The Seers

by Julianna Scott

  “Will the four of you be staying longer?” Reid asked, causing my stomach to clench. “You are due back the day after tomorrow, but it seems you may need more time.”

  I looked over at Jocelyn, silently begging him to say no. “I am not sure yet. We will see what we are able to come up with in the next day or so and decide then.”

  “Jocelyn,” Min spoke up after another pause, “forgive me, but I must ask… Do you plan on visiting the site?”

  Jocelyn crossed his arms with a sigh, starring at the floor as he spoke. “If I must, yes. However, I wish to give traditional investigation methods a chance first. If we’re lucky, a reading may not be necessary. Though,” he shook his head with a frown, “even if it does become necessary, after three years, I’m not certain I could get anything that would be of any use.”

  As I watched Jocelyn struggle with the idea of doing a reading on Shea, I felt bad for him and was impressed by him all at the same time. I was pretty sure there weren’t many people out there – Holder or otherwise – who would have had the conviction to stick so solidly to an ideal. But Jocelyn wasn’t most people. He didn’t believe in reading people, and that was that. Not living, not dead, not ever.

  “I think that does it for tonight, and Chris, I’ll call you later.”

  Silence.

  “Anderson?” he called, leaning toward the phone.

  After another moment of silence we heard something that sounded like a slap. “Wake up you lazy lummox!” Reid whispered sharply.

  “What?” Anderson yelped suddenly.

  “I’ll call you later,” Jocelyn repeated.

  “Oh… um, yes. Yes, fine.”

  “Have a good day everyone.”

  As Jocelyn reached to hang up the phone, I could hear movement on the other end of the line with Reid and Anderson mumbling in the background.

  “Bloody idiot…”

  “I wasn’t sleeping, you half-wit!”

  “You were drooling on yourself!”

  “That’s no reason to hit m–” But Jocelyn disconnected the call.

  “Well,” Cormac said, standing with a stretch, “I don’t know about you all, but I am starving. Shall we get some breakfast?”

  “Sounds good,” I said, actually excited to see what would be on the breakfast spread.

  “I’ll have to meet up with you all later. I’m due to have breakfast with Brassal and some of the other men he golfs with. He invited me out with them tomorrow and wanted me to meet the other players. If the opportunity arises, I’ll ask him about looking through the archives and see what he says.”

  “Wait, you golf?” I asked, skeptically.

  “I can when I have to. Let us just hope they don’t expect me to be any good.”

  The four of us stepped out into the hall when were said our goodbyes and parted ways. Jocelyn headed off to the left while Cormac, Alex and I took the stairs to the right, following the alluring aromas of baking bread and cooked sausage.

  “So,” I said quietly to Alex, slowing my pace so that he and I fell slightly behind Cormac, “since you are our resident spy, what do you say you and I do a little snooping after breakfast?”

  “Sure,” he grinned. “Though it might be hard since we don’t have a specific target yet.”

  “Yeah we do,” I murmured, throwing him a sly glance.

  It was time to spy on the spy.

  “Do you feel anything?” Alex asked, as we stood outside one of the guest suites later that morning. Bastian hadn’t been at breakfast that morning, which honestly didn’t surprise me, though it had made following him harder considering that in order to follow someone, you first have to find them. Luckily when Alex and Cormac were walking to their rooms just after check in the day before, Cormac had pointed out a smaller hallway and told Alex that those rooms were where the head family always stayed. Figuring it was as good a place as any to start, Alex and I had headed there after breakfast and were now using our respective abilities to begin tracking down our target – me by sensing the abilities nearby to determine if Bastian was actually in any of the rooms, and Alex by making sure that no one who happened by would be able to see us.

  “There are two people in that room,” I pointed to one of the doors, “and one in there. The two there I don’t recognize, but that one,” I paused, concentrating on the single ability in the adjacent room, double checking before I went on, “that one is him.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yeah,” I nodded, “I got pretty familiar with the feel of his ability during our dance last night. It’s him.”

