Magus (Advent Mage Cycle) (25 page)

I didn't think about the reaction our arrival would generate. Not until I heard the screams of panic, at any rate.

People were scattering in all directions, tripping over everything and everyone, scrambling to get out of the area. I watched them with a wince, just knowing that someone was going to lecture me about this.

Chatta must have come to the conclusion I did, because she said, "Ooops."

Resigned, I nodded in agreement. "I didn't think this would terrify them…"

"It
is
sort of alarming to watch you pop out of the ground like this," she said slowly, eyes narrowing. "But not
that
alarming. I think they're scaredy cats."

"Well, it
has
been a while since they've seen the powers of an Earth Mage," I rationalized. I don't know why I felt like I had to defend these people, I just did. Sometimes I'm too nice for my own good.

Xiaolang, as usual, was focused on business. "Where would King Guin be at this time of day?"

I turned toward him, head cocking slightly as I tried to discern his thought process. "You think we should update him first before going and seeing the Mages?"

"Kings like being kept informed," he told me with an amused curve to his mouth. "They're finicky that way."

He had a definite point. "I think Guin will be in his study at this time of day," I ventured, looking to Chatta for support. She knew his habits better than I did.

Chatta's forehead was furrowed a bit as she thought. "Hmmm, maybe. If not, there should be someone in that area that can tell us where he is."

Xiaolang nodded, but his eyes were on his team. "Go ahead and stable the horses, and clean up some. I think this will take a couple of hours."

"A bath sounds heavenly," Aletha sighed.

I gave her a sympathetic look. Poor woman had barely arrived in Chahir from Del'Hain—she hadn't gotten that handy lift from Tyvendor like Chatta had—when we met up with her and Shield again. They hadn't had the luxurious break that the rest of us had.

"Go on," Xiaolang encouraged them. "I'll track you down when we have everything sorted out."

He didn't have to tell them again. They disappeared with alacrity, talking about hot baths, good food, and naps as they went. Hayate trailed after them, pleading for bacon in a pitiful voice.

"
I'm going for a bath as well,
" Night informed me. "
And then I better visit Trev'nor, otherwise we'll all be in the doghouse."

"Excellent plan," I approved whole-heartedly. My adopted brother, if he thinks he's being neglected, can make a stone feel sorry for him. I didn't look forward to any impending guilt trips. "Take him to see my parents," I suggested. "You might get Mom to feed you some peanut butter while you're there."

Night visibly brightened at this idea. "
I will
," he declared as he sauntered off.

It took us about twenty minutes to hunt down Guin, as he wasn't in any of the places that we expected him to be. We finally tracked him down in the kitchen, of all places; when we entered, he looked up with a slightly guilty expression, three cookies balanced in one hand and a tall glass of milk in the other.

I was amused to see a king acting like a guilty five year old, and couldn't help but tease a little. "Let me guess. Your wife has you on another diet."

"She won't let me have any sugar!" he said plaintively. He even
sounded
like a five year old. "She said I've been gaining weight," he added indignantly.

"And of course Queen Chaelane is wrong," Chatta drawled, voice heavy with amusement.

Guin drew himself up, haughty and authoritative. "Garth, Chatta, I
forbid
both of you to mention this to her."

"Wouldn't dream of it, Sire," I managed to say with a straight face. I didn't say the obvious, which was that we hardly needed to tattle—his expanding waistline would do that eventually. It would soon be very obvious that he was cheating on the side.

"Why are you here, anyway?" Guin asked, growing suspicion and alarm spreading over his face. "Nothing's wrong, I hope?"

"Nothing of the sort," Xiaolang hastened to assure him. "Actually, we think we know how Chahir is finding all of the magicians. But we need to talk to the Coven Ordan Mages in order to prove our theory."

"Really?" Guin took a bite out of his cookie in an almost absent manner. "What's the theory?"

It didn't take long to fill him in on the details—barely long enough for him to eat a cookie—and by the end of the explanation, he was nodding thoughtfully. "That's actually quite plausible. Under the circumstances, I believe that proving this either right or wrong will take temporary precedence. This is very vital information. Garth, Captain Xiaolang, Chatta—your new assignment is to figure this out. Do whatever you need to in order to make sure, one way or the other. After that, go back to your original task."

