Page 47 of The Mage on the Hill
He’s dying somewhere. I can’t find him and he’s dying. I don’t know what to do.
His friends passed those last sentences around with varied expressions of sympathy and anger.
“Are you sure he can’t be hidden away in one of the places you checked?” Arden tapped the table sharply with one finger. “We should check again.”
Darius raised an eyebrow at him and took the phone back.Toby’s magical signature is unique, and I’ve had closer and more prolonged contact than anyone alive. If he’d been hidden, I would have felt him.
Zubayr scrubbed both hands over his face. “It’s late. We know we have some time since he’s in hospice somewhere. It’s a slow process, starving someone to death. That’s how they justify it as not murder for wild mages. Hush, Dar. I’m sorry.”
Stopping the sob that wanted out made Darius’s lungs burn, but he nodded and waved for Zubayr to go on.
“We’re all tired. Dar’s exhausted. I say we start with the guild in the morning. We have witnesses at this table who saw the first glimmers of Toby’s channeling. If they don’t take Dar’s word for it, maybe they’ll listen to a delegation. If they’ve tested him and he managed to prove his channels on his own, wonderful. But from what you’ve said, Dar, it sounds like he was still unstable and probably needs guidance to his Arcana while he’s learning. And we still need to find him. Montchanin’s territory is a single county in a single small state. Between us, we should be able to figure something out.”
Darius nodded miserably. A lot of wild mages struggled the first few times, though the younger ones tended to do better. Toby was the oldest student he’d ever had.
“Bed, then.” Elias took dishes to the sink. “You have somewhere for us, Valstad, or are we sleeping in a puppy pile in your bed?”
Any other day, Darius would have laughed. Now, he could only think about who wouldn’t be in his bed that night. He hoped Toby wasn’t awake and frightened. “There’s… room.”
He bypassed Toby’s room when they trooped down the upstairs hallway. A spare few days Toby had slept there and he couldn’t bear to see anyone else occupy that bed. He pointed Arden to the corner guestroom at the front of the house. It still held all of Aunt Eva’s bird ceramics, so it struck him as appropriate. Zubayr and Elias he put in the room that had been reserved for visiting nieces and nephews with its two sets of bunk beds. Neither of them was tall enough to need more than a twin, and they wouldn’t want to murder each other as they might Arden, who would, Darius was certain, fuss interminably before going to bed.
Wait for me, Toby.Darius sent the desperate thought out into the night as he kicked off his slippers and climbed into bed.Give me time to find you. I have help now. Just give me time.
Chapter Fourteen
THE DAMNsun shining right in his face woke Darius the next morning. No mage could control the weather, but certain Air mages could move clouds. A few clouds would’ve been good right then.
He froze when a crash sounded downstairs, followed by raised voices. For a terrible heart-hammering moment, he thought he had intruders until he recalled he had a house full of intrusive guests instead.No. Unkind, Valstad. Friends who rushed to help.
Not ready yet for human contact, Darius took the time to shower and dress in jeans and a flannel shirt before he headed downstairs. Whatever disaster or altercation had occurred was long over when he poked his head in the kitchen. Zubayr stood at the stove with several pans going, no surprise, while Arden made biscuits and Elias manned the cutting board. Though Darius had only been away a few days and the food left behind would have been perfectly fine to use, he didn’t recall even having mushrooms and cheddar. Wait. No. He’d bought cheese for Toby.
A heavy sigh shuddered through him. Every corner of his house had Toby in it.
On his way out to the driveway to make sure Elias’s truck wasn’t blocking the garage, Darius stopped short on the front porch. A honeysuckle vine had crept up the steps and lay as if it were reaching toward the door. Had he been that neglectful? He didn’t have honeysuckle in the front, did he?
He crouched to examine the vine. Itmoved, climbing up his jeans, and wrapped around his wrist. Darius lost his balance in his shock and landed on his ass. “Arden!Arden!”
Three sets of feet pounded down the hall from the kitchen, though with his longer legs, Arden reached the doorway first. “Dar! What is—what in the world?”
“You’re… seeing this?” Darius demanded. “Haven’t lost it?”
“I see that you have a vine wrapped around you. What are you doing?”
“I didn’t….” Darius huffed and knew his next sentence would sound ridiculous. “Itattacked.”
The vine yanked at him, leaves rustling as it tried to pull him down the steps.
“Well, fuck. That’s not normal.” Elias bent to stroke a leaf. “I don’t think it’s attacking, though.”
“Oh? Little Viney’s trying to tell us Timmy fell down the well?” Zubayr’s exasperated voice came from just inside the doorway.
Arden cocked his head to one side as he held a palm out over the honeysuckle. “You know, that might not be far off.” He closed his eyes, head tipping one way, then the other as he stroked the vine. “Dar, I’m not sure how to say this.”
“Spit it… out,” Darius growled.
“It’s Toby.”
Elias stared at Arden as if he’d lost his mind. “Thevineis Toby?”
