Bound by Magic (8 page)

The front door was locked, so Lakin fished a set of lock picks from one of his pockets. I arched a brow as he jimmied one of them into the locks, and seconds later the mechanism clicked open.

“Didn’t know Inspectors were allowed to do that kind of thing.” I could pick locks with the best of them, but since I went after wanted criminals, breaking into their houses was a little different from doing it to someone who as far as we knew was innocent.

Lakin snorted. “You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve had to do this,” he said as the door swung open.

The rotting garbage stench was even stronger on the inside, and as we quickly discovered, came from the kitchen trash and the refrigerator, where months-old supplies of meat and dairy lay wasting away, covered with green and black mold. Gagging, I quickly closed the refrigerator and moved out of the room, wanting to get myself away from the awful smell as fast as possible.

“Lakin?” I called as I moved into the living room. Unlike Lakin’s it was fully furnished, but the surfaces were covered in a layer of dust. This guy definitely hadn’t been home in awhile, probably since he’d stopped showing up to work.

“In here,” Lakin called, and I followed the sound of his voice into Nevin’s bedroom. The space was half-bedroom, half-office, with a desk and a small filing cabinet located on the left half of the room, and a bed, dresser and closet on the right. Lakin was seated on the bed, peering down at some pieces of paper in his hand.

“Whatcha got there?” I asked, coming to stand in front of him.

“Ticket stubs.” Looking up, he handed them to me. “Take a look.”

I did, and then frowned. They appeared to be for some kind of betting event, though I couldn’t really tell what for. The name “The Dirty Habit” was scrawled across the backside of the ticket in cramped, messy handwriting.

“The Dirty Habit,” I murmured, the name tickling a memory in the back of my mind. “I think that’s a bar or nightclub of some kind.”

“Is that right?” Lakin stood up so he could look at the tickets over my shoulder. “I don’t think there’s a club by that name in Solantha, but it must not be too far from here.”

“I’ll ask Annia about it. She’ll probably know.”

“Annia?”

“She’s an Enforcer friend of mine.” I winked at the dubious look on his face. “Don’t worry, she’s one of the good ones.”

“Alright, well I trust you.” Lakin glanced at his watch. “I should get back to my house soon. I’ve got a meeting scheduled with one of my deputies.”

“Crap,” I muttered as I realized it was nearly noon. I had to get back to the Palace!

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s fine.” But inside I was kicking myself. I hadn’t put any time into investigating the bank, or reading the book the Chief Mage had given me last night! “I’ve just gotta get back to the Palace now. I’ll catch you later.”

Somehow, I was going to have to figure out how to manage my time better. Otherwise I had a feeling I was going to end up in hot water again.

I
arrived
at the Palace with just enough time to grab a quick lunch before heading down to the Mages Guild. I walked into the large, open lobby that served as the reception and hub of the Guild, but stopped short at the sight of the Chief Mage standing there, talking with Director Chen.

Because the universe hates me sometimes, both of them turned to look at me just as I stuffed the last bite of my sandwich into my mouth. My insides squirmed at the thought of beautiful, perfect Director Chen staring at me while my cheeks were puffed up like a chipmunk’s, and I swallowed hastily.

“Miss Baine.” Something that looked suspiciously like amusement flickered in Iannis’s eyes, but it was gone too quickly for me to call him out on it. “I see that you’ve managed to be on time for once.”

“Yes, well I’m trying to act like a real grown up now.”

“I’m glad you made it,” Director Chen said smoothly, oblivious to the sarcasm in my voice. “I was actually going to request you join me in my office today, as I am backlogged and could use your assistance. The Secretary of Agricultural Magic tells me you’re quite good with paperwork.”

Oh for Magorah’s sake! The
last
thing I needed was to gain a reputation for being a good admin. The Mages Guild would never give me any other job! I tried to think of something to say that could get me out of this – I wasn’t really thrilled about having to spend the afternoon with Director Chen – but I was saved from having to answer as a courier rushed into the room.

“Lord Iannis,” he gasped, his round cheeks red with exertion – he was a gangly teenager, around Noria’s age. “There’s an emergency at the Firegate Bridge!”

“What kind of emergency?” Iannis demanded.

“Some kind of magical attack from the Resistance! They’ve sent a message saying they’re going to destroy the bridge!” the courier held up a sheet of paper.

Ice rippled through me at the mention of the Resistance. Was my cousin Rylan involved? He was a member, and I’d recently heard that the Resistance had been engaging in stunts that had resulted in civilian casualties. I sincerely hoped he wasn’t part of such a terrible act.

Iannis snatched the paper from the courier, his violet eyes scanning the words. His mouth tightened. “I will take care of this.”

“Sir,” Director Chen protested. “You don’t need to put yourself at risk –”

“This is my city, and the bridge is an important landmark. I won’t leave this up to anyone else.”

“I'm coming with you.”

