The Seers

by Julianna Scott

  “There, see? You can’t fool me.” He folded his hands behind his head triumphantly. “So, what is his name? Where is he from? What monastery does he reside in?”

  “Monastery?”

  “Of course. For surely only a monk would have the patience for you… Oof!” he huffed, laughing as I smacked him with one of the enormous pillows from the head of the bed.

  “You’re hilarious,” I sneered through a grin. “For your information, it’s Alex.”

  He blinked, his eyebrows furrowing. “The Alex that you brought with you? The Caster?”

  “That’s the one.”

  “But he’s a Holder, how on earth did that happen?”

  I shrugged. “Who knows? I’m weird, remember?”

  “Does he know?”

  “More than that, he’s bonded to me too.”

  “You’re joking,” he gawked with a surprised laugh.

  “Nope.”

  “I’ll be damned,” he chuckled. Then a strange flicker sparked in his eye. “Well, I suppose that explains a few things…”

  “What?”

  “It’s nothing,” he said, but his snicker said otherwise.

  “Don’t give me that, what are you talking about?”

  “It’s no big thing,” he insisted, “it’s just, well, I’ve gotten something of an evil eye from Mr Bray on more than one occasion over the past few days,” he told me, biting back a smile. “Now I know why.”

  Immediately I rolled my eyes. “Oh please,” I scoffed. “If anything, he’s eyeing you because I spent the first two days we were here convincing him that you were a jerk and he’s having trouble giving up on the idea.”

  “Sure,” he said, clearly pacifying me. “That’s probably it.”

  I could see he wasn’t convinced, but I let it go, as the whole notion wasn’t worth arguing about. Alex was my whole world, he knew that. Sure, he hadn’t been a fan of watching Bastian and I dance together, but that was nothing. He knew better than to actually be jealous.

  “Anyway,” I said, happy to change the subject, “if we are through discussing secrets and hidden lovers, I need to go see Jocelyn.”

  “I suppose we are,” he nodded, standing and adjusting his shirt. “As it happens,” he said as we made our way toward the door, “I was headed to see him myself before you arrived. I didn’t think it wise to send him a note as I did you, so he still needs to be caught up on… certain deliveries,” he winked. His hand paused on the door handle as he glanced over and offered me his free arm, his expression settling into the casual superiority of his public mantle, though he didn’t quite hide the grin behind his cocked eyebrow. “As I happen to be going your way,” he said in his too-cool-to-care way, “would you do me the honor of allowing me to escort you, Miss Clavish?”

  “If you insist,” I said dramatically, adopting a lofty manner of my own, raising my chin as I took his offered arm, “the privilege is all yours.”

  “Not bad,” he chuckled under his breath as he pulled the door open for us. “You don’t have my knack for delivery, of course, but not a bad start.”

  Luckily, there was no one to see the two of us come out of his room – as I couldn’t even imagine the sort of rumors that would start – nor was there anyone in the main hallway or any of the lounges and seating areas we passed.

  “Where is everyone?” I asked, actually enjoying the quiet.

  “If I had to guess, I’d say the back lawn, either watching or partaking in the games.”

  “Games?”

  “This morning is the field games tournament. Rings, skittles, lawn darts, that sort of thing.”

  “I’m going to assume those are all games?” I asked with a laugh, finding “skittles” particularly amusing.

  “Of course,” he said with a dramatic gasp as we turned down the hallway that Jocelyn’s room was in. “How long have you been in country, now? I should think that at least you would…” But I silenced him with a slow raise of my hand as I concentrated on the two abilities I suddenly felt in one of the approaching rooms. They stood out to me because all the other rooms in that hallway were currently empty, making them the only abilities other than Bastian’s that were anywhere nearby. However, it wasn’t until I realized that I recognized them that my heart rate began to pick up. One was clearly Mr McGary, and the other I couldn’t put a face to, but I knew I’d felt him somewhere before.

