Enganoso Epilogue

Sagit fumed silently and muttered a curse as the bow he was trying to string sprang outwards again and hit him in the eye.

The first signs of spring were showing outside. Not much of a sign, perhaps, to pessimists and the blind. But to him, the slight lightening of the sky and almost gentle coils of mist were spring. The clean, pure smell it brought. Spring, he had always thought, was the life after winter had scoured everything clean. The strong survived, the weak withered and the new was birthed.

"Sagit...what are you doing?" Faith Tacarnan asked cautiously. The two witches were outside, Collette tending her precious garden, finicky about her prized herbs as ever (though he had to admit, they had cured him more than once) while her younger sister ground dried leaves which all looked exactly the same to him. There was more than a hint of worry in her eyes. Just green eyes now, he thought with a frown. That didn't seem quite right after the...happenings of yesterday.

One day! He couldn't believe it. It had been so real. And now…

"It's all wrong," he muttered, bending back his bow to fit the new bowstring on. The wood groaned, as if it was agreeing with him. He flicked the string once and it hummed.

"All wrong?" Collette looked at him with those perfectly glacial eyes. Eerie eyes, he decided with an inner shiver. She might just have saved his life, but that didn't stop her being strange. "Explain, Sagittarius."

He shrugged. It wasn't so much knowledge as intuition. Just a wavering, uncertain feeling in his head and his stomach that what they had seen might not be so far from the truth after all. "Well, Ellie's going to go off searching for that bastard..." His voice trailed off as two pairs of eyes fixed him with interest. "What?"

"You haven't even met him," Faith said exasperatedly. "And you still don't like him?" There was a certain set to her jaw that made him wonder if she was quite as timid as she appeared. "While yesterday you told Elise to go away and find him?"

He glared at her, picking up an arrow from the ground and fitting it to the string. "Yesterday I was in shock. Wouldn't you be? And it's not that I don't like him..." He pulled back the string and aimed at a target. The target in question was a scrap of cloth he had fixed between two staffs of wood. It wasn't large; maybe nine inches across. The bullseye had been dyed on. "I'd just like to slam a silver knife in his heart."

"Why?" the witch said, her skin glowing in the gold, if not warming, sun, but her plain face set in a frown. She could be fairly frightening if she put some effort into it, he thought, then fervently hoped she didn't. One Tacarnan on the slow, icy path of enlightenment was quite enough.

"Because he is a shapeshifter," Collette said smoothly. "Because he has killed several of Sagit's assassin colleagues. Because Sagit doesn't trust him. And because Elise has allowed herself to be completely blinded by him."

He loosed the arrow. It missed by a foot.

"That's right," he said tightly. Ellie was being so stupid about all of this. Ever since yesterday, she had been floating about looking dreamy-eyed. Occasionally something would snap her back to reality - and then she would look worried and maybe even a little afraid at the thought of just what Salvaje Chusson might actually be like. And then of course, there was the other small problem remaining…

"What about the mercenaries?" Faith said softly. "There were three of them before. There must still be three."

Sagit smiled. He knew it wasn't particularly pleasant, with more of his teeth showing than necessary, but he didn't care. "We know where one is," he said calmly. "The White Pony." His grandfather's inn was the only place that had any lodgings for travellers.

The noblewoman looked at him as if he was mad. "But how are you going to stop him?" she demanded. "You can't just walk in there and shoot him!"

He met her eyes levelly. "Why not?"

~*~

Do I go?

Something clattered.

Do I stay?

There was a sharp crack.

Do I…

If Elise had a flower, she would have been sitting there, plucking petals and testing the waters of her own personal fairytale. As it happened, being Imbolc, she had nothing but heaps of pebbles sitting around and trees to aim at and her face was marred by a frown. The rocks bounced off branches, wood flying as she got more furious.

She knew what they all thought. Sagit believed she should just forget everything. He wouldn't say that, of course, because whatever else he thought, he wanted her to be happy. Family, she said to herself. We're family and that's how it works.

Collette...well, she thought it was a bad idea too. Her direct gaze - though it was more a glare, like looking into the sun at dawn - held warning. You know what he is, it said. Why don't you use your head?

