Burned by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #1)(39)

I tried to struggle as the guards marched me out of the room and down the tower steps, but I barely had the strength to fight off a mouse, never mind a troop of burly men. More tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, but I held them back with the last of my strength. If I was being taken to the audience chamber, did that mean that the Chief Mage was back, and ready to pass sentence? And that Fenris was there too, and simply ignoring my calls for help?

Elgarion flung the double doors to the audience chamber wide, and I squinted as the bright light assaulted my tear-swollen eyes. But by the time the guards dragged me across the carpet to stand before the Chief Mage’s desk, my eyes had adjusted, and suspicion filled me as I saw that it wasn’t Iannis at all who stood in the Chief Mage’s place, but Director Chartis.

“You!” I pointed an accusing, if shackled, finger at him. “You’re not the Chief Mage. What right do you have to call me here like this?”

Director Chartis splayed his hands on the desk as he leaned forward, leveling me with a stony glare. He was wearing gold and blue robes, the Chief Mage’s colors, which made this whole thing even weirder.

“As the Director of the Mage’s Guild, I have every right to call a hearing in a matter as urgent as this. I act in the Chief Mage’s stead whenever he is away on business.”

“He’s supposed to be back today,” I insisted, though my heart sank at the truth in his words. “Surely he would want to attend to this matter himself.”

Chartis made a slicing motion with his hand, and a buffet of air slapped me in the face. My head snapped to the side, shock running through me as my cheek stung in response.

“Don’t presume that you know the Chief Mage’s mind simply because you’ve spent a few hours with him,” Chartis said coldly. “I am his deputy, and I decide what matters are important enough for him to speak on.”

I frowned. Something didn’t seem right about this. Director Chartis was the one who’d recommended allowing me to appeal the Chief Mage in the first place, because he’d been afraid of the repercussions of not allowing me to speak to him. Yet now he was willing to go behind the Chief Mage’s back?

“This is about the Resistance, isn’t it?” I blurted. “You’re in charge of monitoring their activities in Solantha, and you haven’t gotten very far, have you?” That explained why he was willing to circumvent the Chief Mage – mages did not take failure very well at all.

“Silence!” He air-slapped me again, and my lip split open from the force of the blow. Anger burned in his eyes – the first real emotion other than boredom I’d seen from him, and it shocked me almost as much as the magical blows. “I will ask the questions, and you will answer them.”

I licked my throbbing lower lip, blood coating the tip of my tongue as I eyed him warily. Spots of color rode high on his cheekbones, and his hands on the table were clenched into fists. There must be a lot riding on my answers.

“Who were the three shifters who attempted to breach the wards last night?”

“I have no idea.”

He motioned again, and I staggered back under the force of another slap. “You will answer my questions truthfully.”

“I don’t know them!” I shouted, the anger rushing through my veins giving me renewed strength. “I’m an Enforcer, not a deserter! I don’t know anything about the Resistance!”

Director Chartis walked around the desk slowly, his wintergreen eyes gleaming. “I think you know more than you are letting on,” he said. “Your cousin Rylan is a member of the Resistance. How can you claim to know nothing about them?”

“Rylan and I don’t exactly talk much,” I snapped. “Like I said, I’m an Enforcer. He wouldn’t want to put me in a bad position.”

“Oh really?” the Director sneered. “If you don’t talk much, then how is it that he knew exactly what room you were in when he came to rescue you?”

I opened my mouth, and then shut it again. There was nothing I could tell him that wouldn’t incriminate Rylan. Clenching my hands, I glared at him, wishing I could conjure a fireball so I could melt the self-satisfied expression off his face.

“You can’t prove that Rylan was there last night. The shifters who tried to break in were gone by the time you showed up.”

The Director scoffed. “Please! As if any judge or jury wouldn’t believe my word over his.” He pinned me with a cold glare. “Enough games, Miss Baine. You will tell me what I want to know, or else –”

“And just what is it that you want to know, Argon?”

My knees wobbled at the sound of Iannis’s voice coming from the entrance to the chamber. Relief rushed through me as I turned to see him striding up the carpet, with Fenris in wolf form trotting at his heels. His expression was stony as usual, but the blaze in his violet eyes told a different story – someone was about to get a serious ass kicking.

And for once, it wasn’t me.

“Lord Iannis.” The Director bowed deeply, and I caught the scent of fear rolling off him. “I was simply questioning the prisoner –”

“In the audience chamber? Wearing ceremonial robes?”

Director Chartis flushed, drawing his gold and blue robes around himself, and it dawned on me that perhaps he was being a little too zealous about his Acting Chief Mage status. Was he plotting to steal the coveted title for himself?