“Alain feels that, too,” Sien said.
“Oh, Alain feels it worse than I do! If not for his Mage training he’d be a total wreck these days. All those years when Kira and I couldn’t talk, he was the one she could share things with. Now he’s losing her, too. Jason’s a fine man. But… he’s taking her away from us.”
Sien got up, walking over to embrace Mari. She hugged her friend back, remembering shared losses and trials. But the awkwardness of the hug caused by Mari’s pregnancy reminded her that things were already changing, had been changing. The world would never be what it had been. “Why does changing the world always have to be so hard?” Mari murmured.
“You went to Dorcastle,” Sien murmured in reply. “You can face your daughter.”
* * *
Mari reached the door to the room her daughter was staying in, braced herself, then knocked gently.
“What?” Kira answered, the single word as sharp as a dagger ready to defend or attack.
Taking that as an invitation to enter, Mari opened the door.
Kira sat right next to the window, which was open wide. Mari paused at the sight. Kira had always favored windows, but these days she seemed to want to sit as close to one as possible whenever inside, and wanted the windows opened. But then Kira had been through a lot in the last year and a half. Wanting to be close to a window was a small quirk for anyone to have after all that.
“What?” Kira demanded again, giving her mother that old stubborn look.
For a moment, Mari saw the little girl who had begun butting heads with her mother as a toddler. The image both tore at her and made her proud of this young woman who Kira had become. “About you and Jason-”
“It doesn’t matter what you’ve decided,” Kira insisted, throwing down a challenge.
“Yes, dearest, it does.” Mari held up one hand to forestall another outburst. “You’re right. You should go with Jason.”
Kira’s hostility changed to surprise and then wariness. “Why? What changed your mind?”
“You’re right,” Mari repeated. “He’s your man. I wouldn’t have let your father go off alone, and the one time I did I nearly lost him. I never would have forgiven myself if he’d died because I wasn’t there with him when he needed me. I’m… losing you to Jason. But that’s right. That’s how things should be.”
Kira stared at her, a smile growing, then jumped up to hug her mother. “Thank you.”
Mari held her tightly, trying to savor an experience she knew would come less and less with coming years. “I’m still worried about your problem. But you’re not going to find answers locked in your room. You have to go looking for them. Just like I did. And maybe that search will take you to places as rough as Marandur was for me, but I know you can handle it. I’m so proud of who you are. I trust you.”
“Why did you have to make me cry?” Kira said, stepping back and wiping her eyes. “Mother, no matter how far I am from you, you’re always with me. You always will be. You know that, right?”
“I hope that’s always true,” she said, trying to fight off her own tears. “But I can’t come with you this time.” Mari patted the bulge of her belly. “I have to think about someone else, too.”
“Yes, you do!” Kira agreed. “I hope… ” Her voice trailed off, unreadable feelings flickering in her eyes.
“Dearest?” Mari asked, wondering if her daughter’s problems might be somehow connected to another condition. But why wouldn’t Doctor Sino have mentioned that? “Are you… ?”
“Am I what?”
“I can understand why you wouldn’t have wanted to tell others yet, but are you also expecting?”
“Mother!”
“All right! I’m sorry!” Mari said, holding up her hands in a calming gesture. “Are you sure, though? Sometimes it takes a little while to know and even if you and Jason have been taking precautions-”
“No!” Kira almost yelled, before dropping back into the chair and subsiding into a sulk. “Believe me, it is absolutely impossible for me to be expecting.”
“Kira, a lot of people wait. You know that your father and I did, and we’ve never regretted that. But you’re unhappy about it?”
“Yes! Because it’s not really a choice if every time Jason and I want to do something someone is watching or someone tries to kill me or the world explodes,” Kira muttered, her eyes fixed on the floor.
“Oh,” Mari said. “That’s a problem. A lot of people were trying to kill your father and me, but we did manage to find some privacy. I’m sorry. This isn’t some fling you’re talking about. You and Jason are engaged. Don’t feel pressured. But maybe you’ll get some chances on this trip.”
