Bound by Magic (3 page)

V
anit’s crewmate
took us to where Sillara’s files were stored – which turned out to be in the basement, on the same floor as the jail cells I’d been forced to spend the night in after the whole city found out I was half-mage. There were several boxes of files, so Lakin and I had to call a cab to help transport them to his house in Shiftertown, driving alongside the cab with our bikes. No way was I leaving my steambike at the Enforcer’s Guild parking lot – Vanit’s crewmates were liable to slash my tires for what I did to their foreman, or worse.

“You really did a number on that guy, Sunaya,” Lakin commented as we lugged the banker’s boxes into his living room, admiration in his voice. The one-bedroom house was sparsely furnished, with only a single armchair and a low wooden coffee table in the living room. Still, the space was open and airy, with a large window that let in plenty of sunlight, and a fireplace that would make the space very cozy in the winter. “He looked like he was twice your weight, but you didn’t even break a sweat when you took him down.”

“Eh.” I set down my stack of boxes on the ground, then shrugged. “I’m used to fighting opponents bigger and stronger than me. That’s why I have these.” I lovingly patted my crescent knives, which were strapped to my thigh once more.

Lakin glanced at them curiously. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone use weapons like those before,” he admitted.

“They’re Garian-style weapons,” I explained, sitting down cross-legged on the hard wooden floor so that we could start going through the boxes. “Great for close quarter fighting, and also for deflecting larger weapons. They’ve saved my hide more times than I can count.”

“I’ll bet.” Lakin joined me on the floor, then turned his gaze toward the sea of boxes between us and sighed. “Let’s start with the most recent one,” he said, grabbing a box that was a few feet away from him. “That’s probably where we’re going to strike gold.”

The first couple of files were pretty dull – they were all bounties for small time thieves or racketeers, stuff I’d seen a thousand times before – but the fifth file I opened proved to be much more interesting.

“Get this,” I told Lakin, scanning the first page. “Looks like Sillara was looking into some shifter disappearances.”

Lakin raised his gaze from the file he was looking through. “Shifter disappearances? You mean kidnappings?”

“Not sure.” I shrugged as I flipped through the notes in the file. “As far as I can see there were no ransom notes left, or any demands made on the family members of the victims. They just disappeared, and were never heard from again.”

“Huh.” Frowning, Lakin moved some of the boxes aside so he could sit next to me. “Is there anything tying the victims together other than the fact that they’re shifters?”

I pursed my lips. “According to Sillara’s notes, they’re all in their early twenties, and nearly all of them are clanless, with the exception of one.” I pulled out a letter and passed it to Lakin.

Lakin’s eyes widened as he read the letter, which was the original request sent in to the Enforcer’s Guild that sparked the case. The letter had been sent from a wolf shifter family that belonged to the Solantha wolf pack, several days after their son Tylin had gone missing.

“I remember that name, Tylin.” Lakin looked up at the ceiling, tapping his chin in thought. “Roanas had a file on him too. From what I understand, he wasn’t able to find out what happened to the boy, and the family just assumed he’d defected to the Resistance.”

“I bet that’s what a lot of the families ended up thinking.” I pulled out the list of names, my heart sinking as I read through them again. Many young shifters, especially the ones born into poorer families, ran off to join the Resistance in hopes of a better future. The clans tried to take care of their own as best they could, but the government levied heavier taxes on the shifter community, and in return for leaving shifters alone they expected them to take care of the majority of their own welfare programs and civic upkeep. The Chief Mage, who wasn’t from Solantha, had seemed surprised when I’d mentioned this to him, and with any luck he might dig into this issue eventually and help out Shiftertown and the other shifter communities scattered across the state. But from what I understood, the Chief Mages who ran the other forty-nine states in the Northia Federation were more than happy with the arrangement. As far as they were concerned, mages had created shifters, and if they weren’t allowed to use us as slaves anymore, they weren’t going to help us either.

Lakin and I spent the next half hour going through Roanas’s missing persons files, cross-referencing them with Sillara’s list. We crossed off every person who was a known member of the Resistance, and unsurprisingly, the majority of the names we were left with matched up with Sillara’s list.

