Deceived by Magic (The Baine Chronicles Book 6) Read online

  As it turned out, the concoction for the sickening gas was not ready, so we found ourselves standing outside the warehouse building without a plan. The clouds were thick in the night sky, obscuring the light from the half-moon, leaving us cloaked in shadow as we studied the outside of the wooden building. We needed to figure out the best way to go about destroying the lab within, while avoiding collateral damage.

  “It looks like it’ll go down with a good, stiff wind,” I muttered, shoving my hands into my pockets. I’d changed back into my leathers for this, and Iannis, Garrett, and Chen wore the same black robes that they’d donned while sneaking out of the Imperial Palace. “I’m amazed the Resistance, or at least their Garaian partners, chose such a cheap place.”

  “Clearly, they did not think it would be discovered,” Garrett said, somewhat snidely. “They’ve obviously been relying on bribery to keep the local officials out of their business. I hope the new Mage-Emperor does something about all this blatant disregard for law and order. It’s inexcusable.”

  “We can debate that later,” Iannis said. His eyes were trained on the building, and he tapped his chin thoughtfully. “I think we can do a boosted sleeping spell if we do it together; that should render every human in range unconscious, as well as the rats. That way there is no danger of any infected animal escaping accidentally.”

  “Okay, well, let’s hurry,” I said as I caught sight of a stealthy movement on the rooftop. “We’re sitting ducks right now, standing out here in the open like this.”

  We quickly joined hands, with Iannis standing in the middle, and I willed my power to flow from my body into Iannis’s. Iannis chanted the Words of the spell aloud, and I bit back a gasp as power rushed through me. Not just my own power, but Chen and Garrett’s as well. Iannis’s hands blazed like twin suns for a split second, and then the energy in his hands rippled outward, heading up and over the warehouse.

  A knife hissed through the air, and I hauled Iannis back right before it would have sliced his neck. The blade hit the ground with a thunk, burying itself to the hilt, and I caught a whiff of poison in the air. Grabbing a chakram from my pouch, I glanced up at the roof just in time to see the figure I’d noticed earlier slump sideways.

  “Looks like it worked,” Iannis said as I let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you for that.” He squeezed my hand. “Now let’s go and check inside.”

  Before we did that, I climbed up onto the roof, using my claws to gain purchase, so I could see how many guards we were dealing with. Only two, thankfully, one on each end of the roof, and they both snored peacefully. I confiscated their poisoned weapons, then used the immobilization spell on them, happy to get to practice it again so soon. I didn’t know how long Iannis’s sleep spell would last, and there was no point in taking chances.

  “All clear,” I told the others after I’d hopped back down to the ground.

  “Good,” Garrett said, stepping around me. He held up his hands, calling magic, and used a spell to lift the heavy oaken wood bars from the large doors. They swung open, and we entered carefully, splitting up to search the rooms.

  The rats I’d smelled and heard from outside were kept in bamboo cages, some of which showed signs of gnawing and had been mended with rusty wire. They were all asleep, and there was something creepy about the way their whiskers trembled and their tiny bellies rose and fell. I wished we could save them, but when I leaned closer and sniffed at their cages, I caught a sour, decaying scent that sent a chill down my back. Whatever that sickness was couldn’t be allowed to survive with them.

  “By the Lady,” Director Chen said, eying the bent wire on one of the damaged cages, “these people are playing with fire, keeping dangerous diseases in such conditions. Such carelessness is almost worse than the Resistance.”

  “As long as these diseases don’t affect humans, then they probably did not care much,” Garrett observed critically.

  Luckily, the rats seemed to be the only prisoners in this place. We found five human lab technicians in white coats sleeping at their desks, lots of lab equipment and chemicals, and refrigerated boxes filled with tubes that were labeled mostly in Garaian characters.

  Chen and Iannis inspected the tubes and went through the paperwork, while Garrett and I kept watch to make sure no additional enemies snuck up on us. But the night was dead silent aside from Iannis and Chen moving about the rooms. I almost wished someone would charge through the door—I was getting antsy, and all those sleeping rats, full of death and decay, were creeping me out. I wished I could read Garaian characters, but since Garrett and I couldn’t, we had to stand back and wait.

