Walking along the cobbled street that led down to the village square, Mistral felt a burst of pleasure. Her brothers had returned! With that knowledge the restlessness that had plagued her over the last few weeks was suddenly gone, leaving her feeling unusually calm, serene even. She sighed happily and turned her face up to feel the gentle warmth of the late autumn sun. Drawing in a deep breath of the still air she savoured the edge of crispness, the faint scent of ripe apples and fallen leaves. Autumn … her favourite time. Smiling at the thought of long card games and listening to even longer stories from Xerxes, Mistral walked into the village square to see the twins, Fabian and Leo waiting by the newly painted door of The Cloak and Dagger.
‘Mistral!’ Fabian strode over to her with a frown. ‘I was about to come and collect you from the shop.’
‘I know, but Cain came back so I thought I’d leave him to it.’ Mistral accepted the arm he placed around her with a smile, but at the back of it was a flash of irritation. The nearer she drew to the end of her pregnancy the more overprotective he had become, insisting on accompanying her everywhere or arranging for the twins to be her escorts, even on such mundane outings as grocery shopping in the village. Even Serenity had been appearing frequently in the shop, wishing to purchase a suspicious amount of supplies for someone that ran a very well-stocked Infirmary.
‘How long before they arrive?’ Leo demanded curtly when Fabian drew her to a standstill beside him and the twins.
She gazed up at the path leading from the North Gate, her eyes briefly drifting out of focus, ‘They’re in the meadows … the power of the Expediency spell Mage Grapple has cast is dwindling.’
‘They are nearly here.’ Leo glanced up at the path then turned back to look at her. ‘And you have still not Seen why he has called this meeting?’
Mistral frowned, her expression becoming vague once more, ‘No … he will not think of it –’
‘We could make him think of it.’ Phantom suggested quietly.
A calculating look crossed Leo’s face but Fabian spoke before he could respond.
‘That would be foolish! Mage Grapple has one of the most astute minds on the Isle! He would instantly know that his will had been manipulated and become aware of your ability to influence minds remotely!’
Phantom looked like he was about to argue but Phantasm cut him off, ‘Mage De Winter is right brother. The true depth of our ability is something we need to avoid revealing at all costs. It is our only insurance against situations like the rigged vote with Malachi. I’m afraid we’ll just have to wait and find out in Mage Grapple’s good time.’
Leo scowled briefly but couldn’t argue with their reasoning. He gazed up at the path leading to the North Gate in icy silence until the drumming of hooves on hard ground announced the arrival of Mage Grapple. The sight of three horseback figures cantering down the path drew Clovis hurrying from the stables to tend their horses. Mage Grapple rode into the square on the same heavy warhorse he’d been riding the first time Mistral had seen him, on a summer’s day by the Amber River three years ago. He was flanked, as ever, by two hooded warlocks that reined to a halt behind him and remained stiffly in their saddles until Mage Grapple had dismounted and passed his reins to Clovis.
Leo immediately strode forward to greet Mage Grapple. While they exchanged greetings, Mistral turned her head slightly to whisper in Fabian’s ear. ‘Any idea what this is about?’
Fabian shook his head lightly, his face expressionless, but his thoughts filled with several possibilities, mostly involving current policies being debated at the Council that might affect the Ri and none very exciting.
‘Lady De Winter.’
Mistral pulled herself out of Fabian’s musings to smile pleasantly at the grizzled face looking at her, ‘Mage Grapple.’
‘You and the Gemini may take your leave from this meeting.’
Mistral was momentarily thrown. Mage Grapple knew that she could hear every word whether she was in the meeting room or not. Why would he ask her not to attend? She felt Phantasm’s mental shrug and heard Phantom’s more cheery Cloak then! and nodded in response to Mage Grapple’s terse dismissal.
‘Good. Leo?’ Mage Grapple abruptly turned away and began to stride up the path towards the Main Building with Leo.
Fabian kissed her with a murmured promise to return quickly and strode away after the two figures, the moment he left her side she instantly missed him and sighed at her own contrariness.
