"I can do something about that," Chatta offered in a questioning tone.
Xiaolang leaned forward so he could see around me, and look directly at her. "Oh? In what way?"
"There are potions that can turn a person's skin and hair into different colors," she informed him. "They only last about twelve hours, but I can make them look Chahiran." She paused suddenly and gave me a concerned look. "Will they be able to detect that?"
"I'm not sure," I said slowly.
"Witch Delheart, you're speaking cryptically," Xiaolang complained.
"Chatta," she corrected him with a slight smile. "I'm not a formal person either. But in answer, Chahir has ways of detecting when magic is used."
"Which is how they hunt down magical people," Aletha said in sudden understanding.
I nodded in grim acknowledgement. "The only time I triggered the alarms, it was something very minor. Those alarms are very sensitive. Still, I'm not sure if potions would be enough to give you away. Potions are not active magic, not really. There's no build up of power when you use them, which is what I think actually sets those alarms off."
"But you're not sure," Xiaolang stated, his eyes searching mine.
"No," I was forced to admit. "That part of the process, how they detect magic, has always been a closely guarded secret. I'm not precisely sure how they do it."
"If we're to have a prayer of success, we better figure it out," Shield noted.
"Hazard," Xiaolang commanded quietly. "That will be your task."
Hazard nodded once. "Understood, sir."
"I'll help you with that," Chatta volunteered. "I have ways of detecting magic too."
He blinked, but smiled in pleasure. "I appreciate that, Chatta."
"She's better at it than I am," I told him. "But if I can help, I'll be pleased to do so." With sadistic cheer, I added, "And I'll be more than pleased to help destroy their detection system, whatever it is."
The look in Hazard's eyes said he understood why, but he didn't say anything, just nodded.
"What else, Garth?" Xiaolang prompted.
"Chahir is rather flat, for the most part," I answered after a beat. "The south has some mountains and forests, but most of it is grassland or farmland of some sort. It makes it difficult to hide, and difficult to cross." That was the voice of experience. It had been nerve wracking covering the distance between Tobadorage and the Black Ridge Mountains. I had been sure someone would spot me and chase me down. "Each province is like a state unto itself, with its own culture and rules. The small villages are especially wary of strangers. I only visited a few, usually when I went to see relatives, and I was under suspicion the entire time. Even though people knew who I was."
"Paranoid villagers," Shield drawled with a roll of his eyes. "I hate dealing with paranoid villagers."
I agreed with him. It made our job harder. "If you do get questioned, or stopped for any reason, the safest thing to do is say that you're a mapmaker."
"Mapmaker?" Hazard repeated dubiously.
Eagle was the only one that was nodding, apparently knowing what I was referring to. "Yes, of course! Brilliant, Garth." Seeing his teammate's confusion, he leapt into an explanation. "You see, all the province's lords—Doms, they're called—are in constant conflict with their neighbors about where their borders actually are. The government has gotten tired of their arguments, as they usually lead to blood feuds. They've hired a number of people to go in when requested, and measure out the full lay of the province. But they always hire foreigners, or people from across the country, so that the mapmaker isn't partial to one Dom or another."
"So," Xiaolang said in understanding, "they actually expect the foreigner to be a mapmaker. Good cover story. Everyone, buy the necessary supplies to draw maps with and carry it with you. I want us to be able to back our stories up."
"There's not much else I can tell you now," I said, while thoughtfully rubbing the tips of my fingers together. "I'll coach you on customs and language as we go. One important thing to keep in mind, however, is this—do not touch people unless you can't help it."
Eagle nearly choked on his tea. "Ye gods, I nearly forgot about that! It's a huge culture taboo they have."
"Not a taboo, it's just really rude," I denied. "Touching someone casually means that you are very close to them. Unless the other person will be injured or something if you don't touch them, then avoid it as much as possible."
"That includes handshakes," Chatta added dryly. I gave her a wry smile, as she had been through this speech before, three months ago. The no-touching rule had been a hard one for her to get used to, as she was a rather physically demonstrative person. "Bow when you meet someone."
