Ascendant (16 page)

“Why? Did Brandt say something to you?”

She sniffed. “Brandt is a silly boy who thinks silly boy thoughts. You must endeavor to ignore him. And as for you,
ma chère
, I saw your records. I know you love medicine as I do. I cannot imagine the frustration you must feel in your nunnery. You are given only a bow, when what you long for is a beaker. Here, when you are not on duty, I would be able to provide tutors for you. There is a university in Limoges—and at the university, a whole building named for my mother. I can arrange for you to take introductory classes, just as I have for Brandt.”

Was that what Brandt had been doing in Limoges? Taking classes?

“You can study your chemistry. I would show you the work we do.”

I swallowed. I’d heard these sorts of promises before, from my mother, from Marten. And I’d still ended up without any education, trapped in an ancient monastery, polishing weapons all day long.

Isabeau took in my skepticism. “We could draw up a contract if you like. I would guarantee the things I am promising you. Support of Gordian, tutors, tuition for laboratory classes at the university, your working hours …”

All of this sounded
way
too good to be true. A fair bet, it probably was. I shook my head. “I’m on assignment already. I’m supposed to escort Cory back to England. We’re going to watch over each other and I’m going to be with her tutors, so that solves the whole issue of my education you seem so concerned about.”

“How excellent,” Isabeau said, her tone one of false cheer. “The Bartolis must have quite a chemistry lab in Neil’s bachelor apartment in London.”

I’d give Isabeau Jaeger this: her aim was as true as any hunter’s.

“Would you not rather have this than your bodyguard job in England? Cannot another hunter protect the Bartoli girl?”

“Can’t another hunter protect your little lab rats?” I asked. How many times had I begged for any info from Marten, only to be promised answers and lied to? There was no way Isabeau could be telling me the truth.

“Yes,” she said. “But I want a Llewelyn.”

I rolled my eyes.
This
again! First her husband tries to render Phil and me ineligible because we’re Llewelyns, and now Isabeau was aiming at a new way to get a Llewelyn hunter out of the hunting game. As if it really made any kind of difference. Judging from Grace’s skills, they should be concentrating their efforts on
her
family: Bo.

“Forget it,” I said, and turned to leave. “You’re barking up the wrong tree, lady. All this obsession with Llewelyns is useless. I’m not some kind of great hunter, I’m not anything special, and I don’t care to play these kind of games.”

Isabeau said nothing as I walked back down the long aisle, thoughts churning. Part of me longed to stay here, where there was science being done, where I was free to wear what I liked, to learn where I wished. All I had to do was watch over a few einhorns already in a vast cage.

And yet—it was Gordian Pharmaceuticals. I couldn’t forget that. Their lies were as common as the pervasive ones about how special I was supposed to be because of my last name. The whole thing was a lie—lie upon lie upon lie.

“Take the chamomile with you, Astrid,” Isabeau called from across the greenhouse. “It will keep you calm when you leave here. It will drown out the cry of the unicorn magic.”

I spun to face her. “Yeah?” I shouted back. “Is that what the last hunter here told you?”

“No,” she said. “I learned it from my mother. She was a Llewelyn.”

C
ory picked up on the first ring. “Did you find him? What did he say? Oh, I wish I could have seen the look on his face when they nabbed him!”

“Chill,” I said into the phone. “It wasn’t Seth.”

“Pardon?”

“It wasn’t Seth. Your PI has been following the wrong blond American teenager.”

“But the Gordian credit card—”

“Belongs to Brandt Ellison.”

“Your ex-boyfriend?” Cory asked, incredulous.

“It gets worse.” I filled her in on Brandt’s current situation, Isabeau Jaeger, and the offer she’d just made me.

Silence reigned on the other end of the phone. I tapped my fingers against the windowsill. I was alone in a small study on the ground floor of the Gordian château, as far as I could get from the einhorn enclosure in the back. A small cup of chamomile tea sat cooling on the sideboard, its scent wafting throughout the room, curtailing all trace of unicorn.

I wondered if the trick would work in the Cloisters, or was the place too woven through with bones and magic for even the strongest tea to make a dent?

“Cory?” I said at last.

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Do you trust her?”

“Yes,” said Cory. “But don’t mind me. I trusted her husband as well, remember? In fact, I recall not liking her very much, since she seemed so disinterested in hunters in general.”

“Seems she’s changed her mind about that.”

“Just as I’ve changed my mind about Gordian.”

Me, too, but what
was
Gordian? If it was the policies of the person in charge—if that person was Isabeau—maybe things would be different this time. And if Isabeau was as disinterested in hunters as Cory said, that boded well that she really wanted nothing more from the Order than to hire one hunter to guard her precious lab rat einhorns.

Maybe everything was what she claimed. She didn’t want to sponsor or control us the way Marten had—she just wanted a simple cash arrangement, to pay me for services rendered.

“What should I do?” I asked Cory.

“Get on a plane to London,” she replied. “As planned. I could be getting attacked by unicorns as we speak.”

“But she wanted me especially,” I said.

“Well, so do I.”?

“Really?”

There was a pause. “Come on, Astrid, you’re my best friend.”

This time, I didn’t say it out loud.
Really?

“I know that you and Phil … have this special bond and all. I’m not hurt. But yes. You are.”

I’d had one other best friend in my life: Kaitlyn, back home. She’d dumped me as quickly as Brandt after the return of the unicorns had branded me a freak. I hadn’t even spoken to her since I’d come to Rome. And it stung, sure, but I also had Phil, who I’d always loved far more than any of my regular friends.

I wondered if what Kaitlyn did to me hurt as much as knowing the person you considered your best friend didn’t like you as much as you liked her. I wondered if knowing that felt anything like it did when I realized that no matter what Phil and I had shared in the past, I was outside the loop when it came to her feelings for Neil.