Because my heart is stronger! she wanted to say. But didn't. How could she sit there and forget about a man, who although he was only a ghost, although he was a killer and her enemy, had looked at her in a way that no one ever had? Had looked at her with longing, and desire, and rage and anguish and love. Had taken her heart and walked away with it, though he didn't even know it.

Faith was the only one who seemed to have a different opinion. A certain wistfulness to her smile. They were friends, as surely as if everything they had seen had passed. Elise trusted the shy noblewoman, liked her fey sense of humour that rarely showed. It had been Faith she had spent this morning talking to, Faith who smiled and gave her perhaps some of the best advice she would ever get.

The green eyes had glittered eagerly. "Ignore them," Faith said cheerfully. "Sagit won't like anyone who takes you away - he thinks of you like a twin, you know - and Collette...I think maybe she sacrificed life and love for wisdom and magic. The wise aren't always right."

And I'm certainly not wise, Elise ruminated, her hands scrabbling for stones to hurl. So maybe I am right after all.

And before she even knew what she was doing, her hands were pushing her up and she was walking towards the road that led to a future. Maybe not the future she knew. But still something unknown, that held promise of a new start like the freshness on the air and the green on the trees, something beyond what she had now.

Chance had held out the dice. One throw. One chance. All or nothing. Everything for one glimpse of a golden eyed shapeshifter more lethal than anything else she would ever come across. One look at a man who held her heart in his hands and could tear it apart just as easily.

And Elise just smiled and picked up the dice. Play the game. Ride the lightning.

~*~

Sagit saw his target the minute he strode in.

That was what the vampire became. His features melted away into that little red dot, a scrap of fabric fluttering in a wind that might blow any way. The arrow was already held to the bow lightly, his hands ready to pull back the string.

The people stared in shock. The children stopped fighting around their parents' feet. Sica Aldernik released one of her friends from the headlock she had him in, her mouth dropping over in awe and amazement. Then she grinned. His little cousin loved to watch him fight. Reckoned she was going to grow up to be an assassin.

But Sagit forgot them at once. He forgot the witches following him, Collette hauling her younger sister along in a vice-like grip with her thin mouth drawn tight. Faith stumbling over bumpy ground, her expensive clothes catching and ripping on branches, rocks, anything Collette dragged her across. He didn't even see the way the wisewoman strode over to the bar and tersely ordered John Aldernik, his revered grandfather, to produce some hot water and a list of herbs she rattled off.

"Good day," Sagit said cheerfully. Then he swung the bow up, pulling the string and arrow back with his fingers and released it. The string snapped forward, power leaping to the arrow. The vampire stared and then... "Just not for you."

The lamia moved fast, so fast Sagit didn't have a chance to see him. The arrow flew past him, hitting the wall with a clatter and snapping in two. He had missed! That was all he saw before a very angry vampire hit him.

Sagit was knocked backwards and hit the wall hard. Something cracked and agony shot up his spine. Then he saw a snarling, demonic face with two eyes that glowed silver, gleaming with the eerie glimmer of marshlights. And something else silver; a blade that glinted in the light just enough for him to realise what it was. Just enough to feel that cold dread creeping up over the pain and shock.

The knife slashed down, a blur of grey light, or so it seemed.

"Leave him alone!" someone shrieked and the knife swerved, missing his heart by a cobweb's breadth. Missing by enough, though it didn't seem that way to Sagit as his body convulsed in horrible torture, pain that radiated in circles from his heart.

And when it reached his head, the world shattered into darkness.

~*~

Faith gasped, a hand pressed to her mouth as she saw the knife streaking down before anyone could move. He's dead, he's dead, he's dead, a frantic little voice in her head chanted. The future's coming true but this time he won't wake up...there would be no one to save him.

No one, that is, except the little girl who had grinned at Sagit when he strode in. He had looked magnificent then, Faith thought briefly. The long angular frame now longer all edges and long legged paces, but tall and proud and powerful. The summer sky of his eyes edged with lightning that was pure hate.

