Wizard (The Key to Magic) (15 page)

"A little bit too much flux," he whispered to the unheeding Nali. He allowed himself half a chuckle as he charged through the office door into the corridor without.

Bells began to clang all across the floor and all of the overhead lamps came on at once.

Keeping a hard clamp on his nerves, he did not allow this sudden clamor to rattle him as he used his magic sense to orient toward the other prisoner.

The bells did cause Nali to come awake with a sharp intake of breath. She shivered, then blinked up at him in confusion. "What are ... did they catch you too?"

Humming to slow time again, he shook his head to tell her that he was too busy to talk and began push through the ether toward his goal.

Not understanding or not content with his dismissal, she looped one arm around his neck to give herself purchase and twisted slightly in his hold so that she could look around at the static tableau of interrupted time.

"Are you doing this?"

"Yes." He plowed forward as far as the envelope of resistance would permit, interrupted his song, started it up immediately again, and then repeated the process.

"Is that the tune to
I'm a silly old drunk lalala?

"No."

"Are you sure? The first verse goes, 'I'm inna gutter, inna street, a silly old drunk am I..."

"It's a spell. Could you be quiet for a few minutes?"

"Sorry. It's just nerves. I think I'm dreaming and you're not really here. I have to be dreaming, because I'm hurt and now I can't feel it."

"I took care of that. You're not dreaming."

"If I'm not dreaming, why is nothing else moving?"

"Again, a spell."

"The yellow jackets had me."

"I know. I took care of that too."

"They want to find out about you
really
bad."

"What did you tell them?"

"Nothing. If I had given you away, they wouldn't have had any other use for me and I'd be dead."

She linked her hands to draw herself close and began to trail warm, delicate kisses along his neck and jaw.

"Would you mind not doing that? It's a distraction and I have a lot to do right now."

Relenting with a reluctant flounce -- not an easy thing to accomplish while being carried -- she rested her head in the hollow of his shoulder, moving slightly so that her cheek caressed him. "You saved me. I was just showing my appreciation."

"You owe me nothing. I didn't come here for you."

"You're rescuing another woman?"

Ignoring her, he stopped in the middle of a cross corridor and stared up at the spot where he could sense the presence of the other prisoner. An air bubble large enough to include the man, who appeared to be of above average height and in a standing position, would have to take out four armlengths of the cell floor, but he could think of no reason why that should be a problem -- at least not for him. He cast his spells.

He had to allow normal time to advance to get the wide circle of cell floor and its passenger all the way down and, as he needed the man to operate under his own power, he did not resume
The Knife Fighter's Dirge.

The man was taller than Mar, lean, blonde, and clear-eyed. Save for clothing that looked slept-in, he did not appear to have suffered from his imprisonment.

The prisoner stared at Mar and his passenger with wide eyes. "Did they put something in my tea? Am I hallucinating?"

Mar frowned. "No. Of course not."

"Then why are you holding a bald and naked woman?"

Nali beamed. "Hello, my name is Nali. I'm being rescued."

"I see," the man said, though clearly he did not. "I'm Byon. Glad to meet you."

"Just follow," Mar ground out, starting along the corridor toward the nearest outside wall.

Jaw twitching, Byon did not move. "I'd rather that you finished me here. There's no need to wait."

Mar unleashed a stream of curses that defamed two dozen of the Forty-Nine. "I'm not here to kill you! I'm here to get you out. Follow me
now
."

As a chastened Byon stepped off and away from the pedestal-like section of cell floor, a fusillade of blue-glowing projectiles blasted from above and smashed into the not-quite-stone.

Startled by the deadly racket behind him, Byon ducked needlessly and Mar, exasperated, cast a pair of enchantments on the man's clothing and dragged him along as he began running.

They had to get out before the anthill boiled over.

As the three of them, Byon yelling and Nali cheering, approached the side of the building, Mar made a hole, enchanted the plug to spin it clear, and dove out, all without missing a step.

