The Seer (38 page)

‘I fear she
may have hurt her head.’

‘No, that is
grief brother.’

Mistral opened
her eyes with a soft cry of recognition and saw the proud faces of Dravite and
Faris looking down at her.  Suddenly she wanted nothing more than to hear
the peace and wisdom of Imperato’s voice, to ask him how to escape the fate
Fabian had sealed her into.  ‘Please!  Please can you take me to the
tribe,’ she begged hoarsely.

They nodded
silently and reached down to pull her to her feet.  Looking around she
could see Prospero sat obediently beside her and Cirrus stood a short distance
away.  It was night; she had been asleep for hours.  Light from the
moon cast an eerie silvery glow over the two austere centaurs beside her. 

‘Can you
ride?’  Dravite asked with a frown as he watched her swaying on her feet.

‘Yes,’ she
said and immediately staggered, leaning a hand against a tree while to steady
herself.

‘You
cannot.  Then you must travel with us.  Your charges will follow.’

Strong arms
gripped her and swung her lightly around.  She felt the familiar sensation
of being astride a horse, only with the disconcerting feel of a man’s naked
torso beneath her hands.  Faris had lifted her onto Dravite’s back and
placed her arms around his waist for balance.

‘Oh no!’ She
gasped in horror, jerking her hands away and holding them by her sides. 
‘This is such an insult to you!’

‘I think that
Imperato would be more insulted if we left a Seer lying in snow.’  Faris
firmly positioned her hands around Dravite’s body once again.  ‘We travel
fast, hold on firmly Seer.’

Fabian
returned to the Valley long after night had fallen to be met by his brother
waiting at the stables.

‘We need to
talk.’  Leo said curtly as Fabian dismounted and unsaddled his exhausted
horse.

Fabian did not
even look at him, ‘We do not.  I need to collect a fresh horse and leave
immediately.’ 

‘Set aside
your concerns.  You will not find her tonight!  We must speak of what
this signifies!’  Leo insisted in a low hiss.

‘It means that
my wife is out there somewhere, alone and half-insane with fear!  And
every second I waste talking to you is one I should be spending trying to find
her!’

‘How could she
fall?’  Leo demanded.  ‘What blood is she Fabian?  You
must
know!’

Fabian spun
around to glare in stone-cold fury at Leo, ‘What does it matter?  You have
your Seer!’  He turned away and began to lead Spirit towards the stables.

Leo hurried
after him, ‘It matters because we need to know what she is carrying!  Have
you considered that she may be Mage born – perhaps even
related
to you?’

Fabian’s eyes
snapped around to meet Leo’s, his disgust swiftly darkening to fury, ‘You risk
your life with your vile insults!’  He snarled.  ‘Mistral is
not
Mage born!  I am certain of it!’

‘But can you
be sure?  We didn’t know of each other for a long time –’

‘She does not
have the Craft!’  Fabian snapped.  ‘And if you value your life you
will never mention this to me again!’

Leo stepped
back to allow Fabian to stride ahead of him into the stables.  He appeared
moments later with another horse.  Without even acknowledging that Leo was
there he threw himself into the saddle and kicked the horse into a gallop,
vanishing into the darkness of the night. 

It was light
the next time Mistral opened her eyes.  She was lying on a woven pallet of
willow and dry moss, soft and springy.  She looked at her surroundings
with bewildered eyes, with absolutely no idea where she was or how she’d got
there.  Reassured by the familiar sight of her dog lying on the floor next
to her, Mistral propped herself up on one elbow and looked around curiously.

The room had a
swept earthen floor and held no furniture other than the pallet bed she was
lying on.  A row of shelves on the wall held a variety of everyday
objects; wooden bowls, cups, clay cooking pots.  The hut and everything in
it was designed to be practical; it was a forest dwelling, of that she was
certain.  The sound of hoof beats drew her attention to the doorway. 
It was higher and wider than a normal door and opened to reveal the regal face
of Imperato.

‘You have
awoken.  This is good.  There is much we need to discuss.’

He walked into
the hut and halted a respectful distance away from the bed.  Mistral swung
her legs around and sat up, making the room spin sickeningly.

‘You must
eat.  It will help with the sickness.’

Mistral closed
her eyes as the memory of previous day’s events came swimming back.  She
sunk her head into her hands despairingly.  Nothing had changed.  She
had run away from the Valley and from Fabian, but she couldn’t run away from
what was inside her.  A second, lighter set of hoof beats made Mistral
look up.  She stared in amazement at the centaur walking shyly through the
door.  Unlike the bare-chested males, she was dressed in a tunic of animal
skins and her long hair was tied back in a braid.  The eyes that met
Mistral’s were dark and strangely familiar.  Mistral frowned.  She
knew
this centaur. 

‘This is my
bonded partner, Alyssa.’

Alyssa smiled
gently at Mistral and walked forward.  It took Mistral a moment to realise
that she was carrying a wooden platter of food.