  “OK, so we found him… now what?”

  “We wait, I guess.”

  “And if he doesn’t do anything out of the ordinary? Or for that matter, doesn’t even leave his room?” he asked as we wandered back up the hall toward a set of armchairs by a window.

  “OK, Negative Nancy,” I glared, “I know it’s not a perfect plan, but it’s not like we have anything better to do at the moment. Unless that is, you want to go up to the art auction and mingle…”

  “Negative Nancy?” he repeated, cocking an eye brow.

  “Buzz-kill Betty? Pessimist Polly? Downer Deloris? Gloomy Gertrude? Feel free to pick your favorite, I’ve got a million of them. Worrywart Wilma is always a classic…”

  “OK,” he laughed, “now you’re just making stuff up. And do they all have to be women?”

  “No, but it’s funnier that way,” I giggled as he shoulder checked me playfully into the side of the first armchair. “Look, I know this is dumb, OK, I get it. But I have to do something – or at least feel like I am doing something. I can’t just sit in my room all day and ignore the fact that he’s playing us all for saps. Lousy as this plan might be, until I can come up with a better one, this is all I’ve got. And, if I just so happen to know a talented guy who I can rope in to hide me while I sneak around, so much the better.”

  “Sounds like a pretty great guy,” Alex smiled, resting his elbow on the arm of the chair and leaning back casually.

  “He has his moments,” I shrugged, pressing my lips together.

  “‘His moments’?” he asked. “I don’t know… Might be hard to rope this guy in to your schemes if that’s all the praise he’s going to get.”

  “Don’t worry, he’s very modest. And if all else fails, I can always charm him with my wiles.”

  “Then I guess you’re all set,” he laughed quietly.

  We sat silently for a moment or two until I suddenly remembered something Cormac had said the night before. “Hey,” I said, shifting in my seat to face him, “I’ve been meaning to ask you – last night when we were talking about Steven, Cormac called Bastian a Porter. What’s a Porter?”

  Alex pursed his lips slightly as he thought, like he was trying to find the right words. “Porting is the ability to travel instantaneously. Like teleporting in a sci-fi movie.”

  “Seriously? Damn it… that’s pretty cool. To be honest, I was kind of hoping it was something lame.” I knew it was petty, but I was a firm believer that jerks shouldn’t get cool stuff.

  “Sorry. Though it may not be quite as cool as you think. I don’t know a lot about it, but from what I understand, Porters can’t simply go wherever they want anytime they want; it’s more complicated than that. Their Sciaths also work differently; they aren’t tied to them like the rest of us. They still work even when they are removed.”

  “That’d be nice…”

  “Tell me about it,” he agreed. “Jocelyn would know more about it, you should ask him.”

  Suddenly, the loud creak of a door hinge echoed up the corridor, and I turned to see a man dressed entirely in white walking out of Bastian’s room. It was him – but what the hell was he wearing? It wasn’t until he turned to shut his door behind him that I saw the silver-mesh helmet hanging from the gym bag over his shoulder. It was a fencing helmet.

  Ugh… Of course he was a fencer, what was I thinking? Fencing, polo, maybe some croquet. Why on earth would I have
expected him to be a break dancer, or a juggler, or anything else even remotely out of the box?

  A moment later, the door across the hall opened and this time Alva stepped out dressed in an ensemble looking as though it came straight out of a catalog. It was the kind of outfit that she probably considered casual, but had it been in the closet of a normal person it would have been one of the nicest things they owned.

  “Oh, Bastian,” she said upon seeing him, “off to practice, dear? I’d have thought you would be there by now.”

  “Had a late start this morning,” he told her as they walked together down the hall. I held my breath as they passed by us, but thanks to Alex they had no idea we were only a few feet away.

  “Just make sure you’re back in time for the luncheon in the library this afternoon.”

  “I won’t be more than an hour,” he assured her.

