Saved by Magic: a Baine Chronicles novel (The Baine Chronicles: Fenris's Story Book 3) Read online

  Instead, Mina and I spent the afternoon at the beach, and I did my best to put Marris and my other troubles out of my thoughts. It wasn’t hard—Mina was absolutely ravishing in yet another one of her bikinis, and her carefree mood as she splashed through the ocean water was infectious. We rode the waves, made sand castles, buried each other, and indulged in other fun things that I remembered doing as a small child, back when I was not Polar ar’Tollis, Chief Mage of Nebara, but simply Polar, my parents’ beloved only son.

  Later, we showered and changed back into our clothes, then had dinner on the open-air terrace of the hotel restaurant. Mina was delighted when they served us portions of her catch—perfectly grilled, with a side of baby carrots and roast potatoes.

  “Mmm,” she said around a mouthful of sea bass. “This is delicious. We should catch these more often.”

  I chuckled. “You’ll have to get a bit stronger if you can hope to reel in another one of those beasts.” Even I’d had trouble, though that was mostly because the fish had been thrashing about so fiercely. It was a strong animal…and tasted divine, especially with a squeeze of lemon.

  We finished our main course and, as we waited for dessert to arrive, relaxed in our chairs, sipping at the wine. “It’s the end of the day,” Mina said as she stared out at the glorious sunset. The sun was more than halfway below the horizon, streaking the glittering water with gold and pink, and the colorful rays gilded Mina’s troubled face. "Do you think he’s left?”

  “It’s very possible,” I admitted, setting down my glass of wine. “We cannot force Marris to side with us on this, just as he cannot force us to abandon Iannis and Sunaya. I should have been more careful.”

  Mina frowned. “More careful? With what? You couldn’t have known he would track us here.”

  I shook my head. “I mean I should have been more alert to my surroundings. If I’d been paying attention, I would have scented it was Marris long before I’d approached. But I was still thinking about Iannis, and it didn’t occur to me to be cautious. I may have overestimated how safe we are here.”

  “What, do you think there are enemies lurking around every corner?” Mina asked, sounding skeptical. “This isn’t Haralis; nobody knows us here. Aside from this incident with Marris, we’ve yet to come across anyone truly troubling.”

  “Give it time,” I said dryly, then took another sip of wine. Luxurious establishments like this hotel were frequented by the dangerous as well as the rich. More often than not, they were the same people.

  I’d chosen this spot not just because the capital was overbooked, but also because I wanted to get the lay of the land from a safe distance. Despite Mina’s insistence that we come in person to warn Iannis, I had chosen to write a letter first. Iannis’s lack of reply had galvanized me into coming out here, and his disappearance was even more disturbing. I’d sent several ether pigeons to Iannis since crossing into Canalo territory, but Iannis had not sent one back, and I had to wonder if they’d ever arrived. It was possible that wherever he’d traveled was beyond their reach. Ether pigeons didn’t confirm delivery or return once they were sent off. It was in part why they had fallen out of use, along with the invention of the telephone—they were much less reliable than a phone and were only used now on the rare occasions when making a call wasn’t possible.

  “Even if Marris does tell someone that we’re mages, it won’t make much of a difference,” Mina said, trying to console me. “Half the guests at this hotel are mages, and we likely aren’t the first ones to pass ourselves off as humans. It is not illegal. Mostly I’m just worried what Barrla will think when Marris tells her about this.”

  I smiled as I pictured her reaction. “Barrla will be just as excited as she will be angry, I suspect. She seems to have a penchant for the extraordinary.”

  Mina smiled too, though it was tinged with worry. “True,” she said, then changed the subject. “I’ve been leafing through the newspapers and society magazines in the reading room, and all I’ve found was a lot of gushing about the wedding dress, the planned festivities, and the guest list.” She lowered her voice a little. “Every Chief Mage in the Federation is attending, and many important dignitaries from abroad. How in Recca will I fit in with such a crowd?”

