Dragon's Mage (An Advent Mage Novel), The - Raconteur, Honor (29 page)

It took Mari about an hour before she came back out. I couldn’t quite read the look on her face. She looked…vexed. But also resigned.

I climbed off of Kaya’s leg, where I had been comfortably sitting, and stood to meet her. “So how did it go?”

“I had to report to about three people and sweet talk the City Manager into it, but they’ll let us stay a few nights inside the city. I even found an inn with a strong enough roof that Kaya can sleep above us.”

All in the space of an hour?

“You,” I informed her gratefully, “Are a miracle worker.”

Still irritated with all the hoops she’d had to jump through she just crossed her arms over chest and responded, “And
you
owe me dinner.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Smiling, I offered my arm to her, which she took as if some grand lady, and we walked toward the gate.

~*~

Late that evening, Kaya, Mari and I perched on top of the hotel. The one that Mari found for us actually stood four stories, so it had a rather commanding view of the city. I found it easier up here to see and hoped that I could spot a blaze before it really got started. We divided up the city into three sections, each one of us responsible for watching over a certain area. Even then, from here, we couldn’t see the very outlying areas. But we really didn’t need to. We mostly just focused on the gates and any of the more prominent buildings in the downtown area.

We talked idly among ourselves as we watched, speaking of nothing important and just enjoying the night breeze. As the sun set, more and more torchlights and lamps were lit, giving the buildings a warm glow and making it harder for us to spy potential trouble. For the first time, I really wished I had Garth’s ability to feel magic instead of seeing it. I can feel the heat of a fire from further away than most people, but I can’t feel the magical force behind it. If a fire remained small enough, out of my sight, I wouldn’t be able to find it by its magical signature. This job would be a lot easier if I could.

“Krys?” Kaya turned her nose into the wind, nostrils flaring. “Smell fire.”

I cut myself off mid-sentence and rolled to my knees. “Big fire?”

She took in another deep breath. “Not big, not small.”

An ambiguous answer, but she probably couldn’t be sure by just smelling it on the wind. “Do you know where it’s coming from?”

“Yes.”

Good enough for me. “Let’s go investigate.”

Mari and I climbed into the saddle and were still strapping in when Kaya dove off the roof in an easy glide. When she has a high starting point like this, her takeoffs were always more gentle. With a few flaps of her wings, she gained more altitude, heading directly for the downtown section.

This late in the evening, most people were on their way home, and the entertainment had more or less finished. I saw multitudes of people streaming out of buildings and climbing into carriages, looking like small figurines moving around below.

“Kaya, which building?” I called over the wind.

“Big building,” she told me.

That could describe at least four of them. “The biggest one?”

“Yes,” she confirmed, already heading for it.

The biggest building was none other than Granvel Hall, one of the potential targets we’d marked. I didn’t see any trace of fire or smoke coming out, but this close, I thought I detected a trace of it on the wind. But Kaya’s nose was more sensitive than mine and I couldn’t be sure. I trusted her to know better than me, though.

Quite a few people milled about the front doors of the Hall, and even more carriages and people lined up on the streets, but when they saw Kaya coming, they scattered for the sidewalks. Being as big as a house, she found it a little challenging to find enough room to land, but she somehow managed it without knocking anyone or anything over.

I slid out of the saddle with practiced ease, pausing only long enough to give Mari a hand.

“Do you sense anything?” she asked as her feet touched the ground.

“Not sure,” I admitted, eyes scanning the building intently. This wouldn’t be an easy search. Granvell Hall stood four stories tall and spread out in every possible direction, taking up an entire city block by itself. It had more windows and rooms than I could count and that was just what I could see on this side. I couldn’t imagine how complex the building’s layout would be once I got inside. “Kaya, stay put.”

My dragon let out a growl of protest.

“You can’t fit through the door anyway,” I pointed out in exasperation.

Her growl transformed into a mewl of discontent. I resolutely ignored her and headed inside the building.

