“You’re whiter than the Citadel’s walls,” she said in that tone. “You’re rushing your recovery and will wind up having a relapse if you’re not careful.”
He pouted until she agreed to at least snuggle with him. A small but crucial victory—he always slept better with her in his arms.
Finally allowed to do more experiments, Valek and Teegan traveled to the clearing the next day. They worked for a few hours but were unable to discover any more of Valek’s talents.
“Try calling the wind,” Teegan said. “You might be half Stormdancer, like Zee and Zo.”
An interesting thought. Valek reached for the...air. Unlike with living creatures, he couldn’t make a connection. Water, too, proved to be unresponsive.
“What about null shields?” he asked.
Valek stilled. “What about them?”
Most of Valek’s friends would have recognized the warning tone, but Teegan failed to heed it. “You obviously created one when you became immune to magic. I can teach you how—”
“No.” Just the thought of them turned Valek’s blood to ice.
“But it could—”
“We have plenty of other people who can create them.” Valek stared at the boy. The subject was closed.
Teegan, however, refused to drop it. “We do. To me, magical abilities are like weapons. The more talents you have, the bigger your arsenal.” He gestured at Valek. “As an assassin, you have quite the variety of weapons at your disposal. But I’m sure you wouldn’t refuse to add another just in case you need it.”
Boy genius indeed. “What if I end up...stabbing myself?” And grafting the blasted thing onto his soul again.
“You won’t. You have control of your magic now.” Sensing a change in Valek’s opinion, Teegan continued, “I’ll link with you to ensure you don’t.”
“You’re going to make a heck of a Master Magician,” Valek said.
Teegan’s face lit up at the compliment. “Does that mean you’ll try?”
“Yes, but I’m not happy about it.”
“An understatement,” Teegan muttered. “All right.” He explained how to build the shield.
The steps reminded Valek of the fishing nets he’d helped repair on the coast of MD-1. First he wove a web of magic threads coated with...oil was the only way he could describe it. The oil repelled magic. Then he tightened the strands until they formed a sheet, which could be shaped into anything. Valek’s napkin-folding skills transferred over to creating shields. By the end of the afternoon, Valek had it down and even managed to impress the boy genius.
“That’s all for today, or Aunt Yelena is gonna kill me.”
An exaggeration, but Yelena did insist Valek take another day off, which became a pattern—one day of rest, followed by a work day.
On the sixth day, Teegan said, “I think we’ve explored all the magic talents that I know. We could test the extent of your skills with mental communication. You might be a Story Weaver.”
Doubtful. “Will that help me when I’m fighting Owen?”
“Not unless you want to heal his mental anguish.”
“I’m pretty sure I’ll be causing him anguish.” And pain and death. His fingers twitched at the thought. “We can determine that later.” Valek mulled over his plans for stopping the Cartel. “Let’s see if the two of us can reach Bain from here.”
“All right.” Teegan grasped his hand.
The boy’s power surged northwest, seeking Bain. His ability to bypass all the other people along the route impressed Valek. He would have skimmed their thoughts, looking for the master magician.
Reading his thoughts, Teegan said, “Master Bain and I have linked before. It’s super easy to find someone once you’ve done that. It’s like spotting a yellow dandelion in a grassy field.”
However, even with their combined strength, they were unable to reach Bain. Disappointed but not surprised, Valek strode to Onyx, who napped in the mid-afternoon sunlight, and retrieved the super messenger. “Do you know how much magic is left in this?”
Teegan touched it with his finger. “Not much.”
“Do I have enough to contact all the Masters?”
“Not you, but I might be able to, if I keep the conversations short.”
Valek guessed that would have to do.
On the ride back to town, Teegan grabbed Valek’s arm, stopping him when they were a couple blocks away from the tailor shop.
Instantly alert, Valek scanned the surroundings. “Trouble?”
“Yes.”
24
JANCO
All this creeping around could wear a man down. Good thing Janco loved sitting still for hours and pretending to be a bush.
Not.
The compound in the middle of the Greenblade forest hadn’t changed too much since Ari and Janco’s last visit, when he’d run into Oran Zaltana, who might or might not be the Master Gardener. Ten glass hothouses remained lined up in a row, the sweet aroma of Theobroma mixed with the sharp tang of Curare was still polluting the air as the factories pumped the stuff out by the barrel...or so it seemed.