"Groskin found them by your bed," Suiden said.
"Was the ambassador right, Rabbit?" Captain Javes asked. "Are you a mage?” I looked out the windows to the courtyard and watched a yellow and black bird with an orange-feathered throat flit through the trees. A slight breeze was stirring and I could hear the rustling of leaves.
"You were asked a question, Lieutenant," Suiden said.
"No, sir." The bird settled on a branch and trilled a challenge.
"No, what?" Javes asked.
The bird trilled again, then, satisfied it had driven off all competition, began to preen. Behind it, a large spider crept down the tree trunk.
"Lieutenant," Suiden said.
"No, I'm not a mage. Yet." The spider reached the branch and eased closer to the bird. The bird raised one wing and worked on its feathers.
"I see. And those leaves?" Javes asked.
The spider moved a little closer, one slender leg by the bird's foot. The bird started working on its tail feathers. "As Laurel Faena said, sir, they're given to those who are starting to come into their full mage powers. It can be— traumatic, and mentha alleviates the symptoms.”
"Like the symptoms you're having?" Suiden asked. "Are you coming into your powers, Lieutenant?” The bird raised its head to clean another part of its body, saw the spider and, squawking, tried to take off.
"I—” The spider shot up and grabbed the bird by the throat. After a brief tussle, the spider carried the bird, still feebly flapping, back up the tree trunk.
"Lieutenant."
A few yellow feathers floated to the ground.
"I ran away," I said. "Broke my indentures.”
The captains were silent while they worked at my statement. "You were apprenticed to a mage, Rabbit?"
Suiden asked after a moment.
"Yes," I said.
"Why did you run away?" Javes asked.
"I was afraid."
"Of what, Lieutenant?" Suiden said.
"That I'd get eaten alive." I pulled my mind away from the feast in the tree and realized that I had moved to the courtyard doors. I turned to face the captains and felt my lips twist as I remembered a street drama I had seen. "Oh, he's not a dark mage or a dread lord. He isn't out to conquer the world by opening the nether gates and flooding us with his demon minions." I paused. "But he's not out to bring heaven on earth either."
"What is he out for?" Javes asked.
"Himself.”
It was quiet again; then Captain Suiden pulled a chair out from the table. "Sit, Rabbit. You look like you're going to keel over." He sat down himself, laying the leaves on the table.
Javes picked them up. "So you're a runaway apprentice mage who is coming into his power, whatever that means." He paused. "What does it mean?”
I looked at my hands. "There are those who are born with the talent—"
"You mean magic?" Javes asked.
"No, sir," I said. "The entire Border is what you'd call 'magic'" Despite myself I gave a faint smile. "Look at honored Laurel—he's a talking mountain cat who walks on two legs. And carries a big stick." My smile faded. "But there are those who can shape a ... a force—”
"Wizardry," Suiden said, his eyes intent. "You're able to summon and command the elements.”
I nodded. "Yes, sir. Eventually. It takes years of study to get there.”
"Yet all this is happening to you now," Javes said. "Why?”
I looked out the window again, but couldn't see anything in the tree. 'Twice in a mage's life the talent kind of takes over. Once during late childhood when it first manifests, and then just at the beginning of adulthood, when the mage's aspects become apparent." I remembered my family's startlement when, after recovering from a sudden fever, I'd walk into a room and stuff would fly off shelves and fires lit by themselves. Then Magus Kareste showed up, promising to teach me how to control my burgeoning adolescent talent. Which he did. But he also taught me how to fear.
"Aspects," Javes repeated, his brows knitting.
"Air, water, fire and earth," Suiden said. "Is that what happened yesterday, Rabbit? Your aspect became apparent?” I remembered the roaring sound of wind, while the trees remained motionless. "Partly," I admitted.
"Partly?"
I shifted in my chair. "I think my master found me."
"And?"
"I think I forced him away again."
"The thunderclap," Suiden said.
I nodded again, staring at the floor.
The captains were quiet again.
"You do look like hell, Lieutenant Rabbit," Suiden said, "but we think that it would be good for you to get out. So you will go on this shopping trip."
I lifted my head.
