by Jasmine Walt
“Of course not,” Loku said dismissively. “I took your accusation seriously and did some investigating, just as I promised. And even now, though I doubt it will help, my wife and her sister are visiting with Ma-San’s wife. It would seem that you are correct—Ma-San’s lab is not actually in my warehouse, but it is right next door in another building I own that he said he’s been using for storage.” A muscle in his jaw twitched. “I am most displeased to find out that my partner is manufacturing diseases meant to kill mages, and on my own property, no less. I passed by that place just the other day with my older son. He could have been harmed if any of those diseases had gotten out.” His eyes flashed at that.
“He clearly underestimates you,” Iannis said, then took a sip of his tea. “Much like Loku underestimates us, not that he would recognize the irony,” he said privately to me in mindspeak, amusement in his voice. I nearly choked on my tea, and lifted the cup a little higher to cover my grin.
“That is the last mistake he will ever make,” Loku said. “I will have him killed for endangering my children.”
“If that’s how you feel, then why the hell did you drug us?” I demanded.
“Because if it turned out that you were lying, and secretly trying to destroy my business, then I was going to kill you.” Loku smiled, then lifted his tea cup as if to toast us. “It is just as well for all of us that this was not the case.”
The four of us exchanged looks of incredulity. “How do you suggest we go about destroying the lab?” Iannis asked Loku. “We need to ensure that no human or animal escapes, that could spread diseases into the general population.”
“I suppose we could do the Suffocation spell,” Garrett suggested before Loku could answer.
“Suffocation spell?” I asked.
“It is a powerful spell that blankets an area with a deadly fog that will choke and kill every living thing, from tiny insects to humans,” Iannis explained.
“I would be fine with that,” Loku said. “From what I understand, the victims die slowly and painfully.” His lips curved in a reptilian smile, and a chill ran down my spine. Were we really going to do this? I hated the Resistance as much as anybody, but this was tantamount to torture.
“That spell requires a special herb called loqualis, which I do not believe is native to Garai,” Iannis said. “You do not have any on hand, do you?”
“Unfortunately not,” Loku said with a sigh. “What about this—we have a magical bell in Leniang City that, if struck with a special rod, produces a sound so horrible that it will scramble the minds of anyone listening for a good hour. That will immobilize the lab staff very effectively.”
“No way,” I snapped. “My ears are way too sensitive for that.”
“We would use a spell to protect ourselves, Miss Baine,” Garrett said, a thoughtful look in his hazel eyes. “And wax in our ears, for added safety. I rather think this is a good idea. There is minimal chance of innocent bystanders losing their lives.”
“What are the chances of obtaining this bell?” Iannis asked.
“Not very good,” Loku admitted. “The owner owes me a favor, but she is a collector and very possessive of her artifacts. It would take time to persuade her to give it up.” His expression twisted, as if in disgust over the idea that he would have to bargain with a woman. But then his eyes lit up, and his face cleared. “I have it! There is a special gas my master used to make long ago that causes extreme nausea and will make enemies too sick to fight back. It causes no actual illness and wears off in a few hours.”
“Is there an antidote?” Garrett demanded. “One that we can ingest beforehand, that will actually work? We will not be tricked by the likes of you again.”
“Of course,” Loku said smoothly. “I will head to town and gather the necessary materials tomorrow morning. You all will be well protected. Tomorrow night, we will go to the lab and destroy these vile weapons.”
With that settled, Loku bid us goodnight and retired to his rooms. Since Asu and Chen had not returned, the rest of us decided to remain in the sitting room and wait for them. Henning in particular was anxious to know if they had any news about his missing comrades.
“Did you sense Loku was telling the truth, about giving us the antidote?” Iannis asked.
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “I didn’t smell a lie when he said those words… but there was still something malicious about his intent. I can feel it.”
“We can’t trust him,” Garrett said, glaring at the opening into the hallway as if expecting Loku to come charging back through to attack us once more. “We should just go to the lab tonight without him and destroy it, Lord Iannis. We have little time left, and we don’t need ‘help’ from this treacherous snake.”
The front door opened, and I sighed in relief as I scented Asu and Chen. Their footsteps clattered on the wooden floorboards as they rushed down the hall, and I hurried to the entryway so that they wouldn’t miss us.
“Miss Baine!” Chen’s eyes widened in surprise, and then she let out the most brilliant smile I’d ever seen from her. “I am so glad you are all awake. We bring good news!”
“What good news?” Henning cried, practically elbowing me out of the way as he made his way into the hallway. “Have you found out what’s happened to my colleagues?”
“Yes,” Asu said, though her expression was not nearly as happy as Chen’s. “The agents are still alive, and we know where to find them.”
22
Asu and Chen settled down in the sitting room, then told us their findings. They had discovered that the three Federation agents had been captured and sold, the female to a brothel, and the others to a slaver who had not yet put them up for auction as they were still being trained. The men and I were astounded to learn this, and Henning demanded to know who could reduce three powerful, highly trained mages to such a helpless state.
“They will have used the confusion spell, I expect,” Asu said.
