Traitor for Hire: Mage Code

by Max Irons

  Iven looked at the wreckage and shook his head. "I swear, I leave you alone for a few minutes and you bring down a building." He frowned. "Where's Tondra?"

  Galeron pointed. "In the rubble, somewhere."

  He groaned. "We have to dig her out, don't we?"

  "Afraid so."

  Iven looked to the sergeant. "I'll happily forget this little mishap if you and your men help us dig for a woman in the rubble. She's the mage you're looking for."

  A look of relief washed over the sergeant's face. "Of course. Start digging, men. If you find the mage, shoot her."

  Galeron bit the inside of his mouth. Screaming in frustration wouldn't help anything. "No, sergeant, if you find her, tend to her wounds and bind her in chains if needed."

  The sergeant scowled. "Tend her wounds? She's a mage."

  "She's also Atreus Luccio's apprentice," said Galeron. "She knows where he is and has to be alive to help me find him."

  Grumbling under his breath about soft treatment, the sergeant relayed Galeron's orders. The digging process began, but was slow going. Many of the pieces of stone required two or three men to lift and move. A medicus arrived a while later in the event that Tondra emerged alive.

  "Why did you bring Lonni?" asked Galeron as he and Iven rolled a large slab over.

  "Rand was off in the navy yard," Iven said. "I didn't really think you wanted me to bring Corinna, so she was my only choice. Why?"

  Galeron suppressed the morning's encounter and shook his head. "She annoys me."

  Iven hurled away another boulder. "Too smart for your taste?"

  He dropped the stone. "What's that supposed to mean?"

  Iven shrugged. "I haven't known you to really take to brilliant women. Melia was nice, but no one was going to mistake her for a scholar."

  "She hates me for some reason," Galeron said.

  "Lonni? I didn't think so," Iven said. "A bit prickly, maybe, like those plants the Azizi love...cactus, I think they call them."

  "Is this really that important?" asked Galeron.

  "You started the topic. Pick something else if you don't like it."

  Galeron scowled and opened his mouth, but he shut it again. After a moment, and a few more thrown rocks, he said, "What do you suppose Atreus wanted with the texts?"

  Iven wiped sweat and white dust from his brow. "Who knows? We still don't know why he kept the prince alive. Is revenge even his goal?"

  "What else could it be?" asked Galeron.

  Iven sank against one of the boulders and stretched his back out against it. "I can't think of anything else, but I do know all our answers are buried here somewhere."

  Galeron threw a few more rocks, and a hand poked out from a crack. "Found her."

  "Just as I was resting, too." Iven got up and waved the soldiers over.

  Within minutes, they cleared the rocks and revealed Tondra's battered form. Cuts and scrapes covered her body in red lines and splotches. A white piece of bone protruded from her lower left leg, blood trickling from the puncture. The medicus examined her, poked and prodded a few places, and then had her put on a stretcher. She left a sizable puddle of dried blood.

  "Don't bother with the chains," he said. "She won't wake anytime soon with that much loss."

  Galeron stood over her. "Will she live?"

  The medicus shrugged and twisted his white beard in one finger. "Men have recovered from worse, and I have treated worse. Taking a life is easy. Saving one? That is much more difficult."

  Galeron's stomach twisted. The best hope of killing Atreus might be as good as dead. "I need her alive."

  "I make no promises, but I will do what I can." He pointed towards the naval yard. "She'll be under heavy guard at the infirmary. Come see me later. There might be a change in her condition."

  Galeron nodded, and the city watch carried her away. The mission lay in the hands of a medicus. He winced as he remembered their nickname among the soldiers. Battle butchers. For a lot of men, some Galeron had known, it would be a mercy to die rather than live at their hands. However, Tondra had tried to kill him on more than one occasion, and he wasn't feeling particularly merciful.

  Lonni pushed his tunic into his arms. "Put it on. Not all of us want to stare at your maimed skin."

  "Why were you looking?" asked Iven.

  Galeron slipped the tunic on and ignored the sly look Iven sent him. Lonni spluttered and slapped him.

