Sentinel: A Light Mage Wars Novella (The Light Mage Wars) (7 page)

"
I came to her opening." Going for disarming, Rick smiled. "I'm doing a freelance piece for
Georgia Arts Monthly
. I didn't expect to be blown away."

Davis raised one eyebrow.
"You're a reporter, then."

"
Novelist, actually, but still building my reader base. I do some freelance and odd jobs to supplement my income." After a childhood of constantly tight money, he liked always having a fallback.

"
She's brilliant," Davis commented, glancing at the hangings on the nearest wall. "We're all glad to see her letting the world in on that."

"
I feel lucky to have discovered her," Rick replied. He didn't mean only the work.

Davis
's eyes narrowed. He must've caught the implication. "Just be sure you appreciate all that she is."

The
or else
subtext wasn't even thinly veiled.

"
She hasn't expressed any complaints," Rick responded, staring directly back at him.

The look held for a long moment before Davis nodded.
The gray-haired woman hugged Caroline and walked away.

"
I'll be in my office, Caro," Belinda said. "Stop by before you leave."

"
I will. Thanks, Belinda."

The gallery owner
grinned. "No need to thank me. I stand to make a boatload of money off of you."

As
Belinda walked away, Davis touched Caro's arm. "I have to go, Shrimp. Duty calls. But I'm proud of you."

"
Thanks." She reached for him, and he swept her into a warm, tight hug.

Rick
's gut screamed for him to rip them apart even though there was clearly nothing sexual in the embrace. The guy had called her
Shrimp
, for crying out loud. But still.

When Caro and Davis separated,
he touched her cheek. "See you around."

"
You'd better. And drive carefully."

Davis brushed past Rick.
Caro said, "He's the assistant loremaster at the Collegium."

"
I thought the name was familiar." Now Rick realized which Will Davis this was. Another child of mageborn elites. Davis's parents were famous archaeologists and ran a high profile institute dedicated to artifact recovery and verification.

"
Let me take you to dinner," Rick said. "We'll celebrate."

"
That's sweet." Caro sighed, reaching for his hand, and he linked his fingers with hers. "I'd love to," she said, "but my parents already scheduled that. I'm so tired, though. It's like I just ran out of gas. I think I'm going to suggest brunch tomorrow instead if my dad doesn't have to be in court."

She hesitated.
"You could come with us."

That was a great
opportunity...except that he'd be over near the Alabama line with a bunch of deputy reeves. "I'd love to, Sunshine, but I have a meeting I can't miss tomorrow morning."

"
Oh." Disappointment dimmed the tentative light in her face.

If she wanted him to meet her parents, she must be coming to trust him.
Or else she wanted their take on him. Davis would doubtless be sharing his opinion.

"
What about dinner tomorrow?" Rick suggested. "There's a great country rock trio coming to The Rambler's Roadhouse. The food there is pretty good."

"
I don't do clubs." She pulled away from him, her face closing into a tight, blank expression.

"
This isn't a club." Rick captured her hand again. Was it a good sign that she let him hold it? "It's a roadhouse with a dance floor that's never crowded. I tend bar there when they need a fill-in. I know the place well, and I guarantee you won't have a problem."

"
You can't possibly promise that."

"
Yeah, I can."
Damn it.

He hadn
't wanted to admit this, but there was no avoiding it now. "I overheard you and Layton, remember? I know you don't like clubs. If I have to guess why, I'd say they're crowded and loud. You can't use your cane, maybe. That would disorient anyone."

Caro shrugged.

"If it's like that, which I'm sure it won't be, we won't stay. This group, The Fiddling Farmers, isn't famous at all. It's a Tuesday, too, usually not a busy night out there."

When she
shook her head, lips tightening, he rushed to say, "If we get there and you aren't comfortable, we'll walk right out. I'll take you anywhere you want to go."

"
Then why go there at all?"

"
Because Walt, the main bartender, told me these fiddle players remind him of The Cypress Knees. I thought you'd enjoy them."

She
pulled her hand away and crossed her arms.

Crap.
Gnawing on her lip probably wasn't a good sign, either.

Caro sighed.
"Okay. If you promise we can leave."

"
Whenever you say." He'd have a word with Walt before taking her there. As much as Rick was able, he'd smooth the way for her. Helping her get past something she feared would give her another reason to trust him. And hell, he wanted to spend time with her while he could. Once his story broke, there'd be no more walks in the woods. Or anywhere else.

But this was a risk.
She was obviously anxious when it came to strange places. If anything upset her, he'd likely lose his last chance to get that story.

But he could worry about that later
. First he had to survive tomorrow's raid.

Chapter
Seven

The clash of powers lit the predawn gloom of the forest. Rick kept his head down. As Stan had predicted, the real story of this raid was unfolding here. If Rick and Jason had obeyed orders and stayed by the med station, they would've missed it.

Radios were useless with all the magical power flying around the woods.
Above the din of battle, Rick shouted to Jason, "This might not be the best idea ever."

"
No, it's good," Jason yelled back. "If we live through it."

