The Assassin's Tale (Isle of Dreams) (74 page)

‘Xerxes, I
didn’t think you were injured yesterday?’  Phantasm called out
suddenly. 

‘I
wasn’t!’  Xerxes immediately bent over his wolverine, looked slightly
flustered.

‘Well, what
are those marks on your neck then?  It looks like someone’s been trying to
strangle you!’  Phantasm persisted. 

Mistral
glanced at Phantasm.  His face was a perfect mask of concern but she knew
him well enough to see beneath the façade.  Phantasm turned and dropped
the ghost of a wink in her direction and she grinned.

Brutus frowned
and peered closely at his brother before letting out a loud crow of laughter.

‘
Love
bites?
’  How old are you?  Was she part-vampire or something?’

Xerxes lifted
his head to glare at his brother and revealed a series of muddy brown bruises
encircling his neck.

‘She was
overcome with passion,’ Xerxes said with as much dignity as he could muster.

‘Is that hay
in your hair brother?’  Cain asked curiously, leaning over and plucking
something from his long ponytail.

Xerxes
reddened and bent over his wolverine once again and the apprentices all burst
out laughing.

Fabian caught
Mistral’s eye and grinned at her.  Xerxes had obviously also found out that
the hayloft offered a secluded place to talk, although it didn’t appear that
much talking had been done in his case.

Xerxes bore
the brunt of the apprentices’ teasing for the next five minutes until he began
to lose his temper.

‘You’re all
just jealous because none of the girls fancied you!’

‘You were with
the blonde girl that works in the saddlery weren’t you?’  Cain asked
innocently.

Xerxes glared
at him then nodded briefly. 

‘Ah, yes, I
remember her well,’ sighed Cain with a faraway look on his face.  ‘She has
an unusually shaped birthmark right on her –’

‘No!’ 
Xerxes exclaimed, looking aghast.  ‘Please tell me I haven’t been reduced
to dating your off casts!’

‘Sorry
brother,’ Cain gave Xerxes an impish smile.  ‘But I agree with you, she is
very … enthusiastic.’

Xerxes made a
disgusted noise and shook his head and they all began laughing again.

‘Did you hear
about the Lieutenants?’  Phantom asked with a scandalous glint in his eye.

‘No –
what?’  Brutus choked, wiping a tear from his eye.

‘Apparently
Master Sphinx dismissed them all when he heard Golden’s story.  They’d
already been escorted from the Valley by the time we came back from the hunt.’

‘And good
riddance!’ said Brutus cheerfully.  ‘Right, that’s my wolverine skinned –
come on Grendel, let’s carry them up to the tannery and get Titus to finish
them off for us, he owes us a favour for the amount of money we’ve put in his
pocket this year!’

While Grendel
and Brutus gathered up the pelts, Fabian rose from his stool and walked over to
where Mistral was sitting, carefully cleaning the knife she had borrowed from
him.

‘Care to take
a walk with me before the ceremony?’  he asked, holding his hand out for
her to take.

‘I would love
to!’ she grinned and took his hand, slipping the long dagger into her belt as
she stood up.

Fabian looped
an arm around her shoulders while they strolled across the Training
Arena.  Once they were far enough away for the other apprentices not to
hear them he turned his head to speak quietly to her.

‘How did your
interview with the Divinus fare?’

Her shoulders
dropped slightly, ‘He couldn’t say how long it would take for me to master
Sight.  Apparently I’m too stubborn.  He also said it would cause me
pain to be Bonded until I did.  But we already knew that bit, didn’t
we?’  Mistral sighed and gazed at him sadly.

‘It will be
worth it,’ he smiled and touched her cheek gently.

She held his
gaze for a moment and then frowned, ‘Oh, and he said something strange about
you … that you had a pure soul.’

Fabian stopped
walking and threw his head back, laughing mirthlessly.

‘What?’ 
Mistral asked, frowning at him. 

‘He must be
losing his touch,’ Fabian turned his gaze back to meet hers.  ‘Or he’d
know there was nothing pure about my soul every time I thought of you.’ 
he smiled, then bent his head and kissed her.

