Ascendant (26 page)

How could I make him understand what it felt like to live here, among them? How could I tell him that I’d come to long for the scent of fire and flood, to reach out to the unicorns, to pry into their minds just to get a taste of the wildness that nothing, not even electric boundaries and razor-topped fences, could touch?

I could stand in the moonlight and make an entire pack of venomous monsters bow before me. How was I going to explain that to Giovanni? At best, he’d respond with a vague “cool,” or say he was proud of me, but not really understand what I meant. At worst …

I knew what the at-worst would be, because I felt it, too. At worst, he’d ask what kind of sad, sick individual I’d become to manipulate a bunch of weak, captive unicorns in that way. I was pretty much one step up from a lion tamer with a chair and a whip. These weren’t my pets, these weren’t zhi; they were wild. Even in captivity, they were the wildest animals I’d ever known, and yet I was making them perform for me like dogs on leashes.

Because I could.

I curled myself into an even tighter ball.

In the dream, Bucephalus called to me in the voice of Giovanni. Somehow, with the sort of logic that only made sense in a dream, I knew it was Bucephalus who spoke, though it sounded like my boyfriend. He was angry, furious that I’d broken our end of the deal.

I wasn’t quite sure what deal he was talking about.

His anger pulsated through my mind, drawing me in like the flickering signal from a lighthouse. I was searching for him, stumbling through a tangled wood, my feet catching on roots and vines determined to stand in my way. Here and there I saw a flash of einhorn disappearing into the woods. Even they ran from the wrath of a karkadann. And yet, I drew closer.

Where are you!
I called to him.
Where have you been!

But he was too angry to respond.

The wood in the dream suddenly gave way to a clearing bathed in moonlight, and I stopped short in recognition. It was the garden outside the Borghese museum, the spot where I’d first kissed Giovanni. The place where I’d first met the karkadann.

Bucephalus was there, as massive and deadly as always. In the voice of Giovanni, he spoke.
This is what you wanted
.

No, it wasn’t. I tried to tell him, but he didn’t understand justice in human terms. He didn’t know how we did things today. Giant, three-thousand-year-old monsters could do as they pleased.

The karkadann stepped aside, and there, on the ground near his hooves, lay the body of a young man, his face bathed in blood.

It was Brandt.

The next thing I remember was the feeling of dew on my face and Isabeau’s voice in my ear.

“Astrid? Wake up. It’s morning and all the unicorns are safe.”

I blinked my eyes open and pushed myself off the ground on my elbow. There was a crick in my neck, and I could feel the grit of dirt on my cheek. Isabeau looked crisp and fresh in a starched suit, with pearls at her throat and her hair falling in a sleek black wave.

“Rise and shine, my unicorn hunter!” Isabeau laughed. “You are a dedicated employee,
chère
, but there is no reason to sleep in the dirt like a dog.”

I shoved myself to my feet, wincing at the stiffness in my body. “There was sabotage—”

Isabeau clucked her tongue. “I have heard all there was, and I shall be dealing with it. And I thank you for your service above and beyond the call of duty. Now, you should go inside and clean yourself up. You have class in the city today, no?”

I did, but man I was sore. All I wanted was a long soak and then maybe to nap in my real bed. I stretched.

She watched me trying to roll out my shoulders and shook her head, as if reading my thoughts. “Astrid, you
do
have class in the city today. I will have to insist upon it. Your injury has already put you behind on your studies. This job is important, but so is your education.”

This job was the only reason I was getting an education. If the unicorns had escaped last night, if they’d killed someone, then my being here would be proved utterly useless, and I’d have to leave it all. Leave my tutor and my gorgeous suite, leave the chemistry lab in Limoges and the herd of einhorns I was coming to know well. Leave Isabeau. Leave Brandt.

That last bit might not be a bad idea.

“Thank you,” I said. “You’ve been really outrageously good to me.”

“The only thing outrageous,” she replied, “is that you think such things are anything other than common human decency. I want to find the Remedy, but not at the expense of your safety or your future. You will have a life after your unicorn-hunting days are over, Astrid. I insist upon that, as well.”

I looked down, not sure of how to respond.

“Come, let’s get you cleaned up and dressed. A coffee, a pastry—you’ll feel much better.”

