Hunted by Magic (11 page)

“Thank you, sergeant,” we both said.

“Alright, now set your things down here and come with me. It’s time to put you two to work.”

“Where exactly are you assigning us?” I asked. I hoped it was something that allowed me to move around the camp, so that we could discover the location of the prisoners.

“The kitchens, of course.” The sergeant arched a brow, and for the first time his lips quirked into a smile. “It’s about time someone brought a woman’s touch to the slop they serve as food around here.”

“
T
his is unbelievable
,” I growled under my breath as I scrubbed furiously at a cast iron pan using coarse salt and steel wool. The sleeves of my shirt were rolled up to my elbows, and I was wearing a colorful rag wrapped around my head to keep my hair away from the food. “You’d think they’d at least give us a little bit of a learning curve before dumping us in here on our own.”

“Yeah, right.” Annia snorted from behind me as she wiped down the stove. “I swear the cook practically skipped out of the doors as soon as we arrived. Guy was fucking whistling a happy tune. Even if the sergeant had told him to stay, I bet he would have hightailed it as soon as we were left alone.”

We talked quietly to make sure no one overheard us, though that was unlikely due to all the background noise. The mess hall was nearly full to bursting, with over a hundred men sitting ass to elbow at the picnic-style tables and stuffing food into their mouths from rough-hewn wooden trenchers. A third or so were shifters, and they mostly sat with each other. We’d had less than two hours to take the disgusting slop the former cook was putting together and turn it into a passable meal. I thanked Magorah that Annia knew her way around a kitchen, because my own cooking skills were rudimentary at best. We’d turned out some decent sandwiches using canned meat, fried potatoes, and green beans, and you would have thought we’d served them a gourmet meal from the way the men’s eyes lit up as they came up to the serving counter with their trenchers. Quite a few of them had complimented us on more than our culinary skills, their eyes lingering on the swell of our breasts beneath our shirts. It had taken me every ounce of willpower I had to smile flirtatiously at them, when what I really wanted to do was punch them in their leering faces. But if we wanted to find out where the prisoners were hidden, we had to start making some friends, and kicking these soldiers’ asses wasn’t going to help.

“I just wish we weren’t stuck in here the entire day,” I grumbled. “How are we supposed to talk to any of the men if they’re out there and we’re in here?” I spared a glance toward the mess hall, which I could see clearly through the large, rectangular opening in the wall. Fenris was sitting at one of the tables with several shifters, looking withdrawn and uncomfortable as he ate. The other shifters were ignoring him, and he made no effort to try and insert himself into the conversation. “Fenris certainly doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” Annia moved to cleaning the steel countertop in the center of the kitchen, and I had to move my cast iron off it to get out of her way. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much, though. We’re the only women around, and those men probably haven’t seen a pretty face in months. I’ll bet a few of them are going to wander back here. And besides, the guy who’s on babysitting duty can’t stop staring at my ass.”

I flicked my gaze toward the soldier standing about twenty feet away in the mess hall next to the entrance nearest us. He was the classic tall, dark, and handsome human, with a day’s growth of beard on his strong jaw, and his pale blue eyes seemed to follow Annia around the room. I met his eyes, and watched with amusement as his high cheekbones colored before he jerked his gaze away, scanning the rest of the mess hall. Right now there were three other soldiers policing the mess hall, mostly there to make sure the other soldiers played nice and didn’t end up in a food fight or something worse, but he’d been here before lunch. I had a feeling he was stationed here at the captain’s orders to make sure we didn’t pull anything fishy.

“Well between the two of us, I’m pretty sure you’ve got the best shot at seducing info out of these guys,” I admitted as I finished wiping out the cast iron pan. I hung it up on its hook by the stove, then grabbed a rag and started wiping down the cooking dishes that were hanging in the drying rack. “They don’t seem to like me as much.”

Annia shrugged. “If you were a human, they’d be just as into your ass as they are mine, especially since you’ve got more of it than I do.” Annia grinned at me, and I stuck out my tongue – I was in good shape but I didn’t have Annia’s willowy figure. “You could probably get one of those shifter boys to tell you something, though.”

“I think I’ll leave the seducing up to you.” There was only one male I wanted to get my hands on, a mage with violet eyes and dark hair the color of glossy cherrywood. Seduction wasn’t really my strong suit – I just didn’t have the patience for it, and besides, it was almost impossible to lie to a shifter about finding them attractive.

