Mages Unbound: Book 2 of the Fifth Mage War Page 4

  “Henry, would you be able to counter the spells on this book?” Cordelia asked without infusing any compulsion into her voice just yet. The technician seemed so susceptible to her siren pheromones, he might do it just to please her.

  Henry put his pen down and took the book from Cordelia. “Hmm. I’m not a very skilled mage, you know. I only know the basics of counter-spelling …” But he examined the textbook carefully, his eyes focusing on the cover while he rubbed the spine.

  “It would be so helpful,” Cordelia murmured.

  Mary watched her sister intently; it almost seemed like Cordelia was a different person. She again heard that rumble below her voice, as if a far-away French horn were playing an extended note.

  Henry’s eyes widened, and he inhaled sharply. “Of course, I’ll try!” he promised her in a rough voice. “But, I think I may need a smoke first.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a thin vape pipe. “I keep this for the big problems. Already had a hit in Baltimore today …”

  Henry flipped the vape-pipe on and took a long drag on it, exhaling a smoky pink vapor that quickly dissipated into the room, leaving the lingering smell of sage and citrus.

  He puffed for a few moments, closing his eyes. When he opened them again, his pupils were so dilated that his irises were almost completely black, rimed with a thin golden edge. He smiled at Cordelia, but it was an empty kind of look.

  Mages are scary, Cordelia thought. This kind of magick was so different from the fae spell-casting she was used to.

  Henry stood at the island, his left hand pressing slightly into the spine of the book, while his right held it steady. Again, he focused intently, but nothing seemed to be happening. Neither Mary nor Cordelia said anything; they both stared at Henry, who stared at the book. Cordelia supposed that if she had mage sight, she might be able to see something happening. Instead, this was rather like watching paint dry.

  “Come on. Let’s sit down. Who knows how long this is going to take,” Cordelia suggested in a whisper.

  Mary hesitated. “I don’t want to disturb him.”

  “Shh,” Cordelia said, taking Mary by the arm and walking softly back to the living room. She sat down on the couch, and Mary sat next to her. “He’s in a trance. I don’t think it’s a hard spell, but he’s probably not even a Class Three mage. So, it could take a while.”

  “How do you know so much about mages?” Mary demanded, still speaking in a whisper.

  “I don’t. I’m just guessing. But if he were able to create his own spells, I don’t think the Danjou would have him working as a repair technician. Just be grateful he’s willing to try.”

  “You cast a spell on him,” Mary said, her eyes wide. “That’s why he’s trying.”

  “It’s not a spell — or at least not a spell I can really take any credit for — it’s just a light compulsion. He wants to make me happy, so he’s going to try to counter the spells on the book. He should be able to, and I don’t think it will hurt him to try. But I’ll have to compel him to forget about this part of our meeting. I don’t want him talking to people about us.”

  “Have you been doing this all your life?” Mary asked a bit wistfully. She really didn’t know her little sister at all.

  “Well, not when I was a child. Born sirens grow into their powers to some degree. But since I was a teenager, men have been bending over backward to help me and women try to kill me. Fertile men and women, of course.”

  Cordelia glanced back into the kitchen. “Let’s just wait till he’s done to talk about this,” she said. “If the technician doesn’t already know about sirens, I don’t want to be the one to educate him. There’s as much fiction as fact out there right now.”

  Cordelia worried at her fingernail, wondering what the oceans would do now that the geas was gone.

  “What do you mean, ‘as much fiction as fact?’” Mary asked.

  “Later,” Cordelia replied. They sat in silence for a moment.

  Mary sighed, and Cordelia took a closer look at her older sister. Mary wasn’t wearing any make-up, and her hair was in a ponytail. It was unlike her.

  “I liked hearing you sing,” Cordelia offered. “I waited outside for a while before ringing the bell. It’s been a long time since I heard you perform.”

  “I was just practicing. That wasn’t even a very demanding song. I needed something to do to stop thinking about all that’s going on right now.” Mary looked back towards the kitchen, where the mage was still staring at the book.

  Mary held herself so tightly. Cordelia could see the shadows around her eyes, the pinched look around her lips. Mary, who had always held everyone else together, looked like she was falling apart.

