I gave one last brush against the wall, knocking off more dirt. I wish I had brought up some paper and a pencil to—wait. That rumbling noise. What was that? It sounded like it came from deep within the tower, and it made the stones under my hand vibrate ever so slightly.
Like a shot, Kaya launched herself off the roof, grabbing me up with her forearms as she moved, taking us away from the tower so fast that it almost knocked the wind out of me. She barely got more than ten feet or so away when from those narrow windows, water started spewing out in every direction.
Water? Water? I twisted my head about at an almost painful angle so that I could look at the other towers. One by one, they all started doing the same thing, water gushing out in a steady stream from all of the windows.
Wait, so this was…a giant, complex irrigation system? All right, granted, in this desert land you needed some kind of water system to get anything to grow, but wasn’t this overkill? Just what had that long-ago civilization grow, anyway?
“Krys,” Kaya said in a worried voice. “City.”
City? I turned sharply around to see Mellor. Ohhhh shrinking hinges. The tower had enough range that it was spewing water directly over the city. With that kind of water pressure, it would no doubt actually flood the city given enough time!
I really, really wanted to panic at this point. But no good ever came from panicking. “Kaya, set me down. Fast.” I had to report this to Garth and ask for immediate help. Hopefully he knew someone that would be able to shut these things off.
As Kaya headed for solid earth at an insane, reckless speed, I swore to myself I would never wish for an interesting day at work ever again.
Chapter Eleven: Water Problems
My no-good, awful, very bad day at work had taken a turn for the worse after I got a good look at the countryside. Garth had me go up on Kaya’s back so that I could take a look at the damage the huge water towers were causing. I hadn’t liked what I saw.
But the part that I didn’t like the most was this moment, sitting in the mayor’s office with Mari on my right and Captain Lang on my left, reporting to my superiors of everything going wrong. At least the office didn’t have enough room in it to hold too many people at once. The mayor sat behind his desk, fingers steepled in front of his face, and the rest of us were in three chairs squeezed into the remaining space in front. Of course, the door to the office was wide open with people piled into the hallway, all of them shushing each other and trying to hear what we said.
Perhaps the mayor saw my reluctance as he gave me a reassuring smile and nod. “Give it to me by the numbers, son. I won’t blame the messenger.”
So he said, but I felt responsible for this, somehow. I took in a deep breath, let it out, and started from the top. “The towers are, I believe, an ancient irrigation system. They’re using a form of magic that’s similar to ours, in a way, but just different enough that I can’t figure out how it works. There’s writing up at the very top, so if we can get an expert on dead languages up there, maybe he can figure out how to turn it off. Right now, I don’t dare mess with it. I have a bad feeling that me being up there is what turned the water on, actually. I think something up there recognized me as a magician and when I touched the wall, it turned on.”
Mari came instantly to my defense. “But you don’t know that it was you. It’s just a paranoid guess, right?”
“Well, yes,” I was forced to admit. I still think it was me, though. “At any rate, the water is not just flooding Mellor at a steady rate it’s also impacting the highways. Worse, with all of the loose dirt out there, it’s causing mudslides. I could see it from Kaya’s back. Even if we could get volunteers from other cities to help, they wouldn’t be able to get to us.”
Captain Lang looked up at the ceiling, listening to the water hit the roof in a rhythmic way that a natural rainfall would never do. “It doesn’t show any signs of stopping, either.”
Unfortunately. “I’ve already called Strae and told them of what’s happening here,” I continued, glad to finally report more positive news. “Garth has already dispatched several mages to help us deal with the damage. They’ll arrive sometime tomorrow, I think. As for the expert we need to shut down those towers, he wasn’t sure who would be best, but he’ll send out a message to the magical community and find someone for us.”
“You can’t do anything?” Captain Lang asked, tone neutral.
I shrugged apologetically. “Fire Mages are useless in situations like this. The best I can do is ferry the expert up to the towers once he gets here on Kaya.”
