We’d only been here a few minutes, but it felt like a lot more time had passed.
The mystery seer himself had been deposited on the dock by a very stabbed and bleeding Jon, who explained the green-eyed seer had helped them, and then asked to speak with me and Balidor...or Revik, if neither of us two were available.
Jon himself left for the ship not long after they dropped Mr. Vaguely Annoying off, along with an unconscious human and Maygar, who didn’t seem to like the green-eyed seer much, either, as far as I could tell.
Feeling Revik look at the seer again, I tensed.
Immediately, the charge in his light dimmed, before I could get any kind of sense of what was behind it. I’d felt surprise there, but it was more than that. In fact, that feeling edged closer to shock than true surprise, which might have explained Revik’s uncharacteristic silence.
Well, uncharacteristic when it came to military and security matters, anyway.
More annoying from my perspective, Revik was clearly trying to hide his interest from me...maybe me, more than anyone...something he hardly ever did any more. I hated the evasion I felt there. I hated the faint flavor of guilt that came with it. It pissed me off, even more than the emotions I felt seething in some other region of his light, too obscured by shields for me to do much more than speculate on what they meant.
One thing was clear, though.
Seeing this fucking seer was upsetting my husband.
Something about that single fact made me view him with an overt hostility. I knew it was irrational, but I didn’t much care about that, either. Between that, losing the List seers to some jackass sheik in Dubai, and Jon’s stabbing, I wasn’t in the best of moods, anyway.
“Explain it to me again,” I said. At the silence my words produced, I stepped closer to Revik. Lifting his wrist, I stared down pointedly at the face of the old-fashioned watch he wore. “A little less vague this time, if you don’t mind? We’re on the clock.”
The green-eyed seer sighed a bit, glancing at Balidor.
Balidor looked at me, then shrugged apologetically with one hand. I honestly couldn’t tell if he was apologizing to me, or for me, however, which only annoyed me more.
Before I could make up my mind, Balidor cleared his throat. Turning back towards our mystery guy and his annoyingly loaded silences, Balidor returned the seer’s stare long enough for me to feel and see something pass between them.
It hit me again that Balidor knew this guy, too.
“...It sounds like a cult,” I snapped, glaring at both of them when they turned.
Balidor winced at something in my expression, looking faintly caught.
“...I don’t need a bunch of weirdo cult followers hanging around, ‘Dori,” I said, my voice warning. “I don’t care how good their sight-skills are. The last thing we want is to be overrun by a bunch of fanatics. I say no. Alliance, fine. But not on my ship.”
From behind me, Revik laid a gentle hand on my shoulder.
I felt the warning there, as well as the quieter reassurance, but I had to bite my lip to keep from snapping at him, too. It didn’t help that I caught our mystery guest staring at Revik again. He gazed at his face, right before his eyes focused down, looking more intently at the hand Revik had on my shoulder.
Great. He was even shittier about hiding his emotional reactions than Revik and Balidor were.
I could see him staring at Revik again, not long after I thought it, his expression reflecting something like incredulity, almost like he couldn’t believe Revik actually stood there, behind me. And sure, a lot of people stared at Revik and me like that, given who we are, and how often our pictures showed up in the human feeds. Seers stared at us for religious reasons, too, and just due to our status in the seer community. Humans stared at us...usually in fear.
This felt different. While I couldn’t read the exact details of that stare, I could feel the decided lack of neutrality behind it.
It felt personal.
Like Revik, Balidor seemed to feel my anger, and sent me a reassuring pulse of warmth. It’s all right, Allie. He’s not a threat to us...
Biting my lip, I didn’t answer that at first, either. I saw Balidor glance at the green-eyed seer after he sent it, frowning slightly. Again, I felt something pass between the two of them.
“Who is this fucking guy?” I burst out.
Behind me, Revik jumped.
I turned that time, moving out from under Revik’s hand and looking between him and the green-eyed seer. Then I swiveled my gaze to Balidor.
Clicking softly, Revik avoided my eyes. So did Balidor.
The green-eyed seer met my gaze, but when I saw the faint apology there, somehow it only made me angrier. Still staring at him, I felt my jaw harden more.
I aimed my words at Balidor and Revik, though.
“Are you both really going to keep pretending you don’t know him?” I said. Turning, I gave Balidor a harder stare when Revik continued to avoid my gaze. “Because you really suck at it. So does he...” I added, motioning at the stranger with an angry flick of my wrist.
“Allie, calm down,” Revik said. “Please.”
I felt the deeper pulse of meaning that time, too.
Realizing my light was charging up, I fought to control it, realizing only then that my eyes were starting to glow. I knew then, what I’d been fighting to know for the last handful of minutes. I was overreacting to this.
I fought to think through why, then realized I already knew why.
Giving Revik an even harder look, I flinched when I saw him blush.
Are you really not going to tell me? Really?
He clicked softly, but met my gaze.
Not here, he sent, quiet, almost a murmur. Can we talk about it on the ship?
His thoughts sounded almost pleading.
Biting my lip, I shifted my stare to the green-eyed seer, addressing him directly.
