The Seer (91 page)

‘You’re the
health professional!’  Phantasm retorted.  ‘Do your job!’

‘And you’re a
godfather.’  Cain responded evenly. 

‘Oh for crying
out loud!’  Phantom exclaimed and vaulted over the Arena fence.  ‘Is
this what you meant by fated to protect her brother?  Only I think Grendel
needs the help this time!’  he snapped over his shoulder while he strode
across the muddy Arena to retrieve Mistral. 

Phantom hauled
Mistral away to a smattering of applause from the apprentices; she still
ranting about Grendel’s “lack of professionalism.”

‘Yours was
lacking a bit too.’  Phantom muttered, only to be completely
ignored. 

‘I can’t
believe he’d do that!  They’re all too terrified of him now to learn
anything!  They’ll never Qualify at this rate!’

‘I’m inclined
to agree with you.  But right now we need to be going, and I think you’ve
made your feelings quite clear to Grendel.  I’m sure he’ll go easier on
them now.’

‘He’d
better!  Or I’ll be having another word!’

‘What was it
you called her?’  Brutus asked his brother while they watched Mistral
storming towards them.  ‘“Pliable” or something, wasn’t it?’

Xerxes laughed
and shook his head, ‘Right, well, amusing as this has been, it’s time to
work.’  Pulling his hood up he squinted up at the heavy sky.  ‘Quick
private Contract to shift a nest of giant spine-tailed rats in the lower
fields, then retire to The Cloak for a game I think.  Ready brother?’

‘Born ready.’
 Brutus grinned then turned to Mistral.  ‘Can we borrow Prospero?’

‘Oh, I suppose
so.’  Mistral said huffily, still fuming with Grendel.  ‘I was only
going to leave him with Clovis, and anyway, if he’s out of the Valley with you
I know he won’t be getting over amorous with the village dogs.’

‘I hope not,
or the spine-tailed rats are in for a bit of a shock!’  Brutus laughed and
whistled Prospero.  The big dog looked up at Mistral expectantly, waiting
for the order to hunt, then he bounded away with a happy bark. 

She watched
Xerxes and Brutus strolling away to the stables with Prospero running excitedly
around them in circles and gave a long drawn out sigh of discontentment. 
Their afternoon sounded much more interesting than hers was going to be. 
Heaving another deep sigh, she turned to watch a much chastened Grendel
carefully demonstrating some basic techniques to the smirking apprentices.

A weary intake
of breath on her left told her that she was about to receive another lecture
from Cain.  She suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and forced herself
not to get irritated with him.

‘I know that
being angry is your default state Mistral, but could you please just try to be
a bit calmer; just for the next couple of months.’

‘Yes Cain,’
she responded automatically and immediately turned away and began to walk up
the path to the Main Building before he could get into one of his well-worn
sermons on her behaviour. 

Cain gave the
twins an exasperated look, ‘Try to make her take it down a notch won’t
you?’  

‘Not my remit
brother, sorry, speak to the sensible twin –’

But Phantasm
was already striding after Mistral, catching her up easily to walk beside her
in silence for a few minutes, ‘You know Cain’s right don’t you?’ He finally
began.  ‘You are going to have to start slowing down a bit now.’

‘Oh
please!  If I slow down much more I’ll start going backwards!  All I
do is sit in meetings, or stand around uselessly in the Arena!’

‘Don’t even
try to lie to me Mistral!  Don’t think I haven’t seen you teaching! 
You shot more damned arrows than the apprentices did yesterday!’

‘At least
someone hit the targets then.’  Phantom remarked, appearing on her left.

Mistral gave
him a black look.  Tugging her hood closer around her face to hide his
smug features from view, she strode on a little quicker.

‘Did you hear
Xerxes taking bets on what name you and Mage De Winter are going to
choose?’  Phantasm asked in a blatant attempt to change the subject to
something less inflammatory.

‘That reminds
me!’  Mistral suddenly exclaimed, her irritation vanishing with the
bizarre abruptness that all her moods came and went.  ‘Why is Leo named
after Fabian’s father?  It’s a bit tasteless!’ 

‘I agree it’s
hardly appropriate, but I don’t think it was meant to be an insult.  The
nurse named him you see, and she was deeply attached to Lord De Winter by all
accounts.’  Phantom replied.