  “All right,” she smiled, leaning over and pecking his cheek as they reached the main hall.

  They were about to part ways when Bastian looked down into his bag. “Damn…” he mumbled rummaging through his things, “I’ve got to run back to my room, I’ve forgotten my gloves. I’ll see you at lunch.”

  “Of course dear, enjoy your practice,” Alva called to him before turning the corner and disappearing down the hall.

  As Bastian jogged back toward his room, a cast message coalesced in the air in front of me. “A lunch date and missing gloves. I’m not sure we really have the hang of this “gathering intel” thing.”

  I frowned in agreement, but before I could let discouragement get the best of me, I noticed something odd. Bastian had reached his room… and stopped. He didn’t go in or even pull out his key, but instead made a show of adjusting the strap of his bag, trying to hide the fact that he was checking the hallway to make sure no one else was around. After a second quick survey of the hall – and of course oblivious to Alex and I – he lowered his head and walked quickly past his door and up the hall, all the way to the small flight of stairs at the far end. Alex and I both jumped up and followed after him, while I concentrated on the distinct feel of his ability in my mind, singling it out from the dozens of others in the manor and locking onto it, determined not to lose him.

  We slipped up to the second floor and continued to follow Bastian through a maze of hallways, moving both as quickly and silently as we could. Finally, Bastian stopped in front of an average looking door in the middle of a long stretch of hall, glancing around once more before opening it and ducking inside.

  I was about to make a dive for the door when Alex stopped me. “No!” he cast, grabbing my arm and pulling me back just in time for the door to shut in my face.

  “I could have made it!”

  “But I wouldn’t have, and without me, you have no cover, remember? I can’t hide you if I can’t see you.”

  “Right,” I sighed, carefully stepping back over to the door. Praying that the ancient wood wouldn’t creak or groan, I leaned in to listen, propping myself up against the door frame.

  The room was silent for a second, then I heard his gym bag unzip and something pulled from it and set down with a soft thud. Then there was more silence… a click… silence…a beep… more silence… then finally a steady stream of tick-tick-ticking that became the distinct sound of fingers on a keyboard.

  “What do you hear?” Alex breathed, clearly anxious.

  “I’m not sure,” I whispered, “but whatever it is… it’s definitely not fencing.”

  CHAPTER 12

  “How can you not be convinced?” I said, as loud as a whisper would allow, as Alex and I navigated our way around the second level of the far wing, trying to find a staircase it was safe to be seen coming down. “We caught him in the act!”

  “We caught him in the act of lying to his mother. That might not do much for his character, but it doesn’t prove he’s doing anything wrong.”

  “What about that one?” I nodded toward the staircase we approached, momentarily ignoring his hole-poking with an irritated sigh.

  “I’ll check.”

  He jogged down the stairs while I crossed my arms and leaned against the rail, waiting for the all clear. Alex and I had to part ways as soon as we got back downstairs so he could go and check in with Cormack for an update. That meant that when we got back down to the guestroom level, he wouldn’t be able to keep me hidden, and since we were fairly certain that we weren’t allowed to be on this floor, he’d been invisibly checking each stairwell we came across, looking for one I could use without being caught.

  “I think we’re good,” Alex said, walking back up. “No one down there, plus I think we are near your room. You should be fine.”

  I walked down to the first landing to meet him, my arms still crossed, pouting. “This sucks.”

  “Come on, Leannán, don’t be mad,” he hooked an arm around my waist and pulled me into his side. “It was a good start. I mean, did you really expect to get all the proof you needed in one shot?”

  I scowled at the floor as we stepped off the last stair and into an empty hallway. “I don’t know, maybe…”

  “What did you want him to do? Sneak off to some secret lair with a sign on the door: ‘Bad Guys Only, Mwa-ha-ha’?”

  He looked down at me with a smile. “I really hate it when you do that,” I said, grinning against my will.

  “I know,” he said, leaning forward and kissing my cheek, “it’s great.”

