Magus (Advent Mage Cycle) (38 page)

“We are indeed listening, Magus,” Toplady assured me with humble sincerity.

I smiled at him, and started outlining the same theory—which I was pretty sure was more than just theory—that Aral and I had talked about on his front porch, only a week ago. Kartal just sat back, enjoying the show. I knew without asking that he’d rub this in for
years
. These Wizards might never live this day down.

Well, that wasn’t my problem. I just laid out magical theory as logically and concisely as I could. As I talked, I realized that these men were genuinely listening. Stott was even taking notes.

Well. Maybe they weren’t blockheads after all.

~*~

After some polite goodbyes to the researchers, I went back to Del’Hain to pick up Night. I left Kartal there in Sojavel Ra. He had that huge pile of “treasure” to help sort through, after all.

I took a few minutes to properly say goodbye to all of the family and pick up a few items in town. As I ran around, I filled in Night on what had happened this morning. Have you ever seen a horse try to laugh and walk at the same time? It’s a funny sight, let me tell you. I actually got quite the kick watching
his
reaction to the story.

I thought I’d score some major points and picked up two of Chatta’s favorite treats. Night was teasing me about doing this but I’m good at ignoring him when I want to.

Doing all of this had eaten up the morning, and it was nearly noon when I was done. Night and I voted on eating lunch there in Del’Hain before traveling back to Chahir.

After a very filling lunch of squinch and meat pie, I made sure all of my packages were on Night’s back. Satisfied, I took us down into the earth path.

As usual, it was warm and quiet inside the earth. I let it flow over me, soothing away all the minor tensions flooding my body.

“
You really do like it down here, don’t you?
”

“It’s very relaxing,” I answered contentedly, eyes shut.

“Aren’t you worried about hitting something?
”

“Not really.”

He grumbled, but didn’t reply. I decided it was better to just change the subject. “How is Hayden really?” I asked Night. I wasn’t sure if the kid was putting on a good face when I was around.

“
Ecstatic. There’s a part of him, though, that thinks this is all too good to be true. He never says anything, but his eyes…
”

I nodded in understanding. I expected something like that. “Time will erase that worry.”

“
I wish we could bring good news back with us.
”

“Chatta was actually afraid this was the answer. She’s quite good with pools, really. We just both hoped that the experts knew something she didn’t.”

“
So what
are
we going to do?
”

“Good question,” I sighed. “I haven’t the foggiest notion. We might end up just working around the pools, as we did before.”

“
I foresee a lot of glamour spells in our future.
”

That statement troubled me. Glamour spells were hard to hold for any length of time. They took quite a bit of concentration. And you couldn’t hold them while you were asleep. For Chatta to cast a glamour over all of us…well, that would drain her quickly. I didn’t exactly agree with Night.

I saw very limited magic being used in our immediate future.

Chapter Eighteen: Cause and Effect

I didn’t take the earth path directly to where the team was. That would have been like painting a target on all of our backs. Instead, I went back to what Shad had dubbed “the treasure cave” and stopped there. Then I pulled out a glamour amulet for both Night and I, and put them on. They would last five hours before breaking down; that should give us enough time to lose anyone that might be tracking us by scrying pool.

Once we were off the mountain, Night fell into a ground-eating lope. I settled back in the saddle, only keeping a cursory eye on where we were going. Riding a Nreesce was so much better than riding a horse—I could just point him in the right direction and turn him loose.

“
Garth, who do you think the boy is? The one that Xiaolang had that premonition about.
”

I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. “Honestly, I have no idea. The kid’s got to be pretty important, if he’s going to change Chahiran policy.”

“
One of the Dom’s sons or something?
”

“Or something,” I agreed, arrested by this idea. “Some of the Doms have a lot of power and influence.”

“
I hope we find the boy soon. I’m getting kind of tired of being away from home so much
.”