Mistral
nodded, Fabian had said much the same to her on the crossing to France, ‘It’s
still a bit of a painful reminder for Fabian to have his half-brother named
after his father though, isn’t it?’ 

‘Is it?’ 
Phantasm raised an eyebrow.  ‘You would know better than any of us.’

Mistral
frowned; she had never noticed any bitterness in either his aura or his
thoughts when he spoke of Leo, ‘You’re right,’ she admitted.  ‘It doesn’t
bother him at all, which is strange.’

‘Not so
strange when you consider the fact that they don’t share the exact same name.’
 Phantasm continued.  ‘Lord De Winter used his full name of Leopold
in private, whereas Master Sphinx is commonly known by the shortened version;
in fact he even signs Contracts as “Leo Sphinx”.’

‘So where did
the Sphinx part come from?’  Mistral asked.

Phantom
shrugged, ‘That was the nurse’s choice.  I think even she realised that
giving him the family name of Grapple would cause a few raised eyebrows.’

Mistral gave
an ironic laugh and reflected on her complicated family tree consisting of
centaurs, De Winters and a brother-in-law fathered by Mage Grapple.  She
sighed and tilted her head back to contemplate the overcast sky; the rain was
showing no signs of easing yet.  They fell silent while they splashed
through the puddles, their cloaks catching on the wet shrubbery that lined the
path on either side. 

‘July!’ 
Phantom muttered disgustedly and pulled his hood further up. 

They rounded
the last bend in the path and the Main Building loomed out of the mist ahead of
them, looking more than ever like a sinister castle from a child’s
nightmare.  Mistral studied the rain-darkened stone and endless rows of
iron-grilled windows, trying to spot which had been her room for two
years.  ‘Who designed the Main Building?’  she suddenly asked,
remembering the first time she’d ever laid eyes on the strange building. 
She had just arrived in the Valley to be greeted by the twins, their double
perfection literally stealing her breath away.  It had been they who had
aptly described the Main Building as looking like a cross between a prison and
a castle.

‘The architect
was French, which is apparent in the style I think, however his name was never
recorded, probably so that he couldn’t be tracked down and shot by the Isle’s
guild of architects or something.’  Phantom paused and looked up at the
building, his eyes raking critically over the crenelated ramparts and four
towers adorning a long middle section.  ‘It’s meant to be functional,
which it is, I suppose, despite the fact that there’s never any hot water … and
it was also designed to be easily defended, hence the towers and the small,
grilled windows.  The longer, mullioned windows in the Refectory,
Infirmary, Main Hall and Meeting Room were added later, by the last Divinus actually,
when it was finally recognised that no idiot in their right mind would mount an
attack on the Ri’s headquarters.’

They had
reached the Entrance Hall and stopped to pull off their damp cloaks, hanging
them up on one of the rows of hooks to dry out for their return
walk.  

‘Oh, not the
third floor Meeting Room again.’  Mistral groaned, gazing up at the
spiralling flights of stone stairs.

‘Ah,
stairs.  The bane of every pregnant woman’s life,’ smiled Phantasm.

‘There was a
time when I ran up these three at a time,’ she muttered glumly and began to
labour up the first set.

‘And you will
again, not long to go now,’ he continued in a soothing tone.

‘Give or take
an unspecified amount of time,’ added Phantom quietly.

By the second
turn in the stairs Mistral was struggling, ‘I think I need a break.’  She
halted and blew her cheeks out in frustration, gazing up at the stone flight of
stairs sweeping endlessly away from her.

‘May I be of
assistance?’  

‘Fabian!’ 
Mistral cried joyously in response to the sound of her husband’s voice.

He ran lightly
down the stairs towards her, his pale face breaking into an amused smile at the
sight of her stranded halfway up a flight of stairs.  She gave an almost
girlish laugh when he lifted her easily into his arms, earning a disdainful
look from Phantom before she was carried away.

‘Don’t suppose
you’d consider carrying me would you?’  Phantom asked his brother
hopefully. 

‘No.’

Mistral laid
her head against Fabian’s shoulder while he carried her, breathing in the
familiar intoxicating scent of his warm skin, ‘You know this doesn’t mean that
I’ve forgiven you for leaving me to be bullied by the twins this morning don’t
you?’  She murmured, idly curling a lock of his hair through her fingers.

