"I will, sir, and thank you."
With a few last minute instructions, she was off—stowaway included.
~*~
The riverboat Chatta boarded was clean, if not particularly roomy. The Captain—a stout man with a scraggly beard and a huge nose—seemed like a decent enough man. Chatta couldn't say the same about his crew. Just as a precaution she had set several anti-theft jinxes on her belongings, and a personal shield around her bed. She didn't want to worry about the possibility of the men getting a little adventurous during the night.
She spent most of the afternoon reading the reports that Kartal had sent, and took it all in with a hefty dose of salt. She very much doubted that the Wizard was doing all of the work, with Garth just watching from the sidelines. That didn't sound like her friend at all.
After a brief consultation with the captain, and a check of the map given to her, she judged that Professor Doss had been correct. Within two days, she'd be at Hinkerton, which shouldn't put her more than a day's travel time behind them. If she rode hard, surely she'd be able to catch up within two days.
A soft chittering noise and scratching emanated from her bag. Startled, Chatta twisted sharply around to stare at it. The chittering came again, and one of the bags moved slightly.
Drawing her wand, she approached the bag cautiously. With a twist of her wrist, she erected a quick shielding spell. She had absolutely no idea what was in her bag, and wasn't going to take any chances either. With the wand firmly leveled at the bag, she commanded, "Open!"
The bag burst open, with the flap flying backwards. Within moments a furry head popped into view. Chatta nearly sank to her knees in relief. Not a dangerous creature at all; just a Meuritta.
The little Meuritta's nose twitched, its whiskers bristled under her attention, and it uttered another soft chittering before it scampered out. There was a bright ribbon—her ribbon, Chatta noted in amusement—twined around its neck.
"Now when," Chatta asked it in resignation, "did you get into there?"
With a soft whistle and croon, the Meuritta darted closer to her, rubbing along her ankles. Chatta stared down at it, trying to tell herself that she still had a choice about what to do with the little creature. It wasn't true, though—she was doomed and she knew it. Meurittas were another magical accident gone slightly wrong. Some Mage in forgotten history had combined a cat, a bat, and some kind of predator bird together, and the Meuritta was the result. Their wings were nearly hairless, except the very tips that had tufts of fur. The body was covered in a fine down, like a baby bird's, and the nozzle was long and somewhat elongated. They had large eyes and ears, and a penchant for anything string related. The more bright and garish the string, the more they liked it.
Meurittas were quick to adopt anyone that gave them string, and Chatta just knew that she was claimed now. There was no hope of shaking off the little thing. Resigned, she bent and scooped the creature up into her arms, stroking the crown of its head. "Hello."
Squirming about in pleasure, the Meuritta gave off a high pitched chittering, eyes half closed in delight. Chatta looked it over more closely, deciding that this particular Meuritta was a male, since it had a mosaic pattern of golds and white and orange. The males were always more brightly colored than the females.
"Thunder and tarnation, what's that?!"
Chatta turned, noticing, for the first time, a man standing behind her. She gave the first mate a shrug, "A Meuritta."
"You didn't say that you had one of them things," he accused with a hard look.
"I didn't know I had him," she responded with a mild tone. "He was a stowaway. You needn't worry about him, sir. Meurittas are no trouble, and they are good company." And they can also pick every lock devised by man, magical or otherwise, she added in her head. Wisely she decided not to mention that talent out loud.
"We should charge you extra for him," the mate continued with a suspicious frown.
Chatta just looked at him, silently daring him to press the point. They were already well paid to deliver her as it was, and with little inconvenience to themselves.
No one in his right mind would argue too much with a Witch, especially when she already had her wand in hand. The first mate gave the wand an uncertain glance, and apparently thought better of pursuing the matter. With a last growl at the Meuritta, he turned on his heel and stalked off.
Chatta turned back to the Meuritta, cuddling so contentedly in her arms, and sighed. "Well, what do I call you then?"
The Meuritta stroked the ribbon around his neck, chittering happily.
