Burned by Magic (21 page)

“Clearly you and I have different ideas about what old-granny-driving is like,”
I retorted, more to be petty than anything else. But I slowed down a little now that we were approaching traffic and unwieldy steamcars began to clog up the streets.

Ten minutes later, we pulled up outside the Enforcer’s Guild building in Rowanville. I parked the bike outside the tall, stained grey building with its cracked windows, and waited for Fenris to regain his footing before we went inside.

“I’m taking a cab home,” he snapped as we walked through the thick steel double doors. His tanned complexion had gone a little pale. “That was horrific.”

I slapped him on the back. “Aww, c’mon,” I said cheerfully. “You’ll get used to it.” Truthfully, though, I found his reaction a bit strange – we shifters, as a species, don’t fear much, and even though we don’t all ride steambikes, it isn’t because we’re afraid of them. I wasn’t sure what his deal was.

The Enforcer trainees who’d been stuck on front desk duty glanced up as we entered, their eyes widening as they caught sight of me. I ignored their gaping stares, and led Fenris past them and into the waiting room. Our footsteps rang against the cracked tile as we traversed the wide space, past visitors sitting on ratty couches drinking cups of bad coffee and munching on stale sandwiches. Most of these people were here to see an Enforcer about a case regarding a loved one – others, like the tattooed, emaciated human slouched in an armchair, were here to be questioned.

“We’re going to see the Main Crew?” Fenris asked as I strode up to the bank of elevators and punched the call button.

I nodded. “I’m hoping Nila and Brin will be there, at least.” I wanted to knock them around a bit for not working harder on solving Roanas’s murder, and I also wanted to find out what they’d done with my weapons.

We took the rickety elevator up to the third floor, where the Main Crew’s offices were – and by offices, I meant a huge open space with drab grey walls and carpet scattered with cheap plywood desks and chairs that would turn your ass to stone if you sat in them too long.

Since Enforcers hated paperwork, there were few people at their desks, but the ones that were here lifted their heads to stare at me. Some of the stares were curious, some disdainful, and others downright green with jealousy. The jealous gazes were mostly from the few low-level mage Enforcers – they would all kill to be the Chief Mage’s apprentice, I knew, and it wouldn’t matter to them that I hadn’t asked for the position.

I scanned the desks for Brin and Nila, but there was no sign of them. Bastards were probably avoiding me on purpose.

“Hey Baine,” a blond Enforcer in the back sneered. “Nice of you to join us again. You finally tired of living it up in Solantha Place?”

“Fuck off, Widler.” I paused to glare at him. “I’ve been out like, a day and a half now. Sorry if I bruised your tender little heart by not coming to visit right away.”

“Oh I don’t know that my heart’s the one that’s bruised.” Widler rose from his beat up metal chair and leaned his hip on his desk, a snide grin on his handsome face. He stroked the five o’clock shadow dusting his jaw as he regarded me with sharp green eyes that weren’t at all friendly – but then, he
was
part of the Main Crew. “It’s the Foreman you’ve really stuck it to. You should’ve known better than to go tattling to the Chief Mage about us. He’s gonna make your life a living hell.”

“Now that’s where you’re wrong, Widler.” I stepped right up into his space, shoving my face into his, and his green eyes widened a little. “I’m here to make his life a living hell – in fact,
all
of your lives a living hell, for sitting here on your lazy asses instead of getting out there on the streets and finding out who’s behind the drug trafficking and the silver murders.” I held up a hand and let a trickle of magic flow into my palm, which burst into crackling blue-green flame. “Wanna know what your flesh smells like when it’s on fire?”

Widler’s nostrils flared in outrage, his green eyes narrowing on me. “You wouldn’t dare,” he hissed as I gave him a fang-toothed grin, but I could smell the beads of sweat trickling from his pores. “Not in front of witnesses.”

I shrugged. “How do you know I can’t do some kind of magic spell to make them all forget?” I reached out with my flaming hand until it was close enough to singe his sideburns. “After all, I’m apprenticed to one of the most powerful mages in the country.”

“F-fuck off.” Widler stumbled back until his hips hit the desk.