As the men finished eating, they brought their trenchers up one by one and thanked us for the meal. Annia stationed herself by the counter and took her time chatting each one up, giving them smiles and winks while I busied myself washing dishes. There wasn’t really time for her to get any info out of the men, but we both knew they’d be thinking about her, and hopefully one of them would come back.

Fenris was one of the last to come up, and as he handed Annia a trencher, I heard him whisper “Good luck,” to her under his breath. A smile curved my lips – he knew what she was doing just as well as I did. To me, he added,
“I’ve been put on maintenance crew, so I’ll have more mobility around the camp than you. I’ll tell you if I learn anything interesting, and let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”

“Will do,”
I told him, and then he left.

Soon, the hall was empty except for Tall, Dark, and Handsome, who was leaning against the wall, arms crossed as he watched us work – or rather Annia. I nearly rolled my eyes – his own were glued so firmly to her ass that I doubted he’d even noticed my expression.

“Showtime,” Annia muttered as she grabbed a bucket and a rag. Now that lunch was over, it was time for us to clean up after the men. I took up a broom and started sweeping the kitchen, but kept one eye on Annia as she approached the table nearest to the mess hall and set her bucket of water down. She dunked her rag into the water, then leaned across the table and wiped it down, giving the soldier a great view of her cleavage. The guy’s throat bobbed, and as his eyes brightened with lust I was sure there were things bobbing beneath his clothing too.

Annia chose that moment to straighten up and “accidentally” knock over the bucket of water. “Oh no!” she cried as liquid spilled all over the long-sleeved white shirt she wore. The wet fabric stuck to her like a second skin, becoming translucent. I had to choke back a laugh when the soldier’s eyes nearly bugged out at the sight of Annia’s nipples poking through the fabric. Men were so easy.

“A-are you alright?” the soldier asked, springing forward as his brain finally kicked into gear. “You’re not hurt or anything, are you?”

“N-no.” Annia shivered, pulling at her shirt. “I’m just cold and wet and oh, I hate this!” she wailed, actual tears gathering in her dark eyes. “I need to change my clothes now, but if I don’t get this done in time, Captain Milios said he was going to have me thrown in the dungeon!”

“There, there, now.” The soldier patted her arm, adopting the soothing and slightly patronizing tone men tended to use around hysterical women. “Captain Milios isn’t going to throw you into the dungeon just for spilling water on yourself.”

“That’s what one of the soldiers told me,” Annia sniffled. “And they’ve been here longer than I have.”

“Yeah, well some of the guys here can be asses.” The soldier shrugged off his khaki shirt and handed it to her, revealing an undershirt that clung to his muscular torso. I’d always assumed the Resistance was just a ragtag bunch, but the men I’d seen here were all in good fighting shape and uniformed. They weren’t perfect, but they were far more disciplined than I’d anticipated. “Here, wear this.”

“Thank you.” Annia sniffled one more time, then gave the soldier a brilliant smile that had him blushing all over again. That blush crept all the way down his neck and disappeared beneath the neckline of his undershirt as Annia pulled off her sopping-wet top, leaving her standing there in nothing but pants and a white bra.

“So, is there really a dungeon around here?” Annia asked as she slowly slipped the soldier’s shirt on, taking her time in adjusting the fabric around her shoulders, which were far too slim for the garment. “Or was that other soldier just making things up?”

“Not a dungeon, exactly,” the soldier said, his eyes glued to the rounded flesh swelling over the cups of Annia’s bra. “But we do use the old mineshaft to hold prisoners, and you could say that’s kind of like a dungeon.”

“Oh really?” Annia’s dark eyes widened, her mouth forming a small ‘o’ of shock. “So the soldier wasn’t lying, I could be sent there?” She slipped the bottom button of the shirt through its hole as she spoke.

“I’m sure the captain wouldn’t actually send you down there,” the soldier assured her. “He wouldn’t want you there with those vile mages.”

“Mages?” Annia gasped.

The soldier stood up a little straighter, looking chagrined. “I think I’ve said too much.”

“That’s incredible!” Annia pressed a fluttering hand against her exposed bosom, and I had to admire how cleverly she directed the soldier’s attention back to her body. “I had no idea this camp was so hardcore. I know the Resistance is fighting against the mages, but I didn’t know we’d grown so strong that we could actually capture some of them.”

