Prophet: Bridge & Sword

by JC Andrijeski

  “We mean you no harm,” Jon said.

  “I don’t doubt that, in your case,” the mystery seer said, glancing more pointedly at Maygar. “I’m less sure in his.” The green eyes narrowed. “Can you tell him to stand down? You are the authority here, na?”

  Jon sighed. He directed his words at Maygar. “Don’t do anything, Maygar.”

  Maygar grunted, giving him a hard look.

  He didn’t argue, though. Something in his light de-charged slightly, right as he lowered his weapon. Jon saw the green-eyed seer give him a sharper look when Maygar’s light altered, right before his eyes scaled up, focusing above Maygar’s head.

  “What is he?” he said, directing the question at Jon.

  “He’s a seer,” Jon retorted.

  The green eyes clicked into focus, meeting Jon’s. Jon kept his mind utterly blank.

  He felt the mystery seer consider pressing the point, then abruptly decide not to.

  “Do I know you, brother?” he asked Jon.

  “I doubt it,” Jon said. “You must know we’re not from around here.”

  “Where are you from?”

  “Why do you need that information, brother?” Jon said, copying the other’s use of formal Prexci. “Does this need to be an interrogation? We’ve made it clear we have no hostile intentions towards you. We have lowered our weapon. Yet you continue to point a gun at me.”

  The handsome seer frowned, but didn’t answer.

  Jon fought to keep his light neutral, and most of all, away from any and all information about Allie, Revik, or Maygar himself. Whoever this strange seer was, Jon had to assume he could read both of them, at least to a degree, and regardless of the mobile construct around him and Maygar. Jon could feel the bare edges of a mobile construct around the green-eyed seer, as well, but he wasn’t familiar with either the structures or the flavors of that construct, any more than he knew the seer himself.

  “I do know you,” the green-eyed seer said. His voice held a tinge of incredulity as he continued to look Jon over with wider eyes. “But what happened to your light, cousin?” He let out a low snort, as if hearing his own words. “Truly, I think I had it right the first time. You are brother now, not cousin. In any case, I would never have recognized you. But you were human once, were you not? You were born into that race?”

  Next to Jon, Maygar stiffened.

  The handsome seer didn’t seem to notice. He stared openly at Jon, his voice incredulous.

  “Gaos,” he murmured, eyes slightly out of focus as he examined Jon’s light. “I guess the crossover thing was true. I can’t even imagine what a shock that must have been…”

  Maygar stiffened more, his eyes darting to Jon’s.

  Feeling Maygar’s light begin to charge up a second time, Jon gave him a warning look, motioning him off subtly with his eyes.

  He looked back at the green-eyed seer, who still held the rifle on him.

  “Who are you?” Jon gave him a harder stare, still trying to protect his light. “Can we start with that? Or is it only you who gets to ask questions?”

  He fought with his own conflicted feelings. While this new seer might be Shadow’s, Jon increasingly didn’t get that feeling off his light. If he did belong to Shadow, he was under some pretty hard-core shielding and at least one set of aleimic fronts.

  Truthfully, the green-eyed seer couldn’t feel more different from Shadow.

  His light continued to remind Jon of Balidor––and now, even Vash a little.

  He wondered if he might be able to send a quick flare to the ship without getting shot, if only to get a warning out––

  ––when the handsome seer surprised him, giving him a warm smile.

  As he did, he lowered that monstrous-looking organic gun.

  “I am Dalejem, Child of the Bridge,” he said, lips quirking higher. “And you are Jonathan Sebastian Taylor, otherwise known as ‘Knight,’ leader of the human resistance. You are also heart-brother and warrior to my mistress… and the reason for her choosing San Francisco to lie in wait for the opening of the Displacement.”

  Jon stared at those green and violet eyes, speechless.

  Honestly, he would’ve been less surprised if the guy said he was the King of Siam.

  11

  WHO IS THIS FUCKING GUY?

  I CLICKED OUT, fighting the harder edge of fear and anger riding my light.

  I couldn’t feel much of anything off the seer standing in front of me.

  I knew that wasn’t the problem, though.

  The truth was, I didn’t know what the damned problem was.

  I tried to focus on what I could quantify––with my mind, my light.

  His light felt clean. I felt glimmers of Adhipan structure, like Jon intimated over the comm. He was handsome, almost shockingly so. He didn’t have the kind of face you’d ever forget, so I knew I’d never met him before now.

