Firebrand

Chapter 206: Double the Mage

Chapter 206: Double the Mage

Double the Mage

While his last lesson with Father Andrew had hardly been riveting, practising his penmanship for a full bell, Martel saw the benefits of being able to write well. And he could think of worse ways to spend two hours. Sitting down at his desk, he looked at the old priest.

"Get your parchment and quill," Father Andrew mumbled.

Martel grabbed both, ready to write.

"Today, we'll look at arithmetic."

Martel barely suppressed an audible groan. He spent the next bell writing down numbers, staring at equations while an aged clergymen yelled calculations at him.

***

While an unpleasant start to the day, Martel had no further classes past noon. An obvious opportunity to work and gather more silver to pay for John's remedy, except none was available to him. Martel had to face another unpleasantry; getting enough silver by working for Master Jerome would take ages. He had three choices. Either find more people to borrow money from, perhaps wait until next month when Maximilian would have more, or seek employment outside the Lyceum.

The latter would be faster, assuming he could find someone in need of his services. He was not going to cheat at gambling, as he had tried once; nor would he engage in prize fighting. Such illegal pursuits had only brought him grief. No doubt he could perform other tasks for Kerra, but Martel trusted her less than rotting fish. That left him with one other idea. He opened the drawer in his desk and pulled out a small note detailing an address.

***

About an hour later, Martel had crossed the market district to enter the harbour. The address led to a small insula, about three stories tall. Just as he entered, Martel wondered if this was some kind of trap, though he quickly dismissed the idea. If anyone wanted to ambush him, they would not provide an open invitation and just wait around, hoping he would one day accept it.

Even so, he kept his wits about him, ready to summon his shield at the sight of weapons or the sound of an arrow whistling through the air.

Martel had never been inside an insula before, and it took him a little while to understand the numbering system used to distinguish between the apartments. Reaching the one mentioned on the address, Martel knocked on the door. As it was forcefully opened, he stood face to face with a Night Knife warrior. The same one he had fought in the Undercroft.

His sudden appearance made Martel's mind flash back to that moment, diving into a house only to be ambushed by this very man. For a moment, Martel's instinct told him to fight, and he was on the verge of blasting his first spell when the warrior looked over his shoulder.

"Flora!" he shouted into the apartment. "That kid is here!" He turned around altogether and walked back inside.

Stepping inside, Martel saw that the place consisted of two rooms. The outer held ordinary pieces of furniture like a desk, a table, a few chairs, and a large chest. In addition, he also noticed several dummies holding armour and more surcoats of the Night Knives, and finally a weapon rack.

Flora appeared from the inner room, just as her companion disappeared into that place, presumably serving as sleeping quarters. "Martel! Please, come in. You've met Marcus before, of course, but this time under friendlier circumstances." She wore the same dark surcoat as Marcus, with white threads outlining the knife serving as the emblem on her chest.

Martel closed the door behind him. "I almost didn't recognise him with his boots on."

The earthmage laughed. "Whenever I get tired of his grumbling, I ask him if he needs to borrow another pair of socks," Flora said. From the inner room came angry mutterings before the door was shut. "Anyway, please have a seat. Something to drink?" she offered.

"No thanks." As Martel sat down at the table, she did as well. He glanced at the weapon rack, holding a quarterstaff, a bow staff, a few swords with different lengths, and an axe.

In the silence that appeared between them, Flora gave him an appraising look. "I must admit, I did not expect you would come by. You seemed dismissive of my offer when we last spoke, even if you never said as much."

She was perceptive, Martel noticed, much like Kerra. He should probably consider his words carefully. "I like to keep my options open. Even if I'm not ready to wear your colours, I thought we might begin with working together on a less formal basis. If you have any tasks in the city, guarding something or protecting someone, I'd be interested in joining you for those."

She continued to watch him with her calculating expression. "That could be. Now that it's just Marcus and me, until we get reinforcements from Aquila, opportunities are scarce. If I could spread the word to our liaisons that we offer two mages, that would help with what jobs we might accept. Especially as between us, you and I have a good variety of spells at our disposal."

"I'm not afraid to fight, but I don't think I can be involved in ambushes and tasks like that," Martel specified. Self-defence was one thing, but being the instigator of violence violated both his principles and the law.

"I think we all learned our lesson on that," Flora remarked dryly. "Given our rather tenacious position, we are looking at much simpler jobs. Guard duty, collecting debts, providing a neutral force in tense situations, and so on."

"Sounds good to me."

"But if we bring you along, we must be able to rely on you." She leaned forward and gave him another scrutinising look. "No leaving halfway through because things take an unexpected turn, or you have to be back at the Lyceum. On the job, we stick together."

"If I'm in, I'm in."

The earthmage smiled. "I'll let our contacts know of our new offering."