Called by Magic Read online

  "How much?" I asked suspiciously.

  The woman quoted me an outrageous price by local standards, but since Northian money was worth a lot more than Randilon's pejos, I paid it anyway. At worst, I’d wasted a few dollars on trinkets that I could bring back as souvenirs; at best, they really would protect me from snakebites.

  The witch handed me my change, then plucked the leather pouch from the counter and tied it to my belt. "Keep this on you at all times," she warned. "As I said, it will protect you should you run afoul of any evil spirits. Though if you are smart, you will avoid getting in their way altogether."

  "That shouldn't be a problem, considering I've never met one and never will," I said blithely.

  The woman propped her hands on her hips. "You do not believe in the spirits?"

  "I believe in things I can see."

  Tia Maluca jabbed me in the chest with her forefinger. "You cannot see illness when it hangs in the air," she said, glaring up at me with those ancient eyes, "and yet you can feel the effects when it infects you, can you not? That is what an evil spirit is like. They are the remnants of evil people who died violent deaths, and they lurk near the area where their bodies were buried, or sometimes where they were killed. They love to possess people who unwittingly wander into their territories, as they draw strength from each victim, eventually growing strong enough to leave their territory and terrorize other places and people. You have a very strong spirit, Annia Melcott. Do not let them inside you!"

  Despite my skepticism, the old woman's words shook me a bit. "And just how am I supposed to stop an evil spirit from possessing me if I do run across one?" I demanded.

  The old woman smiled and tapped the leather pouch. "Throw the pebble on the ground; the spirit will momentarily confuse it with you, giving you time to run away—if you do it fast enough.”

  "Good to know." I cleared my throat, annoyed with myself for going down this line of questioning...but I had to know. "If I was...possessed...by an evil spirit, is there any way to get rid of it?"

  "The only way to vanquish an evil spirit from a person is to burn the victim alive and drive the spirit from the body." Tia Maluca smiled. "Luckily, such spirits are rare, and the worst are usually only found at ancient burial sites. So I would not worry too much."

  "Right." I smiled back, my cheek muscles aching with the effort. "Nothing to worry about at all."

  3

  The next morning, I went to meet my clients at a cafe on the outskirts of the Mages Quarter. A shiny black steamcar waited at the curb, telling me that I was at the right place.

  I found Sorbano easily enough, seated with the children at a table by the window. They were finishing off the remnants of their breakfast.

  "Señorita Melcott." Sorbano smiled as he rose from his chair. He was perfectly polished, just like yesterday, dressed in a dark blue suit and shiny black shoes. How the hell men like that managed to walk around and not get dust all over them, I would never understand. "I'm so pleased to see you've arrived on time. Punctuality is a rarity in my country."

  "Not so in mine." I smiled at the children as they rose from their chairs—rather reluctantly, I noted. "You are Belira and Tereso?" According to Sorbano's letter, they were twelve and ten years of age, but their serious faces made them look older. I caught a brief glimpse of sadness in the sister's eyes before she met my gaze, and then they hardened, all emotion dropping away.

  "We are," Belira said in a haughty voice, and folded her arms. She wore a frilly white dress, her blonde hair tied back from her heart-shaped face with a pink ribbon, but her childlike appearance didn't stop her from looking me up and down with those ice-blue eyes like I was a horse at market. "She's too skinny, Primo," she complained to Sorbano. "How is she supposed to protect us from bandidos?"

  An inferior horse, then, I thought, not sure if I should be amused or annoyed.

  "I don't know, hermana," Tereso said, eyeing my weapons. His gaze landed on the pistol strapped to my hip, and the sadness in his eyes vanished, replaced with undisguised glee. "She’s got lots of weapons. Can I see your gun?”

