Balancer (Advent Mage Cycle) (20 page)

Close to being midnight, the streets were largely deserted. Tall lampposts were lit with magical orbs at even intervals, shedding more than enough light for us to travel by. Sallah met us at the gate, eyes tight with worry but a game smile on her face. Raile didn’t say anything more to us, just waved good night and moved further along the street to his own house.

I slid off Night’s back with a weary thump so that I could give a quick, firm hug to Sallah. She returned it just as fiercely. “I’m glad you’re here,” she murmured into my ear before stepping back. Her eyebrows drew together as she studied my face. “You’re tired, and your magical aura is dimmer than usual. Garth, what have you been doing?”

“It’s been a long day,” I sighed. “If it’s alright with you, I’ll explain later.”

She clearly wanted to ask more questions but swallowed them. “Tomorrow then. Everyone, if you’ll lead the horses around back. I’m sure you remember the way. I have beds set up for you inside. Does anyone want something to eat?”

“No, we ate earlier, but thank you,” Chatta assured her.

We all trooped out to the back of the house, where the stable sat, and took care of the horses. The necessary chore seemed to take years instead of minutes. Once done, I dragged myself into the house through the back door and up the flight of stairs to the same room I’d been given the last time I stayed here. I pulled off both boots, fell face first into the bed, and slept like the dead.

~*~

Revival spells only lasted about fifteen minutes. It took two just to get me to the meeting. By some unspoken consensus, the whole team voluntarily kept pouring hot tea into me until I felt like if I’d taken one more sip, I would’ve started making sloshing noises.

The meeting place turned out to be at Don’s pool, no doubt so that he could show people what we are up against. As I stepped inside the building, the rich smell of plants and earth filled my lungs as usual, but mingled with it was the sound of many voices quietly speaking. I stepped around a thick bush blocking my view and got my first look at Raile’s volunteers.

At a quick estimate, at least thirty or so people stood around the pool. Their general appearance was heartening, to say the least. They all looked Chahiran with their light coloring and bearing. The magical signature emanating from them resonated strongly along my senses, like sunbaked rock. I found myself smiling without truly realizing it.

Raile spotted me and waved me closer. He had cast some sort of levitation spell on himself and was comfortably seated on thin air, hovering just on the pool’s edge. Don stood next to him, impeccably dressed in black Wizard’s robes but I saw that he had dark circles under his eyes that could nearly match the robes. Did he get no sleep last night?

“Garth,” Don greeted with relief, reaching out a hand to me.

“Don,” I returned, grasping his hand in a firm clasp. “We owe you. Without your diligent searching, Chahir would stand no chance against these monsters.”

A tired smile flitted over his face. “Let me sleep for a week, and I’ll call the debt even.”

“Garth, we’ve been waiting for you to start the meeting,” Raile prompted.

Sheer panic shot through my system, strong enough to wake me up with resorting to another revival spell. “ME?!”

“You’re the one Vonlorisen designated, remember?” Raile retorted impatiently, a finger tapping an irritated rhythm against his knee. “That makes you the head of this circus.”

Why do I always get volunteered for things like this…? Did I do something to offend the gods? Wait. From the ether of desperation, inspiration struck. Vonlorisen didn’t just designate me. Hopefully, I turned to Shad. “Uhhh?”

He patted my shoulder with mock sympathy. “Just introduce me and give them a basic run down of what Vonlorisen agreed to. I’ll take over from there.”

I knew I liked him for a reason. “Chatta, cast that voice-broadcasting spell of yours for me?”

“Sure,” she agreed easily, pulling her wand from a sleeve pocket. “Shad, do you want it as well?”

“No need,” he negated. “They’ll be able to hear me.”

Shad normally didn’t speak that loudly, but he did have a lot of experience training recruits. I doubted anyone that was a military trainer survived without learning how to belt out orders.

Chatta waved her wand at my throat in a small, circular motion, cast the spell, and then gave me a go-ahead nod. I turned to the room and spoke calmly, “My name is Rhebengarthen, Earth Mage of Chahir.” My voice, fortunately, didn’t boom out at an ear-splitting volume. Instead, it simply carried to every corner. Good. “To my right is Captain Riicshaden, also of Chahir. King Vonlorisen has designated me and the Captain as the leaders of this mission. He has requested the assistance of the Remnant to destroy the sigils created by the Star Order. Know that you are to be under our sole direction.”

