Protector of the Flight Read online

  Alexa was suddenly in the stall with them, crouched over Bastien. Calli hadn’t seen her move. Had she jumped? The stall door came nearly to Alexa’s shoulders. Surely not.

  Jaquar looked at Calli and Thunder. “I’m opening the door to retrieve and examine Bastien.”

  Keeping a hand on Thunder, who was only slightly disturbed, Calli nodded. Her mind was with Thunder’s. She could keep him from fear.

  The door opened soundlessly, and Jaquar, Alexa and Marian dragged Bastien out. He tried to move himself.

  With a whoosh, a large hawk swooped into the stables. It lit on Bastien’s head.

  “She says it’s his wild magic that makes him react so,” Alexa said.

  She? Who?

  Thunder stepped forward until he was nearly out of his stall and into the crowded corridor. Feycoocu.

  “Feycoocu?” Calli asked.

  “A magical shape-shifting being,” Marian said absently.

  Oh. Of course.

  The hawk pecked Bastien on the head. He yelped and grabbed at it. It flew away. Thunder followed it with his gaze. I would like to talk to the feycoocu.

  Calli decided she wouldn’t. The day was rapidly becoming overwhelming with the huge input of information.

  Bastien shook his head and stood, helped by the other three. “Gonna lie down,” he said in heavily slurred English. “Bed.”

  “Let’s get you there,” Jaquar said.

  Bastien rubbed his temples. “Horrible headache. When did you say this would wear off?”

  “Always too reckless for your own good,” Alexa scolded.

  He closed his eyes. “Oh, that’s bad. Can be nagged at in two languages. No. I don’t like this.”

  Jaquar said, “I’ll get him back to your suite, Alexa. You two should brief Calli on what she needs to know about the Summoning, the Choosing and Bonding ceremony, and the Snap.”

  None of that sounded good to Calli. But one thing she knew, she wasn’t drinking any potion.

  We made good impression, Dark Lance said smugly.

  Marrec had used the last of his energy and Power to groom every inch of his volaran, murmuring compliments with each stroke. He didn’t want Dark Lance to ever leave again. Now he leaned against his mount, breathing in musky fragrance and thanking the Song that Dark Lance was back.

  All around him other Chevaliers, even Marshalls, lingered, spending more time with their volarans. Especially those who could mind-speak with their mounts, even if only a few images. Especially those who only had one volaran. Those like him.

  He shuddered again at the remembrance of loss. Not just of his best companion, but of his entire future. He did well enough with horses, but didn’t own any, didn’t know if he cared to. He’d have been penniless, with no decent way to support himself, if Dark Lance hadn’t returned. He hadn’t truly faced that fact until the volaran was gone.

  One of the female Chevaliers sobbed, and Marrec had to gulp hard.

  Cheek stings.

  “What!” Marrec straightened, went to Dark Lance’s head.

  Yours.

  “Oh. Yes.” He pulled out the tube Bastien had given him, opened it and dabbed healing cream on his face. He chanted one chorus of a spell and the hurt diminished. That was different, too. Usually it would have taken three verses to repair the light soul-sucker wounds. He rubbed his hand over his cheek. No bumps.

  More Power.

  “Yes.”

  More Power means more status.

  “I hope so.” He cleared his throat and asked what he’d heard whispered in many stalls around him. Will you go away again?

  No. Head Stallion called. I obeyed. Back here now.

  “Thank you,” Marrec repeated.

  We together.

  “Yes.” He wanted to ask why the volarans had left and why they’d returned, hear the answers for himself, but Dark Lance’s mind-tone had been forbidding.

  Rustling came from several stalls. Some of the Chevaliers were going to sleep with their volarans. Because they were afraid the winged horses would fly away again? He was torn, he wanted to stay, for the sheer comfort of Dark Lance’s presence. But if he did, he’d show the volaran he didn’t trust him.

  After one last rub, Marrec left. He had to tally up his zhiv, plan for the future. See how long it would take to accumulate enough to buy a small piece of land in the north.