“Do what you can.” Mayor Hartmann leaned back in his chair to look out the window, which from here gave him a clear view of several towers. “Let’s hope those things don’t suddenly activate some other feature that will do even more damage before your expert can get here.”
~*~
It was only moments like those, when the world was falling down around me, that I realized just how limited mages were. Despite how awe-inspiring our power could be, we were very useless at times. I spent a good majority of the day in the air with Kaya, mapping out the most damaged areas and the spots that needed to be dealt with immediately when my fellow mages arrived. But when night fell, I couldn’t even do that anymore.
Feeling frustrated and a little depressed, I finally dragged myself home and tried to get a good night’s sleep. I’d need the rest in order to help everyone tomorrow. Kaya didn’t have any problems with finding dreamland. After a full day in the air, more or less, she fell asleep and started snoring the roof down before her head even touched the ground.
It took me a little longer.
At dawn, we were up in the air again, surveying the land. The damage had doubled overnight. The roads were now flooded with several feet of water, some of them buried under mudslides. Mellor had a solid foot of water on its city streets, only the higher sections of town fairing any better.
Kaya banked a bit under my direction, coming around the lake’s shoreline once more, just avoiding the worst of the spray. We couldn’t avoid all of it without being high up in the cloud line, which meant I couldn’t see the ground well at all. Because of that, we necessarily got wet.
Kaya slowed her pace, doing that almost-hovering speed that she sometimes used, and turned her head to look back at me. “Krys?”
Without looking away from the city, I responded half-absently, “Yes, Kaya.”
“Lake water low.”
Lake water? My head snapped around and I really looked at the water level of Paswater Lake. Great good magic, she was right! The water level had taken an obvious dip from yesterday, leaving the shore’s edge looking scraggly.
I knew almost instantly why.
If the towers were producing this insane amount of water in a continual stream, the water source had to come from one of two places: either the underground source that fed the lake, or the lake itself. Either way, it meant a dangerous situation for the fishermen and every other lake-oriented business near the lake. Not to mention the damage it would do to all of the creatures that depended on that water.
Didn’t those ancient, idiot engineers think to put in some sort of safety valve to prevent the landscape from turning into a muddy quagmire?!
I rubbed at one temple, feeling the headache from yesterday doubling in force. Of all the turn of events to happen, the lake slowly draining wasn’t the one I wanted.
Those mages needed to get here soon.
Almost as if my thoughts had summoned them, I suddenly sensed three mages heading my direction. I couldn’t tell which types they were from here, as they were not within my sight. Maybe they had taken the earth path? I didn’t actually expect Garth to respond—he’d given every indication last night that he would send some other Earth Mage—but we did have two other Earth Mages that could have come. Truly, earth path would be the quickest way to get here. It was even faster than flying.
“Kaya, help’s arrived.” I turned her toward the city, not quite sure where they would
choose to surface. Maybe if I landed, and they could sense me, they’d choose to come up where I am? “Let’s land and greet them.”
“Park?” Kaya suggested.
“That’s a good place,” I agreed. I didn’t bother to direct her as she changed her bearing for the open area of the park.
Kaya set down carefully, avoiding the sandbox area, the trees, and the flowerbeds all around. By the time she had settled, I could feel the mages only a mile away. Before I could get fully out of the saddle, they surfaced in front of Kaya.
I came around my dragon to find a familiar face. Cora stood there, dressed in the red and white travelling robes of a Life Mage, and obviously geared to work as her blond hair had been secured in a tight braid around her head. Traveling robes were meant to be ankle length, nothing more than a formal coat, but Cora had such a petite form that even tailored, the robes nearly dragged the ground. Her blue eyes found me quickly, a hard look in them.
Funny, I felt three mages so why didn’t I see—
“What did you do?” Cora demanded.
“Wait, that’s how you greet me?” I responded acerbically. “And why are you assuming that it’s somehow my fault?!”
