The Seer (29 page)

‘It’ll save on
arguments later,’ he explained to Cain who was unwilling to hand his
over.  ‘This way we’ll know who shot what and make it less painful for
Xerxes to part with some coins for a change.  And, since we’ve dispensed
with our Council officials, it’d be wise to collect in all our arrows and hand
them in to verify the cull was kept to the agreed number.  The Council
probably won’t be satisfied with just the glaring proof of two huge dead
dragons.’

‘We need to
agree who is going to shoot with poisoned arrows and who will shoot with
sedated arrows.’  Xerxes looked around with a bossy expression on his
face.  ‘As a hunting party leader I feel I should have poisoned arrows.’

‘And as your
nearest and dearest so do I.’ Brutus added quickly.

‘Fine, I get
to make mine a sleeping beauty.’  Cain gave Grendel a resigned look. 
‘Alright with you brother?’

Grendel
grunted non-committedly and continued to sharpen his already lethal looking
battle axe.

‘How do you
want to split our party Fabian?’  Mistral asked, having listened to her
brothers’ exchange with amusement.

‘Well, by
their own admission, the twins are more confident with a sword than a bow, so I
feel you and I should have the poisoned arrows and they the sedated ones. 
If they miss it will be less of a disaster than if we do.’

‘Ah,
disaster.  Now why is that a word I hear a lot whenever Mistral is
around?’  Phantom sighed.

Mistral
scowled at him but was distracted from arguing by the skewered chunk of roasted
rabbit he waved in her face.  Suddenly starving, she took the skewer and
bit into the hot meat hungrily; they hadn’t stopped for lunch and she’d left
her breakfast in the snow outside Diannah’s house.  After everyone had
eaten Xerxes started a game of knuckle bones, it was too difficult to hold
cards whilst wearing gloves.  Mistral watched them playing, leaning
contently against Fabian and enjoying the heat of the fire.  She was just
beginning to feel pleasantly sleepy when his velvet voice whispered in her ear,
abruptly snapping her into alertness.

‘Are you ready
to try to read Etienne or Christophe now?’ 

Mistral nodded
and sat up.  Instantly the twins were gazing at her, their green eyes
alive with anticipation. 

‘Is this what
you two were talking about today?’  Phantom whispered excitedly.

Mistral
ignored him, allowing Fabian to explain while she sat cross legged and gazed
into the fire, letting the hypnotic flickering of the flames help her mind to
empty.  A face appeared in her mind’s eye.  Etienne Rochforte. 
Fair-haired and tall with blue eyes as cold and hard as glass.  The vision
of his face shimmered, wavering in and out of focus while she fought to hold it
long enough to See ... suddenly it became vague and insubstantial, like smoke,
then vanished completely.

‘Damn
it!’ 

She tried
again; this time remembering his face twisted with grief, staring down at the
lifeless body of his cousin on the Council chamber floor … again his face
flickered and faded, leaving her staring uselessly into the flames of their
campfire.  Mistral tried continually for an hour, occasionally pausing to
take a drink of water or move to ease the stiffness in her legs caused from
being sat for so long.  Fabian watched her silently, his calm patience
giving her the strength to keep on trying.  She refused to look at the
twins, knowing their eager impatience would only make it harder for her to
concentrate.

Eventually
succumbing to a splitting heading, Mistral admitted defeat.  Fabian was
composed and didn’t appear too disheartened by her failure, but the twins were
openly disappointed.

‘Maybe you
were just being a bit overambitious.’  Phantom said consolingly before
adding hopefully.  ‘Why not have a crack at Bellicose?  He’s a lot
nearer.  It might make it easier.’

‘Bellicose?’ 
Mistral sighed wearily and rubbed a hand over her forehead to ease the
throbbing ache. 

Fabian watched
her and frowned in concern, ‘I don’t think it would be wise to over exert
yourself Mistral, you’re only just starting to feel better.’

Mistral
quickly took another long drink of water to hide her guilty expression. 
She was suddenly determined to give something back to her Mage for his
unstinting belief and patience in her when all she seemed to do was lie about
her continuing illness and obligingly wander into traps set by corrupt
Councillors. 

