The Assassin's Tale (Isle of Dreams)

by Kirsten Jones

  ‘Thank you,’ Fabian murmured, utterly unabashed while Mistral felt her face go every shade of red.

  They left the tavern and walked across to the stableblock, hand in hand. Mistral felt that her heart would burst right through her ribs with the sheer joy of such a simple touch. They didn’t speak while they saddled their horses and Cirrus was unusually well behaved, perhaps sensing his mistress’ good mood for a change.

  The village was still quiet when they left a short while later, riding up to the North Gate without seeing another person save the heavily cloaked guard on lookout duty at the gate. Once they were out in the snow-covered expanse of the meadows they broke into a light canter, riding easily side by side. Mistral turned to ask Fabian a question and smiled to see the expression of contentment on his face. She was vividly reminded of their journey to the Amber River when she had stolen glances at him out of the corner of her eye all day.

  ‘And where exactly do you live?’

  He looked at her and grinned, his black eyes shining, ‘Not too far. A couple of hours ride at most.’

  The snow that had fallen overnight lay across the meadow in a soft white blanket, sparkling magically beneath a pale blue sky. It was a perfect winter’s day. Almost lazily, indulgently, Mistral called up the vision of Fabian’s aura as they rode. She was gratified to see bright yellow rings framing deeper golds, all circling across a background of luscious pinks and pale blue; happiness, joy, love, peace and – she blinked and grinned – a flash of deepest ruby.

  ‘What are you smiling at?’ Fabian asked curiously, catching her expression.

  ‘Nothing,’ she replied quickly, but couldn’t quite conceal the grin spreading across her face. Ruby. Desire.

  ‘You wouldn’t be reading my aura would you?’ Fabian enquired, grinning roguishly.

  ‘Might have –’

  ‘That could become inconvenient,’ he murmured.

  ‘Only if you have something to hide.’

  He gave her a deep look, ‘I will never hide anything from you.’

  ‘Good job or I might have to beat it out of you,’ she laughed and kicked Cirrus into a gallop.

  They flew across the meadow, spumes of snow spraying up from the horses’ pounding hooves. The cold air was so bitingly fresh against her skin that Mistral gasped. She didn’t think she had ever felt as completely alive in any one single moment of her life as she did right now.

  Spirit was obviously enjoying having the company of another horse and consented willingly for Fabian and Mistral to ride closely together. They approached the edge of The Velvet Forests and slowed to a walk. Fabian reined Spirit in and Mistral halted beside him beneath the spreading branches of a huge oak tree. They stood together, silently looking out across the soft white landscape while the horses’ breath rose in misty clouds around them, swirling in the crystalline air before dissipating into the clear blue sky.

  ‘This is real isn’t it?’ Mistral suddenly asked, gazing at Fabian wonderingly.

  He turned to look at her, his expression unfathomable, ‘Only if you want it to be,’ he said softly and leaned across to kiss her.

  They reached Fabian’s house long before midday. Mistral was silent, forcing herself to absorb every detail of the journey. She wanted to be able to travel there again and committed every detail to memory.

  They rode beneath a hayloft that formed a covered entrance to a courtyard of wide flat stones. A small stableblock on the left adjoined Fabian’s house, to the right was a fenced paddock. Mistral gazed up the house she had never seen before in her life and was instantly overwhelmed with the strangest feeling of coming home.

  Fabian De Winter’s house was a traditional mountain house built in the same familiar honey-coloured stone as the houses in the Valley. Deep-set windows reflected the bright winter sunshine, each framed by its own set of wooden shutters, pinned open. The dark wooden front door was reached by a short flight of broad stone steps above a cellar. Hydrangeas grew wild at the base of the steps, now dead and coated with white snow but in summer they would be a riot of colour. A grapevine wound sinuously up the side of the house, stretching out over half the red pan-tiled roof, stopping just short of the narrow chimney stack.

  Fabian dismounted and led Spirit towards the stable. After staring wonderingly at the little house for a moment longer Mistral followed him. Once both horses were settled, Fabian took her hand and led her wordlessly towards the house.

