“Actually, this is very similar to the barrier he put up around Q’atal,” Shad told him. “Only, of course, that one was much larger.”
I shrugged in wry agreement. “All shields are very similar in nature to each other. It’s how you put them up, and how you maintain them, that makes the most difference.”
“So why can we not touch these shields, but people could pass through the shield you put up around Q’atal?” Xiaolang frowned in obvious puzzlement.
“Um…” I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to think of a good way to explain this. “Intent?”
Chatta, wonderful woman that she is, came to my rescue. “Shields that we put up around places—wards, we call them—are made so that people can pass through them safely. Our only intention when putting the spell into place is to keep certain people out. Personal shields like these, however, aren’t meant to be as flexible. Actually, they have several layers to them. The one you can see is the weapons shield. But there are two others in there that you can’t see—one against magic, and one against power backlashes.”
Something visibly clicked for Xiaolang. “That’s why you wanted the shield! To protect us from any magical attacks.”
That’s what I like about him. He’s quick on the uptake. I nodded. “Just a precaution.”
“It’s also why it hurts if you touch the shield,” Chatta offered. “There’s too much magic for a normal person to handle.”
“Although Xiaolang might be able to handle it,” I speculated. After all, the Q’atalian children had been able to sense it when they jumped in and out of the barrier. Q’atalians might have enough magic to deal with a Mage’s personal shields.
Xiaolang held up a hand. “Forgive me, but I have no desire to test that theory out.”
“Chicken!” Shad teased.
“I’m not a masochist,” Xiaolang growled back. With a glare at Shad—which bounced right off, having no effect whatsoever—he directed another question to me. “So when will we be close enough to see past the glamour?”
I spread my hands helplessly. “That depends where the source of the spell is.”
“And that could be anywhere,” Chatta moaned.
Xiaolang cast a concerned look toward the sky. “We don’t have much daylight left. How safe can it be to stay on this mountain tonight?”
“Very safe, if you let me put up wards around our campsite,” Chatta told him.
His eyes were solemn and wary as he looked around us. “I think you’d better do just that.”
~*~
It was a cold, quiet camp that night. We all felt uneasy on the mountain, as we had no idea what might appear and get us. We all spent one hour on watch, despite the wards that Chatta had cast around us.
Hayate was by far the warmest out of the group, with his blanket that Chatta made him. It had taken her a while but she had finally figured out how to attach a non-traceable heating charm to it. That being the case, everyone wanted to sleep next to him. People were down to drawing lots to see who could sleep with Hayate when Chatta lost all patience and spent the next half hour attaching charms to everyone’s blankets.
Still, even with the blankets, I woke up feeling chilled the next morning. I looked up at the cold, clear sky, and gave a resigned sigh.
Winter had set into Chahir.
Busted buckets!
I dressed very warmly that morning, anticipating that I would be rather cold the rest of the day. I truly envied Night and Didi for their fur coats.
Chatta had pity on a shivering Hayate that morning and cast a general heating charm over him, so he wouldn’t absolutely freeze. For her generosity, he rubbed his head against her chest and kept saying, “Nice Witch, nice Witch.”
She was amused by this grateful affection, and patted him on the head. “You tell me when that wears off, and I’ll renew it, all right?”
“Will,” Hayate promised with an emphatic nod.
Xiaolang gave her a grateful smile even as he waved a general hand in the air. “Let’s load up, people. I want off this chilly mountain.”
We all pretty much agreed with that and broke camp with alacrity.
As the morning progressed, we ventured farther into the mountains. It was steep climbing, with little to no trail to follow. I had a shield up over us again but Xiaolang didn’t want us working too much magic—he was afraid of attracting attention. Considering some of the traps that magicians were famous for, before the War, I didn’t blame him.
The “trail”—if one could call such an inconsistent, narrow switchback a trail—led us farther down to where we neared the base of the mountain. In the shadow of these giant peaks, the land was made of dark blues and purples more than browns and grays. Vegetation of any sort was scarce, only scraggly weeds and twisted trees surviving here and there.
It was probably near high noon when I realized that the magic I was feeling had changed. “Xiaolang?” I called to the head of the group. When he twisted to look at me, I continued, “The magic source has gotten much stronger. I think we’re within a stone’s throw of it.”
He sat up straighter, looking around in greater curiosity. “I don’t see anything.”
“Neither do I,” Chatta muttered. “There are too many rocks in the way, I think.”
Xiaolang waved me sharply forward. “Garth, you be point. I think you have a better idea of where we’re going than anyone else.”
People shifted aside so that Night could move through.
We pressed forward once more, only far more cautiously than before. I think everyone was assuming at this point that there was some sort of incredibly destructive weapon hidden somewhere in these mountains.
Then again, they are soldiers. That’s probably why they assumed such a thing.
We rounded a bend, which opened up into a dry ravine. And that’s where I felt it the strongest.
“There!” Chatta and I exclaimed, nearly simultaneously, and pointed toward what looked like blank rock face.
“You sure about that, now?” Shad drawled, eyes sparkling.
“Chatta, smack him for me, will you?” I requested mildly. “You’re closer than I am.”
