Gates of Rapture (The Guardians of Ascension) by Caris Roane Page B

your experiments over the past several months, we both know that a more powerful Seer has a greater chance of surviving the process. The Coming Order is in grave danger because of obsidian flame and because of the colonial militia. Grace completes the triad, as you well know. I must have the most perfect visions of the progress of the triad over the coming days. Are you still unable to track any of the Warriors of the Blood?”
    “Marguerite guards them all from me while in the future streams. She has great power. Greater than mine.”
    “But I know that you have the power to block her in the future streams as well, right?”
    Stannett nodded.
    “Then do so going forward. But right now, I’d like a little information.” He directed Stannett to recline once more on his chaise longue. “I want you to enter the future streams and as you do, I will join my mind with yours so that I can see what you see. I want you to focus on Grace. At the very least, I want to know where she has gone, though I already suspect she is with Leto at the Seattle Colony.”
    Stannett stretched out once more, folded his hands over his stomach, and closed his eyes.
    Greaves put his hand on Stannett’s forehead and slipped within. He ignored the chaos that came at him from all quarters, all that Stannett was as an ascended vampire. He joined his mind to Stannett’s as the Seer began to focus. He had done this a handful of times over the centuries so he knew what to expect. But he was still surprised at the beauty of the future stream ribbons that flowed endlessly away from the eye and stretched in an infinite range of colors.
    Stannett centered his mind on Grace, and a lot of the chaos disappeared.
    The line of ribbons began to move rapidly for several seconds, then slowed until an iridescent blue ribbon of light appeared, bearing a central stream of red and gold. Greaves could feel that the ribbon belonged to Grace.
    Stannett picked up Grace’s ribbon again and felt his way into the immediate future. How curious that Greaves could tell that what he saw would happen this very evening. Though he had not been to the Seattle hidden colony, he could sense the location. How absurdly quaint. Beyond the rows of cottage-like homes, each with attached vegetable gardens, was a massive setup like a medieval fair with canvas booths. Opposite the booths was an oval track set up for runners with lanes. In the center of the racetrack were all sorts of jumbles of logs and blocks and old used tires, like you’d find in army training camps. This his Seers had prophesied; he recognized the warrior games.
    The vision moved suddenly to Grace, who sat in the grandstands near the oval track beside Leto. She held his arm and looked up at him. She wore a long loose skirt, jewelry on both her wrists, her hair curled and hanging in a golden cloud around her shoulders and down her back. An array of silver stars crowned her head.
    She looked different, changed, more womanly, less like a convent devotiate. But then she’d shared Casimir’s bed. Maybe he’d brought her up to speed.
    The vision panned back even farther, but what Greaves saw sent a chill straight through him. On Grace’s left were Marguerite and Thorne, and on Leto’s right sat Fiona and Warrior Jean-Pierre.
    In other words, obsidian flame would start coming together tonight.
    He had seen enough of the warrior games. To Stannett’s mind, he sent, I want you to focus on the hidden colony we mapped at Nazca in Peru.
    Stannett merely shifted his focus. The ribbons began to move rapidly for a few seconds, this time in the opposite direction, then slowed. A sand-colored ribbon rose. Stannett dove within so that Greaves saw the very small colony, with just a few hundred ascenders in residence. Above the mossy dome of mist, now partially burned away, dozens of death vampires appeared in flight, beautiful black wings flapping. They descended on the colonists below, in close-mount, wings pulled in tight. When the