  He climbed the steps ahead of her and let go of her hand to unlock the door with a large iron key. Pushing open the door he stepped back and smiled welcomingly, gesturing for her to enter before him.

  Mistral stepped past him and into his house. She walked slowly to the centre of the large open room and turned in a circle, taking in the simple interior. The floor was wooden, stained to a dark shade that contrasted with the whitewashed stone walls. A scrubbed pine table sat further back in the room in front of a small kitchen area. A large black stove surrounded by two mismatched shabby armchairs and a small sofa filled the main part of the room. Next to the stove a pair of tall narrow glass-fronted doors opened up onto a long wooden balcony. Even from inside the room Mistral could see that the view from the balcony was breathtaking. An open flight of wooden stairs led up to a small gallery, tucked up beneath the raftered eaves of the house.

  ‘Do you like it?’ Fabian asked quietly.

  She turned and gazed at him. He was leaning casually against the closed door, his posture appeared relaxed but he was watching her expression closely.

  Mistral frowned slightly, why did he need her opinion on his home?

  ‘It’s –’

  Mistral cast around for the words to describe how she felt and thought again of her strange sense of homecoming, but she didn’t want to say that in case it sounded presumptuous.

  ‘– perfect,’ she finished honestly.

  He nodded in satisfaction. Pushing himself off the door he walked over to stand behind her and join her in looking out across the valley through the glass balcony doors.

  ‘Good,’ he murmured and slipped his arms around her, ‘because I was hoping you would want to come and live here with me ... one day.’

  Mistral twisted around to face him, grinning, ‘Well I’ve got pretty much everything I own with me right now – except my knife belt, but I can go back and pick that up –’

  Fabian laughed softly then sighed, ‘Unfortunately we need to talk about the timescale.’

  ‘Oh?’ Mistral asked, not liking the sudden tension she saw in his face.

  ‘It’s cold in here, let me light the fire then we can sit down and talk.’

  Mistral watched him move around the room, kneeling to light the stove, fetching a jug and two cups from the dresser and setting them on a low table by the sofa.

  ‘Are you hungry yet?’ Fabian asked, walking over to his saddlebag by the front door to retrieve the parcel of food Floris had prepared for them that morning.

  ‘Not yet.’

  Mistral was too concerned about what he was going to say. Instinctively she focussed on the air around his dark hair and his aura shimmered instantly into view. The same rainbow hues she had seen in her own aura in the Training Room mirror were there, weaving in and out of a sea of contrasting light and dark blues showing contentment and purpose. Just as she was about to blink and break the vision a streak of amethyst caught her eye; Fabian was worried about something.

  Fabian finally finished his chores, putting the parcel of food on the kitchen table and returning to sit on the sofa. He leaned back and stretched his legs out in front of him before smiling so beautifully at her that she instantly forgot her anxiety.

  ‘Come and sit down,’ he said, holding out his arms. She slid willingly into them, curling her legs up on the sofa and sighing contentedly, watching the bright flames now filling the stove. They were silent for a few moments, enjoying the pleasure of being together in front a warm fire on a cold winter’s day. Mistral felt a sigh leave Fabian’s body and knew he was ab
out to tell her what was worrying him.

  ‘You know that the Divinus feels you being able to see auras is an indication of having latent Sight?’ he began.

  Mistral nodded, ‘He told me when I first came to the Valley. It was why I originally wanted to stay on for a second year’s training. Serenity was going to help me develop my gift further.’

  ‘Was?’ Fabian asked more sharply.

  ‘I don’t want to stay in the Valley any longer than I have to. I can’t stand the thought of a second year there.’

  ‘Is that because of me?’ Fabian’s voice had taken on a hard edge that made Mistral immediately sit up to look at him.

  ‘No,’ she began then hesitated. ‘It’s because of Leo actually,’ she continued more cautiously. Leo was, after all, Fabian’s brother.

  Fabian frowned, ‘Tell me what he’s done.’

  Mistral pulled a face, ‘It’s more what he hasn’t done, oh this is hard to explain but … I just don’t trust him any longer, and the more time I spend in training is more time I will have to work for him to pay it back.’

  ‘You’ll be working for the Ri, not Leo.’ Fabian said firmly.

