The Scofflaw Magician (The Artifactor Book 3)

by Honor Raconteur

  Sevana didn’t bother to hide a groan. “Let’s stop him before he does it.”

  Farah stalked forward, quickly cutting through the traffic of people, and headed further into the palace interior. Once people realized she was there, they quickly melted to either side to make way, and Sevana just did her best to keep up. Grydon helped with that, a little, because once people saw him they gave the group a wider berth. They still had to force their way through some pockets of people as they went from one hallway to the next, crossing two flowery courtyards, and up a small flight of stairs. Sevana’s sense of direction went badly askew trying to keep track of where she was. It would take a guide to get her back out of this place.

  After another turn, Farah stopped abruptly at a set of double doors. She addressed the two guards standing on either side. “Announce that Farah Adalah Adnan, Fourth Princess of Sa Kao is here to speak with the king.”

  Sevana’s eyes cut sideways to stare at the girl. Even with her own father she had to announce herself and ask permission to speak with him? What kind of lunacy was that?!

  The guards bowed to her, then one of them opened the door and announced in a very professional way, “Farah Adalah Adnan, Fourth Princess of Sa Kao, to speak with the king.”

  “She’s back already?!” a familiar voice responded, nearly spluttering with surprise. “Let her enter!”

  The guard shoved the door all the way open, letting the party inside. Sevana took a quick scan of her surroundings as she stepped through. When she’d heard ‘small court’ she’d expected a small throne room, but this didn’t fit that mental image. It had a long, thin table that sat low to the ground, with chairs that were nothing more than back and armrests. Cushions were everywhere, of every possible color, all of them brightly hued. Men of all ages were arrayed around the table, most of them grey-haired, dressed in the loose silk robes that were fashionable in this country. Sevana took them to be advisors, or the king’s council, something of that ilk.

  At the head of the table sat Firuz Adnan. He looked tired, dark circles under his eyes, with new age lines around his eyes and mouth. Sevana doubted he’d slept more than an hour since his youngest child had gone missing.

  When he saw her, he shot to his feet and rounded the table. “Artifactor Warran. You have come to help us?”

  “At the request of your daughter,” she confirmed, holding out a hand.

  The king clasped it in a warrior’s grip and beamed at her. “The heavens smile on us. Surely, with your help, we can find my daughter soon.”

  “Don’t get your hopes up,” she warned. “Farah’s description makes me think this will not be an easy puzzle to unravel. But I will do my best.”

  “You can do the impossible,” Firuz responded, his grip on her tightening. “I trust your expertise more than any other.” Dropping the arm, he turned to Farah. “But you did not find her with the Fae.”

  “The Fae only take in orphans, Father,” she responded quietly. “Amas wasn’t there.”

  “But,” Sevana interjected, “it was her coming to the Fae that alerted me to the situation, so her trip up there wasn’t wasted. Now. Tell me everything you know about this situation, and I’ll start searching after that.”

  A man of middle age cleared his throat and ventured, “My King, this woman is…?”

  “Artifactor Sevana Warran,” the king answered, half-turning to look back at the table. When only some of the men looked enlightened, he expounded, “This is the woman that restored King Aren and Prince Bel from their curses and reinstated them on their throne.”

  She’d actually had very little to do with that last part, but whatever.

  The men let out a wave of wordless astonishment and delight. They might not have known her name, but they certainly knew that story, and were increasingly happy to see her. Sevana smirked under their attention. Recognition was always nice.

  But it didn’t help her with the current puzzle. She snapped her fingers to draw Firuz’s attention back to her. “I need details. And a place to work while I’m here.”

  Firuz was all for her going immediately to work and was quick to respond. “What do you need?”

  “An empty, quiet space that has tables so I can spread things out on. If it’s close to one of my clock portals, that would help.” She’d undoubtedly need to pop in and out of the cave to fetch things at need.

  The king thought only for a moment before he snapped his fingers. “I have just the place. Follow me.”

  Oh, a royal guide, eh? If this was any person other than his own daughter missing, Sevana would have likely gotten a high-ranking flunky showing her about at this point. But she wasn’t complaining. For one thing, this way she could ask questions as they walked. “When exactly did your daughter go missing?”

  “It’s been two weeks to the day.” Firuz waited until she cleared the doorway, regaining the hallway, before continuing. Farah and Xald silently trailed after them, Grydon’s nails clicking on the tile as he padded at her side. “As we’ve sent out searchers, other people have been reported mysteriously missing as well. At first I put it down as the usual criminal activity, or perhaps the work of some mystical creature, but you say that the Fae only take in orphans?”

  “They do, and only younger than ten years old,” she confirmed, shifting her pack on her back. One of the straps had become twisted as she put it on, and it was pinching her skin a little.

  “Then I cannot dismiss these disappearances as a simple spiriting away on the part of the Fae. The ages of the people were quite far ranging, everything from my five year old daughter to a tottering old man.”

  Some of those disappearances were still likely part of the usual crime rate of a large city. They’d find a few people eventually in shallow graves somewhere. But if it was strange enough to be marked upon by Firuz, then she should definitely pay attention to it as well. “How far back do the disappearances go?”

