‘Our quarrel is finished.’
‘It is.’ the elf agreed lightly and squatted down by the fire to warm his hands.
A tense silence fell while the twins waited for the elf to state his business.
‘I wish to discuss the events of our brother’s murder with you.’ the elf said at length.
The twins looked at him silently. Konrad has taken a Contract to assassinate one of their kin, and an elf was an unusual subject for a Contract. Both the twins and Fabian had been more than intrigued to know who would have bought such a Contract. As the silence lengthened Phantasm realised that the elf was waiting for him to speak. He met the elf’s hard gaze evenly, his words honest.
‘I know not who bought the Contract on your kinsman.’
The elf smiled slightly and shook his head, ‘You are a consummate liar brother. You have fooled me before, so forgive me if I do not believe you now.’
‘Try me then. Everyone knows I can’t lie to save my life.’ Mistral emerged from the tent, meeting the twins’ horrified looks with an unapologetic shrug. ‘Couldn’t sleep.’
The elf abruptly stood up and strode towards her. The twins tensed and Prospero growled but Mistral quieted him with a soft pat while she met the elf’s searching gaze with a slightly hazy smile.
‘Sister, you like to fight.’
‘I do.’ Mistral smiled, her gaze a little unfocused.
The elf continued to regard her with a calculating look, ‘You are wilful … passionate … reckless –’
‘I am.’ Mistral held her hands up in surrender and leaned against Prospero for support.
‘And drunk.’
‘Yes … that too.’
‘Honest … loyal … and in pain –’
‘Yes, yes!’ Mistral agreed with an impatient wave of her hand. ‘Tell me something I don’t know!’
The elf frowned thoughtfully, ‘You are truthful with everyone but yourself.’
Mistral gave him an appraising look, ‘That’s a new one. Actually, I think you might be right –’
The elf laughed softly, ‘Yes, I can see that you would not be able to conceal a truth from me. Tell me sister, do you know who bought the Contract on my kinsman?’
‘No.’ Mistral frowned hazily. ‘But it does seem to bother my brothers here. They can’t understand why anyone would buy a Contract on an elf. Apparently you lot usually sort out your own differences.’
The twins winced at her tactlessness but the elf merely laughed and shook his head, ‘Guileless. How rare. You are correct.’ he continued in a clearer voice. ‘But we have since discovered that Xavier was in the pay of the Ri to carry goods.’
Mistral looked at him blankly, ‘Sorry. That means nothing to me. Who? What goods?’
‘Xavier was our kinsman and the goods I refer to were items of a sensitive nature.’
The twins stirred. Mistral could almost feel their inquisitive natures flare while she remained drunkenly ignorant.
‘Do you refer to … ingredients?’ Phantasm asked in a low voice.
The elf snapped his gaze up to meet Phantasm’s and nodded slowly.
Phantasm exhaled slowly, ‘I see –’
‘And as usual, I don’t.’ Mistral sighed, sinking to the ground and wrapping her arm around Prospero.
‘Xavier was keen on coin.’ the elf explained, his voice hard with disapproval. ‘It drove him to undertake work that no tribal elf should lower themselves to. He agreed to become a carrier for a member of the Ri and transport illicit goods from the Valley to a location we can only guess at.’
‘The Council.’ Phantasm breathed.
The elf favoured him with a long look before nodding slowly, ‘We believe so, yes.’
‘Fine.’ Mistral looked up with a weary frown. ‘So what were these illicit goods then? Weapons?’
‘Not as such, although they could become extremely powerful weapons in the right hands.’
Mistral leaned her head into Prospero’s dense fur and sighed sleepily, ‘I hate riddles.’
‘You believe that someone with a high enough position in the Ri to act without being questioned was using your kinsman to carry ingredients for illegal potions?’ Phantasm asked in a cautious whisper.
The elf held his gaze steadily, ‘I do. The items on their own appear unusual of course, but innocuous enough; powdered bestra horn, manticore poison, gargoyle eggs –’
‘I had to fetch some of them once.’ Mistral murmured drowsily. ‘For Malachi … he never even thanked me –’
The twins shared a meaningful look.