  Iven rubbed his jaw. "Have I not been abused enough today?"

  "Did you get a chance to talk with that teacher?" asked Lonni.

  Galeron blinked. In the aftermath of finding Tondra, he'd forgotten all about Magister Russo. "No." He glanced at the academy. "I think she was still inside when Tondra brought the roof down."

  Iven groaned. "We just sent our help to the navy yard."

  Lonni shook her head. "How do to two of you make a living like this?"

  Galeron and Iven scowled at her. "We don't," they said together.

  "We're poor," Iven said as they walked to the back of the building.

  "I figured that one," Lonni said. "Why don't you get a more respectable job?"

  I ask that a lot. "I don't want to farm the rest of my life," Galeron said.

  She cast him a sidelong look. "You seemed fine with that before."

  Galeron frowned. "That was different. There was a woman involved. Doing it by myself or as a hired hand is not appealing."

  "And there's just not as much fame and glory," said Iven.

  "As opposed to now?" asked Lonni.

  Iven chuckled. "True." He cocked his head at Galeron. I tried settling down for a normal life. The days after the war were the most peaceful of my life."

  "So why leave it?"

  "It was boring," said Galeron.

  "Aye, he's right," Iven said. "War changes a man, and not always for the better. After years of keeping a watch for Delktian raiders or sleeping behind enemy lines, in Galeron's case, it's hard to just sit back and let life happen. Besides, some skills refuse to die. Am I supposed to let my archery skills wither away? I'm not going back to tending sheep, that's for sure."

  They rounded the corner and emerged on the back side of the academy. The structure was still intact. Galeron looked up. Judging from the roof, the building had only collapsed to the middle. Everything else was still standing, though who knew just how safe it was. Magister Russo sat with her back against the building next to a small door. She breathed quickly, as if she'd just run from Azura to Harracourt without stopping. Strange. Had that been there the whole time? He must have missed seeing a back exit. That was a sloppy mistake, but he had been preoccupied.

  "Magister Russo, are you all right?" asked Galeron.

  Her eyes darted to him and then everywhere else. "Did they follow you?" she asked.

  Galeron raised an eyebrow. "The mages?"

  She nodded.

  "No, two escaped, and we captured a third," Iven said.

  "Was that all of them? Are there more?" Magister Russo pulled her cloak tighter about her.

  Galeron sat down across from her, keeping his distance. Spooking her now wouldn't get the information. "As far as we know, that's all of them."

  She nodded, her head quivering. "I don't understand. What did they want?"

  Galeron glanced at Iven. "Actually, Magister Russo, we were hoping you could tell us. What did they take?"

  She wiped her brow with a kerchief. "You aren't a student. Please, call me Kyra. They took one of the Delktian tomes I've been translating. Beastly things. You wouldn't believe the difficulties with runes and..." Her voice trailed off. "Never mind."

  "What was in them?" asked Galeron.

  "The one they stole detailed a mage's rite of passage," Kyra said. "According to them, mages came about through near-death experiences."

  That wasn't new information. "What else?" he asked.

  "The mages gain their power by a...connection...or a bond...I believe that's the closest word we have," Kyra said. "The state of being dead
but not dead opens the mind, so the text says. It allows the prospective mage to connect with a thing or even an element, usually that which nearly killed them, though it doesn't have to be. From there, a mage's power is a manifestation...I suppose that's what we'd call it...of that connection."

  Galeron put a hand to his forehead. All of this was still information that Atreus knew, or could have figured out by experimenting. There had to be something else. "Is there more?"

  Kyra shook her head. "Please, don't ask it of me." She shut her eyes. "If the king knew I'd found out..."

  Galeron looked at Iven. His face was as blank as a rock. Turning back to Kyra, he said, "Prince Lattimer isn't dead. He's alive. I've seen him with my own eyes, and the mages that escaped have him." He met her widened gaze. "Help me get him back. What do you know?"

  Kyra swallowed and mopped her brow. "The tome...the tome says that being a mage is not a...deformity. This ability to link...to connect with anything and draw power from it...this ability is in everyone."

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  In everyone.

