Balancer (Advent Mage Cycle) (12 page)

Shad probably would have caught him at this point, since he didn’t even appear to be really warm yet, if not for the fact that two Protectors did respond to the screams of help. One of them had a short staff out and ready to use. I couldn’t read his lips well enough to decipher what he said, but it didn’t take a genius to know it was probably along the lines of:
Stop where you are!

Shad dodged both Protectors as they took a swing at him, never once reaching for the sword strapped to his back. Once past them, he kicked up his speed to a higher notch, feral smile on his face.

I shook my head. Only
he
would enjoy a situation like this.

The fanatic was still yelling as he ran, although not as much in his winded state, but most people were still trying to figure out what was going on by the time both hunter and prey passed them. The Protectors, of course, were giving chase as well although neither of them were as fast as Shad.

My instincts were saying that I needed to step in now, before things went wrong, but I also knew that Shad would pout for the rest of the day if I cut his fun short. Heh. I’d give him a few more minutes.

Actually, that was all Shad needed. The runner reached the last of his strength, and as his stamina flagged, Shad caught up to him all at once. Shad didn’t try to catch him and drag him to a stop, but simply hit him hard in the middle of the back. When the exhausted man dropped to the ground, Shad put a knee into the small of his back and knelt there. He lifted both hands to shoulder level, showing the two Protectors that had just now arrived on the scene that he was not a threat.

Xiaolang looked up from the scrying and gave me a nod. I took it as the order he meant it to be and disappeared quickly into the earth path.

Since they were only about ten blocks away, it didn’t take more than a few seconds to reach them. I rose from the ground directly in front of Shad.

“—man is a devout member of the Star Order,” Shad was patiently explaining to the two hovering Protectors. “He was preaching against Vonlorisen’s new decree on a street corner. When he saw me headed for him, he started running.”

This persuasive explanation might have gotten him somewhere if both Protectors hadn’t flinched back from me as I rose to the surface. It was obvious that as soon as I arrived, their attention fixated on me. I gave them a nod.

“Gentlemen, I am Magus Rhebengarthen. I trust you know that I am Vonlorisen’s magical advisor?”

They gave jerky, rapid nods of the head, eyes still bulging.

I gave them a genial smile. “Excellent. Then you won’t mind if I take this man into custody.”

This time they rapidly shook their heads from side to side.

Shad levered himself to his feet, grabbed the prone man by the nape of the neck and hauled him up. “Come along, now.”

He proceeded to whistle the entire way back.

~*~

As diverting as the whole chase scene through the city had been, it didn’t really yield any results. The fanatic didn’t know anything—that type never did—and he continued to rant and rave all the way to a jail cell.

Which left us back at square one.

Xiaolang and I walked the streets in something he called a “grid search pattern” that made perfect sense to him and had me lost in about ten minutes. Alvacon was the oldest city in Chahir, and it’s one of those cities that was never planned. It just…grew. The city streets had more switchbacks, curves and abrupt twists than a mountain troll’s beard. It even challenged Xiaolang’s navigational sense, and I’d
never
seen him lost.

The east section of the city was an odd mix of very old, traditional neighborhoods and artisan guilds. Xiaolang seemed to be able to talk to everyone alike with ease. Since I didn’t possess either his conversational or empathic talents, I wisely kept quiet and let him do most of the talking.

A few times, though, I had to intervene. Like with Mama Deen.

One of the townsmen informed us that a Star Order Priest had been wounded and taken to the local healer in this section of the city before Vonlorisen’s new laws had been handed down. Since this was the first piece of news that someone had recent contact with a Priest, we thought it common sense to track the woman down and talk to her about it. We were given directions to a small shop around the corner, which we found with no real effort.

Mama Deen was a robust figure of a woman that could have made two of me. She had dark skin, hair that was coarse and black in little braids all around her head and the most colorful assortment of clothes imaginable. That ensemble reminded me sharply of the outfits my cousins had worn when they had gone to see a good snake fight. It took a moment after she opened the door, but my good manners finally kicked in. “Mama Deen?”

“Why
hell~o
handsome! Mm, two of them! Ya’lls just the cutest little things. Reminds me of my dolls.”

