An Echo of Things to Come

by James Islington

  “Nearby.” Davian met her gaze steadily. “I want to know what’s going on in the Tol before we let the Shen Council anywhere near them.” Mentally, he added to Erran, We’re about to move. I’ll meet you back here in a few hours. If I’m not back …

  Understood.

  Ishelle gave a reluctant nod, then stood as well.

  “Then let’s go and speak to Driscin,” she said quietly.

  Davian glanced around the tunnel, more inclined to take in his surroundings this time.

  “You’re sure we need to use this?” he asked Ishelle.

  “I wasn’t joking about us not being too popular right now,” said Ishelle. “Driscin’s not supposed to be letting me go anywhere; he had to lie to get me out of the Tol without someone noticing. He said that we should avoid using any of our abilities, too—everyone’s on edge about Augurs right now. I don’t think we’d be assaulted if we were seen using them, but …” She shrugged.

  Davian blinked. “We just saved them.”

  “And you really think that they’ll just smile and thank you after what Rohin did to them? After what he’s shown them that we’re capable of?”

  Davian swallowed, acceding the point with a nod. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise; over the years, he’d seen plenty of regular people fear him purely because he was Gifted. The Gifted having the same reflexive reaction toward Augurs was disappointing, but far from a shock.

  They walked for a few minutes, the only sound the echoing of their footsteps and at one point, the sound of rushing water from one of the branching tunnels. It wasn’t long before they were emerging into Central Ward, drawing their red cloaks a little tighter as they made their way through the streets. It was evening and there was a chill in the air, so having their hoods up didn’t look too unusual.

  “Where are we going?” murmured Davian, nodding as nonchalantly as he could to two Gifted as they passed. The Ward was quiet as this hour, but far from deserted.

  “It’s not far. Follow me.” Ishelle struck off to the east, and Davian had to hurry to keep stride.

  They walked for a couple of minutes, until Ishelle suddenly emitted a low curse.

  “Keep walking. They’re watching Driscin’s office,” she muttered. “To our left.”

  Davian frowned, forcing himself not to physically turn, but instead reaching out with kan. Sure enough, two forms stood in the shadows at the corner of one of the structures, motionless but clearly alert.

  “Too late to use a time bubble. They’d notice for sure,” he murmured. “Is there a back way?”

  Ishelle nodded. They kept walking until they were out of sight of the watchers, then ducked around and came at Driscin’s office from the next street over. This time, there didn’t appear to be anyone to avoid.

  Ishelle tapped lightly on the door, the knock a sharp and precise rhythm. There was a pause, then the door opened and Driscin was peering out, looking more at their surroundings than at them.

  “Come in. Quickly,” he said, nervousness underpinning the urgency in his tone.

  Once they were inside and the door was shut again, Driscin gestured them into chairs and collapsed into his own.

  “They realized that you’d left,” he said heavily to Ishelle. “Things are …” He shook his head, then sighed and turned to Davian. “She’s all right?”

  Davian inclined his head in affirmation, unsurprised by the question. “Rohin’s influence is gone.”

  Driscin breathed out, visibly relaxing. “I’d assumed so, but it is nice to be certain. Now—we need to start talking about how to bring Rohin back to one of the cells. It’s the only way to convince the Elders that you weren’t working with him,” he added, seeing Davian open his mouth to protest.

  “What?” Davian frowned at Driscin. “They cannot seriously believe that.”

  “Deep down, they probably don’t—but it’s less about the truth and more about fear, at the moment.” Driscin’s expression was grim. “Most of them never fully grasped just how powerful you are before now; when they first proposed the Amnesty, their assumption was that you would all be coming here for training. Now that they know what you’re already capable of, they’re terrified, and they want to do something about it.”

  “Fates,” muttered Davian. “Sounds familiar. You’d think that the last twenty years might have given them a bit of perspective.”

  “It’s human nature,” observed Driscin, a slight chiding note in his tone. “And I don’t know the full story, but what I’ve heard of what Rohin made some of them do …”

  Davian nodded slowly. “So we can’t look to them for help.”