As both of the others fell silent for whatever reason, he cast his new glamour to enclose them all, then forced all the speed that he dared out of his flagging brigandine and Byon's clothing. He keyed the first wall no more than half an armlength short of it, blazed toward the second, keyed that one with the same scarce margin, and then sailed on as fast as his spells could carry them.

Nali gasped, causing him to turn to see thousands of
automatons
flash into being not twenty armlengths back. The devices immediately shifted into a regulated formation, closing a physical net around the stronghold that a gnat could not have flown through. None made a move to follow and he swung his head back around to concentrate on the taxing chore of keeping all three of them airborne.

Nali, of course, was mere dead weight and a further drag on his brigandine, coat, and boots, and only Byon's shoes, apparently cobbled of natural leather, responded well to Mar's spells. He had to constantly monitor the modulations in his own clothing and refurbish those in Byon's just to maintain their altitude, but continually lost headway in spite of his best efforts.

After struggling to fly half a league, he gave up and brought them down on the first likely looking roof that he saw. When they landed on the mostly dark but crowded surface, he put Nali on her own feet, discharged the strength that had begun to make his nerves jump and his eyelids twitch, and sank down on his haunches to recuperate.

They were well hidden here. A high sheet metal parapet meant to conceal the thicket of bulky magical devices, steaming apparatus, and bouncing hexagons rose up above their heads all around. The place was not lighted, but the equipment produced enough consequential light to get about.

Nali rubbed her hands over her stubbled scalp then gave him a look. "You couldn't make my hair grow?"

Mar did not deign to answer.

Byon, looking as if he still did not fully believe what had happened, walked about in a small circle as he made demonstrative gestures with both hands. "That was
... amazing!"

Surveilling the ether to watch for unpleasant surprises, Mar ignored this as well.

"And fun, too!" Nali said, unhurriedly turning a stretch into a full body extension. She rose upon her toes, arching her back, and pushed her arms above her head to their fullest extent. The pose was delightfully innocent but undeniably sensual at the same time.

Byon stopped walking and hand waving and stared unabashedly.

Annoyed, Mar demanded of him, "How do we contact your friends?"

"Ah? What's that?"

"Your friends. Your five friends."

With a visible effort, Byon tore his eyes from the captivating vision. "Oh! Right. Get me to a comm. That's all I need."

SEVENTEEN

Byon located the roof access with no trouble at all.

"All these K-series apartment blocks follow a single set of plans," he explained as he opened the door. "A different color veneer here or there, but they're all basically identical."

"You're an architect?" Nali asked, just sounding curious as she peeked around the other former prisoner to look into the stairwell.

"I was getting ready to take my fifth term finals a month before the Faction set aside the Assembly. When the yellow jackets reorganized the universities, they cut my program."

"Bad break. What's subversive about architecture?"

"The professors and the students."

"Oh."

Mar said, "There's no one down for at least three flights."

Byon opened the door and slipped in. "I'd ask how you know, but it's clear that you're a sorcerer."

"Yes, he is," Nali confirmed as she followed. "He's the best that I've ever seen."

Mar was content to let the other two take the lead; this was their time and their city. "Nali, you have a comm, don't you?"

"I've got a spare at the warehouse, if that's what you mean, but we can't go back there."

"The Compliance Officers know about all of your hiding places?"

"I don't know that they know about any of them, but if they sift through the port logs, they'll be able to trace everywhere that I've been in the last week."

"She's right," Byon agreed. "The Faction has been quietly adding surveillance hexes to all the public port stations and as of last month ninety percent of them are monitored. Getting about is going to be difficult. We'll have to avoid the stations and also popular plazas, businesses, and social venues."

"I used the ports all day and didn't have any trouble," Mar countered as Byon stopped on the second landing to lean over the railing and to take a precautionary look down the well.

"Nali and I have been in custody," Byon said, resuming his quick descent. "Our images and flux signatures are now in the system. We set foot within a furlong of a station and a tangle hex will drop, setting off every alarm in the city."

