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WE WAITED UNTIL DARK – though not in the tent. I was right that it wasn’t Bataar’s. It belonged to a female Magika.
“She’ll be back soon,” Bataar had said after I laid out what I needed from him. “She’s studying these new trends from the Kav’ai people.”
“Trends?” There were a lot of books in the tent. Some had illustrations, but they looked more like grisly monster books than like geography texts. Not that I knew what those would look like. I could read, sure, but I didn’t do much reading beyond signs hanging from inns and taverns.
We will need to see to your education as soon as we can. Reading is essential to the forming of a refined philosophy.
Another thing I had no need of – philosophy.
“The Kav’ai traditions are all the rage these days,” Bataar said. “You should see what the nobles of Ko’Torenth are like around them! Wander into any Ko’Torenth city dressed as a Kav’ai on a flying Oosquer and you’ll be mobbed by excited fans. They dress like Kav’ai, do the Kav’ai morning rituals, drink tea in the Kav’ai way and now everyone wants to know about the Kav’ai magic – Smoke Magic.”
“Don’t worry about her studies, just grab one of her cloaks to disguise yourself and let’s go.”
If my plan worked. Bataar would provide the distraction and in the chaos, I would dive into the central tent, rescue Zyla, and call Saboraak to come and get us all.
Three people is a lot for me to carry. Try not to pick up any more strays, okay?
I couldn’t help which way the adventure took me. After all, I didn’t even want to be here. Rescuing girls wasn’t really my thing. Weren’t they supposed to rescue themselves? I thought someone told me that once.
If I believed the things you think about yourself, I’d think you were a terrible person.
We needed the cover of darkness to make the plan work. Along with the cloak, we stole a pair of lanterns, hiding them behind the tent. As long as no one saw them there and replaced them before dark, we should be fine.
After that, there was nothing to do but wait.
Waiting together would have been asking for trouble, but I wasn’t longing for Bataar’s company anyway.
I sat near a cookfire until someone offered me a bowl of stew and tried not to look like a half-starved wolf when I gobbled it up. After that, I spent the rest of the afternoon pretending I already knew about all the things I was carefully observing. If I had known Magikas were so interesting, maybe I would have chosen to join them instead of the Dragon Riders.
A lost cause. Their power dwindles, and they revolt against that. Fighting the inevitable is a losing battle. It’s better to adapt.
That was harder for people who couldn’t just change who they were on a whim like Saboraak did.
I was most interested in the smoke magic Bataar had mentioned, but I didn’t see a trace of it. What I saw instead was Magikas practicing light tricks and fireballs. Magikas brewing potions and testing droplets of them for effectiveness. Magikas deep in discussion about things surrounding magic.
“... lucky we found this well of power,” one told another. “Imagine the chances of setting up a camp here!”
“There was no chance in it,” his friend replied. “It was all careful planning. We always knew there was a risk to joining the Dusk Covenant in their efforts.”
“Risk, yes, but no one could have predicted what happened. Truth magic? I’d never seen it before.”
“And hopefully you will never see it again. It can’t be controlled. And you saw what it did to the Ifrits! Until that point, I thought they were the most powerful magic to ever exist. But this attack today ...”
“You don’t think they know about us, do you?” the man sounded jumpy.
They noticed me watching and I moved on, keeping my gaze to the ground to avoid suspicion.
“...at the gate,” a woman was saying at the next campfire. “Do you really think there might be more artifacts like that? I didn’t know such magic existed.”
“I’ve heard rumors,” a man replied, “but all of them lead to Ko’Torenth and you know how those people are – cold and hard as their mountains.”
I heard the same conversations again and again – resentment over their loss at Dominion City, hope in Ko’Torenth, and all of it laced with rumors of strange magics and fear about what had happened at the road.
Eventually, dusk fell. I almost breathed a sigh of relief at the single rising star.
It was time to begin.
I moved nonchalantly through the camp, smiling when anyone looked at me. I’d grabbed a basket from beside the entrance to a tent, playing the role of apprentice as well as I could. I’d been watching other apprentices all day and they’d been busy delivering things from tent to tent for their masters. There was nothing strange about one more apprentice on an errand.
