Balancer (Advent Mage Cycle) (33 page)

O’danne started assuring her that she would begin her training tomorrow morning. She could take care of a lot of classes that didn’t require magic while waiting for her magic to fully awaken. Or we could let her spend a few weeks in Q’atal to speed the process up, those trees would help her catch up in a hurry…I’d offer that option to her later.

Kartal leaned closer to her and started reassuring her that he would be there, to help train and guide her every step of the way.

I didn’t need Xiaolang’s precognition powers to read the future. Kartal would become her partner for her internship—and then they would remain as partners, working on missions together.

I started hoping they would break up soon. Yes, I was aware that it was probably a vain hope, but I could wish, couldn’t I? With Kaydan being an Earth Mage, I couldn’t even let the earth swallow him up whole, she would just retrieve him. I felt like I needed to find Cora for a double Life Mage treatment, to beat back the headache that was coming to claim me.

Chapter
Twenty-Three: More Planning

After the events of the day before, I thought I would finally have a chance to sit down and start studying architecture so that I could plan the Academy.

No such luck.

Somehow, I was roped into the Wedding Planning Room again. This time, I had a better idea of what I was getting myself into, and I came armed…er, that is, prepared.

I had also coordinated some of this with Chatta beforehand so that we could handle whatever was thrown at us.

We walked hand in hand to the room, purposefully dragging our feet. I hadn’t seen her alone for more than five minutes at a time in the past two days, and I was enjoying whatever time I could steal with her.

“How,” I asked her almost plaintively, “did this turn into such a big hullabaloo?”

“You’re too famous,” Chatta answered instantly. “Everybody wants to throw your wedding.”

“Including two kings,” I agreed morosely. “Point taken. Don’t they realize that life will be easier on us if we didn’t have to worry about all of the political aspects too?”

“No, or if they have, they dismissed it as not really important.” My future wife rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Personally, I’m not sure which is causing more confusion, the political part of it all or trying to merge two culture’s traditions.”

“True,” I admitted. “Honestly, I don’t see why we have to pay attention to any of it. It is
our
wedding after all. Forget political and cultural differences, we should just do whatever we want. Make up a new tradition. A Rhebenchattan tradition that pays no heed to anyone else’s wants but her own. We’d be setting a new precedence for future generations.”

“Real funny, Garth. Like we could ever get away with…” she stopped dead, pulling me to a stop with her, eyes wide. “You’re serious!”

I gave her a small enigmatic smile, winked, and pulled her back into motion. I wasn’t kidding with her. I certainly had enough influence to enforce the decision and I was tired of going back and forth on all of this without getting to any sort of resolution. At this rate, it would take two years just to plan the wedding.

“I don’t like seeing you this stressed and I’m tired of being apart from you,” I explained simply.

This was too much for Chatta. She planted both her hands on my face and gave me a loud, smacking kiss. “I love you, too. And thank you. Don’t be surprised if I come up with something really unconventional.”

“I look forward to it.”

I curled around her, resting my head against hers. It was moments like this that reaffirmed everything for me. She was warm and solid in my arms and I wanted nothing more than to drag her someplace that no one could find us and just spend time with her.

“Garth.
”

I blew out a breath and reminded myself, firmly, that I could not kill my best friend. “What, Night.”

“Your mother wanted me to tell you, and I quote, ‘Garth, if you’re not here within five minutes I will tell Chatta all of your embarrassing stories.’ End quote.”
There was wicked amusement in Night’s voice as he relayed this.

Unfortunately, my mother had a lot of material to draw from. Groaning, I let go of Chatta, all except her hand, and accepted the inevitable. I was going to plan a wedding.

Chatta eyed me suspiciously. “What was the threat to get you moving?”

“Not answering that,” I said firmly.

“Gaaaarthhh…”

“Nope.” I dragged her inside the planning room before she could weasel it out of me.

My mother and L-Nolita were sitting at the table, and I swear that the amount of brochures, maps, pamphlets and samples had tripled since I had last been in here. My mother gave me a sardonic smile of welcome. I wonder just how much Night told her…no, safer not to think about it.