  “I’m so sorry, Mary,” Cordelia said sincerely. “So very, very sorry.”

  Mary’s tight lips trembled, but she didn’t say anything. Cordelia looked at her stiff profile and suddenly felt so tired, she wanted to collapse. Instead, she put her head on Mary’s shoulder.

  “I love you, Mary,” Cordelia said softly.

  Mary closed her eyes against the tears that threatened to fall. Her throat closed up. “Love you too.” Her voice sounded harsh.

  “Miss?” Henry called from the kitchen. “You’re all set.”

  They heard him walking towards them. Henry held the book out to Cordelia, and she stood up to take it before handing it back to Mary.

  “Thank you so much, Henry,” Cordelia said.

  Henry flushed with pleasure.

  Mary glanced down at the book that now had a blue-green cover; she didn’t feel the urge to hurl it across the room anymore. The sudden contrast with her earlier feeling about it was startling, and she ran her finger over the gold-embossed title. Sirens: An Overview for the Newly Transitioned by Mira Bant de Atlantic. It had been with her all these years, and she’d never realized it.

  “Henry,” Cordelia began again, and the resonance in her voice caused Mary to look up. Cordelia blocked her view, but Mary could see the mage’s half-closed eyes over her sister’s shoulder.

  “Forget that you counter-spelled this book for me,” Cordelia commanded. “Remember only that you came to fix the garbage disintegrator. The women were so pretty, you decided to cut them a break and not charge them.”

  Mary could almost hear the rush of water running beneath Cordelia’s words, and a sheen of sound reverberated in the room.

  “Of course,” Henry breathed. “I will never forget how beautiful you are!”

  “But you have to leave now,” Cordelia said firmly. “It’s already quite late.”

  Henry gasped, closing his eyes and pressing his hand against the crotch of his pants. His mouth dropped open for a few moments before he was able to respond. “I have to leave,” he said in a low rasp. “I’m parked in a tow-away zone.”

  Mary closed her mouth and swallowed as Cordelia led Henry to the door. Her sister was a siren. Sirens were real. And it was probably a good thing that they seemed to stay away from humans.

  “Thank you for coming,” Mary called out in a faint voice as her sister opened the door.

  “No problem,” Henry replied, his tone even again as he walked out, forgetting to take the light blue covers off his shoes. Cordelia closed the door and turned around, her eyes guarded as she looked at her big sister.

  Mary straightened and patted the seat next to her. She was finally ready to sift through the fiction that had been her whole life.

  Chapter 3 ~ Townsville, Australia

  For nearly 1,500 years, Morgan le Fay’s confoundment spell denied sirens the ability to communicate with their offspring regarding their siren nature. While the breaking of her spell destabilized siren society during the critical pre-war period, it was only tangentially related to the outbreak of hostilities.

  – The Origins of the Fifth Mage War (2089), by Jason de Atlantic, p. 54.

  The Pacific flowed across the casting field’s sand in a smooth wave, arcing back over the surrounding walls without leaving a single drop behind. Thomas hoped the water would do as little damage to the rest of the city. If he hadn’t seen it, felt its caress, he wouldn’t have believed the ocean had actually flooded the city when Kyoko broke the spell.

  He surveyed the stadium-sized expanse in the sudden calm. After the near-music of Kyoko’s casting and the shock of the rushing sea, the stillness was surreal. Professor Wanda watched the water’s retreat as if in a trance, and Bo-Long hadn’t moved from where the ocean had laid him.

  Thomas’s feet tingled on the silica-salt encrusted sand, and he looked down at his mage, whose back still rested warmly against his legs. The sea had not taken her from him. Indeed, its brief touch had felt almost like a blessing on their union.

  Thomas gently laid Kyoko on the sand and knelt beside her. She was unconscious, but her chest rose and fell in an even rhythm. Her face was pale, but he was relieved to see that her skin still retained its usual magical luminosity. Kyoko’s right, he thought, she knows her limits better than I do.

