Guin blinked. He had expected to pay far more than this; had steeled himself to pay his entire family fortune, actually. He had not expected this much generosity. "More than acceptable, Captain." He almost felt like bargaining for the captain, but restrained himself at the last moment. One didn't argue when handed a bargain. That would be foolish. "You shall have support as well."
Xiaolang looked intrigued. "Really? What support?"
"I have two people within my service that excel at finding people with magical abilities," Guin explained. "They can search for several miles around them, sometimes up to twenty miles. They will be at your disposal."
"That is a relief to hear," Xiaolang admitted with a wry smile. "I had been wondering on how to tell the magical people apart from anyone else. Rescuing people without knowing who to rescue would be a tricky business."
"I can imagine," Guin drawled. "When can your team get here?"
"They're here now," Xiaolang corrected. "They came with me. It was an easy trip down river, and they wanted a chance to play tourist. We can begin at any time."
Guin beamed, thoroughly caught up in a wave of enthusiasm. "Excellent! I shall call in the people that you'll work with. If you'll gather your team, Captain, we can meet here within an hour?"
"Perfectly acceptable, Your Majesty."
~*~
When Val Haben comes and gets me with that smile on his face, I know it’s time to quickly disappear somewhere. I probably would have, too, if he hadn't already had Chatta in tow. There's no way that I can leave my best friend in the lurch, which Haben knows and was probably counting on, which is why he got her first.
I'm not sure which is worse, being manipulated, or knowing that you're being manipulated, but unable to do anything about it.
As I followed Haben down the palace hallways, Chatta leaned in close and murmured, "Garth, do you know what this is about?"
"No idea," I answered quietly. "Do you?"
"I have a hunch," she admitted. "The last few people that came out of Chahir were in pretty bad condition. It infuriated Guin."
It had infuriated me, too, but I saw what she was getting at. "You think that he's going to do something about it, and we're part of it."
She nodded grimly.
Haben had obviously overhead us, because over his shoulder he said, "You're right."
Well, since he was confirming our suspicions, he might tell us something more. "Can you tell us anything else?"
"I'll let the King explain it," Haben said easily.
I would have persisted, but we were practically on top of Guin's study, so I let it rest. I'd get my answers soon enough.
Haben was apparently expected as he only gave a quick rap on the door before shoving it open and stepping inside. I followed him in, but stopped when I realized that there were five complete strangers in the room.
They were all wearing the black and red uniforms of an Ascalon soldier, from the Empire of Sol.
I blinked at them dumbly, exchanging a quick look of bemusement with Chatta. Well. This was something we hadn't expected.
"Good, we're all here." Guin was beaming, like a giddy child with hidden candy in his pockets. That expression made me want to run for the hills. "Chatta, Garth, this is Captain Xiaolang of the Red Hand."
I turned to see who he had indicated…and nearly swallowed my tongue in surprise. The man facing me couldn't have been much older than Chatta or me, and was obviously not Solian. I'm not sure precisely what I had been expecting as a captain…I just knew that whatever it was, he was on the other end of the spectrum.
"Captain Xiaolang," Guin continued, oblivious to my surprise, "This is Magus Rhebengarthen, and Witch L-Chattamoinita Delheart."
"Ainlie." He extended a hand in greeting, so I accepted it, hand clasping his forearm.
Then I nearly dropped it in surprise.
His eyes narrowed slightly, and the grip he had on my arm tightened. "You know what I am."
That wasn't true. I had no idea what he was; I just knew that he wasn't completely normal. He wasn't magical, precisely, but I was feeling something in him that was different, something…something that felt like the warmth of a lantern's light. "Chatta," I pleaded in a strained voice, "please tell me what I'm sensing from him."
My best friend hissed in a shocked breath. "He's Q'atalian!"
He's what?! My Jaunten blood was pouring knowledge into my head, but all of it was telling me that no Q'atalian would ever voluntarily be a soldier. I was more than surprised now, I was dumbfounded. Judging from the expression on my king's face, so was he.
