Magus (Advent Mage Cycle) (20 page)

"That's not proper training!" Tyvendor protested. "And barrier magic is the most difficult magic of all!"

Chatta abruptly lost her temper. "What do you expect us to do?" she snapped at him. "No one here can help Garth!
No one
, do you hear me?! We've tried! I've personally tried, and passed out from the attempt! If you're so worried about him making a mistake, then
you
go help him!"

"Excellent idea," Hay-el declared firmly. "Tyvendor, you'll be able to get there faster than us. Take Witch Delheart with you, and fly there as quickly as possible."

"If we're lucky, he hasn't started yet." Terran scrubbed his face with the palms of his hands.

Chatta privately thought it was probably too late to help Garth. He'd had more than enough time to get up to Q'atal and set to work by now. The deed was probably already done. But she didn't say any of this out loud. She had a feeling that her protests would have fallen on deaf ears.

Chapter Ten: Barriers

I was beginning to understand just why no one wanted to leave Q'atal. It really was a
wonderful
place to live.

It wasn't just the beauty of the land that made me say that, although that was certainly a factor. I've never seen prettier country than this. More than my surroundings, it was the Q'atalians that truly influenced my opinion.

I've never, as long as I've known Xiaolang, seen him say one harsh word to someone. He can tease a body to murder, but he's never unkind to anyone. I thought that was just how Xiaolang was—I've now discovered that his entire
culture
is like that.

Maybe it's because they are all empaths, or maybe it's for some other reason entirely; all I know is that this is the most peaceful, loving people I've ever met. I found myself acting with more patience and tolerance than I thought possible, just because of their influence.

It would have been entirely too easy to become distracted by the people, and forget my true purpose here entirely. I didn't intend to become lazy, however, and on our second day in Q'atal I got up early.

I have work to do.

The entire team had been put into this large building in the center of the city. I think it was normally a Hall, or some sort of formal meeting room, but it had been made over for our use. Someone had placed several mattresses and chairs and tables in there for us. In the center of the room was a large fireplace, which kept the place warm during the cool nights. Hayate, to my lack of surprise, was snuggled up in front of the fire. I looked around as I rolled out of bed, checking on everyone. They had given Night a huge mattress next to mine. He was still out, snoring like a wounded banshee. Everyone else was asleep as well, the one exception being Xiaolang. That didn't surprise me. The Captain was very much a morning person.

Since I
wasn't
a morning person, it took some time and effort on my part to get moving. I stumbled into some clean clothes, splashed water on my face, and headed outside.

I was barely two steps out the door when someone spotted me.

"Garth! You're up quite early." De Lien summoned me with a wave of her hand, a gentle smile on her face. "Come eat breakfast with my family."

I'd met De Lien —and the rest of Xiaolang's family—yesterday, and had liked her. That feeling went up a notch when she offered to feed me. "If I'm not imposing…"

"Nonsense, child, you are quite welcome here. Now come, I left a pot on the stove, and I don't want it to burn."

I didn't either, so I hurried to join her. The De family had this huge house that they all lived in, which fortunately wasn't far from where I had stayed the night. It was only one story, but it sprawled out into every conceivable direction. I had the feeling that additions were just added on as the family grew.

De Lien ushered me in through the front door, and into a bedlam of noise and confusion. The house was laid out so that the front door would dump one right into the dining room. At that moment, the table was crowded with people ranging in age from infancy to tottering old men. De Lien gestured me silently toward the table, and then she scurried around the corner, and presumably to the kitchen, before her pot of food could burn.

In the midst of this madness was Xiaolang, sitting at the table with a little girl snuggled in against his side. He looked up as I came in, smiling in greeting. "Good morning! Now this is rare, I never see you up this early."

"I have a lot of work to do," I responded with a shrug. "I figured I should get an early start." I didn't get a chance to say anything else before I was tackled on both sides. I stumbled back a little at the impact, looking down sharply to see what had hit me. Two pairs of big blue eyes were staring up at me innocently.