Quite a few people, in the fine clothes of the very rich, watched me enter the main doors with surprise. Because of my Solian uniform? My obvious foreign features? Or maybe they noticed the mage patch on my chest. Whatever the reason, I didn’t pay any real attention to them as I made my way across the foyer. The place was
massive
. Two huge staircases wound up to the left and right, spiraling upwards and out of my sight. I gathered the vague impression of plush carpet, chandeliers dripping from every ceiling, and an open area stretching all along the main floor. But I tried not to be too distracted by the interior layout. Fire. What had Kaya smelled earlier?

At my elbow, Mari asked quietly, “Anything?”

“Maybe. To the far right, back corner.” It might be my hopeful imagination that I felt something from that area, but I could vaguely pick up the scent of smoke too. It was hard to pinpoint anything when you had some very hot chandeliers all over the place.

Not quite sure about what my magical sense told me, I nonetheless followed it, moving at a slow jog for the back corner. I passed all sorts of dining areas, seating rooms, and the like, slowly making my way into the more utilitarian part of the building.

When I reached the last hallway, it became obvious that Kaya had been dead on. Smoke was slowly filtering in the air, drifting into the main hallway.

Mari swore when she saw it and spun on her heel. “I’ll get the building evacuated!”

“Go!” I encouraged her, picking up my pace so that I was running directly for the source of the smoke. I could sense the heat all the way from the other end of the hallway, and knew which door to go to. Even running at top speed, I could feel the fire becoming more ferocious, and the smoke steaming out from underneath the door. The handle had become almost red hot, so the temperature beyond had to be very high.

This building had been very well constructed, so kicking at the door would be futile. At least, it would take a few tries before I could break through. So I just shot a high-density burst of flame at it, more or less evaporating the wood. The instant the door disappeared, the fire inside the room roared forward, black smoke billowing outwards.

Swearing, I started putting out every trace of fire I could see, but that didn’t help to clear out the smoke any. This deep inside the building, there were no windows, no way to ventilate the smoke, and so it stayed trapped inside. It invaded my lungs, making it harder to breathe, and I started coughing uncontrollably.

All right, fire was out. But I needed to know the cause, and to do that, I had to enter the room.

“Krys, don’t go in there!” Mari called from behind.

I turned to see her sprinting toward me. At some point, she’d grabbed our gear from the saddle, with her jacket already on and the mask on her face to protect her from the fire. She handed my mask over, something I hadn’t thought to grab on my mad dash here.

“I have to,” I responded around another cough. “I have to know what started it. It could be his doing.”

Her expression said she didn’t like it, but we both understood that I had to go in there before the fire cooled down completely. She reached up and set the mask over my mouth and nose, sliding the strap in place. I ducked my head enough so that she could reach.

“You’ve got ten seconds and then I come in there after you,” she informed me.

“I won’t take five,” I promised her. The mask did wonders in keeping out the smoke. I took in a deep breath, letting the pure air fill my lungs, then dove through the doorway, keeping as low to the ground as I could.

The room was bad. Nothing but smoke and black ash everywhere, with only traces of carpet and scorched furniture remaining. With no lighting in here, and a thick haze in the air, I could barely see. Curses, I should have taken two seconds to grab my goggles as well.  But still, I had enough light filtering from the hallway that my eyes adjusted enough to make out the basics. I panned the room from one side to the other, and found what I was looking for in the far corner, nearest the door. I read the situation in a second.

Feeling grim and angry, I spun back around and escaped for the relative safety of the hallway, retreating to Mari’s side. As soon as I had relatively clean air again, I yanked the mask down and took in a few cleansing breaths. My lungs still kicked back the smoke, though, and I knew I’d have a raw throat tomorrow.

“See anything?” Mari asked almost automatically. When she got a good look at my face, her eyes turned hard. “This
is
his doing.”

I nodded in confirmation that she didn’t need. “I found traces of oil in the middle of the floor. It looked odd, though. Like he threw already burning oil inside in a careless way and then closed the door to keep anyone from noticing immediately.” I looked around restlessly, not quite sure what my instincts were telling me. I just knew something would go wrong very soon.

