After a few minutes Ciardis was confident she knew how to accomplish this task. She grabbed at Maree Amber’s core and then pushed a chain of her magic in the center. With a direct link she began to enhance Maree Amber’s power.
As she enhanced she waited for something to happen. For Maree Amber’s magic to react and her powers to manifest. Wasn’t that the way it worked? The other mages she had enhanced had certainly done so. When she had tapped that mind mage at court in order to expose the assassin sent by the Duke of Cinnis, his telepathic powers had extended far beyond his usual limits. Ciardis’s push had allowed him to read the minds of many of the courtiers present and relay the information about the assassination plans, as well as the affair between the Duke and the woman, to the correct authorities.
She grimaced remembering that. All mind mages had telepathic partners who received any of the messages they sent. Regardless of the content. And all messages were written down in court records. She hadn’t know about the Duke of Cinnis’s liaison until it was too late. But she was glad she had caught onto his assassination plans.
As she kept enhancing Maree Amber’s powers, Maree Amber seemed to be growing uncomfortable. She was still standing tall but her face was strained with lips tightened and her eyes wide in pain until finally Maree Amber slapped her palm on her desk to their right and shouted, “Enough.”
Ciardis stopped. Stumbling back Maree Amber put her back to the desk with both hands holding her up. She closed her eyes briefly and licked her lips, “Do you know what just happened Miss Weathervane?”
Ciardis shook her head. “No.”
“You almost killed me.”
“I...what?”
Maree Amber stood up from leaning against the desk and crossed her arms in front of her as she faced Ciardis, “You were told you can enhance magic and that is true. But for the most powerful Weathervanes, the ones that venture into the territory of mages, you can override a person’s magic, command it, and even kill the mage with it.”
Uneasy silence descended upon them.
“I don’t understand,” said Ciardis. Maree Amber had her full attention. She was actually scared now.
“When a person exerts too much magic usually their body will shut down. Because that much power is too overwhelming for them. It’s a defensive tactic.”
Ciardis nodded.
“But when a Weathervane uses their enhancement powers as you just did the body cannot shut down. The mage core will not stop building. It will keep going until the magic overwhelms that person – stopping their heart or worse.”
“What could worse than killing someone?
“A great many things Miss Weathervane,” said Maree Amber with a dark look on her face, “A great many things.”
They stood in silence until a loud bark interrupted both of their thoughts.
Ciardis startled. She had forgotten about that monstrosity sitting beside the desk. Looking over, she saw that its white fur was standing up every which way as if stood in the midst of windstorm. It was looking at the glowing orb on Maree Amber’s desk.
“So soon?” she murmured as she took in the red glow.
Ciardis watched the dog that looked as if it was almost saying something.
Quickly moving around her desk she gathered her satchel, “It’s time to go.”
Ciardis watched as Maree Amber hurried around the desk with the dog following her as she grabbed her cloak.
Looking irritably over her shoulder, Maree Amber stopped upon seeing her protege still standing in front of the desk.
“Well?”
Ciardis scrambled to door. Apparently the night wasn’t over yet.
They headed outside and caught a carriage to the weave dyer district. It was on the edge of city where the smell of the dyes would go downwind and over the ocean. Once there, they exited the carriage and walked into a large building. Inside it was a warehouse with no partitions or doors. Just wide open space and a peaked roof with large, square holes in it to let in sunlight.
Maree Amber walked forward into the middle of the room where a cloaked person stood waiting for them. To either side of the middle pathway were very large vats. Ciardis walked past the vats sunk deep into the floor. The colors swirled together with every push of a dyer’s mixing staff. Soon they made it to the center.
Beside the cloaked figure stood a fat merchant—she could tell by the moneybags weighing down his belt and the counting beads he had on his tablet that he was either a merchant or a tax collector; she wasn’t very fond of either, to tell the truth.
The merchant cleared his throat as they approached and said loudly, “Clear the room.” All of the women around them vacated their stations and quietly exited.
“Please activate the wards,” Maree Amber said.
The merchant did so with wary glances around. His nose was twitching like a rat’s. A fat rat’s.
“Of course,” said the man with the hood as he pushed the dark fabric back from his brow. Ciardis bit the inside of her cheek. Secret location, secret meeting—what would be next? Maree Amber looked over at her as if she could read her mind. She raised an eyebrow and motioned for her to come forward and stand by her side.
Ciardis could see that the uncloaked man had bland features. He had dull brown hair and brown eyes. His face was round and average, the kind of non-descript individual who could fade into a crowd at a moment’s notice. She didn’t trust him.
The merchant muttered something. Ciardis saw his magic flash faster than she thought possible, and there was a small
“The concealment is in effect. Our voices are muted and we cannot be seen,” the merchant said. “But we don’t have much time. I can’t keep this up for more than a few minutes.”
Maree Amber stepped forward to the formerly cloaked man and raised her hands. She called on her power and concentrated it. Ciardis watched as the magic from Maree Amber washed over his form. It started at the tip of his head and moved down to the soles of his feet. When the power dissipated, a woman stood in his place. Her hair, golden like wheat in the fall, fell down her back like a waterfall. Her eyes were a magnificent dark brown. But there was something odd about her ears. They stood straight and angular, peeking through her golden hair.
With shock, Ciardis realized that they were not only pointed, but they also had tufts of fur on them. Which meant she was inhuman, a
“I didn’t know there were more like the Ansari,” Ciardis said with wide eyes. The woman turned to Ciardis, “We are not like the Ansari. Although my people respect the winged species highly.”
Maree Amber interrupted. “We risk our lives by meeting this early, Alexandra. What could possibly be of such urgency?”
The woman turned her brown eyes, the shade of loam on a dark forest floor, to them and said, “Thank you for coming, Maree. There are two things that could not wait.”
She turned to the nervous merchant, who was wiping perspiration from his brow. “Have you brought it?”
He nodded and reached with sweaty hands into a pouch at his waist. Fingers trembling, he picked up a small cloth-wrapped bundle. He attempted to hand it over to Alexandra but she motioned for him to give it to Maree Amber. Maree’s face grew still. There was blood dripping from the cloth. Ciardis eyed it with unease.
Taking the small bundle in one hand, Maree Amber opened the cloth, glancing into Alexandra’s mournful eyes.
On the cloth lay one of the
