“You both drink the potion I make. You’ll be bound together and enter a trance, and together you’ll find the essence that is the old Gabriel. Think of it as a cord. You find it and then make your way back along it to the here and now.”
I look at Gabriel and shake my head slightly. He meets my eyes and, as if he knows what I’m thinking, says, “It’s magic. None of it makes sense—yet it all makes sense.”
I roll my eyes and turn to Van. “And what if we don’t find the essence or we follow the cord the wrong way?”
“Then you stay in the trance.”
“What? Forever?”
“Until you die of starvation.”
“Not a nice way to go,” I say.
“I always thought I’d be more the shot-down-in-a-hail-of-bullets type.” Gabriel smiles at me. “But I tried that and it wasn’t so great either.”
“So how long should it take?” I ask.
Van lights another cigarette and blows out the smoke. “As long as it takes.”
“You mean you don’t know.”
She doesn’t reply.
“And how likely is it that we don’t find it?” I ask.
“I’ve really no idea. It’s entirely down to you two.”
“I don’t like it but I’ll do it.”
“I’m so glad you’re enthusiastic, Nathan. That always helps.” Van rests her hand lightly on my leg and pats it. “Fortunately this location is an advantage. Trees and a river and ancient hills are so much more you.” And she looks into my eyes and the blue of hers sparkles. “Unfortunately we still have one small problem.”
“What’s that?” I ask.
“It will be too dangerous to perform under anything more than a new moon.”
“What? But that’s two weeks away.” I’m standing now.
“Yes.” Van blows another slow, steady plume of smoke into the air.
“But Annalise . . . She could die. Hunters may find Mercury and kill them both or capture them.”
“I think we can have some confidence in Mercury’s abilities to hide from the Hunters. After all, she’s been doing it for decades.”
“But Annalise will be getting weaker. We can’t just wait here for two weeks.”
“Yes, we can, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do, Nathan. You’re right—Annalise will be getting weaker but we still have time. She can survive in that condition for many months.”
“It’s easy for you to say when you’re walking around alive and well and free.”
I go toward the desk. I want to swipe all her piles of herbs onto the floor. But Gabriel must see where I’m heading and he blocks my way. I swear at him and storm out of the room, slamming the door behind me. I feel childish for doing that but then I see Nesbitt standing in the corridor, smirking at me. I’m not sure if he’s been eavesdropping but I push him aside and kick and hit everything I can on my way out of the house.
Telling Gabriel
I find a way to fill two weeks. I know I need to get back to my peak fitness, and there’s nothing much else for me to do, so I start training. I get fitter cos of the training but also because of my Gift. Since I got it my body has felt stronger, more alive. I train with Nesbitt and Gabriel during the day and I train at night too. I can keep going all night easy enough if I have a couple of naps during the day.
Most mornings, first thing, I go for a run with Gabriel and Nesbitt but I always end up running on my own after a couple of miles. We meet up at dawn and they groan a bit and make a few comments about the weather and their aching muscles and we do some stretching. And I think today might be all right with them but every day turns out pretty much the same, with Nesbitt winding me up. He takes the piss out of me for everything—mainly for being impatient but also for being silent or miserable, or he takes the piss out of my boots or my hair, my face, my eyes. There’s always a comment about my eyes. Sometimes I really do think he wants me to hit him.
Mostly I think if I stay with them he’ll get bored with teasing me but then I feel myself getting mad and so, one way or another, I leave them behind and run on my own, and it’s better like that. I don’t know why I even bother with them first thing but every day I hope that somehow it’ll be good to be together. It never is.