The Assassin's Tale (Isle of Dreams) (52 page)

‘When did I
begin to irk you less?  I seem to recall only ever causing angry
outbursts.  I feared that my feelings might be unrequited.’

‘But still you
came,’ she gazed at his face wonderingly.

Fabian frowned
slightly, ‘The opportunity to love is a rare one and not to be wasted.  I
had a lot of time to think as I was travelling and resolved to try to win
you.  I concluded that it would hurt less to try and fail than not to try
at all.’

Mistral stared
at him mutely, astounded again by the depth of emotion he felt for her. 
It was both overwhelming and utterly sublime. 

‘When we rode
out together for the River Amber,’ she finally replied to his earlier question.

‘Oh?’ his gaze
was questioning.

She smiled,
remembering the day.  Despite nearly losing her life to a wolverine and
having to go on without the twins, she had found herself riding alongside
Fabian with a natural ease, as though she had known him for every day of her
life.  Looking back, she could see clearly what she had felt by the Amber
River had been her soul irrevocably Bonding with his … and if she was being
completely honest, she would have to admit to being quietly impressed by the
way he’d handled the wolverines. 

Unable to find
any words that even began to describe the complicated storm of emotions that
day had released in her, Mistral shrugged.

‘You’re a good
rider.’

Fabian gave
her a strange look and laughed, ‘As are you,’ he returned. 

They had
reached the Main Building and stepped gratefully into the cover of the Entrance
Hall.  Fabian turned to face her, pulling her into his arms he gazed
deeply into her eyes for a long moment.  Mistral realised he was saying
goodnight – or was it goodbye?  She felt a sudden stab of unexplained
alarm.

‘Will I see
you tomorrow?’ she whispered.

Fabian smiled
sadly down at her, holding her close with one arm encircling her waist, the
other gently brushing melting flakes of snow from her hair, ‘Unfortunately for
you, I think you are going to see me every day for the rest of your life. 
But maybe we should start with breakfast in The Cloak and Dagger.’

Mistral
smiled, reassured.  He slipped his arms from around her and turned to go,
walking swiftly into the night, the heavy snow quickly obliterating him from
sight.

‘Wait!’ she
called out, her voice breaking with sudden reckless emotion. 

Fabian turned
back to face her but she couldn’t see his expression through the falling
snow.  Mistral hesitated for no longer than a split second before running
the few steps between them and into his waiting arms.  Reaching up to pull
his face down to hers she pressed her lips urgently to his, trying to show him
what she couldn’t express in words.  He returned her kiss more tenderly,
gently tempering her passion.  His lips lingered on hers until she felt
him sigh. 

Mistral drew
her face back slightly and gazed deeply into the inky depths of his eyes.

‘I love you.’

Her voice was
clear, confident.  Mistral was surprised to find that the words were less
daunting to say a second time. 

Abruptly she
turned and ran back into the Entrance Hall, not stopping until she was at the
top of the flight of stairs and onto the wooden corridor that stretched the
length of the dorms.  She hurried past the rows of closed doors, desperate
to reach the sanctuary of her room and make sense of her whirling
thoughts.  Her booted footsteps echoed loudly in the empty silence. 
Everyone else was in bed, she was completely alone. 

A door
suddenly opened on her left and two pairs of hands shot out; one pair covering
her mouth, the other dragging her inside. 

The bitter
temperature did little to diminish the warm feeling of contentment that stole
over Fabian De Winter as he watched Mistral run lightly up the stairs.  He
smiled and gave a small shake of his head before turning away and striding
purposefully back down towards The Cloak and Dagger.  It was cold. 
He pulled his cloak hood up against the thick flakes of snow and tucked his
head further down, lengthening his strides.  He hoped that Floris was
still up; he didn’t feel like spending a freezing night trying to sleep in the
hayloft.

A soft
rustling sound behind him made him turn, his hand reaching automatically for
the short dagger in his belt.

‘Good evening
brother,’ Leo Sphinx appeared at his side.  He was wearing a long winter
cloak but his head was bare and snow was already settling in his blonde
hair. 

‘Brother,’
Fabian returned the greeting curtly and carried on walking. 

Leo fell
quickly into step with Fabian and they walked in silence for a few moments.

‘I heard that
you had returned,’ he said.  ‘I have taken the liberty of reserving you a
room in The Cloak and Dagger.’  Leo’s voice was polite, but the
implication was clear.

Fabian halted
mid-step and turned to face his brother, his eyes narrowed with
hostility. 

‘How
considerate,’ he muttered through his teeth.  ‘I wonder, are you so
protective of all your female apprentices?’

Leo’s gaze was
even, his face remained carefully neutral.

‘Brother, you
are playing a dangerous game with Mistral,’ he murmured.

Fabian
snorted, and stalked off down the snow covered path.

Leo quickly
caught him up.  ‘Do you love her?’ he asked bluntly.

Fabian did not
reply immediately but continued walking in silence, his body rigid with
tension.  After a few moments he paused and took a deep breath, turning
his face to look up at the snow-laded sky.  When he turned to Leo again
the anger had gone from his face leaving it calm and composed.