  He’d worried about this gambit of theirs, but she’d assured him this was within her power. In fact, she’d been eager to prove she could break the geas completely. But even if Kyoko looked as if she’d recover quickly from this casting, Bo-Long hadn’t moved since the Pacific had embraced him. The ocean’s touch should have soothed the other siren as much as it had him, but Bo-Long was still unconscious.

  “Is he breathing?” Thomas called out to the professor, who was still staring at the bone-dry wall the ocean had engulfed only moments before.

  His voice snapped Wanda out of her daze, and she bent down to wrap her fingers around Bo-Long’s wrist.

  “He’s alive.” The professor’s voice was rusty, and she cleared her throat. “His pulse is slow but steady. How is she?” Wanda asked loudly as
she straightened.

  Thomas focused on smoothing a lock of Kyoko’s dark hair off her face. For the ocean to have rushed in like that, surely she must have succeeded, he thought.

  “Kyoko’s fine. She’s resting,” Thomas said quietly. I should get her out of the sun before she burns, he thought. The casting field’s sand seemed cooler now, but Thomas wasn’t sure if that was due to her magick or the ocean’s surge.

  “I’ve never seen a casting like that,” Wanda exclaimed with wide eyes. “Kyoko ripped the spell open until the power poured out. Now I think I understand how the Asian deserts came to be broken … it’s a miracle Townsville still stands.”

  Thomas looked up. Not a single crack marred the white-washed concrete of the surrounding walls, which was truly miraculous. But Wanda’s immediate comparison of this working to the devastating spells of the First Mage War concerned him.

  They’d planned to use this spell-casting to demonstrate Kyoko’s power and skill, to show the Cabal that she was worthy of their respect. He wasn’t a mage with the ability to see the magick his consort unleashed, but Thomas was sure she’d proved herself.

  Soundlessly, a doorway wavered into existence in the far wall. A dark-haired woman in a cream-colored lab coat walked through, followed by two Australian soldiers with a rolled-up carpet floating between them. One of the soldiers was wearing a black jacquard uniform that designated mages, and the other wore the royal blue of a mundane. Thomas scrambled to his feet, grateful that neither soldier carried a rifle.

  Goddamn, they’re fast! he cursed. Not even a near-Tsunami could divert the Aussies from their mission, and there was little time left to get Wanda to explain what she’d seen.

  “Professor, come close to me,” Thomas called out, weaving a light compulsion into his voice. A faint piping sound softened his tone.

  Professor Wanda’s face flushed with desire as she hurried close to him. The mage was unusually susceptible to his siren pheromones, and if Thomas weren’t in such a hurry, he would have tried to stifle his allure.

  “Support my every request. Make sure they do as I ask,” Thomas ordered.

  Wanda staggered under the impact of his command, the pulse pounding in her throat as her eyes fluttered closed. When she opened them again, her pupils were dilated. “Oh Thomas, they wouldn’t dare hurt you, even if I weren’t here. The Cabal has given strict orders.” The professor reached out to caress him but froze. He’d ordered her not to touch him before, and she was still abiding by his directives.

  “Who’s the woman in the lab coat?” Thomas asked, though based on the stethoscope hanging around her neck, he suspected she was a doctor.

  “Doctor Vera de Western, Cabalist Eloise’s personal physician,” Wanda responded.

  Dr. Vera stalked across the football field-sized expanse, unbothered by the shifting sand. Based on how quickly she’d appeared, she must have been waiting just outside the walls for the casting to be completed.

  “Professor, quickly — what did Kyoko do?” This wasn’t the first time Thomas wished he could see magick like the mages. Today’s effort was supposed to gain them asylum here in Australia. But after the Pacific surged across the city in reaction, Thomas feared Kyoko had shown too much power.

  Wanda gasped with pleasure before focusing on Thomas’s face. “It was masterful!”

  Thomas nodded, his eyes flickering to the approaching trio then back to Wanda’s awestruck face. Kyoko needed to prove that she was a major talent, but Wanda’s reaction seemed extreme. The professor was the Cabal’s expert in binding magick, and he would have thought she’d be used to such great workings by now.

