Balancer (Advent Mage Cycle)

by Honor Raconteur

  Xiaolang looked between the two of them. “That alright with both of you? Good. Chatta, you might want to keep whoever the blood magic expert is here with you. You might need to consult with him as teams call in.”

  “A good thought,” she agreed. “I think I will. What will the rest of you do?”

  Xiaolang gestured with one hand in a circular motion. “Alvacon is Star Order headquarters, in a sense. I have a feeling that the answer is in this city somewhere. We’ll investigate here. I’ll divide you up into partnerships and assign you sections of the city. Chatta, Shield, still assign some teams here. This is, after all, a very large city. I think it will take all of us to comb through it.”

  “We’re going to need a lot of detailed maps to be able to do this right,” Shield observed to Chatta. “Ones that we can mark on. Saroya, do you have any?”

  Saroya had to swallow what was in his mouth before responding. The look he gave Shield was priceless. “Not ones you can mark on, no.”

  Chatta’s eyes were sparkling with laughter but she managed to bite back a smile. “We’d better get some this morning before everyone arrives and start making some rough plans.”

  Xiaolang nodded in approval. “I think we’ll walk around the city this morning. I don’t have a good feel for it yet. Hazard, Shad, you’ll take south side. Aletha, Eagle, take north side. Garth and I will take the east. When the magicians arrive and you get the teams divvied up, send someone to the west and another group for the inner section of the city.”

  Night spoke up in the back of my head, “I assume that I’m going with you?”

  Apparently he was awake out in his stall. I hadn’t checked on him this morning, so I’d assumed he was still asleep since he’d been so quiet. Well, I answered dryly, are you willing to let me wander around a city that I’m not very familiar with while renegade Priests are on the loose?

  “Not when you put it that way, no.”

  Didn’t think so.

  The rest of the conversation over the meal revolved around how to divide up the teams, where to assign them, and how to track it all. I quickly lost track of everything and didn’t even bother to try to listen. I wouldn’t retain anything anyway.

  We finished getting ready and headed out. Night joined me at the doors, falling in to walk at my side. Shield and Chatta opted to go with us, at least a part of the way, so that they could buy the maps they needed. Saroya went back to the palace to get his men moving.

  Once we left the palace compound I was amazed at the amount of traffic on the streets. Only two hours past daybreak and the place bustled with pedestrian and cart traffic. If a man was not vigilant, he was likely to be run over. Odd, I didn’t remember it being this busy on my last visit. Was Alvacon more frequently visited in the spring than in the fall?

  Night did garner a few strange looks, considering that he was following the group like an obedient hound even though he didn’t have a stitch of tack on him. But in a city of this size, the citizens were used to seeing just about everything, so no one said a word. Night, on his part, just seemed amused at their curiosity.

  We had just about reached the crossroads where we would divide up into our separate partnerships when I heard a loud voice crying out over the din of city noise.

  “—hundreds of years! How can any of you just believe the nonsense that these new magicians are saying? They’re just trying to save their own skin! The King has been bewitched by them! Open your eyes, and see them for what they really are! Don’t let them win and bring evil back into our country, your country!”

  I couldn’t quite believe my ears. Some idiot was actually preaching for the Star Order? This close to the palace, no less. I turned to Hazard, the tallest of the group. “Do you see him?”

  Hazard’s head was turned to left, eyes narrowed slightly. “Yeah, I see him. Don’t think he’s a Priest—doesn’t have the right look to him. My guess, he’s a devout fanatic.”

  Priest or not, what he was doing was pure suicide with Vonlorisen’s current mood.

  Shad rose up on his toes to follow Hazard’s line of sight.

  “Got him. Hey, C2.” He turned to Xiaolang, a scary mix of hope and mischief sparking in his wide eyes. If he’d had a tail it would’ve been wagging in anticipation. “Can I chase him down? Can I, can I, can I?”

  Xiaolang gave a lazy flick of the hand. “Go.”

