‘Backfired on a rather grand scale though didn’t it?’ Phantom said lightly, nudging Powers’ lifeless body with the toe of his boot.
‘Definitely.’ Brutus agreed and looked down at the corpse at his feet. ‘At least the other one had the decency not to leave his body lying around where we might trip over it.’
‘Should’ve thought of that one sooner brother.’ Xerxes said cheerfully to Grendel. ‘Chucking Mages off a mountainside … could become a new sport! Not sure how you’re going to explain this one to Mage Grapple though, Mistral,’ he smirked. ‘It being your name on the Contract after all.’
‘Oh damn,’ she groaned softly and sank her head against Fabian’s chest. ‘Well I suppose it makes a change me having to explain your actions.’
‘Quite the opposite.’ Fabian said sharply. ‘I will be speaking with Eximius about sending a known Rochforte out as a Council representative with our hunting party. You will not be expected to explain anything Mistral. You should however, expect to receive an apology from Eximius.’
‘Has he ever actually apologised to anyone?’ She asked curiously.
Fabian frowned and was silent for a moment, ‘No. However, it is a year for change.’
‘Well, unless you want to have a bit of a bonfire now and say a few words … what would you like to do with Powers?’ Xerxes asked.
‘We can collect his body on the return journey. If it’s still here.’ Fabian said indifferently.
Xerxes nodded unconcernedly, ‘Fine by me, got enough on my hands right now anyway … ready brother?’ He called over his shoulder to Brutus as they both braced themselves against the length of rope in their hands.
‘Born ready!’
‘I know, brother, I know.’ Xerxes laughed. ‘Ready Cain?’ He called over the edge of the ravine.
‘First one’s harnessed in!’ Cain’s faint response drifted up to them.
‘Heave-ho!’
With Grendel’s considerable strength added to the equation they soon hauled the three bestra out of the ravine. Cain climbed up to join them once the last bestra was safely at the top and they continued in much improved spirits. The climb, although arduous and dangerous, had actually cut some time off their journey and the sudden removal of the taciturn Mages had lightened everyone’s mood considerably. Under the influence of more of Floris’ powerful liquor, Xerxes was once again singing his favourite goblin song with Brutus and Cain joining in for the chorus. Mistral laughed as she walked by Fabian’s side, the fear of being trapped in the cave completely forgotten. She felt no shock or remorse over the deaths of Powers and Silver; they’d both been only too happy to attempt to engineer hers. As far as she saw it, justice had been served.
‘Please, can we have no more unplanned life-threatening additions to this Contract Mistral.’ Fabian murmured softly into her ear. ‘I don’t think I can take the strain.’
She smiled up at him, ‘I promise,’ she took hold of his gloved hand and slid her fingers between his. ‘Just a straight forward, run of the mill, boring dragon hunt from now on in.’
By sunset they had reached the edge of dragon territory and made camp on a flattened area of rock at the base of high cliff. Xerxes, Brutus and Cain were soon having a lively argument about how to erect the two tents since there was no soil to sink the pegs into. In the end it was resolved by Grendel hammering the iron pegs straight into the rock with the end of his battle axe.
‘Do we risk a fire?’ Phantom asked Fabian worriedly.
Fabian shrugged, ‘A fire will be less likely to draw the dragons in than the scent of the bestra. Dragons have fairly poor eye-sight in comparison to their sense of smell. We have camped here with a fire both times in the past without incident.’
‘Good enough for me,’ said Phantom and immediately began to unpack firewood from one of the bestra.
‘Worried you might get a bit chilly brother?’ Mistral teased, knowing how the twins hated to be cold.
‘Terrified.’
Before long a decent fire was burning with a couple of rabbits they had brought along roasting over the flames. Xerxes had begun taking wagers on the next day’s hunt while Brutus was gathering together everyone’s arrows and engraving their initials onto the shafts.
‘It’ll save on arguments later,’ he explained to Cain who was unwilling to hand his over. ‘This way we’ll know who shot what and make it less painful for Xerxes to part with some coins for a change. And, since we’ve dispensed with our Council officials, it’d be wise to collect in all our arrows and hand them in to verify the cull was kept to the agreed number. The Council probably won’t be satisfied with just the glaring proof of two huge dead dragons.’