  The words hung over them like a thick smoke. Galeron shut his eyes and rubbed his forehead. Anyone could become a mage? That...why would that be? How could that be? It didn't match life. Some people were just unlucky enough to be born with the power. If anyone could wield this it, why hadn't more people taken it up? The kings, both Beltane and Soren, had judged the mages grievously wrong. Galeron's mind struggled with the information. He tried to wrap his thoughts around it, but it just didn't make sense. It was too easy. How could that kind of power just be...available to any man or woman who wanted it?

  Even so, there was a sort of sense to it. The Delktian text explained how their armies possessed so many more mages than even the Rayans could field. They must have trained their children with magic like Iven grew up with his bow. His insides grew cold and stiff as he thought further. The Delktians had been bringing their children to the brink of death, all for power. They had truly been lucky to defeat them. He shuddered. Lucky to the point of disbelief.

  Galeron looked at Kyra. "Are you absolutely sure?"

  Kyra nodded. "Without a doubt. The previous translations are correct, make sense, and I used the same symbols throughout the process."

  "Are the tomes right?" he asked.

  "There's always the possibility that they are not, and that the Delktians are just more susceptible to forming these kinds of bonds," she said. "I doubt it, though. The text uses words for people in general...mankind...not the Delktians specifically." Kyra folded her kerchief in shaking hands. "I've been sitting on it for months. I haven't the faintest idea what to do with the information."

  Iven shuddered. "I can't say I blame you."

  "Very few would even believe me," Kyra said. "The king would brand me a traitor and sentence me to death, but I know his fears and laws are based on a lie. He's targeting his own people because of a skill they have. It's as if he developed a fear of carpenters and banned woodworking."

  Lonni snorted. "That's ridiculous. Magic and carpentry aren't the same thing."

  "But they are, from a larger point of view," said Kyra. "Anyone can be a carpenter if they so choose, but not everyone can do it well. Certain people have an aptitude for these things."

  "That's too much power for one person to hold," Lonni said. "They can't be trusted."

  Kyra frowned. "What do you do for a living?"

  Lonni raised an eyebrow. "What does that have to do with anything?"

  Galeron resisted the urge to retort. "Answer the question, Lonni."

  She sighed. "I'm a fire speaker. I mix and create night dust."

  Kyra's eyes widened. "And you would speak out against a person having too much power? Do you not consider killing a man faster than thought to be too much for one individual, or do you hold yourself higher than others?"

  "That's not what I meant," Lonni said. "You're twisting my words."

  "Great power is great power, regardless of what form it takes," Kyra said. "Who decides the lineage of kings? Nature...birth order. These things are done not by merit but by chance. Why should the ability to use magic be any different?"

  "It's not the same," Lonni said.

  Kyra sighed and stared at her feet. "You believe so because you have been told so." She looked at Galeron. "You see, do you not? This is what I will face if I reveal my findings. The world is not ready for it."

  Galeron nodded. This certainly explained Atreus's interest. He might be able to transform the Drakes from a group of rebels into a serious force. He shook his head like a wet dog. This still didn't tell him where they had gone. That information looked like it would have to come from Tondra, or no one at all. She'd better survive.

  "What are you going to do about Prince Lattimer?" asked Kyra. "Everyone has been saying he perished for months."

  "We're going to get him back," Galeron said. And kill Atreus. "I'm sorry to add to your burden, but you can't tell anyone what you've heard, at least not yet. We don't know where they went or if he's still alive now."

  "I understand." Kyra got to her feet, frail form still shaking. "What should I do? Will the mages come back for me?"

  Galeron paused. It wasn't likely, if they had all the information they needed. "Not unless they need you to translate something else."

  She shook her head. "Then I'm safe, I hope. They only took my copy, not the text itself. There's nothing to translate there."

  Iven cleared his throat. Galeron looked at him. His face had gone pasty white, which was quite a feat for someone so weather-beaten. "May I suggest, then, that you take a ship out of town." He returned Galeron's gaze. "I have a funny feeling that things are about to get very messy."

  "I think you're right." Kyra drew a shallow breath. "I'll pack a few things and go visit family. I won't be having classes anytime soon."

