Advent (Advent Mage Cycle) (25 page)

“Nolan!” Trev’nor pointed at the rapidly increasing gathering of animals. “Behind you!”

Nolan stopped dead, twisting about to look behind him. As he did, all of the other animals screeched to a halt as well, stumbling over each other in their attempt to not knock over the young Life Mage. Nolan let out a wordless exclamation of surprise as he was abruptly swarmed on all sides. There were so many animals that Trev’nor couldn’t even
see
the other Mage.

“Trev, help!” he called out desperately.

Trev’nor would have loved to help if he could just figure out how.
He
wasn’t the Life Mage—he didn’t have any ability whatsoever to talk to animals. Still, he couldn’t just stand there and do nothing. Squaring his shoulders, he waded in, carefully shifting animals out of his way as he tried to get in closer. That worked until he got near the bear.

The bear gave him a glare. Obviously it didn’t want to move.

Trev’nor wasn’t about to argue the point. “Um, Nolan? I think you better start talking to them.”

“I
am
.” Nolan shot him a plaintive look.

Edging away from the bear, Trev’nor waited.

And waited.

Just how long did this animal-talking thing take…?

Some of the animals dispersed, reluctantly going back the way they had come. Trev’nor didn’t breathe easy until both the bear
and
the skunks had left the immediate area. “Good work, Nolan! What’cha say?”

“That I was going back to the city,” he responded with a shrug. “They don’t understand ‘city’ really that well, but then I said it meant being confined, and hunted, and they didn’t want that. So they went back home.”

And thank all magic for that.

“Hold on,” Nolan requested. He bent down and scooped a meuritta up in his arms. To Trev’nor eyes, this appeared to be a somewhat elderly meuritta, as the fur wasn’t as vibrantly colored as it should have been but more of an undiscerning grey. Nolan seemed to have some sort of conversation with the meuritta, nodding from time to time, and then brightening into a brilliant smile. The meuritta nodded back and leapt from Nolan’s arms, bounding away with a slightly stiff stride.

“Well?” Trev’nor prompted a little impatiently.

“That was the elder of the Meuritta Clan here in the woods,” Nolan explained with a pleased look. “I explained to him what we wanted, and he said that he knew the two perfect meurittas for us to claim as familiars. He’s gone to get them now.”

“Excellent!” Trev’nor threw a victorious fist up in the air.

It took only another minute or so before two younger meurittas bounded up to them. They both went to Nolan first, catching one of his hands in their paws. Trev’nor couldn’t understand a thing but they chattered at Nolan, and Nolan chattered back, so he assumed they were talking to each other. Then one of them dropped Nolan’s hand and darted over to Trev’nor, looking up at him with obvious delight and excitement.

“Um, so, you want to be my meuritta?” Trev’nor ventured.

“Di!” the Meuritta responded with a firm nod.

Trev’nor felt like his face would split if he smiled any wider. He ducked down, catching the meuritta as it jumped up into his arms. Trev’nor shared triumphant smiles with Nolan, who was also carrying his meuritta. They’d done it!

Trev’nor’s earth sense woke up and poked him. He twisted about, frowning as he realized what he was sensing. “Um, Nolan…”

“Yeah?”

“We might be in trouble.”

Nolan blinked at him, smile fading. “Why?”

“Cause Garth is coming.” Trev’nor winced. If his parents had called Garth to come get them, then they were in
so
much trouble.

Nolan frowned and looked in the same direction he had. “Yeah, I can feel him. Um, do you think he’ll be mad?”

“Maybe.” Trev’nor had never seen Garth lose his patience with someone, only heard about it. They’d probably get a good lecture from Garth but nothing more. His real worry was about what was awaiting them at home.

Ah well. It was worth it.

Chapter Fifteen:
Demands

It didn’t take long to find them, of course. Both of them were lit up like a beacon for me—it was easy to sense them once I was within range. I surfaced about five feet away, dodging tree roots as I came up. Considering what Cora said earlier, I wasn’t surprised to find them in a forest. A forest was a natural place to look for meurittas.

Trev’nor spotted me first and gave me a classically consternated, hand-caught-in-the-cookie-jar look. “Er, hi, Garth.”

“Trev’nor,” I returned the greeting with a bland smile. “Did it perhaps occur to you to tell anyone
where
you were going?”

“They wouldn’t let us come here,” he defended himself hastily. “And we needed meurittas.”