"Somehow," Xiaolang noted dryly, "I get the feeling that this mission is going to get very interesting."
After breakfast, we did some last minute shopping, mostly for those map making supplies. Chatta was by far the most comfortable person about shopping in Del’Hain, so I went with her to pick up the supplies. We rendezvoused in the stable yard at the Ambassador Inn with the Red Hand.
Have you ever come face to face with something that you believed to be a legend, or a myth? I took a long look at the creature in front of me, and still had a hard time convincing myself that my eyes weren’t lying to me.
Dragoo.
I could not believe it. There was an actual dragoo standing not ten feet away from me!
Chatta saw what I did and stumbled to a halt, gasping. “That’s a dragoo!”
Eagle was saddling a horse nearby, and obviously overheard her, because he turned around to comment, “Yes, it is. Didn’t you know? All captains in the Empire ride dragoos, as a sign of their rank.”
Actually, I hadn’t known that. The Jaunten didn’t exactly deal much with Solians, so my information about them was sketchy.
I hadn’t seen more than a textbook illustration, but this dragoo at least seemed to match what I had studied. He was roughly fifteen feet long, from head to tail, and covered in thick black scales. His head was long and elongated, similar in shape to a dragon’s head, only slimmer and without all of the ridges. His body was long, but slim, with four feet ending in razor sharp claws. He stood nearly as high as a horse, although his back was lower to the ground.
Unlike all of the descriptions, he was not acting ferocious, but was currently pressed up against Xiaolang’s chest and whining pitifully.
“Will you quit?” Xiaolang demanded in obvious exasperation. “If you eat anymore, you’ll be sick later, you know you will.”
“Bacon,” the dragoo mourned in pitiful tones.
“You had three pounds of bacon, Hayate!” Xiaolang responded, running one hand roughly through his hair. “That’s more than enough, now quit.”
The dragoo pouted—and believe me, on a creature with long fangs, a pout is a very alarming expression—and pulled away from his captain.
Xiaolang, now that he wasn’t distracted by his dragoo, saw that we had arrived and waved us closer. “Garth, Chatta, this is my dragoo, Hayate. I already introduced him to Night.”
I had to wonder about Night’s reaction to meeting Hayate, but I could ask him later.
Before I could respond, Hayate’s head snapped around, his amber eyes fixating on Didi. He gave a low hum, and a long, forked tongue licking his lips appreciatively.
Didi took one look at that hungry expression and shrieked in alarm. He rapidly scrambled behind Chatta’s head and attempted to burrow himself under her cloak.
“Hayate!” Xiaolang snapped out sharply. “You will not eat the meuritta.”
“Nekon,” Hayate said dreamily.
“No, it is not a nekon, it is a meuritta,” Xiaolang explained firmly. “Meurittas are not something you can eat. Especially this meuritta. Understand?”
Hayate did not appreciate this order, and he grumbled in dark dissatisfaction.
“Sorry,” Xiaolang apologized to Chatta. “It’s just that there are cat-like creatures in Libendorf, and Dragoos are used to thinki
ng of nekons as food. Didi looks rather similar to a nekon, aside from the wings and tail, so Hayate thinks he’s a snack. But you needn’t worry, Hayate is very well trained, and he knows better than to countermand my orders.”
Chatta nodded dubiously. She was still trying to reach behind her and extract the meuritta, but he had thoroughly burrowed into her hood and wasn’t budging. “All the same, I think it’s a good idea to keep him well fed.”
“Wise idea,” Xiaolang muttered to himself. Clearing his throat, he changed subjects. “Now, I assume that you’ve got all of the necessary supplies?”
“Everything,” I assured him.
“Good, let’s pack that up and we’ll move out.”