  “Most mages don’t have the skill to pull a spell completely out of its subject, but Kyoko does! I could see Morgan le Fay’s entire geas, all of its beautiful links tying genetic sirens together. And then she broke it. Like it was glass. Shattered!” Wanda paused, shaking her head in amazement.

  Thomas’s heart started to pound. We’ve made a terrible mistake, he thought. They’ll never let her go now. All mages were said to be ruthless, but the Cabal even more so; if they didn’t believe Kyoko was their ally, they would treat her as their enemy.

  Dr. Vera didn’t even glance at Bo-Long’s unconscious form as she swept towards him. At least the soldiers stopped with the siren. One opened a black bag, while the other picked up Bo-Long’s wrist.

  The doctor’s single-minded focus on Kyoko was too intense, and Thomas swiftly gathered his consort into his arms and stepped behind Wanda.

  “Dr. Vera de Western, thank you for coming so promptly,” Thomas called out.

  “Put her down,” Vera ordered curtly, stepping around the professor.

  “We’re ready to return to the Queensland estate now.” I can’t let Eloise’s pet mage touch her until she can defend herself, he thought.

  “Professor,” Dr. Vera turned to Wanda. “Cabalist Eloise has sent me to care for the breaker mage. You aren’t needed here anymore.”

  “My consort would not appreciate being examined in public,” Thomas interjected sharply, and that got the doctor’s attention. Her mouth parted in shock at his tone.

  “Siren. Put. Her. Down.” Vera emphasized every word.

  “Dr. Vera,” Wanda stepped between them, breaking the other mage’s line of sight. “Cabalist George is expecting us back at the estate. Kyoko de Brazil is stable enough to travel. We should get going.”

  “With all due respect, Professor—”

  “Dr. Vera de Western, do I need to remind you of your place?”

  Thomas was somewhat amazed at the transformation in Professor Wanda. Her voice could cut ice. He knew Kyoko didn’t think very highly of the mage, but with the boost of his compulsion, she’d risen to the occasion.

  Vera exhaled. “Very well, Professor. But you’ll be the one to explain matters to Cabalist Eloise if the breaker mage is damaged as a result of your … intervention.”

  The doctor turned abruptly and gestured at the carpet, which unfurled. She crossed over to where the two soldiers were kneeling beside Bo-Long. Both soldiers bore a red cross insignia on their shoulders —medics.

  “Wanda, I don’t think Kyoko needs a doctor,” Thomas said softly.

  “Nor do I.” The professor’s lips barely moved. “But Cabalist Eloise will want a report from someone she trusts since she can’t be here. At least their carpet is rated for medevac, so it should be a quick trip.”

  While they got situated on the carpet, the doctor busied herself overseeing Bo-Long’s examination. The mage soldier waved a wand a few inches over the other siren’s chest. Thomas wondered if they were actually concerned about his health, or whether they were just checking to see if, in fact, Kyoko had actually broken the siren geas.

  “Is Bo-Long all right, doctor?” he asked. She stiffened, so he knew she’d heard him, but otherwise ignored him. Dr. Vera was obviously immune to his siren spell, which meant she was infertile. Whether through birth control or natural causes, it didn’t matter, the result was the same. And it was equally obvious that she was something of a mage-supremacist. I’ll have to make sure Wanda stays with us until Vera leaves, he concluded.

  Before Thomas could tell Wanda not to leave his side, Bo-Long stirred, lifting his hand to his head. The mundane soldier helped him sit up. The other siren blinked at the hovering Australians, then focused on Thomas.

  “I feel so light!” Bo-Long said in a giddy voice.

  As Wanda promised, the flight to the Cabal’s Townsville estate was fast. Their host, Cabalist George ric New South Wales, was waiting when they arrived. The enchanter waved off Dr. Vera’s objection when Thomas carried Kyoko into the guest villa, but unfortunately, he didn’t also send the doctor away.

  While Vera’s infertility presented a challenge, Cabalist George’s courtesy held. Ever since they’d arrived in Australia, the Cabal had bent over backward to court Kyoko. All the male cabalists had gone to extreme lengths to accommodate him in deference to her. Thomas didn’t think he’d be as willing to take the daily impotence injections they needed to negate his siren magick.