"This is amazing," Xiaolang stated in growing enthusiasm. "I have no real magic in me, but you both can detect it? Well, your king has not exaggerated your abilities, certainly."
Finally it hit me what I was sensing in him. All Q'atalians were empaths—his emphatic ability was close enough to magic that I could sense it. "No magic," I confirmed hoarsely. "But you're an empath."
"Indeed," he agreed with a brilliant smile. "And I can feel both of you very clearly. King Guin," he dropped my hand and turned to face Guin. "You have given me very good people to work with."
It took a second for Guin to get his mouth working again. "Two of my best," Guin acknowledged.
I blushed at hearing this, and when I took a peek at Chatta, I saw that she was just as embarrassed as I was.
Xiaolang was apparently amused at our reactions, but took pity and diverted the conversation away from the topic. "Let me introduce the rest of the Red Hand. This is Shield Garbracen, my first lieutenant."
Shield was a stocky man with shockingly light hair and dark skin, but his manner was easy enough, the smile he gave us genuine. "Ain."
"Hazard Harewood, my Intelligence Officer," Xiaolang continued, indicating a bear of a man who was sprawled comfortably in a chair. Hazard only waved a hello and smiled, not offering a more verbal greeting, but something about him said that he was an easy person to get along with.
"Aletha Saboton, Infiltration Specialist and overall Queen of sneaky and underhanded tactics." Xiaolang flashed the woman a teasing smile.
"One day, Captain, we're going to have a little 'discussion' on the way you introduce me," Aletha promised direly.
"I look forward to it," Xiaolang promised with a mischievous wink.
She frowned at him, but smiled when she greeted us. "Ainlie." It was almost odd to see a woman in uniform, especially one as darkly lovely as Aletha was, but she somehow fit into the group with ease. She certainly had no qualms about taking her captain to task.
"And last but never least, Eagle Sevar, who is our Language Specialist."
Eagle was tall, with bleached hair and golden brown eyes. In fluent Chahirese he turned to me and said, "De Evana."
I blinked at hearing this from a Solian, but responded out of sheer reflex. "De Evana. Evana anata te dame."
I could swear his ears perked slightly. "Are you from Tobadorage?"
My jaw dropped before I could catch it. "How did you know that?"
"Your accent," he explained enthusiastically. "Everyone from Tobadorage has a habit of stressing their a's. This is wonderful; you can coach us better on how to blend in than I can."
Xiaolang was nodding in agreement. "Very helpful indeed. Having a Chahiran along will be very beneficial."
I foresaw a lot of language and cultural lessons in my foreseeable future.
Guin cleared his throat slightly to catch our attention. "Garth, Chatta, I'm sure that I don't have to explain why the Red Hand is here. You've surely guessed by now, and what role you will be playing."
We both nodded. It was fairly obvious, really. We couldn’t use magic to help rescue people out of Chahir, not without stirring up a lot of trouble. The Red Hand had been called in to do the job that we couldn’t really do; they were here to help get people out of Chahir. We were to help them find those people.
"I've set up several houses near the border, to serve as way stations for you. Haben has a map with them marked
. Garth, Chatta, I realize that this will be very time consuming. You have no other duties except to help the Red Hand."
"Understood, Sire." I thought about this for a moment, and then added, "You get to tell Trev'nor."
Guin actually growled at me. "Garth, that is hardly fair."
I smiled at him sweetly. He could assign me impossible tasks, and I couldn't argue, but that also meant he got to explain to a five year old why his adopted brother wouldn't be around for the foreseeable future.
Guin growled again, muttering darkly under his breath, but nodded in resignation.
"Anything else, Sire?" Chatta inquired politely. She was obviously amused, but was better at not gloating than I was.
"No, I'm sure you need to prepare and notify your families. I'll have the Red Hand settled into the Ambassador Inn. You'll start tomorrow morning."
It was afternoon right now. He expected us to be ready by daylight tomorrow?
The man really was a workaholic.
