“I look forward to it.”
I curled around her, resting my head against hers. It was moments like this that reaffirmed everything for me. She was warm and solid in my arms and I wanted nothing more than to drag her someplace that no one could find us and just spend time with her.
“Garth.”
I blew out a breath and reminded myself, firmly, that I could not kill my best friend. “What, Night.”
“Your mother wanted me to tell you, and I quote, ‘Garth, if you’re not here within five minutes I will tell Chatta all of your embarrassing stories.’ End quote.” There was wicked amusement in Night’s voice as he relayed this.
Unfortunately, my mother had a lot of material to draw from. Groaning, I let go of Chatta, all except her hand, and accepted the inevitable. I was going to plan a wedding.
Chatta eyed me suspiciously. “What was the threat to get you moving?”
“Not answering that,” I said firmly.
“Gaaaarthhh…”
“Nope.” I dragged her inside the planning room before she could weasel it out of me.
My mother and L-Nolita were sitting at the table, and I swear that the amount of brochures, maps, pamphlets and samples had tripled since I had last been in here. My mother gave me a sardonic smile of welcome. I wonder just how much Night told her…no, safer not to think about it.
As I sat down, Chatta settling in the chair next to mine, I said, “Before we start, I’ve thought of a really simple and easy way to do this. It’s a tradition used in most provinces in Chahir.”
L-Nolita looked interested, but my mother knew me well enough to only look suspicious. I ignored that and kept going with artful innocence. “See, the bride and groom’s hands are tied together and sent to bed. If they don’t want to be married to each other, then at some point in the night they untie the knot. But if the knot is still there in the morning, then they’re considered married. See? Easy.”
“No,” L-Nolita vetoed firmly.
I widened my eyes a bit more, looking surprised. “But—”
“No,” my mother seconded, although she was trying not to laugh. “You cannot steal Chatta away for a night without anyone bothering you. Nice try, son.”
I hadn’t really thought I would get by with it, so I just grinned at her and shrugged. “Had to try.”
“All joking aside, Garth did have a good idea before we arrived, and I’ve decided to take him up on the offer. Forget the politics, forget trying to accommodate both cultures, forget the traditions. We’re going to make a new tradition. A Rhebenchattan tradition.” Chatta looked at me from the corner of her eye. I smiled encouragingly.
“And how do you propose to do that?” L-Nolita asked with a frown.
“By having fun. Create new ways to do things that best suit our personalities and integrate the experiences we’ve had. The people we’ve met. As Garth said, we’d set a new precedence, which with the whole starting-a-new-school-separate-from-the-two-governments plan, this isn’t a bad place to start asserting that independence.”
I looked at my fiancée in amazement. I hadn’t even made that connection and she’d only had five minutes to think about it. I’m sure glad she’s going to be in charge of the school and not me.
Our mothers were quiet for a couple of moments, looked at each other, and I kid you not, had an entire conversation with their eyebrows—how do they even do that?—and simultaneously broke into grins.
“Sounds like a wonderful plan to me!” my mother said.
“I agree, dear. It’s the perfect compromise.”
I felt Chatta sag a little in relief, face lighting up in glee. “I’m so glad you think so. Garth, since I love you so much and you came up with the wonderful idea, I release you from planning duty.”
I felt my eyes widen with hope. “Really? I can go? You don’t need me?”
Chatta snorted at my obvious relief. “Yes, Garth. You’re free to go and let us play.”
I barely restrained a whoop of joy.
“Garth dear, one question before you make your escape. What made you think up this solution?” Mom asked.
The opportunity was too perfect. I couldn’t pass it up. I gave her a deliberately blank look. “Oh, that? I was just following Da’s advice.”
Mom’s eyes narrowed slightly. “What advice?”
“He told it to me when I was about eight or so….He said that the secret to a man’s happiness is to remember one thing: the wife is always right.”