  With a very evil laugh, Shad took off in a dead sprint. He carved a path through the pedestrian traffic, stopping many people in their tracks. Because of that I had a clear view of the devout idiot standing on a small box on the corner of the street. He didn’t look very bright—shaggy, unkept hair falling into his eyes, clothes that didn’t hang on him right, scruffy beard. When he spotted Shad running full out in his direction, he scrambled down from the box and took off fast enough to create his own breeze.

  I heard Shad laughing even louder in pure enjoyment of the chase. Oh boy. I turned to Xiaolang resignedly. “You just had to turn him loose, didn’t you?”

  Xiaolang shrugged, not particularly concerned.

  “Should we chase after them?” Aletha asked idly.

  “Nah. Chatta, you can do a scrying here, can’t you?”

  “Of course.”

  “Let’s do that. If Shad does get into trouble, Garth can get to him fast enough.”

  Oh, so I was the backup plan? Wonderful, wonderful.

  We shuffled off to the side of the street in front of a closed bookstore to avoid blocking traffic. Chatta brought a polished brass mirror out of her bag that was about the size of her palm. Withdrawing her wand from a sleeve pocket, she hit it with a spell that enlarged the size to something closer to a large serving plate. Then she hit it with another spell that allowed her to scry with it. It took her a few moments to locate Shad in the crowded streets, and then we all leaned in closer, huddling to get a better view.

  The fanatic was either a very fast runner by nature, or the fear of being caught added a new level of speed, because Shad still hadn’t caught up with him. Our illustrious prankster stayed within several feet of his prey but could never seem to quite catch up. I watched as the two weaved in and out of traffic, around street kiosks, lampposts, and shop displays. The fanatic tossed everything behind him that he could reach, crates of fruit, rolls of fabric, people, and in one amusing instance something that looked like jelly, trying to hinder Shad’s movements. Nothing worked. Shad just leapt over it, dodged it, or ducked behind someone for a moment and let them take the brunt of it.

  Chatta changed angles slightly so that we had a clearer view of the runner. Terror and hysteria radiated from his eyes, hair flying about in every direction, muscles straining as he ran with every ounce of strength he had.

  “Is he shouting something?” Aletha asked, leaning in a little more.

  “Sure looks like it,” Shield agreed. “I can’t quite…tell…”

  “Murderer! Murderer! Help me! Is what I think he’s saying,” Eagle offered. His lips quirked in a half-smile. “Oh boy. He’s likely to call in help from the guard if he keeps yelling like that. Do you think Vonlorisen’s told all of the Protectors here what we look like?”

  “Sure, but how many men do you think fit the description of ‘normal height, blond hair?’ It’ll take time to straighten it out, and the man will have escaped by then.” Xiaolang didn’t sound particularly worried about this possibility. Probably because he thought, rightly, that I could catch the fanatic even if Shad were detained.

  “So…shouldn’t someone go help him? You know, before the Protectors or someone steps in with a misguided attempt to help?” Chatta asked, her eyes never leaving the chase playing out over the mirror.

  “Nah,” Xiaolang said again. “Shad can handle it.”

  “Whoops, I’m going to lose him. He just went through a shop.” Chatta frowned, zooming out in a more aerial view. “Does anyone see him?”

  “Give him a moment to exit,” Shield advised. “I’m sure he’s causing absolute havoc in that store
trying to slow Shad down…wait, there he is!”

  When Chatta changed angles again for a closer look, I saw obvious signs of fatigue on the runner. Sweat plastered his shirt to his torso, streamed from the temples, and he moved now in jerkier motions as if only willpower kept him going.

  Shad probably would have caught him at this point, since he didn’t even appear to be really warm yet, if not for the fact that two Protectors did respond to the screams of help. One of them had a short staff out and ready to use. I couldn’t read his lips well enough to decipher what he said, but it didn’t take a genius to know it was probably along the lines of: Stop where you are!

  Shad dodged both Protectors as they took a swing at him, never once reaching for the sword strapped to his back. Once past them, he kicked up his speed to a higher notch, feral smile on his face.

  I shook my head. Only he would enjoy a situation like this.