  Chuckling, I reached across the table to take her hand. “I would not worry about the guest list,” I told her, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. “The fact that you are my intended will make you more important in Iannis and Sunaya’s eyes than even the richest emperor. The actual ceremony will be short and fairly private, and my friends will be thrilled to meet you. The main thing is to keep everyone safe.”

  Mina blushed a little. “We aren’t the only ones concerned with keeping things safe,” she said. “Perhaps the mages themselves will uncover this plot in time. I read an article about how Federal Director Garrett Toring was in charge of the Convention’s security and has already arrived in Solantha with a large team of agents. He’s supposed to be very thorough and intelligent. With all the resources at his disposal, is it likely we can do better?”

  I grimaced, then snapped my fingers to engage the privacy bubble. “Garrett is indeed very clever—he’s the reason I had to flee Solantha last year after the quake,” I told her. “He nearly exposed the truth about my past, despite my shifter body and completely different looks, merely because I continued to study the same kind of esoteric books as I did before the transformation. We need to avoid him as much as possible.”

  “That will be difficult, if we are close to the Chief Mage and his bride,” Mina said. “Although before we worry about that problem, we really need to figure out how to get lodgings in Solantha. Driving back and forth an hour every day will become tedious.”

  “I sent an ether pigeon to Comenius, a friend, who is the only other person aside from Sunaya and Iannis that I can trust with the knowledge of my presence,” I told her. “He will tell us what he knows, and might even be able to help us find a place to stay.”

  Mina frowned. “Is he a mage?”

  I shook my head. “He is a hedge witch, which means he will not be able to send a reply except by normal mail. The Convention is still ten days away, but I don’t think waiting that long is wise.”

  “I agree,” Mina said. “We should go visit him tomorrow.”

  “Leaving so soon?” Marris asked, appearing by Mina’s elbow. She started, nearly dropping her spoon, and Marris gave her a sheepish look. “Sorry about that. Didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “Are you done being angry with us, then?” I asked mildly.

  Marris nodded. “I don’t have any wish for bloodshed,” he told me sincerely. “I will do whatever I can to help you, so long as you promise not to do anything that will harm humans or strengthen the mage regime.”

  “I have no wish to empower the Minister and his cohorts any further,” I assured Marris. “I have never liked the man, and he is not very good at his job.” Of course, long ago my vote had helped elect him to the position, but since then my idea of what a good Minister should be had drastically changed.

  The waiter arrived with our dessert, and I asked him to bring a chair and a menu for Marris, so he could order something to eat.

  “I can’t read half of this,” Marris muttered as he stared at the pages. “What the hell is sauce acks morilles?”

  “It is pronounced sauce aux morilles,” the waiter corrected him, a supercilious look on his face. “It means ‘morrel sauce’ in Forrane.”

  “And what the hell is morrel sauce?”

  Sighing, I plucked the menu from Marris’s hands. “Get him the filet de bœuf grillé, medium rare,” I told the waiter. “Don’t worry about it,” I said to Marris in an undertone. “Foreign restaurants like these have a tendency to be pretentious.”

  “I’ll say.” Shaking his head, Marris leaned back in his chair. “I have to admit this place makes me pretty uncomfortable. I stick out like a sore thumb dressed in these clothes while you two are sitting here looking like…” He trailed off, g
esturing to Mina, who had donned the same yellow dress she wore earlier, paired with citrine-colored stones that dangled from her ears and throat.

  “We’re still the same people we’ve always been, Marris,” Mina said softly. “What we wear and where we stay doesn’t change that.”

  “No, but I’m getting real tired of everyone else around here looking at me like I belong out back with the dumpsters,” Marris said, folding his arms across his chest. “If it’s all the same to you, I think I’d be better off finding another place to stay.”

  “And where would that be?” I asked, genuinely curious. “Everything is booked up in Solantha, and you don’t look like you have two coppers to rub together. If you need a loan…”

  Marris huffed. “No thanks. I have a few coppers,” he said. “And I’ve got contacts in Solantha who I’d bet are involved with whatever plan you guys are here to stop. I can go join up with them and find out what they’re up to, and if it’s something bad, I’ll give you guys whatever useful intel I find.”

