Millennial Mage novel · Chapter 3 of 24
Chapter 3: Nine Pinches
The Hall's hunter shakes out his nine pinches of charge salt to scare them; Hana counted, and tells Teo when to run in; the hunter's pouch holds a letter asking for anyone who can count.
The hunter did not hurry.
He walked up the ridge path with his gray coat flapping, and every few steps a spark jumped off his fingers.
Teo slid down from the mare and drew his sword.
"Stay behind the rock," he told me.
"Can you beat him?"
"A swordsman cannot reach a mage who stands back and burns."
"That's not a no."
"It's not a yes either."
The hunter stopped thirty paces off and smiled at us.
"Teo Kell," he said.
"Two hundred silver, and the Hall will pay the same for the woman.
I'm in a good mood.
Put the sword down and I will make it quick."
He reached into the belt pouch, took out a handful of white grains, and let them trickle through his fingers for show.
"Nine pinches," he said. "One for each of the ones I have killed on this road. I will not need all nine."
I watched the grains fall.
I do not know why I did it.
It was a pile of small things in a row, and my brain does not let those go by.
I counted them.
Nine, and each one a pinch the size of a thumbnail.
The thread tied itself to my chest.
I knew where each of the nine was, and I knew when one left.
"Teo," I said, from behind the rock. "He has nine."
"I heard him."
"Listen to me.
Every time he throws a spell, it costs one.
A big spell is two.
He can't throw nine big ones."
"That does not help me. He only needs one to kill me."
"Then make him spend them."
Teo looked back at me.
Something in his tired face sharpened.
"How many does he have right now?"
"Nine."
"Tell me when it changes."
He stepped out from the rock and walked straight toward the hunter.
The hunter laughed and flicked his hand.
A ball of fire the size of a loaf of bread came down the path.
Teo threw himself sideways and rolled.
"Eight!" I shouted. "That was a small one!"
The next spell cracked the stones where he had been.
Teo came up on his feet and ran at an angle.
"Six! That was a big one, you have six!"
"Stop telling him!" the hunter yelled.
"Why? You can't do anything with it!"
He threw another, a long gout of flame that scorched the grass on both sides of Teo.
I felt a pinch go out.
"Five!"
He threw two quick ones, one after the other.
"Three! That was two small ones!"
The hunter fell back a step, and his hand went to the pouch.
A fighter who starts counting his own salt stops fighting.
He looked down, and he looked at my face, and he knew I was counting.
"Three left," I said, more quietly, and he flinched.
Teo was thirty feet away.
The hunter threw a ball of fire, and it went wide.
"Two."
He threw another, and Teo took it on the flat of his blade.
The sword glowed red from end to end, and he did not drop it.
"One," I said.
The hunter's hand dived into the pouch and came out empty.
Teo closed the last ten feet in two strides and put the point of the sword against the hunter's throat.
"Zero," I said, and sat down on the rock, because my legs had given out.
The hunter stood very still.
"I don't understand," he said. "How did she know? The Hall's Dust-ranks cannot count."
"This one can," Teo said.
He took the man's belt, his dagger and the pouch, and tied his wrists with the belt.
"Who sent you?" he asked.
"The Examiner.
He says she's a danger.
He said she must not reach Harrow."
The hunter looked at me with more fear than he had shown the sword.
"He did not tell me why."
"Because he can't hide anything from her," Teo said. "Hana, are you hurt?"
"Nobody has ever asked me that after a meeting."
He crouched in front of me and looked me over, his hands careful on my shoulders.
Then he put his forehead against mine for one second.
"You are very good at this," he said.
"I'm not good at anything but this."
"That seems like enough."
He stood up and rifled the hunter's saddlebag.
A folded paper dropped out with a gray seal that had been broken.
Teo read it aloud.
"Marshal Corr to all stores wardens.
The army at Harrow Gap has not drawn a full ration in thirty days.
Send anyone who can count."
He looked at me.
I looked at the paper, and then at the road that ran north through the green hills toward a war.
"That is a job posting," I said.
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