Balancer (Advent Mage Cycle) Read online

  “The Dom,” Audax reminded with an impatient growl.

  “Oh yes.” Shad looked to Sloves. “Handle the rest, alright? Prince, shall we go Dom hunting?”

  Audax rolled his eyes heavenward, as if asking Guardian Gramercy for patience. “Yes, Captain. Let’s go Dom hunting.”

  The only thing that Shad might’ve enjoyed more than breaking through sieges was playing hide-and-seek with potentially dangerous enemies. With a bounce in his stride and a wicked light in his eyes, he went hunting.

  This was simply the best day ever!

  Chapter Seven: Jarrell

  I came in from another formal dinner at a Dom’s house to find the building largely quiet. Usually something was going on—a team either departing or just coming back, Priests to be dealt with, informants with, usually unreliable, reports to give, that sort of thing. Seeing this serene stillness about the place looked very odd to my eyes.

  Even though it was late in the evening, I had no desire to sleep yet. These meetings always riled me up in one way or another. I wanted to have a normal conversation with a person that I knew well. A conversation that didn’t have innuendoes, or hidden agendas, or fake emotions. Five minutes of normal human interaction, that’s all I was asking for.

  As I meandered through the main floor, I stumbled across Shad in one of the sitting rooms. He lay sprawled out across the couch, boots still on, although he’d taken off his scabbard and laid the sword aside on a nearby table. His head was back against the edge, eyes closed, and for all appearance he seemed to be asleep except that the fingers lying across his chest kept tapping in a random rhythm. He looked more tattered than usual—clothes a little singed around the edges, a scrape along one cheek, and soot marks all over him.

  “Shad?”

  His head lifted and he gave me a blinding smile. “Garth! Back from being talked to death?”

  “Finally, yes,” I groaned. Well, he looks chipper enough. I sank into a nearby chair and stretched my feet out, crossing them at the ankles. “Phew. I’m so glad that this is almost over. I think I’ve met every Dom or Domess in Chahir.”

  “Not all of them,” Shad protested. “You’ve only been at this for two months, and you’ve only had about one formal dinner a week.”

  “The ones I didn’t visit, you did,” I reminded him wryly. “Between the two of us, I think we’ve covered all fourteen provinces. What happened to you, anyway?”

  “Ah, this?” he waved a hand to indicate his torn clothing. “It was amazing! The Dom of Beddingfield had his whole yard rigged to explode if we got near it. I had to dodge mines all the way to his house.” He smiled in reminiscence. “Most fun I’ve had all year.”

  In retrospect, I’m glad that Xiaolang wouldn’t let me change places with Shad. Dinner conversations seemed suddenly mild compared to what he did on a regular basis.

  “Have we really covered everyone?” Shad asked in sudden seriousness.

  I rubbed at my chin. “I think so. Wait, let’s see…I’ve visited Habbick, Aboulmana, Kaczorek, Cammack, Halliburton and Choi. You’ve been to—”

  “Allington, Echols, Farless, Darlington and Beddingfield,” Shad finished with a thoughtful frown. “Granted, I went to Darlington twice. But still, that means neither of us have heard anything from Jarrell.”

  “That could be because I’ve already met the Dom of Jarrell,” I responded slowly. “Remember? He’s the one that had that insane Fire Mage I had to deal with.”

  “I only remember that you got me out of a crystal because he asked you to,” Shad retorted.

  Oh that’s right…I’d dealt with the Fire Mage before pulling Shad out of the crystal. “Still, that makes my point. I mean, we stayed with him for several days. He hardly needs to invite me to dinner or anything. And with his open attitude about magic, I doubt he’d be harboring any Star Order Priests.”

  Shad slowly sat up, forehead wrinkling into serious lines. “Still…it’s all the rage to have you over for dinner these days. You’re the latest fad. You might want to talk to him, at the very least.”

  Not a bad idea.

