The Dreaming Hunt (27 page)

The familiar rise just north of Tyrel Keep came into sight near twilight. The night watch hailed Justin from the north tower of the keep, and the two of them were let in the postern gate. The guards knew him, and Hrothgar's Heart colors earned him speedy admittance.

“This way, Sir Hrothgar,” Justin said formally. Lady Charlotte, Raina's mother and mistress of Tyrel, had scant patience for a lack of manners in her vassals.

Supper was just winding down and the hall mostly empty. The kitchen wenches moved among the tables, gathering armloads of wooden plates and trenchers, while the keep's dogs jumped about underfoot after scraps.

Sir Darren had already left the table, but Lady Charlotte was still there. And beside her, Justin glimpsed the familiar, gruff visage of Kadir, the Mage of Alchizzadon responsible for Raina running away from home last spring.

“Yonder is Lady Charlotte and one of the mages of whom we spoke.” Justin pointed out Raina's mother and Kadir and then turned to head for the kitchens. He would have no trouble charming Cook out of a plate piled high with sandwiches, a brimming mug of hard cider, and whatever sweets might be lurking about the cupboards.

“Not so fast, Justin Morland,” Charlotte called out.

He sighed. Turned to face his mistress. Bowed from the waist. “How may I serve you, my lady?”

“What news of my daughter?”

“None, I am sorry to say; however, I also found no evidence of any harm befalling her, either. I believe her journey has carried her far beyond these lands and out of reach”—he spared a sarcastic glance for Kadir and finished harmlessly enough—“of my paltry inquiries.”

“Go eat. Then I would speak more with you in my office.”

“Yes, my lady.”

But the summons, when it came, was not from Charlotte. Rather it was from Kadir, the elder of the two Mages of Alchizzadon who had been in residence ever since Raina disappeared. A servant stated deadpan that Justin was cordially invited to join Kadir in the tower room he had apparently appropriated for his own use whilst he was installed in Tyrel Keep.

Justin choked down the rest of a slice of cake, licked the sweet, gooey icing off his fingers, and followed the fellow to Kadir's door. The servant melted away as Justin lifted his knuckles to the wooden panel. Not fond of the visiting mage, was the fellow? No surprise.

“Enter,” a deep voice called in response to his knock.

Justin let himself into the round, high-ceilinged office. The stone walls gave off a chill tonight, and he pulled his cloak forward.

Kadir sat at the desk that dominated most of the space. He held a parchment flat with one hand while he rubbed his eyes with his other hand. The man looked aggravated, and mayhap tired, but not the least bit sinister. Justin was not fooled, however. This was a powerful magic user from a secretive and powerful order of mages.

Before she had run away from home, Raina muttered mad accusations about a secret program to selectively breed massively talented female mages for some unknown purpose—and of her refusal to be one of those girls. He still did not understand it. But if Raina had opposed it strongly enough to forsake everyone and everything she had ever known, he was deeply suspicious of the man seated at the desk now.

“Sit,” Kadir ordered tiredly.

Justin scowled but obeyed.

Kadir held the letter flat, perusing it at length before finally looking up. He then said the last thing Justin would ever have guessed to hear from such a man. “I need your help.”

“Whatever for?”

“What's your name?”

“Justin.”

“Raina's beau. Yes?”

“We grew up together. Were always close. But I'm not sure I would go so far as to call myself that—”

“She's sweet on you. I saw it, and I don't have time to tiptoe around niceties.”

He shrugged. “Then yes. She is.” At least she had been before he'd turned down her plea for help and forced her to run away from home all by herself. An act he would bitterly regret until his dying day.

“Raina is in serious trouble.”

Alarm quickened Justin's pulse. “How?”

“You may have noticed that she possesses certain magical gifts beyond the ordinary.”

He snorted at the obviousness of that remark.

Kadir continued, “However, Raina does not yet have mastery over all the aspects of her gift. More accurately, if she does not receive further training in how to control her abilities, she will eventually be driven mad by them.”

