The Wizard Hunters (11 page)

Tremaine stepped forward, inserting an elbow into Ander’s side to edge him out of the way so she could see. The man sprawled on the ground looked ordinary enough, pale from the winter and maybe a little ill. His cropped hair was short, but not so short as to be out of fashion in a city where most of the men were in the army. “How can you tell?” she asked, warily fascinated.

“He’s resistant to spells,” Niles answered her, his eyes still intent on the dead man. “He has no counter talismans or antietheric agents on him but he got past the wards against intruders.”

“I hit him with that tabletop and the vase, and it barely slowed him down,” Tremaine said as Florian nodded confirmation. “Is he a sorcerer?”

“Gardier don’t send their sorcerers into battle,” Gerard told her. “At least from what we can tell. He’s probably had protective spells cast on him.”

“The ones we faced on the Aderassi border sure did.” Ander reached to pick up the goggles the man had worn, which had fallen next to the body. “These are aether-glasses of some sort, aren’t they?”

Tremaine frowned. The bulky crystal lenses were a modern substitute for gascoign powder, a substance that sorcerers placed in their eyes in order to see the etheric traces left by wards or active spells.

Florian looked up at the others, her brow furrowed. “But if he was here, he has to know about the project?”

“I’m certain he did.” Gerard pulled off his spectacles and rubbed his brow. “Poor Tiamarc wasn’t a powerful sorcerer; he would hardly have been a target for Gardier assassination with Niles and me here. There was no reason to kill him except to delay the project. The question is whether this man had a chance to notify his superiors.” He shook his head, looking worriedly at Niles. “Dammit, it could already be too late. We should make the last survey trip immediately.”

Ander frowned. “Can’t we skip it and send the advance scouting team in now?”

“We have to make this last trip or the advance scouting team will be the advance suicide team,” Gerard countered briskly. “We haven’t been taking these survey trips simply to gather information. They’re essential to stabilizing and widening the etheric world-gate, not to mention opening it in different locations once the Gardier discover its existence. The spell parameter that prevents transfer into solid objects only protects us so far.”

“Oh, I like that,” Tremaine said before she could stop herself.

“What?” Ander stared at her incredulously.

“ ‘Etheric world-gate,’ it just sounded . .. never mind.”

Colonel Averi gave her an annoyed look. “We’re not in one of your plays, Miss Valiarde. Focus, or you’re just a liability. This is a deadly serious business.”

Tremaine’s brows drew together. “I know it’s serious,” she said mildly. “I’ve got the bruise to prove it.”

“You’re not taking it seriously,” the man persisted.

Tremaine met his gaze, her eyes cold, her selfconsciousness dissolving abruptly. She smiled. “Sure I am.”

“The Gardier killed her father, Colonel,” Ander said suddenly, startling her by how offended he sounded. He gazed sternly at the older man. “Of course she takes it seriously.”

Averi stared at him, then turned to Tremaine stiffly. “I apologize.”

Tremaine shook her head, wishing Ander hadn’t brought it up. His defense had knocked the fight right out of her. “It’s all right.”

Niles was digging in his pockets, pulling out a pen and a notebook stuffed with loose paper. “Ander, Colonel, Tremaine, be quiet.” He turned to Gerard, saying urgently,

“You’ll need a secondary sorcerer, someone who’s familiar with the spell.”

“I’d rather have you here in case something goes wrong.”

“I can do it, I can go,” Florian spoke up suddenly. As everyone turned to her, she looked a little overcome by her own temerity but forged on. “I’ve been reading all the documentation and studying the structure. I’m sure I could trigger the reverse adjuration if I had to.”

“You’ll have to do,” Niles said, though Gerard looked like he wanted to protest. “Just stay long enough to make sure the larger gate parameters are stable.”

“Right.” Gerard nodded. He took a sharp breath. “Let’s go.”

A
half hour later Tremaine and Florian sat huddled on crates in the cavernous boathouse, watching the Institute personnel ready the Pilot Boat for its last voyage. It was a small steam tug with a crew of two, Captain Feraim and his mate, Stanis. It didn’t take up much room at the dock, which had been meant for the large pleasure boats that took holiday travelers on excursions up and down the coast.

