooves on packed dirt. I looked up sharply, anticipating company, but it took more than a few minutes for them to come in sight. When they did, they took one look at me and reined to an abrupt halt, chattering to each other.

  The language alone confirmed it. I spoke perhaps a dozen words of Turranskan (mostly the swear words) and I recognized the sounds of it. We were definitely in Turransky. I swore silently. This just went from bad to worse, didn’t it?

  I could feel my heart speeding up, my breath coming too short and too loud in my lungs, and some distant part of my mind realized I might be hyperventilating. I hated this, hated having Rena this vulnerable and with no help for either of us, and cursed my injuries in the vilest language I knew. The bond demanded that I hide her, that I get help for her, that I kill anyone and everything that came anywhere near her.

  In that moment, I realized why Rena’s magic had demanded me, a human. An animal familiar would have obeyed those instincts. A sentient magical artifact would have been no help at all. Either of those two options would have led to her death.

  But a human, a human had the ability to look at those instincts, realize he was hyperventilating and on the edge of a panic attack, and smack himself in the back of the head. “I cannot panic,” I informed myself harshly. “I panic, she dies. We both die.”

  I deliberately pulled my hands away from my weapons—they ached with my restraint, and I ignored the sensation—and held onto her instead. I clasped her behind the knees, feeling her skin growing colder, and used that to keep my mind steady. I felt like I clawed for control, madness and clashing instincts hovering just behind my eyes.

  These two seemed to be woodsmen, as they had a cart piled over with logs. One of them hopped down and came toward me, eyes taking us in from head to toe and back again. He looked worried, strangely enough. I was hardly in any fighting condition, I wasn’t a threat by any stretch of the imagination, so why…? Or perhaps they sensed the madness lurking in me. At least, I felt half-mad, wanting to do three opposing things at once and the bond snarling when I didn’t do as it wanted.

  I did not believe for a second that blindly trusting strangers was a smart thing to do. On the other hand, I had to get help. I had to. Putting my misgivings aside, I struggled to remember the words ‘help us.’ I came up blank on ‘us’ so settled for what I could remember. “Jisaeo.”

  The man’s dark eyes widened a little, surprised I knew any of his language. He pushed back his cap a little, revealing a balding head and tanned skin. Turning to his companion, he chattered something.

  Calm down, me. Just because you didn’t understand him didn’t mean he was telling his companion to grab a weapon.

  A middle aged woman hopped off the cart, comi
ng toward us. She seemed of a similar age to the man, dark hair plaited and hanging over a shoulder, wearing stocky breeches and an overcoat that had seen better days.

  I repeated the word, hopefully, forcing my expression to stay at least neutral and not snarl. “Jisaeo.”

  “We will help,” the woman phrased carefully in Trader’s tongue. “You understand?”

  “I do,” I responded, breathing a sigh of relief. So he’d called his wife as she spoke Trader’s tongue? See, bond? Not assassins. Shut up. “My companion is a mage. She’s magically drained. I need help for her.”

  The couple shared a look of surprise. The wife ordered something, and the husband ran back to the cart with alacrity. I really, really wished she would stop talking in a language I couldn’t speak. It made my already stretched nerves sing.

  “Our village has retired magician,” she explained to me. “We take you there. Not far.”

  I sent a prayer to any deity listening, thanking them for sending these two to me. If they really were going to be helpful and nice, then I considered this a bona fide miracle. If they turned out not to be so nice, I’d clonk them over the head and steal their cart. Either way, win-win. “Thank you.”

  “We get help for you too,” she assured me kindly. “I’m Eva.”

  “Bannen,” I responded with a duck of the head. “Thank you, Mistress Eva.”

  The husband had the wagon turned around in record time, even in this slightly narrow place, and we carefully loaded up. Eva ensconced Rena and I on the front bench while the husband straddled a log behind us. I felt extremely glad she had, as frankly the only thing that kept me from doing something stupid and drastic was my grip on Rena. As long as she breathed, I felt reasonably sure that I wouldn’t lash out.

  Eva set us going again with a cluck of the tongue. I didn’t ask her to speed up as I knew very well that the draft horses were doing good to haul the weight they were, and it would do us no good to try and hurry them along.

  “What happened?” Eva prodded me as we traveled along.

  Now that I was sitting down, exhaustion crept up on me. I struggled past it and focused on her, trying to keep my energy up a little longer. The bond, strangely, kicked up more of a fuss because I flagged, which in turn also helped me stay awake. I was really of two minds on this: was the bond helpful or not? Wait, she’d asked me a question. I gave my head a sharp shake, struggling to focus. “We were in a bad fight. It went very, very wrong. Ended up in a cave and in order to get us out, my mage had to use a lot of magic.”

  Eva clucked her tongue, expression sympathetic. “We take you to Miss Mary, yes? Miss Mary retired Void Mage. She lives with us, helps sometimes with troubles. Very old but very wise. Will be glad to help a young mage.”

  Void Mage? What in the wide world was that? Granted, I knew very little about magic but after being around Rena for the past month, I would think that I would at least recognize every type of magician.

  The conversation more or less died there as I was in too much pain to really try and keep it going. It took considerable effort to keep Rena upright, as well, as she leaned heavily against me. I kept checking her forehead, her neck, anxious that she stay warm, but I felt she grew steadily colder and it worried me. The same way that going off a waterfall while riding a log would worry me. I was not the crying sort, but I felt like tears pricked my eyes. Rena being hurt was bad enough, but my own helplessness made a chaotic mix of emotions that unsettled me down to my bones.

  Sards, I was hyperventilating again. I took a deep breath, made myself bring in air and let it out again steadily. If I had the focus, I’d meditate, but there was no way that was happening at this moment. Breathing and Rena, that needed to be my focus.