Rick tightened his grip on the silver-banded, ash cudgel issued to him as a noncombatant.
You have got to be fucking kidding me,
he thought again. The reeves refused to let him carry his sword, the traditional mage weapon, because they hadn't checked his skill with it. Compared to the sword, this cudgel required very little skill. It also wasn't highly versatile.

At least he could channel magic through the wood.

Around them, the blues, greens and silvers of mage energy bolts crashed and sizzled against the dirty yellow blasts and shields of their mortal enemies, the ghouls.

Human in appearance except for their jaundiced skin tone and the muddy brown in the whites of their eyes, the ghouls fought to defend the half-dozen buildings that made up their nest.

Rick tugged Jason backward, toward a big oak where no one was currently battling. In tacit agreement, they crouched to take stock.

Like the deputy shire reeves, both Rick and Jason wore camo fatigues and combat helmets that magically reflected the surrounding forest.
The gear wouldn't deflect a blast of ghoul magic, though. The shielding cocoon of magic Rick spun around the two of them would have to do that, just as the magical screen Jason maintained would keep them from being seen–and targeted–by anyone not inside its area.

"
The deputies are through the fence." Pointing, Rick directed his partner's attention to the hand-to-hand combat spilling into the compound through melted chain link and barbed wire. Mages had already freed a dozen captives. Now they had to destroy this nest so it never again posed a threat.

The ghouls were not only physically strong and magically gifted but able to siphon magic or even life energy from their foes.
Mages who fell in battle could become dinner or, if not mortally wounded, breeding stock.

Next to the drama of that, the bandaging and magical treatment of wounded deputy reeves paled.
Rick could write a good story about that, but he knew damned well it wouldn't help Stan fight for a bigger slice of the budget pie.

"
They said this was a small nest," Rick reminded Jason, "no more than about twenty ghouls. There're a lot more than that out here. I'm ramping up the shield."

The mages were fortunate that ghoul temperament was too volatile for them to stick to a plan or work together efficiently.

Jason replied, "I'll beef up the screen. Getting seen would be almost worse than getting blasted."

"
Only in your universe," Rick muttered.

Having the mage forces catch them in the battle zone would lead to an ass-chewing and maybe cost Rick his chance to develop some deputy reeve sources
for his story on Dare. It was survivable, though. So was a partly deflected blast of ghoul magic. Ghoul talons to the throat, not so much.

"
I can smell that raise I'm bucking for," Jason shouted in Rick's ear, his fingers moving on the camera's controls.

Rick nodded, watching a knot of mages and ghouls struggle. So far the mages were winning, if the number of ghoul corpses turning green and stinking of ammonia around the area was any indication.

A sudden inrush of ghouls–six–no, nine–shit, even more–scattered a knot of five mages. Separated, double-and-triple-teamed, the mages fell back. The two nearest him staggered. One fell.

Under attack, the fallen mage
's companion retreated, battling. That left three ghouls on the guy who was down. He'd shielded but was pinned by a blaze of energy blasts.

Fuck.
Get up
, Rick thought.

The mage
's sword blazed with silver energy, but he couldn't get clearance to find his feet.

Rick tightened his grip on the cudgel.
Exposure would blow his shot at gaining some sources, but abandoning a fellow mage would mean a lifetime of guilt.

He squeezed Jason
's shoulder. When the photographer looked up from his viewfinder, Rick shouted, "Go back. I'm lending a hand here."

Jason nodded.
Translocation within a battle zone was dangerous because shielding didn't survive the location shift, but Jason should be safe flashing back to the staging area.

Rick turned to the fight.
The outnumbered mage was enclosed in a defensive shield the ghouls battered with energy blasts.

Drawing the cudgel back, Rick stepped clear of the screen.
He fed power into the crude weapon and swung it like a baseball bat. His strike drove through the ghoul's shields. The male staggered backward, eyes glazing.

Rick slammed the cudgel
's broad end against the male's chest. "
Morere,
" he shouted, pouring power into the magical command to die, ramming it through the cudgel and into the ghoul's chest.

Its
eyes blanked. It collapsed.

Dead, judging by
the way it instantly turned bilious green. The sudden, noxious stink of ammonia filled the air. Rick's stomach gave an odd little lurch. He'd never killed anything before. He swallowed hard and turned to the mage he'd come to help.

The guy had gained his feet but bore an ugly burn down his left side.
Still, silver energy glowed around his sword. He drove it through a big ghoul's shields for a lethal strike.

Magic smashed into the back of Rick
's personal shield. He dropped to his knees. Instinct sent him diving left, rolling, as a fist-wide bolt of ghoul magic blasted a furrow into the turf and pine needles where he'd been.

On his back, he blasted
green magic from the cudgel's end. The other mage sent a silver bolt ripping from his blade. His blast and Rick's struck the ghoul together, obliterating its shield and incinerating the big male.

Rick leaped to his feet.
The wounded mage pressed a hand to his side and ground out, "Thanks."

Before Rick could reply, a heavy hand landed on his shoulder.
He turned to face Harry Parker, the strike force leader. The mage who'd talked the shire reeve into restricting Rick and Jason to the rear.
Shit.