~*~
We hadn't set a specific time for meeting the next morning, but Captain Xiaolang struck me as a morning person, so I arrived fairly early, just in case. As it turned out, it was a good thing I did.
I entered the common room of the inn to find Captain Xiaolang already at a table, eating a very large breakfast with pleasurable enthusiasm. He looked up as I came in and waved me over with a friendly smile.
"Good morning," he greeted.
"Good morning." I slung the two saddlebags in my hands into the seat next to me before sitting at the table.
"You're quite early," the captain noted after taking a quick sip from his cup.
"I wasn't quite sure what time I should be here," I answered honestly. "So I decided to come early just in case. Chatta hasn't come yet, then?"
"No, you're the first I've seen this morning," he replied. "Would you like to join me?"
"I've already eaten, but thank you." Not as well as he was, though. I wished I had waited now.
"Forgive me if I seem nosy, but I must ask a few questions. You and Witch Delheart seem like close friends. Are you accustomed to working together?"
"Very much so," I confirmed. "We're often paired together on projects. Actually, we were in school together, and trained under some of the same teachers."
"Good, then you're aware of each other's capabilities and reactions." Satisfied, he popped a piece of bread in his mouth.
"I should warn you that we both have companions." I felt it only fair to tell him about this now. Didi warranted a lot of warning, after all. "I'm not sure if they've been mentioned or not."
"You mean your nreesce, Night, and Witch Delheart's meuritta, Didi?"
I managed to catch my jaw before it could crash land into the table. "Er, you've been told, then."
"No, but I am an information specialist. It's my job to know everything."
If that were true, then why did he need to ask me if Chatta and I were used to working with each other? "Really."
He heard the doubting tone in my voice and started laughing. "Actually, Val Haben thought to warn me about them. Where is Night? I was given the impression that he followed you everywhere."
"He went to make sure Chatta was on her way," I admitted. The captain's laugh was so infectious that I found myself smiling back at him without really meaning to. "She's not known to be coordinated in the mornings. He figured she might need some help."
"Kind of him," Xiaolang noted. "Magus, you don't strike me as a formal person. Are you?"
"Not in the least," I assured him. "Call me Garth, please."
"Very well. You can drop the 'Captain' as well. We're going to be working together a long time, so we might as well start out as friends."
I nodded in agreement. This was a man, I had the feeling, that would make an excellent friend. I had no qualms about accepting such an offer of friendship.
Someone stumbled down the stairs at that point, approaching the table in a slightly unsteady shuffle. It took a moment for me to put name together with face, but I finally remembered. Hazard Harewood. Apparently, he was not a morning person either.
Hazard stopped at the table, dropping heavily into a chair. I've never seen the walking dead before, or anything of that nature, but Hazard was doing a very good impression of one. Xiaolang didn't say a word, just handed him a mug filled with steaming tea. He indicated to me to not say anything, so I stayed quiet, and watched as the big man drained the mug dry.
It was like someone opened the storm shutters—he went from being bleary eyed and unfocused, to awake and alert. "Morning, Cap'n."
"Good morning, Hazard," Xiaolang returned with a twinkle in his eyes. "Welcome back to the land of the living."
"Oh ha-ha," Hazard returned. His hands were already moving, filling a plate of food for himself. "Good morning, Magus."
"Garth," I corrected him. "I'm not a formal person. And a good morning to you, as well."
"Call me Hazard, then," the Solian replied cheerfully. "Where's the beautiful Witch?"
"On her way," I responded confidently, although I wasn't entirely sure if that were the case or not.
"Where's the rest of the team?" Xiaolang countered.
"Shield was making groaning noises, so I'm pretty sure he's up and moving," Hazard reported while putting away food at an alarming rate. "Aletha was shaking Eagle awake last I saw."
Xiaolang shook his head in exasperation. "How late did Eagle stay up studying?"
"I dunno, Cap'n, but when I went to sleep around one this morning, he was still at it."
