He smiled at her. “I know you can handle it, dragon slayer.”
“Jason, some things are much harder to slay than even dragons.”
* * *
The house was simply too crowded, Kira decided. Her mother was working on some complicated diplomatic agreement in the kitchen with representatives from the Western Alliance and the Bakre Confederation, and her father was discussing wisdom with three other Mages in the living room. Mari had let her look over the dispatches from the night before, but just as her mother said, they offered only vague outlines of trouble. Somebody was preparing to act, but how and where remained frustratingly unclear. There were disturbing hints that Kira was the target of some of the threats, though. At least Kira’s powers hadn’t flared up again, but she had to devote attention to keeping them suppressed.
Feeling increasingly penned in, she made it until a hour after lunch before shutting her Mechanics studies book and walking the short distance to Jason’s room.
“Are you up for a walk?” Kira asked. “Physical therapy, I mean.”
Jason nodded, smiling. He had to take the stairs carefully before following Kira out the front door. Jason moved stiffly at first, his gait becoming more natural as the injured area loosened up. “Another week and I probably won’t even notice this leg any more. Where are we going?”
“Those trees.” Kira indicated a small patch of trees a few hundred lances from the house, their branches trimmed high to avoid offering cover for anyone trying to sneak up. “There’s a special spot there.”
As they walked, she looked around them for any signs of trouble, her eyes lingering on the pasture where Suka was grazing, seeing her horse gazing alertly, ears and head up, toward an empty field. Kira studied the field as well, but stopped worrying when a patrol rode through it without reacting to any trouble. Whatever had spooked Suka wasn’t still there.
Reaching the trees, she pointed to a small depression in the ground. “See that? If you lie down in there, you can’t see the house, or anyone around. And no one can see you. Unless they noticed you walking out here. When I was younger, I’d come out here and lie there and imagine I was all alone.”
“That’s, uh, cool,” Jason said, giving her a curious look. “Why did you want to show it to me?”
“I want to see if it works for two people. Come on.”
She helped him lie down in the depression so they were face to face on their sides.
“No one can see us?” Jason asked.
“That’s right,” Kira said, grinning. “We’re all alone.” She pulled off her jacket and shoulder holster, then closed her eyes as her lips sought his.
Almost lost in the experience, Kira felt an irritating tingle behind her forehead. She dismissed it, focusing on Jason, only to feel it return after a short time.
Kira opened her eyes as she continued to kiss Jason, remembering her mother’s advice about keeping an eye out for trouble even at times like this. How had it gotten so dark so fast?
She realized the sky hadn’t darkened. There was a black haze drifting across her vision. Her foresight, warning of serious danger approaching. “Blazes!” Kira shoved Jason away and lunged for her holster lying nearby. “Look out!”
Chapter Two
After a moment of bafflement, Jason grabbed his knife and looked around. “What is it?”
“I don’t know,” Kira said, flipping off the safety and chambering a round. She steadied her pistol in both hands as she slowly studied the open area where the haze over her vision seemed darkest. “I’m going to let my Mage powers loose a little.”
She flinched as her tentative loosing of her powers resulted in them swelling out, filling her with a jolt that felt physical. But Kira forgot about that instantly as she sensed something: not the glowing pillar that would mark a Mage bending light to remain unseen, but the absence of that. If not for the fact that her father and Mage Asha had demonstrated it for her, Kira never would’ve noticed that subtle trace that still existed when one Mage used the newly developed means to hide the presence and spells of another. What could be sensed was not a spell itself, but an absence where a spell ought to be.
That absence of something felt way too close. It also felt like it was getting closer very fast.
Kira aimed for the center of the absence and fired.
A female Mage appeared seemingly out of nowhere, not much more than a lance from Kira, reeling away under the impact of the bullet.
Kira swung her pistol to the right as a male Mage appeared next to Jason, swinging the hilt of his long knife at Jason’s head.