When he
released her Mistral sighed and wrapped her arms tightly around him, laying her
head against his chest.

‘I think I’ve
got too used to having you around,’ she murmured.  ‘It’s going to be hell
when training starts again and you leave.  Saul is leaving on some
Mercenary Contract next week and all the others have got work lined up. 
It looks like I’ll be stuck here with the twins irritating me to death every
day.’

‘It won’t be
so bad,’ Fabian said gently.  ‘First of all, let’s enjoy the solstice
break.  I wanted to take you on holiday … of sorts, well more of a hunting
trip actually.’

Mistral
snapped her gaze up to look at him, grinning in anticipation, ‘What for?’

‘A chimera,’
he said, smiling at her reaction.

Mistral’s eyes
shone with excitement, ‘No!  Really?  I’ve heard they’re really
vicious, oh –’ her face suddenly fell and the light faded from her eyes.

‘What’s
wrong?’  Fabian asked with a frown.  ‘We can do something else if you
wish.’

‘No, no!
 I would love to go … with you,’ she added, looking away.

‘Who else do
you think will be coming with us?’  he asked with an amused smile. 

Mistral stared
at him wordlessly, hardly daring to hope that she was going to get to spend the
next two weeks alone with him. 

‘Just you and
me?  Really?  No chaperoning twins?’

He nodded and
smiled at her, ‘I think we’ve earned some time together.’  he caught the wicked
gleam in her eyes and added.  ‘Our deal still stands Mistral, we must
wait.’

‘Whatever you
say,’ Mistral said quickly and grinned. 

Two weeks away
from the Valley with Fabian, hunting a fire-breathing creature in the mountains
... what could be better?  Well, one thing obviously … but that would have
to wait.

They carried
on walking in silence for a few minutes until they reached the fence
surrounding the paddock and paused to lean against it, watching the horses
nosing through the snow for grass.  Cirrus was grazing close to
Spirit.  Her ordinarily bad-tempered horse seemed to have taken to the
bright palomino and broke off from his grazing to nibble her neck
affectionately.

‘I wonder who
our Training Lieutenants will be for the next year,’ Mistral mused and turned
around to lean back against the fence and gaze over at the Training Arena.

Fabian turned
around and pulled her into his arms, gazing down at her with an almost doubtful
expression on his face.

‘How would you
feel about having me as a Training Lieutenant?’ he asked hesitantly.  ‘Not
permanently of course, but Leo has asked me if I would step in for a couple of
months, just until he finds some suitable replacements for the three he’s
dismissed.’

‘Why only two
months?’  Mistral cried joyously, throwing her arms around him and kissing
him.

Fabian laughed
ruefully while he held her close, ‘I have commitments to the Council which
would require me to be absent from the Valley for weeks at a time, and as I
cannot be in two places at once I would not make a good Training Lieutenant on
a permanent basis.  Lieutenants need to be here all the time to keep an
eye on the apprentices, not that yours seem to have done a very good job this
year ... however, I can afford a couple of months and I think Leo knows that it
will prevent you from riding out of the Valley to go home every five minutes.’

Mistral
expression bypassed happy and went straight to ecstatic.  A hunting trip
with Fabian and then Fabian as her Lieutenant instead of the three neanderthals
she’d suffered over the last year?  Things were definitely looking up.

‘I never, ever
thought I’d say this, but Leo has just gone up in my estimations!’

Fabian gazed
at her solemnly, ‘So, you wouldn’t mind if I accepted Leo’s request?’ 

‘Mind?’ 
Mistral laughed.  ‘It’s the best news I’ve had all day, apart from the
hunting trip that is.  Next year’s apprentices had better be made of
strong stuff!’

‘Mistral, I
will not give you free license to beat up the first years!’  Fabian chided
her.  ‘I will be firm but fair.  Do not expect any favouritism in the
Training Arena!’

‘No of course
not!’  Mistral nodded quickly, not quite managing to stop grinning. 