‘Right,
Rochfortes are out and I really don’t fancy having a look at Bellicose tonight,
so Malachi it is then,’ she said decisively and stared intently into the fire
once again.  The pinched, humourless face of the Magnate member reared up
in her mind with frightening clarity.  It was so clearly defined that she
could even read his aura, a swirling black cloud of hatred and anger.  She
smiled with the ease at which his thoughts whispered in her ear.  He was
no longer trying to conceal them.  In his arrogance he obviously believed
her incapable of reading his mind from a distance … well more fool him.
 She tilted her head to listen more closely to the voice in her ear,
staring unseeingly into the fire until it had burned down to embers and
ash.  She finally heaved a sigh and stretched out her stiff legs, turning
to meet dark eyes of her Mage.

‘You read
him?’

She nodded and
reached for the water skin, her head was pounding and she felt completely
drained.  Seeing her exhaustion, Fabian stood up and threw more wood onto
the fire, encouraging it back into life.  When it was blazing again he sat
down beside her, drawing a heavy Wolverine skin over their shoulders.

Her eyes closed, ‘Thanks .... Oh, don’t worry,’
she murmured faintly in reply to Phantom’s panicked thought.  ‘I’m not
falling asleep … just resting for a minute –’

Is it a minute yet?

Mistral sighed deeply and opened her eyes to give
Phantom a weary look, ‘Malachi suspects that Leo has given the cull directly to
me instead of following the correct procedure and putting it out to tender.’

Phantom frowned, ‘Had he made his suspicions
common knowledge?’   

Mistral shook her head, ‘No brother, he’s far too
clever for that.  He knows it’ll just look like a petty attempt to blacken
Leo’s name.’

‘So what’s he intending to do with the information
then?’  Phantom asked.

‘He’s taken a request for fresh supplies of dragon
blood from the Ten Year Cull to Scrimshaw and Scuttle and asked for it to be
sent to the Council using their messenger service.’

‘Now that is devious!’  Phantasm exclaimed
softly.  ‘Scrimshaw and Scuttle are the Ri’s official agency, they’ll know
the Ten Year Cull Contract is due this year and are bound to get whoever takes
the message to the Council to ask when it will be issued –’

‘Only to be told that it already has been.’ 
Phantom finished.

‘And all hell will be let loose.’  Mistral
sighed.  ‘Once Scrimshaw and Scuttle find out that Leo issued the Contract
directly to me they’ll be furious.’

‘You can say that again!  I’ve heard that
Scrimshaw always buys a new house with his percentage on that Contract!’

‘Scrimshaw will have lost out on the money.’ 
Phantasm agreed.  ‘But he’s going to have a few more problems than
that.  He’s going to have every warrior on his books clamoring to know why
that Contract didn’t go out to tender.’

‘Oh dear Mistral.’  Phantom gave her a
pitying look.  ‘I don’t think you’re going to be very popular when they
find out you were given it on a plate.’

‘I know.’  Mistral sighed.  ‘I think I’m
going to have lost a few friends by the time I get back to the Valley.’

‘I rather feel that the bigger picture is how many
friends Leo will have lost.’  Fabian said quietly.  

‘Which brings me back to Malachi’s scheme.’ 
Mistral sat up a little straighter.  ‘You can see how clever he’s
being.   Scrimshaw and Scuttle will spread the bad news and he’ll
look entirely blameless, despite being the cause.  Leo’s reputation will
suffer, maybe even enough to tip the scales in Malachi’s favour.’

‘Malachi will never be the Divinus!’  Phantom
scorned.  ‘All we have to do is start telling the truth about the Contract
extras Malachi’s had apprentices risking their necks for and Master Sphinx will
look great again!’

‘No brother, we can’t do that.’  Phantasm
said softly.  ‘Firstly, there’s no proof.  And secondly our names
will have been tarnished by being on this Contract too.  No matter what we
say, the other warriors will regard us with distrust now.  To them we’re
no more than Master Sphinx’s puppets and anything we say in retaliation will
just be discounted as a blatant attempt to defame Master Nox.’

A brief silence fell between them.  The
knuckle bones games was getting rowdy; Cain was arguing with Xerxes over the
legality of a move he appeared to have just invented. 

‘And where does the dinner guest everyone loves to
have at their table fit into this gloomy picture?’ Phantom asked sourly.

