by Jasmine Walt
“Soon,” the Chief Mage said. “I’m not quite finished studying you.”
“Oh yeah?” I leaned forward, pinning him with a glare. “Well, I’m finished being studied!”
Iannis scowled, rising to his feet so he could tower over me. “I don’t know why you’re so reluctant,” he began. “If I am able to complete my investigation, you could –”
“I don’t care!” I slammed my palms against the table, making it shudder. “While you’ve got me cooped up in here, people are dying out there! There are shifters being murdered by silver poisoning, and nobody is investigating it no matter how loudly I yell, including you!” I poked my finger in his chest.
The Chief Mage’s eyes blazed. “I haven’t heard anything about these shifter murders, and I don’t appreciate –”
“That’s because Chartis and the Enforcer’s Guild haven’t told you about them, just like all the other things they’ve kept from you. You’re corrupt, all of you!” I jabbed a finger in Fenris’s direction as well, and he took a step back, his eyes widening. “And you’re no better than any of them! I told you about these killings days ago, and you never even mentioned the matter to him, did you?”
Guilt flashed across Fenris’s face. “I –”
I threw up my hands in frustration. “You know what, I don’t want to hear about it from either of you. Any excuses you can make are meaningless to those dead shifters and their families. You all disgust me.”
I turned on my heel and stormed out of the room, leaving them gaping after me. Fuck them all. If they weren’t going to let me out of here, then I would figure it out myself, even if it meant I had to dig a hole to Garai in order to escape.
12
I spent the entire evening as well as most of next morning trying to decipher a spell book I had pilfered from the library, hoping I might learn something useful. An invisibility spell or instructions on how to remove or disable wards would have been nice. Unfortunately the book was written almost entirely in Loranian, the language mages used for spell casting, and it was damned near impossible for me to figure out anything it said.
I was drilling holes into the book with my eyes, a raging headache coming on, when Fenris knocked on my door. I thought about denying him entry, but the smell of roast beef and potatoes accompanied him, and I was hungry.
“Come in,” I grumbled.
He entered, dressed in his customary dark tunic and holding the anticipated platter of roast beef. “I brought you lunch,” he said cautiously.
Sighing, I put the textbook aside and took the plate from him. “Thanks,” I muttered, not quite meeting his eyes. Part of me was embarrassed about my outburst yesterday, and the other part of me was still angry that he hadn’t brought up the murders to the Chief Mage. Clearly he didn’t take them seriously at all, which didn’t make any sense since he was a shifter. Didn’t he feel any sort of racial loyalty?
“So,” he said, eyeing the textbook I’d placed on the bed next to me as I shoveled forkfuls of meat and potatoes into my mouth. “What are you reading?”
“I’m learning spells on how to boil peoples’ brains from the inside out.”
Fenris tilted his head sideways so he could read the title on the spine. “Well I imagine that would be quite tough, considering that this is a book on Agricultural Magic.”
The tips of my ears burned in embarrassment… and then it dawned on me. “You can read Loranian?”
Nodding, Fenris reached for the book, then began flipping through it. “There’s a lot of useful stuff in here about using magic to influence the weather, repel certain pests –”
“How do you know Loranian?”
Fenris looked up, a vaguely uncomfortable expression on his face. “I’ve spent quite a bit of time with Iannis these past years. You can’t help but pick up a few things.”
I frowned, sensing he was holding something back, but he broke eye contact, returning to the book, and I decided not to press.
“So are you here to help me bust out of this joint, or to give me more excuses from the Chief Mage as to why I can’t leave?”
Fenris closed the book and set it aside. “I’ve come to inform you that Iannis is hosting a banquet, and that you and I are both required to attend.”
My jaw dropped. “Me? At a banquet?” The Chief Mage must have lost his mind. I had little to no training in etiquette, and besides, I was still considered a criminal. “What is this banquet for? And who’s attending?”
“A variety of Mage Guild members, from Solantha and anywhere else in Canalo who can make it on such short notice,” Fenris said with a shrug. “Iannis needs to choose a new Director for the Mage’s Guild, so he’s gathering the candidates together. It ought to be an interesting night, watching them drool over the position like a pack of wolves gathered around a choice haunch of venison.” His features twisted briefly in disgust.
“Yeah, well you can count me out.” I leaned back against my pillow, placing my hands behind my head and crossing my ankles. “No way am I hobnobbing with a bunch of snobby mages. Besides, I don’t have anything to wear.”
Fenris gave me a wry grin. “You won’t have to worry about either of those things. We’ll both be going in beast form.”
“We will?” I frowned. “Why?”
Fenris shrugged. “I usually come in wolf form because the others underestimate me. It lets me observe and listen in where Iannis can’t do so. As for why you’re coming, I’m not certain, but I suggest you follow my lead and do the same. You might learn some useful things.”
My mood lifted at that idea. Maybe I’d hear something that could give me a more solid lead regarding the shifter murders.
“Alright. I’ll do it. When is the banquet?”
“Tonight.”
