by Jasmine Walt
“You mangy beast!” he shouted, dark green eyes blazing with hatred as his gaze clashed with mine. He lifted a hand to blast me, but before he could, Iannis took advantage of Chartis’s lowered shield and blasted him with a bolt of his own. Argon screamed as the electric shock ran through him, and he toppled to the ground. I watched him shake and tremble for several moments before he braced his hand against the wall and tried to rise.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Iannis said coldly. “In case you haven’t noticed, you’re surrounded and outnumbered.”
It was true. Fenris had freed the delegates from their bonds, and they were on their feet now. Even though they looked like they could be knocked over by a stiff wind, they came to stand around the former Director of the Mages Guild, their lips tight and their eyes filled with the need for retribution. Fenris had his arm at the elbow of the oldest delegate, holding him steady, but I had no doubt that if Chartis tried anything, Fenris would kill him.
“This isn’t how it was supposed to happen,” Chartis cried in a trembling voice as his body collapsed against the dirt. Rivulets of blood seeped into the ground beneath him, and his face was growing paler by the second. “I should have been the next Chief Mage, not you! I was next in line for the position!”
“Had you been more interested in serving the people rather than serving yourself, perhaps you might have gotten the position,” Iannis said. There wasn’t an ounce of compassion in his stony voice. “Instead, you abused the position that you did have, and rather than trying to work your way back into the good graces of the Guild after I rightfully dismissed you, you’ve turned traitor.” His eyes lifted to Fenris. “Bring me a set of those cuffs so I can bind him and cauterize his wound.”
As Fenris went to gather a pair of the magic-suppressing cuffs lying on the ground, I noticed Chartis make a furtive move out of the corner of my eye. Turning, I saw that he was clutching a star-shaped charm, and though his lips were pressed together in agony, his eyes gleamed with a kind of triumph.
“No!” I shouted, jumping forward, but I was too late. Chartis spoke a Word, and the charm exploded with light, knocking us all back. I squeezed my eyelids shut against the blinding glare, bracing myself against the wall for whatever was to come. Power sizzled in the air as a tremor shook the ground, and rubble rained down onto my head.
“This is not the last you’ve seen of me!” Chartis’s voice echoed through the tunnel as the light faded. When I opened my eyes, he was gone, the severed leg lying in a pool of bright red blood the only proof that he’d ever been here.
19
I turned to ask Iannis what the hell just happened, but before I could speak a portion of the ceiling at the back of the tunnel caved in. Clouds of dust and debris filled the air, making my eyes water and the flames in the torches sputter, and the ground beneath my feet began to tilt. Fuck. The whole damn tunnel was about to collapse on top of us!
“Come on!” I shouted, grabbing the sleeve of the nearest delegate and dragging him forward. He stumbled over the body of a fallen Resistance soldier, but I continued pulling him along. “We’ve got to get out of here!”
The delegates were too weak to levitate themselves out of the shaft, so Fenris and I ushered them into the elevator cage, choking on clouds of dust and rubble as we went. Fenris got into the cage with them, then shouted several Words. The elevator began to glow, then slowly rose up the shaft with a loud screech, taking the delegates to safety.
The next thing I knew, Iannis’s arms were around me, and I bit back a scream of my own as he jumped out of the collapsing tunnel and straight into the abyss below. We fell for ten very long, very terrifying seconds, and then the levitation spell finally activated, dragging us to a halt. I sighed in relief as we began to float upward, leaning my head back against Iannis’s chest.
“By Magorah,” I said, then took in a deep breath to ease the tremors in my body. “You scared the living hell out of me.”
Warmth swept through me as his arms tightened a little more snugly around me and he rested his triangular chin on the top of my head. “Are you alright, Sunaya?”
“Aside from my hand, I think I’m okay.” There was also the fact that my stomach was doing somersaults right now, but there was no need to bring that up.
Iannis swore, and he gently grasped my hand and lifted it to the light filtering in from above. It was already starting to heal, but the slices were very deep, and now that adrenaline was wearing off the wound hurt like hell.