On the big flat platform above the boat’s slip, another version of the spell circle had been laid out on carefully painted removable wooden panels. She could hear a few people moving around up there, though they were too far back from the railing for her to see them. She heard Averi’s voice, and then Niles’s.

Tremaine sighed, folding her arms. She had dressed in tweed knickers and an overjacket over a lighter middy blouse, the outfit she usually wore on board the boat and her only one that was vaguely suitable for it. Florian wore a long jacket and sweater over a pair of bloomers. It was cold now but it would be significantly warmer once they crossed into the other world, though the sea breezes could sometimes be brisk. It was the last time she would see it, she realized. The fine china blue sky, the darker color of the sea, the mysterious peaks of the island and the cliffs in the distance. She touched her aching jaw thoughtfully.

“It was nice of Ander to stick up for you to Averi,” Florian commented.

Tremaine nodded, still distracted. “Sure.”

“Except it didn’t seem like you needed anybody to stick up for you.”

“What?” That got Tremaine’s attention. Her mouth twisted ruefully. “Maybe not.”

“So were you two together? You and Ander,” Florian asked, looking at her.

Tremaine sighed, shoving her hands deep in her pockets and leaning back against the wall. “No. People thought we were. Sometimes I thought we were.” Ander had always behaved as if she was an utterly normal, completely conventional girl. At times, when her father was coming home disguised as a dustman every other night or was off plotting the downfall of some small foreign principality, this had been welcome; it had helped her pretend she was normal. Later, when she had craved an actual acknowledgment of who she really was, it had just been smothering. “I never felt like ... he really knew me.”

Florian was nodding. “I can see that. He doesn’t listen to you when you talk.” Her brow furrowed as she tried to explain what she meant. “Or really, he listens, but he never seems to hear what you say. No, that’s not what I mean. It’s ... he says what he thinks people expect him to say. Maybe that comes from being in the Intelligence Service. He can’t tell what you expect him to say, so it never quite comes out right.”

Tremaine stared at her, not sure whether the revelation was unwelcome because it wasn’t true or because it was.

Florian misread her silence and looked embarrassed. “Sorry. I should just not—”

Maybe it was unwelcome because it was a little too similar to Tremaine’s own situation for comfort. “No, it’s all right—”

Colonel Averi and Niles came down the stairs from the upper level, with Captain Dommen, Averi’s second-in-command, trailing them.

With a harried expression, Niles sorted through an armload of folios, saying, “We’ve risked everything to make the portal large enough to bring their troopship through. It would be kind of them to supply enough troops to make it worthwhile.”

Averi’s permanently angry expression was firmly in place. “We were lucky to get the troops we have. Not everyone at Vienne Command believes this is anything but a waste of rapidly failing resources.” Tremaine couldn’t tell if he was angry because he agreed it was a waste or because he didn’t. She also hadn’t heard Niles swear before, so the imprecation the sorcerer muttered in editorial comment as he dug through his armload of papers was a little shocking.

Captain Dommen shook his head with a frustrated frown. He was younger than Averi, tall, dark-haired, very much the dashing officer type. Like Ander and Niles, his family was beau monde, and he looked it in his carefully tailored uniform. “I’ll make some calls. I know a few people who have influence in the Ministry. If they’re still in town—”

Averi paused, and again Tremaine couldn’t tell if he appreciated the suggestion or not. Then he nodded sharply. “Yes, try that.”

“We’re ready,” Ander called from the deck. “Come aboard.”

Tremaine got to her feet, distractedly looking around, though she didn’t usually bring anything with her.

Stanis, an awkward young man with the dark hair and olive skin of Adera, tossed a coil of rope aside to step to the gangplank and help them aboard. Tremaine smiled and Florian thanked him. From the amount of attention paid, Tremaine thought that Stanis would have badly liked to ask Florian to coffee or dinner or anything else, but none of them had any free time.

They stepped through the hatch into the main cabin where Ander was doing a quick check of the supply lockers. The cabin was small and crowded, holding a chart cabinet, the wireless, a galley table bolted to the floor and the shelves of reference texts that Gerard, Tiamarc and the others had used to make their observations. Stanis hurried down the steps into the engine compartment.