‘We need to agree who is going to shoot with poisoned arrows and who will shoot with sedated arrows.’ Xerxes looked around with a bossy expression on his face. ‘As a hunting party leader I feel I should have poisoned arrows.’
‘And as your nearest and dearest so do I.’ Brutus added quickly.
‘Fine, I get to make mine a sleeping beauty.’ Cain gave Grendel a resigned look. ‘Alright with you brother?’
Grendel grunted non-committedly and continued to sharpen his already lethal looking battle axe.
‘How do you want to split our party Fabian?’ Mistral asked, having listened to her brothers’ exchange with amusement.
‘Well, by their own admission, the twins are more confident with a sword than a bow, so I feel you and I should have the poisoned arrows and they the sedated ones. If they miss it will be less of a disaster than if we do.’
‘Ah, disaster. Now why is that a word I hear a lot whenever Mistral is around?’ Phantom sighed.
Mistral scowled at him but was distracted from arguing by the skewered chunk of roasted rabbit he waved in her face. Suddenly starving, she took the skewer and bit into the hot meat hungrily; they hadn’t stopped for lunch and she’d left her breakfast in the snow outside Diannah’s house. After everyone had eaten Xerxes started a game of knuckle bones, it was too difficult to hold cards whilst wearing gloves. Mistral watched them playing, leaning contently against Fabian and enjoying the heat of the fire. She was just beginning to feel pleasantly sleepy when his velvet voice whispered in her ear, abruptly snapping her into alertness.
‘Are you ready to try to read Etienne or Christophe now?’
Mistral nodded and sat up. Instantly the twins were gazing at her, their green eyes alive with anticipation.
‘Is this what you two were talking about today?’ Phantom whispered excitedly.
Mistral ignored him, allowing Fabian to explain while she sat cross legged and gazed into the fire, letting the hypnotic flickering of the flames help her mind to empty. A face appeared in her mind’s eye. Etienne Rochforte. Fair-haired and tall with blue eyes as cold and hard as glass. The vision of his face shimmered, wavering in and out of focus while she fought to hold it long enough to See ... suddenly it became vague and insubstantial, like smoke, then vanished completely.
‘Damn it!’
She tried again; this time remembering his face twisted with grief, staring down at the lifeless body of his cousin on the Council chamber floor … again his face flickered and faded, leaving her staring uselessly into the flames of their campfire. Mistral tried continually for an hour, occasionally pausing to take a drink of water or move to ease the stiffness in her legs caused from being sat for so long. Fabian watched her silently, his calm patience giving her the strength to keep on trying. She refused to look at the twins, knowing their eager impatience would only make it harder for her to concentrate.
Eventually succumbing to a splitting heading, Mistral admitted defeat. Fabian was composed and didn’t appear too disheartened by her failure, but the twins were openly disappointed.
‘Maybe you were just being a bit overambitious.’ Phantom said consolingly before adding hopefully. ‘Why not have a crack at Bellicose? He’s a lot nearer. It might make it easier.’
‘Bellicose?’ Mistral sighed wearily and rubbed a han
d over her forehead to ease the throbbing ache.
Fabian watched her and frowned in concern, ‘I don’t think it would be wise to over exert yourself Mistral, you’re only just starting to feel better.’
Mistral quickly took another long drink of water to hide her guilty expression. She was suddenly determined to give something back to her Mage for his unstinting belief and patience in her when all she seemed to do was lie about her continuing illness and obligingly wander into traps set by corrupt Councillors.
‘Right, Rochfortes are out and I really don’t fancy having a look at Bellicose tonight, so Malachi it is then,’ she said decisively and stared intently into the fire once again. The pinched, humourless face of the Magnate member reared up in her mind with frightening clarity. It was so clearly defined that she could even read his aura, a swirling black cloud of hatred and anger. She smiled with the ease at which his thoughts whispered in her ear. He was no longer trying to conceal them. In his arrogance he obviously believed her incapable of reading his mind from a distance … well more fool him. She tilted her head to listen more closely to the voice in her ear, staring unseeingly into the fire until it had burned down to embers and ash. She finally heaved a sigh and stretched out her stiff legs, turning to meet dark eyes of her Mage.