The soldier’s chest seemed to swell with pride at that. “Yeah, well, we had a pretty good plan –”

The door swung open, and Sergeant Brun stepped in. His eyes nearly bulged out of his head as he saw Annia standing there with the soldier’s shirt only halfway buttoned. “Private Gilliam, what is the meaning of this!”

“Sir!” The private snapped to attention, his cheeks coloring once more, and I nearly snickered at the abject mortification in his pretty blue eyes. “I apologize, but the recruit here spilled water all over her shirt. I didn’t think it was appropriate for her to be in a wet t-shirt, so I offered her my shirt to wear.”

“And you think
this
is appropriate instead?” Sergeant Brun asked, swinging his baleful gaze toward Annia again. She’d hastily buttoned up her shirt and stood there with her hands behind her back and her head bowed, looking sheepish.

“I’m so sorry, sergeant,” Annia said meekly. “It was an accident. I didn’t mean to get Private Gilliam in trouble. He was just trying to help.”

“I’m sure he was,” Sergeant Brun said dryly. “But I can’t have Private Gilliam on duty wearing only his undershirt. Go fetch another shirt from your quarters and change, and then hurry back here and give the private his shirt back.”

“Yes sir.” Annia saluted.

“And don’t let this happen again. I don’t need you distracting my soldiers with your charms.” His eyes narrowed.

“It won’t, sir,” Annia assured him.

“Women,” Brun muttered under his breath. It sounded like a curse. “Get going.”

He stalked out of the mess hall, and Annia winked at me before following him outside. Guess we knew our next destination now – the mineshaft. But how were we supposed to get there when we had watchers following us around at all times?

“
M
an
, that was exhausting,” Annia groaned as she collapsed onto her cot. “I’ve never had to cook for so many people in my life.”

“No kidding,” I agreed, sitting down heavily on the edge of my own cot so I could pull off my boots. Annia hadn’t even bothered taking her own shoes off – she lay sprawled out on her bed, eyes closed as the light from the lantern flickered across her face. “At least the job gives us full access to the pantry.”

“Which you happily raided.” Annia snorted. “I swear I don’t understand how you eat so much, Naya. I’d look like a balloon if I packed in the amount of food you did this afternoon.”

“Yeah, it’s a real blessing having a food bill three times the size of yours.” I rolled my eyes as I stretched out onto my cot. “The grass isn’t always greener on the other side, you know.”

“I do know.” Annia opened her eyes as she rolled onto her side to face me. “I was just trying to lighten things up a bit. You’ve been pretty down in the dumps recently. Is it because of the dead end with the Chief Mage’s necklace?” she asked, keeping her voice low in case someone outside was listening.

“That’s a big part of it, yeah.” Folding my arms beneath my head, I stared up at the ceiling, tracing the old wooden beams through the darkness. “I thought for sure we were gonna find him at the other end of this necklace, so it’s pretty discouraging that the plan didn’t work out.”

“True, but at least we know the Chief Mage is in this area, right? We never would have been able to narrow it down that far without your charm.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Reaching beneath my shirt, I pulled out the two
serapha
charms and gazed at them. They blazed to life instantly beneath my scrutiny, like two tiny stars clutched in the palm of my hand, and a rush of longing hit me, so intense it was painful. “It’s just…I want him to be
here.
With
me
.”

There was a long, pregnant pause, and color rushed into my cheeks as I realized I’d said too much.

“Naya…do you have
feelings
for him?”

“We’re master and apprentice,” I insisted, stuffing the charms back down the front of my shirt. “It’s not like I could help growing closer to him after all the time we’ve spent together.”

Annia snorted again. “Yeah, but it doesn’t seem like the kind of relationship you had with Roanas.”

“No one can replace Roanas.” A pang hit my chest at the mention of my dead mentor, the lion shifter and Shiftertown Inspector who’d taken me in after my aunt Mafiela had kicked me out of the jaguar clan. “He was the closest thing I ever had to a father.”

“My point exactly.”

I let out another huff. “What do you want me to say, Annia? That I wish I was a full mage, or that Iannis was a shifter, so that I could actually do something about my attraction to him?” My fists curled at my sides, and I itched to use them.

“You don’t have to have either of those things to get what you want, if you want it bad enough.”