  Eventually, Iannis and Chen finished, and we reconvened. “From what we’ve determined from these documents, as well as the equipment and products here, this place has not been conducting any original research,” Chen said. “It would seem that Ma-San has been involved in the wholesale production and export of the diseases that the Osero lab had already developed. He simply injected the rats with the serums he got from the Resistance, then harvested and processed their blood. They were going to start using dogs as well, but had not yet arranged for the extra space.”

  Thank Magorah for that, at least, I thought as my gut roiled with disgust. I was so glad we were about to destroy this place.

  “Was there any indication how many shipments they dispatched, and where?” Garrett asked, his face tense. “If this stuff is contagious, we may have arrived too late to prevent the worst.”

  “The place has not been in operation for longer than five months, and it took them a few weeks to collect sufficient rats, streamline their process, and get production up to speed,” Chen replied. “From what we could tell, they were just gearing up, and no major shipments have gone out yet. However, there are large stores ready for shipment. It looks like we arrived in the nick of time.”

  “Several of the crates prepared for shipping had Northian labels,” Iannis said. “Inside, we found sealed vials of the diseases packaged and ready to go out, very likely to remaining Resistance camps. At least now we know exactly what diseases they were. Some of the vials were labeled specifically for use on shifters.”

  “Magorah curse them!” I swore as a wave of fury swept through me. Now that word of the Resistance’s plans to betray their shifter members was spreading, they must have decided to decimate the shifter population before we could be mobilized against them. My claws bit into my palms, and I forced my hands to uncurl before I started gouging myself.

  “By the Lady.” Garrett scrubbed a hand over his face. “We must destroy this entire place immediately.”

  “What about the technicians?” I asked, glancing toward the nearest one snoring away on his desk. “Do we just blow them up along with the lab?”

  “They certainly deserve that fate,” Iannis said. “But we are not in our home country and need to strive for discretion, so perhaps we should avoid leaving a trail of dead bodies behind,” he added reluctantly.

  “Perhaps we cannot kill them,” Director Chen said slowly. “But we can do something to them that is tantamount to the death penalty here in Garai, and that will ensure they never lift a hand to aid the Resistance again.”

  “As much as I’d love to punish these humans, I think the rats should be killed now, while they’re still sleeping peacefully,” I said. “They don’t deserve to suffer—it’s not their fault they got caught up in this.”

  Director Chen gave me an odd look at that, which didn’t surprise me. Most mages and humans wouldn’t feel empathy toward rats, but as part-animal myself, I knew very well that animals had thoughts and feelings. Even the ones I would normally view as prey.

  “Of course,” Iannis said, his face solemn. He swept his right arm out, murmuring a spell too low for me to catch, but I still felt the magic ripple outward from him, an invisible wave rolling through the room. A stillness settled in the air in its wake, and it took me a moment to realize that all the rats had stopped breathing.

  “I stopped their hearts,”
he explained. “They did not suffer.”

  “Thank you,” I said, my chest lightening even as my heart twisted with sadness. It was too bad the rats had to die, but at least no one else would have to suffer from these awful diseases.

  We rounded up the sleeping technicians and the guards on the roof, and Iannis and Chen performed the confusion spell on each of them while they were still out. The strange, reddish yellow energy once again made my stomach knot, and I was glad that these humans were not awake.

  “W-where am I?” the first one said after I woke her, using a spell Iannis had recently taught me. “Wh-who are you?”

  “We are no one,” Iannis said, his voice layered with suggestion magic, and the technician’s wheeling eyes went glassy. “You will leave this place and forget that you were ever here.”

  A strange sadness filled me as the technicians and guards stumbled out of the warehouse under Iannis’s suggestion, babbling and muttering all the way. It was horrible to see anyone reduced to such a state. “Why is it that they’re acting this way, but that the agents we rescued seemed pretty normal?”

  “Humans are affected much more strongly by the confusion spell than mages,” Director Chen said. “Their minds do not cope as well beneath the strain.”

