The Seer (14 page)

‘Obscene.’
 Mistral repeated under her breath.  ‘Who needs a bed that big
anyway?  It must’ve cost a fortune!’

She listened
to Fabian’s soft laughter and gazed down at the canvas roll in her hands; an
unpleasant thought entered her mind.  Money.  ‘When did you buy
these?’  she kept her tone deliberately light while she undid the knot
again and slid her hands experimentally around the hilts of the knives, pulling
them out to hold them up to the sunlight and admire them. 

Fabian wrapped
his hands around hers so that they were both holding the hilts of the knives,
‘Are you worried that they have been bought with the money you saw yesterday?’

Mistral
shrugged, feeling ungrateful, ‘Maybe.’ 

‘I bought
these butterfly knives when we returned from The Festival of the Arcane.’

‘Oh!’ 
Mistral was taken aback.  That had been months ago.

‘I wanted to
have something ready to give the moment you achieved the Sight, to mark the
occasion.  But when you did achieve the Sight, we were a little
preoccupied and I forgot about them.’

‘So we were.’
 Mistral grinned shamelessly at him. 

He smiled but
there was something carefully watchful in his expression, ‘Will you accept my
gift now?’  He asked in a quiet voice.

‘Yes please.’
 Mistral breathed, gazing rapturously at the flawless edges and finely
wrought handles. 

Fabian gave a
satisfied smile, ‘Good, I know how much you have wanted them.’

‘No.’ Mistral
disagreed.  ‘You are all I’ve ever wanted.’  She twisted suddenly in
his arms, turning to look up at him.  ‘Yet look at how I take you for
granted!  All I’ve ever done is cause you trouble and break
promises!  Not to mention taking forever to master my gift and forcing you
stay in the Valley while I did!  I’ve been so selfish!’

‘You have
never made me do anything I have not wished to.’  Fabian replied firmly.

Mistral
scowled, ‘You’re so patient and generous … and far too forgiving of all my
stupid mistakes!  I have none of your qualities Fabian!’

‘Then we
complement each other perfectly,’ he teased with a smile.  ‘Although I can
assure you that you are definitely the only person on the entire Isle to credit
me with such a glowing character reference.’

‘You’re
perfect to me,’ she looked up at him, her expression suddenly sad.  ‘What
can I ever give to you?’

‘But you have
already given me so much Mistral, more than you realise.’  Fabian murmured
and turned his gaze away to look out at the snow-clad valley.  Mistral
watched his expression pensively, waiting for him to explain.  His
thoughts were veiled and unclear, almost as though he were not sure himself of
what he was thinking.  He finally sighed deeply and looked down at her
with eyes of softest velvet.  ‘I was lost until I found you Mistral. 
You have given me reason to live a better life, the chance to be complete,’ he
paused and smiled so beautifully that Mistral felt her heart skip a beat. 
‘You gave me back my soul, and that is worth infinitely more than gold.’ 

Mistral gazed
wordlessly back at him, adrift in the liquid depths of his eyes.

He laughed
suddenly, the intensity of his expression melting into a mischievous look that
reminded her instantly of Cain, ‘Wait, I have another surprise for you –’

Mistral stared
at the plate of bread and honey in his hands and laughed, ‘Phantom told you?’

‘He may have
mentioned that you attempted to eat the Valley’s entire stock of honey whilst
staying at their house.’

‘I’ll kill
him,’ she muttered through a mouthful of bread. 

‘I had no idea
that you liked honey so much,’ he said in an amused voice, watching her
demolish the plateful.

‘Neither did
I,’ she admitted, looking at the empty plate regretfully.  ‘Well, not
until I got the Sight anyway, now I can’t seem to get enough of it.  Like
sleep too.’

Fabian’s face
abruptly creased into a worried expression, ‘Phantasm believes that you may be
exhausting yourself by overexerting your gift so soon after mastering it.’

‘Does he
really?’  Mistral snorted.  ‘That’s a bit rich coming from him! 
He’s nagged me senseless to achieve the damned thing for the last two years and
now he wants me to take it easy?’

‘He’s
concerned for you Mistral,’ Fabian admonished her, adding softly.  ‘As am
I.  In fact,’ he paused and drew in a deep breath, ‘I would like you to
reconsider your offer to work solely for Leo.  Please hear me out
Mistral,’ he said quickly when Mistral opened her mouth to argue. 
‘Eximius is already taking advantage of Leo’s desire to ingratiate himself with
the Council to further his bid to be the next Divinus.  Your Contract
schedule is totally unacceptable, yet Leo has agreed to it without a
murmur!  What they both fail to realise is that I will not simply stand
back and allow them to place your health at risk with their over-ambitious
plans!’