Shad ducked before she could hit him, chuckling like some drunk gnome.
“All right, we found it,” Xiaolang said, eyeing the spot we had pointed out with the same caution a man would use facing a hungry wolf. “Now what?”
I rubbed at my chin thoughtfully, turning over possibilities. “I don’t think it wise to leave it behind us,” I finally stated. “We don’t know what that glamour is hiding.”
“What do you suggest?” Eagle leaned forward in his saddle, resting crossed arms on the pommel. “Can you break the glamour?”
Good question. Could I? “Not sure,” I admitted. “Chatta?”
“I’m not sure I can either.” She cocked her head, studying it through narrow eyes. “But you know, I think it’s tied directly into the mountain. And…I think it’s only surface deep.”
I blinked at this. “So, it only appears to be solid rock? We could just walk through it?”
“I think so,” she repeated dubiously. “Didi?”
The Meuritta straightened from his perch on her shoulders, ears cocked inquisitively. “Di?”
“Can you check that theory for us? Cautiously,” she added firmly.
He nodded in serious understanding. “Di.” Using Chatta as a launching pad, he threw himself into the air, wings snapping out.
I quickly took my shields down before he ran into them. “Didi!” I yelled at him in exasperation. “Do you want to be fried?! Don’t get into contact with my shields!”
He chattered back, dismissing my concern with a casual wave of the hands.
“I could wish stronger survival instincts on him,” Chatta sighed in resignation.
We all watched with baited breath as Didi landed in front of the glamour shielded area. He crept forward, nose extended out as far as he could reach. Then he got close enough to go past the glamour, and his nose “d
isappeared.”
I watched intently as his head followed his nose, and then the rest of his body. Taut seconds ticked past, feeling like eons passing.
It felt like an eternity, but it was probably more like five minutes before he shot back out of the glamour. He flew back to Chatta, chittering in excitement, nearly vibrating with urgency.
“Is it safe?” she asked, extending her arms to catch him.
He nodded emphatically. “Di!”
The tension evaporated with his assurance. Well, at least it wasn’t like we were walking into a trap of some sort.
“What was in there?” Chatta inquired.
In answer, Didi lifted his paw and handed her a crystal, nearly the length of a finger. She frowned as she accepted it, but as soon as she touched it, her eyes flew wide. “Garth, this is a memory crystal!”
My head snapped around to stare at the mountain. “There are memory crystals hidden in there?!” I felt my mouth go dry. That glamour was old, old enough to be there since before the War. And if the glamour was put there to hide those crystals…then that meant the crystals might contain information lost during the War. “We have to go in there,” I whispered hoarsely.
Chatta nodded in fervent agreement. “Who knows what information is in there? Xiaolang, we can’t just ignore this.”
“I agree.” He frowned at the rock, however, looking vaguely disturbed. “I don’t like walking into the area blind, though. Any way to drop that glamour?”
Breaking glamours was, needless to say, not my strong point. I looked at Chatta. “Can you?”
“It’s so old…” she muttered in a doubtful tone. “It would take me a while.”
“I could break it.”
My eyes dropped down to Night’s head in astonishment. “What?”
“I’m a Breaker, remember?” He tilted his head to give me an amused glance. “I can break anything when I hit it. That includes spells, if they’re tied to a certain place.”
Actually, in the heat of the moment, I had forgotten that.
“Well, Xiaolang?”
“Go for it,” the Captain encouraged with an expansive gesture.
Night trotted up, me still on his back, and eyed the rock for a moment. “Is this the strongest point?”
I focused on the area. “Just about.”
“Here goes. Hang on.”
I clung to the saddle as he reared back on his hind legs. With a snort, he slammed his front hooves against what appeared to be solid stone.
The spell shattered, the force of it hitting us so hard that it nearly ripped the air right out of my lungs. Night continued his descent onto solid ground, jarring me in the saddle with the hard landing. My teeth rattled in my head, and I slumped a bit, trying to get my breath back. “You okay, Night?”
“Whew! Next time we do this, put up some sort of shield for backlashes.”
“I can’t do that and have you break something at the same time,” I refuted.
“Well, we’ve got to come up with something. My ears are ringing.”
“Mine too,” I groaned. The next time I saw Sallah and Aral, I’d ask them their opinion on this. Maybe there was a way to adapt the shield.
“You two all right?” Hazard called.
“Yeah, mostly,” I answered. Aside from my ears ringing, and the headache brewing behind my eyes, I was just dandy.
I forgot about my minor aches and pains when I looked at what was right in front of our noses.
A wide entrance opened up in the mountain, extending a few feet before mushrooming out into a huge cavern. Just from this angle, I could literally rows upon rows of boxes, filled with every possible size and color of crystal imaginable. There was more, too—ancient bon’a’lons, shields, pictures, books. It was a veritable treasure trove for a magician.
“Chatta, come here!” I waved her forward impatiently. “You won’t believe what’s in here!”
She sprinted to my side, only to stumble to a halt as she got a good look inside. “Great…good…magic…”
“It’ll take three or four wagons just to get it all out of there,” I whispered breathlessly.
“And that’s just what we can see.” She shook her head, eyes so wide they nearly consumed her face. “What if the cavern goes back farther?”