“I’ll deal with this when we get topside,” he promised.
“Thanks.” I sighed, relieved that I wouldn’t have to suffer with the pain for several hours.
“No, thank you.” There was a hint of admiration in Iannis’s tone. “If you hadn’t severed Argon’s leg just then, I’m not sure what would have happened.”
“I’m sure you would have figured something out.” But pride swelled my chest, and I grinned for a moment until I remembered that Argon had escaped. “How the hell did we lose him, though? I don’t understand.”
“He had a gulaya.” Iannis’s voice tightened. “It’s an old-fashioned type of charm, very powerful and rare, that anchors the wearer to a particular place. It requires a lot of power to create, not to mention illegal ingredients, but if the charm is made properly the wearer can use it to teleport back to that single location at any time.”
“Well fuck.” I wanted to say more, but we floated out of the shaft, and I had to shield my gaze as my eyes worked to adjust to the morning sunlight spilling over the horizon. Iannis set me down, then gently encircled my wrist with his hand and spoke a few Words. A blue glow enveloped my hand, and I squeezed my eyes shut against the searing pain that ripped through my fingers as the magic knitted my flesh and bone back together.
After what seemed like an eternity, the pain faded. I opened my eyes to see that my hand was healed, and let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
“There you are.” Iannis let my hand fall to my side, and as I looked up at him, I was surprised to see his face was paler than usual. Maybe healing exhausted him more than I thought. “Are you alright now? I need to go speak to the other delegates.”
“I’m fine,” I said, biting back the questions that sprang to my lips. I stood to the side as Iannis went to talk to Fenris and the delegates, feeling a little bereft but knowing I couldn’t monopolize his company. The way the delegates blinked in the light as they spoke to Iannis, a combination of awe and gratitude on their faces, was a little bemusing since I was used to seeing little to no emotion on their faces. But I guess being rescued from impending execution after several days of forced drug injections and incarceration would bring out emotion in anyone.
I wondered if Chartis would survive the blood loss, gulaya or not. The detached part of his leg lay buried under the rubble by now. But then, he was a powerful mage in his own right, and I imagined he’d be nearly as hard to kill as Iannis.
Bosal ar’Nuris, the Education Secretary, spotted me standing by the mineshaft entrance and struggled to his feet. Fenris caught him by the elbow and helped him the rest of the way, and when I realized he was making his way toward me I closed the distance so he wouldn’t have to walk so far.
“Thank you for coming back for us,” Bosal said, his voice steady despite the rings of exhaustion around his eyes. His long, pale hair was scraggly, his robes stained with dirt and who knew what else, but despite his ordeal he held himself with the dignity I’d come to expect of mages. “I am ashamed to say that I worried you might not, but glad that I misjudged you.”
“You’re welcome.” I smiled and extended my hand. “I guess us shifters aren’t so bad after all?”
“I don’t know about all of them, but you and Fenris here are all right. I will try to keep an open mind about your species.” He patted Fenris’s hand, which was still firmly wrapped around his arm, then shook my offered hand. “If I can ever be of service to you, don’t hesitate to ask.”
The next
couple of hours were spent rounding up the soldiers and securing the camp. With Chartis gone, it was easy enough for Iannis and the delegates to tamper with the wards, making it so that only mages could pass through the perimeter of the camp and effectively trapping the soldiers inside. The soldiers tried to stop us when they saw what we were doing, but between Annia, Fenris, and I, we managed to hold them off until the mages could finish their work. Once the soldiers were secured, we set up camp near the airship so that we could rest for a while and Iannis and Fenris could heal the delegates.
“By Magorah,” I groaned to Annia, collapsing onto my bedroll, which I’d laid out in the middle of the grass. “I’m exhausted. How the hell does he do it?” I turned to look at Iannis, who was kneeling on the ground next to the ancient Legal Secretary. His hand was pressed against the other mage’s forehead as he performed a healing spell. He’d been working on that particular delegate for at least twenty minutes, his eyes closed in concentration and his hands glowing with magic.