“We can’t be Mages without a familiar,” Nolan added with a stubborn look.

I was trying to figure out where they got this idea from but I honestly had no idea. I finally just gave up and asked. “Who told you that you had to have a familiar to be a Mage?”

They exchanged blank looks. “Don’t you?” Trev’nor asked hesitantly.

“No,” I assured him patiently. “There’s no rule saying you do. Mages generally
do
, just because it helps us to have one, but it’s not absolutely necessary.” It was rather a moot point now, as both boys had a meuritta in their arms. “But we can discuss that later. For now, let’s go home, all right? Both of your guardians are going mental trying to figure out where you two went.”

“We didn’t think it would take this long to get here,” Nolan said sheepishly.

I’m surprised that two six year olds managed to get here without getting lost, frankly. That they misjudged the distance wasn’t much of a surprise. I grabbed the halter to the mare that had been grazing nearby, wrapped us all up in magic, and took us down to the earth path. As soon as we were on our way I looked over my shoulder to ask, “And why did you come all the way
here
? There are lots of wild meurittas in Del’Hain, y’know.”

“
Really
?” Nolan looked at the meuritta in his arms and then at Trev’nor. “So we didn’t have to come all the way here?”

“But where did Chatta get hers?” Trev’nor objected. “Wasn’t it in a forest?”

“No, it was in Del’Hain. At the Academy, actually.” I could just see them evaluate the day and wondering if this was a wasted trip. They could have stayed in the city, gotten a meuritta, and not been in trouble, if they had only known. In a purely adult moment, I couldn’t help but add, “Let this be a lesson to you, boys. Ask more questions when you’re researching something.”

Trev’nor gave a solemn nod. “Yeah. We’ll do that.”

“But I think it’s good we came,” Nolan refuted after a beat. “These are the right meurittas for us. And it was a fun day!”

“Yeah, it was!” Trev’nor agreed with matching enthusiasm.

No regret, huh? And whatever punishment their guardians came up with probably wouldn’t make much of a dent either. Raising these two was going to be
real
fun.

I delivered both boys to their unhappy guardians and quickly vacated the vicinity. I had nothing to do with this road trip and I wanted nothing to do with the repercussions.

Since it was late, I decided to spend the night in my own set of rooms instead of going all the way back to my parent’s house. I’d just call by mirror, check on everyone, tell Night where I was, and crash. It had been a very long day, and the previous three had been rather harrowing as well, so I was looking forward to some uninterrupted sleep.

Not five feet in the door, the large oval mirror on my wall lit up and an irate voice demanded, “GARTH, are you
finally
home?!”

That was Kartal’s voice.

Kartal only calls me when he has something he wants me to do; something that usually takes up a lot of energy which is why he didn’t already do it.

I groaned, rubbing at both temples to futilely suppress a headache. It was a mistake to have Chatta charm that mirror to communicate with. I see that now. As soon as possible, I’ll chuck the thing out the nearest window.

“GARTH! I can hear you breathing; I know you’re in there! Now answer me, curse you!”

Like a man walking the plank, I trudged over in front of the mirror and touched it. “Yes, Kartal?” I sighed.

“I have been calling you
all day
, where have you been?”

Ah, that explains why he’s in such a bad mood. Kartal has no patience when it comes to waiting for other people. “Sojavel Ra, Coven Ordan, Chahir, Del’Hain, and then to Chatta’s house before I had to go hunt down Nolan and Trev’nor,” I listed precisely. “Now, what do you want?”

There was a digestive silence on the other end. “What by all magic were you doing going from Coven Ordan to Chahir?”

Why couldn’t he just get to the point? I pinched the bridge of my nose and started praying for patience. “Long story, I’ll tell you later. What do you
want
, Kartal?”

“All of those crystals that you dropped off at the Sojavel Ra Institute have been under major study. Only some of them are sealed with an Earth Mage’s power—at least I think it is, since it seems very similar to your power. Get down here and unlock them.”

I suppressed a growl. Demanding little… “I’ll try to come tomorrow. No guarantees.”

“Can’t you come down now?”

“No.”

“But I can’t do anything until you get down here!” he protested in frustration.

“It’s night anyway,” I pointed out sarcastically, “shouldn’t you be going to bed?”

