Dragon's Mage (An Advent Mage Novel), The - Raconteur, Honor (25 page)

Her tail lashed out again, this time hitting two nearby trees hard enough to uproot them.

Mari appeared from around the corner and came straight to me. Without a word, she started looking me over, hands actually moving me so that she could see my back as well.

I moved as she wanted me too, trying to be patient. “I’m fine, thank you for asking.”

“I’m with Kaya on this one, Krys.” Mari finally let go and stepped back, fixing me with a dark scowl. “That was a remarkably stupid thing to do. Rushing into a burning building without backup was stupid.”

“I have two words for you ladies: personal shields,” I enunciated clearly. A mage’s shields can withstand anything thrown at it, even burning rock. They know that.

“I have two words for
you
,” Mari retorted sweetly. “Oxygen deprivation.”

Opening my mouth to respond, I tried to riposte, but couldn’t. She had a point. Shields wouldn’t do anything about supplying me with air.

“…Point,” I admitted weakly.

“You’re also not supposed to go into a firefighting situation without your partner,” Mari continued with that same ruthless sweetness. “Remember?”

I actually had forgotten in the heat of the moment. Slumping in on myself a little, I mumbled, “Sorry.”

Shaking her head ruefully, she didn’t continue scolding me, but came in closer and cuddled in for a hug. Mari, as a rule, didn’t really touch people that often. In fact, she usually only did so when the situation called for it, like when she was on Kaya. So I knew that for her to act like this, I had to have scared her out of her wits. It startled me, a little, to feel how small she was. Her head barely came up to my chin. Mari had such a strong personality that she always seemed larger to me. In that moment, her vulnerability stood out as strongly to me as her strengths. If I were to really protect this woman, I had to remember that all of them combined made Mari who she was.

Feeling remorseful, I hugged her back hard and swore to myself I wouldn’t do something like this again.

The moment was shattered by an unfamiliar male voice asking uncertainly, “Uh, Magus? Is she supposed to be doing that?”

Sighing, I released my grip on Mari and took a step back. Who was supposed to be doing what? I looked around, following the firefighter’s pointing finger to where Kaya sat nearby.

Apparently my dragon familiar, now reassured that I had been properly scolded, had turned her attention to something else. Specifically, the fallen marble that littered the ground giving off waves of heat. She scooped them up with the side of her mouth as I watched and happily crunched on them, dribbling pebbles here and there.

“Kaya.” I took in a breath for patience. “What are you doing?”

“Tastes good,” she assured me around a mouthful of rock. “Hot crunch!”

Mari shook with silent laughter, trying to hide a smile and failing miserably. “So, is this something like rock candy for dragons?”

Probably. “Kaya, that won’t make you sick later, will it?”

She shook her head innocently, batting her eyes at me even as she continued chewing. Well, if she was sick later, it would be entirely her fault. Shaking my head, I waved at her to continue.

A man I didn’t recognize climbed up onto the porch, eyeing the roof nervously overhead as he moved. “Is that structurally sound?”

“Probably not,” I responded with a slight shrug. “In fact, let’s get off the porch.”

Everyone seemed to think that was a good idea and moved with alacrity.

When we were back on the ground, well away from the snacking Kaya and the crumbling building, the firefighter lifted a hand in greeting.

“I’m Tsai, Chief of the 1
^st
Division. Ainlie.”

I put my hand against his, feeling the rough callouses of a veteran firefighter. “Haikrysen, Fire Mage. I think you’ve already met my partner, Mari, and my familiar, Kaya.”

“Have indeed.” Tsai gave both of them a respectful nod. “Magus, we’re glad you caught on to this fire so quick. Bit surprised it didn’t shoot up flames, though. We would have seen it that way.”

“Really? I’m not surprised.”

Mari indicated the building with a jerk of her thumb. “Because of all the wood stocked up inside?”

“No, although that didn’t help,” I disagreed. “You see, marble doesn’t burn or melt, not like some stone does. If it’s heated up enough, it’ll change composition and become quicklime. At that point, if it’s still being heated up, it’ll crack and break off in chunks.”

Both of them regarded the building for a moment. “Like it’s doing now,” Mari concluded grimly. “So you’re saying that the building is actually quicklime now instead of marble.”