He looked down
at her and smiled; the smile she adored, a velvet softness in his eyes echoed
in a faint lifting of the corners of his mouth.

‘I see he
bullied you into a dress.’

Mistral
sighed, ‘Hideous isn’t it?’

His eyes
travelled slowly over her in a way that instantly made her breath quicken. 
She was abruptly aware of the heat of his hands through the thin cotton dress,
holding her close to his body.

‘Far from it,
however, I prefer you in what I left you wearing this morning.’

She gave him a
long look through her lashes, ‘But I wasn’t wearing anything.’

‘I know –’

‘Have they no
shame?’  Phantom muttered to his brother when they rounded the bend in the
stairs to be met by the sight of Mistral, still held in Fabian’s arms, kissing
passionately.

‘Apparently
not.’  Phantasm replied and coughed politely into his hand.

Setting
Mistral down with a sigh, Fabian unwound her hands from around his neck while
she whispered something in his ear.  Giving a low laugh, Fabian took her
hand to continue their walk towards the Meeting Room in a more respectable
fashion.  They entered the long room to see Leo standing before the huge
fireplace, his head bowed in thought. 

‘Please, be
seated,’ he looked up and waved a hand towards the chairs around the table
where Gleacher Shacklock was already sat. 

‘De Winter.’ 
Gleacher nodded a curt greeting to Fabian, but offered no greeting to the
twins. 

Mistral felt
his eyes alight on her briefly but kept her own gaze averted while she took the
chair Fabian drew out for her.  She knew from the dark cloud of his aura
that her condition was a painful reminder of the loss he had suffered. 

Fabian did not
take a seat but moved quietly over to the window to look down into the Valley.

Leo began to
pace in front of the fire with his hands clasped behind his back.  After a
few moments of silent pacing he abruptly turned to face the twins.  ‘I do
not want you or Mistral to be in attendance for this meeting.’

‘Oh?’ 
Phantasm’s polite enquiry contrasted with his brother’s explosion of gleeful
thoughts.

Oh
yes!  Thank you Master Sphinx!  There is a heart in that empty cavern
you call a chest after all … The Cloak here I come!

Mistral
glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, but his face was so utterly devoid
of any expression that it could have been carved from marble.

Oblivious to
the rapture he had incited in Phantom, Leo continued to address them in
clipped, icy tones, ‘Your presence will suggest that I do not trust Bryden and
his tribal delegates.  Such an impression would be detrimental to the
purpose of the meeting, which, as you are aware from the brief, is to extend to
Bryden Wolfsnare the invitation join the Magnate.’  Leo paused and fixed
the twins with a hard look.  ‘I cannot emphasise enough that this must be
an invitation he accepts of his own free will.  I require his full and
continuing support, not merely his acceptance today at your intervention.’

The twins
nodded in unison.

‘Mistral?’ 

She looked up
expectantly to meet Leo’s cold blue gaze, managing to say ‘Yes?’ instead of her
instinctive response of ‘What?’

‘I want you to
read the elven delegates the moment they enter the Valley.  We need to
know in advance who is opposed to the offer.  It is they that I wish to be
influenced if necessary.  Bryden will seek their counsel before he makes
his decision, and I want it to be positive.’

Mistral nodded
silently, keeping her face neutral while her thoughts joined in Phantom’s
silent celebrations … if only Fabian were to be somehow excused from the
meeting too her impromptu afternoon off would suddenly become perfect. 

‘I would
prefer that this meeting arrived at the desired outcome without the need of
your talents, however I feel it is vital that we have a strong and respected
Arcane in the Magnate, for reasons I am sure you are aware of.’  Leo
paused and turned to Fabian.  ‘Which brings me to another matter I would
appreciate your attention on while we have a few moments –’

Fabian left
his place at the window and walked over to begin a murmured conversation with
Leo. 

Taking
advantage of Leo being temporarily preoccupied, Mistral turned to whisper to
Phantom, ‘Who else is in on this meeting from the Ri?’

‘Don’t you
ever read your meeting briefs?’ 

‘No.  I
find the element of surprise is usually the most interesting bit.’

Phantom hid a
snort of laughter, ‘The rest of the Magnate; or what’s left of it.’

‘So, just
Serenity and Mycroft then?’