She put her arm around me and led me out of the enclosure and up toward the house. We parted at the stairs, but I still said nothing, and as I returned to my room and got in my gorgeous marble bath, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d just been reprimanded by a parent.

Still, she was right. I’d missed a few classes after the unicorn had kicked me. It was time to get serious again.

Isabeau’s driver took me to Limoges, waited while I attended my lab sessions, then took me home and dropped me off in front of the château when I finished.

I began to head upstairs to change, when Jean-Jacques stopped me.
“Mademoiselle
, Madame Jaeger would like to see you in the garden.”

“Is something wrong with the fence again?” Had the power gone down while I’d been away? I about-faced and started rushing back down the stairs.

“No, no. She would like to show you something. And also, last night. I want to say, eh,
merci, Mademoiselle. Je n’ai pas peur quand vous êtes ici” I do not fear the unicorns when you are here
.

I smiled.
“Merci
, Jean-Jacques.”

Behind the house, on the green lawn that stretched between the greenhouse and the unicorn enclosure, Isabeau stood, a bow in her hands. “Astrid!” she called gaily, waving me over. There was a large target set up near the edge of the lawn and a sheaf of arrows in a brand-new quiver. “Surprise!”

I took the steps off the patio into the grass, the heels of my boots sinking into the turf.

“I know it is not the ancient bows you are used to,” she said, “but look!” She handed me the quiver. I pulled out one of the carbon arrow shafts, but instead of being tipped with a practice point or even a barbed alloy hunting point, I saw the telltale gray of a bone chip. Grace would drool over these. They were so much nicer than her homemade attempts.

“I had them made from the alicorn of one of the dead einhorns,” Isabeau exclaimed. “A weapons maker in Orleans. Aren’t they lovely?”

“Exquisite,” I said, tapping my finger lightly against the tip. Sharp. “You want me to use them? You want me to kill the whole herd?”

“No!” Isabeau looked shocked. “I want you to have practice. You haven’t used a bow since you’ve been here. I thought you might miss it. There are practice tips as well, see?” She pointed to a box holding extra points, fletching, and nocks. “And then, if you need to use the bow for real sometime, we have it here. You will not be restricted to your knife, as you were last night.”

“Thank you,” I said.

Isabeau frowned. “You don’t like them.”

“I do,” I said. “And you’re right, I have missed my archery.”

Isabeau stepped back. “Try it! I would love to see you shoot.”

I shrugged and screwed off the alicorn tips of several arrows, replacing them with practice points. Then I shouldered the bow and picked my way across the lawn until I’d reached the far edge. I took aim and fired. One, two, three arrows, directly into the center of the target. I shot four more into the cardinal points within the pencil-drawn lines of the outermost circle. Then I returned to Isabeau.

“Perhaps,” she said wryly, “you don’t need the practice after all.”

“The unicorns are right there,” I said. “I can shoot whatever you’d like.”

“I’m certain any university would like to have you on their archery team.”

“Yes, as long as they don’t mind keeping a zhi around as a team mascot.” Actually, that wasn’t entirely true. With all my experience, I was a pretty good shot even without the magic. “But thank you for the gift. They’re beautiful.” I fingered the box of alicorn points. “Actually, you know where these would really come in handy?”

“Bien sûr
, Astrid. I have already sent a set to the Cloisters.”

I smiled.

“Holy crap, Astrid!” Brandt came dashing across the patio. “I saw you from my room. That was outrageous! Do it again!” Isabeau’s mouth formed a thin line. “She’s not a circus performer here to do tricks for you, Brandt.”

He ignored her. “Come on, Astrid.” He yanked the arrows out of the target. “Do a star pattern. Or a B. Can you write my name in arrows?” His blue eyes bright with anticipation, he held out the shafts.

“Enough, Brandt!” At the sound of Isabeau’s rebuke, Brandt’s hand dropped, his smile faded.

“Busted,” he whispered, then winked. He turned to face Isabeau. “You’re a real killjoy, you know that?”

“And you are a disobedient employee and a willful child.”

“A child, huh? Is that how you think of me, boss lady? Interesting. Never would have guessed that.”

“Enough,” she said coldly.