‘She speaks of the Magnate member?’ the elf asked sharply.
The twins nodded once, reluctant in their forced betrayal.
‘Then we have our answer. We wish you well in the festival brothers, and bid you goodnight.’
The elves melted silently into the darkness leaving the twins alone with Mistral, fast asleep against Prospero.
Phantasm gave his brother a bleak look, ‘This is a bad business.’
‘I agree. How are we going to move her away from that dog without him attacking us?’
The Race
Mistral woke at dawn the next day to find that she was curled up against Prospero with her face pressed into his heavy fur. With a groan she moved her head and felt the tell-tale ache in her temples that only one thing would cure.
Looking around blearily she saw the twins rolled up in their travelling cloaks close by. They had obviously spent the night outside to continue with their babysitting duties. Mistral immediately felt a bit better for having caused the comfort-loving pair some hardship, seeing it as just payback for forcing her to wear clothing she’d thought safely hidden under her bed.
Standing up quietly, Mistral decided to take advantage of her brief freedom and sneak off for a cold swim without their unnecessary company. Patting her leg to call Prospero to heel she stole from the camp. It was early and very quiet. She strode quickly past rows of tents with their flaps drawn tight against the heavy dew, their occupants still sleeping off the excesses of the feast.
The feast … Mistral cringed, dimly recalling getting drunk and fighting with a goblin. What was it with her and goblins? She never seemed to be content to just kill one, but seemed to need to roll around brawling on the ground with them like school children in the playground. Fabian would not be impressed, or maybe he would just laugh. Mistral smiled longingly at the thought of her Mage laughing and remembered the stories she’d been told the previous night. Nothing had shocked or even surprised her. He had freely admitted to having a dark past, and it was just that to her, the past. Mistral only cared about the future; his return from France and the moment she finally gained Sight … though probably for all the wrong reasons.
Thoughts of the wrong reasons occupied her all the way to the pool at the northern end of the Vale. She sat down to pull off her boots then looked around carefully to make sure that the twins hadn’t followed her before taking off the rest of her clothes. She stood up and walked to the edge of the pool and paused for a moment, enjoying the sun’s warm touch on her skin before diving into the cold water.
Breaking the surface with a gasp Mistral let out a loud laugh at the sight of Prospero plunging in after her. He paddled across the pool towards her, blowing jets of water from the sides of his mouth, trying to catch sunlight reflecting on the surface. Smiling at her dog’s ridiculous antics she swam across to the waterfall to wash away the last vestiges of her headache. The water sluiced over her head and neck in an icy torrent, so cold it felt as though it were choking her. And suddenly it was.
Hands gripped her throat, dragging her backwards into the cave behind the waterfall. In the cave’s abrupt darkness Mistral couldn’t see anything and thrashed blindly against her unseen attacker, clawing at the hands that held her in a suffocating grip, slowly dragging her under. With a loud snarl Prospero burst through the waterfall and lunged at her attacker, sinking his teeth deeply into their arm. A piercing scream reverberated around the low
cave and Mistral instantly felt the tension on her windpipe slacken.
Gasping in a much needed lungful of air she spun around in the water to see Columbine struggling to free her arm from Prospero’s jaws. She screamed, her ugly face twisting in rage and punched Prospero in the head but he just growled and clung on. The sight of Columbine hurting Prospero galvanised Mistral into action. With a shout of rage she kicked out and lunged through the water, reaching for her throat. Columbine jerked away and dived, wrenching her arm from Prospero’s mouth. The sound of her cut-off shriek echoed eerily in the cave. Prospero paddled around Mistral in a circle, his muzzle stained with blood. Mistral trod water, breathing in rapid gasps, her eyes moving over the dark surface. Suddenly she gave a shout of surprise then vanished below the water, pulled sharply under by Columbine.