  “What’s wrong?” Bastian whispered, instinctively glancing around for trouble.

  “Two people, one McGary and one I’m not sure of,” I told him, the tension building in my stomach with every step.

  “What are they doing?”

  “I can’t tell.”

  “Do you know where they are?”

  “Yes,” I nodded, my jaw tight, “they’re in Jocelyn’s room.”

  CHAPTER 23

  “What could they possibly have been after?” Cormac wondered aloud as he, Jocelyn, Alex, and I sat around in the window-lined sunroom after lunch that afternoon. Most of the others guests had returned to the lawn for the second round of games, leaving us free to talk, so long as we kept an eye out and our voices down.

  “We couldn’t tell,” I said. “I was worried it was the Iris, but theoretically they shouldn’t even know it’s here. Though, it was probably a good thing you had it on you, all the same.”

  “Indeed!” Cormac agreed. “Can you imagine?”

  “Luckily, whatever they wanted, it didn’t look like they found anything.”

  “And you are sure they didn’t see you?” Jocelyn asked, looking pointedly at me.

  “I’m sure,” I nodded confidently. “We listened at the door until we heard them coming, then hid around the corner until they were gone.”

  “What were they saying?” Cormac asked.

  “Not much,” I frowned. “There was a lot of shuffling, then McGary called down to the front desk and requested a cleaning for the room.”

  “Clever,” Cormac mused. “Come in for a search, ruffle things up, then call the housekeeper to tidy up after you. Even had something been out of place, you would likely have just assumed it was done during the cleaning.”

  That was smart. Sneaky bastards…

  “After the call,” I went on, “the other man – Cleen, according to Bastian – said that they weren’t having any luck and should go.” As it happened, Bastian had also told me that Cleen was one of the two men I had been spying on the night he had to port me to his room, which was probably why his ability felt familiar. However, as Jocelyn was still unaware of that little near-miss encounter, I left that bit out. “They both made a point in noting the time as they left the room, and then they were gone.”

  “The time?” Alex repeated. “Like they were late for something?”

  “No, like seeing what the time was,” I clarified. “Real specific too, down to the minute. In fact, Cleen even checked his watch again when they reached the end of the hall before they went their separate ways.”

  “What are you thinking, Jocelyn?” Cormac asked, having noticed the change in Jocelyn’s face as I was talking.

  Jocelyn leaned forward, resting his folded hands against his mouth. “There is only one reason I can think of as to why they would have needed to know the exact time. But I can’t be sure unless…”

  We all sat pensively, waiting for him to go on, but the rest of his thought never made it into words. After a long pause, he finally closed his eyes and let out a sigh, as though having made some silent decision that he was unhappy about but resigned to.

  “Unless what?” I prompted, itching to know what he was thinking.

  “Did you hear the time they said?” he asked me, though whether he was ignoring me or answering me, I couldn’t tell. “What was it?”

  “11.37,” I said.

  “Who said it, McGary, or Cleen?”

  “McGary.”

  He nodded, but instead of explaining the question, he grew very still, his eyes clouding over the way they had at the cemetery. It was
almost like he was doing a reading, but there was no way…

  Right?

  I mean come on, a reading on McGary? From here? Not a chance. McGary wasn’t even in the room! He was probably at the games, which were on the other side of the manor, not to mention surrounded by dozens of other people. No way Jocelyn could pick his lone mind out of a crowd that big from this far awa–

  “He’s on the lawn watching the cricket match,” Jocelyn said suddenly.

  Holy… crap…

  Much as I tried, I couldn’t keep my jaw from dropping just a bit. I looked over at Alex who must have been enjoying my face as he was covering a smile.

  “Seriously?” I mouthed silently, glancing between him and Jocelyn.

  “That’s nothing,” Alex casted onto the table in front of me, “he could read Min right now if he wanted to.”