“Thank you,” I said. “That’s really sweet.”

“Sweet?” Cory snorted. “That’s what you say to blokes you’re blowing off.”

“Well, it
is
sweet,” I said.

“And you
are
blowing me off.” Cory sounded impatient. “Are you coming to protect me or not? Remember, I’ve been through the lab rat scenario with Gordian and so has Valerija. It always ends badly.”

“You’re right,” I said. “Still, I should call Neil and Phil and tell them about this offer.”

“Have you figured out a way to explain to Phil that you’re in France, or shall you leave Neil to face that music alone? Oh, and please leave me out of the story, if at all possible.”

Good point. How was I going to relate the news to the Cloisters without revealing the truth? Phil would know there was something the three of us were keeping from her.

“Maybe it would be better if I were the one to stay,” I said slowly. “After all, besides you, I’m the hunter who most understands the danger Gordian poses.”

“Valerija,” Cory pointed out.

“Phil and Neil would never trust Valerija on her own,” I said.

“She’s not like that anymore,” Cory said. “She’s actually changed a lot. You just don’t notice because we all play with knives now.”

“Good point.”

Cory sighed. “What does this job at Gordian have that England doesn’t?”

Funny. Isabeau had just asked me the same question, in reverse.

“Is it Brandt?”

I almost laughed. “Brandt? Please. I’ll tell you what I told him: I have a boyfriend.”

“Ooh, why did you have to tell him anything? Did he make a pass at you?”

“It’s stupid. He just thinks he’s a player. And, um, he was kind of turned on when I killed a unicorn for him.”

“He’s a sick bastard if that does it for him.”

“Tell me about it.”

“So if it’s not Brandt,” Cory wheedled, “why would you even consider this? Just come to England.”

I knew why, but I hesitated to admit it.

It was this strange herd of unicorns, whose thoughts were like nothing I knew. It was the potential of the Remedy that lay in Brandt’s blood, that was hidden in the lab on this property. It was Isabeau herself, who’d awakened in me all the hope I’d once held for Marten.

And even more hope than that.
My mother. She was a Llewelyn
.

There was a beep on the line. “Oh no,” said Cory. “That’ll be Neil. What should I tell him?”

“Tell him to call me so we can work out a plan.”

“So he can kill the messenger? Think not. You’re on your own, there. Must go.” She hung up.

I plopped into a sleek, silk-upholstered armchair, feeling even more confused than before. On one hand, I had made a commitment to Cory that I’d stay with her in England. On the other, I could be in London for two or three weeks—just long enough for Gordian to hire a different hunter—then Cory might recover and we’d both return to the Cloisters for good. Then what?

Of course, this could all be a moot internal argument anyway. There was a good chance that the moment Neil and Phil discovered where I was, they’d swoop in and scoop me up. They’d been more hurt by Marten Jaeger’s betrayal than anyone else.

There was a soft knock on the door and Isabeau Jaeger entered. “Pardon my interruption, Astrid, but it’s getting rather late. I was wondering if you’ve arranged for accommodations in the village or back in Limoges.”

My eyes widened. Right. A hotel room. The kind of thing you never thought of when the only places you’ve ever lived were your mother’s apartment and the nunnery where she’d dumped you. Even on a hunting assignment, I’d always had a tree stand of my very own. “I’ll be all right.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Yes?”

“I’m fine.” I still had some cash. If Limoges was a university town, there’d be a student hostel somewhere around where I could crash.

“Because you are welcome to stay the night here if you wish,” Isabeau said. “Here?” I said.

“I live here,” Isabeau replied. “As does Brandt, and a few of the scientists.”

Then why was Brandt checked into a hotel in Limoges?

Isabeau went on. “It would give me a chance to speak to you more about my plans for our hunter—whoever she might be—as well as talk a bit more about our family connection.”

“That’s really not necessary—”

“Nonsense. We are, after all, related. How could I turn away a member of my own family?”

I checked out the window, surprised to see the sky darkening. How had the afternoon slipped away from me?

“All my clothes are at the airport,” I said.

“I’m sure I can find something for you to sleep in,” Isabeau replied.

I clutched the cell phone in my hands like a lifeline. “Why …”

“Yes,
chère
?”

“Why are you being so nice to me?” I whispered.

Again with the musical laugh. “You are perhaps more used to potential employers abusing you? That strikes me as counterproductive.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. “No, I mean … after what happened to Marten. I was there, you know. I was there when—I couldn’t stop it, I swear. If only I could have …”

Could have what? If I could have run my sword through Bucephalus, who’d saved my life several times over? If I could have killed that unicorn before he’d murdered Marten, would I have? I wished I could give an unqualified yes, but the truth was I didn’t know.

Isabeau’s cool hand brushed my cheek. “Don’t cry, Astrid. It is very terrible to see a man’s death. Any man. Even you, who live with life and death every day, cannot watch it impassively. Even a doctor, who makes a life’s work on the subject, is helpless in the face of death. There are some deaths we cannot prevent, though we would give our own lives to try and though we will curse our impotence for the rest of our days.”

Tears spilled over my eyelids, and I bowed my head even farther into my chest. “Thank you,” I said, though what I wanted was to press into her hand. I wanted Isabeau to hug me, the way Phil or my mother would hug me. She was smaller than me, but somehow I knew I’d feel safe in her arms.

“Come. Stay the night here, and have dinner with me.”

“And Brandt?”

“Brandt will not be dining with us.” Isabeau pursed her lips. “His earlier behavior was unacceptable.”

“Oh, I didn’t mind,” I said. “He didn’t know I had a boyfriend.”