A few people murmured to their neighbors at that.

Shad took a step forward, drawing their attention. With no apparent effort, his voice carried out in strong, deep tones. Such a voice would not have been out of place on a battlefield. “This meeting is to help us understand what your individual strengths and weaknesses are, how much power or specialized tools you need to destroy the sigils, and how to coordinate this attack.”

I turned to Dassan. “So how do we destroy the sigils?”

“It’s going to be tricky to deal with these sigils. The first problem is finding the things. We’re going to need very accurate locations to find them again in Chahir. The glamours on them are strong. In person, they’ll be impossible to see. Even by scrying, the glamours put a haze over the sigils. I’m amazed Don could find them at all.”

If he were less skilled with the scrying, I wasn’t sure if he could have.

“Once we do locate them, the next problem will be breaking the shields that guard them.” Dassan frowned in deep thought. “Truthfully, I’m not sure how we can without inspecting each shield individually. The first sigil found had its glamour and shield broken because the building it was attached to was damaged. It might very well be that we’ll have to destroy whatever the sigil is attached to just to get past the shield.”

“If necessary, you’ll have authorization to do just that,” Shad assured him grimly. “After that?”

“After that…well, after that is the true problem. A blood sigil is a nasty piece of work. Handled incorrectly, and it will suck in anyone that tries to attack it. There’s a pretty long and complicated incantation to incapacitate a sigil and it’s quite draining to do.” Dassan paused and looked at the watching crowd. “I wouldn’t want any one person to attempt it, frankly.”

“Alright, so we’ll probably need partners for each sigil, is that right? Someone who specializes in shield breaking and another that can act as a magical partner for the incantation?” Shad glanced at me as he asked this.

“More than two,” I disagreed just as Dassan opened his mouth. “I’d suggest at least six in each group. You’ll need a guard to act as a protector while the other two do the incantation. And someone who can transport them quickly out of the area, if need be.”

Dassan gave me a grateful look. “The very thing I was about to say. Captain, when I said that this incantation is long and tiring, what I meant was
exhausting
. They’re not going to be up to moving much after they’re finished. I could wish for a full circle for each sigil, but we simply don’t have that many magicians familiar enough with the incantation for that to be feasible.”

“Eight, then,” Shad agreed with a slightly abstracted look on his face. “We’ll have to include the Special Forces as the guard, otherwise we won’t have enough people. But, two magicians for every sigil?”

“It wouldn’t have to be every sigil,” I disagreed. “Wizard Dassan, correct me if I’m wrong, but because this is a quad-directional alignment, just removing one sigil should make the others impotent.”

“That’s correct, Magus. Just removing one will suffice. I don’t suggest leaving the other three standing, mind you, but for an emergency fix just knocking one out of alignment will do. Still, that means if Raile is correct about every capitol city being infested by these things, we have fourteen sigils that need to be destroyed. With a little bit of rest in between, we should be able to have one team destroy two sigils in a day’s time. But right now, we don’t have enough people capable of quick transportation. If something were to go wrong…”

“Point taken,” I said with a wince at the mental picture of disaster in my head.

“If all we need is someone to guard the other’s backs and offer an additional escape route, I can get them,” Raile assured us. “A few young Mages approached me last night, eager to help.”

“Raile, if you could contact them and get them here?” I requested.

“Hope they’re awake,” he responded with a raspy chuckle, drawing a small wooden carving of a woman in flowing robes from his pocket. I didn’t recognize the object, but the power flowing through it felt similar to a mirror. That must be the Coven Ordan version.

“Fourteen precision strikes,” Shad muttered to himself under his breath. “It will have to be simultaneous, or as close to it as we can manage.”

“If they can all communicate with each other long distance, it shouldn’t be difficult to coordinate them,” Xiaolang observed to no one in particular.

Shad groaned loudly. “You call upon the god of misfortune when you say that! Stop it. Alright, while we’re waiting for our Mages to arrive, let’s divide these people up into teams. Dassan, divide them up into incantars and breakers for me.”

Dassan and Shad waded into the crowd and started directing people. I watched them shift magicians around, feeling my mind and body grow heavy. Revival spells and hot tea were all well and good, but what my body truly needed was some decent sleep that lasted for more than four hours.

