Fate

by Mary Corran

  ‘And he’ll have to get rid of you,’ she pointed out. ‘I’m no one, but you’re a councillor of Venture, an equal. You’re the real danger.’

  ‘He can’t dispose of me easily. Our clan has powerful connections in the capital.’

  ‘He’ll find a weapon to use against you. That’s the way he works,’ Asher said bitterly. ‘Anyone connected with either of us is in danger. We don’t know what he can see, or how much he knows.’ A note of despair entered her voice. ‘How can we even find the girl without help? She could be anywhere in the city, or beyond.’

  ‘And what do we do with her when we do find her?’ Mallory said, speaking the question aloud.

  ‘We take her north.’

  ‘To Saffra?’ Mallory was surprised. ‘Why there?’

  ‘Because while her father Lykon is still alive, her life won’t be worth a copper coin once it’s known who she is. Amrist and the grey men would find a way to kill her, Mallory. The only safe place is north, out of his reach. And I know the way.’

  He nodded pensively. ‘She would be safe from Avorian, too. But, as you say, first we have to find her.’ But Asher was looking not at but past him, towards the doorway where a tall, thin woman stood listening. ‘Oramen?’ he asked sharply, for he had not heard her come in. ‘Why are you here? I gave orders we were not to be disturbed!’

  ‘No, but I came.’ The seeress looked perfectly composed as she shut the door. ‘I have, as you know, small talent for divination which does not concern the weather or the tides, yet even I can hardly remain unaware of significant events occurring in this house, disrupting the balances. I think you have need of my services, such as they are. They are yours.’

  Mallory saw Asher frown a refusal, but he hesitated. ‘Oramen, if we involve you, we risk your life,’ he said bluntly.

  ‘That I had already gathered.’ There was an underlying note of excitement in her voice. ‘But my service is to your clan, as it has always been; and for the moment, you are that clan. It seems to me that the fortunes of your house are closely bound to that of your own life, which is at some risk at this moment. Unless I read the signs wrongly, which I do not believe.’

  ‘Mistress,’ Asher began hesitantly, ‘the danger to yourself is great, for our enemy has a powerful diviner. I would not wish you to take such a risk without knowing the odds.’

  Unexpectedly, Oramen smiled. ‘I see the future is clearer to you than to me, Mistress Asher — yes, I know your name. Not, I fear through sight but because I asked young Pars the clerk. But your gift is undeveloped where mine is at full strength, and I am willing to take a chance. Which is my choice, I think.’

  Their eyes met; Mallory felt uncomfortably excluded, wondering what piece of knowledge was being kept from him.

  ‘Oramen, we are looking for a girl,’ he said abruptly, interrupting their silent accord. ‘Can you see for us?’

  ‘Do you have a talisman, or any object belonging to her?’

  ‘Nothing.’

  ‘Do you know her well enough to visualize her, in your mind, to serve as a focus?’

  Mallory glanced at Asher. ‘Neither of us knows the girl well, I only by sight, but Mistress Asher has met and spoken to her.’

  Oramen frowned. ‘Perhaps it will serve. And may I know the identity of this person?’ There was a moment of silence while both Asher and Mallory pondered the question. ‘It may be,’ the seeress went on, ‘that I have guessed it in part. Some crucial turning point in the balance of luck in our world is building, with good or ill results to ourselves here in Darrian; there is only one person, I believe, upon whose life so powerful an alteration could depend. But if you choose to be silent, I will not question you further.’

  An uneasy look crossed Asher’s face, but Mallory, watching the seeress, did not see it. ‘For your own safety,’ he murmured, ‘you had better remain in ignorance.’

  ‘But — ’ Asher had got up from her chair. Before she could continue, Oramen interrupted her brusquely.

  ‘Then I shall prepare myself. I will be ready presently.’ She looked steadily at Asher. ‘There comes a time when each and every one of us must make a choice; even when that choice may not be what others would choose for us. At this moment, the balance in our world is askew, the odds against our good far outweighing those in our favour.’ Asher made a brief inclination of her head, and Oramen, saying no more, turned and left the room, leaving Mallory staring after her with deep suspicion.

  ‘What did she mean?’

