Marie Brennan: Doppelganger

She quirked one eyebrow at him. “You know, you’re the only one who still calls me that. Even the rest of our year-mates call me Mirage.”

“And you still call me Kerestel. Old habits die hard, I guess. Or else we’re slow learners.”

Mirage grinned. “Can you believe this crowd? I’d forgotten how seriously they take Midsummer in Liak. I knew Chervie would be full, but this is ridiculous—and the festival hasn’t even really started yet! It’s a shock, after the quiet of the road.

“From what I hear, your trip wasn’t what I’d call quiet,” Eclipse said pointedly.

Mirage raised her eyebrow again.

“I came here by way of Enden. An alehouse maid there treated me to—well, several things, but two stories in particular. One about how a soldier playing cards was almost knifed in their common room, and another about how four village lads showed up the next morning, bruised, bloody, and stripped of everything but their skins.”

“They were lucky to keep those. I figured they owed me their coin for trying to steal mine, and as for the other…” She shrugged. “I wouldn’t have actually stabbed him.”

“Your fuse has gotten shorter, I see. Or did he have an extra deck up his sleeve?”

“No,” Mirage said, looking down. “In fact, I won the hand.”

Eclipse leaned forward. “Void it. That again?”

“Yeah.” She sighed. Eclipse noted frustrated fury in her eyes when she lifted her head, but it was soon muted. “Same with the four fools. Except they thought I was a Cousin.”

“So they’re idiots. Not all witches have red hair. And just because you do doesn’t make you one of them, or one of their servants.”

“Tell that to the idiots who panic when I lay down five Primes.”

His eyes widened. “You did that? No wonder they were suspicious.”

“It didn’t take magic,” Mirage said, and grinned wickedly. “Just agile fingers.”

Eclipse swore a blistering oath that earned him a dark look from a prim-mouthed merchant woman at the next table. “Void it, Sen, you’re going to get yourself killed! Cheating at cards is not going to improve your reputation!”

She shrugged. “I was bored.”

“Bored?” He stared at her in disbelief. “Of all the people I know, you’re the last one I would expect to court trouble just because you’re bored.”

Mirage gestured dismissively and looked away.

He caught hold of her arm, worried. “No, don’t you brush me off. What’s wrong?”

She pulled her wrist free of his grip and sighed. “Nothing. I’m just… bored.”

“Haven’t you had any jobs lately?”

“Plenty. So many, in fact, that I’m taking a rest; Mist and I have been on the road for months. Three hires, all back-to-back. Courier run clear across the land from Insebrar to Abern, for starters, and then they had word that a town farther out in the mountains was having trouble from bandits—ended up being some men they’d turned out of their town for thievery. Then they said a village even farther out needed a bloody mountain cat hunted down.”

Eclipse smiled, hoping to lighten her mood. “Looks like they took the term ‘Hunter’ in the wrong sense.”

Mirage snorted. “The saddest thing is, that bloody cat was the most interesting part of the whole series. It was a damn sight more intelligent than those so-called bandits.”

“So that’s why you’re bored.”

“Kerestel, I haven’t felt challenged since… since I got that commission two years ago. Remember, when I was sent to Hunt Kobach?”

“The one who tried to take the rule of Liak from Narevoi?”

“I went through seven domains after him. Finally caught him in Haira, not too long after I left you. That was tough , Kerestel. It made me work, made me actually use the skills I’ve learned. Since then, though… nothing. Routine. Boredom.”

Eclipse eyed her and tried to gauge her exact mood. He had the answer to her problems tucked in his belt pouch, but right now, with her recent difficulties, might not be the time to bring it up. It might help, or it might be more trouble than it was worth.

And speaking of trouble…

Distracted as he was by his thoughts, he hadn’t even seen the woman come in the door. Eclipse opened his mouth to warn Mirage, but it was too late.

“Well, if it isn’t the witch-brat,” the newcomer said, stalking up to them. She always stalked; he didn’t think he’d ever seen her in a good mood.

Mirage’s eyes sparked. She turned in her chair and leaned back with an air of pure, unadulterated arrogance, “Ah, Ice. So good to see your usual frigid self.”

Ice’s own blue eyes smoldered with a low fury which belied her name. Smoldering was her usual state; eye color was the only conceivable reason she’d ended up being called “Ice.” Then she lifted her gaze to meet Eclipse’s, and suddenly her expression held a different sort of fire. “Well met, Eclipse.”

“Keep your claws off him, Ice,” Mirage said, her voice flat. “I just ate lunch, and I wouldn’t want to lose it watching you try your tricks on him.”

“Taken already, is he?” Ice asked with a malicious smile.

Eclipse stiffened. He considered Mirage a sister; most Hunters of the same school and year did. What Ice was implying was little short of incest. But Mirage, to judge by her own faint smile, had things well in hand. “No, dear. I’m not so desperate that I have to seduce my own year-mate—although from what I’ve heard about Lion, it seems your luck isn’t so good.”

Eclipse stifled a laugh. He hadn’t heard that particular rumor. Mirage might be making it up, but Ice’s expression suggested she wasn’t. Now it was his turn to add fuel to the fire. “Come, ladies, this is no talk for the week before Midsummer. This is a festival! We should be celebrating! Ice, please, join us in a drink. I’m told this place has an excellent stock of silverwine.”

He thought he heard a snarl. Silverwine—not a wine at all, but an appallingly strong vodka—was brewed in the Miest Valley, and was the drink of choice for Hunters from Silverfire, Mirage and Eclipse’s school of training.

“Now, Eclipse,” Mirage said reprovingly before Ice could get any words past her clenched teeth. “This may be a festival, but you know Hunters should try to keep clear heads. Silverwine is hard on those not used to it; we wouldn’t want to lead Ice into trouble.”

The inarticulate noises Ice was making were quite entertaining. She was such fun to goad; for some reason Hunters from Thornblood all seemed to have short fuses.

“I can drink anything you can,” Ice snarled finally. Red mottled her face and neck.

Mirage smiled a touch too sweetly. “I’m sure you can, my dear.” Ice could probably drink Mirage under the table; Thornbloods prided themselves on the amount of alcohol they could down. But Ice was too infuriated to think clearly. “I’m afraid, however, that I have important matters to attend to—ones that won’t permit me to get drunk with an old friend.”

“What ‘important’ matters?” Ice spat. “You spend your time catching wife-beaters and rescuing kittens from trees.”

Eclipse hesitated. He and Mirage had played in these verbal duels before; it was his turn to attack. And he had a very good response to Ice’s insult. The problem was, if he brought it out now, he might hurt Mirage more than Ice.

Recovering from his pause, Eclipse made his decision. He slipped one hand into his belt pouch and removed a tiny scroll. Keeping his fingers over the seal, he waved it to get Ice’s attention.

Both of the other Hunters froze, looking at it. Eclipse nodded, smiling. “A two-person commission,” he said, addressing the Thornblood. “Mirage and I will be handling it together.”