Seven Dreams (10 page)

‘
Begin
with the young lady,’ he said.

Serena grinned.
She had cast Iyamar as her young brother in today’s masquerade,
interested to test, and possibly improve, her new team member’s
skills in masking her gender. And she
was
good. Once her
wig, make-up and clothes were in place, Iyamar had slipped
effortlessly into the role. So convincing was her every movement
and gesture, even Serena was hard-pressed to remember that she
wasn’t really male.

But nothing got
past Oliver.

Iyamar glanced at
Serena, uncertain. ‘My name’s Anders Gollon,’ she said in her boy’s
voice. ‘I’m here to —’

‘
This
isn’t an audition,’ Oliver interrupted.

Iyamar blinked.
‘It isn’t?’ she said in her normal voice. ‘I thought —’ She stopped
herself, and nodded. ‘Right. Iyamar Hale. These people picked me up
the other night and told me there was a job in it.’

‘
And
are you interested in this job?’

Iyamar shrugged.
‘I said yes, but I don’t know. Yesterday was about the most boring
day of my life.’

Serena winced. ‘I
was obliged to leave her with Wendle,’ she apologised. ‘There was,
ah, not much going on out there.’

‘
I
missed
all
the good stuff,’ Iyamar sighed,
slumping.

Oliver looked her
up and down. ‘Do you imagine that the “good stuff” is allocated to
raw recruits?’ he said coolly.

Iyamar blinked.
‘Well... no. I suppose not.’

‘
No.
Train hard, do well, and you’ll get to do the exciting things.
Serena here was kept on surveillance for two years before I let her
play a role.’

Serena grinned
and nodded. Goodness, but she’d been bored! So many hours spent
crouched outside somebody’s house, or hovering at the back of bars,
waiting for something interesting to happen. Very little ever
did.

Iyamar’s
expression turned a little sullen, and Serena was afraid she might
revolt. But then the girl apparently made some kind of decision,
for she sat up straighter and nodded. ‘That’d be fair enough. I
want this job.’

Oliver’s gaze
returned to Serena. ‘Where did you say you found her?’

Serena related
the whole history of her encounter with Iyamar, ignoring the girl’s
obvious discomfort. She didn’t try to soften any of it; there would
have been no point. Oliver could practically smell a lie, no matter
how small.

‘
I
didn’t want to do it!’ Iyamar burst out, when Serena had finished
recounting her failed attempt at robbing their carriage. ‘I was
desperate.’

Serena expected
another stinging retort from Oliver, but he surprised her. ‘That
sometimes happens,’ he informed Iyamar. ‘You showed initiative, at
any rate.’

Iyamar appeared
to be as surprised as Serena, for she opened her mouth, managed to
say nothing at all, and closed it again abruptly.

‘
You
also showed ineptitude,’ he continued. ‘Clumsiness, rashness and a
deplorable lack of control. You will need a great deal of
training.’ He looked at Teyo as he spoke, who grinned
ruefully.

‘
I’ll
train her,’ he rumbled.

Iyamar began to
look mutinous again, for no reason Serena could understand. But she
swallowed whatever objection she might have been thinking of, and
nodded once.

‘
Good.
It is always an advantage to have another shapeshifter on our
books,’ Oliver said, with a trace of a smile for Serena. ‘Get her
registered on your way out.’

Serena nodded,
pleased and a little relieved. If Oliver had refused to take her,
she had no idea what else she might have done with
Iyamar.

‘
Now
the report,’ Oliver said.

Serena recounted
the events of the past two days. She thought she detected a flicker
of annoyance in Oliver’s eyes as she reached the part where the key
had been taken from right under their noses, but he said nothing.
She ended by taking out the sketch Fabian had made of the missing
object, and handed it over. ‘We’ve never seen anything like this
before,’ she said.

The sketch
portrayed a little curled-up round object resembling a sea shell,
though it was not precisely like that at all. The thing had been
made from some kind of stone, Fabian said; whatever it was looked
like ordinary granite, save for the tinge of green in its make-up
and an odd silvery sheen.