She tried to target the Mage, but Jason was in the way. As Jason fell, the Mage shoved him at Kira, leaping to attack her and reversing his knife to strike at her with the blade.
Kira staggered as Jason’s weight hit her. Shrugging him to one side, she got off another shot, the bullet going wide as the Mage grabbed her arm. Then she was locked in a hand-to-hand struggle as they fell to the ground, the Mage managing to stay on top. Pinned beneath the heavier and stronger Mage, she couldn’t get enough leverage to break his grip on the gun hand. Her other hand grasped the Mage’s wrist, trying to hold back the knife, but the Mage’s superior strength was slowly forcing the blade closer to her throat. She drew up her leg and slammed her knee viciously into the Mage’s groin, but he didn’t flinch, staring at Kira with unfeeling eyes.
She gasped with relief as Jason appeared over the Mage’s shoulder, his expression grim. Jason swung his own knife hilt hard against the Mage’s head. The Mage fell to one side, wavering on his hands and knees as Jason, still wobbly from the hit on his head, also swayed and tried to regain his balance. Kira rolled up to her feet and swung the butt of her pistol down hard against the Mage’s skull, dropping him to the dirt.
“Thanks,” Kira gasped. “Tuck in your shirt,” she ordered Jason, fixing her own shirt. “The nearest patrol will be here any second and I don’t want them to be able to see what we were doing.”
The thunder of hooves came from two directions as different groups of sentries came charging toward the sound of Kira’s gunshots. She held up one hand as they approached, gesturing toward the two fallen Mages with her pistol.
* * *
“What were you doing out there alone?” Mari demanded.
Kira glared at her mother. The kitchen had gone from feeling like a warm, safe place this morning to having the aura of an interrogation cell this afternoon. “We wanted some privacy.”
“Why—?” Mari paused, looking from Kira to Jason, then sighed and nodded. “Privacy. All right. I understand.”
“No!” Kira said, embarrassed.
“No?”
“All right! Maybe! We just wanted to be alone for a little while!”
Her father came into the kitchen, where Kira, Jason, and her mother sat around the table. “The female Mage is badly hurt. Healers are seeing to her. The male Mage has not yet regained consciousness. Both carry the stench of Dark Mage about them.”
“They seemed pretty tough for Dark Mages,” Kira said.
“The lives of Dark Mages have grown more difficult since the fall of the Mage Guild,” Alain said. “Only the least capable, who escape notice, and the most capable, who can survive if noticed, still follow that path.”
“So we don’t know who sent them?” Mari asked.
“Not yet. Perhaps they will not know, if an intermediary was used to hire them.” Alain sat down next to Mari looking at Kira and Jason. “It is odd. I am told the male Mage did not attempt to kill Jason.”
Jason nodded. “I barely had time to notice him swinging at me and start to dodge out of the way. It was enough that he only hit me a glancing blow, though. I was dazed but not knocked out.”
“He did try to kill Kira,” Mari said.
“Yes,” Alain said. “Why attempt to kill Kira, but refrain from killing Jason?”
“They must have wanted him alive,” Kira said. “Maybe for his knowledge?”
“Perhaps,” her father sa
id. “Why were you and Jason—”
“They had reasons,” Mari interrupted. “Kira, you said your foresight warned you of the danger?”
“Yeah. So I opened my eyes and— Jason, don’t give me that look. You know I do that sometimes even when we’re… busy,” she finished, trying not to look at her father.
“Thank the stars above for your foresight,” Mari said. “And that you listened to your mother’s advice on keeping your eyes open for danger even when you’re… busy. Our own Mages guarding the security perimeter should have sensed those two approaching, though, before they activated those spells. Isn’t that right, Alain?”
Her husband nodded. “Both Mages had been sweating heavily, as if nearly worn out from exertion. It is possible they activated the invisibility spell, and the spell to hide that spell, while still far off and held the spells until Kira spotted them. They should have both been nearly exhausted.”
