Kingdom's Vice Series: A Voyage of Vengeance ( #2 2015)

Chapter Thirteen

I feel a chill when I step inside the room. A washed out white crowns the walls with a painful brightness, and the smell is so sterile it feels as if I might choke on it. I follow the lines in the marble, the delicate swirls of cream and meet Faeore where she sits kneeling, her velvet hood draped over her head, shadowing her eyes. She only wears it when she prophesying.

"Faeore," I whisper, nearing her slowly, not wanting to startle her. The worst thing I could do is tamper with a vision.

She whirls her head in my direction and our eyes lock.

Has something happened? Did you see something? I ask.

She lowers her head and with a resigned sigh, removes her hood. "Did Duhamas tell you?"

I step back, Did he have to? He didn't have to tell me, Faeore. I could see it in his eyes. Something was wrong.

"And?"

And what?

"Have you figured it out yet? What it is that plagues us, our kingdom—our future?"

I frown, Faeore, I do not understand. Why are you saying these things? What have you seen?

"Darkness..." she begins, "There is no Light, not even in the distance. Clouds change their colours, the rain burns the skin and the sunlight pierces the eyes. The thunder roars overhead and the cries can be heard from every edge of the world. People fall off the edge of the world. And nothing is as it was." She pauses, and a tear escapes her. Her lips tremble. "You have heard prophecies like this before, have you not?"

I shake my head, We did not have Seers in Bardhelm, Faeore. They would not have seen such—

"But, you have thought something like this would happen, haven't you? It has crossed your mind?"

I snap, Of course I have! There have been times, times I shall not recount for the sake of time and feeling, that I have feared what would become of us, Meyn and Olak. I feared the end would not be a graceful one. Our vices are our own. Our ruin then too, is our own.

"Well said." she nods and gestures for me to sit beside her amongst the cushions. The child lies in a cot a few steps away, sound asleep. "I must ask for quiet, she's sleeping."

Of course.

"Even your impressions can wake her," she shoots me a look.

I shift uncomfortably. "Sorry, a bad habit I seem to have picked up."

She chuckles, "A luxury, I would argue. There are not many as fortunate as you to have the ability to speak without moving one's lips."

I look to the newborn and admire it's skin from afar. "What of the child? Do you know if your gifts are inherited?"

She sighs and looks down at her wrists in defeat, fiddling with the silver bangles that coil around them. "I do not know...yet. I am yet to say for certain."

I lean in, "How much does Duhamas know? What does he think he knows?"

She flips her hair over her shoulder as the breeze rolls in through the window. "What he doesn't know won't hurt him."

I rest my hand on hers. "But the truth will. And if you keep it from him and he learns that you could have prevented something—that is something you can never come back from. If Alec..."

"I know," is all she says then. She says it without any real feeling in her throat, any deliberate intention to dissuade me or misguide me or my thoughts. She only knows.

I bite my lip, but go on and ask anyway. "Faeore, I must ask something of you, a request, if you will." I steady my breaths. "I know that what I am asking you to do may cross some lines that should never be crossed, especially by a Seer, but—"

She cuts me off swiftly, like a knife severing an artery. "You want me to procure a vision of Alec's future."

I nod. "Yes."

"I'm afraid I must decline."

"But Faeore!"

She rises quickly, stumbling on her feet. "You use your position against me!" she exclaims. "You use our kinship as a pawn for your own plots! You think I would betray my Sisters for you, out of the love I bear you and Alec? You think me a fool?"

I raise my hands in an attempt to reason with her, but more than anything, I'm scared the child will wake and wail. "Faeore, please. I did not mean to cause offence. I just...curiosity is such. I want to know if there is anything I can do to..."

"And to what end?" she demands, "Even if you knew what was going to happen to him, the future is never fixed. It can always change. One single decision could spell the end of a man's life and you want to gamble with his? I never thought you to be a woman of such ill-will, Skaya. Call it curiosity, but if you play with this flame, you will not only burn, but you will pay the price."

"Are you threatening me?"

She chuckles, "I wouldn't dream of it, not in a million years. I love you like a sister, but I will not do this. He has every right to live his life the way he chooses, without hindrance or interference from you. Clear?"

"Crystal."