“Your father and I,” Mom said archly, “are going to have a little talk about what kind of advice he gives.”
“Why?” I just couldn’t leave it alone. “It’s worked wonders for me so far with Chatta.”
For that, my fiancée slugged me in the arm.
~*~
A triumphant Kartal called me later on that afternoon by mirror broach. “I found it!”
Found…what? It took a second to click, but when it did I felt a matching excitement rise up in my chest. I stopped walking toward my suite and shuffled off to the side of the hallway so I could continue the conversation without distraction. “The instructions to become a Legend, you mean?”
“That’s it precisely. I can’t read much of it, unfortunately—it’s in ancient Chahiran—but we managed to find the Index and get her to talk to us in Hainian and this was this scroll she pointed us to. So. Who do you want me to give this to?”
Good question. I didn’t have an immediate answer for him. I’d talked to Guin about finding people who would be willing to contract with the Gardeners, become Legends, and then join the search in Chahir for budding magicians. I just wasn’t sure how far that idea had been developed in the past few days. My attention had been thoroughly diverted before I could follow up on it.
“For now, give it to me. I’ll find out who’s heading up this project and give it to them.”
“Fine. Oh, and while you’re here, I want you to deliver something to Kaydan for me.”
I eyed the mirror broach in my hand warily. “Kartal, if it’s something of a lovey-dovey nature—”
“I’m not stupid,” he snapped at me, “I know you’ll never deliver that kind of present! No, I found an old manual for Earth Mages. I want you to give it to her.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” I felt the world spin a bit. “They had textbooks for Mages?”
“Well of course they did, what kind of question is that? How can you teach anyone anything without an instruction book of some sort—”
“If you’ll recall,” I interrupted a tad testily, “they didn’t have textbooks while training me. Kartal, I want every textbook in that library and I want it yesterday.”
“Now wait just one moment! First one demand and now another?! Just what do you think gives you the right to—”
“I am the newly appointed Dean to the new Chahiran Academy for Magic,” I nearly snarled into the mirror. “As the Dean, I need textbooks for my students who, by the way, have no clue how to use their magic. I need textbooks. You have them. What is so surprising about this request, Kartal?”
There was a lengthy and digestive pause. “You’re the Dean?”
It was my turn to pause. “You haven’t heard about this yet?”
“Not one word. When you get down here, why don’t you give me a proper update of what’s been happening?”
I suppose I better. “Find my textbooks,” I requested with a sigh, “and I’ll tell you the whole story.”
“Deal. Get down here.”
~*~
After meeting with Kartal, updating him, and getting the instructions for how to create Legends, it was coming on late afternoon. I figured I had time enough for one more stop and from there went straight to Chahir. It was time that Chahir stopped depending on everyone else to produce people that could find magicians. A good first step to transferring the responsibility to the right shoulders was handing these instructions to Saroya or Vonlorisen.
I did glance through the instructions on the way there. It mos
tly involved a list of ways that one could contact a Gardener, which I made note of. I didn’t think they would have much to worry about at the moment, though, not considering that the Gardeners were obviously keeping a close eye on Chahir. I mean, I’d run into them four times now which I think was a record for the history books.
As it turned out, Saroya was the easiest one to track down. I handed the instructions off to him with a wry, “Good luck.” He acknowledged it with a sour nod. Finding Chahirans who would be willing to become a Legend would be far more difficult than finding a Gardener to contract with at this stage.
While there, I decided to get an update. “So how are things progressing?”
”Well. The Red Hand finished their reports and left for home this morning. Captain Riicshaden we convinced to stay a little longer, as he is the best training sergeant I’ve ever seen. He’s having a great deal of fun beating up on the new recruits,” Saroya informed me. “We are hoping to convince him to stay permanently, but I haven’t persuaded him to sign a contract yet. He keeps making noises about this being ‘temporary’ and that he’s thinking about living in Ascalon.” He sounded quite peeved at this last point.
