Doppelganger (45 page)

She could tell by his face that he did
not
like hearing her talk about dying. "That can wait, can't it?"

"No. Please, Kerestel, do this for me. I've got to know that they'll be protected."

He dropped his head, then kicked a rock suddenly. "I don't like it. Letting you ride off alone is a
shitty
idea."

Mirage reached out and lifted his chin so she could look at him directly. In his eyes she saw worry, even fear. For a brief moment it warmed the cold place inside her, to remember that he was her friend, and would ride with her into the middle of a nest of Cousins and Primes if she would only let him.

"I've got to do this, Kerestel," she whispered. "I left Miryo there. I owe a debt to her. To her, and to the Goddess."

He hugged her suddenly, fingers digging into the muscles of her back. "Don't get yourself killed just because you expect to. You're better than them, Sen. Find a way through and come back alive."

Mirage blinked back unexpected tears and nodded. "I'll do what I can."

Satomi was many days' ride away, but the image of her in the mirror was very nearly as intimidating as the Void Prime in person.

"We regret that you forced us to this," Satomi said.

Miryo shrugged, meeting the woman's pale green eyes without fear. She was done with playing the role of obedient underling. Satomi knew that she had pitched her lot in with Mirage and Ashin. It didn't much matter what she said now. "If you say so. I followed the only course I saw that did not dishonor my commitment to the Goddess."

Satomi's expression was hard and cold, unmoved by Miryo's words. "If you were truly devoted to her, you would heed the words of her chosen one, Misetsu. Instead, you took a different path, turning your back on us and placing everything the Goddess has given us in danger."

"The Goddess gives you doppelgangers, and you kill them."

"She separates them so that we may be refined for her gift. She divides that which might hinder us."

"So you think." Miryo shrugged again, carelessly. "I think you're wrong. But that's kind of obvious."

The Void Prime was less than pleased with her unruffled attitude. Miryo wondered if she could tell it was all a facade. In truth, her heart was beating triple time; her hands would be trembling if she didn't have them clasped in her lap. It was taking every ounce of control she had to keep her voice even, to meet the eyes of the projection without flinching or looking away.

"For the sake of what you once were," Satomi said, "and in remembrance of the promise you once showed, I tell you that I do not relish what we must do."

I just bet
, Miryo thought cynically.

As if she had heard that thought, the Void Prime's eyes hardened. "You will tell us everything you know about the heretics Tari subverted before her death. It will go easier for you if you tell us willingly, but whether you do or not, we
will
get that information."

"And then what? You'll kill Mirage? You can't. I'm the only one who can do it, and I refuse."

Satomi shook her head. "No. We cannot permit you to live; you will spread the poison that Tari began. And so we will kill you both." She arched her thin eyebrows at Miryo. "Did the heretics not tell you that? You are the only one who can kill your doppelganger, and it is the only one who can kill you—but that assumes you wish to leave the other one alive. All we need do is kill you both at once, and our problem is eliminated."

What little self-assurance Miryo had vanished with a sickening lurch. For the thousandth time since she woke up, she remembered her fall from her horse: pitching forward, putting her arms out to catch herself, one hand skidding in the mud, and the ugly, hot crunch in her neck.

Then blackness. And waking up to find herself surrounded by Cousins.

What had been abstract theory up until then had become very real. She could not die, save by Mirage's hand. Or so she had thought.

"Kill us both?" she repeated, her voice a strangled whisper.

Satomi nodded grimly. "You are an abomination: one soul in two bodies. If you will not cooperate with us, we will kill both bodies. I will regret losing a witch of your potential talent, but you have turned your face to the darkness."

The Void Prime had to be lying. Or did she? Miryo swallowed against the sick feeling in her gut and met Satomi's pale green eyes squarely. She was damned if she'd let the woman know how afraid she was. "What you see as darkness, I see as light. I would not trade that for your way; I would not 'return' to your side even if you let me."

"As you wish." Satomi's voice was as cold and sharp as a knife of ice. "You will be dealt with accordingly."