  I shook my head, trying to keep my awe under wraps. I knew I really shouldn’t have been surprised, as I was more than aware that Jocelyn was incredibly powerful, having heard it time and time again. However, just like reading the dead, hearing about something and seeing it firsthand are two very different things. Though for some reason, the display of power was getting to me in a strange way that I didn’t understand.

  “You’re scared,” the shadow in the back of my mind whispered, “because you know that, powerful as he is, you are even more so...”

  A cold shiver of fear rippled through me as I kicked the unwelcome thought away, stuffing it back in the dark where it belonged.

  “Damn it,” Jocelyn mumbled suddenly, rubbing his eyes and breaking his haze.

  “What happened?” Cormac asked.

  I leaned forward, consciously keeping the tremor out of my voice. “Did you find out what they were doing?”

  “I did not find what they were doing,” he said with a frustrated sigh, “because the only thing there to find was exactly what I expected – a hole.”

  “A memory hole?” I whispered.

  “Like the ones you found in Taron?” Alex asked.

  “Exactly like the ones I found in Taron,” Jocelyn nodded. “So much so, that I can all but guarantee that they were made by the same person.”

  Cormac looked puzzled. “How did you know that McGary’s memory of this morning would be gone?”

  “The time,” Jocelyn answered. “I’ve been thinking a great deal about the memory holes ever since Bastian mentioned that he believed there was a fifth informant who was a Mentalist. I’ve come to believe that whoever it is, is an Observant, not a Compulsionary.”

  “Wait,” I cut in, “a what?”

  “All Mentalists can read minds to one extent or another,” Cormac explained, “but Observant Mentalists are the ones who can erase thoughts and memories, and Compulsionary Mentalists are the ones who can alter or change them. Neither can do both – present party excluded, of course,” he added glancing at Jocelyn.

  “The only reason,” Jocelyn continued, “that McGary and Cleen would have needed the time, was if they were working with an Observant who would need it to know what portion of their memories to cut.”

  “Couldn’t the Mentalist just read the memory then cut out the parts they wanted out?” I asked.

  “They could, but depending on the strength of the Mentalist’s abilities, it could take a great deal of time. Cutting a clear chunk, from one predetermined point in time to another, would be far quicker, not to mention cleaner if he or she wasn’t overly familiar with the process.”

  “So what now?” I asked, leaning back in my chair.

  “The plan stays as it was,” Jocelyn said. “Tonight, you and Bastian will see if there is anything of use to us in the books from the archives, and tomorrow we will see what we can garner from Ciaran’s shew.”

  “Do we really still have to go through those old books?” I groaned. “I mean, I got it when we were looking for stuff on Ciaran, but now we don’t need that anymore, right?”

  “No, we don’t,” Jocelyn said, “but we do need anything we can find about the seeing ability as a whole, particularly with regards to shews and seer stones. We don’t know exactly what we are looking for tomorrow, but the more information we have, the better off we will be.”

  “What about our mystery Mentalist?” Cormac asked, drawing the attention away from my grumbles. “If he is removing crucial memories from all of Darragh’s informants, then it sounds like he may be the one chap who would have all the information we need to know.”

  “I agree, but if he is as careful as Bastian believes him to be, then drawing him out won’t be easy.”

  “But at least now we know he’s here,” Alex pointed out. “He would have to be in the manor if something from this morning is already gone from McGary’s memory.”

  “True,” Jocelyn agreed, “and that is a place to start. In the meantime,” he said, “I am going to return to my room and double check that nothing is missing, then rest for a while before dinner.”

  “I say,” Cormac stood with a stretch, “a rest does sound lovely.”

  Jocelyn and Cormac began talking casually as the four of us left the sunroom, while Alex hung back to walk with me a few steps behind them.

  “How did your talk with Bastian go?”

  “It was interesting,” I grinned, “that’s for sure.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Oh nothing, just that he’s secretly bonded to a guy from school that no one knows about but Steven and I…

  “I’ll tell you when we’re alone,” I whispered. “But he is going to talk to Steven about coming back with us, so we’ll see.”

  “That’s great.”