I narrowed my gaze at Annia. “There’s no way Iannis and I could ever be a couple. I’m the embodiment of why mages and shifters don’t breed, and besides, masters and apprentices aren’t supposed to have romantic relationships. Iannis would never break the rules just to be with me, especially as the Chief Mage.”

“I dunno, Naya. He’s already flaunted convention more than once on your behalf. When he made you his apprentice he was practically snubbing all the other mages to their faces, which they couldn’t have been happy about. If he wants you badly enough, he’ll figure out a way to make it happen.”

“Yeah, well I’m not gonna bank on that. I don’t really know how he feels about me.” But warmth stole through me at the idea that maybe, just maybe, Iannis and I could be more. There were sparks between us, no question about that. On one or two occasions, those sparks had been hot enough that I’d been
sure
something was going to happen between us. But it never had, and I wasn’t sure how much of that was because of my reservations or because of his. Just because Iannis found me attractive didn’t mean he was going to act on it. Truthfully, if we were both smart, neither of us ever would.

“Sunaya?”
Fenris’s voice echoed in my head, drawing me away from my melancholy thoughts.
“Are you awake?”

“Yeah.”
I sat up, instantly on alert.
“What’s up?”

“I’ve managed to figure out the shift schedule for the guards watching the prisoners. If we time this right, I think we can get you in to talk to the prisoners, so listen close and follow my directions…”

A
n hour later
, I was creeping down the dirt road leading from the town to the mineshaft where the Resistance housed their prisoners. I wore the illusion of Private Remis, the soldier Fenris said was due to replace the one on duty, or at least I hoped I was. Fenris had described him in great detail, and I remembered handing him a trencher at both lunch and dinner, but there had been so many faces it was possible I could have made a mistake. To be safe, I was careful to stick to the shadows and remain as inconspicuous as possible.

The moon was over half full, providing plenty of illumination, and after about a ten-minute brisk walk the mine came into view. It was a large, vertical shaft carved into the base of the mountain, accessible only by a wire cage that could be hoisted up and down via a pulley system. Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to be able to use the thing as the mule used to pull the primitive elevator was stabled for the night, but thanks to Fenris I had other options.

As Fenris had assured me, only a single guard was posted outside the mineshaft. He was leaning up against the wall, his stance relaxed and his eyes wandering, but he straightened abruptly at the sight of me.

“Remis! Is it time for shift change already?”

“Not yet,” I admitted in a deep, gruff voice that matched my burly exterior. “I was having trouble sleeping, so I thought I’d come out early and keep you company.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” the soldier said as I approached, relaxing his stance. “Being stuck on night shift has been hell on my sleep schedule –”

I placed a hand on his shoulder, then murmured a Word that Fenris had taught me. Instantly, the man’s eyes fluttered closed and he sank onto his bottom, head thunking against the rock wall as he slipped into a deep sleep. According to Fenris, he would be out until someone woke him up, presumably the very soldier I was impersonating when he arrived for shift change.

Pretty effective,
I thought as I stared down at the soldier, who was snoring lightly. And this was just one of the spells Fenris had taught me tonight. I’d tried to get him to tell me how he knew them, but he’d brushed off my questions, telling me he didn’t have time to explain. When we got out of this mess I was going to wring the truth out of him, but with less than half an hour left until shift change I didn’t have time to ponder it.

Assured that the soldier wasn’t going anywhere, I hurried to the edge of the shaft and peered down into the darkness. I could make out a very faint light from one of the tunnels that branched off from the main shaft, far below. I breathed a little sigh of relief – I had good night vision, but even I couldn’t see in pitch darkness. Taking a deep breath, I muttered the Words to the second spell Fenris had taught me, and after a few moments my feet began to lift off the ground. A mixture of excitement and fear bubbled up inside me at the fact that I was
flying
, but I tamped down on it and focused on controlling my trajectory as I guided my floating body down the shaft. There was enough space around the cage that I was able to squeeze past it, and I floated down through the darkness, heading for the glow. It steadily grew brighter the further I sank, until finally a tunnel opening came into view, lit on both sides by torches bracketed into the rough-hewn walls. I wrinkled my nose as the scents of urine, feces, and unwashed bodies rolled over me, and knew without a doubt that this was where the delegates were being kept.