“Mostly,” I agreed. “Well, the stone heats up on the surface first, so actually only the outer portion is quicklime. Some of the interior parts might still be marble.” I wouldn’t bet on it, though. It had been a very hot fire.

“That building is a national treasure,” Tsai informed us with a tic beating along his jawline. “It’s been there for hundreds of years. You’re telling me we’ll probably have to tear it down?”

“Either that or call in an Earth Mage to turn it back into marble.” Seeing that he was honestly upset I offered, “I can call one in for you.”

Tsai took in a long breath. “Thank you, Magus. I’ll pass the offer along. They’ll probably take you up on it.”

They might want to think of some reconstruction while they were at it. If those wooden support beams were stone instead, it would be much harder to set that building on fire. But I’d mention that to the right people when I had the chance.

Mari frowned at the building. “This was definitely arson, right?”

“Right. Oil had been rubbed onto the wood so that it would light quick.” I’d known that from the first moment I’d seen the beams. “It might well be the same work as our madman. But I didn’t see anything to support that.”

Mari sighed in frustration. “I didn’t think this would be easy, but….”

I gave her a supportive smile. “We’ll catch him. Eventually. The thing that bothers me is how did he set everything on fire so quickly?” I turned to look at the building, frowning as I thought. “It was clear that the beams and wood were all burning at more or less the same rate. It wasn’t a case where one section had been lit on fire first, and then the others in succession.”

Mari frowned as well, taking a step to the right so she could get a better look inside. “That’s a very tall ceiling. It would take a ladder or a very long pole to reach the beams.”

“Right?” I scratched the back of my head in confusion. “I would expect this kind of speed from a magician, but if he were a magician, he wouldn’t have to use any kind of accelerant. This whole thing doesn’t make any sense. If he’s magical, why use oil? If he’s not a magician, then how in great magic is he setting the fires so quickly?”

“And how did he get his hands on that much oil so quickly?” Mari added in a disgruntled fashion. “It would take a lot of oil to set a building that big on fire.”

A point I hadn’t considered, but it was a good one to think about. “It’s not just regular vegetable oil, either, but paraffin oil. Surely buying
that
much oil would raise an eyebrow or two.”

“Paraffin?” Mari quirked an eyebrow. “You didn’t mention exactly what type before. Hmmm. Well, if he bought a decent quantity from several different shops, no one would think anything of it.”

That might be part of the delay in between fires. It took him time to find a good target to light up, buy enough oil to do the job, and then more time to prepare for the fire itself. It had almost been four days in between fires, which would have given him enough time. Arghhh. This whole thing gave me a headache. Right now, it was late, and I wanted nothing more than to take a bath and climb into a warm bed. “We’ll think about this more tomorrow. Chief, if it’s all the same to you, my bed is calling me. Can I come make a formal report tomorrow?”

He gave me a nod of permission. “Of course. You know where to go?”

“No,” I glanced at Mari and caught her wry smile. “But Mari does.”

“I’ll bring him over,” she promised the Chief.

“Then you both get a good night’s sleep,” he wished upon us before turning back toward the cleanup. I didn’t envy him the job.

Chapter Eighteen: Instincts and Information

The next morning, after a hearty breakfast, I met the Firefighting Coordinator of the city of Mohr.

His office actually wasn’t far from the inn, only two blocks away, and sat on the corner in an unpretentious way. Mari’s office had two stories to it, although she only really used the ground floor. This man had just a ground story building, barely big enough to hold three offices. When we arrived, the door had been propped open with a brick, apparently to let fresh air in. It was unseasonably warm today, even this early in the morning.

Mari didn’t skip a beat, just strode through the open door as if she owned the place. I followed after her a little more hesitantly. Surely we should call out a greeting or something.

“Enri!” Mari said casually, going straight into the first office. “We have a report to make.”

“Thank the guardians for that,” a deep voice boomed out, followed by the sound of a chair scraping against a wooden floor.