  ~*~

  Ries had apparently been keeping better track than Shad and I, as he met me with that very same concern over breakfast the next morning. In fact, I’d barely said good morning to Chatta and started for the buffet along the wall before he ambushed me.

  “Garth,” he said without any kind of preamble, “we need to talk about Jarrell.”

  “Good morning, Ries, and how did you sleep last night?” I responded with a pointed look.

  He gave me a frustrated slash of the hand. “This isn’t a joking matter.”

  “No,” I agreed around a yawn, “What is a joking matter is that you seriously expect me to speak rationally about politics before I’ve even had breakfast.”

  He gave me a cool, analytical stare for a long moment. Just long enough for me to remember that this man routinely outmaneuvered the most devious people in Chahir to keep a prince safe. Then he turned and gave a nod to Chatta. That nod was a pre-arranged signal. I recognized it instantly.

  My loving fiancée, with a serene smile on her face, lifted her wand and zapped me with a revival spell. I went from half-asleep to being rudely jolted awake in a mere heartbeat. I jumped at the abruptness of it, nerves tingling.

  “Chatta!”

  She wasn’t the slightest bit fazed by my whine. “You need to be awake. Ries is right, this is important.”

  I get absolutely no sympathy around here. I capitulated on a sigh. “Alright, fine, but I get to eat while you talk.”

  Ries waved an impatient hand before joining Chatta at the table. I loaded up my plate, noticing all the while that the only other person here for this talk happened to be Shad. Everyone else had already eaten, as usual, and were out working. Shaking my head, I sat down with my plate and dug in. “Alright, what about Jarrell?”

  “I am aware of your history with the man, Garth.” Ries pushed his empty plate aside so that he could lean both hands on the table. “But this silence from him seemed odd to me, so several weeks ago I had Audax send a letter to him making casual inquires about visiting with you.”

  Wait…did he just say that he had had Audax send a letter? This man feels comfortable enough coercing a prince into doing things for him? I looked at Ries in a whole new light. Just how much political power did he really wield?

  “Go on.”

  “He said that he had every intention of visiting you but that he wanted to come here and talk in person. He said that he had several pieces of information that he wanted to pass onto you. I actually received another message from him yesterday saying that he expected to be in the capitol very soon.” Ries opened his mouth, frowned, and visibly changed what he was going to say. “Garth, it’s what he didn’t say that’s worrying me. I think he truly does know something that we need to. I think you need to go see him now. He’s always been more openly tolerant of magic than any other Dom except Habbick. I’m afraid of what might happen to him if he chooses to travel openly.”

  “I see. You think it’s safer for me to go get him considering my method of travel.” Well, that part only made sense. Only another Earth Mage could hope to disturb me while on the earth path. “Alright. We’ll go as soon as I eat.”

  “While you’re there,” Shad requested with somber intensity, “ask a question for me. Ask if he’s seen or heard of anyone from the upper echelons of the Order. So far, I’ve only seen the younger members.”

  I paused with my glass barely off the table as the question registered. Come to think of it, I’d only seen the younger members captured. That was…strange. And disturbing. If we were only finding the younger members, didn’t that mean that the older ones had something planned?

  “I will,” I promised slowly.

  ~*~

  The Dom of Jarrell, Overlyten, had not changed at all since I had seen him last. He still had a stocky, powerful figure with shocking light blue eyes. He had seen a great deal of sun recently, making him
more tanned than usual, which made his fair hair seem lighter than normal. But when he saw Ries and I come up the front steps of his house, he immediately flung open the doors and came down to greet us himself.

  “Magus! I am delighted to see you. I’m also surprised, though, as I told Ries that I had every intention of coming down soon to Alvacon.”

  “That’s what I was worried about,” Ries responded with a polite bow to the Dom. “This is not the best time for a man of your reputation to be traveling about. There are too many Priests still loose.”

  He looked ready to object, but Ries’ sincerity made him pause and reconsider. Then he shrugged almost ruefully. “A point I had not thought on. Well, regardless, you’re here. Please, come in. I have several things I want to tell you.”