‘Er, thanks.’
 Mistral took the platter from her and set it down on the bed; looking
hungrily at the cold meats and rye bread she reached instead for the cup of
water and drank thirstily.  She had neither eaten nor drunk since the
previous morning but was certain it would be rude to eat in front of the two
centaurs.  

‘Eat.’
 Alyssa implored her in a husky voice.  ‘I remember well how it feels
to be with young!  You must eat.  It will make you feel better.’

Mistral stared
at her and then at Imperato, ‘But … how do you know?’

Imperato gave
her a profound look, ‘Your destiny was written in the stars from the day you
were born.  I have known this day would come for a long time now.’ 

‘Oh.’
 Mistral said quietly.  Her wretched destiny.  How many times
would it conspire to ruin her life?  Cursing her with a gift she hadn’t
wanted, keeping her from the man she loved and now … now she had run away from
the man she loved and was hiding somewhere in the forests because her stupid
destiny had seen fit to let her believe she had been a half-breed, unwanted,
rendered incapable of having children by the mixed heritage of her blood, when
in reality she was something else.  But what?

‘Eat.’

Imperato’s
quiet order cut through her troubled thoughts.  Mistral obediently picked
up a piece of bread and bit into it.  She chewed in silence, acutely aware
of the fact that Alyssa and Imperato were watching her intently.  Feeling
slightly uncomfortable under their joint scrutiny, Mistral finished her meal
and immediately realised that Alyssa was right; she did feel better.

Smiling
proudly, Alyssa moved forwards to take the empty platter.  Mistral watched
her leave the hut with quick, light strides that reminded her heart wrenchingly
of Spirit’s dancing paces. 

‘And now I am
sure you have questions you wish me to answer.’  Imperato said
quietly. 

Mistral
dragged her mind back to her bewildering predicament.  Imperato had the
answers?  Of course he did.  Imperato knew everything.  Mistral
thought for a moment.  Which question should she ask first? 

‘How?’ 
She finally asked, gazing at Imperato with despairing eyes.

He sighed
deeply, ‘This is going to be difficult for you to understand.  Perhaps you
should read my thoughts Seer, the answers you seek are there and it will save
you having to ask the right questions to release the truth.’

Mistral stared
at him dumbfounded.  Read Imperato?  The centaur chieftain; older and
wiser than the last Divinus … she shook her head quickly.

‘I have
nothing to hide from you Seer.’

Mistral’s
heart gave another painful lurch at the echo of Fabian’s words.  She shook
her head again, her throat suddenly too constricted to allow her to speak.

‘Perhaps you
will feel ready to listen to my thoughts when your first question has been
answered,’ he paused and fixed her with his timeless eyes.  ‘You ask
how?  How is it that you, a half-breed have fallen with child?  The
answer is simple.  You are not a half-breed.’

Mistral stared
at him silently, hardly daring to breathe in case she missed a single
word.  He was about to answer the question that had plagued her
life.  Finally, she would know the truth about the blood that ran in her
veins.  Silence fell in the small hut.  Mistral waited, feeling the
tension rise with every second. 

With a slight
swish of his tail, Imperato finally spoke, ‘You are a centaur.’

Mistral
blinked then, to her horror, laughed, ‘Oh I’m sorry!’  She cried, clapping
a hand to her mouth to halt the almost hysterical peal of laughter.  ‘I
mean no offense!  I’m not laughing at you but, it’s just that, well, I
don’t exactly
look
like a centaur!’

Imperato
nodded calmly, ‘You are correct.  And perhaps I should have been
clearer.  It is a fault of our kind that we are often too easily
distracted; the changing weather, the stars, the light that falls across water
... it speaks to us.  We read signs and portents where others see only
nature –’

Mistral gaped
at Imperato, disbelief and disappointment mingling in her rude stare. 
Instead of answering the question she’d spent countless nights puzzling over
he’d made some ridiculous joke about her being a breed she blatantly wasn’t ...
and now he was delivering a soliloquy about nature?  She felt a spark of
impatience flare and forced her face to remain composed while Imperato
continued to speak.

‘It is the
ability of our race to see beyond the façade of normal life that has led to the
honour of producing four Seers – ’

‘Four?’  Mistral
couldn’t help but interrupt.  ‘I thought it was three.’

He gazed at
her, his tail swishing gently, ‘You are the fourth.’

Mistral
struggled not to roll her eyes, ‘How can I be a centaur?  I only have two
legs for a start!’  Another calm swish of the tail met her outburst. 
Mistral fought the urge to ask him to stop. 

‘You were born
to be a Seer, not a centaur.  Sight will shape the vessel to take the form
required in order to fulfil its destiny.  You were sired by a centaur and
born to a centaur dam, but the Sight that lived within you determined your
physical shape.’

Mistral felt
her face crumple in confusion.  A centaur? 
Really?
  She
suddenly wished Phantasm were here to help her accept what Imperato was telling
her, or even Phantom to help her make a joke of it ...  then quickly
reasoned that this was probably something she had to come to terms with on her
own.  Another part of her destiny.  Well, it explained her love of
horses, solitude and hunting … a sudden thought struck her.  She might not
be an orphan.

