Seven Dreams (42 page)

‘
It’s
a deed,’ he said after a moment. ‘I don’t understand. What is
this?’

‘
It’s
the deed to a piece of land,’ said Serena. She was so excited she
could barely contain it, but she forced herself to speak calmly.
‘It’s a farm in southern Nimdre. Not too close to Tinudren, don’t
worry.’

‘
My
name is on this,’ said Teyo, blankly.

‘
That’s because it’s yours.’

‘
Huh?’

‘
Oliver’s idea. It’s waiting for you. We’re travelling there as
soon as you’re feeling lively enough.’

Teyo blinked.
‘We?’

Serena nodded.
‘Oliver felt you’d earned a peaceful retirement. He said he’s
expecting some especially good gloren cider in a couple of years,
when you’ve had time to get set up. As for the rest of us,
apparently we need a holiday.’ She grinned at him, her excitement
overflowing.

‘
A
holiday?’ Teyo repeated numbly. Serena fully understood his
feelings: Oliver Tullen, head of the Torwyne Agency, hadn’t
previously appeared to be
aware
of the concept of a
holiday.

‘
He
was pretty firm about it,’ she said. ‘Told us we could consider it
suspension from duty, if that would help.’

‘
Oh.’
Teyo stared at Serena for a second, then back at the paper in his
hand. He didn’t look delighted; more... lost. ‘I, um. Hope you have
a good holiday.’

Oh, foolish man.
‘Tey,’ Serena said gently. ‘This farm of yours. It’s been empty for
a while, and it’s not in great shape. It needs a lot of work to
make it habitable, and productive. You’re going to need some
help.’

Teyo’s brows
rose. ‘Oh? How much help?’

‘
Three
able-bodied women have volunteered, for a start.’ Serena smiled.
‘Winter’s in the air. That gives us two or three months to sort out
the house, I’d think? Then in the spring, it’s time to get started
on your orchards.’

‘
Orchards,’ Teyo repeated in a whisper.

‘
Acres
of them,’ Serena said. ‘Gloren fruit, nara, rylanes, even pippeens.
Some of the trees are a bit sickly, not best suited to the climate
perhaps, or the light. You might want to rethink the crop
distribution, but there’s time for all that.’

‘
Serena.’ Teyo dropped the deed and gripped her hand, a little
painfully. ‘You’ve seen it?’

Serena
nodded.

‘
What...’ Teyo’s words dried up; he moistened his lips and
tried again. ‘What’s it like?’

Serena beamed at
him, and squeezed his hand. ‘It’s perfect, Tey. Perfect for
you.’

‘
And
it’s really mine?’

‘
Every
last inch of it.’

Teyo pondered
that for a while, his gaze straying from Egg to Iya and back to
Serena. ‘That must have cost a bob or two,’ he said.

‘
Well,
yes.’

His eyes
narrowed. ‘You surely aren’t expecting me to believe that Oliver
just gave this to me.’

‘
No,’
Serena admitted. ‘He only paid for, um. Some of it.’

Teyo nodded. ‘Uh
huh. And the rest came from...?’

Serena coughed.
‘Um, we might have rustled up a little between us. But that’s
beside the point, Tey! Don’t ask these questions! Just enjoy it.’
She smiled, but Teyo wasn’t having it.

‘
Serena.’ He shook her her arm insistently. ‘Tell me you didn’t
bankrupt yourselves over this.’

‘
Noooo,’ she smiled. ‘Not in the least. I
did
say it was
empty for a while! The owner was delighted to finally get rid of
it.’

Teyo looked at
Egg, his face full of suspicion.

‘
It’s
true,’ Egg drawled. ‘No one’s bankrupted. Miss Carterett here has
at
least
three Nimdren pennies left to her name. It might
even be four.’

Serena glared at
Egg, who looked wholly unrepentant.

‘
I
can’t...’ croaked Teyo. ‘I can’t accept that.’ He tried to give the
deed back to Serena, but she waved it away.

‘
Pshaw, of course you can. Besides, it’s too late now! We can’t
hand the farm back.’

