Betrayed by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #5)(27)

“Of course.”

I slept uneasily that night, despite being cradled in Iannis’s warm, comforting embrace. My thoughts were too tangled up in my worries for me to settle down. How were Annia and Elnos faring? What was Noria up to? Had Comenius received any word from them? I wished I could rush to their side now, but I had to admit the news about the Osero lab was extremely troubling. If I was being fair and logical, shutting it down was more urgent than rescuing my friends.

But I wasn’t an automaton. Just because I knew in my head that going to Parabas first was the right thing to do, didn’t mean I felt as certain about that in my heart. I was conflicted, torn between the desire to do two things that were, in their own ways, equally important to me.

An urgent knock at the door woke me, and I shot upright, my heart pounding. Who was at the door? Was it a message from Fenris? Had something happened?

“I’ll get it,” Iannis murmured, placing a hand on my upper arm. “Lie back down.”

I did as he asked, burrowing beneath the bedclothes while he donned a robe and answered the door. Under different circumstances, I would have balked, but we couldn’t let an unknown servant see the two of us in bed together. So, instead, I hid and waited, listening to the messenger tell Iannis that he had received an urgent message from Solantha Palace.

“It’s from Fenris,” Iannis said, sitting down on the bed and unfolding the single sheet of paper. His violet eyes narrowed as he scanned the words. “He says that Annia is in trouble, and Elnos has lost contact with her.”

“What?” I shot upright again, my fists clenching in the bed sheets as fear coursed through my veins. “What kind of trouble? How did they get separated?”

“The message doesn’t say,” Iannis said, his brow creasing. “Comenius received an ether pigeon from Elnos, and the information contained was rather brief. Apparently, Elnos and Annia tracked Noria to Nika, Osero, and Elnos awaits reinforcements at the local inn.”

“Nika!” I exclaimed. “Do you think that Noria is in the very same plant that we’re about to destroy?”

“I’m afraid it would be too coincidental for that not to be the case. She’s an inventor, after all. I could see why the Resistance would find her useful there.”

“Well then we can’t just go in and blow it up.” I threw off the sheets and began pacing next to the bed. “If Noria is in there, we have to get her out.”

“As I said, we will do what we can, but remember that Noria is a traitor,” Iannis warned. “She chose her side, and is assisting the Resistance in committing genocide.”

“I can’t believe she would willingly participate in that. Who knows what they have her doing, and what she’s been told.” Groaning, I shoved my hands into my mass of curly hair and tugged, hard. Why was everything going to hell right now? “Annia could very well be in there with her, and she certainly doesn’t deserve to die. All she wanted was to save her little sister.”

Iannis sighed. “That is true. And I owe Annia a debt for her part in my rescue.” He stroked his chin for a moment, considering. “I have to meet with the local Chief Mage, but it makes sense to find Elnos first, and get a clearer picture of the situation. If he is staying in a local inn in a small town like that, he should be easy enough to find.”

“Great. So we’re leaving now, right?”

“Just as soon as you get your clothes on.”





12





The aerial view of Osero was impossibly beautiful. Pressing my nose against the glass window in the dirigible’s cabin, I stared out at the rolling hills and wide open valleys, covered in greenery as far as the eye could see. Lakes and rivers shimmered like liquid silver in the afternoon sunlight, and I imagined all sorts of creatures teeming in the vast wilderness spread before me.

“It’s not all forests,” Iannis commented from his seat across from mine. His violet eyes were fixed on the view outside the window as well. “Though it does seem that way from up above.”

“I know that,” I said, tracing a dirt road with my finger that was barely visible from this height. “We’ve seen some small towns already, and I imagine the capital will be much bigger.”

“Yes,” Iannis agreed, “though not as large as Solantha. I have been to Parabas—it is quite cosmopolitan for its size, and many foreign magic users have settled there. Homeschooling is quite popular, so some humans escape magical screening and end up under the tutelage of witches and other foreign magic practitioners. The local Mages Guild generally turns a blind eye, unless any of these humans get out of control and cause real damage.”

“And what happens then?” I asked, very interested given my own past.

“The human has their powers stripped, and the mentor faces imprisonment or hard labor in the mines.”

I winced. On the one hand, that didn’t seem very fair… but on the other hand, at least these humans had a chance to practice magic.

“I know that not all humans born with magic are automatically mages, but how do you know if they’re a mage or a witch or whatever?” I asked. “I’ve always been a little confused on that point.”

Iannis sighed, rubbing at his temple. “There are varying degrees of magical ability. Mages, witches, and sorcerers just practice their magic talent in different ways. Your friend Comenius, for example, could have been a mage of middling strength, had he not been raised as a hedge-witch, as could his lady friend, Elania. But there are others who only have a very small amount of magic, and that magic tends to manifest in a certain way. That is why you have healers and fortune tellers and the like—they can perform a specific kind of magic, but nothing else.”