  “You can’t look to them at all,” emphasized Driscin. “If they catch you, they’ll try to lock you up in one of those cells. Honestly—if you hadn’t taken that stone dagger with you, they’d be figuring out how and when to use it right now.”

  Davian and Ishelle both stared at Driscin. “What are you saying?” asked Davian eventually. “That we need to run?”

  Driscin nodded.

  “I’m saying that you need to gather your friends and head for the Boundary. I can handle the Council, and I think that they will eventually come to their senses—but right now, I’ve never seen any of them so shaken. They survived five years of siege safe behind these walls, and Rohin came in here in a day and took over. They won’t be rational about this for a while.” He took a slip of paper from his desk and handed it to Ishelle. “A letter of passage. It says that due to the urgency of your mission, you have the Council’s full permission to travel without being accompanied by Gifted, and that we will vouch for anything you need to do.”

  Ishelle’s eyes widened as she scanned the paper. “You and Elder Dain signed this?”

  “Don’t worry. It’s a good copy of his signature.” He shrugged at Davian’s look. “Nobody’s going to be able to prove that he didn’t sign it, and it’s better than you two being considered outside the bounds of the Amnesty.”

  Davian nodded as Ishelle carefully folded the paper and pocketed it. “Thank you,” he said quietly.

  “What I said about being able to handle the Council is only true if they get Rohin,” said Driscin seriously. “I’m assuming that you have no way of holding him prisoner indefinitely anyway, so …”

  Davian sighed. He didn’t like the idea of giving the Augur back over to the Council, but it was by far the most logical option. “How should we do it?”

  “The amulet is still preventing him from using any of his powers?” When Davian nodded, he continued. “The safest way would be via the Augur entrance, then. Just leave the door on the Tol side unlocked so that I can use it. Say, at midnight tonight?”

  “We can do that,” agreed Davian quietly.

  “Good.” Driscin released a long breath, evidently relieved that he hadn’t encountered any opposition to the plan. “In that case, you should go. You may have made it in here without being noticed, but the Council’s been keeping a very sharp eye on me. Especially since they realized you were gone,” he added with a glance at Ishelle.

  Davian hesitated. They were leaving the Tol; in some ways the question he was about to ask felt irrelevant. But he still wanted to know.

  “Before we do,” he said quietly. “Did the Council know about the attack on Ilin Illan a month ago? Did they have foreknowledge of it?”

  Driscin stared at him for a long moment, utter silence in the room.

  Then he nodded. “Yes.”

  Ishelle’s eyes flashed, and she spoke before Davian could open his mouth. “And you never told me? Never tried to warn people?”

  “To what end?” Driscin leaned forward. “Shel, be reasonable. This was a vision from the old Augurs, and many of their visions never came to pass. It was either wrong, in which case there was no point starting a panic, or right, in which case nothing we could have done would have prevented it.”

  “What about all the people who died outside of Ilin Illan, though?” asked Davian quietly. “What about preparing the city?
”

  Driscin grunted. “How? We’re talking about something that we weren’t even sure would happen, let alone when,” he said irritably. “Some of the things in the vision hinted that it might be real—Shadows, Gifted wearing Shackles, some of the physical changes to Ilin Illan over the past twenty years—but that was all we had to go on.” He shrugged. “Lyrus and his group sometimes seemed to give it more stock than I would have, and I’ve wondered since if he might have known something that I didn’t. But all the vision indicated was that there would be an attack, that it would be repelled, and that the Gifted would help. We didn’t even know which direction it was coming from, let alone who the enemy was.”

  Davian frowned, but he felt his shoulders relax a little. The explanation was far from assuring, but at least Driscin was telling the truth.

  “Why not just make the visions public, though? Give people some warning?” pressed Ishelle. “Perhaps they wouldn’t have listened, but you could at least have tried.”

  Driscin sighed. “Think, Shel. You’re a smart girl. If Tol Shen had come forward—even as recently as a few months ago—and announced that they had a vision from the old Augurs suggesting that there would be an invasion, what would have happened?”