It took a few minutes to get everything packed and everyone mounted, and then we followed Xiaolang out of the yard. It was truly odd to see him riding the dragoo. The saddle that he used was completely compact, folding the rider up so that he rested completely on the dragoo’s back, and the gait was more of a side-to-side motion, like how a cat would move. It made me sea sick just looking at it. However, he seemed to be very fast—his movement appeared slow and effortless, but he was keeping up with everyone else just fine.
Didi was still clinging to Chatta’s neck and staring at Hayate in wide eyed fear. I felt sorry for him; it couldn’t be comfortable traveling with something that thought you were a nice after dinner snack.
Night and I were apparently thinking along the same lines, because my nreesce tilted his head slightly and said, “Didi, if you need to, you can come to me for protection, all right?”
The meuritta’s ears perked and he stopped cringing for a moment. “Di?”
“I don’t think he’ll do anything, not with his captain saying he can’t, but I’ll let you ride me if he’s scaring you.”
Didi chattered happily, and while I didn’t speak meuritta-ese, he seemed to be accepting the offer. After that he settled down some. Chatta gave Night a smile of pure gratitude, which made him prance a little in pride.
We’d barely cleared the city’s limits when Eagle came up to ride beside me.
“So Garth, explain the difference between imashite and doimashite. They’re both used to say ‘you’re welcome’ but is one more formal than the other? As far as I can tell, they’re used interchangeably.”
I looked at that attentive, curious expression and knew that this conversation was going to take a while.
Chapter Two: Rapport
We really should have seen this coming.
After riding most of the day, we'd found a nice clearing off the road and settled in for the night. Chatta and I were in the habit of erecting personal barriers around ourselves as we slept, as much for protection from bandits, as protection from Didi's pranks.
We just hadn't considered protecting everyone else the same way.
I woke up that morning to Chatta's voice growling, "…you are the most impossible creature! I should never have let you spend so much time with Trev'nor."
Hmmm. That didn’t sound good. I dragged my eyelids open and turned until I could see my friend. She was currently holding Didi up by his waist, and was scolding him ferociously. She seemed fine, though, so I was a little confused as to what Didi had done…until I looked over and saw Aletha.
The beautiful Solian officer was sporting not one, not two, but three Tonkowacon braids in her dark hair. Didi had put his grubby little hands on some ribbons, somehow, and given Aletha one braid to signify that she was an adult, another to signify that she was in the military, and the last to indicate that she was an officer in that military.
I groaned as the situation became clear, and dropped back to my bedroll. "Not again."
"He does this often, then?" Xiaolang inquired dryly.
"Not often, but he has done it before," I explained. I was looking around the group as I responded, seeing if Didi had tampered with anyone else, but apparently their hair had been too short for him to braid anything into it. Luckily for them! With a groan I rolled out of my bedroll and up to my feet. "He has a friend that is Tonkowacon, and taught him how to do all the braids."
"Ah, I thought they looked familiar." Xiaolang was studying the scene with amusement.
"Since this has happened before, you know how to get them out, right?" Aletha asked me plaintively while gently tugging on one of the braids in her hair.
I looked at the situation, thinking it over. Aletha had no magic in her whatsoever, so the solution that we had tried with Kartal all those months ago would actually work with her. "You can't untie those braids, but we can cut them out and Chatta will grow your hair out to the right length again."
She blinked. "You can do that with magic?"
"I can't," I confessed with an easy shrug. "But she can."
"Ah yes, we need to talk about that." Xiaolang had been pouring himself a cup of water from a canteen, but at this statement he looked up at me. "What precisely is the difference between a Mage and a Witch? I know that she needs some sort of tool to focus her magic, but are there other differences?"
"Many." I unstrapped a dagger from my saddlebags and set about cutting the braids out of Aletha's hair as I answered him. "A Mage's power is very different in nature than a Witch's. Everything has latent energy in it, and she can tap into all of that energy and change things according to her will. My power is more focused. I can only tap into the latent power of the earth itself."
Our conversation was garnering everyone's interest, and it was Shield that said the obvious. "So if its not dirt or stone, you can't do anything with it?"