“I’ve heard that a mage’s power grows along with their lifespan,” Annia, who was stretched out next to me, commented. “Maybe Iannis is really old. Have you never asked his age? Fenris might know. They age so slowly and use magic to make themselves look pretty, so I guess anything’s possible.”
“True.” I bit my lip as I studied Iannis’s smooth, unlined face and handsome features. It would be a shame if it turned out he was actually a wizened old man using magic to hide his features. But that seemed unlikely, considering how fit he was. An old mage might be able to hide his wrinkles, but that didn’t mean he could make his body run like a young man’s.
Once Iannis was done healing the others, he gathered us around for a meeting. “We need to take off for Dara immediately,” he said. “As much as I’d like to stay and interrogate the soldiers here, the Convention is paramount, and we’ve already lost too much time.”
“I agree, but the situation in Solantha also requires urgent intervention,” Fenris said. “The Council did not take your disappearance well. All hell had broken loose by the time we left, only two days after your disappearance.”
“We can’t leave these Resistance members out here by themselves,” one of the delegates’ assistants protested. “If they have another mage in their employ, they could easily be freed. They must be taken back to Solantha and brought to justice.” From the coldness in his voice, it was clear what kind of justice he had in mind.
“We are not going to leave them here by themselves,” Iannis said. “I agree that it would be unwise to do so, and we cannot all fit on that small, rickety airship. Miss Melcott here is the only one who can pilot it, so she will be coming along, as well as Miss Baine. That means I can only take two more along.”
“I’ll be staying here,” Fenris said. “I’m happy to work with whoever you choose to stay behind, interrogating the prisoners and keeping the camp secure until reinforcements arrive.” It didn’t surprise me that he was volunteering to stay behind – given his history, I figured he’d want to stay well away from the Convention. “We might also try to signal to Director Chen’s airship for transport back home.”
“Very well. I will take you, Bosal, and Asward as well.” Iannis nodded to a dark-haired mage with olive skin, who bowed. “The others are too exhausted to travel yet, and the Convention is nearly over in any case.”
“Just so you know, I can’t actually fly the ship by myself,” Annia spoke up. “Whoever comes along is going to have to be willing to take orders from me and help out. Even a small airship requires a crew.”
“Very well, Captain Melcott.” Iannis inclined his head to her, and I caught the ghost of a smile on his lips. “We will defer to you on all matters concerning the airship. Perhaps you can figure out a way to hail other ships we run across, so we might convince them to stop by the camp and help round up the prisoners. I will send a ship from Dara as well.”
Iannis and Fenris went off to raid the camp’s kitchens for supplies while I worked with Annia and the delegates to get the ship ready for takeoff. We scrambled around on the main deck, securing ropes and checking valves and doing whatever else Annia shouted at us to do. Since none of us were experienced with such engines, she had to do a lot of handholding, but eventually we were ready to go.
“Hey.” I hopped over the side of the ship and landed in front of Fenris, who was talking with Iannis. “We’re ready for takeoff.”
“Very well,” Iannis said. “I’m leaving you in charge, Fenris. Is there anything else you need?”
Fenris shook his head, smiling. “We’ve got everything in hand. You get on that ship, and wipe the smiles off the faces of whoever is resting on their laurels right now. I’m sure they’ll be shocked to see you arrive not only in perfect health, but wearing aboriginal clothing.” He grinned and clapped Iannis on the shoulder.
Iannis grinned back, a rare sight that caused my stomach to flip-flop again. “Strangely, I look forward to turning the attendees on their heads with my arrival. I may even miss these clothes,” he added, running a hand down his buckskin tunic, and I snickered. I’d sort of gotten used to seeing Iannis dressed like a Coazi, but now that I thought about it, he was going to shock the shit out of the mages at the Convention, something I was really looking forward to.
“You take care, okay?” I told Fenris, wrapping my arms around him. He grunted a little as I squeezed tight, but his arms came around me and he hugged me back nonetheless. “I’m going to miss you.”
