Page 100 of Seer Prophet

I couldn’t be sure if he’d meant Menlim when he said “Daddy” that time, or if he’d been talking about Revik. Feigran did that a lot. He used the same pronouns, the same words, to stand for different people. He did it in the same sentence, sometimes even in the same phrase. He used nicknames, made oblique references, talked in abstractions.

It was maddening.

It also made a good chunk of his seer interrogators want to strangle him.

“He warned you,” Feigran whispered. “A broken piece. Still broken.” He touched his temple, twisting his finger. “He doesn’t remember how they died. Ask him. Ask him about the girls. The women. Ask him about the teacher. The one who deflowered him.”

I bit my lip, frowning.

“He won’t remember.” Feigran shook his head. “He won’t remember. Says he does. But he doesn’t.”

The teacher. The one who deflowered him.

He was talking about women in Revik’s past.

Women Revik’s uncle ordered him to kill.

I forced myself to speak. “You mean Revik. You’re talking about Revik now, Feigran?”

He nodded solemnly. “In through the out door. Further down. Below.”

“Whatdoor, Feigran? You’re not making sense. Is this the same door you said you’d help me with? The one we need the Four to open?”

“No.” His eyes grew distant. “No, no, no. So many doors. So many. In through the out door. Other worlds. Other places. Inside this place.” He met my gaze. “Stars will fall. He’ll kill you, too, Alyson. His greatest love. He’ll kill you, too.”

I shook my head. “Revik would never hurt me, Terry. Do you mean Menlim? Are you back to talking about Menlim again?”

Watching me solemnly, Terian clicked his fingers.

“The out door,” he repeated. “The out door––”

“Feigran, for crying out loud––”

“No. No more words!” Fear filled his eyes. “Ask him!Askhim if he remembers. He won’t. He won’t remember that part. The last bit, when the light leaves. He’ll say he does––but he doesn’t!”

There was a silence.

Feigran’s whole expression altered, growing stern, commanding. His features hardened, making him look older, somehow more present, more himself. His eyes glowed with a warm, pale light, still as glass.

He barked the next words at me, in a voice I’d never heard.

“Find me, Allie! Find me! You must go to Dubai! It is imperative that you get there first!Before the stars fall…”His mouth hardened, right before he shook his head. “For fall they will. You cannot stop that now, not without sacrificing the girl, and you won’t do that. Neither will Revi’. You’ll sacrifice yourselves, sacrifice each other, sacrifice everything for the girl––and the door must still be opened. It must be opened at the end. Or all is lost.”

I could only stare, stunned at the clarity I saw in those amber eyes.

The man there was a complete stranger to me.

And yet––he wasn’t.

“Feigran?”

He blinked, as if coming out of a trance.

The fogged look returned to his irises.

I watched in bewilderment as Feigran motioned upwards in soft flicks and waves of his fingers. It looked like he was imitating invisible smoke. I was still staring, biting my lip as I tried to decide what to ask him next, when he turned his head sharply, looking backwards over his own shoulder.

He froze, staring without moving at something on his side.

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