“Oh come on, Krys, don’t be more of an idiot than you are. The only thing that can activate a magical device is a magician’s magic. You somehow triggered this, even if it wasn’t on purpose.”
“But the only thing I do is burn the roads up here—” my defense choked and died a premature death. Oh great magic. The fire. My magical fire very well could have triggered the spell for those towers. And again up at the top of the tower. Me touching things had definitely turned everything on up there. Uh-oh.
Cora rolled her eyes heavenward. “I can tell from the look on your face. You just figured out how you did it, didn’t you?”
Shoulders slumping, I whimpered, “I didn’t mean to.”
From behind Cora, a very familiar voice laughed. “And I thought Garth had bad days at work! At least he doesn’t accidentally destroy whole cities.”
Trev’nor? I half-leaned to the side so that I could see around Cora and found not only Trev’nor behind her, but Nolan as well. I blinked at seeing them, surprised to find our two seven-year-old mages here. I hadn’t seen either of them in several months, and of course they’d grown while I had my back turned. Trev’nor had gained a good two inches, putting him somewhere around waist level with me. His irrepressible smile and bright blue eyes hadn’t changed, but I saw other differences. Instead of a single, complex braid in his blond hair telling which Tonkowacon tribe he belonged to, he now had two braids. Now, I didn’t know much about the traditions of the nomadic tribes of Hain, but I’d bet that second Tonkowacon braid meant he was now either a mage-in-training or a mage in his own right. Knowing his eagerness to be a mage, probably the latter.
Nolan, almost as if in competition, had grown an inch more than his friend. His unruly blond hair had been tamed into a ponytail, but errant curls escaped here and there. He gave me a charming smile, and a half-wave in greeting, light blue eyes almost sparkling in excitement. He, like Trev’nor, displayed his own sign of being a magus and wore the red and white travelling robes like Cora’s.
“Trev’nor, Nolan, what are you two doing here?”
“We came to help,” Nolan answered with an amiable smile. “Garth said it was our class project for the year.”
Class project? Who was he kidding? Most full-fledged mages would find this difficult!
“They are, technically, mages in their own right,” Cora pointed out to me in a whisper. “They’ve finished all the training. They just need some more experience before we can turn them loose on the world.”
Not to mention age and height. Well, All right, she had a valid point. And I could hardly refuse any helping hand right now.
“Oh, and Helen’s coming,” Trev’nor assured me. “She was just in Del’Hain when the call came, so it’s going to take her a little longer to get here.”
Phew. We definitely needed a Water Mage and I had been worried when I didn’t see her. “Good. And our language expert?”
“On his way from Coven Ordan,” Cora answered with a shrug. “I have no idea when he’ll get here, but Garth said he’ll go get the man himself if he needs to.”
Could I hope for his arrival sometime tonight, then? I shook the thought away and focused on what could be done now. “All right, follow me. I don’t have time to let you settle, so I hope you don’t mind diving right in.”
Trev’nor’s chest puffed up in a gesture of pride. “It’s what mages do.”
Cocky little brat, wasn’t he just? But I didn’t mind. Shaking my head, with a rueful smile on my face, I waved them forward. “Follow me.”
~*~
I took them directly to Mari’s office, mostly out of habit. I reported to her so often that it didn’t even occur to me to go anywhere else until I had already rapped on her door.
“Enter!” she called.
Well, if I needed to introduce them to someone else, I suppose Mari will tell me. Shrugging, I shoved the door open and stepped inside. “Mari, help has arrived.”
She looked up from the map on her desk and took in the three in my wake with raised eyebrows. “Oh?”
“Mari, be you known to Life Mage Hevencoraan,” Cora gave her a proper bow, which Mari returned after a hesitant moment, “Life Mage Vonnolanen,” Nolan also gave her a polite bow, which Mari returned in some bemusement, “and Earth Mage Trev’nor.”
Trev’nor greeted her with the Tonkowacon bow, both of his hands put over his heart in a gesture of high respect. Of course, with Mari in uniform like this, he probably thought of her as a high ranking officer. He wasn’t wrong although it confused Mari a little. I could see it on her face.