“We’ll see each other soon enough,” Fenris assured me. “In the meantime, though, it will be a nice change of pace to be in charge here instead of being ordered around. Perhaps I’ll have a little fun with Captain Milios.”
I laughed as Iannis gave Fenris a stern look. “Not too much fun, please. The last thing I need is to receive news that the soldiers have escaped, after I’ve informed the Convention that we apprehended them.”
“Don’t worry,” Fenris said dryly. “I’ll be sure not to make you look bad.”
I gave Fenris one last hug, then boarded the airship along with Iannis. A high-pitched whistle shrilled across the plains as Annia put the engine into gear, and as we lifted off, I looked toward the horizon and wondered exactly what was in store for us next.
20
“So we’re finally here, huh?”
“Just about,” Annia told me, drumming the fingers of her right hand against the helm. Her left hand firmly grasped one of the wooden handles jutting out from the wheel as she banked left, heading straight for the capital city. Dara glittered brightly in the reddish-gold sunset, gilding the roofs of the houses and buildings packed close together in the small coastal city. We could see the Capitol Dome from here, a great white marble dome with a golden statue of Jeremidah, one of the founding mages of the Federation, jutting out of the top. My heart began to drum a little faster – this was where the Convention was taking place. “Just need the Chief Mage to tell me where exactly to put the ship down.”
“I’m sure he’ll be up here soon,” I said, my fingers lifting briefly to touch the serapha charm resting against my chest. As soon as Iannis hadn’t been needed on deck anymore, he’d disappeared into the captain’s cabin for some much-needed rest. We were all exhausted, but he’d used up loads of magic during our escape, so I couldn’t blame him for wanting some shut-eye. Unlike Annia and myself, he actually had to attend the Convention and foil whatever new plot the Benefactor was hatching, so it was important that he and the other delegates were clear-headed upon arrival.
“Yeah, well you might want to tell him to rise and shine, because we’re gonna be landing soon,” Annia said. She brought her hand up to cover a yawn, then reached for her mug of coffee and took a long draught. “And he also better get me a five-star hotel, because after the day I’ve had I could sleep all week.”
“Oh I’ll make sure he does. You’ve been a lifesaver.” I patted Annia on the back, then for good measure dug my thumbs into her shoulder muscles and started rubbing in circular moti
ons. Since Annia was the only one who could fly this thing, she’d been attached to the helm all day, pushing us through the skies at top speed to get us to Dara before the day was out. Iannis and the other mages had helped by clearing the weather and ensuring the wind blew in a favorable direction, but without Annia there was no way we would have made this thing work.
“Ohhhh yeahhhhh,” Annia groaned, arching her back as my right thumb found a knot. “You can keep that up for as long as you want.”
I grinned. “Thanks, but I think I’ll go get the Chief Mage now.”
“Tease,” Annia grumbled, shooting me a dirty look over her shoulder.
Laughing, I gave her shoulders one last squeeze, then vaulted over the railing and down to the main deck. There was no one to watch as I strolled across the wooden floorboards toward the tiny captain’s cabin at the rear of the ship – the other delegates had taken refuge from the hot sun below decks. I would have to round them up soon, although maybe I’d leave that task up to Iannis. They were his delegates, after all.
As I lifted my knuckles to rap on the door, a ripple of nervous energy gave me pause. I stopped to examine the feeling, and realized that this would be the first time Iannis and I would have a one-on-one conversation since the little…incident back at the river. Heat rushed through me as I remembered the feeling of his hard, naked body pressed against mine. I licked my lips, convinced I could taste him on my tongue all over again.
We’d said things to each other at the river that I’m not sure would have ever slipped from our lips under other circumstances. I’d told him that I needed him, something I’d never told any man before, and part of me wished badly that I could take the words back. Saying them out loud had been admitting a weakness, and that was a dangerous thing to do around anyone, never mind someone as powerful as Iannis. He already held my life and fate in his hands – I didn’t need to inflate his ego any further or allow him to think I was okay with being dependent on him.