Rose could still fly so she took to the air and headed towards Bret and the horses.

“Ride,” she shrieked, hoping that the wind would carry her voice to him.  He didn’t move.  Damn him. He was going to wait for her and drown for his troubles.

A chant started from the beach and when she looked down, Rose saw the bedraggled band of mages had joined hands and were chanting on the edge of the water.  That was insane.  They didn’t have enough members.  There were barely enough mages to make up three covens and most had probably never worked together before today.  Still, she could feel the barrier going up.  With one last apologetic look at Bret, Rose dropped down to the sand and grabbed on to one of the mage’s hands.

Power sucked out of her and she was rooted to the spot.  Her mouth opened up on its own accord and she sang on auto pilot before her brain kicked in enough to exert control over her magic.  It was a simple chant, every mage learned it when they were still an acolyte.  But then it built layers until the barrier spell grew in power and intensity.  Another mage grasped her hand and the magic jolted down the line, weaving into the spell.

The elemental rushed them, but instead of drowning them, it broke on the barrier.  Rose heard a weak cry from the townspeople who had taken refuge on the roofs above the docks.  It must have looked odd, the waves crashing on nothing as if there was a solid sheet of glass between the town and the water.  The barrier looked like a shimmering wall of marble to her, with sparks of color from different factions of mages.  She saw the earth brown base from the hearth witches and healers.  Spackles of purple from the conjurers and dots of red from fire specialists.  There was even a deep gold stream flowing through it from the pulse of a war mage.

They could save the town.  If all their magic held together, it might work.  Rose sent a silent prayer up that Bret went for higher ground.  There was nothing he could do here, even if he did have a tiny bit of magic in him.  He would be safe if he took the horses out of town.

The elemental wasn’t finished with them yet, however.  It coalesced into a tower of fury and frothing water and battered at the heart of their barrier.  A few mages went to their knees, but no one let go. Rose felt the impact like a punch of air against her face. Gritting her teeth, she chanted louder, over the roar of the waves. The elemental retreated back into the surf. While it gathered itself together, a few more mages joined their line and the weakness in the magical barrier was strengthened.  They took another hit from the elemental, and then another as it dissolved into smaller waves of furious energy.  Each attack weakened it and it grew smaller and smaller.

Rose’s heart beat in time with the slam of water against their magic shield. After a few moments, the line swayed back and forth with the tide and the elemental faded until it was just a rough swell of waves.  They were all drenched, drained, and their voices were just about gone.  But they had succeeded.  The mages had saved the town.  Rose had to peel her fingers one by one away from the other mages' hands.  She had lost feeling in them.  Shaking from the sudden cold, she took a step back and landed on her backside on the ruined docks.

Bret was there lifting her up and carrying her out of there.

“I’m all wet,” she croaked, her voice barely a whisper.

“I love you,” he said.  “Don’t ever fucking do that again.”

Her lips parted to tell him, she loved him too.  But her throat seized and she hacked up water and shuddered.  So much for romance.

“Hold it right there.”

Turning her head against Bret’s shoulder, Rose closed her eyes.  She didn’t care.  It was someone else’s problem.  She just wanted to go to the inn and sleep for days.

“By the order of the magistrate of Harbortown, the mage sanctuary has been revoked.  All mages must be quarantined until their covens have come to collect them.”

Bret tightened his grip around her.  Rose couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“They saved this town,” Bret snarled.

At least, Bret could be her voice.

“If it wasn’t for them, you’d all be drowning at the bottom of the ocean.”

“If it weren’t for them, this would never have happened.”

Not this again.

“You can’t be serious,” he cried.

They were.  Nothing changes.

“I’m sorry, sir.  I will have to take her into custody.”

“Like hell you will.” Bret shifted, turning her away from the man.  “You’re a bunch of cowards.  They’re too exhausted to fight back.  They used up all their magic saving your sorry asses.”

“Their magic will come back and when it does, we want no part of them. We’re rounding them up and putting them in suppression pits until they can be safely evacuated.”

“No,” Rose whimpered.  This was a nightmare.

“That didn’t work so well last time they tried that,” Bret said grimly.  He set her down on the ground and reached for his sword. 

“Damn it, move,” she told her legs, but she could only flop around on the ground like a dying fish.

“This mage is a member of the Greenly coven.” Jeb said, from behind the guard. Rose hadn’t heard him come up. Squinting in the distance, she could see Atalanta.  She tried to whistle for her, but she could barely blow air.

“I take full responsibility for my mage.  As for the rest, Greenly will take them.  We can arrange for transportation to be here in a few days.”

“Freedom,” Rose whispered, but no one paid her any attention.  Behind her, the guards had swarmed the recovering mages and shackled them with anti-magic restraints.

“This is not right,” Bret said.  And she loved him for it.  But he also didn’t draw his sword to help the other mages.  Why would he?

“Your paperwork seems to be in order,” the guard said to Jeb.  “Take her and get out of the city.”

“Thank you,” Jeb said, and Bret hauled her up again, ignoring her squeak of protest.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said.

“No.” Rose had to make him see reason.  These mages didn’t deserve to be imprisoned.

“We’re outnumbered,” he said to her.  “And out gunned.  There’s nothing we can do for them.”