  The wagon was definitely a work wagon, one with springs that badly needed replacing, as I felt every single pebble on the road. Jostling injured ribs was not fun, let me tell you. I kept thwacking a palm against my chest, trying to get the bond to settle, but that was a useless endeavor. Stupid thing kept twinging, unhappy about Rena’s condition. Couldn’t someone be smarter about crafting how familiar bonds worked? All it did was make demands and kick up a fuss. It’s about as helpful as a soggy sweater, I swear.

  Fortunately the village proved to be a very short trip. We came in sight of it within twenty minutes and pulled through the main road. People glanced at us, curious, but didn’t try to press forward or demand answers to who I was. I found this easy acceptance a little odd. Weren’t these people supposed to be on the outs with us? Never mind Rena, I’m obviously foreign, so why wasn’t someone protesting?

  Not that I wasn’t glad, I didn’t need a confrontation, not with the shape I was in. The first person that challenged me would likely get a sword in their throat while I apologized for my reflexes. The bond would have already pushed me into an overprotective rage if I’d had the energy to manage it. Maybe it was a mixed blessing I was this hurt.

  Pulling around the washing well, Eva reined to a stop and her husband hopped off and went straight to a tidy cottage with a tiled roof and bright blue door. He knocked on it with a sense of urgency, which I appreciated.

  Almost immediately the door opened and a man stepped into view. He was very old, at least eighty would be my guess. His hair was still thick on top but sheer white, skin wrinkled and sagging, a little bit of a hunch in his back. Still, I could see through the years and see what he once was—a very striking and imposing figure. In his day, this man would have been a powerhouse of a man, tall and strapping. The bond, strangely, liked him. For the first time in hours it stopped snarling at me and settled into an unhappy hum. I blinked at him, confused at this reaction, although grateful for it. He looked up, blue eyes meeting mine and they flew wide. Turning his head, he called, “MARY!”

  “What is it now?” an irate voice demanded, creaking a little in age. “It better not be some fool trouble, I had enough of that yesterday.” A woman stepped into view, every bit as ancient as the man, her white hair cropped to a man’s shortness, at least three shawls draped over her shoulders. She also took one look at the wagon and stopped short, expression incredulous. I stared at her just as incredulously as the bond almost purred seeing her. Seriously, who were these people?! “Deities! Gill, get them off that wagon.”

  Perhaps it was because I was in pain. Perhaps because I had stayed up all night and was past exhaustion. But it slowly hit me that these two were like me and Rena—a mage and a human familiar. I’ve always been able to recognize another familiar on sight and Gill definitely fit that mold. Waesucks, what was going on here?! I thought we were the only two!

  Gill came directly to me and offered a hand. “Come down slow, son. I can see you’re hurt bad.”

  I shook my head. “Rena first. Rena’s situation is worse.” The bond might be happier seeing these two but that didn’t mean it had magically settled down. I still felt jittery and unsettled and I wanted Rena inside and cared for NOW. Putting an arm around her shoulders, I shifted her so that I could hand her down to him. Or tried to. My ribs screamed in pain at that maneuver. Gill had to step up on the baseboard in order to reach her, bypassing me.

  Perhaps he realized it would be faster to not argue with me. He took Rena without a word in a strong grip that surprised me. Even at this age, he could handle carrying a person? Granted, Rena’s not big, but still.

  It was the wood cutter that helped me down, half-supporting my weight as I did a controlled fall to the ground. With the bond no longer demanding blood, I found it easier to accept his help this time. I appreciated his steady hand when I stubbed my pinky toe. AGAIN. White hot pain flared through my foot and up my calf. I gritted my teeth and sought to ignore it. He kept his supporting arm around me all the way into the house. I needed it. Black swam through my vision a few times which hardly portended a good sign. Of course the bond didn’t appreciate the reminder of how many injuries I had and went back to kicking up a fuss.

  I’d made my decision. The bond was useless and I would find a way to
strangle it if it was the last thing I did.

  The inside of the house made a hazy impression of warm, inviting, and well lived-in. I recognized several sewing projects started and not finished, piling up on various chairs, and a warm fire blazing at the hearth. My human crutch stopped inside the main room, shifting a little from foot-to-foot as if he wasn’t sure he was allowed to be in here.

  Gill carried Rena straight through into another room, and I followed with dogged determination. I saw him carefully lay her down on a wide bed and then he stepped back completely. “Need a fire?” he asked Mary.

  “Big one,” she confirmed, already stepping forward, rolling up her sleeve cuffs a little. “Young man, what’s your name?”

  “Bannen, ma’am.” I found a wooden chair near the door and collapsed into it, afraid I’d topple over soon if I didn’t sit. I slapped a hand against my chest, silently telling the bond to shut up or else. “She’s Rena. She had a Mind Down about two, three hours ago. Been cooling ever since.”

  The woman’s hands glowed as she started at Rena’s head, hovering but not touching, panning them slowly up and down her body. “Magical depletion is severe. Haven’t ever seen a case this bad. Bannen, what foolery where you two up to?”

  “We got caught in a bad fight,” I explained, fighting to keep upright. Deities, I was so sarding tired. “We ended up being portaled far from home, deep in a mountain cave near here. She had to tunnel us out.”

  “Tunneling out of a mountain, you say?” Mary got this look in her eye that said she knew exactly what I was talking about. “Well, that would explain it. At least in part.” Her hands didn’t pause but she did glance up at me knowingly. “Your bond is likely unhappy right now.”

  “Unhappy is an understatement. It is writing death threats in my own blood,” I answered sarcastically.

  She laughed, not in the least surprised. “It’ll settle when we get you two seen to. Bear with it and try not to attack us in the meantime, alright?”