Chapter 4

"With us not finding any trace of what's happing during the day it looks like we're going to have to venture further into the woods at night," said Suzan as she looked at Dusty and Seth.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? I mean we've still not found a single trace of what is taking off with the people from around here," said Dusty as he turned to look at her.

"I say we give it at least one more day, maybe two tops, before we go looking for any danger that we may not need to buy for ourselves. I always like to see what is attacking me first before it's too late and that's always far easier in the daylight," smiled Seth.

As the trio sat eating dinner and generally talking about other things Dusty brought up another problem.

"Well in the mean time where are we going to get a few people to help? So far no one we've talked to wants to chance it and the King doesn't want to sacrifice anymore of his own men to give us. Though I can't say I blame him seeing as how he's lost quite a few as it stands. But still, I'd like to have a few more bodies with us if I could, possibly some who are more familiar with the area that we are," said Dusty.

While he was talking, he didn't notice the very attractive brown haired woman until she pulled out a chair and lightly sat right down at the table with them.

All three were extremely surprised, and where as the men were stunned by her sudden appearance, there was something about her almost immediately put Suzan on guard. Even though to Dusty's eyes Suzan was by far much prettier than this young woman, he would be lying if he said that she didn't come in an extremely close second.

The woman's smile to the group was fun and sexy without being seductive. Dusty even heard Seth gulp some air a couple of times as his brain caught up with what was going on before his eyes.

"I kind of overheard your conversation a moment ago. I hear you're looking for others to help you. I'm a pretty good mage who right now really has nothing better to do, not to mention that I just arrived in town a few minutes ago before they shut the gate. I might be interested in hearing about your problem. My name is Kathryn, but my friends call me Kat," said Kat as she introduced herself and then reached her hand out around the table.

As she shook hands with everyone Suzan, for some reason still felt uneasy with her sitting with them. The young woman hadn't actually done anything but introduce her self, yet Suzan felt bothered by her presence. Suzan normally wasn't really the jealous type, but she felt something was there because of the young woman.

"Not to be mean, but you look a little young. So how do we know you're really a mage?" Suzan suddenly asked with a neutral smile.

Kat smiled then held her right hand above the table palm down, when she flipped her palm over a small globe of fire appeared in it. She quickly closed her fist and it winked out.

After the small demonstration Kat smiled and said "So what is the problem and how can I help?"

Dusty, though very curious about her lack of using words to cast, smiled as he began to explain to her that they had been there a week so far and still hadn't found out why some of the people in the surrounding countryside had gone missing, why all of the guards that had gone looking for them had also gone missing, or why just anyone who searched for all the above had also gone missing.

The discussion even pointed out that the three of them were here to help as a favor to their King to help investigate.

As Dusty talked, it suddenly dawned on Suzan what it was about the woman that bothered her.

While Kat wasn't doing anything more overt than listening to him speak as he explained what they were doing there, Suzan realized it was Kat's body language that caught her subconsciously.

Kat had a way of almost imperceptibly leaning forward and just barely tilting her head to the side while she looked at him. From time to time she seemed to use her free right hand to keep putting a non-existent stray hair behind her ear or rest her free left hand on the side of her own face while Dusty talked to her.

A few times she even slowly batted her eyes at him as she listened

Suzan also noticed that during this time Kat never broke eye contact with Dusty and her eyes seemed to almost twinkle as she watched him speak with her.

While Dusty didn't act any different while she was doing all of this, Suzan realized that Kat was feeling him out to see if he was both interested in her and available without being too obvious in her attempt.

As soon as she realized that Kat was after her husband she realized she felt a very firm need to put a stop to it. Normally Suzan just ignored such interest but for some reason she had no idea why now her mind was screaming at her to intervene this time.

While Kat hadn't actually been blatant about what she was doing, she was definitely testing the waters out for a mutual attraction, and something about that bothered her greatly. Suzan smiled to herself as she prepared for her next move to let the young woman know everyone's current marital situation.

Once Dusty wound down, and just as Kat opened her mouth, Suzan spoke first.

"To tell the truth though, there is a major driving force for why we were looking for more people. It's because we wanted to wrap this up as quickly as possible because we left our kids at home, and Seth's wife is expecting their second child in a bit, so I know he's also eager to get back," said Suzan matter of factly.

"Oh, you have children together? How old are they? I just love children," said Kat with a large but warm smile.

But as she said this Suzan could see and almost feel the disappointment in Kat's body language. She watched as Kat immediately appeared to sit back in her chair and placed both hands on the table and straightened her head, even though these were still subtle actions on her part.

As she did this, Suzan no longer felt that intense interest coming from her anymore. Thankfully Suzan could tell that as soon as Kat knew that Dusty was taken she stopped trying to win him over and Suzan found that she respected those actions from the other woman.

Feeling a little more at ease Suzan then told her a little more about their children.

"If you don't mind me asking, you are a Battlemage are you not?" asked Kat suddenly changing the subject once Suzan was finished.

Everyone seemed to freeze as they looked at her and they all seemed to be caught off guard and Dusty looked at her for a moment before he spoke

"Yes ... I am, why do you ask?" asked Dusty wearily.

"Oh, it's just that I've always understood from history that Battlemages usually carry weapons that are special to their own personal taste, but you don't have one that I can see. Besides part of my magic is such that I can sometimes feel the magical powers of others, and the special magic of Battlemages doesn't feel the same as anything I've ever known," said Kat with a smile.