“I wonder how she compiled this list,” Lakin murmured, staring down at the two sheets of paper, which he’d laid out side by side on the coffee table. “I see how she got Tylin’s name, but her notes on the others are sparse. It’s almost as if they’ve gone missing.”

I frowned. “If someone went to the trouble of taking the notes, why wouldn’t they just take the entire file? Seems like extra work to me.”

Lakin shrugged. “I’ve worked on cases where I felt it necessary to keep the most important notes in a separate file at home, away from my office, where my deputies and others couldn’t access them. It’s possible Sillara did the same.”

I nodded – that made sense. I couldn’t count the number of times I’d taken work home with me. “So that means either the separate file is still at her home somewhere, or it’s been destroyed.”

“Sillara’s partner said there were no work-related papers at their place. I’ll have to question her again to see if there was any sign of a break-in recently.” Lakin braced his hands on his knees, then pushed himself to his feet. “In the meantime, though, I’d like to go ahead and interview the families and friends of the shifters on this list. Perhaps something new will come to light.”

“I’ll come with you.” I rose to my feet as well, eager to continue tugging on this thread.

Lakin hesitated. “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but I think the interviews would go easier if you didn’t come along. The residents of Shiftertown … well, they’re not sure how to feel about you just yet.”

I opened my mouth to protest, then closed it again. Lakin was probably right. The shifter community wasn’t friendly towards mages to begin with, and on top of that I was a reject of the Jaguar Clan. Nobody around here was going to be welcoming me with open arms.

“That’s alright,” I said casually, as if Lakin’s rebuff didn’t bother me. “I’ve got to get back to the Palace anyway.”

A look of chagrin shadowed Lakin’s eyes. “Sunaya –”

“No, seriously, it’s fine.” I held up a hand, not wanting his pity, and flashed him a grin. “You’ll let me know if you dig up anything interesting, right?”

“Of course.” Lakin’s face relaxed into a smile, clearly deciding to let it go. “I really appreciate your help today,” he said as he walked me out.

“Anytime.” I looked over my shoulder as he held the door open for me and winked. “Just make sure you have something for us to sit on the next time I come over.”

I turned away, then trotted down to the sidewalk where my steambike waited for me. As I looked around at the rows of houses lining the street, the realization struck me that I was out of touch with the shifter community. Ever since I’d moved out of Roanas’s house and taken up residence in Rowanville to be closer to the Enforcer’s Guild, I’d stopped coming to Shiftertown except on business, and as a result I didn’t really know what was going on. When I was under Roanas’s care, I’d often tagged along with him on errands, and aside from the Jaguar Clan the rest of the community had tolerated me just fine. There were a few grandmothers who gave me tea and cookies, and I’d had both shifter and human friends at school – one of the few civic programs Canalo
did
fund for everyone in the state. But I hadn’t seen any of those people in a few years. By Magorah, for all I knew those grannies could have passed away by now.

So instead of heading down the hill and back towards Solantha Palace, I drove in the opposite direction, heading toward the Cat’s Meow, a popular diner run by the Tiger Clan. It stood proudly near the center of Shiftertown, sandwiched between a welder’s shop and a florist, the storefront wall painted a dark orange with black stripes running across diagonally. My lips twitched at the outrageous paint job – that was one thing that hadn’t changed.

Rather than parking my bike in front of the diner, I went around the block, then ducked into an alley. Closing my eyes, I mumbled the Words to the illusion spell Iannis had taught me, envisioning myself as a tigress shifter with short blonde hair wearing a pair of jeans and a conservative sweater. If I went in there as myself no one would talk to me, but I also didn’t want to look too attractive and draw attention I didn’t want. I made sure to add an extra layer of illusion to mask my scent before I sauntered around the block and into the bar.

Like the exterior, the inside of the diner was much the same as it had been when I’d left Shiftertown – rows of orange and black booths along both walls, tables scattered in the open space between, and a bar dominating the center that stood bastion between the dining area and the kitchen. It was around ten in the morning, and though the place wasn’t packed a good portion of the booths and tables were taken up.