They struggled in the black water, blinded by the streams of silver bubbles that erupted from their screaming mouths. Mistral felt Columbine’s hands wrap around her throat again and lashed out wildly. She felt her elbow connect and Columbine’s grip instantly slackened but Mistral had no air left to stay and fight. She kicked frantically for the surface, desperate to ease her aching lungs. Columbine grabbed her legs again, pulling her back down. Mistral felt the burning need for air intensify and began to panic. She kicked madly, trying to free her legs, twisting her body left and right, slamming her own head into hard rock in her efforts to escape. Spots of light exploded in front of her vision. Her mouth opened in an involuntary shout of pain but instead of noise coming out, water rushed in, bringing with it abrupt blackness.
Suddenly something was pushing her up to the surface. She felt her knees scrape the bottom of the pool and crawled her way onto the rocks. There she collapsed and vomited water before rolling onto her back, taking deep shuddering breaths of air while she stared up into the pale blue eyes of her dog.
‘Good boy,’ she croaked and then Prospero was gone, bounding away with a loud bay that signified the start of a hunt. Mistral pushed herself up onto her elbows and watched him chasing Columbine through the tangle of tents.
‘Damn!’
Hastily dragging on her clothes with shaking hands, Mistral drew her dagger and stumbled after Prospero. She suddenly heard her name being called above the blood pounding in her ears and spun round wildly to see the twins running towards her.
‘What’s happened! Why are you running around half-dressed and armed?’
‘It’s Columbine!’ she gasped hoarsely. ‘There’s a cave behind the waterfall! I thought I saw something there yesterday – it must’ve been her. She just tried strangle me while I was swimming … Prospero saved me –’
‘Phantom! Get her back to the camp now! I’ll search for Columbine!’
‘No way! I want that bitch!’
‘No Mistral! I want you back at the camp where I know you’re safe!’ Phantasm snapped and ran after Prospero, vanishing into the sea of brightly coloured tents.
‘Let me go!’ Mistral howled, struggling against Phantom’s grip.
‘No Mistral. My brother can cope with Columbine. He’s armed –’
Mistral immediately rounded on him, her face sharp with suspicion, ‘Armed? Why is he armed? You two never carry weapons unless you’re going on a Contract!’
Catching the tell-tale flash of guilt in his eyes Mistral swore and began to fight against him again, ‘Damn it! This is what you’ve been hiding from me isn’t it? You knew Columbine was going to be here!’
‘We didn’t know, we suspected.’ Phantom corrected. ‘Columbine’s an Arcane, she knows about the festival and she knows it’s just your sort of thing. We guessed she might show up at some point.’
‘You could have told me!’
Mistral shook him off and stalked off to retrieve her boots from the edge of the pool. Phantom quickly caught her up and reached out to grab her arm again, steering her back to their camp.
‘And what good would that have done? You’d only have gone looking for her!’
‘Better than having her leap on me whilst I was having a swim! I’m going to be scarred for life!’
‘Come on, it’s only a couple of bruises on your neck!’
‘That’s not what I meant!’
Phantom laughed and immediately stopped at the look of fury on Mistral’s face, ‘Sorry, couldn’t help it. If it’d been anyone but Columbine I think you would probably have just fulfilled all of Xerxes’ fantasies in one go, talking of which, you’d better do your shirt up before we get back to then tent or you might end up having another fight when he sees you.’
Mistral snorted disgustedly and stormed off but made sure she’d buttoned her shirt up before they got back to the tent.
‘Morning sunshine! Dream of goblins did we?’ Xerxes called cheerfully while he stirred the contents of the pot suspended over the fire.
‘What happened, did Phantom not pass you the towel quick enough after your morning swim?’ Brutus asked, eyeing her stony expression warily.
‘No, but Columbine tried to drown me!’ Mistral snapped, pointing to the red marks around her throat.
‘She’s here?’ Brutus cried and leapt to his feet. ‘Where?’
‘Prospero and my brother are chasing her, but I think she’ll be long gone.’ Phantom frowned. ‘This campsite is like a maze.’
‘We’ll see about that. Prospero could find a needle in a haystack.’ Mistral muttered and dropped down near the fire to wait for Xerxes to finish cooking breakfast.
‘So, you were swimming when she attacked?’ Xerxes asked casually while he carried on stirring the porridge.
Mistral gave him an icy look, ‘What of it?’
‘Not dressed?’