I floated into the tunnel, then released the levitation spell and touched down softly onto the hard-packed dirt. A wave of exhaustion hit me – the levitation spell used a constant stream of energy – and I pressed my hand against the dirt wall to steady myself. In the murky shadows beyond the torchlight, I could make out several bodies propped upright against the wall with their legs stretched out in front of them, heads hanging in apathy. I frowned as I realized I didn’t see any chains or scent any magical wards holding them here, and wondered why they hadn’t escaped yet. They were all mages with more experience than I – surely they could have magicked their way out of here by now? And why hadn’t any of them noticed me?

Dirt shifted beneath my boots as I moved slowly toward them, and I raised a hand, conjuring a ball of fire for illumination. The sphere hovered inches from my palm, and as I held it high, it cast bluish-green light against the walls. The seven men stirred and moaned at the intrusion of light, and as I cast my gaze over their ornate but dirty robes I confirmed that they were, indeed, the delegates who’d accompanied Iannis on the dirigible. How different they looked now, from the proud officials who rarely gave me the time of day. I wrinkled my nose at the scent of vomit and other bodily excretions hanging in the air, and wished I’d brought something to tie around my face and block the smell.

One of them opened his eyes to stare at me, and I narrowed my own eyes at his blurry gaze and blown pupils that nearly eclipsed his grey-green eyes. “Wh-what do you want now?” he slurred, and my heart sank. No wonder the Resistance wasn’t worried about the mages escaping. They’d been pumped full of drugs.

Crouching down in front of him, I tamped down the flame in my hand so I wouldn’t continue to hurt his eyes. His dark brown hair was scraggly, his triangular jaw covered with a patchwork of stubble that told me growing a beard didn’t come easily to him. “I’m looking for the Chief Mage,” I said enunciating my words slowly and clearly. “Have you seen him?”

“’m not answering your questions.” Those grey-green eyes flashed with contempt, and the mage inched himself a little more upright while doing his best to look down at me from his long nose even though my head was above his. “I don’t…answer…to you.”

I nearly snorted. Typical mage attitude, always acting superior even in the face of death and starvation. Truthfully, it was admirable, but a little annoying since we were both on the same side. Taking a gamble, I dropped the illusion and allowed my true form to show.

The delegate’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull. “Y-you!”

“Shhh!” I clapped a hand over his mouth as the others stirred. “I remember you – you’re Bosal ar’Nuris, the Secretary of Education and Culture.” I tried to hide my shock at seeing him in such a state – I was used to seeing these mages striding briskly through the halls of the Palace, proud and aloof, not sitting here in their own excrement. “If you start yelling, you’ll bring the whole Resistance camp down here!” The delegate struggled beneath my hand for a moment, but he was too weak and disoriented from the drugs, so eventually he subsided and I released him.

The delegate tried to speak again, but the drugs proved to be too much of an impediment for coherent speech. On instinct, I touched my hand to his shoulder and pushed some magic into him, visualizing the drugs leaving his body and energy filling him. My stomach pitched with nausea, and I tightened my grip on his shoulder as another wave of tiredness washed through me.

Beneath my hand, I felt the delegate’s shoulders straighten. He sat up a little, some alertness returning to his eyes, and I let out a breath of relief. No, I hadn’t healed him, but maybe I’d helped him enough that he could talk to me now.

“You’re the…hybrid…” he slurred as he peered up at me through the darkness. “Lord Iannis’s apprentice. Did he…send you here to free us?”

“No, though of course I’ll do what I can. I came out here trying to find him. Why is he not with you?”

Bosal shrugged one shoulder. “Don’t…remember. None of us do. We were on the airship one moment…down here the next. No idea where Lord Iannis is. Hoped he’d escaped back to Solantha…but clearly hasn’t, since you’re here.” Disappointment rang in his thick voice, mirroring my own.

“Do you have any idea what the Resistance is planning?” I pressed, hoping to get something,
anything
out of the mage. “What was their purpose in taking down the airship?”

“Wanted…to stop us from attending the Convention.” The mage’s voice seemed to be getting a little stronger, and I wondered if the dose they’d given him was starting to fade. “Don’t know why, but they’re planning something.”

“Alright.” I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose with my free hand. A quick glance at my wristwatch told me my time was about up. “I’d better get back before someone misses me.”

“Wait.” The delegate’s hand shot out, wrapping around my wrist with surprising strength. “You’re not going…to leave us here, are you?”

“I would like to free you, Secretary,” I said with regret, “but can you even stand? Do you have a spell to rouse the others, and get up the mineshaft?”