“That male Mage was old-school,” Kira said. “You could see it in his scars and his eyes. I kneed him hard and he didn’t even flinch.”
Mari looked at Alain. “You’re still tough from having gone through that brutal acolyte training the Mage Guild used to employ.” She shifted a puzzled gaze to her daughter. “There’s something that I don’t understand, though. Kira, why doesn’t foresight make you black out?”
“Ummm… I don’t know.”
“Foresight does not work like other Mage talents,” Alain said. “It cannot be summoned on demand, no matter how much power is available in the world around a Mage.”
“Mages must have some idea how it works,” Mari insisted.
Kira shook her head. “No. It’s not like that, Mother. Mage talents… it’s like you knew how to drive and operate a locomotive, and knew how to feed fuel into it, but you had no idea how the locomotive worked to move itself and pull things. All you knew was how to make it work. I mean, it’s all based on the nothing is real concept, but that’s just sort of a starter key for an engine that works by unknown means.”
Mari nodded in reply, intent on Kira’s words. “You don’t know how wonderful it is to have someone who can explain Mage things in Mechanic terms. You’ve got a unique perspective, Kira.”
“Yeah,” Kira said. “Great. Lucky me. Anyway, Mages have even less idea how foresight works than they do how their spells work. Foresight just happens to some Mages, as if knowing how to drive that locomotive suddenly enabled you to also… play a musical instrument. Only you couldn’t play it when you wanted to. The ability would show up sometimes, and the rest of the time it wouldn’t be there.”
“Your Uncle Calu thinks it’s somehow tied in with quantum-level probabilities,” Mari said. “The foresight only kicks in when the probabilities line up, and even then you might be seeing something that is itself only a product of future probabilities. He thinks the minds of Mages can translate that into visions or sounds that make sense to us.”
“Another form of illusion,” Alain said. “Calu suggested that many people can on rare occasions experience such a thing in dreams.”
“Déjà vu,” Jason said. “That’s what they call that on Earth. The sense that you’re experiencing something again even though it seems to be the first time. It’s still not considered real because it can’t be proven. Maybe it isn’t the same thing as Mage foresight, or maybe it’s just too unpredictable to ever be provable.”
“Unpredictable is the word for foresight,” Mari said. “I’m glad it hasn’t caused you to black out, Kira. As much as I complain about vague warnings from foresight, sometimes it is a life-saver.”
“Are we sure you’ll black out again if you use the other powers?” Jason asked Kira. “I mean, those two times you blacked out were under very stressful conditions.”
“Two times?” Kira sighed, feeling awful. “I lied about the second time, when I had to hide us from the legionaries using the invisibility spell. I also blacked out that time even though I told you I didn’t. You knew, Jason? I knew Father did. I couldn’t… it was too much to deal with then and there. So I didn’t tell you the truth. I’m sorry. I promise I’ll never lie to you again.”
Her father placed a reassuring hand on Kira’s shoulder. “This was known. I had already told your mother. We knew you would tell us when you were able. What Jason says may be so. Perhaps the stress under which the spells were made caused the blackouts.”
“How can we know?” Mari said.
“A small spell, Kira,” Alain suggested. “Perhaps the invisibility spell again. Here. Surrounded by those who love you. Knowing that you are safe no matter what happens.”
She felt a surge of fear and tried to control her breathing and heartbeat. “You want me to try a spell?”
“Only if you wish to.”
Kira closed her eyes, attempting to calm herself. What if Jason was right? What if the blackouts had been triggered by stress? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to learn that, to know that her Mage powers weren’t dangerous to her?
Opening her eyes, she nodded to her parents and Jason. “I’ll try. The invisibility thing.” Kira shifted her chair about so she was looking out the window. Sitting with her eyes fixed on the sky, she tried to block out all distractions: her parents, Jason, the guards and sentries outside. No one else was here. And what she could see—the window, the counter beneath it, the world outside—was all an illusion. None of it was real. The light itself that streamed through the window was an illusion, an illusion that with access to enough power could be altered for a short time.
