I’ve hardly spoken to Mercury. I’ve been here over a week and she hasn’t been back to the cottage since the day I arrived.
I told her that I needed her help. I explained that my seventeenth birthday was just over two weeks away. I was polite. And all I got in return was nothing.
Nothing.
Gabriel says she will see me in time.
But every day … nothing.
I know it’s some kind of game she’s playing. And –
‘You awake?’ Gabriel mumbles.
‘Mmm.’
‘Stop worrying about Mercury. She will give you three gifts.’
Gabriel always seems to know what I’m thinking and I always try not to let him know he’s right.
‘I’m not worrying. I was thinking about what I’ll do after I get my Gift.’
‘And what will you do?’
Look for my father. If he wants to be found, I’m sure I can find him. And then I will somehow prove to him that I won’t ever kill him. But I don’t think he wants me to find him and I don’t see how I can prove anything.
‘Well?’
I haven’t told Gabriel anything more about myself: not more about the tattoos, not about my father’s vision or about the Fairborn.
I say, ‘I’ll develop my Gift. I don’t want to get stuck as a dog.’
‘Yeah, being a fain is bad enough. And what else?’
‘What makes you think there’s something else?’
‘The way you go all … there’s an English word – mopey? Yes, I think that’s it. You are mopey sometimes.’
Mopey!
‘I think you’ve got the wrong word. Thoughtful is more like it.’
‘No, I think the right word is mopey.’
I shake my head. ‘There’s a girl I like.’
‘And?’
‘And it’s probably really stupid of me. She’s a White Witch.’
I’m expecting him to say it is really stupid and I’ll get killed and probably get her killed but he doesn’t say anything.
The next morning we’re sitting on the grass by the splintered dead tree trunk in the meadow below Mercury’s cottage. The sun’s warmth seems magnified here.
‘We could go for a hike,’ I say, squinting up the valley.
‘OK.’
We don’t move.
‘Or we could go climbing,’ Gabriel suggests, and takes the long piece of grass out of his mouth but does nothing more.
We hike and climb every day.
‘A swim?’ he asks.
There’s a small lake but today I don’t want to hike, climb or swim. I want Mercury to come and tell me that she will give me three gifts.
‘You know it’s only just over a week until my birthday.’
‘You know, I may have said this before: “Stop worrying”.’
‘And if I don’t get three …’ I stop speaking as Rose has appeared from the wood below and is walking towards us, taking long, slow strides. Her thin dress clings to her curves. When she reaches us she drops on to the grass close to me.
She says, ‘Hi.’
‘Hello, Rose.’
Rose giggles. She doesn’t seem to be the giggly type but she does it a lot. She blushes a lot as well and she doesn’t seem the blushing type either. It’s a bit baffling.
Rose looks at Gabriel. ‘You have to go to Geneva, see Pilot, assess how many Hunters there are and report back to Mercury tonight.’ That’s more the type Rose is.
She then plucks at some grass and says, ‘Nathan, Mercury says that she would be delighted to give you three gifts on your birthday.’
At last.
‘She says it would be an honour.’
An honour!
‘Will she expect some kind of payment in return? Or is the honour enough?’
‘Not a payment,’ Rose replies. ‘A favour. A mark of thanks and respect. It’s only natural to thank the giver. It’s polite.’
‘And what favour does she want from me?’
Rose grins and blushes. ‘She wants two favours from you.’
So the honour definitely isn’t enough.
‘What two favours does Mercury want?’
‘She will tell you this evening.’
‘Will she want the favours first? Or after the Giving?’
‘She said one should be given before the ceremony.’
So one must be relatively easy but I don’t know what it could be. I don’t have anything I can give her.
‘The other is to be given afterwards, as soon as you can provide it.’
‘And what if I don’t ever provide it?’
Rose giggles but draws a finger across her throat.
Gabriel goes back to Geneva through the cut and I go for a long hike to keep myself occupied. When we meet up again at the cottage in the evening I have got myself psyched up. This is Mercury I’m going to meet. I have to be a Black Witch. I have to be the son of Marcus.
Mercury greets me formally with three kisses but she gives them so slowly it’s as if she is inhaling me rather than kissing me. Her lips don’t touch me but I can feel the chill off them. She says, ‘You always smell so good, Nathan.’ Then she ignores me and asks Gabriel what he has seen in Geneva.
The Hunters seem to be using Geneva as a base and Pilot says they are scouting the area, looking for clues, looking for the son of Marcus. Mercury seems satisfied that the cottage is far enough from them and the apartment is still safe.