The Mages of Royas Bay (Mages of Wrystan 1)

Chapter 16: Night Town

IT HAD SEEMED like a good idea when he started, Arien thought, hunching his shoulders and cuddling Rowan tighter around his neck as the night drew in. The rain had followed close on the heels of the darkness and it was bitterly cold.

Arien didn't care. What did it matter if he was wet or cold? He was alone and it was his own fault. Whatever else life had failed to teach him there was one rule he'd known to always keep: never trust an adult. But he had. He'd trusted Mara and now she'd left him. In barely two days she'd turned everything he'd ever known on its head. Now she was gone.

It shouldn't have felt like a betrayal. She'd explained so carefully about how she'd been ordered away on the King's business and would return as soon as she could. She wasn't abandoning him. It just felt like it.

He was due to have his first magic lesson with the others tomorrow. Under their curious gazes he was supposed to dip his hands into the silver flow of his magic and produce a glowing globe, yet the only person he'd ever trusted to help him wouldn't be there. Even if he did by some unknown miracle succeed, what then? His magic was dangerous. If Mara wasn't there to hold him back, anything might happen.

He couldn't risk it. That was why he was out here in the cold, the rain and the darkness. Alone. There was someone he needed to speak to. All he had to do was find her.

* * *

HAWK BURST THROUGH the front doors of the mage school with a crash, ruffling the rain from his hair as he pushed through the crowd of students and hurled himself up the stairs.

"Mage-page!" a commanding voice boomed. "What is the meaning of this haste?"

Hawk skidded to a halt on the half-landing and leant against the windowsill to catch his breath. Which was when he realised he'd left Cyrus outside. Their bond tightened painfully as he tried to stretch it beyond its limits. The rain hammered on the glass; his mage-beast was not going to be happy with him.

Mage-Mistress Evariste raised an eyebrow and descended the stairs. "Open the door," she ordered, and a student rushed to obey.

A sodden lump of furious grey and orange feathers darted inside, slamming into Hawk's chest with a shriek of angry scolds.

"A good mage never forgets his mage-beast," the Mage-Mistress informed him coldly.

Still bent over, Hawk found himself eye-to-eye with an ice lion and hurriedly straightened. "Forgive me, my lady," he panted, pressing a hand against his burning side while Cyrus muttered dire threats in his ear. "Lady Mara sent me – I need to find – Arien – missing."

The Mage-Mistress raised her eyebrows. "Then you will need some help." She looked at the students staring curiously up at them, oblivious to the gaping front doors letting in both wind and rain. Until a large figure stepped inside and shut it behind him.

"Sir Tobias," Mage-Mistress Evariste called. "Your timing, as always, is impeccable."

* * *

TIME WAS A great healer, or so Arien had been told, and apparently in the case of Hawk's former guards it was true. Not so long ago they'd looked at him with fear and ignored him as much as possible. Now they were guards of Royas Bay and saw him as only a boy. Possibly even one to be pitied, scrawny and wild as he was. So when he asked his question, they told him what little they knew.

Which in turn led him out beyond the gates of the palace to a place he didn't know: the city of Royas Bay. In his more sensible moments, Arien would never have dared explore an unknown city at night, but right now he didn't care. Mara was gone, Hawk was busy and he wanted to see Irissa. If this was the only way to find her, so be it.