‘You read him?’
She nodded and reached for the water skin, her head was pounding and she felt completely drained. Seeing her exhaustion, Fabian stood up and threw more wood onto the fire, encouraging it back into life. When it was blazing again he sat down beside her, drawing a heavy Wolverine skin over their shoulders.
Her eyes closed, ‘Thanks .... Oh, don’t worry,’ she murmured faintly in reply to Phantom’s panicked thought. ‘I’m not falling asleep … just resting for a minute –’
Is it a minute yet?
Mistral sighed deeply and opened her eyes to give Phantom a weary look, ‘Malachi suspects that Leo has given the cull directly to me instead of following the correct procedure and putting it out to tender.’
Phantom frowned, ‘Had he made his suspicions common knowledge?’
Mistral shook her head, ‘No brother, he’s far too clever for that. He knows it’ll just look like a petty attempt to blacken Leo’s name.’
‘So what’s he intending to do with the information then?’ Phantom asked.
‘He’s taken a request for fresh supplies of dragon blood from the Ten Year Cull to Scrimshaw and Scuttle and asked for it to be sent to the Council using their messenger service.’
‘Now that is devious!’ Phantasm exclaimed softly. ‘Scrimshaw and Scuttle are the Ri’s official agency, they’ll know the Ten Year Cull Contract is due this year and are bound to get whoever takes the message to the Council to ask when it will be issued –’
‘Only to be told that it already has been.’ Phantom finished.
‘And all hell will be let loose.’ Mistral sighed. ‘Once Scrimshaw and Scuttle find out that Leo issued the Contract directly to me they’ll be furious.’
‘You can say that again! I’ve heard that Scrimshaw always buys a new house with his percentage on that Contract!’
‘Scrimshaw will have lost out on the money.’ Phantasm agreed. ‘But he’s going to have a few more problems than that. He’s going to have every warrior on his books clamoring to know why that Contract didn’t go out to tender.’
‘Oh dear Mistral.’ Phantom gave her a pitying look. ‘I don’t think you’re going to be very popular when they find out you were given it on a plate.’
‘I know.’ Mistral sighed. ‘I think I’m going to have lost a few friends by the time I get back to the Valley.’
‘I rather feel that the bigger picture is how many friends Leo will have lost.’ Fabian said quietly.
‘Which brings me back to Malachi’s scheme.’ Mistral sat up a little straighter. ‘You can see how clever he’s being. Scrimshaw and Scuttle will spread the bad news and he’ll look entirely blameless, despite being the cause. Leo’s reputation will suffer, maybe even enough to tip the scales in Malachi’s favour.’
‘Malachi will never be the Divinus!’ Phantom scorned. ‘All we have to do is start telling the truth about the Contract extras Malachi’s had apprentices risking their necks for and Master Sphinx will look great again!’
‘No brother, we can’t do that.’ Phantasm said softly. ‘Firstly, there’s no proof. And secondly our names will have been tarnished by being on this Contract too. No matter what we say, the other warriors will regard us with distrust now. To them we’re no more than Master Sphinx’s puppets and anything we say in retaliation will just be discounted as a blatant attempt to defame Master Nox.’
A brief silence fell between them. The knuckle bones games was getting rowdy; Cain was arguing with Xerxes over the legality of a move he appeared to have just invented.
‘And where does the dinner guest everyone loves to have at their table fit into this gloomy picture?’ Phantom asked sourly.
‘You mean Bellicose La Monte?’ Mistral asked. ‘Well, actually, Malachi is having doubts about the deal he’s made with the vampire tribe, especially since Leo’s made himself potentially very unpopular with this Contract. He actually thinks he could win the election on his own merits.’
‘But what was the vampire tribe going to do to help anyway? Apart from eat the opposition that is!’
‘That was the plan.’