  At first he thought Asher had not heard, but before he could repeat the question, she answered: ‘Nothing, Mallory. It was just her way of saying she wanted to help us.’

  It struck him forcibly that he had inadvertently wandered on to forbidden territory and was being warned off. Not for the first time, it occurred to him to wonder whether men and women were really members of the same species, or whether their inability to understand one another was some form of great cosmic joke at their expense. Asher and Oramen had never met before, but they seemed to understand one another well. Mallory was aware of the stirrings of an illogical jealousy; Oramen was his seeress, and Asher, too, belonged to him on some primitive level. He had saved her life, and they had drunk from the same cup, their lives were intertwined.

  The strength of his feelings shook him; knowing Asher, he was only glad he had not been foolish enough to speak them aloud.

  *

  ‘Sit one on either side and concentrate your will upon the mirror. You must look towards it, not into it, and show me the face you seek,’ Oramen instructed.

  Asher complied. The seeress’s chamber bore no relation to Omond’s apartments at Kepesake; there were no rows of vials, no jars of unidentifiable specimens. Instead, the walls of the square room were covered with charts of all the seas from Darrian east to Petormin, the full extent of the Dominion, and tables showing the relative positions of both moons at any given point of the year, presumably all used to divine the most favourable tides and winds, which Mallory told her was Oramen’s special gift. For the rest it was a bare, plain room, the wooden floor uncovered, the only furniture a large round table and several high-backed chairs; the single window was shuttered and it was gloomily dark, although the seeress had lit two grey candles which stood in silver holders on the table to either side of a large, square mirror, giving off a familiar metallic smell.

  ‘It is unfortunate you have nothing belonging to the girl. It will make it more difficult, for I must rely on your own impressions.’

  ‘I’m afraid this is up to you rather than me,’ Mallory murmured to Asher. ‘I barely remember her face.’

  ‘I remember her.’ Asher sought and found a clear recollection of the scene in Avorian’s private office, with Lassar and Menna and — Koris? — the Asiri slave-boy; Menna’s serene, intelligent face came back to her in surprisingly sharp detail.

  ‘Do you have a little of this gift also, Mistress Asher?’ Oramen asked her.

  She was beginning to say: ‘I don’t know ... ’ when Mallory said loudly: ‘No!’

  Oramen looked at him in some surprise. ‘But how can you be so certain?’

  Seeing him at a loss, Asher found herself smiling. ‘I think, mistress, he means that, because I have married, I’m no longer a virgin.’

  ‘Ahh!’ Oramen, too, smiled her amusement. ‘What a curious notion.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Mallory looked displeased.

  ‘Only that I sometimes think you men regard women rather as sealed letters, if you understand me. That is, that until the seal is broken, the letter has not been read; then the first person breaks the seal and reads the letter, but thereafter any number of people may do so.’ Mallory said nothing, sitting tightlipped while Asher hid a smile.

  ‘Is it not true, then?’ she asked. ‘There’s no need to remain virgin for the sight?’

  ‘Not in my experience.’ Oramen kept her expression perfectly blank; Asher bit her lip. ‘I fail to see why such a small thing should make any difference,�
� she went on innocently. ‘That is just — if I may put it so — an old wives’ saying.’

  Mallory cleared his throat. ‘Perhaps we could continue this discussion at another time?’ he suggested.

  ‘Indeed.’ Serious now, Oramen fixed her gaze on the mirror.

  Should I stop her? Asher, aware of a strong respect for the older woman, was unsure how to proceed. Should she speak, or remain silent?

  ‘Concentrate on the mirror,’ Oramen repeated in her beautiful voice. ‘Show me this girl.’

  The scent from the candles began to make Asher dizzy in a way that was becoming familiar; she forced her will towards the mirror, trying to impose Menna’s — no, Vallis’s — face on its silvered surface, but could see only Oramen’s own reflection and the weaving flames of the candles.

  ‘It is not enough.’

  The seeress’s voice was beginning to sound harsher; Asher, risking a look at the older woman, saw she was quite rigid with effort. She tried to shut from her mind everything else, everything she did not want to remember, and to think of Vallis as she had seen her, bending to gather the slave-boy’s logs, listening to her father — no, to Avorian — as he spoke of the Fates. Asher could see the girl’s expression most clearly, blurring the outlines of her face, but more a part of her than her clothes or her looks, surprised at how strong an impression of her personality she retained.