“Look, I’m sorry if I’m being rude,” I said, my voice short. “But our clock’s running down, and it’s been a shitty night. If you want to come on board, you can come on board...we can finish this discussion there. If Balidor will vouch for you, and my husband trusts you...as they both clearly do...I’m not going to fight it.”
I motioned at Revik from behind my back, without looking at him that time.
“...But we have to get him indoors. Now. Do you understand this?” When the green-eyed seer didn’t speak, or change expression, I looked at Balidor. “He understands this, right? Or am I not supposed to explain that a good portion of the civilized world wants us dead?”
Balidor looked about to answer, but before he could, the green-eyed seer surprised me, beating him to it. Clicking softly, he made a negative motion with one hand, his light exuding regret that time, but also a kind of intensified politeness.
He stepped towards me.
The motion towards me caused me to stiffen, then to back off.
The strange seer halted in place when I moved, then bowed towards me deferentially.
“My profoundest apologies, Esteemed Sister,” the seer said, using the most formal version of Prexci, the seer tongue, that I knew. “I can see that it is I, indeed, who has been rude. I wish you to know that I serve you, above all. That is my vow. Further, I wish to cause you no concern...” His eyes flickered towards Revik. “...On any front, beloved sister. But I cannot accompany you to your ship at this time. I must return to my own people, for I am on assignment, too. Like you, we have strict time parameters, and I have already exceeded my charge...”
Biting my lip again at the vagueness of this, I fought not to try and read him, which really would have been rude, especially given who I was.
“Then what do you want?” I said, struggling to keep my own voice polite. “Right now, I mean. You want something...right?”
The seer straightened from his bow.
Looking at his face, I couldn’t help noticing that he was handsome, even more so than most seers. He had a high-cheekboned face with darkish
, almost olive skin, as well as other distinctly seer features: sculpted lips and those large, stunning eyes, light green with what looked like a violet ring around the irises. Both colors remained strangely visible even in the dim light of the docks, both contrasting and complementing one another.
“I wish two things from you right now, Esteemed Sister,” the seer said gravely. “With your permission, I would like to set up a secure means of communication between your people and mine, via Adhipan Balidor, that we might facilitate a more formal meeting at some point in the future.” When I gestured in agreement to this, a little impatiently, the seer hesitated, looking at Revik directly that time. “...And I would request a moment to speak with your husband. In private. If that is acceptable to both of you.”
I felt myself tense.
Behind me, I felt Revik tense, too.
Then, Revik blew me a subtle pulse of warmth. It’s okay, he sent, neutral.
I felt a faint reluctance in his light and that more protective bent in mine flared hotter.
...It’s okay, Allie, he repeated. I’m all right with it.
Maybe I’m not, I returned, harder.
When he didn’t respond, I exhaled, not hiding my annoyance that time, either. I focused back on the green-eyed seer.
“My husband agrees,” I said, short.
“Does that mean you don’t, Esteemed Bridge?” the seer asked politely.
I felt my jaw grow tense. I didn’t like the implication that he knew what had passed between me and Revik just then. I felt the seer back off with his light even as I thought it, as if he realized his mistake. Deliberately looking away, I struggled to control my light, staring out over the water as I clicked softly under my breath.
“It’s not for me to have an opinion,” I said, my voice neutral that time.
I stepped pointedly out of the way. I realized only then that I’d positioned myself even more directly between Revik and this other seer than Revik had himself. It felt strange to remove myself, almost like an admission of defeat.
“Semi-private,” I said, my voice holding a touch of warning. Bowing to both of them politely, still without really looking at either of their faces, I made an accommodating gesture, and felt Revik’s light react. “...We don’t have time for you to go far, brother,” I said to the other seer, more politely that time. I motioned towards the guard’s booth, on the other end of the pier. “That will be about as well as you can do, I’m afraid. We really must go soon.”
The green-eyed seer looked relieved when I looked at him next.
“Thank you, Esteemed Bridge,” he murmured.
I watched as he motioned politely for Revik to walk ahead of him.
More than the nameless seer, though, I watched Revik.
Again, I found myself fighting to calm my own light, feeling more than seeing as Revik’s aleimi winced away from that of the other seer. Revik looked strangely younger to me suddenly, almost vulnerable, and something about watching him with the other male made my light grow hotter once more, noticably enough that I made myself look away.
Crossing my arms in front of my chest, I walked deliberately up to Balidor.
I didn’t wait for any more b.s. to come out of his mouth, but faced him, standing only about a foot away from where his armor and guns ended. Folding my arms, I stared up at him, my voice openly hostile.
“Who is he, Balidor?” I said.
Balidor clicked quietly, rubbing his face with one hand. He looked tired.
“They are a very old group, Esteemed Sister,” he said, still not looking at me directly. Balidor folded his arms, in a position that felt defensive, his voice close to businesslike. “I have heard of them, of course, but relatively recently. I was not made aware of them until––”
“I didn’t ask about his Bridge-worshipping cult,” I snapped, fighting not to smack him with my light. “I asked about him. That seer. Over there. With Revik. Who the fuck is he?”
Balidor let out another clicking sigh.