  "No, you may not." My abrupt refusal earned a scowl from Tereso, but I ignored it. I’d bought the gun off a black-market dealer yesterday and paid the man to show me how to use it. Sunaya would throw an absolute fit if she saw me with one—dealing with the Resistance had instilled an irrational hatred of firearms in her, and they were illegal in the Federation—but the thing packed quite a punch, and since some of the bandits in this country used them, I felt better about having one by my side.

  I turned to Belira. "I assure you, I'm more than capable of ensuring your safety, Señorita Tarras. I've been doing this for nearly ten years."

  "Only ten years?" she wailed. She whirled around and clutched Sorbano's arm. "Primo, we're going to die!"

  "That's enough," Sorbano said sternly. He threw a few coins on the table to pay for their meal, then ushered the children out the door. "It's time to be on our way."

  "Don't touch me," Tereso said, shrugging off Sorbano's hand. "You aren't the boss of me."

  "Actually, I am, at least until you're back home," Sorbano said tightly. "Now get in the car."

  I did a quick check of the car’s interior before allowing anyone else inside, then allowed the children to board. They made no argument as they got in, though they still looked at us as though we were dirt on their shoes.

  "What's with the attitude?" I muttered, grabbing Sorbano's sleeve before he walked around to the driver's side.

  "They are mage children," Sorbano said, as if that explained everything.

  When I continued to stare, he sighed and added, "As far as they're concerned, we're the hired help. Even me, though I am their cousin."

  Ouch. I felt a brief stab of sympathy as Sorbano got into the steamcar. I closed the door behind him, then double-checked the exterior before hopping into the front seat next to him. "We're good to go. Let's get out of here."

  "To be fair," Sorbano said as we drove out of the city, steam chugging behind us from the coal-fueled motor, "the children are normally not quite so rude. You must make allowances for them, Señorita Melcott—their father, my cousin’s husband, has recently gone missing during an expedition, which is why we are being called home."

  "Oh no." A wave of pity washed over me as I glanced in the rearview mirror. The children were behind a glass partition, unable to hear our conversation. Now that we weren't paying attention to them, they had huddled up together on the seat, both staring despondently out the window. That explained their behavior—I'd thought it strange that they were so serious when most children would be excited about returning home in the middle of the school year. "What kind of expedition?"

  "He was obsessed with exploring a group of mountain caves on the edge of the estate," Sorbano said, his voice rife with disapproval. "He's been gone for days now, and the search party has been unable to locate him. Their grandfather wants the children on hand in case their father’s body is found, to prepare for the funeral."

  "How terrible." I sincerely hoped the children's father would be found alive by the time we arrived at the estate. My own father had died when I was only ten, and the fact that he'd left our family enough money for us to live comfortably hadn't made his passing any less painful.

  "Will their mother be there to comfort them, at least?"

  "I'm afraid not." Sorbano pressed his lips together. "She is traveling the Central Continent just now with her friends and is unaware of the tragedy. My uncle has decided not to tell her of the situation until we know for certain whether my cousin is dead or alive."

  I nodded, of two minds about the decision. Why upset the woman when there was nothing she could do? Cutting off the trip early wouldn't change the situation. On the other hand, the children were clearly in need of reassurance, and who better than their mother to provide it?

  "Anyway," Sorbano said, clearing his throat, "there is no point in stewing in this misery, especially since we have such a long journey
ahead. Tell me, what do you think of Randilon so far? I gather you haven't been here very long?"

  "Only a few days," I admitted. "It is a beautiful country"—I glanced out the window to admire the lush, deep-green trees covering the hills to our left and the silhouette of the mountains looming beyond—"but the racial tensions seem pretty bad here. I thought it was bad in Northia, but the mages here are even more stuck up, and the shifters and humans treat magic like it's some evil force. The only real difference is that here, humans and shifters seem to get along. Like they're unified by their hatred for magic. You'd think it would be the opposite, since shifters have magic of their own."