  ‘Better. Continue so.’

  Asher was aware of Mallory opposite, of the flickering of the candles and of Oramen’s strain; another awareness struggled to force its way through to her mind, but she cut it off. It was not for her to make the choice for another, although Mallory would not see it so. Responsibility, she thought briefly, means something different to him. To take command, to take control. But not to me, nor to Oramen; my duty to her, not for her. She put the thought aside and made herself concentrate again, feeling, in the stillness of the room, the pulses in mind and heart beating in apparent tandem with a steady rhythm, a regular, soporific throbbing.

  ‘Mists — there are mists surrounding, hiding her from sight.’ Oramen moaned slightly. ‘It is not natural; she is well warded.’

  ‘But you are strong and can see. Look, and tell us.’ Mallory, too, looked drawn.

  Sweat beaded Oramen’s brow. ‘I — ’ The seeress placed her hands flat on the table, fingers splayed and rigid; Asher felt her own body grow stiff in unconscious imitation of the other woman’s extreme tension. ‘I — feel he sees me,’ she said hoarsely.

  ‘Can you continue? Or shall we stop?’ Mallory asked quickly.

  ‘I will continue.’ Asher made a convulsive gesture, but neither Oramen nor Mallory noticed. The seeress’s voice grew deeper, more strained. ‘I see a house — the house where she sleeps.’

  ‘Can you see where. In the city or outside it?’ Mallory said, keeping his voice low.

  ‘Inside.’ Oramen was gasping for breath. ‘The house lies near water. There is a bridge.’

  ‘The sea or the river?’

  ‘Running water — it is the river. It runs from left to right.’

  From her knowledge of the city, Asher guessed the house must stand somewhere in the old quarter, either near the Sair Gate to the north or Fishermen’s Quay to the east; certainly, Avorian’s own house was out of the question, since it was nowhere near the river.

  ‘There is an inn beside it, and on the doorway of the house I can see a bunch of leaves — no, ivy.’ It was a struggle to hear what Oramen said, her voice had sunk so low. ‘The girl sleeps high — high up — warded!’

  ‘Oramen?’ Some element of face or voice must have struck Mallory as disturbing, for he put a hand to her shoulder. ‘Oramen?’ he repeated more loudly. ‘Let go!’

  ‘I — cannot. He sees. He holds me — ’

  ‘Stop, Oramen!’ Mallory was shaking her, trying to turn her away from the mirror, desperate to break the semi-trance. ‘Free yourself — now.’

  ‘He won’t let me go!’ Oramen’s neck arched back, but her eyes remained fixed to the mirror’s now-clouded surface; whatever terrified her was visible to her alone.

  The next few moments seemed to Asher to pass in slow motion; she remembered rising from her chair with the intention of breaking the mirror with one of the silver candlesticks, and Mallory, too, was on his feet, standing behind Oramen. Then the seeress screamed, and at the same time the mirror exploded in a violent storm of glass as Asher dropped to the floor, raising her hands to protect her face and eyes from the sudden blast of deadly fragments.

  For a time there was no sound at all in the room, only an ugly, frightening silence. Shakily, Asher took her hands from her face, releasing a shower of tiny splinters which had pierced the skin. Her hands were bleeding. She waited tremulously to see if there was more to come, but nothing happened and slowly she got to her feet, her left foot treading on a sliver of glass which cracked with a sound like a bell being rung.

  ‘Mallory?’

  ‘I’m here.’ She blinked, turning towards him. There was blood on his face, but only from superficial cuts like her own.

  ‘Oramen?’

  The seeress was still sitting in her chair, head slumped low against her chest, much of her face hidden in the darkness. Asher reached out a tentative hand, then drew it back; Mallory put a finger to Oramen’s throat, feeling for a pulse.

  ‘She’s dead,’ he said dully.

  ‘Her eyes!’ The candles showed her the horror of needle-sharp splinters of glass piercing Oramen’s eyes and face, an obscene vision.

  ‘She died from shock, I think.’