That’s what he thinks.

***

ROSE WASN’T FAKING exhaustion and she slept deeply, only waking up to eat and take care of her basic needs.  She was dimly aware that Bret kept watch over her.  But he was a man of action and sitting by a bedside wasn’t suited for his temperament. So after only one day of pretending to be still recovering, Rose had her opportunity.

“Sorry,” she said to the coven’s nurse after she had knocked her unconscious and swapped clothes with her.  Tucking her into bed, she cast an illusion that it was Rose sleeping peacefully.  She hoped Bret wouldn’t climb in bed and get amorous with the nurse before she came to and the spell was broken.

A second illusion spell had her reeling, too much magic, too soon.  Rose grimaced at her weakness.  But if all went well, she wouldn’t be using her magic.  After a quick glance in the mirror, she nodded at her reflection.  She looked enough like the nurse that she should pass.  No one questioned her as she walked out of the rooms and then sauntered around Greenly’s coven to get the lay out of the place.  A few of the guards nodded at her and she smiled at them, appearing calm even as her pulse fluttered.

She was not happy that Atalanta wasn’t in the stables, even though that ill-mannered beast, Duke, was.  Bret’s horse snorted at her and showed his teeth when she walked by.  She was tempted to take him anyway until Jeb’s horse caught her eye.  He was a fast one.  While she could steal him, it wouldn’t help if she didn’t have her gear.  Patting the horse on his soft side, Rose tried to make friends with him anyway, just in case.

“His name is Buck,” Jeb said, leaning against the stable door.

Crap.

Rose smiled and nodded.  “Lovely animal,” she said in a raspy voice, clearing her throat.

“Looking for something?”  Jeb dangled the black Seeker mask from his finger.

She was going to try and bluff her way out of it, but he must have opened her pack and found her Seeker gear in it.  And since he wasn’t hollering for the guards, maybe her luck would change. “How did you know it was me?”  Rose dropped the illusion spell.  There was no sense in burning the energy up to maintain it.

“Sally is terrified of horses.”

“Why?”  Rose asked.

Duke slammed into his stall.

“Hush,” she said to him.

“Planning on escaping my coven?” Jeb asked, sauntering towards her.

Rose refused to back down.  “I have mages to rescue.  But you know that if you found my mask.”

He shook his head.  “Your brother said to keep an eye out for you.”

“Robert?”  Rose blinked.  “How is he?”

“Worried, but I told him you were all right.  You’re safe here in Greenly.  I don’t tolerate the nonsense that goes on in other covens.  You’ll be happy here.”

Rose shook her head. “No, I won’t.”

Jeb tossed her the mask and went into the back of Buck’s stall and pulled out her bag.

“That would have been more convenient if I had found that ten minutes ago,” she mused.

“My sister was a mage,” he said, handing it to her.

“Was?” Rose checked and saw that her sword, dagger and her armor were just as she left it.

“The coven master before this one was a power-hungry idiot.”

“Aren’t they all?”  Rose twirled her finger in the air. “Turn around.  I’m going to change into my outfit.”

Jeb showed her his back.  “Don’t try anything funny or I’ll bash you on the head and dump you in a pile of manure.”

Rose glowered at him, but took him at his word.  She didn’t doubt he would do it and she didn’t want to risk casting more spells to get around him.  “What happened to her?”

His shoulders slumped.  “They tried to summon a guardian.”

Wincing, Rose slipped off the nurse’s clothes.  A guardian summoning was an ambitious spell.  It took years of practice with a powerful coven.  A lot of mages died if the spell power backfired.  “I’m sorry,” she said.

“She didn’t like being a mage.  She wanted to join the militia.  Megan was a crack shot.”  Jeb shook his head.  “But she had an affinity to plants.  So, they assigned her to the coven’s gardens, instead.  She hated it.”

Tugging on her black leather pants, Rose frowned.  They wouldn’t have put a gardener into the coven summoning circle.  Megan would have had enough magic to grow flowers, but that wouldn’t have been enough to do ritual work.

“The guardian summoning went poorly and unleashed a backlash of power throughout the coven.  The blast wave killed her.  She was kneeling in the dirt, digging up a potato.”  Jeb’s fists clenched.  “Megan, who could put a dagger in a bullseye from twenty feet away, died on her knees.”  He sniffed.  “At least, she never knew what hit her.  The medics said she was dead before she hit the ground.”

“I’m sorry.”  Rose finished tugging on her boots.  “Then you understand why I’m doing this.”

Jeb nodded.  “I do. I understand your brother worrying about you as well.”  He glanced over his shoulder when he heard her buckling on her sword belt.  “I tried to get Bret to leave you alone, but he’s not going to.”

Rose nodded.

“He doesn’t know about this, does he?”

“No.  I couldn’t risk it.  He would try to stop me.”

Jeb sighed.  “You won’t have much of a head start.”

Rose walked over to Duke’s stall and opened the door.  Duke eyeballed her and then stalked out of the barn. He’d give Bret a hell of a chase before he let himself be caught.  She planned to do the same. “It will be enough.  Where’s Atalanta?” Rose pulled the hood over her head.

“I’ll bring her to you.”