“Are you headed to the center of the camp?” a breathless voice asked.
I managed to keep myself from jumping and instead adopted an easy smile, shoulders relaxed. Nothing to see here.
When I turned to look, the voice belonged to an apprentice. He was about my age with dark, brooding brows and a thick thatch of hair.
“Sure,” I agreed. “I have a basket to deliver for my master.”
“I’ve been given too many tasks and all need to be done before dark!” He had a leather satchel stuffed with cloth over one shoulder, a second one with loaves of bread peeking through the top of it over the other shoulder, and a wide basket in his arms. Whatever was in the basket must have been heavy. He was sweating and shifting from foot to foot.
“It’s dark already.”
“Exactly! Can you help me?”
I didn’t have time for this. I frowned.
“Please? If I fail at this ... I’ve failed the last three tests. This is my last chance!”
“Fine,” I growled, reaching for the basket, but he set it on the ground and handed me the leather satchels instead.
“They both go to Shabren the Violet’s tent. You know the one? Red and white?”
“It would be hard to miss.” I couldn’t keep the wry sound from my tone and he looked at me sharply. I sighed. “Don’t worry. I’ll get it done.”
“Right away?”
“Before I deliver my basket,” I agreed. I needed to get moving again. I was running out of time. Bataar was going to start that distraction any time now. And I was heading to Shabren’s tent – though not to deliver satchels.
“Thank you!” The apprentice grabbed his heavy basket and hurried off.
I looked both ways before stashing the basket I had under the corner of a tent. These satchels were a better cover anyway. And they needed to go to the very place I was headed. Lucky, that.
Perhaps you are touched by a great story. Sometimes, what looks like luck is just a great story catching you up and propelling you along. Like how we came to be bonded together, or how you escaped our first battle unscathed, or how you ran into Bataar when we needed an ally ...
I hoped not. People in stories had the worst time of things. They never had enough to eat or a comfortable bed or a bit of fun. It was just work and sacrifice all the time.
You mean like now? Don’t forget, Tor. The world hangs in the balance. Hubric said so.
I tried not to curse.
I hurried through the camp, the very picture of an apprentice on a mission. With the rise of the dark, the Magika camp seemed busier than ever and their bright fire-displays in red, magenta, and emerald were pretty enough that I would have stopped to watch them practice if I wasn’t in such a hurry.
I felt sweat cooling on my brow. Great. Now I was nervous, and I never let myself get nervous about anything. Things either were, or they weren’t. No point fretting about it all.
You’d be a fool not to be nervous. Now that I see those Magika light displays, I’m worried that your distraction won’t draw the attention you were hoping for.
She was worried?
I was worried!
She was the one safe on the hillside while I was the one risking my neck!
I rushed through the traffic of people moving between the tents and breathed a sigh of relief when I was finally just outside the red and white tent. This was madness. I should be far away from this camp by now, heading back to Vanika.
Where men with swirls in their eyes stalk you?
She knew about that?
You think about it a lot.
A pair of guards stood watch at the entrance, but that wasn’t how I was planning to go in anyway. People always forgot that tents were just made of cloth. A cloth wall was nothing to a man with a sharp knife.
I quickly scurried around the back of the tent. It backed against two other tents and the second that I thought no one was looking, I snuck between them, hiding from view in the small space between the tent backs.
I could hear the murmur of voices from the white and red tent as I slipped the satchels off my shoulders. If I got a chance, I’d take the one with the bread with us. We could use the extra food.
Okay, now’s the time, Bataar! Bataar? If only he could hear me like Saboraak could.
Give him time.
Or, maybe he was betraying me. Maybe even now he was telling the Magikas that I was here and that I was trying to take something from them. Maybe I should go without his distraction.
Wait.
You couldn’t trust people who just turned up out of nowhere. That just didn’t make sense. It was too convenient, too easy. I’d been a fool to trust him.
One more second ...
A fool! I should be found out and tortured by magic. It was what I deserved for being such an idiot!
BOOM!
The sound was so loud that I fell to the ground, landing hard on my rear and for a moment, everything was silent.