Marked by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #4)(16)

Taking a deep breath, I secured my bike. As I did so, Captain Galling pulled into the lot, parking his steel-blue steamcar in his reserved spot right in front of the entrance. He looked freshly showered and clothed as he stepped out of his car, a large, imposing man with close-cropped grey hair. To my surprise and gratification, he was wearing mercenary leathers. He must have gone home to shower and change, then transport his wife to the Palace. It was a smart move for him to dress in leathers rather than the suits he usually wore – it would show the rest of the enforcers that he was prepared to join them in securing the city and standing against the Resistance, rather than hiding behind his desk as he’d become accustomed to doing in recent times.

Eager to see what he was planning, I hurried in behind him. The two enforcers guarding the door let me in without complaint, their nods of acknowledgement much better than the reception I would have gotten if I’d arrived here as myself. Yeah, so the Palace staff was being nicer to me, but I doubted the enforcers were prepared to welcome me back with open arms, especially since many of them hated the mages right now. It didn’t matter that I’d worked at the Enforcers Guild for years – right now, most of them only saw me as the hated Chief Mage’s apprentice.

Captain Galling called for a general meeting in the main hall on the first floor, and I filed in there along with the rest of the enforcers. The few who saw me clapped me on the back and asked me about my wife and grandkids, questions I tried to answer as evasively as I could, as I didn’t know Tansom that well.

“What the hell are you even thinking, Tansom, coming back out of retirement at a time like this?” Taren Widler, a Main Crew Enforcer who I usually found obnoxious, asked with a grin. “In case you haven’t noticed, most of us have already hightailed it out of here, and the rest of us are just biding our time for when the Resistance finally takes this place over.”

“I have noticed,” I said casually, my eyes sweeping over the crowd that had gathered in the hall. Only about a third of the Enforcers Guild was present, most of them humans, and none of the very few mage enforcers had remained. “But it’s hard to get accurate data about what’s really going on in this town, what with the papers being slanted this way and that, and nobody wanting to poke their head out of doors to have a conversation. So I thought I’d come here and see what I can find out. Looks like I’ve got good timing, too,” I added as Captain Galling stepped up to the small podium at the front of the room.

“All right, boys and girls,” he addressed us once the room had gone quiet. “I know there’s been some disagreement about what to do in the face of this catastrophe, but it’s time for us to pull together and do our job. The Enforcers Guild was originally founded to serve the people of Solantha, and the whole state of Canalo. Regardless of whether or not we think the Mages or the Resistance are in the right, the people still need our protection, and our help.”

“What about us?” a female enforcer close to the front shouted. “Don’t we deserve protection and help too? Or is the Mages Guild going to continue to arrest us and treat us like criminals? Let them fight their own battles. I’ve had enough!”

Several enforcers began to shout their agreements with her stance, and soon, the entire hall was in an uproar. Anger filled me at some of the more inflammatory statements, and I wished I could march back to the Palace and shove my boot up the asses of the idiotic Council members who had caused all this bitterness to begin with. Hopefully, Captain Galling could sway the crowd, because if not, we were in big trouble.

“See?” Widler muttered into my ear, pitching his voice so he could be heard despite the shouting. “It’s crazy town over here. You should go home.”

“Enough!” Captain Galling boomed, silencing the crowd again. “I understand your grievances, perhaps better than anyone else in the city. In case you’ve forgotten, I, too, was arrested, and in fact was only released this morning. The rest of the enforcers who were wrongfully imprisoned, and the citizens as well, are going to be released sometime today. I’ve spoken to the Chief Mage, and we’ve come to an agreement.”

“Is that why you’re so willing to forgive them?” someone sneered. “A pouch of gold is enough to make up for all the bullshit they’ve pulled?”

“It isn’t,” Captain Galling said, his voice hard as his gaze snapped to the enforcer who’d spoken. I smirked a little as the man in question hunched his shoulders beneath Captain Galling’s intense stare. “But this isn’t about me, you, or any one of us individually. This is about making sure the people in this city stay safe, regardless of the outcome of this civil war. The Mages Guild has agreed to issue a public apology for the wrongful arrests, and now that the Chief Mage is back, things will be under control on their side once more. They’ve also agreed to double the bounty for any criminals we apprehend during this emergency – actual criminals,” he added with a scowl. “I don’t want to see you guys hauling in citizens unnecessarily, or for inflated or imagined infractions. We don’t have the time or the resources to deal with that kind of bullshit, and besides, we’re no better than the Mages Guild if we start pulling that kind of shit.”

There were a few cheers at the mention of the increased bounties, and the tension in the room began to ease off. Only a handful of the enforcers, mostly shifters, called Captain Galling a sell-out and stormed out of the hall, refusing to co-operate with the mage regime regardless of financial incentives. But once they were gone, the others seemed to relax. More questions were shouted, and details were hashed out between Captain Galling and the crew foremen. Eventually, an agreement was reached that the enforcers would concentrate on policing the streets, discouraging looting and other criminal activity. It was also agreed that in the event of an attack, the enforcers would be responsible for ensuring civilian safety, though they were not required to engage in any battles themselves. The paperwork for claiming the increased bounties would be simplified, so as to waste no time with red tape.