  ‘How did this happen? Lassar — ’

  He turned on her suddenly. ‘You knew she was taking a risk, didn’t you? So did she. Why did you let her do it? Why didn’t you tell me, or stop her yourself?’

  Asher’s own emotions, raw from shock, reeled under the injustice of the accusation. ‘It was her choice, not mine; this is what she wanted. She knew the risk she ran, and still made up her mind to help us. It was not for me to tell her what she could or couldn’t do.’

  ‘Then you should have told me!’ He seemed to have a need to blame someone. ‘If you weren’t prepared to take the responsibility, I was.’

  ‘It’s not for you to take!’ she flung back at him. ‘It was her life, her choice; perhaps this was the right time for her to die. And if you want to apportion blame, chose Lassar or Avorian instead of me!’

  He was silenced, and she sensed the person he really blamed was himself.

  Mylla had chosen to die quickly, with some dignity remaining to her, a rational choice. Oramen, too, had understood that choice. Asher glanced at the body of the seeress, wondering with what force Lassar had shattered the mirror. Was it the strength of the battle of wills between two diviners, Lassar and Oramen?

  Her hands were shaking, and she quickly crossed her arms so that Mallory should not see them.

  ‘She was a good and faithful servant to our clan, and a friend,’ Mallory said stiffly, putting a hand on Oramen’s still shoulder. ‘Not you, Asher. Not you, but Avorian. I’m sorry.’

  ‘We can find Vallis. Oramen saw enough.’

  He, too, seemed to find the prospect of action less painful than coping with loss. ‘We can go through the lists of his properties I made. The girl must be in one of them. I’ve a plan of the city.’

  ‘But first we must prepare Oramen for the burning grounds,’ Asher reminded him gently. ‘She deserves greater dignity than this.’

  ‘Stay with her.’ Mallory touched Oramen’s face, his own displaying the same icy determination Asher had seen on it when he rescued her from Lewes, then he moved away. ‘She will receive the honour that is due to her.’

  *

  ‘What have you done with him?’ Honora demanded, her voice rising dangerously as she took a step forward. ‘What have you done with my son?’ She gave Asher a sharp look. ‘Send her away!’

  Mallory hesitated, but Asher shook her head and tactfully retreated from the room, leaving him alone i
n the office with his sister-in-law. ‘What are you talking about, Honora?’ he asked, with less than his usual patience.

  ‘Kirin — he’s disappeared!’ No one has seen him since the morning meal.’

  ‘Not again!’ Surely he’s just avoiding a dull morning with his tutor?’ Mallory suggested wearily. ‘Have the grounds been searched?’

  ‘He promised me he would not!’ She turned to make sure the door of the office was shut, then went on: ‘What have you done with him?’

  ‘Honora, calm yourself,’ he began, trying to avert the threatened storm.

  She turned a tear-ravaged face to his, her tongue no longer constrained by convention in the face of her loss. ‘Who is she?’ she demanded. ‘And what is she doing here? Have you brought your mistress to this house to supplant me, and at the same time you take my son so you can take his father’s place? Is that what you want?’

  Mallory bit back the retort he wanted to make. ‘You must know what you say is nonsense,’ he said calmly. ‘Your anxiety makes you unreasonable, which I understand and can make allowances for, but you must not say such things.’

  ‘Why not?’ She was shaking from the force of her emotions. ‘You care nothing for me, nor for my sons; you want us gone from here, out of your sight, so that you can do what you will, without hindrance. My family warned me it would be so when Kelham was gone, but I tried not to believe it.’

  ‘Enough!’ Impatience made him sharper than he intended, but the single word was effective; Honora was silenced. ‘Believe me,’ he carried on, ‘I wish my brother were alive — more so than you, if such a thing were possible. I have no desire to take your son’s inheritance, whatever you may prefer to think.’ The incredulous look she gave him was hardly complimentary. ‘And these accusations do not help us find him, if he is really lost. Have you any idea where he might have gone?’

  She struggled to control herself. ‘None. He was here, in the house — ’

  ‘Then he must have left it. Did no one see him — not his brother or sister?’ She shook her head mutely and Mallory felt himself grow cold; if the boy really had disappeared and was not hiding somewhere, if he was in Avorian’s hands ...