A Mage's Power (Journey to Chaos) (38 page)

How long have you been a mercenary?

About two months . . . not including training . . .

You simply have not been corrupted yet. Mercenaries are
one step away from bandits. In time, you will become just as jaded and
heartless as they are.

Basilard saved us from the xethras! They almost killed
him!

Then he
was saved by a novice, who wasn't supposed
to be there, who later died.

Eric's insides chilled and his hand unconsciously moved
behind him to the pack that had been on his back for the two weeks. He was so
guilt ridden he didn't notice something important.

How is your noble, virtuous 'Daylra' going to commemorate
your dear friend's death? By having a DRINKING MATCH with DEATH HIMSELF!

Eric dropped his shoulders. He was out of arguments. Most of
the Dragon's Lair mercenaries were family, but he wasn't part of it. Culmus
would still help . . . once he sobered up.

Didn't you promise Kasile you would hurry?

I also promised I'd rescue her. I stand a better chance
with Culmus.

It will take him at least a day to rid his system of
alcohol and that is if he stops right now.
Culmus stood on a table, wearing
a mug on his head, and doing a can-can dance. He sipped with every kick.
That
is not going to happen
.

It will once I tell him the good news!

Wait!

 Eric was already pulling off the glass helmet. “Culmus, I know
how to find Kasile!” he shouted above the merry making. The drunken swordsman
stopped kicking and dropped the mugs; they were seized by others before they
fell a foot.

“'Ow?”

Ow? . . . Oh, right!
Eric held up the pulsing
handkerchief. “This will lead the way.”

“Den dwat dwe baiting bor!?” Culmus jumped off the table and
ran for the door. Eric grabbed his arm and was dragged along like a stray
branch.

“Wait!” Eric said as he skidded across the floor. “You're
still drunk!”

“Doe . . . Tatter! Doe . . . Dime!”

Culmus was picking up speed and wobbling like a leaf in a
gust. It was only a matter of time before he tripped or crashed and then he
really
wouldn't be able to help. There was too much drink in him to see reason and
there wasn't an instant cure for alcohol intoxication and the following hangover.

Or was there?

Eric remembered someone demonstrating just such a cure. It
was way back when he first arrived on Tariatla and was guided by a grumpy hawk.
He really,
really
didn't want to do it but he didn't have a choice. She
was the only one who could help him now.

It was time to visit the Squad Two Lounge.

Grabbing a lamppost and forcing Culmus into its orbit slowed
him down long enough for him to hear what Eric had to say. He stared blankly in
response. Eric sighed and chanted; a cold shower revived him just enough to
understand. The mage still had to guide him to the Dragon's Lair.

The door dinged as the pair entered the lobby, alerting its
guardian to their presence. She spun to face them and her pigtails lashed as
she began her attack. “Culmus, you've been drinking again, haven't you?” Mia
shook her finger at him. “Bad boy! You know you're underage.”

Culmus muttered angrily under his breath, but he wouldn't
face her. They were cousins but they were also members of the guild. Eric
pondered how the dual relationship affected situations like this.

“Uhh . . . Mia . . .Culmus has . . . suffered a great loss.
I don't think he'd do this normally.”

Mia smiled so sweetly Eric's knees buckled. “That's so kind
of you, Eric. Looking out for fellow members and from another squad to boot!
But, Culmus . . .” She crossed her arms and scowled. “I'm going to dock your
pay for the violation. Captain Mesh will be informed.”

Culmus groaned and rubbed his forehead.

“If that's all, we'll be on our way,” Eric said quickly on
his way to the door beside Mia's desk. Just as his hand touched the knob, Mia
spoke up.

“And where are you going at this hour, may I ask?”

“The Squad Two Lounge.”

“You know you're not supposed to go there. Hasina can't be
blamed if you tempt her.”

“I'm doing Culmus a favor . . . like family should, right?”

Mia shrugged. “All right, just be careful okay? I don't want
you to get hurt.” Eric blushed. “If Hasina cuts you up into a hundred pieces
that would mean more paperwork and I have enough.” Eric imagined himself
strapped to a table while diabolical machines hovered above.