  The fanatic was still yelling as he ran, although not as much in his winded state, but most people were still trying to figure out what was going on by the time both hunter and prey passed them. The Protectors, of course, were giving chase as well although neither of them were as fast as Shad.

  My instincts were saying that I needed to step in now, before things went wrong, but I also knew that Shad would pout for the rest of the day if I cut his fun short. Heh. I’d give him a few more minutes.

  Actually, that was all Shad needed. The runner reached the last of his strength, and as his stamina flagged, Shad caught up to him all at once. Shad didn’t try to catch him and drag him to a stop, but simply hit him hard in the middle of the back. When the exhausted man dropped to the ground, Shad put a knee into the small of his back and knelt there. He lifted both hands to shoulder level, showing the two Protectors that had just now arrived on the scene that he was not a threat.

  Xiaolang looked up from the scrying and gave me a nod. I took it as the order he meant it to be and disappeared quickly into the earth path.

  Since they were only about ten blocks away, it didn’t take more than a few seconds to reach them. I rose from the ground directly in front of Shad.

  “—man is a devout member of the Star Order,” Shad was patiently explaining to the two hovering Protectors. “He was preaching against Vonlorisen’s new decree on a street corner. When he saw me headed for him, he started running.”

  This persuasive explanation might have gotten him somewhere if both Protectors hadn’t flinched back from me as I rose to the surface. It was obvious that as soon as I arrived, their attention fixated on me. I gave them a nod.

  “Gentlemen, I am Magus Rhebengarthen. I trust you know that I am Vonlorisen’s magical advisor?”

  They gave jerky, rapid nods of the head, eyes still bulging.

  I gave them a genial smile. “Excellent. Then you won’t mind if I take this man into custody.”

  This time they rapidly shook their heads from side to side.

  Shad levered himself to his feet, grabbed the prone man by the nape of the neck and hauled him up. “Come along, now.”

  He proceeded to whistle the entire way back.

  ~*~

  As diverting as the whole chase scene through the city had been, it didn’t really yield any results. The fanatic didn’t know anything—that type never did—and he continued to rant and rave all the way to a jail cell.

  Which left us back at square one.

  Xiaolang and I walked the streets in something he called a “grid search pattern” that made perfect sense to him and had me lost in about ten minutes. Alvacon was the oldest city in Chahir, and it’s one of those cities that was never planned. It just…grew. The city streets had more switchbacks, curves and abrupt twists than a mountain troll’s beard. It even challenged Xiaolang’s navigational sense, and I’d never seen him lost.

  The east section of the city was an odd mix of very old, traditional neighborhoods and artisan guilds. Xiaolang seemed to be able to talk to everyone alike with ease. Since I didn’t possess either his conversational or empathic talents, I wisely kept quiet and let him do most of the talking.

  A few times, though, I had to intervene. Like with Mama Deen.

  One of the townsmen informed us that a Star Order Priest had been wounded and taken to the local healer in this section of the city before Vonlorisen’s new laws had been handed down. Since this was the first piece of news that someone had recent contact with a Priest, we thought it common sense to track the woman down and talk to her about it. We were given directions to a small shop around the corner, which we found with no real effort.

  Mama Deen was a robust figure of a woman that could have made two of me. She had dark skin, hair that was coarse and black in little braids all around her head and the most colorful assortment of clothes imaginable. That ensemble reminded me sharply of the outfits my cousins had worn when they had gone to see a good snake fight. It took a moment after she opened the door, but my good manners finally kicked in. “Mama Deen?”

  “Why hell~o handsome! Mm, two of them! Ya’lls just the cutest little things. Reminds me of my dolls.”

  Xiaolang bit down on his lip, hard, and his eyes were crinkled up with silent laughter. Still, he managed to say in a professional tone, “Hello, madam. One of the townsmen said—”

  “Oh, you don’t worry about any sickness you have,” she assured him. “Ya’ll just come on in, strip and get comfy. I’ll fix whatever’s ailin ya.” The gleam in the woman’s eye added that it was no hardship on her part either.

