Reader Believes

Chapter 22

            Perched beside Ahisu on the couch, with Connor a glowering presence on her other side, Rika studied the others. Hugh sat alone in the armchair that stood beside the loveseat claimed by Damek and Elthia, who they’d pick up outside the school during their escape. Damek’s expression was very nearly a twin to the one her brother wore, neither man happy with their explanation of what had happened.

            She studied Hugh, glad to see there was a bit more colour in the boy’s face after she’d forced some juice and cookies on him, in much the same way that Connor had done it to her. He met her gaze, one hand creeping up to his mouth where he began to worry at one nail with his teeth. After several seconds, he finally spoke. “You know they’re going to come after us again. Both of us now that an entire squad of Finders were taken out. And they’ll have our descriptions from the ones we fought.”

            A low chuckle preceded Shetton as he came in from the hall. “Oh, you needn’t worry about that, necromancer. I took care of those remaining,” the demon said, before turning his yellow gaze on Rika. He held out a purple and white staff, grinning at her. “You left this at your school, mistress. I thought you might like it back.”

            “Ah! Thanks Shay! I completely forgot about it.”

            The demon chuckled again as he lay the staff down beside Ahisu’s. “It was my pleasure, mistress.”

            “What are Finders?” Damek asked, drawing everyone’s attention.

            Hugh shifted in his seat, eyes on his knees for a moment before he looked back up at them. “Finders are mages tasked with identifying, registering, and hunting down other mages. Specifically those who are either unregistered, or those their masters deem either dangerous or useful. Most are given the choice to serve or be imprisoned. Not that it’s much of a choice, since either way ends with you dying more often than not.”

            Ahisu frowned. “All?”

            Hugh’s forehead wrinkled until Rika said “Do all mages have to register?”

            The boy nodded. “It’s what they try to do. Especially weak mages or those whose magic is considered useless aren’t considered important enough to bother with forcing registry on, but anyone with ‘useful’ magic, doubly so for anyone who has combat-capable magic, will be found and registered. I don’t know how you’ve gone so long without being found.”

            Rika shrugged. “I didn’t know I had magic, so I wasn’t using it, I don’t think. But how do these Finders find people? Is it a spell or something?”

            “Depends on what kind of magic they have in the group. Mages who can see magic are their favourite for Finders, but there are some who can find things through dowsing or the like, or people with the ability to send their spirits out and discover mages that way. There are as many ways to find other mages as there are different kinds of magic.”

            “Then how do we hide from them?” Connor growled.

            Hugh rolled his eyes. “You can’t. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

            Elthia shook her head. “I have heard of shields and spells to hide yourself from mages before.”

            Damek sighed. “But that kind of magic’s incredibly rare.”

            Rika glanced at Ahisu, who was staring at Shetton. After several seconds, he met her gaze and nodded. She grinned and turned back to the others. “Ahisu says he can do something about people looking for us.”

            Hugh stared, then rolled his eyes again. “How are you going to do that? You’re a demon summoner, not a shielder.”

            Ahisu’s eyebrows rose just the tiniest amount as he snorted. “Spell.”

            “And how are you going to manage anything other than summoning over another demon?”

            Rika smiled at Hugh. “It’s okay. Ahisu fuels spells with summoned demons. It’s how he brought us to his tower this one time.”

            Connor shook his head. “No. This is getting too dangerous. I didn’t like the sound of this fight before, but now you’re talking about people hunting you down. People who were willing to attack you in school! Riks, I want you out of this.”

            She glared at her brother but Hugh beat her to speaking. “Good luck with that. Once Finders have the scent of a mage, and Rika is combat-capable so they’ll really want her, they don’t stop until they have that person. Consider yourselves lucky you managed to go this long without detection.”

            “See,” Rika said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I told you this was a good idea. And with stuff the way it is now, we don’t really have a choice. Either we deal with this, or we get to spend the rest of our life on the run and/or being forced into doing stuff we probably don’t want to do.”

            Connor’s mouth was open, but a sudden blast of wind interrupted whatever it was he was going to say. For a second, there was a visible whirlwind in the middle of the room, the winds dragging at their clothes and hair. Silence descended as it died just as quickly as it appeared.

            Rika stared at the spot that had been a maelstrom just moments ago and now was empty. She blinked, and suddenly there was something there. Tall, long-limbed and the dead white of computer paper, but with eyes of pure black, the creature in the middle of the room didn’t look even remotely human, despite the loose shirt and pants it wore.

            She felt Ahisu stiffen beside her. Red movement drew her eye as Shetton backed up towards them, his eyes wide as he stared at the creature standing in their midst. It was his hiss that told her exactly what had invaded her home, causing goosebumps to roll down her flesh in an icy wave.

            “Ishbak,” Shay whispered.