“Maybe.” Kira looked up at her, smiling again at the reminder she’d be allowed to go. “Thanks. How did you get father to agree that I could go?”
“He hasn’t,” Mari said. “He wouldn’t. Because you’re his little girl.”
“Then how—?”
“We’ll both talk to him. Your father can sometimes hold his ground against me, and sometimes he can hold his ground against you, but if we hit him together he’s not going to stand a chance.”
Kira jumped up, smiling wider. “I’m honored to ride into battle alongside the daughter of Jules.”
“That’s my girl.” As they left the room, Mari felt a wave of anxiety and touched Kira’s arm. “You’ll be careful, right? Neither of those Mages who attacked you and Jason can tell us who hired them, so whoever it was is smart enough and has resources enough to use cut outs. Don’t underestimate them.”
“I won’t. But I need to go, Mother.”
“No, you don’t. I had to go to Dorcastle. You don’t have to go to Altis. If it looks wrong, if it feels wrong, you’ll have the authority to call off the trip. We’ll make another attempt when it’s safer.”
“I promise,” Kira said, all serious again. “Thank you for trusting me.”
“You called yourself the daughter of the daughter back there. Have you ever done that before?”
“No. But that’s who I am, isn’t it?”
Mari felt an old stubbornness, an old resentment, rising inside her. She gripped Kira’s wrist. “Who you are is Kira. Daughter of the daughter is… a job. That job doesn’t define you. You define the job. Don’t ever let anybody tell you who you have to be. Not even me.”
Kira gazed back at her, her eyes troubled. “What if I’m still having trouble deciding who I am?”
“You have to decide. Others can offer suggestions and help and support. But the decision is yours alone.”
“Jason should have a say, shouldn’t he?”
Mari shook her head, keeping her eyes locked on Kira’s. “Jason needs to love you, whoever you are. If he thinks you need to be someone else, he’s not really in love with you. I think he does know who you are, perhaps better than you do yourself, and that’s why he loves you. Now let’s go overwhelm your father. We’re heading back to home tomorrow for a few days while we set up the trip north. He needs to accept that he’s going to be planning for two people to go to Altis.”
* * *
Thunder could mean trouble, a storm raging through the skies of Tiae with winds powerful enough to threaten buildings that had not been well built, water falling in torrents that Jason called a monsoon, and lighting striking from above with random cruelty. Out here in the country once again, home while the trip to Altis was being arranged, Kira had heard such storms many times.
But when Kira heard thunder close at hand, from somewhere near the front of the house, and looked out the window of her room to see the night sky clear of clouds, her stomach clenched with sudden fear. She hurriedly strapped on her pistol, chambered a round and let off the safety. Holding the weapon at ready, she eased open the door to her room, checking the hallway with her heart pounding so loudly it hindered her ability to listen for trouble.
Had the lightning Mage that had tried to kill her and Jason in Kelsi finally tracked them here and found his way through t
he security perimeter? She sniffed cautiously, trying to sense either the smell of wood set afire by lightning or the pungent stench of ozone.
Should she check on Jason? Or head downstairs? What if her parents needed help right now?
Kira saw the erratic flicker of electricity dancing through the air, the light coming from the front room.
Holding her pistol ready, she moved swiftly down the stairs, her fear suddenly a far off thing, her thoughts focused totally on dealing with this danger to her family.
Chapter Four
She heard low voices from the front room. One was her father’s. He was still all right, his voice carrying the emotionless tones of a Mage. Her father was either very upset, or speaking with another Mage.
A Mage who cast lightning.
The other voice came again, low, female. Not her mother’s. Rougher. Harsher. Also lacking in all feeling.
Kira came around the doorway into the front room, her pistol lining up on the figure in Mage robes standing near the center of the room. Her finger was on the trigger, ready to squeeze—
“Kira! Don’t!”