Kira cautiously lifted her controls on her Mage powers, feeling them immediately surge through her again like a powerful wave crashing through a seawall. She heard a sound from her father, and knew he must have been as startled to sense that rush of strength as she had been.
Block it out, block fear out, block everything out. Sense only the power available in the land around her to help her cast the spell. Not much, but enough. Invisibility didn’t take a lot of power unless it had to be sustained for a long time. Her thoughts threatened to wander down Mechanic pathways of calculating power usage over time. Kira brought them back to concentrating on the Mage teachings. Calm. Illusion. Change the light, so it did not strike her, but flowed around her. She could—
Kira came to a sudden halt and stared at her mother, who was blocking the front door of the house, barricading it against her. She took a shaky breath, looking around before returning her gaze to Mari. “What happened?”
Her father answered from behind them. “We saw the spell take effect as you vanished from sight. I could still sense your presence, and saw you rise from your chair and head quickly for the back door. I was able to get there first and stand across the door. You turned and I cautioned your mother to close off the front door.”
Kira took in a deeper breath, trying to calm herself, her heart pounding from more than the exertion of the spell. “I tried to run away. That’s what happened. Isn’t that what happened?”
Her mother’s eyes stayed on her, worried. “Yes. You don’t remember anything?”
“No. I was sitting in the chair and then I was facing you.”
“You have no idea why you tried to run out of the house?”
The word almost caught in her throat. “No.” Kira closed her eyes, concentrating now on both hiding her Mage powers and suppressing them, layering on the strongest controls she could manage.
When she gazed around again, she saw the look in her father’s eyes. “What?”
He spoke carefully. “I was surprised by the strength of your Mage presence, Kira.”
“Yeah, well, so was I. That’s just wonderful, isn’t it? I want to get rid of it, and it just keeps getting stronger.” Kira looked at Jason, who was standing to the side, looking miserable. “It’s not your fault. You made a good suggestion.”
“I want to help,” Jason said. “What are you trying to run away from?”
“I don’t know!” She took another look at him and suddenly understood the worries behind his words.
“Not you. No. I don’t want to leave you. Not ever.”
“The blackouts didn’t start until after you said you realized you loved me,” Jason said. “That’s what you told me.”
Kira hesitated, not certain what to say or do. She saw her parents also uncertain. “That’s not it,” she finally said. Kira looked down at herself, seeing what looked like a single glowing strand of spider silk leading from her to Jason. “The thread is there, Jason! It’s still there, running between us, just like it has ever since I realized that I loved you! I’m sorry you can’t sense it. I’m sorry it’s not really there, but it is there. Isn’t it, Father?”
Alain nodded, speaking with the authority that only the sole Master of Mages could claim. “Just as the thread that runs between Mari and myself is there, and not there. Kira could not fake such a thing between you and her.”
“But only Kira can see—" Jason began.
“When she speaks of it,” Kira’s father continued, “she speaks only truth. Kira sees it, and feels it.”
Kira walked to Jason and held him. “The only time I have ever lied to you was about that second blackout. I haven’t lied to you since then and I will never lie to you again. What I feel, what I sense, is real, and you are so very much what I want. And… ” She looked at him, trying to sort out a sudden sensation. “I have this feeling that any solution will need you. I don’t know why I feel that way. But I do.”
He gave her a doubtful look. “All of a sudden you know that?”
“Yes! Suddenly I know that!” Kira insisted. “You’re part of the answer. Somehow. Don’t ask me to explain. But I know that’s true.”
“Then I’ll be here,” Jason said. “I promise.”
Her mother put her arm around Kira. “When I ask Queen Sien to come up here for our look at what’s under Pacta, I’ll also ask her to bring along Doctor Sino. If there’s something wrong, Kira, maybe she can find it.”
“Yeah!” Jason agreed, nodding enthusiastically. “Doc Sino will find out what the problem is. The sooner the better.”