‘Why so gloomy Mistral? We’ve got the afternoon off and everyone’s back!’ Phantom strolled over and placed a brotherly arm around her shoulders. ‘Come and take the weight off your feet, because they are having to carry quite a lot around now, mind you it really can’t be for much longer now –’
‘Oh don’t you start!’ Mistral snapped bad-temperedly. ‘I’ve just had Cain nagging at me! He’s only been back two minutes and first thing he wanted to do was stick his damned cold stethoscope on me!’
Phantom laughed and removed his arm from around her shoulders to push open the Cloak’s new door; it stuck slightly as the new paint caught on the door jamb and Phantom gave it a hefty kick to force it open.
‘Don’t do that!’ Floris shouted when the door slammed open and smashed into the wall behind.
‘You should’ve left it off Floris.’ Phantom responded mildly. ‘It made life a lot easier.’
‘I’m beginning to think that too!’
Leaving Phantom to listen to Floris bemoaning the treatment of his new door while he collected their drinks, Phantasm and Mistral made their way slowly towards the table at the back where Xerxes, Brutus and Grendel were sat. The tavern was packed with warriors freshly returned from the fake Contract but far from being lively, the atmosphere was subdued. The twins had used their gift to inform Xerxes of the attack on the Valley and he had spread the news to the other warriors. Even though they had been forewarned, the actual sight of the desecration of the Valley had still come as a shock to all of them.
‘Why the irritation with your Mage, Mistral?’ Phantasm murmured softly while he steered her through the crowded room.
Mistral sighed, of course Phantasm had noticed her moment of annoyance. He noticed everything. ‘He’s just driving me a bit insane with the overprotective act. I swear he’d actually follow me into the toilet if I’d let him!’
Phantasm stopped and turned to look at her, a frown creasing the perfect ivory skin of his brow, ‘His mother did die in childbirth Mistral. It’s quite understandable that he will become more anxious the closer you draw to the end of your pregnancy.’
Mistral groaned and closed her eyes, inwardly cursing her own selfish stupidity. How could she have forgotten that Delphine De Winter had died giving birth to Leo? ‘Oh, you know what brother? Sometimes I really hate myself.’
Phantasm smiled and looked down, resting a hand lightly on her bump, ‘I think you may have cause to be a touch preoccupied at the moment.’
‘Ouch! Don’t do that!’ Mistral winced as her son kicked hard against Phantasm’s hand.
‘Sorry.’ Phantasm grinned, looking anything but.
‘Hasn’t my nephew been born yet?’ Xerxes called with an obvious effort at light-heartedness.
‘No Xerxes, that’s why I’m still as big as a house.’ Mistral grumbled and sank wearily onto the chair Brutus offered her.
‘You’re not as big as a house.’ Brutus smiled and patted her bump. ‘Just a bit rounder than before.’
‘Will you all please stop doing that!’
‘Sorry.’ Brutus sat back on his seat and immediately lapsed into silence.
Mistral looked around at her grim-faced brothers and heaved a sigh, ‘Come on brothers! Lighten up! So you got duped on a Contract and missed out on a bit of action in the Valley, no harm done! You all got paid didn’t you?’
Xerxes reached inside his jerkin and pulled out a small leather purse. Untying the neck he poured the gold coins out onto the table. ‘I want nothing to do with that money,’
he stated flatly. ‘It’s Malachi’s gold! I can’t believe that scheming, double-crossing, low-life –’
‘Yes, a low-life.’ Mistral cut across him in a firm voice. ‘But one that is now dead ... and you are not.’
‘No, but loads of villagers are because we weren’t here!’
‘By villagers, you mean the retired bunch of warriors that haven’t stopped talking about their heroics since the battle?’ Phantom asked, carefully placing two full tankards and Mistral’s half-tankard of ale down onto the table.
‘They had a great time.’ Phantasm agreed. ‘Most of them hated being retired anyway … you know how warriors are –’
‘– always dreaming of going down in a blaze of glory and not fading quietly into their dotage,’ finished Phantom.
Brutus looked up thoughtfully, ‘I hadn’t really looked at it that way.’
‘No brother, that’s because you were thinking of yourself as usual, just like your father!’ Xerxes admonished, mimicking their mother’s favourite chastisement.
While the brothers laughed Phantom eyed the pile of gold on the table with an envious look, ‘So what’re you going to do with that then?’
