Hunted by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #3)(9)

“Interesting,” I murmured, sitting back against the sofa – more to put some distance between myself and the disconcerting spell than to relax. I found what she was doing a little gruesome; not just the act, but the meaning behind it. We’d buried my mother after she’d died, returning her to the soil from whence she’d come so that she might serve as nourishment for other lifeforms. The idea of stripping her bones from her carcass and grinding them up to be used in spellcasting sent a shiver down my spine. I wondered if this was something mages did as well, and resolved to ask Iannis about it, if I managed to rescue him.

When I managed to rescue him, I corrected myself silently.

“Alright,” Elania said softly. She dusted off the last remnants of bone from her palm, then held it out and looked up expectantly at me. “I will need your necklace now.”

I hesitated, my fingers toying with the charm. “The Chief Mage said that I shouldn’t take it off.”

“It’s alright, Naya,” Comenius said gently, his hand on my shoulder. “Elania won’t do anything to harm your serapha charm. She’s just trying to help.”

Nodding, I pushed my mass of curls over my right shoulder, then reached behind me to unfasten the necklace. My fingers trembled, so it took me three tries, but I finally got it off. As I handed it off to her, my chest ached a little, similar to the time when I’d first separated the tiny piece of my soul that I’d put into the matching charm Iannis had worn. That’s how serapha charms worked – you gave the other person a small fragment of your spirit, so that you were bound to them and would always be able to find them via the charms so long as they continued to wear them. The necklace I wore held a piece of Iannis’s soul, so it stood to reason that Elania could use it to locate him.

Elania dangled the necklace over the map and began chanting in a strange language. She moved her hand above the map, making sure to hover the stone over every state in a kind of zigzag pattern without actually touching the surface of the map.

“Ah,” she murmured as the powder covering a section of the map began to turn a cobalt blue. She stopped there, and we watched as the color spread out to cover the southern half of Mexia, one of the southwestern states that jutted up directly against the Federation border, just two states east of Canalo. “Here he is.”

I scowled as I stared down at the map. “That’s easily fifty thousand square miles of territory to search.”

“And much of it is uncultivated Coazi land,” Elania added, looking troubled.

“Coazi?” I tried to match the name with a memory. “Aren’t they a tribe?”

“Yes. I believe the Federation ceded most of the land in this area to them.” Elania handed the serapha charm back to me, then carefully swept the bone dust away from the area so she could mark it off with a pen. “I suggest reading up on the Coazi before you head into their territory. I know no more about them than any of the other indigenous tribes that populate the Federation.”

“Well, now would be a great time to have access to the Palace’s library.” I huffed out a breath as I refastened the chain around my neck. Relief spread through my chest as the stone came to rest against my breastbone, and the strange pain there eased. “I’m sure there’d be a tome in there somewhere that could tell me all about the Coazi, whoever they are.”

“I’ll see if there’s anything I can dig up,” Comenius said gently. “In the meantime, though, you should rest, Naya. The tonic we gave you will only last so long, and your body needs the time to heal itself naturally.”

“No way.” I shook my head, unable to even entertain the idea of falling asleep. “I’ve been passed out in that infirmary bed for who knows how long already. I need to focus on prepping this rescue mission.”

Comenius scowled. “Yes, and you’re already showing signs of fatigue again. You’ll be useless to the mission if you’re not properly healed and rested.”

“Alright,” I ceded reluctantly. The edges of fatigue were starting to drag at me, likely sped along by my use of the illusion spell. Using magic draws on my energy reserves, and if I were to venture out on my own to try and find research books I would have to disguise myself again, which in turn would sap even more energy. Not exactly conducive to preparing myself for a long journey. “I’ll chill out here for a bit.”

“I’ll get you a blanket and pillow.” Comenius patted my leg, then stood up and went into the bedroom. Elania went with him, and I could hear them talking quietly as I stretched myself out on the sofa. If I’d wanted to, I could have tuned in with my sensitive hearing and eavesdrop on them, but Com deserved privacy in his own home. And besides, my fatigue was growing with every second.

As I sat there waiting for him to come back up, I heard a soft thud as something landed on the sofa cushion next to me. Startled, I jerked toward the sound, then smiled at the sight of my chakram pouch and crescent knives sitting there. They’d returned sooner than I’d expected. Pleased, I reached over to grab my weapons so I could strap them to my thighs, but another wave of tiredness washed over me and my hand fell back to my side.

I’ll take care of my weapons later, I thought as my eyes slid closed. Floorboards creaked, and Comenius murmured something as he tucked a blanket around me, but I didn’t hear what he said as I slipped into a fog. Images of Iannis falling from the sky, terror in his brilliant eyes as he reached toward me, rippled through my mind over and over, and I screamed in frustration that I was unable to move, unable to reach him at all.