Hunted by Magic (3 page)

“Don’t you think this might be a good opportunity for me to
earn
their trust?” I gripped the arms of my chair, hard. Normally I didn’t give a rat’s ass about earning the trust or respect of any of the mages, but clearly my refusal to pander was coming back to bite me now.

“Perhaps, but your shifter abilities are of little use on an airship, and I doubt the other participants would be comfortable sharing such a small space with you.” She gripped the ball tighter, and I could tell she was hanging onto her patience by a thread.

“I could go in a separate ship.” I was getting desperate, I knew, but dammit, I needed to be on this mission!

“If you have a spare ship lying around, feel free.” Director Chen arched a brow. “The Guild’s last available airship is needed by the Finance Secretary. He is the only delegate left from the original team, and Canalo
must
have at least one representative at the Convention.”

“Ugh.” I slumped back in my chair as I tried to think of something else, anything else. I almost considered mentioning that I had the charm to try and sway her, but Fenris and I had agreed to keep our mouths shut about it to all but my closest friends, and Director Chen most definitely was
not
in that camp. “Is there anything I
can
do to help?”

Director Chen regarded me for a long moment, a flicker of wary sympathy in her dark eyes. “I strongly suggest that you stay out of sight until we return with the Chief Mage. Without his protection, the senior mages have little reason to tolerate you. I would hate to return with Lord Iannis only to find that he’s already lost his apprentice.”

Since I didn’t have anything to say to that, I rose, then inclined my head. “Alright. Thank you for your time, Director Chen.”

I strode out, my mind already on the next plan, as I had absolutely no intention of following her suggestion.

I
managed
to catch Cirin Garidano, the Finance Secretary, in his office. He was hurriedly packing a satchel with documents and reports from his desk drawers and filing cabinets. His long, dark hair was a little ruffled, the skin around his eyes tight with stress, and the collar on his robe was slightly askew.

“In a hurry?” I asked, leaning against the doorjamb.

“Miss Baine.” The Finance Secretary didn’t even look up at me, which told me he already knew I was there. “To what do I owe the dubious pleasure?”

“I need your help.”

“I’m in no position to offer any assistance to you.” Grabbing a sheaf of papers from a file, he riffled through it, then pulled out a document and stuck it in the satchel. “I must leave immediately if I’m to make it to the Convention on time.”

“Yeah, I know.” I ventured further into his office, then shut the door behind me so that no one passing by would unwittingly hear our conversation. “I want to come with you.”

This time the Finance Secretary did look up at me, his eyebrows climbing across his high forehead. “To the Convention? What business do you have there?”

“None. I need you to drop me somewhere on your way to the Convention, though.”

“I’m not a ferryman, Miss Baine, and I’ve no time for extra stops.” The Finance Secretary put one last thing in his satchel, then snatched it up. “I don’t blame you for wanting to flee the city right now, but –”

“I’m not fleeing the city,” I snapped, annoyed now. Why did everyone think I was just going to tuck my tail between my legs and cower in a hole while Iannis’s life was in danger? “I’m going to find the Chief Mage, but in order to do so I need transport.”

“Find the Chief Mage?” The Finance Secretary narrowed his dark blue eyes. “Just how do you plan on doing that?”

“I’m following a hunch.” My fingers twitched as I resisted the urge to touch the
serapha
charm tucked beneath my shirt. The Finance Secretary had been fairly helpful to me so far, assisting me in the recent investigation by giving me access to a ledger with important information, but that didn’t mean he was my friend. “My hunches are usually pretty good.”

“In that case, you should confide your hunch to the search party Director Chen and the Council are organizing, and let them follow up on it.” The Finance Secretary picked up his satchel and made to move past me. “In the meantime, I have a dirigible to board. Good day.”

“Wait!” I grabbed him by the sleeve of his dark purple robe. “Please, Secretary Garidano. You have to take me with you. You know how much is at stake if the Chief Mage isn’t found.”

The air heated up around the Finance Director sharply, and I hurriedly released him, backing away before he burned me to a crisp. He turned his head, and his dark blue eyes blazed with a fire very similar to what I saw in Iannis’s violet eyes during the few times his fury was ignited.