  “Three months, or so we believe.” Firuz turned a corner, pointing ahead. “That is one of your clocks.”

  So it was, one of her earlier makings. She went to it and did a swift check, but it was running perfectly. “Good. A room?”

  “Here is something that should suit.” He gestured for her to follow him, although he only went another four doors down before opening one of those gilt inlaid doors and striding through. “It’s normally used for a reserve room, to hold supplies for our garden parties, but at the moment it’s empty.”

  So it was. Tables were shoved against all four walls, there were two bright windows overlooking a magnificent garden, and there were two benches in the center of the room. For an impromptu space to work in, this was perfect. “Excellent.” Nodding her approval, she slung both packs off, taking things out and laying them in order with efficient speed. “Continue.”

  “I’m afraid Farah likely told you everything we know. Amas went out to play after lunch, just to the front courtyard of the palace, and was there for several hours. When the evening bell rang, and she didn’t return, we sent people to fetch her. It turned into a harrying search that turned up nothing. I’ve had every possible branch of magic used to search for her, or even summon her, to no avail.”

  Sevana hadn’t planned on using any of the usual tools or spells as those had likely been tried and exhausted already. Her usual method was to start off with a Point-Me spell and go from there, but there were ways of blocking that, so she’d have to do something more intensive instead.

  Turning to Farah, she dictated, “Fetch me something that Amas used a lot. Something that would have a strong scent.”

  Farah was quick on the uptake. She glanced at Grydon, put two and two together, then sprinted out the door without even nodding in acknowledgement.

  “Scent?” Firuz objected.

  “I don’t expect much from that,” Sevana admitted, her hand hovering over her tools. Hmm, what best to start with? “I’m doing it for two reasons. One, Grydon has limited experience searching out missing people that have been kidnapp
ed magically, and he’s itching to try at this.”

  Grydon gave a happy wag of the tail, front paws dancing in place.

  “See? It doesn’t hurt to let him try, either. If he does manage to pick up something, we might get an indication of which way the perpetrator fled, and right now we can use all the information we can get.”

  Not entirely sold on this, Firuz still didn’t argue, letting her do things her way.

  Sevana settled on her most powerful scrying crystal and lifted it into her hand. Concentrating, she said, “ZIIK P O VANE FO LE .”

  The crystal went blinding white as the spell activated, sparking a kaleidoscope of colors in the room as it hit the glass windows and the gold fixtures. Sevana had to blink, brow scrunching, to avoid being distracted by the light show.

  In all actuality, the crystal was not her first choice in trying to locate something or someone. It was very precise—too precise. It would show you the literal location, but if that something was in a dark crevice, or behind a piece of furniture, all you would see was darkness. Or a part of the furniture. Unless you recognized the specific area the piece was in, then the image was of no help to you whatsoever.

  The reason why Sevana used it first was simple—she wanted to see if the princess was still alive. Searching for a living being was different from searching from a corpse after all. It would also give the girl’s family time to either accept her death or hope that they would be able to get her back alive. The location itself was important, but not as much as finding out the girl’s status.

  Sevana waited for the image to appear in the facet of the crystal, then waited some more, but nothing appeared. It remained glowing in a smoky white color, flickering, searching, but not finding anything.

  She stared at it for several long moments, unbelieving what she was seeing. Never, in the entire time that Sevana had been using magic—not even in her student days—had this happened. In fact, before this moment, she’d have sworn this was impossible!

  Firuz hovered at her elbow, eyes flickering back and forth between her and the crystal. “What’s happening? What does that mean?”

  “I now understand why your magicians are maintaining that she must have been spirited away,” Sevana said slowly, shutting off the spell. “That has to be the strangest result that I have ever seen.”

  “What does it mean?!” he demanded in growing agitation.

  “I don’t know,” she admitted, making a sour face as the words left her mouth. She hated saying that, it was the one phrase she hated most in the world.

  Firuz gulped, expression going ashen. “Is she dead?”

  “No,” Sevana corrected immediately, putting the crystal back on the table. Bracing her back against the table’s edge, she tilted her head back towards the ceiling, trying to think and explain at the same time. “The crystal doesn’t differentiate between ‘alive’ and ‘dead,’ it simply searches for the object that I name. People or things don’t make any difference to it. I used it first because I wanted to see if she was still alive, maybe give me a hint of her location. But it didn’t find anything to report to me. It literally could not find her, living or dead.”

  The king’s brow furrowed as he puzzled his way through that. “But she must be one or the other.”

  “Until a minute ago, I’d have thought the same thing. But that isn’t what the crystal is telling me.” Sevana could think of two possibilities off the top of her head to explain why, but she wasn’t about to say either one of them in front of a doting father. Not until she had some hard evidence to back it up with. “Firuz, I’m going to have to do some pretty elaborate spells to try to figure out this result. Grydon’s nose just became a really good option to use as well. I need full reign of your country.”

  “You have it,” he promised her instantly. “I’ll assign someone to aid you in whatever way you need. But…you’re sure she’s not dead?”