  She went back through the small door. Galeron, Iven, and Lonni walked away from the shattered academy and back down the Consortium's hill.

  "Got an itch in your gut?" asked Galeron.

  Iven nodded, his mouth a tight line.

  Lonni frowned. "What's that all about?"

  "Some soldiers can just sense when a battle is about to happen," Iven said. "Have you ever seen horses or cattle go crazy before a storm? It's like that."

  She snorted. "You're just being superstitious."

  Galeron shrugged. "Perhaps."

  Lonni cast a look over her shoulder. "Do you really believe that woman?"

  "Do you have a reason not to?" he asked.

  "It's just..." She chewed on a lock of hair for a moment. "Magic. For everyone. I can't believe it."

  Galeron's hand tightened into a fist. "Doesn't matter. Atreus won't do anything with that knowledge."

  "And what makes you so certain?"

  "Because I'm going to kill him."

  Lonni snorted. "From what you've said, every time you meet him, he beats you without a contest."

  Galeron's scowl deepened. That was true, no denying it, but the necromancer had looked unstoppable behind his army, and he'd killed him. "I'll have to do something he isn't expecting."

  "Without an army, he can't be killed," Lonni said. "He's a mage."

  "I've had worse odds."

  She grabbed his shoulder and shook him. "Galeron, blast it, this isn't the Delktian War. You tell me you don't believe your legend, and then you go about spouting off this nonsense. Which is it? Are you so arrogant you think any man, mage or mortal, who crosses your path is lesser?"

  He stopped walking. She presumed to know him? The irony, with her talk of arrogance. "I don't believe my legends. They're made up by some bard with a greater sense of drama than truth. I'm going to kill Atreus because no one else will. King Soren claims he is an enemy, yet the rebellion continues. Atreus has been driven mad by his grief, and that makes him dangerous. A man like that has nothing left but vengeance. He'll sacrifice anyone to achieve his goal, kill anyone who gets in his way, and someone like that is not a man. He is a beas
t, and I am his hunter."

  Lonni stared at him, green eyes wide. "This is more than a job for you."

  His eyes narrowed. "He double crossed me. A man doesn't do that and live."

  Iven pulled at his tunic. "Ease up, Galeron." He nodded at Lonni. "We'll be back. He needs to cool off for a bit."

  Galeron pushed Iven's hand away. "I don't need to--"

  "We're going to the harbor," Iven said, giving him a shove in the back.

  Lonni walked off, shoulders drawn up around her neck. Galeron rounded on Iven. "What's wrong with you? I'm fine."

  Iven's face was devoid of emotion. "That's a load of rubbish, and we both know it."

  What did he want him to say then? In his mind, there was only one solution to the problem at hand: kill Atreus and rescue the prince in that order. Thinking it was one thing. Doing it was quite another.

  "Come on." Iven gave him another gentle shove toward the harbor.

  Galeron mumbled under his breath and followed, jaw clenched. They walked down the road, past carters with their loads and people going about their evening business. The sun dipped over Azura's western walls, bathing the harbor and the ships nestled in their docks in a reddish glow. A few seagulls screeched overhead, circling and watching the ground below them.

  Iven stopped and leaned on a post, staring at the rolling sea. "What's eating at you? It's just you and me here, no Lonni or Rand."

  Galeron brushed hair out of his eyes. How to describe the growing sense of helplessness in him? They were, as Lonni and so many others had said, mortals against mages. It didn't matter what potential lay inside them. Atreus and Hektor had it, but he and Iven did not. What hope did they stand against such power?

  "We're stuck, Iven," he said at last. "Atreus has to die, but I don't think we can do it. Twice we've encountered him, and twice he escaped. Both times, we couldn't lay a finger on either him or Hektor in open combat."

  "It is a strange situation, like a mouse hunting a cat." Iven nodded. "You're right." He picked at the post.

  "So what do we do about it?" asked Galeron.

  He looked at him. "What do you think we should do? It's clear we can't beat him in an all-out attack, not without an army, so where does that leave us?"