Seven Dreams (40 page)

Halavere sighed
in annoyance. ‘I don’t want to hurt him, imbecile. I just want you
all to
go away
, so I may move on with my life.’

It took Teyo a
moment to process this. Of course: at this stage, the keys were
still at large, some of them still in Serena’s possession. They
were being stolen by the Yllandu at this very moment, probably, and
soon afterwards their new owners would take all seven to the tiny
island and the gate.

‘
Take
it back,’ snarled Fabian. ‘Everything you said about my father.
Take it all back!’

Halavere rolled
her eyes. ‘I can’t, can I? It’s all the truth.’

‘
It is
NOT true,’ bellowed Fabian.

‘
Fabe,’ said Serena. ‘This isn’t the way to pursue this. We
need to go home, and talk it over.’ Her voice was calm and
reassuring, and Teyo hoped for a second that it might suffice to
bring Fabian back to rationality.

Instead, he swung
towards Serena, gun still extended, until it was pointing at
her.
She stepped back, appalled. Fabian realised a horrified
instant later what he was doing, and swung back. He was losing it
entirely, Teyo realised. Confusion, dismay and rage warred in his
face, and he was obviously far beyond his own control. Teyo saw, in
a brief flash of insight, that there was only one way Fabian could
relieve his overwrought feelings. Teyo knew it, because he’d been
there himself.

He didn’t have
time to think. He leapt, shapeshifting in mid-air into his draykoni
shape. The hallway was far too small; he barely had time to adjust
his size before he came crashing down in between Fabian and Valore
Trebel. Somebody’s weapon cracked off a shot as he landed, and a
bullet pierced his hide with a flash of sharp, intense pain. He
fell heavily, a blaze of agony spreading rapidly outwards from his
shoulder — the one turned towards Fabian.

He heard Serena
shriek his name in shock and panic, but he couldn’t understand
anything else that was happening. People were shouting, another
shot fired, and then there were running feet and a door banged.
Halavere’s voice rose above the rest. ‘Damn you, what a horrible
mess.’ Her voice receded as she spoke; had she left the room? What
had happened to the rest of his team?

He couldn’t
maintain his shape an instant longer; the pain in his shoulder and
the confusion in his mind were too intense. He collapsed rather
than shifted back into his human shape, and bit back a groan as the
pain intensified.

Serena fell to
her knees beside him, her face a mask of fear. ‘Tey?’ she gasped.
‘Are you alive?’

Serena knew her
words weren’t reaching Fabian, even as she spoke. She’d seen this
mood of his twice before: once when they were children, and their
father had fired a farmhand for stealing. The man had been a
favourite playmate of Fabian’s, and indeed — whether he was guilty
of stealing or not — he’d been good to the child. But stately,
dictatorial Thomaso Carterett had refused to listen to
eleven-year-old Fabian. Fabe had displayed such a powerful rage,
everyone had been shocked by it. By the time he’d finished, he had
broken every single toy in their shared playroom, along with every
article of furniture in that room and his bedroom. When he had
finally calmed down Fabian had been shocked by the destruction
himself, as though he had committed such violent acts in some other
state of mind, so far removed from his normal self that he didn’t
recognise it.

The second time
had been when their father had died. Fabian had discovered
Thomaso’s body, hanging from the long wooden beam in the ceiling of
his study. That time, Fabian hadn’t been rational again for two
days.

Serena recognised
the look in her brother’s eyes, and quailed. This fit of rage was,
if anything, worse than ever, and she was genuinely helpless to
call him back. What would he do? What
wouldn’t
he
do?

A shot sounded,
appallingly loud in the confined space. It pierced Serena’s
eardrums and her heart with equal impact. Her head turned towards
Fabian, expecting any instant to see him clutch some vital part of
himself and fall, bloodied and dying yet again — but something
large and crimson blurred before her vision and fell heavily to the
ground instead.
Teyo
.

She couldn’t
move, because suddenly Halavere was standing in front of her and
the cold barrel of a firearm was set against her head. ‘You people
are boring me
excessively,
’ Halavere said with a pleasant
smile. ‘I’m tempted to break my usual rules. I mean, I don’t
want
a trio of corpses littering my hallway, but you’d be
quieter
, wouldn’t you?’