I found the idea nearly impossible to fathom. I wanted to hop down and go exploring immediately, but the Jaunten blood in me knew better than to do that. “Any booby traps you can detect?”
“Nary a one,” she denied.
I hadn’t felt anything either, but there was so much magic in that cave I didn’t really trust my senses at the moment.
I slid off Night’s back, and as soon Chatta and I were clear of our mounts, we put up our personal shields, just in case. We exchanged glances and step by cautious step, we entered the cave. I tried to keep my eyes off the objects stored there, and instead measured how big the cave was. I’m not sure if it was a relief or a disappointment that the cave didn’t extend much farther. It would take a lot of time and effort getting everything out of here, so I was glad there wasn’t mountains more out of sight. But still…despite all the effort it would take, I couldn’t help but feel that it would be well worth it in trade off. Who knew how much information was in here already that had been lost for two centuries?
“Garth.”
I turned to look at Chatta. She was kneeling near the entrance to the cave, staring at something. I walked back to her, following her gaze.
There, on the ground, was a pile of blankets, a cloak, and what looked like a small cachet of food.
“Someone’s been here recently,” I said, startled at the realization.
“Someone short,” Chatta agreed, eyes minutely studying everything around the nest of blankets. “See? There’s the imprint of a foot right here.”
I followed her pointing finger. In the loose dirt of the floor, there was the impression of a heel and bare toes. “That’s too small to belong to an adult,” I observed. My Jaunten blood surged to the fore again, providing me with answers to what I was seeing. “That’s a child’s foot.” I knelt down, studying it at closer range. “Recent. Perhaps within the past two days.”
“Your Jaunten side told you that, didn’t it?” she guessed.
“Yes.”
She sighed in envy. “I wish I were a Jaunten sometimes.”
I shook my head, smiling slightly. “I like you better with dark hair.”
“Thanks. I think.”
Xiaolang appeared in that moment. He let out a low whistle, head turning so that he could see everything. “Wow. There’s a lot here.”
I gestured him closer, pointing to the footprint. He lowered himself to rest on his haunches, eyes combing the area. “A child has been here in the past two days or so.”
Chatta let out an irritated breath. “How do you two do that?”
He winked at her and drawled, “Mad skill.”
She glared at him for that. “All right, Captain Obvious, then answer this question for me. What kind of child can see past a glamour of this strength and find this place?”
He blinked. “The boy Mage. Of course!”
“Bing, bing! Give the man a cookie.” She grinned at him unrepentantly.
“That’s why we couldn’t find him anywhere near the village,” Xiaolang groaned in realization, running both hands roughly over his hair. “It’s because he’s been hiding in here!”
“At least part of the time,” I agreed. “Now if we can just figure out where he is now…”
Xiaolang nodded, rubbing at his temples. “All right, change of plans. Chatta, I’m going to leave Hazard, Eagle and Shield with you. They’ll help you pack this place up and get it ready for transport. Garth, we’re going to track that boy down while they’re working here.”
“Right.” Maybe with the glamour down, I’d actually be able to sense things again.
Chapter Sixteen: Hayden
The thing about Xiaolang’s orders, I’ve discovered, is that they’re de
ceptively easy on the surface. They always sound simple.
They’re not.
Find the boy Mage, for instance. Simple enough order, right? Considering my abilities, and that the (insanely powerful) glamour of the mountain was gone, it should have been a snap to find the boy and grab him.
Actually, finding him wasn’t difficult. I barely had to move. The difficulty came from the company he was keeping.
I led Xiaolang, Shad and Aletha down the mountain and around a bend. The boy was just around the next curve in the trail, still out of physical sight, but well within my senses, when I heard voices.
“—just let me go check,” a young, high tenor was pleading.
“Not till you finish here, boy. This ain’t near enough jewels to do any real bargaining with.” The voice was gruff, influenced by rough drink and a poor lifestyle.
I held up a hand, halting everyone in their tracks. Xiaolang pulled up close to me and murmured quietly, “Is the boy Mage the one talking?”
“Yes,” I whispered back. “But who’s the man with him?”
“He’s no friend of the boy’s.” Xiaolang looked…angry. His eyes were narrowed, and had about as much warmth as naked steel.
“Empathy tell you that?” I hazarded a guess.
Xiaolang gave a short nod. “We need to intervene. Now.”
“But there’s something wrong,” the boy was protesting in near-panic. “I can see everything again! Other people will be able to see it, too. I need to go look!”
“You’re not going anywhere until you finish, boy!”
I came in sight of the two at that point. The man grabbed my attention first. I’ve never seen a filthier individual—not even beggars on the streets looked this bad. Heck, Reschkeenen, when we first found him, looked like the Prince of Cleanliness in comparison. The only clean thing about this man was his cloudy blue eyes that glared up at me.
“Who are you?” he demanded belligerently.
I ignored him and looked at the boy. He was slender, half-starved, with an oversized tunic hanging off his shoulders. He was staring at me with eyes so wide they were in danger of falling out of his head. “H-h-he’s a-a-a…”
Magus (Advent Mage Cycle) Page 25