‘Now,’ said
Fabian drawing her against his side to continue with their walk.  ‘I think
we have just enough time before the ceremony for you to tell me about the
secret Phantom is keeping about you.’

By the time
Mistral had reluctantly told Fabian the story of her childhood nickname the sun
was beginning to set and it was nearly time for the apprentices to gather in
the Main Hall for their Qualification Ceremony.

‘I don’t
suppose you’ll be allowed to attend?’  Mistral asked, looking at him
hopefully.

Fabian shook
his head and gazed up at the light spilling onto the snow from Main Hall’s long
windows.

‘No, but I
shall wait for you in The Cloak and Dagger and help you celebrate,’ he smiled.

‘Commiserate
more like,’ muttered Mistral.

Fabian laughed
softly and dropped a kiss on the top of her head before he turned to go. 
Mistral watched him walk back towards the village with familiar long easy
strides and fought the urge to run after him. 

‘That’s
trusting of him,’ murmured Phantasm appearing at her shoulder with ghostly
quietness.  ‘I almost expected him to escort you right into the Main Hall
to make sure that you actually go through with Qualifying.’

‘No, he
wouldn’t do that,’ Mistral sighed.  ‘Fabian believes in freedom of
choice.  I have to do this because I want to, not because he makes me.’

‘And do you
want to?’  Phantom enquired, drifting up beside her.

Mistral gazed
after Fabian, watching him vanish around a bend in the path.  She sighed
again and turned to meet Phantom’s questing look.

‘No.  But
I’m going to do it anyway.’

‘To please Mage
De Winter?’ 

‘No, to please
me.  If I throw away my chance to master Sight he’ll believe it’s because
of him.  He’d torture himself endlessly with how he’s ruined my
destiny.  To see him do that to himself would kill me.’

Phantom
regarded her solemnly for a moment then grinned, ‘Well, whatever your warped
reasoning is, I’m glad you’re going to be here for another year.  It’d be
very boring without you.’

Mistral
grinned back at him, ‘Thanks brother, but I think our new Training Lieutenant
won’t be letting us get away with so much though.’

‘Yes, we heard
Mage De Winter has accepted,’ said Phantasm.  ‘I’m pleased to have someone
with so much skill guiding us next year.’

‘I just wish
that the others hadn’t spent the morning telling him quite so many stories
about our exploits this year, we won’t be able to get away with anything
now!’  Phantom grumbled.

‘Just tell me
he wasn’t told the manticore story,’ said Mistral anxiously. 

‘I don’t think
that one came up actually.  I think that even Xerxes realised that telling
Mage De Winter that using his intended as bait on a manticore hunt might not
end well for him.’

Mistral waved
a hand dismissively, ‘He’d already worked it out actually, and you’re right, he
wasn’t best pleased.  But I was more bothered about the language bit.’

‘Never came
up, I’m pleased to say.’  Phantom said then looked her up and down
pointedly.  ‘Are you going to get ready or were you intending to Qualify
like that?’ 

‘I’ve
showered!’  Mistral snapped defensively.

‘Your clothes
are looking a bit worse for wear though –’ 

Mistral
glanced at the twins and realised that they were both wearing new sets of
clothing.

‘But I don’t
have any others!  They’ve all been wrecked over the year, and I’d rather
not go down to see Eudora for some more.’  Mistral spread her hands out in
a helpless gesture.  ‘Sorry to disappoint, but these are just going to
have to do.’

‘We thought
that you might say that, so we took the liberty of picking you some more
up.  Look on it as a Qualification gift.’  Phantasm smiled and passed
her a neatly folded stack of black clothing.  ‘Mistress Eudora sends her
regards by the way.’

‘Liar!’
 Mistral laughed and took the clothes.  ‘Ah, black, just the colour
I’d have chosen.  Oh, I didn’t know what to get you two, so I baked you a
cake –’

‘Did
you?  I love cake!’  Phantom exclaimed excitedly.

‘No of course
I didn’t!  Honestly Phantom, sometimes it’s like you’ve never met me!’

Phantom
smirked at her, ‘Likewise!  We just added your purchases to your tab, hope
you don’t mind.’