"
You're with me," Parker shouted. Looking beyond Rick, he added, "Both of you. Shift yourselves back to the helos. Right fucking now."

Jason must
've stayed, too. Now both of their butts were in the wringer.

Visualizing the helos,
Rick reached for the space between life and death and fed power into it. Reality lurched sideways in a flash of biting cold.

An instant later, the world came back.
Rick stood facing Parker, with Jason at Rick's back, as they'd been among the trees.

Parker pushed up his safety goggles.
Scowling, he said, "You two had clearance for this area only."

Jason stepped forward.
"Rick saved that guy."

"
We all appreciate it," the stocky, fortyish mage answered, "but you shouldn't have been out there."

"
Neither," Rick said, "should so many ghouls. There were more than you expected, weren't there?"

A flicker in Parker
's eyes confirmed the guess, but the deputy reeve shook his head. "Battle is always fluid, and that is absolutely, if you value your ass, not to be quoted. You two exceeded your clearance. I'm recommending that Shire Reeve Banning call your editor and kill this story. Otherwise, every reporter will want to try that same damn-fool stunt."

"
There's only MageWire.com and MageNews.net," Jason said. "And MageNews barely has a staff. Not like you're flooded with reporters."

Parker
's expression hardened. "We can't be watching out for journalists when we're trying to fight a war. Now you stay here unless you want to spend tonight in the Collegium jail."

He turned on his heel.

Rick tightened his lips and watched the deputy reeve stalk toward the medics.
Fuck
.

Stan would be pissed if he had to trek from
north Atlanta to the Collegium to bail them out. Not because they'd broken the rules but because they'd gotten caught.

The Southeast Collegium
looked like the research institute its Mundane neighbors thought it was, but its granite walls concealed governmental and educational facilities for the region. Those facilities included the shire reeve's department, complete with arsenal, helicopters, and training gyms.

And a no-frills, escape-proof jail.

"I'm sorry, man," Jason said quietly. "I thought we had it going, those first few minutes."

"
We did. But I couldn't let those ghouls kill a mage. Sorry you can't use your photos."

"
The boss might be able to convince the shire reeve we should run them anyway."

"
Unlikely. She's new and needs the loyalty of her officers more than she needs us. She'll do what Parker wants." Clipping the cudgel to its hook on his belt, Rick shook his head. "Besides, she probably agrees with him."

Glumly, they watched mages walk between the helos.
At least there weren't many wounded.

"
What're you gonna do now?" Jason said.

"
What we always do, keep digging."

"
I guess that means you and the Dare girl."

Rick shrugged.

After a moment, Jason added, "You can't blame the Dares for stonewalling. Hell, maybe they think he's guilty."

"
Then why not say so and get themselves out from under the stigma of his treason?" Rick shook his head. "No, I'm betting they'd stand with him if he gave them the chance. They probably know why he did it. I figure they've helped him all these years. How else has he avoided capture?"

"
Being deadly with his quarterstaff, maybe." Jason rubbed a hand over his jaw. "I heard a rumor that some ghoul nests are turning up destroyed, and not by deputy reeves. Some people think Dare's behind that."

"
He's become our universal bogeyman. Odd to think he might get credit for something. Or maybe he just turned on his ghoul allies." Rick pushed his safety goggles up to wipe sweat off the bridge of his nose. "If it's true, it's an interesting wrinkle."

I
t didn't change anything, though.

#

Caro's phone blared the theme from
Raiders of the Lost Ark
, the ringtone she'd assigned to Will. She wrinkled her nose. She'd been expecting to hear from him. Seated at her loom, she snagged the phone from the table at her right and tapped the screen to take the call. "Hey, Geek."

"
Good morning, Shrimp. I'm about to log into work, but I thought I'd see how you're feeling. Have you read McCree's retraction?"

"
First thing. It was very satisfying."

"
Damned right." Will paused. "So who's this guy Moore you've been hanging with?"

"
He's a writer–novels and some freelance features and PR. I met him at the gallery show."

"
Yeah. The two of you looked real cozy yesterday." Before she could ask what he meant by that, he continued, "I put the guy into Google, so you know–"

"
Will, you didn't!"

"
Of course I did. A writer hanging around? We can't be too careful. Besides, we don't know anything about him."

"
Belinda vouched for him, just by the way, and I ran a search, too, before I spent any time with him. I'm not stupid, Will. Or, I hope, naïve."

After a
moment, he spoke softly. "No, I think you left
naïve
behind a few years back."

Like three.

"
Griff would expect me to look out for you," Will told her.

How could she be pissed about that?
Caro sighed. "That's sweet, but I've got it handled."

Silence from Will was a bad sign.

Frowning, she added, "I mean it, William. I don't want to hear about you engineering any casual little chats with him. Or shadowing him."

It wasn
't like she planned to marry the guy. This was just fun, just for a while. "I need everybody to back off a step and let me take charge of my own life."

"
I guess you do," he admitted. "I know Stuart and Lara have tended to hover since...well, for the past few years."