“The tournament?”
Crystal nodded. “Isn’t it due to start soon?” I said.
“The opening ceremony will be this Friday,” Crystal said. “At Fountain Reach.”
“Okay.”
“Fountain Reach is my family home.”
My eyebrows went up at that. “Okay.”
“I want you to help manage the event,” Crystal said.
“It’s very important that everything goes smoothly.”
“Manage how?”
“Providing additional protection. A diviner would be perfect for that.”
“Right,” I said. I’ve run into this a lot lately. People hear about my background and assume I must be a battle-mage. Now it’s true that I’m a mage and it’s true that I’ve fought battles and it’s even true that I’ve fought battle-mages, but that doesn’t make me a battle-mage myself. “I’m not really a bodyguard.”
“I’m not expecting you to serve as a battle-mage,” Crystal said. “You’d be more of a . . . security consultant. Your role would be to warn me of any anticipated problems.”
“What sort of problems?”
“We’re expecting over a hundred mages for the tournament. Initiates and journeymen, including a number of Dark representatives.” Crystal clasped her hands. “There’ll be competition. It’s possible some of the participants will carry grudges off the piste.”
It sounded like a recipe for trouble. “And stopping them will be . . .”
“There’ll be Council battle-mages present. We’re well aware of the potential for trouble. There will be sufficient security. We just need to make sure the security is in the right place at the right time.”
“You haven’t received any warnings or threats?”
“Nothing like that. There’s been no suggestion of trouble so far, and we’d like your help to make sure it stays that way.”
I thought about it. I’ve usually steered clear of Light tournaments in the past; my teachers thought they were a waste of time and on the whole I agreed with them. But if initiates were there, that changed my feelings a bit. Trying to protect adult mages is a thankless task, but apprentices are another story. “What exactly would you be expecting me to do?”
“Just to keep an eye on the guests. Possibly some investigation if anything comes up. We’re particularly concerned about keeping the younger apprentices safe, so we’d been hoping you could help with that.”
I started to nod—and stopped.
Crystal looked at me. “Is something wrong?”
I kept still for a second, then smiled at her. “No. Not at all. You mentioned investigation work?”
“Obviously, some mages are more likely to make trouble than others. We don’t have anybody we’re especially suspicious of, but it’s likely things will crop up to turn our attention to someone. When they do, it would be very helpful if you could find things out for us about them. Their background, connections, that sort of thing.”
“I assume the place is staffed?”
“Oh yes, the servants will handle all that. You’d be considered one of the guests.”
“And you said the opening ceremony was on Friday. The guests will be arriving on what, the same day?”
“Exactly.” Crystal was relaxed now; the interview was going well. “We’re expecting the first guests by the morning, although of course the sooner you can arrive the better.”
“And regarding payment?” I thought about cash, as soon as possible.
“Future service, as usual. Though if you’d prefer something more tangible that’s perfectly acceptable.”
“When could you arrange payment by?”
“Immediately, of course.”
“Well.” I smiled at Crystal. “That settles that.”
“Excellent. Then you’ll be able to come?”
“No.”
The smile vanished from Crystal’s face. “I’m sorry?”
“Well, I’m afraid there are a couple of problems.” I leant forward casually. “The first issue is that I’ve had a lot of approaches like yours over the past few months. And while they all looked good on the surface, the last couple of times I’ve said yes they’ve turned out to be . . . well, let’s just say I don’t feel like a repeat performance.”
“If you have a prior engagement I’m sure we—”
“No, we couldn’t. Because the second problem is that you’ve been reading my thoughts ever since you sat down.”
Crystal went very still. “I’m afraid I don’t follow,” she said at last.
“Oh, you were very subtle,” I said. “I’d guess most mages wouldn’t even notice.”