"For the most part, yes, that's precisely right. There are a few exceptions, of course. I can use magical devices made by someone else. I can alter plants some, as they are a part of the earth. And I can sense people, especially magical people, at quite some distance." The last braid fell free and I stepped back. "There, done."
Chatta came forward and pointed her wand at Aletha's head. "Hold still. Grow."
The hair grew quickly, reaching shoulder length within seconds. Chatta stopped it there and looked at her handiwork critically. "Does that look right to you?"
I thought it was perfectly the right length. "Looks fine."
"Good." Dropping her wand, she smiled sheepishly at Aletha. "I am sorry about this. I'll put him in a special barrier from now on, so he can't work any mischief at night."
"I think we'll all appreciate that," Aletha noted wryly.
Chatta didn't refute the statement, just smiled. "One thing Garth didn't mention," she turned to look at Xiaolang, "is that we can both erect different types of barriers. We can shield against power, weapons, and even weather. Those shields can be tied to a building, or they can be mobile, and move as we move."
"They'll set off the alarms in Chahir, of course," I added. "But if we do need protection of some sort, you should know that we have the ability."
The Captain was listening to all of this attentively. "Is it draining?" Xiaolang asked. "How long can you sustain them?"
I shared a look with Chatta. "Um, that depends?" I offered tentatively.
"I can hold mine for hours without it becoming a strain," Chatta answered with a thoughtful look at me. "Wards on a building take a life of their own—we don't have to sustain them, and they last as long as the building does. Garth's shields…hmmm."
"I've never tired of holding my shields," I answered slowly as I thought the situation through. "But I've never had to hold mine for more than a day or so at a time."
Xiaolang nodded, but kept pressing the point. "But how long do you think you can hold them? A guess is fine. I just need to have an idea of your capabilities."
"I doubt he'll ever grow tired." Chatta was looking at me thoughtfully. "Your shields are powered by the earth's power, right?"
I nodded in confirmation. "I could hold them indefinitely, assuming that I'm not injured or knocked unconscious, of course."
"Interesting," Shield noted quietly as he studied both of us with solemn eyes. "Brute strength and subtle power, e
h?"
"To sum it all up in a pretty package…yes," I answered easily.
"While we're on this topic," Shield continued with a quick glance at his captain, "are you able to defend yourselves without magic?"
"Its part of our training," Chatta answered with an emphatic nod. "We actually go through weapons training at school. I'm not really good at hand to hand combat, I lean more towards archery."
"She's a very good marksman, though." I grinned at her when she blushed and shot me a look. "I use a bon'a'lon."
I got a few blank looks at that, so I snatched my bon'a'lon up from where it had been resting near my abandoned bedroll. I took three steps away from everyone—hitting someone accidentally with this weapon would be a bad thing—and hit the release spell.
In sheer instinctive reaction, every Red Hand member reached for their own weapons when the bon'a'lon snapped out to its full extension. Then they realized what they had done and slowly took their hands away again.
"Now that," Hazard noted with a growing smile, "is impressive."
"Captain," Shield had a pleading expression on his face, "can I have one?"
"I doubt it will work without a Mage's power to back it up," Xiaolang drawled, his eyes cutting over to me for confirmation.
"It does take magic to open and close it," I replied to that silent query. Shield's face fell, and I couldn't help but try to console him a little. "Chatta might think of a way to make it work, though."
"Perhaps," she agreed, running an absent finger along her chin. "Let me think on it a while."
"You needn't spend much time on that," Xiaolang advised. "He has more than enough toys." Shield pouted at this, but his captain ignored the expression with the ease of long practice. "For now, let's pack up and get back on the road. I want to reach the Elkhorn River by tonight."
~*~
Once we did reach the Elkhorn River, Xiaolang hired a boat to take us toward Chahir. Since it was a faster and easier way to travel, none of us argued with him.
Magus (Advent Mage Cycle) Page 3