“Or is it really just that you think of
her
as a child?” Brandt cocked his thumb at me.
“Your
child.”

I clutched the gorgeous quiver, torn between running to Isabeau’s defense and wondering if Brandt had a point.

“I said
enough.”
Isabeau’s voice had turned dangerous, as icy as the time she’d told me never to let a man hit me.

“Brandt,” I said, “come on. Isabeau takes good care of both of us. You know she does. And of course we’re still children. She’s aware of that. That’s why she’s making sure we go to school and—” I reached out and touched his shoulder and he whirled to face me, his grin back, his eyes almost wild.

For a second I thought he was going to grab me, but he didn’t. He just stared at me in a way that sent a flush all the way into the toes of my new boots. “Hey, Astrid,” he said in a tone of false casualness. “You want to go swimming again later?”

I flushed deeper, and then, without waiting for an answer, he strode off.

A few moments of silence passed, stretched longer by the nearness of the einhorns in their enclosure. I could feel the way the wind twisted every leaf on the trees, could hear the elevated rate of Isabeau’s heartbeat. She was afraid.

I swallowed. “I’m not sure what just happened here.”

She shook her head and plastered on a smile. “It is nothing. An old argument between us. He does not like the restrictions I put in place as a condition of his continued employment. When we argue about them, we both become rather ill-tempered.”

“What restrictions?” I laughed. “He said that, too, but to me, living here’s been a breeze.”

“That is because you are a good student, Astrid. You like to work; you feel a strong sense of responsibility to your job and your studies. You’re not here to waste anyone’s time.”

“And Brandt is?” I said. His French had improved by leaps and bounds. Every time I saw him with the tutors, he seemed as engrossed in his work as I was.

“Brandt …” She hesitated. “I shouldn’t talk about him like this. Suffice it to say that he doesn’t always make things easy on me. He knows his position is unique enough that he can take advantage of it.”

And mine wasn’t. Sure, unicorn hunters were rare, but if I didn’t measure up, she could always send to the Cloisters for another one. There was no more Remedy, and if they were using Brandt to help synthesize it, they needed to keep him willing to play their games.

I wondered how much he was getting paid to sit around the château and donate little vials of blood. Actually, in all the time I’d been here, I didn’t think I’d ever seen him with a Band-Aid on his arm. Then again, with the weather getting colder, he’d mostly been wearing long sleeves.

Except in the pool last night. I blushed again, and Isabeau raised her eyebrows.

A few days later, I exited my chemistry lab to find Brandt sitting on the steps of the Landry building.

“Fancy meeting you here,” I said, tapping the toe of my boot against the stone.

“Not too surprising,” he replied. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

I raised my eyebrows.

“I thought it would be fun if we stayed in the city this evening. A little escape.”

How different we were. Gordian
was
my escape. “I don’t know. I’ve got some work—”

“Come on, Astrid!” he said. “I’m bored. I can’t spend another night out in the country.”

“Then go on another of your mysterious trips,” I said. “Where was it last time? Iceland? Ibiza?” According to Isabeau, Brandt liked to blow off steam on the Gordian dime, hopping from European party capital to European party capital.

“Alone? That’s no fun, either.”

“Get a girlfriend.”

“Good idea.” His blue eyes said a lot more. “I’m unavailable.”

“Oh, believe me, I know.” He stood, slowly, as if examining every inch of skin showing between the top of my boots and the bottom of my skirt. “And since that’s the case, what’s the big deal if you hang out with me tonight? Just friends.”

The big deal was the pool, and he knew it. “Why?”

“I told you,” he said. “I’m lonely. I’m … homesick.” He looked away. “I’m sorry, but you remind me of home. And sometimes I just want …”

“Things to be like they used to be?” I asked softly.

He nodded, not meeting my eyes.

I caught my breath. Well, that I could understand. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s have some dinner. Something American.” He grinned.

We went to a fast-food restaurant and ate burgers and fries. We stopped at a clothing shop and charged new pairs of blue jeans to Gordian. We skipped coffee in favor of Cokes, lamented missing Halloween, and discussed putting together a Thanksgiving dinner.

“They have turkeys in France, right?” Brandt asked as we walked down the street together. I laughed.