  There was a brief pause. Mistral frowned and looked at Fabian, trying to find the right words to explain her fears about Leo Sphinx’s plans for her future.

  ‘Phantasm has this theory,’ she began carefully. ‘He says that Leo plans to use their skills … and mine … to help him achieve his ambitions to assume control of the Ri, yes, I know it sounds farfetched,’ she said quickly seeing the look on Fabian’s face, ‘and Phantasm does have a slight tendency to see conspiracies in every corner, but there are a few things that just don’t add up.’

  Mistral paused and looked up at the beamed ceiling and took a deep breath. It was difficult to put into words exactly why she no longer trusted her Training Captain.

  ‘I suppose it all started with the Contract he gave us to meet with Mage Grapple and then travel to The Desert Lands. We all knew that it was beyond us – three unqualified first year apprentices sent to meet with the Head of the Mage Council, then travel by unspecified means to The Desert Lands! Why didn’t Leo go? I know he’s having an affair with Golden but surely the safety of all of the warriors was more important than her? Well, Phantasm thinks that Leo wanted us to fail so that he could save the day at the last moment, making us eternally grateful and placing us in his personal debt.’

  Fabian said nothing but watched her intently, his expression inscrutable.

  ‘And there’s been other things … insignificant on their own, but when you add them up … I tried to get thrown out of the Valley,’ she admitted. ‘But Leo wouldn’t let me go, even though I caused fights, got involved in a midnight wolverine hunt he had specifically banned us from going on and ended up getting shot by elves.’

  Fabian closed his eyes , ‘I am never, ever leaving you alone again.’

  ‘But Leo practically laughed at me when I tried to own up to the hunt and then told me to get better because I was no good to him the state I was in.’

  Fabian gave her a sharp look, ‘What did he mean by that?’

  Mistral sighed and avoided his searching look. She had no desire to talk about the last couple of months.

  ‘Mistral?’

  She stared at the fire and refused to meet gaze, ‘He found out that I lost the ability to read auras when you were gone … just for a while. It came back when I –’ she faltered, letting her voice tail off into nothingness, keeping her gaze fixed on the fire.

  Gentle hands wrapped around her face, lifting it to meet his tortured black gaze, ‘If you don’t want to talk about it you don’t have to. I am sorrier than you will ever know that I caused you so much pain.’

  Mistral looked into his eyes for a long moment, drawing strength from the depth of emotion she saw there.

  ‘Do you know about Bonding?’ she asked in a whisper barely audible above the crackle of the fire.

  Fabian nodded and smiled.

  ‘Is that what’s happened … to us?’

  Fabian nodded again and raised one dark eyebrow, the mocking villain, ‘Scared?’

  Mistral abruptly giggled then shook her head, ‘No … well, not now anyway. But it was a bit of a shock when I finally realised that you and I had, well, you know –’ she lowered her gaze, suddenly shy. ‘I sat for hours in that big mirrored Training Room on the third floor and read my own aura, trying to work out what was going on and then I suddenly thought of you for some reason and … well, let’s just say it was an eye-opener.’

  Fabian laughed and pulled her into his arms, ‘I envy you the convenience of being able to see your emotions. I had to work it out for myself with good old-fashioned soul-searching. Those wretched treaty negotiations were unbearable. All I wanted to do was walk out and find you, see you, talk to you … and then when I finally escaped I had to ride across half a continent to find you.’

  ‘When you put it like that I suppose spending a night sitting in front a mirror was the easier option,’ she laughed, her embarrassment forgotten. ‘I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. I think the twins always knew but they never said anything.’

  ‘What gift do the twins have?’ Fabian suddenly asked.

  ‘They call it their Gemini gift. It only works when their minds join. Then they can influence the way people feel … they reckon that with training they’ll be able to develop it so that they can actually bend a person's will to their own.’

  Fabian exclaimed softly, ‘The twins have the potential to control the thoughts that you would hear as a Seer. That’s a very powerful combination of gifts Mistral.’

  He fell silent, deep in thought. At length he sighed.

  ‘This changes everything.’

  ‘About what?’ Mistral asked, looking up at him curiously.