  “That would be quite helpful,” I said, feeling very pleased, not to mention astonished, with the offer. “I should have thought of asking you myself.”

  Marris grinned. “You can’t have all the good ideas, or there would be no one around to keep you humble.”

  Marris’s steak arrived, and as he ate, we discussed our plans a bit more. He would infiltrate the ex-Resistance members lurking about Solantha and meet us at Comenius’s shop in two days around closing time to tell us what he’d found. If we weren’t there, he would leave an encoded message, and if the plot involved the killing of innocents, Marris would make every effort to ensure we were informed no matter what.

  “I’ll be off, then,” Marris said once we were finished. “Better get to my friends before they turn in for the night.”

  “Safe travels,” I said, clasping him in a brief hug.

  “If things look like they’re turning south, promise me that you’ll get out of there,” Mina said when Marris hugged her, too. “The last thing I need is to bring news of your death to Barrla.”

  “I have every intention of returning home safe to my girl,” Marris said with a wink. And with that, he strolled off the terrace and out into the night.

  3

  Mina

  After Marris left, Fenris went off to see to a few matters, amongst them arranging for a hired steamcar to drive us to Solantha in the morning. With little to do but twiddle my thumbs, I decided to go walk on the balustrade and enjoy the evening air.

  It’s beautiful out here, I thought as I skimmed a hand along the railing, watching the ocean crash against the shore. The moonlight limned the frothy waves in silver, and the stars twinkling brightly above my head were so numerous that the sky held almost more light than darkness. I’d thought that there would be fewer stars out here than in Abbsville because of the light pollution, but we were far enough away from Solantha that their splendor was not dimmed by the city.

  A comet streaked across the sky, and I gasped and then quickly made a wish. I wish that we soon will really be Mr. and Mrs. Shelton, I thought fiercely as I gazed up at the fiery meteor that blazed past. I knew that Fenris’s last name wasn’t actually Shelton, but since he didn’t go by a last name that would do as well as any.

  Unless we went by my last name, I thought, with some amusement. I wondered what my parents would think if they knew I was continuing the Marton line through a shifter. I liked to think that they would be happy for me, but I knew the truth—though they had loved me, they would not have been able to accept Fenris. What kind of children we might have would be anyone’s guess—they might be mages, they might be shifters, or they might be hybrids, like the Chief Mage’s bride. So few children had ever been born of a mage-shifter coupling that it was impossible to say, and Fenris was no ordinary shifter. He might not have the body of Polar ar’Tollis anymore, but mage blood still ran in his veins, or he wouldn’t be able to use magic at all.

  As I walked further along the balustrade and away from the lights spilling from the hotel windows, I saw the outlines of statues further up the path. Wanting to see them better, I conjured a glowlight—a ball of soft, yellow light that illuminated the way. As I held it up to look upon the face of a woman carved in white marble, I heard something rustle behind me.

  “I had not realized you were a mage, too,” a heavily accented female voice said, and I spun around. Standing behind me was a tall, elegant woman. She wore a fitted gown of some dark purple fabric with silver brocade, and her silver hair was scooped back from a beautiful face. “You are not wearing any robes.”

  “Neither are you,” I said as I met her keen gaze. “And who might you be?”

  The woman gave me a small smile. She had an ageless look about her, and I had a feeling it was not the product of glamour—she simply aged very well. “My name is Mirrine ar’Torat, and I am from Forrane,” she said in that flowing accent. “The Magicien Moderne has asked me to report on the wedding.”

  “A mage reporter?” My eyebrows rose. “That is the last thing I would have guessed.” More like the owner of the paper, or some kind of celebrity, from her appearance and manner.

  “What, because I have good taste in clothing?” Mirrine laughed as she moved closer. Her perfume wafted through the warm evening air, teasing my nose with its rich floral scent. “I assure you, there is more to enjoying a long life than merely spending money. A profession keeps boredom at bay and can always be changed for another if it gets stale.”