  “No kidding. I wouldn’t be surprised if they get themselves killed tonight, stumbling around as they are.”

  “If they do, it is no less than they deserve,” Garrett said coldly, and I glared at him. “Now, how shall we destroy this place? Should we simply set it aflame?”

  “We could do that,” Iannis said. “But I think there’s a better way, where we can kill two birds with one stone.”

  We did one last check of the lab to make sure there was nothing we’d overlooked, then snuck over to the fireworks warehouse next door. There were only a few guards, and Iannis used his sleep spell to incapacitate them while Garrett magically unbolted the heavy doors. Chen used a levitation spell to float the guards out of the warehouse and deposit them on the next street corner. They were scum, but we didn’t need their deaths on our conscience if we could help it.

  “Oh, man,” I said, fighting not to sneeze at the gunpowder scent as we opened up boxes of crates filled with fireworks. Some of the crates contained guns and ammunition too, proving that Loku was lying about his “hands-off” approach to the gunrunning. I grabbed armfuls of the explosives and began piling them in the center of the warehouse, along with Director Chen, Garrett, and Iannis. “This is gonna draw a lot of attention.”

  “Yes, but at least it will look like an attack on the fireworks warehouse, rather than the secret lab behind it,” Iannis said. He hefted a rocket that was nearly as tall as himself onto the pile, then grinned at me. “Would you care to do the honors, Miss Baine?” He held up the large wick of the rocket in my direction.

  I couldn’t help it—I grinned back. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  “Uh, I think we’ll get clear first,” Garrett said, hastily retreating from the massive pile of fireworks on which I was standing. For once, he actually looked nervous.

  “I agree,” Director Chen said as he took her by the elbow. “We’ll be waiting outside.”

  “Scaredy cats,” I teased, sticking out my tongue, but I couldn’t blame them for wanting to get clear. I waited until they were well past the doors, then conjured a flame and lit the wick.

  “Race you to the door,” I challenged Iannis as the wick began to spark and spit. I made a mad dash for the front door, and Iannis laughed as he blew past me in a gust of wind, outpacing me easily with his Tua super speed. I was halfway to the door when he zoomed back toward me, and then the next thing I knew, I was in his arms.

  “Show off!” I shouted as he burst out the door with me. The first explosion went off as his feet hit the pavement, propelling us forward, and my heart leapt into my throat. Thankfully, Iannis didn’t fall, and we made it across to the other side of the street just in time to watch the fireworks show.

  “That was uncharacteristically foolish of you, Lord Iannis,” Director Chen observed as the warehouse went up in a spectacular burst of light and flame.

  “Indeed, but it was worth it.” Iannis flashed a brief grin, then turned serious. “Now let’s stop standing around. We have work to do.”

  The four of us joined hands again to lend Iannis power, and he conjured winds to blow the fire onto the adjacent building that housed the secret lab. It didn’t take long for the roof to catch fire, and once a good blaze was going, Iannis let up, allowing nature to take its course. While the fire raged, he taught me a spell to put anti-flame protection on the adjacent buildings, to ensure that the fire did not get out of control and harm innocent bystanders and neighbors. We applied the spell to all the nearby warehouses together, and to my very pleasant surprise, I got it right on the second try. Guess all those magic lessons were paying off!

  “Are we going to go home now?” I asked as we walked away from the conflagration. My ears were still ringing from the explosion, and I was exhausted and hungry from using all that magic. “I’m ready for a serious—” I stopped as the wind shifted.

  “What is it?” Iannis asked as I sniffed the air.

  “A couple dozen humans.” Now that I’d smelled them, I could hear their hurried footfalls from just a block away. “Sounds like a mob of them.”

  “Blast it,” Director Chen cursed. “That must be Ma-San and his thugs! He should not see us. We must leave, now.”