  Ishelle was silent for a moment, then scowled. “It would have been given to Administration to investigate.”

  “And they’d wonder why we were suddenly so interested in this one specific vision. Which would have inevitably, at some point, led to them trying to determine if we were harboring an Augur ourselves,” concluded Driscin grimly. “It’s easy to say what we should have done in hindsight—but at the time, we’d have been risking too much to warn people about something that may not even have come about.”

  Davian exchanged a glance with Ishelle, then nodded reluctantly. Driscin had been truthful throughout, and he made some fair points. It was enough for now.

  “I have one thing I’d like to ask before you go, too,” said Driscin suddenly, eyes narrowing. “How many of my memories did you take?”

  Davian winced. “Ah. Erran only removed those from when you met him, and our figuring out of the real plan,” he quickly assured the older man. “You shielded everything else when he took those memories, so he wasn’t able to Read you.”

  Driscin looked far from satisfied. “I find it difficult to believe that I would have agreed to that.”

  “It was your idea,” said Davian firmly, ignoring the look of amusement from Ishelle that Driscin fortunately did not seem to notice. “It was the only way that we could think to get Ishelle to—”

  “Fine,” interrupted Driscin irritably, still not looking convinced but evidently resigning himself to believing the explanation. “Next time …”

  He trailed off at the scratching of feet on stone from outside and glanced toward the door. “Did anyone see you come in here?” he asked in a low voice.

  Davian shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

  Before Driscin could reply, there was a sharp rap on the door. The Elder gave Davian a dark look, then waited expectantly; Davian stared back in puzzlement until Ishelle grabbed him silently by the arm, dragging him over to the corner and closing her eyes.

  Driscin watched, then nodded in satisfaction and headed for the door as another knock came, the impatience in its rhythm unmistakable.

  It took a second for Davian to realize what Ishelle was doing, but he released a slow breath once he did. She’d made them invisible. As long as neither of them made a sound, whomever had come calling on Driscin at this hour wouldn’t know that they were there.

  Driscin swung the door wide to reveal Elder Aliria, her expression dark. Beside her, a young man only a little older than Davian stood nervously, eyes darting around the inside of Driscin’s study as if expecting to be attacked at any moment.

  “I hear you have company, Driscin?” Aliria’s voice was ice.

  Driscin frowned at her, his puzzled expression looking totally natural. “What? No.” Davian grimaced as a minor stab of pain shot through his temple, but he just squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, maintaining his motionless silence.

  “I saw them go in.” The young man, whom Davian vaguely recognized but could not name, had an insistent note to his voice. “It was only a couple of minutes ago, and it was definitely them. I’ll swear to it.”

  “Where are they?” Aliria asked Driscin. There was anger in her tone, but something more, too. Something darker.

  Driscin peered at the redheaded woman with a mildly confused expression on his face. “Who? I’ve been working on my report for the past hour or so.” He gestured, looking vaguely indignant. “You can come in and see for yourself if you wish. It’s right there on the table.”

  “He’s lying,” the young man spat. He pushed his way rudely past Driscin, Aliria quietly joining him inside. “They’re still in here somewhere,” he continued, scanning the room and starting to peer behind various pieces of furniture. Davian went stock-still, suddenly glad that Ishelle had dragged him against the wall. The Gifted never came within ten feet of them, though, focusing his efforts on the chairs and desk at the other end of the room. By the time he finally gave up—Driscin watching him with a mildly embarrassed expression—his cheeks were red.

  “That’s enough, Symin,” said Aliria after a few long seconds of awkward silence. “Perhaps you were mistaken.” She paused. “Or perhaps they have already left.”

  Symin scowled, but reluctantly made his way back outside. Aliria moved to follow him, then hesitated, lowering her voice.

  “He saw someone come in here, Driscin,” she said flatly. “He may be an idiot, but he’s not delusional. If you are helping them …” The cold threat in her tone was unmistakable this time.

  Driscin didn’t let his gaze waver. “Fates, Aliria. I was affected by Rohin, too. Don’t tell me that I’m going to have to put up with this every time someone walks past my door.”

