Doppelganger (3 page)

"Damn them to
Void
," Mirage growled, flinging the scroll across the room.
Surge of uneasiness, my ass
. It had been a spell settling into place. "They've enchanted us against speaking of it."

"Do you blame them?" Eclipse asked.

"No." She sighed and pressed her hands against her eyes.

Her fellow Hunter crossed the floor and picked up the scroll once more. "Blank."

No more than I expected.

"This could mean trouble," he said reluctantly.

"Trouble!" didn't come close to describing the possible outcome, and they both knew it. The commission, before it had faded, had commanded them not only to Hunt the assassin, but also to seek out whoever had been behind the task. And only someone very powerful could afford to pay for the death of such a high-ranking witch.

"If we call Hunt on a Lord or Lady…"

Mirage would have preferred him to leave it unspoken. "They may not ask for that. The witches may prefer to take care of payback themselves."

"From your lips to the Warrior's heart," Eclipse murmured.

Grim silence followed his prayer, before Mirage rose to her feet. "Well. We're instructed to present ourselves in Corberth before the full moon. We've just enough time to make it. Unless you want to be late?"

"Not on your life," Eclipse said.

They made miserable time on the road south. Rain pursued them through Abern and into the mountains of Seach, turning the road into a sea of mud the horses sank into; this was not one of the Great Roads, graveled and graded and maintained by the Lady who ruled the domain. Mirage, hunched in her cloak as Mist picked her way along, wondered if she would ever dry out again.

"Tell me again," Eclipse said, "why we picked Silver-foe."

"It sounded glamorous," Mirage said wryly. "Life on the road. Not tied down to any one place. Adventures! Excitement!"

"Mud. Rain. I should have been a Cloudhawk."

"Ah, what a life," Mirage said in a mock-wistful tone. "Pampered and petted, some Lord's kept spy. You might never have set foot on the road, might have traveled in a carriage."

There was a brief pause. Then Eclipse snorted. "I would've ended up killing someone out of sheer frustration."

"As would we all," Mirage replied, referring to her brothers and sisters of Silverfire. "I hate this Void-damned rain, but I wouldn't trade it for a life bonded to one employer. I'd be even more bored then. At least as a freelance Hunter there's variety."

More silence from Eclipse. The reply hung in the air anyway:
But Cloudhawks never work for witches
.

They did not speak again until they reached the next town. Even so, and despite the rain, Mirage enjoyed the ride. Itinerant Hunters almost always worked solo; she was not used to having company on the road. Eclipse's presence, however, was welcome, even when they didn't speak. He had been the first one to befriend her when she came to Silverfire, and he knew her better than any of their other year-mates did. There was no Hunter she would rather work with.

They stopped for the night in Ansing, perched in the foothills a day's ride from Corberth. Mirage scowled; she had originally expected to reach Corberth today. The rain had changed everything.

Once Mist and Eclipse's gelding Sparker were stabled, the two Hunters took their belongings upstairs. The town was small, and not wealthy; the inn had no services for drying clothes, so Mirage left Eclipse laying damp clothes out around their room while she went to buy more grain for the horses.

When she returned a half hour later, she also brought up supper, which Eclipse took gratefully. Mirage nibbled her own sausage roll and stared at the floor, pondering what they would face tomorrow. Somehow, even though her intended rest in Chervie had been cut short, she wasn't tired anymore. She welcomed any challenge to break the monotony of the past year.

"Who do you think we'll be meeting tomorrow?" she asked Eclipse.

He shrugged. "Another Void Hand, I'd assume."

A reasonable assumption. A witch of that Ray and Path had brought the commission to Silverfire, after all.

"Do you expect someone else?" Eclipse asked when she didn't respond.

"Maybe," Mirage said.

"Like who? Someone from the Void Heart? I guess that's possible, but usually the Path of the Hand deals with the outside world."

"I was actually thinking of a Fire witch."

"Possible," Eclipse said after a pause. "The victim
was
one of theirs."