"You will stay with me at all times," Javes said. "No wandering off, no matter how pretty the clothes in the window, what?” I nodded again and Captain Javes laid the leaves back on the table.
"You say that the Faena has nothing to do with the strangeness that's been happening," Suiden said.
"Perhaps that's true, but it's very coincidental that it started just when he showed up, including all that is going on with you." He paused. "And lord or not, newbie mage or not, runaway apprentice, pacts and feathers, smuggling and threats of war, you are still under my command. Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir."
Suiden declared that Jeff would also go with Javes, and sent both of us back up to our bedroom where we discovered new hot-weather uniforms waiting for us. Instead of the usual helm or cap, there was a hat with a broad brim in the front to shade the face, and a flap in the back to protect the neck from the sun. The uniform itself was made of a material that was very light, allowing any stray breeze to wrap around the body before going on its way. We both sighed with relief when we donned the new uniforms, as the ones from Freston felt, in the humid heat, like a wet blanket.
"It's cotton, Lieutenant," a southie trooper said when he overheard me wonder what it was.
It was still early, the sun just clearing the roofs as Jeff and I followed Captain Javes out of the embassy to our waiting horses. Javes was wearing the same broad- brimmed hat and cotton uniform we wore, but he had augmented it with his Habbs boots, his gold filigreed sword, and a light cape. And of course, his quiz glass, hung by its ribbon around his neck.
We mounted our horses and Javes turned his to face us.
For once, there wasn't anything silly in his expression as his eyes rested on Jeff and me, and we straightened in our saddles as we gave him our full attention. A breeze stirred the captain's cape for a moment, then was still.
"We are about to go into places fraught with pitfalls and snares, lads, which have destroyed better men than us.” We nodded, wide-eyed.
"Our enemy is swift and crafty, and you will meet with cunning beyond comprehension."
Our eyes grew wider.
"It's therefore imperative that, one, you stay in the middle of each shop we enter and not—I repeat—not touch anything. Two, you will keep silent until I give you permission to speak. Three, no matter what the shopkeeper may claim to have in his back room, you will not go in there. And, four, you will not accept any offers of sisters, daughters, cousins, nieces, or any other female relative, no matter what the inducement offered.” Jeff and I looked at each other, desperate to know what was in the back rooms and what did the female relatives look like.
Javes smiled. "Unless, of course, you want to get married."
Scratch the sisters.
The captain led us through broad boulevards and avenues, our horses' hooves clopping on the cobbled streets. There were others about and the closer we got to the market streets, the busier it became, as people conducted their business in the cool of the morning. Soon our horses were on a street full of just opened shops. I craned my neck, trying to find a tailor.
"Patience, Lieutenant," Javes said, riding beside me. "First things first."
"Yes, sir." I ignored the rude noises behind me.
We rounded a corner and in the shop windows were elaborately carved chairs, tables, and cabinets.
Javes read the discreet signs that hung over the doors, stopping at one that said GUAREZ AND SONS
and beneath that in smaller letters BY ROYAL APPOINTMENT. We dismounted and entered, a bell ringing over the door as we opened it. Instead of the instant appearance of the shopkeeper, though, we were left alone to appreciate the fragrance of beeswax and lemon, the feel of a soft, deep-pile carpet, and the ambiance of quiet elegance. Jeff and I huddled in the middle of the room while Javes strolled about, looking over the pieces.
After a little while, a rear doorway curtain parted and a smiling, silver-haired man entered. "What can I do for you, gracious sirs—" His smile faltered as he took in Jeff's common soldier uniform, but it collapsed completely when he looked at me. "My lord?”
"Hallo," Javes said from a corner, with his bugger me silly smile. "Guarez?"
The man nodded, still staring at me.
"I am Captain Javes and this is my aide,Lieutenant Lord Rabbit Chause e Flavan—"
My face froze.
"—and we are here to purchase furnishings for the new Border embassy." Javes patted around his body.
"Hang on, I've got a letter from the bank somewhere." He found it and handed it to the furnisher, who accepted it with a limp hand. Javes allowed him to scan it, then filched the letter back. "But first, do you use Border wood?"
"Uh, no.”