  The tasty dinner Calli was tucking into seemed real, too. So far the normal things her senses understood—grooming, eating, peeing, made what she was experiencing real. But the strange events outweighed them. Falling through the crystal, waking up healed, moving without pain after a nap, hearing folks speak a different language.

  Flying on a winged horse.

  That had been the best.

  As the plates were whisked away by Alexa’s serving woman, Calli studied her fork.

  “We believe there’s always been sharing between our culture and Lladrana,” Marian said.

  “Yes,” Alexa said, wiping her mouth with her napkin. “There have been Exotiques Summoned before, but not for a century.”

  “I’m working on a Lorebook,” Marian said. “That’s what they call their reference volumes here. Lorebook on building Towers. Lorebook of Community Rules.” She made a face. “Before I started my own work, the Lorebook of Exotiques was a short one-page list.”

  Alexa grunted. When Calli met her eyes, the Marshall held her gaze and said, “Lorebook on Summoning. Lorebook on Monsters.”

  “That’s why I’m here,” Calli said. “To fight monsters.”

  “That’s why we’re all here,” Marian said. “We were Summoned here by the Marshalls, and you by the Marshalls and Chevaliers, because the Song said we could vanquish the invading Dark. The dimensional corridor that links Earth and Lladrana is close. We deduce that there will be six of us Summoned.”

  “So that’s the Summoning. Understand?” Alexa asked.

  “Why me?” Calli asked.

  Marian answered, “The Chevaliers had specifications of the qualities that they wanted in their Exotique, particularly after the volarans left. The Summoning would only be heard by a person who matched their needs—you.”

  Alexa said, “During the Summoning ceremony, the Song is sent back in time on Earth to find and prepare a person to come to Lladrana.” She waved a hand. “Don’t suppose you heard chants and chimes and a gong over the last month, did you?”

  Calli fell back against the plush dining-room chair.

  “Thought so.” Alexa smiled.

  “So you have all the qualities the Chevaliers wanted—someone the volarans would love, courage, determination.” Marian waved a hand. “You’re flexible in mind to accept the Summoning, probably don’t have deep emotional ties to Earth—” Calli kept her mouth shut “—or would consider staying permanently in Lladrana.”

  “Fighting monsters, I don’t think so.” Calli crossed her arms. “Assuming I’m not in a coma from banging my head against that crystal.”

  “What crystal?” Marian started.

  “Stay on topic,” Alexa said.

  Alexa stood. Her deliberate movements kept Calli watching her. She walked to the far corner of the room, where the wall separating the bathroom met the curving outer wall of the tower. Slowly she pulled her baton from her sheath. Green jade glowed above and below her fingers. The top of the wand had sculpted bronze flames. Nerves jittered under Calli’s skin.

  “Calli, call it to you.”

  Her breath stuck in her chest. “What?”

  “Want the baton in your hand. Feel it in your hand. Reach out and say, ‘Baton!’”

  “I don’t think—”

  Coward. It came in her mind. In stereo. Alexa and Marian.

  “You can do it,” Marian said.

  “Why would I want to?” But she rose slowly and faced Alexa.

  “Why not?” Alexa’s smile dared her. “Especially if it’s only a coma-dream.”

  Marian frowned. “I’m not sure people in comas dre—”

/>   “On topic, Marian.”

  The atmosphere of the room became heavy and charged. It wasn’t only Alexa’s and Marian’s minds brushing hers, but Thunder’s and other volarans’, some people’s linked to them, too. All added to the anticipatory pressure around her.

  “Fine. Baton, come!” Calli ordered.

  It flew across the room and slapped into her open hand, stinging. And everything took on a solid reality that she couldn’t deny, as if her mind, her body, completely focused. The baton belonged to Alexa, vibrated like Alexa, but was real and solid in Calli’s hands. And magical. There was a force within it that compelled her to believe, to face the fact that she was no longer in Colorado, on Earth, like a door slamming shut behind her.

  New place, new rules.

  Before her eyes the metal flames atop the stick bloomed into real fire. She dropped it. Instead of hitting the ground, it shot back to Alexa, who sheathed it at her left hip. “There, you see? You have great magic. That’s another reason you’re here. We all have great magic. Cool, huh?”