"De Shin, De Chan, stop that," Xiaolang ordered in exasperation. "You'll make him uncomfortable."

Actually, I didn't really mind. The twin boys were barely three years old and cute little rascals. They had followed me around all day yesterday before their mother had carted them off to bed. Apparently they were intent on following me today, too.

I bent and gathered them up in each arm—which made them giggle and squirm—and made my way to the table. As soon as I was seated, they glued themselves to my sides. Again, I didn't really mind, although I was beginning to wonder how I was supposed to eat when I couldn't easily move my arms.

"Boys!" a grandfatherly man to my right reproved. "You must give the Magus a little breathing room."

This didn't get much of a response, aside from twin stubborn looks.

Xiaolang sighed as he watched this. "Sorry, Garth. They're too young to understand."

So was I, apparently, because that statement didn't make any sense to me. "Understand what?"

He blinked, studying me thoughtfully for a moment. "Ah, you probably don't know, do you? I don't think I ever said much about it. Remember that first time that we met? I told King Guin that you and Chatta were excellent people."

I vaguely remembered him saying something to that effect. "Yes. And?"

"Good people, to an empath, feels like a warm summer day," he explained. "It's very pleasant to be around people of good character. This feeling is especially enhanced if that person is some sort of magician."

I was beginning to see. "So to the twins, I feel good?"

De Lien appeared from somewhere behind me, chuckling. "You feel good to all of us, Magus. But we're better at restraining ourselves."

I was grateful for that, as it would be embarrassing to have Q'atalians ambushing me all day.

"De Shin, De Chan," De Lien's voice was soft, but there was a firm tone to it, "you must let the Magus eat. You may sit next to him, but only if you behave."

That had the desired effect, and both twins reluctantly sat back a little. To reward them, I ruffled both of their heads a little. That put a smile back on their faces.

"Good," De Lien stated in satisfaction. "Now everyone, let us eat."

I didn't recognize
any
of the food, but everything I tried was really good. Xiaolang must have realized that, because he was grinning at me. "Feel a little lost, Garth?"

"More like I'm repeating history," I sighed.

"Repeating history?" he parroted in confusion.

"Think about this, Xiaolang. You know that Chahiran food is completely different from Hain's."

"Ah," he said in understanding. "When you went to Hain for training. I bet the first few months in Hain were a challenge for your taste buds. Jaunten knowledge didn't help you at all?"

"It could tell me what the food was, just not what it tasted like." I cleaned up the last bite on my plate, feeling full and content. "I could wish Hain would adopt Q'atalian food for breakfast. Yours is much better."

"What a lovely compliment," a young woman at the table (her name escaped me) declared.

"It's the honest truth," I assured her. "Everything Hainians like to eat for breakfast is either crunchy or bitter. I've never understood why." That's why I was grateful that my family was settled in Del'Hain. I showed up at my parent's house for breakfast with religious regularity.

"So what exactly are your plans for today?" Xiaolang inquired.

"I need to do a thorough study of the land," I responded, mapping out a strategy in my head as I responded. "Judging from the little that I've seen, you have quite a few ley lines running all through this country."

"That's good?" Xiaolang guessed.

"Very good," I assured him. "It means that whatever barrier I put up will have power to draw on. It will last a
long
time. My main worry is that the ley lines won't be in the right place for me to connect a barrier with them. That's what I'll try to confirm today."

"Do you need anything?"

I thought about that for a moment. "Time. Quiet. Chatta."

Xiaolang nearly choked on the water he was drinking. "Er…in that particular order?"

"I'll take them as I get them." I could just see that he was jumping to the wrong conclusion (probably several of them all at once) and decided that I better straighten him out. "Scrying always gives me the devil of a headache. Chatta's very good at mixing up a potion that gets rid of headaches. I didn't think to snitch a vial from her before she left, which is one reason why I wish she were here right now."

