The Scofflaw Magician (The Artifactor Book 3)

by Honor Raconteur

  Swallowing hard, she forced her voice to remain level, her feet to stay where they were. “That’s a separate matter.” Sevana hadn’t even been given the information she’d requested, after all. But he was right; even knowing that she now had the right to ask, she wasn’t sure if it was wise to do so. One word from the Book of Truth held unbelievable power. What would happen if she made a whole bottle of the ink? She wasn’t completely immune to theft, try as she might to safeguard her stores, and having that much power just lying about in her (un)organized storerooms seemed the height of folly.

  “Is that right,” he repeated, this time indulging.

  Uncomfortable for some reason, she cleared her throat. “Are we being called for?”

  “Just now the message came through that they were ready for us.”

  “Give me a moment.” Turning sideways, she slipped past him and headed for her room. It took a few minutes to put her clothes away, pull boots back on, and pin her hair up. But with that done, she needed nothing more than her bag of tools. Grabbing it, she stepped back out and found that Aran was already waiting on her.

  He straightened at her entrance, his gaze unnaturally focused on the door. “Ready?”

  The moment before had not quite left yet. She still felt like he had the ability to see right through her even with his head facing the opposite direction. Sevana kicked that thought out only for her mind to notice something else entirely. Now that she was paying attention, his hair was also wet, fresh clothes on. Had he bathed somewhere else? He must have. Sevana grumbled mentally and jerked her mind back on task again. Really, what was wrong with her today? “I’m ready.”

  “Then let us go.”

  “Aran.”

  “Yes, Sevana.”

  “You should have warned me about the lizards.”

  “They are komodo dragons.”

  “They are lizards that are the size of a horse and are poisonous. Poisonous lizards that are eyeing me like I would make a good after-dinner snack. And you should have warned me.”

  Aran was very careful not to smile but she knew he was laughing internally at her. “They are nice lizards. They won’t bite.”

  She eyed the two komodo dragons with distinct distrust. They really were huge, not perhaps as big as a horse, but still quite large. They were a color close to granite grey, reptilian eyes focused on her with unswerving attention. If not for the two Fae that were standing right next to her, she would have pulled out a wand and frozen them on the spot. Alas, her hosts would likely be displeased with her for doing so.

  Forus was the guardian of the storerooms, or something equivalent to it, and it had been he that Alyan had taken them to. He was much older than any of the Fae she had met, his pale skin and hair looking more translucent than real, giving him the air of a breathing ghost. Still, he was the first to greet her with a perfectly human handshake, which put her somewhat at ease with him.

  “The komodo dragons are the second line of defense to our storerooms,” Forus informed her in his thin, wispy voice. “The first of course being the forest itself.”

  Sevana would have thought that an exaggeration if not for the fact that she had seen the forest act as a barrier with her own eyes.

  “How easy is it to get past them?” she asked Forus, keeping a weather eye on the lizards as she spoke.

  “It is not.”

  That was probably Fae-speak for ‘impossible.’ Right.

  Forus turned to the komodo dragons and said something in a hissing string of sounds. At least, she assumed he was speaking to them, as they reacted as if they understood exactly what he said. They turned as one, putting their backs to the group, and split up to go around different sides of the building.

  For once, it was an actual building, made of layers of stone. It was so perfectly laid that she couldn’t find a trace of mortar anywhere, the chinks fitting neatly together. It was not of a stone that she recognized, and Sevana assumed it to be a native rock of this region. All around the top of the flat roof was a canal of water, which let out over the doorway in a small waterfall that was caught and carried around another canal that went around the base of the building. It looked as if they had taken advantage of a natural brook, or would have, if it didn’t wrap around perfectly.

  “The water, I take it, is another defense?”

  “Running water is powerful, a connecting force, and we use it to power the shield that is in place here.” Forus gave her a discerning study. “You know this.”

  “Running water is something I use often in my spells and devices,” she admitted frankly.

  “Then elements of nature are used in human magic?”

  “Often. They are the most powerful after all.”

  Forus didn’t respond but she could see him mentally tuck that information away.

  “You haven’t seen any signs that someone disturbed this place?” she asked, already pulling out her lens to do a quick study.

  “We have not. It was not until Aranhil spoke to us that we even thought to check our stores. It was…alarming to see a vial of ink missing.”

  Alarming was a mild way of stating it, or so she gathered. Lifting the lens to her eye, she studied the building from top to bottom and back again. The information that scrawled across the glass was interesting, to say the least. Sevana let out a low whistle. “Powerful shield you have here.”

  “How powerful, in human terms?” Aran asked her.

  “A fourteen,” she answered, not lowering her lens. “In human terms, we call these anti-spells, because anything higher than a twelve breaks the laws of magic and becomes something else entirely. If this were made by humans, I’d be frantically trying to find a way to either contain it or break it, as it would be highly volatile. But this is so well balanced, it’s obviously not going to do anything but what it’s intended to do.”

  “Can a human get past this shield, then?” Forus sounded worried about this possibility.

