Seven Dreams (36 page)

A moment later,
the door swung open. Teyo stepped back, astonished and alarmed, but
there was no time to retreat. A woman stood in the doorway,
beaming.

‘
Come
in!’ she said, with a grand sweep of her arm. ‘We’ve been expecting
you!’

A curse from Egg
split the air, and Serena whirled. Egg had resumed guarding their
rear, to no particular avail; behind her had appeared a quartet of
grim-looking men, two of whom had seized her by the arms. Egg
twisted and struggled furiously in their grip, but
uselessly.

Teyo swore.
‘Denaya—’

‘
Is
loyal to the Yllandu,’ said the woman with another smile.
‘Reluctantly, perhaps, but she knows which side her bread is
buttered.’

Denaya,
presumably, was the woman who had admitted them. Serena watched
with pain as Teyo’s face crumpled, and his shoulders dropped. He
sighed and stepped into the Heart, and Serena had no choice but to
follow.

The room beyond
was a surprise. Compared to the featureless corridor outside, its
decoration was positively sumptuous. Expensive rugs covered the
floor, tapestries hung from the walls, and a full complement of
furniture built from silvery glostrel and bronze silner wood was
arrayed around the room. But the chamber bore no formality
whatsoever. The chairs were well-stuffed and comfortable, and there
wasn’t a hint of stateliness about the place.

‘
Have
a seat, do,’ said their self-appointed hostess. Her words were
friendly, but an edge of steel in her voice advised against arguing
with her. Serena, Fabian, Bron and Egg sat, the latter with some
less-than-gentle assistance from her captors. Teyo didn’t so much
sit as fold into a chair, as limp as a ragdoll.

There was no sign
of Iyamar, which gave Serena a moment’s hope.

‘
And
the other one?’ said their hostess, and accepted a small, dark,
furry shape from one of her henchmen. She held the tiny creature up
to her face, eyes narrowed. ‘I suggest you change back,’ she said,
patting Iyamar ungently upon the head. ‘It would be so easy to
squash you by accident, and wouldn’t that be a shame?’ She set the
meerel down upon the floor, and a moment later Iyamar-as-human
appeared, glowering.

‘
Have
a seat,’ said the woman pleasantly, and after a moment’s futile
glaring and pouting, Iya obeyed.

Something about
the woman was familiar. There was a distinctive curve to her lips
when she spoke, and she had a way of holding her head slightly to
one side that jogged Serena’s memory. Her hair was curly and
blonde, rather than white, and her posture and demeanour were
different, but Serena felt certain of who she was talking
to.

Before she could
speak, Fabian shot to his feet. He had maintained a stony silence
up until now, or perhaps he had merely been absorbed in his own
reflections. His sudden energy startled Serena, and she stared at
him in mingled dismay and alarm.

He stared
intently at their captor, studying her face with feverish
eagerness. His excitement grew, together with his disgust, and in
another instant he spat upon the floor.

‘
Valore Trebel,’ he announced in tones of withering contempt.
‘It’s you, isn’t it? I have a sketch. I know that it’s you.’ He
advanced on the woman he’d called Valore, ignoring her henchmen
completely. ‘I hoped we’d be seeing you. Second-in-command down
here, aren’t you? You’ve done well for yourself since you
killed
my father.
’

Valore, if it was
she, had taken an involuntary step back as Fabian advanced upon
her, but she took no more. She straightened her shoulders and
laughed into Fabian’s face. ‘What, me? Many of us are murdering
bastards, it’s true, but I am not one of them. Killing is so
messy
. I do not think I am this person you seek.’

‘
Fabe,’ said Serena warningly. ‘That’s not— that’s Halavere
Morann.’

Fabian blinked.
‘So it is,’ he said after a moment. ‘Then they are one and the
same.’

‘
They
are, as it happens,’ said Halavere, with a slight bow and a
mischievous smile. She waved away her henchmen with a cool smile
which irritated Serena and incensed Fabian.

‘
You
may not have killed him directly,’ he spat, ‘but you were
responsible. He killed himself after
you
took everything he
had! You and your friend.’

Halavere’s head
tilted. ‘Which friend?’

