Sufficiently Advanced Technology (Inverse Shadows) (15 page)

“We will all get some sleep,” Elyria said.
She
would have to write a full report for Captain Thor, which would be passed on to the CSC. At least they weren’t trying to micromanage from thousands of light years away. “Tomorrow, we’ll start moving the wagons to the surface and then start heading to the city.”

She smiled. Adana was right; despite the danger, this was a fascinating world. There were genuinely original discoveries to be made here, in all sorts of fields. She just couldn’t wait.

CHAPTER
T
WELVE

Joshua had always liked the dark.

It wasn’t something he had shared with anyone, apart from Master Faye, who had laughed and told him that it was an early sign of magic. The darkness held threats that could only be driven back by light; people went to bed as soon as darkness fell and attempted to sleep through the terrors, even the people living in cities. Joshua, on the other hand, had found the darkness fascinating. There were no true threats lurking within the shadows, he’d discovered, even before he’d learned to produce light for himself. The common folk were scared of nothing more than illusions.

“Something is happening,” Master Faye said, as they stood together on the roof of his house. “One of my detection spells activated for a few brief seconds.”

Joshua winced. They’d spent two weeks preparing themselves as best they could for a challenge, for when a Scion walked into the city and tried to claim it as his own, but nothing had happened. Eventually, he’d started to wonder if all of their preparations had discouraged the Scion from challenging Master Faye, although
that
was unlikely. A Scion with a full grasp of his powers might well have more recent experience skirmishing with other magicians than Master Faye. And few magicians were actually cowards.

“Someone was flying,” Master Faye added. “They flew near my wards and then banked away.”

“Oh,” Joshua said. “Why?”

“Good question,” Master Faye said, more than a little crossly. “I’ll let you know when I figure out the answer.”

Joshua swallowed. Flying – on a carpet, or a broom, or even alone – was a very complex spell, almost as complex as teleportation. It was easy for a magician to fly halfway around the world to attend a banquet – Master Faye had done it on occasion – but it was also easy for that magician’s enemies to disrupt his spells and send him tumbling out of the sky. Any magician flying so close to another bailiwick had to be utterly confident in their powers. All the great magicians of legend had castles built in the clouds or perched on a needle-thin rock – but no one ever built them in the real world, because they were just too easy to destroy.

“Yes, master,” he said, finally. “Where do you think he was going?”

“He passed outside the range of my spells, but I don’t think he went very far,” Master Faye said. He looked over at Joshua, thoughtfully. “How much progress have you made on riding a horse?”

Joshua made a face. He would never have been permitted to ride if he hadn’t been a magician – and yet he’d discovered, when he’d started to learn, that he disliked it intensely. The horses all seemed to hate him and threatened to unseat him whenever he gave them an opportunity. And to think he’d envied horsemen back when he had been a child! He hadn’t realised just how bad-tempered the beasts actually were.

“Take one out when the sun rises and ride around the fields, near the border,” Master Faye ordered. If he saw Joshua’s expression, he said nothing. “I want you to keep an eye out for anything unusual.”

Joshua blinked. “Anything?”

“Signs that someone might be lurking just outside the borderline,” Master Faye explained, patiently. “Speak to the farmers; ask them if they’ve seen anything odd. Don’t use truth spells unless they have a real strange story, one you find unbelievable. And remember the story of Mervin.”

“Right,” Joshua said. Mervin had been one of the few Scions to believe that someone should be policing magicians, rather than allowing them to run rampant. His career had been spent hunting magicians who used black magic, to the point where he’d acted more like a City Guard Investigator than a proper magician. An odd man, but very practical. The stories had included lectures on what to look for if one happened to be hunting a black magician.

Master Faye gave him a sharp look. “If you find anything, contact me at once and try to avoid meeting him,” he added. “You won’t be any match for a Scion, even after the hard work we’ve done over the last two weeks. Just keep your distance and contact me.”

He smiled, rather thinly. “Go back to bed,” he ordered. “I’ll keep a watchful eye out for trouble.”