“Ascalon was very welcoming for Shad, and gave him many challenges, which he enjoys,” I explained. “I doubt you’ll win him from them.”
He didn’t look pleased to have that confirmed. “On the other hand, every Dom that we found harboring Priests has been stripped of his lands and titles and exiled, along with his family. Who is going to replace them is another headache. In some cases the Dom’s family had preempted another family. Vonlorisen is re-instating those other families as the Doms. But that’s only in a few cases. He’s not sure what to do about other areas.”
I had no solution for him, and it wasn’t my place to mix with politics anyway.
“Vonlorisen wanted to know when you would start building,” Saroya added neutrally.
“How about when I actually know what I’m doing?” I responded, trying not to roll my eyes or groan. “I’m still coming up with ideas, ironing out problems, and communicating with the architects on how to actually build the monstrosity.” At the rate it was taking to plan my wedding, it would take another five years before I was ready to study anything.
“Give him a time estimate,” Saroya advised. “Kings like schedules. It makes them happy.”
Guin was the same way… I thought about it for a moment, trying to give him a reasonable time frame that wouldn’t put me in a corner. “Within the next three months.”
“That long?”
“It has to be done right the first time,” I pointed out patiently. “If he starts getting nervous about the time frame, remind him that with my power I can build the frame for buildings within a day. Also remind him that we still need to find a site or find a place where I can build a site.”
Saroya smirked a little. “I will tell him.”
It was probably about time I left. I had learned through experience that if you stayed for more than a few minutes around busy people, they’d start thinking of things you could help them with. I had other things I needed to attend to. “I need to get back to Hain. If you have any further questions about Legends and the like, either ask Raile or Wizard Kartal at the Sojavel Ra Institute. They’ll both be able to help you.”
Saroya looked relieved that he had experts he could ask questions of. “I will. Thank you, Garth.”
With a nod, I retreated back into the earth and went home to work some more.
Chapter Twenty-Four: Plans that Go Awry
“Garth!”
I knew that tone. Chatta only sounded like that when someone was in serious trouble and she was about one second from flaying them alive. I just hoped it wasn’t me. I put down the plans I had been looking at, coming around my desk and out of my study with quick steps. I rounded the corner and came into the living room with all the caution of a man stepping into a pit of agitated snakes.
Chatta stomped towards me, braid swinging like a pendulum. Her teeth were bared in a feral snarl.
Crap.
“Um…Chatta, sweetheart? What’s—”
“I’d like it very much if you would help me plan the murder of En-Nelle of Tain.”
I froze in my tracks, not sure whether I should be conciliatory or angry on her behalf.
“What happened?”
“We knew there would be opposition to doing things our own way, but she barged in this morning demanding to know all of our plans for the wedding and started going on a rampage when she learned what we are planning. Saying, how dare we disregard and not consult the council, that that’s not the way things are done. That all of our plans are inappropriate.” Chatta paced the length of the floor, hands flying through the air. “To top it off she said, no insisted, that everything be redone properly according to how they think it should go. That we have no choice in the matter.”
Chatta whirled around to face me. “So, hence the murdering. Will you help? Because I’ve had it up to here with the lot of them.”
Anger it was. I was tired of being yanked around, and this was obviously the time to put a stop to it as they were overstepping their bounds in a large way. But first, to keep my fiancé out of prison.
“I agree. How would you like me to do it? Drop her into the earth path and leave her there? Pitch her off a cliff?” Chatta eyeballed me hostilely for a moment to see if I was serious, before her whole body just slumped in, anger draining. She scrubbed a hand over her face.
“You’d do it for me, too. Alright, fine. Maybe not murder, but certainly a good thrashing wouldn’t hurt.”
Hmmm, now that I could do easily….I took my weary bride into my arms. “I’ll take care of it. One thrashing coming right up.” Chatta’s laugh was garbled against my chest. “You just keep planning the wedding like how we decided, and I’ll take care of En-Nelle. And on the bright side, in comparison Guin will only pout and act like we’re taking away his cookies.”