As I sat down, Chatta settling in the chair next to mine, I said, “Before we start, I’ve thought of a really simple and easy way to do this. It’s a tradition used in most provinces in Chahir.”

L-Nolita looked interested, but my mother knew me well enough to only look suspicious. I ignored that and kept going with artful innocence. “See, the bride and groom’s hands are tied together and sent to bed. If they don’t want to be married to each other, then at some point in the night they untie the knot. But if the knot is still there in the morning, then they’re considered married. See? Easy.”

“No,” L-Nolita vetoed firmly.

I widened my eyes a bit more, looking surprised. “But—”

“No,” my mother seconded, although she was trying not to laugh. “You cannot steal Chatta away for a night without anyone bothering you. Nice try, son.”

I hadn’t really thought I would get by with it, so I just grinned at her and shrugged. “Had to try.”

“All joking aside, Garth did have a good idea before we arrived, and I’ve decided to take him up on the offer. Forget the politics, forget trying to accommodate both cultures, forget the traditions. We’re going to make a new tradition. A Rhebenchattan tradition.” Chatta looked at me from the corner of her eye. I smiled encouragingly.

“And how do you propose to do that?” L-Nolita asked with a frown.

“By having fun. Create new ways to do things that best suit our personalities and integrate the experiences we’ve had. The people we’ve met. As Garth said, we’d set a new precedence, which with the whole starting-a-new-school-separate-from-the-two-governments plan, this isn’t a bad place to start asserting that independence.”

I looked at my fiancée in amazement. I hadn’t even made that connection and she’d only had five minutes to think about it. I’m sure glad she’s going to be in charge of the school and not me.

Our mothers were quiet for a couple of moments, looked at each other, and I kid you not, had an entire conversation with their eyebrows—how do they even do that?—and simultaneously broke into grins.

“Sounds like a wonderful plan to me!” my mother said.

“I agree, dear. It’s the perfect compromise.”

I felt Chatta sag a little in relief, face lighting up in glee. “I’m so glad you think so. Garth, since I love you so much and you came up with the wonderful idea, I release you from planning duty.”

I felt my eyes widen with hope. “Really? I can go? You don’t need me?”

Chatta snorted at my obvious relief. “Yes, Garth. You’re free to go and let us play.”

I barely restrained a whoop of joy.

“Garth dear, one question before you make your escape. What made you think up this solution?” Mom asked.

The opportunity was too perfect. I couldn’t pass it up. I gave her a deliberately blank look. “Oh, that? I was just following Da’s advice.”

Mom’s eyes narrowed slightly. “What advice?”

“He told it to me when I was about eight or so….He said that the secret to a man’s happiness is to remember one thing: the wife is always right.”

“Your father and I,” Mom said archly, “are going to have a little talk about what kind of advice he gives.”

“Why?” I just couldn’t leave it alone. “It’s worked wonders for me so far with Chatta.”

For that, my fiancée slugged me in the arm.

~*~

A triumphant Kartal called me later on that afternoon by mirror broach. “
I found it!”

Found…what? It took a second to click, but when it did I felt a matching excitement rise up in my chest. I stopped walking toward my suite and shuffled off to the side of the hallway so I could continue the conversation without distraction. “The instructions to become a Legend, you mean?”

“
That’s it precisely. I can’t read much of it, unfortunately—it’s in ancient Chahiran—but we managed to find the Index and get her to talk to us in Hainian and this was this scroll she pointed us to. So. Who do you want me to give this to?”

Good question. I didn’t have an immediate answer for him. I’d talked to Guin about finding people who would be willing to contract with the Gardeners, become Legends, and then join the search in Chahir for budding magicians. I just wasn’t sure how far that idea had been developed in the past few days. My attention had been thoroughly diverted before I could follow up on it.

“For now, give it to me. I’ll find out who’s heading up this project and give it to them.”

“
Fine. Oh, and while you’re here, I want you to deliver something to Kaydan for me.”

