Scorched by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #7)(64)

Afterward, Iannis pulled my back against his chest, then tucked his face into my shoulder and fell asleep. As I listened to his slow, deep breathing, savoring the feeling of being cradled by him, my thoughts drifted back to Fenris again. The pain of his passing was dulled by the afterglow from lovemaking, and with Iannis’s love wrapped around me, I finally gathered my courage and checked Fenris’s memories from his last few days. I focused on the week before the quake, watching his last conversations with the people he cared about, his long hours in the library and his room, poring through books in search of useful spells, and his sparring sessions with Rylan. It was painful, looking at them, but somehow comforting as well to know that even though Fenris was gone, I would always have him with me.

Feeling sleepy, I pushed Fenris’s memories back into the vault, intending to drift off. But one popped back out, and my mental eyes flew wide as I watched it unfold. Fenris was in his room, a stout, waterproof leather pack open on his bed. He was packing clothes, a few knives, his coded research notebook and golden pen, a water filter and canteen, and a heavy purse of gold coins. He put the pack on his back and left the Palace, and I watched him catch a cab all the way to Downtown before trekking far out of the city on foot. Soon, he was in the redwood forest on Solantha’s outskirts, a good five miles south of where we’d set up the temporary shelter tents. I could feel his sorrow keenly, but also his sense of acceptance, as he searched the trees for an acceptable hiding spot. He eventually found a trunk that was hollowed out and tucked the pack inside, making sure it was hidden deeply enough that no one passing by could see it.

“Iannis!” I shook him awake, my heart hammering. “Iannis, I saw something in Fenris’s memories!”

Iannis listened intently as I told him about what I’d seen. “We have to go and get that pack,” I said urgently. “Fenris’s most prized possessions are in there. He wouldn’t want them to end up in the hands of some random stranger.”

“We’ll go tomorrow,” Iannis promised, kissing the top of my head. “I will make sure Fenris’s research notes are properly preserved. And we can donate the gold to the homeless quake victims in his name.”

Satisfied, I snuggled back down into the comforters. And, feeling lighter than I had in weeks, I slipped off into a peaceful sleep.





Epilogue





The next morning, Iannis and I rose with the dawn, then hopped onto my steambike and headed for the forest I’d seen in Fenris’s memories. Disguised as humans, we zipped through the streets, bundled up against the cold. The temperature had dropped another ten degrees, and the rain from last night had crystalized into frost on the windshields and storefronts we passed.

“I now understand why Fenris complained so much about riding with you,” Iannis said as I made a hairpin turn down a narrow street. “You’re a daredevil!”

I laughed. “Please. You go faster than this with your super speed.” It was hard to believe that this was the first time I’d taken Iannis out on my bike, and it gave me an obscene amount of pleasure that he was clinging to me for dear life, his hard body pressed against me from behind.

“Yes, but at least I’m in control.”

Chuckling, I slowed as we approached a stoplight. We were in Maintown, just a few miles from Downtown, which we would cut through to get to the redwood forest south of the city.

“Hang on,” Iannis said as the light changed. “Isn’t that Father Calmias speaking?”

I glanced to the left, and nearly fell off my bike. Right there in the center of an outdoor shopping area, Father Calmias stood on a small stage, speaking to a crowd of several hundred humans. Curious, I guided my bike over to the curb, and Iannis and I took off our helmets so we could listen.

“…we must accept shifters and mages into our hearts, and learn to live with them in harmony,” Father Calmias was saying in his deep, resonant voice, and Iannis and I exchanged surprised grins. We listened to him lecture for ten minutes about how the earthquake was a message from the Ur-God, to punish the city for the strife, conflict, and all the hate humans had been spreading through the Resistance. He explained how the Ur-God had appeared to him with a message of love and light, and that it was the responsibility of humans, his chosen ones, to unite the three races so that peace and prosperity would come to all.

Unsurprisingly, his audience seemed confused at his sudden change of heart, and there were some isolated protests at this drastic change of direction. But Father Calmias spoke with such conviction that these were quickly drowned out, and the crowd was soon singing his praises, promising they would live with love and light in their hearts, and set a good example for the rest of their community.

“I am glad now that I decided to alter his mind,” Iannis murmured to me, pitching his voice below the cheers of the crowd. “Though I still have strong reservations about the method I had to employ, and I don’t plan to use it again if I can help it, in this case it clearly has done more good than harm. I did not realize Father Calmias was quite such a charismatic speaker.”

“Yeah. That’s why his followers are so rabid, and why he was able to get so much support for the Resistance.” I smiled, shaking my head a little. “I know it was a tough decision for you, considering what happened to your grandfather, but I really think you did the right thing.”