‘Are my
parents still alive?’  She asked quickly. 

Imperato
nodded.

Mistral’s
heart began to race with excitement.  It seemed too much of a coincidence
that she’d been found on the outskirts of The Velvet Forests, right where a
centaur tribe lived.  Could it really be that she would meet them? 
Confront them!  Demand to know why they abandoned her to a life of not
knowing, of being an outcast and condemned to live in the grubby, tired Mage
hamlet of Nevelte.

Mistral
swallowed down her excitement, ‘Are they … here?’ 

Imperato
nodded again.

Mistral stared
at him, hardly daring to voice the question that was bursting out of her, ‘Can
I meet them?’

‘You already
have.’

Mistral’s mind
wheeled, remembering the centaurs she’d met so far.  Dravite and Faras! 
Which one was her sire?  Dravite was similar in colouring to her with dark
eyes and hair, but Faras had her temperament ... Alyssa had returned, walking
gracefully into the hut to stand beside Imperato.  The female centaur was
regarding her with a gaze so tender that Mistral was instantly reminded of the
way the queen had looked at her.  With eyes filled with a mother’s love –

Mistral gasped
aloud, her mouth falling open in shock.  The face she occasionally saw in
the mirror was looking at her right now.  Alyssa had her eyes.  

‘I’m –?’ 
She stopped herself and shook her head.  She’d been about to suggest that
she was their daughter.  It was almost laughable!  But something in
Alyssa’s expression made her falter and stare with renewed disbelief.  She
hardly dare think it, never mind utter the words. 

‘Really?’
 She finally asked in a strained whisper.

Imperato
nodded, ‘You are our daughter.’

Mistral’s
stared at them both, silent and unmoving, while inside her a storm raged. 
Disbelief gave way to a brief burst of relief at finally knowing the truth, no
matter how bizarre it was, to be instantly replaced by trepidation; she had
parents, in particular a mother … Mistral’s experience of mothers had been
tainted by meeting the daunting figures of Melsina and Diannah, and she wasn’t
keen on having one of those in her life.  Finally she was consumed by her
default emotion.  Anger.

‘Please tell
me,’ she began in a quiet voice.  ‘Exactly why you saw fit to abandon me
to suffer possibly the dullest upbringing it was possible to have when I could
have been raised here,’ her voice rose dramatically until she was almost
shouting, ‘where I obviously belong!  You sent me to
Nevelte
! 
If you didn’t think you could bring me up why didn’t you just take me to the
Valley?  Was I such a terrible baby that you left me to die on a dirt
track in the middle of a storm?  Were you so ashamed of what you’d
made?  A two-legged baby, not a four-legged one?’  Mistral flung the
insults into Alyssa’s face, feeling a savage sense of satisfaction with every
flinch of pain.  It felt good to finally vent the anger she felt towards
her faceless parents, now stood before her, real and alive ... and irritatingly
calm.  ‘How can you stand there and look so damned serene?’  She
screamed at Imperato.  ‘You ruined my life!’

‘It was your
destiny.’  Imperato said quietly.

Mistral gave a
harsh laugh, ‘Destiny!  I am
so
fed up with my damned
destiny!  Why is everyone obsessed with my wretched future?  It’s
mine!  And I want nothing to do with it!  My destiny can go to hell
for all I care!’

Alyssa
suddenly began to cry and Mistral instantly stopped shouting.  The sight
of such a noble and dignified creature being reduced to tears by her
bad-tempered ranting made her feel ashamed.  Imperato made no move to
comfort his partner but continued to look at Mistral, his expression composed
as ever.

‘The moment
you were born we knew you were not destined to live amongst our tribe.  I
studied the stars to find the answer.’

Mistral
gritted her teeth.  So the damned stars were to blame for her being sent
to live in that flea-pit Nevelte.  She vowed never to study astrology ever
again.

‘There I saw
the first indication of your destiny.  You were born to be a Seer, but
your form was not that of a centaur.  You were shaped to be amongst the
others, and we could not prepare you for that life here in the forests. 
You needed to be raised knowing about matters that we do not concern ourselves
with.’

‘You sentenced
me to sixteen years of purgatory!  Prepared?  Nevelte prepared me for
nothing!
’

‘You were
safe.’

Mistral stared
at him, realising that she couldn’t argue with him on that point.  Nevelte
had been interminably dull, but it had been safe.

‘You were
loved.’

Mistral felt a
burst of shock, swiftly followed by a crushing wave of guilt.  Brothertoft
and Elnora; the elderly couple who’d taken her in.  Yes, she supposed they
had loved her … they must have ... there was no other reason why they would
have put up with her disgraceful behaviour for so many years when others would
surely have slung her out.

‘And you were
free to follow your destiny when you were ready.’

Mistral could
help but scowl.  Imperato was irritatingly right again.  The moment
she’d been old enough to train in the Ri she’d left Nevelte and never looked
back.  The Valley had taught her so much more than how to be a hunter,
thief or assassin.  She’d met the twins, her brothers, the Divinus ... and
Fabian.