Chapter Three -- Into the Night

Minh left the meeting with Mage Harfor in a considerably better mood than the others. For many years Mage Harfor had forbidden him to use the strongest of his abilities; tonight, he had not only given permission, he had asked for it. Minh had never seen his talent as bad the way the others did. Yes, he could look into the private thoughts of others. He had always figured that an ability couldn’t be good or bad, but could be used for good or bad. Since he had begun Mage training he had been able to do it, and though he had always been forbidden to do so he had honed the ability. That was many, many years ago; by now, he was very good at it.

Returning to his quarters in the Guild, he found his thoughts turned to the Mage who had so rigidly opposed him for so many years, Adli. The bastard was so high and mighty, so righteous. He wouldn’t even live within the Guild, he had built himself his own house as far from the Guild as he could manage and still be on their land. Minh didn’t need to look into the man’s mind to know that he was doing things there the Guild and Mage Harfor would not approve of; how he dared do so and still condemn Minh for his gift Minh would never understand. And tonight the man had tried to tell the Head of the Guild that he was wrong! Why Abner Harfor put up with it Minh could not understand.

Well, he supposed he could… but he refused to use the gift on another Mage. He was loyal. He would not do anything against the Guild. The Warlocks, on the other hand… them he would gladly “spy” on, to use the word the others hated so much. It would take a lot, though. Sitting down at his desk he began a list of all the things he would need for the necessarily elaborate ritual to reach out across such a distance and find just the right mind, looking for just the right information. There would not be a lot of people aware of the kidnapping; the more knew a secret, the less safe the secret was.

His task would have been considerably easier, he lamented, had Mage Harfor not placed that damnable cloaking spell on his daughter. Over-protective and paranoid, their Head Mage was. But then, Minh supposed, that was why he had been chosen to lead them. Still, one look into the girl’s mind would have answered all their questions. Minh doubted Mage Harfor would have authorized that, though.

There was no use lamenting that, though, and Minh happily applied himself to the task before him. He had not been able to really test his limits with his ability in years; this was going to be fun. And if he managed to start the sequence of events that would bring down the Warlocks once and for all, well, that was even better.

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A bonfire blazed merrily in the center of a clearing; circling it were large, colorful wagons that looked like houses on wheels. In between the two, a half a dozen people sat talking and laughing. One was dancing, a beautiful young woman with brilliantly red hair; two other women were singing and an older man played a strange looking flute for her to dance to. A man and a woman sat watching, holding each other close. Kayla’s escort hailed them when they reached the circle of wagons.

“Ho!” he called out, raising the arm that wasn’t supporting her in greeting. The singing stopped, but the man playing the flute kept playing, oblivious.

“Jojo!” a voice called out; after a moment Kayla placed it to a large blond woman, one of the singers. She was headed towards them with her arms outstretched. “What’s this?” she said as she spotted Kayla.

“Rhianne found a stray, thought she was dangerous,” the man holding her up responded with a laugh. Jojo, Kayla figured his name was. The others were calling him that, anyway. For her part, she was tired, hungry, her ankle hurt, and she was terribly confused. These people couldn’t be bandits, they were far too happy and friendly. What kind of people were they, though, and why did they look familiar? She didn’t know. She hoped she would have a chance to find out soon. Or sleep. She would like that.

“Looks like the poor thing’s dead on her feet,” the blond voice said. For some reason Kayla couldn’t focus on her face, even though she was very close now. “Are you alright?” the woman asked. Kayla tried to nod, but the world went black halfway through.

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Julian clutched his cloak to himself in spite of the night being warm enough to go without it. These streets were not friendly, particularly to someone well-dressed as he was. He knew that all too well; not too many years before he had been one of those unfriendly things for richly garbed strangers to avoid. Which is why Adli knows I’ll be safe here, he thought to himself. Here was a dirty city a dozen or so miles south of the Guild headquarters, a place that Julian had once called home. No longer, he reassured himself.

With a steadying breath, Julian stepped towards the tavern he had been hovering outside of for several minutes. It was just a tavern, there was no need to be frightened. It wasn’t the same tavern, and these men had probably never heard of him, or at least forgotten about him. And he wasn’t going to touch the dice games, anyway. He was just here for information.

Julian didn’t like being nervous. And really, he didn’t have a lot to be nervous about. He didn’t remotely resemble the kid that had gotten himself banned from every dice game in the city by finding a way around the anti-cheating spells. No one would listen to him when he claimed that it was an accident, they just summarily banned him and called for the Guild, hoping he would be punished somehow. He supposed it was for the best, though, since the Guild likely would never have noticed him if not for his inadvertent casting that night. Still, it was a wholly unpleasant memory, and he really didn’t want to be reminded that other people remembered it, too.