Aunt Alli had always emphasized don’t shoot unless you’re sure you want to. Kira kept her finger frozen in place, ready to pull the trigger but not firing. She kept her weapon aimed at the female Mage, though. Looking over at her mother, standing to one side, Kira saw her appearing worried but not scared. “What’s going on?” The front room was mostly dark, illuminated only by the light filtering in from the kitchen, adding to Kira’s worries.
Kira’s Mage senses tingled in warning as the female Mage turned her head to look at Kira with the dead expression of a Mage taught in the old ways. Even in the dim light Kira could see the marks of age on the Mage’s face and the grey in her lank hair. Her eyes held a dismissive disregard for any other person, along with a sense of power and menace.
Kira’s father gestured to her to lower her pistol. “You will not need that Mechanic weapon,” Alain said. He turned back to the female Mage.. “This one?” Alain asked, pointing toward Kira.
The female Mage turned her head back to face Kira’s father. “That one,” she said in the manner of someone confirming something said earlier.
Alain nodded, keeping his attention centered on the other Mage. “Kira, this is Mage Nika.”
Kira looked around at the others, sensing an undercurrent in the room that she didn’t understand, but she lowered her weapon as her father had directed, laying her trigger finger alongside the trigger guard to ensure she didn’t accidentally fire. She did keep the pistol ready for use, though, even if it was now pointed at the floor. “Is she a friend?”
“Mage Nika does not have friends,” Alain said. “She sees only shadows about her.”
Shadows. The former Mage Guild’s term for everyone besides a Mage. The world was an illusion, and the other people in it only shadows. Not real. Something to ignore, or treat as a plaything, or kill in the same manner as stepping on an ant that was in the way. Her father had proven that wrong, that people were real, but many Mages still struggled with the idea. “Why is she here?”
Mage Nika ignored her, of course, but Mari answered. “She said she had information that we needed to know.”
“I thought she wasn’t a friend.”
“She’s not. Mage Nika has been… an opponent of myself and your father more than once since the Great Guilds fell.”
“She’s an enemy?” Kira fought the urge to raise her pistol again.
Mage Nika, still pretending to be unaware of everything Kira was saying, turned one hand upward and ran her thumb across the tips of her fingers. Kira felt a slight drain on the power available here, and saw sparks appear on the female Mage’s fingertips, leaping away like fireflies in the darkened room before vanishing. It was only an illusion of electrical power, Kira knew, yet an illusion powerful enough to shock and burn and kill if Nika had felt like doing that. “This one was offered much money for one task,” Nika said, her voice still carrying no feeling.
“What task?” Alain asked.
“A simple task, Master of Mages. To find that one,” with a flick of a finger toward Kira, “near this place, and when she boarded a Roc to destroy the Roc and its riders in flight using the lightning that this one can cast on the illusion of the world.”
Kira’s breath caught. She barely refrained from aiming her pistol at Mage Nika again.
Her father nodded slowly, his face still expressionless. “Has that one met Mage Nika before? At the illusion named Kelsi?”
“That one has not,” Nika said, still not bothering to look at Kira again. “That one met Mage Ivor in the illusion named Kelsi.”
“Mage Ivor,” Mari repeated in tones that carried a wealth of feeling which seemed all the stronger after the dispassionate voices of the Mages.
“Who is Mage Ivor?” Kira demanded.
To her surprise, Mage Nika looked her way again, one corner of her mouth twitching slightly in what passed for a wide smile among Mages. “That one does not know Mage Ivor? The shadow of that one would never have been cast by Master of Mages Alain and the Elder Mari if Mage Ivor had carried out his assigned tasks near Umburan and in Palandur long ago.”
Kira’s father nodded. “Mage Ivor is the one who sought to kill me twenty years ago on the plains of Umburan, and to slay both me and your mother in Palandur after we had escaped from Marandur. He has struck at us more than once since that time.”
