Page 26 of The Malice of Moons and Mages (The Broken Bonds of Magic #1)

Twenty-Six

Traq

W hen Traq had taken the evidence of the blood bond to Senior Monk Altho, the old man’s face had darkened. An emergency meeting was called with Lord Ijion himself, who’d been visiting from the southern lands. Wren’s private meeting with the Starling leader resulted in orders for her triad to capture the murderers and return them for justice for the slaughtered fishing villagers.

Neither Wren nor Traq received any accolades for discovering the bond, only more work. Traq never expected praise, but he’d thought that Wren would have earned something. By the following afternoon, the mages and fourteen soldiers glimmering in pale armor climbed steadily into the Shei-nam mountains atop sturdy bay and chestnut horses.

Durin’s normally pleasant disposition was sour. His insistence that a younger mage would serve them better had been overruled when Lord Ijion insisted that Wren’s triad not change, offering no other explanation. Durin’s irritation tainted those around him, tinging the day with bouts of heavy silence.

Though Wren didn’t mention the connection between Traq’s friend and the bond, her subtle inquiries about his childhood left no doubt about her suspicions. His answers were direct and without elaboration.

People died in war, and children were no exception. Traq’s neighbors and siblings had been cut down during the last incursion while he’d been hunting in the woods, too far from home. If his brother hadn’t been injured helping a neighbor the day before, it would have been him in the woods and Traq’s throat cut. Wren had looked away at that, guilty expression quickly concealed. He’d barely survived on his own until an auntie in the mountains had taken him in. There was no point in mentioning it wasn’t his auntie and that, if it weren’t for Audra, Zin wouldn’t have sheltered him at all. Neither did he tell her he’d only been there a few years when he and Audra left on their first quest, which ended in a broken nose and empty hands. The jade they returned with was always too broken, its magic depleted, and useless at healing Ferin the way it ought to have.

He hoped this jade worked. Ferin hadn’t uttered a single word in the entire time Traq had known him, and his movements were often clumsy, like he was out of place in his body.

Perhaps Wren was right, and the Moon tribe’s souls were as cold as their gods in the sky, but the Starlings weren’t any better. Durin, Wren and her sister, Sechen, were a few of the exceptions.

When the party paused midafternoon to rest, Wren settled beside Traq, leaning back against a tall rock and eating a plum. Liasa, one of only a few other Westerners who’d enlisted with the Starlings, sat nearest to Durin and humored him by laughing at his jokes.

“How long until he retires?” Traq asked.

“Next year.” She took another bite. “If you have your fives by then, we can select a two star. Train them right.”

Traq knew the implication. Select someone else who was willing to work with a Westerner. That might be more difficult than Wren imagined. “At least Durin’s agreeable. Better than some others by far.” He watched the old man smile at the attention. Durin always improved with a sympathetic audience. “Do you think he’ll keep his magic or give it away?”

She took another bite, wiping the juice from her mouth before she replied. “He’ll keep it. You saw how Claude’s face lit up on Callaway when Durin performed a simple spell. That sort of pride is difficult to let go of.”

Traq smiled. Durin’s husband was certainly eccentric, but the affection between the men was pure. “When do you test?”

“When we return. You?”

“Same. Sechen’s testing then too.” She glanced at Traq with a mischievous smile. “We could ask her.”

Traq’s cheeks darkened. Wren’s younger sister had followed him around for the better part of a month the last time they’d been south. Her unwavering attention had been mortifying. Wren laughed at his expression.

“I’ll think of someone else. What do you know about that man with your friend?”

Though her question didn’t surprise him, her methods always did. Abrupt. Direct. “I’d never seen him before.”

“Hm.”

“What?”

She smiled deviously. “He was quite handsome, wasn’t he? Surely you noticed.”

Traq’s jaw clenched.

Wren chuckled. “Oh, you noticed. What was his name?”

“Chon.”

She tasted the name on her lips. “It’s an island name, isn’t it? But so pale. Didn’t he look more northern to you?”

Durin settled on a cushioned pallet that Liasa assembled for him. Wren scooted closer to Traq until her thigh pressed against his. Her heat radiated into him.

“What will you do if they are bonded?” she asked quietly.

“We don’t know for sure they’re who we are looking for.”

“But what if they are?” she whispered. Her proximity brought curious glances from others in their party .

Traq stood abruptly. Looking down on her while reigning his emotions. “Then I will do my duty.”

A few miles later, a soldier spotted the bones behind a tree, picked clean. Feet had crushed the surrounding grass. Large argentava feathers were strewn atop piles of dust in the nearby field.

Wren studied the area, watching the sky for a mate as Traq sent a small thread out but found nothing.

“What do you think?” she asked. Traq wished she would just spit it out. He sighed. Wren smiled. “They don’t have any natural predators, but the ashes still hold a hint of magic.”

“So?”

“If our theoretical ten-star mage is weak, he might need to siphon energy from others.”

His stomach dropped. “What about the person connected to him?”

“His anchor? She’s his lifeline. She might be the only one safe.” Wren said with a serious tone. “Lord Ijion said that their connection also makes him vulnerable.”

“What do you mean?”

“If we kill the connection, we can kill the mage.” She patted his shoulder once before walking away, leaving him pale and ill.