Mistral sighed
and placed the empty plate onto the floor.  She didn’t want to get into
the whole wife versus Seer argument again.  ‘I’ve made my decision
Fabian,’ she said firmly.  ‘One year for Leo in return for my freedom …
and the Ten Year Cull –’

‘Dragons!’ 
Fabian exclaimed, shaking his head in exasperation.   

Mistral smiled
and tilted her head to kiss the underside of his jaw, ‘Yes, dragons.’

Fabian sighed
deeply, ‘The Ten Year Cull.  I know it has a certain lure, but, must you
go?’ 

‘Well.’
 Mistral murmured, caressing the skin of his throat with her lips. 
‘It is a once in a lifetime chance … but I would turn it down for you, on one
condition–’

‘Oh
yes?’  Fabian caught her face between his hands and looked down at her
enquiringly.

‘Tell me
honestly that you’ve never taken it before, and I won’t go, I swear,’ she
raised an eyebrow, daring him to lie to her, already knowing the answer in his
thoughts.

He gave a
defeated sigh, ‘Twice, actually.’

‘There you go
then!’  she cried and sat up to look at him, her eyes glistening with
excitement.  ‘Tell me everything!’

Fabian laughed
at her enthusiasm and opened his arms, inviting her back into them.  She
sighed blissfully and sank against him, watching the sunlight sparkling on the
snow-capped mountains while she listened to his velvet voice describing the
Isle’s most feared creatures.  Mistral smiled; she was finally
complete.  ‘How long before we have to leave?’  she asked
suddenly.  

‘A while yet.’

‘Oh good,’ she
murmured, turning to kiss him.

By mid-morning
Fabian and Mistral had met up with the rest of the warriors to begin their
journey north.  Mistral’s fond imaginings of spending the day riding with
her brothers and planning the cull were rudely shattered by Leo’s icy summons
to ride alongside him and discuss what she had Seen at the banquet.

‘Unlucky.’
 Cain muttered with a grin.

Mistral
scowled and swore at him under her breath.

‘Lady De
Winter!’  Cain gasped, looking offended.  ‘You shock me!’

‘Mistral? 
Now please!’  Leo’s cold voice cut short Cain’s mocking reply.

Mistral
muttered something even more foul to Cain before she turned to smile sweetly at
Leo, ‘Coming!’  she called brightly and kicked Cirrus into a canter,
quickly catching up with her brother-in-law. 

By the end of
an hour of merciless interrogation Mistral had a pounding headache and was even
considering pretending to fall off Cirrus to put an end to the torture. 
Leo questioned and re-questioned her on every miniscule detail on Bellicose and
Malachi until she was heartily sick of having to relive their dark thoughts,
and when Leo finally appeared satisfied Fabian proceeded to ask her a string of
questions, for which she shot him black looks that he appeared not to
notice. 

‘Oh thank you
–’ she exhaled softly a split-second before Phantasm’s cool voice spoke beside
them.

‘Master
Sphinx, Mage De Winter?  I have some information regarding Bellicose La
Monte that I feel is pertinent.’

Leo turned and
eyed Phantasm coldly for a moment before waving a hand dismissively at Mistral,
‘You may go now.’

Mistral rolled
her eyes at Fabian and reined Cirrus in, falling back to ride with Phantom.

‘You look
exhausted!’

‘Thanks for
the compliment brother.’  Mistral muttered sourly but gratefully accepted
the skin of water he passed her. 

‘Here –’
Phantom gave her a honey and oat cake with a grin. 

Mistral
laughed and took it from him, ‘Is this a peace offering for telling my husband
that I’ve been trying to eat my own weight in honey?’

‘No, I never
apologise, you know that.  But talking of eating … want to know what we
saw last night?’

‘Not if it’s
going to make me feel sick,’ frowned Mistral, taking a bite of the honey
cake.  ‘I’m not feeling so great today.’

‘Can’t
promise, I’m afraid.  We, that is, my brother and I, agreed to liberate a
few select items from Master Nox’s room in preparation for the cull –’

‘You stole
some potions.’  Mistral stated flatly.

‘Yes.’
 Phantom confirmed and blithely carried on.  ‘Well, we weren’t sure
if our gift would work on him with his vampire blood, so we decided to do it
the old-fashioned way –’

‘Please tell
me you violently mugged him and left him bleeding to death out the back of The
Cloak!’  Mistral asked hopefully. 