“How so?”

Kadir leaned forward, and his voice dropped as if he spoke of secrets now. “She has a certain link to the people around her. It allows her to see and hear more than a normal mortal such as you or me. She sees into the hearts of others. Or at least she will, once she knows how to shape and use her talents. And she will begin to hear the echoes of spirits. However, without certain vital training that my order can give her, she will gradually lose the ability to differentiate between that which is real and that which is merely a manifestation of spirits invisible and inaudible to the rest of us. She will go mad.”

“What can I do to help her?”

“I need you to find her. Convince her that the Mages of Alchizzadon only wish to help her, to save her sanity. And then bring her home.”

“How?”

Kadir shrugged. “She likes you. Wants to be with you. If you bring her back here, I'm sure I can convince Charlotte that you are the best man for her daughter. You may have Raina.”

“Should not Raina have some say in this plan for her life?”

“You must convince her that this is the best and only course of action for her. Use your charm. Use her feelings for you. Do you not wish to be with her, as well?”

That was not the point. It was this whole business of planning her life for her that had sent Raina running for the hills the first time. Mayhap the girl herself should have a choice. If only he knew where she was. He would go to her secretly. Tell her about this latest plan for her. Ask her if she wished to come home or not. Unlike the mage seated before him, Justin would let her choose whatever path she wished. And then, he would walk it beside her if she would have him.

“Is that letter about her?” His impression had been that the letter was Heart business—hence, a Royal Order of the Sun knight delivering it.

Kadir snorted. “The letter is
from
her.”

“Where is she? Is she safe? What did she say?” he blurted.

Kadir gestured at the parchment, now rolled up again on his desk. “She wished to inform her mother that she has joined the White Heart and, as such, can no longer assist us with our primary goal.”

“What primary goal would that be?” Justin asked cautiously.

Kadir sighed. Studied him at length. And then surprised Justin by actually answering. “My order studies the relationship between spirits and the links to their physical forms.”

Ever one to speak his mind, Justin asked, “What on Urth does that mean?”

A reluctant smiled tugged at Kadir's mouth. “For your purposes, it means that my order had been associated with the House of Tyrel since before time has memory. The women of this house are … very special. You may have noticed they have an extraordinary gift for magic.”

He responded dryly, “It is hard to miss.”

“Raina more than most. Members of my order wish to …
study
her. To learn the source of her magic. To … duplicate it. Help her learn to … manipulate it.”

The man was lying to him. Justin felt it in the slight hesitations between words, the careful way certain words were chosen. “You wish to harness her magic for yourself and use it to your own ends,” he retorted bluntly.

Kadir's eyes narrowed. “Yes. That is correct.”

“So, the real danger to her is from your kind, then?” Justin pressed.

“It is more complicated than that.”

“Explain.” He probably ought to be treading far more gently around this powerful mage whose hands were starting to glow faintly along with the runic marks tattooed, or maybe ritually etched, upon his neck and face.

“My order suffers from a certain division in its ranks. I am considered to represent the more moderate faction of the two.”

“Stars preserve us all if you're the moderate one!”

Kadir did smile at that. “Just so. The second faction holds beliefs heretical to the rest of my brethren. And they will react rather strongly to the news contained within this letter.”

“How so?”

“They will not care that Raina now wears the symbol of a protected Heart order. She has revealed her location to us by the origin of this note, and the heretics will be all for sallying forth and kidnapping her, White Heart colors or no.”

Justin frowned. “Doesn't the Royal Order of the Sun take a dim view of anyone messing with a White Heart member?”

“That is an understatement. However, my brethren will not be deterred.”

“What will they do with her if they successfully kidnap her?”

Kadir leaned back in the big wingback chair and looked off into the sluggish fire for a long time before his dark, grim gaze turned back. “They will drain all the magics from her, and they will take her special gift that is the source of all her magics, killing her in the process. They will find a way to store her gift until a more cooperative vessel can be found to contain the power. And then they will transfer her magic into a more malleable person.”