I eyed the mirror broach in my hand warily. “Kartal, if it’s something of a lovey-dovey nature—”

“
I’m not stupid,
” he snapped at me, “
I know you’ll never deliver that kind of present! No, I found an old manual for Earth Mages. I want you to give it to her.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” I felt the world spin a bit. “They had
textbooks
for Mages?”

“
Well of course they did, what kind of question is that? How can you teach anyone anything without an instruction book of some sort—”

“If you’ll recall,” I interrupted a tad testily, “they didn’t have textbooks while training
me
. Kartal, I want every textbook in that library and I want it
yesterday
.”

“
Now wait just one moment! First one demand and now another?! Just what do you think gives you the right to—”

“I am the newly appointed Dean to the new Chahiran Academy for Magic,” I nearly snarled into the mirror. “As the Dean, I need textbooks for my students who, by the way, have no clue how to use their magic. I need textbooks. You have them. What is so surprising about this request, Kartal?”

There was a lengthy and digestive pause. “
You’re the Dean?”

It was my turn to pause. “You haven’t heard about this yet?”

“Not one word. When you get down here, why don’t you give me a proper update of what’s been happening?”

I suppose I better. “Find my textbooks,” I requested with a sigh, “and I’ll tell you the whole story.”

“
Deal. Get down here.
”

~*~

After meeting with Kartal, updating him, and getting the instructions for how to create Legends, it was coming on late afternoon. I figured I had time enough for one more stop and from there went straight to Chahir. It was time that Chahir stopped depending on everyone else to produce people that could find magicians. A good first step to transferring the responsibility to the right shoulders was handing these instructions to Saroya or Vonlorisen.

I did glance through the instructions on the way there. It mostly involved a list of ways that one could contact a Gardener, which I made note of. I didn’t think they would have much to worry about at the moment, though, not considering that the Gardeners were obviously keeping a close eye on Chahir. I mean, I’d run into them four times now which I think was a record for the history books.

As it turned out, Saroya was the easiest one to track down. I handed the instructions off to him with a wry, “Good luck.” He acknowledged it with a sour nod. Finding Chahirans who would be willing to become a Legend would be far more difficult than finding a Gardener to contract with at this stage.

While there, I decided to get an update. “So how are things progressing?”

”Well. The Red Hand finished their reports and left for home this morning. Captain Riicshaden we convinced to stay a little longer, as he is the best training sergeant I’ve ever seen. He’s having a great deal of fun beating up on the new recruits,” Saroya informed me. “We are hoping to convince him to stay permanently, but I haven’t persuaded him to sign a contract yet. He keeps making noises about this being ‘temporary’ and that he’s thinking about living in Ascalon.” He sounded quite peeved at this last point.

“Ascalon was very welcoming for Shad, and gave him many challenges, which he enjoys,” I explained. “I doubt you’ll win him from them.”

He didn’t look pleased to have that confirmed. “On the other hand, every Dom that we found harboring Priests has been stripped of his lands and titles and exiled, along with his family. Who is going to replace them is another headache. In some cases the Dom’s family had preempted another family. Vonlorisen is re-instating those other families as the Doms. But that’s only in a few cases. He’s not sure what to do about other areas.”

I had no solution for him, and it wasn’t my place to mix with politics anyway.

“Vonlorisen wanted to know when you would start building,” Saroya added neutrally.

“How about when I actually know what I’m doing?” I responded, trying not to roll my eyes or groan. “I’m still coming up with ideas, ironing out problems, and communicating with the architects on how to actually build the monstrosity.” At the rate it was taking to plan my wedding, it would take another five years before I was ready to study anything.

“Give him a time estimate,” Saroya advised. “Kings like schedules. It makes them happy.”

Guin was the same way… I thought about it for a moment, trying to give him a reasonable time frame that wouldn’t put me in a corner. “Within the next three months.”

“That long?”

“It has to be done right the first time,” I pointed out patiently. “If he starts getting nervous about the time frame, remind him that with my power I can build the frame for buildings within a day. Also remind him that we still need to find a site or find a place where I can
build
a site.”