Turning, he narrowed his eyes, watching Revik and the other male’s backs as the two of them entered the guard post, about twenty yards from where we stood. When Balidor looked back at me, I was suprised to see a glimmer of sadness in his eyes, along with something that might have been compassion...or maybe pity.
I didn’t want to know if it was for them...or for me.
“His name is Dalejem,” Balidor said simply.
Something about the way he said it made me pause again, staring at him. As per usual with Balidor, I couldn’t feel a damned thing on his light, even standing this close to him.
That maddening, impenetrable Adhipan wall...
As the thought crossed my mind, it hit me again. That seer with the green and violet eyes...he had one of those walls, too. A wall that felt a hell of a lot like Balidor’s all of a sudden.
I was about to ask about that, when something hit at my light.
Emotion. Fear mixed with grief, something like anger...it hit at my aleimi in a wash of heat, hard enough that I turned without thought.
Balidor caught hold of my arm, trying to stop me, but I jerked free without sparing him so much as a glance.
Barely a thought slid through my mind as I began to walk, fast, heading for that guard house on the other side of the pier.
I WAS LESS than two yards from the opening before it occurred to me to question what I was doing. My mind had blanked in those few seconds, but now I remembered.
I’d told that seer, Dalejem, that I’d give them privacy.
I’d told both of them I would. That meant I’d told Revik that, too.
Now that I could see two shapes standing there, close together in the dim light, I felt a sudden flush of misgiving, and realized I’d made myself an eavesdropper. Or worse, a peeping tom. In either case, I probably shouldn’t be here.
Even as I thought it, I heard Revik’s voice.
“Stop it,” he growled.
The taller shape stepped back from the other, shoving at his chest forcefully with the flat of one hand. I felt a swirl of anger again, more of that confusion...I stood close enough to Revik now that I couldn’t avoid feeling it. I could feel Revik actively shielding his light from me, too, and from Balidor and whomever else, and somehow, that bothered me more than the anger itself, or even the denser thread of emotion I felt beneath that.
“Brother...” another voice said, almost pleading.
I saw him reach for Revik again, but Revik evaded his hand, shoving it back.
“Don’t do that again,” Revik snapped. “I’m married, goddamn it! I have a fucking child with her...”
“I am sorry, brother. I am sorry...I did not mean it like that.”
“Then what did you mean, exactly? What do you want from me...?”
“I did not come here to cause you trouble. I did not know you were here. I just wanted to talk to you, for a few minutes. It has been so long...”
“It’s been too long, brother,” Revik said, his voice cold. “I’m not even the same person anymore, Dalejem...”
Revik’s voice trailed.
I froze, feeling my body tense as he turned his head.
His light eyes shone at me from that dark, reflecting the light from the other side of the pier. I saw him close his eyes, longer than a blink, right before a pulse of fear whispered off his light. More of that confusion followed...and enough grief that I couldn’t help but flinch.
Then he turned, glaring angrily at the other male.
“We’re done here,” he said, his voice colder still. “We’re fucking done. All right?”
The finality in his words felt close to a threat that time.
The other seer was staring at me by then, too. I saw his eyes take in my expression, even as he acknowledged Revik’s words with a flick of his wrist. He lifted his hand higher then, making the gesture of respect and obedience specific to Revik’s title as the Sword.
“Of course, Illustrious brother,” he murmured, bowing his head.
I noticed neither set of eyes nor their light ever really left me, though.
Without giving the other male a second look, Revik walked out of the guardhouse and into the brighter light of the pier. I didn’t feel guilt on him anymore, but I felt anger, and what might have been frustration, along with a denser wariness as he looked at me. Walking right up to me, he frowned, then jerked his head towards the other end of the pier.
“Allie,” he said, gruff. “We have to go.”
“You go ahead,” I said, my eyes fixed on the seer that remained in the guardhouse.
“Allie,” Revik growled. Forcing himself into my line of sight, likely to get my eyes off the other seer, he tapped his watch meaningfully, not sparing so much as a glance for Dalejem in the guardhouse. “Tick-tock, wife. I have to go. Now.”
I turned, staring up at him. “I know. You go ahead.”
“Allie,” he said, his voice sharpening with frustration. “We don’t have time for this––”
“No, you don’t have time,” I said. My voice held a less ambiguous warning as I narrowed my gaze. “I have all the time in the world, husband.”
Revik returned my stare, unmoving.
Eventually, I looked back at where Dalejem watched us from the dark.
“Just give me a few minutes,” I said to Revik, my voice more subdued. “If you have to, send the boat back. I’d like a word with our friend here.”
When I glanced up next, I saw Revik’s eyes harden, along with his jaw.
It didn’t feel aimed at me, but it made my anger flare anyway.
When he opened his mouth to argue, I cut him off.
“That’s an order, Revik,” I said, holding his gaze.
Revik returned my stare, and I felt the fight seethe through his light, but again, it didn’t feel fully aimed at me. Even so, he barely hesitated before he acknowledged my words with a flick of his fingers and wrist, a brief salute and “yes” rolled into one. I saw his eyes shift back over his shoulder, narrowing as he frowned at the man standing in the darkened guardhouse.
Something in the look felt like a real threat that time.
Allie's War Season Four Page 72