I patted his neck in sympathy. “Yeah, I’m with you on that one.” It wasn’t just that I missed being able to see my family and friends on a regular basis, although that was a large part of it. I was also envisioning just how much work was piling up for me. Supposedly Kartal was handling a large portion of it, but still….

Owing Kartal favors would make anyone nervous.

“
When this is over, let’s buy a house,”
Night suggested in a burst of enthusiasm.

Where in blue blazes had that come from? “Not that I’m complaining, but why are you suggesting that now?”

“
We’re too handy for Guin,
” he explained with a slight timbre of irritation in his voice.
“We’re too convenient. Whenever something goes wrong, he thinks of us first because he knows that it’ll be easy to lay hands on us quickly.”

I followed this closely, mind spinning. “So if we were
not
in easy reach, say in our own house outside of the city…then he might stop calling on us so much…?”

“
I think so.
”

For about three seconds, I seriously considered what he was saying. “You know, Night, I’m feeling the sudden urge to go buy a house.”

“I thought you’d see it my way.
” He was very smug.

“You’re a devious person Night, and I’m proud to know you.”

He chuckled wickedly.

The rest of the trip, we discussed what exactly we wanted in our new house, making a list as the miles passed beneath our feet.

~*~

It took a day of hard travel, but I finally caught up with the team just outside of Netchdor, in Farless Province. Xiaolang told me to meet them there before I left—Farless was one of those Provinces that were willing to enforce Guin’s terms. It also possessed a permanent pool. For the experimentation that we wanted to do, this was one of the safest places to tinker.

The pool was largely abandoned, not a soul living within thirty miles of it. Everyone was camping just outside the building where the pool was housed, looking rather well established—apparently they had been camped here for a day or so, waiting for me. I waved as I came in. “Hey!”

“Garth!” Chatta leapt to her feet, abandoning whatever it was that she was cooking over the fire, and sprinted for me.

I quickly dropped out of the saddle, barely catching her when she threw herself at me. For a purely selfish moment, I hugged her tight enough to make ribs squeak. She laughed, tightening her hold on me in return.

The moment was completely ruined when Night poked me in the ribs with his nose, throwing me off balance. I nearly fell over, which would have been bad because I’d take Chatta with me. Catching myself, I turned a dark glare on him. “And just what was that for?”

“
You’re taking up my hugging time too,
” he informed me with an equally dark glare.

That sent Chatta off into an extended giggle fit. Releasing me, she went to hug my bratty Nreesce. “Now Night, you know that I’d never neglect you.”

Sighing in contentment, he rubbed his head against her back, tail swishing happily back and forth.

I watched this with narrowed eyes, plotting different methods of revenge. He’s normally a deep sleeper….

Xiaolang saved Night from impending doom by joining the welcoming party. “So how was the trip?”

Shaking off visions of pranks dancing in my head, I smoothed my face out. “Good. My parents adopted Hayden—when I left, the kid was being smothered with motherly attention and loving every minute of it.” He was sure to feel overwhelmed soon. It wasn’t just parents he had suddenly inherited, but four brothers, two sisters, a niece and a nephew—a veritable wealth of relations.

“Knowing your family, I hadn’t expected anything different.” A smile crinkled the corners of his eyes. “And our treasure?”

“Delivered to the Sojavel Ra Institute. The place is full of magical experts; they’ll figure it all out. I took a moment while I was there and asked them about shutting off permanent pools.”

That distracted Chatta from hugging Night, and she pulled away to look at me. “What did they say?”

“Pretty much what you said,” I admitted with a weary sigh. “They thought moving the ley line or diverting the power would work. Other than that, our only option is putting some sort of capstone on it.”

“I was afraid that might be the answer.” She didn’t look surprised, just resigned.

“I would like to take a few hours and really look the situation over.” My eyes gravitated to the plain gray building where the pool was as I said this. “My first instinct on playing with ley lines is to say that it’s too dangerous but I might be wrong.”

“It never hurts to double-check,” Xiaolang agreed calmly. “But for tonight, rest. You’ve been very busy the past three days, and I don’t want you making mistakes because of fatigue.”