  “Magic,” Calli repeated.

  Marian joined her. “Look.” She pulled a finger-length wand from her sleeve. Flicked it, it became larger, flipped it in her hand and flicked it again and the wand elongated into a walking staff. Calli’s mouth fell open.

  “We all have magic here,” Marian repeated. “We have magic on Earth, too, it’s just very hard to access it. Earth is also a more visual culture. The Songs can’t be heard or Sung as easily.”

  Alexa went to a love seat, sat and crossed her ankles. “I wouldn’t know. I didn’t return to Earth when the Snap came.”

  Calli’s knees went weak and she crumpled into her chair. There was another one of those strange phrases.

  At that moment a white, long-haired cat strolled in from the bathroom. Calli stared. She could have sworn the door was shut.

  “A cat from my past. Actually, my magical shape-shifting feycoocu companion.” Alexa grimaced. “A cat. I hate when this happens. You get nothing out of a cat.”

  Marian sighed.

  The cat went up to Alexa, stropped her ankles and began a purr that only increased as it leaped onto Calli’s lap. It turned around a few times and settled. Calli found herself petting it. Its fur was as soft as volaran feathers, and she felt oddly comforted. “The Snap?” She managed a squeak.

  Drawing up a chair next to Calli, Marian said, “At some point in time, Mother Earth will call to you, strongly enough to pull you back home. You’ll have a choice to stay or go.”

  “When?”

  “No one knows,” Marian said. “There isn’t enough data for a hypothesis. Perhaps after you experience it…”

  Alexa said, “We do know that time passes the same here as on Earth. If you’re here for, say, three months, the same amount of time has transpired in Colorado.”

  “The ranch!” She’d lose the ranch. Her dad would think she’d just walked away. Her fingers tightened in the cat fur. The feline grumbled.

  “Sorry.”

  The cat jumped down and went to sit in the middle of the floor and groom.

  Calli wouldn’t walk away from the ranch, but her dad would think her cowardly enough to do so, dammit.

  Both the women appeared sympathetic.

  “The shortest amount of time before the Snap came was two weeks, the longest was seven years and three months, the average is about two months,” Marian said.

  Two months.

  Alexa smiled. “We have examples of the Bonding ceremony—” she waved at Marian “—and the Choosing and Bonding ceremony, an older Marshall Pair, coming later.”

  “This is the marriage thing?” Calli asked, attention diverted from her dad and the ranch.

  “Yeah.”

  “I’d like coffee,” Calli said, going to the sideboard. She made the drink dark and sweet.

  Alexa cleared her throat and sat, but didn’t relax. “You know that the Chevaliers want you to stay. It’s easier for a person to stay if you’re paired or bonded—”

  “Involved with someone,” Marian said, “but to be precise, they don’t have just a Pairing ceremony in mind.” She tilted her head. “I think a Pairing would correspond to an affair and engagement.”

  “Yeah,” Alexa said. “They want you to agree to a coeurdechain, which is like soul melding or something.”

  Marian chuckled and her eyes went dreamy. “It’s more.”

  “But they want a quick marriage, and to do that, they’re willing to use, uh—” She threw a look at Marian.

  “Another magical ritual,” Marian said. “I blood-bonded with my tutor, and also with Alexa. Then Jaquar and I decided we wanted the whole deal, minds, souls, bodies.”

  “Huh!” Calli said.

  “The upside is that we’re very close. Neither of us are lonely. We’re partners in the truest sense of the word.”

  “The downside?” Calli asked.

  “We’ll die at the same time,” Marian said.

  Alexa stood and paced the room, hand on her baton. Finally she turned and skewered Calli with a gaze. “You want to be a horse-volaran trainer. That’s doable. You want land. That’s easy, too. But there must be something more, some bigger reason that the Song resonated with you and called you and made you a perfect person for Summoning. An emotional reason. What do you really want, Calli?”

  The demand had words slipping from her mouth, “To be loved.” She had to look away from the two very beloved women while heat painted her cheeks, her neck, even her ears hidden under her hair. Hell, she hadn’t blushed in a long, long time, and now she had twice in one day. She decided to continue with brutal honesty. “And to have a family of my own. Children of my own.” Pretending not to see the glance exchanged between the other two, she upended her mug, drank and set the mug aside. “And even Lladrana and all its medicas can’t give me children. The infection from one of the surgeries took my ovaries.”