Oliver looked at
the sketch without comment, and finally laid it down upon his desk.
‘Halavere will be kept under watch,’ he said.

Serena nodded.
That was the end of the interview, she knew; she didn’t expect
Oliver to share any of the things that might be passing through his
mind. ‘What do wish us to do now?’ she asked.

‘
Train
your new recruit,’ he replied.

Serena blinked.
‘That’s it? No new jobs?’

Oliver watched
her in silence for some moments. She couldn’t tell whether he was
thinking, or merely waiting. At length he said: ‘Unless I miss my
guess, this isn’t the last we will see of this affair of the key.
When it comes up again — and I do not think it will be a long wait
before it does — I’ll want you free to take it up.’

He must know
something else about it, Serena thought with a little thrill of
excitement. If only he would share his knowledge, rather than
dropping cryptic hints and dismissing them! She knew better than to
ask. She got up to leave, Teyo and Iyamar immediately following her
lead.

‘
Stay
in Iving,’ Oliver added just as she reached the door. ‘You can take
apartment 43, Allerside.’

‘
And
Halavere?’ she said, turning around.

‘
Not
your concern at the moment.’

Serena dipped him
a curtsey befitting a housemaid to her employer, her lips curving
in a roguish smile. She won a tiny answering smile from him, which
gave her great satisfaction.

‘
Time
for paperwork,’ she said to Iyamar as she ushered the girl out of
the office.

Iyamar frowned,
hesitated, and finally said: ‘But I can’t write.’

Serena stopped
dead in the corridor. ‘You... what?’ she said faintly.

Iyamar hung her
head. ‘Nobody ever learned me,’ she apologised.

‘
Taught,’ Serena corrected. ‘Nobody ever taught you. But we’ll
change that, post-haste.’ She spoke briskly, but with a sinking
heart. Good gracious. She’d realised there would be a lot of work
to be done with Iyamar, but even her wildest estimates appeared to
fall short of the truth.

Never mind, it
was hardly the girl’s fault. She exchanged a look with Teyo,
reassuring herself that he was still in favour of the project. Of
course he was; nothing exceeded Teyo’s patience or good nature. She
had never seen him upset, or even a little bit ruffled.

‘
I’ll
do the writing for you,’ she said to Iyamar. ‘But later, we’ll
start lessons.’

Iyamar
nodded.

‘
Can
you read?’ Serena thought to ask.

‘
Nope.’

Serena
sighed.

Serena was
concerned that her team would be bored over the coming weeks, with
no assigned tasks to work on. She found herself mistaken. Not only
did the lull in activity grant them all time for some much-needed
rest, but she swiftly found that everybody had something to teach
Iyamar, and everybody was very willing to participate, to her
pleasure and relief.

Egg — seeing,
perhaps, some vision of her former self in the much younger Iyamar
— swiftly carted her off for lessons in her particular talents of
lock-picking and pick-pocketing. Also, more peculiarly, wig-making.
Egg was the artist behind most of their hair options; it was
something of a hobby with her. She claimed to find it relaxing, and
undertook it in the same spirit as Teyo’s knitting. Why she felt it
necessary to impart any of this ability to Iyamar was less obvious
to Serena, but she chose not to interfere. Anything that would help
her friends and colleagues bond with her new recruit was to be
encouraged.

Serena and Fabian
began teaching Iyamar what Serena thought of as the “Basic Skills”,
those being the elegant arts of dissembling, disguise and character
acting. Iyamar excelled at the latter, having gained some degree of
practice already during her time on the streets. There was rather
more to be desired with the others, but the girl threw herself into
the pursuits with laudable enthusiasm, and Serena was pleased with
her progress. She sent regular reports to Oliver, and since she
heard nothing from him in response, she was able to assume that he
was as pleased as she was.