Mia tilted her head and put a finger to her chin. “Old Man
Aaloon would be happy though; he'd hold you down.” The idea of that frenzied
fossil ambushing him played itself in his mind. “Or maybe he'd just distract
Jemas.”

That idea was even worse. Eric could see it now: The old man
telling Jemas there was a flaw in his mission reports or some other pretext
while Hasina dragged him off to her lair.

Mia described his grisly end as if she were telling a ghost
story: a scary voice, a light stone under her face, and even made white sheets
fall on him. Then, with a real scalpel, she demonstrated how Hasina would
dissect him and laughed evilly.

 “Do you
still
want to go?” she asked in a sinister
voice.

 Eric was thoroughly creeped out, but said, “Yes, I have
business with her.”

“Okie dokey!” Mia chirped in her usual sweet voice. “Be sure
to dodge the pokey!” Eric shuddered. “Jokey!”

“Funny . . .” Eric muttered. Mia's giggles followed him in.
It was only later that he realized he didn't know
how
get to the Squad
Two Lounge.
I don't suppose you know the way.

No.
Dengel said tartly.
I don't
.

“Why . . . we . . . stop . . .?” Culmus asked and shook his
head. He even stood up.

Maybe we don't need to go after all!

Culmus tipped over. Eric grabbed him and held him steady.

“Dtaht . . . way . . .” Culmus pointed a shaky finger down a
tunnel.
I'm relying on a drunkard to guide me to a maniac with a scalpel so
I can storm a criminal hideout . . . I really am going
crazy . . . He
heaved Culmus up and limped down the path. When they reached another fork,
Culmus gave him more directions. The paths still looked the same to the mage
despite his two-month membership.
I need to memorize these tunnels . .  . one
of these days.

The last time Eric was in the room marked with crossed white
staves it was because one of the healers poisoned him. He gulped and opened the
door.

The lounge was empty. Most of the healers had gone home. He
hoped Hasina was still in her office because he wasn't brave enough to go to
her house. Jemas couldn't protect him there.

It was wall papered in one-part patents and two-parts
lawsuits. A mountain of paperwork on the desk hid whoever might be sitting
behind it. He could only infer someone was there by the sounds of a pen. “C-captain
Hasina? Is that you?”

The pen stopped and a chair was pushed back. Out from behind
the paper mountain Hasina walked, but it was not the Hasina he knew. She was
not smiling maniacally nor was there a scary light in her eyes; she looked
almost . . . solemn. For a full minute, she stared at Eric. Then she pulled a
piece of paper out of her cloak pocket and scribbled.

“Note to self: hallucinations are a possible side effect of
the experimental anthrax vaccine. Sight as well as sound. Study further into
this matter.” She stuffed the paper into her pocket and vanished behind the
paperwork. Seconds later, a chair was pushed in and the sounds of a pen
resumed.

“Uh . . . captain . . . I'm really here.”

“Nonsense. The real Eric Watley would never enter the Squad
Two Lounge, let alone my office. Be gone hallucination! I have work to do.”

Eric sighed. Two chairs were placed on his side of the desk
so he put Culmus in one of them. Then, mustering his courage, he bypassed Mt.
Paperwork. Hasina hunched over her desk and took no notice of him. Part of him
screamed to run before she came to her senses. He took a deep breath and
grabbed Hasina's pen. Her grip was too firm for him to break, and not only
that, she didn't notice he was tugging on it. It was like he truly was a
hallucination; a feeling he knew too well.

 
This
time, when the life of a friend was on the
line, he was
not
going to stand by and be ignored.
I need a way to
get her attention without being so outlandish that she thinks she's
hallucinating.
He scratched his ear and it came to him. It was the same
thing his older brother did to him every day at breakfast. He stuck a finger in
his mouth and got it nice and wet. Then he brushed aside enough of Hasina's
hair to reveal her ear.
I hope I live through this . . .

Famous last words!
Eric ignored Dengel, stuck his wet
finger in Hasina's ear, and wiggled it.

She screamed and jumped out of her seat. Eric withdrew, but
Hasina's hand snapped out and caught his wrist. Her grip was as tight as ever;
he couldn't feel his hand anymore. With her other hand she poked Eric. After a
minute of poking she said, “You're . . . not . . .a hallucination.”

