Seven Dreams

by English, Charlotte E.

  ‘No!’ said Serena, aghast. ‘Teyo. What possessed you to run up my skirt?!’

  ‘I couldn’t let you all run off to the secret and interesting places without me!’

  ‘But my skirt, Teyo? Up my skirt?’

  ‘It was the only thing I could think of at the time.’

  Serena sighed. ‘You, um. You didn’t... see anything while you were under there, did you?’

  ‘Your ankle,’ Teyo returned promptly.

  ‘My ankle.’

  ‘Yes.’

  Serena thought about that. ‘Only my ankle?’

  ‘There was a lot of fabric going on down there,’ Teyo said apologetically. ‘But,’ he offered, brightening, ‘It was a very shapely ankle.’

  Serena eyed him.

  ‘Though now that I think of it, it looked more like a tree trunk to me at the time.’

  Serena’s eyes opened wide. ‘My ankles are not of such stupendous proportions as all that, Mr. Bambre.’

  ‘My perspective was a little disordered.’

  Serena sighed. If anybody had to be dashing up her skirt in the guise of a lizard, she’d rather it was Teyo than anyone else. He was trustworthy, unthreatening and, she was sure, quite uninterested in her in that kind of way. Still, to have one’s friends rummaging around among one’s undergarments was a disconcerting experience for any woman, and Serena could only gather her tattered dignity around her, lift her chin, and stare frostily out of the window.

  ‘I really didn’t see anything,’ Teyo muttered.

  Serena ignored that.

  Oliver Tullen’s eyes were pale blue, and piercingly intent. He studied Serena’s little group expressionlessly as they were admitted to his office. As ever, Serena had no way of knowing what he was thinking.

  They never travelled to Oliver’s openly, without disguise. One never knew who might be watching, after all. Serena had cast the three of them as a well-to-do city family returning from a visit to the country. They were dressed with neatness and propriety, though not ostentatiously; the goal here was to blend in. Oliver’s gaze slid from her to Teyo without comment, which meant, to her relief, that their efforts had passed inspection.

  He looked at Iyamar for rather longer.

  ‘Miss Carterett,’ he said in his soft voice. ‘Mr. Bambre. What can I do for you?’ He gestured to the chairs that were arrayed before his desk.

  Serena took one gratefully. The shoes she’d chosen were but newly added to her wardrobe of costumes, and they were pinching a little. ‘We need to report,’ she replied, ‘and I’m seeking approval for a new recruit.’

  Oliver’s eyes flicked back to Iyamar. ‘I see.’ He was a slight man in his sixties, or thereabouts, with dark grey hair beginning to turn white. He always wore the same thing: a dark blue shirt and deep brown trousers and boots, with, as appropriate, a heavy black cloak. He never wore jewellery. He was the uncontested master of all things disguise; no one could best him. He had once turned up at his own office in the guise of a lift engineer, and though he had been Serena’s teacher and mentor for years, even she had not recognised him.

  ‘Begin with the young lady,’ he said.

  Serena grinned. She had cast Iyamar as her young brother in today’s masquerade, interested to test, and possibly improve, her new team member’s skills in masking her gender. And she was good. Once her wig, make-up and clothes were in place, Iyamar had slipped effortlessly into the role. So convincing was her every movement and gesture, even Serena was hard-pressed to remember that she wasn’t really male.

  But nothing got past Oliver.

  Iyamar glanced at Serena, uncertain. ‘My name’s Anders Gollon,’ she said in her boy’s voice. ‘I’m here to —’

  ‘This isn’t an audition,’ Oliver interrupted.

  Iyamar blinked. ‘It isn’t?’ she said in her normal voice. ‘I thought —’ She stopped herself, and nodded. ‘Right. Iyamar Hale. These people picked me up the other night and told me there was a job in it.’

  ‘And are you interested in this job?’

  Iyamar shrugged. ‘I said yes, but I don’t know. Yesterday was about the most boring day of my life.’

  Serena winced. ‘I was obliged to leave her with Wendle,’ she apologised. ‘There was, ah, not much going on out there.’

  ‘I missed all the good stuff,’ Iyamar sighed, slumping.