The Chief Mage turned toward me, annoyance sparking in his eyes. “You need to stay here –”

“I’m your apprentice,” I insisted, standing my ground. I wouldn’t outright defy him, not in front of all these people, but I wasn’t going to give in on this easily. “I’m supposed to assist you, and this sounds like something you could use help with. Please,” I added, softening my tone a little. “Let me come with you.”

The ‘please’ seemed do the trick – some of the annoyance in Iannis’s expression lessened. “Fine. But we need to hurry.”

“Speed’s one thing I’m good at.” I winked, then reached for the beast within me. A glowing white light enveloped my body, and I shifted from the form of a young woman to that of a black panther. In the past, I would have had to strip my clothes off to do this, but after seeing Fenris shift back and forth without losing his clothes, I got him to get me a copy of the charm he used so I could do it myself. By the time the glow faded from my vision, Iannis was already gone, likely to fetch a horse. Rather than try to find him, I raced back to the front lobby and out the doors, headed for the bridge myself. I was a lot faster than a horse – jaguars could reach up to sixty-five miles per hour at top speed, and while I couldn’t run the whole way to the bridge at that pace, I could still beat Iannis there.

It took me about ten minutes to get to the Firegate Bridge, and to my alarm, it was packed with civilians. Carriages and steamcars rolled forward in their respective lanes, while people strolled along the walkways as if they didn’t have a care in the world. By Magorah, but why wasn’t anyone warning these people?

“GET OFF THE BRIDGE!”
I mentally shouted at the few shifters I saw, knowing that would be more effective than standing here and shouting in human form.
“THE RESISTANCE IS GOING TO DESTROY THE BRIDGE! YOU NEED TO GET OFF!”

The shifters glanced around in alarm, clearly wondering where the voice was coming from. A few of them turned and saw me, and I repeated the warning. Instantly they turned around and began running for the end of the bridge. Voices rose in alarm, the humans asking what was going on, and one of the shifters repeated my warning. Soon the pedestrians were sprinting en masse towards land, their eyes wide with hysteria, and the vehicles began moving at a faster pace too.

Unfortunately, this resulted in a lot of horn-honking as the steamcars tried to get ahead, and I heard a crunch as a large, grey car smashed into the back of a black one. Meanwhile, pedestrians were trampling over each other in their efforts to clear the bridge.

“Stop knocking each other over!”
I shouted, hoping the shifters would listen. But panic had taken over, and nobody seemed to be listening.

The sound of hooves clattering on the sidewalk drew my attention from the crowds, and I turned my head to see the Chief Mage galloping toward me, his long hair and robes streaming out behind him. His eyes were trained on the bridge, and his expression was so fierce I forgot the danger for a moment, struck by how warrior-like he looked.

His eyes shifted toward me, and he drew his horse to a stop. The animal, a beautiful palomino, snorted and pawed the ground, and I put some distance between us before he stomped on my paws.

“I see you’ve evacuated the Bridge,” he said tightly, noting the mass hysteria.

I winced.
“Is there anything you can do about this?”
I didn’t know how to get these people to behave.

“Yes,” Iannis said. He pressed a hand to his throat and muttered a Word, then shouted,
“Fai’grynal!”

A wave of magic swept across the bridge, and everybody froze. Literally. The people stopped mid-run, and the cars all rolled to a halt. My ears rang from the force of Iannis’s shout – he’d magically amplified his voice so that everyone could hear him.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he called, “I know you are all frightened, but you need to exit the bridge in an orderly fashion!” Many of the shifters and humans glared at him, but since they were frozen there was little else they could do. “I’m going to unfreeze you now, and you are all going to move to the exit at a brisk, but controlled pace. Anyone out of line will be frozen again, and left stuck on the bridge.”

Well that’s one way to do it,
I thought as I watched eyes widen with panic. Iannis spoke another word, unfreezing the citizens. Many of them fell over, but they quickly dusted themselves off and began moving forward.

“Thanks,”
I said, relief coursing through me as I saw that the civilians were no longer trying to kill each other in their haste to escape. I filed away the Words Iannis used, in case I had to stop a mass riot or something in the future. Unlikely, but with the way my life was going you never knew.

“
Did the message from the Resistance say when this attack was supposed to take place?”

“No.” Iannis scowled. “They were not quite that helpful.” His gaze turned back toward the bridge. “I can tell that magic was used here recently – the protective wards that are normally active around the bridge have been deactivated. I’ll need to cast a spell to determine what was else was done.”

“No need,
” I told him, lifting my nose to scent the air. I peeled back my upper lip so I could make full use of the scent gland hidden beneath there – my olfactory senses were ten times stronger as a panther.
“I can already tell where the source is coming from.”

Without waiting for an answer, I raced up the walkway, following the strange scent that I’d caught from the moment I’d arrived at the bridge – a combination of magic and sulfur. The scent grew stronger as I approached the first of the two red towers from which the bridge was suspended, and my senses told me that whatever the spell was, it had been cast here.