"Yes, I need to make you a collar too," she muttered to herself. Laughing softly, she settled back down on her bedroll. "Maybe I've been around Garth too long; I’ve been infected with his bad habit of finding trouble."
Chapter Nine: Power
For two days Kartal had continued to drag his feet. I was fast running out of any patience I had left with him. All efforts to speed him up met with very limited success. After two days we had barely reached the outskirts of Hinkerton.
That's it; this is ridiculous! I stopped at one of the relay stations, fully intent to put a message through to the Council myself. I hated to whine like this, but I simply couldn't do my job because of Kartal!
The station was oddly quiet for this hour of the afternoon, and the lone woman inside the office looked bored to tears. The black robes looked brand new, and the girl staring back at me couldn't have been my senior by more than a year or two. My guess was she was spending her internship out here manning the station. Poor girl!
She gave me a genuine smile, no doubt happy that she could actually do something, for at least a few minutes. "What can I do for you?"
"I need to send a message." And I had no idea of the protocol on sending one, either. I was hoping to play it by ear, and not look like an idiot.
"Certainly, sir. Your name?"
"Rhebengarthen."
She blinked, recognition dawning on her face. "Oh! I have a message for you. I forwarded it on to Geol." Her expression became confused. "I was told that you had already passed through here yesterday, sir."
Well, if I had been able to keep Kartal in his saddle for more than an hour at a time, I would have been on schedule and in Geol by now. As it is… I managed to repress the growl at the reminder, keeping my voice neutral. "We've been slightly delayed. What was the message?"
"One moment." She turned and rummaged in a drawer labeled ''sent'' for a moment before taking a lone paper out and handed it across the counter to me.
I took it, reading the words quickly. It was only one line. "She's on her way!" I read it three times, waiting for it to make sense. Didn't happen. I looked back up at the Witch. "Is that it? The entire message?"
"Yes sir." She shrugged, her expression silently saying ''it didn't make sense to me either."
"Ah. When was this sent?"
"Two days ago, sir. It arrived early this morning."
That didn't clear up anything at all. Who was ''she'' and on her way where? "Thank you."
"Anytime. Do you still wish to send a message?"
With the cryptic message in my hand, I wasn't sure what to send now. "No…perhaps later."
She looked disappointed, but nodded. "Have a good day."
"You too." Turning, I walked back outside, still mentally scratching my head. The message was meant for me, but that told me very little. Whoever was sent, apparently she was traveling to connect with me; otherwise why send me the message? But everyone was expecting for me to be in Geol by now. Should I travel there and wait for her, whoever she was, or stay here and send a message requesting details?
Kartal was waiting for me outside, idly eating on…er…I have no idea what that was. It looked like some kind of fruit, only it was black. I've never seen or heard of black fruit before.
He gave me this jaded glance, as if even a piece of fruit was more interesting than I was. That changed when I handed him the message. He took it with a glimmer of interest…that
morphed into incomprehension. "What does this mean?"
"I was hoping you knew," I admitted with a sigh. After all, he was the one sending all the messages to Del'Hain. "No idea who she might be?"
"None," he admitted curtly. Kartal hates admitting that he doesn't know something.
I opened my mouth to ask another question, when something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. I half turned to face it when it shot past my face, latching onto the front of Kartal's shirt with an excited "Di!"
Kartal promptly dropped the fruit, grabbed the creature clinging to his shirt with both hands. As he vainly tried to detach the apparition glued to his chest, he screamed, "Get it off! Get it off!"
"Di!" the creature sounded frustrated now, and I could see that his hands were moving frantically. One of Kartal's hands dropped, and I finally got a good look at his attacker—a Meuritta! Huh. I'd seen them in textbook illustrations, but never one in real life. This one had a collar around its neck, so I assumed it belonged to somebody.
Night nuzzled against my elbow, and I glanced down at him. His eyes were sparkling in amusement. Seeing a stuck-up Wizard wrestling with a Meuritta was an amusing sight, I had to admit. Now who was supposed to represent the more intelligent species?
"By all magic, I said get off! You've no right to attack me and—hey!"