As Florian went to take a seat on the padded bench against the far wall, Tremaine turned to see Ander reloading his pistol. Her hands clenched in her coat pockets and she felt a nerve in her face jump.

He saw her expression and looked puzzled. “Afraid of firearms?”

“Yes.” She hated to give further weight to the image Ander now had of her as some kind of twitchy feather-head, but she had been avoiding guns lately. Explaining that she was afraid if she touched one she might give way to an overwhelming impulse to blow her own brains out would hardly go over well either. She knew Feraim had one too, but he kept his out of sight in his coat pocket.

Ander shrugged slightly, tactfully dropping the subject for all the wrong reasons. “It’s all right,” he said kindly. “I just want to have something on hand if we run into trouble.”

Gerard, stepping into the cabin behind them, frowned and said, “If by ‘run into trouble’ you mean the Gardier, we’ll be dead before you could use that thing.”

The Gardier’s most devastating spell was the one that could detect and destroy mechanical equipment at a distance. If the little tug came within range of a Gardier airship, it would be sunk before they could activate the return spell.
Not to mention the whole plan of scouting and attacking the base would be circling the drain at that point
, Tremaine thought sourly.
If they see us there, they’ll know we‘ve discovered their secret
.

“The Gardier might not be the only thing we have to worry about.” Ander smiled engagingly. “I like to be prepared.”

“How nice for you,” Gerard said shortly. Tremaine managed to control her expression, but she noted Florian had to turn and peer earnestly out the porthole at the empty dock. He continued, “Come on, Tremaine, we need to get under way.”

Tremaine obediently followed him through the short passage into the steering cabin. It was as unimpressive as the rest of the little boat, though the wheel and the brass were polished and it looked to be in good repair. The glassed port showed them the dark wooden walls of the boathouse and the last of the navy crew leaving through the door out onto the dock. As Gerard shut the hatch, he muttered, “If anyone is going to be fumbling around with a pistol, I’d prefer it to be you rather than that overconfident young man.”

Tremaine smiled. “He is a captain in the Intelligence Service, you know.”

“I’m afraid that making his acquaintance years ago when he was only an upper-class layabout may have colored my opinion.” Taking the sphere out of its protective leather case and setting it carefully on the bench, he glanced at her sharply. “Why on earth did you tell him you were afraid of firearms? I know Nicholas taught you to shoot.”

She looked away, thinking about Ander. If his past affected even Gerard’s view of him, she wondered how much it weighed with men like Averi. And did Ander realize that? And did she give a damn? She shook the thought off, realizing she hadn’t answered Gerard. “I just didn’t want to carry one. Like you said, if the Gardier see us, it’s not going to do any good.”

Captain Feraim stepped into the cabin from the hatch that opened out onto the deck. “We’re ready.” He eyed the sphere a trifle suspiciously. Feraim had been with the project long enough to hear how the experiments with the previous spheres had ended and being near this one always worried him.

Tremaine picked up the sphere, feeling it warm at her touch.
This one won’t hurt anybody
, she thought. Well, not anybody she knew. She wondered what it would do to a Gardier.

Gerard consulted his pocket watch. “All right. Tremaine?”

As Feraim used the speaking tube to warn Stanis in the engine room, Tremaine held the sphere out to Gerard. She watched his face as he concentrated, touching some mental connection to the spell circle carefully duplicated on the wooden panels in the boathouse. She knew when he took a sharp breath that the transition would be in the next instant.

She would never get used to the fact that they could travel so far while standing still.

Tremaine let go of the sphere and grabbed the table as a sickening lurch of vertigo hit her stomach. An instant later the boat met the water with a tremendous splash.
They got the altitude wrong again
, she thought in annoyance, squeezing her eyes shut and taking deep breaths to keep her last meal down.

Gerard caught the sphere, then cursed suddenly. Tremaine looked up. Her own curse died unspoken as she saw the wall of gray water outside the port.

The wave towering over them broke over the bow and Tremaine ducked back instinctively as the sea crashed into the port. She straightened up warily, watching the foam retreat across the deck. The boat was cresting a wave now and they were looking into an angry purple-gray sky, the clouds low and heavy.

“Storm,” Feraim commented succinctly as he fought the drag on the wheel. “All the luck.”