“Sunaya.” Fenris’s hand was on my shoulder, a combination of amusement and alarm in his deep voice. “I think you’ve made your point.”

“I dunno. I think he’s still being a dick.” I shrugged, but extinguished the flame. “Truth is, though, I don’t have time to stand around here and shoot the shit with you, Widler. I’m here to see the Foreman… and you’re coming with me,” I decided on the spur of the moment.

I grabbed his ear and dragged him across the room, ignoring his yelps as I made my way to the Crew Foreman’s office – the only real office on this floor, a corner room encased in concrete walls that were newer than the actual building and featured a long, glass door. The blinds were open, so I could see the Foreman was in there, his dark head ducked down as he hunched over his desk, poring over some report. I kicked open the door, and he jerked up, splashing coffee from the mug in his hands all over his desk.

“Baine!” he barked, his swarthy features contorting with fury as he grabbed for a tissue to mop up the spill. His eyes narrowed as he caught sight of Widler, whose ear was still firmly in my grasp. “How dare you show up in my office like this!”

“Oww, oww, oww, oww, oww!” Widler finally yanked his ear from my grip, and scurried to hide behind his Lord and Master. He glared daggers at me from behind the Foreman’s black leather chair, which was a hell of a lot nicer than any of the other chairs outside his office. His desk was solid wood, too, and he had some nice-looking weapons displayed on the walls, along with several paintings of half-naked women in provocative poses. I twisted my mouth at the sight – each time a new crew foreman took the office, they got to redecorate it however they liked, but this definitely crossed a line.

“Foreman Vance.” I propped my hip up on the corner of his desk – something I would have never had the balls to do before. I jerked my thumb to the largest painting on the wall, of a dark-skinned Sandian lying on a bed of rose petals. Her sari was half undone, exposing her nipples, and she stared provocatively out of the painting through long-lashed, half-lidded eyes rimmed with kohl. “This what you jerk off to on your lunch break every afternoon?”

The Foreman’s face turned bright red, and his jaw flexed. He rose slowly to his feet, all six foot two inches of him, and I had to remind myself I had nothing to fear as his imposing bulk filled the space. His position as the Crew Foreman didn’t endanger me anymore, and even though he was huge, he was still a human and I could kick his ass.

“You put my job on the line,” he growled, his meaty hands clenching into fists. “And now you come strolling in here like you own the place, hauling my crew mates around and criticizing my decorations?”

I snorted. “Decorations? Seriously?” The painting hanging to his left was of two half-naked Garaian women kissing each other, draped in nothing but the ivory sheets of the bed they were sprawling on. “I think the term you’re looking for is
soft-core porn
.”

“Perhaps we’re getting a little off track here.” Fenris, who’d been standing just beyond the door, stepped into the room, drawing all eyes to him.

Foreman Vance raked his black gaze over Fenris’s simple brown tunic. “And just who the hell are you? If you’re looking to get an Enforcer’s license, this sure isn’t the way to do it.”

“My name is Fenris, and I am a close friend of the Chief Mage.” Fenris folded his arms over his broad chest, pinning Vance with a stern gaze. “One of my primary occupations is to serve as eyes and ears to Lord Iannis. I am acting in that capacity today.” His gaze flickered to the paintings on the walls.

Foreman Vance’s ruddy cheeks blanched. “I’ll get rid of those right away –” he began.

“Save it.” I slapped my palm against the desk to get his attention. “I didn’t actually come here to harass you about these paintings – although if you want to keep your job I
really
suggest you get rid of them.” I smirked, already envisioning the look on Iannis’s face if he ever saw this place. I half hoped Foreman Vance wouldn’t take my warning seriously, just so I could have the pleasure of watching him piss his pants when the Chief Mage came to visit. “We came to question you and your crew about the murders and the drug trafficking.”

Vance sat down in his chair again, lifting his square chin. “Aside from myself and Widler, everyone involved in that is out on assignment. I can’t pull them back in just because you decide to waltz in here unannounced with questions.”

I leaned in and bared my fangs at him. “You all have bracelets, the last time I checked.
Call them back.
”

“I won’t!” Foreman Vance slammed his fist against the desk, rattling the half-empty coffee cup and the typewriter that sat there. “Captain Galling ordered us to scour the city for information. If he finds out I’ve brought them all in without anything decent to report, he’ll have my hide.”