‘
Not
that we
would
,’ interjected Iyamar. ‘Serena’s right, Tey!
It’s so perfect for you. You’ll love it so much, when you get
there.’

Teyo shook his
head. ‘But
why
,’ he said in confusion, ‘Why would Oliver?
Why would
you
...?’

‘
Because we love you,’ said Egg, and smiled.

Teyo blinked.
‘Oh.’ His eyes strayed to Serena’s face. She detected a sheen of
tears in them, for definite, and felt moved to lay a kiss on his
forehead.

‘
It’s
true,’ she said. ‘We do. And we are
raring
to get going on
that gorgeous house, so I hope you plan to get better
quickly.’

A tear dropped,
and Teyo hastily wiped it off his cheek. ‘Thank you,’ he whispered.
‘I don’t... know how to...’

‘
Then
stop talking,’ Serena recommended, ‘and sleep some more. You’ll
need your strength.’

‘
But
if we’re all going, and for months, what about Fabe?’

Serena’s
ebullience faded a little. ‘If...
when
Fabe comes back,
he’ll go to Oliver. And Oliver will tell him where to find
us.’

Teyo nodded.
‘We’ll keep a room for him.’

Serena smiled.
‘He’ll appreciate that.’

The following
morning, there came a knock upon the door of their little hideaway.
Serena was not surprised, upon opening it, to find Orintha Mae
standing there. She was only surprised that the Lokant woman hadn’t
paid them a call sooner.

‘
Come
in,’ said Serena graciously, opening the door wide. ‘May I say how
flattered I am that you used the door, rather than simply appearing
in my bedroom?’

Mae’s lips
twitched sardonically as she stepped into the house, dusting a
speck of mud off the long, sky-coloured coat that she wore. ‘You
credit me with powers I don’t possess, I assure you.’

‘
Oh?’
Serena shut the door behind her somewhat unwelcome visitor, and led
her to the parlour. Egg and Iya had gone out to the market and Teyo
was still asleep, so they were, to all intents and purposes, alone.
‘Seems to me that various of your associates have appeared in some
mighty strange places, of late.’

‘
It’s
not as impressive as it looks,’ said Mae. ‘Nor as flexible. There
was preparation involved. Anyway, that’s not what I came to
discuss.’

Serena
acknowledged that with a nod, and gestured Mae to a seat.
‘Something to do with Ylona, I imagine?’

‘
Where
are the keys?’ said Mae, without preamble.

Serena shrugged.
‘The ones I had are gone. I know nothing more.’

Mae sipped from
the glass of water Serena handed to her, then set it carefully down
upon the table. Flashing Serena one of her charming smiles, she
said: ‘Let us not waste time dissembling, Miss Carterett. I am
acquainted with the adventure you and your team enjoyed by way of
our keys. I would like to know what you did with them
afterwards.’

Serena blinked.
‘But if you know about that, then you know that we
reversed
the event of Fabian’s death, and everything that happened
afterwards. So, in effect we never had anything to do with the keys
after they were taken from us.’

Mae raised a
single, speaking brow. ‘So it never happened, did it?’

‘
Not
anymore,’ Serena said. ‘We unmade it, I suppose?’

Mae nodded
wisely. ‘And yet, you remember it.’

‘
Uh,’
Serena said.

‘
How
is it that you recall every detail of it, if it never
happened?’

‘
So it
did
happen, even if we changed it afterwards?’

‘
Apparently.’ Cool as a mountain stream, Mae sipped her
water.

An appalling
thought occurred to Serena. ‘But then... that means... does
Fabian
remember everything?’

‘
I
imagine so.’

If he did, he
must remember his own death. Blazes. No wonder he had
bolted.

Serena shook off
these reflections. ‘Even if all of this is true,’ she said, ‘I
don’t know what became of the keys. None of us cared about them,
after we’d gained access to the repository.’

‘
Oh?
None of you?’

‘
No.
Why should we? Fabian was our concern, and we didn’t need the keys
after that. Our assignment was over, there was nothing more for us
to do.’