  “It isn’t common that Lladranan and Exotique couples produce children,” Alexa said. “I don’t think Bastien and I will ever have any.”

  Calli whipped her gaze to Alexa, then to Marian. “Your guy, Jaquar, he has blue eyes—”

  “Yes,” Marian said. “He has some Exotique blood in his lineage. Whose or when, we don’t know.” Her aura spiked green.

  “Bastien and I will just have to adopt,” Alexa gave Calli a direct look. “Wouldn’t that be good enough for you? Or being a cowgirl you gotta have the right equipment and bloodlines and breeding and all that jazz?”

  No. It was as if a note had echoed throughout her being. She didn’t have to give birth to children of her own. Children who loved her would be enough. Feeling uncomfortably vulnerable, Calli said, “Drop it.”

  “If you want pedigree—” Alexa swept a hand around them “—you’re out of luck. You’ve landed in with a motley crew. I don’t know my ancestors, grew up in foster care. Bastien’s a black-and-white, which can mean mentally handicapped, and his father was an asshole.”

  “My mother’s a bitch,” said Marian. “My brother’s a jewel, though.” She looked thoughtful. “He came with me…sort of…If you don’t reject the Choosing and Bonding ceremony, he might be right for you. The Song might have led him here for you.”

  “She should stick with Faucon Creusse. Noble, rich, sexy and handsome.” Alexa wiggled her brows. “What’s not to like?”

  “Tell me about the Claiming and Bonding ceremony,” demanded Calli. She’d backed up against the bar.

  “That’s what we were getting at. Magic…Power…the Song, choosing the right guy for you.” Alexa waved her hands.

  “You want love?” Marian joined Alexa to face Calli. “What if I told you there’s a surefire way to find the right man for you? Your soul mate?”

  Calli’s heart thumped hard. A man who would love her. A man she would love. Was she really ready for that, despite what she yearned for most?

  Marian spread her arms wide, and the gesture emphasized the rich robe she wore, the Circlet around her
forehead, the expensive surroundings. “What do you want, Calli? True love? There are plenty of Chevaliers ready to bond with you—men and women of like mind with you. Land of your own? You’ll get it.” She laughed a little. “Children? Unfortunately Lladrana is like Earth…there are abandoned children you can make into a family. Volarans? I think you can have as many volarans as you want.”

  “They are their own,” Calli protested, but vividly recalled the horse bodies pressing against her.

  She’d never be lonely again.

  She remembered the Map Room, the unclaimed land.

  She thought of Faucon Creusse, all too willing to be her lover at any moment. Already. That was a little scary. He had to want her just because of what she was and not who she was. He didn’t know her.

  But this notion was a little tempting, too. A magical ceremony could bring her a guy? Some sort of matchmaking deal? Intriguing. Especially since after her disastrous illusions about her father, she didn’t trust her own judgment worth spit.

  She thought of children. With a big ranch, she could have many.

  Finally, an image of a flying volaran herd circled in her mind’s eye. Wings of all colors, equine faces looking to her. She could almost hear the wind rush through thousands of feathers.

  When she glanced at Marian and Alexa, they were glowing with the golden aura of love. Love given and received with their men. Friendship love between them. They liked her already; could they become good friends? With these women there would be no competition between them, no moving around that meant brief and broken ties, like in the rodeo.

  The room wavered before her as if behind a rich haze. She’d be rich and valued and respected and would own land. And love would come into her life.

  Grabbing her mug, she filled it again and went to a wing chair. “What about this magical ceremony?”

  8

  The sound of strumming strings came once. “That’s the doorharp,” Marian said.

  Calli remembered seeing something like half an egg slicer mounted on the door.

  When the door opened a huge man and much smaller woman entered. Just the sight of their strong, intertwined aura had Calli sitting down on a little sofa, blinking. They brought music with them. It was the strongest tune she’d heard from people, truly a Song with a capital S.