“Hmph.” I sat back, part of me wanting to push him on it more, but my nose didn’t lie – he was telling the truth about this. “Fine. Then you two need to tell me what
you
know.”

Vance pressed his fingers to his left temple, his eyes briefly fluttering closed. “Tell her, Widler.”

Widler’s face flushed, and his eyes shifted around the room, looking everywhere but me. “Tell her what?”

I grabbed a fistful of Widler’s shirt and yanked him forward. “I have a pretty good nose,” I snarled, “and it’s especially good at sniffing out rats.”

“I’m not a rat!” Widler growled, yanking himself from my grip. “It’s just… I don’t want to share the gold on this bounty with anyone else.”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t care about the money, Widler. Just tell me what you know.”

He scowled, shoving his hands into the pockets of his vest. “We caught a deer shifter chewing on the remains of a raven shifter in an alleyway,” he admitted. “She was pretty fucked in the head.”

“What?” Cold horror curled in my gut, and I stared at Widler in disbelief.

“A deer shifter?” Fenris echoed, shock and disgust evident in his tone as well. “Are you certain?”

Widler snorted. “I’ve been on this job for a long time. I know my shifters, and I know how crazy it sounds, but it’s true.” He shrugged. “Whatever shit she’s on must’ve really fucked with her head. Guess drugs affect shifters differently than humans. I never heard of drugs turning us into cannibals or anything like that.”

I decided not to point out that a deer shifter eating a raven wasn’t cannibalism, mostly because there wasn’t any point – this was just as awful in its way.

“You found drugs on her?” I demanded.

“Yes.”

“I want a sample.”

“This is our investigation –”

“A sample, and I want to question the suspect.” I pinned Foreman Vance with a glare. “Or I take all your porno paintings down and burn them to ashes, so you can’t even enjoy them from the comfort of your home.”

The Crew Foreman blanched again.
“Fine.”
He shoved up from his chair, and Fenris and I followed him out of the room. Looked like I was calling the shots around here after all.

“W
ell shit,”
I muttered as we trotted down the steps of Enforcer’s Guild HQ. “That was a total bust.”

“Not a total bust,” Fenris argued, holding up a little silk bag of powder between his thumb and forefinger – the sample we’d threatened out of Widler and Vance. “We got this, didn’t we?”

I sighed. “True… but I was hoping the suspect would have been more helpful.” She wasn’t, not even remotely. When the guards had brought her into the interrogation room, she’d been limp and glassy-eyed, her body trembling from withdrawal. Hearing about it from Widler and Crew Foreman Vance had been one thing, but seeing it was another, and it shocked the questions right out of me at first. Not that it had mattered – she couldn’t seem to remember much of anything except that she’d gotten the drug from human dealers hanging around the border where Shiftertown and Downtown met.

Part of me itched to go Downtown – the slums and the Black Market were located there, and if ever there was a likely place to find drug dealers that was it. But the other part of me wanted to get this drug to Com and Noria, so they could get it analyzed along with the cerebust I’d given them earlier.

“Oh well. At least we managed to get one of these.” I held my wrist up to the light and grinned as my Enforcer bracelet gleamed. I was happy to have that little bronze shield back on my arm again, even if half the Guild did hate me right now. It meant my life was one step closer to normal.

Fenris grinned. “True. Guess it pays to be the Chief Mage’s apprentice.” The grin faded as he noticed we were approaching my steambike. “No. Not happening. I’m calling a cab.”

“Not yet you aren’t. We’ve got one more place to visit.”

Fenris groaned.

By the time I parked the bike outside Comenius’s shop, Fenris’s tan was tinged with green. “Don’t worry,” I said, gingerly patting him on the shoulder – I didn’t want him to hurl all over Com’s storefront. “Comenius’ll fix you right up.”

The shop was crowded, Comenius working double-time by himself to service the customers, so Fenris and I hung off to the side while we waited for the rush to subside. Nearly half an hour passed before everyone finally filed out of the store. By that time Fenris’s nausea had passed, and he was across the room rifling through a basket of handmade bath salts.