For a heartbeat no-one moved or spoke, then Phantom broke the silence with an incredulous laugh, ‘You’re kidding! Master Nox was willing to let Bellicose’s tribe feed on anyone that stood in his way?’
‘Pretty much.’ Mistral sank a little deeper into Fabian’s arms. ‘It would look like an accident of course, but yes, they’d even talked about removing Mage Grapple from office. Bellicose has very big plans ... I’m not sure even Malachi is aware of his true intentions.’
‘Malachi has made a very dangerous ally, one that might, quite literally bite back.’ Fabian mused. ‘When you’re feeling more rested I feel it would be prudent to read Bellicose – Mistral?’
‘She’s gone.’ Phantom sighed. ‘Asleep on the job, again.’
Fabian gathered Mistral into his arms and rose quietly to his feet, carrying her to one of the tents.
‘Mage De Winter?’
Fabian turned to look at Phantasm.
‘I –’
‘I know.’ Fabian cut him off and abruptly vanished into the tent.
‘Oh don’t you two start doing these half-conversations as well!’ Phantom muttered under his breath. ‘What does he know?’
‘How we broke the spell.’
‘Oh, yes, I can see how you might want to clear that one up!’ Phantom agreed in a low whisper. ‘I tell you what though, those Mages were up that rockface quicker than a rat out of a trap once you said you were going into a troll cave. We knew something was wrong straight away but they’d cast before we’d even got to the top!’ He paused and looked at his brother sympathetically. ‘Was it bad?’
Phantasm frowned at him, ‘What? The cave?’
‘No! Kissing her of course!’
Phantasm closed his eyes in a pained expression, ‘Oh for crying out loud brother! Nothing like that happened!’
‘Really?’ Xerxes called in a disappointed voice, clutching his piece of parchment in one hand and a gourd of liquor in the other. ‘You sure? Only I had a bet –’
‘I’m sure you did brother, however I can assure nothing inappropriate happened.
‘Really? Then how’d you break the spell?’
‘We talked.’
‘Huh?’
Phantasm sighed wearily, ‘Forget it Xerxes. I could hardly expect you to appreciate the many subtle layers of love.’
‘Well I know what I’d have done if I was stuck in a cave with her!’ Xerxes smirked.
‘Died.’
‘Very quickly.’
Brutus and Cain laughed while Xerxes looked suddenly thoughtfully, ‘You’re right,’ he finally agreed. ‘I think she’d
have probably killed me.’
‘If she didn’t, then Mage De Winter certainly would have.’ Brutus murmured, casting a wary glance at the tent Mistral and Fabian were in.
‘Oh now, I won’t hear a word said against him.’ Xerxes said firmly. ‘He’s gone right up in my estimations since he strangled that sniveling Mage Powerless!’
‘I must admit, it is nice not having their cheerful smiling faces around any longer.’ Cain said and yawned.
His tiredness was infectious and suddenly they were all looking longingly at the tents.
‘Right brothers, let’s get some sleep. It’s going to be a big day tomorrow.’ Xerxes ordered sternly.
Brutus gave him a flinty look, ‘You know this promotion you’ve got is temporary, don’t you? Once the Contract is over you’ll go back to being my younger brother again.’
‘Don’t remind me. But in the meantime I’m the boss! Er, sorry Grendel, I think you’ll have to take the fire tonight … not enough room in the tent.’
‘Or enough fresh air.’ Cain muttered, grabbing his Wolverine skin and ducking quickly into the tent to avoid Grendel’s angry look.
The twins stayed by the fire for a while longer, conversing in a low murmur until the sound of Grendel’s rasping snores forced them to give up or have to shout to be heard.
The Queen
Fabian spread the map out on the rock beside the light of the fire while Phantom passed around cold leftovers from the night before. It was still dark, with just the beginnings of daylight beginning to turn the black sky to grey.
‘This is where we are now.’ Fabian pressed a finger lightly against the parchment then began to trace their route. ‘We can travel together this far before we need to split up. Xerxes – you and your hunting party will take one of the bestra and travel north east to this point here,’ he pointed out one of the locations for the bestra to be tethered as bait.
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