Page 69 of By the Horns
“Of course not,” Mereden replies, composing herself. She smiles encouragingly at me.
Lark just stares, her eyes narrowed with suspicion. “You really are one?”
“Why would I mucking lie about it? Who in their right mind would want to be a mancer?” I hiss.
Lark considers that. “Can you mance anything? Can you heal my ankle?”
“It’s very specific magic. Actually, I’m not even sure if it’s magic. I just know that I can hear the dead. I can feel them when they’re around.”
“Ew.” Her expression changes from worried to relaxed. “That’s a shitty power. You’re right. No one would want that.”
Mereden keeps her composure, nibbling on a bite of cheese. “Have you always known you could do this?”
I shake my head. “It all really started when we went down in the caverns and I picked up the divining rod. I felt something then, like my skin was crawling. Like I had jitters. I thought it was just nerves because I was frightened.”
“We were all frightened,” Lark agrees. “I was shitting myself.”
“You were not,” Mereden chides her demurely. “Be nice.”
Lark looks over at me and mouths, “Shitting.”
My lips twitch with amusement. “Anyhow, after it happened the second time and it led us to another dead guy, I started to wonder. Then a few months ago, when I was doing repeater work cleaning a house, I noticed that I could feel something coming from the alley. It felt like it did down in the tunnels. Like my skin was jumping and my nerves were lighting on fire. I went out of the building to see what it was, and there was a dead man in the alley.”
I rub my arms as if I can still feel the sensations.
“Holy mucking shit,” Lark breathes. “That’s incredible. What did you do?”
Sparrow chimes in. “She told the authorities, like she should have.”
“But then it happened again,” I tell them. “Just before recruitment day. I could feel the dead man nearby. He was in an alley again, and this time I could feel things about him. Like memories that weren’t mine. What he was thinking. What it felt like when they cut his throat.” I stroke a hand over my neck in sympathy. “And I had to leave him there, because I can’t exactly go around pointing out dead men in alleys, can I?”
My friends are silent.
“That’s all I know.” It feels good to get it out in the open, to quitcarrying it around like an anvil. “I don’t know where this power came from or how to make it stop. I wish it would go away. All I want is to be an artificer so I can make a decent living.”
Mereden taps a finger on her lips, thinking. “And this never happened back at the hold?”
“Never.”
She continues to think, then glances over at Sparrow. “Is it possible that all the magic in Old Prell is activating it? That all that power below Vastwarren is somehow bringing this to the surface?”
Lark turns to look at her wife. “You aren’t more concerned about people being murdered in the alleys? That’s two now, right? With throats cut?”
I nod at them. “Both repeaters.”
“I’m just saying, for a guild that’s supposed to keep us safe, they’re doing a piss-poor job of it.” Lark leans back in her seat, scowling. “How’s anyone supposed to raise a family in this?”
“I don’t imagine you’re supposed to,” Mereden says, soothing her with a smile. “But we’re going to do it anyhow.”
“But you said you were being targeted,” Lark points out, putting a hand on Mereden’s leg under the table. “Do you think someone’s going to try to murder you next, Gwenna?”
I hadn’t thought of that. “Well,nowI do.”
Mereden frowns, her expression unconvinced. “I’m not sure these incidents are connected to your power. Why would someone try to out a mancer as a thief when all they need to do is notify the authorities?”
It’s a good question, and one I don’t have an answer to.
A calico cat jumps on the table and then makes its way over to Sparrow’s side, tapping her politely with a paw. She reaches for the cat, cradling it in her arms like a baby and rubbing its belly. Before I can ask where all these cats have come from, she turns her gaze to me. “What if we give you an artifact? A fake? We could use it as a decoy to try to flush out whoever’s harassing you. Or better yet…the emergency globes have a tracking spell on them. We can leave one out and see who takes it.”