“Hmm.” He sniffed it. “Very interesting. You’ve infused these crystals with basil, chamomile, and cloud wort. I imagine the user would feel relaxed, their mind free of clutter, after bathing with these.”

Comenius smiled at Fenris as he came around the counter. “That’s why that particular blend is called ‘Calming Focus’.” He embraced me, and I inhaled his woodsy, herbal scent as his strong arms wrapped around me. “Naya.” He beamed down at me. “I’m still getting used to the fact that you’re a free woman again.”

I grinned. “Business seems to be good,” I remarked, looking around the shop. The shelves normally filled with amulets and charms were practically empty. “There a new trend going around?”

“People have been buying protection amulets and warding charms,” he said, looking suddenly uncomfortable. “In response to all the panic being spread by the Herald regarding shifters.”

“Comenius!” Noria burst into the shop, her red curls flying wild around her wide-eyed, freckled face. Her left cheek was smudged with grease, and she wore a pair of coveralls and black gloves on her hands, indicating that she’d been working on something mechanical. “You’ll never believe what happened in Shiftertown this morning! Some humans –” She stopped short at the sight of me, hesitation crossing her face. “Oh, hey, Naya and, umm, Wolf-guy –”

“Fenris,” Fenris corrected her mildly. She continued to stare at him, uncertainty warring with the excitement and fear in her eyes.

“Go on,” I encouraged, my voice casual despite the cold pit of dread hollowing out my stomach. “What happened in Shiftertown?”

Guilt flashed across Noria’s face. “Some humans decided to go and riot in the Shiftertown Square,” she said. “They came with bats and swords and stuff, and started bashing in windows and looting stores.”

“Fuck.” I collapsed into one of the chairs in the sitting area, overwhelmed. Humans buying magic protection and looting shifter stores… “We’re looking at civil war if something isn’t done.”

Comenius sighed. “That doesn’t necessarily surprise me.”

I glanced up at him. “Why?”

Noria flopped down into the chair across from me. “Com did some divination magic last night, and as usual it gave us a lot more questions than answers.” She rolled her eyes. “But according to him, the tea leaves point to a shit-stirrer in the works.”

“I believe the term I used was ‘provocateur’,” Comenius corrected mildly. “But nonetheless, I’m afraid it’s true. Someone behind the scenes is stirring up this trouble, and it seems their objective is to create strife between humans and shifters.”

I frowned. “Who would want to do that?”

We all turned to look at Fenris at the same time, our brows arched. He took a step back, palms up. “What?”

“I don’t mean to state the obvious here, but –” Noria started.

“The Mage’s Guild would definitely have motive,” I finished for her. “Or at least someone in it. If humans and shifters are united against them, they’d have a harder time controlling us, and we might even be able to overthrow them.”

“That’s outrageous.” Fenris drew himself up, and in that moment he looked a lot like the Chief Mage. “The Mage’s Guild would have much less harmful ways of ensuring obedience. We need the residents of the city to co-exist peacefully in order for everything to continue running smoothly.”

“
We?
” Noria’s eyes narrowed, and she slowly stood up. “You know, I’ve never heard a shifter refer to himself as ‘we’ in conjunction with mages. Most shifters hate mages.”

Fenris’s yellow gaze hardened. “I am not most shifters.”

Normally I would have told Noria to back off, since Fenris was a friend, but something about her words struck a chord with me. “Still,” I interjected, “you have to admit it’s a little strange that your loyalties seem to lie more with the mages, than with your own people. Don’t you have a clan, or at the very least a family, who deserves your loyalty more?”

Fenris glared imperiously down at me, and my heart shrank a little – he’d never looked at me like that before. “Lord Iannis is the only family I have,” he said stiffly. “I don’t have anyone else, not that my past is any business of yours.”

By Magorah, I felt like the biggest fool in the world. “Fenris, I –”

“It doesn’t seem as though you have any more need of me.” Fenris bowed to us all. “I’m going to catch a cab back to the palace, where I can be more useful. Good day to you all.”

The bell on the door jangled as Fenris left the shop, and my heart sank straight into my shoes.