I had pretty much expected that reaction and nodded. "Understood, Sire. Are the Mages still at the Academy?"

"They're supposed to be."

"Then we'll go there," Chatta said decisively. "Unless there's anything else that you need to tell us, Sire?"

"Not a thing," he said dismissively. "Just keep quiet about my snack."

~*~

Fortunately for us, the Mages were indeed where they were supposed to be. I was introduced to Hay-el D’Auch and Terran Far-Auchmage, who were delighted to meet me. As first impressions went, they seemed like pretty good people.

It didn’t take us long to fill all three people in on our theory, and to relay our request to borrow their scrying pool for a bit.

“We’d be delighted to have you,” Terran assured us sincerely. “I’m afraid Hay-el and Tyvendor are a little busy here at the school, but I can take you. When do you want to leave?”

“As soon as possible,” Xiaolang answered.

“Hmmm. How about tomorrow morning?” Terran offered. “I’m pretty sure I can be ready by then.”

“That will be fine,” Xiaolang assured him. “We’ll meet you here, in the main courtyard.”

“All right.” Terran hesitated, eyes going to me, but he didn’t say anything more than that. “I’ll see you later.” With a last bow, he scampered back into the school.

I glanced up at the sky, realizing that I had the better part of the day still left. “Xiaolang, do you mind if I stay with my family tonight?”

“Not at all,” he assured me. “Chatta, you can visit your family as well, if you wish.”

“Thank you, I shall.” She flashed us both a smile before sauntering off.

I was thinking better of my request, and decided I should revise it. “Actually, why don’t you and the team come home with me? My parents have enough room, and they’d love to meet all of you.”

Xiaolang hesitated, although you could tell that he was very curious. “Are you sure? You haven’t even checked with them about this.”

I waved this concern away. “My mother loves company. You’ll see. Unless you want the time to prepare for going to Bromany?”

“I’m not sure what I could possibly do to prepare for that,” Xiaolang admitted ruefully. “I would be pleased to go with you, Garth.”

“Good.” I smiled, happy to have gotten my way. “Then let’s go get the rest of the team.”

“I’ll get the team, you go warn your mother,” he corrected me.

All in all…probably not a bad idea.

Chapter Thirteen: Surprises

No surprise to me, my parents were delighted to have the team visiting. My mother was running about, getting beds together for everyone, and calling orders to Kaydan to make sure that dinner wasn’t burning. Somehow, we all congregated around the kitchen table. This has always been a gathering place for my family. Even moving into a different country hadn’t changed that.

My father was at the head of the table, regaling everyone with the tale of how I rescued Asla and her boy, Aral. He had everyone completely enthralled but me. After all, I had been there. I was pretty much ignoring him. Instead, I turned my attention to the house.

When I first brought my parents to Del’Hain, I made good on my promise and replaced everything that they had lost. The first order of business was buying them a house. It was in the middle of a new subdivision in Del’Hain, a tidy two-story with a small front and backyard. It was perfect for my parents, as it allowed my father enough room to work, and my mother the close proximity to all of the markets. It also had enough room for my brothers, sister, and my adopted sister, niece and nephew—Asla, her daughter Hela, and son Aral. I’d hoped to see them on this trip, but apparently they were across the city visiting with friends. The family had been slowly settling in, and by now, it almost looked like they had always been here. I was pleased to see how much progress had been made in making this a home.

From upstairs, there was the sound of running feet. I tracked it by ear as the stairs started echoing with rapid thumps. It didn’t take much thought on my part to figure out who it was. There was only one person that ran like that.

I twisted in my chair, half-rising to catch the whelp before he knocked me over. From the base of the stairs, a tussle-headed blond boy shot in my direction. “Garth!”

I caught him by the waist, swinging him up into the air. “Trev’nor, you rapscallion!”

“You’re here! You’re here!” he cheered, leaning down to strangle me with an exuberant hug.

“Trev, I can’t breathe!” I complained, faking a strangled voice.

He giggled, as I knew he would, and relaxed his grip. “Night brought me here ages ago, what were you doing?” In his face was a severe reproach, as only a child could do.

“I had to talk with someone,” I told him. “And I had to get my other friends for you to meet.”