"No way to be sure," Mirage said with a sigh. "We'll just have to default to generic address, at least to start. I'd like to know who I'm dealing with, though."

"Understandably."

There was another silence then; Eclipse stacked their bowls in the hallway and Mirage circled the room, checking the state of their clothes. She lost herself in the routine task, and, accustomed as she was to being alone, she jumped when Eclipse spoke.

"Are you
sure
you're all right with this?"

Mirage turned and stared at him. "What? I don't have much choice now. I read the commission."

"They could release you from it."

She sat down slowly, not breaking her gaze from his. "Why do you keep bringing this up? Do you not want me with you?"

"Warrior, no," Eclipse said instantly. "It's just…" He hesitated before speaking his mind. "If anybody else told me that you were going to work for a witch of your own free will, I would laugh in his face."

And he would have cause. Mirage stood and paced a narrow circuit of the room, making herself consider his question seriously. If taking this job was a bad idea, this was her last chance to change her mind.

She'd avoided witches at every opportunity for years now; it had become reflex. It wasn't just the red hair, either, though that was part of it. Mirage had known since childhood that she was unusually strong for her size, and no one could match her reflexes. Red hair alone didn't mean anything, though almost all witches had it—but red hair with her physical talents looked strange. And a minor curiosity became a distinct problem when she entered a Hunter school, a place that, by ages of tradition, was not friendly to witches.

A lot of people at Silverfire didn't like her being there at all. And so it became habit to avoid association with witches whenever possible. Other Hunters might go to a witch for healing; Mirage had only been healed once, while in training, and then not by her choice.

She shook her head and laughed softly. There was really only one answer to Eclipse's question. "I just can't pass a commission up."

"Because it's a challenge."

She nodded. "It… draws me. I don't like dealing with witches, but I want to take this job. Gut feeling. I think this is going to test my skills to the limit. And commissions are what our reputations are
built
on; having a second one this soon would really help make my name."

Eclipse grinned and shook his head in resignation.

"What?"

"I
knew
you'd say that," he said, still grinning.

They reached Corberth early the next afternoon. That night would be the full moon. Mirage had intended to arrive a day early, with time to prepare, but thanks to the weather, they had only a few hours.

She felt edgy as they brought their belongings into the inn Eclipse had chosen, and she took a moment to chase the feeling down. Normally freelance Hunters like those of Silverfire set the place of meeting, made their employers come to them. She was used to having that measure of control over the situation. With a witch, though, everything changed. The two Hunters would have to go to their employer.

She didn't like it, but she couldn't change it.

They didn't speak much once they arrived. Even though Mirage and Eclipse had not worked together since their days as students, they fell into a comfortable rhythm. He went downstairs to fetch hot water while she got what they needed out of their bags. It didn't take much sorting; they both packed very lightly.

Without asking Eclipse, she got out the finer of the two uniforms for both of them. Every Silverfire Hunter took care to keep one set cleaner and less worn, for formal situations. If meeting a witch did not qualify as formal, Mirage didn't know what did.

Luckily the uniforms packed small, so they were not a burden to carry. Mirage shook out the individual pieces, each made of windsilk dyed so that its black shade did not reflect the light as ordinary silk might. Windsilk was so light it felt as though it might tear in the slightest breeze, but that delicacy was an illusion. Nobles bought it as a statement of wealth; Hunters used it for practicality.

Eclipse returned then with water. They stripped and bathed in their room, conducting their ablutions in silence; each used the washing as a chance to prepare for their task.

Mirage dressed herself with methodical precision. First the full breeches, cut so as not to restrict movement. She took a moment to arrange every pleat properly before donning the loose shirt. Then came the short jacket, cinched down with her weapons belt before she wrapped her waist in the wide sash. The boots she had been wearing were put aside for a pair unstained by mud. She practiced a few kicks and spins to make certain that nothing would chafe. Then a pair of supple gloves, and the mask and head covering that left only a strip across her eyes clear.