"Ok, I guess..." said Dusty with a tentative smile trying to still see where this was going.

"So if you are one, then why do you need more people? Can't you just wrap up the problem by yourself?" asked Kat.

"Well to tell you the truth what we really need is someone who is familiar with the area and to tell us if something looks out of place. That's something no amount of power can show us. So right now we have no idea of where to start since we're not from here and we're blindly thrashing around trying to find clues while having no idea if what we're seeing is a clue or just normal," said Dusty.

"I have to say that makes sense, so leave it to me and I'll find you someone who is willing to help us," said Kat smiling as she rose from the table.

As the trio watched Kat went from table to table talking to many different groups of men.

While away at times she seemed a touch flirty as she leaned on the different tables and spoke to the smiling men, always bent over at the waist at a 90 degree angle with both of her elbows resting on the table and her face in her hands. Since her dress covered all of her chest they didn't get any looks down her dress or at the tops of her breasts, but there was no hiding their large shape from the men either.

The three of them watched as she smiled and shook her head no quite a few different times at something the various men said, while still smiling at them, before she moved on to the next table, and always seemed to repeat the same process over and over again.

Many a man watched her hips from behind as she left their table when she moved on to the next and she then bent over like she had done at their table and was now at a different table talking to their occupants. But it seemed that time after time she continued to shake her head no with that pleasant smile before she moved on to the next table.

Slowly circling the room she eventually moved to a table that was just behind them, but off to the side, that was in the corner and that had only one man seated at it.

They were surprised to see that while the man seemed to appear to smile pleasantly at her he managed to not have the same cheesy smile on his face that all the other men did when they spoke with Kat.

After a moment Kat sat down at his table and they began to really speak to one another.

Before long they both rose and approached the original three and now sat with them. The man had a neutral expression on his face, but Kat seemed to be beaming as she approached.

As the two of them approached they could see that the man with her was about her height, which made him well shorter than either Dusty or Seth. He was dressed in a tan looking shirt, dark pants, and had a sword and scabbard in his hand that more than likely some how mounted to his belt. He was clean shaven with jet black hair.

"Everyone this is Tyrell Baker. He is another person from this area and he's as you can see a sword user. He sometimes works for the local blacksmith as general labor, but he's willing to help," said Kat smiling as she introduced him once they reached the table.

"If you don't mind me asking what was going on with the other tables? Some of them appeared to be saying yes. Didn't they say they would help also?" asked Seth curiously.

"No, theirs were only offers to trade any help they were willing to give for a few nights in bed with me. Of course every single one of them wanted their payment up front, and a few wanted it stretched to a weeks worth of time, but I had to decline their offers," said Kat with a very bright smile.

"Oh," mumbled Seth as he looked away.

As Kat turned away and faced the others she gave the conversation with him no more mind, but he was a little embarrassed to have asked something that everyone else seemed to already have figured out as he saw their smiling faces at him.

"So before we go any further what does this job pay?" asked Tyrell.

"Well the King has offered 10,000 gold crowns to any local who will help put a stop to this, but we can all do the heavy lifting so we can stop this fast. To be honest you won't need to do much more than just point out to the three of us what we need to know Tyrell," said Dusty.

At the mention of the price Tyrell just gave a low whistle.

That was enough to buy a very large home, maybe even a manor, the land, and pay for enough people to work it so that he wouldn't need to do anything ever again for the rest of his life.

"Ok, I'm in. When do we start?" asked Tyrell now smiling.

"Lets get started the very first thing in the morning. There is a lot of ground to cover and I want to try to search everywhere that makes sense before it gets too dark. I would like to be back in the city with something to think about before they lock the gates on us," smiled Dusty.

"Ok you're the boss. I'll meet you here at first light," said Tyrell

As everyone got up and left the table, Kat headed to the counter to get a room for the night since she was already here. It didn't make sense to leave and look for some where else to spend the night and because of the excitement from earlier she hadn't taken out the time to get one. As she requested a room the man behind the counter was eager to trip all over himself to get her one.

After entering her room she latched it shut and put her back heavily against it and looked up at the ceiling and sighed heavily a few times.

Once securely in her room she finally allowed herself to show all the disappointment that she had been hiding all night at finding out that Dusty was taken. Kat really wanted to spend time with him to see if he was just like Aric.

Kat basically admonished herself for not realizing that since Battlemages were in such short supply that anyone who saw one would do whatever it took to win their heart. She just had the bad luck to meet this one so many seasons well after Suzan did.

And the fact that he didn't even know she was alive, for no more than an extra hand to help out on his mission, also proved that that his wife was someone special to him as well. Kat was sure he had already done a few fantastic things to prove he loved her as Aric had done with Brianna.

Retiring to bed, Kat wondered if she would ever find that special someone to share in her life, not just someone who might be willing to move mountains for her, but someone who actually had the power and ability to actually do it as a way to prove their love for her.

As soon as Dusty closed the door, Suzan who had led the way into the room, turned and slowly pulled him into an embrace.

Kissing him for a moment she leaned back and looked him in the eye in the soft moonlight.

"So how did you miss her trying to see if you were interested in being with her?" asked Suzan.

"Who was interested in me for what again?" asked Dusty smiling.

"Good answer. But I know you well enough to know that you saw what she was trying to do," said Suzan.

"Well to answer you, because I already have all I have ever wanted right here," said Dusty softly.