  I laughed. “True enough,” I agreed, then introduced myself under my assumed name. The Marton family had not been noble but had amassed a fortune all the same. It was very possible this woman had come from money and simply worked as a reporter for fun. It was an unusual career for a mage, but not unheard of, and perhaps things were done differently in Forrane anyway.

  “If you came to report on the wedding,” I asked, “then why stay here instead of within the city? Surely you would want to be as close to the festivities as possible.”

  Mirrine sighed, tucking a wisp of silver hair behind her ear. “The city is dusty and full of construction workers—you can hardly move about without inhaling sweat and dirt. I much prefer this seaside hotel. Everything in Solantha is overbooked and too crowded just now.”

  I nodded. “That’s why my husband and I are staying here, too,” I told her. “Though it is only happenstance that we arrived just before the Chief Mage’s wedding and the Convention. Mr. Shelton and I are recently married, and we are spending our honeymoon touring the Federation.”

  “You picked a poor time,” Mirrine said, looking out across the water. “I have been to Solantha before, and it is quite a charming city under normal circumstances.”

  “Perhaps we’ll return and experience it in its renewed splendor,” I said, though I wasn’t sure if that would happen. Fenris was only coming back to Solantha because his friends were in danger—it might not be safe for him to do so again.

  “What do you think of the government?” Mirrine asked, turning to face me. “Specifically, your Minister Graning.”

  “He is not popular, especially amongst non-mages,” I said baldly. “Given that humans tried to murder him not so long ago, I think it’s safe to say that they hate him. I would not want to trade places with him, I know that much.”

  And I certainly wouldn’t want to meet him in person, I added silently. The Minister had not even bothered to speak to Fenris personally when he’d decided to have him executed, even though Fenris had been a Chief Mage at the time. Any leader willing to discard one of his people so coldly was not worth speaking to in my eyes.

  “Yes, I have heard all about that nasty business with the Resistance,” Mirrine said. Her eyes glittered, and I got the distinct feeling that I was being measured. “Do you have any idea where the Minister might be staying?”

  I frowned a little, wondering at her line of questioning. “According to the society magazines, he has elected to rent a large mansion in the Mages Quar
ter, rather than stay in Solantha Palace as he has in the past. The papers are speculating that there is tension between the Minister and Lord Iannis and wondering whether or not that will affect his decision on who to nominate as his successor.”

  Mirrine huffed. “If Lord Iannis and the Minister are on the outs, it seems very strange to hold this year’s Convention in Solantha.”

  I shrugged. “There’s no proof there is a rift at all, and if there is one, it might have occurred after it was too late to change the location. Personally, I think the Minister just wants more space and independence than he could have as anyone’s guest.”

  Mirrine looked like she was about to say something else, but she stopped at the sound of footsteps on the pavement. Turning, I saw Fenris coming down the path, a small lantern in his hand.

  “There you are,” he said warmly, coming over to press a kiss to my cheek. “And who is your new friend?” he asked, turning to Mirrine.

  “My husband, Mr. Shelton,” I said to Mirrine. “Fenris, this is Mirrine ar’Torat. She is a reporter from the Magicien Moderne.”

  “Ah, a Forranian, then?” Fenris inclined his head, then said something in Forrane. The woman smiled wide, and they exchanged a few brief sentences.

  “It is always a delight to meet someone in the Federation who can speak my mother tongue fluently,” Mirrine said. She patted Fenris on the arm, then added, “I can see that you want to be alone with your pretty young wife, so I will leave you two to enjoy the gardens.”

  She walked off, and Fenris and I watched her go, impossibly graceful in her tall heels. “She knows I am a mage,” I murmured as Fenris slipped his arm through mine. “She saw me conjure the glowlight.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about it,” Fenris said as he drew me close. “We probably will not meet again, and even if we do, she will not think it strange that you chose to pose as a human. Many mages do in mixed settings.”