And now the little brunette ran at the vampire, screaming like a banshee. And her technique was utterly simple; what weapons did she have? What did she have except foolhardy courage?

As it turned out, teeth.

The vampire yelped when she clung onto his leg and bit savagely. The knife faltered in its downstroke, but Faith didn't know if it would be enough. And as Sagit slumped down, his torso stained dark red, the hilt protruding, she feared it wouldn't.

And then the people were moving, shaken from their dumb scrutiny by the shock of seeing one of their own hurt. And the inn was full of wood; furniture was broken into stakes. And really, she knew, turning her face away from the horrible sight of a mob - little more than beasts really - the vampire didn't stand a chance.

But of course, her serene, passionless sister didn't join in. She walked through the crowd, and they seemed to part without even realising. A supernatural being among mortals, her icy calm cutting like a subtle knife. And Colette looked down at Sagit, her face showing something Faith couldn't quite decipher. Pity? From her cold sister? Surely not.

And yet Faith remembered a time when her sister hadn't been so aloof. When she had smiled, and laughed and flirted as coyly as any Nightworld witch might. When Collette Tacarnan used her magick as one might a beautiful necklace; for displaying, to enhance, to improve. There had only been the summer in her face.

But then the winter had come, when the laughter was lost under the sound of screams and suddenly Faith's sparkling, spirited sister had walked away from their home and their family to live in a village of humans. A sacrifice, her mother said. But sometimes Faith thought that maybe Collette felt safe there. No one could break through the ice to see the water. To see someone who was maybe drowning.

Her sister's face showed something else too, Faith saw now. Grief. She remembered too, she remembered what had happened a decade ago. Maybe this time she would make it right.

Her voice should have been drowned out by the mob. But when Collette spoke, it was as clear as if she were standing next to Faith.

"You must help him." Those blue eyes still had the ice. Maybe it was just a little thinner. But 'maybe' never counted for much with the wisewoman.

"Me?" Faith stared at her sister. She couldn't do anything. Collette was the healer, Col was the-

"I used my magick to show what would be," her older sister murmured. Her words floated over the screams and shouts as the vampire breathed his last. And even though she seemed to have no magick, she held her wisdom around her like a cloak, to keep the people away from her. To keep the world away.

"I can't," Faith whispered, but she was already walking over. This was a scene she had seen before; but last time, the boy had been a witch, and it had been Collette who had needed to heal. It had been Collette who had nearly lost her life trying to save someone on whom death's hold could not be broken. "I'm no healer..."

She had reached her sister. Green eyes met blue. Ice and spring. The winter always won. "You saw as well as I did yesterday," Collette said in a low grim voice. "You are a healer. And this time, you will not have to be a killer, too. I could not save him." Now she was not talking about Sagit. "You can. You know what you must do."

I know, Faith said silently. I know, but do I want to? Could she really tie her life, her mind, her sanity to someone who she barely knew. And with a sardonic smile, a sense of despair, she realised she had made that decision once already. And it would be no different this time.

She knelt down beside Sagit. He wasn't so far from death, she saw. His face was pale, drained of blood that flowed out from his chest, eyelashes two dark shadows that stood out in contrast. She pulled out the knife with hands that shook, not bothering to stem the fresh gush of blood.

And as waves of fresh green magick swamped them both, Faith knew that she would never be alone.

~*~

The road to hell is, apparently, paved with good intentions.

And the road to heaven? Doubts lined her way.

With every step, Elise began to question her decision. What if he wasn't there? What if he killed her without a thought? A thousand what-if's flooded through her head and when she had stripped away the words, it came down to one thing. Fear.

Elise had never been terrified of anything. Oh, she had been scared, she had been alarmed - but she had never faced this cold horror, the way her mind spun in loops that seemed to shrink with each moment. Spiralling into one inevitable conclusion of what-if.

What if he doesn't want me?

No! She pushed that away. If she let doubt persuade her, there would be nothing left but shattered dreams and dust. She didn't want to go back and have to look at the three faces of the people who were, in a way she couldn't quite touch, family.