‘
Tell
me everything that happened,’ said Mae, and Serena complied. When
she’d finished, Mae sat in thoughtful silence for some time,
tapping her long fingernails against the table.

‘
If
Ylona went through to the repository and remained there, then the
keys should still be in the gate. But, they are not.’

Serena blinked.
When she had returned to her quarters after their disastrous second
attempt at the Warren, the keys had been gone, just like the first
time. As far as she could figure, then, Ylona’s people had still
taken them, and they had, presumably, still gone through to the
repository. But since, the second time around, Serena and her team
had
not
followed them and taken the keys, then the seven
stones should still be in the gate. If they weren’t, whyever not?
How could that be possible?

Mae smiled
faintly. ‘The way I see it,’ she said at last, ‘there are a few
possibilities regarding the fate of those keys. One: you’re correct
in thinking that you diverted the course of events. Perhaps Ylona
and her people never went through the gate, or perhaps they
travelled to the repository, accomplished whatever it was they set
out to do, and came back — taking the keys with them. But if that
were the case, I’d expect to see some big changes around the Seven
Realms right now. Such as, for example, the mysterious reappearance
of the long-lost Library of Orlind. Since that hasn’t happened, I
do not think that Ylona made it back from the repository. Perhaps
she never set foot in there in the first place.

‘
Two:
perhaps the actions of your colleague, Miss Rutherby, hold true in
spite of your subsequent jaunting about in time. In which case, the
keys may still be in the repository. If that’s so, I shall be glad
of it, as it effectively seals the door forever. That would also
explain where Ylona and her followers are; presumably they remain
with Rhoun Torinth.’

She shifted in
her seat, fixing Serena with an iron stare. ‘The third possibility
is that the keys did
not
remain in the repository. The same
person who transported them there may have transported them away
again.’ She raised her brows at Serena, and sipped.

‘
If
Egg had them, she would have told me,’ Serena said.

‘
Would
she indeed.’

‘
Undoubtedly. We have no secrets among my team.’

Mae nodded
slowly. ‘No doubt you are right, only I find the mystery curiously
impenetrable. Ylona has vanished, along with her little riddles in
the sky. Rhoun Torinth is not only alive, he was also persuaded to
leave his precious repository for the first time in
I-don’t-know-
how-
long. But there is no sign of him either.
And the keys are missing, but there is surprisingly little furore
about it — if one overlooks the crushing disappointment, outrage
and general confusion suffered by the fine people of the Seven, now
that their treasure hunt is over without the discovery of any
apparent prize. And I find that you and your excellent fellows have
considerably muddied the waters with your meddling.’

Serena’s brows
shot up. ‘I’m sorry if we complicated your life,’ she said with a
touch of asperity. ‘Meanwhile, I have my brother back.’

Mae inclined her
head. ‘And I am glad of it, though I could wish you had handled
things a little more professionally
before
, and therefore
spared yourselves the necessity of bumbling about fixing your
mistakes
afterwards.
’ Serena opened her mouth, but Mae held
up a hand. ‘Save yourself the trouble, dear. I am a crotchety old
woman, and I won’t hear a word that you try to tell me.’

Serena simmered
inwardly, and said nothing.

Mae got up,
patting a stray wisp of her coifed white hair back into place. ‘I
will go, but I won’t be far away,’ she said. ‘If you should happen
to discover what became of those keys, I hope you’ll inform
me.’

‘
I’ll
consider it,’ said Serena coolly.

Mae smiled
graciously. ‘Lovely. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a dinner
appointment with my delightful great-grand-daughter and her
charming husband. Do wish your colleague a speedy recovery, on my
behalf.’

Serena was given
no time to respond, for Mae vanished in a blink, leaving her
standing alone in the parlour.

Egg sauntered in
a moment later. ‘I wasn’t eavesdropping,’ she said.

Serena snorted.
‘So, you may as well tell me.’

Egg’s head tilted
curiously to one side. ‘Tell you what?’