Ah. It just became clear what had attracted the Meuritta. Apparently the ribbon lacing up the front of Kartal's shirt had been too much of a temptation. Shucks. Darn. I turned my head away before I could get caught laughing.
"Didi! Stop that!"
Night and I both jerked around at that familiar voice. Somewhere in the back of my head a heavenly choir broke out in jubilation—Chatta! Yes! I wouldn't have to deal with Kartal alone anymore. Oh happy day! "Chatta!"
Distracted from the Meuritta-Wizard wrestling match, she beamed a happy smile at me. "Hi! I've come to your rescue. Hello, Night." She bent and gave him an exuberant hug—which he loved, judging by his madly swishing tail. Then she gave me a hug too. Yup, hugs from pretty girls are the absolute best! I could get used to this. I hugged her back, mentally blessing any god, demi-god, or angel that had sent her my direction.
"Could you delay the reunion, and get this bloody thing off of me?!"
I let go of Chatta, turning to see if someone had won yet. The Meuritta was now in full possession of the ribbon, chittering happily, and Kartal was firmly gripping its collar, with a thunderous expression on his face. "Yours, I believe?" he sneered at Chatta.
"Yes. Sorry, he adopted me a day ago, and I haven't had the chance to properly train him." Reaching out she took the Meuritta from him, and firmly took the ribbon away. "Didi, I've told you not to steal other people's string. It's not nice! Here, Wizard Kartal, and I am sorry."
He took it back with ill grace and a sneer turning up the corner of his mouth. "And you are?"
"L-Chattamoinita Delheart. Call me Chatta, please. I've been dispatched to help you resolve your difficulties, and complete your mission."
The sneer twisted. "Wonderful! Another person for me to baby-sit."
I've never seen Chatta angry before, and it wasn't something I wanted to see again, ever. Her body seemed to crackle in furious magical energy. Night and I both eased away from her before the charge expanded and exploded.
"Wizard Kartal." Her voice was cold, precise and clipped. If her eyes had been daggers, Kartal would have been dead a hundred times over. "I am a fully trained Witch and have no need of your attention or supervision. I am not here to hinder your work, but to aid you! Are we quite clear?"
"Aid me? Right," he scoffed.
Kartal obviously had never had a sister. If he had, he'd have learned when to keep his mouth shut.
"Kartal." The warning was clear in my voice. "Whatever your opinion of the situation might be, you can at least be polite."
Angry and rigid, he spat out, "I hardly need to be lectured on manners and deportment by a backwoods Chahiran bumpkin!"
"Is he always like this?" Chatta inquired with deceptive mildness.
"No, sometimes he's worse." I was biting back the urge to beat on him until I felt better, nearly shaking under the effort of remaining still.
"And you haven't killed him yet?" She shook her head in mock admiration. "Goodness, Garth, but you are a patient person!"
"Are you quite done?" Kartal drawled with false sweetness.
"Hardly! I can go for hours. Let's get this straight, Kartal. I was not sent here to replace you. I was sent to mediate. You have the reputation for being a stuck up prick that's hard to work with! All of your messages to the Council, shifting the blame to Garth, were not believed."
Kartal went beet red at that, eyes narrowed angrily. "And so they sent a mediocre, incompetent, bumbler to add to my misery?"
I honestly don't remember what happened next. When my senses cleared, Kartal was flat on his back in the middle of the street. My hand was aching, and Chatta had grabbed my right arm, and was attempting to hold me back.
"Garth! Calm down."
It had been quite a few years since I had lost my temper like this. It wasn't so much what he said, although the insult to Chatta was still making me fume, it was the endless weeks of being out here, subjected to that smarmy attitude and degrading sarcasm. Wasn't there a Hainian saying about this? Something about the straw that broke the mule's back…
Kartal pulled himself up slowly, one hand rubbing at the rapidly growing bruise on his cheek. "So…that's how it is. You fancy her, eh?"