"Oh, splendid." Javes beamed. "Cause the ambassador is a little touchy about it on account of when you cut down a Border tree, you kill its sprite." He looked around the shop. "I'd hate to bring back one of your excellent pieces and have him say it's the body of an old friend, what?”
The furnisher now stared at Javes. "We use no material from the Border.”
Javes cranked his smile up another notch. "Then you won't mind if Lord Rabbit takes a gander, eh?"
I took my cue and began to walk around the shop, examining the furniture. "He's from the Border too, you know," Javes continued, his voice confidential. "Fourth son of Lord Rafe ibn Chause and Lady Hilga eso Flavan, right, Lord Rabbit?”
I paused in my circuit. "I am their seventh child, sir." Damn if I'd let him dismiss my sisters.
"Oh, yes," Javes said. "There are eight altogether." He looked as if he had just remembered the secret of life. "Looks awfully like his papa, doesn't he?"
"His grandfather," Guarez said. I felt his eyes sweep over me, taking in how my uniform hung on my lean frame. "He even wears his clothes the same.”
I finished and shook my head. "There's no Border wood here, sir." I looked at the curtained door that probably led to the workshop and Javes waved a hand.
"No, no need. If it's not out here, I'm sure it's not in there either." Javes' smile changed, becoming narrower, yet showing more teeth. "And I'm also sure that the good furnisher won't offend either Ambassador Laurel or Lord Rabbit ibn Chause by selling us smuggled spritewood, what?"
"No, gracious sirs—"
"Splendid." Javes beamed again.
Javes sat down with Guarez and was soon immersed in genteel dickering for the complete furnishing of the embassy. I went back to the middle of the room to Jeff. I wanted to think on why I had been displayed, and what plans I had thwarted when I couldn't accompany Captain Suiden to the bank yesterday. Also creeping around the edges was the remark about me looking like my grandda, and I found myself checking that my uniform was straight. I was so involved that it took me a while to realize that Jeff was quiet and not trying to make my present interesting with sounds, snickers and low-voiced comments, no matter that the captain had ordered us not to talk. I gave him a look and met a cold stare.
I sighed, then shrugged. I hadn't known that Javes was going to thrust my parents' nobility down the merchant's throat.
Javes stood up. "Excellent, Guarez. We will await you at the embassy this evening." He waited until the furnisher bowed. "And thank you for the recommendations." He turned and signaled us. "All right, men.
To our next destination." He checked a list that was on store stationery. "Which should be right around the corner.” Guarez escorted us to the door and gave another bow to Javes and then one to me.
"Captain, my lord." He shut the door so close behind us that I felt my trouser cuffs shift in the breeze.
The performance was repeated at the carpet, window coverings (something called blinds, made of thin, polished wood slats, bleached almost white), porcelain, silversmith, linen, and other shops. Captain Javes asked if they had any Border contraband, introduced me as a lord, had me check around, and then bargained hard for the supplying of me embassy in whatever the shop sold. He flashed around the letter of credit, careful not to let the shopkeepers drool on it, then had them agree to come to the embassy that evening to "see the scope of the job, what?" He never mentioned, though, that the ambassador was a mountain cat who walked on his back legs. I figured that there was going to be a whole lot of screaming in the old place that night.
We walked out of the last shop, the sun high overhead hitting us hard, and I was glad of the wide-brim hat. I glanced at Jeff, but he stared straight ahead, still in a snit over "Lieutenant Lord Rabbit." We mounted our horses and he fell in behind Javes and me when we started moving.
"I think first we should water our horses and then find something for us. I'm feeling a little peckish," Javes said.
I looked sideways at the captain. He caught it and raised an eyebrow. "Spit it out or let it go. But do not sulk, Lieutenant.”
My ma would accuse me of the sullens, usually when she pushed into where I didn't want her to be. I didn't care to hear the same from the captain. "What can I say, sir?”
"You can ask what the blazes is going on instead of playing the sacrificial victim.”
"It would have been nice to be informed before what is going on went on, sir.”
"So you would've been, if you hadn't been taken sick yesterday morning."
"Before I was to go to the bank, sir?”
Javes looked at me sideways. "Suiden was right. You're not as naive as you sometimes act, Lieutenant.”