Mistral shook
her head, still grinning, ‘Not at all, you’ve saved me having to go to her
shop.  Mind you, I’m surprised you two willingly put yourselves in danger
of being eaten alive by her again.’

‘We took
Xerxes with us.  Apparently the girl from the saddlery has spread the
rumour that he’s a real ladies man and Mistress Eudora couldn’t keep her hands
off him.  It was like watching a squid attack,’ said Phantom with a
shudder.  ‘Anyway, you had better go and change or we’re going to be
late!’

‘Oh relax, I’m
going now,’ she sighed reluctantly.  ‘I’ll see you in a few minutes.’

The twins
watched her walk into the Entrance Hall and up the stairs to the dorms.

‘I can’t
believe she’s going through with it,’ said Phantom.

‘She hasn’t
done yet,’ said Phantasm quietly. 

Mistral
quickly changed into her new clothes and sat on her bed to lace her
boots.  Looking around the bare room that had been hers for the last year
she was struck by how quickly the time had gone, making her suddenly wonder how
many other apprentices had passed through the room before her, doing exactly
the same thing as she was now, and how many more would come after her. 
Reflecting with a sigh that it would probably be her for the duration of the
next year she stood up and reached automatically for her knife belt and swords
before realising that they probably wouldn’t be appropriate attire for the
ceremony.  Feeling strangely underdressed without them she opened her door
and was unsurprised to find the twins leaning against the wall opposite.

‘Don’t you
trust me?’  she demanded grumpily and slammed the door shut behind her.

‘Let’s just
say that we feared your enthusiasm for a second year might have waned in the
time it took you change,’ said Phantasm drily. 

‘Let’s just
get this over and done with!’  Mistral snapped and stalked off down the
corridor.

‘It’s going to
be a long year,’ Phantom remarked as they sauntered after her.

The rest of
the apprentices were gathered outside the closed double doors to the Main Hall,
all looking unusually clean and neatly dressed in their new clothes. 
Something struck Mistral as strange about them and after a moment she realised
it was because they were also weaponless. 

‘Just got to
get through this boring bit then its straight to The Cloak for to celebrate,’
said Xerxes rubbing his hands together eagerly.

‘Apparently
Floris has a liquor brewed from manticore poison that he keeps for the
Qualification night,’ said Cain, grinning mischievously at Mistral. 

Mistral was
saved from replying by the sound of the doors being opened.  The
apprentices instantly fell into a respectful hush when Leo Sphinx’s haughty
face greeted them from the open doorway.

Stepping
silently aside, Leo gestured for them to enter.  The apprentices filed
obediently into the room beneath his stern gaze.  Mistral stole a
surreptitious glance around as they entered to see that a long table and a row
of chairs had been placed at the end of the room nearest to the fire. 
Seated in the centre of the row was the Divinus with Magnus Casterton and
Serenity Lightwater sat to his left, and Malachi Nox sat on his right. 
There was an empty seat beside Malachi which Mistral assumed must be for Leo.

There were no
chairs for the apprentices to sit on so they lined up in the centre of the
room, facing the table.  Mistral glanced up at the members of the Magnate,
her eyes moving over the Divinus, his skeletal face shadowed by the fire
burning brightly behind him; Malachi Nox, his sharp features set in a look of
frank boredom; Magnus Casterton, heavily flushed and sweating, lastly her eyes
met the gentle brown gaze of Serenity Lightwater, smiling benignly at them
all. 

Leo closed the
heavy doors with an echoing slam that made them all jump then strode to take
his seat next to Malachi Nox.

‘A year ago I stood
before a room of apprentices,’ Leo paused and his icy blue gaze raked the
room.  ‘Now I see before me a room of warriors. 

‘Your journey
begins here.  Undertake each Contract with dignity and discipline. 
Do not be guilty of using the name of Ri for wrongful deeds.  Remember
that the results of your actions reflect inextricably on every Ri
warrior.  Treat your brothers and sisters with respect and honour the name
you have earned.