  We arrived at the hallway with Cormac’s room, and he turned off with a wave, and I realized that while Jocelyn and Cormac had announced their plans, no one had asked Alex and I what we were going to do. No orders, no plans, nothing. Maybe it was by design, or maybe it was an oversight, but either way, I got excited.

  “Don’t look now,” Alex said with a smile, apparently having the same realization I was, “but we it appears we might have some free time.”

  “I was thinking that too,” I grinned, “but I didn’t want to jinx it.”

  “You feel like taking a walk?” he asked, sharing my tentative excitement.

  “Sure,” I said, fighting the urge to slide my hand into his, “that sounds great. But shouldn’t we check on Chloe?”

  “Looked in on her right before lunch, she was out cold.”

  Alex hadn’t had much luck in getting Chloe out for walk while I was talking to Bastian, so instead he’d taken her to Cormac who had been able to procure a sleeping draught from one of his Alchemist friends. Good thing too, because I have no idea what we would have done with her the rest of the day. Now she could sleep off the emotional rollercoaster that was the first several hours of a new Anam bond – which, take it from me, was the way to do it – and the rest of us could have the afternoon off.

  “Good,” I said, “she needs it.”

  “So, then you’re free?” he asked, his eyes lighting up.

  “Always,” I smiled.

  I wasn’t sure if he truly wanted to take a walk, or if he was just being discreet and really had something a bit more… private in mind, but to be honest, I didn’t care. It felt like I hadn’t seen him in ages, and as long as we got to be together, it didn’t matter what we did. Finally it would just be me and–

  “Bastian?” Jocelyn said suddenly.

  I looked over to the adjacent hallway where Bastian was indeed walking toward us.

  “Good afternoon,” Bastian said with a polite nod, ever conscious that someone might be watching. “I wonder if you would mind sparing me a moment of your time? If you are not presently engaged, of course.”

  “No, not at all,” Jocelyn said, “In fact I was just on my way to my room, if you would care to join me.”

  “Thank you,” Bastian nodded again, joining our group as we continued down the hall.

  A few steps later and we reached the corridor that he
ld Jocelyn’s room and turned down it – all of us, that is, except Alex who hesitated.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, turning back while Jocelyn and Bastian continued on, having not noticed.

  “I don’t think they really need us,” he shrugged, “why don’t we just go?”

  “But it sounds like something might be up,” I said as I kept going, waving for him to follow. “Besides, even if he did want us, it’s not like he could have said so.”

  “Yeah…” he mumbled with a weird grimace, glancing away for a second.

  “Don’t worry,” I smiled, “it’ll only take a second.”

  I caught up to Jocelyn and Bastian just as they were stepping into the room, with Alex bringing up the rear.

  “Is something wrong?” Jocelyn asked as soon as the door closed.

  “No,” Bastian said, “but I wanted to let you know that I misjudged the amount of time it would take for the delivery from the vault. I appears the shew will be arriving tonight.”

  “Tonight?” I reiterated, all but overjoyed.

  “Yes,” Bastian confirmed, “should be about 6 this evening.”

  Woohoo! That means no dusty book duty!

  “I know it’s a bit earlier than expected,” Bastian said, leaning his forearms against the back of the nearest armchair, “but this may work out better. It would have been difficult for us to all have a coordinating time tomorrow to disappear without being missed, but with the council dinner tonight–”

  “–everyone who would have cause to miss us will be occupied,” Jocelyn finished his thought.

  “Exactly.”

  “You aren’t supposed to be at the dinner?” Alex asked, though I couldn’t tell who he was talking to.

  Jocelyn shook his head. “I am not a council member, and Bastian, if I’m not mistaken, is still too young. Yes,” he said, actually looking pleased, “this should work out well.”

  “Good,” Bastian said. “The box will come to my room, so if that is acceptable to everyone, we can have a look at it there. Though,” he added, “Becca and I won’t have had time to look through the volumes from the archives.”