I turned the same corner and into the office. For some reason, I’d pictured this man to be a scrawny, quiet person that could barely lift a piece of paper without getting winded. But instead, I came face to face with a bear of a man that could make two of me and I’m pretty bulky. He towered over me, dark hair wild and wiry around his head, beard bushing out over his chest, wearing the tan uniform of a city official so casually that it took me two seconds to realize it
was
a uniform. He grinned at me in greeting, his teeth a narrow glimpse of white beneath his black beard.

“Are you the mage?”

His manners were as rough as his appearance, but he didn’t strike me as a bad man. I held up a hand in greeting, coming close enough for him to touch palms with me.

“I’m Haikrysen. Ainlie.”

 He put his hand against mine and I knew instantly this man didn’t spend the majority of his time behind that massive desk.

“Enri Mordan, Coordinator of the area. Ainlie, Magus, and we’re glad you’re here.”

“Thank you.” I took a chair he waved me to, sitting side by side with Mari. The office barely had room for the two chairs because of that desk. It almost looked like a long counter, really. But it had to be that big to fit Enri. I’d never seen a bigger man in my life. Even Jarod wasn’t that big! But in every other aspect, the office could be a stamp of Mari’s. Nothing about this place was decorative. He had a single massive map pinned to the far wall, a shelf on the far end loaded with reports and books, and little else.

Enri resumed his seat with a creak of wood. “I’ve heard the gist of what happened last night from Tsai. But I need it in your own words. Start from how in the devil you knew that there
was
a fire.”

After reporting to Mari for a full season, I knew more or less the details Enri needed. So I reported the events of last night as succinctly as I knew how, speaking slowly enough so that Enri had time to scribble notes. He grunted now and again at some point I made but never interrupted with a question.

When I finished, he finally looked up, dark eyes unfathomable. “You think the same man is responsible for both the temple and the forest?”

“Yes.” I splayed my hands in an open shrug. “That’s a hunch, though, I have very little evidence to support it.”

“I’ve got another hunch,” Mari said, speaking for the first time. “I think he’s leading us north.”

She hadn’t mentioned anything to me about that. I turned to her sharply. “Why do you say that?”

“It’s something that occurred to me just now,” she admitted. “But think about it. The first fire happened at Mhazzaekul, which is actually quite a few miles south of Mohr. But the temple is also a few miles outside of the city,
north
of it. They’re also both landmarks for the area.”

She had a good point. Two of them, actually. “I’m not sure if we can assume he’s targeting landmarks, though. Both of those places just happen to be the largest things to set fire in this area.”

“You’ve got a point as well.” Mari looked me in the eyes and I could tell she didn’t like the conclusions her mind made. “A hunch, like you said. But Krys, I still can’t shake off the coincidence.”

Two high profile targets might just be a coincidence but I didn’t think so. I instinctively knew that Mari was right. “We’ll keep it in mind as we go.”

“Enri, we’re going to Merton next,” Mari said, tone clearly not asking for permission. “We need to check their records, see if we can’t find some sort of background for this man.”

“Probably the best course,” Enri agreed thoughtfully, stroking at his beard. “Have you been there before?”

“No, not at all,” Mari admitted.

“Then let me write up a list of where to go and a good place to stay. Hate for you to get caught by some paper-pusher with no sense.” He rocked forward into his chair again, making it squeak horrendously, and reached for a clean sheet of paper. It took mere seconds for him to scribble out in a cramped hand a set of places and then he handed it over to Mari, who took it with a grateful nod. “Best of luck, you two.”

~*~

It wasn’t that simple, of course. Travelling never was with Kaya. When I told her we needed to leave, she started wheedling me into staying a little longer so she could play with her new friends. When I put my foot down, she then insisted that she had to at least say goodbye to everyone. Mari was no help at all, either. When I looked to her, she gave me a smile that said,
your dragon, your problem.

Thanks for that, partner.

We didn’t get back into the air until after the city’s clock had chimed out the noon hour. Even flying, Kaya sulked, not at all pleased to be leaving her playmates. I shook my head and refused to acknowledge her pouting.

As none of us had ever gone to Merton before, Mari had to pull out the map and navigate. It lay a city-state away, so we actually flew over the small state of Hera first, which was mostly mountains and forest. I knew we had to have reached Merton once we left the mountain range behind us and saw the vast, sparkling ocean ahead. After a day and a half in the saddle, we were all ready to land and put our feet on the ground again.