‘No Xerxes, I always swim fully clothed! Of course I wasn’t dressed!’ Mistral snapped, adding maliciously. ‘And neither was Columbine.’
Xerxes’ leer slid away to be replaced by a look of repulsion, ‘Did you have to ruin it?’
‘Yes! And if I ever see you looking at me with that expression on your face again I will kill you with the smallest, bluntest object I can find!’
‘Sorry sister, it’s in my blood.’
‘That’s Lady De Winter to you! Now where’s my damned breakfast? I’m starving!’
Xerxes laughed and ladled out some porridge for her, ‘So are you still racing this morning or are the twins going to lock you in the tent until Columbine has been found?’
‘Racing of course!’
Phantom frowned at her over his bowl of porridge, ‘I think that we should probably wait until my brother gets back before we agree to anything Mistral.’
Mistral ignored him and concentrated on her breakfast. Silence reigned until Saul and Cain emerged from the tent looking dishevelled and grumpy.
Brutus looked up with a grin, ‘Too much wine last night?’
‘Apparently.’ Cain muttered, rubbing his head with a pained expression.
‘What did we miss after Mistral ruined our night for us?’ Phantom asked, giving Mistral and pointed look.
‘Only the usual when a group of Arcanes get together and drink too much. The fight got broken up. Hermes gave the goblin back his money and we made friends, then to celebrate our new friendship we had a drink … and another … then Grendel started dancing with the nymphs on the tables and broke one –’
‘A nymph?’ Mistral asked hopefully.
‘No Mistral, a table. Then the dryads from the registration tent came over and started shouting at the nymphs … something about impropriety … and they started fighting –’
Xerxes sighed happily and gazed off into space, his spoon of porridge hovering halfway to his open mouth.
Cain shrugged and reached for the waterskin, ‘Pretty standard stuff really.’
‘So no-one really noticed my little fight then?’
‘No Mistral, though I am beginning to wonder if you’ve got a thing about goblins.’ Saul remarked, reaching out to take a bowl of porridge.
‘What can I say? They’ve got the kind of faces that b
eg to be punched.’
‘Forget your tendency to bully small people.’ Cain leaned over, frowning at Mistral. ‘Was I having a nightmare or did I really hear that you and Columbine were swimming together this morning?’
‘Yes, it appears that we have the pleasure of her company again.’ Phantom replied while Mistral glared at Cain.
‘I’ve just had a scary thought!’ Xerxes sat bolt upright with a horrified look on his face.
‘Do share brother.’ Brutus said with a sigh.
‘Columbine. Was she dressed when she fled or not?’
‘Not.’ Mistral confirmed shortly.
Xerxes closed his eyes with a quiet groan and placed his bowl of porridge down on the ground, ‘Your dog can have that when he comes back,’ he muttered.
‘I’m hoping he’ll have already eaten when he comes back.’
‘Columbine showing up is not entirely unexpected is it?’ Saul said thoughtfully. ‘We knew there was a strong chance she’d seek you out in revenge for losing Golden. Don’t worry Mistral. You’re well protected. We’re all here.’
Mistral rolled her eyes, ‘How would I cope without you all? Talking of which, where is Grendel? I can’t smell him anywhere.’
Cain smirked, ‘Believe it or not our fragrant brother was a big hit with the nymphs.’
‘They said he was a “real man” or something.’ Brutus laughed. ‘He didn’t come back at all last night!’
Mistral closed her eyes. Grendel and the nymphs … it just didn’t bear thinking about …
‘Brother!’ Phantom’s relieved cry made them all look up to see Phantasm striding towards them with Prospero trotting by his side.
‘What news?’ Xerxes called urgently.
Phantasm shook his head, an ugly scowl marring his angel’s face, ‘I searched the whole area but found nothing. Prospero came back to me after a while so I guess he had no luck either.’
Cain frowned, ‘She’ll have got in the river and swum away. Prospero wouldn’t have been able to follow her scent once she was in the water. Gargillians are naturally water-dwelling creatures that only really come onto land when they want a change of diet.’
The Assassin's Destiny (Isle of Dreams) Page 38