‘Utterly. 
She is my absolution.’

Leo nodded but
did not speak.  They carried on walking in silence until Leo turned his
head towards Fabian once more.

‘Brother, I
must warn you that you cannot love her the way you want to.’

Fabian spun
around to face his brother for a second time, his black eyes blazing with
undisguised fury.  Words exploded from him in an angry torrent.

‘I let you persuade
me to send that girl on a suicide mission!  I watched her nearly get
ripped apart by wolverines because of me!  Then I had to face her across a
battlefield!  And when I finally realised it was her that I loved, I had
to ride across half a continent to get back to her!  And you,
brother
,’
he spat the word, ‘presume to stand in my way?’

Leo waited
calmly for Fabian to finish, ‘There is no need to get heated Fabian, but please
consider Mistral’s future –’

‘If it
pleases
you brother, I will marry her first!’  Fabian snarled.  
    

‘This is not a
morality issue.’

Fabian glared
angrily at his brother, his fists clenched.  He forced himself to take a
deep breath and suddenly felt completely exhausted.  The intensity of the
evening’s emotions had drained him and he had no energy left for Leo’s
games. 

‘Get to the
point brother.  It’s been a long time since I slept in a bed,’ he muttered
wearily. 

‘I know,’ Leo
almost smiled.  ‘Let’s walk on.’

They moved off
together along the path.  The heavy snow muffled their footsteps and
deadened the sound of their quiet conversation.

‘The Divinus
believes that Mistral has the Sight,’ Leo said quietly.

‘She can see
auras,’ Fabian retorted curtly, not breaking his stride.  ‘It’s not the
same.’

‘Yes, you are
correct,’ Leo’s tone was mild.  ‘However, the Divinus is sure that her
power is latent and will reveal itself with further training.’

Fabian said
nothing for a few moments.  Leo could sense the anger building inside his
brother and sighed inwardly.  Fabian was always too hot-headed.

‘Tell that
abhorrent creature to set his blind sights on another!’  Fabian hissed
furiously.

‘Fabian,
please be reasonable.  You know how rare Seers are.  Think about
this!  If Mistral has the Sight she will be able to command fantastic amounts
for her services and the Contracts will be far less dangerous.  If you
love her as you claim to do then do you really want Mistral to spend her life
being a hunter and assassin?  Being able to read thoughts will bring her
Council work; highly paid and easy.’ 

‘Don’t you
mean it will be highly paid and easy for you?’ snarled Fabian, his eyes
glinting dangerously.

Leo’s
expression was bland, his reply had the sound of something learned and often
repeated, ‘Costs are incurred for training, you know that.  Mistral will
have the same fair arrangement that the Ri have with all apprentices.  We
train them and they work for us until the debt is paid back.’

Fabian waved a
hand angrily, ‘I am not interested in Ri politics.  What does this have to
do with my being with Mistral?’

‘Emotional
changes affect a Seer’s ability,’ replied Leo carefully.  ‘She must remain
unchanged.’

Fabian stared
icily at him, ‘I will not give her up.’

‘No,’ agreed
Leo lightly.  ‘That would be disastrous.  She’s been next to useless
since she came back from The Desert Lands because of you.’

A shadow
crossed Fabian’s face and the angry light faded from his eyes, leaving him
looking exhausted again, ‘I will never hurt her again.  Tell me what it is
you need me to do.’  

‘Nothing,’ Leo
replied simply.

Fabian paused
and turned to stare at him, incomprehension mixing with the pain still
lingering on his face.  Then his eyes narrowed as understanding
dawned.  He drew in a ragged breath and let it out in a long slow breath.

‘How long
for?’

‘She will be
invited to train with us for a second year,’ Leo responded smoothly.

‘A year then
–’

‘Or until
Sight is established,’ Leo qualified.

Fabian shot
him a look of open hostility, ‘And if it is established before the year?’ he
challenged.

‘Then you have
our blessing,’ smiled Leo.  ‘Once Sight is established it is
irreversible.’

They walked
the rest of the way to The Cloak and Dagger in silence.  Fabian reached
out to unlatch the heavy wooden door and paused, keeping his back to Leo.

‘Of course I
shall respect your request,’ his voice was icily polite.  ‘However, I
think we both know how I feel about freedom of choice.  Ultimately the
decision rests with Mistral.’ 

Fabian
delivered his parting shot as he stepped through the door, leaving it to swing
shut in Leo’s startled face.

Leo remained
on the doorstep, staring frozenly at the closed door.  The dull clunk of a
bolt being slid into place snapped him out of his furious thoughts.  He
abruptly turned on his heel and began to tramp back through the falling snow,
his brow furrowed in frustration.  He had not calculated on Fabian laying
the decision at Mistral’s feet.  He scowled, reflecting on his
mistake.  He had held too much store by his brother’s high morals and his
enduring need to suffer for love.  Mistral was impetuous and
unpredictable.  There was no way of knowing what decision she would
make. 