  “Theoretically, yes.” She lowered the lens to shake her head. “But gentlemen, I wouldn’t fret about it. It would take a powerful magician with the skills of an Artifactor to do so, and even then, he’d need weeks to sit here and try different approaches before succeeding. Which your lizards would not allow. No, he didn’t do this in the traditional way. I see no traces of magic around this place, either.”

  Aran frowned thoughtfully. “Would they still be here?”

  “We’re talking about a spell that would be powerful enough to dismantle something that’s on an anti-spell rating. Oh yes. Traces would remain for several months afterwards. And it would be quite the fireworks when he set it off, too. The theft would have been noticed if he used human magic to breach this shield.”

  “That is an excellent point,” Forus allowed. “So what now?”

  “Now, you lower that shield so I can take a look inside.” Sevana hefted her box lens in her hand, ideas starting to whirl in her mind. “Forus, can I examine how you do this?”

  “You may watch, yes.” His tone indicated she wouldn’t be able to see much.

  Sevana would take as much as she could get. Lifting the lens to her eye, she watched as carefully as she could as Forus began to lower the shield. He didn’t do a single thing on a physical level, it was more like he opened his internal core so that the shield recognized who approached. Seeing even that brief glimpse inside of a Fae shocked her system as intensely as being hit by a meteorite. Sevana hissed in a breath, rocking back on her heels, reeling from the mental blow.

  A warm hand settled at the small of her back, keeping her upright. “I think,” Aran noted carefully, “that she is able to see far more than we gave her credit for.”

  Sevana ignored him and dropped down to her heels, frantically digging out a journal from her bag and a pencil. Ignoring both men, she wrote at lightning speed, recording everything that she could remember about that split second. It was sadly only three paragraphs but it was still three paragraphs more than any human had ever been able to figure out about the F
ae.

  “Sevana…” Aran said in a warning tone.

  “This will not be shown to anyone other than me and my master,” she swore, sticking the pencil in the pages and closing the journal. “But you must understand, everything I learn here is vital to unraveling this mystery. I dare not ignore anything.” And Master would kill her if she didn’t pass this along.

  Forus’s brows were drawn together in a tight frown. “This human magician could not duplicate our magic.”

  “We don’t know what he did,” she corrected, getting back to her feet. “We know he didn’t use human magic. That’s all we know. Did he transform himself into something that the shield wouldn’t recognize as a danger?”

  Forus shook his head before she could trot the full question out. “The shield bars all from entering, animals and elements alike.”

  Well that was a good thing to know. “Then the only other option we have is that he somehow found a way to mimic a Fae’s core energy. He did something to convince the shield that he was one of you, and should be allowed to pass.” Seeing the twin looks of disbelief on their faces, she growled, “Like it or not, that’s the only option we have left. As impossible as it seems, that’s what he did. Also, for the record? I’ve seen this man do something impossible three other times so it would be very unwise to underestimate him. He’s crafty. Evil, but crafty.”

  Forus really didn’t like this idea, and Aran was close to swearing, but they didn’t argue with her which must have meant they understood that she was at least partially correct. Without another word, Forus focused on the shield again, and the water stopped in its tracks. The waterfall ceased so that they could enter without getting sopping wet, which Sevana appreciated.

  They stepped inside, her head turning about so she could get a good look at the place. For a place of magic, it was sadly like every other storeroom in existence. There were rows upon rows of shelves, items of different sorts stacked neatly on them, sometimes labeled, sometimes not. Sevana was dying to open a few boxes and bottles and take a look at things, but she had an idea she’d be kicked out immediately if she tried it, so she quelled the impulse. Forus led them to the back wall before stepping to one side, indicating an empty spot.

  There were twelve identical vials that looked like small perfume bottles, dark and delicate. Or she should say, there used to be twelve, but there was an empty spot in the front. There was no dust on these shelves, so it was impossible to say how much time had elapsed. “When was the last time that someone did an inventory of this place?”

  “Six months ago, in human terms.”

  “So it could have been missing for six months and no one would have noticed?”

  Forus pursed his lips together. “No, I think not. I fetched something here four months ago and I would have noticed a vial missing at that time.”

  “Four months,” she repeated thoughtfully, staring at that empty spot. “Yes, I think that’s about the right time frame. It would take about four months for him to make all the preparations and act on it.” Taking her lens back out of her pocket, she studied the whole area for a long moment. “Ahhh, he wasn’t as careful here. I’m seeing a trace of his magical core.”

  “This is good?” Aran sounded hopeful.

  “It’s strange, is what it is.” Sevana lowered the lens, staring blindly ahead as she pulled up several memories. “It’s him, I know it’s him, but it’s not at the same time.”

  Aran and Forus exchanged confused glances before Aran admitted, “I don’t understand.”

  “I’m not sure if I do,” Sevana grumbled sourly. “He definitely changed his magical core somehow. My hypothesis earlier is now validated. The reading is different than it was before. But part of it is identical.”

  “Changing the core, is that difficult?”