  Aliria studied him. “The Augur escaping is still on your head,” she eventually said grimly. “Don’t expect to get much leeway anytime soon.”

  She gave him a final glare and shut the door.

  Driscin leaned against the door frame after it was closed, releasing a long, soft breath. Then he glared around at where Davian and Ishelle had been, raising his hands to his lips. Davian almost chuckled at the incorrectly positioned look, but the meaning was clear enough. Driscin was ensuring that Aliria hadn’t loitered.

  Then he made a couple of gestures in the air, and Davian saw lines of Essence settling into the walls. He was Silencing the room. It wouldn’t last—only until the Essence decayed—but it meant that it was safe to finally make some noise. He released a breath with an audible sigh.

  Driscin’s head swivelled toward them, his eyes focusing as Ishelle dropped her invisibility.

  Davian glanced at Ishelle, half expecting her to make a quip about Driscin’s acting, but the young woman just nodded to the Elder. “Thanks,” she said quietly. She looked across at Davian. “We shouldn’t wait around.”

  Davian inclined his head, concurring. “Will you come north to help us, if the Council eventually allows it?” he asked Driscin.

  Something passed between Driscin and Ishelle, though Davian wasn’t sure what. Then Driscin nodded slowly.

  “At some point,” he conceded. “But while the Amnesty is in effect, I should stay here. If a new Augur showed up tomorrow …” He shook his head at the thought, then gestured to the door. “Go. Be careful on the way out, though—Aliria may have believed me, or she may not have. Either way, I doubt it will take long for her or one of the other Elders to decide that they need to watch my back door, as well as my front.”

  “Should we use our abilities this time, then?” asked Ishelle.

  Driscin hesitated, then grimaced and shook his head. “No. Not unless you can get all the way to the passage without stopping,” he said. “If they spot you walking around, that’s one thing. But if someone sees you appear out of nowhere—with the way things are out th
ere at the moment—you’re likely to get a blast of Essence in the back before you know what’s going on.”

  Both Augurs nodded reluctantly, then made their farewells and slipped out the door.

  They hurried toward the main street, hoods up again, only to skid to a halt as they rounded the corner.

  A dozen or so Gifted were gathered a little way down the street.

  The woman at their front turned, her eyes lighting up when she saw them, evidently guessing who they were despite their concealed features.

  “Hello, Augurs,” spat Aliria.

  Chapter 27

  “I think they’re onto us,” murmured Ishelle as the entire group of Gifted turned to face them.

  Davian gave her a half-amused, half-irritated look as he tried to quickly assess the situation. “Thoughts?”

  “It’s not like they can stop us,” observed Ishelle softly, “but let’s try to negotiate first.” There was hesitation in her tone, a nervousness that was unlike her.

  Aliria continued to stare furiously at them, and Davian shivered. “All right,” he said dubiously.

  They pulled back their hoods and walked toward the group, Davian doing his best not to look concerned. “Elder Aliria,” said Ishelle gently. “Please. We just want to leave.”

  “Of course you do.” Aliria’s words dripped with naked hatred. “You murder my husband, and then you want to leave.”

  “That was Rohin,” said Davian angrily. “We’re not responsible for his actions.”

  “I’m not talking about what he did. I’m talking about what she did. Look at her,” snarled Aliria, as the Gifted moved threateningly around the two Augurs. “She knows who’s responsible.”

  Davian glanced at Ishelle, his heart dropping. The dark-haired girl was staring grimly at Aliria, but the blood had drained from her face.

  “None of us are responsible for things done under Rohin’s control,” said Davian quickly, recovering himself. “Nobody had a choice in their actions while he was here.”

  “Except you,” said the Elder, her eyes flashing. “You managed, but not her.” She shook her head. “You both need to come with me. The Council has requested that you stay in the Tol until they can determine exactly what happened—and the Amnesty doesn’t allow you to leave without their permission. So I will use force if need be.” Her expression said that she would be perfectly happy to do just that.