“What is it?” the Chief Mage demanded, having followed me on his horse. “Did you find something?”

“I think it’s under the bridge.”

“Mac soith!”
Iannis swore, and I blinked at the unfamiliar language, guessing it was his homeland tongue. From what I understood, Iannis was originally from Manuc, an island country on the opposite side of the sea from the East Coast. A faint whisper of a musical accent was always in his voice, but I’d never heard him speak anything other than English and Loranian before now.

“Don’t worry. I can get under there.”
Nervous energy crackled through me at the idea of getting so close to the bomb, but I had no idea how much time was left before the thing went off. We couldn’t afford to wait for someone else to get here – I was going to have to take the risk.

I slid my body beneath the railing of the fence, then shimmied onto one of the beams that crisscrossed along the side of the bridge. Fear rippled through me at the sight of bundles of traxtoline fastened all across the underside of the bridge – enough to blow a huge hole that would collapse the structure, especially with the weight of cars and carriages atop it. Near the side of the bridge that I was on, a kind of device was wired to the sticks of traxtoline, and there was a timer fastened to that, ticking down, down, down. The device itself was mechanical – the magic was coming from some kind of glowing substance that fastened the traxtoline to the underside of the bridge, something that I instinctively knew would make it impossible for me to remove both the traxtoline and the device.

“Iannis,”
I said, my mental voice trembling a little.
“There’s a really big bomb down here. And I think it’s about to go off
really
soon.”

If the Chief Mage had any problem with me using his given name, he chose not to voice it now. “You need to freeze it,” he shouted from above. “That’s the only way to stop it.”

“In shifter form?”
I demanded. I’d never tried to use magic in beast form before, and while I figured it should theoretically be possible, I wasn’t confident about it. I didn’t know the Words necessary to conjure enough ice to freeze both the device and the traxtoline. In this form the beast half of me tended to come more to the forefront, and it was afraid of magic. I was worried that I might lose control.

“I’ll help you,” Iannis called, and then he murmured something, something too quiet for me to hear. In the next second I gasped at a strange presence within me – the presence of another soul.

“Relax,”
Iannis’s voice echoed in my mind, and I froze as I realized that somehow, he’d managed to get
inside
me. This was much more invasive than mind-speech, not only could I feel his concern and urgency, but I could actually feel Iannis’s essence inside me, a strange combination of icy-hot that made me shiver.
“Let me guide you.”

Closing my eyes, I drew in a deep breath, then forced my muscles to relax. Iannis told me the Words of the spell, and then a hot, electric current began flowing through me – his own magic, melding with mine. The only time something similar had happened was when he’d unlocked my powers, and it was a sensation I doubted I would ever get used to.

I opened my eyes and focused in on the explosive, more confident now. Even though an onlooker would simply see a lone panther clinging to the side of the bridge, Iannis was with me, almost as if he stood right behind me, guiding me with his own hands. I unwrapped one of my limbs from the beam and stretched the pad of my front paw toward the device, and then I spoke the Words in my mind, directing my intent through them.

Frigid magic spilled out of my paw, sending ice crackling across the device. The timer jumped, and my heart stopped for a moment, paralyzed at the idea that I might have accidentally set off the device before the bundles of traxtoline had frozen. But the device didn’t go off, and the magic quickly spread, running across the length of explosives until they were completely encased in ice. The magic continued back and forth a couple of times, covering the bomb with layer upon layer of ice, and I didn’t stop until the timer had ceased to move from within the frozen block.

“Excellent job,”
Iannis said.
“Now we need to get rid of it.”

“Okay.”
I eyed the explosives nervously.
“How are we going to do that?”

There was silence for a moment.
“I believe the easiest way would be to use an alchemical spell to turn the device itself into ice.”

“Wait, what? You can actually do that?”

“Yes.”
Dry humor tinged Iannis’s voice.
“Alchemical magic is a little beyond your scope, so I’ll have to work directly through you this time. Hold out your paw, as before.”

I did as he asked, and listened as Iannis spoke another incantation in my mind. The spell activated, and I goggled at the amount of energy that came pouring out of my paws – if Iannis hadn’t been lending me his magic I would certainly have used all mine up, and probably fallen into the bay from exhaustion. I watched as the magic penetrated through the layers of ice and seeped into the explosive device like water soaking into a sponge. It took several minutes, but gradually the device turned more and more translucent, until it was barely distinguishable from the block of ice encasing it.

“Excellent,”
Iannis said when it was done.
“Now come back up.”

He withdrew from me then, and the sudden change was so shocking I nearly lost my grip on the beam and went tumbling into the water -- a fall that could potentially kill me. Trembling, I clung to the beam for a long moment until I felt sure of myself, then slowly pulled myself back up to the surface.

“Are you hurt?” Iannis demanded the moment I was topside. He jumped from his horse to crouch down in front of me, meeting my eyes.

“I’m fine. Just a little shaky. Give me a minute.”