The Shadow Of What Was Lost (27 page)

There was silence for a few
seconds as Asha gathered her thoughts. Though she didn't want to believe it,
somehow she knew that the duke's memory was real - that what she'd seen had
actually happened. She shuddered as she remembered the eerie crowd of slowly
swinging bodies. It wasn't as if she had experienced it in a detached way,
either. She remembered
being there
. Remembered her disgust, her fury at
the Shadraehin.

"You have my word," she
said softly.

Elocien and the others all looked
at Erran, who was staring intently at her. There were a few anxious seconds of
silence, and then he nodded, giving her the slightest of smiles.

"She means it."

There was a collective sigh as
the tension went out of the room, and Elocien smiled at her. "Then I am
glad I took the risk."

"So is she," noted
Erran.

“Don’t, Erran.” It was Fessi, her
tone reproving. “She doesn’t know how to shield herself yet. You've done your
job. Leave her be.”

“You’d do it if you were able to,
Fess,” Erran grumbled, but he kept silent.

On the couch, Kol stirred for the
first time.

“I cannot say I like this,” he
said bluntly, never taking his eyes from Asha. Something about his expression
seemed almost fearful.

Elocien grimaced. “It had to
happen, Kol. I couldn’t be your Scribe forever. You knew that.”

“But it did not have to be
now
.”
Kol shook his head, clearly angry. “And not with
her
. How are we
supposed to trust her, after she made a deal to spy on you - with the
Shadraehin of all people? She may be loyal now, but what is to stop her from
changing her mind again?" He held up his hand preemptively as both Elocien
and Erran opened their mouths to protest. "I know what you are going to
say, and it doesn't change my mind. In my opinion, this puts us all in danger.”
With that, he rose and walked out the door.

The girl called Fessi stared
after him, her face set in a confused frown. “I apologise, Ashalia,” she said,
pushing a long wisp of hair from her face. “He’s not usually like this... I
don’t know what came over him. We'll get better acquainted later, I'm sure.”
She hurried out the door after Kol.

“I think I know,” murmured
Elocien, so quietly that Asha wasn’t sure she was supposed to hear it.

There were a few moments of
silence, then Elocien sighed, turning to Asha. “That part didn’t go as smoothly
as I’d hoped,” he admitted. “Don't worry about Kol - he's overreacting, but I'm
sure he will calm down soon enough. Still... before we go any further, I do
need you to swear to me that none of this will leave this room. I'm not just
talking about the Shadraehin this time, obviously. Needless to say, if word of
what we are doing here got out, it would be disastrous. Not even my brother knows
about it.”

Asha hesitated. “And what,
exactly,
are
you doing here? There's clearly more to this than just
trying to find out what happened at Caladel.”

“That's true,” acceded the duke.
“We're protecting Andarra. The Augurs use their talents to help me inform my
advice to the king. It’s saved lives many times.”

Asha’s eyes narrowed. “That’s all
you use it for?”

Elocien shrugged. “I don’t use it
for personal gain, if that’s what you mean.”

“None of us would be doing this
if he was,” supplied Erran.

Asha hesitated, then nodded.
There was no way to verify any of it, but for now she had no choice but to
trust them.

“Very well," she said.
"You have my word that I’ll not speak of this to anyone.”

The Northwarden glanced over at
Erran, who studied Asha for a second, then nodded. “She's nothing if not
truthful,” he said cheerfully.

Asha avoided looking in Erran’s
direction, suddenly self-conscious. Knowing it was that easy for him to Read
her sent a shiver up her spine, regardless of her having nothing to hide.

“So how do I fit in to all this?”
she asked, still a little dazed at the turn of events.

“Two ways.” Elocien leaned
forward. “The most pressing being that I cannot continue to meet with Erran or
the other two in secret. As the king’s brother, meeting with
anyone
privately is cause for speculation. If someone starts to notice I’m regularly
going into a Lockroom with people who are, ostensibly, servants” – he paused,
shooting Erran an apologetic look – “ it will raise some questions.”

“We’ve been getting by with me as
Elocien’s manservant,” explained Erran, “ but the problem is, I’m not very good
at it. People around here tend to notice things like that, and then start
wondering what the real reason is that the duke keeps me around. It’s unlikely
they’d guess the truth, but too much attention in itself could cause trouble.”

“As Athian's Representative,
you’ll have an excuse to meet with me every few days,” Elocien continued.
“Normally that falls to the senior Representative, but I’ll insist it’s you.
That shouldn’t raise any questions; given who I am, I doubt anyone will think
it amiss that I'm more comfortable with a Shadow than one of the Gifted. In
fact, I've already started spreading it around that it was me who made Athian
send a Shadow as one of their Representatives - a kind of penance for their
return.”

“But won’t that draw more
attention to me?”

“Yes, but it’s the right kind of
attention," said Elocien. "You’ll be a curiosity for a few days, and
then people will… dismiss you, to an extent. If you’re only here because Tol
Athian is being punished, they won’t think of you as much of a threat.” He
grimaced. “I want to be honest about what you should expect. People will ignore
you, sneer at you behind your back, perhaps tell you to your face that you shouldn't
be here. I doubt anyone outside of those you’ve already met will be friendly.
But nobody will fear you, or watch your movements. And that's what we need.”

Asha nodded, trying to keep the
disappointment from her face.

“So I can meet with you without
raising suspicion, and I can talk to the Augurs without anyone noticing,” she
said. “Is my sole purpose to be passing messages?”

Elocien smiled at that. “Not at
all. As Kol so graciously brought up before, the main reason you're here is to
become our Scribe.”

“A Scribe?” Asha knew the word,
of course, but Elocien had said it more like a title.

Erran spoke up. “You get to tell
Elocien when to panic.”