I spent the rest of the day alternating between training and reading the primer on Loranian that Fenris produced for me – a pursuit that was both challenging and rewarding. By the time dusk began to settle over the horizon, I was a third of the way through the book, and had also deciphered a spell from the Agricultural Magic text that, in theory, would allow me to summon a spring rain in the middle of fall to water my crops.
Not that I envisioned ever needing such a thing. But still, the fact that I was even able to read it was a win for me.
Hungry, I wandered down to the kitchen to grab some food before the mages arrived, and then made my way to the banquet hall in panther form after ducking into my makeshift training room to change. It felt good to walk around as a beast, my paws padding silently across the parquet and carpets as I took in the castle using my panther senses. Though in human form my senses of smell and hearing were outstanding, they were even better as a panther – my ability to swivel my ears as well as detect odors through a secondary scent gland located above my upper teeth gave me an edge that my human form did not possess.
Strains of classical music emanated from the banquet hall, and I groaned inwardly, knowing it was going to be a fight to stay awake – classical music always put me to sleep. Hopefully whatever the mages said would be interesting enough to keep me alert. One of the double gilt doors was cracked open, so I nudged it a little wider with my shoulder and slipped inside.
I paused in the middle of the doorway to stare at the banquet hall. It had been transformed from a predictably fancy stateroom into a tropical jungle, replete with old trees with fat trunks and orchids hanging from their gnarly limbs. Dirt crumbled beneath my feet as I stepped, but when I pressed my nose to the ground I smelled nothing aside from the faintly soapy scent of floor cleaner.
It was an illusion, at least partially. A damned good one, too.
“Miss Baine.” Iannis broke away from the center of the room, where he’d been observing the servants as they set up chairs and tables and long, rectangular serving areas with silver trays of food. “Good, you are on time.”
“Sure am.” I did the ol’ stretch and yawn motion, exposing my long, white fangs, which was usually an intimidating maneuver. Iannis didn’t
bat an eyelash. “Where do you want me to go?”
Iannis turned and pointed to a sturdy branch that jutted out from one of the trees and hung over the table. “You should find that vantage point sufficient for listening and observation. No doubt it will provide a thrill to some of the guests as well, to look up and see a black panther perched directly above them, ready to pounce.” Dry humor tinged the last sentence.
“I’ll do my best to be scary.”
“Wait.” He crouched down beside me as I turned to leave. “Before you go…”
He spoke a Word, and ran a hand down my sleek pelt from the top of my head to the base of my tail. Magic rippled through my body, and I yowled, springing away from his touch.
“What the fuck was that?” I shook my body like a dog as tingles raced through my nerves.
The left corner of Iannis’s lips curled upward as he rose. “Just a simple glamour, Miss Baine, so the guests won’t pay you undue attention. I suggest you get up in that tree now.”
Huffing, I turned my back on him and did as he ’suggested', walking across the room to where the tree stood. I rose up on my hind legs to dig my claws into the bark, and though I was worried that the tree might prove to be an illusion too, it held steady as I scrambled up it and onto the branch.
Funnily enough, this is one of the ways jaguars like to hunt, I thought to myself as I settled onto the branch. We like to hang out in trees above watering holes and wait for prey to come and drink, then pounce. I crossed my paws beneath my chin and allowed my tail to hang over the side, swishing back and forth slowly enough to be subtle, while obvious enough to alert anyone paying attention that I was up in the tree. I did not need anyone here freaking out… though if I’d been perched above a pond they would have a right to.
I suppose this is as good as a watering hole, I thought to myself as I looked down at the arrangement of round, linen-covered tables being set up below me. From this vantage point I could probably take down just about anyone, though I doubted the Chief Mage would be pleased if I did so.
“Are you doing alright up there?”
I looked across the room to see Fenris standing by the serving tables, wagging his bushy brown tail at me. I swung my own tail back and forth a little faster in greeting, happy to see him.
“Just peachy. Though I wish I’d eaten more before we got here. Whatever’s under those covered trays smells divine.”
“I’m sure we can help ourselves to the leftovers once we’re finished.” Fenris’s mental voice was tinged with a smile. “In the meantime, stay where you are. Company is about to arrive.”
Sure enough, the mages began to file in one by one. Iannis stood by the entrance to greet them, and while he wasn’t exactly the warm, welcoming host, he also wasn’t incredibly cold either. I listened with half an ear as Fenris briefly gave me a rundown on each of the mages, including their name and position. Unfortunately the room was too well-lit for me to get a good look at any of them from a distance – my panther vision worked best in the dark – so I couldn’t tell whether or not any of them had green eyes.
I thought you’d already concluded that you couldn’t determine which one was your father by eye color alone, a snide voice in my head reminded me.
Yeah, okay, maybe. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t still look, just in case my father did happen to be among these men. There was a remote possibility that the mage who sired me resided in Solantha, after all.
Once all the guests were present and seated – approximately three hundred of them, both male and female – the staff started serving dinner. I tried to ignore the delicious smells of chicken cordon bleu, meat pies, roasted suckling pig, and other forms of deliciousness, and instead tuned into what these pompous bastards in their fancy robes were saying to each other.