‘Er not
quite.’  Phantasm gave her a funny look.  ‘We just picked the lock on
his room when he was out.’

‘So he’s not
been injured then?’  Mistral asked, looking disappointed.

‘No.’ Phantom
frowned.  ‘But someone else has been – ’

‘Who?’ 
Mistral asked sharply.

‘Will you
please stop interrupting me!’  Phantom exclaimed.  ‘It’s very
annoying!’

‘Sorry –’

‘Mistral!’

She laughed
and shook her head, ‘Continue brother, I promise not to interrupt your riveting
tale again.’

‘Good,’ he
sniffed, and continued looking only slightly mollified.  ‘Well, we were
after some gorgon blood for Cain to mix up a poison for the cull, apparently
it’s the only thing that works on dragons, anyway, there we were, sneaking
around in his pitch-black room when I tripped over something and fell flat on
my face – ’

Mistral burst
out laughing, ‘I wish I’d been there!  I bet you two were a right comedy
double-act, all stage whispers and knocking things over!’

‘Actually we
were very stealthy.’  Phantom bristled.  ‘Do you want to know what I
fell over or not?’

‘Sorry
brother.’  Mistral hid a smile.  ‘Do carry on.’

‘It was the red-head
from the bakery.’

‘What? 
Why was she asleep in Malachi’s tower room?  Are they lovers?  Does
Xerxes know he’s sharing one of his sweethearts with a half-vampire?’

‘Slow
down!  Let’s just answer your first question shall we?’  Phantom
leaned over to whisper dramatically in her ear.  ‘She wasn’t sleeping …
she was dead!’

‘What?’ 
Mistral cried again, twisting round to give him a shocked look.  ‘Are you
winding me up brother?’

Phantom shook
his head solemnly, ‘No Mistral.  She was a stone cold corpse.’

‘But …
how?  And
why
?’  Mistral’s face creased into a perplexed
expression.

‘How?’ 
Phantom said quietly.  ‘Well, there was no blood anywhere, and especially
not in her.’

Mistral stared
at him, frowning heavily, then her eyes widened with horror, ‘No!’ 

Phantom
nodded, looking suitably gratified by her reaction, ‘Oh yes, I think daddy had
a snack before he travelled home.’

‘Yuk!’ 
Mistral pulled a face.  ‘Now I feel really sick –’

Phantom looked
at her, his smug expression quickly changing to one of concern, ‘You have gone
a bit green!  Want to stop for a bit?’

‘No time!’
 Mistral gasped and promptly leaned over Cirrus’ shoulder to be sick.

‘Mistral?’ 

Fabian’s
anxious voice spoke nearby.  She opened her eyes and was grateful to see
that he was on opposite side to where she was being sick.  ‘M’fine!’ 
she choked between retches.  ‘Honestly … just need a … moment –’

‘Right that’s
it.  You are going to the Infirmary the moment we get back!’ 
Phantasm said briskly, appearing beside her with linen cloth and a skin of
water.

Mistral
groaned and slumped against Cirrus while she recovered, ‘Get Cain to check me
over,’ she mumbled, reaching for the water.  ‘Anything but Serenity …
please.’

The twins
exchanged a long look over her bowed head while Fabian immediately pulled
Spirit around to ride over and speak with Cain.

Fabian rode
quietly beside Mistral for the rest of the morning, occasionally asking after
her health until she was replying to each polite enquiry through gritted
teeth. 

‘I’m
fine
Fabian.  Please stop asking!  Something just disagreed with me that’s
all.’

‘The same
something that disagreed with you last week?’  Phantasm pointed out
helpfully.

Mistral shot
him an angry look but before she could reply, Fabian was speaking, his voice
strained with anxiety.

‘You were sick
last week too?  Why didn’t you tell me?’

Mistral
switched her glare from Phantasm to Fabian, ‘Well, it’s hardly the sort of
thing I’m likely to tell you is it?’

‘Well I think
we need to be kept aware of your state of health from now on, considering that
last time you were ill you lost the ability to read auras.  It would be an
unmitigated disaster if the same were to happen again now.’

All three of
them stared at Leo.  He appeared not to notice their hostile looks and
continued in a cold voice.  ‘I want Cain to give you a full examination as
soon as we make camp and then report to me.’

Mistral
glanced out of the corner of her eye at Fabian.  He was glaring at Leo
furiously, his thoughts seared into her mind with the force of an
inferno.  She winced and blocked them out, pulling Cirrus back sharply to
leave the brothers alone split seconds before Fabian snarled in a low voice.
 ‘I resent your tone –’