She needed to
be made to understand just how important her gift was, not only to the Ri and
to the Isle as a whole, but to the ambitions of Leo Sphinx. 

Mistral found
herself dumped onto a narrow bed and scowled angrily at her captors.  They
gazed back from the opposite bed, their angelic faces alive with curiosity.

‘So,’ began
Phantasm with a sinister lift of one eyebrow.

‘Time to spill
the beans, sister,’ finished Phantom, cracking his knuckles menacingly.

‘That’s good,
have you been practising it?’ she asked sarcastically.

‘Tell us or we
will make you,’ they chorused impatiently.

Mistral
sighed.  The very last thing she wanted to do was try to explain the
firework display going on inside her head.  She had hoped to reach the
sanctuary of her room and spend at least the next two weeks trying to work it
out for herself.  But, she knew without a doubt that she owed the
twins.  They alone had uncomplainingly tolerated her long silences and
bleak moods over the last few months.  Their unswerving friendship was all
that had kept her going during that desolate time.  So she took a deep
breath and steeled herself for a torturous session of relentless questioning.

‘You ask, I’ll
answer,’ she acquiesced wearily.

‘Oh no, you
don’t get off that lightly,’ chided Phantom.  ‘Start at the beginning and
don’t spare the juicy bits.’  he settled in a more comfortable position on
his bed, his flawless face expectant.

Mistral felt
her spirits flag.  She would rather have undergone an extra hour of close
combat training with Grendel on a hot day than try to relive the evening’s
events.  She resolved to keep it brief and launched into a watered-down
version of events.

She was
suitably gratified at their response to the revelation of Leo’s on-going affair
with Golden and paused with a smile to allow them time to gasp theatrically and
exchange scandalised looks.  Part of her was amazed at how easy it felt to
smile now and her mind wandered while the twins dissected every look they had
seen Leo and Golden share.  Was Fabian asleep now?  That thought led
her imagination off down a completely different path.

A polite cough
interrupted her ruminations of Fabian De Winter and beds.  She looked up
to see the twins gazing at her in wordless anticipation of more sordid disclosures.

At the news of
Leo’s parentage their eyes narrowed speculatively while they absorbed the full
implications of having a full-blooded Mage in the Magnate.  They muttered
amongst themselves for a few minutes.

‘A Mage!’

‘No wonder
he’s been so successful so young!’

‘Do you think
he’s learned how to use the Craft?’

‘Don’t know,
don’t know ... dangerous though –’

‘Very!’

While their
muttered conversation went on Mistral took the opportunity to reflect more on
her life changing evening, dwelling longer than was strictly necessary on
certain points.  She looked up, the inane grin sliding from her face when
she realised the twins were staring at her again.

‘And?’ they
prompted in unison.

She shrugged
evasively, quickly rearranging her face into a more neutral expression, ‘Then
nothing,’ she lied unconvincingly.

The twins
raised their eyebrows and threatened simultaneously, ‘Tell us everything, or we
will
make you.’

‘No you
won’t!’ she scoffed.  ‘You know I’m immune.’

It was true,
the twins had been working hard on their Gemini powers to subtly bend people’s
thoughts to their will, but with sporadic success and only on people who least
expected it.  There had been particularly amusing moment when they’d
managed to will Columbine to volunteer Golden for a week’s stable duty, but
they’d never managed to affect Mistral’s notoriously stubborn mind in any way
at all.

The twins
glanced at each other and nodded briefly.  They faced her and fixed her
with an intense look that instantly reminded her of Fabian.  The second of
distraction was all they required.  She felt a gently but distinct
pressure in her mind, a sudden all-consuming desire to talk about Fabian and
everything, down to the very last detail, that had occurred between them that
evening.

Her eyes grew
huge as the realisation of what the twins were doing hit her. 

‘That’s
amazing!’ she gasped. 

The twins
couldn’t help but look smug.

‘We’ve been
practising,’ smirked Phantom.

‘Grendel now
showers every Friday,’ grinned Phantasm looking extremely pleased with
himself. 

‘Shame it took
you a year to get him to do it,’ laughed Mistral.

The twins
grinned back at her and relaxed, she felt the pressure in her mind instantly
ease. 

‘So, Mage De
Winter,’ began Phantasm conversationally.  ‘He did some soul searching on
a rather long ride and –’

‘Came to the
inevitable conclusion that he can’t possibly live without your unpredictable
mood swings and worryingly violent career choice –’ Phantom interjected.

‘And has
declared his undying love for you, to which you have reciprocated
willingly.’  Phantasm concluded.

‘That’s about
the size of it,’ agreed Mistral with a yawn.  ‘Now if you don’t mind, I’m
off to bed … alone!’ she scowled, catching their suggestive looks.

She heard their
rapid whispering begin before she had even closed the door and knew that they
would be up for hours dissecting everything she’d told them.  She wandered
the last few steps to her room in a daze, falling gratefully onto her bed fully
clothed.  She expected to be kept awake for hours by the myriad of
thoughts swirling round in her mind but she was asleep in seconds.