  ‘Leo,’ said Fabian, stroking her hair absently. ‘I know what Phantasm believes sounds a bit melodramatic but it’s actually not totally inconceivable. Leo is fiercely ambitious and in some respects he can’t be blamed for that. Look at who his father is.’

  Mistral shrugged, ‘I don’t care if he wants to rule the world. I’m fed up with him trying to control my life.’

  Fabian went suddenly still. His hand rested, unmoving, against her hair.

  Mistral looked at him, ‘Whatever is troubling you better not be about Leo,’ she warned darkly. ‘I’ve really had it with him.’

  ‘It is, I’m afraid,’ Fabian admitted with a sigh, before adding quickly. ‘But it doesn’t have to be if you don’t want.’

  ‘Explain.’ Mistral demanded shortly. She sat up and moved down the sofa to face him, drawing her knees up and tucking her arms around them defensively.

  Fabian hesitated and pursed his lips. Mistral’s eyes tightened while she watched him; it wasn’t like Fabian to be unsure of himself.

  ‘After I left you last night, Leo spoke with me,’ he began quietly. ‘We talked about your gift and the potential it has. You’re right, he is keen for you to develop its full power,’ he paused and looked sadly at her. ‘He told me that emotional changes upset your ability. I didn’t know whether to believe him or not, but from what you told me about losing your gift when we were apart I can see that he was telling the truth.’ Fabian stopped and drew in a deep breath. ‘Leo has asked that we wait until you have mastered Sight before we begin our life together … completely.’

  ‘Leo Sphinx has the nerve to tell you that we can’t be together?’ Mistral demanded in an incredulous tone.

  ‘No, Mistral he’s not saying that we can’t be together,’ Fabian paused and sighed again. ‘Leo has politely requested that we take the physical side of our relationships a bit more slowly.’

  ‘How slowly?’ Mistral asked suspiciously.

  ‘For the second year of your apprenticeship, or until you have mastered Sight, whichever happens soonest.’

  Disappointment bloomed in her. She eyed the stairs leading up to his galley bedroom and sighed. More waiting. Waiting to leave Nevel
te, waiting to for training to start, waiting for Qualification, waiting to leave the damned Valley, waiting for Fabian ... and now this ... waiting for some royal command from Leo to be allowed to –

  There was a short pause while Fabian watched the anger growing on Mistral’s face and waited patiently for her to erupt.

  ‘I can’t believe that man! I don’t give a damn what he wants! And if he believes I’m going to become a nun just to be his personal mind-reader he can think again! This is the final straw! I’m leaving the Valley, and Leo can stuff his ambitions right up –’

  ‘Mistral, listen to me,’ Fabian interrupted in a calm voice. ‘I’m not too keen on you being beholden to Leo either. However, I will not rob you of the chance to fulfil your destiny. We have already started our life together. Nothing can change that, and the rest we can wait for.’

  Mistral glowered at him, ‘And you’re happy to do what Leo wants are you?’

  Fabian frowned and reached across to pull her into his arms but she resisted and remained stiff and unyielding at the far end of the sofa, refusing to be appeased. Fabian sighed and moved across the sofa towards her, sliding an arm around her tense shoulders.

  ‘No, I’m not doing what Leo wants,’ he said. ‘I will do whatever you want.’

  Mistral stared angrily at him while she digested this piece of information and then she grinned, her anger vanishing instantly.

  ‘Good, because I’m sick to death of the dratted Valley. I want to come and live here. I can get work as a hunter. It won’t matter that I’m not fully Qualified, I’m good enough for most kinds of work –’

  Fabian’s face suddenly clouded with anger, ‘Mistral! Will you please just consider all of your options for a moment! This is the rest of your life you are blithely throwing away! Do you have any idea how rare Seers are?’

  Taken aback by the sharp tone of his voice Mistral stopped mid-flow and looked at him, ‘Seers?’ she repeated blankly. ‘Well, they can’t be that rare can they? There’s the Divinus and supposedly me, but that’s not going to happen –’

  ‘The Divinus is the only known Seer alive, and he is over two hundred years old,’ said Fabian quietly.