"We continued to search, but found no tracks beyond that second wood," the Cousin said. She stood at attention, arms stiff at her sides; her shame at her failure was written in the formality of her posture.

Satomi nodded. "And how many did you lose?"

"Two, Aken. One at the river, when her horse fell, and another when she was knocked off her horse and trampled."

Twelve against three, and two Cousins had died. And only one capture to show for it. Satomi could not bring herself to rebuke the woman, though; two of the three had been Hunters, and one of them had the advantages that came with being a doppelganger. That did not excuse the Cousins' failure, but it did much to explain it.

For the hundredth time, she wished she could be there to handle this in person. But she could not risk approaching the doppelganger so closely. None of them could.

"Keep Miryo drugged," she said at last. "Her magic isn't stable, but she may attempt to use it anyway. Bring her south to us as quickly as you can."

"And the other?"

"Shimi-kane is tracking it now. We will contact you again when we have its location confirmed."

The Cousin nodded. With a single note, Satomi ended the spell, and the woman's image vanished from the mirror in front of her.

She sat for a moment, staring at her own reflection in the glass. One hand came up to brush back a few strands of her pale, fiery hair. No white in it yet; after the last half year she felt as though there should be. The discovery of Tari's heresy had pained her deeply, bringing up long-buried memories of her own doppelganger. And that had been just the beginning of her problems.

Satomi truly wished that Miryo could be made to understand. She wished that for
all
the heretics, but Miryo above the others. The young woman showed so much promise; she was bright, and adaptable, and devoted. But she was also, in the end, flawed. She had come to believe whole-heartedly in the lies Tari had spawned, and she would not listen to reason. Satomi grieved that she must kill Miryo, but there was no choice. She could not place the survival of one talented young woman above the continuation of Starfall itself.

The alarm on her personal quarters tripped. Satomi composed her face, then rose and went to admit Shimi.

"It worked," the Air Prime said. "The man is heading north, quite rapidly."

Satomi studied her colleague closely. There was a glint in Shimi's pale, cold eyes she did not like. Arinei had been upset over Tari's betrayal, but that was nothing compared to Shimi's fury when she learned that Ashin was a part of it, too. The Air Prime was furiously bent on seeing all of the heretics destroyed. Her goal was not wrong, but Satomi would have to watch her and make certain the woman did not carry it too far. This needed to be a careful bloodletting, not a bloodbath.

"And have you succeeded in spying him out?"

The Air Prime dropped her eyes. "No. Not yet."

Of course not. None of them had seen him in person, and secondhand descriptions were nowhere near as helpful in directing spells. Again Satomi cursed the circumstances that kept them remote from the actual events.

Shimi didn't seem worried. "I'm certain it'll be with him. Our informant says they're close friends, and they've been traveling together for some time. I doubt the doppelganger will have abandoned his side now, when it needs an ally."

Satomi could only hope she was right. If the doppelganger had split off from the other Hunter, they would have a difficult time finding it. "Very well. Spell to Tsue and inform her. Have her send a detachment after him—no, more than a detachment. They'll need to gather more of the Cousins in the area, if they're going to take the doppelganger prisoner. The rest will bring Miryo south."

Mirage watched from the shadows as several mounted figures rode out through the gates. She could not see them well, but they were almost certainly Cousins. It was dusk already; she wondered at their late departure. What moved them, that could not wait until morning?

When they were out of sight, she dismissed them from her mind. They might return, and she'd have to keep an eye out for that, but in the meantime, her concerns were with the ones still in the house.

The building in front of her was a large, dim bulk in the fading light. It belonged to Linea, the Lady of Abern; she retired there occasionally for foxhunting and parties. Now, however, it lay empty, and the Cousins had appropriated it for their own use.

A faint, almost imperceptible pull had drawn Mirage there, leading her on when the tracks she was following became too faint to trust. She suspected it was the same connection that had led Miryo to her. And it had brought her here, to the forested fringe around the house, but now it had failed her.