  Oliver looked her up and down. ‘Do you imagine that the “good stuff” is allocated to raw recruits?’ he said coolly.

  Iyamar blinked. ‘Well... no. I suppose not.’

  ‘No. Train hard, do well, and you’ll get to do the exciting things. Serena here was kept on surveillance for two years before I let her play a role.’

  Serena grinned and nodded. Goodness, but she’d been bored! So many hours spent crouched outside somebody’s house, or hovering at the back of bars, waiting for something interesting to happen. Very little ever did.

  Iyamar’s expression turned a little sullen, and Serena was afraid she might revolt. But then the girl apparently made some kind of decision, for she sat up straighter and nodded. ‘That’d be fair enough. I want this job.’

  Oliver’s gaze returned to Serena. ‘Where did you say you found her?’

  Serena related the whole history of her encounter with Iyamar, ignoring the girl’s obvious discomfort. She didn’t try to soften any of it; there would have been no point. Oliver could practically smell a lie, no matter how small.

  ‘I didn’t want to do it!’ Iyamar burst out, when Serena had finished recounting her failed attempt at robbing their carriage. ‘I was desperate.’

  Serena expected another stinging retort from Oliver, but he surprised her. ‘That sometimes happens,’ he informed Iyamar. ‘You showed initiative, at any rate.’

  Iyamar appeared to be as surprised as Serena, for she opened her mouth, managed to say nothing at all, and closed it again abruptly.

  ‘You also showed ineptitude,’ he continued. ‘Clumsiness, rashness and a deplorable lack of control. You will need a great deal of training.’ He looked at Teyo as he spoke, who grinned ruefully.

  ‘I’ll train her,’ he rumbled.

  Iyamar began to look mutinous again, for no reason Serena could understand. But she swallowed whatever objection she might have been thinking of, and nodded once.

  ‘Good. It is always an advantage to have another shapeshifter on our books,’ Oliver said, with a trace of a smile for Serena. ‘Get her registered on your way out.’

  Serena nodded, pleased and a little relieved. If Oliver had refused to take her, she had no idea what else she might have done with Iyamar.

  ‘Now the report,’ Oliver said.

  Serena recounted the events of the past two days. She thought she detected a flicker of annoyance in Oliver’s eyes as she reached the part where the key had been taken from right under their noses, but he said nothing. She ended by taking out the sketch Fabian had made of the missing object, and handed it over. ‘We’ve never seen anything like this before,’ she said.

  The sketch portrayed a little curled-up round object resembling a sea shell, though it was not precisely like that at all. The thing had been made from some kind of stone, Fabian said; whatever it was looked like ordinary granite, save for the tinge of green in its make-up and an odd silvery sheen.

  Oliver looked at the sketch without comment, and finally laid it down upon his desk. ‘Halavere will be kept under watch,’ he said.

  Serena nodded. That was the end of the interview, she knew; she didn’t expect Oliver to share any of the things that might be passing through his mind. ‘What do wish us to do now?’ she asked.

  ‘Train your new recruit,’ he replied.

  Serena blinked. ‘That’s it? No new jobs?’

  Oliver watched her in silence for some moments. She couldn’t tell whether he was thinking, or merely waiting. At length he said: ‘Unless I miss my guess, this isn’t the last we will see of this affair of the key. When it comes up again — and I do not think it will be a lon
g wait before it does — I’ll want you free to take it up.’

  He must know something else about it, Serena thought with a little thrill of excitement. If only he would share his knowledge, rather than dropping cryptic hints and dismissing them! She knew better than to ask. She got up to leave, Teyo and Iyamar immediately following her lead.

  ‘Stay in Iving,’ Oliver added just as she reached the door. ‘You can take apartment 43, Allerside.’

  ‘And Halavere?’ she said, turning around.

  ‘Not your concern at the moment.’

  Serena dipped him a curtsey befitting a housemaid to her employer, her lips curving in a roguish smile. She won a tiny answering smile from him, which gave her great satisfaction.

  ‘Time for paperwork,’ she said to Iyamar as she ushered the girl out of the office.

  Iyamar frowned, hesitated, and finally said: ‘But I can’t write.’

  Serena stopped dead in the corridor. ‘You... what?’ she said faintly.

