The Unmage (33 page)

“Sadly, yes.” Kara got to her feet. “Once we get to Old Rillidi you’ll be able to choose a different role.”

“Will I really be safe there?”

“As safe as you can be. It’s your home, after all.”

Timo took Kara’s outstretched hand and let her help him up.

“How is it my home? I’ve never been there.”

“Santos discovered years ago that our mother was related to Paolo Santini,” Kara said. “But he never told anyone and his madness caused him to forget it. But Santos, me, my children, and you are all heirs—so we own Old Rillidi. Not even the guilds can take that away.”

“I . . .” Timo stopped and grinned. “I have rights to a place the guilds can’t ever control? That’s more than I ever expected.”

Kara nodded and stepped over to Reo, who absently pulled her against him.

Timo felt a knot of tension disappear. He’d been thinking of Old Rillidi as a haven, but one where he would live by someone else’s grace. To know that he had a right that even the guilds couldn’t deny him made him almost light-headed.

Would his mother have left Mage Guild if she’d known? He shook his head. No. Arabella Fonti would have seen leaving as a sign of weakness, as giving up. Besides, she never believed she was in danger, even after Rorik was killed—after
he
told her that the Primus had been killed by a spell. She never would have left Mage Guild for an uncertain future with the daughter she’d never acknowledged.

But she might have sent
him
to Old Rillidi earlier if she’d known he was an heir to the First Guildsman. Especially since she wouldn’t have had to admit that she’d done it to keep him safe. She would have been able to justify it because it meant that he would have what no other Guildsman in Rillidi could—land not controlled by any guild.

Timo sighed and leaned against the cool stone wall. Knowing he had a right to safety on Old Rillidi didn’t mean getting there would be any easier.

“We’re ready to leave,” Kara said, returning to him.

Timo looked past her to Reo, who pulled something from under his collar. He wound it around his arm, overtop of his coat sleeve.

“Can you create a finder spell?” Santos asked him.

Timo nodded.

“Good.”

“Five is too many to travel together,” Kara said. “You and I must split up so that both groups can see, and send, magical messages. I’ll be with Santos, and you’ll go with Reo and Elman.”

Reo joined them, trailed by Elman.

“Elman thinks the safest way to the surface is through a workroom,” Reo said. “Mages being drained of their magic should be easy enough to bypass.”

“We’re going to the surface?” Timo asked. Other than his mother’s and Rorik’s gardens, he’d never spent much time outside. The amount of mage mist had made it almost impossible for him to pretend he didn’t see it—something neither his mother nor his Master had wanted to know.

“We’ll come back down and find a boat if it’s safe,” Reo said. “Otherwise we’ll head to the ferry docks. It doesn’t much matter where we go as long as it’s off Mage Guild Island.”

“Won’t guards be watching for us?” Timo asked. He wished he’d paid more attention to the planning. He felt as though he’d missed something important.

“We’ll be invisible,” Kara reminded him. “They won’t be able to see us.”

“Guards with any usable magic were called in by the council after Founders Day,” Elman said. “And the rest won’t do anything without a direct order.”

“You’re sure?” Reo asked Elman. “The guards at the ferry won’t try to stop us if they do see us?”

Elman shrugged. “Without magic they can’t better their position within the guild, and as long as they don’t ignore an order, they won’t be disciplined.”

“Good.” Reo nodded. “Hopefully we’ll all be on the same ferry but if not, go to the nearest Warrior for help.”

“They’ll help?” Timo asked. “They were looking for me—along with Mages.”

“Warrior Guild has been looking for you on our behalf ever since Founders Day,” Kara said.

“And I’ll be with you,” Reo continued. “But even if we’re separated, they’ll help.”

“They won’t hand me over to Mage Guild?”

“No.”

Reo, Santos, and Kara all spoke at the same time.

Timo looked from one confident face to another. He wanted to believe them—it was similar to what Mole had told him—that Warrior Guild would do as Kara and Reo asked, but it was hard to believe that any guild would deliberately obstruct Mage Guild.

“If we get separated I will contact the nearest Warrior,” Timo said, vowing to stick close to Reo. Warriors would help the former Assassin, but an unknown Mage Apprentice? Not only was Mage Guild powerful, but magic was essential to the existence of all of the guild islands, including Warrior Guild’s. Could he trust that they would jeopardize that for him?

TIMO PEERED AROUND
the corner—Elman was at his back, one hand on his shoulder. Reo trotted down the hall to an intersecting corridor, paused to look each way, then waved Timo forward.

“It’s clear,” Timo said over his shoulder. “Up to the juncture.”

Timo padded along the corridor, Elman close behind. An hour had passed since they’d left their hiding place. Santos and Kara were a few minutes ahead of them. They would regroup at the workroom and split up again once they’d made it outside.

“We go right,” Elman whispered when they reached Reo. “The workroom is through the door about halfway down the next corridor. It’s the only one on that wall.”

“Timo,” Reo said. “Any sign that Santos and Kara have made it?”

Timo poked his head into the next hallway. A patch of grass green mage mist swirled in front of a closed door. “Santos left a marker by the door.” He squeezed between Reo and Elman.

“Good,” Reo said. He settled his back more firmly against the wall. “We’ll give them a few minutes in case they set off an alarm.”

“Kara would have seen a spell,” Timo said. “And Santos would have sent us a warning.”

Reo glanced over at him, and even though Timo knew the former Assassin couldn’t see him, he still couldn’t quite meet his eyes.

“Mages,” Reo said. Then he grinned, ruining the seriousness of the moment. “There are other ways to warn people, even on Mage Guild Island.” Reo looked past Timo to where Elman sat hunched against the wall.

“How would you warn Guildsmen?” Reo asked. “If there was danger?”