  “No, it’s deadly. Impossible. You either kill yourself or you burn out your magical core trying. Until this moment, I would have sworn that no human alive had managed it.” Sevana lifted the lens to her eye again, taking another long look at the scene. But the numbers and information didn’t change. “This is vexing. How did he do this?”

  “Perhaps you are mistaken?” Aran offered.

  Sevana shook her head in firm denial. “I am a prodigy in my field, Aran. Believe me, if this was possible, I’d know about it. This man, whoever he is, has found a way to bend the rules of nature enough to change his very core. He’s either insane or stupid. Possibly both.”

  “What now?” Forus asked. He sounded and looked disturbed, as if this whole situation was giving him nightmares.

  “Now, I set this problem aside.” Seeing their frustration, she shrugged, smile twisting in a not unsympathetic way. “Gentlemen, as much as we would all like to know how he got in here, it’s not the main point right now. The fact is he did get in, took something that no human should have their hands on, and did unimaginable damage with it. We can figure out how he did it later, at our leisure. Right now, I know what I need to—it’s him. Now you need to give me the rest of the information that I’m missing. How is the ink made? I don’t need the exact process, but I do need the elements and their individual power levels.”

  Forus squared off with her, mouth in a flat line. “After you know this and reverse what has been done?”

  She heard the unspoken part of that question and answered, “I will come straight back here and figure out how he got in. Believe me, I don’t want this situation to happen in the future. It’s giving me chills to think someone can duplicate this, somehow. I want to plug this hole in your defenses as much as you do.”

  That satisfied him although there was still a twitch in one eye that suggested he wouldn’t sleep well in the next few nights. “Then I will tell you how the ink is made.”

  Of course Forus didn’t tell her right there on the spot. He led her out of the storeroom, setting the shield back in place, and then called the lizards to him. Both komodo dragons settled their chins into his hands for a good scratch and rub, which he did with an indulgent smile on his face. It was clear he was setting them back at guard while also giving them praise for doing their jobs. It reminded her eerily of how she interacted with Big, Baby, and Grydon.

  With that set, he took her off to another side of the woods and into a different building entirely. This one didn’t have a shield around it, but it did have another pair of komodo dragons, these even larger than the other set. Or maybe it seemed that way to her. Was that all the Fae used in this region of the world? Giant lizards as guard dogs?

  Forus greeted these comfortably, with more scratches being exchanged, and then led his guests into the building. This one wasn’t as large as the other, or organized in the same way. Instead, the shelves were all along the wall with two stone tables in the center of the room. The tables were so naturally there it was like they were grown from the bedrock. Even the smell was different—a musty sort of scent, which she associated with being in caves. He motioned for her to stay at the table, and then he went to different shelves, gathering up vials in the crook of his elbow before coming back and depositing them in front of her.

  “There are two elements missing,” he informed her as he sat each bottle down with a soft clink. “We mix a drop of our own blood into it and fresh spring water.”

  Sevana’s eyes nearly crossed. “You put your own blood into the ink?” No wonder it had such innate power! “Ah, you do realize that I’ll need a sample? A prick of your finger will do.”

  Without a word, Aran withdrew a short dagger from the sheath at his waist and pricked his thumb.

  Swearing, she scrambled for an empty vial in her bag. “You idiot, give me some warning! There’s no need for you to bleed all over the floor.”

  “We heal quickly,” Aran drawled, not the least bit concerned but somewhat amused at her panicked reaction.

  Pressing the mouth of a vial against his thumb, she caught several drops and stoppered it. “Then heal. I’m good with this amount.”

  Mouth quirked, he nodded. She notice
d that the skin was already closing. What, did they heal by sheer willpower?

  Putting aside that disturbing thought, she focused instead on the blood. According to her box lens, it held a seven power rating. Well, it was nearly an eight. She’d expected it to be somewhere around a seven, though, considering what the Fae were. Digging her journal back out, she recorded that information, asking as she did so, “What is the proper way to store Fae blood? Do I need to keep it cold? Does it react well to stasis spells?”

  “The blood will be fine and unsoiled unless it is mixed in with something else. This stasis spell you speak of, it is a way for humans to preserve something?” Forus waited for her nod before saying, “I have no knowledge of a human trying this on Fae blood. While I am unsure what it will do, my guess would be, not much.”

  “Then it’s fine in this vial?”

  “It is.”

  Well that made transporting and storing it easier on her. Although she planned to be very careful with it. Heaven knew what an evil man could do with Fae blood. “Then let me see what else we have here.” Setting the vial down, she picked up another and examined it. “Pine tree resin, it looks like, from a thousand year old tree?”

  Forus gave her a small smile, like an uncle would a young niece. “Indeed.”

  “That has a four, no surprise. And this is—” she picked up the vial and unstopped it, taking a look inside. Sevana didn’t even need her box lens to know what this was. “Dragon’s ash. How old is it?”

  Forus now looked semi-impressed. “You know at a glance?”

  “Not the first time I’ve handled it,” she explained.