"Chatta is my best friend," I answered quietly. "You're not going to insult her. We're here to do a job, Kartal, and you've been making it as difficult as possible, but that ends now. You start dragging your feet again and I'll leave you behind, orders or no orders. The Powers That Be think I need supervision—fine. Chatta can supervise. I'm not dealing with your attitude any longer."
"My attitude?" he barked a short, ugly laugh. "You're the one that's acting so high and mighty!"
I had not! I had little to no concept of a Wizard's capabilities. Sometimes I had shown up Kartal without meaning to, but…okay, so maybe once or twice I had done it on purpose. It had been a petty way of getting back at him. I was just so fed up with him. "Kartal, can't we just call a truce?"
"Why bother? I'm not playing your little games, Rhebengarthen." The glare he shot Chatta was dark with loathing. "And I'm certainly not going to obey your simpering little girlfriend. Fully trained Witch? Don't make me laugh. She probably doesn't even know which end of the wand works."
Chatta bristled beside me angrily, and her restraining hand on my arm dropped.
"So tell me, L-Chattamoinita, however did you manage to get your Witch's license?"
The vulgar twist to the words made it plain what he thought of her. For the second time in five minutes, I lost my temper and my fist flew. I caught him just under his chin this time, making his head snap back before he fell heavily to the ground.
He was quick to roll away, coming back up to his feet. This time I knew that all of our talking would be done with our fists. The time for words was well over. We'd been spoiling for a fight for a week, and nothing was going to stop it now that it was started!
Chatta must have realized it too. She just growled something about "testosterone-fueled idiots", and erected a barrier around us. It felt rather like my weapon’s shield, only slightly different. I think it was meant to keep innocent bystanders out of danger.
Letting out a low roar, he charged at me, head dropped low like a charging bull. I tried to step out of his reach, but he's taller than I am (in Hain, who isn't?) and has longer arms. He managed to grab one arm and spin me around, throwing me off-balance enough that I almost fell to the ground. He threw a punch at me, which I narrowly deflected, and left himself wide open. I shot up from the ground, using all of my momentum to ram a knee into his stomach.
He predictably folded like a sheet of paper, with a painful grunt, holding his gut with both hands.
Apparent
ly he didn't have any brothers either; he had no idea how to brawl. "Had enough?" I know I had. My hand was aching from the first punch, and I think I'd wrenched my ankle too.
He swung wildly, catching me in the ribs with the back of his fist. Hissing in pain, I quickly closed the distance between us so he couldn't swing at me like that again. Looking to end this competition, I rammed my elbow against his temple. He went down as if he had been shot, and dropped heavily into the dirt like a large bag of oats.
"Is he dead?" Chatta didn't seem too concerned by the possibility. She was apparently still mad at him.
"No. I just connected with a knock-out point." At least, that's what my Jaunten blood said. "Chatta, find an inn, won't you? I'll carry this winner of an obtusity contest."
"Certainly."
Maybe when he woke up, Kartal would be in a better mood.
But I wasn't holding my breath.
~*~
There was a common green in the center of the town, and that was where I rested, waiting with an unconscious Wizard. Finding a decent inn that would accept both Night and Didi—I still can't believe that Chatta named a male Meuritta Didi—was proving a challenge. Apparently Meurittas had quite the reputation for stealing string and ribbon, as well as unlocking any door they wanted. Most innkeepers took one look at the Meuritta and said "No vacancies."
I'd settled under a tree, enjoying the nice weather. Night was grazing nearby—it's scary that he's actually old enough to graze on grass. When had that happened?
Kartal was lying next to me. I could tell that he was slowly waking up because he started groaning in pain before his eyes even opened. When he finally did manage to get both eyes to focus, he took one look at me and shut them again. "You."
"Me," I agreed mildly. Had I been in a nice mood I might have offered him some medicine—but I wasn't in a good mood.
For once, Kartal didn't start picking at me. I waited for the inquisition to start, but after several moments of Kartal doing his impression of a bump on a log, I relaxed. A semi-comfortable silence fell, broken only by the sounds of Night's munching.
Jaunten (Advent Mage Cycle) Page 11