Xiaolang bit down on his lip, hard, and his eyes were crinkled up with silent laughter. Still, he managed to say in a professional tone, “Hello, madam. One of the townsmen said—”

“Oh, you don’t worry about any sickness you have,” she assured him. “Ya’ll just come on in, strip and get comfy. I’ll fix whatever’s ailin ya.” The gleam in the woman’s eye added that it was no hardship on her part either.

How
Xiaolang kept a straight face, I couldn’t begin to guess. I had to cover my mouth with one hand to keep from busting up laughing. “Mama Deen, I wouldn’t mind, but we’re not here for medical assistance.”

“Well, I did wonder,” she admitted with a lecherous smile. “Couldn’t imagine what could be wrong with an invigoratin’ man like you.”

Xiaolang’s face took on a slight purple hue, as if he was fighting back laughter so hard that he’d forgotten to breathe. Apparently I needed to take over. “Ma’am, we’re trying to track down the renegade Star Order Priests. We were told that you treated one several weeks ago?”

She hesitated. “Why, yes, yes so I did. The man had taken a nasty fall and I had to set his arm. This was before the King’s new decree of course,” she hastily added.

“Do you happen to know where he went afterwards?” I asked.

“Oh, well, they never gave a destination.”

“And you haven’t seen anyone since?” Normally, if a person knew of a good physician, they would return to the same person. With all of the conflict and fighting these past few weeks, I’d lay odds that quite a few of the Priests had been hurt.

“Why, no. Truth to tell,” she leaned forward and continued in a conspiratory whisper, “They normally avoid me. First time I treated a Priest was that one a few weeks ago. Never could figure out why they gave me such a wide berth.”

If this woman’s bedside manner was anything like the one she displayed for Xiaolang, I didn’t blame them for avoiding her.

“Was he alone? Did they speak of anything in front of you, or tell how he was injured?”

She adopted a thoughtful look on her face, as if she were truly trying to be helpful. “Now, he had three of his little friends with him. All of the same age, I’d say. But they didn’t say much, not so’s I could hear. All they did say was their regular doctor was out on a call, so they had to come to me.” She gave Xiaolang a sweet, apologetic smile that smacked of flirtation. “I do sorely wish I could be of more help.”

“Thank you for your time, ma’am.” Xiaolang had apparently regained his composure. He flashed her a professional smile, snagged my elbow, and dragged me quickly away.

I didn’t need the encouragement to keep up with him. That woman’s racy humor was a bit too much for me. “Do women
normally
hit on you like that?”

“Not as much in Chahir, but in Ascalon they certainly do,” he admitted easily. “With my rank, I’m a prime target for single women.”

No wonder he’d been able to keep control of himself back there, then. He’d had practice.

As we walked, something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. Instinctively I slowed down to take a closer look. It was a blacksmith’s shop, the forge open to the street so that anyone passing could see the forge. Nothing about it seemed connected to the Star Order, and yet… I stepped closer to one of the display racks hanging on the wall. I drew the first dagger at hand out of its sheath and took a closer look. Ah-hah, that was it.

“Garth?” Xiaolang and Night came to stand beside me.

“
How is that similar?”
Night asked in puzzlement.

Xiaolang turned to give the nreesce a very puzzled look. “What?”

“He’s responding to what I’m thinking,” I explained with an amused look at Night. “He used to do that all the time as a young colt. This craftsmanship is similar to the weapons we took from the Star Order Priests at Huish’s pool last winter.”

Xiaolang looked at the dagger in my hands and obviously decided to take my word for it. “Alright. You talk to him.”

“Blacksmith to blacksmith?”

“That’s the idea,” he agreed.

“Can I help you gents?” The blacksmith put down the polishing strap in his hands and came around the table to see us.

“I’ve seen your work before, master,” I stated with a neutral smile.

“Aye,” he agreed with a dark expression. “In the hands of those murdering Priests.” He spat on the ground at the name.

Obviously no love lost here. “Yes, unfortunately. We’re trying to hunt down the renegades. Have you seen any sign of them?”