Sagit with his angular face and lightning reflexes. Someone who had thrown her in a lake for fun and then carried her three leagues back to Collette's home when she fainted with fever. Impulsive, rash, warm.

Collette. So cold. So wise. Who always looked after them both, with words and actions, who never doubted herself or them and who never, never regretted anything.

Faith, who she had known for such a short time and yet found as if she had met her twin sister. Who talked from her soul and who had her own morals and didn't care that the Nightworld had a different set. Someone who knew fear well, and admitted it cheerfully - something that had puzzled Elise. Surely to admit fear only made you weak? But Faith seemed to be strong somehow.

Sagit, Collette, Faith. Three of the people who made up the four corners of her world. And now there was only one more she needed find and maybe she would have everything.

Something snapped sharply.

Her thoughts stopped. Elise held still for a second, waiting. Nothing. Silence, broken by the sounds of the world around her; the wind singing lullabies, and the animals moving through a green-fringed world.

But someone was watching. She turned around slowly, not sure what she expected to see. Something, that was for sure. But...Elise stared, squinting into the shadows. There was no one there. Just green shade, and dusty road and hills in the distance. The village a dark shape on the horizon, a haven that was far away.

"A little slow on the uptake, aren't we?" The voice was lazy. Unimpressed. But it still had an impact on her.

She turned back. He had moved behind her while she looked around. An old trick. And she should have recognised it at once. That said a lot for her state of mind, Elise thought in disgust. But when she met his eyes, her state of mind flew out the window without even a goodbye.

The same stunningly gold eyes, sharp and clever, the pinnacle of an insolent stare that moved over her slowly, assessing. One hand holding a knife sharp enough to slice through bone, the other relaxed at his side. Practical clothes, enough height to dwarf her. He was leaner than she remembered.

"Have you stared enough?" he inquired with devastating calm. "Or shall I take off my boots so you can count my toes?"

Elise raised an eyebrow. He hadn't changed at all. "There are far more interesting things you could take off," she said without thinking.

He seemed surprised, silent for a brief second. "Well," he said finally. "I had thought you'd come to kill me, Sorceress. Obviously you have unorthodox methods."

So he did know who she was.

"Maybe you thought wrong," she said, trying not to let any emotion show on her face. But her heart was twisting just looking at him. She hadn't expected to feel this much. "After all, you've not had much experience at it."

Teeth bared in a feral grin. "You're well-known for your sense of humour, lovely lady. Everyone I've met has warned me you don't have one." The knife flipped over in the air and he caught it easily. "You're really quite a mystery."

"So are you," Elise murmured, careful to keep her eyes on that blade. It was so easy to forget that he knew nothing of her, of what lay between them. But she felt a shiver on unease. There was no connection when she looked in him eyes. No feeling that she knew him. Only the fear. "Salvaje."

His nose wrinkled. "How do you know my name?" he said cautiously, and his voice was the same, down to every last nuance. His knife hand raised a little, into a throwing position.

Elise smiled. "Are you planning to fight or merely gossip?"

The eyes met hers, and despite the primal fires there, she thought she had never seen such cool hatred. She was human. She was an enemy. "I think you can guess the answer to that."

She looked at him and held her hand. "Then let us agree on an honourable fight," she said solemnly. Waiting for him to accept her outstretched hand. Waiting with heart and soul and mind.

"Death before dishonour?" he said dryly. The knife stilled as he mulled the offer over. Watching her closely with an intensity that was disturbing. She could see him planning her death with cold efficiency. "Very well. No tricks. No help. One to one."

I'd prefer one on one, Elise thought silently and nearly grinned at that, wondering what he would do if she said that aloud. Not much, probably. There didn't seem to be anything that made that perfect mask of blankness slip. "I agree," she said softly.

Something like puzzlement was reflected on his face for an instant, making her breath catch. What-if he refused, and the fear was back. Strong. Overwhelming. Almost painful. It surged up as he raised the knife hand. The blade gleamed in the light, cold and sharp as his smile...and he put it down with a sardonic smile.

Then in the time honoured way of sealing a bargain, he nodded. Their hands touched and at that moment, clear as lightning, every illusion was shattered.