  The thing that maddened me, though, hovered somewhere out of reach.

  The taste of it swam around my light, evoking memory and emotion––safety, love, longing, heartache, confusion, terror, abandonment. The crash and break of the emotional wave made it difficult to breathe, to even think past it.

  I stared at him, and I had to fight not to scream at him.

  I had to fight not to beat at him with my fists, shove him off the pier and into the water.

  I didn’t know his face, yet I did.

  I didn’t know him, yet I did.

  I hated him, but something about him felt so damned familiar.

  Something about him felt like home.

  I didn’t make any attempt to hide my anger. “Who?” I said. I didn’t wait for his answer. “And what the fuck is a ‘Child of the Bridge’?”

  Silence greeted my words.

  The green-eyed seer with the antique rifle wasn’t the only one to remain silent. Balidor and Revik didn’t move or speak, either. Since they were the only other people standing with me and the green-eyed seer on the pier, I fought not to lash out just as angrily at them.

  They were acting weird as hell, both of them.

  They hadn’t disarmed the strange seer, which was odd enough.

  Revik hadn’t even mentioned disarming him––despite the number of people who wanted to kill us right now, me in particular.

  Even more bizarre, neither Revik nor Balidor seemed all that curious about the group this seer claimed to speak for. Revik hadn’t asked the strange seer a single question. They didn’t ask him what he was doing in Macau. They didn’t ask him how he knew Jon, or me, or the two of them. They seemed openly unwilling to challenge his authority in any way.

  Worse, they’d offered zero explanation as to why. It was like Balidor and Revik simultaneously lost the power of speech.

  That left any attempt at interrogation to me.

  It didn’t help that I could feel something odd going on with Revik, even beyond his silence.

  He felt off-balance.

  Even now, as I faced off with the green-eyed seer, I could feel Revik staring at him, studying his face and light warily from behind where I stood. He remained behind me the whole time I spoke to the other seer, which wasn’t like him, either. The not-speaking part was somewhat more like him, but not like this, not during a damned military op.

  Really, though, apart from me, no one was saying much, including the strange seer.

  The four of us stood near the end of the dock where we’d first landed, surrounded by fairy lights and lapping waves. In the background, the hotel remained dark, apart from a few fires I saw burning on the penthouse terrace.

  We had less than twenty minutes on the clock.

  As for the mystery seer himself, he’d been respectful towards me to the point of subservience. He explained who he was and what he was doing here only in the vaguest of terms. He never addressed Revik directly, but I felt most of his attention on him––and to a lesser extent, on me.

  Despite being basically ignored by the other male, Balidor seemed determined
to talk to the green-eyed seer. Neither of them said much that made sense, but neither made any attempt to end the meeting, either.

  Feeling Revik staring at the seer again, I tensed.

  His light grew vague before I could get much around what lay behind it, which only frustrated me more. I already knew he knew the seer. I felt it on him, the instant he laid eyes on him. Moreover, he hadn’t just been surprised to see him here––he’s been stunned, possibly even in full-blown shock.

  Revik still looked at him like he couldn’t believe he was alive.

  It bothered me a lot more that Revik was trying to hide his reactions from me––as in, me, specifically––something he hardly ever did any more. I hated the evasion I felt there. I hated the flavor of guilt. It pissed me off, even more than the emotions seething in some other region of my light, making my own reactions worse.

  One thing was clear, though.

  Seeing this fucking seer was upsetting my husband.

  Something about admitting that much made me view the strange seer with an overt hostility. I knew it was irrational, but I didn’t much care.

  Between that, losing the List seers to some slave-trader sheik in Dubai, and Jon’s stabbing, this guy picked a bad night to screw with my head.

  “Explain it to me again,” I said, keeping my voice low with an effort. At the silence my words produced, I lifted Revik’s wrist, staring 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, 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.

  My jaw hardened, but before I could speak, Balidor cleared his throat. Turning back towards our mystery guy, he 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 vaguely caught.

  “I don’t need another fucking cult hanging around, Adhipan Balidor,” I said. “The last thing we need is to be overrun by a bunch of fanatics. I say no. Alliance, fine. But not on my goddamned ship.”

  From behind me, Revik laid a gentle hand on my shoulder.

  I felt the warmth there, 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 on the hand on my shoulder.