If the air outside was warm, the tavern he had chosen to go into was hot; too many bodies packed into too small a space will do that. Even after all these years, Julian’s eye went first to the dice game in the corner, and he found himself clutching the pouch on his belt that held his focus. No. Carefully, he made his way to the bar, allowing the cloak to fall open as it wanted to do anyway. Let them see the Guild insignia on the cloak, that was the idea. Let them see, let them approach him. Adli had explained it to him.

“Guild boy, eh?” a voice said from behind him as he stood at the bar collecting a mug of something they called ale. Adli had much finer in his private stores; Julian expected to not drink a whole lot of it. Probably better that he kept his wits about him anyway. Still, he looked into the mug with disappointment. A good drink would have made the night a lot better. Slowly he turned to face the person that had spoken.

“What’s it to you?” he asked, trying his best to sound a whole lot cockier than he felt. The man was oily like Minh but lacked the Mage’s fanatic neatness. He was hiding a crest on the breast of his coat rather obviously. Warlock.

“They treat you good up there, boy? I hear stories about how they treat apprentices,” the man said. Julian wanted to roll his eyes, to put the man in his place, but instead tried to look nervous.

“I… I don’t know what you mean,” he said, untruthfully. He had heard those stories too. Some of them were true.

“Come now, there’s no need to be shy. Here, let me pay for your drink,” the man said, tossing a gold coin on the bar. Julian had already paid for the ale, but the bartender just snatched it with a smile.

“Thank you, sir,” he said, to the man. “But I don’t know what you want here. I’m just an apprentice, I can’t do anything for you.” That sounded suitably servile, Julian thought, amused.

“On the contrary, boy, I think I might be able to do something for you,” the man said, wrapping an arm around Julian and leading him towards a dark corner of the tavern. Julian suppressed a shudder, knowing that this contact might prove very useful to Adli in the future. But he wasn’t doing it for Adli—this might give Adli a better chance to find Kayla. That was what gave him the strength to pretend he was interested in the Warlock’s proposal: he was doing this for Kayla. It was always for Kayla.

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Adli sat at a window that faced south, looking in the direction he knew his young apprentice to be, though he was much too far to see. Still, he stared so hard and so long that he might as well have been trying, for all the good it did. He was worried, and about a great many things.

It wasn’t just that the Head Mage’s daughter had run off and possibly been kidnapped, nor that the Mage in question was his dear friend of many years. It wasn’t even that he had just sent his apprentice into the dragon’s mouth, so to speak, to consort with the enemy and hopefully learn a few things. No, Julian could take care of himself. Kayla he was less sure about, but that wasn’t what had him staring out the window for hours absently holding a glass of wine.

Adli was getting old.

Yes, he was older than most of the Guild and in better shape; that didn’t change the fact that he could feel himself slowing down, weakening. He had been expecting it for years, really, though he was a little surprised it was happening fast enough for him to notice. If only it hadn’t come upon him now, when Abner might need him to temper the influence of zealots like Minh. He couldn’t afford to get old now. Things needed to be done, and no one else was ready to do them. He was training Julian, but the boy was as young as Adli was old, and his talents had no fully developed, and were developing in a different direction than Adli’s had. Adli didn’t know what to do.

It was possible that, when shown what Adli was really working on, Julian would develop an interest in magical theory, rather than the flashy probability spells the boy favored now. Adli doubted it, though. Who else could he share it with, though, that wouldn’t condemn him for it? There had been a young woman, once, that had shared his interests; before he could approach her about it she mouthed off and, in lieu of getting herself kicked out, quit the Guild. A pity, too, because she had been on the right track. But he could hardly contact her about his research now; contacting a renegade would land him in nearly as much trouble as his research would.

He sighed again, taking a sip of his wine for the first time that hour. Julian would have to be shown his work soon enough, no matter what Adli’s assessment of his interests said. The Warlock that was bound to approach him at the tavern tonight would say some things that Julian couldn’t help but question. Adli would answer his questions before they got to be doubts about the Guild, by telling the boy the truth that the Guild wanted to deny, the truth that the Warlocks used to recruit young idiots who didn’t know any better. It would not do to lose Julian to the Warlocks… but Adli doubted it would happen. The boy had too many reasons to stay with the Guild. He was too smart, anyway, and would understand why the Warlocks were worse than most people thought them to be, once Adli showed him his research.

So much hinged on that, Adli thought. On his research, and on Adli himself being there to explain it. If he knew chance—and he would be the first to admit that Julian was the expert on chance, not him—then he knew that something would prevent him from doing so. The worst possible coincidences always came to pass. It was a startling thought, and for the first time since Julian left Adli was spurred into action. He would prepare, just in case. He was still poring over his notes, writing things for Julian to find, when the boy came home near dawn. They had a lot to talk about… but he would wait for Julian to approach him. He hoped his apprentice chose to do so soon.