“… Illusion is quite spectacular… I even think some of these trees are real…”
“I hear Lord Iannis is considering one of us to fill the Mage Commander’s open position…”
“This roast duckling is just perfection. I need to instruct my chef to get the recipe from Lord Iannis’s kitchen…”
“… does he often use beasts as decorations for his parties?”
I fought the urge to sigh, knowing it would draw attention. I was hearing absolutely nothing of interest. Lowering my head onto my paws I closed my eyes and prepared to take a catnap. By Magorah, but this was a colossal waste of time –
“I heard there was a bombing incident in Catharas.”
My eyes popped open at the sound of a man’s voice, and I looked down to see two relatively young mages sitting directly beneath my tree branch, sipping from glasses of wine and discussing bombings as casually as one might talk about the weather. Catharas was a city north of Solantha. While technically it straddled the border between state lines, it was still too close to home for me.
“Yes, well that’s not very surprising,” the other mage, a female, tittered. “The Resistance has been getting more reckless and crude in their attempts. It was a magic shop they bombed, wasn’t it?”
“That’s right.” The first mage took another sip from his glass of white. “From what I understand, quite a few humans died.”
The female mage sniffed. “Well, that can’t bode well for them. The Resistance might be gaining popularity right now, but if they keep getting their sympathizers caught up in the crossfire, they may soon lose public support.”
“True. If they go on like that, perhaps there will be no need to fight off the Resistance, and its base will simply dissipate.”
Their conversation turned toward more mundane topics, and I tuned them out, mulling their words in my head. I couldn’t deny the truth of them, and anger grew inside me at the idea that the Resistance was being careless enough to cause civilian casualties with their strikes. Could it be that Rylan had anything to do with these barbaric acts? I hoped not, but I resolved to have a talk with him about it the next time I saw him.
I kept my ears open the rest of the night for any more news regarding either the Resistance or the silver murders, but I didn’t hear anything else of interest. Nearly two hours had passed since that last conversation, and my stomach was rumbling in earnest now. If I didn’t get something to eat soon, I was going to crash the serving tables for leftovers, those mages be damned.
“Lord Iannis.” A nasal voice interrupted my train of thought, and my ears swiveled in its direction. “I can’t help but notice that you have yet to make a decision regarding the hybrid Sunaya Baine’s sentence.”
All other conversation in the room seemed to grind to a halt. I turned my head to locate the source of the voice, and saw that it was a bald mage with a handlebar mustache dressed in deep yellow robes. He was seated near the Chief Mage, clearly impossible for him to ignore.
“Yes, I have seen her wandering around the palace quite a bit,” an older mage with a silver beard commented. “Does she not have too much freedom, for a prisoner?”
“I heard that she tried to break out the other night and nearly killed someone,” another mage interjected. “Would that have happened if she were properly confined?”
“Forget confined,” a rotund mage with carrot-red hair and a ruddy complexion chimed in. “She should be executed! Hybrids like her are a danger to society!”
I stiffened as the rest of the mages also began to clamor, tossing politeness to the wind to make their objections about my existence known to the Chief Mage. Who the hell did these pompous assholes think they were? My claws dug into the branch, shredding the tree bark, and wood shavings fell to the ground. The longer Iannis sat there and said nothing, the angrier I got. Was he going to cave to the peer pressure and let these bastards have their way?
“If you are all quite done,” the Chief Mage said at last, raising his voice to be heard amongst the mages, “I would suggest that perhaps all of you are being hasty to dismiss the potential that Miss Baine represents.”
“If you mean potential for disaster, then I don’t think we’re dismissing
it at all!” the ruddy-faced mage protested. “In fact, I think you’re taking this too lightly!”
Iannis leveled a glare at the mage, who shrank back slightly. “I don’t take anything lightly, especially when magic is involved.” His violet eyes moved amongst the crowd, meeting the eyes of every single mage present. “It may not have occurred to any of you, but Miss Baine could very well prove to be an asset in her own right if properly trained. There are other countries that allow hybrids, with few problems. A few of the states in our own country are experimenting with more liberal policies, and if Canalo is to keep up with the rest of the country, we need to be more progressive. Naturally, I would expect any mage who I appoint as Guild Director to share my view.”
There was a lot of muttering amongst the mages then, some looking abashed, but many just plain resentful. “So what do you plan on doing with the hybrid, then?” Baldy finally asked. “Are you going to find someone to train her?”
“Yes.” The Chief Mage clasped his hands in front of him. “That is one of the reasons I brought you all here tonight. I expect one of you to take on the task.”
“You can’t be serious!”
“I am,” the Chief Mage said firmly, and my heart sank. He seriously wanted one of these jerks to train me? I doubted I would last a single day with any of them before one of us killed the other. If I happened to be the one who did the killing I would be executed, so it was a lose-lose situation for me either way.
A tense silence filled the room, so thick I could almost swim in it. “Well?” Iannis demanded. “Which one of you is up to the task?”
He called dozens of mages out by name, likely the ones he knew best, asking each one of they would train me. The ball of anxiety in my gut lessened a little bit with each refusal, and when he’d finally finished, I nearly slid off my tree branch as I went boneless with relief. Thank Magorah I wouldn’t be subjected to any of their cruelty.