Hunted by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #3)(38)

“ENOUGH!” the captain finally roared, silencing the fervent buzz that had spread throughout the room. “Stop acting like a bunch of hysterical housewives, the lot of you, and sit down!”

The men obeyed, returning to their seats with bowed shoulders, though plenty of them still glanced furtively in the direction of the windows.

Captain Milios huffed at the sight of his men. “You all are acting like a flock of hens who’ve had their feathers torn out,” he scolded them. “That dirigible isn’t going to spot us from so high up. We’re too well camouflaged.”

“With all due respect, captain, we’re not worried about the town being discovered so much as the dirigible that Xiver took down,” one of the soldiers, a skinny guy with mousy brown hair and a thin face, spoke up. He pointed toward a broad-shouldered man with inky-black hair and a square face sitting two tables away, who straightened instantly at the sound of his name. “If that airship finds the dirigible, they’ll know the delegates went down near here.”

“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that, Private,” the captain scoffed. “That’s why we’ve sent our resident mage out to take care of it. He should be done waving his magic fingers around by now. There won’t be a single trace of that dirigible left behind.”

“A mage!” Fenris shouted in my head as Annia and I exchanged a look. “There’s a mage helping them?”

“Wipe that look off your face before someone sees it,” I hissed back at him – his eyes were snapping fire, his cheeks turning a brilliant shade of red. “The last thing we need is for the captain to be even more suspicious of us!”

“I don’t think that search party’ll find the dirigible, even if that mage doesn’t do his job,” Xiver drawled, a lazy grin on his face as his barrel chest puffed out. “I did a pretty damn good job hiding it away when I landed it in the mountains. And they’re never gonna find the Chief Mage, not after what I did to him –”

“Thank you, Sergeant Xiver,” the captain barked, cutting him off before Xiver could say anything more. “Now if you’re done bragging about your piloting skills, let’s finish breakfast so we can get started with our day.”

“Yes sir.” Xiver saluted the captain, but it was almost a lazy gesture, and the smirk didn’t quite disappear from his face. The captain narrowed his eyes until Xiver finally turned back to his food, and the normal level of conversation resumed.

“I wonder who the mage is that’s helping them?” Annia muttered as she brought some dirty dishes over to me. “Seems kind of strange that any mage would join up with the Resistance.”

“Maybe they’re getting offered some kind of deal,” I suggested as I dunked my hands into the soapy water, fishing for the sponge I’d dropped. “Or they’ve got a bone to pick with the establishment.”

“I guess, but I can’t see the Resistance honoring any deal they make with a mage,” Annia said dubiously. “Ultimately their goal is to remove the mages from power, so they couldn’t have one amongst their ranks.”

She went back to her station, and I mulled over her words for a few moments as I scrubbed dishes. Annia was right – the Resistance might be temporarily allying themselves with a mage, but there was no way that relationship was going to last.

“Sunaya.” Fenris grabbed my attention again, his voice calm now, though ire still simmered beneath the surface. “I’ve been listening to the captain and the sergeant talking. They’re debating whether or not to execute the delegates.”

I stiffened. “What are they saying, exactly?” I turned my head to look toward the front table. Captain Milios and Sergeant Brun had their heads close together, and they seemed to be arguing fiercely. I cursed myself for not being close enough to hear them – the noise in the mess hall combined with the fact that I was all the way in the kitchen rendered my super-hearing useless. Thankfully Fenris was only one table away, and though he kept his head down and appeared to be focused solely on his food, he clearly had an ear cocked toward the conversation.

“The sergeant is arguing that the delegates are draining camp resources, specifically the food, drugs, and manpower required to keep an eye on them. He and a number of the other men think the delegates should just be killed since they have no value and are enemies of the Resistance. But the captain is saying they need to wait on orders from the Benefactor first.”

“The Benefactor!” The long stirring spoon I was holding slipped from my hands and clanged against the lip of the sink before disappearing beneath the soapy water. I fished it out and finished scrubbing it, then stuck it on the rapidly-filling drying rack. “I didn’t think that general members of the Resistance knew about the Benefactor.”

“Why wouldn’t they?”

“Because Rylan didn’t know, and he’s the same rank as Captain Milios.”

“Do you think it’s possible that Rylan might not have been telling the truth?” Fenris asked cautiously.

“I don’t see how. He was standing right in front of me when we had the conversation.” Due to our heightened senses as well as sensitivity to body language, it was extremely difficult to lie to a shifter. Besides, I couldn’t quite stomach the idea that Rylan and I had grown so far apart that he was comfortable lying to my face.