Joshua didn’t sleep well that night, finally resorting to a sleeping spell he’d been told to use on himself only in the direst of emergencies. He couldn’t help the nightmares crawling through his skull and it was almost a relief when he awoke, just as the sun was slowly rising above the mountains in the distance. Muttering words under his breath that would have earned him a rebuke from his father, he staggered into the washroom and splashed cold water on his face. He didn’t feel refreshed at all.

There was no sign of Master Faye as he walked downstairs and into the kitchen, only the two silent servants, who laid out a full breakfast before he could say a word. Master Faye had clearly briefed them on what Joshua would be doing all day, for they’d also laid out a packed lunch and several bottles of juice. No alcohol, of course. Joshua had been told that alcohol could make a magician silly, and then dangerous. It was unwise to drink any, even a tiny sip.

Shaking his head, he ate his breakfast, filled his knapsack with the packed lunch and a handful of sweets from the kitchen, and then walked down towards the stables at the back of the house. Master Faye wasn’t much of a horseman either; Joshua had never understood why a man with the power to fly even bothered to keep horses. But then, a horseman was less noticeable than a magician flying through the air. It was the only reason Joshua could accept why any magician would want to ride a horse.

“Filly is ready for you, Master Joshua,” the stable boy said, tipping his hat. Joshua had the feeling he would have liked the lad, if there hadn’t been a massive social gulf between them, one that could never be bridged. “He’s in a very good mood.”

Joshua scowled. The boy
loved
horses and they seemed to love him back, even though he spent most of his time mucking out their stables. His family didn’t have the money to buy a horse for themselves, let alone keep it, which was probably why he’d entered Master Faye’s service. Not that Joshua could complain; it was traditional for apprentices to take care of their master’s horses and he would have
hated
the job. The beasts would have hated him too.

“I’m sure,” he said, finally. The expensive lessons with a fine horseman had been largely a waste of money. “Let’s see the beast.”

Joshua had never been able to tell if Filly was male or female, although he had been told that the beast was male. The creature had a wicked temper when roused and an unerring sense for when a rider was not capable of keeping him under control. Joshua forced himself to look calm as the stable boy led the horse out of the stall and started to fit him with a saddle and bridle. Filly eyed him with dark eyes that promised a nasty experience in the future. It was impossible to escape the feeling that the beast was mocking him.

Master Faye insisted loudly that humans were the only intelligent creatures on Darius. The legends of mermaids had never been more than sailor stories; darker legends, which were shared between the old wives, were often used as excuses for bad behaviour. Looking at Filly, Joshua couldn’t help thinking that his master was wrong. There was a dark intelligence in the horse’s eyes. Or maybe he was just imagining it.

“You behave yourself, all right?” The stable boy said, to the horse. “Or the master will sell you for cat meat.”

Joshua snorted. He’d also been told that Filly was a famous stud horse. Everyone for miles around wanted their mares to be covered by the big black horse, who probably thought himself in heaven. The stable boy’s threat was impractical; even if Filly was no longer allowed out of the stable, he’d still be allowed to have sex with female horses. There was something almost enviable about that.

Carefully, Joshua climbed up on Filly’s back and into the saddle, casting a charm that should prevent him from falling off, or at least ensuring a relatively soft landing. Filly snickered – an alarmingly humanlike sound – and shivered, very slightly. Joshua had wondered if he was actually a transfigured human, but Master Faye had sworn that he was a real horse. It wasn’t uncommon to check newly-purchased animals just to make sure someone wasn’t trying to slip a spy into a household.

The stable boy passed him his knapsack, which Joshua slung over his shoulder. He could have used the saddlebags, but Filly had once unseated him and run off, forcing Joshua to spend the rest of the day chasing the wretched beast. Master Faye had laughed when he’d come home, tired and sweaty, and refused to teach him a charm for controlling horses directly. Joshua would almost sooner have been beaten.

“All right,” he said, knowing that the whole trip wasn’t going to be fun. “Let’s go.”