I chose a seat at the bar, the best place for me to listen around and strike up a conversation if needed, and ordered a stack of pancakes since I hadn’t had time for breakfast this morning. The food arrived quickly, and I tuned my sensitive ears into the buzz of conversation around me, hoping to hear something of interest.

“… we’re going on vacation to Naraka next weekend,” a woman was saying, her voice high pitched with excitement. “I can’t wait!”

“Naraka?” the other woman asked, sounding amazed. “That’s across the Western Sea, isn’t it?”

“It’s a nation of islands, right off the coast of Garai,” the woman said. “We’ve never had the money to go abroad before, and my mate is so excited!”

“… I’m going to invest in the mining business,” someone else, a male, was saying, his voice lower than the woman’s. “Someone recently told me about a great opportunity in the mines up north.”

“Mining?” another male scoffed. “I’ve never taken you for a businessman before. Listen, pay off your house and buy up as many supplies as you can. With the rebellion coming, you don’t know how the economic landscape’s going to change.”

I gave my plate a bewildered frown as I continued listening to the conversations in the room. About half the people here seemed to be talking about finances -- investments or vacations or paying off debts – which I wasn’t used to hearing from shifters. Most of us don’t have a ton of money, and the conversations I remembered when Roanas used to bring me here usually revolved around the shifter community’s discontent with the status quo. But today everybody seemed hopeful, optimistic even.

“Hey there.” A male tiger shifter with dark, shaggy hair and orange eyes sat down on the bar stool next to mine. “Don’t think I’ve seen you around here before.”

“I’m not from around here.” I smiled, dragging my attention from my thoughts and focusing them on the male next to me. “Just visiting from Parabas, actually,” I said, pulling the first town that came to mind – the city up north that Lakin had transferred from.

“Oh really?” the male’s eyes brightened. “It’s beautiful up there – so much greener than Northern Canalo.”

“True, but Solantha Bay is lovely too,” I gushed, easily slipping into the role of tourist. I’d spoken to enough of them that I knew how to behave like one. “The Firegate Bridge is just
spectacular.
Have you ever walked across it?”

We chatted together for a little while as I finished my pancakes, and though I tried to keep things friendly it was clear the guy was trying to hit on me. So after I was done, I reached into the money pouch tied to my belt to settle up so I could head out.

“Oh don’t worry about that,” the male said, pulling out a pandanum coin and several bronze ones from a large money pouch. “I’ve got it.”

“No kidding.” I stared down at the pouch, wondering how I hadn’t noticed it before. “Say, I noticed a lot of people seem to be flush in these parts. Did the Canalo government give some kind of handout to the shifters here?”

“Oh, you mean this?” the male laughed, hefting his pouch. “No, this definitely isn’t from the government. This is thanks to Sandin Federal Bank.”

“Sandin Federal Bank?” I blinked. They were one of the largest human-owned banks in the Northia Federation. “They’re handing out free money now?”

“Practically,” the male said with a grin. “They’ve been advertising interest-free loans specifically for shifters, and a lot of us have cashed in on them.”

“Seriously?” I sat up straight and looked around the room again. “That explains why everyone’s talking about going on vacation.” Maybe I could cash in on some of this “free” money too. I was certainly going to need it if the Chief Mage wouldn’t let me get back to making a living soon.

“Yeah, no kidding. My parents are planning a trip to the East Coast.” His eyes twinkled. “Maybe I’ll go up and visit Parabas sometime, see if you’re in town.”

“Oh sure,” I said with false enthusiasm. “You should definitely do that.” I made a show of checking my watch. “Sorry, but I’m gonna be late for a meeting. I’d better go.”

“Wait!” he grabbed my arm. “Are you sure I can’t buy you a drink later?”

Later on, he wouldn’t even recognize me. But rather than turn him down, I scribbled a fake phone number onto a napkin, then made a quick exit, heading for my bike in the back. I had one more stop, and then I needed to haul my ass to the Palace before the Mages Guild decided to do it for me.

