Wilder Mage (26 page)

“A friend,” the young woman said curtly.

The
tener unus
seemed willing enough to walk with them, but her trust didn’t go very far. She paced between them, her eyes forward as they moved down the tree-lined street. A small park was his destination, a staging ground on their earlier trip to find the young one.

Not so young, though. Probably in her twenties, really too old for what she was: untried.

Oh, well, not his problem.

The corners of Macy’s mouth turned down as she kept her pensive gaze on the
tener unus
. She patted the young woman’s arm without speaking.

The
tener unus
jerked away from her and strode ahead of them. Dayne flinched when hurt flashed across Macy’s face. Clearly, his wife wasn’t ready for the emotional traps, the suspicious newbie, and the Imperium’s sensory bonds of this mission. But it was too late now.

Early joggers looking to beat the summer sun passed them as Dayne trailed behind Macy and the girl through the entrance. He wiped the perspiration off his brow and wondered when the real heat would hit. The air was still and muggy, really too hot for his taste.

He hoped it was the heat making him sweat and not the human back at the shop.

The trail opened into a clearing. Several concrete benches were scattered under the trees alongside the path. Dayne took the lead and motioned for the women to follow him to a set of benches under one oak tree. The young one sat opposite them, looking at her hands twisting in her lap, the many bracelets clinking as she moved.

As he leaned back against the bench, Dayne had his first real look at the
tener unus
, the source of all Tiarra’s angst. Time to allay her fears with his most benign face. He prepared to begin his calming speech, but the words stuck in his throat when she looked up and met his eyes. It was then he realized his mistake. He had no need to give her soothing words to allay her fears. Her face held nothing of fear.

The young woman coolly appraised him, and it sure as hell wasn’t apprehension that curled her lip back from her teeth.

“What do you want?” she said.

For a beat, he paused, her steady gaze confusing him. For the first time since he had risen to the top of the Imperium, words and strategy abandoned him and left him speechless. This land of uncertainty was not a familiar place for him. She watched him silently, calmly. Her poise reminded him less of prey and more of the predator. Dangerous…

Dangerous? What idiot was he channeling today? First, a human had given him the willies, and now a magic-less girl.

He cleared his throat. “Exactly like I said. We just want to talk. See where you stand.”

The girl tipped her head to the side. “How I am progressing, you mean,” she said.

From the corner of his eye, Dayne saw Macy’s mouth twitch. He tamped down his irritation. Unbelievably, she found something funny about the business with the girl. He shook his head. “No, we want to answer any questions you might have and help you—”

“Turn me,” she interrupted.

He gritted his teeth and sucked in a breath to calm down. Macy covered her mouth with her hand, but not before Dayne saw her newborn smile.

“No. We are not here to ‘turn’ you. That is your business, not ours.” Dayne frowned. “How much do they know, those two humans back there?” he asked in a low harsh voice. “And your other friends, the old couple, have you told them anything? That guy, the shop owner, he was ready to take me on, so you must have told him something.”

“No, I haven’t told anyone about my
gift
.”

She said the last word like a curse. The young woman pursed her lips together. “Mr. Aubre knows I had abusive parents. Not my fault you chose that excuse for tailing me,” the
tener unus
said. She jerked her chin up. “Why are you here, then? And screw the political rhetoric. I don’t need petted. I don’t need managed. Why are you here?”

Dayne hesitated and traded looks with Macy while he wavered. He didn’t have experience with this situation. Macy’s mocking smile didn’t help his indecision.

The girl, Sable, watched with bird-bright eyes, quietly observing their unspoken conversation. Her intent look drank in and seemed to store every scrap of information. Dayne shrugged and gave in.

“You seem to know a lot about us. We have orders to guard you and watch over you.”

“What? Tiarra doesn’t want to haul me in?”

Dayne shook his head. “No. She wants your allegiance, but not until you’ve reached your full potential. She hopes you will turn without her personal attention.”

Sable shivered. Finally. She was beginning to show a little fear.

“How did you hide from those two hunters?” he asked.