“What danger would there be?” Timo asked. “Mage Guild Island is safe.”

“So speaks a Mage,” Elman said. “The rest of us would listen for the bells. There’s different rings for different events. Like when the Primus died,” he looked over at Timo. “And the Secundus.”

“I didn’t hear anything,” Timo said. Bells had been rung for his mother? Why hadn’t he known that? It helped, a little, knowing that her death had been acknowledged by the inhabitants of Mage Guild Island.

“It’s not for you,” Elman continued. “They can’t be heard down here anyway. But we who don’t have magic—we keep an ear out for the bells.”

“I’ve never heard them,” Timo said. “I didn’t even know that they existed.”

“Like I said,” Elman replied. “It’s for us who don’t have magic. Partly so we can protect ourselves from those who have it.”

“I heard them once,” Reo said. “A long time ago.”

“Did someone die then too?”

“Yes,” Reo said. He paused and stared down at the floor. “Your father.”

“My . . .” Timo stopped. His father had been Secundus when he died—when Kara had killed him in self-defence. Reo must have been on the island in order to hear the bells. Kara must have been too.

KARA STOPPED JUST
inside the door, stunned. Santos and Timo had described it to her but she still couldn’t quite fathom what she was seeing.

The cavernous room was filled with rows of tables lined with people sitting slumped over tabletops or with their heads leaning back as they stared blankly up at the ceiling.

Ropes of mage mist—some so faint that she could hardly see them, others as thick as her wrist—flowed from the people to merge and stream between the tables out through a hole along the far wall.

“That’s the way out,” Santos whispered over the noises of dozens of unconscious people—a low rumble of wheezing and snores punctuated by coughs.

“Will we fit through it?” Kara asked. After the confined hallways, she was having a hard time adjusting to the sheer size of the room. She brought her gaze back to the people slumped across the tables. The ones sitting close to the hole would easily fit through it.

“We should,” Santos replied. He smiled at her. “It does take some getting used to. I remember the first time I was sent to monitor a workroom. I had nightmares for weeks after.” He shivered. “Not a life I would want to live.”

“Are they hurt?”

“No,” Santos replied. “But in a way their lives are stolen from them. For half the day they are unaware of anything around them. But it’s not restorative like sleep. Can you see their magic being drained?”

Kara nodded and lifted a hand to shield her eyes from the brightness.

“It drains their energy as well as their power,” Santos continued. “When they are released from the workroom they are so exhausted that all most of them can do is go home to bed. When I was Primus, we took to feeding them in the workroom before and after their duties because some of them were too tired to eat. They became extremely weak. A few even died.”

Kara forced herself to look at the closest table.

“And they’re full Mages? Full Guildsmen?”

“Aye. They are the unlucky ones—they have power but either don’t have enough to do magic or they are not able to learn how to use it.” Santos turned haunted eyes her way. “During the lucid periods of my madness this is what I was most worried about. To be trapped underground and have my magic drained away each day only to renew it and have drained away again.”

“They would do that?” Kara asked.

“Oh yes. It’s likely that some of the Mages here are mentally unbalanced. There’s no other use for them, the council would say.”

“But it’s a horrible life,” Kara said. As much as she hated the clammers, even she wouldn’t want to be responsible for sending them here.

“Yes,” Santos agreed. “A horrible life, if this is living. Thankfully I was not sent here.”

“Because you’re the heir to Old Rillidi?”

“And I was too powerful, too unpredictable.” Santos stared out across the room. “Can you imagine the death and destruction I would have caused here?” he added softly.

Kara shivered. Yes, she could imagine it. She’d seen the devastation Santos’ uncontrolled spells had wrought on Old Rillidi—the burnout, the damage to his estate—but a powerful spell confined in small space like this? Santos could have obliterated a whole section of the island, or started a fire in the underground hallways.

“But their magic, it’s only used to power the island. I mean, Inigo can’t just take their power, can he?”

“No,” Santos replied. “It’s against Guild law to use another’s power for yourself, although there are always those who try it. But it’s dangerous. Tapping into someone else’s power leaves you open to them.”

“If you know they’re doing it,” Kara said.

“Yes,” Santos agreed. “But even if they don’t, all power is imbued with the intent, or personality, of its owner. There are reports of Mages going mad by tapping the power of multiple other Mages.”

“Not something most Mages would risk,” Kara said. Although Valerio Valendi had risked it with her mother.

“I wouldn’t,” Santos said.

“Should we wait here for Reo and Timo?” Kara asked.

“Let’s move closer to the bottom,” Santos said. “I dislike the idea of the five of us navigating past these Mages at the same time.”

Kara nodded and followed Santos down the few steps to the workroom floor. By the time they’d passed three tables, the light from the mage mist that flowed past them was so bright that she had to shield her eyes and turn her head to the side. She grabbed onto Santos’ arm and let him lead her further into the room.

The light suddenly dimmed, and startled, Kara lifted her head to look for the cause. A wall of mage mist soared up past the tables and engulfed them.

With a cry, Santos fell to the floor, and then Kara was surrounded by mage mist so dense that she couldn’t even see her own hand. She stumbled into something on the floor and fell to her knees, hard. Her hand landed on something yielding and with a shock she realized that it was Santos. She felt around and encountered an arm. Right or left? She fumbled up the arm to the flat surface of his back. He’d fallen face forward. With increasing panic, she rolled him onto his back and leaned over him. Then the mage mist swept past them, up the stairs and out into the hallway, taking any spells that kept the lights on with it. The silence that followed was broken by a few groans.

“Santos?”

Kara reached out to Santos’ head and gently turned his face towards her.

“Are you all right?”

Santos’ nose was flattened to one side of this face, and his once twinkling eyes stared blankly at the ceiling.