The young Mages appeared before Shad and Dassan were through separating people, looking unfairly alert and enthusiastic. They all seemed to be about my age, so why did I feel so
old
watching them?

Once everyone had been divided, Shad started forming people into teams. Chatta stood at his elbow, writing down names and quick information on each team as it formed. It was good that she did so—my memory is not to be trusted with things like that. I’d need that list later.

I caught Don’s eye and waved him closer to me. “Don. While you were scrying, did you have any ideas on which sigils would be the easiest to destroy?”

“There’s a few that would be easier to get to,” he answered with a tight, slightly feral smile. “I marked those. Some cities, though, there are no easy targets.”

“Show me.”

We leaned over the pool as he quickly navigated to the likely spots. Xiaolang looked on as well, offering a tactical opinion here and there as we plotted mayhem. Shad and Dassan joined us when the teams were formed, helping to choose the best locations for each team. We could only partially do this, since Don hadn’t found all of the sigils yet, but that didn’t mean we were barred from making tentative plans.

By the time we had our targets marked, the teams formed, and a rough battle plan outlined, it was well past noon and my brain felt like mush. Since no one had really gotten any decent sleep in the past two days, we called a halt and dismissed everyone.

I pushed myself back to my feet in creaking degrees. “I suppose I should go to Chahir and update Vonlorisen next.”

Chatta planted herself in front of me, arms crossed over her chest and a firm set to her jaw. “Nap first.”

Was it my imagination, or was she wreathed in a heavenly glow? “I can have a nap?”

“Have? I insist you take one! I do
not
want you falling asleep halfway to Chahir.”

Errr…good point.

“You’ll want to wait for the cover of darkness before visiting him anyway,” Raile observed nonchalantly. “You don’t want anyone seeing you and reporting it to the Star Order. After all, you’re supposed to be in the capitol, not coming back from Coven Ordan.”

That was enough justification for me. Now, where was the nearest bed…?

~*~

Over the next few days, I spent so much time coming and going from Coven Ordan that it was a miracle I didn’t run into myself. Most of the trips were requested by Shad and Dassan. A scrying could tell you what something looked like, and the location of it, but it doesn’t give you a good
feel
of the land. Shad treated the scrying pool like a very enhanced, colorized version of a field map. Certainly, a commander could plan off of a field map. But if the choice was there to look at the terrain first hand, a good commander would take it. I was nothing more than a ferryman during these recon trips, but I kept my ears open as Shad, Xiaolang and Dassan talked tactics. Part of the duty of the Jaunten was to learn everything we could as opportunities presented themselves. I might not ever use this information in my lifetime—at least, I hoped not!— but my future descendants might need it, so it behooved me to learn just in case.

Seeing everything firsthand also showed me just how devious the Star Order could be. The sigils weren’t just hidden around Star Order buildings or in the gardens that they liked to keep. We found one embedded in the keystone of a bridge, hidden in a very pretty and elaborate scrollwork pattern. If Dassan hadn’t traced the outline of it for me, I’d never have spotted it. We found two others that were part of the outer wall of the city. That had too much irony for me. For them to put something that could kill people into a structure meant to
protect
them…I couldn’t decide if that was ingenious or pure evil.

I’d thought that over the past two years of searching all over Chahir for awakening magicians that I had seen every corner of the country, but as it turned out I’d missed a few areas. The very southern coast had an amazing amount of forest area that looked untouched. I knew both major mountain ranges rather well, as I’d travelled by foot through both of them, but it still surprised me when we came across forests and fertile valleys that held sizeable cities. The thought of these places left barren of all human life…it shook me to my core.

Dassan and Shad outlined plans on which sigils to attack first, and which ones might be harder to tackle than others. Their debates held a certain fascination for me because their viewpoints were so radically different. Shad, who didn’t have an ounce of magical blood in him, looked at the sigils and evaluated the terrain they were in: Did the sigil stand in an open place, leaving many angles of attack, or was it in a more covert area that could be easily defended while the magicians worked? Dassan’s first question was how strong was the shield over this sigil? How long would it take to break through that and be able to destroy the sigil itself? Would it take all of the energy of the magicians or could they take down this one and still have the ability to do one more in the same day?