“I didn’t know I did.” Sable frowned and hesitated, as if picking her words carefully. “We had a mystery a few weeks ago, a bunch of kids with severe headaches. They got better after a few days in the hospital, but it was chaos for a while. Did the Imperium have a hand in that?”

He nodded, but didn’t elaborate; the subject was not something he wanted to relive. The kids taken to the hospital had received a visitor, Tiarra, who bonded with them as they lay helplessly in their beds. Spirit blanked the minds of parents and hospital staff, and she had moved from room to room without opposition. Tiarra’s harvest was miserly. Very few of the ones she had bonded had enough talent to light a match, and her resulting bad temper had kept her underlings treading carefully ever since.

When Macy frowned at him, he realized he had inadvertently caught a loop of Fire that he spun as a human would a rubber band. He saw an identical frown on Sable’s face, and he released the energy.

“Tiarra doesn’t want the magically inclined to run loose. She wants them under control. They can be dangerous if they aren’t. The Wilders, the unrestrained wizards, need to be found and controlled,” Dayne said.

Sable tipped her head to one side, as if puzzled. “Controlled? Why control them?”

“They must be controlled. The crazies.”

Macy gave him a sidelong look, while Sable didn’t even stir.

Dayne gestured with his hand. “There are wizards out there with no restraint. They don’t care who they hurt or how they do it.”

Sable’s hooded eyes bored into him. “So they have to be policed. What is the big deal?” she said. “Just like the human population, we need cops and security. Why should we serve one person, without our consent, against our will?”

“Picture the world of wizards, unrestrained wizards who could turn the world upside down. Unimaginable chaos,” Dayne said.

Macy stirred, but didn’t speak.

Sable gave him an even look. “Define ‘unrestrained.’ Maybe it means something different in your world than it does in mine. I always thought it meant to be free.”

He scowled and looked to his wife for support, but Macy crossed her arms.

“You’re supposed to be on my side,” he said to her.

“I’m on the side of the one who is right.”

“Damn it, Macy, this isn’t the time to do this.”

She lifted one eyebrow and shrugged. “What are we doing? Just having a discussion, that’s all. She is asking logical questions about her future. Nothing wrong with that.”

Dayne stood abruptly and jerked his head for Macy to follow. “Excuse us for a while, Sable. My wife and I need to have a private discussion.”

Sable smirked and leaned back against the bench. Macy followed him to the edge of the clearing. It was far enough away that the
tener unus
couldn’t overhear, but he kept his voice low as a precaution.

“Macy, you need to get a grip. You are taking this way too personally. Our mission here is watching over her, keeping an eye on the TU, not taking her side. She needs to be guarded from herself. And her crazy ideas won’t fly, you know that, not after Tiarra takes over.”

“Don’t you see, Dayne,” Macy said. “That’s why she doesn’t want to become Tiarra’s acolyte. As soon as she is turned, she loses her autonomy and freedom. She’ll become Tiarra’s puppet and slave. And Heaven knows what else.”

Dayne felt his stomach clench with foul, unwanted memories. He forced them from his mind. An ache in his skull threatened to split his head. He scrubbed one hand over his eyes. “We keep the chaos at bay and try to live our lives.”

“No,” she said, sweeping one hand between them. “We don’t live our lives. We dance to her tune. We follow her rules.”

“And what’s the alternative, huh? To go down in fire like that mage that created the volcano in Mexico? Or the wilder that blew up in Russia a hundred years ago?”

He gestured at the
tener unus.
She was contemplating the ground and hadn’t moved. “How about her? If Tiarra hadn’t bonded with her, she’d be like a crazed animal with delusions of grandeur.”

“Hey. I’m sitting right here, you know. I can hear you,” Sable said, her voice pitched low.

Dayne swiveled. She still looked down at the ground. “No, you can’t,” he blurted.

Her eyes came up as his confusion multiplied. She chose not to answer.

Macy’s laugh broke through the tension. She was still chuckling as she went back and sat down on the bench. Dayne followed, his bafflement warring with curiosity. The girl stoically kept her gaze on him.

He drummed his fingers on the back of the bench as two runners came down the trail. He waited for them to pass. They disappeared around the trees.

“You were listening,” he said.

“Obviously.”