“Yeah . . . I know,” Eric said. For some reason, it gave him
great pleasure to do so.

“Are you . . .The Trickster in disguise? It wouldn't be the
first
time he did that . . .”

“
No
.”  

“In that case he chose well . . . I don't suppose you're
here to . . .” Her eyes brightened though still muted. “Offer yourself in the
name of science?

“No.”

“Then why
are
you here!?” She reached into her
pocket, pulled out the sheet she had written on, and ripped it up. “In case you
hadn't noticed, I have a lot of work to do.”

Eric had never seen this side of Hasina before; so . . . tired
and low key and lacking . . . Hasinaness. To be honest it scared him more than
her mania. This Hasina was safer to be near, but he needed the old Hasina. Only
the one that delighted in research and experimental remedies and dissecting him
would give Culmus the hangover cure he, Eric, and Kasile needed.

“Are you too busy for . . . an experiment?”

Hasina jolted. “What kind of experiment?” Her hands were
fidgeting and her feet were tapping.

“I have here . . .” Eric gestured to Culmus. “A human
willing to risk life and limb to try out that instant hangover cure.”

“The Paticion urine!?” Eric could see the excitement
building in her; she was powering up. “I have wanted
so
much to try that
on a human!” In the blink of an eye, she was at Culmus's side with a waiver. “Sign
here, please.”

“Enhhh . . .” Culmus groaned. “What . . .this . . .?”

“Something that will help us save Kasile.”

“O..kay.” Culmus tried to grasp Hasina's pen, but he kept
missing it. Eric put the pen in his hand and kept it steady as he signed:
Culmus Stratos.

“All right then!” Hasina said. She giggled as she flung open
her cupboard and brought forth a vial. She put it in Culmus' hand and unscrewed
the top. “Down the hatch!” He raised it on his own and the remedy was gone in a
flash.

For about four seconds he was calm, then he pitched over on
his knees and his whole body convulsed. He made strange choked noises; some of
which sounded like words and others like shrieks of pain. His body tensed up
like a spring and sprung. Hasina and Eric backed away when he started punching
and kicking.

“Is something wrong? The giant wasn't this violent!”

Hasina shrugged. She wasn't bothered at all by the fact
Culmus was hacking like a cat and twitching like he was upped on caffeine. “I
don't know what's going to happen. That's why I wanted to try it on a human.”

“Why didn't you try it on yourself?!”

 Hasina was about to answer when Culmus retched. The first
thing to come out of his mouth was brown and Hasina smiled. The second thing
was red and she frowned. Each heave after that was a mixture of the two. Culmus
was throwing up blood.

“Uh-oh . . . Don't worry! I'm not the captain of healers for
nothing!”

 She leveled her staff at Culmus and encased him in a sphere
of white light. She raised him off the floor and deepened the light. Pointing a
finger at the pool of blood on her office floor, both glowed. The blood arose
from the ground and melded with the sphere, tainting it pink. Eric asked what
he could do to help and Hasina told him to keep track of time.

Half an hour later, Culmus stopped heaving and lay still.
The sphere projected a screen of medical data. Hasina scanned it and issued
directions to it as she would to an assistant. Eric didn't get it all, but it
sounded plausible in theory; if Maxwell's demon worked in medicine instead of
physics. Finally, Hasina released him and Eric checked his pulse. It was weak
but there. Hasina wrote her observations on a clipboard; her lips quirked up
and the light of discovery in her eyes.

“Fascinating! Giants and humans are similar in all respects
but size and weight and the effects are so much more violent in the latter!”
The glow faded and her lips inverted. “Then again . . . I suppose that's
normal. The two traits that matter most are the ones that differ.” She put the
pen behind her ear, crossed her arms, and craned her neck back. “I'll need to
run more tests . . . and maybe add elves . . .”

Yep, she's back to normal . . . For better or worse.
“Will
he be okay?”

“Yes, of course. I replaced the blood and my sphere didn't
report any internal injuries or trauma. He'll be fine with rest and a meal.”

“But he's unconscious!”

“He'll wake up . . . eventually. My guess is sometime
tomorrow.” A pool of smelly liquid   stained the floor and Hasina bottled it
with a new vial. “It works so much better on giants.”