He blinked then tilted his body to look around me. Apparently it had escaped his immediate attention that I wasn’t alone at the table. He was awkward to hold at that angle, so I set him on his feet. “Trev’nor, this is De Xiaolang. The pretty lady over there is Aletha, the big hairy man is Hazard—” Hazard gave me a dirty look for that. I gave him a cocky grin in return, “—the one next to Hazard is Eagle, and then we have Shad and last but never least, Shield. Everyone, this is my adopted brother, Trev’nor.”

There were smiles and hellos around the table. Trev’nor was watching them all with wide eyes, but the person he stared at most was Xiaolang. Remembering the first time I met Xiaolang, I had a hunch why he couldn’t stop staring. I leaned in close to his ear and murmured, “What color is he, Trev’nor?”

“Blue,” Trev’nor answered slowly. “A deep blue.”

“He’s Q’atalian. Do you know what that is?”

Trev’nor jerked around to stare up at me. “It’s the people up above Chahir; the ones with blue skin.” With a quick look in the Captain’s direction, Trev’nor whispered doubtfully, “He doesn’t have blue skin.”

Trev’nor was trying to be quiet, but he hadn’t caught the hang of whispering yet. He was just a bit too loud. Xiaolang obviously heard, because he was grinning.

“No, my visible skin isn’t blue, is it?” He left the chair so that he could kneel in front of Trev’nor. He unbuttoned the first two buttons of his shirt, pulling the white fabric aside to show skin usually protected from the sun. I was surprised to see that the skin was the same dusky blue that I had seen on most Q’atalians. “For my people, being exposed to the sun bleaches our skin. Rather like a backwards tan,” he offered.

Trev’nor was staring at the different skin tones in fascination. “Wow.” After a moment, Trev’nor seemed to remember his earlier question. “But why do you glow blue?”

Xiaolang blinked. “I glow?”

“Unlike myself, Trev’nor can see magic,” I explained. “To him, different sorts of magic have different colors. Chatta, for example, is white. I’m brown with edges of green.”

“And you’re blue,” Trev’nor told Xiaolang in bewilderment. “Are you a magician, too?”

Xiaolang looked a little surprised at this. “No, I’m an empath.”

“Empaths are magical?” Trev’nor looked to me for the answer.

“Sort of.” He gave me a grimace at the uncertain response. I shrugged helplessly. “I know it’s weird. I wouldn’t think we could detect it, but apparently empathy has just enough magic to it that we can see it, or feel it.”

From the look on Trev’nor’s face, he was definitely going to think about this later. And probably ask everyone in the world the question again, to see if he couldn’t get a better answer.

Shaking my head, I let it drop. “So where is Night?”

“He’s out back taking a nap,” my father answered.

Figures. How come he always gets a nap when I don’t? It’s unfair, I tell you.

“Garth,” my mother called from upstairs. “Can I have your help?”

“Coming!” I called back. I set Trev’nor in my chair before taking the stairs two at a time. There had been a hint of strain in my mother’s voice, which indicated that she had herself in a predicament.

I stuck my head into the first bedroom, but she wasn’t there, so I tried the second. Sure enough, she had somehow managed to back herself into a corner with the bed at an odd angle. Shaking my head in fond amusement, I moved the bed aside so she could get out.

“Just put it against that far wall,” she instructed.

“Yes ma’am.” The bed was a small, narrow twin that was easy to move. A single heave on my part put it flush against the wall.

“That’s so unfair,” she sighed while watching me. “I struggled with that thing for ten minutes.”

I grinned at her, but knew better than to make a sarcastic comment. I’d get smacked for my efforts. “Anything else you need me to move?”

“No, I have enough beds set up for everyone now.” She paused, questions forming on her face. “Garth, the friends you’ve brought here seem like very good people.”

I nodded in confirmation. They are good people. I wasn’t sure where she was going with this, so stayed quiet and waited.

“I’ve been worried about you,” she whispered. “What you are doing is so very dangerous. I’ve been proud as well, of course, because what you’re doing is saving people. It’s just been hard for me to trust you to absolute strangers like this.”

I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, hugging her close to my side. It felt a little odd, because I was a whole head taller than her; I felt like I, the child, was offering comfort to her, the mother. “Why do you think I brought them here?” I asked her gently. “I wanted you to see with your own eyes what kind of people I’m working with.”