‘I salute you,
warriors of the Ri.’

Leo finished
speaking and sat down.  After a moment’s pause the Divinus rose from his
chair and looked at each of them in turn with his unsettling milky-eyed gaze.

‘Whilst I have
the honour of bestowing the title of warrior upon each of you in this room and
welcoming you to the brotherhood of the Ri, there is one more matter to be
dealt with before I allow you to leave here for more insalubrious settings,’ he
paused and gave a faint smile.  ‘I have received an unprecedented number
of applications for a second year.’  the Divinus gave a whispering sigh and
rested a thin hand on a pile of parchments on the table in front of him.

Mistral
frowned as she remembered that Golden and Columbine had also applied for a
second year.  She hadn’t noticed them waiting outside the door but didn’t
dare look around for them now.

‘The
apprentice called Golden,’ the Divinus continued in his brittle voice. 
‘Has not Qualified and is therefore not eligible to apply for a second
year.’ 

The Divinus
peeled a parchment off the top of the pile and threw it lightly onto the fire behind
him.  It burst into flames and quickly crumbled to grey ash.

‘The
apprentice called Columbine has not Qualified and is also not eligible to
apply.’ 

A second flame
erupted as Columbine’s application was tossed onto the fire.

‘The
apprentice called Mistral –’

Mistral felt
her heartbeat quicken.  She looked into the Divinus’ ancient face and was
filled with a sudden desperate desire for him to discard her application too.

‘Has a
promising gift that will require further training in order to develop to its
full potential.  The Magnate extend their invitation for a second year.’

Mistral felt
her face freeze while she gazed unseeingly at the parchment in his hand. 
There was an awkward pause until Mistral realised that he was holding it out
for her to take.

Forcing her
feet to move Mistral stepped forward and walked slowly towards the table,
reaching out to collect the application form Phantom had filled in for her.
 As her fingers touched the paper her eyes locked with the Divinus’ blind
stare.

‘Do you accept
the invitation of your own freewill?’ 

His faint
voice was almost inaudible over the crackling of the fire behind him. 
Mistral hesitated with her thumb and finger pressed around the parchment. 
Did she accept her destiny out of freewill or because she wanted a life with
Fabian?  Weren’t they essentially the same?  The Divinus had said
that she had no choice but to love Fabian because they were Bonded, but he was
presenting her with a choice now … panic surged through her.  She fought
the urge to refuse their invitation and run from the room, from another year of
training and from her destiny.  Then she thought of how Fabian’s face
would set in lines of pain at the news, how he would blame himself, thinking
she had left to be with him and her resolve hardened.

‘I willingly
accept my fate,’ she said in a clear voice.

The Divinus
nodded once and released his grip on the parchment so that it was left hanging
from Mistral’s fingers.  Turning swiftly, she walked back to take her
place in the line of apprentices, keeping her head bowed to avoid the twins’
inquisitive looks.

‘The
apprentice called Phantom and the apprentice called Phantasm.  You are
Gemini and as such must be considered as two halves of one whole.  You are
invited to further develop your gift with the Ri for a second year.’

Phantasm and
Phantom stepped forward together and strode confidently towards the table,
accepting their approved applications with murmured thanks before returning to
stand on either side of Mistral, their faces glowing with pride.

‘I
congratulate you all on your Qualification,’ continued the Divinus in his
papery voice.  ‘I feel that it would appropriate for some words to be
offered regarding the hunt.’ 

The Divinus
resumed his seat and an uncomfortable silence fell while Leo Sphinx slowly rose
from his seat.  His expression was characteristically unemotional but when
his piercing gaze swept over them Mistral felt it was less assured than
before.  Gazing intently at their Training Captain, Mistral narrowed her
eyes slightly and concentrated on the air around his blonde hair.  Before
he had even begun to speak Leo’s aura swam into view before her, a bright
swirling fog of two contrasting colours that confirmed her suspicions. 
She felt the twins stir beside her and knew that had guessed what she was
doing.  Blinking quickly to break the vision, Mistral dropped her gaze to
study her boots.