Hunted by Magic (18 page)

W
alking
up the front steps of the Federation Capitol Building at Iannis’s side was entertaining, to say the least. The guards flanking the huge, gilded double doors stared in shock as they caught sight of him, and by the time they remembered to bow we were already past the threshold and stepping into the entrance hall. Glossy mosaic tiles patterned the floors and arching ceilings with runes, and in the center of the large space was a fountain sculpture of Jeremidah. This time he was flanked by Faonus and Micara, the other two mages that made up the Founding Trio. All three mages were carved as though they were the same height, suggesting that they were equals. I wondered how true that was, if at all. My Northia Federation history was a little rusty.

“Lord Iannis!” the receptionist manning the desk to the right of us exclaimed. She was a petite human dressed in a gold and white button-up blouse and high-waisted skirt. “Is it really you? They said that you were dead!” Her pale brown eyes, the same color as the hair piled atop her head, were wider than serving platters.

“As you can see, Pamina, I am alive and well.” Iannis’s voice was deadpan, but I caught the flicker of humor in his eyes and I knew he was enjoying the receptionist’s reaction. “Would you mind telling me where the rest of the delegates are right now?”

“They’re enjoying dinner in the banquet hall.” Pamina’s mouth formed a small ‘o.’ “You’re going to cause an absolute sensation when you walk in. Do you need someone to escort you, Sir?”

“No need. We can manage on our own.” Iannis inclined his head, then swept past her and headed down a long, wide hallway to our right. Huge portraits of various Chief Mages and Ministers lined the gold walls, and my slippers fell upon a richly patterned carpet that ran down the center of the hall, leaving the rune-covered tile to peek out along the sides. I followed after Iannis along with the two delegates, hurrying to keep up with his long-legged stride. We passed a number of humans along the way as they moved between various rooms connected off the hallway, all dressed in the same gold and white uniform as the receptionist and many of them carrying files and paperwork.

“I didn’t think humans were allowed inside the Capitol,” I remarked as Iannis led us up a set of carpeted stairs.

“They weren’t, initially,” Secretary Bosal explained to me. “But the Federation realized that it was a waste of resources to employ mages for menial tasks like filing when there were plenty of humans who needed the work. Now we allow humans to work at the Capitol, so long as they are willing to be magically bonded.”

“Bonded?” I echoed. “You mean like magically sworn to secrecy?”

“Exactly,” the delegate answered. “Any human who breaks the bond will instantly die by heart attack. It is a rather effective deterrent against stealing or selling state secrets.”

“No kidding.” I turned away before the Education Secretary could see the disgust twisting my expression. On the one hand I understood that the mages wanted to take precautions, but forcing humans to subject themselves to a death spell in exchange for work seemed a little over the top. What if someone captured one of them and tortured them for information? There would be no hope for survival in that situation. Was the information contained in those stupid little files really so valuable that they were worth the loss of human life?

“If humans are allowed in the building, then why don’t I see any shifters here?”
I asked Iannis.

“Shifters are trusted less by the mage community than humans, due to the hatred your species harbors for ours,”
Iannis remarked dryly.
“Given your origins as a species, it is only natural that we mages would rather not employ shifters in our main government building.”

The sound of violin music and chatter, which I’d caught strains of from the stairwell, grew louder, and I bit back a derisive snort as we turned a corner and came upon the banquet hall. The doors were thrown wide open, so music and light and tinkling laughter spilled freely into the hall, giving me an immediate impression of restrained elegance. More guards flanked the entrance, and expressions of shock crossed their faces before they stepped back to admit us.

The banquet hall was filled with round tables large enough to seat ten each. Most of the mages were seated at these tables, enjoying their food and wine and conversation, and my stomach grumbled at the enticing aromas of steak and salmon. A few people were standing around in small groups, some near the elaborate buffet toward the back of the room, and others near the entrance. The group nearest the doorway turned to look at us, and one of them dropped the glass of wine poised between her fingers.

“Lord Iannis!” the mage closest to us, a tall, slender man dressed in a set of silver robes that matched his short hair, exclaimed as the glass shattered into a million pieces. Dark red liquid spread quickly across the silver-veined marble, and the female mage who’d dropped it hastily scurried backward as a waiter swooped in to mop up the mess. “By the stars, but we thought you were dead!”

The entire room went silent at those words, and even the orchestra ceased playing for a few moments as everyone gaped at us in shock. Then the room exploded into pandemonium, and mages all around the room were jumping to their feet and rushing toward Iannis.

“Where have you been?”

“Do you realize you’ve missed over half of the Convention?”

“Was the Resistance responsible for your delay, or was there a mechanical malfunction?”

“Where are the rest of your delegates?”

“I’m very pleased to see you’ve brought him back here alive,” a voice murmured in my ear. I looked over my shoulder to find that Cirin Garidano, the Solantha Finance Secretary, had somehow maneuvered his way behind me. He looked very stately in his gold and blue robes, the same ones as the illusion Iannis wore, and for a moment I was reminded of the time when Argon Chartis had taken up Iannis’s seat in the audience chamber and worn his colors as well. But unlike Chartis, the Finance Secretary was acting with the blessing of the Mages Guild. It made sense for him to wear the colors of his state, as he’d been Canalo’s only representative until our arrival.

“Yeah, no thanks to you,” I jabbed, but only halfheartedly. “I had to hijack a hot air balloon in order to get to him.”

“So that hunch of yours really did work out. I must confess I thought you were bluffing. How exactly did you find him?” the Finance Secretary wanted to know. His voice was pitched low, his lips so close to my ear I could feel his breath on my skin. “What a slap in the face for the Council, that you managed to locate Lord Iannis when they could not. You clearly must have had some sort of plan in place.”