  I followed him into the fortress, noting that the place seemed better guarded than when I had been here last. Jarrell Province was one of the few that had seen a great deal of the Magic War. Shad’s encasement inside the crystal had been due to the serious injuries he’d sustained during that War. I’d always found it interesting that while most of the Provinces chose to build a manor house or mansion of some sort for their Doms to reside, Jarrell had stayed with the original fortress. They continually had to repair it, of course, as no building was going to survive two hundred years without some renovation. But I had a feeling they’d keep repairing and patching well beyond the time when they should simply tear it down and rebuild.

  We wound through the foyer and up a short flight of stairs to Overlyten’s office. Or it might have been a library. A large mahogany desk did take up most of the floor space near the window, and it certainly saw daily use with that amount of paperwork stacked on it, but every wall had a bookcase stuffed to overflowing as well. I couldn’t quite tell which purpose this room had been designed to serve. He waved us into the two chairs facing the desk before taking a rolled piece of parchment from the desktop. He unrolled it as much as he could, stretching out his arms to accommodate the length.

  “I know you can’t read all of this, as my handwriting is questionable at best, but I wanted to show you. I’ve been working on a timeline of events. I have my own informants in the capitol that keep me apprised of things and some of the things they reported sent all sorts of alarms sounding off. Ries, were you aware that the Star Order practically disbanded a full two days before Vonlorisen ever passed the edict?”

  Ries slowly went taut in his chair, eyes glued to Overlyten’s face. “Are you sure?”

  “The more powerful, affluent members disappeared at least two days before the edict,” he confirmed with a grim line to his mouth. “Now, maybe they had an inside source of information that told them what the king was planning. I certainly don’t blame them for running while they still had the chance. But their escape…it was too clean. Too precise. I haven’t been able to find even a trace of them since their disappearance. With the way that Garth’s team is overturning every rock in Chahir, I found that more than strange. It’s disturbing.”

  I certainly found it disturbing. “Shad said something to me before we left. He wanted me to ask—have you found any Star Order Priests from the upper echelons? So far, we’ve only found the younger members.”

  Overlyton’s eyes closed in a gesture of defeat. “I’m afraid you’ve just confirmed what I was about to tell you. No, Magus, I have not. I’ve only been able to track the younger members, and I can’t pinpoint all of them either. I have heard about Captain Riicshaden’s remarkable success in routing out hidden Priests at the different Provinces. I believe he’s covered five Provinces so far?”

  I nodded confirmation.

  “But from what I heard, none of those cache holds had anyone older than their mid-twenties. The few other reports and eyewitness accounts I’ve managed to scare up mention that age group as well but no one older than that.”

  I really didn’t like the sound of that. I raised both hands to rub at my temples. “Alright. It’s not good news, but it’s something that we needed to know. Is there anything else that you can tell us?”

  He put the timeline down and reached for a map, which he handed directly to me. “I’ve marked down a few locations that you might not have searched yet. They’re older, and not as well-known because the Star Order hasn’t used them for the past several decades. I found them by researching property deeds. At first I spent the majority of my time just researching their history, but after two weeks I realized that no one really knew what this Order was up to. Not even in the very beginning of its formation. Every book or scroll I read only repeated the general information that any half-informed adult could recite. I had to think and research along different lines to find anything at all. As it stands, all I did was comb through the libraries and government record houses for any mention of the Star Order and managed to stumble across these locations. I make no guarantees that anyone is there, but it’s better to confirm that. Magus, I do not like this unorthodox silence. To have an organization this powerful be so invisible…it bodes ill.”

  I took the map and carefully folded it up before putting it in my breast pocket. “I cannot agree more. Thank you.”

  Overlyten waved my thanks aside. “I still owe you for dealing with that insane Mage and pulling Riicshaden out. How is he doing, anyway?”