‘
Bironn Astre.’

Teyo stirred. He
caught Serena’s eye and shook his head, his eyes wide.
Yes,
she thought.
I’d love to stop him, but it’s too late.
She
had seen Fabian like this once or twice before, and when he worked
himself into this state he was unstoppable.

Halavere’s smile
broadened. ‘Bironn, Bironn,’ she repeated. ‘Poor sap. He really
wasn’t up to much, was he? But I still can’t recall...’

‘
Thomaso Carterett
,’ bellowed Fabian. ‘A respectable
landowner! A good man, with a wife and children — you cheated him
out of every penny he owned—’ He was working himself into a frenzy
of rage, but he was brought up short as Halavere — or Valore —
began to laugh, heartily and helplessly.

‘
You
poor, foolish boy,’ she said at last, when her unseemly mirth had
ceased. ‘Thomaso Carterett, a respectable landowner? A merry
tale!’

Fabian blinked,
opened his mouth, and closed it again. ‘What?’ he finally
croaked.

Serena’s breath
stopped. Instinctively, she looked at Teyo.

He gazed back at
her, eyes full of sorrow.

Serena closed her
eyes, her hands balling into fists. Her heart knew what was coming.
When she looked up, all traces of mirth had faded from Halavere’s
face, and her eyes were hard.

‘
Thomaso Carterett wasn’t a
mark
,’ she spat. ‘He was a
partner.
A double-crossing, faithless worm who tried to
cheat his
friends
out of their share of the profits! That
card game was a goldmine, and he tried to take the lot.’ She
shrugged. ‘He got what he deserved.’

Fabian tried to
hurl himself at her, but he was instantly caught and restrained by
two of Halavere’s brawny henchmen. He struggled and kicked,
cursing. ‘It’s not true!’ he bellowed. ‘Lies, all lies! He was a
good man!’

‘
Oh, I
know it’s hard to hear,’ said Halavere. ‘You should be grateful. He
was a friend, once. At least we granted him the dignity of an
apparent suicide.’ Her eyebrows went up as Fabian tried again,
futilely, to hurl himself upon her. ‘Don’t,’ she said coldly. ‘The
deed was not mine. Bironn’s is the hand that did for your noble
father.
’

Bironn’s may have
been the hand, but Halavere’s had been the mind; Serena felt no
doubt on that score. Nor could she seriously doubt Halavere’s
story, as desperately as she might wish to. Her anger was too
intense, too ferocious, too
real.
Here was an old story that
still rankled.

Besides, she was
not wholly surprised. Thomaso had been a changeable man. At times
he had been hearty, congenial and affectionate, and at others cold,
secretive and judgemental. He had spoken of “business” arrangements
without explaining what they were, even as his children — his
beloved son and heir, in particular — had grown to adulthood. And
some of the associates he invited to the house... they had left
Serena alarmed, Fabian cold and their mother anxious. Thomaso had
treated Fabian with clear favour throughout their childhood, and
they had been very close, but even he couldn’t explain the
mysteries of their father’s behaviour.

Her heart hurt.
For herself, for her mother, but mostly for Fabian. He had idolised
their father growing up, and had never truly got over his death.
But worst of all, Serena knew that the same thoughts that were
passing through her mind were also passing through his; that as
desperately as he wanted to deny it, he couldn’t, any more than she
could.

He had the look
of a man whose world had come crashing down, and who was fighting
violently to deny it. Serena found herself on her feet — she didn’t
remember standing up. She fought her way to his side, flailing
blindly at the men who still restrained him, and wrapped her arms
around him.

‘
Fabe,’ she said against his chest. ‘Fabe. You’ve got to calm
down.’

He didn’t hear
her. It didn’t matter. Halavere ignored his cursing, her own anger
vanishing beneath her earlier veneer of cool unconcern.

‘
We’re
wasting time,’ she said. ‘I can’t let you have the keys.’ She
checked her timepiece, and nodded once. ‘By now, my associates have
finished ransacking your rooms. It was obliging of you to leave
your bolthole unguarded. I’m sure my colleagues are grateful.’ She
flashed a humourless smile at Serena as she spoke.