“Miss Baine, I
cannot
help you with this,” he said tightly, a muscle in his jaw twitching. “In case you haven’t realized, the attack on Lord Iannis’s dirigible, if that is what happened, was likely timed to ensure that no one from Canalo is able to vote at the Convention this year. If I do not make it there on time, the attackers will have achieved their aim. Lord Iannis would consider my timely arrival more important than your need to involve yourself in the search.”

“Fine.” I fisted my hands at my sides, but nodded tightly. I’d been so consumed with wanting to get Iannis back that I’d failed to consider the consequences resulting from the attack on him. Iannis was the Chief Mage first, my master second, and I knew he would want the Finance Director to arrive at the Convention on time. “I take your point.”

“Good. In the meantime, be careful. In fact, you’d best leave the Palace as quickly and quietly as you can. I suspect the Council will be eager to incarcerate you as soon as they get the chance.”

He swept out of the room then, his robes billowing about him as his warning sunk into my bones, filling me with nervous energy. Quickly, I cast an illusion spell transforming myself into one of the many maids the Palace employed, then waited until I heard no footsteps outside before stealing back into the hall. Getting thrown into jail wasn’t going to help me rescue Iannis. I’d already done that song and dance, and there was no way in hell it was happening again.

“
J
ust where do
you think you’re going, young miss?”

I stopped short outside the side entrance of the Palace as a guard stepped in front of me, blocking my path to the street and relative freedom.

“I’m headed out to the market to fetch some supplies for the kitchen.” I blinked innocently up at him as tightened my grip on the wicker basket I’d grabbed on my way out.

“I’m sorry, but nobody can leave.” The guard looked apologetic, but he didn’t budge. “There’s trouble’s brewing in the city, and it’s not safe for the Palace staff to be out and about.”

I shrugged. “Okay then. But the Council has called a huge meeting and is demanding food, and the kitchen is short on a few supplies. I’ll just tell them that you wouldn’t let me leave...” I leaned in to read the guard’s name tag. “What did you say your name was again?”

“Oh, alright, alright,” the guard snapped. He glanced nervously over his shoulder before stepping aside. “Go on, then. Let the damn councilors get their canapés.” Derision briefly twisted his features before he schooled his expression again.

“Thank you.” I smiled sweetly at him, then hefted my basket a little higher over my shoulder and headed for the street. That guard was the first human I’d run across in the Palace who had shown open disdain for the mages, and I couldn’t help but wonder just how many of the humans employed there shared his feelings. It would be all too easy for the Resistance to infiltrate the Palace using these people, to make these bitter human workers the eyes and ears that allowed them to plot the airship attack against Iannis. The thought filled me with chills, and I cast a glance over my shoulder at the Palace, wondering just how many enemies were lurking in our midst.

One problem at a time, Naya. One problem at a time.

Since my beloved steambike had been lost in Durain, I had to walk all the way down to the Port. Underneath the illusion I was still barefoot, so I hitched rides on the backs of carriages whenever I could, but it still took me nearly an hour to make what would normally have been a ten-minute trip.

My sore feet breathed a sigh of relief as they finally hit the boardwalk. I made my way down to Witches’ End, the place where magic users from other countries who’d managed to get permission to settle within the Federation ran their shops. There were apothecary shops, fortune tellers, psychics, and more here – because they were born and raised in other countries, they managed to escape the no-magic rule that plagued the rest of the non-mage families in the Northia Federation. They were all licensed and registered with the state and had to adhere to strict regulations, but it was still better than being forced to have your magic stripped away, or being executed – the two choices I’d hidden from my entire life, before the truth of my half-mage heritage had come to light.

My friend Comenius ran a small shop there, called Over the Hedge. As a hedgewitch he specialized in nature magic, and offered charms and potions that were basically natural remedies enhanced by magic, like the nasty tonic he and Elania had made for me back at the Palace. I could see through the windowpane that Comenius was manning the counter, so I pushed my way inside, the little bell on the door tinkling as I entered. Comenius looked up from the register, and relief crossed his face as I dropped the illusion, allowing my true form to surface again.