‘You mean Bellicose La Monte?’  Mistral
asked.  ‘Well, actually, Malachi is having doubts about the deal he’s made
with the vampire tribe, especially since Leo’s made himself potentially very
unpopular with this Contract.  He actually thinks he could win the
election on his own merits.’

‘But what was the vampire tribe going to do to
help anyway?  Apart from eat the opposition that is!’ 

‘That was the plan.’

For a heartbeat no-one moved or spoke, then
Phantom broke the silence with an incredulous laugh, ‘You’re kidding! 
Master Nox was willing to let Bellicose’s tribe feed on anyone that stood in
his way?’

‘Pretty much.’  Mistral sank a little deeper
into Fabian’s arms.  ‘It would look like an accident of course, but yes,
they’d even talked about removing Mage Grapple from office.  Bellicose has
very
big plans  ... I’m not sure even Malachi is aware of his true
intentions.’ 

‘Malachi has made a very dangerous ally, one that
might, quite literally bite back.’  Fabian mused.  ‘When you’re
feeling more rested I feel it would be prudent to read Bellicose – Mistral?’

‘She’s gone.’  Phantom sighed.  ‘Asleep
on the job, again.’

Fabian gathered Mistral into his arms and rose
quietly to his feet, carrying her to one of the tents.

‘Mage De Winter?’ 

Fabian turned to look at Phantasm.

‘I –’

‘I know.’  Fabian cut him off and abruptly
vanished into the tent.

‘Oh don’t you two start doing these half-conversations
as well!’  Phantom muttered under his breath.  ‘What does he know?’

‘How we broke the spell.’

‘Oh, yes, I can see how you might want to clear
that one up!’  Phantom agreed in a low whisper.  ‘I tell you what
though, those Mages were up that rockface quicker than a rat out of a trap once
you said you were going into a troll cave.  We knew something was wrong
straight away but they’d cast before we’d even got to the top!’  He paused
and looked at his brother sympathetically.  ‘Was it bad?’

Phantasm frowned at him, ‘What?  The cave?’

‘No!  Kissing her of course!’

Phantasm closed his eyes in a pained expression,
‘Oh for crying out loud brother!  Nothing like that happened!’

‘Really?’  Xerxes called in a disappointed
voice, clutching his piece of parchment in one hand and a gourd of liquor in
the other.   ‘You sure?  Only I had a bet –’

‘I’m sure you did brother, however I can assure
nothing inappropriate happened.

‘Really?  Then how’d you break the spell?’

‘We talked.’

‘Huh?’

Phantasm sighed wearily, ‘Forget it Xerxes. 
I could hardly expect you to appreciate the many subtle layers of love.’

‘Well I know what I’d have done if I was stuck in
a cave with her!’  Xerxes smirked.

‘Died.’

‘Very quickly.’

Brutus and Cain laughed while Xerxes looked
suddenly thoughtfully, ‘You’re right,’ he finally agreed.  ‘I think she’d
have probably killed me.’

‘If she didn’t, then Mage De Winter certainly
would have.’  Brutus murmured, casting a wary glance at the tent Mistral
and Fabian were in.

‘Oh now, I won’t hear a word said against him.’
 Xerxes said firmly.  ‘He’s gone right up in my estimations since he
strangled that sniveling Mage Powerless!’

‘I must admit, it is nice not having their
cheerful smiling faces around any longer.’  Cain said and yawned.

His tiredness was infectious and suddenly they
were all looking longingly at the tents.   

‘Right brothers, let’s get some sleep.  It’s
going to be a big day tomorrow.’  Xerxes ordered sternly.

Brutus gave him a flinty look, ‘You know this
promotion you’ve got is temporary, don’t you?  Once the Contract is over
you’ll go back to being my younger brother again.’

‘Don’t remind me.  But in the meantime I’m
the boss!  Er, sorry Grendel, I think you’ll have to take the fire tonight
… not enough room in the tent.’

‘Or enough fresh air.’  Cain muttered,
grabbing his Wolverine skin and ducking quickly into the tent to avoid
Grendel’s angry look.

The twins stayed by the fire for a while longer,
conversing in a low murmur until the sound of Grendel’s rasping snores forced
them to give up or have to shout to be heard.