  Iyamar hung her head. ‘Nobody ever learned me,’ she apologised.

  ‘Taught,’ Serena corrected. ‘Nobody ever taught you. But we’ll change that, post-haste.’ She spoke briskly, but with a sinking heart. Good gracious. She’d realised there would be a lot of work to be done with Iyamar, but even her wildest estimates appeared to fall short of the truth.

  Never mind, it was hardly the girl’s fault. She exchanged a look with Teyo, reassuring herself that he was still in favour of the project. Of course he was; nothing exceeded Teyo’s patience or good nature. She had never seen him upset, or even a little bit ruffled.

  ‘I’ll do the writing for you,’ she said to Iyamar. ‘But later, we’ll start lessons.’

  Iyamar nodded.

  ‘Can you read?’ Serena thought to ask.

  ‘Nope.’

  Serena sighed.

  Chapter Six

  Serena was concerned that her team would be bored over the coming weeks, with no assigned tasks to work on. She found herself mistaken. Not only did the lull in activity grant them all time for some much-needed rest, but she swiftly found that everybody had something to teach Iyamar, and everybody was very willing to participate, to her pleasure and relief.

  Egg — seeing, perhaps, some vision of her former self in the much younger Iyamar — swiftly carted her off for lessons in her particular talents of lock-picking and pick-pocketing. Also, more peculiarly, wig-making. Egg was the artist behind most of their hair options; it was something of a hobby with her. She claimed to find it relaxing, and undertook it in the same spirit as Teyo’s knitting. Why she felt it necessary to impart any of this ability to Iyamar was less obvious to Serena, but she chose not to interfere. Anything that would help her friends and colleagues bond with her new recruit was to be encouraged.

  Serena and Fabian began teaching Iyamar what Serena thought of as the “Basic Skills”, those being the elegant arts of dissembling, disguise and character acting. Iyamar excelled at the latter, having gained some degree of practice already during her time on the streets. There was rather more to be desired with the others, but the girl threw herself into the pursuits with laudable enthusiasm, and Serena was pleased with her progress. She sent regular reports to Oliver, and since she heard nothing from him in response, she was able to assume that he was as pleased as she was.

  Teyo, meanwhile, began the task of teaching her to read and write. For the present, he left her shapeshifter abilities alone; she had more than enough to occupy her time and her mind, and he could not persuade her to focus on her draykoni talents.

  This did not worry Serena overmuch. All in good time, thought she, and Iyamar’s zeal for learning could not possibly be faulted anywhere else.

  In some ways, perhaps, she was a little bit too zealous. Taciturn at first, Iyamar swiftly conquered her shyness under the friendly encouragement of her new colleagues and began to ask a great many questions. She wanted to know about everything. Every job they had ever undertaken, and why; every opponent they had conquered, or failed to subdue; how they had learned all of their various arts and skills; how they had come to work for Oliver Tullen and the Agency; and so on.

  These last bothered Serena just a little. There came a quiet afternoon about two weeks after their meeting with Oliver, when Serena and Iyamar were engaged in an elocution lesson — or Serena’s version thereof.

  ‘You said Teyo used to work for the Unspeakables?’ said Iyamar, having rapidly picked up the jargon of Serena’s team.

  ‘I did,’ Serena replied guardedly. She felt a faint stab of guilt for having imparted something so personal about Teyo’s past. Perhaps she should not have, though she had meant it for the best. She’d wanted Iyamar to realise that her background was by no means unusual in her new line of work.

  ‘And Egg?’ continued Iyamar.

  Serena shook her head. ‘Egg’s never been Unspeakable. Just a thief, for some years. Remember your accent, Iya. Today you’re a farmer from southern Irbel, remember.’

  Iyamar paused to think for a moment before venturing her next question. ‘Well’n, ma’am. Wharbeit thous’t be a roguish snabble-catcher?’

  ‘A snabble-catcher?’ Serena said, laughing. ‘Did you make that up?’

  Iyamar grinned. ‘Happen I might’ve.’

  ‘It is an excellent word.’

  ‘You’re avoiding the question,’ Iyamar observed.

  Serena surveyed her new charge thoughtfully. She was avoiding the question, as it happened, though she might wish Iyamar to be a little less aware of it.