“He’s the one who attacked me in Kelsi?” Kira said. “You knew his name? Didn’t you think that was worth mentioning to me?”
“We didn’t know until now that Ivor was the one who attacked you in Kelsi,” Mari said. “I wondered if it had been Mage Nika.”
“No. I told you it was a male Mage.”
Kira realized that Nika was looking at her again, her eyes still holding no feeling, but studying Kira. “That one could tell the nature of the Mage?” Nika asked.
Oh, blazes. She’d revealed knowing something that only another Mage would have been able to sense. Kira, thinking quickly, shrugged as if the matter was unimportant. “I saw his face. When he attacked me on the street. It was well lit.”
The interest in Nika’s eyes disappeared as she turned away from Kira, once again discounting her presence. “Mage Ivor has failed many times. This one was told that Mage Ivor would also be in wait to strike at the Roc carrying that one. As a precaution, if this one’s attack failed.”
Most people wouldn’t have caught the trace of emotion on Nika’s voice as she said that, but Kira had received enough training from her father to hear it. Anger. Whoever had wanted to hire Nika had hurt her pride by hiring backup that Nika thought a lesser Mage than herself. As a Mage following the old ways, Nika would never admit to pride, or jealousy, but Kira heard the traces of it.
“Was that one told if Mage Ivor had accepted the task?” Alain asked.
“This one knows Mage Ivor did. Mage Ivor does not like you,” Nika said. This time the trace of contempt entering her voice, for Ivor’s yielding to emotion, was even clearer for Kira to hear.
Mari spoke up again, her voice low. “Why did that one not accept the task?”
Mage Nika glanced at Mari. “Elder, this one once sought wisdom. Since the Guild ended, this one has learned nothing. This one tires of those she has accepted tasks from. There is no wisdom to be learned from such or the tasks they desire.” She ran her thumb over her fingertips again, producing another shower of sparks. “The Master of Mages speaks a wisdom this one cannot accept. However, this one has been told that the Master of Mages also speaks of other paths.”
“This is so,” Alain said. “There are many paths to wisdom.”
“This one cares not for shadows,” Nika said. “They… distract. Making them cease by use of my spells distracts. This one tires of distractions. This one is told of a place to the west where few shadows have been.”
“The Western Continent,” Mari said. “Only a few expeditions have visited it so far. The Western
Alliance and the Empire are both planning to establish colonies there within a few years.”
“One city?” Nika asked. “Two?”
“Small ones,” Mari said. “Towns, really. It will be many years before cities grow large on the Western Continent. That continent is larger than the one we now live on. Most of the land there is unexplored and empty, and will stay that way for a long time.”
“This one asks that the Master of Mages and the Elder find her means of going to this place,” Mage Nika said. “As payment for what was told, and for not taking this task.”
Alain nodded again. “You seek the silence of an empty illusion. This one will ensure that Mage Nika is given passage there when next ships travel west over the ocean.”
“You understand,” Mari added, “that we don’t know what lies inland on the Western Continent. There may not be many animals, there may not be plants known to us, plants you can eat.”
Kira had the odd sensation the Mage Nika had shrugged without actually moving. The female Mage spoke in the same emotionless tones, though. “This one has walked a long road since becoming an acolyte of the Guild. This one tires of this dream. This one tires of distractions. When the next dream comes, it comes.”
“I understand,” Kira’s mother said, sounding sad. “Can you tell us two things more? Who tried to hire you for this task? And how did they learn that Kira would be flying on a Roc to Altis?”
Mage Nika shook her head. “This one knows only that one once an elder of the old Guild tried to task her with this. The once-an-elder claimed not to know the one who desired it. This one could see he lied. He spoke of the Mage Guild returning, and believed his words. He claimed strong allies among the shadows, which did not impress this one because it showed the once-an-elder’s lack of wisdom. How can shadows matter? This one knows nothing else, Elder Mari.”