“Welche Erleichterung!
” he exclaimed, hurrying around the counter – there was nobody else in the shop right now. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” he added, wrapping his arms around me.

I hugged him back, inhaling his woodsy, herbal scent, but didn’t allow myself to get lost in his embrace for long – there was work to do. “Director Chen won’t let me be part of the rescue mission, and neither will the Council. Apparently they don’t trust me.”

“I’d say it’s gone a little beyond that,” Comenius said darkly, flipping the OPEN sign on the door to CLOSED and locking it twice. “I had guards here less than half an hour ago searching for you. Apparently there is a warrant out for your arrest.”

“Typical.” I gnashed my teeth together as he drew me behind the counter and into the back room. Half the space was taken up by wooden shelves stocked with merchandise and supplies, and the other half was dominated by a large, flat table where Comenius mixed herbal remedies and made charms. Bypassing his work area, he pulled me up a wooden staircase that led to the apartment above the shop. “Iannis is missing, and the first thing they think of is using the opportunity to get rid of me.”

“They see you as a threat, and not without reason,” Comenius said as he opened the door to his apartment. “You’ve been encouraging the Chief Mage to dig into places the others might rather he not look at too closely. That kind of thing is bound to stir enemies out of the woodwork, for both him and yourself.”

Nodding, I looked around as Comenius closed the door behind us. His place was twice the size of my apartment in Rowanville, with an open floor plan where the kitchen, living room, and dining area were separated by arches rather than doors. The only walled-off area was to the back, where Comenius’s bedroom suite was – I had personal knowledge of that space, as we’d been lovers once upon a very long time ago. But though I still felt the occasional spark when we touched or locked eyes, there wasn’t much more than friendship between us, especially now that Elania was in his life and Iannis was in mine.

Even if Iannis and I
were
off-limits to each other.

“Okay, so what do we do now?” I demanded, sitting down on the dark green futon Comenius used as a couch. “Do I just cower in your apartment, keeping my head down like everyone keeps insisting that I do?”

Comenius snorted as he put on a pot of tea and grabbed a tin of cookies from one of his cupboards. “Since I highly doubt you’re capable of hiding out in my apartment even to save your own life, never mind the Chief Mage’s, I’m not even going to suggest it. We will come up with a plan, which likely will revolve around the use of that charm you have.”

“Yeah.” I drew the chain out from beneath my jacket and stared down at the opal. As I focused my attention on it and thought of Iannis, it glowed blue again, and I felt a tug on my soul. The magic seemed to be pulling me in an easterly direction, which made sense since Dara, the Federation capital, was located on Northia’s east coast. But that wasn’t particularly helpful, because there was a vast amount of land between us and Dara. I really didn’t have any more information than Chen’s search party, now that I thought about it.

“From what I understand about
serapha
charms,” Comenius said as he joined me on the sofa, “they won’t pinpoint the location of the person tied to them, but so long as you follow that internal tug, it will lead you straight to the other half of the charm, and thus to the person wearing it.”

“Maybe, but that means wandering across the country on foot for who knows how long. And even if it pulls me in the right direction, if I follow it blindly it’ll probably lead me straight across a chasm with my luck.” I scowled down at the stone, annoyed at how useless it was proving to be. But then again, Iannis had used it to find me, hadn’t he? “There has to be a better way to go about this.”

“I’m sure there is, but I’m afraid I’m not the one to do it.” Comenius smiled. “Thankfully, we both know someone who is.”

I
t didn’t take long
for Elania to arrive. As soon as the shop’s doorbell rang, Comenius was on his feet, hurrying down the stairs. It was both amusing and disconcerting, the way my normally level-headed friend seemed to be infatuated with Elania, the witch who ran the apothecary shop down at the other end of the pier. From what I understood, like many witches Elania could also do spellcasting, which was why Comenius was enlisting her help. It almost made me wonder whether Elania had somehow bewitched my friend, as it was precisely because of his cautious, level-headed nature that the two of us had called things off. But I didn’t sense anything magically off about Comenius. The only magic he was caught up in was the magic of lust, and that was something we were all subject to, no magical potions or spells required.