Xerxes stopped laughing and looked down at the coins, ‘Don’t know. I don’t want it that’s for sure. It feels wrong to have been paid for doing nothing but spending a round trip to Spain playing cards while half the Valley got destroyed.’
‘I know what I’m going to do with mine.’ Brutus leapt to his feet and strode over to the bar. Pulling out his own purse he dropped it down onto the wooden top.
Floris walked over, raising an eyebrow questioningly, ‘That’ll buy a lot of wine.’
‘It’s not for wine Floris, it’s for the village … to help pay for repairs.’
Floris nodded, the fading bruises on his face crinkling into a rare smile, ‘I’ll make sure it gets where it’s needed.’
At once the tavern was full of the sound of chairs scraping the floor as warriors stood up and made their way to the bar to drop their own Contract fees down next to Brutus’.
Watching Grendel lumber to his feet and shove his way to the bar, Mistral turned to give Xerxes a reproachful look, ‘Aren’t you going to give yours to the village too?’
Xerxes pursed his lips thoughtfully, ‘Don’t know. It’d buy Marietta a lot of dresses ... and that’d buy me a lot of happy Marietta –’
‘Xerxes!’
‘Oh don’t be so daft Mistral!’ He laughed. ‘Of course I’m going to give it to the village! Can’t wait to see the back of it actually ... I might just buy a cask of ale out of it before I give it away though, you know ... just to keep us all amused for the afternoon.’
‘Come on, time you were out.’ Mistral muttered to her swollen belly while Xerxes went to the bar. ‘I’m missing out on a load of free ale because of you!’
‘He can hear you, you know.’ Cain said, dropping lightly onto a chair at their table.
‘Really?’ Mistral looked unconvinced.
‘Oh yes, every word.’
‘What? Every word?’
‘Hmm, even the swear words.’
Mistral nodded vaguely. She wasn’t too worried about those; it was some of the private conversations, if they could even be termed as conversations, that she and Fabian shared that bothered her more.
‘Why’re you here anyway?’ Cain asked after he’d taken a long drink from his tankard. ‘I thought you had some power meeting with Mage Grapple, or was that just an excuse to avoid an examination?’
‘It wasn’t an excuse but yes, I would do anything to avoid letting you put your cold hands on me! He does somersaults every time you do!’
‘I do not have cold hands! I resent the slight on my professional touch!’
‘Professional?’ Mistral scoffed. ‘Like when you drugged the Lieutenants?’
‘That was years ago! Want me to bring up some of your finer moments?’
‘Not really –’
‘Sorry to interrupt, but Mistral? Shouldn’t you be somewhere else?’
‘I don’t think so brother.’ Mistral frowned at Phantasm. ‘I’m quite comfy here thanks.’
‘I didn’t mean physically.’
‘Oh right! You want me to listen in on the meeting?’
‘Of course I do, and I think Mage Grapple does too!’
‘You think?’
‘Definitely.’ Phantasm responded curtly. ‘Now, please.’
‘What, here?’ Mistral said doubtfully, looking around at the heaving tavern.
Phantasm smiled, ‘Also definitely part of his plan. Whatever is being said in that meeting is for the ears of everyone here, in fact, I think I will arrange precisely that –’ he broke off to leap onto the table in one fluid bound. ‘Warriors! Your attention please!’
Mistral and Phantom shared a knowing look.
Ah, another Divinus in the making …
‘Mage Grapple has requested a meeting with our Divinus that I feel we should all be attending, so if you could gather round and listen, we might just have missed the boring preliminaries and have reached the interesting part!’
Mistral suddenly found herself the centre of the tavern’s attention, ‘Oh thanks brother,’ she muttered uncomfortably and lowered her gaze to stare into her tankard.
‘Since when does an audience bother you Lady De Winter?’ Samson called cheerfully. ‘You’re happy enough hurling abuse at those poor first years in front of the whole village! What’s a few warriors watching you lip-read Mage Grapple?’
Mistral grinned at him, her expression quickly contorting to a scowl when she saw that he had brought all of the “poor first years” along with him to watch the show, ‘Your doing, I suppose?’ she hissed under her breath to the twins who didn’t reply but wore matching expressions of smugness that confirmed her suspicions instantly. ‘I hate you!’ She mouthed silently.