“What’s that?” Henning asked, frowning. I leaned forward a little, curious as well—Iannis had never mentioned such a spell to me, and judging by the expressions of the others, they’d never heard of it either.
“It is not known outside the region, and it is only passed down within some local families,” Asu explained. “The spell was invented a century ago by a mage called Ghom. It can erase a mage’s magic and training from his memory, effectively turning him into a human. Ghom used it on the young sons of a rival mage, and then forced the father to hand over his whole fortune before he consented to apply the counterspell.”
“A very risky gamble,” Iannis commented.
“So it proved,” Asu agreed with a slight grimace. “His rival called on his wife’s clan for help. They invaded Ghom’s mansion at night, and, in revenge for his blackmail, slaughtered him with his entire household. However, one of the servants managed to escape. She had memorized the spell and sold it to a local warlord. Loku’s great-grandfather, as it happens.”
“By Magorah,” I murmured, shaking my head at such a terrible, and senseless, conflict. “What’s the difference between the confusion spell and a magic wipe?”
“A mind wipe permanently erases the ability to do magic, whereas it sounds like the confusion spell simply makes a mage forget his powers,” Garrett said absently. “If this confusion spell is reversible, it must work on a different principle. What I find strange is that it has not become known outside Garai by this point.”
“Mainly because it’s in the local dialect, not Loranian,” Asu said. “If you heard me use it, you would not be able to memorize it correctly—every single syllable must have exactly the right intonation. And you are right, it is different from a magic wipe since, in reality, the mage still has his magic, but is unaware of it. Any time a victim begins to think of magic, a terrible headache descends upon them, and they quickly stop trying. For all intents and purposes, they simply become a very long-lived human. Slavers love capturing mages because of this, though they don’t do it very often to
Garaians because it would draw too much notice. The penalty is death by drawing and quartering.”
“But, of course, a foreigner would not be missed by anyone important,” Henning seethed.
“No,” Asu agreed. “And now that they have been effectively turned human, I don’t see that they would be much use to you. It might be better to leave them to their fate, as punishment for their incompetence.”
“Northians are not that ruthless,” Iannis said sternly. “We would not abandon our own to such a terrible fate.”
“It is hardly their fault that they were victimized by such a nasty spell,” Garrett added. “Especially since they did not know of its existence.”
“I’ve heard of it before,” Iannis admitted with a sigh. “During my previous travels in Garai, I heard rumors that it was a closely guarded secret in certain mage families. Apparently, it is not amenable to normal healing spells.”
A gloomy silence descended upon us, and I breathed in against the heavy weight on my chest. What would happen to these operatives if we couldn’t cure them?
“I do know the spell, and also how to reverse it,” Asu said, drawing surprised glances from the rest of us. “I can teach it to you, Lalia, in return for a favor in the future.”
“Very well,” Chen agreed readily. “As Lord Iannis says, we cannot leave loyal Federation agents to suffer and die out here. I assume we can just buy them back?”
“That would be the easiest way.” Asu turned her flat gaze toward Iannis. “How much are you willing to pay for them?”
It turned out that Iannis had ample gold and jewels hidden in his magic sleeve, more than enough to buy back the agents. Life was cheap in Leniang Port, and Asu and Chen were confident that the matter would be easily settled without putting a significant dent in Iannis’s purse.
“Even after I apply the counterspell, your friends will be confused and helpless for several days, sometimes as much as several weeks,” Asu warned. “It takes time for the brain to properly realign itself. Are you certain you want to bother with such a burden?”
“We’ll manage,” Iannis assured her. “And we are grateful for your help.”
Asu took Chen aside to her private quarters to teach her the spell and its counter, and the rest of us retired for the night. We rose very early the next morning, before Loku or the children had woken, and under Asu’s direction, hired a carriage to Leniang Port. Once there, we found a Northian vessel that was leaving the next morning, and then arranged transport with the captain for the three agents as well as Henning. We decided it would be best that he accompany them, since they would still be recovering from the confusion spell. Besides, now that we were hiring an airship and pilot from Bao-Sung, we didn’t really need Henning anymore.
“We’ll stop at the brothel first,” Asu said as we climbed back into the carriage, ready to go and retrieve the operatives. “It is closest to here. I happen to know the owner, who is quite a local character and one of the richest women in town.”
“Oh good,” I said. “If you two are acquainted, that should make this rescue easier.”
“Not necessarily,” Asu said as the carriage bumped and rolled along the rough streets. “She hates Western men with a passion. While she has never explained her reasons, I suspect it has to do with her early history about how she became a courtesan in the first place.”
“That is very unfortunate,” Iannis said, “considering that most of us in this carriage are Western men.”
“Yes.” The carriage came to a stop. “She would never do a favor for one of you, so I suggest that you men stay in the carriage while we retrieve your friend.”
I put a hand on Iannis’s arm; he looked reluctant. “If she’s right, then we’ll never get Narana out if you come along,” I said to him in mindspeak. “Just go with it—I’ll call for backup if we get in trouble.” Not that I thought we’d need it— Asu and Chen were powerful mages, and I could kick magical ass too.