  He jumped back with a laugh as I took a swing at his arm. “Get out of here,” I said with a playful growl, “you’re late.”

  “I know,” he agreed, checking his watch. “Promise you won’t do any more spying without me?”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  “I’m serious, Becca. I can tell you’re thinking about it, and it’s too dangerous.”

  “I know that. I won’t try anything, I promise,” I said, though I was mildly annoyed he could read me so well. “Now go.”

  A kiss and a wink later, Alex left to meet with Cormac while I headed off in the opposite direction toward my room, trying to piece together a new plan. However, apparently I was thinking a little too hard, as I rounded the upcoming bend without looking and ran right into a startled young man carrying a stack of books.

  “Steven!” I said, reaching out to catch him as he stumbled backward. “Sorry about that, I wasn’t watching where I was going,” – because I was too busy plotting against your brother – “but I’m so glad to see you.”

  “M-miss Cl-lavish,” he nodded, looking down.

  “It’s Becca,” I corrected, smiling when he brought his eyes back up. “Look, I just wanted to say I’m sorry for last night. I hope I didn’t get you into any trouble,” – ridiculous as that still was – “I didn’t mean to. I didn’t realize that it was… even a possibility.”

  He didn’t respond at first, though I was shocked and relieved to see that for the first time since we’d met, he didn’t look as though he was about to bolt away from me like a jumpy rabbit. “Do-on’t worry,” he said with a timid smile, “it w-was nothing.”

  “Honestly, I just wanted to hang out with you. This,” I gestured around us, “isn’t exactly the sort of thing I’m used to. Everyone here is so,” I paused, deciding I should be nice as several of them were still his family, “different. You were the first normal person I’d met, and I guess I just got a little excited.”

  He laughed, though his face was sad. “P-people don’t us-sually describe me as n-normal.”

  “Yeah, well they’re idiots.” Damn! That one slipped out before I could catch it, but luckily, he smiled.

  Turning to face the way I was originally headed, he motioned for me to continue and the two of us began to walk slowly down the hall. “And don’t w-worry about all th-this,” he glanced around. “It takes s-some getting u-used to.”

  “Not sure I have the patience for that. Things are a little more… low key where I’m from. I didn’t fully realize it before this, but turns out I like it better that way.”

/>   “How l-long are y-you staying?”

  “We were supposed to be here through tomorrow, but now it looks like it may be a bit longer. Actually,” I said, deciding to take a leap, “there might be something you can help me with. Is there any chance you knew a man named Ciaran Shea?” As soon as I’d finished the question a small knot formed in my stomach. Jocelyn had made it clear that he wanted to keep our digging into Ciaran under wraps, but if no one asked any questions, how were we going to learn anything? Asking a guy who’d lived around these people his whole like seemed like a much better way to get information than leafing through a bunch of old books any day, and besides, who was he going to tell? Everyone around here avoided him like a spilled drink on the floor, no way were they going to listen to him attempt to spread rumors.

  “The S-Seer?” he asked. “Yes I kn-new him, but not w-well. Why?”

  See, maybe there was something he could tell us. At least it was worth a try. “OK,” I said, lowering my voice, “I’m going to level with you. The main reason we came out here was so that we could talk to him. It’s kind of a long story, but basically, we found out that someone we trusted was betraying us, and that he was in some way connected to Ciaran, but we don’t know how. We were going to confront Ciaran about it, but then last night we find out that he’s dead, so at the moment we’re kind of at a loss. Is there anything you could tell me about him that might be of interest to someone? Something that maybe could have gotten him into trouble, or would have given someone cause to seek him out?”

  He thought for a moment then shook his head. “No, no-othing that c-comes to mind. But I o-only met him o-once a l-long time ago. S-sorry.”

  “It’s OK,” I said, a little deflated, “it was a long shot anyway.”

  Then something lit in his eyes. “It wouldn’t b-be his j-journal, would it? Ha-ave you lo-oked into that?”