Marked by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #4)(46)

“Don’t be ridiculous,” his wife chided. “There’s no switch. If there were, the mages would have used it long ago, considering how much trouble shifters cause in society. Personally, I think we would have been better off if they had never been freed.”

I forced myself to move on before I dumped my glass of tea down the back of the woman’s dress. I couldn’t decide who sounded more asinine – she or her husband – and it truly didn’t matter. All of these people were brainwashed, stupid sheep who were being guided to the edge of a cliff by a charlatan, and who would gladly throw themselves off it for the sake of a misguided cause.

“I do wish Father Calmias would give us more details about the secret weapons,” I heard a man complain. He was leaning back against the wall, dressed in a suit that had seen better days, as he conversed with the burly bouncer from the beer cellar last night. “I mean, I’m faithful, no question, and I trust the Ur-God’s plan, but we could be of more help if we were given more details about what’s coming.”

“No, it makes perfects sense,” the bouncer said as he munched on a raisin cookie. “If we don’t know all the details, they can’t be tortured out of us by the Mages Guild. The Ur-God and Father Calmias are just trying to protect us. Trust me, my brother sends me messages from his camp every once in a while, and he assures me that the one secret weapon he knows about will ensure our victory, one-hundred percent.”

A chill went down my spine at that. Was it only bluster, or did the Resistance truly have some ‘secret weapon’ that could make them so confident of their chances to overthrow the mage regime? Either they were still in denial or ignorant about how powerful the mages truly were, or they had got their hands on something truly cataclysmic. It wasn’t good, no matter which way I looked at it.

I wandered around for a few more minutes, listening to conversations, but I didn’t hear anything else that was useful. I did spot a couple of former enforcers present, and I couldn’t help but feel a pang of disappointment. Sure, I didn’t get along with most of the human enforcers, but I’d worked with one or two of these very guys from time to time, and I’d believed we were on the same team. Now they were being led to believe that both halves of my heritage were evil, and it disheartened me that people could be so easily swayed. What use were concepts like loyalty and decency if they could be steamrolled over by false promises and grandiose plans that anyone with a working brain could see were completely insane?

“Hey.” Manson’s voice came over my shoulder, and I turned to see him standing behind me. “You okay, Brandt? I noticed you’ve been wandering around, looking a little lost.”

“Yeah,” I said, affecting a yawn. “I’m good. I just didn’t sleep well on that cot last night, and my girlfriend’s probably worried about me. The sermon was great, but I really should see about getting back home.”

“Aww, that’s too bad,” Manson said, and he looked genuinely disappointed. “I thought maybe we could talk about the sermon for a bit.”

“Oh, it was a revelation,” I assured him. “I definitely see why you think we have a good chance, and Father Calmias has given me hope. But I’ve got to get back to my girl. I don’t want her wandering the streets looking for me, not during times like these. Some of those looters are shifters,” I added, though it pained me to do so.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Manson agreed, his expression darkening. “We’ve got to keep our women and children safe from those animals.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “Travel safe, and feel free to look me up the next time you come visit your grandmother, okay?”

“Will do,” I agreed, then made a quick exit. I wasn’t sure how long I could keep up this charade, but at least the experience had confirmed one thing. I needed to get the mages and shifters on the same team, before the Resistance managed to destroy us all.





19





Tired of skulking around town on foot, I filched a steambike parked in a side alley outside the temple, using my magic to light a spark since I didn’t have the key. As I shot into the street, distant shouts told me my theft had not gone unnoticed, but I simply put on another burst of speed as I rounded a corner, refusing to feel guilty. If these people had no compunction about killing off the entire mage and shifter population, I wasn’t going to lose any sleep over stealing a steambike from them.

Besides, it felt damn good to have some steampower rolling beneath my thighs again.

I kept up my breakneck pace until I crossed the border into Shiftertown, then took it down a notch. The last time I came to Shiftertown I’d been in a hurry, almost blinded by heat, and since the Cat’s Meow was close to the Rowanville border I hadn’t seen much of the town itself. Now that I was traveling at a slower pace, I took in the sights around me, and they weren’t pretty. Burnt houses, rubble in the streets, shops boarded up, and windows shuttered. The amount of visible damage decreased the further I went into Shiftertown, and I figured that the battles between the Resistance and the mages never made it too far past the borders. Still, though the houses showed less wear and tear here, tension was thick in the air, and I could feel eyes following me from all around. No doubt many of those tracking me were Resistance members, holed up for the day as they planned their next move. I was especially grateful for my human disguise under these circumstances.