“Seen? No. But they were here a few days ago.” He cracked his knuckles in a menacing gesture.

Xiaolang, Night and I exchanged a look. “How do you know?”

“Thieving scallions came and took an armload of daggers and short swords.” The blacksmith made a cursing gesture with his right hand, tossing it to the wind, and aimed at any Priest it might land on.

“So they’re somewhere in the area,” Xiaolang mused. “That’s interesting news.”

Really? I found it to be puzzling news. I hefted the dagger in my hand experimentally. It had a good, solid weight to it so it had a good balance. But this surely couldn’t be the only blacksmith capable of forging a decent dagger. There was nothing remarkable about it. So why go to the trouble of stealing them? “Did these have Star emblems on them?”

The blacksmith shook his head in vehement denial. “Guardians, no. I melted the emblems off as soon as the new order came down, I did. Wasn’t going to bring the wrath of the King down on
my
head. But these, well, they have that steel core them scurvy dogs like.”

My attention sharpened. “Steel core?”

“Oh, aye, they wouldna use a weapon that didn’t have a solid steel core to it. Right snobs they were about it.”

Xiaolang cocked a brow at me. “Does this make sense to you?”

“Unfortunately,” I growled. “Magic works better if it’s going through a pure conduit. When things are changed, blended with other elements, it’s harder to work with. I’ll bet they wanted the steel cores because it was easier to channel through.”

“Interesting.” Xiaolang stared at the dagger in my hands, the wheels in his mind turning at high speed. “Good master, I’m going to have someone watch your shop from now on. If these thieves come back, we’ll catch them at it.”

A large city always has a high rate of crime. Getting the Protector’s interest in chasing down a theft could be nigh impossible unless it was a very large sum of money involved. The blacksmith’s craggy face lifted at this promise of help. “Thank you, master!”

Xiaolang gave him a nod and smile. “Expect someone tonight.”

I replaced the dagger into its sheath and followed him back into the street. “Think they’ll try again?”

“They have limited resources to buy weapons and sources to attain the kind of weapons they need,” he observed to me. “I’d say the odds of them returning are high. I’ll have one of Saroya’s men keep an eye on the place.”

Made sense to me. “In the meantime, can we stop for lunch?”

“Not a bad idea,” he admitted.

After a quick stop at a local café, we went back to our search again. I’m not really that good at talking with strangers, so I largely fell silent as Xiaolang took over. Instead, I focused my magical sense as much as I could, trying to discern anything out of the ordinary.

Normally picking up anything with a magical feel to it in a Chahiran city was relatively easy. There was no established magic here, after all, so magical auras stick out like a sore thumb. But this place proved to be the exception to the rule. Life energy from the people, animals, and gardens that filled every corner of the city saturated the area. I also detected this strange feel of magic that seemed to lay over everything like a film that muddled my sense.

Something tugged sharply at my coat sleeve, jerking me to the left and nearly sent me sprawling. I blinked back into my immediate surroundings. “Night! Don’t do that, I nearly fell down.”

“
You nearly got run over by a carriage, too,
” he retorted in exasperation. “
That’s the third time on this street, no less. If you’re going to walk around in a daze, then at least get on my back so I don’t have to explain to Chatta later why you have hoof marks on your forehead.”

Errr…had I really been that bad? Um. Actually, now that I was paying attention, we were nearing sunset. It hadn’t felt like I’d been walking around all day, but apparently I had. I turned a bit until I spotted Xiaolang. He’d stopped about five feet behind me and now talked to an elderly couple. When they shook their heads, he gave them a polite half-bow and then turned to catch up with me.

When he saw that I had my eyes on him, he asked, “So, did you sense anything?”

I shook my head, more than a little frustrated. “It’s like there’s this layer of blood magic that touches everything. It’s hard to figure out where the source is or even if it’s covering up something I
should
be paying attention to. What about you?”

“No, I’m afraid not.” Xiaolang let out a low, long breath. “Sometimes it’s just because the people I’m talking to are not comfortable speaking with a man who’s obviously foreign, but most of the time they really don’t know anything. This…might be a longer haul than I anticipated.”