“You have come into your magic, then. How are you covering up your talent?”

But as he spoke, she was shaking her head. “No, I am not a full wizard. Using my small talent leaves me weak, but I do know how to boost my hearing without much trouble.”

“How could you know how to do that? Adepts don’t have anything until they come into their magic completely. Don’t you want to know where your talents lie? Learn the full extent of your talent?” he said.

“I know what it is,” she said quietly.

Dayne looked at her, his eyebrows lifted. Even Macy seemed surprised.

She narrowed her eyes and did not speak. Extending her hand, palm up, he felt her reach for magic and the energies swirled around her. On her palm was a small tongue of flame that disappeared after only a second, replaced by the formation of a tiny teardrop of moisture. It formed out of the water vapor from the muggy air and splashed onto her palm. A sudden gust of wind blew the drop away. Sable dropped her hand to the edge of the wooden bench. It molded to her hand and when she lifted her palm, an exact replica of her fingers remained in the wood.

“I have Spirit also,” she said softly and laid the same hand on his. And he felt a small, but distinctive touch of serenity and was unreasonably sorry when she withdrew her hand to sit back. Sable’s drawn face looked exhausted, and she seemed to be breathing faster. “I know what I have. But it is mine, not
hers
.”

He was aware of Macy’s open mouth and assumed his face was the mirror of hers. He shook his head and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees to look at Sable. Her calm expression unsettled him.

“You have all five elements.”

She did not acknowledge him, but waited silently.

Dayne took a breath to steady his excitement. “At this stage, you shouldn’t be able to touch any of the elements, let alone have that kind of control. None of us had that. Your potential must be—” he spread his hands wide “—enormous.”

“I can see your talent lies in Fire. And yours”—she nodded at Macy—“is Earth and Air.”

Dayne traded looks with Macy, his earlier amazement now eclipsed. “You see the magic?”

“Of course. Doesn’t everyone?” Sable said.

“No, we don’t. I feel the magic when it is used or gathered, but I can’t…” Dayne stopped. “What do you see? What does it look like?” he asked. He leaned forward again.

“I don’t see it unless you use it, but then it looks like…sparklers lined up in a row. Your Fire is orange. Macy’s talents in Earth are green, and Air is blue. They look like contrails, following your hands when you move. They swirl around you as you walk, making little eddies as you pass through them.”

“Your magic is manifesting without a specific trigger,” Macy said. She laid her hand over Sable’s arm. This time, she didn’t shake it off. “You must use care to avoid generating an emotion that would push you over the edge. Tiarra will always be there, waiting for you to turn.”

Dayne started to agree, but his nagging headache burst to life. As he rubbed his temples, he considered Macy’s words. “Tiarra isn’t an angelic model of what the world should be, but she does restrain the nut jobs.” His headache eased and he opened his eyes again.

“She is insane.”

Dayne whipped around to Macy. “You don’t know that.”

“She is crazy and that is a fact.”

“You don’t have Spirit, so there’s no way you can know that.”

“After all she has done to us. To you,” she cried, “and you still defend her.”

He stared at Macy, who mirrored his obstinacy. The hot jab of the headache began to build again.

“She has some kind of agenda going on that we are not privy to,” she said, louder. Her hands gestured and a sudden breeze caught the bits of grass clippings, swirling around them.

“Doesn’t matter,” Dayne said. “We’ve caught the girl. We were successful. Now I need to file a report.” His words tumbled from his mouth.

Macy’s face paled and he stiffened when Sable hissed.

“You think you’ve won.”

As he had earlier when the
tener unus
had first taken his measure, Dayne felt a terrible menace slice through his senses. Sable rose from the bench, her face cold with fury. “You think you’ve won,” she repeated, “just by finding me, guarding me. As if I can be caged so easily.”

A sudden gust of Air whirled around her, blowing her hair in wild tangles. Magic whispered in the wind, and he lost all pretense of denying her talent.

Her gaze locked on him. “You don’t know me. And Tiarra has no idea what I am capable of.”

She turned and, with unhurried steps, paced to the trail they had followed to the clearing. Dayne snapped his mouth shut and made as if to go after her. Macy stopped him with her hand.