“Garth, it won’t take you five minutes once you’re down here—”

“Or so you’re assuming,” I interrupted acidly. “I didn’t get a good look at anything that I gave to the Institute, and I have no experience undoing shields on crystals—”

“Ah but you have!” Kartal cut me off triumphantly. “You got that captain out, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, by melting it.”

“No matter. I believe you can still do it. Why can’t you come tonight?” he insisted.

My patience, not much to begin with, abruptly evaporated. “Kartal, I’m exhausted and already in a volatile mood! Stop pushing me. Or I will come down there and melt all of the crystals and you won’t have anything. I said I’d try to come when I can, and that’s that!”

“But—”

All right, that’s
it
. I’d had it. I snapped my fingers at a patch of my floor, which obediently melted away, leaving a hollow space behind. Without any sort of caution, I lifted the mirror off the wall and tossed it not at all gently into the hole.

“Garth, what’s that crashing noi—”

With another snap of the fingers, the floor flowed back into place, covering the mirror.

Blessed silence descended.

Satisfied, I toed off my boots and went about getting ready for bed. And I didn’t worry one whit about Kartal, either.

Chapter Sixteen:
Exiled

In my life, I’ve faced a variety of unpleasant tasks. Cleaning the bathroom, for instance. Or working with Kartal. Whatever it had been, I have always had the opinion that it was better to just get it done and get it over with instead of having it loom over my head like a dark cloud.

Today, the cloud was the exile of the Chahiran Queen.

Night followed me out of the house and stayed quiet the first few minutes of the trip as we traveled along the earth path to Chahir. He’d had a late night last night, due to Shad’s mischief. Apparently the two were involved in an elaborate prank war. I didn’t want to know the details, and I certainly didn’t want to get involved, so I hadn’t asked what Shad had done. Whatever it was turned Night’s hair a vibrant pink. Fortunately, Asla (after laughing herself sick) had managed to undo it.

“
Garth.
”

“Hmmm?”

“
How do you expect the Queen to react?”

“I’m not really sure,” I admitted. “Strip the power from her and she’s a vicious woman, I know that. I’m not sure if she’ll start screaming or trying to beat me with her fists, though.”

“
Warning taken. You don’t really look happy about this.”
The way he said it, it was almost a question.

I let out a heavy sigh. “No, not really. I don’t want to deal with her.”

“
I don’t think any of us do.
”

Unfortunately, he had a point.

Since Vonlorisen knew that we were coming, I chose to come up in the middle of his formal court. People scattered, screaming their heads off, as I rose out of the earth with Night. This was becoming so typical that I just watched their reactions and shrugged.

Vonlorisen rose to his feet, giving me an exasperated look. He didn’t address me, however, but turned to the people in the court and thundered out, “Hold! I have a declaration that must be made.” When people slowed, turning reluctantly toward him, he nodded in satisfaction. Only then did he bend his attention to me. “Magus, we have been
anxiously awaiting
your arrival.”

It was no hardship to translate his tone into words:
what by the four winds took you so long?!
Or something along those lines, anyway. I gave him a bow. “Your Majesty.” When I straightened, I caught a flash of silver standing to one side of the raised dais. My eyes snapped in that direction, my stomach filling with dread. This time, my luck hadn’t held. A Star Order Priest stood just at the queen’s shadow, watching the proceedings with cold eyes. He turned those eyes on me and I felt a shiver go up my spine. I had no doubt that the slightest provocation, he’d attack.

Without saying a word, he shifted the staff in his hand into a two-hand grip. Instinctively, I grabbed the bon’a’lon hanging on my waist and activated it. The blades hissed out as the weapon snapped out into its full extension.

I half-expected him to charge me, but he didn’t take a step. Instead, he rotated the staff in his hands and jammed the butt of it hard into the floor. “
Sebachne teran, ragashi renz asara!”

Nothing he said made sense to me. It almost sounded Chahiran, but the dialect was so ancient that I couldn’t understand it. I had no time to puzzle out the words. A dark wave of magical energy washed over me, like a crashing wave, and then in the next instant a red, solid wall rose up around me. I half-turned in each direction, looking all around me in jerky motions. He had somehow activated a powerful barrier spell that rose up in a large cylindrical shape all around me. Even the stones under my feet radiated with the feel of blood magic. The walls were transparent, but I recognized the feel of them—they were like my weapon’s shield. If I dared to touch them, it would likely throw me backwards or even knock me unconscious.