Serena barely had
time to process this before a door banged somewhere behind her and
the sounds of many pairs of feet informed her that a lot of people
had entered the hallway.

‘
Here!’ barked Bron, and suddenly her vision was swarming with
young, tough-looking men and women wearing identical dark,
unobtrusive uniforms and waving firearms exactly like Bron’s. Some
shouting ensued, and somebody fired another — horrifically loud —
shot which thudded into the wall not far from Serena’s head. Serena
could only stare, hopelessly confused. Who were these people?
Associates of Bron’s? Had he brought half of G.A.9 in here without
even
telling
her?

Halavere stepped
back, allowing her gun to hang slack in her grip. Her guards backed
off, too. Serena didn’t wait to question it; she ran to Teyo’s
inert form. He had shifted human again at some point and lay
frighteningly still, his arm and torso covered in blood.

‘
Tey?’
she gasped. ‘Are you alive?’

His eyes were
open, slightly, and he peered blurrily at her. ‘I think so,’ he
croaked.

A little of
Serena’s panic eased, though the rate at which he was bleeding
alarmed her. Teyo tried to clutch at her hand; she gave it to
him.

‘
Fabian shot me,’ he whispered. ‘He didn’t mean to, but he’ll
hurt over it.’

Serena started,
and stared wildly around. For an instant, she’d allowed her concern
for Teyo to wipe all thoughts of Fabe from her mind! She spotted
him not far away, surrounded by some of Bron’s — were they Bron’s?
— associates. His firearm was gone, to her relief, and he looked
more poleaxed than enraged. Teyo was right: Fabian was staring at
his fallen friend with an expression of appalled self-loathing upon
his face.

‘
Blazes,’ she spat. ‘If I’d
known.
I didn’t think it
could get
worse.
’

‘
It’s
not worse,’ Teyo whispered. ‘We’re all alive.’

Serena looked
sadly at him. ‘At what cost, though?’ she said, and then shook
herself. ‘Now isn’t the time. We need to get you out of
here.’

The words were
barely out of her mouth before she was pushed aside, firmly if not
roughly, by some of those grim-faced uniformed G.A.9 operatives.
One of them bent to tend to Teyo, showing signs of skill and
experience as a medic. Serena fell back with a sense of relief, and
let them get on with it.

Only then did it
occur to her to wonder what had become of Egg and Iyamar. She
grabbed her voice-box from her pocket and switched it on, pressing
the buttons to call its partnered device. It beeped and flashed,
but there was no answer. Serena waited, her stomach dropping with
renewed anxiety.

Finally, Egg’s
voice. ‘That better be Serena.’

Serena almost
laughed with relief. ‘Who else were you expecting?’

‘
The
evil queen, after she’d stolen your device. Fabian?’

‘
Fabian’s all right, but Tey’s been shot.’

Silence for a
second. ‘And the bitch queen? Is she dead?’ Egg’s words were mildly
flippant, but her voice held a degree of grimness Serena hadn’t
heard before.

‘
What?
No, she isn’t dead. She’s—’ Serena, looking around, broke off.
Where
was
Halavere? A few moments ago she’d been secure in
the grip of several of Bron’s colleagues; now there was no sign of
her. ‘I don’t know where she is right now.’

‘
When
you find her, I get to kill her.’

‘
No
one’s killing her.’

‘
But—’

‘
Never
mind. Get yourselves upstairs at once, if you please. We’re up one
and a couple of turns left from where we left you.’

The voice-box
deadened without any answer from Egg, and Serena was left to wonder
whether she intended to follow instructions at all.

But a few minutes
later, Serena caught a flash of Egg’s red hair as she elbowed her
way unceremoniously through the cluster of uniformed people still
thronging the hallway.

‘
Who
are these people?’ Egg said, panting a little.

‘
G.A.9, I think? Apparently they’re saving our
rears.’

Egg’s eyebrows
rose. ‘Did we know about this?’

Serena shook her
head. ‘No. They’d better get Teyo out of here, that’s all I’m
saying.’