Not a bad idea. “I’ll not argue.”

“Speaking of making mistakes…”
Night gave me a pointed look. “
Aren’t you forgetting something?
”

Forgetting something…? Oh! “Busted buckets, I nearly forgot. Chatta, I picked up some of that sweet bread you like while I was in Del’Hain.”

You’d think I’d just offered her a gourmet meal, complete with fine linens, silverware, candles, and music. The smile of unfeigned delight she wore put the sun to shame. “Strawberry?”

“Well, one strawberry, one melon.”

Between one heartbeat the next, she darted in and pressed a kiss against my cheek. A slow flush burned its way across my face, and I swear that the place where her lips touched me made my skin tingle.

“You’re the best friend in the world, Garth!” she exclaimed, nearly bouncing. “Which pocket is it in?”

I had to pull my scrambled wits together to answer her coherently. “Ah, right pocket, I think.”

She darted around Night, happily rummaging in my saddlebags.

I just stood there and watched her with a dazed smile on my face. I have
got
to do her favors more often, if this is the response that I’ll get.

Shad sidled up to my side, eyes dancing. “Garth, you’re blushing.”

I threw an elbow at his ribs, which he dodged, the rat.

Why did I get the feeling that I was never going to live this down?

“You’ve got to tell them about the Advent Mage study group
,” Night encouraged with snicker.

Chatta paused with her treat in hand. “The what?”

I throttled down my own amusement, just thinking about her probable reaction—actually, the whole team was bound to be amused by this. “Let’s sit down,” I suggested. “This is a real doozy.”

I decided it was safer all around for me to finish dinner while I told the story. I had this hunch that Chatta especially would be rolling on the ground with laughter, begging for mercy, by the time that I finished this story. So I picked up the spoon Chatta had abandoned, stirring the thick stew over the fire, and waited until everyone was sitting down before beginning.

Sitting was the safest position for them to be in, after all.

“So I had to take everything we found in the cave to the Sojavel Ra Institute,” I started casually. “While I was in the building, I ran across a room that had a plate on it that read
Advent Mage Study
.”

Everyone choked, torn between shock and laughter.

“Kartal and I had no idea there was such a study,” I admitted. It was difficult to keep my face bland. “And as we stood there, just looking at that plate, one of the men in the room demanded to know what I was doing.”

“Did he know who you were?” Hazard demanded.

I shook my head. “Not a clue.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Chatta held up a hand, her expression incredulous. “The group that is supposed to be the authority on the Advent Mage couldn’t recognize him on sight?”

“He really didn’t even give me a chance to introduce myself either,” I confirmed.

That set Chatta off into mad giggles. She had vast experience with the arrogance of Wizards, after all. Hearing them make such colossal mistakes was very entertaining for her. “Please,
please
let me put this into a memory crystal.”

I thought about that for a moment, but why not? The memory was a better way of showing them than my retelling of the story. “All right.”

Chatta scrambled around for an empty memory crystal, casting the spell to open it up. I pulled the memory of my encounters with the Advent Mage group to the front of my mind, which Chatta captured effortlessly and stored in the crystal. She hit it with another spell to broadcast the memory so that everyone could see it play in their heads.

I sat back and watched their expressions, reliving the moment with them, and laughing about it all over again. When the memory was over, Chatta and Shad were hanging onto each other, laughing so hard they were having trouble breathing; Xiaolang had one hand over his eyes, errant chuckles escaping from his mouth here and there; Eagle and Aletha were actually quoting their favorite lines to each other, chuckling dementedly; Shield kept rubbing at his lips to erase a smile, with limited success; Hazard was just rolling on the ground, arms wrapped around his middle and begging for mercy.

Watching them, I had this suspicion that this was one memory they were going to ask for an encore—probably as many times as Chatta was willing to cast the spell. Considering how entertained she was, it was going to be a while before she got tired of it.

If she ever did.