“It’s a long story.” I knew the Finance Secretary was trying to make sure he wasn’t overheard, but despite his efforts and the loud noise in the room, I wasn’t comfortable disclosing that information to him. Not to mention I still wasn’t sure I could trust him. “I’ll let the Chief Mage relay those details to you.”

“And who is this young lady accompanying you?” the mage who’d ‘greeted’ us asked, drawing my attention back to the conversation.

“Narina Sernan,” Iannis said, apparently inventing a name for me on the spot. I cursed him inwardly for not consulting with me first – he’d yet to pick an alias for me that I actually liked – but committed it to memory so I would know to answer to it. “She is my assistant, and she accompanied the search party which located me near the airship’s crash site.”

“I see.” The mage inclined his head in my direction before turning back to Iannis. “While we are all grateful for her part in your rescue, I’ll have to ask Miss Sernan to leave,” he said sternly. “This particular banquet is for delegates only.”

“Very well, Lord Bastien,” Iannis said before I could protest. “In any case, we came straight here, and one of our party must secure our rooms at the Crystal Hotel.”

“Are you serious?”
I snapped, gritting my teeth in anger.
“You’re going to send me off to run errands?”

“The rules here are very strict,”
Iannis replied in mindspeak even as he went on talking to the other mages. “
Besides, I really do need you to secure our hotel rooms and purchase clothing and other necessities. Much as I wish you could stay here with me, it isn’t possible, so please hold your temper and do as I ask. You’ll have plenty of time to snoop around tomorrow.”

“Fine.”
His explanation was slightly mollifying, and I forced myself to keep my expression calm even though what I really wanted to do was spit on Lord Bastien’s shoe.

“That sounds like an excellent idea,” Bastien said. He gestured to a guard, who instantly appeared at his side. “Help Miss Sernan procure transportation to the Crystal Hotel.”

“Yes sir.” The guard bowed, and I bit back a sigh. I didn’t need an escort, but the warning look in Iannis’s eyes was enough to make me think twice about kicking the guard to the curb. We were here on a mission, after all, and squabbling about petty matters wasn’t going to help us get to the bottom of the attack on Iannis and the other delegates.

“Take this,” Iannis said, pulling a leather pouch from the magical vortex that seemed to exist inside his sleeve. I took it from him and resisted the urge to test the weight of the pouch in my hand – I figured such behavior was unbecoming amongst the wealthy, and besides, I could already tell it had significant heft. “That should be more than enough to cover expenses.”

“Thank you.” With nothing left to say, I bowed to the delegates around us, then followed the guard out of the banquet hall, leaving Iannis to fend for himself against the pack of vultures descending on him en masse.

P
laying
the part Iannis had assigned, I allowed the guard to escort me outside and hail a cab, but stopped short of having him actually accompany me to the hotel. An escort was all well and good, but I didn’t need a babysitter.

As I listened to the clip-clop of the horses’ hooves, I peered through the cab’s curtains and studied the city. Unlike Solantha, the majority of the people walking these broad streets were mages, dressed in robes that varied in color, style, and material. As we passed through a trendy shopping district, I watched a woman glide out of a carriage and take the arm of a man I assumed to be her husband. She was dressed in an ermine-trimmed fuchsia robe and sparkling gemstones, and her dark red hair was twisted up into two elaborate knots at the top of her head. Her husband was dressed in similar fashion, though his robes were black and more masculine in style. The two of them headed into a fancy restaurant, and I wondered if that was just their normal idea of a date night, or if they had important business there. Conversely, just across the street a pair of mages dressed in plain, monochromatic robes walked out of a bookshop, both carrying thick leather tomes in their arms as they chattered earnestly about whatever scholarly topic they were pursuing.

There were humans walking these streets too, nearly as many as there were mages, and though there were a few upper-class citizens around, most humans looked to be lower middle-class workers at best. Interestingly, I didn’t see any shifters around, and I wondered if perhaps there was more of a stigma against them here in the capital city than Dara was letting on. Perhaps we’d made less progress than I’d thought regarding shifter rights. I thought we’d had it bad in Solantha, but at least in my hometown shifters were allowed to share the same streets and walk through the same neighborhoods as everyone else. It was little wonder that Iannis had wanted to disguise me.

The carriage turned off the main street and into the roundabout of the hotel, and I craned my neck so I could catch a glimpse of the building. It was four stories high, constructed of pale stone that you could hardly even see for the rows and rows of windows that circled the round structure. They sparkled in the light of the nearly full moon, catching the rays and reflecting them back in icy splendor, and I had to admit the hotel’s name was well chosen.

The driver handed me down from the carriage, and I pressed a coin into his palm before making my way through the revolving doors. More crystal greeted me here, from the chandeliers dripping from the ceilings to the flower-filled vases sitting atop glass tables. I took a deep breath and inhaled blossoms, perfume, expensive chocolates, and magic. The last scent didn’t surprise me at all, considering there were mages everywhere, lounging in the sitting area or walking between the restaurant to the elevators that led to the rooms upstairs. Judging by their understated but high-quality robes, they were probably companions or assistants to the delegates who had flown into the Convention, forced to languish here at this fancy hotel while the delegates were enjoying their exclusive dinner.

I received curious stares from the mages in the sitting area, but I ignored them and approached the concierge instead. A human female with chestnut hair, wearing a starched white shirt and light blue vest, looked up at me through her wire-rimmed glasses, then straightened and smiled as she caught sight of my mage robes.

“Good evening, ma’am, and welcome to the Crystal Hotel,” she said. “How can I help you this evening?”