‘
They’re my people,’ said Bron, appearing behind Serena. ‘And
we just saved your man’s life.’ His hair was wildly dishevelled,
and his shirt had developed a tear in the fabric at some point.
‘Teyo’s going to be fine, but he’ll be out of action for a while.
Might want to look to your brother, though.’

Serena nodded,
already moving towards Fabian before Bron had finished speaking.
‘Egg, can—’

‘
I’ll
stay with Teyo,’ Egg interrupted.

‘
Me
too,’ said Iyamar.

Serena didn’t
stay to reply. In an instant she was at Fabian’s side, wrapping an
arm tentatively around his shoulders. ‘Fabe? We’re going
home.’

Fabian stared
sightlessly at her, and the look of anguish in his dark eyes broke
her heart. ‘I killed Teyo,’ he whispered.

‘
No,’
said Serena firmly. ‘Tey’s going to be all right.’

‘
I
killed Teyo,’ repeated Fabian, as though he hadn’t heard her. ‘And
Valore
escaped.
’

Serena took his
face in both of her hands. ‘Look at me,’ she ordered, and waited
until his eyes focused upon her. ‘Teyo is going to be
fine.
You killed no one.’

Fabian blinked
twice, and then his gaze sharpened; at last he seemed to be truly
seeing her. ‘Thank goodness,’ he whispered. ‘But still, I
almost—’

‘
Don’t
think about it now,’ Serena said, and stood on tiptoe to place a
kiss upon his forehead. ‘Come home.’

‘
Valore—’

‘
Never
mind her. She doesn’t matter anymore.’

Fabian allowed
himself to be led away. With the assistance and escort of Bron’s
colleagues, they made their escape from the Warren with a minimum
of complications. Teyo was taken to Tinudren Sanatorium for
treatment. Serena, Fabian, Egg and Iyamar returned home and
retired, exhausted, to bed.

When Serena woke
some hours later, befuddled but rested, she found Egg and Iyamar
seated at the kitchen table, clutching identical mugs of something
that steamed and smelled of cayluch.

‘
Serena...’ said Egg. ‘Um.’

Her tone gave it
away. ‘Fabian?’ Serena whispered.

‘
He’s
gone. We don’t know where.’

Panic spasmed,
once again. ‘Why didn’t you wake me?!’

Egg set down her
mug. ‘His bed hasn’t been slept in. He probably didn’t stay much
above half an hour, if that, and we discovered his absence all of
twenty minutes ago.’

Serena whirled
around, her head full of confused notions of following her brother.
How large a head start did he truly have? Where might he have
gone?’

‘
Serena
,’ Egg barked, with uncharacteristic authority.
‘You can’t follow him. He’s long gone.’

‘
But I
must,’ Serena replied, heedless, her head full of one thought only:
find Fabian.

‘
You
can’t,’ said Egg brutally. ‘He could be anywhere. Besides, has it
not occurred to you that maybe he needs some time alone? Have you
two ever been apart for more than a day or two?’

Serena turned
slowly back around. ‘I... well, no, but we’ve always been better
together.’

‘
Maybe,’ said Egg, her mouth twisting sceptically. ‘Maybe
not.’

‘
He’s
chasing Valore again,’ said Serena desperately. ‘I need to stop
him, you don’t know what he might do—’

‘
I
know pretty well what he
might
do,’ Egg interrupted. ‘I
don’t know that he
will
do any of it. Neither do you. You
don’t know that he’s chasing Valore. He could be lying on a beach
somewhere right now.’

Serena shook her
head. ‘I doubt it.’

Egg grinned. ‘I
doubt it, too, but you never know. He was pretty shaken up, with
what happened to Tey. I don’t think he’ll be in a hurry to rush out
and try it again.’

Serena sighed,
drew out a chair and sat down heavily upon it. ‘I need a
holiday.’

‘
Don’t
we all,’ said Egg. She picked up her mug once more, drained the
dregs of her cayluch and set it back down with a satisfied sigh.
‘You did good, mother Serena. But it’s time to stop flapping and
clucking and settle down a bit.’