"Eagle hasn't actually spoken Chahirese in a year or so," Xiaolang explained to me. "He's been studying it ever since we heard about this mission, but he doesn't feel that he's comfortable enough to pass as a native anymore. Do me a favor and spend some time coaching him, otherwise I'll have to take his books away from him."
"I'll work with him as we ride west," I assured him. "Actually, I'll work with all of you as we ride."
"Good idea," Xiaolang approved.
Aletha was the next to descend, followed closely by Shield. They were more awake than Hazard had been, so I ventured a friendly good morning, and received one in return.
"And how is Eagle?" Xiaolang inquired of Aletha.
"Blood shot and wet from the waist up," Aletha reported with rolled eyes. "I had to douse him with cold water to get any sort of reaction. Captain, take his books away, otherwise he'll be like this all the way to Chahir."
"Garth will work with him," Xiaolang promised her. "That should distract him from the books."
I had been keeping an eye on the door, so I saw Chatta when she came in. She wasn't entirely awake yet, judging by the dull look in her eyes, but she was moving all right. I moved my saddlebags so she could have a place to sit.
Didi wasn't awake at all, but draped across Chatta's shoulders, like some sort of woman's fur stole.
"Morning," she greeted as she sank into a seat.
"Not 'good morning'?" I teased.
"No, because there's nothing good about mornings," she growled back at me.
"Diii," Didi muttered in dark agreement. Oh, so he was awake? Well, sort of.
Night nudged the door open and came in, looking bright eyed and bushy tailed, as usual. "Good morning."
Everyone at the table but Chatta and I jumped, whipping around to stare at him. A bemused smile quirked the corners of my mouth as I took in this extreme reaction. "Xiaolang, I thought Haben told you about Night?"
Xiaolang managed to get his mouth working again. "He failed to mention he was a telepath."
That was so typical of Haben. "Ah. Well, he is. He's also a Breaker—if he hits anything with both hooves at the same time, whatever he hits will break."
"That's handy," Hazard noted. "Ain, Night. I'm Hazard Harewood."
"A pleasure, Hazard."
Belatedly, I finished the introductions. There were polite greetings, and I could tell by the way that Night studied Xiaolang that he was intrigued by the man. I had filled him
in the night before, while doing some very quick packing, so he knew what the captain was. He was being studied in return by everyone at the table. Night didn't seem to mind, probably sensing that it was because they were curious about him as well.
Eagle finally made his appearance, looking very sleep deprived. By mutual consent, no one talked to him until he had downed three cups of tea. Once he looked semi-intelligent again, Xiaolang gave him a pointed look and a droll, "Good morning, Eagle."
"Er…morning, Captain." The blond was wearing a very sheepish expression.
"Do I have to take your books away from you?"
Eagle flushed and ducked his head. "Sorry, sir. I've just forgotten a lot, and to be really prepared for going into Chahir—"
Xiaolang raised a hand, stopping him. "Eagle, stop, I'm not upset. But leave your books packed, all right? Magus Rhebengarthen has promised to work with all of us as we travel. He's a better way of reviewing Chahirese than your books, anyway."
Eagle shot me a grateful look. "You don't mind, Magus?"
"Garth," I corrected. "And no, it will be my pleasure."
"Thanks," Eagle responded happily. The look he gave his captain included him in that thank you.
"Good," Xiaolang stated with satisfaction. "Then eat, I don't want to hear any hungry stomachs later. Garth, only Eagle has ever actually set foot in Chahir. What can you tell us about the country?"
"It's colder than Hain," I answered promptly. "With it approaching fall like it is, we'll need heavy coats and gloves. And hats. Hats are very popular in Chahir."
"It'll help to cover our hair as well," Aletha noted. "Eagle and Shield won't have a problem, being blonds, but the rest of us won't blend in as well."
"There are a few brunettes that crop up from time to time," I ruminated thoughtfully as I looked over the group. "Xiaolang could pass, with his fair skin, but you and Hazard won't have a prayer. You're just too dark."
Magus (Advent Mage Cycle) Page 2