“Everyone, this is Mari Wangsgard. She’s the Firefighting and Border Patrol Coordinator for the city of Mellor. It’s she that we’ll be reporting to and getting orders from.” Mostly. I expected the mayor and Captain Lang to step in as well.
Trev’nor, with his usual direct honesty, smiled up at Mari. “It’s all right, we’re mages too, we’re just really young.”
“Ah, no, I’ve heard about you two,” Mari corrected although she shot me a confused look. “It’s just that Krys told me that all of the mages were Chahiran, but you have Tonkowacon braids and manners.”
“I was raised by them till I was five,” Trev’nor explained with a shrug. “But I’m Chahiran. Garth is my cousin.”
Mari looked like she had to really struggle to keep her jaw from hitting the ground. “The Advent Mage is your…cousin.”
“Yup. Second cousin…?” Trev’nor twisted to look at Nolan. “I have that right, right?”
“Yes, you do,” Nolan assured him. “But I think we can talk about it later. Coordinator Wangsgard, do you have a direction or plan for us?” he asked with all of the sobriety and focus of an adult.
I think being asked that question by a seven year old threw Mari for a mental loop, as she didn’t snap out an immediate answer like she normally would have. But she gathered herself with admirable speed and waved us closer to the map.
“I do, actually. Magus Trev’nor, I’m told that water is gathering in spots that it should not. Can you create mounds in the earth and some small reservoirs so that the water has a place to be temporarily stored until we can stop the water?”
“Yes ma’am,” Trev’nor assured her without a blink. “Where do you want them?”
She looked to me. “Krys, where do we need them most, do you think?”
I walked to the map and looked at it for a moment. “Here, north of the lake, and here and here, along the border, and I think another one there. Trev, if you could build a mound here, along the lake’s edge, that will stop the water from spilling over and help the flooding of the city.”
“Sure,” he assured me artlessly, as if this would be child’s play. Maybe to him, it would be. With a suspicious twinkle in his eye, he suggested, “If I’m up on Kaya, I can see
more and do it faster.”
Coping a ride out of me already, huh? Why wasn’t I surprised. “Fine, fine.”
He grinned at me in victory.
Nolan, who looked almost green with envy, started grumbling under his breath. Cora rolled her eyes at me before asking, “And what can we do?”
“I’ve been thinking about that.” I rubbed at my jaw, eyeing her and Nolan thoughtfully. “The lake’s water is dropping quickly.”
“Whaaaaat?” Mari demanded plaintively.
I gave her a sour nod before continuing. “Those towers are drawing water from the lake somehow, but I’m not sure if it’s a direct connection or if it’s coming from an underground source. Can you and Nolan go into the lake and somehow trace where it connects? I think if Helen knows, she’d be able to cut off the water source.”
“It’s certainly an idea worth exploring. That lake…is it freshwater?”
“Yes.”
“Hmmm…” Cora looked at Nolan. “Dolphins?”
“They’ll be fastest,” he agreed, perking up slightly.
Mari held up both hands in a pleading gesture. “Wait, what? Dolphins?”
“A Life Mage can mimic any life form,” Cora explained. “We can transform into dolphins and explore the water pathways here.”
Mari opened her mouth to respond, apparently thought better of it, and visibly changed what she would say. “You do that. I’ll report all of this while you work.” The you was obviously plural in this case as her eyes swept over all of us. “Uh, Krys, I don’t think you have enough space to put everyone up.”
A problem I hadn’t thought of until she mentioned it. “I don’t.”
“I’ll book rooms for them,” she promised. “Until then, Mages, do what you can.”
“Yes ma’am.” Nolan came around the desk to pat her reassuringly on the arm. Like every other woman on earth, she softened under his smile. “Don’t worry,” he assured her gently. “To us, this is just an annoyance. The problem isn’t so big that we can’t handle it.”
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