“They go along with that?” I asked, astounded at the idea.
“Not all. The same rumors say nearly half the mages in the known world that were alive two years ago are now missing.”
“Missing?” I mused while trying to understand both the basic concept and how it related to events in Dire. It seemed all too plausible. “What do you know of this young mage? How did you come across this information?”
He pulled back just enough that told me I’d gone too far with my rash questions and scared him or broached a subject he didn’t wish to discuss. A flash of fear crossed his face. His hand moved to the door.
I moved to place my foot against the door, so he couldn’t open it. My voice turned cold. “I don’t know who you are, your name, or why you are here except that you say you are loyal to my father. I will not share anything you tell me, nor will I spread your information about unnecessarily, but it’s probably best if you do not share any personal information. I’m sorry I asked about your source. You must have a good reason for what you’re doing.”
He visibly relaxed but his eyes remained on my toe blocking his passage. As if my words convinced him to add to his story, he softened his voice to a whisper. “My little brother was taken from us years ago. The mages did it. They came to our farm and left with him, and it nearly killed my mother. Now, he somehow manages to touch my mind when I sleep. At first, I thought they were dreams, but no, it’s him. Sometimes, months go by without contact, but then there are times he comes to me in the night, almost every night, especially in times of turmoil. He says to warn our king of danger. I am not crazy. It really happens, but you can send me away, and I’ll leave.”
“I know something of mages, magic, and many things that are better unknown. We understand little of it and try to live with what we see and understand what we can. I believe you.”
He was relieved, but his voice stayed soft, more of a hiss than a whisper. “He told me to speak to you in private and tell you what I have said. There is one more thing he wants me to pass on to you, the most important part of it, he said, but I have no idea of what it means, only the words he placed in my head.”
“Tell me.”
The old man hesitated for a brief instant, then plunged ahead as if he too was a ship sailing into a dangerous storm, “The woman dressed in blue light is, in reality, the young mage who is behind the chaos.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Damon
Kendra and the Slave-Master had come to an uneasy and unspoken understanding about which of them was the toughest of them. I stayed out of it and decided I liked the image of Damon in the Kaon language. A demon. Of course, I needed to find out more about minor and deceptive demons, but overall, it suited me. My entire life had been a deception hiding my skills of controlling minor acts of magic.
Their debate revolved around which of them was the nastiest, the hardest fighter, and the strongest. Personally, since I had known her my entire life, I gave the edge to my sister, although the Slave-Master seemed to have more practical experience at being crude and mean. It was like watching a pair of warriors after each had finished two full bottles of wine and were trying to convince the other of their prowess with the opposite sex. Some of their tales undoubtedly held kernels of truth, but the trick was in knowing which kernels and how many.
Anna had grown bored with their talking and wandered off with her sister and threw a stick across the open meadow where the slave camp had been set up. Emma chased the stick and tried to match the throws of her older sister, and the stick always fell short. I watched both in fear and anticipation of either of them using magic. Neither did. Not yet.
Kendra settled next to the Slave-Master on the desert floor and asked, “You are from Kaon?”
He snorted with derision, “No, I was born in Frampton, a land to the south of Kondor. Far to the south.”
“How did a nice man like you become a Slave-Master?” she asked. “I’m sure you didn’t wake up one morning as a child and say to yourself, I think I’ll grow up to one-day wreck homes and destroy innocent lives.”
He paused, a slight smile twitching the corners of his lips. Then he spoke, “There was once another Slave-Master. I was his slave. He captured me while I was drunk and in bed with two evil women. They had taken pay to exhaust me and pour wine down my throat until near sunup. He took me prisoner without a fight, and I was destined for the auctions where I anticipated my sale would set new records.” He flexed his biceps.
“You escaped?” she asked, not laughing or even acting like she heard his attempt at humor any more than he’d paid attention to hers.
“No, not escaped. Running away does not suit me. Instead, I killed him during the second night of my captivity. Then I killed each of his three guards without waking the others. I placed my chains around the neck of the metal worker who tended the chains and told him that if he freed me, I would let him live and keep his job. He struck the pins, and I kept my word until forced to kill him a few days later over an incident with an ugly woman and a few tankards of sour ale.”
“The metal worker went with you when you escaped?” Kendra asked.
“Went? Escaped? Hell, we didn’t go anywhere. I had a string of slaves to get to the auction houses of Kaon to sell and profits to be made for my purse. We became partners until he became unreasonable with that woman. I killed her, too, but that’s another story. I don’t wish to make myself sound like a crude man.”
I needed to change the subject or vomit. “Tell me about the government of Kaon.”
He scowled at me for interrupting his stories, then shrugged before answering, “It’s fine. I mean, it’s not like I ever met the king or anything. Just saw him a couple of times.”
“The king?” I asked.
“Yes. I forget his name, but a big guy. Eats like a pig, they say.”
Kendra said, “Ever hear of the Council of Nine?”
“Kondor,” he said instantly and with distaste. He spat to one side. “The men from there are weak, and the slaves sell for minimal. But, there are plenty of them, and they are easy to take. Some even volunteer. It’s better than starving, so it’s easy for me to gather them up.”
“They agree?” Kendra asked before I could.
He said, “Now that you know all that, am I such a bad person?”
“You are,” she said and ignored his crude laughter. “Tell me about Kaon.”
He looked ready to refuse, then abruptly changed his mind. “What do you want to know?”
“I’ve barely heard of it. Where does it lie? To the north is Dire, yet you hint it is up there when I know differently.”
He nodded as he used a stick to draw in the sand. “Maps would help. However, I know of Dire. Not directly, but from maps. Your kingdom backs up to mountains that cannot be crossed.” He drew a rough U-shape in the sand.
“That is Dire, but what of Kaon?” Her voice had grown sharper.
“Traveling across the land on this side of the sea will reach the southern end of the land that borders the sea. That is Kaon. It follows the western coast north, on the other side of those mountains that protect Dire from the likes of us, and our Kaon warriors.”