I felt the rest of Chatta’s anger drain away with her laughter. I gave her a lingering kiss before shooing her out the door. My own anger surfaced as I watched her walk out of the room.
Enough was enough.
In quick jerks I put my boots on and headed for the door. It was about time I had a little chat with the Trasdee Evondit Orra, starting with a certain annoying woman that served on that council.
The old adage that juicy news will grow wings, and outpace any man running, proved to be true. As I headed down the halls of the Academy, more and more people fell into step with me. News of En-Nelle’s demands had flown indeed, and now everyone was interested in the blowout sure to come. It seemed it wasn’t only my toes she had been stepping on.
I was most gratified to find that the Council was actually in session. Perfect! I was pleased that I didn’t have to waste time looking for them and corralling them together into one room, so I wouldn’t have to say this more than once.
With no regard for protocol, or waiting to be announced, I threw the doors of the Council Room open with a deafening bang that almost blew those carved twin doors off of their hinges. Everyone started, jerking around to stare at the door, looking like startled peacocks. I ignored all of them but one. I headed straight for En-Nelle, sitting in frozen amazement, at the head of the large U shaped table. I slammed both of my hands down against its gleaming surface, and leaned forward to stare eye to eye with the Head of the Trasdee Evondit Orra.
“Let me clarify something, so there is no room for error or misunderstanding.” My voice rang throughout the dead silent room with all the threat and promise of a sword being withdrawn. “This wedding is my wedding, mine and Chatta’s, and you will not interfere.”
She bristled like a stepped on cat, eyes wide in outrage. “Your status is such that—”
“My status, Madame, is such that I can have you removed from this Council in a heartbeat, if it suits my purposes,” I interrupted harshly. “I invite you to look around the Council Hall. I have enough members of the M
agical Community at my back, right here and now, to bring that very matter to an immediate vote. Imagine how many I could have had if I had actually asked for any of them to come here with me?” Almost as if on cue, several more Magicians squeezed their way past the doors and into the Council Chambers so they could get a better view of what was going down. “My status is such that if you push me any further, I will do that very thing.”
That shook her. For a moment, she looked like a petrified rabbit in front a ravening wolf. Then her spine snapped ramrod straight, shoulders squaring back into her ceremonial robes. “You are beholden to obey us—”
“Guin released all of the Chahiran magicians who wanted to go back to Chahir, remember?” I reminded her sweetly. “I am the Dean of the new Chahiran Academy for All Magic, and will most likely serve on our own Magical Council.” The blood visibly drained from her face with every word that left my mouth. “I continue to help him out of the strong bond of friendship that exists between us, not because I am beholden to him. I will say this again. You have no business interfering with my wedding. You will not do it again.”
O’danne was the only one that dared clear his throat and speak up. “Garth, I’m sure you realize how important your wedding is, on various levels. We are a little concerned about the precedent you are setting. Other magicians are likely to use your wedding, whatever you do, as a standard from now on.”
“Yes, we realize that,” I answered, gaze never leaving En-Nelle’s. “And a poor example it would be if I let all of you interfere in mine, giving you tacit permission to meddle in theirs as well. No. We will do it our way and set that new precedent. This power game ends now. You will stop.
“I will not take it lightly if you cross me again.”
I held her gaze a moment longer before I turned and strode back out again, the spectators drifting apart to form a pathway. There were smiles and nods of approval from my friends and fellow magicians as I stalked back through the ranks. The silence behind me was oppressive and all encompassing. The Chamber felt more like a wake than a council meeting. I could feel En-Nelle’s gaze burning into my back, but I ignored her. There wasn’t one thing that she could do to me and if she tried to retaliate through one of my friends or family I’d retaliate with all the force of an earthquake.
Balancer (Advent Mage Cycle) Page 26