He was still giving me an odd look, but the only thing he said was, "You'll have to settle for the more conventional Q'atalian medicine. You'll be following the border, won't you?"

"I won't need to go anywhere," I corrected. "I can sit right here and do a scrying of the whole country. It's not that big of an area, after all. I just need some time to do it."

"Take it in easy forays," Xiaolang advised. "I don't want you to keel over. For one thing, without Chatta here, we'd have no idea how to help you."

"I'll behave," I promised, raising a hand in mock-solemn oath.

~*~

I found this nice, deserted shady spot to do my scrying in. It was remote, quiet, and had a nice thick patch of grass nearby where Night could graze while waiting for me. I settled in comfortably, closed my eyes, and put my mind into the earth.

After two years (nearly) of doing this, I'd gotten better at scrying. And while it was never easy, it was at least eas
ier
. I was confident that it wouldn't take long, or be terribly taxing to do a scrying of Q'atal.

Wrong
.

I could not believe the sheer amount of ley lines in this place! Most areas, from my experience, had perhaps two or three ley lines within a twenty mile radius. That was normal. Q'atal had so many ley lines that it resembled a ball of tangled yarn. One played with by a rambunctious kitten, no less! This was just ridiculous. There was enough power here to blow my mind. Literally.

After that first hour of study, I began to realize that I didn't have the problem I thought I had. Originally I was afraid that I wouldn't have enough power for a barrier, or the ley lines would be in the wrong location. Now I am afraid that I have
too much
power. If I didn't handle this right, and tapped into the wrong ley line, I could very well overload myself. I'm not entirely sure what the consequences will be for that, but I was absolutely
certain
that they would be bad. I had this worry that I would go up in flames like a stack of kindling.

I took a breather, relaxing back on the grass with my eyes closed. Not having the power to sustain a barrier obviously wasn't an issue. But exactly how should I approach this?

"
Garth?"

I was too lazy to really respond. "Hmmm?"

"
Are you all right? You look…a little spacey."
Night shifted so he could nudge me in the side with his nose.

"There's a lot of power under us," I informed him, absently patting him on the nose. "I think I got a little high looking at it all."

"So you'll have enough power for a barrier?
"

Too much, but I didn't say that, as I didn't want to worry him. "Yes. I just have to figure out how to tap into it right. And I think I'd better talk with the
Remcar-ol
."

"Why?
"

"Well, I don't want to put up a barrier that only Q'atalians can go through. What if they make friends with someone, or marry someone outside the country? They'd have no way of entering. I think I should make at least one opening for people. I'm just not sure where to put it."

"That's a good idea,
" Night agreed.
"Scratch right between my eyes, would you? There's an itch there that's driving me crazy
."

I obligingly scratched, still thinking. Yes, a regular "doorway" would be a good idea, I think. Was there any other aspect that I overlooked?

"Hey Garth!"

Shad? I twisted around until I could see him. He was walking up the slope in a steady stride, and despite the fact that he had just hiked a half mile to reach me, he didn't look at all winded. His stamina had really improved over the past few days. I was pleased to see this.

"Something wrong?" I called to him.

"No, just thought you might want to know. The last Q'atalian caravan has come home. They're ready for you to put the barrier up."

That'd be fine, if I knew how to do it.

I rolled up to my feet, still feeling a little tingly. Why was scrying so difficult on the body? Well, it would pass. "I need to speak with the
Remcar-ol
first. I have some questions that need to be answered."

Shad had reached me by this point, and he was giving that same concerned look that Night was. "Are you all right, Garth?"

"Do I still look a little spacey?" I asked dryly.

"Er…a little."

And that was from just
looking
at the ley lines. I can't imagine how it would feel to actually touch them. "I'm fine. Let's go."

The look Shad gave me said he didn't believe me. "And after you get your answers? Are you going to try and put the barrier up today?"

"Why not?" It's not like it would be any easier by waiting a day.