“Kill her?” Perhaps taking a death would be worth it if she gained her freedom from these monsters in the process. “She will resurrect, though. Yes?”

“No. Her gift is so intrinsic to her spirit that removing it would destroy her. She will die permanently.”

Justin rose out of his seat. “Get rid of that letter now. Burn it. Do not let these heretics know where she is!”

Kadir stared at him. Slowly, he began to nod. He rose to stand beside Justin before the fire. The mage was a big man, but Justin had grown in the past few months while he'd been on the road searching for Raina. They stood eye to eye with one another.

“And if I burn the letter, you will help me?”

“Yes.”

“I have your word?”

“My solemn word of honor. Just burn the cursed thing.”

Never breaking the lock of their stares, Kadir tossed the parchment onto the flames with a flick of his wrist. Justin's gaze dropped to the letter to watch it burn. The paper caught and flared up, blackening and curling, consuming the words that would get her killed. He used the iron poker to stir the fire, breaking up the charred bits of parchment until not a single pen stroke would be legible later.

Kadir murmured, “That will only buy her a little time. A White Heart member of her ability is bound to draw a great deal of attention. She will become famous throughout the land. Eventually, even in their remote corner of the colony, the heretics of Alchizzadon will hear of her. And then they will come for her and destroy her.”

“But for now, we have time on our side. Enough to warn the Royal Order of the Sun to guard her closely. Enough to warn her. Correct?” he asked urgently.

“Mere knights cannot stand before the ritual powers my brothers will summon.”

Kadir spoke the words with such quiet certainty that Justin accepted the observation as truth without question. And it sent a chill through him that had nothing to do with the brisk evening. “How can I help her?” he asked grimly.

“Not only do I need you to get close to her, convince her to let me help her control her power, but I also need you to watch over her.”

“This I will gladly do. But how can I protect her if knights of the Royal Order of the Sun cannot?”

A conspiratorial twinkle entered Kadir's eyes. “I will make you one of us.”

“A Mage of Alchizzadon?” Justin squawked. “I cannot even cast magic!”

“I can fix that.” Kadir tossed out the words dismissively, as if it would be child's play to teach him magic. Justin had secretly tried to learn it for most of his life. And he knew for certain that he had no talent for it. At all. Kadir continued, “I happen to know plenty of magic runs in your blood.”

Justin stared, stunned. How did this stranger know the first thing about his blood?

The mage was nodding now, warming to his own plan. “I shall mark you with secret symbols of our order. When the heretics approach Raina and see your marks, they will know they are being watched. That they cannot just take her and make her disappear without their actions being seen, known, and reported.”

“Will that be enough to stop them?”

“Stars, no!” Kadir exclaimed. “I shall also have to mark you with defensive runes that will slow them down significantly. Enough, perchance, that the Royal Order of the Sun might stand against the heretics with your help.”

“How am I supposed to get close to Raina if the Royal Order is guarding her day and night?”

“Ahh. Well. Clearly you must join the Heart.”

“Wait. What? First you wish to turn me into a mage, then turn me into one of you, and then you want to make me a Heart man?”

“That, or she will die.”

*   *   *

“White Heart, I need healing. White Heart, healing if you please. White Heart, my husband is hurt. My child is sick. Something's wrong with my wife…”

Raina was starting to cringe every time she heard the words “White Heart.” She did not begrudge the people around her their healing. What good was having all this magic if she could not use it to help others? But the tugging on her tabard was ceaseless. Everywhere she went, be it a shopping trip or a formal function at the governess's palace, people saw her colors and lined up to receive healing. And the more magic she cast, the louder the voices in her head became.

Even today, on a simple errand to an apothecary shop, she'd already been stopped twice en route by locals begging for healing. Raina had volunteered to go out and buy herbs for a batch of healing potions in hopes of escaping a steady stream of sick citizens to the Heart for help with a nagging fever and cough that was going around. No such luck.