  Sorbano gave me a wry smile. "Yes, the non-magic users in Southia are extremely superstitious, a fact which is not helped by the mages’ attitude toward us. In a way, the segregation is forced by both sides: humans and shifters want nothing to do with mages, and vice versa. We humans consider shifters to be victims, like ourselves, rather than oppressors, which is why we rarely fight each other."

  "And what do you think?" I countered. "As a human living in a mage family, you must have a unique perspective."

  Sorbano hesitated. "Because my cousin and I grew up together, I am treated better than most humans are treated by mages...but I am nevertheless reminded of my lesser status whenever another mage family comes to visit, and I cannot help but resent that. Mages may be the more powerful race, but aside from that they act no differently than the rest of us."

  "I agree. I've always held the same view on the races myself."

  "Then we are not so different after all, despite our cultures," Sorbano said with a smile. "Please, Señorita Melcott, tell me more about your country. I have never been to the Northia Federation, but I have always wanted to visit."

  "Please." I smiled at him. "Call me Annia."

  I told Sorbano about the parts of Northia I was familiar with, though I left out any mention of my connections with Lord Iannis and Sunaya. Sorbano was fascinated to hear about how our governmental system worked, though he did scoff when I told him about the Resistance.

  "Unbelievable," he said, shaking his head. "Your country let a rabble organization cause so much trouble? I’ll tell you this, Annia, a movement like the Resistance would never have been allowed to get off the ground here. The other races might hate the mages, but they fear them much more because families like mine rule with an iron fist. Any sign of insurrection would be met with swift retribution."

  I shuddered, my mind easily conjuring all sorts of ways the mages down here could retaliate against anyone who displeased them. In a way, it made me almost grateful to the mages back home that they exercised the restraint that they did. It was obvious to me after all the adventures I'd been on with Sunaya that if they wanted, the mages could easily have us all in chains. Morals were the only thing that kept them from turning the shifters back into a slave class, and we humans along with them.

  "If you could make magic disappear," Sorbano said thoughtfully, "and turn the world back to where it was before the First Mage came to us, would you?"

  I thought about that for a long time. If magic was gone, what would happen to Sunaya, Rylan, and the other shifters I knew? Would they be stuck in whatever form they'd taken at the time magic disappeared? And what about all the magical advancements our country relied on to keep our water clean and our civic infrastructure running? Would we eventually replace those things with technology? There were some things that could never be replaced, but would it be worth it for the chance to put the mages on even footing with us? To see Noria freed from the mines where she slaved away as punishment for rebelling against the system?

  "I would be tempted," I admitted. "Very, very tempted."

  4

  After driving straight through the day, Sorbano stopped in a small town called Viejas and procured two rooms for us to stay the night in the local inn.

  "This is as far as we'll be able to take the steamcar," he said ruefully as we ate a hearty meal in the inn's dining room. The place, with its simple fare and bare-bones amenities, had to be a far cry from what the children were used to, but to their credit they ate their meals quietly and did not complain. "The roads from here out are too small and treacherous to navigate without horses."

  I nodded. The town was nestled just at the foothills of the Desai Mountains, and Sophia and Camila had enthusiastically told me all about the mountains’ narrow roads full of steep chasms, with no railings to protect travelers from falling down them if they took one wrong step. I knew they'd been trying to scare me out of going, but I'd merely bought a pair of sturdy riding boots in preparation. The mountain paths were dangerous, but they would be undoubtedly beautiful as well, and I wanted to see as much of Southia as I could.

  "Well, it's time to turn in now," Sorbano said when we finished our meal.

  "Already?" Tereso whined. "But, Primo, the sun hasn't even set!"

  "I'm not ready for bed yet, Sorbano," Belira huffed, crossing her arms. "We've been stuck in the car all day. I want to walk around and see the market."

  "We are not here on holiday," Sorbano said through gritted teeth, his face turning red. "Your grandfather gave me strict orders to bring you home as fast as possible, with no detours or excursions. That includes shopping trips!"

  "But Grandfather isn't here, is he?" Belira said, bratty as ever.

