A Prince Among Killers - By J. B. Redmond Page 0,18
and strike at her happiness over going to Stormbreaker.
“Discerning truth from illusion, prophecy from reality, instinct from the urgings of legacy—this is an advanced skill of graal work, one most Fae never achieve.” Dari pulled on her wrap but left the hood down. “I believe with work, you could. It’s like the feel of two notes harmonizing, the music of sounds blending. Do you understand?”
“Prophecy?” Aron knew he was being surly and picking at small points, knew in fact that he had seen a few visions of the future, but he couldn’t help himself. She was speaking to him like he was a little boy again. “You know seeing the future is not my talent.”
“Seeing bits of what was, what is, what will be—that afflicts everyone with any legacy, though of course those with the Mab mind-talent and the old Lek abilities much worse than others.” She was getting impatient now. Aron could tell because she was pulling at the sides of her wrap. “I’ll tell you again, we can all do bits and pieces of what another with a legacy can do—a legacy is the ability to perform one talent very, very well. Your legacy is about truth, and you would know for sure that we just saw Tia Snakekiller if you could learn to feel the truth, that harmony. There’s a sensation, here.”
She put her hand on her belly.
Aron stared at her long fingers and the way they pressed into the soft folds of her robe. “Or here.” She moved her hand to her chest. “Or maybe even here.” She lifted her fingers to the side of her head. “Or all of them, all at once. A resonance, like two notes played perfectly together on a lyre or lute. Like stars forming a line beside the moons. Think about it.”
She smiled anew, and this time, Aron felt the smile was for him. It was enough to ease some of the burning pain forming in his depths, and he suddenly wished he could see the future, at least enough to help her find her sister this night, right now, before she suffered another moment of pain.
But if she finds Kate, she might leave.
More than once, he had considered this possibility, then worried he might unintentionally use his legacy to keep Dari from learning Kate’s location. Yet if he was the one who brought Kate safely home to Dari, or led Dari to her sister’s hiding place, she would have to realize he was more than some little boy she was tutoring, wouldn’t she?
“You should hurry to the horsemen’s armory,” Dari said. “Time grows short.”
And before he could move, she was out the door, Blath trailing silently behind her.
Iko stood in the open doorway, gazing in at Aron with his typical implacable expression.
It took all of Aron’s strength not to pound the boy right in his blue face as he stalked out of Dari’s bedchamber, just to have something to hit that might feel his punch.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
DARI
When winter finally eased completely, Dari found herself glad for the growing warmth, even as tidings of the war worsened. Brailing and Altar soldiers now commanded almost half of Dyn Mab, with no end to the conflict in sight. Canus the Bandit and his forces raged across Dyn Cobb and Dyn Ross, attacking Brailing and Altar Dynast Guard, but also pillaging and looting seemingly at will—if reports from messengers and guardsmen could be believed. With most Cobb and Ross forces committed to defending dynast boundaries, there was little to stand in the way of outlaws, robbers, and Eyrie’s most base opportunists.
Spring came and went, with its thaws and endless rains, and Dari’s days felt just as endless and gray. She had been at Stone almost two years now, and she had absorbed their rhythms of life almost against her will. She rose with the sun, danced the fael’feis in the courtyard of the Den, worked to train Aron, then spent the remainder of her day assisting in the infirmary, the quarters for the sheltered, or the farming quarters. Guild members who could no longer serve in their full capacity transferred into the agricultural section of the compound, so many of Stone’s farmers were elderly or disabled, or even dying. At least once every week or two, Dari was called upon to dispatch the spirit of a guildsman or guildswoman who had succumbed to age or illness. Three nights a week, she and Stormbreaker combed the countryside, searching for any sign of Kate. They had