Free Balancer (Advent Mage Cycle) by Honor Raconteur Page A

anyone there belonging to the Star Order, and I didn’t. I lingered there for more than four hours and when I left, I did so with a smile on my face. This man, at least, harbored no ill will for the rising generation of magicians.
    As I rode away, I asked the man riding at my side, “Anything unexpected?”
    “Only that you can talk for hours if someone finds the right topic,” Ries responded instantly. “I didn’t think you had that much conversation in you.”
    I laughed ruefully. “I didn’t either. The man just pulled it out of me.” My throat felt hoarse from the unexpected exercise too.
    Well, my duty for the day was done. It was coming on late evening now. Surely the team had returned by this point. I urged Night into a faster canter. I wanted to talk with Shad and see what they had turned up.
     
     

Chapter Six: Allington
     
     
    It had taken several weeks to find a trend in the reports, as the information coming in didn’t always match up. It didn’t even come from reliable sources half the time. Eagle had patiently gone through and pieced together information that started to form a larger picture. When he thought he had a good hold on the situation, he had turned it over to his superiors.
    People never stopped coming to give testimonies. Shad didn’t see much of it, as he used every spare moment to train his team and prepare them for fighting Priests. But when they broke for lunch, or when he couldn’t lay hands on His Princeliness, he often went to Xiaolang just to check on their status. Sometimes one person would be there, talking with Eagle, other times it would be up to a dozen people. Most of the time they were of the working class, but once one of the aristocracy came. Shad didn’t take this as a sign that the Doms were really changing their viewpoint on magic. More like they were taking advantage of the situation to get their nemesis in trouble.
    Shad knew that gathering intelligence took time, but after a solid two weeks slipped past without them being called into action, he realized that this would take longer than he’d originally planned. Not that beating up on his trainees was starting to get old—he’d never be bored tormenting students—but it couldn’t compare to real fighting. Besides, his team had started to shape up quite nicely. They could use some more polishing, certainly, but the best way to polish was to throw them into the deep end. Shad was ready to move.
    When another week started without any sign of a mission coming his direction, Shad started pointedly hinting that even if no one was sure of an area, his team would love to do reconnaissance. After days of research and a dozen or more reports, Xiaolang and Saroya decided that Allington Province needed to be the next target. None of the reports that came in really agreed on details, but they all agreed that something odd seemed to be occurring at the main house.
    Shad rounded up his team once again to go investigate. This Province’s Dom had been one of the few to not issue a dinner invitation to Garth. That alone raised people’s suspicions. Sure, it could be because the Dom was staying at his estate instead of the town house in Alvacon. But it could be because of another reason entirely.
    Tyvendor wrapped them all up in the air and flew north-west toward Allington. After so many trips with him, people more or less had gotten used to the abrupt dips, swirls, and insane speed that he couldn’t help but employ. Those that weren’t used to it kept their eyes firmly shut the entire journey.
    This would be the third Province they investigated, as they had gone to Darlington and Farless before this. They normally landed within a few hundred marks of the Dom’s mansion but just as Tyvendor turned to set them down, Shad caught a glimpse of something from the corner of his eye. Even though he saw nothing more than a glint of sunlight off metal, the soldier’s instincts in him called out, “Wait!”
    Tyvendor paused,