Filly marched out of the stable and then, without any warning, jumped into a canter, moving down the middle of the street at terrifying speed. Joshua gritted his teeth and manipulated the reins carefully, knowing that pulling them too hard could result in the horse slamming to a halt and himself flying over Filly’s head and down onto the cobbled ground. People scattered as they saw Filly coming, getting out of the way faster than they did for anyone human, even Master Faye. Filly’s reputation as a bad-tempered beast had spread throughout the entire city.

Joshua forced himself to stay calm as they approached the gates. There were a pair of carts in front of them, being unloaded by the farmers under the watchful eye of the City Guard, but Filly just kept going, speeding up as he charged directly at the carts. A moment before they would have run into them, the horse jumped, cleared the carts effortlessly and raced out of the city. The Guardsmen knew better than to get in the way.

Outside the city, the road rapidly became much less comfortable. Each of the Pillars was supposed to maintain their own road network, but Master Faye had never been able to build up the manpower needed to repair the damaged roads. Warlock’s Bane profited from his careful management, including allowing the merchants to make their own decisions with minimal taxation, yet something would have to be done about the roads sooner or later. When
he
was Pillar, Joshua told himself, he would organise a muster and get people to work on the roads. Or maybe he’d just offer to pay workers double if they worked outside the city.

Like most cities, Warlock’s Bane was surrounded by farms, which produced much of its food. Joshua had accompanied Master Faye as he’d reviewed them, taking his customary ten per cent of their produce, although he had to admit that he’d found the whole process rather boring. The farmers had locked up their daughters, either out of fear of him or of Master Faye, as some Pillars were known for deflowering as many girls as they could. Joshua couldn’t imagine Master Faye with anyone. If nothing else, he seemed to have no other interests beyond power and ruling.

Joshua waved to a farmer riding on a cart as Filly thundered by, heading right for the borderline. There were a number of farms that straddled the frontier, or existed outside it in hopes of avoiding Master Faye’s taxes, although that wasn’t always a smart decision. The true danger of living outside a bailiwick was being targeted by Scions, either for food, women or simple amusement. Joshua had been training for six months when he’d seen the aftermath of one attack and it hadn’t been pretty. The farmers had been normal humans when the Scions had arrived. Afterwards, they’d been monsters. And no one had been able to do anything about it because they were on the wrong side of the borderline.

The sun was higher in the sky when he finally slowed down, approaching the outermost farm. Joshua had a private suspicion that the farmer had intended to settle outside the borderline, or support others who
were
outside the borderline, but Master Faye didn’t seem inclined to make an issue of it. Pillars who dictated too much to their population, he’d claimed, tended to have less useful populations over time. If he’d just wanted power without responsibility, he would never have challenged the last Pillar of Warlock’s Bane to a fight.

Filly snickered again as they stopped just outside the gate, but Joshua was wise to the horse’s tricks this time and used a freeze charm before slipping out of the saddle and dropping down to the ground. Once he’d tied Filly firmly to a tree, he released the charm and listened with a certain amount of pleasure to the horse’s angry noises. Humans disliked the freeze charm; horses clearly reacted worse. Grinning, Joshua turned his back and walked away, heading towards the small farmhouse on the other side of the gate. A middle-aged man appeared around the corner and lifted an eyebrow when he saw Joshua. He didn’t look pleased to see the Pillar’s apprentice.

“Welcome, My Lord,” he said. No, he
definitely
didn’t sound pleased. By rights, Joshua could claim hospitality, but it wouldn’t be a very welcome imposition. “We are at your service.”

Joshua nodded. “My master sent me to enquire if you’d seen anything unusual in the area,” he said, without preamble. There was no point in staying near the farm any longer than was strictly necessary. Nice as it would be to try to seduce the farmer’s daughter, Master Faye would be furious if he wasted time. “Anything, anything at all.”

The farmer relaxed slightly, looking a little relieved. His tax evasion either hadn’t been noticed or had simply been ignored, Joshua decided. It wasn’t at all uncommon for farmers to attempt to evade paying more than the bare minimum; Master Faye ignored it, as long as the city had enough food. Joshua wasn’t sure what view he’d take of it when he was Pillar.

“Nothing, My Lord,” he said, finally. “There was a wagon convoy nine days ago, if that counts; they sold Molly some spices before heading onwards to the city.”