Elocien grunted at that. “Before
the Unseen War, no-one was allowed to act on an Augur’s vision unless it had been
confirmed,” he explained. “The Augurs weren’t allowed to discuss what they’d
Seen with anyone, even amongst themselves - instead they had to write it all
down and deliver it to the Scribe, who would then try and find other visions
that contained similarities. If two Augurs had Seen the same thing, it was
considered confirmation that it was going to happen.”

Asha frowned. "But weren't
the Augurs' visions supposed to be infallible?" She hesitated, glancing at
Erran uncertainly. "Or, was it because of what happened to the old Augurs,
at the end...."

"No," Erran rushed to
assure her. "Everything we've Seen so far has come to pass. Whatever the
problem was twenty years ago, it doesn't seem to be affecting us."

“Then why wait for confirmation?”
asked Asha, puzzled.

“Trust,” said Elocien. “The trust
placed in the Augurs was absolute. Without checks and balances, it would have
been too easy for someone to abuse their position, to take advantage by
claiming to have Seen something that they hadn’t.” He shrugged. “I thought it
was important to continue that tradition, even with only three Augurs. I’ve
been filling the role, but aside from the difficulties we’ve already discussed,
I’m often too busy to wade through every scrap of information I’m brought.”

Erran spoke up. “We tend to have
visions about ourselves, our friends or family - often about things that may be
important to us, but not necessarily to someone like Elocien,” he explained.
“The further removed the events of a vision are from us – in time, distance or
personal interest – the more important they seem to be. And those are the
visions that other Augurs will also likely See.”

Asha nodded slowly. It made
sense, then; the Northwarden would hardly want to waste time wading through
pages of information he couldn’t use. “And once something has been confirmed?”

“The Scribe copies it into a
single book - called the Journal - along with the names of the Augurs who had
the vision. We all have access to it. The Journal is then used as a reliable
source of information about future events,” Elocien concluded.

Asha remained silent for a while
as she processed what she’d been told. The system made sense, and she
understood why they'd chosen her. It was a massive responsibility, though. One
she knew without having to ask that she had no choice in accepting.

“You’re placing a lot of trust in
me,” she observed.

Elocien nodded, expression
serious. “Erran insisted.”

Asha gave the young man a
quizzical look. “Why?”

Erran returned her gaze steadily.
“It wasn’t a hard choice, once I’d Read you. You’re smart. Honest. Loyal.
You’ve been courageous, this past month, when a lot of others would have just
given up after what you've been through. And most importantly, I saw how
faithful you were to your Augur friend, back in Caladel. How determined you
were to keep his secret.” He shrugged. “Knowing that, you seemed like a good
fit for the job.”

Asha blushed a little and looked
at the ground, not knowing what to say.

The Northwarden smiled slightly
at her embarrassment, then stood, giving Asha’s shoulder a light squeeze. “I’ll
leave you two to talk. I need to see whether Athian have sent someone over
yet.”

Asha nodded hesitantly, and
Elocien slipped out the door, shutting it quietly behind him.

There was an awkward silence for
a few seconds, then Erran said, “I’m sorry about Kol.” He made a face. “He’ll
come around eventually, I’m sure.”

“He seemed quite upset.”

“He was,” conceded Erran. “You
have to understand… I can be confident you won’t betray us, but to the others,
you’re a stranger who now has their lives in your hands. They’ll accept you in
time, but expect some suspicion for a while.”

Asha frowned. “Can’t they just
Read me too?”

Erran shook his head. “We each
have our own strengths. Mine is Reading people, but I rarely have visions of
the future. The others See more, and can do other things I can’t, but they can
Read perhaps one in every ten people. Only those with the weakest natural
defences.” He gave her a small smile. “You’re not in that group.”

“But
you
can Read me.” The
thought made Asha more uncomfortable than she cared to admit. "Do you Read
a lot of people?"

Erran nodded. "I've probably
Read half of Ilin Illan, at one point or another," he confessed.
"Just about everyone here in the palace, and then Elocien sends me down to
the White Sword once a week, too. It's the most popular tavern in the city -
you'd be amazed at the information you can pick up there." He grinned.
"I can't say I dislike that part of the job, to be honest."

Asha smiled at that. "So is
there anyone you can't Read?"

"Anyone who can shield
themselves," admitted Erran. “And don't worry - we’ll teach you how to do
that soon enough. It’s just a mental trick, no special powers required. With
your training from Caladel, it shouldn’t be too difficult to learn. But I
promise I’ll try to keep out of your head until you have.”

Asha gave him an appreciative
nod, and there were a few moments of silence.

“So how did all this come about?”
she asked eventually, gesturing vaguely after the duke.

“Elocien found me a few years ago
- or Administration did, to be exact. I was living on the streets of Ghas, and
some of the criminal element there got wind of my… talents. They used me for a
few months, but after a while, one of them decided that the reward for turning
in an Augur was worth more than what I could do. Not really the most
far-sighted of men.” He paused at that, rolling his eyes. “After the
Administrators brought me here, when Elocien first came to meet me, I think he
was going to have me executed.”

Asha stared at him. “Really?”

“He was different back then,”
Erran rushed to assured her. “But I had the presence of mind to Read him before
he could do anything. As soon as he realised I could get to people’s secrets so
easily, I became too valuable to waste. He helped me, got me a position as a
servant in the palace. In return I’d Read visiting dignitaries, lords, the
Gifted Representatives, anyone who might be trying to keep things from the
king.”

“You spied for him,” said Asha
flatly.

“Better than death.” Erran’s tone
was mild. “We weren’t friends and it wasn’t something I was proud of, but it
wasn’t a bad life by most standards. And Elocien never abused the information I
gave him.”

“But he only had mercy because he
wanted to use you?”