  ‘You said you don’t share that background,’ Iyamar prompted helpfully.

  Serena shook her head slowly. ‘No, that’s true. Fabian and I are... well, we have reasons for doing this.’

  Iyamar said nothing, only stared at her new mentor with a hopeful shine in her icy-blue eyes which sent Serena’s heart sinking into her boots. ‘I’ll tell you some other time,’ she said.

  Iyamar sat back, arms folded, and surveyed Serena intently. ‘Is it a dark secret?’

  ‘Not really.’

  ‘Not really dark, or not really a secret?’

  ‘You’re very persistent,’ Serena said, eyeing her with some displeasure.

  ‘I don’t see how I’m meant to get information out of people if I’m not,’ said Iyamar reasonably.

  Serena folded her own arms, and stared back. ‘I’m not a fit subject for interrogation.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because I’m your boss.’

  Iyamar pouted. ‘I’ll get it out of you eventually.’

  Serena rolled her eyes. ‘Oh, probably. But for the time being, back to your brogue.’

  Iyamar shook her head, and effected one of her lightning-swift subject changes. ‘I want my rapier back.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘My rapier. I might need it.’

  ‘Not on my team, you won’t.’

  ‘What? Why not?’

  ‘We don’t do violence,’ Serena said firmly. ‘Ever. And we certainly don’t do killing.’

  ‘But you’re crookish.’

  Serena eyed her with grave displeasure. ‘We’re not crookish! We’ve been over that. Even if we were, we still wouldn’t do violence.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘I’ll tell you another time.’

  ‘Tell me now,’ Iyamar said stubbornly. ‘I can’t be a team member if you won’t tell me anything.’

  The girl had a point, Serena thought with an inward sigh. ‘Because we’ve all lost people, that’s why.’

  ‘You mean you all have people who were deaded?’

  ‘Right. Deaded.’

  ‘Who?’

  Serena narrowed her eyes. ‘People.’

  ‘Tell me this one thing and then we can go on with the lesson.’ Iyamar smiled hopefully and added, ‘Please?’ in a wheedling tone.

  ‘Teyo’s parents were killed when their house was robbed,’ Serena said rapidly. ‘Egg lost most of her family, though she still won’t talk about how it happene
d. And Fabe and me, we lost our father when he... well, he killed himself.’

  Iyamar blinked. ‘Oh.’

  ‘Right, so. Nobody wants to do any of that... that violence stuff.’

  Iyamar thought about that for a while, and finally nodded. ‘Okay. You can keep the rapier.’

  ‘That’s lucky,’ said Serena with a crooked smile, ‘because I already threw it away.’

  Iyamar glared at her. ‘You had no right to do that!’

  ‘Nope,’ Serena agreed, ‘but I didn’t want it in the house.’

  ‘Meh.’

  ‘What was that?’

  ‘I said, “Meh.”‘

  ‘Lovely. Can we get on with the lesson now?’

  ‘Woar, me-lady, to be sure’n we can.’

  Iyamar’s queries put Serena in mind of a duty she had been postponing. That evening, she detoured past Fabian’s room on her way to rest and knocked. Receiving a grunt of invitation (or she hoped that was what the ungracious sound meant), she went in.

  Fabian was lying sprawled upon his bed, still fully dressed. He looked truly like himself, which was a rare event these days, for he delighted in his characters even more than Serena did. She sometimes wondered whether he took pleasure in being someone else because he found it difficult to be himself.

  He did not look best pleased to be interrupted, and she realised with dismay that he was having one of his difficult days. He gazed at her out of shadowed dark eyes, his near-black hair hanging in a tousled and unwashed mass down to his jaw. ‘What is it?’ he muttered.

  Serena stepped quickly inside and shut the door behind her. ‘How bad is it?’ she said quietly.

  He shrugged. ‘I’ve had worse.’

  She nodded, studying him for signs of trouble. After a few seconds of this scrutiny, he snorted with annoyance and threw a pillow at her. ‘Stop it,’ he growled. ‘It won’t kill me.’

  She returned only a crooked smile to this sally, and sat down gingerly on the end of the bed. ‘I was thinking... we ought to pay a visit, tomorrow. If you think you’re going to be up to it?’