“Very well,” Iannis agreed aloud. “I suppose you three shouldn’t need our help to handle a brothel owner.”
“I don’t like this,” Henning growled, “but so long as you bring Narana back safe and sound, I’ll deal with it.”
“I promise we will, if she’s in there,” I told him.
Asu, Chen, and I climbed out of the carriage and went inside the brothel. From the outside, the house looked like any other, the broad door painted a discreet green instead of the more popular red. We were admitted by a muscular fellow who eyed us with suspicion, but relented when Asu proffered a silver coin. He said something to her with a coarse laugh, but Director Chen spoke to him sharply and he deflated. A mage, whether male or female, was clearly far above him in the local hierarchy.
“He was asking if we wanted the big room, for a group orgy, and if he should send some handsome lads,” Chen explained in a low voice as the man led us across the garishly decorated entrance hall. “I reprimanded him,” she hastened to add, “but he probably does not see many female groups like us.”
My nose clogged up instantly at the overpowering scent of incense, which was meant to hide the smells of sex but did not quite succeed against my shifter senses. Swiping at my watering eyes, I muttered an air-filtering spell that Iannis had taught me after the assassination attempt back in Bilai, and the air around me instantly cleared.
The place was furnished entirely in shades of red and rose, with a bit of gold trimming here and there. A gilt statue of a robed old mage with an oversize erection stood opposite another of two naked women intertwined, groping each other with silly looks on their faces. Two Garaian women, beautiful and petite, crossed the corridor in front of us, and we ignored them—they were clearly not our target. Both were dressed in loose, skimpy silk dresses covered by some kind of dressing gown, meant for easy access to their lithe bodies. As we passed, they lowered their eyes and scurried out of the way.
We were shown into a large sitting room on the first floor, mercifully free of suggestive statuary or prostitutes. While I waited for my nose to finish unclogging, Director Chen and Asu spoke to the brothel owner, an older woman who must have been very attractive at one time, though the expression on her powdered face was cold and crafty. She narrowed her eyes and shook her head, and Asu’s voice grew lower and more insistent. They argued back and forth for several minutes. More than once we rose, pretending to leave. Finally, the owner gave a satisfied nod and led us into a room a little way down the hall.
“She has agreed to sell Narana back to us,” Director Chen told me as the woman slid the door behind us. “We are to wait here while she gets ready.”
“That’s great,” I said, then relayed the news to Iannis via mindspeak.
The smell of sex was stronger here, and I decided to refrain from sitting on the low couch or the futon, or touching any of the furniture at all. It all looked clean, but not clean enough for someone with my senses, and my skin crawled as I watched Asu and Chen make themselves comfortable on the couch.
A few minutes later, the door slid open, and the owner ushered in a beautiful woman with long, red hair and pale skin. She wore the same loose, colorful robes as the other prostitutes, and her face was heavily made up.
“Are you to be my new owners?” she asked, her dark blue eyes wide with confusion as she glanced between us. She had probably not expected us to be female.
“No,” I said gently, my heart clenching with pity for her. Rage followed quickly on its heels, and I stepped forward, curling my hand into a fist as I confronted the owner. “How could you do this to her?”
“Miss Baine!” Director Chen grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back, then placed herself between me and the brothel owner. The woman’s eyes narrowed at me in annoyance, and she snapped something at Chen. Chen said something back, her voice apologetic.
“Foolish girl,” Asu hissed at me under her breath. “Do you want to rescue your friend, or not? This woman does not understand your ways, and does not believe she has done anything wrong. This is her w
orld, her place—there is no point in arguing with her.”
“Someone should teach her, then,” I growled back at Asu. But instead of confronting the brothel owner again, I turned my attention to Narana, who was standing nearby and watching the exchange with a horribly vacant expression in her pretty eyes. She looked every inch the vapid whore she’d been made into, and not at all like a mage, never mind a cunning government agent. Horror coated my throat at the idea that magic could be used to change someone’s personality so drastically, and I swallowed it down. I didn’t have time to dwell on such things.
“Do you have any belongings?” I asked, touching her arm gently. Her long hair fanned out behind her as she whipped her head around to look at me. “Anything you need to gather before we go?”
“Everything I own is here.” She hefted a small cloth bag she held in her hand that I hadn’t noticed before. “What is it that you plan to do with me? Are you taking me to another brothel?”
“That’s enough,” Director Chen said firmly before I could answer. She dropped a clinking purse into the owner’s hand, and the owner inclined her head, then hefted the purse. Satisfied, she left the room, though not before shooting me a glare.
“Narana, come here, please,” Chen said in a soft voice, once the brothel owner’s footsteps had faded away.
The woman did as Director Chen bade, her face expressionless. I could smell the anxiety coming off her, though, and I wondered what this woman had endured. She’d been sold into prostitution, forced to open her legs for countless men. It was rape, essentially, and my blood boiled with the need for retribution. I could hear soft laughter and grunts coming from the room next door, where another man was taking his pleasure, and more further down the hall. It would be so easy for me to rip through the wall and grab the man by the throat. I could kill him, or crush his balls. After all, he was probably cheating on his wife. He deserved it, didn’t he?