She had nothing
further to add, apparently, for she swept out of the room without
another word, or even a glance for her captive audience.

With a burst of
desperate strength, Fabian tore himself free of his captors and ran
after her. Serena stood, frozen in surprise and dismay, for a few
agonisingly long seconds; then, shaking herself, she ran to the
door.

There was no sign
of Fabian, or Halavere.

‘
Tey,’
she gasped.

She heard the
sound of something heavy hitting the floor behind her, and whirled
just in time to see Teyo flooring the second of Halavere’s guards.
This was a vision of Teyo she’d never seen before, or even dreamed
of. All his mildness was gone. He bristled with fury, and wielded
his height and his bulk with unsuspected skill. He left two inert
bodies sprawled upon the floor, and turned to Serena.

‘
I’ll
find him,’ he promised.

In an instant, he
was gone, leaving the wreck of their team in shocked silence behind
him.

Teyo felt for
Fabian, but it was the look on Serena’s face that broke his heart.
Fabian thought only of his own pain, but Serena’s eyes had gone
straight to her brother; the look in them proclaimed that for every
ounce of her own pain, she felt Fabian’s tenfold.

Worse, the
appalling shock of such a revelation could have been averted, if
only Teyo had been braver. He’d known the truth about Thomaso, for
he had met the older man once or twice during his later years as
Yllandu. He’d never been able to find a way to tell Serena, let
alone Fabian. If the vision they’d held of their father’s character
comforted them, who was he to tear that away? He had put it off
indefinitely, hoping that the truth would never reach them. How
foolish that now seemed.

Well, if he
couldn’t be brave before, he could be brave now. He left Serena to
the dubious care of Egg, Iyamar and Bron and tore off after Fabian.
He and Halavere could be anywhere in the Warren. Teyo began a
methodical search room-by-room, his eyes and ears straining for any
signs of activity.

It didn’t take
long. As he neared a staircase leading up towards the surface, he
heard sounds of a confrontation: shouts, blows, and something
falling. Heart pounding, Teyo raced around the corner.

Fabian had caught
up with Halavere, or Valore, as she was halfway up the stairs. Fabe
probably hadn’t got anywhere near his quarry; her two guards had
intercepted him, and they weren’t holding back. Neither was Fabian.
His dark eyes burned with an emotion far beyond mere rage, and he
laid about himself with his fists, oblivious to how wholly
outmatched he was.

Teyo couldn’t
reach him in time. Fabian took a hard blow to the head, and fell.
His skull cracked, harshly and audibly, against a stair, and he lay
still.

‘
Idiot
boy,’ muttered Halavere. She continued on her way without a
backward glance for Fabian — and therefore, she didn’t notice Teyo.
Her guards followed, leaving Fabian alone.

Teyo ran to
Fabian. It didn’t look good. He was slumped with the boneless,
helpless posture of a broken doll, and blood poured into his eyes
from a dark, violent gash on his head. His eyes were rapidly
developing a glazed look.

‘
Fabe,’ Teyo said urgently, snapping his fingers in front of
his friend’s face. ‘Come on, focus.’

Fabian’s eyes
focused briefly, and he tried to sit up. ‘Tey... I...’

‘
Hey,
now. Take it easy.’ Teyo pushed him gently back down. ‘We’re
getting you out of here just as soon...’

He trailed off as
Fabian sagged limply back to the ground. All expression faded from
his eyes and he stopped trying to speak. In a few seconds, he
stopped breathing as well.

Running feet
sounded from the floor below, and an instant later Serena stood
beside him, Egg and Iya and Bron not far behind her.

‘
Serena—’ said Teyo warningly, but he couldn’t prevent her from
pushing past him. She fell to her knees beside her brother and
began a desperate attempt to wake him — too late, and far too
little.

At last, she
stopped, and sat back on her heels. An awful hush
descended.

‘
Serena?’ Teyo said at last.

She didn’t look
at him. Her eyes were fixed on nothing, her face blank. She was far
too quiet for Teyo’s comfort. Bron approached, words of pointless
comfort dropping from his lips. Teyo ruthlessly shoved him away
before he could so much as touch her.