  But it was too late. The group of men charged around the corner, carrying swords and guns. Their boss was taller than the average Garaian, with a balding head gleaming above his olive-colored velvet jacket. He might have been handsome if he hadn’t been practically foaming at the mouth with rage, I noted dispassionately. His henchmen were bare chested and muscular, all sporting similar blue-colored tattoos of striking cobras on their upper arms, and brandishing their weapons in businesslike fashion. These were men used to bathing in the blood of their enemies, and they no doubt intended to kill us with great relish.

  “Are you fucking serious?” I shouted, grabbing a chakram from my pouch and flinging it straight at Ma-San’s head. He ducked, and the blade beheaded the man behind him instead. The rest of the thugs howled with rage, probably pissed as hell that a woman had struck the first blow, and those who had guns fired straight at us.

  “Oh, I have just been looking for a fight,” I snarled, jumping high out of the range of the bullets even as Iannis conjured a shield to deflect them. Several of the men cried out as the bullets ricocheted and hit them instead. Served the bastards right. I drew my crescent knives mid-air and came down slashing, cutting throats and ripping into stomachs as I did so. A sword cut into my upper arm, but it was a glancing blow, and I kicked the offending man so hard that he went flying straight into the wall of the closest warehouse. The rest of my comrades had jumped into the fray, using magic to slice, stab, burn, and disintegrate the enemies.

  “Die!” a male voice cried in Northian, and I let out a cry of my own as a sword stabbed through the back of my left shoulder. Agony exploded through my upper back, but, thankfully, the man pulled the blade out for a second strike—the last mistake he would ever make.

  “Maybe you should take your own advice,” I growled, spinning around and catching his next blow with my crescent knife. The man’s eyes widened, and I grinned viciously as I realized it was Ma-San himself who’d engaged me. I swept the knife in my left hand into a curve, knocking his sword arm wide so that he was off balance, then came in and sliced his throat open as he stumbled backward. The evil bastard went down sputtering and choking in a pool of his own blood, and I spat on him. Not just for me, but for those all the innocent people the Resistance had experimented on, alive or dead, to make the diseases that he was making profit on.

  Not to mention the dead rats burning inside, I thought darkly. I wished I could have made his death more painful, but there wasn’t time.

  “Let’s go, Sunaya,” Iannis said quietly as the remainin
g thugs ran off. I turned to see flecks of blood on his alabaster skin and weariness in his eyes. “We’re done here now.”

  Yes, we are, I thought, giving Ma-San’s dead body and the burning buildings one last look over my shoulder as Iannis led me away. We were leaving a trail of dead bodies in our wake after all, and needed to get clear of them before the authorities arrived.

  25

  With our mission concluded, we stayed at Asu’s only long enough to catch a few hours’ sleep. I was surprised to realize that despite our unpleasant mission and treacherous host, I was going to miss staying here. The place was beautiful, and it would have been nice to relax for a few days and get to know Asu and the children better, without her bastard of a husband breathing down our necks. I would have had a lot of fun exploring Leniang City, too. I resolved to come back as a tourist someday, so I could take in the sights without the pressure of an urgent mission on my shoulders.

  “It was truly a pleasure having you all,” Asu said to us as she saw us off in a carriage, and I could tell by her scent and her smile that she genuinely meant it. The children had gathered around to see us off as well. “I do hope that you will come to visit again, Lalia. I have not experienced this much excitement since before I married Loku.”

  “Duties permitting, I will visit more often,” Chen promised, hugging her sister.

  “Do you have to leave now?” one of the twins asked, her eyes round and sad as she looked up at me. “You have not stayed long, and now that Father is sleeping all the time, he cannot scold us for playing with you.”

  I smiled at her, then crouched down to meet her at eye level. “I would stay and play with you, but our friends are waiting for us, and we have to get back. But I can show you a cool trick before we leave.”

  “Really?” Her face lit up, and the other children began bouncing on the balls of their feet, even the older ones. “Show us, show us!”

  I got down on all fours, then reached for my inner beast and changed. The children gasped as white light engulfed my body, hiding it from sight as the magic stretched and changed me. Muscles and bones rearranged, fangs, claws, and fur grew where there were none, and my senses sharpened, scents becoming stronger, visual details becoming clearer.