  "No, but he is waiting for us, and he won't be happy to hear that you've been behaving badly, will he? He's already stressed enough as it is about your padre!"

  The children's faces fell, and they said no more about it. Still fuming, Sorbano paid for the meal, then led us upstairs to our rooms.

  "You take Belira tonight," he said, handing me my room key. "I'll double up with Tereso. Don't let her out of your sight; rich children are often kidnapped by criminals in exchange for ransom, and bandits love to frequent towns like this where travelers stop."

  "Got it." I opened the door, and sighed when Belira marched past me without a backward glance. If I was going to be sharing a bed with this little spitfire, I was in for a long night.

  “Hang on, little one.” I snagged her by the collar of her dress. “I’ve got to check the room.”

  “Ai!” she sputtered angrily as I dragged her back, but I ignored her and stepped over the threshold.

  The room was small, with a single full-sized bed crammed into one corner and a washstand and dresser in the other. Nowhere for an intruder to hide, but I checked thoroughly anyway. Sometimes criminals left magical hexes or charms that served as traps, putting their victims into an enchanted sleep so they could rob or kidnap them, or worse. But I found nothing of the sort, and after checking the boys’ room too, I gave everyone the all-clear.

  “You didn’t need to do that, you know,” Belira said as I shut the door behind her. Lifting her hand, she flicked her wrist, and a wave of magic rippled through the room. “Grandfather taught us how to use our magic to check for traps. I was about to do it before you grabbed me.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Is that so?” I wasn’t aware that mages her age could do spells like that. “What else can you do?”

  She gave me a gimlet stare. “What do you care? It’s not like you can do magic anyway.”

  “Maybe not,” I said, setting our bags down on the floor, “but my friends back home can, and I’m always interested in seeing what kinds of cool things people can do.”

  “Your friends can do magic?” she scoffed, and sat down on the edge of the bed. “That’s ridiculous. Mages don’t make friends with humans.”

  “Maybe not in your country, but in mine they do.” I decided not to mention that this was a fairly new development and not widespread across the Federation. “My best friend is about to marry the Chief Mage of Canalo.”

  “And she’s a mage?”

  “Half-shifter, half-mage.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “That’s impossible!”

  I smiled, pleased at her unguarded reaction. “Why don’t we start getting you ready for bed? I can t
ell you all about it while we brush out your hair.”

  For once, the child didn’t argue, and she sat dutifully on the bed next to me, dressed in an adorably frilly nightgown and listening raptly while I brushed her long blonde hair. I told her all about how Sunaya and Iannis met, how they’d started off as enemies, and how, while working together to save lives and improve the community, they’d gradually become friends, then sweethearts, and were now engaged. The little girl peppered me with questions, both about my friends and about life in the Federation, and she became so wrapped up in the story that I knew she’d forgotten all about the shopping trip Sorbano had denied her.

  “I guess shifters might not be dumb after all, even though Papa says they are,” she said sleepily as we snuggled into the covers together. “But I’d still never be allowed to marry one. Your friend is lucky that she gets to marry her one true love.”

  I smirked, imagining Sunaya’s reaction if anyone had told her Iannis was going to be her “one true love” when they’d first met. A pang of homesickness hit me in the chest, and for a moment, I considered the idea of packing up after this and heading back to Solantha.

  But what was the point? I’d only be going home to the gaping hole that had been ripped in my life by Noria’s absence. And it wasn’t like Sunaya would make a good distraction, not when she was so busy. She was probably still in Garai, on some secret mission or something, doing her best not to climb the walls while being forced to schmooze with foreign dignitaries.

  My conflicted thoughts kept me up for a long time, and when the sun’s rays woke me, jabbing through the curtains and beneath my eyelids, I had to force myself to get out of bed.

  Belira rose without a fuss when I woke her, and even helped me pack up the room after we finished washing and dressing. At least she wasn’t acting snotty anymore.