While Mar understood the language of the phrase "images and flux signatures are now in the system," some of the concepts came across fuzzily, but he did not worry over the deficit. The key detail was that the port stations were guarded with magical traps, a fact that he had not previously suspected.

After three more landings, Byon abruptly stopped. "We'll need to get Nali some clothes."

Nali trilled a laugh. "You don't care for my current ensemble?"

"I think it's splendid, but even citizens who despise the Faction will report a nude woman traipsing about."

Mar pointed across the landing. "No one is in the apartment on the other side of that wall."

Byon looked at the wall, then back at Mar in askance. "All of these major interior partitions have intrinsic privacy wards. I thought only classified military magic could read through that."

Mar shrugged. "I had no trouble."

"The apartment might be just vacant," Nali cautioned.

"No, I can sense cloth and wood and small spells -- there's furniture and garments at a minimum."

"How do we get in?" Byon asked.

Mar moved around the two to the door on the left side of the landing. "Through the front door."

As Mar already knew, the long brown-carpeted passageway on the other side was empty and the entrance to their target the first of many doors on the right. The lock was magical and simple, and he had it open by the time he placed his hand on the handle. Lamps came on as soon as he, with the others right on his heels, went inside.

The main room was a salon with couches, padded chairs, small tables, shelves with knickknacks, and an array of concealed magical devices. Two door openings led from the salon, one into an area furnished with a large dining table, matching chairs, and sideboards, and the other into a short hall.

"Don't disturb or take anything that's in plain view," he warned both of them, then pointed at the short hall. "Nali, you'll find clothing in the rooms off there. Look for an outfit that seems as if it hasn't been worn in a while, something shoved in the back of a cupboard. If we don't give the owners any reason to notice that we've been here, it'll be a while before they realize that they've been robbed."

As the courtesan trotted off to obey, Byon said, "You've done all this before, obviously. Were you trained as a
commando
?"

The Faction
medic's
language spell intimated that the meaning of this last word was "secretive armsman."

Mar shook his head. "No. I was a thief."

Byon chuckled as if he thought Mar had made a joke.

Mar gestured at the furnishings. "Would there be a comm here?"

"Maybe. All the people that I know keep their comms with them all the time, but a lot of people have spares. I'll have to open drawers and cabinets. Is that allowed?"

"Yes, just so long as you leave everything exactly as you find it."

Byon puttered about the salon for a moment, then went into the dining room.

Nali, having been gone less than five minutes, came back then. Now dressed, she wore a shimmering-purple pleated skirt that was short enough to show her knees, calf-length cherry red boots with a blinding shine, and a long-sleeved brown sweater with Common writing embossed across the chest. Leaving a wide strip at her waist bare and outlining every contour, the sweater looked at least two sizes too small.

Seeing Mar's look, she demanded, "What's wrong with this?"

"You couldn't find anything less conspicuous?"

She made a moue. "What's conspicuous about this?"

Byon reentered the salon holding a round green ovoid the size of a crabapple. "He means that you're going to get ogled -- and deservedly so -- by every man that we pass." He showed the ovoid to Mar. "I found this. It's an obsolete model, but it works."

Nali showed Byon a wicked grin. "That's true, but none of them are likely to notice the two of you at all and it's certain that none of the oglers will have even a whiff of a thought to make a report about me."

Byon smiled back. "I think you have a point."

"The three of us won't be travelling together," Mar said in a firm tone. "I think it likely that the Faction is searching for a trio and that means that we need to split up. Nali, is there anywhere that you could go? Could your friend from the Bazaar hide you out?"

Nali frowned. "She might if I could contact her. Fynd doesn't have what you would call a permanent address."

"What about your bolt hole?"

"I think that I'd be safer with you."

"You'll be safer going to ground. No matter what, after I get Byon back to his friends and get what I need, I'm leaving."