Queen's Shadow || Kingdom at the End of the World - Book II

[22.1] Lost Things

The issue with seers, Gabriel Todd thought crossly, was their penchant for inconveniencing a man precisely when he would wish to be bothered the least.

Malik's character was not prone to arrogance, despite his rare gift and the rank he would one day hold among his kin. The boy spent his days as humbly as any human youth in a household of lacking means. The wolf took to housework as well as a hen to a frying pan. He put in the effort nonetheless, by all appearances content with his lot.

Gabriel found the boy's complacency highly irritating. The demon could appeal neither to Malik's ego nor to his reason, as the latter had yet to mature past the dramatics of youth. Attempts at plucking a useful morsel of information from the boy's mind were met with hostility and suspicion. Worse, the cub appointed himself Gabriel's minder, successfully thwarting any plans the demon would entertain before they were fully in motion.

As was the case at present.

"I am simply going for a walk," Gabriel said, trying not to sound too petulant.

Malik crossed his arms. The boy stood in the doorway, blocking Gabriel's path to Elsendorf. His lips were stretched over his lips in a low growl. The eye tattooed there seemed to sneer at the demon.

"You lie," the boy said.

Gabriel nearly rolled his eyes. "And you are a pain!" he hissed. He was distantly aware of how childish he sounded, but days of anxiety and inaction had shorn his limited patience to the bone.

"That man knows nothing. His absence will be noticed, and investigated," Malik continued.

"You saw this?" Gabriel asked.

The boy nodded curtly.

Gabriel deflated. Privately, he admitted that taking a Message Man hostage and plundering whatever information he could from the unfortunate soul was not his best idea to date. The danger of detection was too high, and the probability of gaining anything useful distressingly low. Still, it was something to do – and Gabriel badly needed to be doing something, anything, other than wondering how much of Dimitri would be left for him to save. The demon did not care to temper the anger rising in his chest, and peeled his own lips back in a snarl that would do a wolf proud.

"How long do I need to wait?" he seethed.

Malik flinched but, to the boy's credit, did not back down. "I do not know," he said. He had repeated the same four words often enough that the sound of them from his lips nearly had Gabriel reaching for the boy's throat.

Seers did not foresee the future as they willed. They perceived flashes of things to come, like reflections in a rippling pond. Most were not powerful enough to decipher these visions, let alone explore specific paths into the great river of time. Malik was a rare exception – which was why Gabriel chose to aid the boy that day in the wolves' den, despite the danger and the many other demands on Gabriel's time.

Malik owed him a debt. Gabriel collected by asking the boy to read the future for him, desperate for any advantage that would take him closer to Dimitri.

It was a steep demand. Malik made a number of attempts, all ending in abject failure and on one memorable occasion, with blood pouring from the boy's eyes and ears. Fair and Gabriel nearly came to blows over the entire debacle. At last, the cub caught something of use – a threadbare but certain promise that something of importance to Gabriel's quest was in Elsendorf.

"You must wait," the wolf had said through lips made bloodless by pain. "Wait, and it will come."

How long Gabriel was to wait, however, no one could tell.