Bound by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #2)(12)

I sat back in my chair and told them about how I’d run into Inspector Lakin, and how he’d just come from interviewing Sillara’s lover. I filled them in on the details we’d found, telling them about the disappearances and how none of the victims’ families had received any ransom notes.

“How strange,” Comenius said. “So these shifters have all been disappearing?”

“All within the span of the last year or so,” I confirmed. “I was thinking maybe we could pick through those old Shifter Courier papers you have and see if we can’t dig up anything else useful.”

“Of course.” Comenius turned to Noria. “Would you mind getting them for me?”

“Sure thing.” Noria hopped to her feet, then disappeared around the counter and into the back.

“So,” Comenius said. “How is your training going at the Palace?”

I groaned. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“That good, eh?” Comenius’s lips twitched. “The Chief Mage must be putting you through your paces.”

I snorted. “Yeah, for a very small amount of time every week. The rest of the time I’m running around the Palace or the city doing grunt work for the Mages Guild in exchange for all the wonderful training I’m not getting.” I sighed in disgust. “I probably get the least amount of training of all the apprentices at the Guild.”

Comenius frowned. “Yes, but at least you’re finally learning how to use your magic. And more importantly, you’re alive. I think that’s worth having to put up with a teacher who has limited time to train you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Figures you would take the Chief Mage’s side.” But Comenius was right. If Iannis hadn’t decided to claim responsibility for me and make me his apprentice, I would have been executed for the crime of having a magical talent without being born into a mage family.

Technically, I did have a mage family somewhere in the world, but I had no idea who my father was or any family he might have. So I’d been born into Solantha’s Jaguar Clan, and since my late mother’s older sister, Mafiela, was the Clan Chieftain, I’d been accepted into the clan without question, the secret of my birth kept from all but my immediate family. Unfortunately my aunt Mafiela couldn’t stand me, because in her eyes I represented the bastard who’d knocked up my mother and ruined her chances of getting a proper mate; so when my mother had died I’d found myself on the streets not too long after that.

So much for family.

No matter how I looked at it, I owed the Chief Mage everything, and I knew I should probably be more understanding of his position. But shifters are emotional by nature, and I had feelings for him that I did my best to suppress, feelings that were constantly being hurt by his absence and neglect. It didn’t help matters that once or twice I’d been convinced that he had feelings for me too. And it definitely didn’t help that our Master/Apprentice relationship didn’t allow for those feelings.

By Magorah, but I wished I could put my emotions aside the way Iannis did so effortlessly. My life would be much easier.

“Here we go,” Noria called, coming back into the room with a stack of old papers in her arm. She dropped them onto the low wooden coffee table with a loud thump, then plopped back down into her chair. “So, where do we start?”

We divided up the papers amongst ourselves and aside from a few customers here and there, spent a mostly uninterrupted hour going through them, checking for any references to shifter disappearances. As I half-expected, we only found a handful – the article regarding Tylin, and two more concerning clanless shifters who just so happened to work in Shiftertown.

“Ugh.” I tossed the last paper down onto the table in disgust. “I don’t get it. There were at least twenty names on Sillara’s list. There should be more than just three articles here!”

“Well, you did say most of them were clanless shifters,” Noria pointed out. “The Shifter Courier mostly focuses on Shiftertown happenings, so maybe they just didn’t feel like covering those other stories.”

“Normally I would agree with you,” Comenius said slowly, setting down his own paper, “except that the Shifter Courier has been struggling for a while now, and they need good content. Even though the majority of these victims weren’t Shiftertown residents, their disappearances would still have been of interest to the Shifter Courier’s readership. I have to agree with Naya – it is quite suspicious that there has been so little coverage.”

“Just like the silver poisonings,” I pointed out, crossing my arms over my chest. “Say what you want, Noria, but this whole thing stinks of a cover up. I want to go and investigate the Courier and find out what’s going on over there. Yantz was the one pulling the strings over at the Herald; I don’t see why the same thing couldn’t be happening over at the Courier too.”

Noria opened her mouth to say something, but the telephone on the counter rang. Comenius sighed, then got up to go answer it.

“Over the Hedge. How can I help you?”

“Good afternoon,” a cool female voice answered. My sensitive ears picked her up clearly, and I froze – that was Dira, one of the secretaries at the Mages Guild. “Can you please inform Sunaya Baine that she is expected back at Solantha Palace immediately? The Chief Mage requires her presence.”