T
his time Comenius’s
shop was open for business, the front door propped open to allow the cool sea breeze to waft inside. I stepped into the shaded, homey interior, inhaling the scent of herbs and candles, and smiled at the sight of customers inspecting the various charms and potions and making purchases. I remembered when Comenius had set up shop here several years ago as an unknown. I’d been one of his first customers, wandering into his store to see what he charged for protection charms because the guy I used to go to was charging me an arm and a leg. The two of us had connected quickly, and we’d even tried to make a go of a relationship, but that didn’t last. Still, we were good friends, and I was glad to see how far he’d come.

“Naya!” Comenius smiled at me from behind the counter, his pale blue eyes lighting up. He was tall and lanky, dressed in a dark green tunic and brown trousers, his ash blond hair curling ever so slightly around the edges of his square jaw. “It’s been too long,” he said, coming around the counter to embrace me.

“Hey Naya!” Noria Melcott, his part-time assistant, paused in the middle of ringing up a sale to wave at me with a grin. She looked the same as ever, her wild red curls exploding around her small, freckled face, still wearing the same loud short-sleeved shirts and multi-pocketed pants that hid all kinds of tools. A techie to the bone, Noria loved to work with gears and gadgets, and I was surprised she worked for Comenius instead of a shop that could put her talents to use. But I wasn’t about to object – at least this way I could see them both at the same time.

“Hey you,” I called back as I embraced Com. His woodsy herbal scent engulfed me, and I took a moment to inhale deeply. Comenius’s presence was always soothing to me; it was one of the reasons I was drawn to him even though these days we weren’t more than friends.

“I dropped by yesterday to see if you wanted to hang out, but you weren’t here,” I scolded, drawing back so I could peer up into his square face. “What’s up with that?”

“He was hanging out with Elania last night, of course,” Noria called out in a teasing tone. “She showed up here in a tight black dress right about an hour before closing time and told him she needed some help with making dinner. I’ve never seen him close up shop so fast!”

“Zum Donnerwetter!”
Comenius exclaimed as I chuckled, a pale pink flush splashing across his cheeks. “Do you have to say that so loudly in front of everybody?”

“What?” Noria shouted over the chiming of the cash register. “I can’t hear you over the sound of all the money I’m making for you!”

I couldn’t help it – I laughed. “She’s one of a kind, isn’t she?” I teased, giving Comenius a consoling pat on the shoulder.

“You could say that,” Comenius said dryly, turning his gaze back toward me. “So what brings you here today, Naya? Did you drop by just to say hi?”

“I wish.” I sighed, glancing out the window at the sparkling blue bay. Hanging out with Comenius at his shop sounded like paradise, but that wasn’t in my future for today. “I actually came by to talk to you about the silver murders.”

“The silver murders?” Comenius’s pale eyebrows drew together in a puzzled frown. “What about them? Has someone else been poisoned?”

“No, no, nothing like that.” I glanced at the doorway as the last customer exited the shop. “Is there any chance we could sit down for a moment and go over this?”

“Of course.” Comenius waved Noria from behind the counter, and we settled into the wicker chairs grouped together to form a seating area a little ways off from the front desk.

“So what’s going on?” Noria asked, concern in her dark eyes. “If it’s something to do with the silver murders it’s got to be serious.”

I sat back in my chair and told them about how I’d run into Inspector Lakin, and how he’d just come from interviewing Sillara’s lover. I filled them in on the details we’d found, telling them about the disappearances and how none of the victims’ families had received any ransom notes.

“How strange,” Comenius said. “So these shifters have all been disappearing?”

“All within the span of the last year or so,” I confirmed. “I was thinking maybe we could pick through those old Shifter Courier papers you have and see if we can’t dig up anything else useful.”

“Of course.” Comenius turned to Noria. “Would you mind getting them for me?”

“Sure thing.” Noria hopped to her feet, then disappeared around the counter and into the back.

“So,” Comenius said. “How is your training going at the Palace?”

I groaned. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“That good, eh?” Comenius’s lips twitched. “The Chief Mage must be putting you through your paces.”

I snorted. “Yeah, for a very small amount of time every week. The rest of the time I’m running around the Palace or the city doing grunt work for the Mages Guild in exchange for all the wonderful training I’m not getting.” I sighed in disgust. “I probably get the least amount of training of all the apprentices at the Guild.”