“How do you throw burning oil into a room?” Mari objected. “Wouldn’t that burn anyone trying to handle it?”

“I would think so.” Anyone but a magician of some sort, at least. The speed and technique with which he moved unnerved me. He still used unmagical things, basic things, to start the fire with. But his method was too quick and unique. It smacked of magic. “Let’s check the rest of the building. I’ve got a bad feeling.”

She fell into step with me as I started jogging through the hallways. “Is the place evacuated?”

“No, but they’re working on it.” She growled in frustration. “It wasn’t until someone smelled the smoke downstairs that I made any progress with them. But it’s clear now. A local unit has been called for. You think that there’s more than one room he’s hit?” Mari ventured, tone indicating that she didn’t really need an answer, since she already knew.

“This building is mostly brick,” I responded, eyes and magical sense alert to our environment as I switched from one carpeted hallway to another. “There’s wooden flooring and paneling here and there, but it’s mostly stone. The best way to burn this place to the ground would be the main auditorium, with all its wooden chairs and the stage. It would burn very well. But he didn’t choose that place—probably too many eyes. He chose an out of the way room instead. If he keeps doing that, then the only way to successfully burn this building down would be to start a fire in multiple rooms, scattered throughout so that we can’t find all of them in time.”

“Well, that’s rather what I thought as well, but I’ve got experience in this. You don’t. So how did you know that?”

“What, you think I wasn’t paying attention while you were reading off all those reports?” I flashed her a quick smile before heading up to the next level. I didn’t sense anything on the ground floor, so hopefully it was clear. But then, I wouldn’t sense anything until something actually caught on fire.

From the ground floor, somewhere near the front, I heard loud bells clanging as the firewagon arrived and men shouting. Ah, the local crew.

Mari paused halfway up the stairs, half-turning back. Her instincts as a coordinator must have been speaking to her at this point.

Actually, it might be wise to get the crews to help me. Just one man would take too long to search this huge building.

“Mari, get the crews to check every room. I’ll start on the second floor.”

She hesitated a moment longer before pointing a commanding finger at me and ordering sternly, “Do not go into any rooms. I’ll catch up with you in a minute.”

I gave her a casual salute in acknowledgement before continuing up the stairs two at a time.

No expense had been spared in building this place. The wood of the stairs had been elaborately carved, every inch of flooring covered with expensive carpeting, making it feel more like a museum than a hotel or theater. Aside from the smell of smoke, I couldn’t detect anything else, and nothing about the hallways had any distinguishing feature. It all looked elegant, but in a contrived way that felt bland after a while. Nothing in my surroundings gave me any indications that something else had gone wrong. I really, really hoped this wasn’t a diversion. The arsonist might be smart enough to start a fire here and keep me running around like a rat in a maze while he went to some other section of the city and set something
else
on fire.

I reached the landing but the hallways split off to either side, one probably leading into the upper balcony sections of the theater, and the other toward the hotel. All right, think. Which would be more vacant and easier to access during the day? Theater? Probably.

I went left, focusing intently on any trace of heat that I could possibly feel. This was harder for me than depending on sight alone and so it took more concentration. But no matter which way our magical senses worked, we could all feel our element, more or less. The larger it was, the closer the proximity, the better our feel for it.

This section of the building had large doors at even intervals, opening up to the balcony around the stage. But to the right of the hallway, open seating had been set up, probably for the interludes of the play. I didn’t see any enclosed rooms that would be good to set up a fire in. After making the circuit, I reached the landing again and paused, as I saw Mari running up toward me.

She looked up, saw me, and said even as she ran, “They’re going to search the hotel section. More rooms. They’ve left the theater side to us.”

A good division of manpower. I nodded in approval. “I’ve cleared this floor. Let’s go up to the third.”

“Let’s start with the fourth,” she corrected. “That’s attic space and storage, or so the owner of the building just told me. If there’s a place to hide a fire, it would be up there.”