  “Not dead,” she responded, shaking her head. “I can’t give you a quick solution or promise immediate results either. This might take a few weeks to unravel. Whoever got past your daughter’s magical protections is very crafty and did a very good job. I won’t be able to solve this overnight.”

  He looked disheartened, but as a king, he was used to things not always going as planned. “Please…find her quickly. Whatever help you need, you have.”

  “I’ll use all of it.” Sevana might put in a call to Master later if she couldn’t get to the bottom of this on her own.

  Farah burst back inside the room, a cloth lion in her hands that had seen better days. “Her favorite toy.”

  “Perfect.” Sevana took it and held it out to Grydon, letting him get a good sniff. “Go hunt. I have to get back to the workshop. The tools I brought will not be enough for the job.”

  Grydon, happy to have something to do, bounced out the door.

  Sevana, envious of his energy, paused before heading for the clock. “When I get back, I’ll need to see the area where she last was.”

  “I’ll guide you there myself,” Firuz promised.

  “Good. I’ll be back shortly.” Sevana opened the glass door and stepped through. She wouldn’t be getting much sleep in the coming days. This situation had changed from interesting to very, very dangerous. It behooved her to solve the riddle before something else disastrous happened.

  It took her very little time to get everything she needed together, shove it all into a bag, and then come back through the clock and into the palace. When she arrived, Firuz was pacing back and forth in front of the clock, hands clasped behind his back, obviously trying not to fidget and failing miserably at it. Sevana had a twinge of sympathy for what the man was going through and didn’t call him on it. Really, all things considered, he was holding up remarkably well.

  Most of what was in the bag she wouldn’t need for the search of the area. It would be for later, for the variety of tests that inevitably would need to be done. For now, she grabbed her box lens and threw the bag into the room before gesturing for Firuz to lead the way.

  He did so with an audible sigh of relief.

  Sevana got quite a few looks from the staff as they walked briskly through the hallways. In this country of black hair and dark olive skin, she stood out like a sore thumb. It was obvious at even a glance who she must be. The people they passed gave a brief, startled blink at finding her right there in front of them, then a flash of relief went across their faces before they gave an appropriate bow to their king. After they passed, there was always a flurry of low voices whispering to each other. Gossip certainly flew here.

  Firuz opened a door that let out into a large square courtyard. There was very little in the way of grass or plants of any sort, just a lot of flagstone and one fountain that dominated the center of the area. The heat was intense enough to make the air go wavy. Of all the places she had seen in the palace, this seemed the least welcoming for a child.

  “People come through here?”

  “It’s the passage way for the Small Court. Anyone that has business to discuss, such as paying taxes or settling a grievance, comes here.”

  Sevana gave the area another sweep, becoming more baffled. “She liked to play here?”

  “The water fountain was like a pool to her,” Firuz explained sadly. “She would play in it with her friends.”

  Alright, it now made more sense. The fountain really was large, very wide at the base and filled with water. It would be the perfect thing for a child to play in without risk of drowning. “Since this was a regular routine for her, that’s why you had so many protective wards set about the place?”

  Firuz didn’t seem surprised by her question. Some of them would be visible even to a nonmagical person, so of course she saw it. “Yes, that’s why. Wards against kidnapping or assassination. Weapons can’t be brought into the court anyway but I didn’t want people thinking they could just cart her off either.”

  Wise of the man. To the naked eye, these wards were intimidating. Not even a half-witted fool wou
ld dare to try anything here. With all of these protections in place, it made sense that her parents weren’t worried about her playing here. Sevana would have done the same without thinking twice about it. Even if the wards mysteriously failed, there were at least twenty guards all about that were sure to take notice of something happening and act immediately.

  Knowing that she wouldn’t be able to see what she needed to with just her naked eye, Sevana lifted the box lens to her eye and started really looking in detail at the place. She walked up and down the area, around the fountain several times, sometimes crouching to peer at the water or flagstones, sometimes going up on tiptoe and craning her neck to look at the top of the walls. But the effort was in vain. Growling out a sigh, she let the lens drop to her side.

  “Firuz, this is hopeless.”

  “You can’t pick up any hints?” The king had his fists balled into his robes. “Was the magic not strong enough? It didn’t linger?”

  “I give it even odds that it did.” Turning about, she looked for her wolf and wasn’t surprised he had already moved on. His nose had likely led him to other places. “The problem is there’s too much magic here. It all overlaps with each other, mingles, and it’s impossible to completely separate one thread of magic from the other.” Seeing that he was following, but not, she couched it in different terms. “It’s akin to looking for a needle in a stack of needles. I can’t see the one I’m looking for.”

  “Because you don’t know what it looks like to begin with,” Firuz finished with resigned understanding. “I think I see. Then this place is useless to you. It holds no answers.”

  Or hints. Yes, he was right in that regard. “There are other methods I can use to find her. I’ll start with those.”

  Lacing her fingers together, she stretched her arms out in front of her, rolling her head around and cracking her neck, getting as much tension out of her shoulders as possible. Feeling more limber, she started laying out her tools on the table. After yesterday, she’d ducked back to Big to gather more of them, as this wasn’t going to be a quick job. This would take more specialized tools.