Teyo, meanwhile,
began the task of teaching her to read and write. For the present,
he left her shapeshifter abilities alone; she had more than enough
to occupy her time and her mind, and he could not persuade her to
focus on her draykoni talents.

This did not
worry Serena overmuch. All in good time, thought she, and Iyamar’s
zeal for learning could not possibly be faulted anywhere
else.

In some ways,
perhaps, she was a little bit too zealous. Taciturn at first,
Iyamar swiftly conquered her shyness under the friendly
encouragement of her new colleagues and began to ask a great many
questions. She wanted to know about everything. Every job they had
ever undertaken, and why; every opponent they had conquered, or
failed to subdue; how they had learned all of their various arts
and skills; how they had come to work for Oliver Tullen and the
Agency; and so on.

These last
bothered Serena just a little. There came a quiet afternoon about
two weeks after their meeting with Oliver, when Serena and Iyamar
were engaged in an elocution lesson — or Serena’s version
thereof.

‘
You
said Teyo used to work for the Unspeakables?’ said Iyamar, having
rapidly picked up the jargon of Serena’s team.

‘
I
did,’ Serena replied guardedly. She felt a faint stab of guilt for
having imparted something so personal about Teyo’s past. Perhaps
she should not have, though she had meant it for the best. She’d
wanted Iyamar to realise that her background was by no means
unusual in her new line of work.

‘
And
Egg?’ continued Iyamar.

Serena shook her
head. ‘Egg’s never been Unspeakable. Just a thief, for some years.
Remember your accent, Iya. Today you’re a farmer from southern
Irbel, remember.’

Iyamar paused to
think for a moment before venturing her next question. ‘Well’n,
ma’am. Wharbeit thous’t be a roguish snabble-catcher?’

‘
A
snabble-catcher?’ Serena said, laughing. ‘Did you make that
up?’

Iyamar grinned.
‘Happen I might’ve.’

‘
It is
an excellent word.’

‘
You’re avoiding the question,’ Iyamar observed.

Serena surveyed
her new charge thoughtfully. She was avoiding the question, as it
happened, though she might wish Iyamar to be a little less aware of
it.

‘
You
said you don’t share that background,’ Iyamar prompted
helpfully.

Serena shook her
head slowly. ‘No, that’s true. Fabian and I are... well, we have
reasons for doing this.’

Iyamar said
nothing, only stared at her new mentor with a hopeful shine in her
icy-blue eyes which sent Serena’s heart sinking into her boots.
‘I’ll tell you some other time,’ she said.

Iyamar sat back,
arms folded, and surveyed Serena intently. ‘Is it a dark
secret?’

‘
Not
really.’

‘
Not
really dark, or not really a secret?’

‘
You’re very persistent,’ Serena said, eyeing her with some
displeasure.

‘
I
don’t see how I’m meant to get information out of people if I’m
not,’ said Iyamar reasonably.

Serena folded her
own arms, and stared back. ‘I’m not a fit subject for
interrogation.’

‘
Why
not?’

‘
Because I’m your boss.’

Iyamar pouted.
‘I’ll get it out of you eventually.’

Serena rolled her
eyes. ‘Oh, probably. But for the time being, back to your
brogue.’

Iyamar shook her
head, and effected one of her lightning-swift subject changes. ‘I
want my rapier back.’

‘
What?’

‘
My
rapier. I might need it.’

‘
Not
on my team, you won’t.’

‘
What?
Why not?’

‘
We
don’t do violence,’ Serena said firmly. ‘Ever. And we
certainly
don’t do killing.’

‘
But
you’re crookish.’

Serena eyed her
with grave displeasure. ‘We’re not crookish! We’ve been over that.
Even if we were, we still wouldn’t do violence.’

‘
Why
not?’

‘
I’ll
tell you another time.’

‘
Tell
me now,’ Iyamar said stubbornly. ‘I can’t be a team member if you
won’t tell me anything.’

The girl had a
point, Serena thought with an inward sigh. ‘Because we’ve all lost
people, that’s why.’