“I think I just won the award for biggest asshole of the year,” I muttered.

Noria frowned. “I don’t know, Naya,” she said. “He’s clearly hiding something.”

“And who are we to judge him for his secrets?” Comenius laid a hand on Noria’s shoulder, and she looked up at him with a startled expression on her face. His voice was gentle, but his clear blue eyes were stern, filled with that ageless wisdom that tended to grace magic users. “We all have them buried in our past, and Fenris is entitled not to share his secrets if he doesn’t want to, just as the rest of us are.” His gaze swept over me as well. I wondered if there was a spell that would enable me to sink through the cracks in the wooden floor, and if so, why I hadn’t learned it by now.

I ran a hand through my hair, and pain jabbed at my scalp as my fingers caught on some of the more unruly curls. “You’re right, Com. I shouldn’t have pried.”

Noria’s scowl returned. “I don’t think it’s wrong to be suspicious, especially since he’s allied with the enemy.”

I sighed. “It’s not as black-and-white as that, Noria. Actions speak louder than words, and Fenris has been nothing but helpful to me.”

Noria bit her bottom lip. “Maybe now, but when the time comes –”

I held up a hand, suddenly weary of all the “us against them” talk for the first time in my life. Couldn’t we all get along, instead of constantly going at each other’s throats? “Look, this isn’t really why we came here,” I told her, pulling out the little bag of drugs. “The Enforcer’s Guild took in a deer shifter who was super high off something that smells a lot like anticium – a hallucinogenic if I remember correctly.” I handed it to Noria, deciding not to mention the more gruesome details – there was no need for them to know. “I was thinking maybe your mage friend could compare it to the other sample and see if it was tampered with in the same way.”

“Oh, that’s right!” Noria’s eyes lit up as she took the bag. “Elnos says he’s totally cracked the code on how these dealers are sneaking silver into their drugs.”

“Really?” I sat up straight. “How?”

Noria frowned. “I don’t totally understand how it works, but he basically said he isolated some really rare derivative from a plant that only grows in certain countries in Faricia. Tribal warriors use it to cover up poisons, so they can’t be detected by the shifter slaves who have to taste and drink everything before their masters will touch it.”

“Kalois!” Comenius exclaimed, clapping his hands together. “I remember reading about it before – it’s a tropical flower. Brilliant! I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself.”

My grin widened. “Aww, c’mon, Com, you can’t fit everything you’ve learned in that head of yours.” I jumped to my feet. “So, what are we waiting for? Let’s go get your mage friend so he can present his findings to the Chief Mage!”

“Umm, yeah, about that.” Noria shrank back in her seat. “He doesn’t exactly want to.”

I scowled. “Why not?”

“Well, to be honest he doesn’t really want to draw the Chief Mage’s attention toward our magitech experiments, and I have to agree with him.” Noria folded her arms.

I arched an eyebrow. “Magitech?”

“Yeah. You know, magic plus technology equals magitech.” Excitement lit her eyes again. “Speaking of magitech, the Herald and the Academy have partnered to sponsor a contest for magitech inventions. Whoever comes up with the best new technology will win a hundred gold coins!” She rubbed her hands together. “I’ve already come up with that jammer, so it shouldn’t be too hard to create something that’ll do the job. Elnos and I are
so
going to win.”

“I would be careful who you tell that to,” Comenius warned. “If you come up with something the Mage’s Guild doesn’t approve of, they wouldn’t hesitate to come down on you and Elnos, especially if you started making a profit off it.”

Noria shrugged. “Eh, I’m not worried. We’re just gonna make a prototype so we can earn the prize money. I’m more than happy to let the bigwigs worry about bringing it to mass market.”

The gleam in her eye suggested that she hadn’t completely discounted the idea of capitalizing on the invention herself, but I decided not to press, and instead brought the conversation back on topic. “Noria, if I get the Chief Mage to agree to grant Elnos amnesty in exchange for the information, do you think he would come?”

Noria blinked. “I don’t see why not. But do you really think you can do it?”

I stood up and shrugged my jacket back on. “I dunno. But I’m definitely gonna give it a shot.”