  Great. He was even shittier about hiding his emotional reactions than Revik was.

  I could see him staring at Revik’s face after I thought it, his expression reflecting something like incredulity, like he couldn’t believe Revik stood there, either. And sure, a lot of people stared at Revik and me like that, given who we were, but this felt different.

  It felt personal.

  Like Revik, Balidor seemed to sense that I was close to my breaking point. He sent me a reassuring pulse of warmth.

  It’s all right, Allie. He’s not a threat to us.

  Biting my lip, I glared at him, but Balidor was back to staring at the green-eyed seer. Again, I felt something pass between the two of them.

  “Who is this fucking guy?” I burst out.

  Behind me, Revik jumped.

  Moving out from under Revik’s hand, I looked 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 apology reflected there, it only incensed me more. Staring at him, I felt my jaw harden until it hurt.

  I aimed my words at Balidor and Revik, though.

  “Are you both really going to keep pretending you don’t know him?” 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.”

  Realizing my light was charging up, I fought to control it, realizing only then that my eyes were glowing. I knew I was overreacting to this. I knew that, logically, from the more ordered parts of my mind. The problem was, a bigger part of me felt I wasn’t.

  Overreacting, that is.

  Giving Revik an even harder look, I flinched when I saw him avoid my gaze.

  Are you really not going to tell me? Really?

  He clicked softly, but met my gaze.

  Not here, he sent, quiet, a bare murmur. I’ll tell you, Allie. I’ll tell you anything you want to know. But not here. Can we talk on the ship?

  Biting my lip, I shifted my stare to the green-eyed seer.

  “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, we can finish this 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.

  “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.

  Before he could, the green-eyed seer surprised me.

  Clicking softly, he made a negative motion with one hand, his light exuding regret, but also a kind of intensified politeness. He stepped towards me.

  The motion caused me to stiffen, my light to flare.

  The seer halted at once. After the fainted pause, he bowed deferentially.

  “My profoundest apologies, Esteemed Sister,” he said, using formal Prexci. “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, too, am on assignment. Like you, we have strict time parameters, and I have already exceeded those limits.”

  Biting my lip at the vagueness of this, I fought not to try and read him, which really would have been rude.

  “Then what do you want?” I said, struggling to keep my voice polite. “Now, I mean. Why are we all still standing here?”

  The seer straightened from his bow.

  Looking at his face, I couldn’t help noticing his features again. He had a high-cheekboned face with dark, 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.

  He looked like a movie star.

  He had that kind of presence, those type of riveting looks.

  That type of voice.

  “I wish two things from you right now, Esteemed Sister,” he 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. “…I would also request a moment to speak with your husband. In private. If that is acceptable to both of you.”

  I tensed, my jaw clenching.

  Behind me, I felt Revik tense, too.

  Then he blew me a soft pulse of warmth.

  It’s okay, he sent. I’ll do it. It’s fine.

  I felt 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.r />
  Maybe I’m not, I retorted.

  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 harden more. 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 realizing his mistake. Looking away, I struggled to control my light, staring out over the water as I clicked under my breath.

  “It doesn’t matter what I think,” I said flatly.

  I stepped pointedly out of the way. I realized only then that I’d positioned myself even more firmly between Revik and this other seer than Revik had himself. It felt uncomfortable to remove myself, like an admission of defeat.

  “Semi-private,” I said, my voice holding a touch of warning. I forced myself to make an accommodating gesture, and felt Revik’s light react. “We don’t have time for you to go far, brother.” I gestured towards the guard booth at the end of the pier. “That will be about as well as you can do. He’s out of time.”

  The green-eyed seer only looked relieved.

  “Thank you, Esteemed Bridge,” he murmured.

  I watched as he motioned politely for Revik to walk ahead of him.

  I watched Revik do as he asked.

  Again, I fought to calm my light, feeling more than seeing the change in Revik’s. I saw his aleimi avoid that of the other seer. The emotions I felt through our bond came through confused, bordering on angry now. He looked younger to me suddenly, almost vulnerable, and something about seeing him with the other male made me look away.

  That time, I bit my lip hard enough that I tasted blood.

  CROSSING MY ARMS in front of my chest, I walked deliberately to Balidor.

  I stopped a foot from where his armor and guns ended.

  I stared up at him, my voice openly hostile.

  “Who is he?”