  How Xiaolang kept a straight face, I couldn’t begin to guess. I had to cover my mouth with one hand to keep from busting up laughing. “Mama Deen, I wouldn’t mind, but we’re not here for medical assistance.”

  “Well, I did wonder,” she admitted with a lecherous smile. “Couldn’t imagine what could be wrong with an invigoratin’ man like you.”

  Xiaolang’s face took on a slight purple hue, as if he was fighting back laughter so hard that he’d forgotten to breathe. Apparently I needed to take over. “Ma’am, we’re trying to track down the renegade Star Order Priests. We were told that you treated one several weeks ago?”

  She hesitated. “Why, yes, yes so I did. The man had taken a nasty fall and I had to set his arm. This was before the King’s new decree of course,” she hastily added.

  “Do you happen to know where he went afterwards?” I asked.

  “Oh, well, they never gave a destination.”

  “And you haven’t seen anyone since?” Normally, if a person knew of a good physician, they would return to the same person. With all of the conflict and fighting these past few weeks, I’d lay odds that quite a few of the Priests had been hurt.

  “Why, no. Truth to tell,” she leaned forward and continued in a conspiratory whisper, “They normally avoid me. First time I treated a Priest was that one a few weeks ago. Never could figure out why they gave me such a wide berth.”

  If this woman’s bedside manner was anything like the one she displayed for Xiaolang, I didn’t blame them for avoiding her.

  “Was he alone? Did they speak of anything in front of you, or tell how he was injured?”

  She adopted a thoughtful look on her face, as if she were truly trying to be helpful. “Now, he had three of his little friends with him. All of the same age, I’d say. But they didn’t say much, not so’s I could hear. All they did say was their regular doctor was out on a call, so they had to come to me.” She gave Xiaolang a sweet, apologetic smile that smacked of flirtation. “I do sorely wish I could be of more help.”

  “Thank you for your time, ma’am.” Xiaolang had apparently regained his composure. He flashed her a professional smile, snagged my elbow, and dragged me quickly away.

  I didn’t need the encouragement to keep up with him. That woman’s racy humor was a bit too much for me. “Do women normally hit on you like that?”

  “Not as much in Chahir, but in Ascalon they certainly do,” he admitted easily. “With my rank, I’m a prime target for single women.”


  No wonder he’d been able to keep control of himself back there, then. He’d had practice.

  As we walked, something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. Instinctively I slowed down to take a closer look. It was a blacksmith’s shop, the forge open to the street so that anyone passing could see the forge. Nothing about it seemed connected to the Star Order, and yet… I stepped closer to one of the display racks hanging on the wall. I drew the first dagger at hand out of its sheath and took a closer look. Ah-hah, that was it.

  “Garth?” Xiaolang and Night came to stand beside me.

  “How is that similar?” Night asked in puzzlement.

  Xiaolang turned to give the nreesce a very puzzled look. “What?”

  “He’s responding to what I’m thinking,” I explained with an amused look at Night. “He used to do that all the time as a young colt. This craftsmanship is similar to the weapons we took from the Star Order Priests at Huish’s pool last winter.”

  Xiaolang looked at the dagger in my hands and obviously decided to take my word for it. “Alright. You talk to him.”

  “Blacksmith to blacksmith?”

  “That’s the idea,” he agreed.

  “Can I help you gents?” The blacksmith put down the polishing strap in his hands and came around the table to see us.

  “I’ve seen your work before, master,” I stated with a neutral smile.

  “Aye,” he agreed with a dark expression. “In the hands of those murdering Priests.” He spat on the ground at the name.

  Obviously no love lost here. “Yes, unfortunately. We’re trying to hunt down the renegades. Have you seen any sign of them?”

  “Seen? No. But they were here a few days ago.” He cracked his knuckles in a menacing gesture.

  Xiaolang, Night and I exchanged a look. “How do you know?”

  “Thieving scallions came and took an armload of daggers and short swords.” The blacksmith made a cursing gesture with his right hand, tossing it to the wind, and aimed at any Priest it might land on.

  “So they’re somewhere in the area,” Xiaolang mused. “That’s interesting news.”