They both smiled angelically back at her.
Mistral closed her eyes and heaved a sigh of defeat. Feeling more like a performing pet than ever, she forced herself to ignore her audience and clear her mind, focussing on the ever present voice in her mind, his velvet soft words gradually becoming louder until it was the only sound she could hear. Opening her eyes to gaze mistily across the silent tavern, Mistral saw not a sea of expectant faces but the disfigured features of Mage Grapple and the haughty profile of Leo.
Looking out through Fabian’s eyes she noticed immediately that they were not in the third floor meeting room, but sat around the parchment strewn table in Leo’s tower room. This was not a formal meeting. Tilting her head, Mistral listened for a moment before beginning to speak in a lifeless voice, repeating the conversation she could hear through Fabian’s ears.
‘ I see you plan many changes, they are well thought. However, I must extend my commiserations on the loss of a Magnate member – ’
‘That’s Mage Grapple.’ Phantom announced knowledgably.
‘Hush brother! We guessed!’
‘His presence on the Magnate will be sorely missed –’
‘Not by me it won’t,’ Phantom muttered to himself; then more clearly for the benefit of the tavern, ‘that’s our Divinus, lying through his teeth.’
‘Have you considered a replacement for Mycroft and of course, for yourself yet?’
‘Why does Leo need replacing? Apart from the obvious reasons of course.’ Xerxes interrupted with a frown.
‘He’s the Divinus now, not a member of the Magnate.’ Phantasm whispered back, his eyes not leaving Mistral’s vacant face.
‘Mycroft’s finally waddled off to the afterlife, and Leo’s royal rear is officially on the throne, leaving two gaping holes in our Magnate.’ Xerxes mused loudly. ‘I wonder who he’ll appoint –’
‘I’d take one of them, if the money was right.’ Cain said quickly.
‘The money’s always right for the Magnate.’ Phantom muttered back.
‘Fabian, Bryden and I have drawn up a shortlist –’
There was a shor
t pause while the entire tavern craned forwards. Oblivious to the sudden tension in the room, Mistral watched Leo unfold a piece of parchment through Fabian’s eyes.
‘Chieftain Greenoak … Fabian De Winter … Imperato … Chieftain Larch … and one more that I am undecided about –’
‘Oh?’
‘That’s Mage Grapple – ’
‘Shut up!’
‘The Gemini.’
The tavern erupted into exclamations of surprise and a few cheers. Brutus gave a low whistle while Xerxes grinned and lifted his eyebrows at the twins, who, for once, were not their usual composed selves but staring at each other with stunned looks on their faces.
‘I see, and who do you favour?’
‘That’s Mage Grapple again.’ Phantom managed in a dazed voice.
‘Fabian and Imperato.’
‘That’s –’
‘We know! Shut-up!’ Cain hissed, leaning across the table to catch Mistral’s quietly spoken words.
‘And you De Winter? Do you wish to hold a position on the Magnate? I understand it is the second time you have been made the offer.’
‘I am committed to my role as Training Captain and I also hold a seat on the Council, my becoming a member of the Magnate would be of no further benefit to the Ri.’
‘You can guess who that is, turning down money and power as usual.’ Phantom muttered to his twin.
In the sunlit tower room across the Valley, Mage Grapple gave Fabian a long look before nodding and returning his attention to Leo, ‘Inform me of your new Magnate members once they have been appointed, they will be allocated a seat on the Council.’
Leo raised an eyebrow, only the role Divinus automatically came with a seat on the Council.
‘You are not the only one to be making reforms.’ Mage Grapple said gravely. ‘Recent events have revealed to me my own complacency, and I seek to rectify my error with immediate effect. The Isle was forged to be a haven for more than just sorcerers, however this is not reflected in the balance of power at the Council – but it shall be soon.
‘Each Magnate member will be offered a seat on the Council, as will the Lady De Winter while she fulfils the role of Seer and, whether they become a member of your Magnate or not, the Gemini. I shall also extend an invitation to sit at the Council to each Arcane Chieftain, irrespective of the size of their tribe –’
The Seer Page 91