Comenius frowned. “Yes, but at least you’re finally learning how to use your magic. And more importantly, you’re alive. I think that’s worth having to put up with a teacher who has limited time to train you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Figures you would take the Chief Mage’s side.” But Comenius was right. If Iannis hadn’t decided to claim responsibility for me and make me his apprentice, I would have been executed for the crime of having a magical talent without being born into a mage family.

Technically, I did have a mage family somewhere in the world, but I had no idea who my father was or any family he might have. So I’d been born into Solantha’s Jaguar Clan, and since my late mother’s older sister, Mafiela, was the Clan Chieftain, I’d been accepted into the clan without question, the secret of my birth kept from all but my immediate family. Unfortunately my aunt Mafiela couldn’t stand me, because in her eyes I represented the bastard who’d knocked up my mother and ruined her chances of getting a proper mate; so when my mother had died I’d found myself on the streets not too long after that.

So much for family.

No matter how I looked at it, I owed the Chief Mage everything, and I knew I should probably be more understanding of his position. But shifters are emotional by nature, and I had feelings for him that I did my best to suppress, feelings that were constantly being hurt by his absence and neglect. It didn’t help matters that once or twice I’d been convinced that he had feelings for me too. And it
definitely
didn’t help that our Master/Apprentice relationship didn’t allow for those feelings.

By Magorah, but I wished I could put my emotions aside the way Iannis did so effortlessly. My life would be much easier.

“Here we go,” Noria called, coming back into the room with a stack of old papers in her arm. She dropped them onto the low wooden coffee table with a loud
thump
, then plopped back down into her chair. “So, where do we start?”

We divided up the papers amongst ourselves and aside from a few customers here and there, spent a mostly uninterrupted hour going through them, checking for any references to shifter disappearances. As I half-expected, we only found a handful – the article regarding Tylin, and two more concerning clanless shifters who just so happened to work in Shiftertown.

“Ugh.” I tossed the last paper down onto the table in disgust. “I don’t get it. There were at least twenty names on Sillara’s list. There should be more than just three articles here!”

“Well, you did say most of them were clanless shifters,” Noria pointed out. “The Shifter Courier mostly focuses on Shiftertown happenings, so maybe they just didn’t feel like covering those other stories.”

“Normally I would agree with you,” Comenius said slowly, setting down his own paper, “except that the Shifter Courier has been struggling for a while now, and they need good content. Even though the majority of these victims weren’t Shiftertown residents, their disappearances would still have been of interest to the Shifter Courier’s readership. I have to agree with Naya – it is quite suspicious that there has been so little coverage.”

“Just like the silver poisonings,” I pointed out, crossing my arms over my chest. “Say what you want, Noria, but this whole thing stinks of a cover up. I want to go and investigate the Courier and find out what’s going on over there. Yantz was the one pulling the strings over at the Herald; I don’t see why the same thing couldn’t be happening over at the Courier too.”

Noria opened her mouth to say something, but the telephone on the counter rang. Comenius sighed, then got up to go answer it.

“Over the Hedge. How can I help you?”

“Good afternoon,”
a cool female voice answered. My sensitive ears picked her up clearly, and I froze – that was Dira, one of the secretaries at the Mages Guild.
“Can you please inform Sunaya Baine that she is expected back at Solantha Palace immediately? The Chief Mage requires her presence.”

“Certainly.” Comenius slanted me an arch look as he spoke. “I will send her over right away.”

“I’m guessing you didn’t have the morning off?” Noria asked with a grin as Comenius hung up the phone.

“No,” I grumbled, shoving myself to my feet. Dammit, I’d been caught red-handed. “Guess I’d better head back to the Palace and find out what my Lord and Master wants.”

“Try some humility,” Comenius called as I strode out the door. “I find that works best when you’re apologizing for something you’ve done wrong.”

I bared my teeth at the idea. I had a few ideas about things I wanted to say to the Chief Mage when I saw him, but an apology definitely wasn’t on the list.