  “He’s having the time of his life,” I answered dryly. I spent a few minutes recapping some of the things that Shad had done since we took him out of Jarrell. His Dom laughed out loud hearing some of these escapades.

  “So apparently the legend is true,” Overlyten chuckled, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes. “He really is a notorious prankster.”

  “Prankster is too mild of a word,” I protested with a vehement shake of the head.

  He didn’t disagree with me, just smiled. “I’m glad to hear he’s doing so well. Tell him for me that if he ever wishes to return home, we’ll accept him with open arms.”

  I think that’s what Shad was afraid of. He didn’t want to be pampered and spoiled by anyone. He wanted challenges, to face life head on and come out on top. But I didn’t say so, just nodded. “I will. Thank you, Overlyten. I think you just saved us hours of work.”

  “My pleasure,” he assured me. “I do have one final question. If we ever discover another Witch or Wizard here, what do we do? There’s no way to train them here, Chahir doesn’t have the resources. Can we still call upon you?”

  He caught me flat footed for a moment as I hadn’t considered this possibility. With Vonlorisen’s change on magic, new magicians wouldn’t need to run for their lives anymore. They could, technically, stay at home. But they could not have the training they needed if they did so. Their best option was still to come to Hain. I had been released from the duty of finding new magicians, but…at the same time, I hadn’t. Didn’t I owe a duty to my countrymen to help them? I’d be hard pressed to explain my presence in Chahir now if that was not the reason.

  “Of course you can. I will come and take them into Hain personally until Chahir has a school of some sort built.”

  He gave me a relief bow of gratitude. “We appreciate it, Magus. Thank you.”

  Chapter Eight: Clues

  When I arrived back in Ascalon, I reported my conversation with Overlyten that night over dinner. Saroya took the information I gave him, along with the map, and promised to make immediate inquiries.

  So when he came early the next morning and joined us for breakfast, I think everyone in the room expected some sort of break-through. Saroya didn’t meet anyone’s eyes or say a word until he had filled a plate and joined us at the table. Then he looked up, meeting all of our eyes, before letting out a long sigh. “At this point, I’m sorry to say that we know nothing.”

  Xiaolang paused with a fork halfway to his mouth. “Nothing.”

  “Nothing,” Saroya confirmed bleakly, his fingers absently tearing apart a biscuit. “The Star Order was always very secretive about their movements and agendas. We don’t have the faintest idea what they’ve been doing
over the past two hundred years. We have no idea what bolt holes they’ve created for themselves. Even Overlyton’s map came as a complete surprise to me. The amount of research that he must have done to simply find that much information is astonishing.”

  That was not what we wanted to hear. I started rubbing my temples, trying to stave off a headache. “So where do we start?”

  “Everywhere,” Shad answered. He looked toward Saroya as he spoke, eyes and voice unnaturally calm. “. We keep our eyes and ears open, listen to every rumor, every theory, and look at every building the Star Order had a lot of contact with. Then we pray that we find some clues.”

  “And then we pray that we can figure out the clues before disaster falls on our heads,” Xiaolang added grimly. “Saroya, how many men do you have?”

  “Just under a thousand. How many magicians do we have?”

  “Twenty-seven, but Raile assured me that there’s quite a few more that wish to join us,” Chatta answered, pouring some more water into her glass. “If we call him, I think we can have more help within the day.”

  Saroya’s forehead crinkled as he thought. “I can’t spare all of my men for this search. I have to keep a certain amount around the royal family and palace as protection. But I think we should be able to do five man teams. One magician, four soldiers. Roughly 130 teams.”

  130 teams…I felt a migraine developing just thinking about coordinating that many people. And yet, even with that many teams, we still had a whole country to investigate.

  Xiaolang nodded as Saroya spoke. “It might be enough. Saroya, I think we should designate Shield and Chatta to coordinate all of the teams. Those two are my best organizers.”

  Abject relief passed over Saroya’s face. “That’s fine.”